This month's batch of free games for PlayStation Plus subscribers has been revealed. All PS Plus members will be able to claim a trio of freebies starting July 7--Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, For the King 2, and CrossCode. If you haven't claimed June's PlayStation Plus free games yet, make sure to do so before next Tuesday.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 isn't exactly a high point for the franchise, but at the very least, the 2023 game was a comfortably familiar experience. Set directly after the events of the previous Modern Warfare game, the threequel follows Captain Price and Task Force 141 as they take on ultranationalist war criminal Vladimir Makarov across the globe. Throw in the usual multiplayer and Zombies modes, and you've got a passable Call of Duty adventure to dig into.

For the King 2 sees players battle against a tyrannical queen, either on their own or in co-op. Set in the land of Fahrul, the game is inspired by classic tabletop adventures and offers a digestible roguelite campaign, as well as the Dark Carnival that tests your group by seeing how many floors of a dungeon they can clear before they're overwhelmed by all the danger inside of it.

Finally, CrossCode is a gem of an action-RPG. This fan-favorite game features a retro-inspired design, combining 16-bit-style graphics with smooth gameplay and a fusion of gameplay ideas. You get old-school action, meaty RPG buildcrafting, and fast-paced battles to enjoy. CrossCode developer Radical Fish also recently released its next game, Alabaster Dawn, in Steam Early Access, and it's worth checking out for even more nostalgic RPG goodness.  

PlayStation Plus July 2026 Games

Available July 7 through August 3

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Cross-Gen Bundle (PS5, PS4)
• For the King 2 (PS5, PS4)
• CrossCode (PS5, PS4)

The Best PS5 Games In 2026 View Images

After Sony announced that it would stop supporting physical discs starting in January 2028, many expected GameStop's stock price to take a hit. After all, the company is known to drive revenue from new and used game sales. However, GameStop is not hurting today. Actually, GameStop's share price is up.

Why is that? Whereas GameStop's business was once mainly focused on selling game software, that's no longer the case. The store still sells new and used games, of course, but for GameStop's latest reporting period, software sales were actually the smallest part of the company's overall business.

For the 13 weeks that ended May 2, 2026, GameStop reported software revenue of $152.7 million, making up just 18.3% of GameStop's total revenue for the period. This includes new and pre-owned games, along with digital games.

For the same period the year prior, software sales were $175.6 million, or 24% of GameStop's total revenue for the quarter.

GameStop's business is much less focused on software these days.

During the latest quarter, GameStop's biggest revenue-driver was collectibles, which amounted to $348.9 million, or 41.8% of total revenue. Next behind it was hardware and accessories, which came to $333.7 million, or 39.9% of revenue.

Sony killing off physical, disc-based PlayStation games is not good news for GameStop, but it's also not the worst, and won't have an immediate impact in any event. After all, the changes do not go into effect until January 2028.

Ahead of that, Rockstar's GTA 6 won't be sold on a disc, but you can still buy a physical copy at GameStop (with a code in the box).

Another factor at play here is that GameStop's stock price got a jolt recently after CEO Ryan Cohen re-committed to his plan to buy eBay and abandoned his $35 billion pay package incentive.

PlayStation said it was abandoning physical discs because the majority of its users prefer digital. Given the announcement, experts believe the PS6 will be a digital console and won't launch until 2028 at the soonest.

After a year of litigation that resulted in the firing and rehiring of Unknown Worlds CEO Ted Gill, the Korean publisher Krafton Inc. has agreed to pay the entire Subnautica 2 team bonuses in three annual installments.

According to a July 1 Bloomberg report, Krafton Inc. and Unknown Worlds Entertainment have reached a "legal settlement" with the Subnautica 2 studio's CEO Ted Gill and its co-founders. As part of the agreement, Gill has resigned, stating that the two companies--Krafton and Unknown Worlds--are searching for a new CEO outside the companies.

"We mutually agreed to part ways," Gill told Bloomberg News. "New leadership is the best way for the studio to move forward."

Gill explained to Bloomberg that everyone at Unknown Worlds--including those who were there during the Krafton acquisition in 2021 and those recently hired--will be "compensated significantly more" than under the original purchase. How much is unknown, but Gill said that the team will get "further incentives" as Subnautica 2 receives more updates. These bonuses will be paid out in three annual installments.

Unknown Worlds filed a lawsuit against Krafton in July 2025 for refusing to pay out $250 million in bonuses. The drama resulted in Subnautica 2 being delayed and Ted Gill being fired, though a judge ruled in March 2026 that Gill be reinstated, blaming the publisher's CEO for consulting ChatGPT on how to get out of paying the bonuses the studio was reportedly owed. Now, Gill is out once again, but the team's getting paid.

Subnautica 2, which launched on PC and Xbox Series X|S on May 14, hit an impressive player count one day after launch and sold 4 million copies within four days of release. Despite no longer being employed at the company, Gill was proud of the success.

"We're all super excited about Subnautica 2 and its tremendous success," Gill told Bloomberg News on July 1.

After Sony's surprising announcement that it plans to end PlayStation disc production by 2028 in favor of a digital-only future for its consoles, some fine print has gotten lost in all the buzz: Sony is also ending support for the PlayStation Store on PS3 and PS Vita.

