The latest stories from the gaming world
SEGA and Creative Assembly announced Total War: SHOGUN 2 - Complete Edition for PC on October 13. It bundles every DLC including the Rise of the Samurai and Fall of the Samurai campaigns, moves the 2011 strategy game to a 64-bit build, adds 1440p and 4K UI scaling, new Japanese and Chinese voice acting, integrated Mod.io support, and more than 50 newly playable minor factions.
IO Interactive has delayed the Nintendo Switch 2 version of 007 First Light from summer 2026 to March 2027, the second slip for that platform and the third date change overall. The studio says the extra months are going entirely into performance polish. The PS5, Xbox and PC versions launched on 27 May and sold three million copies in two weeks.
Pepperbox Studios' Dice of Kalma has passed one million downloads across Steam, iOS and Android, about ten months after its November 2025 PC launch. The Finnish studio's underworld dice roguelike is a Balatro-like built from poker hands and 70-plus skulls, and its short, turn-based, one-handed runs are a near-perfect fit for phones. The recent Silent Skulls update added costumes, new skulls and harder challenges.
Valve's Steam Frame VR headset is $1,059 for 256GB and $1,299 for 1TB, with the controllers, a Wi-Fi 6E PC streaming adapter and a copy of Half-Life: Alyx in the box - but no power supply, which is $29 extra. Reservations are a randomised lottery, not a queue, and close on 17 September at 10am Pacific. A native ARM build of Alyx runs standalone on the headset, and around 70 games are Steam Frame Verified so far.
Netflix and Sega have announced three adaptations: a live-action Crazy Taxi comedy from the Naked Gun reboot writers, a live-action crime film based on RGG Studio's unreleased Stranger Than Heaven, and a new animated Sonic series for upper-preschoolers. Sonic producer Toru Nakahara is attached to all three. No release dates have been given, and the Crazy Taxi film lands alongside the 2027 game revival Crazy Taxi: World Tour.
Three years after launch, Monster Hunter Now has taken an estimated $336.9 million on iOS and Android, with 60 percent of it earned in year one and $230.4 million of it coming from Japan alone. The anniversary update cuts spawn cooldowns and makes Elder Dragon hunts permanent, ahead of a Carnival event in Osaka in November.
GungHo Online Entertainment has announced B.L.U.E. NOVA, a free-to-play PvE co-op shooter for PC arriving in 2027. Its R.I.N.G. system buffs you and removes reloading when you link up with players you meet mid-match, feeding into 30-player Tower Raids and six-player Boss Raids against a rogue terraforming AI.
Redemption Road used tinyBuild Connect 2026 to walk through Kingmakers in detail for the first time: the RTS and third-person switch, settlement building, officers, vehicles, four-player co-op and the thousand-soldier battle simulation. A Request Access button for the playtest is now live on the Steam page.
Bandai Namco's story trailer for Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve confirms the return of Annihilation Battle, a mission type where you choose your own targets, resupply mid-sortie, and set off chain reactions. Producer Manabu Shimomoto calls it the purest expression of the series, and the trailer names two new superweapons ahead of the October 2 launch.
Modder Speclizer has cancelled a multiplayer mod for The Last of Us Part II on PC after receiving a letter on behalf of Sony Interactive Entertainment. The project had reached working 4v4 matches with matchmaking, loadouts, maps and leaderboards.
Akihiro Hino has confirmed that generative AI was used in Level-5 Vision 2026 II, the showcase that announced a remake of Professor Layton and the Curious Village, and apologised. He says scenarios, character designs and world-building remain entirely human-made.
Game Freak has revealed Ame no Chi Hare Onna, a free-to-play mobile game built around real-world weather data across Japan, with Pokemon series director Shigeru Ohmori as director and producer. It launches this winter on iOS and Android.