The latest stories from the gaming world
Niantic's May Community Day puts the spotlight on Paldea favorite Lechonk on Saturday, May 9, from 2-5pm local time. Evolve during the window for a Mud-Slap Oinkologne, plus 3-hour Incense, 1/4 Egg Hatch Distance, and 2x Catch Candy. The Deino Community Day Classic follows May 16.
Clash of Clans’ May 2026 season drops a Skeleton and Undead theme with a Halloween Grand Warden skin, the game’s first Legendary reward, and Clan War Leagues running May 1-11.
Microsoft will showcase Project Helix at a public developer event on May 7. The next-gen hybrid console-PC runs a custom AMD chip and can play both Xbox and PC games from Steam and GOG.
Supermassive Games’ Directive 8020 launches May 12, bringing sci-fi survival horror with a shapeshifting alien threat, five playable characters, and the studio’s first online co-op mode.
Heroes of Might and Magic returns with Olden Era, now available in Early Access on Steam and PC Game Pass. The 30th anniversary entry features six factions, three game modes, and a 25% launch discount.
Paralives enters Early Access on Steam May 25, offering a grid-free life sim with no paid DLC. The community-funded alternative to The Sims features freeform building, an open world, and over a million wishlists.
007 First Light from IO Interactive launches May 27 on PS5, Xbox, and PC, with Nintendo Switch 2 delayed to Q3. The young Bond origin story borrows heavily from Hitman's design DNA, introduces a Tac Sim replay mode with leaderboards, and arrives with a Lana Del Rey theme song produced by David Arnold.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024's free PS VR2 update launched today, April 30, bringing all 125 aircraft to virtual reality on PlayStation 5 alongside Sim Update 5. The update is being widely described as the killer app PS VR2 has been waiting for, with Asobo's frame duplication tech and full controller-redesigned cockpit interactions making console VR flight sim genuinely viable for the first time.
Microsoft's Q3 FY26 earnings show Xbox hardware revenue down 33% and overall gaming revenue down 7%, but Game Pass crossed a $5 billion annual run rate for the first time and Microsoft now reaches 500 million monthly active gaming users across platforms.
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick used an iicon Las Vegas panel to confirm GTA 6 marketing will start imminently, signal the game's pricing will be reasonable rather than radical, and offer a careful you-never-know tease about a possible L.A. Noire return. Trailer 3 watch is officially on.
Xbox Game Pass May 2026 brings nine confirmed titles, eight of them day-one releases. Forza Horizon 6 (May 19) and Subnautica 2 early access lead the lineup, joined by Final Fantasy V Pixel Remaster, Mixtape, Luna Abyss, and more.
Atari has acquired emulation specialist Implicit Conversions, adding the Syrup Engine and the team behind Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection's PS1 ports to a growing portfolio that already includes Digital Eclipse and Nightdive.