"After nearly two decades of supporting the PS3 console generation, we wanted to let you know we will be closing the PlayStation Store on PS3, as well as on PS Vita," Sony senior director Sid Shuman shared in a blog post announcing the upcoming changes.

Of course, this isn't nearly as surprising as Sony's pivot to digital-only games. Cutting off online store access for aging consoles is common--Nintendo cut off eShop access for the 3DS and Wii U in March 2023, for example--but Sony seems to be taking a softer approach. 

"PlayStation Store on PS3 will close in select markets starting this year, followed by global closures for PS3 and PS Vita next year," Shuman explained. "That means new content purchases will no longer be possible once the PlayStation Store closes on these devices. To ease the transition, players will still be able to download previously purchased content after the closing date for the foreseeable future."

Per Shuman, the first markets on the chopping block are Mexico, Honduras, and Nicaragua, where the PlayStation Store on PS3 will close in August. (No word yet on how this will affect Vita users in these regions.)

The PlayStation Store will also become inaccessible on PS3 consoles in "additional Latin American and Middle Eastern countries" sometime in "late 2026." Sony hasn't provided any specifics on which countries will be affected, or exactly when in 2026 this will take place. (And no word on Vita here, either.)

"In all other countries, PlayStation Store on PS3 and PS Vita will close in July 2027," Shuman wrote suggesting that regardless of location, all PS3 and Vita users will lose access to the PlayStation Store by this time next year.

"As we continue to expand the PlayStation experience on newer devices that most of our users are playing on today, we need to focus more resources on delivering the best gaming experiences on these platforms as we look ahead towards the future," Shuman said of the decision.

But it looks like Sony's future doesn't have room for physical games.

Sony's announcement that it will end production of all PlayStation game discs in 2028 hasn't gone over well with fans of physical media. While the move might be an obvious one to make for Sony--digital sales account for almost 80% of its game sales on PS5 currently--the news still feels like it came from out of nowhere.

Coupled with Sony also confirming that it'll be closing the PS3 and PS Vita storefronts next month, today feels like a solid reminder that you don't own the game you just bought, merely a license to play it on that specific platform.

This will have a major ripple effect across the industry, as physical retailers like GameStop have long made their bread and butter on physical sales, both new and secondhand. Then you have people who swap games with each other or who prefer to obtain a tangible copy of a game so that they can feel some sense of ownership over it, or the consumers who don't trust a company to keep the servers online forever--an idea that feels especially relevant in light of Sony delisting hundreds of digital movies from PlayStation user libraries last week.

Naturally, people have a lot to say about the shift to digital, and how it feels like the latest addition to a seemingly never-ending cycle of bad news. 

https://twitter.com/GOGcom/status/2072255180083462536 https://twitter.com/shinobi602/status/2072313946824974394 https://twitter.com/GermanStrands/status/2072305061477167585 https://bsky.app/profile/krismoyse.bsky.social/post/3mplmcjhklc24 https://bsky.app/profile/dark1x.bsky.social/post/3mploe56kv22v https://bsky.app/profile/knoebel.bsky.social/post/3mplnutreok2t https://bsky.app/profile/vgtomo.bsky.social/post/3mplnf2it4s27 https://bsky.app/profile/skywardsiren.bsky.social/post/3mpliqegof22r https://bsky.app/profile/brianpshea.bsky.social/post/3mplnsdixa22n https://bsky.app/profile/jamesbjones.com/post/3mplnjpcdc22d https://bsky.app/profile/stephentotilo.bsky.social/post/3mpln6b4oh22q https://bsky.app/profile/matpiscatella.bsky.social/post/3mpljsrb3is2s https://bsky.app/profile/svegvari.bsky.social/post/3mpllwrl7e22u

Lately, things feel glum in the gaming industry. Alongside Sony's future plans--which suggest the PS6 being a digital-only gaming console--Rockstar has also come under fire for its GTA 6 code-in-a-box plans, Microsoft is reportedly planning to close down several of its game studios, and an Xbox console is more expensive than ever before. But hey! At least you can get some PC games for cheap right now and use them to ignore the dismal state of things.

Sony has confirmed that it will no longer support physical discs for PlayStation games--for first- and third-party games--starting in January 2028. Many are wondering why, and it likely has to do with steep declines in physical software sales at the gaming giant.

Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad has reminded people that while physical software is not a dead market--almost 70 million new disc-based PlayStation games were sold in 2025--but the shift toward digital keeps growing.

"Having a retail presence is still important for many publishers, but it's clear that doesn't always need to a disc, and won't be going forward," he said.

"So as much as rising digital share is a market trend, the decision to stop physical disc production at this point is entirely a platform led decision that is designed to cut costs for Sony, eliminate resale / used markets, and drive 100% of revenue through the PlayStation Store," he added.

No more discs for PlayStation games.

When the PS4 launched, less than 10% of game sales were digital. For the latest fiscal year, it rose to about 80% of full-game sales being digital for PlayStation.

Sony's decision to kill physical discs on PlayStation is a "watershed moment" for the games industry, an analyst said. It also has implications for the PS6, with experts saying this news almost guarantees a PS6 launch in 2028 at the soonest.

