Summer is well underway (depending on who you ask, of course), and it’s time for us to once again take a turn in our time machine and have a look at what’s been happening in the gaming world.
The summer showcase season has pretty much drawn to a close, but Nintendo had one or two final surprises for us before its conclusion, and of course, there’s plenty happening elsewhere, too.
Without further ado, then, grab a drink and let’s get started. Here’s everything you need to know about the hottest gaming news over the past week!
Vampire: The Masquerade is getting a Disco Elysium-style CRPG
Disco Elysium appears to be the new hotness that’s currently in style (despite being seven years old at time of writing), and now, Vampire: The Masquerade is hitching its wagon to that particular convoy as well.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Eternal Whispers is a new narrative-driven game that has more than a few things in common with ZA/UM’s epoch-defining effort, although naturally, there’ll be a lot more blood-sucking in this one.
There’s no release date on this one yet – the Steam page simply says “coming soon” – but we’ll hopefully get more info about it in the coming months. In the meantime, hey, Disco Elysium isn’t going anywhere.
Mina the Hollower is already selling very well indeed
Yacht Club’s mousy action-adventure title Mina the Hollower is off to a very strong start indeed, the studio announced this week, as it’s managed to hit half a million sales already.
As a reminder, that’s sales, not play counts; the game isn’t available on any subscription services right now, which means that 500,000 people have picked this one up with cold, hard cash.
Hopefully, this means that Yacht Club’s previously-documented financial struggles are a thing of the past, or at least that the studio can breathe a little easier now.
People are already annoyed with Crazy Taxi’s AI use
Generative AI is shaping up to be the defining technology of our current age, for better or worse, and this week, Sega weighed in on controversy surrounding its use of the tech in its upcoming Crazy Taxi: World Tour.
The game, which was revealed during the Xbox showcase earlier this month, will harness generative AI during development, which led to a backlash from fans not keen on the resource-guzzling technology.
This week, Sega clarified exactly how it’s used gen AI for Crazy Taxi: World Tour; the tech has been used “as a reference” for artists, and all art “is made by an actual human” after all. Hooray!
Pokemon Pokopia is getting DLC and a new free update
If you’ve played Pokemon Pokopia, then you may well have found yourself wondering why the developers didn’t leverage the potential of the game’s underwater areas for new Pokemon and building opportunities.
Well, thanks to this week’s Nintendo Direct presentation, we may now have an answer; the game is getting a series of DLC packs starting in August, and the first will be built around diving down into the depths.
Alright, so you won’t be tussling with Reaper Leviathans deep down under the surface, but you will be able to visit a brand new underwater world, starting with the free addition of the Dive move that same month.
Xenoblade Genesis is a brand new Xenoblade game coming in 2027
The Nintendo Direct show this week also brought news of a brand new Xenoblade game in the form of Xenoblade Genesis, which will be launching for Switch 2 next year.
It looks about as massive as you’d expect from a game in this series, with the franchise’s trademark expansive landscapes and anime melodrama amply demonstrated by the debut teaser trailer.
We sadly don’t have a release date for this one yet, but Nintendo will likely reveal more information about it over the next few months. 2026 is still in full swing, after all!
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is getting a remake
(TRAILER)
The last in our trifecta of Nintendo Direct announcements for today concerns a remake for the legendary (pun very much intended) N64 classic The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
We don’t know a lot about this one yet; during the show, all we got was a very broad teaser that shows off a souped-up version of the original game’s iconic intro.
Expect to wait a while for more news about the Ocarina of Time remake, but in the meantime, the original is fully playable on the Switch Online service, so why not revisit it? You might be surprised by just how well it continues to hold up!
It looks like Xbox might be preparing for big layoffs
Per a Bloomberg article this week, Xbox could be getting ready to lay off a large number of employees as part of swinging cuts to the studio’s expenses. It looks like belts are continuing to tighten throughout the industry.
Xbox head Asha Sharma is, according to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, not only looking to let staff members go, but also to slash budgets into the bargain, with a “reset” reportedly needed to steer the ship back on course.
If the layoffs materialise, they’ll be the latest in a string of staff cuts for the company, and they won’t be a particularly good look as Microsoft looks to build hype for its new Project Helix machine.
Crimson Desert has smashed yet another sales barrier
If Crimson Desert’s success wasn’t assured before, then it most certainly is now, as the game has broken yet another big sales barrier, making that lengthy development time look even more worthwhile.
As revealed on social media this week, Crimson Desert has now passed six million copies sold around the world, a figure that incorporates all platforms (although it’s likely to skew fairly heavily towards PS5 and PC, given current hardware trends).
Crimson Abyss thanks “every Greymane who has stepped into Pywel” in its announcement message, and if the current trend continues, then it’s likely even more Greymanes will be doing so before long. Huzzah!
