I'm typing this approximately 38 seconds after Sony Santa Monica finished showcasing 20 minutes of the upcoming God of War Laufey at PlayStation State of Play June 2026, and fans are already squabbling. They're deathly serious about the cube.

Per a Sony blog elaborating on the developer's first look at God of War Laufey, the giant, gelatin cube named Phranque – pronounced "frangk," or Frank – "is a curious cosmic cube with an earnest disposition." Voiced by The Boys star Jack Quaid, the blue block of Jell-O seems like a kindly foil to giantess Laufey, who seems solemn to be navigating the violent Everywhen in a volcanic afterlife filled with gods struggling for power. But it seems some hopeful Laufey players want to put Phranque in a boiling pot and melt him back down into sugar water.

"it's a cube lol so random you get it right hahaha so quirky so random hahahahahahah omg," comments writer Jake Steinberg on Bluesky.

"This is the worst shit I've ever seen," a cube denier on Twitter adds.

"I wish nothing but the worst things to happen to Frank the talking cube. For no other reason besides that he's a God of War character named Frank. Go to hell Frank," concludes popular Twitter artist Wanderjegson.

Clearly, Phranque is making a major first impression for a big cube made of stardust, and sauce, and maybe beef collagen. He's chipper as he slides around the Everywhen no doubt leaving a trail of sticky juice behind him, and I understand that some people will find this unselfconscious behavior will either inspire disdain – for why should a cube not be as self-conscious as Man? – or admiration.

"God of war is for girls now! And they finally replaced my son with the cube I’ve always wanted…" says one fan on Bluesky.

Whichever way you fall, it's clear the guy has star power. Another cubist on Bluesky writes, "GELATINOUS CUBE WILL SELL MILLIONS." Personally, I could take or leave Phranque. I need to get to know him better first, or be informed if he's blue raspberry flavor like I suspect, or the less desirable blueberry.

"We had influenced the industry" – The Last of Us and God of War tackling "serious, emotional subjects" made the creator of a PS3 classic feel like they had left their mark.

After years of rumors that the next pantheon God of War would be taking on would be Egypt, it turns out they were right, they just missed that others were part of it too.

God of War Laufey was announced as the final part of PlayStation State of Play – with 20 minutes of footage being shown off. The upcoming PS5 game has Kratos' departed wife Faye wake up in a new realm after the events of God of War 2018's opening. The game itself looks more action-heavy akin to the Greek saga, but this very much is not set in Greece, and eventually, the answer was revealed to us.

During the gameplay segment, Faye comes into contact with a distinctly Egyptian-looking foe, who was identified by her companion as Sekhmet, the Egyptian warrior goddess. However, said companion very much did not look Egyptian.

Turns out, Faye has ended up in the Everywhen, which a follow-up PlayStation Blog post describes as "where ruthless gods from across mythology vie for power in a land overflowing with dangerous magic." To drive that home, the blog also identifies that the enemy Faye has a scrap with is Begtse, a Dharmapala who is the lord of war in Tibetan Buddhism.

The blog continues, "The Everywhen is the birthplace and endpoint to which all magic returns, a transcendent realm above those we've come to know. A location in which gods and creatures from different mythologies come together, and not always in harmonious coexistence." So yes, we are getting an Egyptian God of War, but it just so happens to also be a God of War that spans multiple pantheons.

Check out all the news, reveals, and announcements from the PlayStation State of Play June 2026 in our live blog.

Directing duo Joe and Anthony Russo say we can expect something entirely different from Avengers: Doomsday.

"That serial shifting and changing and surprising you and then reinventing itself and then shifting and changing and then surprising you... that’s exciting, and I think you’re going to see some shifting and changing [with Doomsday]," Joe told the crowd at SXSW (via The Hollywood Reporter). "So, get ready for it. Look, we were with Rob [Downey Jr.] earlier today. We were both talking about this concept that we are back to phase zero. This is starting over from scratch. We want to make sure everybody feels like this isn’t leaning on anything from the past."

I'm pretty curious what to expect by way of "starting over," especially given the fact this will be the fifth Avengers movie and 39th Marvel movie overall. It's also worth mentioning that the impossibly long and stacked cast list for Doomsday includes the Thunderbolts cast, the rest of the Fantastic Four, and Chris Hemsworth's Thor, Anthony Mackie's Captain America, Danny Ramirez's Falcon, Letitia Wright's Shuri, Chris Evans as Steve Rogers, Patrick Stewart as Professor X, Ian McKellen as Magneto, and Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler. As superhero fatigue continues to take over, I'll take whatever surprises I can get (especially if they assemble the Young Avengers and give us back Famke Janssen as Jean Grey).

