Nintendo dropped a 22-minute Direct presentation for the upcoming social-life sim Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, which revealed all kinds of fun and fascinating features for the Switch-exclusive. Tucked in the broadcast was an interesting dilemma, and if you blinked, you might've missed it, but let me point it out for all to see: You can not only fall in love with a clown, but you can get involved in a love square with said clown because, well ... everyone loves clowns, right?

Yes, the forthcoming Living the Dream, the latest entry in the Tomodachi franchise following 2014's Tomodachi Life, allows you to go on dates with a clown named Hugh Morris. One of the main Miis in the trailer, Angie, admits to us that she "can't hold back" her feelings for the clown and "needs to tell him" how she feels. The player encourages Angie, suggesting she "go for it." Which she does! She invites Hugh on a Ferris wheel date, where she confesses her feelings "the old-fashioned way." That is, stuttering through rosy cheeks and nervous breaths.

Morris, oblivious, says he's "totally in love with the view" from inside the Ferris wheel, too. Angie clarifies what she meant, blurting out that she's "in love" with him and asks to go on a real date. As hearts pound in the background, a Mii named Jess somehow enters the Ferris wheel and professes that the one who "truly loves" Morris is them.

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More than 10 years after vowing to make a "more inclusive" Tomodachi Life game, Nintendo has made good on that promise, revealing in a Nintendo Direct that Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream will add not only same-sex romances, but the option to make non-binary Mii characters.

The 22-minute Direct for the Switch game demonstrated the character creation process for Miis, which includes three gender options: Male, Female, and Non-Binary. Additionally, players can pick any (or none) of the three options for their character's dating preferences.

When the previous entry in the wacky Tomodachi Life series, released in 2013 for Nintendo 3DS, lacked the option for same-sex relationships, a social media campaign called Miiquality called on Nintendo to include the option in the game. Nintendo of America responded with a rather cold statement, saying that the game "was intended to be a whimsical and quirky game" that was "absolutely not trying to provide social commentary."

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It's been sometime since Haunted Chocolatier, the next game from Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone, received an update, but that doesn't mean the project and its progress have stalled.

That's according to a new update from Barone himself, who provided a short post on the game's website to address some speculation around his focus on the game, its current progress, and rumors of a 2030 release date. In the post, Barone explains that he's been very productive on Haunted Chocolatier lately, and that the game is taking longer to bring together than expected. He concedes that it was likely announced too early, with the first trailer debuting in 2021, but that he had reasons for making that call, too.

Taking aim at a handful of recent rumors, Barone shut down the insinuation Haunted Chocolatier would be canceled and have its content added to Stardew Valley, or that mechanics for the new game were being tested in Stardew Valley updates. "Also, Stardew Valley is a different game, so you can’t really “test something” for Haunted Chocolatier in it in an accurate way," he added.

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Not even a month after launching, Hytale players have already created Call of Duty mods for the Minecraft-like game. New clips popping up on social media showcase people lighting up opponents with a variety of guns on the iconic Black Ops 2 map, Hijacked. Hytale partner EpicNNG and content creator Dave Kratzy posted short videos on X showing off the action, with the server apparently being found at Everlands.net.

The Call of Duty mod may not feature ADS or killstreaks (at least not yet), but the gameplay looks rather faithful in the blocky transition. The Hijacked map also returned for last year's Black Ops 7, the latest Call of Duty entry in the long-running franchise. Developer Hypixel has ensured that Hytale supports mods, as the team's background includes working on one of the most popular Minecraft servers.

Hytale servers are evolving rapidly... pic.twitter.com/LIcYYHWACU

— Dave Kratzy (@Krtzyy) January 27, 2026

Last week, a Hytale update brought dinosaurs and easier storage upgrades to the game. The patch also included a laundry list of bug fixes. So far, Hytale is only available to download on the game's official website. As such, Hytale isn't on Steam currently and may never arrive on Valve's PC storefront.

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The new James Bond game 007 First Light features actor Patrick Gibson in the starring role of a young James Bond. Narrative and cinematic director Martin Emborg has now shed more light on why he believes Gibson is a great pick for the role.

Speaking to Game Informer, Emborg said Gibson--who recently gained more fame for playing a young Dexer Morgan in the Dexter prequel series Original Sin--has "great youthful" energy and a level of "built-in impatience."

This was "perfect" for the version of James Bond being depicted in First Light, Emborg said. The young James Bond players will meet in the game is all about asking "What's next?" and "What are we doing now?" Emborg said. What's more, the developer said Gibson is skilled at getting "really insanely focused at the drop of a hat," and that he also has great comedic timing.

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Phasmophobia is set to have its scariest year yet, with the game's 1.0 update slated to arrive in 2026 alongside new maps, a major overhaul of character models and animations, a Switch 2 release, and more "spooktacular surprises."

As revealed in developer Kinetic Games 2026 Phasmophobia roadmap, the 1.0 update will feature what the developer had previously described as "Horror 2.0"--a collection of major changes to the core ghost-hunting part of the game and that is now included as part of the 1.0 update. Those changes range from new ghost models and visuals to additional ghost events and hallucinations.

