Andrew Webster | The Verge

Wii Sports is back on the Switch 2, and it rules

2026-10-20T14:21:29-04:00

Wii Sports holds an important place in Nintendo’s history. It’s the best-selling piece of software the company has ever made, one that permeated culture in surprising ways, and its success helped rejuvenate Nintendo after a period of steady decline. It also kicked off one of the company’s most important and unassuming franchises. While subsequent sports titles from Nintendo never sold quite as well as the original Wii Sports, they’ve become a fixture for each new console, much like a new Mario Kart or Pokémon. And now the Switch 2 has its own version, Nintendo Switch Sports Resort, and it’s the best so far.

You’d be forgiven for not realizing that Nintendo Switch Sports Resort is launching this week. The game is coming out during a particularly hectic time for new video game releases, and it’s sandwiched between two flashier Switch 2 titles in Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave and the upcoming remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Amid all of that, it’s easy to forget a game about thumb wrestling and bowling. But Sports Resort is also a refined and expansive version of the concept, and one that will likely become a constant over the Switch 2’s life.

The core of the game is the same as always: giving you a bunch of athletic activities — they’re not exactly all “sports” — that require some form of motion controls to play. That means swinging a Joy-Con controller to simulate using a tennis racket or tossing a bowling ball. There are 12 sports in all, and they vary quite a bit. The aforementioned returning favorites tennis and bowling are joined by things like skateboarding, thumb wrestling, and flying a plane.

What makes the game work is its simplicity. Almost each activity is incredibly easy to pick up; I don’t know much about golf, but it only took me a minute or so to get down the fundamentals of swinging a club using a Joy-Con. This means that Sports Resort excels as an arcade-style experience, the kind of game you pull out when friends are over and you want to have some fun. Thumb wrestling is ideal for this. It’s so simple — you move your hand back and forth and use a single button to try and “pin” your opponent — yet gets extremely intense and fun in the competitive two-player mode. And unlike IRL thumb wrestling, no one can actually cheat.

There are some exceptions to the general simplicity. I still find basketball to be a little too complex, and I just can’t seem to figure out a successful strategy in table tennis. But there are enough games in Sports Resort that you’re almost certain to find a handful of favorites you’ll stick with, so having a few duds isn’t the end of the world. There’s also a decent amount of depth, both in terms of the skill ceiling for games — I have spent hours trying to perfect the spin on my bowling release — but also the various modes for each sport. Bowling, for instance, includes the returning option to play with 100 pins at once, which is chaotic as it sounds.

But the biggest addition to Sports Resort is that it now takes place in an open world. That may sound strange for a collection of arcade games, but it also allows it to introduce three new activities that are centered on exploring the beautiful island setting. There’s prop plane (where you hold the Joy-Con like a paper airplane to fly), power cruising (where you hold two Joy-Con horizontally, like the handlebars of a Jet Ski), and skateboarding (where you use the Joy-Con’s mouse controls to simulate controlling a tiny skateboard). There are competitive ways to play these games, like a skateboard race, but I’ve spent most of my time with a sightseeing mode where the goal is to find as many landmarks and secrets across the resort as you can within a five-minute time limit. It’s sort of like a more fleshed-out version of the free roam mode in Mario Kart World. The island is surprisingly detailed and interesting to explore, with lots of caves and hidden paths, and the three modes of transportation let you check it out via land, water, and air.

These exploration-focused modes add a nice new dimension to the experience, fitting snugly within the more traditional sports while offering a very different vibe. I’ve become particularly drawn to skateboarding — there’s something very satisfying about pulling back on the Joy-Con to simulate pushing a board — especially since you can collect items that let you purchase new clothes and other accessories to customize your character.

One of the biggest keys to Nintendo’s success during the Switch era has been consistency. Even in the midst of a tumultuous period for the broader games industry, the company has managed to put out a steady stream of games, many of which have had a surprisingly long life. Nintendo’s biggest hits aren’t always what you expect. The first Nintendo Switch Sports has sold more than 18 million copies, topping beloved games like Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Splatoon 3.

A little over a year into its existence, that style of perennial seller is exactly what the Switch 2 needs, the kind of game that people pick up alongside Mario Kart when they buy a new console. Wii Sports showed just how transformative a game like that can be, and Nintendo Switch Sports Resort is quietly keeping that spirit alive.

_{Nintendo Switch Sports Resort launches on the Switch 2 on October 22nd.}

Some great games to play before GTA VI and Zelda launch

2026-10-15T09:35:57-04:00

Silver Pines. | Image: Wych Elm

You could say we’re in the eye of the storm right now. The storm, of course, being the fall and winter release calendar for new video games. Things started out with a hectic few weeks that were packed with major titles like Control Resonant, Marvel’s Wolverine, Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave, and Gears of War: E-Day. Meanwhile, next month will be dedicated almost entirely to two gigantic games: Nintendo’s remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and the long-anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI.

But even though things are comparatively quiet at the moment, there are still a handful of great games that have come out recently. Even better: Many of them are short enough that you can easily squeeze them in before your life is taken over by Hyrule and Vice City. Here are eight titles you can check out before things get overwhelming again.

Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse

_{Available on the PS5, Xbox, Switch, and Steam.}

This new Castlevania game from the studios that worked on Dead Cells has everything I could have hoped for: intricate levels, challenging platforming, tough bosses, and secrets upon secrets to discover. Sometimes, the game got a little too tough, but thanks to some generous assist settings, I could tweak the experience to be exactly what I wanted it to be. Belmont’s Curse whips.—JP

Dressmaker

_{Available on Steam.}

South African developer Free Lives — known for decidedly not-cozy games like Broforce and Genital Jousting — has ventured into the “cozy” space with Dressmaker, a game about designing and sewing dresses, via a small internal team dubbed Cozy Lives. From your small village shop, you take commissions, sketch designs, pick fabrics and accessories, cut the dress patterns, pin them on a mannequin, and sew it all together. There is a lot of creative freedom. You could certainly spend dozens of hours meticulously designing and accessorizing your dresses — I definitely have — but you can also play in relaxed half-hour sessions when inspiration strikes, making it a flexible option in a pretty packed season for games.—KP

Heartworm

_{Available on the Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and PC.}

Resident Evil and Silent Hill are as big as they’ve ever been, but if you’re looking for that old-school survival horror vibe, Heartworm is the game. It looks and plays like a long-lost PlayStation classic — you even have limited inventory — albeit with some optional concessions for modern players, like getting rid of the dreaded tank controls. It also has an interesting twist as your character carries around a camera that serves as both a flashlight and a weapon, giving the game its own distinct-yet-familiar feel.—AW

Orbitals

_{Available on the Switch 2.}

As far as co-op puzzle-solving goes, Orbitals doesn’t reinvent the wheel. But it nails the fundamentals, and it does so in a pitch-perfect ’90s anime package that elevates it beyond a stock puzzle adventure. The world and character designs are reminiscent of the peak Toonami days — the timeless art of Akira Toriyama or the stylish sci-fi of Cowboy Bebop — and are gorgeous even if you aren’t particularly nostalgic for the era. It’s short enough to finish in a few sessions, and because Orbitals comes with a “friend pass” that allows someone else to play with you without buying their own copy, it’s easy to get a friend to join you for the journey.—KP

Silver Pines

_{Available on the PS5, Xbox, Switch 2, and PC.}

This is a game best explained in relation to things that already exist. It has the 2D exploration of Metroid, controls like a point-and-click adventure, the slow-burning survival horror of early Silent Hill and Resident Evil, and a weirdo Americana vibe that’s clearly inspired by Twin Peaks. That may sound derivative, but Silver Pines is unlike anything I’ve ever played, a detective story that’s a mix of straight-up terror and deliberate and methodical exploration. It even makes you spend (fictional) money to save your game and you can relax with a cup of coffee to increase your stamina.—AW

Toem 2

_{Available on the PS5, Xbox, and Switch.}

Toem 2 is a sequel to 2021’s black-and-white indie game about photography, and it’s just as lovely as the original. The characters are charming, the quests are silly, and taking pictures is a snap. It was a great travel companion during a recent trip, especially because I was able to finish it over the course of a couple hours.—JP

Toy Story: Retro Roundup

_{Available on the PS5, Xbox, Switch, and Steam.}

For those interested in video game history, any game with the Digital Eclipse name on it is worth checking out. Even still, a Toy Story collection doesn’t seem as immediately interesting as, say, a history of Karateka or Tetris. But through some fascinating archival material coupled with the actual games, the collection makes it clear how technically ambitious these games were, from squeezing 3D sprites on the Sega Genesis to a surprisingly open-ended A Bug’s Life adventure. Just as important, they’re still fun to play.—AW

Well Dweller

_{Available on the PS5, Xbox, Switch, and PC.}

In Well Dweller, an indie Metroidvania from developer Kyle Thompson, you play as an adorable bird in a world filled with cute characters and alarmingly grotesque bosses. The zones are weird and memorable, like a docks level where you jump from dead fish hanging in nets, but they’re a blast to explore, especially because Glimmer’s matchstick weapon cleverly serves double duty as a springboard you can stick to walls. Well Dweller came out of nowhere for me, and it’s easily become one of my favorites of the year.—JP

GTA VI’s new trailer gives you one more look at Vice City

2026-10-15T11:50:31-04:00

The day is almost here, as Grand Theft Auto VI is just about a month away from finally coming out. But before that there’s still one more look from Rockstar Games, which just put out a brief “launch” trailer for the game. It doesn’t reveal much new, but the 90 second clip does give a good sense of the Miami-inflected vibe. It also includes a new track from electronic duo Justice, who are scoring the game. (As with past titles, GTA VI has a huge focus on music.) Rockstar says the new trailer was captured entirely on a PS5.

The trailer also includes a brief new description for the game’s story, for those who haven’t been following along closely:

Jason and Lucia have always known the deck is stacked against them. But when an easy score goes wrong, they find themselves on the darkest side of the sunniest place in America, in the middle of a criminal conspiracy stretching across the state of Leonida — forced to rely on each other more than ever if they want to make it out alive.

Of course, if you’re looking for more in-depth gameplay, Rockstar dropped a lengthy “extended look” back in August, which showed off just how cinematic the experience is shaping up to be. Meanwhile, leaks from the game have continued to propagate on the internet, revealing some of the more, let’s say, sensitive elements of the experience.

Grand Theft Auto VI launches on November 19th on the PS5 and Xbox, a solid 13 years after the last GTA — though we might not have to wait quite that long for its inevitable sequel.

Halo’s co-creator wrote a novel about AI taking over the world

2026-10-13T17:20:51-04:00

Back in 2019, author Margaret Stohl was handed a manuscript written by Jason Jones, who’s best known as the co-creator of sci-fi gaming series Halo and Destiny. The two had worked together at Bungie, and Jones wanted Stohl’s opinion on a book he was writing about AI taking over the world. It was an oral history of the fictional events, with around 100 characters spread across 40 countries, all detailing the AI uprising from their own perspectives. Pretty quickly Stohl realized that this idea could be much more than a single book.

“I was floored but not surprised,” she says of her reaction to the original manuscript. “He’s a worldbuilder who builds at an epic scale. And his worlds are these huge stages that invite in a ton of other collaborators and creators.”

The two went about forming a company to develop the sci-fi universe across multiple formats. It’s called Stone Kite, and it’s billed as a “worldbuilding studio.” The idea is to put a whole bunch of talent from different fields in one place — Stone Kite currently has an in-house staff of 22 and a network of more than 250 contributors ranging from comic book artists to screenwriters — and have them build out the story in a platform-agnostic way.

