Bethesda veteran Pete Hines left the Elder Scrolls and Fallout studio in 2023 after more than 24 years with the company. He's now retired, and in a recent interview, Hines talked about leaving Bethesda and had some harsh words for what the company has become today. To be sure, Hines did not say Microsoft one time in the interview, and did not single out any specific person or event in his comments.

Speaking to Kirk McKeand for his Firezide Chat series, Hines said one of the reasons he decided to retire in 2023 was because he came to realize he "could not spend the rest of my life doing something that wasn't for me."

"I was staying there because this place still needs me. I just hit a point of, 'Yes, it needs me, and I am powerless to do what I think needs to be done to run this place properly, to protect these people, to maintain what we worked so hard to create, which is an incredibly efficient, well-run video game developer and publisher,'" he said.

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Reviews have gone live for Pragmata, and so far, it looks like it might just be a strong contender for game of the year. Something of a rarity from a big publisher in 2026, Pragmata is a completely original IP from Capcom that mixes third-person action with hacking minigames and an endearing story to create a memorable experience. The end result is a game that's both thrilling and engaging, whether you're dodging lethal robots or playing a game of hide-and-seek with Pragmata's adorable co-protagonist, Diana.

"Pragmata is an excellent shooter with a hacking twist that introduces strategic depth and variety, all in service of a heartfelt story," Steve Watts wrote in GameSpot's Pragmata review. "This combination of sharp combat mechanics, rich strategic depth, and lovely storytelling doesn't come along often. Pragmata shouldn't be missed."

On GameSpot's sister site Metacritic, Pragmata currently holds a "generally favorable" metascore of 85 from 54 reviews at the time of writing, putting it in the same company as Pokemon Pokopia (89), Mewgenics (88), and Cairn (85). For Capcom, it's the third major win for the company this year, as Resident Evil Requiem and Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection have also been critically acclaimed games since their respective launches earlier this year.

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You don't see games like Pragmata very often.

Big-budget single-player shooters aren't as common as they once were, and even more rarely do they launch new franchises. They often come with trade-offs--a game might nail the fundamentals, or have some surprising new hook, or have a resonant story, but rarely do you get all of them at once. Pragmata is the total package, a blend of tense and satisfying combat elevated by deep underlying mechanics and strategic choices, all in service of telling an impactful tale that spends time nurturing the relationship between its memorable characters. It's one of my unexpected surprises of 2026 so far and an early shoo-in for one of my favorites of the year.

You play as Hugh Williams, an everyman astronaut dispatched to a corporate medical research colony on the moon. There's an eerie stillness to the base that suggests something isn't quite right, but before you and your crew have any time to investigate, a moonquake rocks the base and leaves you as the only survivor. Now stranded and beset by legions of hostile robots, you're befriended by a mysterious android girl who helps you to survive by hacking the otherwise near-invincible robots. When she tries to give her alphanumeric name, Hugh calls her Diana to make it easier, and the two are joined at the hip from that point forward.

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Grand Theft Auto 6 developer Rockstar Games has been targeted by hackers again. A group called ShinyHunters claims it broke into servers run by the third-party cloud provider Anodot. ShinyHunters said the stolen data would be published online as their demands had not been met.

Rockstar confirmed the hack in a statement to Kotaku, but said the breach was not serious and it has confirmed that it will not pay the ransom. A spokesperson explained, "We can confirm that a limited amount of non-material company information was accessed in connection with a third-party data breach."

The hacker group announced on April 11 that it accessed the data through Anodot (according to Cybersec Guru and Hackread). Hackers often target these third-party service providers, but ShinyHunters has not yet said what kind of data it took. After news of the hack, Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar's parent company, saw its share price drop by more than 6% in pre-market trading. The stock price did rebound afterward to its usual levels.

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Roblox is rolling out new account types designed for children amid ongoing criticism that Roblox Corp. is not doing enough to protect children.

Roblox founder and CEO David Baszucki announced that Roblox accounts will soon have three categories: Roblox Kids (ages 5-8), Roblox Select (ages 9-15), and Roblox (ages 16+). These new account types will be released in June and aim to be aligned better with content and communications settings appropriate for people in those age groups. Additionally, Roblox Corp. is launching a "selection process" system for games available to players under 16.

As part of the June update, Roblox will also add age-checks to Roblox by way of the previously announced facial-recognition software or by a verified parent. Baszucki said its own analysis found that age-checked Roblox players under 16 will still have access to the "majority" of games they were already playing, and people aged 16 or older will see no changes at all.

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A new Xbox livestream has been announced for this week, and it'll be focused on just one game: Metro 2039. Microsoft says that it'll debut the first look at the next title in the post-apocalyptic first-person shooter series, which is being developed once again by 4A Games and published by Deep Silver.

Set for Thursday, April 16, at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET, this will be the fourth mainline entry in the series. The world premiere for Metro 2039 will be available as a YouTube Premiere on the Xbox channel.

News of a new Metro game isn't exactly surprising, as 4A Games had previously hinted at its existence. The Metro games are based on the novels of Dmitry Glukhovsky, and the franchise includes Metro 2033, Metro: Last Light, and Metro Exodus.

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Microsoft's upcoming Fable reboot may have been delayed internally amid concerns about releasing near GTA 6, according to a new report. That makes a delay for the highly anticipated RPG to 2027 possible.

Reporter Jeff Grubb said recently that he has heard the new Fable game was "pushed internally," adding that this doesn't necessarily mean it will be delayed to 2027. Grubb said developer Playground is "apparently" still trying to release the game this year, but the team is "worried about the launch of GTA 6." If the internal delay pushed Fable to some point after GTA 6's November 19 release, then Fable could be a "prime candidate" to get delayed to 2027, he said.

For now, nothing has been confirmed, and Playground continues to tell fans to expect the new Fable to arrive this fall. GameSpot has contacted Microsoft for comment.

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Lego Jurassic Park Jeep Wrangler (1,924 pieces)

$200 | Releases May 7

Preorder at Lego Store

Lego is expanding its Jurassic Park line with a new kit based on the Jeep Wrangler seen throughout the 1993 movie. Now available to preorder through the Lego Store and priced at $200, the 1,924-piece set launches on May 7.

Lego Jurassic Park Jeep Wrangler (1,924 pieces)

$200 | Releases May 7

Gallery Preorder at Lego Store

This set includes all the parts you need to build one of the four primary Jeeps that featured in Jurassic Park. You can outfit with a side-mirror that features an image of a T-Rex in hot pursuit--must go faster!--or you can pop a canvas canopy on the rear side to recreate the vehicle used by Dennis Nedry. Fans of Jurassic Park will recall that the Jeep became his casket after the traitorous IT expert's attempt to smuggle dinosaur DNA out of the park, only to wind up on the wrong end of a venom-spitting Dilophosaurus.

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