The announcement from Sony about PlayStation discs came not long after Rockstar confirmed that GTA 6 will not be released on a disc.

Sony killing off physical discs for PlayStation games might make business sense, but it's also a big bummer for many who wanted to keep buying physical games. It also has sparked game-preservation concerns.

Sony's official explanation is that it's doing this "in response to shifting trends in consumer preference."

"This is a natural direction for Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt to consumer trends as the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs," the company said. "This transition will enable us to align more closely with how most of our community prefers to access and play games today."

Despite being the Switch 2's leading launch game, Mario Kart World hasn't gotten much in terms of proper new content. But update 1.7.0 just dropped for the game, and it adds two Knockout Tour routes for players to burn rubber on.

The Drill Rally starts at Wario Shipyard and ends in Bowser's Castle, while the Boomerang Rally extends from Salty Salty Speedway to Whistlestop Summit. Nintendo's website mentions that additional routes will be added in future updates, and the game's menu indicates that six more are on the way.

Mind you, there aren't any new tracks or expansions to the open world included in this new update, but the addition of new Knockout Tour routes signals that Nintendo isn't done with the game yet.

https://twitter.com/NintendoEurope/status/2072228720501240314?s=20

As a bonus, Mario Kart World's photo mode now lets you add stickers to your pictures, with touchscreen and mouse support sure to make sticker placement even easier. Other changes in version 1.7.0 include changes to item rates and other gameplay adjustments.

Previous Mario Kart World updates include the addition of Bob-omb Blast, but this is probably the most substantial content drop for the Switch 2's best-selling game yet. The Mario Kart World community on Reddit appears quite excited to have received anything, to be frank.

Fans were convinced last year that DLC based on Donkey Kong Bananza was inevitable, but there's been no hint of such an update. At least with this patch for Mario Kart World, hope for more tracks, costumes, and such can race on.

Let’s Rank What Matters Most In Mario Kart World: The Food View Images

Stranger Things and Enola Holmes actor Millie Bobby Brown has called out Grand Theft Auto as being her favorite video game series. She said in an interview that she's very excited for GTA 6, and she also shared some insight into how she plays GTA games--it's probably not how you play them.

"I follow the rules in GTA," she said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. "I don't break the rules. I stop at red lights. I never run anyone over."

Millie Bobby Brown is excited for GTA 6.

She said her husband, Jake Bongiovi, asked her why she plays GTA like The Sims. Her response? "I'm going to go to the strip club, but I am not going to get drunk."

This isn't the first time Brown has discussed her gaming habits. She previously called out games like The Sims 4 and Fortnite as some of her favorites, according to Screen Rant.

GTA 6 is the next entry in the series, and it arrives this November on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Preorders are open now for the $80 and $100 editions of the open-world crime game. Preorders come with an auto-renewing GTA+ membership.

Sony's announcement that it will stop releasing games on discs beginning in 2028 will have implications for the PlayStation 6, according to one industry expert.

Piers Harding-Rolls of Ampere Analysis said the decision to stop having PlayStation's first-party games, along with titles from third-parties, printed on discs, "pretty much guarantees that PS6 won't arrive until 2028 at the soonest."

He said this in an interview with Game File, in which he also predicted that "the base version of a PS6 will not include a physical media drive."

"Ampere’s current expectation is that the console will launch at the end of 2028," he said of the PS6 (via VGC).

“Sony will be looking for all the ways it can reduce the cost of its next-gen console, and this is an easy win,” he added. “It’s possible that an add-on disc drive could be made available to play older PS4 and PS5 games on disc.”

No more discs for PlayStation games, starting in 2028.

Sony's official announcement today about abandoning discs included no official details about the implications for the PS6. To be sure, Sony has not even officially announced the PS6 yet, and the system's timeline could be impacted by the AI-fueled RAMageddon situation.

But why is Sony abandoning discs?

Game sales at Sony and other major game companies have been trending toward digital for years already. Sony's latest sales data showed a record-breaking high figure for digital game sales.

According to Harding-Rolls, Sony going all-digital--for both first- and third-party games--will help "streamline the business of games retail" and help mitigate margin pressures to help improve the overall health and stability of PlayStation.

Printing discs and sharing revenue with physical retailers are costs that Sony and other companies bear. Going all digital "will help offset pressures on margins from other directions--development and staffing costs, for example," Harding-Rolls said.

When the PS4 launched in 2013, the digital share of PlayStation games sold was estimated to be about 13%. In 2025, it was 80%, and that number is growing.

Industry analyst Daniel Ahmad said the announcement was "entirely a platform led decision that is designed to cut costs for Sony, eliminate resale / used markets, and drive 100% of revenue through the PlayStation Store."

The writing had been on the wall for this announcement. Both Sony and Microsoft released versions of their flagship consoles in 2020 that did not include a disc drive, and Sony’s PS5 Pro doesn’t ship with one by default--it can still be added via a modular attachment.

Nintendo, meanwhile, launched a new Game-Key Card system with the Switch 2 in 2025 that put a download code in a box. Some Switch 2 cartridges include the full game, but not Game-Key Card titles like Hogwarts Legacy and Resident Evil Village, among numerous others.

