Today’s Gaming News Roundup
Happy Tuesday, everyone! Following the GTA 6 delay, we’ve got some interesting news. Let’s start with what this might mean for the gaming industry and other fascinating gaming news.
GTA 6’s delay doesn’t mean the games industry’s in trouble – it’s already dead
I saw someone, somewhere, saying something like this recently: it’s always easier to play the role of doomsayer than the optimist, because far fewer people seem to care if you’re wrong when you’re predicting something will fail. The writer believes the video games industry – that is, the established order of massive, western developer-publishers, each making multiple games that cost hundreds of millions and employing developers in the thousands – isn’t just in big trouble, now that GTA 6 has been unsurprisingly delayed to mid-2026. Major, publicly traded western publishers such as Ubisoft, EA, 2K, and the like would release major, triple-A (or even “quad-A”!)
Some of those are annualised franchises, like Call of Duty, 2K sports games, or FIFA/FC, while others are annualised via a kind of perpetually-rotating roster: Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Ghost Recon, The Division, etc. Meanwhile, smaller, more boutique ‘indie’ publishers – your Devolvers, Annapurnas, Keplers, Team17s – would also release a steady stream of medium-sized games. EA has joined in the fun of major layoffs, obliterating more than 300 people’s positions, cancelling yet another project in the brilliant, dreadfully cursed Titanfall franchise, and parking the beloved WRC series at Codemasters.
While TikTok whisks idol thumbs away from Candy Crush, for instance, it also takes eyeballs from Twitch, which laid off 35 percent of its workforce last year (with staff fearing more still to come), and YouTube, where some creators now openly admit they’re turning to culture war grifts as it’s their only means of turning a profit.Â
Gears Of War: Reloaded is a Steam remaster of the original cover shooter
I once got in a heated debate with Graham over whether the chest-high walls in the Gears Of War series could accurately be called ‘massive’. Well, we can finally examine the true scale of these walls – in 4K no less – with Gears Of War: Reloaded. A “faithfully remastered” version of the 2006 large man action game, coming to Steam on August 26th this year.
It’ll be $40 to buy, and also available on that game subscription service you may or may not want to support right now. Here are some Gamer Stats for you, gamer: 4K resolution 60 FPS in Campaign 120 FPS in Multiplayer High Dynamic Range (HDR) Dolby Vision & 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 3D Spatial Audio Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) 4K assets and remastered textures Enhanced post-processing visual effects Improved shadows and reflections Super resolution with improved anti-aliasing Zero loading screens during Campaign My claim to fame is that I’m one of the seven people in the world that had played Kill Switch prior Gears. That’s the 2003 PS2 game that effectively invented the contemporary cover shooter, complete with blindfire.
Read more at Rock Paper Shotgun
8BitDo announces new Ultimate 2 wireless controller with TMR joysticks and Hall Effect switchable triggers
All these features for under $60 could make this a winning budget-friendly option. When it comes to budget-friendly controllers, 8BitDo is a brand that’s been known to punch above its weight. Our Jacob was super-impressed with the value in its Ultimate 2C wireless controller, which felt like a far more premium device than the price tag suggested.
Now, 8BitDo is back with the new Ultimate 2 wireless controller, which offers a few upgrades that could be well worth a look for PC controller enthusiasts wanting to spend under $60. The caveat here is that the Ultimate 2 looks like it’s kept the 2C’s fatal flaw, which was the overall size of the unit. While most controllers mimic Microsoft’s Xbox shape and size, the 8BitDo’s Ultimate series has been styled more after the Switch.
For those still interested, it looks like it is keeping the excellent 2.4G connection that gives under 1 ms of latency that impressed us before. 8BitDo is not specific about the improvements, but has listed it as “a refined D-pad for enhanced control and faster response,” so I’m hopeful of getting something much more satisfying on the Ultimate 2.
The Month of Meh event is underway in Hello Kitty Island Adventure, finally letting you take photos with a strange man dressed as an egg
Get a load of this absolutely cracking event. Hello Kitty Island Adventure is happy to oblige whenever there’s an opportunity to run a quirky seasonal event. So, it’s not surprising that a month-long celebration for all things eggs, the Month of Meh, is the current one underway.
The Month of Meh event is here to celebrate Gudetama, one of Hello Kitty’s friends, known for being lazy. But despite this emphasis on doing very little, there are a lot of tasks you can get on with completing around the island, which’ll give you access to exclusive rewards. There’s plenty of time for you to work towards earning these items, too, since the event won’t come to a close until May 31.
