After two and a half years in early access, the Pokemon-like game Palworld has reached 40 million players before its 1.0 release. Developer Pocketpair announced this milestone just days before the game's massive 1.0 update, which brings several major changes to overhaul the game.

"Palworld passes 40 million players," the developer said on social media. "Thank you all so much for your incredible support! Over the last two and a half years, Palworld has grown alongside our community."

Of course, hitting the 40 million mark doesn't necessarily mean Palworld has sold 40 million copies. Palworld often ranks high on Steam's top seller list, but the game is also included in Xbox's Game Pass subscription. Having 40 million is still a major accomplishment, and the player count is likely to surge even higher with the 1.0 launch on July 10.

Palworld's big update was first revealed at Summer Game Fest with a cinematic trailer, and the developer also announced several major changes. These updates include several new Pals to catch, an improved combat system, and overhauled raid mechanics. Players can also expect revamped quests and main storyline missions to learn more about the world.

It seems the developer was initially considering a price hike for its creature-catching game, but it has now announced that Palworld's price will remain the same beyond early access.

"After much thought, we have decided not to raise the price of Palworld following the 1.0 release and will keep it at $29.99," the developer said. "We are incredibly proud of how far Palworld has come. Thanks to the amazing support of our players, it has become a success beyond our wildest dreams."

Palworld is currently available on PC, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5. The game is not available on either Switch platform, as Nintendo sued Pocketpair in 2024 on patent-infringement accusations. Palworld was updated in 2025 with altered game mechanics due to the legal matter.

If you've been watching the World Cup or soccer in general, you're surely familiar with Norwegian striker Erling Haaland, and now he's provided a deeper window into his life and specifically his gaming habits.

In a "day in the life" video on his YouTube channel (via PureXbox), Haaland began by saying he's a big fan of Xbox, so much so that he even owns the Xbox minifridge and it's not just for show. As you can see in the video, he has it stocked with MTN Dew and Coke. "One day, Xbox, I want them to sponsor me," he said. Now might not be the time, though, as Xbox is facing its own string of major issues.

For what it's worth, there was also a DualSense controller sitting on his gaming table, so he seemingly plays games on PlayStation as well.

Haaland also showed off his gaming space where he has LAN parties with friends. Additionally, he singled out 2009's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 as one of the top three games ever. He said he's also a big fan of Minecraft and Grand Theft Auto, calling both of those his "desert island" games. Naturally, Haaland also talked about how excited he is for GTA 6. "I can't wait for the new one," he said.

In a fun moment from the video, Haaland showed that one of the games in his Xbox library is FC 24, which features... himself on the cover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtH_oTKk9iM

The next Norway World Cup game is a big one, as Haaland and his squad will face off with England on July 11 in a quarterfinal matchup that should be exciting.

A new update coming to Minecraft is adding something the game has never had in its 17-year history and it's something everyone loves to do: sit down.

In a new video, producer Gustav Höglund confirmed that there will finally be a "straightforward" way to take a load off, and that's with a new craftable cushion that players can sit on. As Höglund noted, people have found creative ways to sit down already by way of plopping down in a boat, a mine cart, or by riding an animal. But that's not true sitting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Agmsdgyj_8M

"Now there is finally this straightforward way of just putting down a cushion and sitting down. I think the cushion opens up so many new possibilities for building. I won't even try to get guess what the players are going to end up doing with them," he said.

There are 16 different cushion colors to choose from, as you can see below. The cushions can be crafted using wool slabs, which are also new to the game.

Sitting is nice, and soon you can do it in Minecraft.

The announcement of the new update for Minecraft comes at a tumultuous time at Xbox, which owns the franchise and developer Mojang. The Swedish studio was among the teams impacted by layoffs. Additionally, it was confirmed that Mojang--along with Candy Crush studio King--will now report directly to Xbox CEO Asha Shamra. She said Mojang and King are Xbox's "largest" units ranked by monthly active players. Another Minecraft-related change as a result of the Xbox "reset" is that Minecraft studio head Helen Chiang has been promoted to become the chief operating officer at Xbox.