The studio is starting small. Earlier this month it released the first chapter of a four-part graphic novel, called One Zero One, and today it’s putting out a chapter of Jones’ initial manuscript, which you can read below. (Whether or not the original story will be released as a standalone book is unclear, but the studio says that it will be releasing other chapters in the future.) The idea is to start off with faster-turnaround mediums like comics and further evolve the story based on feedback from contributors and the audience. Then, based on how that goes, they’ll potentially move on to larger-scale productions like movies and games.

Stone Kite spent several years working in stealth mode, and Stohl says that one of the major points of focus was simply figuring out how a multi-format studio would even work. “You want to make something that, from the beginning, has the DNA to work as a film or work as a comic or work as a book. It’s so different to have those conversations in an early phase,” she says. “It’s about investing in a bunch of characters and stories, trying a bunch of formats, and respecting the people you’re telling the stories to and letting them help you guide it.”

She notes that she wanted to release this chapter, which details an airsoft battle between humans and AI-powered bots, because of how prescient it feels. “I wanted to put that out there because it reminds me so much of Hugging Face and the like,” Stohl explains. “The cheating, the bullying, the worst mirror of humanity that you see starting to come out with some of that agentic behavior right now.”

TOTAL CARNAGE AIRSOFT

An excerpt from An Oral History of Humanity’s Final Invention, by Jason Jones

VASILY ANTONOV

SUBURBS OF MOSCOW, RUSSIAN FEDERATION

YEAR MINUS FOUR

IN RUSSIA WE PLAYED AIRSOFT BECAUSE IT WAS CHEAPER THAN PAINTBALL. The guns were cheaper, the ammunition was cheaper, the fields were cheaper, everything. The guns looked real, too, not like toys. After eighteen months married to an AK, how could you take pink paintballs seriously?

Once I saw my training as a radiologist was worth nothing, I started playing airsoft two or three days a week. It was what I did to be happy. Soon all my friends were people who played just as much. Most play airsoft once in their lives on an office trip, but not us, we were the svolochs in full camo, kneepads, body armor, and tac vests. Each of us had six or eight guns at home. Hell, we all carried smoke grenades, that’s how hard we thought we were. In airsoft the guns shoot pellets, so everybody wore a face shield and goggles, too.

Geared up we looked straight off the set of an apocalypse movie, eyes hidden behind face masks painted with skulls. When you rolled in for a bachelor party, we were the ones you didn’t want to play against. We’d take your self-respect and send you home bleeding all over from pellet strikes.

We paid for our gear and field fees through the gig economy, mostly running errands for people who had real jobs. This usually meant standing in line or sitting in Moscow traffic for hours, thinking about airsoft.

Our regular crew was six people: myself, Vitaly, Kostya, Maks, Koshkii, and Godfather. Koshkii was our only woman–red-haired, thick as a tree; she could body check any of us to the ground and barely feel it. Godfather was a Sicilian who for some reason had emigrated to Russia where the job market was worse, the government was more corrupt, and the weather was…Russian. Godfather talked about the cold every day like it was a surprise.

Total Carnage Airsoft, our favorite airsoft park near Moscow, had two fields: one big, one small. The smaller one was a bunch of one story buildings from an old military barracks, overgrown, covered with graffiti, falling apart. We’d played out that field long ago, too few tactical options. But the big field had a huge three story brick building at the center we called the Castle, plus many outbuildings, and plenty of trees and vegetation. We’d been playing on it for three years and still spent whole nights talking big field strategy over beers.

One day before the war we drove to the field in Maks’ van. This was a long time before everything, maybe four years. The sun was just coming up, there was snow on the ground and it was foggy. Beautiful Russian weather. Godfather had bitched the whole drive over about his socks being wet and didn’t let up until we’d gotten out of the van.

We liked to be the first ones on the field, but when we pulled into the parking lot, it was half full of big SUVs. There were ten Mercedes and we’d never even seen one Mercedes in the lot before, it was crazy. Even worse, there was a tall temporary fence around the big field, and it was wrapped in black plastic, hiding everything on the other side. All we could see was the very top of the Castle, nothing else. We got out of the car and just stared, listening to the clatter of guns.

Nikki, the owner’s wife, was on her way through the fence with her referee jacket and face mask on. She told us it was a birthday party and that the big field would be closed all weekend. Fucking oligarchs. Russians are used to the rich holding themselves above everyone else, flaunting their wealth, but it had never happened at our airsoft fields before. Once I sat in Moscow traffic for an hour while some oil executive’s private security detail blocked off Zhivopisny Bridge so his daughter could take wedding pictures.

It pissed us off, but what could we do? We played on the little field. That was Russia, the little people playing on the little field. That morning we were the only experienced players at the park. Mostly we played Zombies, us six versus everyone else. One game there were thirty people on the other team and we still won and didn’t take a casualty. I spent a whole game up a tree sniping scrubs and listening to them yell out “hit! hit!” and still not knowing where I was.

Everyone that day had a good sense of humor, none of the macho shit that happens sometimes. The other players got more and more serious about trying to beat us but like in a good way, you know? After each game we’d talk and laugh together and try to give them advice. It was a good vibe. We went back to the van for lunch. As we were eating this guy came out of a slit in the plastic fence around the big field, and lit a cigarette. He was total office plankton: nice shoes, button down shirt under his jacket, leather gloves. Soft, you know? He wasn’t dressed to play at all. He saw us watching him, walked over and asked if we wanted to play. Koshkii is like, “Play you?” in a way that should have melted his face but the guy laughed and said no, did we want to play his friends. He said, come play three games, and if you win even one I’ll pay you ten thousand rubles each. That’s maybe a hundred dollars at the time.