Avengers: Doomsday releases in theaters on December 18 (aka, Dunesday). For more, check out our list of upcoming Marvel movies, or get up to speed with our Marvel timeline.

Today's PlayStation State of Play brought all kinds of news and trailers for a wide array of upcoming PS5 games, but maybe the biggest surprise of the show is the sheer volume of games all coming out just a few days apart from each other toward the end of September. It's no surprise that big publishers are all skipping November with the shadow of GTA 6 looming large, but what is surprising is that Silent Hill: Townfall, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, and Control Resonant are all launching just a day apart from each other.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword is set to release on September 25. Silent Hill: Townfall is scheduled to launch on September 24. And now, we also know that Control Resonant is coming on September 24, as well. That final date was confirmed with a new trailer from Remedy setting up the game's story and characters – and one which I found a lot more compelling than previous previews of the upcoming game.

Either way, it's wild to see three AAA titles in beloved series from major publishers launching in such close proximity. We've also got Marvel's Wolverine coming on September 15 and Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve landing on October 2, and these are just the games that we saw as part of today's showcase.

It's an unusually packed early autumn for gaming, but it's impossible to ignore GTA 6's seismic influence on the gaming landscape. Now that Rockstar seems to be fully committed to its November 19 date, everyone else is getting as far away as they possibly can.

Stick with us for all the news as the Summer Game Fest schedule for 2026 rolls on.

Sony Santa Monica revealed God of War Laufey, a new God of War game starring Kratos' wife Faye, at today's PlayStation State of Play live show, confirming rumors and passing the torch to the wife and mother cremated at the beginning of 2018's God of War.

The 20-minute reveal sequence opens with a familiar look at Kratos and his son Atreus holding a cremation burial for Faye, before quickly jumping to a third-person perspective of Faye exploring ruins and chopping monsters in another realm called the Everywhen, the "afterlife of the gods" according to God of War Laufey's PlayStation Store listing.

Faye's fighting style is more magic- and sword-based compared to Kratos and Atreus, and that only intensifies as she attains more abilities later in the demonstration. The showcase opens with Faye's 'death,' yet somehow things get worse for her from there, as she's quickly captured by an otherworldly faction while she struggles to accept her own demise – a process which is not helped by confounding commentary from a large, talking slime cube.

The opening suggests Faye's adventure is running in parallel to the first God of War game (that is, the reboot), but anything goes when you're working with afterlife mumbo-jumbo. There's no telling how Faye's perception of time compares to Kratos and Atreus, which complicates hopes that the family will somehow be reunited.

This time around, the theological vibe is decidedly Egyptian – another longstanding rumor around the God of War series. At least, some of it is. There seem to be a lot of gods in the mix this time, this being a more catch-all divine afterlife. However, Egyptian god Sekhmet, also known as a god of war, is very intentionally singled out.

God of War Laufey is, to the surprise of no one, coming to PS5. We don't have any sort of release date yet, but the store listing says it's "coming soon."

We can seemingly rule out an eventual PC release given Sony's retreat from the platform, at least as far as single-player games go.

God of War Greek trilogy's Kratos actor T.C. Carson says Sony Santa Monica "realized that they let me go prematurely," but "they came back" to him for the remake.

Rayman Legends Retold brand producer Loic Gounon has explained why Legends is the game getting remade instead of the original Rayman.

So, Rayman Legends Retold has been announced, and naturally, I'm sure everyone is wondering 'why is Ubisoft remaking the last game in the series that is available on every platform and still very much holds up?'

"Obviously it's a question we've had in most of the interviews," Gounon explains at a recent preview event attended by GamesRadar+, noting that "it's sort of the richest one in a way." He says that Legends has "all of Rayman," with the likes of Globox, the Teensies, Murfy, and Barbara joining the adventure, and that if Ubisoft "wanted to go [to the] next [game], we need to have all of Rayman."

The game most in need of a remake is arguably Rayman, the PS1 classic which had a re-release earlier this year with Rayman 30th Anniversary Edition, "I think it's been tried," Gounon explains. He adds, "I think it's a game that's really difficult to remake, and I think, in a way, the answer to remaking Rayman 1 is Rayman Origins, and we went through those arguments internally."

Gounon adds, "Rayman Origins is sort of a reboot of Rayman 1. There are some of the characters, some of the places." In original Rayman, he says, it's "super slow" and "very old school game design," but "if you start changing that, the metrics, the sense of speed, it's another game. It's Origins"

He continues, "I would call it near a mission impossible to remake Rayman 1, honestly. That's why, when we decided to celebrate the 30th anniversary, we felt that keeping Rayman 1 as intact as it was, going for a bit more of a documentary approach, how the franchise was born, was a better angle."

