Real-world news is, as ever, exhaustingly anxiety-inducing to read, but thankfully, the world of gaming news remains relatively stable, although never without surprises.
This week saw 2025 hitting its stride, with plenty of eye-catching stories to keep you occupied if you were looking for something to distract you from worrying about what’s going on outside the industry.
As always, then, pull up a chair (or whatever the digital equivalent might be) and join us as we run down the week that was in the world of gaming!
The Oblivion remake is apparently real and coming in summer
For a while now, an Oblivion remake has been floating around in the rumour aether, but this week, an ex-employee of Singapore-based support studio Virtuos apparently accidentally leaked its existence.
According to an MP1st report, the Oblivion remake will feature a number of enhancements aimed at attracting younger gamers who might not be used to the original game’s rougher edges, including an improved UI and more.
It’s also, according to that same report, not the game that will be featured during this week’s Xbox Developer Direct show, so don’t get your hopes up on that front.
The Blood of Dawnwalker is a new RPG from ex-Witcher folks
Bandai Namco and development studio Rebel Wolves this week revealed the latter’s debut project, an open-world narrative RPG by the name of The Blood of Dawnwalker.
The game will take on a decidedly vampiric bent not unlike that of The Witcher 3’s Blood and Wine DLC. It will see you play as Coen, a man who must save his family after being transformed into the vampire-like Dawnwalker of the title.
Rebel Wolves talks a big game, promising that Dawnwalker will be an open-ended experience with very little distinction between main story and sidequests. We’re hoping that vision can be realised when the game eventually launches.
It turns out Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League wasn’t worth the wait
We already know that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League represents a rather embarrassing failure for Rocksteady and Warner Bros, but this week, we learned just how deep the depths of that embarrassment go.
The game received its final story content update this week, and over a rather cheap-looking cutscene consisting exclusively of 2D stills rather than rendered 3D action, Harley Quinn tells us what happens at the game’s conclusion.
It turns out that the Justice League killed by Quinn and her Suicide Squad were – brace yourself – just clones. Except Wonder Woman, presumably. Sorry, Diana. We guess you didn’t figure into Batman’s typically ludicrous plan.
Fortune’s Run’s developer is, uh, going to prison
Indie developers halt work on their games for a variety of reasons, including family commitments, burnout, and good old-fashioned boredom, but now, you can add “prison” to that list as well.
Immersive sim Fortune’s Run will be pausing its development for a few years because its developer Dizzie has been sentenced to prison, it turns out. That’s got to be one of the more unique (if tragic) reasons to cease development on a game.
In a rather cryptic update, Dizzie says that they were “a very violent person and [they] hurt a lot of people in [their] life”, and that’s all the info you’re getting about why this has happened.
January’s PlayStation Plus game list is here
Sony announced what games you can expect to enjoy as a PlayStation Plus Extra or Premium subscriber throughout January this week, and the list has some solid additions on it, although perhaps nothing too mind-boggling.
Action-adventure sequel God of War Ragnarok leads the pack, with games such as Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, Atlas Fallen, and Orcs Must Die 3 also joining the PS Plus lineup.
Premium members can look forward to playing 2009 PS2 adventure Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings, which may not quite be as flashy and modern as the recent Great Circle, but which should provide some entertainment nonetheless.
The Nintendo Switch 2 has officially been announced
Perhaps we’re burying the lede by including this story so low down in the list, but we do this in a loosely chronological order, and the Switch 2 was officially announced towards the end of the week, so here we are.
That’s right: Nintendo’s followup to the immensely popular Switch has finally been revealed, and it…well, it looks a lot like what you’d expect the Switch 2 to look like, to be honest.
It’ll feature a new, more rounded design, an improved kickstand, and magnetic Joy-Con attachments, and we also got a look at what seems to be some kind of new Mario Kart game. More will be revealed in April, apparently.
Microsoft has apparently laid off more employees
It wouldn’t be a week in the gaming world without layoffs, apparently, and this week, Microsoft reportedly laid off a number of employees across three of its departments, including its gaming division.
A Microsoft spokesperson apparently told Business Insider that a “small” number of employees had been laid off, but the spokesperson didn’t clarify how many employees this referred to.
These layoffs are also apparently not related to recent job cuts Microsoft made that targeted employees the company saw as underperforming. We’re sure that won’t come as much of a comfort to those being laid off, though.
Sony has reportedly quietly cancelled two live-service games
According to a Bloomberg report this week, Sony has quietly cancelled two unannounced games that its subsidiary studios Bend and Bluepoint were working on.
The move almost certainly comes as a result of the failure of live-service shooter Concord, with Sony likely wanting to retreat from a market that it hasn’t exactly seen extensive success in (Helldivers 2 notwithstanding, of course).
What’s more, according to reporter Jason Schreier on Bluesky, one of the projects that was in development was a live-service God of War game. We can’t imagine it feels great for Sony to shut down a game in one of its most treasured franchises.
