The first major Nintendo Direct of 2026 will be held the first week of February, according to a noted insider. Nate The Hate said on his podcast this week, "From what I have been told, the first Direct of 2026 will be held during the opening week of February."

He said the event may take place on Thursday, February 5, though he was not able to confirm this with his "best contacts." He said he will let people know if things change, but, "Right now, that seems to be the timetable that I am hearing from my contacts."

He went on to say that there is "consensus building" that a Direct will take place in the first week of February. However, Nate The Hate said he does not know what the rumored show's format may be, so he can't say for sure if it's a Direct focused on first-party games or a partner showcase. But he said he is confident that "some form of a Direct" is coming soon.

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Highguard is a free-to-play FPS, so you're probably already aware that there are some currencies to collect (or buy) to get the most out of it. Luckily, nothing in this high-octane fantasy shooter is P2W (pay-to-win), with all currencies being used solely to buy cosmetics like skins for characters and guns, emotes, charms, or even banners.

If you've booted up Highguard and wondered what all of the currencies you're accruing so far actually do, you don't need to look any further. Here's every currency in Highguard and what it's used for.

Warden Credits

Warden Credits are earned by playing matches of Highguard and completing daily and weekly challenges, the latter of which you can keep up with in the Challenges section of the Headwall tab. This currency is used to purchase cosmetics from the Trading Post (also in the Headwall tab). The cosmetics you can buy here rotate weekly and include everything from character and gun skins to charms and banners.

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Apollo is looking to kick back and relax with some movies in the aptly-named Movie Night quest in Arc Raiders. For this outing into the always hectic Stella Montis map, you'll need to go to one of the most dangerous spots and find some old movie tapes, as well as round up a Portable TV. If you want to get in and out quickly, we've got you covered with where to find both.

We'd recommend bringing in an augment with two safe pockets so that you can store these items safely in case your raid goes south. You will need to extract with both of them to complete the quest, after all.

When you're ready to complete Movie Night, follow the steps below.

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Capcom has released a new Monster Hunter Wilds patch that appears to fix a bug preventing the game from performing better without DLC installed.

Earlier this month, players were reporting major performance issues on Steam, with user de_Tylmarande theorizing that the game performed better on the platform when more DLC was installed. After a thorough investigation, which involved modding their game to make it think they owned all DLC, their performance greatly improved, and the user concluded that Monster Hunter Wilds' performance issues were due to the game doing a constant DLC presence check.

Now, it looks like Capcom has finally resolved the issue with Ver. 1.040.03.01, writing in the patch notes that the issue was brought to the team's attention. It notes that the patch includes "optimization improvements for Steam-specific processes and options to reduce processing load", and explains the issue related to "unclaimed content", which sounds like DLC.

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Tim Bender made his name in the video game industry by founding the indie publisher Hooded Horse and has enjoyed a run of hit games--including last year's sleeper Manor Lords--since 2019. Regardless of his own success, Bender recently suggested that indie developers are better off publishing their own games and suggested that some of his rivals are "predatory and opportunistic."

"People can hate me for this if they want," Bender told PC Gamer. "But most indie publishers are not people indie developers should work with. The vast majority of indie publishers, in their whole structure, are predatory and opportunistic."

Bender's argument is that most of the indie developers "don't add a lot" to the success of a game. He went on to elaborate that other publishers are more interested in lining up a large number of games in the hope of investing in popular titles and abandoning the rest.

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Arc Raiders has various large, tough-as-nails ARC to fight, but few strike fear into a person's soul like the Bombardier. Its unpredictable mortar shots can dish out massive damage quickly--and if you're caught out in the open, you'd might as prepare to head back to Speranza in a body bag. But if you've come across the Bombing Run quest and want to know where to find one of these so you can wrap it up, we've got you covered below. Here's where to find Bombardiers and how to kill them.

Where to find Bombardiers

Bombardiers can spawn in various spots around each map (except Stella Montis). Below are the general locations you can find Bombardiers. They tend to roam, so you may need to scan the area very well to see if they've strayed a bit.

Gallery Bombardier locations.

One way to easily spot a Bombardier from afar is to look for its Spotters, which look similar to Snitches, with blue lights beneath them that scan the area around the giant ARC. Just be careful, as these do exactly what you'd expect and will spot you pretty easily, which will alert the Bombardier. This can spell trouble if you haven't found good cover yet.

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Amazon has announced another round of job cuts, with around 16,000 people impacted across the business. Whether or not any cuts are coming at Amazon Games is unknown but the division was recently rocked by layoffs and pullbacks from its MMO teams.

