The End of Oak Street director David Robert Mitchell isn't confirming or denying whether the upcoming sci-fi pic is part of the J.J. Abrams-produced Cloverfield franchise.

"Here’s what I can tell you. I wrote the script before I ever personally talked with J.J. You can make of that whatever you will," Mitchell told SFX Magazine. As for whether the film explains how the neighborhood ended up in whatever dinosaur-infested universe it's currently in, Mitchell says that “there are certainly some answers in there."

"Don't want to over-explain," he continued. "And I think it's a subjective thing as to whether or not someone has enough, but I believe that's the case."

The new movie, written and directed by Mitchell, sees a "mysterious cosmic event" transport Oak Street to an unknown location that's rife with dinosaurs, and the Platt family quickly realizes that the only way they can survive is by sticking together.

Now, there isn't a lot of evidence that points to Oak Street intersecting with, say, Cloverfield Lane in the upcoming film, but the whole different universes and creatures thing and the flash of light in the beginning of the trailer, and the fact that the movie was initially called Flowervale Street (clovers, flowers...), and the whole J.J. Abrams producing thing... I say, at minimum, there's a connection. But only time will tell.

The End of Oak Street arrives in theaters on August 14. For more on what to watch, check out our guide to the rest of this year's biggest movie release dates.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day brings Tom Holland's Peter Parker back for a new adventure. Set after the harrowing events of No Way Home, the world has forgotten who he is but that doesn't mean the threats have stopped as a new invisible villain is lurking in the shadows.

The latest movie marks the fourth outing for Holland's webslinger, who straddles the world of Sony's Marvel universe and the MCU. However, he's by no means the only Spidey-adjacent character on our screens. There are the Spider-Verse animated movies, Nicolas Cage's variant in Spider-Noir, and there's the Venom, Madame Web, and Morbius movies too.

Speaking in the new issue of SFX magazine, producer Amy Pascal teased that she thinks there are plenty more stories to tell in this universe too, but they have to be justified.

"You don't want to just keep exploiting the same character," Pascal explained. "I think that would make it unspecial for the world. So there are other things in the Spider-Man universe that I think are really fun for us to explore, because the comics were so varied and so creative. I think Peter Parker should exist in live action, and I love what we're doing with Miles in the animated movies. We just have to be really careful that we're being smart about all this."

At the moment, the only other Spider-Man movie that's confirmed is the upcoming third film in the Spider-Verse trilogy, Beyond the Spider-Verse. There are some more animated stories being developed based around Spider-Punk and Spider-Gwen and it's unclear whether Holland will be back again as Parker in the future.

It seems only time – and potentially the events of Brand New Day – will tell what's next with the character on our screens.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings into theaters in the UK on July 29 and the US on July 31. For more, check out our guides to all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows on the way, as well as our breakdown of how to watch the Marvel movies in order.

Do we all know who Sadie Sink is playing in Spider-Man: Brand New Day? The common consensus is that the Stranger Things star will be portraying X-Men icon Jean Grey in the MCU – with Marvel Studios and Sony largely keeping schtum on any speculation.

Of course, we've been here before. The lead-up to Spider-Man: No Way Home was filled with virtual column inches and frenzied social media chatter about Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's Spider-Men swinging in from their corner of the multiverse. That, as we now know, turned out to be true.

Now, Spider-Man producer Amy Pascal has compared the two, suggesting that the spoiler lockdown on the identity of Sadie Sink's character is due to keeping the audience in suspense for as long as possible.

"When we had the three Spideys in the last movie, and it was the worst-kept secret in Hollywood, everybody sort of pretended not to know, but knew," Pascal said in the new issue of SFX magazine.

Pascal added, "I think people love to be surprised. They don’t really want to know everything. They want the experience of what movies give you, which is shock and awe and surprise. So I think in the same way that we’ve been really disciplined, I think that’s what the audience is also craving."

Sink previously confirmed that Brand New Day was completely under wraps, to the point where she wasn't even handed a script until she landed in London for filming. The actor has also been bemused by the sheer amount of chatter surrounding her role, admitting she "didn't realize" there would be such a conversation around the identity of the mystery character.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day, starring Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jon Bernthal, Mark Ruffalo, and Jacob Batalon, opens in cinemas on July 31.

For more, check out the upcoming Marvel movies in the works. If you're still behind in the MCU, you'll need our guide on how to watch the Marvel movies in order.

Former PlayStation lead Shawn Layden thinks that "we've lost a lot of the variety in games" releasing these days, with more titles that look like "the game next to it" rather than something entirely unique – and you can thank "the rising cost" of development for that.

It's no secret that game budgets are inflating massively. Earlier this year, it was reported that new AAA games could cost upwards of $300 million to make, and with that in mind, it's little wonder that publishers have such high standards for what actually counts as a success these days. What's more, as Layden, the former president of Sony Interactive Entertainment America, points out, those massive costs are also driving "risk tolerance" extremely low.

"I was at a game awards show a couple of years ago, and I was a bit disappointed to see that all the games I saw at that awards presentation were either zombie apocalypse, some kind of space marines, [or] guys in medieval Europe with really big swords," Layden tells PSI in an interview (below).

"That was so central to what everyone was building. There's so many games that looked like the game next to it and looked like the game next to it," he says, adding: "I'm concerned that in today's world, quirky games like PaRappa the Rapper don't get made anymore."

