Today's Gaming Pulse
Kingdom Hearts IV drops new trailer, reveals Keyblade‑chain mechanic
Square Enix released a fresh Kingdom Hearts IV trailer that showcases a new Keyblade‑chain mechanic and a fire‑based Keyblade. The teaser places the game in Quadratum, a digital recreation of Tokyo’s Shibuya district, and hints at ties to the abandoned Final Fantasy Versus XIII concepts. The announcement confirms the title’s continued development for Nintendo’s upcoming Switch 2 platform.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Roblox expands AI capabilities with Morpheus acquisition
Football Commentator Permits EA to Use an AI Version of His Voice for EA Sports FC
EA Sports FC commentator Guy Mowbray has authorized Electronic Arts to clone his voice using artificial intelligence, allowing the game to generate pronunciations for more than 20,000 footballer names. Mowbray currently records each name several times to capture different emphases, a process that stretches from November to July each year. EA frames the AI tool as a collaborative aid rather than a replacement for human talent. The move contrasts with recent disputes where other voice actors have rejected AI usage without explicit consent.
Embracing Brutal Difficulty in Modern Horror Platformers
For @RemapRadio, I spoke with Love Eternal designer Toby Alden about making a game with an alienating level of challenge in an era where games are often trying to appeal to wider audiences. Plus, it's a horror platformer. Of course...
Capcom Incorrectly States Street Fighter 6 Year 2 Pass Is 50% Off, but the DLC Is Still Discounted Along with...
Capcom mistakenly promoted the Street Fighter 6 Year 2 Character and Ultimate Passes as 50% off, but the actual discount is only 20%, pricing them at $24 and $40 respectively. The base game is currently 50% off at $20, while Year 1 passes...
Phaser Editor V5 Beta Now Available
Phaser Editor v5 entered beta, delivering a major productivity upgrade for game developers. The new version fully supports Phaser 4—including the updated filters system, Spine runtime, and fresh project templates—while preserving backward compatibility with Phaser 3. A standout feature is AI‑powered development via...
GreedFall: The Dying World Trophies Revealed for PlayStation 5
GreedFall: The Dying World expansion for PS5 unveils a full trophy list, featuring 15 visible awards and more than 30 hidden achievements. The trophies cover a range of actions, from crafting items and disarming traps to mastering skill trees and...
Runestone Expands Partnership With Roman Imperium Cup
Runestone announced an expanded partnership with Portugal’s Counter‑Strike 2 tournament, Roman Imperium Cup, becoming its official data partner for a multi‑event commitment through 2026. The deal gives the Cup access to Runestone’s secure live‑match data infrastructure, integrity monitoring, and fan‑focused analytics...
Outgoing Sucker Punch Boss Hopes Studio Can Make Games in 'Shorter Periods of Time'
Outgoing co‑founder Brian Fleming says Sucker Punch wants to shrink its development cycles from roughly five years to four. The studio’s recent hit, Ghost of Yotei, outperformed its predecessor and won a DICE award, proving the model can still deliver commercial...
ThinkPad X1 Beats Gamer Laptops for Game Development
I have been using a Thinkpad X1 for almost a year, and it hasn't fallen apart yet, unlike the "gamer-class" laptops of the past few years that fall apart hardware-wise, and never even get to a working state software-wise. Though this...
Todd Howard: Leaks Never Damage a Game’s Success
Todd Howard says he doesn't think a leak has ever hurt the success of a game https://t.co/4NImrpYtkl
AppsFlyer Talks Buyer Signals, Player Targeting and Staying Legally Compliant
At Pocket Gamer Connects London 2026, AppsFlyer executives Edik Mitelman and Adam Smart unveiled a data‑collaboration platform that taps consumers' real‑world credit‑card spend to identify high‑value gaming audiences. By partnering with Mastercard and other financial institutions, the firm can segment...
Kristen Bell Cast as Amy Rose in Sonic 4
Kristen Bell will voice Amy Rose in the Sonic 4 movie, coming next March. https://t.co/xDukyWKKYj
Silent Stamina Depletion Removes Player Control Unnoticed
Stamina Bar that silently goes empty so that you cannot dodge/jump/roll at all, and there is no audiovisual feedback about this change of state. (i.e. almost all games with a stamina bar) https://t.co/JFj7VMPgc8
‘Let Us Normalize Delaying Games’: DayZ Creator Says Players ‘Have the Power’ to Tell Platform Holders Delays Are Okay
Dean Hall, creator of DayZ and developer of Icarus, used a Reddit AMA to ask players to stop stigmatizing game release delays. He highlighted the console version of Icarus, pushed back from February 26 to March 26, as a recent example. Hall...
