It’s been another eventful week in the world of gaming news, and while we’re anticipating an even more eventful one this coming week (Pokemon Presents, anyone?) there’s still plenty to pore over.
Whether it’s fun stories about retired race horses, this month’s Game Pass lineup, or greenlit TV shows, the gaming news world is just as active as it’s ever been, even though we’re in a lull between major events.
As ever, then, pull up a chair, fetch yourself a beverage, and let’s take a look at what’s been happening in the world of gaming this week!
Nintendo registers a Donkey Kong movie copyright
After its major success with 2023’s Super Mario Bros. movie, Nintendo demonstrated this week that it’s still very much in the movie business by registering a copyright for a Donkey Kong film.
The copyright admittedly doesn’t say much about what we can expect from the movie, but that’s not unusual; after all, it’s a legal filing and not a press release.
Still, it does demonstrate that after Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda, Nintendo is clearly thinking about how best to adapt its other major properties for the movie world.
Umamusume sparks tributes to a retired racehorse
This week, fans of the rather bizarre anime girl racehorse game Umamusume: Pretty Derby demonstrated their appreciation of one of the game’s horse girls in a very sweet way.
All of the anime girls in Umamusume are based on real racehorses, and the same is true of Haru Urara, a horse who, in real life, never won any of her races during her time as a “professional” racehorse.
Now that she’s retired, however, fans are sending her huge amounts of ryegrass, a favoured snack for horses, alongside messages of support. Awww!
The Game Pass lineup for July is revealed
Xbox revealed the Game Pass lineup for the remainder of July this week, and while we already knew some of them were on the way, others are a pleasant surprise.
Alongside expected arrivals like Grounded 2 and Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, you’ll also get to enjoy RoboCop: Rogue City, survival horror game My Friendly Neighborhood, and animal RPG Back to the Dawn this month.
There’s also no sight of the rather dispiriting trend of seemingly adding games to the Standard tier and making it seem like they’re new arrivals across all tiers this week, so kudos for that as well, Xbox.
Nintendo casts Link and Zelda for its Zelda movie
As we mentioned earlier, Nintendo is getting pretty movie-happy these days, and this week didn’t just bring news of the Donkey Kong copyright filing on that front.
Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto also revealed that the upcoming The Legend of Zelda movie has found its Link and Zelda in young actors Benjamin Evan Ainsworth and Bo Bragason.
It remains a little odd to see these actors and imagine that they’re going to be playing two of the most iconic video game characters of all time, but we’d imagine they’re feeling even more strange about it.
Oblivion Remastered’s Virtuos gets hit by layoffs
Virtuos, the studio responsible for this year’s smash hit Oblivion remaster (as well as support work on Konami’s Metal Gear Solid Delta), was hit by layoffs this week.
The studio says about 7% of its workforce will be affected by the layoffs, which means around 270 employees around the world will be losing their jobs.
As you’d probably imagine, Virtuos never uses the word “layoff” directly, instead choosing to refer to “a rebalancing of roles across our studios and geographies”. Sigh.
That Subnautica 2 lawsuit is released in full
Charlie Cleveland and his fellow former heads of Subnautica studio Unknown Worlds released the full text of their lawsuit against parent company Krafton this week (well, a public redacted version, anyway).
In the lawsuit, Cleveland, along with Max McGuire and Ted Gill, accuses Krafton of delaying Subnautica 2 in order to avoid a massive employee payout to the tune of $250 million.
This battle is going to rage on and on, but hopefully, it won’t affect the actual Early Access launch of Subnautica 2 any further than it already has. Said release is set for 2026.
Valve pulls certain adult games from Steam to appease payment partners
In a rather controversial move, Valve began pulling certain adult games from Steam this week, seemingly in order to placate payment partners whose rules the games apparently contravene.
A new clause in Valve’s Rules and Guidelines policy states that content uploaded to Steam that “may violate the rules and standards” of “Steam’s payment processors and related card networks and banks” shouldn’t be uploaded.
In a statement to Eurogamer, Valve said it was removing those games because if payment processors objected, players might potentially lose the ability to buy those games on Steam. A worrying precedent, we’re sure you’ll agree.
Roblox is getting new safety features
As part of what appears to be its ongoing quest to try to prove to the world that it isn’t evil, Roblox is introducing new safety features for children soon.
These will include new age verification systems, as well as a new Trusted Connections feature that will limit friendships for certain users to those they know in real life.
Other changes include new ways to check how much time you’re spending on Roblox and a Do Not Disturb function to keep notifications at bay.
FromSoftware could be working on a big new game for next year
According to news platform MP1st, FromSoftware, the developer behind hits like Dark Souls, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Elden Ring, could be working on a big new project that might be out as early as next year.
MP1st says the studio is currently in “the advanced stages of production” on an as-yet-unannounced game codenamed FMC, which, as the site notes, “is most likely an abbreviation of a longer codename”.
It’s worth noting that FMC almost certainly isn’t The Duskbloods, since that game is a Switch 2 exclusive and MP1st says FMC is intended for release on multiple platforms. As ever, though, take all of this with a pinch of salt.
