It was inevitable, wasn’t it. A Valve-shaped cube was always going to end up interred within a Valve-designed Companion Cube, even if the Steam Machine’s weighted storage buddy is the work of mildly chaotic peripheral makers Dbrand.
Prolific FromSoft game multiplayer modder Yui is "close" to being ready to open up alpha testing of their latest seamless co-op mod, this time for Dark Souls 2. Despite it following the the footsteps of their seamless co-op mods for the likes of Elden Ring, Nightreign, and the original Dark Souls, Yui said this DS2 mod's turned out to be a very different kettle of fish and one of their "most complicated and ambitious projects to date".
A couple of months on from pushing to make some vital veteran additions to their team in order to get their massive Oblivion remake mod over the line, Skyblivion's developers are once again appealing for volunteers to aid in overcoming some "final roadblocks" standing the way of its release. Meanwhile, it sounds like the chances of another statistical breakdown from the modders running down exactly what's left to be done are low, with Skyblivion's implementation lead asserting that the mod's so close to the finish line such data's no longer "a super relevant way of displaying our remaining work".
It's not a good week to be in the games industry (again). As Xbox reportedly prepare to either shutter or spin off Double Fine, Ninja Theory and Compulsion, Don't Nod, original developer of the Life is Strange series, look to be in hot water of their own. As it currently stands, it appears that Don't Nod will run out of cash come November this year.
Xbox are reportedly closing or spinning off Psychonauts developers Double Fine, Hellblade studio Ninja Theory, and South of Midnight creators Compulsion Games, as Microsoft commence efforts to yet again "reset" their billion dollar gaming business after already laying off thousands of staff, cancelling games, and closing several studios over the past couple of years.
As reports suggesting major changes are brewing at Xbox, likely involving mass layoffs, continue to swirl, the console maker's current boss' plans for the future apparently involve pushing out new Fallout and Elder Scrolls games in speedier fashion. Asha Sharma's desire to whip out new entries in flagship series reportedly comes as Microsoft are considering spinning out or restructuring Xbox as a subsidiary.
The weather has been an unpredictable mess of downpour and blazing sun this week, but Saturday feels like it could be the turn. Another chance for the sun to yank on the starter cord of summer and get that season's engine thrumming.
I simply refuse to have to turn back from another walk around the park because 10 metres from my front door the lovely sunshine is replaced by pelting rain.
There have been so many Assassin's Creed games, and so many games inspired by Assassin's Creed, that it's easy to forget that Assassin's Creed used to be Weird. Or Weird for a game of its scale, anyway. I remember when Ubisoft revealed it, with an all-timer of an trailer showing Altaïr pouncing on some upstart Templars. And then, that flicker of code over masonry, that first hint that the medieval Crusades setting is a predatory digital facade.
Ah cool, that reboot of 90s arcade classic Crazy Taxi Sega have been teasing for a little while, I thought during an otherwise rather meh Xbox showcase yesterday. Ah bollocks, I subsequently thought upon logging on this morning and seeing that Sega have disclosed their use of generative AI as part of Crazy Taxi: World Tour's development.
Saturdays are for lying in bed and resting your sore typing fingers, muttering curses at Geoff Keighley under your breath. They're not particularly mean curses, I quite enjoy covering events like SGF. It's nice having a few hours where game announcements pour forth like bubbling water. Yes, those bubbles can be the ineffable gassing up of marketing hype, but I won't dismiss everything we see as pure cynicism.
And besides, as tired as I may be this morning, it's not as bad as the time I worked a week of night shifts covering E3 at PCGamesN. At the end of the week, on the last train home, I fell asleep, thouroughly missed my station and got kicked off at the terminus. With no phone battery and no taxis in the small village, I had to sleep in a park until the next morning when the trains started up again and I could get back to my bed in Bath.
Original Assassin's Creed creative director Patrice Désilets and his team at Panache Digital Games have announced a new version of 1666: Amsterdam, the supernatural history game Désilets once worked on a lifetime ago at THQ Montreal. What's more, the game now has a 30 minute prologue on Steam and the Epic Games Store, with an early access release coming later this year.
And with that the Summer Game Fest is over. At least, the official Geoff Keighley showcase - there are still many more streams over the weekend. I wouldn't say there were many surprises, but it was excellent to get a first look at games like Alien Isolation 2, Fumito Ueda's genAtlas, and Guild Wars 3.
If you don't want to watch through the full two hours. Below you will find every everything announced for PC at Summer Game Fest 2026.
As Rockstar gear up to release GTA 6 (at least on consoles), spare a thought for Red Dead Online. The multiplayer element of Red Dead Redemption 2 had its steady flow of major update-carrying stagecoaches stopped all the way back in 2022, with its makers explicitly citing a desire to shift those development resources over to that next entry in the stealy wheels series.
There've been a few moments in the years since when Red Dead Online has looked a bit like it might bounce back to prominence, but nothing substantial in that vein has materialised. It essentially had a solid three year run, but failed to come close to grasping the reins from its older inspiration, GTA Online. In the eyes of Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick, however, that doesn't make it a missed opportunity.
As it currently stands, it's a bit unclear how Rockstar are planning to approach multiplayer with GTA 6. It seems that GTA Online will continue to run even after the impending sequel launches, but beyond that who really knows. What is clear is that Rockstar and their publisher Take-Two are still pretty committed to GTA Online and its ecosystem, given that they've now apparently sent a cease and desist to the popular modding and roleplay platform Rage:MP.
Back in February, Remedy appointed Jean-Charles Gaudechon as its new CEO following last year's FBC: Firebreak flop. This quickly raised some eyebrows given Gaudechon's tenure at EA, a game studio that's had its fair share of controversies over the years thanks to its business practices. After all, Remedy are meant to be this quirky, Finnish game studio that does things their own, weird way, such an appointment felt out of step. But, in a recent interview, Gaudechon made it seem like he's not about to "change the DNA" of a place like Remedy (even if he does still want to bring more money in by expanding in other ways).
One of the bits of Oblivion remake mod Skyblivion I'm most keen to explore is all sorted and ready to go. The modders have announced that they've finished making and QA testing their revamped versions of The Elder Scrolls 4's Ayleid ruins, marking another key step forward in their journey, even if the mod's still without a final release date following its delay last year.
Dishonored co-directors Raphael Colantonio and Harvey Smith seem like good mates. In a newly published YouTube let's play of their creation, they sit side by side, both dressed in black t-shirts like a married couple who've gone to great pains to coordinate their threads. Would that still be the case if their efforts to make Thief 4 and a Blade Runner game respectively hadn't ended up being mashed together to form 2012's sneaky holiday to Dunwall? Perhaps not, given Smith said it felt as though the pair needed couples therapy by the time they wrapped up a game which wasn't based on a single established work one director would have loved more than the other.
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