"She will bring our businesses together under one operating model, making sure we make clear investment decisions, learn from our successes and failures, and hold ourselves accountable for results," Sharma said.

Minecraft has sold hundreds of millions of copies, and that doesn't count spinoff games like Minecraft Dungeons. The sequel, Minecraft Dungeons 2, launches in September. Outside of games, A Minecraft Movie was a huge hit in 2025 and a sequel is set for release in 2027.

Pokemon Winds and Waves won't be out until 2027, but it looks like a few Poke-leaks are already surfacing. The Switch 2 exclusive is the next mainline entry in the series, and like previous games before it, it'll introduce a whole new region populated with unique Pokemon. Just how many new Pokemon will there be? According to one report, we could be looking at hundreds of new critters to collect.

Traditionally, each new mainline Pokemon game introduces around 100 new Pokemon--Generations 6-9 were the exception here--and we've already seen the starter Pokemon for Generation 10--Browt, Pombon, and Gecqua. According to the usually reliable Centro Leaks, Pokemon Winds and Waves will have around 300 new Pokemon and forms in the game, and that's an important distinction. If the trio of starter Pokemon follows the usual pattern of having two evolutionary forms, then that's nine Pokemon right off the Zubat. Throw in brand-new pocket monsters--including challenging Legendary Pokemon--and the number climbs even further.

https://twitter.com/CentroLeaks/status/2074524693269266509

But as mentioned above, this number also includes Pokemon forms. That's a broad term, but usually, it includes regional variants of existing Pokemon, transformed versions based on a game-exclusive gimmick like the Gigantimax gameplay mechanic, and new evolutions for older Pokemon. Combine all that, and it's not unfeasible for Pokemon Wind and Waves to reach that reported number of 300 new Pokemon. "An important note is that the only aspect we've been able to verify that multiple sources have heard independently is about the number of 300 new Pokemon placeholders," Centro Leaks added.

Currently, the record for new additions to a Pokemon game belongs to Pokemon Black and White, which saw 156 new Pokemon added to the franchise. Other rumors circulating around Pokemon Winds and Waves claim that MMOs will inspire the game and will have a deep focus on communication. Post-launch DLC for the game is also said to be in development already, and one of the new battle gimmicks is reportedly based around the concept of weather, with Pokemon like Arcanine, Pikachu, and Kecleon getting special forms based on the conditions around them.

In case you missed the initial reveal for it, you can check out an orchestral behind-the-scenes video for Pokemon Winds and Waves' first reveal trailer.

Pokemon’s Most Disturbing Pokedex Entries View Images

It's nesting season for ducks in Poland, and one mallard mom chose CD Projekt Red's office in Warsaw to lay its eggs, the studio recently shared. For anyone scared that this story does not have a happy ending, fear not. It's safe to read on.

The Polish developer said the duck laid eight eggs at an open-air part of the impressive-looking modern office. The momma duck "cared for them attentively throughout the nesting period," and CD Projekt Red staff gave her plenty of room to sit on the eggs in peace as she waited for them to hatch.

https://twitter.com/CDPROJEKTRED/status/2074811707763880017

They hatched in June, as you can see in the adorable photos shared by CD Projekt Red. The entire family was relocated to one of Warsaw's parks in cooperation with Warsaw's Municipal Guard Eco Patrol.

In their new home outside the CD Projekt campus, they can "continue their journey in a more natural setting," the developer said.

But why did the mother duck choose to lay her eggs there in the first place? Only she knows, but the office has a nice rooftop space with plenty of greenery; in fact, the office has the "largest green wall in Poland," featuring 40,000 plants.