Layden continues: "I think we've lost a lot of the variety in games that are out there. We have: 'this one's a looter shooter, and this one's a hero shooter, this one's an extraction shooter. Shooter, shooter, shooter.' We have mountains of those. But where's the next Katamari Damacy?"

Furthermore, he warns that the games industry could be losing "the opportunity to attract new users" by refraining from increasing the amount of different kinds of games on offer to players.

With all that said, Layden obviously sees the reason why this is the case: "The rising cost of games." He explains: "I mean, if you could make a game for $5 or $6 million, like we could back on PlayStation One, then you'd do ten games. [...] Like, let's see what people are excited by.

"We had so many crazy games on PS1 because the cost to risk was manageable. You know, you could literally throw away $6 to $7 million on a project that didn't work, but go, 'Well, at least we learned something.' Now, if every throw of the dice is triple digit millions, then risk tolerance goes to about zero."

Now, Layden says, trying to get funding for a new game means getting hit with questions like, "'is it a sequel? Is it an established IP?'" Devs might find themselves pitching something as "'like Fortnite meets Call of Duty in Zombieland,'" he suggests. But ultimately, "no one wants to take a risk on unicorn ballet in space. No one's going to give you any money to make that game, even if it's really super exciting.

"So yeah, the high cost is driving risk tolerance to zero," he concludes. "I think as long as we judge games solely on revenue projections, then, you know, again, your risk tolerance goes to zero."

It's not that games that stray from the mainstream don't exist, of course. I think it's fairly safe to say that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's popularity last year was, at the very least in part, driven by the things that made it different, from its blend of action and turn-based combat, its delightfully French vibes, to its stellar story. Similarly, before Balatro blew up, could you honestly say you'd played a Poker-themed roguelike deckbuilder full of illegal cards and weird Jokers? I doubt it, somehow. The point remains – let's have more unique, weird, and wonderful games, please.

Ex-PlayStation boss says PC ports weren't losing Sony any hardware sales, questions how it could think otherwise now it's reportedly keeping big single-player games console-exclusive.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is here, but looking back at the OG 2013 game, the remake's creative director thinks that it only "became a classic" once players learned to love protagonist Edward Kenway.

Speaking in the latest issue of Retro Gamer, Paul Fu – who also served as a game designer on the original Black Flag – notes that while there's a lot to love in Ubisoft's pirate adventure, back at launch, not everyone was completely in love with quite how piratey it is. Namely, some felt that "Edward didn't really feel like an assassin."

Fu explains: "People really like the pirate fantasy and the characters, Blackbeard especially. I also remember what they didn't like early on was that Edward didn't really feel like an assassin."

Obviously, this wasn't a sentiment that stuck around forever. "I think people quickly came around in the next few years, and soon enough it became a classic," as Fu says. "I remember being really proud of the Montreal team for having the foresight to make an anti-hero."

He's certainly right about it becoming a classic – there's a reason why we rank it so highly on our list of the best Assassin's Creed games. With that said, it'll probably take a while before we can properly assess whether or not folks think its remake has been able to surpass it.

In our Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced review, we gave the remake three and a half stars out of five, praising its pirate atmosphere and excellent voice acting. However, games editor Oscar Taylor-Kent writes: "It splashes between wanting to be faithful, and wanting to make adjustments, not quite able to find an elegant middleground between the two. Combined with bugs and other annoyances, this isn't the bold, confident swing its predecessor was, but still a fun outing."

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced "is on track to be a much-needed hit for Ubisoft," says analyst, selling 5 times the Steam copies Assassin's Creed Shadows did pre-release.

Fallout: New Vegas director Josh Sawyer says Obsidian took a different approach to level scaling than Bethesda did with Fallout 3 to teach players that "things work a little differently" here, and that "you're going to get your ass handed to you if you're not careful."

Speaking to The 41st Precinct in a video interview you can check out below, Sawyer talks about going back to the OG Fallout when designing a new spin of his own on the post-apocalyptic wasteland.

More specifically, Sawyer loved that the critical path of Fallout 1 "is very open." If you really want to and know where to go, you can waltz right to the late game areas and skip a big ol' chunk of the story. Funnily enough, Sawyer also says that one of Fallout's co-creators, Tim Cain, told him that's down to a bug, but hey, everyone enjoys it enough so it's a feature now.

And a good thing it is, as it made quite the impression on Sawyer.

"I loved how open it was, and so, with New Vegas, I was like, 'I want to get that feeling back where we have difficulty gates,' so we took some of the level scaling out," he says. "It's a much more compressed level scaling range. That's why if you go to Quarry Junction, a Death Claw will just chop your head off. It's to teach the player, 'hey, this is not actually Fallout 3. Things work a little differently. You're going to get your ass handed to you if you're not careful.'"

To bring things to their most basic terms, enemies in Fallout 3 will increase in level and use better equipment to match your level. Return to an earlier locale in the late game and it'll be a nastier place than you remember.

Fallout: New Vegas enemies can certainly get meaner themselves, but only to a point. As such, you don't have to worry about Goodsprings turning into an endgame area if you return at a much later point. It does mean, though, that some of Fallout: New Vegas's areas will punch you in the face if you're not equipped. Think of it as a suggestion that you probably shouldn't be here until you level up. Once you do, though, you'll be able to steamroll foes in a way that isn't typically doable in Fallout 3.