Of course, that doesn't rule out remakes for Rayman 2 or 3, so keep the hopium going.

Rayman Legends may be one of the best games of 2013, and if its remake is as good as that, we'll be looking at one of the best new games of 2026 too.

Ikumi Nakamura, the iconic horror artist known for her work on Okami, Bayonetta, The Evil Within, and Ghostwire Tokyo, has unveiled a brand new project that looks like some of the best parts of all those games combined and enhanced with a three-player co-op option.

Kemuri: Hunt the Unseen made its debut during today's PlayStation State of Play, and quite frankly, it woke me out of the slight boredom I was experiencing watching Wolverine impale someone's face for the 15th time. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of Marvel Games and I'm looking forward to Marvel's Wolverine, but that trailer was just a whole lot of slashing people to a bloody pulp and not a whole lot else. Kemuri: Hunt the Unseen, on the other hand, looks like something fresh, new, and weird in a way you would rightfully expect from Nakamura.

Fast, fluid, frenetic, and brimming with colorful J-pop style, Kemuri looks like a decidedly non-spooky take on Ghostwire Tokyo, the supremely underrated 2022 action horror game that Nakamura was originally creative director on. You team up with up to two other players and take on Kemuri City, which of course is the city "closest to the afterlife," and hunt down some ghosts inspired by Japanese folklore. It seems you have numerous ways of traversing the city both horizontally and vertically, with the trailer showing player characters gliding around environments, wall-running up buildings, and rail-grinding across ledges in pursuit of yokai which you can form contracts with and absorb their powers, changing your appearance, combat, and movement.

In terms of battles, it seems there's a mix of fast-paced supernatural ability-based melee and ranged combat, with what looks to be a Devil May Cry-influence.

Kemuri is in development at Nakamura's new studio Unseen, hence the subtitle. There's no release date just yet, but you can expect it to land on PS5 at some point in 2027.

In the meantime, here are the best PS5 games you can play right now.

The rock blocking the cave Phantom Blade Zero lives in is slowly rolling away. Developer S-Game revealed during PlayStation State of Play June 2026 that the action RPG will get its own dedicated show later this summer, which is also when pre-orders will open ahead of the dark kungfu game's October 29 launch.

The devoted Phantom Blade Zero show will be a "Gameplay & Story Deep Dive" according to Phantom Blade Zero's State of Play trailer, which teases wicked swordfights and an understandably crying baby. You can watch the whole sordid affair below.

In the trailer, a masked assassin who seems to be our protagonist Soul shoos off enemies with expert precision and a very scary metal weapon. He carries a baby wrapped in a plush, but soiled, blanket on his back, and he seems unafraid of the torrent of enemies S-Game shows in a short montage: a woman with giant limbs, a massive, crackling porcelain hand that reminds me of Dark Souls 3's High Lord Wolnir and his skeletal palms, a giant who swoops her meaty leg around like the Dancer of the Boreal Valley in that same game, and an imposing poison-flower-woman thing that evokes Dark Souls' Chaos Witch Quelaag.

S-Game CEO Soulframe Liang insists his Phantom Blade Zero "is neither a Soulslike game nor a traditional action game."

"Maybe it could create a new identity that is Wuxia Action Games?" he hopes, referring to the genre of Chinese fantasy that also motivated big hit Black Myth: Wukong.

And I can see that Phantom Blade Zero is clearly a wuxia game in the ornate gold armor sets and hyperreal melee combat sequences found in its latest trailer, certainly, but I also pick up on creepy whispers of Dark Souls-like monstrosity. I like all of it, even though that crying baby probably doesn't.

I couldn't love Dark Souls or Bloodborne, but Phantom Blade Zero is the action RPG I wanted them to be.

It's that time of year, as Summer Game Fest rolls around with various new reveals and sneak peeks – and today's big PlayStation State of Play showcase from Sony certainly offers no exception there, giving us another look at Silent Hill: Townfall.

That's right – Silent Hill: Townfall is back in the limelight after its big release date reveal during tonight's State of Play event, finally confirming just when Konami's new horror game is set to launch.

There's apparently not too long left to wait, as the exciting trailer unveils the title's arrival: September 24 of this year. While we already knew it would come in 2026, the precise day is news... good news.

After all, it's nearly been a year since Silent Hill f, the previous series gem, dropped in September of 2025 – and yes, that means that Silent Hill: Townfall is marked to launch around the same time of year as its most recent predecessor.

Will it be as good as the last series entry, though? Only time will tell, but honestly, if this new trailer is anything to go by, then I'm voting that it almost definitely will be.

