Microsoft has said it's committed to bringing Call of Duty to Nintendo Switch, and it could be coming as soon as next year. Reporter Jez Corden said "the first CoD Switch version is nearly done."

He added that the game, whatever it is, will launch "in a few months."

In another post, Corden said the release may not be "close" but it's "on the way" for a 2026 release. He added that the game is "hitting milestones," which is a reference to how a game is proceeding through development.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was one of 2025's biggest breakout hits, and the game's commercial success has afforded developer Sandfall Interactive the opportunity to scale up for its next project. However, the company is not going to do that--and for what sounds like a good reason.

Speaking to Edge, studio boss Guillaume Broche said he does not feel tempted to grow the company in the wake of the success of Expedition 33, which was the studio's debut title. Why not? He said (via GI.biz), "I think it's good to have limitations when you are creative."

"It's the best way to be the best version of yourself. We could scale up now we have a lot more money, but I would say it's not tempting for us, because even the management team and myself, we'd have to be hands-on and doing things for ourselves," he said. "We love making games more than we love managing, so we want to keep doing that. These past five years were some of the best of my life, and I want to be happy like that again."

Vince Zampella, the co-founder of Infinity Ward and one of the leading figures behind the first Call of Duty game, has passed away. Zampella was reportedly in a single-car accident on Sunday, December 21 in the San Gabriel Mountains when the vehicle went off the road and hit a concrete barrier.

According to NBC4 Los Angeles, the driver of the vehicle perished in a car fire while the passenger was ejected and died at the hospital. The report didn't share any further specifics about the incident.

Zampella got his start in the video game industry in the late '90s with stints at GameTek, Atari, Interactive Media/Ripcord Games, and SegaSoft. In 1999, he joined 2015 Inc and became the lead designer of the third Medal of Honor game, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, which was published by EA.

2K Sports has confirmed that WWE 2K24 will be delisted as of January 31, 2026, with servers shutting down on March 31, 2026. This information was disclosed on the game's Steam page, but also applies to the console editions.

Once the servers go dark, "all game functions requiring online servers will no longer function."

2K Sports actually first confirmed the server shutdown on December 8, but it wasn't widely reported on until more recently. The game's offline modes like Play Now and Showcase will remain available after the servers go dark.

Over the weekend, The Indie Game Awards shook up its winner's circle by stripping Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 of its Game of the Year Award over the publisher's use of AI. In its place, indie-darling Blue Prince was declared the new Game of the Year winner. Now, publisher Raw Fury wants to make sure everyone knows that Blue Prince wasn't made with AI of any kind.

In a statement released on X, Raw Fury credited Tonda Ros and his team for a game that "was built and crafted with full human instinct ... It is the result of eight years of development [fueled] by imagination and creativity, and we are extremely proud of what Tonda has achieved."

For people that need confirmation:
There is no AI used in Blue Prince. The game was built and crafted with full human instinct by Tonda Ros @dogubomb & his team. It is the result of eight years of development, fuelled by imagination and creativity, and we are extremely proud of… pic.twitter.com/zdbqp6xnKy

Blue Prince is a roguelike puzzle game that casts players as Simon P. Jones, a man who is set to inherit a mysterious mansion called the Mt. Holly Estate following the death of his great uncle Herbert S. Sinclair. There are 45 rooms known to be in the mansion, and Simon has to find the hidden 46th room in order to claim his inheritance. However, the layout of the mansion changes each night, and Simon largely has to start from scratch if he can't find it in time.

These past two months with Arc Raiders have been the most fun I've had with games all year. It represents the most exciting and unpredictable multiplayer landscape I've jumped into since Sea of Thieves in 2018, which I consider my favorite game ever made. It's safe to say I really love Arc Raiders. But it's become difficult to fully espouse those feelings as we learn about Embark Studio's use of generative AI.

According to the studio, Arc Raiders' voice acting was initially performed by humans, then used to "train" AI so that it could speak in the actors' voices while addressing any possible circumstance. For Embark, the team doesn't need to bring in the voice actors each time new content is added to the game. The AI voices learn to speak in the voices of the actors, which the actors are said to have agreed upon when they were hired, and the tools take it from there. Maybe it shouldn't have come as a surprise, since the team's previous game, The Finals, uses generative AI in a similar way. In an interview, Embark assured players that the game's visual artwork is entirely human-made, but admitted to using this text-to-speech training to bring voices to the game's shop NPCs, emotes, and other character barks. Knowing this has left me conflicted when I think to sing the game's praises.

On one hand, I can't deny the hold Arc Raiders has taken over me. The heart wants what the heart wants, and Embark's extraction shooter, rich in emergent, player-driven drama, has lit my heart on fire in a way few games ever have. At the same time, I've already written my review. Though it was a glowing one that I don't regret, I also feel it's my job to call out this disappointing practice. In recent weeks, similar practices or plans have arisen in several high-profile examples. Larian Studios' boss vouched for it in some cases. Nexon's former CEO said AI is about to rewrite everything in the games industry. Ubisoft announced it's using an AI tool to help write its games in some instances. Even Hideo Kojima, often considered a unique voice in the industry, says he uses it at times. It's being presented as not just helpful, but inevitable.

Last month, Aspyr shadow-dropped the Switch and Switch 2 versions of Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, the 2013 reboot that kicked off a new era for Lara Croft. According to Aspyr, the response has been so strong that more Tomb Raider games may make the leap to Switch 2.

Aspyr product manager Jordon Reese was recently asked by Nintendo Everything about the possibility of the other Survivor trilogy games--Rise of the Tomb Raider and Shadow of the Tomb Raider--coming to Switch 2. Reese didn't directly confirm those titles, but he also seemed to leave the door open for them.

"We've successfully brought back the classic era [Tomb Raider 1-6] and now the origin story of Lara Croft to modern Nintendo platforms," said Reese. "We can't announce anything at the moment, but the passionate response to this release is strong encouragement for us to continue exploring those possibilities."

The actor who provided the motion capture for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's Gustave has spoken out to say it would be "more logical" to have a Best Character category at awards shows to help give credit to everyone who contributed to bringing a character to life in a game. The actor, Maxence Cazorla, is saying this against the backdrop of only one person, voice actor Charlie Cox, being nominated for Best Performance at The Game Awards for the role of Gustave. For what it's worth, Cox was open in acknowledging that Cazorla deserved credit, too, and Cazorla said Cox was kind to say that.

Cox did not end up winning Best Performance, as it was Jennifer English as Maelle from Expedition 33 who took home the award. In any event, Cazorla told Eurogamer that he believes a "Best Character category feels more logical" than "isolating a single performer and potentially leaving others invisible."

Whether or not this is something that host and organizer Geoff Keighley is considering for next year's The Game Awards is unknown.

Sucker Punch Productions co-founder Brian Fleming is leaving the gaming studio after working there since it opened 28 years ago in 1997. What's he doing next? Fleming says he does not know.

In a post on LinkedIn, Fleming said, "I really don't know what's next."

He's staying with Sucker Punch through April 2026 to help with the transition efforts, and after that he said he plans to travel. He's also going to spend the time trying to "sort out which opportunities" he wants to pursue next. Fleming said he's considering a lot of different options for the future, including staying in games, moving to the wider technology space, getting into the "entertainment" business, and even working in the "advocacy/politics" areas.