CD Projekt Red's new office space in Warsaw was nominated for an architecture award this year, and while it did not win the top prize, it did win the "residents' award."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEEdC9j9TEA

CD Projekt also has offices in the Polish cities Krakow and Wroclaw, along with international outfits in Vancouver and Boston.

The Witcher 4 is one of multiple upcoming projects at CD Projekt. The studio is also making Cyberpunk 2, a game made in partnership with Saudi Arabia, a Witcher 1 remake, and a multiplayer Witcher game.

Nintendo has announced that it will shut down Mario Kart Tour on September 29, ending its seven-year run on mobile devices. Originally launching in September 2019, Mario Kart Tour was one of several games released for mobile devices as Nintendo made a push into that space. Most of those games have since been shut down, but Mario Kart Tour proved to be a lucrative spin-off of the main series, employing controversial gacha game mechanics to keep players invested the racer.

"We sincerely thank the many players who have loved and supported the game since service began so long ago," Nintendo wrote in an update. "Thank you for playing Mario Kart Tour."

With its shutdown looming, Nintendo has now suspended the sale of the premium Ruby in-game currency, and subscription perks will be made freely available to players in the remaining months of Mario Kart Tour. Once the servers are turned off, Mario Kart Tour will be unplayable as Nintendo has no plans to offer an offline version of the game. In comparison, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp's final update made the game playable offline after its online service ended. 

This leaves only a handful of mobile Nintendo games still in service, as Pikmin Bloom--which is run by Pokemon Go developer Niantic--Super Mario Run, and Fire Emblem Heroes still remain active. While it's the end of the road for Mario Kart on mobile, the main series is still in action. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is still Nintendo's best-selling game of all time, and last year saw the release of Mario Kart World, currently the best-selling Switch 2 game with 14.7 million sales as of March 31, 2026.

Following a drought of content after it launched alongside the Switch 2 last year, it looks like fans can hop back into their karts to burn some rubber as two Knockout Tour routes were recently added.

The 26 Best Mobile Games Available For iOS And Android View Images

I've been conflicted about Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced since it was announced. The original 2013 pirate action-adventure is one of my favorite games ever, so my immediate reaction to hearing it was getting a remake for current-era consoles was excitement. In that very first announcement video, Ubisoft said that Resynced would not reinvent protagonist Edward Kenway's tale, but that there would be large changes to combat, parkour, stealth, and the structure of the overall story. And while changes like that fall within the framework of what a remake is, I couldn't tell if these adjustments would mean Resynced still felt faithful to the original game. And regardless of whether or not it was, there was also the bigger question of if this remake would be better than Black Flag.

Having now played Resynced, I don't think it is better. That still means Resynced is pretty good. Black Flag is one of the best games in the Assassin's Creed series, and Resynced doesn't change so much that that's no longer the case. The issue is that for every positive change that Resynced makes to Black Flag, it stumbles into creating a new problem.

If you asked me what Black Flag is, I'd tell you it was a treasure hunt. You play as a normal employee of an entertainment company in the 21st century who is scrubbing through the memories of Edward Kenway, a Welsh privateer-turned-pirate trying to make his fortune in the 18th century, via a machine called an Animus. Your mission is initially just to capture footage of Edward's life to make a new media project. However, your research into Edward's memories draws the attention of your bosses. Turns out, Edward stumbled across someone who knew of a site called the Observatory during this period of his life, and your bosses want to know whether Edward ever found it himself. They task you with spending more and more time reliving Edward's life in hopes of finding where it's hidden in the past, so that they can rediscover it for themselves in the modern day. 

You don't know what the Observatory really is or why you're looking for it, and your efforts slowly pull you into a shadow war between freedom-protecting Assassins and order-oriented Templars--and at the same time, you see Edward similarly get pulled into that same conflict 300 years earlier. Mirroring your character's life to Edward's is straightforward but effective narrative framing, and it adds this incredible science-fiction flavoring to what's an already terrific historical fantasy adventure. To date, it's one of the best intertwined present-and-past stories in the series--only the first two Assassin's Creed games do it better.