Just look at the terrifying creatures and scenes protagonist Simon will witness in St. Amelia, the new Silent Hill setting – it's all too reminiscent of an old-school camcorder horror film for me, but I'm loving the eerie vibes.

And, what's more, we can finally put a face to the mysterious voice previously heard on the CRTV in Konami's reveal trailer... Zoe. As per Sony's blog post on Silent Hill: Townfall, she's a nurse from a local family clinic. Simon evidently doesn't recognize her, much like he doesn't recognize St. Amelia itself.

We also get a quick look at some of the upcoming Silent Hill: Townfall puzzles – and, yep, it's looking like the game will feature the series' iconic mind-boggling scenarios to solve between all of the monstrosities and mystery.

As Sony puts it, "Solving these puzzles isn’t just a way to progress in the game, though, but rather a way to understand the situation Simon finds himself in." Hm – that's a bit of a head scratcher in itself... but it does leave me all the more excited.

Here's hoping Silent Hill: Townfall is as promising as it appears it'll be so far. September 24, 2026, please don't be late.

Searching for something else to wishlist? Here are the best new games coming this year and beyond to look forward to.

Capcom has finally confirmed that Onimusha: Way of the Sword is releasing on September 25, 2026.

After first being announced at The Game Awards 2024, Onimusha: Way of the Sword has been one of my most anticipated games, and after a ton of trailers that sadly ended without a release date, today's PlayStation State of Play trailer finally confirmed we'll only need to wait three more months to get our hands on the full game. Plus, the PlayStation Blog also revealed some info about what we saw.

The new trailer features an action-packed look at Miyamoto Musashi fighting through a castle on top of Mount Oe in order to reach its owner, "a colossal Genma" who "claims to be Shuten Doji, the Oni of legend." The boss taunts Musashi for rejecting the power of the Oni, and goes on to kick his ass easily, with the end of the trailer showing him taking on a Devil Trigger-esque Oni form, although we don't see this in action during any gameplay segments.

Well actually, we'll get our first hands-on even sooner, as Capcom also confirmed that a demo for the game is set to release later today, and will feature multiple combat encounters. This includes a boss fight against "Musashi's formidable rival, Saksaki Ganryu." Perhaps more importantly, you get a cute little trinket as a reward for playing the demo.

And, while the State of Play and Onimusha Twitter account didn't clarify, the Onimusha: Way of the Sword Demo will be multiplatform, in fact, it's already live over on Steam.

However, Capcom has also chosen the same date that everyone else has to avoid GTA 6, as both Control Resonant and Silent Hill Townfall have chosen release dates a day apart from each other.

A new trailer for Marvel's Wolverine debuted at today's PlayStation State of Play, offering an extensive new look at the game's bloody combat. Perhaps most interesting to Marvel fans, however, are the extensive cameos from other characters who'll appear in the game.

The main gameplay portion of the trailer sees Logan team up with Jean Grey, and we see here psychically wrecking enemies in the background as we do battle with bladed fists. A kidnapped group of X-Men featured here also appears to include Leech.

A number of additional quick cameos show up at the very end of the trailer, including Silver Samurai, Omega Red, and Wolverine's archnemesis, Sabretooth. There's also a character who, at a glance, bears some resemblance to Deadpool, but on close examination I think that's just a generic ninja associated with The Hand.

Marvel's Wolverine is (still) scheduled to launch on September 15, and the pile of major games launching in September is getting absolutely massive. As detailed in a PlayStation Blog post, Wolverine is sweetening the deal with an array of pre-order bonuses, including early unlocks of a classic-style brown suit and reflective claws, as well as a technique point.

I will not be redeeming that pre-order bonus – I like to actually enjoy a game's proper progression curve, thank you very much – but the $80 deluxe version does at least have some unique bonuses you can't just unlock through normal gameplay. It features five suits, labeled Incredible, Savage, Age of Apocalypse, Night Hunt, and New Leather, and some of those make the new Wolverine look a whole lot like Hugh Jackman, which is fun.

For more of this week's big news, follow us throughout the Summer Game Fest 2026 schedule.

Ubisoft has confirmed the long-rumored Rayman Legends remake at today's PlayStation State of Play, with Rayman Legends Retold set to launch on October 1, 2026.

Despite being the last game in the series to release – way back in 2013 – Rayman Legends is the game Ubisoft has decided to remake for the series' grand return. Rayman Legends Retold is Rayman Legends, but with a fresh coat of paint – namely, ditching the 2D hand-drawn aesthetic for a 3D makeover. However, despite the 3D characters, the game is playing in 2D just like the original, but it's not a straight remake, as Ubisoft is seemingly adding new levels to the game where you ride a dragon in 3D Star Fox-like levels.

