Welcome once again to another roundup of the week’s gaming news! If you’re new to this little tradition of ours, we’re about to tell you all of the most interesting things that have happened in the world of gaming over the past seven days or so.
If you’ve joined us for these jaunts before, you’ll know there’s never any shortage of things to talk about, and that’s certainly the case this time around as well.
As we always tell you to do, grab a drink, pull up your most comfortable chair, and let’s take a look at what’s been happening in gaming this week!
Mouse: P.I. for Hire has already made its development costs back
Rubber hose animation seems to be making something of a comeback in the world of games right now, and publisher PlaySide’s Mouse: P.I. for Hire is a game that takes full advantage of that style.
Well, according to that aforementioned publisher, the decision has paid off, because Mouse: P.I. for Hire has already recouped its development costs and has sold over 700,000 copies to date.
Suffice it to say this one most certainly has a long life ahead of it, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see a sequel emerge soon either. Right now, though, if you haven’t checked out Mouse: P.I. for Hire, we’d thoroughly recommend you do so, if only to see the remarkable visuals on offer.
Sega has cancelled its so-called “Super Game”
Some years ago, Sega announced that it was working on something it referred to at the time as a “Super Game”, billed as a sort of mega-project designed to bring the company consistent profits.
Now, however, it’s been revealed that the Super Game project has been cancelled, and not only that, but Sega will be moving away from prioritising live-service development in the future.
Overall, Sega reported increased sales but decreased profits for the 2025-26 fiscal year, citing game sales and the performance of Angry Birds developer Rovio as “soft”.
Tekken’s Katsuhiro Harada has returned, and he’s backed by SNK now
Last year, Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada announced his departure from Bandai Namco, the studio he’d worked at for over two decades. Now, he’s back with a new studio, and it’s backed by none other than The King of Fighters outfit SNK.
Harada’s new company will be known as VS Studio, and while we don’t yet know what it’s working on, we can assume that it’ll be a Tekken-style fighting game given his previous experience.
Here’s hoping that Harada’s new studio doesn’t go the way of many other studios founded by industry veterans by shutting down before it’s even announced its first project.
The PlayStation Plus games for May have been revealed
We now know what games we’re getting as part of the PlayStation Plus service in May, so if you’re an Extra or Premium subscriber, get ready to add some titles to your backlog.
Games coming to both tiers include the likes of underrated RPG The Thaumaturge, galactic open-world adventure Star Wars Outlaws, and cowboy sandbox Red Dead Redemption 2, to name but a few.
If you’re on Premium, meanwhile, you can revisit the retro delights of arcade lightgun shooter Time Crisis, complete with all of the modernisations old-school games boast on newer machines.
Marathon’s second season starts in June
Extraction shooter Marathon may not be having the best time of things in the player count stakes, but the game’s second season gets underway in June, which may go some way towards remedying the problem.
As will be the case for all Marathon seasons in future, the second season will bring a full reset with it, although certain unlocks, like your Codex progress, will remain intact.
It remains to be seen whether Marathon Season 2 can help Bungie to pull back from the precipice given that the company incurred a $765 million writedown for Sony last financial year, but let’s hope it can.
Subnautica 2 is off to a very good start
This week, the long-awaited (and much-talked-about) Subnautica 2 finally launched into Early Access, and developer Unknown Worlds didn’t have long to wait in order to see how well it’s going to do.
The game managed to reach two million sales within just a handful of hours, and at time of writing, the game’s peak Steam player count is sitting at just under 470,000, with its 24-hour peak hitting 372,000.
Strong sales numbers will no doubt boost the morale of Unknown Worlds, but it’ll also make publisher Krafton happy. Let’s hope there are no more bust-ups between the two on the horizon.
The Duskbloods and Elden Ring’s Switch 2 versions are still coming this year, apparently
Are you wondering exactly what’s happened to FromSoftware’s upcoming Switch 2 releases The Duskbloods and Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition? Well, they’re still apparently on track for a 2026 launch.
That’s according to parent company Kadokawa’s latest financial report, which states that the games are “both slated for a 2026 release for Nintendo Switch 2”.
Of course, that doesn’t mean neither of them will be delayed, but for now, at least, it looks like there’s still confidence among the upper echelons that the Switch 2 will be well-served by FromSoftware titles this year.
Party Animals is in trouble for its generative AI video contest
If you’re a fan of wacky party game Party Animals, you may want to revise your stance following this week’s events, especially if you have strong opinions about the use of generative AI in game development.
Earlier this week, Party Animals announced a contest that would award its lucky winners a share of $75,000 in cash for creating generative AI videos based on the game.
As you can probably imagine, the response was fairly vitriolic from Party Animals’ community, leading to a rather tone-deaf attempt to remedy the situation by the game’s creators. That attempt hasn’t gone over well either, so things aren’t looking great for the Party Animals folks right now.
