Engadget News, Tips, Tricks, Ideas

The logical next step for widescreen gaming monitors is a model that can display the equivalent of two UHD (3,840 x 2,160) screens — and Samsung teased just such a thing earlier this year at CES 2023. Now, the Odyssey Neo G9 model has a price and release date, arriving in October 2023 for $2,500, Samsung announced. 

Blizzard Entertainment has released the trailer for the second season of Diablo IV along with the announcement that it's arriving on October 17th. According to IGN, Rod Fergusson, who oversees the development of the franchise, players will get vampire powers and will face against a vampire lord in the new questline during the opening night of Gamescom 2023. Season 2 of the online action role-playing game is called "Season of Blood," because yes, it does feature vampires. 

Hyper Light Breaker, the action rogue-lite previously scheduled to enter Steam Early Access this fall, has been delayed a second time. The launch window for the spiritual successor to 2016’s Hyper Light Drifter is now rescheduled for early 2024.

Fighting game fans are eating well this year with the likes of Street Fighter 6, Mortal Kombat 1 and Guilty Gear Strive all arriving. The beat 'em up bonanza is set to continue at least into early 2024, as Bandai Namco announced at Gamescom 2023 that Tekken 8 will hit PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on January 26th. Pre-orders open today.

Not only does Little Nightmares III exist, but it's also bringing two-player co-op to the series for the first time. Little Nightmares III is due out in 2024, and it's heading to PC, Switch, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Developers from Supermassive Games announced the new entry in the horror franchise at the very beginning of Gamescom Opening Night Live today.

Atari is teaming up with Plaion on a new retro home console after finally taking a mulligan on its last one. The Atari 2600+ pays homage to the original Atari 2600, which delighted children of the disco era starting in 1977, although this remake is based on the four-switch model from 1980. It plays both Atari 2600 and 7800 games. However, most buyers will want to track down physical cartridges as the retro system, which requires them to play, is only bundled with a collection of 10 titles that lacks system standouts like Pac-Man, Frogger, Space Invaders and Pitfall!

After nearly a decade, the main Destiny story arc is nearing its conclusion. Bungie has revealed that Destiny 2: The Final Shape will be available on February 27th, 2024. You're tasked with nothing less than stopping The Witness from remaking the universe, and have to enter the Traveler itself to save the day. As you might guess, this involves both an amped-up story (Bungie has already confirmed the return of Cayde-6) as well as new gameplay mechanics.

It’s that time of year again. The annual Gamescom trade fair opens its doors today, but you don’t have to be in Germany to participate in the reveals and updates. All of the good stuff is being streamed live, beginning with the opening night event, hosted by Game Awards guru and former Spike TV personality Geoff Keighley. For those of us far from Europe, the event starts streaming at 2PM ET. Watch it right here.

The Game Awards has grown enormously and has become a much-awaited annual year-end celebration for video game fans around the world since it first took place in 2014. If you're looking forward to watching it this year, you can now fire up your calendars and add a reminder: The 10th annual show is scheduled to stream live from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on December 7th, 2023. Just like in the previous years, the event will stream for free across various platforms, including Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok Live, Steam and X, the website formerly known as Twitter. 

Microsoft is acting on its promise to bring PC Game Pass to NVIDIA's GeForce Now service. The companies have announced that Game Pass and Microsoft Store titles will be available to stream on GeForce Now starting August 24th. Not every title will be playable right away, but this will give Game Pass subscribers access to releases like Deathloop and No Man's Sky through NVIDIA's platform.

Basketball season is fast approaching, and so is a new opportunity to virtually get in on the action: NBA 2K24 New Gen. 2K shared preliminary information about the game in July but has just announced new details about September 8th's NBA 2K24, including adding a LeBron Era. This new mode follows LeBron James' 2010 journey of leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers to play for the Miami Heat and leads into the already existing Modern Era. NBA 2K23 also introduced the Magic vs. Bird Era, Jordan Era and Kobe Era to the game. 

Valve may not have touched the Half-Life franchise in over a decade apart from releasing its VR-only game Alyx, but that isn't stopping enthusiasts from giving the game a visual overhaul. NVIDIA has unveiled a community-led Half-Life 2 RTX: An RTX Remix Project that, as the name implies, will remaster the classic shooter for PCs with GeForce RTX graphics. The team isn't just adding ray tracing, though — this is an attempt to modernize the overall look and feel of the game.