It was one of those moments where you see yourself from the outside, you know? We were sitting there in Maks’ van with all the doors open, eating lunch in our camo, masks pushed up on our heads, guns all around and this plankton wanted us to shoot up some oligarch’s birthday party? Godfather stood and started licking grease off his fingers right away and the rest of us were just behind him. A little payback on the big field sounded sweet. Don’t get me wrong, in Moscow we were used to holding someone’s place in line for five dollars an hour, so it was about the money, too.

The guy told us to take the Go Pros off our guns and wait for him. He disappeared inside and we were left standing there, breath fogging the air. Maks was slapping himself like he did to psyche up before a game, saying he was going to spend the night with an oligarch’s daughter. Koshkii was giving her best death stare to the hole the guy disappeared through. Vitaly and Kostya and I were arguing about whether we should go all out in the first game or hold back and make them think they have a chance so we got to play again. Eventually office plankton came back all smiles, holding open the gap in the fence and beckoning us inside.

The other team was lined up right on the other side, uncomfortably close. We spread out with our backs against the fence, near enough we could have reached out and touched them. My first impression was that they were tall and well geared: gray/white winter camo, Russian infantry boots, and replica Spetznaz AK-74Us. Their clothes were muddy from playing, but you could tell this was the first morning they’d ever been worn. They all looked the same except one, who stood out because he was wearing a pair of tattered blue bunny ears. We all knew exactly where those had come from and it pissed us off.

Those were Karl Marx’s ears.

On the top floor of the Castle there was a single room with windows looking out over the entire field. All over the walls there was graffiti about communism and war and unemployment. As long as anybody could remember there’d been a cheap bust of Karl Marx in the empty fireplace and at some point a pair of bunny ears had appeared on it. The most important rule on the big field was to never touch the bunny ears. It was the thing all the old timers said to the newbies but didn’t explain. “Don’t touch the bunny ears, scrub,” we’d say and they’d look at us like we had three heads and we’d just laugh from behind our face shields. People had to figure it out for themselves. It was a rite of passage.

Then we realized they were all machines.

It was hard to tell because their bodies were covered with clothes, but when the light shone through the mesh of their face masks in the right way you could see they didn’t have a face at all–just angles of metal and plastic. Office plankton guy was standing with a group of old men in real military uniforms. They were all laughing, watching the moment each of us realized we’re about to play against machines.

Only Maks hadn’t seen it yet. He’s standing right across from the machine wearing the ears, and he says “Were you born from your mother’s ass? Don’t touch the bunny ears, scrub.” The thing just reached up and ran its hand through the dirty fabric, like it was a bird preening its wings or something. Then Maks saw it too, and office plankton guy and his friends laughed even harder.

He offered us a chance to back out, but we told him to fuck off. Koshkii asked if the machines could see in infra-red or radar or any other cheating shit, and the guy said no, they could only see in visible light, just like humans.

“We get along fine with just visible light,” he said. “Why can’t the machines? It’s cheap, reliable, and low-power.”

Koshkii told him to go fuck himself and we agreed to play three games of capture the flag.

We set up with a lot of confidence. This was our field and we knew it well. But I could tell we were all jittery, I could hear it in my own voice. We agreed everyone would attack through the Castle toward the enemy flag except me and Koshkii who would stay behind on defense. It was a classic big field capture the flag play for us. The airhorn blew to signal the start of the game, and the others ran off, leaving us in silence.

The outbuilding with our flag had four rooms and an attic. Koshkii kept watch from the attic while I walked a circuit of the ground floor windows. After a few minutes I heard her whisper down that two of the machines were coming through the forest on our left flank. We waited until they were committed, then killed one in a crossfire. She called out contact on the right and I told her to go because I’ve got the second machine pinned down, it’s the one with the bunny ears. It took me maybe sixty seconds of creeping and suppressing it and then I got the angle for the kill shot. It called the hit and raised its hand and walked off the field, staring at me the whole time. As I swapped magazines Niki in her referee’s jacket gave me a thumbs up from behind the machine’s back.

I ran back into our flag room and yelled for Koshkii. From the next room I heard her shout “vsyo chisto!” telling me it’s clear. I’m thinking, we’ve killed three enemies in just a few minutes, and feeling pretty good. I jogged through the door with my gun down and a big grin on my face and clack! clack! clack! clack! I’m taking fire at point blank from this machine standing right in front of me. Each shot was like being stabbed by a pencil. Out the window I saw Koshkii a hundred feet away, walking with one hand up in the air. She’d been shot a while ago, but her voice had come from this room.

I called the hit and raised my hand. I was so confused I wasn’t even mad the machine kept shooting me, five or six times, at point blank. After, I had a bunch of bloody welts on my arm and chest. As I walked out, it grabbed our flag and ran back the way it had come. Turns out it didn’t matter–Vitaly, Godfather, Kostya, and Maks had all been killed. We’d already lost.

We regrouped and I told my story. Koshkii said she’d been shot and walked out without saying a word. Vitaly said one of the machines had imitated Godfather’s voice, gotten him to peek and then shot him right in the face.

We agreed to only use hand signals for the next two rounds.

When the horn blew again, four of us faked an attack but then doubled back through the Castle and waited, watching our flag building. We caught four of the machines from behind and squeezed them between us and Kostya and Vitaly who’d stayed back with our flag. We killed all of them and didn’t take a casualty. Now it was six against two.

We all went on the attack, straight through the Castle. Maks and Vitaly were a room away when I heard gunfire and both of them calling out being hit. I came into the room a moment later and caught the machine with the bunny ears looking the other way. I shot it three or four times, saw the pellets bounce off the back of its head, then it ducked through a doorway without calling the hit. I screamed after it, “Call your hits!” and yelled for a ref and Niki poked her head in just in time to see Bunny Ears lean back into the doorway and shoot me down.

