The summer winds on, and thankfully (or sadly, depending on your disposition), we haven’t had another whiff of the heatwaves that threatened to manifest throughout the season earlier this month.
Of course, you didn’t come here to talk about the weather, as quintessentially British as that is; no, you came to hear about gaming news, and it’s a gaming news roundup we shall provide.
Once again, then, without further ado, pull up a chair, grab a drink, and let’s talk about what’s been happening in the world of gaming this week!
The Chinese Room ditches parent company Sumo Group
This week, Dear Esther and Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 developer The Chinese Room split from its parent company Sumo Group in order to become independent.
The studio said its independence would ensure that it could continue to “create original games alongside [its] work with partners’ IP” like the aforementioned Bloodlines 2.
At the moment, that game is still slated for an October release, but as several past delays have already indicated, the release date for the long-awaited vampire RPG can be a little fluid, so we’ll have to wait to see if anything changes.
Hellraiser is getting its first ever video game adaptation
Clive Barker’s Hellraiser, best known for the series of movies that began in the 80s, is getting its first full video game adaptation (not counting Pinhead’s appearance in Dead by Daylight).
Hellraiser: Revival will follow the adventures of new protagonist Aidan, who must delve into hell in order to rescue his girlfriend, using the Genesis Configuration to do so.
It’ll be a first-person survival horror game that’s entirely single-player-focused, so you don’t have to worry about any tacked-on multiplayer modes or unnecessary sops to live-service development here.
This week’s Pokemon Presents is…underwhelming
It was a Pokemon Presents week this week, and you’d be forgiven for thinking that might mean some impactful or meaningful Pokemon news, but sadly, that was not to be.
Instead, we got a vague 2026 release window for a new Pokemon battling game (free-to-play on mobile and Switch, of course), as well as a little more Pokemon Legends: Z-A info and a new mobile puzzler.
All in all, we can’t really say it was a particularly edifying showcase, especially given that the next generation of mainline Pokemon games has yet to materialise. Come on, Nintendo!
Supermassive Games is hit by layoffs
Supermassive Games, the studio responsible for games like The Quarry and the original Until Dawn (not to be confused with Hades developer Supergiant Games), was hit by layoffs this week.
Around 36 staff at the studio will be losing their jobs as a result of what Supermassive calls “a challenging and ever-evolving environment” in the form of the current gaming industry.
In addition to the layoffs, the studio also revealed that its upcoming sci-fi adventure Directive 8020 won’t be coming out until sometime in the first half of next year. Little Nightmares 3, on the other hand, is still set for October.
Epic doesn’t know if Fortnite is coming back to iOS in the UK
If you’re in the UK and you want to play Fortnite on one of your iOS devices, then Epic has some bad news for you: the company doesn’t know if the game will be returning to Apple’s platform or not.
The CMA, the UK’s competition regulator, has put off investigating a requirement for mobile ecosystems to allow developers to direct players to other storefronts until next year.
Epic says that because of this decision, Fortnite won’t be coming back to iOS this year, and its return to the platform in the UK is “uncertain”, full stop.
Microsoft says The Outer Worlds 2 won’t cost $80 after all
In May, Xbox announced that it was hiking the prices of its Series hardware, and that first-party games released by the studio this holiday season would cost $80 (or regional equivalent) instead of the usual $70.
However, this week, Xbox and Microsoft backtracked on that decision, revealing that they would, in fact, be charging $70 for The Outer Worlds 2 and other holiday releases, including Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.
That should come as a relief to anyone who wasn’t looking to spend such an inordinate amount of money on what is, in the end, a fairly niche RPG.
Itch.io delists adult games due to payment processors
The indie gaming platform Itch.io delisted a bunch of adult games this week, owing to pressure from some of its payment processing partners.
The site says that it wants to “continue to operate and provide a marketplace for all developers”, but that in order to do so, it’s necessary to “prioritize our relationship with our payment partners” and take steps to comply with their requirements.
If you want to know where to look in order to find the source of this issue, look no further than the Collective Shout group, which was responsible for alerting payment processors to certain games on Itch.io’s store in the first place.
EA officially announces Battlefield 6
Shock horror! It’s time for another one of the industry’s worst-kept secrets, as this week, EA finally lifted the lid on the imaginatively-named Battlefield 6.
It turns out the game will be another modern shooter in which terrain will be destructible and a variety of vehicles will be available to drive. Who’d have thunk?
More information is coming this week, although honestly, we’d imagine you probably already know what the next Battlefield game is going to play like.
Elden Ring DLC and spinoff reach new sales heights
Finally for this week, Bandai Namco announced that Elden Ring’s DLC Shadow of the Erdtree, as well as its spinoff Elden Ring Nightreign, have achieved new sales figure records.
Shadow of the Erdtree is now sitting at ten million sales across all platforms, while Nightreign has managed to reach the five million mark.
Naturally, these numbers don’t come close to the sheer might of the base game, but for DLC and a multiplayer spinoff, they certainly aren’t too bad.
