Month: July 2026

Square Enix explains Kingdom Hearts Switch 2 art error: “human error,” not generative tools

Square Enix told GameSpot in late July 2026 that the Kingdom Hearts Collection [I-III] Nintendo Switch 2 artwork issue came down to “human error” by the company’s internal development team. The company also said no generative tools were used.

That statement came after weeks of backlash. Fans had pointed out Donald Duck with four fingers on one hand and five on the other, plus a warped clocktower, uneven Keyblade chain links, and clothing on Sora that looked oddly distorted.

The scrutiny picked up once fans started comparing a clean Japanese image with an overseas version. In those side-by-side comparisons, the overseas art looked, to many people, like it had been rearranged from existing Tetsuya Nomura artwork, especially in areas that were newly exposed. That comparison is what pushed the claims that the image had gone through heavy post-production.

Square Enix later updated some online store pages and retailer listings. Those revised listings corrected Donald Duck’s hand, but some fans still said other strange details were left in place and kept asking whether the company’s explanation really covered everything they were noticing.

If you follow Kingdom Hearts, or just pay close attention to game art, that clarification matters. Players are a lot quicker now to pick apart trailers, store assets, and promo images, especially with “slop” debates everywhere and Steam-style disclosure rules making people more suspicious of what they’re looking at.

You can find Kingdom Hearts Collection [I-III] on Nintendo Switch 2 store listings and on the updated retailer pages.

Gears of War: E-Day drops the battle pass: cosmetics come from play

The Coalition has finally spelled out how multiplayer works in Gears of War: E-Day before the game lands on October 6, 2026, and the big headline is the cosmetics system. There’s no battle pass. The studio is pitching that approach with the kind of blunt language you don’t usually get in official reveals: “no gimmicks” and “no bullshit.”

Most cosmetics in Gears of War: E-Day are earned by just playing the game, not by grinding through a seasonal reward track or a “tour of duty.” The Coalition says progression will come from seasonal and event challenges, achievements, a medal system that recalls Gears of War 3, and Coins picked up from matches and leveling up, which you can then spend on the exact items you want.

Not everything sits in that main pool. Some extras are set aside for Premium Edition content, charity bundles, and a small number of collaborations, including Metallica-themed items. Still, the broader push seems pretty clear: tie progression back to gameplay, not to paid passes or content that disappears on a timer.

If you’re worn out by shooters built around FOMO, this is one to keep an eye on. There’s still an obvious business question hanging over it, though. Dropping battle passes means walking away from one of the biggest money-makers in modern multiplayer, even while players are already calling the move refreshingly pro-consumer and reports say Gears of War: E-Day’s budget may end up north of $400 million.

Gears of War: E-Day is also launching with Horde Siege, a 12-player multi-squad PvE mode, alongside Team Deathmatch, Conquest, Demolition, and Crucible. It arrives October 6, 2026 on Xbox Series X|S and PC, and it’ll be on Game Pass the same day.

MobLand Season 2 returns to Paramount+ on September 18

Paramount+ locked in MobLand’s return on July 9, confirming that the Tom Hardy crime thriller will be back for Season 2 on September 18, 2026. The streamer revealed the date in a July 9 teaser, ending months of speculation and putting the comeback in view with a little over two months to go.

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When the Ronan Bennett-created, Guy Ritchie-produced drama premiered on March 30, 2025, it pulled 2.2 million viewers for its first episode and became Paramount+’s biggest global series launch, at least by the service’s own numbers. MobLand also took its place alongside Tulsa King as one of the main draws in Paramount+’s crime lineup built around big-name stars.

MobLand centers on diplomatic fixer Harry Da Souza, who gets pulled between the rival Harrigan and Stevenson families. Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren give the Harrigans much of the show’s heavy, intimidating presence, while Tom Hardy plays it the other way, quieter, tighter, always looking like he’s about to snap.

If you know the Tulsa King comparison, this show goes in a different direction. MobLand is darker, more British, and more interested in family dynasties, class tension, and the careful diplomacy that holds the underworld together until it doesn’t. Later reports also said Tom Hardy’s earlier friction with showrunner Jez Butterworth had been resolved, and with Season 3 already greenlit, this return looks like one to keep an eye on if gritty gangster drama is your thing.

You can watch MobLand Season 2 on Paramount+ starting September 18, 2026.

The Relic: First Guardian director now says final release has no machine-generated assets

The Relic: First Guardian director In-hyeok Park says the final released version of the game includes no machine-generated assets.

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According to Park, generative tools were used only during early development, for loading-screen concept art, a few consumable item icons, and draft localization. All of that was replaced before launch, and the localized text was later reviewed and edited by the team.

