Epoch Games Super Mario Stadium Baseball

$51.49 (was $60)

See at Amazon

Epoch Games Super Mario Soccer Striker

$55

See at Amazon

Mario is no rookie when it comes to baseball, having taken to the field with Mario Superstar Baseball on GameCube and again with Mario Super Sluggers for the Wii. He’s now returning to the sport with Epoch Games Super Mario Stadium Baseball, a tabletop game that has him and his friends swinging for the fences. It’s a cute-looking game--and right now you’ll find it for just $51.49 (was $60). This is a limited-time deal, and we're not sure how long it'll be around, so it's worth taking advantage of the discount while you can.

Epoch Games Super Mario Stadium Baseball $51.49 (was $60)

The action takes place on a tiny, tabletop version of a baseball field. There are four Super Mario collectible figures with the set (Mario, Yoshi, Luigi, Boo), though you’ll find less detailed character players for 10 other familiar faces scattered throughout the playing surface. Designed for two players, one pitches while the other bats. The pitcher can vary the ball's speed, trying to trick the batter into making a bad swing. The batter, meanwhile, is trying to knock the ball out of the park and score as many runs as they can.

See at Amazon Epoch Games Super Mario Soccer Striker $55

Prefer kicking a ball over hitting it with a bat? Epoch Games also recently released Super Mario Soccer Striker. This plays a bit like rod hockey or foosball, with players manipulating sticks to move their characters across the board as they attempt to kick a ball into the opponent’s goal. It comes with everything you need to play, as well as four Collectible Figures for Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Yoshi.

We’ve seen some resellers offering it for extremely high prices--so give it a look now that the official listing from Amazon is available and in stock.

See at Amazon

Epoch Games makes a bunch of tabletop Mario games, plenty of which have nothing to do with sports. Super Mario Blow Up Shaky Tower, for example, sees you balancing characters on an unstable tower--making it a mustachioed alternative to Jenga. There’s also a Super Mario Maze Game Deluxe that’ll put your reflexes to the test, as well as a small Mario Kart Racing Deluxe Set that sees cars flying around the track. Be sure to check out the full catalog, but here are a few of our favorites.

Epoch Super Mario Tabletop Games

• Lucky Coin Game -- $31 ($34)
• Maze Game Deluxe -- $30
• Mario Kart Racing Deluxe -- $40
• Shaky Tower Balancing Game -- $10 ($20)
• Soccer Striker -- $50
• Stadium Baseball -- $51.49 ($60)

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Grand Theft Auto 6 is coming next year, and one of the many unanswered questions about the game is what it will cost. People have made all sorts of predictions so far, and that's continuing now, with analysts Serkan Toto, Piers Harding-Rolls, and Rhys Elliott sharing their thoughts.

Toto and Harding-Rolls told GI.biz that they believe the game's standard edition will cost between $70 and $80, but the game's deluxe editions could come in at $100 or more.

Some have theorized that GTA 6 could be $100 for its standard edition, and Video Game Insights analyst Vic Bassey said, "If there was any game likely to cross the $100 threshold," it would be GTA 6.

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Gaming on the go has been popular among players for decades, and now Sony and Honda are teaming up to bring the power of PlayStation 5 to the road. The two companies formed a joint venture, Sony Honda Mobility, in 2022 to produce electric vehicles. Their first car, the Afeela 1, will be released next year and it will include the capability of playing PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5 games.

However, this a limitation to what players can do with their Afeela In-Vehicle Infotainment systems. Sony and Honda aren't including in-car consoles, and they are relying on PlayStation Remote Play for this to work. That means Afeela 1 owners will also need to have either a PS5 or a PS4 at their homes in order to connect with the systems to play games. Sony notes that this use of Remote Play is separate from streaming PS Plus games from the cloud.

The Afeela In-Vehicle Infotainment system.

This setup includes integrated display and premium audio systems for passengers. It's unclear if the cars come with a PlayStation controller or if players have to bring their own from home.

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It's almost the end of 2025, and in the spirit of Spotify Wrapped, several big companies have invited subscribers to review their last year of activity. Sony got the ball rolling with the PlayStation Wrap-Up, Steam offers a similar annual roundup, and the Nintendo Switch Year in Review recap has been announced for early next year--but where is Xbox in the middle of all this?

While it doesn't offer an Xbox wrap-up every year, it still feels odd for Microsoft's gaming brand to skip 2025. The year has seen several high-profile releases from the company and the launch of an Xbox-branded handheld gaming PC alongside Asus, but according to Windows Central, Microsoft is allocating its marketing budget toward celebrating several major anniversaries in 2026.

The Xbox brand celebrates its 25th anniversary next year, Blizzard has its 35th anniversary to look forward to, and Bethesda is turning 40. Those are several significant milestones in proximity to each other, and it's a safe bet that Microsoft wants to accommodate them, possibly explaining the lack of an Xbox Wrapped this year. On top of that, we'll see the return of BlizzCon in September, and Blizzard has teased its "biggest year yet" for 2026.

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Overwatch developer Blizzard has teased that 2026 will be the year when the studio's "boldest ideas come to life."

"We're eager to take creative steps that will allow the game to lean further into storytelling and character development, and we can't wait to share these new experiences with our community," Blizzard said in a blog post. "There's a real sense of momentum and optimism within the development team, and we believe 2026 will be a year where our boldest ideas come to life."