Last year, NVIDIA unveiled DLSS 3 with frame interpolation, which used its AI-driven rendering accelerator to add extra frames to games. Now at Gamescom it's introducing DLSS 3.5, which adds Ray Reconstruction, a new feature that will use the company's neural network to improve the quality of ray traced images. It'll be available for all RTX GPUs—unlike DLSS 3's frame interpolation, which only works with RTX 40-series cards.

Two of the standout indie hits of the past few years are Cult of the Lamb and Don’t Starve Together. Now, the pair of critically-acclaimed darlings are teaming up for a new game mode, unique in-game items and even some character cameos. This crossover impacts both games, though each receives different perks.

Imagine a game that might be described as the opposite of Half-Life 2, Left 4 Dead or Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. These are first-person shooters set in wartorn, post-apocalyptic cities, so their inverse might be a third-person game with no weapons at all, set in a warm, buzzing metropolis of friendly characters, maybe starring an adorable cat. Weirdly, the result could look a lot like Little Kitty, Big City, the first project from former Valve designer Matt T. Wood.

Sony has been offering custom PlayStation 5 plates for quite some time now, including a recent version that brings a Spider-Man 2 look to the console. Microsoft, which has given away several custom Xbox Series S units in contests, is getting in on the action by selling official wraps for the Xbox Series X.

As if October wasn't already going to be busy enough for new games. Publisher 505 Games has revealed that Ghostrunner 2, the sequel to a terrific cyberpunk platformer from 2020, will arrive on October 26th. It will be available on PC (Steam, Epic Games Store and GOG), PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. Pre-orders are open and those who snap up the Brutal Edition will get access 48 hours early.

After voicing Mario for the past 27 years, Charles Martinet will no longer be playing the character, Nintendo announced in a tweet this morning. He'll be moving onto a newly created "Mario Ambassador" role where he'll "continue to travel the world sharing the joy of Mario," the company said. There's no word about a replacement voice actor yet. Nintendo also announced that there will be a special video message featuring Martinet and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto coming in the future.

This is a good moment to boost your console's storage. Amazon is selling the WD Black 1TB C50 expansion card for Xbox Series X/S at a new low price of $127.49, or about 15 percent off. This is a lightning deal, so you'll want to act quickly if you're interested.

Steven Spielberg's wholesome sci-fi classic, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, became a cultural touchstone following its release in 1982. The film's hastily-developed (as in, "you have five weeks to get this to market") Atari 2600 tie-in game became a cultural touchstone for entirely different reasons.

Twitch announced this week that an upcoming change will allow streamers to block banned users from tuning into their streams. “You can choose to have your banned chatters no longer be able to watch the stream,” Senior Product Manager Trevor Fisher revealed on Twitch’s Patch Notes podcast (via TechCrunch), stressing that the feature won’t be enabled by default. The new blocking feature will roll out in the next few weeks.

Sega Sammy has completed its purchase of Angry Birds developer Rovio, officially plunking down a cool $776 million to acquire the company. The deal was first floated back in April, but both companies had to jump through some finalization and regulatory hoops. Sega’s hoping the purchase will give them a stronger foothold in the mobile space, despite the golden days of Angry Birds fandom passing almost 15 years ago.

You may have watched the original run of Twin Peaks so many times that you exclaim “damn fine coffee” each and every time you grab a cup, but have you ever played the story through the eyes of FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper? You’ll soon be able to do just that via the magic of video games. A small French developer called Blue Rose Team has been prepping Twin Peaks: Into the Night for a while now, and it just dropped a demo of the fan-made game.

Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak will be free on the Epic Games Store later this month. The well-received 2016 prequel to 1999 real-time strategy classic Homeworld arrives ahead of Homeworld 3, due early next year after multiple delays. The (usually $50) Deserts of Kharak will be available to claim on Epic’s storefront from August 24th to 31st.

Activision has spilled the beans about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, revealing much more about what players can expect from the next entry in the rebooted series. For one thing, it seems like fans of Call of Duty's Zombies mode are in for a treat. Activision is promising the mode's biggest map to date. You'll be able to team up with other squads for the first time and try to survive "massive hordes" of zombies.

The busy fall calendar of game releases remains in flux. Remedy Entertainment and publisher Epic Games have pushed back the Alan Wake II release date by 10 days to October 27th, and it seems the decision isn't specifically to do with giving the studio more time to polish the game. "October is an amazing month for game launches and we hope this date shift gives more space for everyone to enjoy their favorite games," a tweet on the Alan Wake Twitter (ugh, X) account reads.