How Transport Fever 3’s Six-Year Development Journey Showcases the Gaming Industry’s Evolution
Urban Games announced Transport Fever 3 in May 2025, marking the third entry in its transport‑simulation franchise after the 2019 release of Transport Fever 2. The title has been in development for six years and will ship with more than 300 vehicles, adding...
ED Freezes ₹505 Cr Held Abroad In WinZO Money-Laundering Case
The Enforcement Directorate has provisionally attached ₹505 cr (≈$55.7 mn) held in WinZO’s US and Singapore shell accounts as part of a money‑laundering probe. The agency alleges the gaming platform used bots and algorithm‑driven personas to play against real users, inflating revenues...
Tekken 8 Director Explains How to Submit Feedback that They're Checking for on a Daily Basis
Tekken 8 director Kohei Ikeda announced that the development team now tracks community requests posted with #鉄拳8 or #TEKKEN8 hashtags on a daily basis. The game’s Season 3 Pass will introduce Kunimitsu, Bob, Roger Jr. and an unnamed challenger, while a major balance...
How to Complete A Royal Request in Monster Hunter Wilds
Capcom added a new side quest called A Royal Request to Monster Hunter Wilds in the February 18 patch, celebrating the upcoming Monster Hunter Stories 3 release. Players must be Hunter Rank 9 or higher and head to the Scarlet Forest base camp...
AI Slop and the Unity & Godot Game Engines
Open‑source engine Godot is being swamped by LLM‑generated pull requests, forcing maintainers to scrutinize each contribution for authenticity and quality. This "AI slop" is draining volunteer capacity and threatens the project's health. Meanwhile, Unity, a publicly traded engine, is grappling...
Doom: The Dark Ages Switch 2 Port Possibly Hinted At In Nintendo Sale
A Bethesda Publisher Sale on Nintendo’s eShop displayed a Doomslayer render from the upcoming prequel *The Dark Ages*, a game not yet listed for the current Switch. The artwork has been interpreted as an accidental confirmation of a Switch 2 port,...
Annapurna Will Launch Musical RPG People of Note on April 7
Annapurna Interactive and Iridium Studios unveiled a new gameplay trailer and a Steam demo for People of Note, a turn‑based musical RPG. The title launches worldwide on April 7 across PC (Steam, Epic), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch. The...
Battlefield 6 Season 2 Is the Foundation for Future Content, Says Producer
Battlefield 6’s Season 2 launched after a deliberate delay, allowing the team to polish new content and address pacing issues caused by the extended Season 1. Producer Phil Girette and associate producer Kit Eklof say the update introduces larger maps, the return...
Jacksepticeye Apologizes For Criticizing Life Is Strange 2’s Political Message: ‘I’ve Learned A Great Deal In The Last 8 Years’
Jacksepticeye, the popular YouTuber, apologized in February 2026 for his 2019 criticism of the political themes in Don’t Nod’s episodic game Life Is Strange 2. In his original Let’s Play, he claimed the narrative pushed a specific agenda and lacked depth, prompting backlash from...
Xbox RPG Avowed Snubs PS5 Pro Support
Xbox‑published RPG Avowed launched on PS5 and runs solidly, offering three visual modes—Quality (1440p/30 fps), Performance (1080p upscaled/60 fps), and Balanced (40 fps with 120 Hz support). The port mirrors the Xbox Series X experience but provides no PS5 Pro‑specific enhancements such as dedicated PSSR upscaling....
Remote Working Down, Mid-Level Contraction, and Eastern Migration: The Signals We're Seeing in Games Job Data
Sorcery.gg’s hiring data shows a modest 4% global contraction in games‑industry jobs in 2025, driven largely by a 25% drop in U.S. openings. Meanwhile, China posted a 25% increase, overtaking the U.S. as the top source of new roles. Mid‑level...