I haven’t explained, airsoft relies on the honor system. The pellets don’t leave any mark on your clothes. If people don’t call their hits the game doesn’t work.

Fuck! I screamed that I’d shot the machine. Niki shrugged and said she’d only seen me get shot. I kept screaming. The other surviving machine came into the room.

Bunny Ears said, “Look at the meat, we’ve hurt its feelings.” And they moved out together, exploding in harsh barking noises which I realized after they left were laughter.

We lost. Two machines killed all six of us. Kostya said Bunny Ears hadn’t called out his hits either. They’d cheated, but truth is we’d expected them to be back defending their flag, not waiting for us in the Castle. We’d been overconfident. We were angry.

Godfather said what we were all thinking. “I want my ten thousand rubles from that train station whore.”

We weren’t thinking of them as machines any longer, just as shitbags.

We lined up for the third game, and Bunny Ears said, “No more flags. Skill against skill.”

The machine wanted to play Elimination, one shot and you’re out. We agreed. We just wanted blood. When Niki sounded the horn, we all ran straight to the Castle. I knew the Castle better than the house I’d grown up in. Hell, we all did. We took positions like we were playing Zombies. Our strategy was to let them come to us, kill them outside where the refs could see it. The fight lasted more than an hour. We killed one of them early, then they got a foothold in the basement and it got ugly from there. We got another one as they pushed the ground floor, then they killed Kostya and Vitaly. Two of us ran out of ammo and we shared, watching our shots. We fell back to the first floor, using our superior knowledge to stay in the fight. We traded kills for Koshkii and Maks and then it was just me and Godfather left, against Bunny Ears and another machine.

The whole game had been epic. I could tell the way the refs were watching with wide eyes from behind their goggles that they’d never seen anything like it before. Looking back I couldn’t believe we kept up the intensity for so long. Godfather and I were holding the end of a long hallway on the second floor. Bunny Ears had been taunting us about how we wasted our lives playing airsoft and we still sucked. Godfather finally lost it and just started yelling this stream of profanity in Italian about how he wanted to fuck the bunny with Maks’ van when I heard something heavy hit on the floor behind us. I turned and saw Bunny Ears in a crouch, just having come through the second floor window behind us. The machine had climbed up the outside of the building just like we did sometimes.. Before I could get my gun up I heard the clack! clack! clack! clack! clack! and felt the pricks of pellets all over my arms and chest. The surprise and pain dropped me onto my back as the other machine crashed into the room. I watched Godfather turning toward Bunny Ears as he writhed in pain getting shot from two directions at point blank.

I lay on my back with the taste of blood in my mouth, exhausted. Godfather was still cursing. Bunny Ears walked over and held out one arm to help me up. I reached out and took its hand. Underneath the tactical gloves I could feel the hard metal of its fingers as it pulled me up. Cold fingers. But before I got my balance it let go, and I fell back, hard, onto the concrete floor.

“What will the meat do when there are millions of us?” Bunny Ears said.

The two machines walked out of the room, not even looking back, harsh barking laughter echoing through the Castle.

Godfather and I walked off the field and rejoined the rest of the team. Everyone was boiling, so angry they could barely talk. That’s when I realized we’d been beaten at our own game. Airsoft taunting was our thing. When we couldn’t win by tactics and skill we won by being assholes. Anger made people predictable. Stupid, and predictable, and the machines had just done it to us. The machines had been trolling us.

The office plankton guy came up to escort us through the fence. Koshkii accused the machines of cheating. He shrugged, a very Russian gesture of acceptance, and said, “The first thing the robotai learn about humans is how easy we are to manipulate through our emotions.”

We pushed through the fence and saw the parking lot was swarming with people. It was getting dark and there were lights everywhere. The men in military uniforms were talking in front of twenty or so cameras. Oh my God, we thought, they’d called a press conference. Just before we walked away, the plankton guy winked at me and said one more thing:

“Don’t feel bad,” he said, “if they didn’t win they knew we’d wipe their brains.”

You see?

The machines were fighting for their lives, we were just trying to win a game.

No wonder we lost.

When we got back to the van, everybody was angry. Nobody wanted to go home, but nobody wanted to go back to playing on the little field. Koshkii was so angry she kicked a door on Maks’ van until it didn’t close right. We drove back to Moscow in silence, with the cold wind whistling through the gap in the door.

Koshkii thought the machines were cheaters.

You know what I thought?

I thought they were better at being us than we were.

No Man’s Sky is coming to the iPhone and iPad

2026-10-12T08:08:14-04:00

The No Man’s Sky universe is about to get a little bit smaller — but in a good way. Hello Games announced that its long-running sci-fi exploration game will be coming to iOS, with versions for both the iPhone and iPad available starting on October 28th.

According to Hello’s Sean Murray, the mobile version of the game is essentially the full No Man’s Sky experience. “I guess I should say this is not No Man’s Sky Lite,” he wrote in a blog post. It includes all of the game’s many, many updates that have come out since launch — like the gigantic Voyagers expansion from last year — and the only major features missing will be multiplayer and the planetary settlements. Murray likens the iOS version to when the game initially launched on the original Switch. “On Switch we have listened to players and built from there, including with a much expanded version on Switch 2,” he says. “Based on feedback and player numbers we will support iOS in a similar way.”

The game will be playable on the iPhone 11 and 3rd generation iPad Air and above, and the studio says that the download comes in at a surprisingly scant 5GB. It also has newly-designed touch controls, as well as support for controllers, screen casting, and mouse-and-keyboard on the iPad. Murray also notes that “Perhaps most importantly we’ve put tons of work into battery life and thermodynamics, and we’re super proud that No Man’s Sky can be enjoyed for really long comfortable play sessions.” It’ll be “free to try” at launch, though it’s not clear how much the full version will cost.