Blizzard did not share any further details, but 2026 marks the 10th anniversary of Overwatch, and the studio presumably has some anniversary plans in store for the milestone.

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Generative AI has been at the forefront of the conversation for the past few years, with companies becoming divisive on how to implement it, if at all. Larian CEO Swen Vincke recently kicked a hornet's nest after saying the studios' developers use generative AI tools for things like exploring new game ideas, developing concept art, creating placeholder text, and for PowerPoint presentations. After a quick retraction and explanation, along with sharing that the studio was in fact growing its pool of artists rather than shrinking. Vincke has admitted that Larian uses AI for tasks nobody wants to do, but does AI--even at the concept art stage--help actual concept artists?

According to a handful of video game concept artists, it can actually make things harder. Talking to Edmond Tran from This Week In Video Games, artists said that it complicates their workflow and doesn't help them creatively.

"I'm seeing more and more clients generate something approximating their desired outcome and essentially asking me to make 'something like this,'" said Paul Scott Canavan, an artist who has worked as an art director and concept artist for projects like Destiny 2, Heroes of the Storm, Guild Wars 2, and Netflix's The Witcher. "It sucks. This practice absolutely invalidates the entire creative process, in my opinion, and makes my job harder and more frustrating. The job of an illustrator or concept artist is to draw from their years of experience to interpret a brief in a creative way."

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The College Football bowl season is underway, and the first-ever Xbox Bowl took place on December 18--and what a sight it was.

Arkansas State defeated Missouri State 34-28 to claim the title. Arkansas State was up 31-7 going into the fourth, but Missouri State battled back, scoring 21 points in the fourth to make it close.

Naturally, the Xbox Bowl was full of Xbox-branded partnerships, including Master Chief doing the coin toss to start the game. Corey Rucker Jr. of Arkansas State won Offensive MVP of the Xbox Bowl, earning himself an "Achievement Unlocked" trophy, while Kyle Taylor of Arkansas State won Defensive MVP of the Xbox Bowl, taking home a similarly styled trophy.

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Joseph Cross, the art director on Bungie's upcoming extraction shooter Marathon, is leaving just months before the game's release. Cross's exit comes just after the game was finally announced for a March 2026 release, following an indefinite delay prompted by underwhelming player feedback on the shooter's alpha tests.

Cross's departure from Bungie was tipped by an update to his LinkedIn page and social accounts, and he confirmed to Kotaku that it was his choice to leave. "I’m super proud of the project and what the team accomplished over the last six years," he said, reflecting on his exit.

After years of work on Destiny as lead concept artist, Cross returned to Bungie in 2020 to help shape the visual style for Marathon. The extraction shooter is looking to be one of Bungie's most visually unique titles, with a bold aesthetic named by Cross as "graphic realism."

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James Ohlen, the Bioware veteran who led development on upcoming sci-fi RPG Exodus, has stepped down from his position as the head of Archetype Entertainment. Ohlen's exit comes just after the studio debuted a flashy new trailer at The Game Awards, as he says he feels his work on the game is done.

Ohlen has headed up the Wizards of the Coast-owned studio since its founding in 2019, working on the studio's debut title Exodus. "At this stage, James felt his work on the game was complete and that the polishing and tuning were in great hands with the team," Hasbro said in a statement given to Bloomberg.

Exodus is still fairly far from release, which is currently scheduled for early 2027. This is an unusually long window if the game is already up to the polishing and tuning stage. Just last week, Exodus received an epic new trailer at The Game Awards, focused on the journey of protagonist Jun Aslan.

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Riot Games has announced that League of Legends will be getting a major overhaul after 2026, possibly one of the biggest in the game's 16-year history. Riot has said the refresh will include a brand-new "around-game" client, entirely new visuals for Summoner's Rift, and a better experience for players new to the game--plus more updates yet to be announced.

Bloomberg initially reported on Riot's plans for a 2027 LoL refresh earlier this week, saying the update was internally known as "League Next." Shortly after that report was released, Riot Games confirmed the plans via a video posted to League of Legends' social media. League boss Andrei Van Roon added that the video was intended to be released in January, but had been pushed forward in response to the report.

A look at some of our plans for League after 2026. pic.twitter.com/vqsnBksg1Y

— League of Legends (@LeagueOfLegends) December 18, 2025

While Riot says work on the update is well underway, none of it is ready to reveal to the public just yet, though it has outlined some of the major changes on the way. First and foremost is a brand-new "around-game" client, which will be bundled in with the game as a single application. Summoner's Rift is also due for an overhaul, with the studio promising "entirely new visuals" for the classic map, as well as some new gameplay. Other gameplay updates will include changes to runes and the pre-game experience, as well as a full overhaul to the learning experience for players new to League of Legends.

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Step into Murder of King Mere, a captivating painterly-pixelated murder mystery set in the secluded City of Ink. King Mere, once a beacon of diplomacy for the Dog Empyre, now lies a bloodstain on the snow. His brother, August, has been swiftly convicted. As the Master Detective's Apprentice, you arrive four days too late to the crime scene. Is the King's brother the true murderer? Or has the truth been redacted in ink?

Rockoon is a game that combines a linear narrative with dark humor and third-person shooter elements, offering the player an unconventional experience while reflecting a unique comic inspired style. Be a master of the sword and save the troubled.