Microsoft has revealed when the Xbox 360 store will close its doors. You'll no longer be able to buy games, expansions or anything else on the Xbox 360 console or Marketplace after July 29, 2024. Any original Xbox or Xbox 360 games and DLC that are backwards compatible on the Xbox One or Series X/S will still be available to buy on the newer consoles' storefronts.

Lenovo may soon release a gaming handheld to rival Windows models like the Steam Deck and ASUS ROG Ally, while offering removable controls like a Switch, according to a leak from Windows Report. Called the Legion Go, it will reportedly run Windows 11 and pack AMD's new Phoenix processors, while offering features like a kickstand, microSD slot and a pair of USB-C ports. 

Valve just dropped a Steam Client Beta update that finally introduces a sought-after feature. The Steam Remote Play service will now offer 4K support, providing a series of presets to allow gamers to find the perfect high-res settings for preferred titles. Prior to this update, 4K was still possible when playing remotely, but it required plenty of experimentation with settings and didn’t always work right. This should fix many of those issues.

Measuring a mere 72 x 40.7 x 14.1 mm — just over half the length of the original NES controller — the 8BitDo Micro is a spiritual successor to the company’s Zero line of similarly minuscule gamepads. It also hurts my hands just to look at it.

Valve has updated Steam's minimum pricing policy for some non-USD currencies, which could impact those who sell games and expansions for less than the equivalent of $5. The company warned publishers and developers that the move could lead to games and DLC using lower pricing being unavailable to purchase in some regions if they don't make adjustments, while they may not be able to offer discounts as deeply as they used to.

Despite being publicly available for less than a year, generative AI technology can already be found all around us, helping us browse the internet, taking the drudgery out of computer coding, and even improving the dialog in popular video game franchises. On Wednesday, NCSoft, the South Korean game developer and publisher behind long-running MMORPG Guild Wars, announced that it has developed four new AI large language models, dubbed VARCO, to help streamline future game development.

Warner Bros. Games revealed back in June that Batman: Arkham Trilogy would arrive on Nintendo Switch sometime this fall, and now we have an exact date. The bundle of Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City and Batman: Arkham Knight — along with the expansions for all three games — will land on Switch on October 13th.

Microsoft is attempting to be more transparent about how it enforces the Xbox community standards. The company is moving to an eight-strike suspension policy, which comes into force today. Every enforcement action will include strikes. The number of strikes that the Xbox Safety team applies to an account will depend on the severity of the infraction. Each strike results in a suspension from Xbox's social features.

Netflix is officially bringing its games to more devices. So far, the company's impressive library of games has only been available on iOS and Android. Now, though, Netflix is starting to use its streaming tech to publicly test its titles on TVs and computers.

Ubisoft is shaking up a busy calendar of big fall game releases by bringing forward one of several games it has on the docket. Assassin’s Creed Mirage will now arrive on October 5th, one week earlier than previously expected.

Along with making the Playdate and some Mac apps, Panic is also a well-regarded games publisher with Firewatch and Untitled Goose Game under its belt. However, it's been a few years since Panic released a game outside of titles made specifically for the Playdate. Panic is ramping up its publishing efforts and we'll soon get a peek at what's in the pipeline when the company hosts its first games showcase. You can watch it on Panic's YouTube channel at 1PM ET on August 29th.

A studio that handled Baldur’s Gate III translations has apologized after outsourced workers were omitted from the game’s credits. "We take full responsibility for this omission of our freelancers' names and apologize for the effects that it had," Altagram Group founder and CEO Marie Amigues said in a statement. "We would like to thank Larian for allowing us to quickly fix that error and update the credits section. The names of the Brazilian Portuguese translators will be included in an upcoming patch to the game."

Even though it’s very nearly a decade old, Grand Theft Auto V is still one of the biggest games on the planet. More than 151,000 people are playing it on Steam alone at the time of writing and it still makes a major contribution to Rockstar Games owner Take-Two’s bank balance.

Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis, a mobile game that expands the FFVII story and universe, will be available on iOS and Android on September 7th. Square Enix first announced the mobile game along with the battle royale action title Final Fantasy VII The First Soldierback in 2021. It was supposed to come out in 2022, but delays pushed back its release, and the company didn't start closed beta testing for the game until July this year. 