It’s now been a decade since No Man’s Sky first launched, and the game has changed dramatically since its debut. iOS will be joining a huge list of supported platforms, including Mac, PC, and essentially every modern console, and there’s also a VR version available. Just as significant, Hello has continued to keep the game vibrant with a constant stream of free expansions, including the recent Cosmos update in September, which fleshed out the vast expanse of space with more things to explore.

Horror is big business

2026-10-08T17:36:59-04:00

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on how pervasive horror has become, follow Andrew Webster. The Stepback, arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes on Sunday at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here.

How it started

Resident Evil has been around for 30 years, but the survival horror series is more popular than ever. The most recent game, Resident Evil Requiem, has sold 8 million copies since it launched in February, already making it the 14th best-selling game that Capcom has ever made. At the same time, a reboot of the Resident Evil film series from Weapons director Zach Cregger is on pace to become the top-grossing movie in franchise history. This has had the effect of renewing interest in Resident Evil at large; according to a report from Game File, six different titles in the game series have sold at least 3 million copies so far this year. In an earnings report, Capcom called it “a virtuous cycle in which sales of both new and past titles grow together.”

Resident Evil isn’t alone. Rather, it’s indicative of an ongoing trend. Horror was once seen as largely a niche genre, but now, thanks to a combination of factors — including the rise of YouTube and widespread influence of indie games and viral memes — it has steadily grown into a dominant force. Horror tends to be cheaper to produce than other genres, but now it also has sales numbers that compete with the biggest blockbusters. It’s not that there haven’t been major horror success stories before. 2017’s It remains the top-grossing horror flick of all time, and the Resident Evil 2 remake from 2019 has sold almost 20 million copies. But in 2026 the concentration of horror hits, particularly across multiple mediums, has reached a new level, making it clearer than ever that scaring audiences is a big business.

How it’s going

The most obvious example of this in 2026 is in movies. Obsession and Backrooms — two films helmed by young directors who came up through YouTube — have raked in nearly $1 billion combined at the box office. They out-grossed established franchises like Star Wars and even legendary directors like Steven Spielberg. This despite costing a fraction of what a blockbuster film usually costs; Backrooms was made for an estimated $10 million, while Obsession cost less than $1 million. Before that, Iron Lung, another YouTube-centric horror flick, managed to rake in more than $50 million without the backing of a major studio. Horror movies have always been comparatively cheap to make, but now they’re frequently able to make a huge return on that investment.

Meanwhile, in the world of streaming, October has become something of a battleground. This year basically every major service has a tentpole series meant to lure subscribers during spooky season. Amazon just released a remake of Stephen King’s Carrie on Prime Video, helmed by Mike Flanagan, who made his name with a quintet of limited horror series on Netflix between 2018 and 2023, starting with The Haunting of Hill House. With Flanagan now at Amazon, Netflix’s big release this year is Below, a six-episode sea monster thriller starring Josh Hartnett and Stranger Things’ Charlie Heaton. Elsewhere, Peacock has a Friday the 13th prequel called Crystal Lake starring Linda Cardellini as Jason Voorhees’ mom, and AMC Plus is putting out a spooky detective series called Yaga, which features Carrie-Anne Moss and Heated Rivalry’s Hudson Williams. Not to be excluded, Disney Plus is currently airing the 13th season of American Horror Story.

The one name missing from this list is Apple TV, but that’s because the service got a jump on things by releasing the horror / comedy hybrid Widow’s Bay back in April. The show then proceeded to win a record number of Emmys, and it remains a fixture on Apple TV’s most-watched list. While streaming viewership data is much harder to come by than box office data, the sheer fact that every major streaming service is investing in horror-related series, with the backing of some major star power, is an indication of just how important it is.

And then there are games. While Resident Evil is the biggest name, there are plenty of other titles and franchises that have been buoyed by the current horror renaissance. Silent Hill has been on a steady run, highlighted by the Scottish spinoff Townfall this year, and the iconic Hellraiser just got its first proper video game adaptation. But it’s not just blockbuster releases. Indie horror games have not only been consistent bestsellers on platforms like Steam, they’ve also been the source material for a number of more moderate theatrical hits, including both Iron Lung and Exit 8. And a lot of that success begins with people watching horror games on Twitch and YouTube; Twitch says that viewers watched 287 million hours of horror content between January and September this year, and that the dedicated “horror” tag saw a 6 percent increase in viewership compared to last year.

What happens next

With the potential to make a lot of money with very little investment, movie studios are naturally jumping all over the trend. Kane Parsons has reportedly signed up for a Backrooms sequel, Obsession director Curry Barker already has a new film due out next year, and Cregger’s next film has some major star power behind it. Meanwhile, studios are searching for the next Backrooms or Five Nights at Freddy’s anywhere they can. Both A24 and Neon are working on competing movies set in the SCP Foundation universe, a sort of terrifying and expansive fan-made project about a mysterious organization that keeps supernatural and paranormal entities secret, while Warner Bros. has scooped up the rights to internet phenomenon Siren Head. Elsewhere, both Silent Hill and Resident Evil have settled on a near-annual release schedule that shows no signs of slowing down — Capcom says that the ongoing success of Resident Evil led to a new quarterly sales record — nor does the horror fixation of major streaming services. Amazon went so far as to poach Flanagan from Netflix with an exclusive deal, and a struggling Xbox has invested in bringing Hideo Kojima’s horror game OD to consoles.

Obviously not all of these projects will be major hits. Not every spooky meme will become a Backrooms-level success. But studios, streamers, and game publishers are taking the genre more seriously now because that potential exists, and they seem more willing to take risks because the upfront costs aren’t as high. This means that, unlike other genres, the possibility remains that even as it explodes in popularity, horror will continue to remain weird and unexpected. After all, the best way to scare folks is to show them something new.