However, getting these gifts isn’t as straightforward as it seems. You’ll be able to collect Yolks around Friendship Island while the event is on, which serve as your key to unlocking anything event-exclusive.
One redditor scored an Nvidia RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell GPU with 3x the memory of a RTX 5090 for only twice the MSRP
The new Blackwell workstation cards are out in the wild and are almost affordable if you can get the right grant. Half the PC gaming community is scrambling to even save the cash it takes to get something like an overpriced RTX 5080, while the rest who have the money can’t necessarily find a retailer stocking them. Nvidia’s new RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell GPUs have finally become available, with the first batches already reaching customers.
They’re absolute beasts, packing 96GB of VRAM. The cards are listed at around $9,000 USD with VAT included, which is likely given that they are professional-tier cards. This also included a grant from Nvidia, providing $5,000 for the card.
This means the RTX Pro 6000 likely put Recurrents back by about $3000-$4000 USD. $4,000 is a huge amount of dollars to throw at a GPU, but after some mild rationalisation, it doesn’t sound too insane.
Revenge of the Savage Planet review
The impressive ecosystem and inventive gadgets are a delight, but they’re spread slightly thin across four planets. A witty take on sci-fi and co-op that’s teeming with life and begging for you to get creative with its gadgets. PC Gamer’s got your back. Their experienced team dedicates many hours to every review, to really get to the heart of what matters most to you.
Whatever the origins, there’s more gunge lying around on these four planets than a Nickelodeon studio set circa 1996. Veterans of 2020’s Journey to the Savage Planet will recognise plenty about this sequel, despite the perspective shift from first to third-person and a newfound emphasis on platforming.
Then there was the enormous tower at the centre of planet ARY-26, looming large and full of secrets on the horizon at the start of the game. How sorely we need games like this in 2025.
‘He’s very good at finding really cool people’: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s director found its composer on Soundcloud and lead writer on Reddit
Soundcloud is pretty goated to be honest. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 completely blew expectations out of the water. Its story and combat quickly became all-consuming.
Lorien Testard had never worked on a videogame before (via BBC) and was discovered by Expedition 33’s director, Guillaume Broche, on Soundcloud. He then proceeded to make the entire score, comprising 154 songs and clocking in at an impressive, and slightly terrifying, eight hours and nine minutes long. The album has since passed 1.5 million track streams and was the number one selling album on Bandcamp last week.
Broche seems to think two factors helped massively in his bid to fill roles in the development team: COVID-19, which is pushing more creatives to display their art online, and a healthy dose of luck. “I have a list of 15 people to contact, and I’m like, ‘Okay, I’m probably going to get maybe no one at all’, and every time, the first one is like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it’.”
This Shouldn’t Be Weird Anymore, But This Is Still Very Weird
On May 5, Xbox announced a new remaster of the original 2006 Gears of War. Yes, this is the second time Xbox has remastered the game. However, this time, Xbox is doing something that a decade ago would have seemed extremely unlikely: Gears of War Reloaded is coming to PlayStation 5. Separately, in February, Xbox CEO Phil Spencer confirmed that four games, including Sea of Thieves, would arrive on PS5.
Since then, other Xbox exclusives like Forza Horizon 5 have also made the leap, and Spencer has been clear that no game is too far.
How The New TMNT Game Combines Beat ‘Em Ups And Tactics To Great Effect
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise has a long, rich history with video games. The idea of working on a licensed property first entered Strange Scaffold studio head Xalavier Nelson’s brain in 2020 when he was nearly tapped to become the creative director of a Robocop game. In the time since then, Strange Scaffold has put out games like Clickolding, An Airport for Aliens Currently Run by Dogs, Life Eater, and Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3, which just hit Steam last month.
For now, however, Takedown is set to arrive on Steam on May 22. “It’s the Strange Scaffold way; that’s our brand,” executive producer and writer Manda Farough says.
Elden Ring Nightreign Gets 10-Minute Gameplay Overview Showing Off Classes And More
From Software has released a 10-minute video going deep into the gameplay of Elden Ring Nightreign, its upcoming multiplayer roguelike adventure, which is set to release on May 30 for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC. Nightreign is structured around a three-day loop, where a group of three Nightfarers are sent into the world of Limveld to hunt down and kill a powerful Nightlord. From Software has released a 10-minute video going deep into the gameplay of Elden Ring Nightreign, its upcoming multiplayer roguelike adventure, which is set to release on May 30 for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC. It is different each time players return from the hub world, presenting new challenges, new enemies to fight, and new biomes to explore.