The rumors were true: Bethesda has announced an upgraded version of Quake II. Best of all, you can play it today on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch. The enhanced edition is on Game Pass on PC, console and Xbox Cloud Gaming. Those who own the original game on GOG or Steam are getting a free upgrade.

Activision is doing something different with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, this year's entry in the blockbuster military shooter series. Rather than starting from scratch and having to rebuild your collection of weapons and cosmetic items, Activision is letting players carry over nearly everything they unlock in Modern Warfare II.

There's something so satisfying about when a game you love finally comes out on your console of choice. The latest example: Cardboard Computer's fan favorite Kentucky Route Zero: TV Version is getting released on the PS5 and Xbox Series X and S. Annapurna Interactive is publishing the game and put out a trailer ahead of its release.

Humble has teamed up with Capcom for Resident Evil fans who may want to get extra copies of the games or people looking to finally give the survival horror series a try. The Resident Evil Humble Bundle comes with 11 titles for the PC, including one version for every major entry in the franchise. It also includes the latest game in the series, Resident Evil Village, which still costs at least $40 to purchase from Steam, along with a 25 percent off coupon for its Winters' Expansion DLC. The extra content gives players access to Third-Person Mode, expands the Mercenaries Mode and shows what happened to the baby who played a pivotal role in the story 16 years later. 

For several years, 8BitDo has offered a dongle that lets folks connect modern controllers to the NES Classic Edition, SNES Classic and Sega Genesis Mini. The latest version of the Retro Receiver brings support for the likes of the Switch Pro Controller, Xbox Elite Series 2 and the DualSense Edge to older hardware in the form of the PlayStation 1 and the PlayStation 2. The $25 dongle includes Windows 10 and 11 support as well.

Baldur’s Gate III isn’t even fully released yet and it's already achieved the kind of buzz other developers would sell a kidney for. However, with that buzz comes increased public scrutiny, and it looks like the game failed to credit many of the workers who helped complete the project, as reported by Game Developer.

The surprisingly emotional and strangely addictive “dystopian document thriller” Papers, Please just turned ten years old and has officially sold five million copies across multiple platforms throughout the past decade. To celebrate the milestone, developer Lucas Pope and his company 3909 LLC released a web game called LCD, Please that allows players to go through certain aspects of the original title.

Sony has published its earnings report for the first quarter of the year (PDF) ending on June 30th and an adjusted forecast for the fiscal year, and they paint a picture of mixed results for the company. Its overall operating profit for the period was down 31 percent year-over-year, from 364.9 billion yen ($2.54 billion) to 253 billion ($1.76 billion). The company's revenue was up 33 percent, however, thanks to significant increase in sales by its game and network services, music, imaging and financial services businesses.

Dead by Daylight has a new Killer in town, and it's one all horror fans know (and likely fear): the Xenomorph. Behaviour Interactive has released all of the details of its new Alien collaboration following a teaser that provided a glimpse into the new Nostromo Wreckage Map. The announcement confirmed not only the Xenomorph's role as Dead by Daylight's latest Killer but also the introduction of Ellen Ripley as a Survivor. 

There's good news if you felt thrown by the $50 price tag for 13-year-old Red Dead Redemption's Nintendo Switch and PS4 release: Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick says the cost is right. Seriously, IGN reports that Zelnick had his reasons, which he clearly laid out after the company's Q2 earnings report, "That's just what we believe is the commercially accurate price for it." Satisfied now? 

The Apple TV+ film Tetris was copied from a book written years ago, according to a lawsuit filed against the tech giant and the Tetris Company. Dan Ackerman, the editor-in-chief of Gizmodo, has accused the plaintiffs of ripping off his book The Tetris Effect, which tells the history of the game in the form of a Cold War-era thriller. In his lawsuit (PDF, via Reuters), Ackerman said he sent the Tetris Company and its CEO Maya Rogers a pre-publication copy of his book back in 2016. Later that year, his agent received a "strongly worded Cease and Desist letter" to stop him from pursuing film and TV opportunities. 

Valve announced today that it’s offering “certified refurbished” Steam Deck units. The renewed devices shave around 20 percent off the prices of their new counterparts, allowing you to pick one up for cheaper than Steam Summer Sale prices. The consoles include the same one-year warranty as new models. In addition, Valve announced that GameStop is now selling Steam Deck refurbs in select stores, although its models are “refurbished at GameStop facilities and will come with their own warranty.”

