Month: July 2026

Sony has unexpectedly announced on its blog that, starting in January 2028, they will stop publishing their video games on physical media. The reason for this is to adapt “to consumer trends as their overall preference for digital media significantly surpasses that for physical discs”. This doesn’t mean they’ll stop releasing video games, but rather that “new games will be available on PlayStation Store and in stores only as digital downloads”.

They also wanted to make clear, moreover, that this won’t have retroactive effects, since “this transition is not going to affect games that have already been released or that will be released before January 2028 on disc”. Which makes us suspect that this has to do with PlayStation 6 and with its release being, at least for the moment, set for the end of 2027. Thus confirming that it would be an exclusively digital console.

All of this is serious in itself. Even if it might not seem like it. But it’s even worse with the other announcement they made immediately afterward on their blog. And Sony has announced an update to its PlayStation Store storefronts on PlayStation 3 and PS Vita that will close in July 2027.

This, which may seem logical given the age of the consoles—PlayStation 3 came out in November 2006 and PS Vita in December 2011—only shows how insidious Sony’s move is. All the games you’ve bought digitally on these consoles will no longer be yours. You won’t be able to download anything you’ve acquired over the years. If your hard drive fails and you buy a replacement or get a second-hand console, you won’t be able to download the games that are yours: they will have disappeared forever with the store. And that’s the problem.

Digital expiration dates

There is an argument in favor, which is that when we buy a digital game, we know we’re buying a license. Something with an expiration date. That we’ve had many years to play it on our PlayStation 3 or our PlayStation Vita. And that’s fair. Sony doesn’t hide the fact that what it sells us is a license to use: we don’t own the game. That said, why should we accept it?

Let’s imagine the same situation in any other part of life. That we bought a book and 20 years later someone from the publisher came and said we must hand over our copy of it, that it’s illegal for us to have it on our shelf. This would seem absurd to us, if not outright an abuse of power on the publisher’s part. Even if, when buying the book, we had accepted that we were acquiring a license to use the book, not the text itself, we would understand that the book, the physical object, is ours. And the same thing happens with digital games: we don’t own the game, the intellectual property, but we do own the digital copy, the playable copy of it. And taking away our ability to play it should not be possible.

However, Sony believes it should be able to do that. Not only with its games. This very week they confirmed that they will remove more than 550 Studio Canal films and series from PlayStation’s digital libraries with no refunds or compensation whatsoever. Once again, hiding behind the digital license and despite the fact that thousands of users have paid for that product, they will deprive them of something they’ve paid for.

Whether this is legal or not is irrelevant. There is no scenario in which, as consumers, we should allow this kind of behavior. Neither Sony nor any other company in the world has any right at all to decide to deprive us of what we’ve acquired.

Goodbye to outrageous discounts

Does this mean we must necessarily support physical media? Not necessarily. It means we need to stand our ground and say “enough”. This crosses a clear red line in a long series of anti-consumer decisions in the video game industry that we’ve already seen before in many other industries. We’ve seen how in music the jump to streaming has led to artists being paid crumbs compared to physical. In film and television, with the jump to streaming and digital, we’ve seen a preservation problem like we hadn’t seen since the 1950s. And in video games it seems both can happen.

Not only both, there can also be one thing unique to the medium: absolutely abusive prices. Sony has a complete monopoly over who can sell in its online store. With its recent change of policies in the store, it’s now harder to sell there, so thanks to this change it will be harder to publish on PlayStation. And given that no other digital stores are allowed, you can’t buy anywhere other than the PlayStation Store.

What does this lead to? Users being forced to buy at whatever price Sony dictates. Even if it’s abusive. For now they can fight it thanks to physical, which tends to get cheaper thanks to a combination of two factors: the fact that, by having several versions, they compete with each other, lowering the price, and the fact that the second-hand market exists, which means the product’s depreciation through use makes them cheaper. Which in turn forces digital games to drop in price faster, since the prices of physical games drop at a steady enough pace that digital ones have to do so too.

If we add together the fact that Sony has a complete monopoly over digital stores on its console and the absence of external pressure to lower prices, what is the most likely thing to happen to prices? What already happens with Nintendo’s digital games, which are in exactly that situation: they never come down in price and their discounts are ridiculously small. Directly affecting the consumer.

A world without physical games

All of this will also affect especially the habits of people who consume video games in particular ways. Some people buy video games, beat them, and sell them to buy the next one. There are those who only buy second-hand games. There are those who chip in together to buy a game. Many of them, most of them, because they can’t afford the price of games whose prices keep getting higher. Something that digital keeps putting more and more obstacles in the way of.