Sony's explanation

Sony's official word is that it's going all digital starting in 2028 in response to "shifting trends in consumer preference."

"This is a natural direction for Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt to consumer trends as the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs," it said. "This transition will enable us to align more closely with how most of our community prefers to access and play games today. "

GTA 6 also won't be on a disc

Sony's announcement came not long after Rockstar Games and Take-Two announced that GTA 6 will not be available on a disc. People can buy the game physically, but they will get a code in the box, not a disc. Neither Rockstar nor Take-Two have offered an explanation or defense for this decision, but it's likely to do with the biggest reason of all: cutting costs to make more money.

Will Microsoft follow suit?

Microsoft has its own fair share of problems with Xbox at the moment, and many are wondering if Xbox will follow PlayStation and ditch disc-based games in the future. That remains to be seen, but it wouldn't be surprising.

People still want and support disc-based games

Many people still buy disc-based games and prefer physical media. The news about GTA 6 going all-digital and now Sony's decision to kill disc-based games is sure to be controversial, especially through the lens of game preservation.

Sony is not killing off discs because players stopped buying them--they still do. Almost 70 million PlayStation discs were sold last year, but that number has dropped off dramatically. Sony's statement said the decision was about cutting costs and improving profit margins. Gaming is a business, after all, but that doesn't make the news any less difficult to stomach for those who prefer physical media.

https://twitter.com/ZhugeEX/status/2072310853051777502

"Inevitably there will be concerns from PlayStation gamers around various aspects of this announcement including choice, accessing older physical games on new consoles, the ability to collect physical games, and game preservation, however the purchasing trends of gamers are clear," Harding-Rolls added. "This is a watershed moment for the industry."

Sony coupled the disc news with another painful announcement:  it will close the PlayStation Stores for PS3 and PS Vita.

Sony has officially confirmed that it will end the production of physical discs for PlayStation consoles, starting January 2028. In a new blog update, the company says that it made the decision based on how physical game disc sales have begun to decline, and in the future, all new games--both first- and third-party--will be available through the PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only.

Sony added that this new transition "has no impact" on games that have already been released or will be released. "This transition will enable us to align more closely with how most of our community prefers to access and play games today," the company added, while emphasizing that it will "continue to prioritize" resources on where consumers can access its games.

The writing has been on the wall for years now, as recent reports from Sony have indicated a massive shift from physical to digital. PlayStation owners overwhelmingly purchase games digitally when compared to physical editions, and one of the biggest games of the year, GTA 6, will also be available purely as a digital product. While a "physical" edition will be sold at retailers, this is essentially a code-in-a-box copy. It's also worth noting that both Sony and Microsoft released versions of their flagship consoles in 2020 that did not include a disc drive, and Sony's PS5 Pro doesn't ship with one by default (but it can still be added via a modular attachment).

The other knock-on effect is that the next PlayStation console will not include a physical media drive for its base model, as Sony aims to keep costs down. "This pretty much guarantees that PS6 won't arrive until 2028 at the earliest," Ampere Analysis senior games research analyst Piers Harding-Rolls said to Game File. Even physical copies of games don't contain the full experience on the disc, with many acting as an authentication key while all game data is copied to the console--a process that usually requires a hefty download as well.

On top of all this, Sony has also announced that it will be closing the PlayStation Store on PS3, as well as on PS Vita.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I must have known that Rhythm Heaven was a close cousin to WarioWare, but it never stood out to me as strongly as it did while playing Rhythm Heaven Groove. The sheer unapologetic weirdness of it intertwined with the strict timing-based minigames made this feel like WarioWare, but as a rhythm game. And I feel like a fool for just now discovering that these are two great tastes that go great together.

The influences from WarioWare will be obvious to anyone who has played that long-running gonzo microgame series, but unlike those, the individual games in Rhythm Heaven Groove last much longer than a few seconds. After a short practice round to learn the rhythm and button prompts, you go into the actual performance that mixes together commands to the rhythm of a song. Almost all of your commands are mapped to the A button, but more complicated arrangements add one of the D-pad buttons for a different command. In an early game where you're driving a stunt car for a commercial, for example, the A button accelerates while the D-pad Down hits the brakes, so you need to alternate between them on command to stay aligned with the other stunt cars.

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

The WarioWare spirit shines through in both the art style--an eclectic blend of crude simplicity, chunky cartoonism, and occasional hyper-realism--and also in the gonzo spirit of the games themselves. The stunt car example is one of the more normal ones, but many of the games are downright bizarre. Across the breadth of Rhythm Heaven, you'll have to jump and roll as a cat doll, bounce fruits off your muscles as a bodybuilder, sort delicious pudding from tainted living pudding cups as a factory robot, and jump over windshield wipers during a rainstorm. The game frequently surprises you with new creative applications that all feel different, even if they're mechanically very similar. That sense of surprise meant that even when I didn't like a game as much, I loved seeing the creativity.