The Pokémon Company had a bunch of updates to share during its latest Pokémon Presents stream. For one thing, it shared a new trailer for Detective Pikachu Returns, a long-awaited sequel that's coming to Nintendo Switch on October 6th.

Sony has reportedly begun rolling out a cloud streaming beta for PS Plus Premium subscribers — and it supports up to 4K resolution. Announced in June as being in the “early stages” of development, the feature will support PS Plus catalog titles, game trials and “supported digital PS5 titles that players own.” The feature could help PlayStation owners avoid lengthy downloads that take up precious storage.

Netflix’s push into video games continues, as the company just dropped a dedicated controller app for iOS devices. The app, simply called “Netflix Game Controller,” lets you use your phone or tablet as a gamepad once you pair the device with your TV. This will allow you to play games available through Netflix’s service on the TV, while controlling things from your mobile device.

Since last year, Netflix has run a Discord bot that helps people find shows and movies to watch together based on what's available in their location. The company is expanding the "Hey, Netflix" bot's capabilities today with a text-based game.

If you’ve been meaning to stock up on Sony’s DualSense controllers for your PS5, today is a good day to shop. The massively-popular gamepad is on sale for $49 via Amazon and other retailers, matching the previous low price. In other words, you likely won’t get a better deal than this. DualSense controllers typically sell for around $70, so this is a discount of more than 30 percent. The sale ends on August 20th. 

Evo 2023 fighting game tournament attendees reported problems with damaged PlayStation 5 USB ports over the weekend. Participants took to social channels (via Kotaku) to show and tell accounts of USB accessories that seemingly got too hot and “melted” when plugged into the event’s numerous PS5 consoles.

We're not too far away from the fall, which of course means there's a new Call of Duty game on the horizon. Activision has confirmed long-standing rumors that this year's entry is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III from Sledgehammer Games. The publisher also revealed that the latest game in the rebooted series will hit PC and consoles (perhaps including Nintendo Switch) on November 10th.

After years of speculation, Red Dead Redemption is set to launch on PS4 and Nintendo Switch. This is the original 2010 release, and not the long-rumored remaster. The western-themed third-person shooter goes on sale August 17th, just three days after revered lawman and huckleberry spokesperson Doc Holliday’s birthday.

Call Devolver Digital whatever you want — except a liar. The indie publisher's inaugural Devolver Delayed showcase delivered on its promise, featuring five games whose release windows have been pushed out of 2023 and into 2024. Which, of course, kind of means Devolver was lying when it initially announced these games, but let's live in the now.

Devolver Digital has cultivated a name for itself over the years as a publisher with an offbeat approach to marketing games. To that end, it has announced a Devolver Delayed event, which it calls the "first-ever showcase celebrating games that are courageously moving into 2024." It seems Devolver will try to have things both ways by pushing back some release dates and, at the same time, poking fun at the never-ending spate of game delays. You'll be able to watch the stream below at 11AM ET on August 7th.

GameStop is pulling the plug on its crypto locker after only a year. An alert posted this week to the company’s website (via Game Developer) says GameStop Wallet will be no more after November 1st. The retailer says its decision was “due to the regulatory uncertainty of the crypto space.”

Call of Duty cheaters are now being named and shamed in real-time when they're kicked out of a game. The latest season of CoD: Modern Warfare II and CoD: Warzone season five went live this week, and the update includes an addition to the Ricochet anti-cheat system.

There hasn't been a big Pokémon news update since February, but don't worry — you're about to get up to speed. The Pokémon Company has announced its next Pokémon Presents event for August 8th at 9AM Eastern. The creators aren't saying much, but you can expect 35 minutes of info when the presentation streams through the company's YouTube channel.

QuakeCon is returning to an in-person event on August 10th, and id Software might have a re-release to mark the occasion. Historically reliable leaker billbil-kun claims id will unveil a remastered version of Quake II when QuakeCon kicks off next week. Details of the upgrade aren't available, but the classic sequel would make its way to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Switch. The title would be available through Microsoft's Game Pass on launch.

An enterprising developer is working on reviving a lost piece of gaming history. A YouTuber using the handle Tuxality has posted a video (via GamesRadar) showing early work on an emulator that can play the games from an obscure rival to the Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3 that only launched in two countries.