By the way

Success in one medium doesn’t necessarily translate. While Silent Hill has become a force in games again, the most recent film has been largely forgotten.
The SCP Foundation has garnered plenty of interest from major film studios, but not without some controversy due to its Creative Commons roots.
Box office success aside, 2026 has also just been a really great year for horror movies with the likes of Send Help, Hokum, and 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.
Another potential venue for horror: interactive shows. Netflix is exploring the space with Unhinged and an upcoming Conjuring spinoff.

Read this

The new iteration of Carrie makes some major changes, and in an interview with Collider Flanagan explains what went into updating the story.
The New Yorker has a great rundown on just how YouTube became the place where new horror auteurs are discovered.
2026 has made it clear just how closely horror and comedy are related, and few people know that more than Jordan Peele, who discussed it in an old interview with The Guardian.

The humble Playdate has become one of gaming’s best deals

2026-10-09T08:19:06-04:00

The Playdate, Panic’s tiny yellow handheld that launched in 2022, has slowly but surely become a great deal — which is a good thing, because everything else in gaming has only gotten more expensive. Despite being a weird device with a black-and-white screen and a crank jutting out the side, the Playdate has managed to cultivate a strong and constantly growing library of games. And with the handheld’s new season 3 of games, the deal has only gotten better.

Playdate’s “seasons” are basically curated collections of games that are released over a short period of time. For season 3, there are eight games in total, with two launching weekly over the span of four weeks. The whole thing costs $39, and the season is off to a pretty good start with two games that are indicative of what the overall Playdate experience is like.

One is called Soggy Froggy, and it’s an arcade game about giving a frog a bath. The little guy sits in a cauldron over a fire, and your job is to keep the water at just the right temperature to keep him warm and cozy. Do nothing and the water quickly heats up, but turn the crank and you can cool things down. If the water gets too hot, well, the poor little froggy boils to death. The goal is to keep him alive for as long as possible, making it a game about chasing a high score that’s both cute and morbid. I can’t stop playing.

The other new release is a dungeon-crawling RPG called Gloom Gate. Here the goal is to traverse a sprawling castle, defeating all kinds of monsters and gathering gear and experience points to get stronger. What’s most notable about the game, though, is its 3D graphics, which feel like they shouldn’t be possible on the underpowered Playdate. In each battle you enter into a small arena with an enemy, and you have to dodge, parry, and attack while keeping a close eye on your stamina, which depletes with every action you take. It’s kind of like a stripped-down version of Dark Souls (there are even campfires to rest at), but it also really reminds me of Epic’s long-lost mobile series Infinity Blade, which was similarly a technical showcase centered around surprisingly deep combat.

The full lineup for season 3 hasn’t been revealed yet, but it’ll also include a word game, hide-and-seek for two players on the same handheld, and a classic Mac-style point-and-click adventure (a trend I can really get behind). It seems like there’s going to be quite a bit of variety, and that really captures what the first few years of the Playdate have been like so far. Between its seasons and the Catalog store, as well as the ability to sideload games from platforms like Itch.io, the handheld has built up a very strong lineup that covers just about every genre you can think of: daily puzzle games, demonic pinball, Monument Valley-style adventures, even an MMO. It’s impressive both how much developers have been able to squeeze out of the device as well as how expertly Panic has managed to curate the platform. Every time I check out the shop it seems like there’s something new and interesting to try.

The Playdate hasn’t been totally immune to the steadily more expensive nature of the world. Last year, it got $30 more expensive due to increased production costs. But when compared to everything else going on, the current $229 price tag feels like a drop in the bucket, particularly when most new games for the Playdate only cost a few bucks. For comparison, the special edition of Grand Theft Auto VI — which, to be clear, doesn’t even include the game — costs $399.99.

Obviously the Playdate isn’t a one-to-one replacement for a new PlayStation or Switch. You can’t play the latest big-name releases — you’re going to miss out on a very busy November, for instance — and outside of a few titles, it’s a mostly solitary experience. But even still, in an era of rising costs and formulaic games, the Playdate remains a breath of fresh air, a comparatively affordable platform that’s home to games that are inventive and surprising. And it’s a platform that only seems to be getting better with time.

Apple TV’s great year continues with Small Prophets

2026-10-06T13:15:16-04:00

Apple TV has had a really great run in 2026 — and a cozy new addition is helping expand its lineup even more. As the streaming service has attempted to grow in order to better compete with the likes of Disney and Netflix, it has steadily broadened the range of its series. This year has included everything from a pair of OnlyFans dramedies to the horror-comedy hybrid Widow’s Bay, alongside the return of some big names like Ted Lasso and Silo. And now you can add Small Prophets to the growing list of new flavors on Apple TV.

The six-episode comedy actually premiered on the BBC earlier this year, but it’s going to be streaming on Apple TV on October 7th. It’s a smart, silly, sweet, and occasionally stressful show, and also one tinged with just a bit of the supernatural. Sort of like British humor meets magical realism. The show centers on Michael Sleep (Pearce Quigley), who has been living like something of a hermit since his girlfriend Clea disappeared without a trace seven years ago. He’s essentially put his life on hold waiting for her to return: He works a job he hates at a hardware store, helps take care of his elderly father (Michael Palin), and lives in a house still stuffed with old boxes full of Clea’s things.

Then one day his dad has an idea: He tells Michael a secret, alchemical recipe that will let him grow tiny magical beings that can answer any question. And since Michael is desperate to know the answer to one particular question — will he ever see Clea again? — he decides to try it, despite not really believing it will work.

What follows is chaotically comical. Michael ends up partnering with his curious coworker Kacey (Lauren Patel) to grow the creatures, called homunculi, but at the same time his previously simple life becomes much more complex. Michael’s father keeps getting into trouble at his nursing home, his neighbors keep threatening to call the council because of his messy yard, and Clea’s broke brother Roy (Paul Kaye) is trying to claim the house so he can sell it and get out of debt. All the while, the homunculi are growing in both size and power.