That’s not even counting the collecting factor. Or the factor of preserving the medium. Especially because the second would require talking about something very delicate: the only real preservation would involve companies allowing us to own games and emulate them however we wanted. Something we should have a right to, just as we have the right to scan a book and read it wherever we want.

What Sony is proposing is an anti-consumer measure that benefits no one and can cause us serious harm. If it doesn’t end up affecting video games very negatively in the medium to long term. That’s why it’s time to stand our ground and say no, that this move, without many other equivalent pro-user measures, isn’t something we can accept. Because otherwise, what Sony is going to do is going to have repercussions for users. And very negatively.

Rockstar Games opened Grand Theft Auto 6 pre-orders on June 25, and the early numbers being floated are huge. Reports say GTA 6 pre-orders on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S may have generated as much as $1 billion in the first hour alone. That’s a staggering claim, but it still hasn’t been confirmed. Some reports push the estimate even higher, to $3 billion in the first 24 hours and roughly 39 million units sold. Neither Rockstar Games nor Take-Two Interactive has published official figures, so take all of that with a fair amount of skepticism.

The obvious comparison is Grand Theft Auto 5. Back in 2013, GTA 5 made $800 million on day one and hit $1 billion after three days. This time, analysts are expecting something even bigger for Grand Theft Auto 6. Morgan Stanley has projected 40 million units in four months, other forecasts land between 30 million and 35 million by the end of 2026, and the most bullish predictions go as high as 50 million to 60 million in the first year.

If you’re planning to pick up Grand Theft Auto 6 at launch, these reports are worth keeping an eye on. Take-Two Interactive stock is up nearly 3%, PlayStation 5 pre-orders are reportedly running ahead of Xbox, and there’s also talk that the boxed edition may come with a download code rather than a disc.

You can pre-order Grand Theft Auto 6 now ahead of its November 19, 2026 release. The standard edition costs $79.99 in the US, about £70 in the UK, and €80 across much of Europe. There’s also an Ultimate Edition.

IO Interactive, the creators of the Hitman franchise and the recent 007 First Light, has issued a statement announcing layoffs after Microsoft withdrew funding from Project Fantasy. While the text doesn’t indicate that it was Microsoft was behind it and it hadn’t been reported before, they confirmed it a few minutes later. They did so in a statement to Bloomberg, where an Xbox representative said they were funding the project and that they have stopped doing so because they are reevaluating their investments to “focus on their biggest priorities”.

A disaster in the making

For its part, IO Interactive, says that this cut in funding will have short-term consequences such as layoffs of an as-yet undetermined number of workers at the studio. Though not the game’s cancellation. They said that they love the game, the world and the IP and that they are committed to Project Fantasy seeing the light of day someday.

Project Fantasy is a project that has been rumored at least since 2021 after IO Interactive opened a new studio in Barcelona, which could be the hardest hit by these layoffs, although nothing has yet been confirmed about it. But it wasn’t until February 2023 that its existence was confirmed, although we don’t know any concrete details about this mysterious RPG they are working on at the studio.

Meanwhile, the same Xbox representative says they are not reducing their investment in video games, although there are rumors that the company plans to close or sell up to five the company’s internal studios. So it seems hard times are coming for the video game industry.

Guns of Eschaton is a first-person shooter that mixes a Western setting with the mechanics of a soulslike to create an evocative and very peculiar blend. Bringing the mechanics of classic From Software games into first-person shooters. But the most striking thing about the newly announced game from Esschatology Entertainment is that it’s a Viktor Antonov project being released posthumously, who died this past February 2025.

A legendary art director

Antonov is a highly acclaimed art director within the video game industry for his impressive work on titles such as Half-Life 2, Dishonored, Prey, and Wolfenstein. Known for his attention to detail, range of styles, and preference for brutalism and megastructures, his ominous and threatening style is a perfect fit for a soulslike like this one.

Fuad Kulie, director of Eschatology Entertainment, has said of his work that “from the very earliest stages of development, I had the privilege of shaping this world with Viktor (…). [His] imagination and creative legacy have been a source of inspiration throughout development, and this game is the result of an incredible collaborative effort by the team to make his vision a reality”. This highlights the importance of creative lead in shaping the game’s world.

Developed for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, Guns of Eschaton still has no release date. It already has is a page on all the digital storefronts, where you can add it to your wishlist, so you can stay up to date on the latest news when, at last, we can learn more about this fascinating final title from one of the greats of gaming, who has left us far too soon.

Magnus Games Studio and Shueisha Games have pulled the curtain back on Wild Wild Eden, an open-world RPG headed to PC through Steam. It’s slated to hit Early Access in Q1 2027, and the first pitch already puts it in the same conversation as Monster Hunter, Valheim, and Palworld.