In addition to adapting to each game's rhythm, you also often have to contend with distractions in the background. The kitty-hopping game--Hop, Stop, N Roll--transforms the background from a simple wood-paneled design to a kaleidoscopic beach scene, so part of the challenge is keeping your concentration and the beat going while the world changes around you. When you learn to "read" the games, you also start to notice little signs about your performance, like your fellow performer in the umbrella-folding game shooting you a dirty look if your timing was just slightly off. 

Rhythm Heaven Groove

While the WarioWare influence is obvious, my time with Rhythm Heaven Groove also reminded me of another long-lost rhythm game: Elite Beat Agents. While no game has quite substituted for EBA's charm, mixing storytelling with pop songs and rhythmic touch screen taps, Rhythm Heaven Groove is similarly focused on nailing your percussive beats. The sound design has excellent feedback with a sharp, snappy snare that punctuates even harder when you nail a beat perfectly. Sometimes I would simply close my eyes to feel my way through the rhythm, and it worked just as well as watching on-screen. Everything has a sound cue, so this is one game you actually can play blindfolded. 

My absolute favorite aspect of Rhythm Heaven Groove, though, were the Remix stages. Each column consists of four stages, and they all feel varied as you're playing them and climbing the tower. When you reach the top, all four get remixed into one game, sometimes set to a real, credited J-pop song. At this point, all those games that seemed so different feel like different parts of the same whole, and you get to see them coming together. Sometimes a game will even fade into another mid-beat, showing you that you're actually keeping the same rhythm across both. It's a very cool magic trick. 

That said, the mapping of commands onto the D-pad would occasionally trip me up, because it wasn't always the same D-pad button across each game. Since the Remix stages start without any warm-up time, I would sometimes finish a set of stages and come back to do the Remix later, only to discover I had completely forgotten which D-pad button to use. Aside from trial and error, the only solution is to quit out and find the individual minigames, and then redo their practice modes as a reminder. It's not terribly intuitive, and there's not any particular reason the D-pad prompt couldn't just be consistent throughout all of the minigames. Yes it's a little more elegant that D-Pad Left triggers a crab claw and D-Pad Down hits the car brakes, but would it really matter if they were the same? On that one point, the game became less about rhythm and more about memorization, which undermined the fun. 

Rhythm Heaven Groove

And as much fun as it was in handheld, I struggled with playing Rhythm Heaven Groove on my TV. To its credit, the game recognizes when you've hooked it up to your TV for the first time and conducts a quick calibration game in an effort to reduce the effects of lag. But even after going through that, I struggled to hit my marks across several games playing on my TV with a Pro Controller, even in games I had already mastered in handheld mode. The game does note that some TVs just behave differently than others, so your mileage may vary.  

Those same struggles with TV lag may have impacted my multiplayer experience, but not enough to detract from the fun. I dabbled in all the games with my two kids of varying ages, and after some early struggles, we found a handful of favorites that created the kind of raucous party atmosphere that Rhythm Heaven is obviously going for. There's a great mix of competitive and cooperative game types, and unlike the single-player columns that offer different games as you climb, these offer new twists on the games you've already mastered. We were only playing with two players at a time, but it fills in the extra spots with bots regardless of your player count for a total of four. As long as you have at least one buddy, you can play all of the multiplayer games.

So many of the multiplayer games are strong that it's hard to pick favorites, but a few stand out. A virus-busting game shoots a disease through tubes, so you have to pin them with precise timing as they come, and your position in the four quadrants of protection rotates each turn. A tennis game imitates an RPG as you lob balls to defeat approaching enemies and save a prince. Cake Wait revolves around waiting until exactly 3 o'clock to grab the single slice of cake on the table, testing your ability to count down on-tempo. An Arkanoid-like arrow-shooting game has you break bricks protecting a bomb as you race to be the first to hit and detonate it. There is even a card-flipping memory game, but instead of pictures, you're matching particular drum rhythms as displayed by toe-tapping chickens. All of these are delivered with the same goofball spirit as the rest of the game, which makes it disarmingly funny. 

Rhythm Heaven Groove

Still, multiplayer lends itself to the big-screen experience of a TV, and we did occasionally find it hard to master the timing in some minigames. One of the first, in which you pluck hairs from an onion, consistently tripped us up, even after going back to it once we had performed much better on some of the other games. It's hard to say if this was due to TV lag or if that particular game is just surprisingly strict, but it was a noticeable change from the kooky fun of the others to consistently failing out of that one.

Nintendo is one of the biggest and oldest game publishers in the world, so it feels strange to say that something it made carries itself with indie sensibilities. But that's always been true of WarioWare, and by extension, it's true of Rhythm Heaven Groove. It's such a strange, low-fi game that it comes off as if the team is getting away with something while the boss isn't looking. But it's also a genuinely welcome addition to my Switch collection, because it's such an oddity. Whenever I feel the need to tap my toes while feeling the beat of a tadpole march, or invite my friends to compete in a foot race as lucha libre across giant bouncy balls, I'll return to Rhythm Heaven.

Wallpaper Engine has been a popular wallpaper tool on Steam for the better part of a decade since its release. However, the tool's application wallpaper was apparently hijacked by bad actors months ago who used it to infect users' machines with malware as the desktop wallpaper program ran in the background. Now, Wallpaper Engine's application is going to be permanently removed from the program over those malware concerns.