Sawyer goes on to say that this approach to game design meant Obsidian could offer the player the chance to follow Fallout: New Vegas's story, as in Fallout, by skipping parts – albeit with the added challenge of surviving nastier areas.

"What that meant is that we could make the story – you can find Benny immediately," he says. "Like, you can go from Goodsprings straight to Benny. And that's the Water Chip. The design of that is you follow an information trail. I'm looking for this guy, I go here, he's not here but he says go here, go here, go here. But at any time, you can shortcut that. You can go through Scorpion Gulch and you can get to Novak and talk to Manny and then go to Boulder City. Or you can go straight to The Tops if you can figure out a way to get there. So, yeah, I was trying to embody that open spirit of Fallout 1."

I'd say Sawyer and Obsidian's approach to Fallout certainly landed, which is why New Vegas is so fondly remembered even today. It makes the future interesting, too, as Microsoft is reportedly kicking around plans to get Sawyer to head up another Fallout game to capitalize on the success of the TV show, especially as Bethesda won't be getting to that for a long time thanks to The Elder Scrolls 6. According to one former Obsidian lead, there was another Sawyer-led Fallout RPG in the works that ultimately got kiboshed, so it might not be the first time such a project nearly came to fruition. Maybe this time such a thing will stick and see the light of day.

Microsoft lays off Bethesda vet behind Todd Howard's "crazy" Fallout 4 idea, "too many Skyrim weapons to count," the Dwemer, and Mudcrabs – and he may leave games altogether.

The first all-new Spyro game in 18 years, Spyro: A Realm Beyond, is finally set to launch early next year, but the devs at Toys for Bob have had to be careful not to get too carried away with their "cool ideas" that would see the platformer run out of budget and time.

Associate creative director Louis "Lou" Studdert and studio head Paul Yan recently appeared on an episode of the Kinda Funny Gamescast, where they were asked if there were any moments during development when they realised they were going too far.

The answer is yes, though Studdert explains that "every game is like that" since there's so much "eyeballing" and "napkin math" involved as the team works out what elements might need cutting back, and what they might want more of.

"There are areas where you tighten the belt, and there's areas where you expand," he continues. "Just part of the game development process."

Yan adds to this, noting that "scope creep is a real thing." There's a simple reason for this: "Every time you're in a conversation with creative folks, it's always like, 'Wouldn't it be cool if this happened?'"

And yes, Yan says, "they absolutely are cool ideas, but if you commit to every single one of those, you know, without some discipline, then your game blows out of budget and blows out of time."

Thankfully, this isn't Toys for Bob's first rodeo. The studio has "high tenure folks who have worked together and can complete each other's sentences," and are also so "highly senior" that they know the drill when it comes to shipping games and understanding "'what is the scope within our team,'" Yan says.

In summary, he concludes, "We know ourselves, and we know when things are a little bit beyond our reach, or too much, and then we'll pull it back down to be what's appropriate for us developing it and also for the experience."

One thing the devs haven't held back on, however, is A Realm Beyond's flight system. In the same podcast, the devs explain that they wanted flying to be a very "active" thing, and crucially, not like a "flight simulator" where you can leave Spyro on "autopilot." So, expect you can find plenty of "decision-making" there.

Spyro: A Realm Beyond dev says the "loud and consistent" fans who bought 11 million copies of the Reignited trilogy helped manifest the series' first new game in years.

Warframe leadership isn't about to celebrate the impending death of Destiny 2, even if they are on course to outlive one of their game's strongest competitors in the sci-fi live-service space.

Developer Bungie announced in May that it's ending active development on Destiny 2 after more than a decade as it turns its attention toward its new extraction shooter Marathon. Destiny 2 will remain playable for the foreseeable future, but its briefly resurgent Monument of Triumph update from June will be its last major content drop as static events and retouched modes sustain the game's live operations.

Warframe, meanwhile, which released a year before Destiny (the original) in 2013, is showing no signs of slowing down with major story and content updates continuing at a regular cadence. Still, creative director Rebecca Ford refuses to dance on a grave, not just because she's above something like that, but because she knows that if a game as enduring and influential as Destiny 2 can fall in favor of short-term business needs, anything can.

"It's horrible news, because it shows that even if you care so much, the business side of this industry always gets the last remark," Ford tells GamesRadar+ during a conversation at TennoCon 2026.

"Those are the types of stories and experiences that, when you're in a position where you have your own game, your own IP, and you work as hard as you do on it... That's not the first time it's happened, and it'll happen again, where the business aspect of the video game economy makes the decision for you, and it is existentially threatening at every level, because the idea that we aren't in charge of our own goodbye is something I wake up thinking about every single day."

Unless you're a strictly independent, private studio which doesn't answer to shareholders, this is the sort of thing every game developer worries about to some degree in 2026 as consolidation, mass layoffs, studio closures, and game cancelations define one of the most turbulent periods in games industry history. Everything happening at Xbox this week spells nothing but bad news for devs and the projects which now may or may not ever come to light.

Case in point: The Elder Scrolls 6 will be hurt and potentially delayed by Xbox layoffs, Bethesda devs expect: "This has had a crushing effect on morale"

If you're looking for how to watch England vs Norway in the 2026 World Cup you've come to the right place.