Also showcased was the voice acting, which seemingly features the return of Rayman's long-time voice actor David Gasman (who first played the character in Rayman 2). The rest of the crew is also voiced, but I wasn't able to place them – although Globox really sounds like Patrick Star from SpongeBob SquarePants. And as is tradition, Barbara has a Scottish accent that really doesn't sound like it was done by a Scottish person.

The game is set to launch on October 1, 2026. Obviously, being a PlayStation State of Play, only a PS5 version was confirmed, but known leaker Billbil-Kun revealed Switch 2 box art for the game earlier today (and yes, it's a Game-Key Card), and claims it'll be launching for 40$. They also claim pre-ordering it will grant access to Rayman Origins: Enhanced Edition, which wasn't shown in the showcase.

Rayman Legends may be one of the best games of 2013, and if it's remake is as good as that we'll be looking at one of the best new games of 2026 too

Realistically, nobody should ever read a YouTube stream chat. That's especially true during shows like today's PlayStation State of Play live showcase, as these events are notorious for cultivating nonsense and memes in the chat. But I have to admit, right from the pre-show – give me that sweet, Sony-stamped, electronic music – today's State of Play chat did carry a pretty loud and consistent message: "We want Destiny 3." Not even Wolverine's extraordinarily hairy shoulders could distract Guardians in the chat.

This State of Play arrived one week ahead of June 9, which will see the final update for Destiny 2. Bungie abruptly announced the end of the game, and of active development, in May following well over a year of decline after the game's Final Shape expansion. Players have been in mourning ever since. But as they tumble down the stages of grief, fans have also clung to hopes that Bungie can turn it around, and they've aimed their fire hoses at Sony.

Simmering in the background of this State of Play chat – a river of chants like "Destiny 3," "#WeWantDestiny3," and so on – is a petition on change.org begging "Sony to develop Destiny 3." Bungie is the developer, of course, but Sony owns the company now, and talk of Sony reducing Bungie's freedom amid financial hardship has redirected discussion toward the house of PlayStation.

At the time of writing, the Destiny 3 petition has 338,556 signatures – a commendable turnout for a new, rag-tag push.

"The desire for new adventures, fresh storylines, and innovative gameplay features is palpable among players everywhere," it reads. "Destiny 3 would not only meet these demands but also expand the horizons of what is possible within this universe."

Destiny 2 community lead whips the MMO's community into a frenzy with a series of posts that could mean anything from a sequel to nothing at all: "Do not go gentle into that good night."

Up until Subnautica 2 released in May, the writing on the wall was making the aquatic survival game look like a blood-splattered horror movie. Developer Unknown Worlds and parent company Krafton locked horns over launch delays, spontaneous firings, and a missing $250 million bonus that's at the center of an ongoing lawsuit – but the whole time, lead designer Anthony Gallegos was confident in his team.

"The development teams always just kind of put their heads down and made the best thing they possibly could," Gallegos tells MinnMax host Ben Hanson in a new interview while discussing how relieved Unknown Worlds was that Subnautica 2 succeeded after a year of scary headlines.

"Anytime there's, like, any sort of controversy or drama or anything like that around a game – or, in our case, a delay – [...] sometimes people tend to start assuming the worst. Like, 'Ah, there's going to be no way that this could be good,'" Gallegos continues. "And we're like, 'Oh man, I wish we could just show you guys.' Like, 'I think you're wrong.'"

"We were always here trying to make the best thing," Gallegos explains, "and there wasn't a point for a bunch of people where everyone was like, 'Ah, whatever. Just collect our checks until we get fired.'"

I find this surprising considering how delicate the state of Unknown Worlds seemed barely one year ago, when Krafton abruptly replaced Subnautica leadership, "effective immediately."

But Gallegos suggests Unknown Worlds developers' genuine love of everything Subnautica drowned out the noise surrounding it.

"They were always in it to try and make something that would live up to fan expectations," he says. "Even when we all get together for our work retreats every year, all anyone does is talk about Subnautica anyways. People love the game on the team as well."

"That's even counting people like me," Gallegos continues, "who are new to the team, and also people that have been at the studio for, like, 15 years who still love Subnautica, even though they've been working on it for the better part of over a decade." And love might be slightly more powerful than a GamesRadar+ headline, I admit.

Subnautica 2 tries to be more like Alien: Isolation than Silent Hill 2, which is why the leviathans are invincible now.