Resynced gets rid of pretty much all of that. The intro does establish that you're experiencing a simulation of Edward's life via the Animus but doesn't provide any reasoning up front as to why you're doing it. The original game's modern-day missions have been completely stripped away, reframing the entire adventure. It no longer feels like a sci-fi treasure hunt.

Instead, Resynced is a sci-fi rebellion. But you won't get this framing if you just play Resynced's story, as the modern-day missions that provide this framing are all optional.

Resynced is actually a sequel to Assassin's Creed Shadows, not Assassin's Creed III like the original Black Flag. It continues the story of Animus users who have awakened as Travelers to fight against Ego, an artificial intelligence created by the Templars that is now training itself to become the perfect overlord of the human race. If you go out of your way to find them (like really out of your way--the game does not make it easy for you), you can find rifts that allow you to temporarily enter what I can only surmise is the Black Room, where Ego shows you how it would use details of Edward, Blackbeard, and Mary Read's lives to generate what it thinks is a better version of historical events. 

Ego theorizes that if these three pirates' stories were that of a man who returned to his wife, a pirate captain who took the king's pardon, and an Assassin who left the Brotherhood, and all three were ultimately rewarded with wealth and happiness for choosing to live as good little sheep, then perhaps more Animus users like you would be inspired to fall in line rather than embrace a chaotic life and seek out personal fame, fortune, and freedom. In Ego's eyes, the best way to guide humanity into a better future is if the ugliness of the past is erased and replaced with something that is safe and sober, but robbed of all reason and sapped of all spirit.

This. Is. Fascinating! However, this weird-as-hell (in a cool way) sci-fi story is frustratingly tucked away in optional side content that's not easy to find because it's not even marked on the in-game map. You just have to know where to look for these four rifts or spend hours scouring every corner of the Caribbean. And hopefully you've also done all the rifts in Shadows so that you have the context for who Ego is, why the Guide and Eagle are fighting Ego, who the Guide and Eagle even are (it is a whole thing, let me tell you), and what it means for you to be one of the Travelers. 

This bizarre mishandling of the framing device for Resynced's story encapsulates the remake's failings. It does a lot of cool stuff, but it also doesn't use that cool stuff very effectively. It's so bewildering to play this game and see moments of brilliance continuously mishandled. 

I adore what Resynced does for Anne Bonny, for example, a character who takes on an important role in the final chapters of Black Flag but is largely absent for most of the story. Resynced has Anne introduced as soon as Edward returns to Nassau at the very beginning of the game, and she regularly pops up in the story after that in reimagined cutscenes and brand-new missions that further flesh out her importance to Edward. It makes all of the already-great scenes involving her in the later chapters hit even harder. The same is true for Ed Thatch and Stede Bonnet, both of whom also get more screen time and brand-new missions that continue their storylines after their departure from Black Flag's story and give them a more fulfilling end.

So why then does Resynced bother to add brand-new characters who have very little screentime and unrewarding finales to their arcs that leaves them feeling separated from Edward's tale? The remake is fixing the problem of Black Flag's old characters and then adding new characters who have the flaws that were just fixed in the original characters, preserving one of the original problems of Black Flag.

Resynced's other issues aren't nearly as severe, but they all add up and needle at you throughout the experience. Most are a result of trying to fit Black Flag into a new game engine. What the various teams across Ubisoft have been able to accomplish with Ubisoft Anvil is to be commended (Mirage and Resynced feel so much better to play than Origins), but it's still clearly an engine designed for an action-RPG, not a stealth-driven action-adventure. Edward's freerunning is better than the likes of Origins' Bayek or Odyssey's Kassandra, but both the mechanical depth and the feeling of his freerunning still fall behind Unity's Arno and the protagonists who preceded him. 