The biggest danger to each team this time around may not be their World Cup rivals but the US weather: the quarter-final may experience similar thunderstorms to the ones that delayed England vs Mexico. The temperature is currently predicted to reach 34ºC, with high humidity making it feel like a deeply unpleasant 43ºC. This is one match where the controversial "hydration breaks" may actually be necessary.

The BBC is predicting thunderstorms just before kick-off and possibly during the match too. If a lightning strike is detected close to the stadium, the rules say the game has to be stopped.

Assuming nobody gets hit by lightning this promises to be an exciting game with two of the World Cup's most notable players facing off: England's Harry Kane and Norway's Erling Haaland. Haaland has already scored seven goals in this World Cup, and he's a formidable opponent: as England midfielder Morgan Rogers told Reuters, "Has anyone ever stopped Erling Haaland? Not sure they have, but we're gonna try."

England will be feeling pretty positive going into this quarter-final after an impressive 3-2 victory over Mexico despite being a man down for most of the match. But this isn't the Norway that England has faced in the past: it's a formidable team that knocked out both the Ivory Coast and the five-times champion Brazil in the round of 16. Here's hoping the weather doesn't disrupt what's sure to be one of the highlights of the World Cup so far.

The streaming rights for World Cup matches are split between multiple broadcasters around the world, and in some cases – such as in the UK, where the rights are split between the BBC and ITV – theyre then split between different broadcasters. For viewers in the UK this match is an ITV one, so it'll be streaming on iTVX.

Here's how to watch England vs Norway on the 11th of July in the US, Canada and UK, and on the 12th of July in Australia.

How to watch England vs Norway free around the world

You can stream the World Cup for free in many parts of the world. In the UK this match is one of the ITV ones (the competition is split between the BBC and ITV, with each broadcaster getting a share of the streaming rights), so you can watch in the ITVX app. In Ireland the RTE Player is delivering free streaming, and in Australia the same thing is happening with SBS On Demand.

Free streams are typically geo-blocked because broadcast and streaming rights are sold on a country by country basis, so for example the UK rights are sold separately from the rights in the US or Australia. But if you're a resident who'll be away from home during the match you can use a VPN app to appear as if you're sat on the sofa at home.

Free streams available in:

• UK: ITVX
• Australia: SBS On Demand
• Ireland: RTE Player

How to watch England vs Norway in the US

Unfortunately there isn't a no-strings free streaming option for US viewers, but we have a workaround: free trials of services you'd normally pay for. Right now the longest free trial is YouTube TV, which has a very generous 21-day free trial of its Sports Plan.

Once the free trial is up you'll pay a discounted rate: $54.99 a month for the first three months. A Sports Plan subscription also gives you sporting action from ESPN, TNT, the NFL Network and more.

The Spanish-language Telemundo has been attracting big audiences for the World Cup thanks to its tie-up with Peacock, whose premium subscribers can tune in to the Telemundo coverage as part of their subscription and enjoy both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos – the first time a major sporting event has been broadcast in both technologies. Peacock Premium is usually $10.99 a month but there's a much cheaper option: if you sign up for Walmart Plus, which bundles Peacock Premium, it's just $1 for 30 days.

Fox and FS1 World Cup coverage is being streamed on Fubo's Sports+News package, which usually costs $55.99 a month but currently offers a five-day free trial.

Finally, Fox One is streaming matches in super-sharp 4K on its $19.99/month with the option of a short but still useful three days free trial.

The kick-off for England vs Norway is 5pm Eastern Time.

How to watch England vs Norway in the UK

While the BBC and ITV have been splitting the coverage of the World Cup between the two broadcasters and streamers, ITV has the rights to England vs Norway and it'll be streaming live on ITVX. Kick-off is at 10pm UK time on Saturday 11 July.

If you're going to be away from the UK during the match you can still access your iPlayer streams with a VPN such as Norton VPN, which is our current recommendation for streaming video.

How to watch England vs Norway in Canada

TSN+ is the place to stream the World Cup live in Canada: England vs Norway will be streaming on TSN+ at 5pm ET.

If you'll be away from Canada you might find that you're geoblocked when you try to stream England vs Norway in a different country. That's not a problem: use Norton VPN to stream the game as if you were watching at home.

How to watch England vs Norway in Australia

The England vs Norway match is scheduled at 7am AEST on the morning of 12 July, so you'll need to set your alarm if you don't want to miss the live action. SBS on Demand will be streaming the match.

If you'll be outside Australia but still want to stream the match from SBS, Norton VPN can deliver the streaming you need. It's fast, reliable and easy to use.

We recommend VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Looking back on the infamously buggy Assassin's Creed Unity after 12 years, Ubisoft veteran Jean Guesdon admits "this opus maybe pushed too many things at once."

As part of a new feature about Assassin's Creed in a new issue of Retro Gamer – on sale now, by the way – Guesdon offers a sense that ambition is largely behind the game's tricky release.

"Sadly, Unity's launch was a huge challenge because of several reasons," he says. "Like AC3 with AnvilNext, Unity's development was impacted by the incredible new tech allowing for 1:1 scale, interiors, massive crowds, a brand-new parkour system and an integrated multiplayer component. Pushing content and tech at the same time is always very demanding, and this opus maybe pushed too many things at once."

"[AC Unity] is one of the most underestimated games in the series," he says.