Developer Lo-Fi games had a simple pitch for Kenshi back in 2018, the year of its official 1.0 launch: "A free-roaming squad based RPG focusing on open-ended sandbox gameplay features rather than a linear story." Overwhelming freedom in a sprawling world was the game's north star, to the point that its Steam description also promises "freeform gameplay in a seamless game world in the largest single-player RPG world since Daggerfall, stretching over 870 square kilometers."

The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall was released in 1996, but even today, its irresponsibly large game world would dwarf nearly anything that isn't a galactic adventure like No Man's Sky. The kicker, of course, is that it wasn't really meant to be explored in the way you'd roam around Skyrim or The Witcher 3. Even so, Kenshi was really throwing down the gauntlet here, one-upping the scale of basically every RPG from the previous 20 years and promising to make its world worth wandering, too.

Six years later, sterling execution on this bold premise has earned Kenshi 95,158 Steam user reviews averaging 95% "Overwhelmingly Positive," and has brought 3 million players to its wasteland.

In a May Steam update, the first update of any kind since November 2025, Lo-Fi Crew confirms that Kenshi had sold 3 million copies. For reference, it hit 2 million in April 2024, suggesting a healthy, long tail for the game.

"To the people who picked Kenshi up on a whim," the devs wrote. "To the modders, fan artists, storytellers, Beep enthusiasts, and content creators. To everyone who's ever pointed a friend toward Kenshi, posted a screenshot, or clocked more hours than they’d care to admit. Thank you. We wouldn't be here without you."

Some merch and Steam point shop items marked the occasion, but eyes were really on Kenshi 2, an in-progress sequel that's been hidden in the mist for ages. "'Kenshi 2 when' is by far the most common question that we encounter," Lo-Fi says. So, the team made a whole website called Kenshi 2 When, complete with a signup form to be notified of any Kenshi 2 and/or general Lo-Fi news.

The sequel seems to be deep in production. "We know silence is hard to sit with. But Kenshi 2 is being built the same way we've always done things: stubbornly, carefully, and, most importantly, on our own terms," the devs say. "We appreciate your patience while we build a worthy successor to Kenshi, and an experience that will exceed your expectations."

A healthy 3 million copies of a $30 self-published game – ignoring any fees and discounts in the mix – ought to give the devs a nice big cushion for production. Which is a lot more than you can say for Kenshi 1, a game that limped its way to launch "after 12 years of working alone, working as a six-man team, shrinking back to a four-man team, and suffering the dreaded year-long pathfinding update disaster of '15," per a 2018 Steam post from lead dev Chris Hunt. Feed the starving artist in your mind: it's always better when creators are able to take their time without stressing about run rate, or indeed food.

RPG devs apologize to "Steam staff and all of our players" after their game draws 164,000 concurrent players and starts breaking Valve's marketplace.

Mina the Hollower is a natural follow-up to Yacht Club Games' previous hit, Shovel Knight, in many ways – not least of which is its excellent pastiche of a wide array of retro influences. But, even as Mina secures its position as the best-rated game of 2026, the devs are absolutely certain that they don't want to repeat one major part of Shovel Knight's legacy: all that DLC.

"No free DLC", programmer David D'Angelo tells Kotaku. That lesson applied to Mina the Hollower's original Kickstarter which, unlike the crowdfunding campaign for Shovel Knight, didn't offer stretch goals before major post-launch content. "Basically, we're not promising anything that – Whatever we promise is what we want to do for sure, without question. We came up with a plan for what the game was. And that's what we put on Kickstarter. And that's what we delivered at the end of the day."

Shovel Knight's Kickstarter included a wide array of vaguely defined stretch goals, notably including three playable boss characters and a 4-player battle mode. The developers imagined these goals being fulfilled with simple minigames and lightly remixed levels. Instead, they snowballed into extensive, all-new campaigns and spin-offs that effectively served as entire new games in their own right.

Those DLC expansions were far, far more extensive than what they'd pictured when they added those goals to the Kickstarter, which is why Mina the Hollower's stretch goals were a lot more specific – and deliverable. "So, yeah, it was just like, no empty…or I don't know what you even call that, like a promise that you're not really sure what it is," D'Angelo explains.

That's not to say that DLC is entirely off the table for Mina, but D'Angelo says the team has "literally never talked about" a major expansion. But they do have some "pretty clear ideas" for a potential sequel. "We think of Mina like Shovel Knight," he says. "It’s a tentpole game of our studio that we [want to] keep going." Just maybe don't expect every boss to get its own unique campaign around this particular tentpole.

Saving the studio, Mina the Hollower sells 300,000 copies in 3 days as head wonders "how come the best-reviewed game of 2026 is not the fastest-selling game."

Update: Yup, Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis just featured in today's PlayStation State of Play, and while the leaked release date was slightly off (sort of), we're still facing a delay out of 2026.