In a statement on Steam, the program's developers stated that users have a limited time to back up any wallpapers used from the application before the app is removed on Monday, July 6. The devs also note that removing the app only affects "0.5% of all wallpapers with actual user numbers being much lower than even that."

"The reality is that executable files cannot be reliably secured with automated systems," reads the statement. "There will always be blind spots and ways for people to bypass them. As many of you know, we recently saw people trying to use this old feature to spread malware. At the end of the day, keeping a feature around that lets anyone easily share random .exe files on the Workshop is a risk we are no longer willing to take."

A report on Securlist published earlier this month brought this issue to light and contends that malware had been inserted in the Wallpaper Engine's application as far back as late 2025. The malware could reportedly hijack Steam accounts, cripple hard drives, insert hidden crypto miners, or use ransomware to encrypt important users' data.

There have been a handful of games removed from Steam over similar malware issues, including Beyond the Dark last spring. The issue has even drawn the attention of the FBI, which announced an investigation into multiple infected titles on Steam.

Shortly after developer Papergames announced the addition of Valko--a new love interest in the mobile action dating sim Love and Deepspace--the backlash from fans has spilled into the real world. Now, Papergames is reversing course by canceling Valko's debut and pledging to focus on the five other love interests who are already in the game.

"We recognize that we moved forward with the introduction of Valko before we were truly ready," reads the statement posted to Love and Deepspace's Instagram account. "In doing so, we let down the players who have supported us from the start, and we also fell short of delivering the experience that players anticipating Valko deserved. After extensive internal discussions ... we have decided to cancel both the launch and any further development of the new love interest. We also commit that no additional love interests will be introduced in future content plans."

According Gaming on Phone, angry players made their displeasure about Valko's arrival known by targeting Papergames' headquarters in China with cow dung that was delivered to the company's lockers. White and yellow chrysanthemums--which represent funerals and mourning in Chinese culture--were also delivered. As a further insult, glutinous rice, and pomelo leaves--both of which are used in cleansing rituals--were delivered as well.

The outlet also notes that Love and Deepspace lost approximately 1 million followers on Chinese social media since the unveiling of Valko. One of the primary complaints was that Papergames wasn't delivering new story content or developing the characters of the five male love interests who were already in the game. In addition, many fans voiced complaints that the game, at times, felt like it catered too heavily toward whales, and said that they wanted improvements to how you're able to farm in-game resources.

In gacha games--like Love and Deepspace--or any type of live service game, a "whale" is a term used to describe a person who drops such a large amount of money on microtransactions, that they effectively keep the game afloat. The average user has been worried that the Love and Deepsace team caters too heavily toward these big spenders, and in an attempt to incentivize whales to drop even more money, the game is making everything too pricy for everyone else.

Despite the online (and offline) vitriol for him, there are apparently plenty of players who are now disappointed by Valko's cancellation. Replies left on Instagram have called for Valko to be released on Love and Deepspace.

The Protect Our Games Act--a piece of legislation endorsed by the Stop Killing Games movement--has been voted down at the California State Senate. However, one of the most noteworthy incidents from this legislative battle was a comment made by an Entertainment Software Association lobbyist who claimed that Minecraft and Call of Duty private community servers are "illegal."

Jennifer Gibbons, the ESA's vice president of state government affairs, told lawmakers that community servers for Minecraft and Call of Duty games are both breaking the law.

"They’re illegal," said Gibbons. "They are not in any way affiliated with Microsoft. Microsoft, for Minecraft, has gotten a lot of criticism because of those community servers not employing the same safety standards that Microsoft does on their Minecraft servers ... In fact, we consider it piracy. We have ... two pending lawsuits against private servers right now, and the United States Trade Representative (USTR) in their Notorious Markets Reports on counterfeiting and piracy has named some of these big private servers as a notorious market."

As PC Gamer and Video Games Chronicle have noted, Gibbons has apparently conflated community-run servers with the ones actually targeted by the USTR for allowing players to circumvent subscription fees. Neither Minecraft nor classic Call of Duty games fall under those parameters and they don't require a subscription to play. There are even links to Minecraft community servers on the game's official site.

On Reddit, an advocate for Stop Killing Games accused Gibbons and the ESA of making claims that were "designed to scare a busy legislator who does not have time to fact-check a well-dressed lobbyist in real time." In response, the advocate vowed to continue the fight in future legislation.

"We are not stopping. Not even close," reads the statement. "We are not limiting this to California. We intend to introduce versions of this in other state legislatures, and we are seriously looking at the federal level. The ESA is about to learn what it is like to fight on many fronts at once. They have to win every single time to keep things the way they are. We only have to win once to change them. That math does not favor them."

In a statement to Video Games Chronicle, the ESA doubled down on its claims about private servers.

"Private servers infringe on the intellectual property (IP) rights of game publishers," reads the statement. "Publishers reserve the right to exercise their rights against them. The provision in CA AB 1921 that proposed these servers as a legitimate alternative to keep games running raises concerns about a publisher’s ability to enforce their IP rights. In addition, private servers operate with no oversight from the publisher and do not uphold the same trust and safety standards. This could create an unsafe environment for players and be counter to the industry's commitment to fostering safe and fun game play for all players."