If you care for a history lesson, one of the big pitches behind Assassin's Creed Unity was the ability to play co-op with three of your friends online. Sounds neat, doesn't it? Four players sneaking around to assassinate targets and work together to achieve a common objective attracted the interest of many.

As you might have figured by now, though, Assassin's Creed Unity wasn't really able to handle it, among other things. Not long after launch, the interest was awash with clips of various graphical issues and bugs, leading to an apology from Ubisoft and a free expansion to make up for the bother.

Despite the bumps, Assassin's Creed Unity ultimately sold well, but Ubisoft certainly had to learn a lesson or two about matching ambition to what's deliverable.

"This is not how I imagined it would end": Ubisoft to lay off Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced devs at its Barcelona studio, with one calling the remake's release "bittersweet."

Over a year on from its monumental launch, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 creative director Guillaume Broche has been looking back on what he and his fellow devs at Sandfall Interactive were told before their RPG's release – namely, that "no one's going to like" it.

The mere concept of that seems completely impossible now that the game is out – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 became the second ever game after Baldur's Gate 3 to collect all five major Game of the Year awards last year, after all. But speaking to Konbini in a new episode of Video Game Club on YouTube (below), Broche says the devs were warned about their plans for the RPG's combat.

"With Clair Obscur, there are plenty of design decisions that are fundamentally flawed," Broche begins. "What we heard a lot before we released the game was: 'You're making a game that mixes the challenging aspects of an action game – with dodging and parrying – with turn-based gameplay. No one's going to like it. Turn-based players like turn-based games, and action players like action games.'"

Of course, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 wasn't the first game to experiment with mechanics like this. Look at 1996's Super Mario RPG, which blended real-time action with its turn-based system – perfectly timed button presses make your attacks hit harder or blocks absorb more damage. A lot of players love this blend, and the Clair Obscur devs were no different when they were making their own game.

"We didn't care," Broche says of the warning Sandfall had received. "We think it's cool, we play it, and it's fun. We combined the two, and it worked. But fundamentally, there are a lot of design decisions that, from an outside or business perspective, make no sense at all."

In the same video, Broche explains that he thinks "imperfections" in games add to their charm, while "games that try to be perfect, that try to fix all their flaws – they're usually just really boring." By his own admission, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn't perfect, either – just look at its "unbearable" minigames.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director thinks devs will eventually "be able to churn out a game in 5 seconds with a prompt," but he hopes they're not any good.

Spyro: A Realm Beyond introduces the ability to fly around freely as the titular purple dragon, but the devs at Toys for Bob want you to know that they've not made a "flight simulator," because "we want active decision-making."

Speaking on a new episode of the Kinda Funny Games podcast, associate creative director Louis "Lou" Studdert confirms that flying isn't just some sort of passive ability that you can use with zero thought – you'll have to put the effort in, pushing buttons, to guide Spyro around the sky.

"We wanted to make sure that it is active. It is decision-making. It is pressing buttons. It is almost, you know, that platforming feel of evaluating a play space and figuring out how to continue," Studdert says.

Pointing to some gameplay footage, Studdert explains that Spyro can dive downwards "to pick up speed," as well as "use his flame breath, spit a fireball at distance to ignite a campfire to create a wind updraft to give him quicker lift," before the player presses a button "to flap his wings to push on his momentum and keep his speed up." Spyro can also activate "sky rings" for a boost in the air.

"It's really about evaluating the play space," he continues. "It's looking [at] what you can interact with and connecting all of those to sustain your momentum and to keep going."

Toys for Bob studio head Paul Yan chimes in: "It's super important for us that the player is able to say, 'Look at that thing off in the distance. How do I get there? And then how do I leverage the environments around me and my abilities in order to do that?' Because what we don't want is for it to be a flight simulator where we say, 'OK, here's the destination, hit in the GPS, we're going to coast and get there.' There's no fun in that."

Yan reiterates that there's "no autopilot" option for Spyro's flight because "we want active decision-making." He explains: "Platforming as a term in this flight space is a little bit different than platforming like jumping on the ground, but similarly, we want that kind of decision-making to happen in that space."

Spyro: A Realm Beyond is set to release early next year, and Yan previously told us that the devs "want not just one new game, but many new games. We hope that this is the first of many." With that in mind, hopefully we won't be waiting another 18 years for the next all-new one.

"Going independent meant taking a massive, massive risk": How Toys for Bob split off from Activision and Xbox to help guide Spyro to A Realm Beyond.

Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden is a big believer that "single player, narrative-driven gaming is here to stay," saying it's "what sustains" the business.

When you think of PlayStation's greatest hits, chances are, you're going to think of a whole bunch of single-player games. Whether it's The Last of Us, God of War, Uncharted, or Ghost of Tsushima, there's no doubt that games like this have been huge drivers of PlayStation's success, and although Sony has delved more into the world of live-service in recent years (to mixed success), Layden – former president of Sony Interactive Entertainment America – says it's with single-player games the games business was built, and what'll continue to keep it going.

"I firmly believe that single player, narrative-driven gaming is here to stay," he tells PSI in an interview on YouTube (below). "It's how we built this business. That's what sustains it. It's a type of game where you can enjoy it by yourself and talk to friends about it. Maybe there's multiplayer, maybe there isn't.