During the day, players have several options for how they want to prepare for the fights ahead–they can take on enemies to level up, search for powerful loot and weapons, infiltrate enemy strongholds in search of information, or challenge more dangerous enemies and dungeon-like lairs to unlock unique items. In all of this, players can choose to travel together, or split up and try to cover more ground. The Executor’s name is briefly revealed in a clip of the character selection screen, but not much else has been revealed about the katana-wielding warrior.
Elden Ring Nightreign releases PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC via Steam.
Three Ecco The Dolphin Games Announced, Original Dev Team At The Helm
Ecco The Dolphin has been in hibernation for 25 years, with the most recent title, Defender Of The Future, launching in June 2000. Now, not only is Ecco returning with the original development team at the helm, but three new projects are in the works–two remasters and a brand-new adventure. In an interview on Xbox Wire, Ecco creator Ed Annunziata announced remasters of both the original and The Tides Of Time, which launched on Sega Genesis in 1992 and 1994, respectively.
A countdown clock has since appeared at eccothedolphin.com, which as of this writing will expire in 8,525 hours–or 355 days, 10 hours from now, which equates to April 26, 2026 at midnight ET. The game launched in December 1992. The sequel followed on the Genesis in November 1994, while the next game, Ecco The Dolphin: launched on Dreamcast on August 15, 2000.
Turns Out Donkey Kong Bananza Has a Secret Language — And It Has Already Been Translated
It’s one thing to translate a secret in-game video game language successfully, but it’s quite another to translate it before the game is even out – yet that’s precisely what YouTuber 2Chrispy has (somehow) managed to do in Donkey Kong Bananza. Just like players managed to unravel the secrets in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s secret language, 2Chrispy used trailers, preview footage, and even the Nintendo Today app to decode the Ancient Monkey Scrolls in Kong’s upcoming adventure. “In the trailer, there were a lot of hidden details,” 2Chrispy explained in a wonderful video describing his process.
With his newly-discovered transcription skills, 2Chrispy has been able to translate pretty much every single sign, note, and written document seen in any footage published to date. To find out what they say, head on over to Chrispy2’s YouTube video.
For instance, in one screenshot, 2Chrispy was an overhead sign, which reads “welcome,” a neon sign that reads “factory,” and a snow level “ice.” “It really does take advantage of Switch 2’s hardware — the environments are beautiful and DK’s animations are wonderfully expressive, and I left feeling like the next generation of first-party Nintendo games had truly arrived.”
After GTA 6 Delay, 2025 Becomes “The Year Of Nintendo,” Analyst Says
Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto VI was poised to be 2025’s biggest and best-selling game, but it was delayed to 2026. With GTA 6 no longer coming this year, 2025 may become “the year of Nintendo” thanks to the launch of the Switch 2 in June and the release of high-profile games like Mario Kart World. He told GamesRadar that publishers who were planning to release their new games in the second half of 2025 but hadn’t confirmed a date yet are now “probably breathing a sigh of relief now.”
However, van Dreunen acknowledged that had GTA 6 launched on time in Fall 2025, it could have created a “cultural moment” that may have drawn back lapsed gamers who might end up buying other games, too. That’s the opinion of analyst Serkan Toto of Kantan Games. He told GamesRadar that publishers who were planning to release their new games in the second half of 2025 but hadn’t confirmed a date yet are now “probably breathing a sigh of relief now.
“Sony also benefits, Toto said, referring to its marquee title Ghost of Yotei now being able to release “in peace.” Even Microsoft may benefit by launching its new Xbox handheld device into a market where people aren’t otherwise occupied playing GTA 6, Toto said.
PS5 Slim Astro Bot Bundles Still In Stock At Walmart, Sold Out At Other Retailers
PS5 Slim Astro Bot Console Bundle $449 | Valued at $560 See at Walmart See at PS Direct See at Amazon (sold out) See at Best BuyÂ
The PS5 console bundles have surged in popularity following Microsoft’s decision to increase the prices of Xbox consoles. While Sony has yet to announce a price increase for the PlayStation 5 in the US, it seems like a distinct possibility in response to tariffs. The Astro Bot PS5 bundles released in March.
Sony raised select PS5 hardware prices in several regions last month, including the UK, following in Japan last year. If you’re interested in picking up a PS5, now would be a smart time to buy one in the US.
What’s Your Take?
That’s all for today’s gaming news roundup! Will you be picking up Gears of War Remastered? Any interest in buying a PS5 bundle? Let us know in the comments below, and don’t forget to share this article with your fellow gamers!