And while combat does at times feel like a modern take on the counter-heavy combat of Black Flag, the use of pistols, the rope dart, the sweeping kick, and the forward kick is clearly just a cleverly hidden version of the battle abilities from the RPG-style Assassin's Creed games--there's a bit more strategy to using these equipment and skills in Resynced, but not enough to keep combat exciting across a 30-hour story given the poor enemy variety. 

The new animations and voicelines are hit-or-miss too. Many of Edward's new lines add excellent insight to his character during scenes where there previously was none, while some of the new lines--especially his extremely pro-Assassin, anti-Templar one-liners that he spouts with every Assassin Contract--feel like a mischaracterization that makes him oddly heroic during a portion of the game where he has to be a scumbag for the story to work. Brand-new cutscenes add more story, but at the cost of poor facial animations that look like wooden puppets talking to each other. Some of the cutscenes that were in the original game are also somehow worse, with strange facial hiccups (at least on Xbox Series X) distorting the longing glances, winks, smirks, scowls, and contemplative sighs that carried so much narrative weight in the original Black Flag.

Resynced also gives Edward the ability to quietly crouch walk and slink behind cover anywhere, not just stalker zones, and incorporates some of Shadows' uses of weather and darkness to add new considerations to stealth, but the remake's outright removal of all tailing missions (which, admittedly were a pain point in the original game) means these improvements don't have much use. Social stealth is also back in Resynced (great!) but almost every mission that relied on those mechanics has been removed or changed, meaning there's little chance to engage with it (bad!). 

In fact, when it comes to the mass deletion of all mandatory tailing missions and changing almost every social stealth mission so that they no longer rely on stealth mechanics, Resynced feels like too big of a swing in the other direction, recreating Black Flag into a game like the action-packed adventures of Kassandra or Eivor. And that makes sense--all of these games are made in the same engine.

The issue is that, unlike those games, Resynced isn't an RPG--there are no ways for Edward to talk his way through problems, disguise himself, or create clever opportunities. He can only engage through the action part of the action-RPG formula. So instead of having missions with a wide variety and breadth of structure, you're still mostly doing the same thing over and over. Resynced might have been a stronger experience if only half of the social stealth-driven tailing missions were removed, as changing pretty much all of them and moving Edward's story in a more action-oriented direction simply shifts one problem into another. 

Weird camera cuts and dramatic perspective shifts during assassination takedowns and chain kills also make it irritatingly tricky to keep track of enemies in enclosed spaces, like caves or the decks of smaller ships--it's totally fine to have this in the wide-open locales of Origins' Egypt or Odyssey's Greece, but it clashes with Black Flag's structure. The game hasn't changed enough to fit the new game engine, which leads me to wonder why this wasn't just a brand-new pirate adventure during this time period that followed a new protagonist. Edward meets so many other Assassins! We didn't need to stick to the rigidity of his story again if it doesn't really fit the mechanics of this new game engine.

I could go on but the point remains: There are plenty of great changes in Resynced, but equally a ton of pain points in trying to force the Black Flag structure to fit into an engine designed for a very different type of Assassin's Creed. This makes Resynced less of a new gold standard for Edward's adventure, and more of a bizzaro-world variation of the original Black Flag. If you haven't played Black Flag (or at least don't revisit it often), you should play Resynced, because even though it doesn't feel like a faithful remake to me, it is still remaking a game that's already critically acclaimed. But if you have played Black Flag, I'm not sure if Resynced will hit you as hard emotionally as you're hoping for.

All said, I regard Resynced with the exact same sentiments as Mass Effect Legendary Edition. Resynced goes beyond the scope of a traditional remaster and adjusts the content of Black Flag to make improvements to the experience (what you'd expect for a remake). But the downside to these fixes is that it highlights problems that weren't fixed or, even worse, new problems that didn't even exist in the original game. Resynced is a half-step toward something truly fantastic. If you play it, you will see the strengths of Black Flag. You will see why the original game was the de facto pirate video game for years. But you will also find a remake that doesn't manage to take the crown from the very game that it's remaking.