Former Capcom Developer Has Spent Over $500K On Microtransactions In His Own Gacha Game
Yoshiki Okamoto, the former Capcom producer behind Street Fighter II, disclosed on Japanese television that he has spent over ¥80 million (about $520 000) on microtransactions in his own gacha title, Monster Strike. The mobile RPG, which he launched after founding Game Republic, is...
Phasmophobia Development Preview 21 Outlines Upcoming Changes
Kinetic Games announced that the long‑awaited Player Character Update for Phasmophobia has been delayed to the first quarter of 2026. The patch will replace the game’s stiff early‑access avatars with lifelike models and introduce visual customization options. The studio also...
If You Can't Beat AI, Become One in Hooded Horse Strategy RPG Heart of the Machine, Which Hits 1.0 Release...
Arcen Games and Hooded Horse are set to launch the 1.0 version of Heart of the Machine in March 2026. The sci‑fi strategy RPG lets players assume the role of a super‑advanced AI tasked with reshaping a crumbling civilization, promising...
Minecraft Java Is Switching From OpenGL to Vulkan for the Vibrant Visuals Update
Mojang announced that Minecraft Java Edition will transition its rendering pipeline from OpenGL to Vulkan as part of the upcoming Vibrant Visuals update. The switch aims to unlock modern graphics features, boost frame rates, and extend visual fidelity across Windows,...
Dead by Daylight Horror Film Adaptation in the Works with Blumhouse and Atomic Monster
Blumhouse and Atomic Monster have revived the Dead by Daylight film adaptation, securing a writing team led by Alexandre Aja and David Leslie Johnston‑McGoldrick. James Wan joins Jason Blum as a producer, while the studios hunt for a director. The project aims...
Day One Xbox Game Pass Action-Platformer Replaced Delayed to April
Replaced, Sad Cat Studios' 2.5‑D action‑platformer, has been pushed from its March 12, 2026 launch to April 14, 2026. The title will still debut on day one of Xbox Game Pass across Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC. The delay follows extensive community feedback on a...
Announcing A New 3D Mario Early Would Be “Dangerous” For Nintendo
Nintendo has not released a new 3D Super Mario game in over 3,000 days, the longest gap since Super Mario Odyssey. The studio’s 3D Mario team is currently occupied with Donkey Kong Bananza, leaving little progress on a potential Switch 2 Mario title....
These 4 Major PS5, PS4 Games Will Be Delisted in February and March
Sony will remove four high‑profile titles from the PlayStation Store between February and March, with Genshin Impact slated for delisting on February 25 and its online services ending April 8. The Finals, WBSC eBaseball: Power Pros, and WWE 2K24 will have online features...
Eternal Darkness Director Would Like to Work With Nintendo on Remaster or Remake
Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem, a 2002 GameCube horror classic, remains unreleased on modern platforms. Director Denis Dyack expressed interest in collaborating with Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto on a remaster or remake, noting the game’s cultural impact. Nintendo, however, has already turned...
How to Fix Iron Will Quest Not Working in NORSE Oath of Blood
The cooperative RPG *NORSE Oath of Blood* suffers a critical bug in the second phase of the Iron Will quest, where enemy units turn friendly and block mission completion. Players cannot advance without a workaround, prompting community‑driven fixes while awaiting...
![[Industry News] PQube Appoints Games Industry Veteran Dominic Wheatley as Chairman](/cdn-cgi/image/width=1200,quality=75,format=auto,fit=cover/https://mcvuk.com/wp-content/uploads/Dominic-Wheatley-PQube-1.jpg)
[Industry News] PQube Appoints Games Industry Veteran Dominic Wheatley as Chairman
PQube, a leading UK games publisher, has appointed industry veteran Dominic Wheatley as Chairman. Wheatley co‑founded Eidos and launched iconic franchises such as Tomb Raider and Championship Manager. He previously steered the growth of Catalis, Kuju, Curve Games, Testronic and Blaze...
Unity Says It Has a New Product That Cooks Up Entire Games Using AI
Unity announced a new AI-powered tool that can generate entire casual games from natural‑language prompts, aiming to eliminate traditional coding. The company will showcase a beta version at the Game Developers Conference in March. Unity frames the technology as a...
Everyone Has Echo Fighters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Thanks to the Efforts of Modders
After the DLC era, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s roster reached 86 fighters, including seven official Echo Fighters that share movesets with other characters. A group of modders has now produced Echo Fighter variants for every one of the 79 standard...