Anyone who followed the pre-release backlash from Soulslike fans and creators over preview footage, promotional material, and the studio’s lack of clarity can see why Park chose to address it directly. Some critics, though, still say the suspicious-looking elements in those early builds were never fully explained.

Park’s position is that those tools were part of internal iteration, not something that made it into the shipped game. Even so, some post-launch reviews said the voice work and loading-screen art still felt machine-made, before attention moved on to The Relic: First Guardian’s technical issues, poor performance, and clunky combat.

The whole dispute also points to a broader split across the industry: speed on one side, creative trust on the other. Some research has tied AI disclosures to fewer Steam reviews and lower scores.

You can get The Relic: First Guardian now from its official store pages.

Netflix’s East of Eden gets Fall 2026 release window: Florence Pugh leads as Cathy

At Netflix’s Upfront presentation on May 13, 2026, the company confirmed that East of Eden, its seven-episode limited series based on John Steinbeck’s 1952 novel, is set to arrive in Fall 2026.

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Netflix isn’t selling this as a plain period retelling. The version it’s pitching leans more psychological and more current in tone, a reinterpretation of the Trask family saga that still holds on to the novel’s big ideas about inheritance, morality, and the fight between good and evil, but will probably feel darker, closer, and more intimate through Cathy Ames’s point of view.

Florence Pugh plays Cathy Ames, with Christopher Abbott as Adam Trask, Mike Faist as Charles Trask, and Hoon Lee as Lee. Pugh is also an executive producer. In Netflix’s early marketing, including the first-look teaser and poster, Cathy is right at the center instead of being treated only as Steinbeck’s near-mythic embodiment of evil.

If you’re in the mood for a prestige literary adaptation with a sharper psychological edge, this already looks like one to keep an eye on, especially given Florence Pugh’s track record with emotionally intense material and Zoe Kazan’s stated goal, alongside co-showrunner Jeb Stuart, to adapt the full novel and give Cathy Ames the room to be fully explored. Kazan is also Elia Kazan’s granddaughter.

Garth Davis directs the first four episodes, and Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre takes the final three. The series is co-produced by FIFTH SEASON and Anonymous Content, and it’ll hit Netflix after filming in New Zealand, which ran from October 2024 through March 2025.

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Amazon files for 5,105 direct-to-phone satellites: no extra hardware needed

Amazon has filed plans with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission for a 5,105-satellite direct-to-device network. In that filing, the company says the system would bring voice, data, messaging emergency communications, and IoT connectivity straight to mobile devices, so people wouldn’t need any extra hardware.

That would push Project Kuiper past its original broadband role. Amazon says the network could serve consumers, businesses governments, and remote communities, with uses that range from mobile coverage and emergency links to fleet management, remote operations, supply-chain connections, and industrial IoT.

The FCC filing says direct-to-device service wouldn’t arrive until 2028. Project Kuiper broadband, though, is still scheduled to begin service later this year.

Amazon already has approval for 3,236 Project Kuiper satellites, and more than 390 are already in orbit. The new layer, according to the filing, would run across five orbital shells and rely on optical inter-satellite links as well as fiber-connected gateways.

If the idea of satellite service in your pocket, not bolted to your roof, sounds interesting, this is one to keep an eye on.

Amazon’s proposed $11.6 billion Globalstar deal would bring in assets, ground infrastructure, spectrum, and regulatory approvals. It would also let compatible phones connect without antennas, including Apple devices that use Emergency SOS, Messages, Find My, and Roadside Assistance.

You can follow the plan through the FCC filing while Amazon keeps building relationships with Vodafone, Vodacom, Vrio, NTT, SKY Perfect JSAT, DirecTV, Herotel, and Australia’s NBN, all while going up against Starlink, AST SpaceMobile, Lynk Global, and Iridium.

Chip shortage is back: prices are climbing and it could last through 2027

Demand from advanced data centers is driving chip prices up again right now. It’s soaking up memory supply and manufacturing capacity, leaving fewer parts for mainstream electronics and older industrial systems, and turning what might have looked temporary into a structural shortage that analysts now think could last through 2027, maybe longer. You can already see it in the numbers: RAM that once sold for about $100 is moving toward $300, and the median laptop price is rising from roughly $800 to $1,600. Chipmakers are chasing the fatter margins in high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, and server accelerators, not the older chips that still run plenty of the gadgets and business systems people depend on.

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So even if your phone, laptop, router, or appliance doesn’t use the newest parts, you can still feel the squeeze through tighter supply, longer lead times, and higher costs. Apple and Microsoft have already raised some prices.

If you’re planning to buy laptops, PCs, gaming hardware, cars, factory systems, medical devices, retail tech, or telecom equipment, keep an eye on this. Analysts now see a structural shortage tied to long-term spending on data centers and advanced computing, and they think it could stretch through 2027 or beyond.