The Stop Killing Games movement initially came together when Ubisoft decided to shut down The Crew. Since then, activists for the group have argued in Europe and North America that gaming companies have an obligation to keep older games alive that have already been sold to players. Video game publishers have in turn argued that following the demands of these players "would curtail developer choice by making these video games prohibitively expensive to create." 

As the wait for GTA 6's next trailer continues, fans are poring over all the little details from the new batch of screenshots that recently went live. One piece of information that fans are now obsessing about is what they believe will be a system in the game that lets you get swoll.

As relayed by GamesRadar, fans are convinced that a newly released image that shows main character Jason being less jacked than he was in a previous image is evidence that the game will have some kind of fitness/bodybuilding system.

The commenters rightly point out that lighting and angles can make a person's build look different from image to image, not to mention the effect of a good pump on making muscles pop. However, what we're looking at here in the images seems to be more than that. As you can see in the image on the right, Jason's biceps, triceps, traps, and back are looking absolutely huge, whereas the image on the left shows a much more average-looking Jason.

https://twitter.com/playb0y4L/status/2071725574716842475

This follows on from the trailer for GTA 6 released in May 2025 showing Jason throwing up some heavy weight on the bench somewhere on the beach in Vice City. We dug deep to try to find out how much Jason could bench.

It’s likely pumping out sets could be an activity in GTA 6, as Rockstar is known to allow players to do much of what they see in trailers for their games. Given that, it stands to reason that putting in the work would lead to some proper gains like the ones people are noticing in the comparison image above.

GTA San Andreas had a bodybuilding system whereby CJ could lift weights to build muscle that was then reflected in his character model and gameplay attributes, so it seems GTA 6 might be bringing that back.

Jason is one of two playable characters in GTA 6, the other being Lucia. GTA 6 launches on November 19 for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, and while the game will have a physical edition, it comes with a code in the box, not a disc.

Hideo Kojima's Xbox console-exclusive horror game, OD, is reportedly safe amidst reports and rumors of studio closures, layoffs, and game cancellations at Xbox loom.

According to a report from IGN, a source familiar with Microsoft's Xbox plans has stated OD remains in development at Kojima Productions and will still be published by Xbox.

Not much is known about OD, but it was announced during an Xbox showcase in June 2022, with only a few brief glimpses since. It is set to star three actors-- Sophia Lillis, Hunter Schafer, and the late Udo Kier--and is being made in collaboration with director Jordan Peele. 

Kojima said in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly that while pitching OD, most people didn't understand the concept. Former Xbox CEO Phil Spencer, however, understood, resulting in a partnership between Kojima Productions and Xbox.

When OD will release is unknown, but news that its development will continue comes as Xbox seems poised to undergo a painful transition under new CEO Asha Sharma. It was just earlier today that 007 First Light developer IO Interactive announced layoffs after it was confirmed by Bloomberg that Microsoft had pulled funding for the studio's upcoming Project Fantasy game. 

In a statement, Microsoft said it would not be "reducing our overall investment in games," but changing "where we're investing and the kinds of projects we're backing."

A number of Xbox studios and games are reportedly on the chopping block, with the possibility of some being spun out from under Xbox, being sold to other companies, or being closed entirely. One game said to be in danger of cancellation is Marvel's Blade, from developer Arkane. Blade was announced in 2023 but no gameplay has been shown. In a quote from May, Bethesda's Todd Howard said he recently saw the game and that Arkane was doing a "really, really great job." 

According to a report from The Verge, at least five studios, including Arkane, Compulsion Games (which has already reportedly seen layoffs), Double Fine, Ninja Theory, and Undead Labs, are all in danger. Mass layoffs are said to be coming around July 6, according to the report, and will hit "most parts of Xbox."

Microsoft has confirmed that it pulled out of funding Hitman developer IO Interactive's new fantasy game, and it's because the company is re-focusing its spending on the "highest priorities" for the business.

Speaking to Bloomberg, a Microsoft spokesperson said Xbox is "taking a fresh look at where we invest so we're focusing on our highest priorities."

Major changes are afoot at Xbox.

The statement went on to claim that Microsoft is "not reducing our overall investment in games," adding that the total amount of investment this year should be about the same as it was last year.

"What's changing is where we're investing and the kinds of projects we're backing," Microsoft said.

IO Interactive said its fantasy game, which is in development under the working title Project Fantasy, "will see the light of day." However, it remains to be seen how IO will go about doing that.

As part of the shakeup, IO is laying off staff, though it's not immediately clear how many people are affected. In addition to Project Fantasy, many are hoping to see IO make a sequel to 007 First Light.

As for Xbox, the company is undergoing a "reset" of its business under the leadership of Xbox CEO Asha Sharma. This is reportedly going to include mass layoffs, studio closures (or divestitures), and game cancellations. A report said the cuts will begin on July 6.

Hitman and 007 First Light developer IO Interactive is the latest in a growing list of studios suffering layoffs, this time, this time in relation to a franchise that it hasn't even launched yet.

Project Fantasy, IO Interactive's first attempt at crafting a fantasy RPG, is still in development, but the end of a recent external partner relationship has forced the studio to make some cuts to its team. In a statement, IO says that these are short-term consequences, and that the proposed layoffs are currently in progress.