What they’re making is a mix of open-world exploration, survival crafting, base building, and monster taming, all set in a primitive fantasy world. You play as a tribal chief, gather resources, and turn an unexplored stretch of wilderness into a settlement that actually thrives. The monster angle is a little different, too: these creatures aren’t being sold as things you simply fight off or harvest for parts, but as companions you’re meant to keep around for the long haul.

The team says you’ll be able to tame, raise, and breed creatures, with traits carrying over from one generation to the next. Those companions can pitch in with farming, labor, traversal, and exploration. The anime-influenced art style jumps out right away, and the developers say they changed engines to push the visuals further and improve the game’s core mechanics.

Wild Wild Eden is also planned for both solo play and online multiplayer. Magnus and Shueisha are promising flexible building in unusual locations, including waterfalls and volcanoes. Still, a lot hasn’t been nailed down publicly yet: there’s no word on map size, total monster count, or how many players will be supported at launch, and nobody’s gone hands-on with it yet, so there’s no real read on whether it can live up to the genre’s very high bar.

If you’re on the lookout for the next survival game that could eat up your free time, this is one to keep an eye on. You can wishlist Wild Wild Eden now on Steam for PC.

A widely shared but still unconfirmed starter leak for Pokémon Winds & Waves is making the rounds, mostly through the social media user “Light,” and it gives the clearest alleged picture so far of the final typings for Browt, Gecqua, and Pombon. If the rumor is right, Browt ends up Grass/Ground, Gecqua becomes Water/Psychic, and Pombon lands on Fire/Fairy. None of that has been confirmed by The Pokémon Company or Game Freak, so take it for what it is: a rumor.

Fire/Fairy would be a first for a starter if Pombon really goes that way. Gecqua’s Water/Psychic combo is getting a lot of praise for looking flexible and well rounded. Browt’s supposed Grass/Ground typing has people interested too, even with the nasty 4x Ice weakness hanging over it.

If you keep up with Pokémon leaks, this one is worth keeping an eye on. The same rumor linked to “Light” also says Pombon stays quadrupedal and leans into a lion- or dog-like design, which is going to sound pretty good to anyone who’s tired of Fire starters drifting toward humanoid final evolutions.

People are already theorycrafting around offensive matchups, resistances, utility, and the same leak’s claims about box Legendaries inspired by Garuda and Naga.

For the official side of things, The Pokémon Company announced Pokémon Winds & Waves on February 27, 2026, as Generation 10 during Pokémon’s 30th anniversary celebration, and it’s currently expected to arrive on Nintendo Switch 2 in 2027.

On Steam, Steam Deck Verified is already marked ahead of its July 9, 2026 release. The store listing says it should work right out of the box on Valve’s handheld, with readable text and proper controller prompts.

If you’re planning to play it on the go, that should make Ubisoft’s remake a much easier handheld option than the original Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag from 2013, which usually plays better after a few tweaks. Ubisoft is clearly leaning into that portable angle on the game’s store pages too, with promises of ray tracing and dynamic weather on Steam Deck.

Ubisoft also says Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is a full remake built from the ground up in the latest Anvil Engine, with none of the original 2013 code carried over. You’re getting a single-player-only release, multiplayer has been removed, and the remake adds reworked action-focused combat, new story arcs, new Jackdaw officers, extra sea shanties, shipboard pets, and a photo mode.

If you want a big portable release in 2026, this looks like a pretty tempting one to grab. Even so, the Verified badge still doesn’t tell you the parts that matter once you’re actually playing, like battery life, frame-rate consistency, or what kind of visual compromises show up in real use.

Ubisoft says Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced launches on July 9, 2026 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, and you’ll be able to download it from the Ubisoft Store, Steam, or the Epic Games Store.

Iron Gate says its survival game Valheim will leave early access and hit version 1.0 on September 9, 2026. That release brings the Deep North biome, and it also pushes the standard price from $19.99 up to $29.99.

If you’ve followed Valheim through the five years since its 2021 breakout, the main draw here is the last planned biome. Iron Gate says Deep North will add new enemies, dungeons, and gear. Version 1.0 also brings Steam achievements, some performance tweaks, and new PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2 versions, with cross-play alongside PC, Mac, Linux, and Xbox.

The ocean side of the game is a different story. Iron Gate has confirmed that Valheim’s less-developed ocean biome isn’t getting a major overhaul in 1.0, so anyone hoping for bigger seafaring exploration, new threats at sea, or a deeper maritime progression loop is probably going to come away disappointed. That also helps explain why the reaction has been mixed.

If you’ve been meaning to buy Valheim, the current $10 Steam Summer Sale price is probably worth grabbing before launch, whether you think the higher post-1.0 price is fair after years of updates or not.

You can get Valheim on Steam now, with version 1.0 and the new PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2 versions arriving on September 9, 2026.