Baldur’s Gate III is available right now — partially. To be clear, the game itself is complete, but its rollout is fragmented, with different release dates for each of its planned platforms. Following a lengthy Early Access period, the PC and Mac version of Baldur’s Gate III went live today, August 3, while the PlayStation 5 version is due out on September 6. The game’s developer, Larian Studios, hasn’t provided a release date for the Xbox Series X and S edition.

Now might be your chance if you've been in the market for a new gaming computer but haven't found the right one. Alienware has announced the launch of its Aurora R16 desktop, an updated version of its flagship computer. Though the Aurora R16 is being released less than a year after the Aurora R15, it features a different design and features than its predecessor. 

We only just reviewed the ROG Ally, and it’s already been dethroned as the “most powerful handheld gaming PC yet.” Or at least, it’s going to have to scoot over a little and let the Ayaneo 2S squeeze in. The two portable PCs have a lot in common: They both have 7-inch displays, they both run Windows 11, they both sport Zen 4-based AMD APUs and they both want to draw your attention away from the cheaper, older, bigger, but fan-favorite Steam Deck.

Nintendo just announced its highest first quarter profit ever thanks to sales of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Super Mario Bros. Movie. The company earned 185.44 billion yen ($1.3 billion) on sales of 461.34 billion yen ($3.2 billion), easily battering its previous fiscal Q1 record of 144.7 billion set in 2020, the company revealed in its latest earnings report. 

Keychron is one of the better-known names in the customizable keyboard space, but it hasn't directly targeted gamers — until now, that is. The company has launched a gaming division, Lemokey, whose first product is the crowdfunded L3 keyboard. The full-length peripheral supports a 2.4GHz wireless connection with a responsive 1,000Hz polling rate, but the real attraction is a tough, customizable aluminum body that can reportedly survive the rigors of competitive gaming.

The unconventional sports sim What the Golf is officially coming to PS4 and PS5 consoles later this year. The release is set to include all current updates, which is always nice, and has been optimized for Sony consoles. This includes haptic-based DualSense support so you can really feel the impact of striking a ball, a cat or an entire planet toward a hole (it’s a weird and funny game.)

Activision is bringing dogs (and one Dogg) back to Call of Duty. A decade after the debut of Riley, the faithful canine companion in Call of Duty: Ghosts, you can now take Merlin, the good boy pictured above, with you for quality companionship and savage finishing moves in season five (BlackCell) of CoD: Modern Warfare II and Warzone 2.0.

It took several months, but you can finally play the Wii U versions of Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon online. Nintendo has confirmed that both titles will once again be available for multiplayer as of August 3rd. The company has fixed the security vulnerability that prompted the shutdown of online service in March.

It's about to get easier to stream your favorite console games: Discord has announced it's rolling out Stream to Discord for Xbox, allowing you to stream directly from your Xbox Series X|S or Xbox One. This news marks the first implementation of a console streaming directly to Discord, which has only been available for PC and mobile gamers. Xbox has typically received new Discord features before its competitor Playstation, such as last year's update allowing gamers to connect directly to Discord Voice channels.

Any gaming company looking to copy a competitor's hit might want to think twice. Nintendo's The Last Hope: Dead Zone Survival has officially been removed from the Switch e-shop due to its overt similarities to Naughty Dog's hit, The Last of Us, Victoria Kennedy reported at Eurogamer. Sony (which owns Naughty Dog) issued a copyright claim against the game just over a month after its release, a move that has not only taken it off the market but also scrubbed YouTube of its trailer.

Earlier this year, EA said that Star Wars: Jedi Survivor would only come out on the latest PS5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles in order to take advantage of the latest tech on those consoles. The developer has now changed its tune, however, announcing in an earnings call that the title will come to PS4 and Xbox One consoles after all, The Verge has reported.

If your idea of relaxation involves opening cardboard boxes, you're in for a good time. Humble Games and Witch Beam have confirmed that Unpacking is coming to iOS and Android on August 24th. You can pre-order the iOS version for $10 today. This has been a long time in coming given that the game first arrived on consoles and PCs in 2021, but it may be worthwhile if you're new to the concept.

Samba de Amigo is coming to Apple Arcade. Sega’s classic maraca-shaking rhythm franchise is seeing a renaissance this year as the new installment arrives on Apple platforms and Nintendo Switch on the same day. A VR port for Meta Quest, announced in early June, is also scheduled to launch sometime this fall.