In the first month since launch, Nintendo Switch 2 has sold almost six million units worldwide (with the original Switch now surpassing over 153 million units out in the wild) as the company hosted its first post-release Direct — a Partner Showcase looking at third-party games coming to the original Switch and Switch 2 later this year.
Among the notable announcements were Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection (the third in the spin-off series), a new game in the Katamari series – Once Upon a Katamari, Plants vs Zombies: Replanted (a remake of the original), Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment (another in the spin-off series), Hela, Cronos: The New Dawn, Octopath Traveler 0 and a bucket-load of older games soon to be released on the handheld, including Story Mode‘s beloved Yakuza Kiwami 2.
Speaking of big numbers, Microsoft, which laid off over 9,000 employees, including across its gaming divisions, which led to cancelled games and shuttered studios, announced that Xbox Game Pass made the corporation almost $5 billion in annual revenue for the first time last year and has almost 500 million active users across gaming platforms. “Microsoft is thriving,” was CEO and chairman Satya Nadella’s view of the situation, as articulated in a statement.
Microsoft did walk back its decision to hike the price of its new first-party Xbox games up to $80, saying it’s sticking to a lower price point, starting with Obsidian Entertainment’s upcoming sci-fi action-RPG The Outer Worlds 2, which had previously been priced at $79.99, but now has a new price tag of $69.99.
Not to be left out of the news cycle, Sony is suing Tencent for allegedly ripping off its PlayStation mega-hit Horizon video game franchise. Last year, Tencent’s development studio Polaris Quest had revealed Light of Motiram, a post-apocalyptic open-world game with mechanised animal-like creatures which looked remarkably similar (to put it mildly) to Guerrilla Games’s Horizon series. A “slavish clone” is how Sony described the upcoming(?) title in its complaint.
Meanwhile, FromSoftware’s Elden Ring: Nightreign passed five million copies sold, while Shadow of the Erdtree has now been downloaded 10 million times. The much-anticipated duo mode for the former, which was postponed due to a tsunami warning near the Kamchatka Peninsula, is now out with Patch 1.02.
In the latest on the ongoing Subnautica 2 saga/fiasco, the game’s publisher Krafton defended itself, saying everything is under control, nothing to see here. And sticking to the realm of mismanagement, Build A Rocket Boy delayed its MindsEye‘s Hitman crossover mission as it continues to fix the mess of its own making. Perseverance is indeed often the way forward, and Warner Bros Games seems to have taken that wisdom to heart with a new live-service game in development, despite the high-profile implosion of Suicide Squad last year.
Another title to be delayed was Supermassive Games’ sci-fi horror Directive 8020, following a round of layoffs affecting up to 36 employees in order for the British studio to “adapt our team structure to better align with recent industry changes”. But in more positive updates (in all its meanings), Sandfall Interactive released a new update for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, adding among other changes the “most requested” Battle Retry quality of life improvement. And developer Sloclap released its first major patch for Rematch, adding colour-blind mode, gamepad remapping, among other things.
Following Monster Hunter Wilds‘ rocky PC release which saw its recent reviews slip to “Overwhelmingly Negative” on Steam due to performance issues and complaints about game’s approach to difficulty and content, Capcom issued a statement saying that the developer is working to resolve said issues and bringing several updates forward in the roadmap. Talking of roadmaps, Ubisoft announced one for Assassin’s Creed Shadows, with Claws of Awaji DLC set to release on September 16, and promising an addition of over 10 hours of content to the game.
On the horror side of things, not only is a new Friday the 13th film confirmed, but also a video game is in early development. Dying Light: The Beast, set to release this month, has been delayed. “We’ve made the decision to move the release date to September 19, 2025 to allow for extra polishing work,” developer Techland wrote in an update.
And lastly, in what is becoming a regular segment of this newsletter, some updates on film and TV adaptations of games. The Medium, development studio Bloober Team’s horror game, is set to be adapted for film, courtesy of It and Annabelle writer-producer Gary Dauberman. And two years after God of War was first announced as a live-action series for Prime Video, we have some updates. Showrunner Ronald D Moore said the show is in the scripts phase and will remain largely faithful to Sony Santa Monica’s 2018 game. “It’s an adaptation, so it’s an adaptation-slash-interpretation as you go into live-action, and it’s been really fun to sort of go, ‘Wow, there’s a lot here we can play with. Okay, we want to keep the story. We want to keep the characters and the spirit of it,” said Moore in an interview at the San Diego Comic-Con.
Another game heading for a TV adaptation is Wolfenstein, which is now in development at Amazon MGM Studios. Fallout producer Kilter Films and Patrick Somerville are attached to the project, whose official logline simply states, “The story of killing Nazis is evergreen.” Indeed.
The director of the upcoming Resident Evil reboot film, Zach Cregger, has assured fans of the series that the new project will feel more like the games. “I played all of the games. I played Resident Evil 4 a hundred times through. I’m obsessed with it. And so, I just want to tell a story that feels like it’s honouring the experience you get when you play the games,” he said in an interview. I haven’t seen the movies, that’s just not my thing. But the games are my thing… I think the movie is going to rip.” For those who have seen said films, a reason to rejoice.
Finally, Cailee Spaeny (Alien: Romulus, Priscilla) is reportedly in talks to star in the forthcoming Elden Ring film adaptation, which will see her reunite with director Alex Garland after starring in his 2024 film, Civil War.
