After eight years, the Epic Games Store has established itself as a viable alternative to Steam. Valve's storefront is still the largest digital marketplace for PC games, but Epic says that it never aimed to dethrone it. Epic Games Store general manager Steve Allison says that the company is aware of this and instead strives to co-exist in this ecosystem alongside Steam.

"Steam is a huge part of the PC ecosystem," Allison said to Games Industry Biz. "It's not going away. We're not going to topple Steam. PC gaming, by virtue of the competition and by virtue of us existing, has grown. That growth, per se, may or may not be attributed to all of us competing, but players are shifting a lot of their hobby from consoles to PC. Of course, we'd be thrilled to be 50% or more market share of PC."

Even with Epic estimating that it attracts roughly a 35 - 40% share of monthly active users, it believes the storefront accounts for only 5 - 8% of spending. That's not an insignificant sum, as Epic posted its year-in-review stats this week and confirmed that over $1 billion was spent in the store throughout 2025. Epic plans to attract more PC gamers, starting with a complete overhaul of the Epic Games Store that should deliver a faster, smoother shopping experience.

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For centuries, humanity has established an interstellar federation spanning thousands of light years. But along the way, humanity's home planet, Planet Aquamarine (once known as Earth), has been forgotten. Until one day, a spaceship from Bethlehem crash-lands on this long-forgotten planet... Here, you will become an unexpectedly lost interstellar pilot and a human teacher to a android student at the Planet Aquamarine Academy, exploring the boundaries between machinery and the soul.

Fallout season two's long journey has finally reached its end. While this season spent a lot of time following our heroes through Mojave Wasteland, last week set up the final stakes. The Ghoul (Walton Goggins) made his way into the Lucky 38 and reactivated Mr. House (Justin Theroux), Maximus (Aaron Moten) found his fight against the vicious Deathclaws bleed into Freeside, and Lucy (Ella Purnell) faced a moral dilemma as she came face-to-face with the mainframe of the Automated Man devices, which are now fully functioning thanks to her father Hank (Kyle Maclaclan). With all these storylines finally reaching their apexes, it's time to dive into what choices our heroes made.

The episode opens up with a bloody civil conflict amongst Caesar’s Legion. In the chaos, Lacerta Legate (Macaulay Culkin) manages to get his hands on Caesar’s corpse and drag it to his tent where he learns that his final will was for the Legion to die with him. Refusing this fate for the Legion, Lacerta kills the nearby soldiers and destroys the will, taking the golden laurels for himself. Officially crowning himself as the new Caesar, he unites the Legion and vows to march into New Vegas to establish a new “Palace.” This is met with thunderous applause.

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All points came to a head this week in New Vegas for the Fallout season two finale. While this season spent a lot of time giving us a glimpse into how the Mojave Wasteland had changed since we last saw it in Fallout: New Vegas, the finale delivered on being an immensely satisfying ending while also setting up bombshells that we can’t wait to see play out in season three. With lots of build up comes lots of opportunity to slip in easter eggs and references from the video games and beyond, so let’s take a look at what was shown this week.

Caesar’s Palace

The finale showed Legate Lacerta (Macaulay Culkin) take over the Legion as the new Caesar. After committing bloodthirsty acts of murder, he promises to lead the Legion to the New Vegas strip with hopes of building a new “palace” for them to call their own. This is a winking nod to the real life Caesar’s Palace resort and casino located on the Las Vegas strip. Opened in 1966, it's one of the oldest operating hotels in Las Vegas and features impeccable Roman theming. The resort was most famously featured as the main setting for the 2009 film The Hangover.

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Lego The Lord of the Rings: Sauron's Helmet (538 pieces)

$70 | Releases March 1

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This year marks the 25th anniversary of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and this spiky Lego replica of the film trilogy's big bad's helmet is a great way to celebrate the milestone. The Fellowship of the Ring wasted no time in introducing Sauron as an almost unstoppable force of evil, and the Lego set perfectly recreates his intimidating helmet as a display piece for your shelf. Priced at $70, it'll be released on March 1.

Lego The Lord of the Rings: Sauron's Helmet (538 pieces) $70 | Releases March 1

Like its other busts, the 538-piece Sauron helmet is designed for adult collectors. In addition to all the pieces that you'll use to craft a detailed replica of the helmet, you'll also build a display stand and a name plaque. A Sauron minifigure holding The One Ring completes the set, and it measures over 13 inches high and five inches wide once fully constructed. Just like the real-life prop designed by Weta Workshop, the completed helmet features imposing horns and a menacing glare, but with a Lego twist.

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Another great Lego Lord of the Rings set is the $460 Barad-dûr Dark Tower. A massive 5,471-piece kit, this is a replica of the infamous location that housed the Eye of Sauron, and it stands nearly three feet tall once fully assembled. The Lego recreation of the dreaded building has five levels and several cool Easter eggs, like a secret passageway to the Palantir chamber. It also comes with 10 minifigures, including Sauron, the Mouth of Sauron, Gollum, Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, Gothmog, and several Orcs. New stock is on its way to the Lego Store, but you can also get it through Amazon and Best Buy right now.

If you need a smaller Lord of the Rings set, there are plenty of other options to choose from. The $270 Shire set is a vibrant recreation of Bilbo Baggins’ hobbit hole, and it includes nine minifigures to help you recreate Bilbo's 111th birthday party. You can also build something grander, like the Elf stronghold of Rivendell, and add some "you shall not pass!" flair to your bookshelf with the Balrog Book Nook.

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Grand Theft Auto VI is coming this year after a long wait, and as it gets closer, rumors have begun to pop up about its launch. One rumor that has gained considerable traction is that the game would launch as a digital-only title, with a physical release coming at some point after release. The logic behind the rumor was that a physical release of the game could lead to early leaks ahead of the game's launch, and that publisher Take-Two might be willing to go to great lengths to avoid this.

As it turns out, though, this is not the plan. Talking to Variety following an earnings call, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick has confirmed that the publisher does not intend to delay the game's physical release. When asked directly about the rumor that the game will not be available physically on launch day to avoid potential leaks, Zelnick gave a straightforward response: "That's not the plan".

Based on this, it seems that you'll be able to buy the game on disc on launch day if that's your preference, which is good news for physical games stores around the world. Zelnick also said that the game's release date, November 19, 2026, is still locked in, although rumors will likely continue to circulate right through to release date--there's speculation that the game will carry a larger-than-normal price tag, for instance.

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In a recently-released roadmap for the future of Borderlands 4, one milestone was suspiciously absent--the game's Switch 2 port, which was previously delayed indefinitely just 10 days before its original launch date. Now, publisher Take-Two Interactive has revealed why that's the case, and it's not good news for anyone holding out for the game on Nintendo's hybrid console.

In an interview with Variety, spokesperson Alan Lewis has revealed that development on the Switch 2 version is paused. "We made the difficult decision to pause development on that SKU," he told the outlet, while affirming that the company is still committing to the system with upcoming games like PGA Tour 2K25 and WWE 2K26.

The use of the word "pause" indicates that development on the Switch 2 port of Borderlands 4 could, theoretically, resume in the future, as it's not technically cancelled, but there's no guarantee that this will happen. The game reportedly sold below expectations at launch, despite also having the biggest launch in the franchise's history.

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