Governments are trying to respond through the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act, the European Union Chips Act, and new efforts in Brazil, Argentina, and parts of Africa that cover design, assembly, testing, packaging, silicon photonics, advanced memory, and new fabs. Still, don’t expect prices to fall overnight.

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Alan Ritchson reveals MotoGP movie plans: a Fast & Furious-style franchise

Alan Ritchson said in late July 2026 on the Armchair Expert podcast that he’s acquired the rights to a MotoGP movie project, and he seems to be aiming big with it: a Fast & Furious-style international action franchise built around premier-class motorcycle road racing. But at this point, the project exists in public because of Ritchson’s podcast comments, not because a studio has formally announced it. There’s still no public title, no confirmed writer or director, no cast beyond Ritchson’s apparent involvement, no release date, and no follow-up from a studio, production company, or MotoGP rights holder Dorna Sports.

That’s still where things stand. Right now, all anyone has is what Alan Ritchson said on the podcast, not a studio press release. There’s still no public title, no confirmed writer or director, no cast beyond Ritchson’s apparent involvement, no release date, and no follow-up from a studio, production company, or from Dorna Sports, which holds the MotoGP rights.

Ritchson also said on Armchair Expert that he’s been riding and training on different motorcycles so he can handle his own stunts. He connected that prep to the dispute with a neighbor that was widely reported in March 2026, saying bodycam footage backed up his self-defense claim and that no charges were filed.

The audience argument for a franchise is real, if that’s how you want to judge the idea. MotoGP said it reached 632 million viewers in 2025, a 12% jump from the year before. More than half its fans are under 35. Race-weekend attendance hit a record 3.6 million. And the broader motorcycle market is worth more than $75 billion.

If racing franchises are your thing, this one is at least something to keep an eye on. Just treat it like what it is right now: a project in very early development, at least until official partners actually sign on.

And there’s nothing to watch yet. For now, all you have is Alan Ritchson’s announcement, plus the assumption that if this moves forward, it would be released as a theatrical film project.

HBO’s Harry Potter series is moving fast: Season 2 could film before Season 1 premieres

HBO has already renewed its Harry Potter TV series for Season 2. Reports say production is being lined up for fall 2026, and some outlets go further and point to an August 2026 start. That would put cameras rolling months before Season 1 even premieres on December 25, 2026.

That kind of pace makes HBO’s plan pretty obvious. It’s treating Harry Potter as a long-haul adaptation, likely one book per season over the better part of a decade. If that holds, Season 2 would move straight into Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets after Season 1 covers Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

Getting started that early also solves a practical problem: the cast is young, and kids don’t stay the same age for long. It gives HBO a better shot at keeping the school-year timeline believable and the continuity tighter. Season 1 is still locked for December 25, 2026, and reports say filming began in July 2026 at Leavesden Studios in Hertfordshire, England.

For anyone hoping this reboot sticks closer to the books, there’s at least a reason to keep an eye on it. Francesca Gardiner is the showrunner and an executive producer. Mark Mylod is directing several episodes and also executive producing. Jon Brown is expected to join Gardiner as co-showrunner for Season 2. Fan response is still split, and the controversy around J.K. Rowling hasn’t exactly made excitement easy, but HBO doesn’t seem to be treating this like a test run. It’s building a flagship franchise.

Harry Potter Season 1 premieres December 25, 2026, on HBO and HBO Max.

Blockbuster is back online: virtual stores return for streaming-weary viewers

Virtual Blockbuster projects like Bingebuster and other browser-based Blockbuster recreations are online now. They bring back 3D video-store browsing and let people wander digital rental aisles again.

Whether it’s a full 3D Blockbuster recreation or something like Bingebuster, the draw is pretty simple: you move through aisles, scan shelves, and stumble across movies by accident. That feels very different from scrolling through streaming grids packed with thumbnails and recommendation carousels, where discovery can start to feel impersonal and weirdly exhausting.

They also bring back the slower, luckier kind of discovery that physical rental stores were good at, when cover art mattered, unexpected shelves caught your eye, and staff picks actually shaped what people watched. That part of movie hunting faded after Blockbuster gave way to Netflix’s DVD-by-mail service, and then to streaming platforms like Netflix and Hulu.

If you miss that more personal way of finding something to watch, Bingebuster and these browser-based Blockbuster recreations are well worth a look, especially now that nostalgia for older tech keeps growing around vinyl, flip phones, retro game hardware, portable music players, and VR recreations of lost spaces. Some critics do point out that these projects leave out the less romantic parts of the old rental-store experience, like late fees, limited stock, and nights when the movie you wanted was gone. They may also stay niche if streamers keep getting better at recommendations.

You can try current examples like Bingebuster and browser-based Blockbuster recreations online.