2026 roadmap

The roadmap is unfortunately lacking when it comes to specific dates or release windows. Kinetic Games didn't state when the 1.0 update will be arriving, but it did announce another major update is set to be released in the first quarter of the year--the player-character update. After the update, players will be able to customize their hunter with free cosmetics, and the game's character models themselves will be improved with new animations.

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Easy Trigger Games and Coffee Stain Publishing have announced Huntdown: Overtime, a roguelite prequel to their 2020 run-and-gun action game Huntdown.

The game directly follows the origins of John Sawyer, one of the playable characters in Huntdown, as he's transformed into a cyborg bounty hunter. Players fight through the game's cyberpunk criminal underworld in procedurally generated runs, and upgrade John Sawyer with new cybernetics after each death.

That reveal trailer and the game at large are intentionally going for a tone that Art Director Tommy Gustafsson says is inspired by "the badass spirits of '80s cinema," according to a press release. It doesn't seem like Huntdown: Overtime will take itself too seriously, and definitely stands out from its predecessor and other Coffee Stain Publishing games quite a bit.

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Return to Silent Hill director Christophe Gans has confirmed that an alternate, longer cut of the film exists, but there's no guarantee this version will see the light of day.

That's according to a fan who attended the Return to Silent Hill premiere and a Q&A session with Gans (via Reddit), who says the filmmaker originally submitted a longer version of the movie. Gans described this cut as longer and allowing the story more room to breathe, but he was instructed by his producers to trim the movie down to two hours. This version also gave a key character from Silent Hill 2--the game the movie is adapted from--more screen time and a death scene.

According to the fan, "Gans said he struggled to find the right place for it in the edit," and it's unclear if the scene will appear in a potential director's cut version of Return to Silent Hill. The film has gotten off to a poor start at the box office, grossing just $3.2 million from US theaters. This pales in comparison to the opening US weekends for 2006's Silent Hill ($20.2 million) and Silent Hill: Revelation ($8 million), and reviews have not been kind.

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Metal Gear protagonist and stealth-action game icon Solid Snake is making his Rainbow Six Siege debut very soon for one of the most obvious crossovers in video game history. The official announcement came shortly after leakers teased the upcoming crossover.

Rainbow Six Siege leaker Shiny claimed in an X post that a Metal Gear Solid collaboration will debut in Siege's Year 11, Season 1, saying that the event is "not just a skin collaboration" and teased that it includes a new operator. Insider Gaming corroborated the leak, reporting that Solid Snake will indeed be added as an operator when the next season begins in March.

Ubisoft later confirmed the news, teasing a February 15 Roadmap Reveal event that will shed more light.

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A Split Fiction movie is in development now with Sydney Sweeney attached to star in it, but how is the movie coming along and will it ever actually get made? That remains to be seen, but game director Josef Fares gave an update on it recently, saying in an interview that he just recently got a first draft of the movie script.

He told Moviezine (via Dexerto) that even getting a script in the first place was notable because, "There's so much talk in Hollywood" for projects that have a lot of buzz but never materialize. But the Split Fiction movie is indeed moving ahead with a new script from Deadpool writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick.

Also in the interview, Fares said he met with Sweeney and remarked that she seems "super chill." Fares added that it's his belief that Sweeney is "hyped" to make the movie.

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Yahoo Games is relaunching in 2026 with new original games and licensed titles. The first one out of the gate is Crushable, a new daily puzzle game from Candy Crush publisher King. It's meant to be a title that can be played for just a few minutes per day. To get the word out about Crushable's launch, Yahoo has lined up Malcolm in the Middle star Frankie Muniz to appear as its celebrity pitchman in the new ad below.

Candy Crush players should be able to pick up Crushable fairly quickly. The "candified puzzles" of this game start with a tray of candies that need to placed in the correct order. Players will have to think quickly as they strategize their winning moves, which will be recorded in their sharable stats.

"Candy Crush has always been about creating joyful moments that fit naturally into everyday life," said Candy Crush Saga vice president of marketing Luken Aragon in a statement. "With Crushable, we are introducing a new way to play that feels fresh, rewarding and made for daily play. Partnering with Yahoo Games helps us bring this new experience to players at tremendous scale, tapping into a brand with a loyal audience."

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A few hours into my climb, I hit the first of Cairn's seemingly insurmountable walls. The cave formation I'd descended into housed surfaces denser than anything I'd encountered on the face of the mountain. It was impossible to sink a piton into, meaning I'd have to effectively do a free solo climb to overcome it and progress.

At least, that's what I told myself. And so I threw myself at the jagged and uneven edges of that crystalline cavern. I tried and failed to find decent handholds and steady footing in the cracks of the walls. I slipped and fell a lot. Aava, Cairn's protagonist, slipped and fell a lot too, and as she did she scraped the bandaging off her digits, bloodied her feet, and screamed in frustration and contempt. Contempt at the choice I had made to stick her in this cave, and maybe even the choice that she'd made to climb Mt. Kami in the first place.