With Final Fantasy VII Revelation set to complete the remake trilogy soon, fans have been eagerly revisiting FFVII's various releases and spinoffs in anticipation, speculating about what the future might hold for the finale. Unfortunately, one of those spinoffs, the live-service game Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis, now has a Doom timer attached to it--meaning you'll need to play it as quickly as possible before it shutters if you want to see what it has to offer.

Released on December 2023, Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis is a free-to-play downloadable title for mobile and PC. The game recreates the events of Final Fantasy VII--as well as spinoffs like Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus, and the feature-phone exclusive Before Crisis--while giving new spins on established story beats, serving as a sort of alternative remake. It also features an all-new story about a group of SOLDIERs with a young Sephiroth. Many of the original staff, including original writer Katsushige Nojima and creative director Tetsuya Nomura, were also heavily involved in Ever Crisis's creation, lending it more clout as more than just a generic mobile spinoff.

While the game is free to download, it used the popular gacha system as its means of monetization, with players being able to spend money to buy in-game crystals to use to draw random gear. We say that in the past tense, because Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis has been confirmed to be shuttering on October 6th, giving players around 3 more months to enjoy the game before it goes offline. All real money transactions have been suspended as a result of the impending shutdown.

In a Producer's Letter published alongside the shutdown notice, Shoichi Ishikawa details the reasons for the shutdown. "While we recognize that many people are playing EVER CRISIS, it has become difficult to find a balance between production costs and the demand for character weapons and gear," he writes.
"At the same time, delivering satisfying equipment visuals remains a priority for us as it’s something players see the characters wearing, and we understand how passionate the community and fans are about the FINAL FANTASY VII characters.
Ultimately, however, striking an ideal balance between visual quality and development costs, while also maintaining gameplay balance that encouraged greater party diversity, presented ongoing challenges."

The shutdown comes at a rather awkward time, as a characters introduced in Ever Crisis, like Glenn Lodbrok, have crossed over into the remake games, and Ever Crisis's shutdown means that players won't have an easy way to dig deeper into their lore once it's offline. We can only hope that Square-Enix might take inspiration from the recent Final Fantasy Resonance and find some alternative way to bring Ever Crisis's unique stories to players in the future

To kick off July, Sony made the surprising announcement that it plans to end support of physical discs for PlayStation games at the beginning of 2028. In the week since that news, Sony kept quiet on social media. Now, Sony has attempted to start a new conversation with gamers, but it's not going well so far.

In the message seen below, Sony touts the FlexStrike wireless fight stick. Under normal circumstances, this product could have been positively received on its own terms. Unfortunately for the team behind controller, their announcement has been met by lingering anger and resentment from fans over the decision to kill physical discs.

https://twitter.com/PlayStation/status/2074478664805212593

Some of the responses are a little too profane to share here. There may be support for Sony, but if so, it's been largely buried on social media. Most of the messages have been angry, satirical, or both.

https://twitter.com/jchip/status/2074479131077624268 https://twitter.com/balefulspook/status/2074480356460249307 https://twitter.com/Septic_Sauce/status/2074499339062243733 https://twitter.com/haffs_abu/status/2074481096142553558 https://twitter.com/algorusty/status/2074484273671815509 https://twitter.com/SeptimoCieloPod/status/2074488491451244857

Companies like iam8bit and GameFly have already shared their disappointment in Sony's move away from physical discs. Alinea Analytics analyst Rhys Elliott has suggested that Sony made this decision to exert greater control over pricing and distribution. Eliminating physical discs effectively kills the used games market and makes Sony's online store the only outlet that can sell its titles outside of code-in-a-box games like Grand Theft Auto 6.

There are also concerns that Sony's experiments with dynamic pricing will charge some players more than others while keeping prices artificially high. To further underscore the lack of permanence in the digital marketplace, Sony has also shared its plans to close the Play Station 3 and Vita online stores.