"This means we have to adapt to this new reality and its short-term consequences, including staffing decisions, which is what is happening as we write this update, and we are fully committed to supporting those affected through this challenging transition," the statement reads.

In spite of the setback, IO's statement ends with a promise that Project Fantasy is not dead. "This wonderful universe will see the light of day," the statement concludes.

Although the identity of the partner has been speculation throughout Project Fantasy's development, Xbox confirmed today that it was working with IO Interactive on the IP. In a statement to Bloomberg, Xbox confirmed that it had pulled its funding, saying, “We expect to invest about the same in content as we did last year. What's changing is where we're investing and the kinds of projects we're backing.”

IO Interactive's latest game and its first outside of the Hitman franchise in a while, 007 First Light, has been a critical and commercial success, with the studio celebrating 3 million copies sold in the first two weeks after launch.

Helldivers 2's latest campaign calls for Super Earth's finest to aid in the construction of a "Celestial Fence" to keep out the ongoing Terminid menace.

It's up to the Helldivers community to help deploy what Super Earth Command has billed as a "flawless, updated, and entirely safe Terminid Control System wall" that will "permanently quarantine" the "fascist" Terminids. The Helldivers are tasked with defending construction sites, gathering necessary resources for the campaign, and holding the line against the Terminids to "guarantee eternal planetary security."

Should the Helldivers succeed, players will be awarded with a "morale boosting freedom incentive, the R-4 Hyena Marksmen rifle.

This follows a previous successful campaign against the Illuminate's Voteless hordes, which Super Earth Command has informed players have now been sent to "humanitarian processing facilities." 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5xxT-LWRYY

Considering Super Earth's last attempt to deploy Termicide resulted in a mutant strain of new, even deadlier Terminids and a subsequent order to shut down all the Terminid Control System towers players had just helped build, it remains to be seen how effective this new "flawless" solution will be.

One in 2026 does not issue an order to build a wall without intentionally echoing the campaign promises of current US President Donald Trump for a border wall between the US and Mexico. Developer Arrowhead Studios, which is based in Sweden, knows this.

Arrowhead has always worn its Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers-inspired brand of satire on its sleeve when it comes to Helldivers 2. Whether it's invading desert-like Terminid planets for what is essentially their oil or battling against "communist" cyborgs, Helldivers 2 has always leaned into the farce that is Super Earth's authoritarian government for comedic effect. Under the facade of "Managed Democracy," Super Earth sends millions of soldiers to their deaths in pointless, preventable wars that are often the result of Super Earth's own disastrous policies. 

It's not exactly subtle. Helldivers 2 is clearly tongue-firmly-in-cheek satire, but much like Verhoeven's 1997 sci-fi classic, that hasn't stopped some from missing the point entirely. A US Marines anniversary celebration from last October saw one member of the armed forces walk out to Helldivers 2's iconic music and even repeat lines verbatim from the game's opening cinematic, asking the audience if they had the "strength and the courage to be free" and to join the Marines.

Whether players will succeed in stopping the Terminids (not likely) with the new Terminid Control System remains to be seen, but Arrowhead will no doubt continue laying on the satire thick, regardless of if players are in on the joke.

Helldivers 2's previous campaign brought a much-welcome update to Arrowhead's shooter, including the ability to reload while diving and major buffs to orbital stratagems and vehicles. Arrowhead recently announced it has delayed its June Warbond, stating it needs "more time to cook." A Warhammer 40K and Helldivers 2 crossover is still slated for later this year.

A new report claims that Microsoft is considering cancelling the upcoming Marvel's Blade game and closing its developer.

According to The Verge, Microsoft is considering closing at least five studios, one of which is Arkane, the developer of the upcoming Blade game. The report said Blade was originally set to launch in 2026, but was delayed to late 2027 and is over budget.

Earlier in June, a report said Marvel's Blade was not canceled, despite it being a no-show at the Xbox Games Showcase. The game was announced in 2023, but no gameplay footage has ever been released.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=basLDO2bj2k

Microsoft is also said to be exploring the possibility of selling Arkane Studios, though The Verge's report did not name any potential buyers. This reporting follows previous stories that said Microsoft is also trying to offload Compulsion Games, Double Fine, Ninja Theory, and Undead Labs.

"If buyers are found for these studios, then they’ll avoid being closed, but sources stress these talks could take months in some cases," The Verge said.

Marvel's Blade is in development at Arkane's office in Lyon, France. The company's US-based counterpart in Austin, Texas--the studio that made Redfall--was shuttered in May 2024. Microsoft acquired the Arkane teams as part of its buyout of parent company ZeniMax years prior.

Layoffs could begin July 6

The report also included more information on the job cuts coming to Xbox, saying they will begin on July 6 and "hit most parts of Xbox." Unconfirmed reporting from other sources said the layoffs could be as many as 1,000. If the five studios are shuttered, that would amount to at least 500 employees, The Verge said.

This is happening as part of Xbox CEO Asha Sharma's plan to "reset" the Xbox business with the aim of making it the "No. 1 gaming and entertainment company."