"But I think essentially most of our great gaming experiences are when we allow ourselves to be immersed in that world with that character, to learn that story, more so than 'I got online with a bunch of friends and we played team deathmatch.'"

That's not to say that live-service games don't have their place, of course. Helldivers 2, published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, has been hugely successful since its launch two years ago. However, we've obviously also seen a lot of live-service horror stories – Concord didn't even last two weeks before it was shut down for good, and while it still has plenty of fans, Destiny 2 has been in decline for a long time at this point, so much so that it's now received its final update.

It's worth noting that Layden's comments were made before Sony's announcement that it's killing physical discs for new PlayStation games in 2028, so he's not responding to that backlash here. In a separate interview about that decision, Layden called the move "dramatic," and suggested it could "heavily influence" Xbox and Nintendo's approach to physical games going forward.

Sony killing physical PlayStation games has folks so angry that its announcement has even more views than Rockstar's GTA 6 trailer posts on Twitter.

Paddle Paddle Paddle developer Mateo Covic of studio Zoroarts went viral this month for his comments on Steam's refund policy, which, after more than 55,000 people refunded his well-reviewed but short rage game, he called exploitable. Speaking with GamesRadar+, Covic defends much of his argument but stresses that he supports the refund system overall and doesn't want to see consumer rights eroded.

"I'm 100% pro refund but the current 'no questions asked if you request a refund within two weeks and with less than two hours of playtime' policy just makes it super easy for players to abuse this rule," Covic says.

Referring to Valve's refund rules, which expressly prohibit gaming the system "as a way to get free games" under threat of refund denials, Covic adds, "Steam says that refunds are not for people to play games for free, and refunds in general should be requested (in my opinion) when the Steam page misled you with wrong information, the game had problems that prevent you [playing or enjoying] the game, and other similar reasons that can be found in the Steam policy."

He says he isn't dissatisfied with his game's sales or refund count, which he acknowledges is not out of band for a game like this. "My tweet was targeted towards the people who enjoyed the game, wrote a positive review, and refunded the game just because they can," he explains. "Many people think that I'm a complete asshole now and want to remove the refund policy in general but that was never my intention."

This whole saga led to more "hateful DMs and insulting comments" than he'd ever seen, Covic says, and Paddle Paddle Paddle was "review bombed already and went from very positive recent Steam Reviews to mixed ones." He reasons, "I guess it's a big learning opportunity and I will think twice before posting a statement / request like that in the future."

Covic singles out an argument made, among others, by Twitter user and game curator Indie Game Joe: the existence of Steam's refund policy gives users a level of protection that makes it easier to try out some games, which can lead to more sales overall even if it can also result in more refunds. Covic says this stance did give him pause.

"Sure my refund rate is high with 55,000+ refunds, but when I did some research I found out that a refund rate of 20% is pretty normal for a rage game," he says. "Overall, a refund rate of 10% is normal for games on Steam. I'm super grateful for the game's success after all, and I just learned that it's a normal thing to have that many refunds when you have an amount of 270,000 sold units... Regarding your question: I don't know if people think, 'Yeah let's try it out, I can refund it anyway.' What helped my game way more was the cheap price. When I showed people the game's trailer they often were like, 'Oh looks fun,' but when they found out about the price of $2.99 on sale they were willing to try it out right away."

One thing he does firmly dismiss is the idea of intentionally making games longer just to dodge the two-hour Steam refund window. He worries Steam's policy could discourage shorter games in this way. Despite this hiccup, Covic says Paddle Paddle Paddle "changed my whole life," enabling him to work on games full-time, and now specifically making short games has become a joy and a focus for him after spending years on hybrid action game Makis Adventure.

Covic concludes, "I don't know how many people really refunded my game with a true reason since you could just lie and choose one of the possible refund reasons. Steam's 'no question asked' policy makes it super easy and quick to do that. I can see how many players refunded the game because it was too difficult, for example, but it would help if they left a helpful comment too since that would help me to work on that problem."

Here are the biggest upcoming indie games for 2026 and beyond.

Laura Fryer, a veteran of the video game industry and one of the founding members of the original Xbox project, is sounding the alarm amidst the industry's shift toward all-digital games.

Fryer recently uploaded a new video to her YouTube channel in which she warns specifically against PlayStation's recent announcement that it's ending production of physical game discs starting in 2028. She uses a story about her family's Rock Band tradition to make a point about the impermanence of digital-only games, explaining that she once spent "hundreds of dollars on Rock Band songs" only to lose them over a licensing issue. After her original Xbox died and was replaced by a newer model, she was unable to download the songs on her working console because they had been delisted. "Eventually, we just gave up," Fryer says, tragically. "We gave up on our favorite family game."

If you're reading this, there's a good chance you've shared a similar experience with digital games over the years. Publishers have offered fully digital versions of games for decades now, and most purchases made on PlayStation, Nintendo, and Xbox storefronts don't come with any sort of physical token guaranteeing permanent ownership, but with PlayStation moving away from physical discs altogether, it's likely situations like Fryer's will become much more commonplace in the next console generation.

Fryer says her Rock Band story isn't just a "one-off technical glitch," but "the blueprint for what Sony is planning next. "So when people ask me what I think about Sony's recent announcement that they're going all digital, that's all I can think about."

Fryer also wades into the debate about physical's market share compared to digital, which some analysts say is as low as 10% physical vs 90% digital, but Fryer argues that the inclusion of digital-only games in those comparisons makes "digital look way more dominant than it actually is."