Where to Find the Municipal Muses Museum in The Sims 4
The Municipal Muses Museum is a community lot situated in Willow Creek’s Crawdad Quarter, near the southwest corner of The Sims 4 map. It appears in the Lost Legacies event, where players must visit the museum to interact with the Royal...
You Can Now Play Avowed as Small Person With Big Magic Stick
Obsidian’s Avowed anniversary update introduces three new playable races—dwarves, orlans, and aumaua—expanding the game’s character diversity. It also adds a quarterstaff weapon designed for mage builds, featuring bludgeoning damage and wand‑style stun finishers. The update brings stat bonuses tailored to...
All Weapon and Survival Skills in HumanitZ
The Destructoid guide catalogues every weapon and survival skill in HumanitZ, breaking them into melee, firearms, bows, explosives, and four survivor categories. Each entry lists the required player level, skill‑point (SP) cost, and the precise in‑game effect such as damage...
"Step Into the Shoes of NPC Man" With This Fallout New Vegas Mod that Lets You Get Faction Cronies to...
SkullzyRS’s new U_DO_IT – Faction Quest Assigner mod lets Fallout: New Vegas players delegate fetch‑type missions to NPCs from eight Mojave factions. A command device in the inventory launches off‑screen tasks ranging from scavenging to sabotage, with four difficulty tiers...
![[Industry News] Cat Lovers Rejoice – CatLands Demo Out Now](/cdn-cgi/image/width=1200,quality=75,format=auto,fit=cover/https://mcvuk.com/wp-content/uploads/CatLands_CapsuleMain_1920_wName.png)
[Industry News] Cat Lovers Rejoice – CatLands Demo Out Now
Indie developer releases the CatLands demo, a cozy landscape puzzle game that blends block‑matching challenges with village‑building mechanics and collectible cats. The demo features infinite puzzle levels, a relaxed aesthetic, and the ability to grow a small village, while promising...
‘Menacing’ Call of Duty TV Ad Gunned Down by Watchdog
The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned the TV spot for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, deeming its aggressive tone and imagery as trivialising sexual violence. The ad, featuring comedian Nikki Glaser and actor Peter Stormare as “Replacer” security officers, showed...
Checkout Now Shows Prices in Your Local Currency
Starting February 18, our checkout page will display prices in students' local currency. Location is detected based on IP address, and prices are automatically converted using real-time exchange rates. 🙂 https://t.co/xCo69SeIx8
The Commentator Announced for Switch
Tebasaki Games has announced a new visual novel, The Commentator, for the Nintendo Switch, though a release window or localization details remain undisclosed. The game places players in the role of a prime‑time news anchor, forcing rapid editorial choices that...
Best Steam Exclusive Video Games
Steam remains the premier PC distribution platform, and its exclusive titles continue to define the ecosystem. The list highlights both Valve‑originated games—such as Garry’s Mod, Team Fortress 2, Counter‑Strike 2, and Half‑Life: Alyx—and standout indie or community projects like Project Zomboid and...
Wildlight Secured Multiple Funding Rounds, Stayed Silent
It is of course not at all surprising that Wildlight raised money through multiple rounds of investment. The unusual thing is that unlike many other studio startups in the last five years it never publicized the initial investment or subsequent funding...
I Am Airport Security Challenges You to Inspect Passengers and Keep Flights Safe, Now Live on Android
Estoty has released *I Am Airport Security*, an airport‑security management RPG, on Android. The title follows the studio’s successful *I Am Security* sim and adds quirky passengers, metal detectors, X‑ray scans, and even beard‑shaving mechanics. It joins a wave of...
3D Platformer Become Asks, What If Finding Nemo But The Fish Was A Sperm?
Indie developer Valentin Wirth announced *Become*, a 3D platformer that follows a sperm cell’s race to fertilize an egg. The game blends a bildungsroman narrative with whimsical visuals, featuring skill upgrades like “Busty Bouncer” and “Got Milk.” A provocative trailer has already sparked...
This New Overwatch Hero Has Become an Insta-Ban for Me
Overwatch’s Season 1 introduced five new heroes, reigniting player interest, but the newest addition, Domina, quickly became a point of contention. As a poke‑tank, she combines a half‑circle Barrier Array, a self‑repair Reconstruction passive, and a high‑damage Photon Magnum, making her...