Amazon executive Beth Galetti announced the news in a memo to staff today, January 28. Galetti said the announcement of these layoffs today came after Amazon started a new effort focused on "removing bureaucracy" at the company, following an earlier round of thousands of cuts in October 2025.

"While many teams finalized their organizational changes in October, other teams did not complete that work until now," Galetti said.

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Arc Raiders often sends you on missions to check out locations across its various maps, but it's not often you get to do some full-blown recon on one of the game's most dangerous ARC. In Combat Recon, you'll need to head to Buried City and scout multiple locations before taking out a Bombardier's helpful little Spotters. But hey, you're up for the challenge, aren't ya?

We'd recommend bringing a loadout that has a safe pocket for this quest. You'll need to pick up and bring back a Spotter Relay from one of the Spotters you kill, so you'll want to keep it safe in case things go sideways.

When you're ready to start up your recon mission, follow the steps below.

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Arc Raiders sends you to Spaceport for quite a lot of quests, but few are as involved as On the Map. This long quest asks you to visit multiple locations scattered across this large, open map. It can be a little dangerous--particularly if your lobbies tend to lean aggressive--but we're here to help you through it.

We'd recommend coming into the map with a free loadout since you won't need to extract to complete the quest. This will help ensure that you don't lose anything valuable while roaming around the open areas of Spaceport.

When you're ready to take on On the Map, follow the steps below.

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Ubisoft has announced a price increase for Just Dance+, the subscription service for the company's popular dancing game. In a blog post, Ubisoft said it's raising prices so the studio can "continue to support [Just Dance+] in a way that feels both meaningful and sustainable for players."

Ubisoft said there are "important truths" to consider for a music-based service like Just Dance+, and that includes licensing deals. "Every song available in the service relies on licensing agreements that evolve over time, and these conditions directly affect what we can keep, renew, or add to the catalogue," Ubisoft said. "Taking this into account, we've had to make a few adjustments to ensure the service can keep growing in the long run."

Here are the new subscription prices for Just Dance+, which are set to go into effect in April:

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The League is a quest in Arc Raiders that sends you to Dam Battlegrounds and Buried City in search of a few items and photo spots. It's a straightforward quest that shouldn't take you too long to complete, but you may need to do a bit of traveling depending on where you spawn. Don't worry, though, as we'll take out any guesswork with the locations of what you need below.

We'd recommend bringing in an augment that has two safe pockets so that you don't risk losing the items you'll need to grab while you're on Dam Battlegrounds. Luckily, you're not headed to any high-traffic locations, so you may be safe from other raiders. Let's hope so, anyway.

When you're ready to complete The League, follow the steps below.

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It's that time of the month again, as PS5 console owners can boot up their machine and download a fresh firmware update for their hardware. Version 26.01-12.60.00 brings the usual stability improvements to your PS5, along with a few extra enhancements to messages, friend widgets, and general usability.

If you're a social gamer, then you can take advantage of a new feature that will allow you to jump directly from the Friends Activity widget in your Welcome Hub and into the games that they're playing--which will make joining a session of Street Fighter 6 a little easier.

PS5 Version: 26.01-12.12.60 update notes

• You can now jump directly from the Friends Activity widget in your Welcome Hub to the games your friends are playing.
• You can now turn on read receipts to show other players when you've read their messages.
  • To turn on your read receipts, go to Settings > Users and Accounts > Privacy > View and Customise Your Privacy Settings. Under Communication and multiplayer, set Show read receipts to other players on PS5 and PlayStation App to Allow.
  • This feature will be rolled out gradually, and some users will be able to use it when the system software update is released.
• We've improved the messages and usability on some screens.
• We've improved system software performance and stability.

This is the first PS5 update of 2026, following the release of version 25.08-12.40.00 in December 2025. As usual, this update featured incremental upgrades to the console firmware, adding improvements to system stability, messages, and usability on some screens.

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The Meiji era, a turbulent age. A series of murders shook Kyoto. Mysterious patterns drawn in the victim's blood. The case went unsolved, casting a long shadow over history. A hundred years later in Kyoto, Detective Daiki Katsuki was investigating a brutal murder case. The case bore a striking resemblance to the one that had shaken Meiji-era Kyoto. The key to the investigation lay in the immersive AR experience ‘Echoes of Kyoto.’ The developer was the brilliant young engineer Quin Rio. The two entered the recreated Kyoto of 100 years ago to solve the case.

You have been assigned to guard a dragon girl set to be executed at the end of 5 days and have the ability to kill her instantly at any time with the push of a button in this multi-ending visual novel.