She also points to an old promotional video in which then-president of SIE Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida hypes up the PS4's ability to read offline discs when Xbox One's pre-launch plan was to make all games require an internet connection. These days, of course, things are different, with GTA 6, arguably the biggest game of the century, essentially going all digital. This, in Fryer's view, opened the floodgates.

"Sony waited for Rockstar to make the first move, take the heat, and now they're going all-in to make this the new normal," she says.

Fryer also makes the convincing argument that PlayStation going discless isn't just about reducing production costs for new games and hardware, claiming that it's also about erasing the second-hand market and re-gaining complete control over its ecosystem. "All the major players; Sony, Microsoft, even Hollywood; they're all aligned here. Digital kills the used market and it stops the old library from competing with new games on the next console," she says.

Ultimately, Fryer says a digital future is likely "inevitable" due to convenience, but says even a company as trusted by gamers as Valve is prone to leadership changes that could potentially result in digital libraries like the ones on Steam becoming just as vulnerable as song collections on Rock Band.

"I admit, most of my Steam library is digital too, because I trust they won't pull the games," Fryer says. "But I worry about that, because platforms depend on good leadership. Gabe Newell will not run Steam forever, and we've seen from Xbox how fast priorities can shift when you get new leadership," she adds, seemingly referring to Xbox CEO Asha Sharma's big "reset."

Wrapping up her argument against a digital-only marketplace, Fryer goes full circle with what she calls her "Rock Band warning:

"Digital is convenient until someone else decides you've had enough, and there are some games and movies where I will never have enough," she says. "Physical gives you real ownership, right? And in my case, physical would've protected those irreplaceable memories."

GamesRadar's Dustin agrees: PlayStation killing discs is bad for everyone, whether you care about physical games or not

God of War Laufey will be available on a physical disc, developer Sony Santa Monica has confirmed. This strongly suggests the game will launch before the PS6, which is strongly expected to be a digital only console.

In the before times, this wouldn't be much of a story, but in a world where the biggest game to release this century, GTA 6, seemingly has no plans for a traditional physical launch, and more pertinent to this story, where PlayStation is ending production of physical discs, it's pretty big news. For physical game collectors, it's one of the biggest upcoming PS5 games on the horizon and one more they'll be able to save a space for on their shelves, like the good old days.

Responding to questions on Twitter, the official Sony Santa Monica account confirms: "We can confirm God of War Laufey will be available on disc."

God of War Laufey is the next mainline game in Sony Santa Monica's God of War series and the third game in the Norse saga. Instead of being a direct sequel to 2022's God of War Ragnarok, Laufey's story picks up directly following the scene depicting Faye's funeral from 2018 God of War, serving as a sort of connective link between God of War and God of War Ragnarok. And as you might expect from the title, longtime series protagonist Kratos isn't the lead protagonist here. Instead, players take control of the much more agile, but equally powerful, Laufey, Kratos's second wife and the mother of Atreus.

There's no release date for God of War Laufey yet, but again, if it's getting a disc, it's likely to launch as a PS5 game instead of a PS6 exclusive. Analysts think the PS6 could launch around 2028.

God of War Laufey proves women are still gaining ground in gaming, and I'm thrilled Kratos is sitting this one out

Christopher Nolan says movies like Backrooms and Obsession are proof positive that younger audiences will sit through a three-hour Greek epic like The Odyssey – despite star Matt Damon's doubts.

"I think I know what he was driving at, because it does seem like a long time since somebody made a film like this in this type of way, where you travel the world, get together a cast of thousands, and so on," Nolan told the Telegraph when asked about Damon's thoughts. The actor previously stated that he "knew that this was the last chance I was going to have to do something like this."

"But there’s a defeatist aspect of viewing it that way that I don’t agree with. I think cinema is vital and essential and continues to transform itself," Nolan continues. "We’ve got all these great new young voices in movies, making the medium their own and moving it forward."

The filmmaker cited Curry Barker and Kane Parsons as examples of the landscape changing for the better, as mega-hits Backrooms and Obsession are concrete evidence of young people going to the theater to see weird stuff. As of now, Backrooms has pulled in $360 million worldwide against a budget of $10 million, with Obsession earning a whopping $406 million against a budget of under $1 million.

Nolan adds: "This is why I never bought into the arguments that young audiences' attention spans are too fried to enjoy a three-hour Greek epic. Those films are so mysterious and ruminative. I mean, parts of Backrooms are like David Lynch at his most obscure. And yet young people can’t get enough of them."

The Odyssey is based on Homer's epic of the same name and stars Damon as Odysseus, the Greek king of Ithaca, as he tries to find his way back home after the Trojan War. It's got a runtime of 2 hours and 52 minutes.

The Odyssey arrives this July 17. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the upcoming movies in 2026 and beyond, or, check out our list of movie release dates.

Following last week's announcement that PlayStation will cease production on physical game discs starting in 2028, collectors, game preservationists, and even activists have been rallying to slow the inevitable, with some going as far as to call on authorities to put a stop to Sony's decision. However, in a blow to those hoping for some sort of legal ruling, an EU commissioner has said companies are free to release games however they please.