I think Aava and I are made of the same stuff, though, because we both bullishly pushed on. Eventually, we cleared that cave. We climbed its walls and came out on top. And you know what we were greeted by? An alternate path. One that appeared a whole hell of a lot easier than the path I'd made Aava take up. And you know? Deep down, I had known there must've been some other way up. I had known that Cairn threw down this gauntlet as an option and--perhaps because the game's development team understands the kind of masochistic, self-flagellating person who would play a game this demanding--they knew I'd pick it up and run with it rather than look for a way around.

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Facebook parent company Meta has released its latest earnings report, and while the company made many billions of dollars in profit, not every business unit at the technology giant is profitable.

The company's Reality Labs division--which comprises virtual and augmented reality consumer hardware, software, and content--continued to be a sore spot for Meta. For the quarter that ended on December 31, Reality Labs recorded revenue of $955 million, down from $1.083 billion during the same period last year. Income for the quarter was non-existent--Reality Labs posted quarterly loss of $6.021 billion.

For the full year, Reality Labs pulled in revenue of $2.207 billion, which was an increase from the previous year's $2.146 billion. However, the increased revenue did not lead to increased profit. Instead, Reality Labs booked a $19.193 billion loss for the full year, compared to a loss of $17.729 billion during the previous year.

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Earlier this week, Arc Raiders players encountered an enemy that they couldn't shoot or destroy. Embark Studios has confirmed that its wildly popular Arc Raiders and The Finals were targeted by "extensive, coordinated" distributed denial-of-service attacks that left the games' servers in an unstable state with some players unable to reconnect.

Per Eurogamer, community manager Ossen informed players that Arc Raiders and The Finals had been the target of DDoS attacks in a message on the former's Discord server. "The strike team has been working hard on mitigations and solutions to fix the problem, and we are making good progress," wrote Ossen. "But at this point in time, the attacks are still ongoing."

In a follow-up statement on Discord, Ossen noted that the team has noticed that the "servers are recovering." But it's unknown if the DDoS attacks have stopped or if Embark has been able to find a way to counter them.

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Will Bloodborne ever receive a modern remaster, remake, or PC port? For now, it looks like the game is trapped in PS4 purgatory, but it is getting a new release--technically. If you don't mind a fresh print of Bloodborne being ridiculously tiny and incompatible with your PS4 or PS5 console, then you can pick this minute replica up along with several extra accessories that are designed for Figma action figures. After all, why not spread the doom and gloom of Bloodborne to your collectibles?

Toy manufacturer Good Smile Company has announced a new bundle of replica PlayStation toys, including consoles, handhelds, and games. Essentially, these are small replicas of PlayStation consoles, and each one is accompanied by games like Ape Escape, Shadow of the Colossus, Everybody's Golf, Freedom Wars, Astro Bot, and of course, Bloodborne. You'll also get interchangeable hands, so your Figma figures can hold onto a controller or a handheld like the PS Vita, making it easy to pose them with the gaming hardware.

Gallery

Other nods to the past include memory cards and a PocketStation for the PlayStation, a black memory card for the PS2, and both of the older consoles have wired controllers. Pricing and US release date have not yet been announced, but this bundle will likely be available through retailers like Amazon, Entertainment Earth, and Crunchyroll soon.

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The head of Amazon Game Studios, Christoph Hartmann, is parting ways with the company amidst layoffs that have cut around 16,000 jobs across Amazon. The move comes as Amazon winds down its gaming ambitions, shifting focus to its cloud gaming service Luna.

Hartmann's departure was reported by Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, on the same day as Amazon announced a massive round of layoffs that will impact around 16,000 people company-wide. The move follows a previous round of layoffs last October that cut 14,000 jobs, hitting Amazon Game Studios particularly hard as the company scaled back its AAA development projects.

Christoph Hartmann has a long history in the games industry, from working on the original Grand Theft Auto to co-founding 2K Games in the early 2000s, and he was brought on board by Amazon Games in 2018. More recently, Hartmann may be more notorious for saying that AI wouldn't take jobs in games as they "don't really have acting."

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Microsoft has posted its earnings results for the latest quarter and while it's been a strong period for the company as a whole, the Xbox gaming division is struggling. Though Microsoft posted an overall revenue increase of 17% year-on-year, gaming revenue is down 9%--with console sales making up a large part of that decline.

Microsoft's Q2 FY26 results generally look great for the tech behemoth, with the company boasting a staggering $81.3 billion revenue largely driven by its cloud and business divisions, but Xbox isn't looking so healthy right now.

Microsoft's gaming division revenue declined 9% as a whole, with a 5% decrease in revenue from content and services, which includes Game Pass. Microsoft explains that this decline can be mostly attributed to strong first party content the year prior, and predicts that Q3 will see a similar decline in the single digits for the same reason.

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A survival adventure game in the Antarctic. A small child lands on the frozen earth and sets out alone to reach the South Pole. For an important appointment.