Lara Croft looks cooler than ever in our latest look at the game, solving puzzles, using her dual pistols, facing off with dinosaurs, exploring some seriously cinematic places, and generally being her iconic self.

We'll officially be able to dive into the game on February 12, 2027. However, you'll still be able to play it on the leaked February 10 date if you pre-order the Deluxe or Collector's Edition thanks to that 48-hour early access window.

Original story:

Suddenly, the rumors about a Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis delay are looking a lot more believable. Ahead of tonight's PlayStation State of Play, Amazon listings went live suggesting that the release date had been pushed back to February 10, 2027, a delay from the previously announced 2026 launch window.

The Amazon pre-order listings were quickly removed, but not before accounts like Wario64 on Bluesky preserved the details for posterity. In addition to the February 10 release date, the listings also detailed a pre-order bonus for an early unlock of a Survivor outfit inspired by Lara Croft's 2013 look.

The PC version of the game was listed at $60, with a Deluxe Edition set at $70. This version includes a Parisian Fugitive outfit, itself a riff on Lara's appearance in the much-maligned PS2 game, Angel of Darkness. It also includes a 48-hour early access period, and most interesting of all, a "post-launch DLC story pack." Sadly, there are no details on what that DLC includes.

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis (Steam code) up for preorder on Amazon ($59.99 - release date Feb 10, 2027) amzn.to/4ua1Gb8Deluxe $69.99 amzn.to/4vJN2ZJ #ad

— @wario64.bsky.social (@wario64.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-06-02T21:41:30.525Z

Rumors about a delay to Legacy of Atlantis have persisted for months, and given the timing of these Amazon listings for its basic and deluxe versions, it seems likely that the game's release date will be announced alongside proper pre-orders in just a few hours at State of Play.

That's not the only semi-official leak Legacy of Atlantis suffered today, as the game's PlayStation Store page was also updated with an array of previously unseen screenshots. Those images, like the Amazon listings, were quickly nuked, but once again the community has preserved them. So enjoy an early peek at Lara encountering velociraptors and King Midas before a likely new trailer later today.

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis boss fight lead points to Elden Ring as a stellar example of how to make sure they're fair.

Directing duo Joe and Anthony Russo say they don't have any plans for more Marvel movies past Avengers: Secret Wars.

"This is it," Anthony said at SXSW London, explaining that they intended Endgame to be their last Marvel movie (via Deadline). "So, I will say this. The stories that we’re focused on now are complete. Doomsday and Secret Wars speak with one another as two films, and they form a complete expression. Whether or not we all collaborate with Marvel beyond that is certainly a possibility, but right now, the vision, the narrative vision is just for Secret Wars."

Secret Wars has not yet started filming, though a background casting advertisement was shared online in May. The movie (which will likely put Tom Holland's Peter Parker in the black symbiote Spidey suit) is due for a December 2027 release date, and will bring the age of Marvel's 'Phases' to a close. Given how successful the Russo brothers have been when it comes to Marvel movies... I doubt it'll be their last. Especially given the fact that the Avengers movies have made literal billions of dollars.

“We’re going to see what we look like in photos in 2028 and then we’ll let you know," Joe jokingly added.

Continued Anthony: "Our relationship with Marvel has built over many years now, and there’s been a very fruitful relationship. We’ve done some of our best work with Marvel. We really value the relationship, and I think they really value what we have brought to the MCU."

Doomsday sees just about every Marvel hero ever go up against Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom, and even the pre-MCU, pre-Disney Fox Marvel stars are making an appearance. The absolutely stacked cast list includes: Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Anthony Mackie as Captain America, Chris Evans as Steve Rogers, Patrick Stewart as Professor X, Ian McKellen as Magneto, and Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler.

Avengers: Doomsday releases in theaters on December 18 (aka, Dunesday). For more, check out our list of upcoming Marvel movies, or get up to speed with our Marvel timeline.

Path of Exile 2's latest update, Return of the Ancients, is the Diablo 4 rival's biggest update yet both in scope and in popularity, fueling the highest surge in players since the game's early access launch back in in 2024. That said, players say it's also the buggiest update yet, with widespread reports of progression-blocking bugs and crashes plaguing what has otherwise been a well-received update.

Return of the Ancients completely overhauled Path of Exile 2's endgame when it launched late last week with six new endgame storylines as well as the new Ascendancy classes and Pinnacle bosses, but as you might expect with an update so huge – especially if you're a Diablo 4 player – a number of bugs managed to hitch a ride with the new features.

In a written update titled, "What we are working on Part 2," GGG outlines what's been fixed already and what's still to come in the game's immediate future.