Although far from an official ruling, EU Commissioner for Democracy, Justice, the Rule of Law and Consumer Protection, Michael McGrath, recently told reporters in Strasbourg's European Parliament (via the Irish Mirror) that he doesn't think it's the government's job to get in the way of the free market so long as laws aren't being broken.

"It does come down to commercial and contractual freedoms, and companies are free to offer games and services in the manner that they see fit, provided that consumer rights are fully protected in line with national and EU law," McGrath said.

Referring to last month's EU ruling against Stop Killing Games and the decision against recommending new legislation to prevent publishers from revoking access to online-only games, McGrath adds, "We did have to consider a European citizens initiative on this question of whether games should continue to be available after a new edition of the game has been brought forward." It seems in McGrath's view, the decision to stop producing a physical product being the manufacturer's choice is a more clear-cut case.

From everything we've seen so far, it seems unlikely that Sony will reverse its stance on getting rid of physical games ahead of the next generation of consoles, which likely won't include a disc drive-equipped PS6 unless something major changes. One noteworthy analyst recently said Sony "will not reverse" its plan and that, "They knew what the online reaction would look like, and they now wait for this storm to pass."

Of course, this sort of consumer rights-focused view does beg the question of how digital rights, and what you actually get with a license, could be expanded – something else that analysts and advocates have focused on.

Speaking of: PS6 "won't arrive until 2028 at the earliest," analyst predicts following Sony's decision to kill physical games, and the base model won't have a disc drive

Microsoft communications lead Frank Shaw says the 1,600 Xbox employees recently cut at the start of a layoff wave which will hit 3,200 jobs by the end of the fiscal year were not laid off to be replaced with H-1B visa foreign workers.

Seemingly heading off reports that falsely conflated plans for Microsoft to hire H-1B visa employees with the Xbox layoffs, Shaw says in a striking Twitter post, "Lots of bad information out there --let's clear it up."

Echoing Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, Shaw reiterates, "Recent workforce changes were made to restructure the XBOX business because it is not healthy." He is quick to stress that, "They were not made to replace employees with foreign workers."

Shaw says "the H-1B figures being referenced are Microsoft-wide visa renewals and new hire applications. They are not specific to XBOX and represent a small percentage of Microsoft's overall workforce. And the majority of roles impacted were not American roles."

These initial Xbox layoffs hit multiple teams and studios around the world, with four studios already shed and Dishonored maker Arkane Lyon in talks over divestment options, and the likes of id Software and Bethesda feeling heavy losses of their own.

The H-1B visa program has faced additional scrutiny under the Trump administration, with AP reporting 2025 plans to overhaul the program. Matthew Tragesser, US Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman, said in December that the program had been "exploited and abused by U.S. employers who were primarily seeking to import foreign workers at lower wages than they would pay American workers."

Shaw insists, "XBOX is the largest employer of American workers in the gaming industry and the largest American gaming company."

Dismissing apparent criticism of Sharma, who was appointed to a new Federal Reserve job task force the very week she oversaw the dissolution of 3,200 jobs, Shaw adds, "And Asha is an American born, raised, and educated CEO, from Wisconsin."

The Elder Scrolls 6 will be hurt and potentially delayed by Xbox layoffs, Bethesda devs expect: "This has had a crushing effect on morale."

Steam has reportedly already brought Valve $11.1 billion in revenue in 2026 so far, and I bet that makes you feel even better about that Steam Machine price point.

Alinea Analytics has released its mid-year analysis of Valve's platform, saying, "In the first half of 2026, we estimate that games on Steam generated $11.1B in gross revenue, the platform’s highest-ever half-year."

The firm adds, "That’s up 14.5% on H1 2025, and up 8% even on the holiday-heavy H2 2025, which is the more remarkable comparison given the back half of the year usually wins on seasonal sales and holiday buys."

As for why Steam did especially well this year, Alinea notes a "surge in Asian players (China especially), higher prices on releases, viral co-op hits, smarter back-catalogue strategies from the big publishers" and "third-party publishers quietly returning to Steam after their own-launcher experiments, tails between legs."

The report notes that the first half of 2026 was roughly four times as big as the first half of 2017. However, a more shocking metric is that Steam has reportedly generated more in the first half of 2026 than in the entirety of 2020 – a year when everyone was inside playing games and dodging COVID.

While massive AAA games like Resident Evil Requiem, Crimson Desert, and 007 First Light – as well as indie hits like Mewgenics and Mina the Hollower – have blown up this year, the percentage of Steam revenue coming from new games actually appears smaller than in the past as backlog sales grow.

Alinea notes that 29% of game sales in the first half of 2024 came from games released that year, while 27% of H1 2025 sales were from new releases. Of course, 2025's first half had Monster Hunter Wilds, which sold 11 million copies in 2025, with 8 million of those selling in the first three days. The first few months of 2024 were also stacked with anticipated games that undoubtedly bumped those numbers up. So far, Alinea is tracking 2026 Steam sales at just 21% from new releases.

This success is maybe a bit harder to swallow given that the 1TB Steam Deck OLED just got a price hike to be almost a grand, while Steam Machine pricing starts at $1,049. RAM shortages and US tariffs are obviously major weights, but when a company is printing money like this, you might expect it to eat some costs. However, Valve made it perfectly clear that subsidizing hardware "doesn't align with our beliefs."

I can't afford $1,049 for a Steam Machine, but Valve has already graced your PC with the ability to be a high-spec living room rig from afar.