Per the writeup, "the main issues" GGG was focusing on over the weekend were, naturally, the "progression blockers." The studio says running into these particularly nasty buggers "effectively ends your progress, so they are rated as incredibly critical."

Thankfully, GGG reports that "almost all the progression blockers we know about have now been fixed," even though "sometimes it's not incredibly clear in the hotfix notes, so if you did get stuck, we would encourage you to try again.

"In some cases the fixes might require you to rerun some content," GGG advises. In terms of bug fixes more broadly, GGG says it's making "pretty good headway" overall, but still has "more fixes to make."

Likewise, GGG seems to be keeping a close ear to the ground with regards to community feedback, as it details a number of fixes under various categories planned "over the next week." These are broken down into General Endgame, Ritual, Delirium, Breach, Runes of Aldur, Character Balance and Fixes, Other General Fixes, Campaign Improvements, and Controller Trade Improvements.

Some of these seem to be in direct response to some of the most common complaints from the PoE player base, like "turning off the knockback on the Tidal Waves runeshape mechanic" and "turning off the knockback on the Blood Waves ritual mechanic." There was also a lot of feedback suggesting it's a big hassle trying to navigate the trade system using a controller, and GGG says it's working on a number of fixes to address that, including a button "to copy one of your active trades so that you can easily sell more of those items".

It's unclear exactly when these fixes will be implemented – again, GGG just says "over the next week – but it's likely we'll start to see a number of hot fixes dribble in very shortly. The studio also assures these are just the "initial" fixes in the immediate aftermath of Return of the Ancients and that other changes are in the works but haven't been revealed. In the meantime, at least you should be able to progress through most of the new content without fear of losing everything to an ill-timed crash.

Path of Exile co-creator tells developers "don't survey your players" because "'your audience is good at recognizing problems and bad at solving them'"

Mina the Hollower, the new Zelda-like action game from Shovel Knight maker Yacht Club, needed to be a certified hit to get the studio out of a funding hole. It's currently tied for the highest-rated game of the year on Metacritic, and we've now learned that it's sold 300,000 copies in its first three days – a strong start to a sustainable future for the studio.

Bloomberg reported the figure, with Yacht Club co-founder and director Sean Velasco saying he was pleased with the critical response but was actually hoping for higher numbers on the sales side, even if this figure is great news for the studio.

"I wonder how come the best-reviewed game of 2026 is not the fastest-selling game, so I feel a big fire lit to close that gap," Velasco says. The sales are strong, but the reviews are incredible, is my read. It'll be interesting to see how long Mina's launch momentum lasts, to say nothing of what its longer tail may look like as those discounts do start to come in.

Shovel Knight was famously supported for years via additional content and even game-sized releases that wound up packed into the Treasure Trove collection, not to mention multiple spinoffs that came as Yacht Club worked to build its own Mario.

Mina is the studio's Zelda, and could potentially see long-term support. That said, Yacht Club has discussed learnings from Shovel Knight and how it got caught up in some Kickstarter obligations, so I'd expect the studio to look for a clearer plan for anything new for Mina. It also paused a 3D Shovel Knight project to get Mina over the line, and Bloomberg's previously reported that the devs don't want to split themselves up again.

Velasco's question touches on a lot of forces in games, and I don't see it as a function of greed, but rather a desire to see a demonstrably great game go as far as it can.

Price is an obvious factor. Mina is $20, and curiously, it's stayed at full price on Steam, skipping the usual launch discount. It does, however, have some Steam bundles with hits like Mewgenics and No Rest for the Wicked, which can help with visibility and sales. SteamDB estimates anywhere from 118,000 to 157,000 of those 300,000 copies were sold on Steam.

Recently, Velasco explained that Mina the Hollower is priced at $20 to make it more appealing up front, saying, "we don't want people to wait" for a discount when "we only get one chance at this."

As for how Mina's sales compare to its reviews, well, quality has never really been reliably correlated with popularity in games. Great reviews are fantastic news for any game, but games with exceptional ratings report underwhelming or average sales all the time.

Games mired in mixed reviews may reach many more people through brand power, which is yet another factor here. Mina is not only a new indie IP, but one with very different gameplay to Yacht Club's previous releases. It's also up against highly rated installments for Forza, James Bond, Pokemon, Resident Evil, and other giant series, just to skim the Metacritic charts. I don't think Yacht Club seriously expected to outsell or outpace, say, Resident Evil Requiem, but Velasco's point about reaching the huge audience that Mina's critical reception implies is out there – a game this good will surely be liked and played by many – is reasonable.

Our Mina the Hollower review calls it classic Zelda vibes with a splash of Bloodborne.