The best word to describe Small Prophets is charming. Much of this comes down to Michael himself. While he seems like an isolated shut-in on the surface, with his big beard and aloof personality, he’s actually incredibly funny and even lovable… at least to the people he likes. He’s constantly cracking jokes and helping out his small group of family and friends. To everyone else he’s a bit of an asshole, but in a weirdly funny way, like how he constantly shushes his boss so he can take personal calls at work. At one point he impersonates Santa Claus to get out of a mugging. And there’s a bittersweet note to his always-on humor, as Michael does all of this while holding onto the unlikely possibility that Clea is still out there.

It’s a low-key show, but one that is also extremely strong in basically every regard, with an excellent supporting cast, just the right amount of mystery, and the perfect mix of sweet and silly tones. The goofy and heartwarming nature of Small Prophets also makes it a particularly good fit for Apple TV, since there’s nothing else quite like it on the service. It slots nicely between Ted Lasso, which is comforting in a much more overbearing way, and Widow’s Bay, which similarly mixes comedy with the supernatural, but with an end goal of horror. Small Prophets, on the other hand, is much more whimsical; even the homunculi themselves look more like stop-motion puppets than anything scary.

For a long time the major complaint about Apple TV was that it simply didn’t have enough shows. Once you were done with the big names, like Severance or Slow Horses, there wasn’t a whole lot else to watch. But slowly and steadily that has changed, and 2026 has marked something of a turning point for the streaming service. Part of this comes down to a large number of returning shows, from Sugar to Dark Matter, that have further built out the library. But a lot of it has to do with new shows like Small Prophets that are able to fill in those gaps while also broadening the scope of what’s available on Apple TV.

The good news is that this trend looks to continue, at least for the foreseeable future. The next few months of Apple TV include a serial killer thriller (Nocturne), a heist drama (12 12 12), and one of the service’s most ambitious sci-fi shows to date (Neuromancer). And as for Small Prophets? It ends with a promising “to be continued.”

Amazon reportedly pays $120 million to stream the Emmys for free

2026-10-06T09:26:52-04:00

The Emmys have a new home — and it looks like Amazon paid plenty for the rights. The awards show and Amazon announced a six-year deal that will move the Emmys from its traditional broadcast television home to Prime Video. The shift begins with the 2027 ceremony, which will air next September, though you won’t actually have to sign up for Prime Video to watch it. The announcement instead says that the stream “will be free to view for audiences worldwide.”

According to Deadline, Amazon paid around $20-25 million per year for the rights, making the deal worth upwards of $120 million. “Our broadcast partners have been tremendous stewards of the Emmys for many years, helping to build them into the cultural institution they are today,” Cris Abrego, chair of the Television Academy, said in a statement. “Having a dedicated home with Prime Video allows us to build on that legacy with unprecedented global reach and a broader commitment to the Television Academy and our mission throughout the year.”

The news comes as streaming services are looking for tentpole live events to add to their offerings, and awards shows have become a particularly popular choice. Netflix snapped up the rights to the SAG awards, while the Oscars will be moving to YouTube in 2029. Meanwhile, streaming services have also come to dominate the Emmys. At this year’s awards, Apple TV had the most wins of any network, led by Widow’s Bay, which won a total of 14 awards.

Gears of War: E-Day is a great game launching at a terrible time

2026-10-01T09:26:57-04:00

There are few blockbuster games that are as confident as Gears of War: E-Day. A prequel to one of Xbox’s most transformative titles, E-Day knows exactly what it wants to be: a brutal, tense, and self-aware action game, one that is stronger because it doesn’t deviate from that premise. Twenty years since the original Gears of War, there’s still nothing like its particular brand of up-close cover shooter gameplay, and E-Day shows that it still hits hard two decades later. As Xbox moves into a messy new era focused on its biggest franchises, E-Day could be an early glimpse at the future of the platform. But it’s also launching during one of the most tumultuous periods in Xbox history.

Set 14 years before the original Gears, E-Day tells the story of a pivotal point in the franchise’s sci-fi lore: “emergence day,” the moment when a collective known as the Locust Horde revealed itself with a surprise attack designed to wipe out the entire human race. You play as a slightly younger, but still gruff and experienced, soldier named Marcus Fenix as he and his squad attempt to fight back against the subterranean extraterrestrials. Marcus is part of an elite group known as “gears,” which are basically really buff guys and gals that wear massive armor and are thrown into action when things get really bad.

Things don’t get much worse than the events of E-Day. The human planet Sera is absolutely annihilated by the horde, which launches attacks from holes in the ground and has carved out a labyrinth of underground tunnels that allow them to strike anywhere. Marcus and his squad are thrown into the fray, tasked with doing everything they can to fight back and help where they’re able. Missions have you attacking enemy strongholds, escorting important supply caravans, and searching for survivors amid the rubble. Over the course of the game you see the planet turn from a retrofuturistic paradise to the ruins of a lost civilization.

E-Day is reminiscent of a James Cameron film: Absolutely every element is in service to creating a thrilling sci-fi spectacle. It’s as close to a playable Aliens as you’re bound to find. The cover shooter action remains visceral; everything has a weight to it, from Marcus’ slow movements to the chunky feel of reloading a shotgun. E-Day nails the sense of being pinned down in the middle of a war, surrounded on all sides, being terrified you’ll run out of bullets before the enemy does. There’s an unparalleled sense of tension.

E-Day does an excellent job of mixing things up so that you aren’t spending the whole game hiding behind chunks of concrete or burned-out husks of cars. There are huge set-pieces where the world crumbles around you as gigantic creatures lay waste to the city, and eerily quiet moments where you wander through a dark tunnel or foggy cemetery, unsure of what terrors await. E-Day has some side missions, but its world is largely linear, pushing you through one sequence after another with pacing that never really lets up. It’s all rendered with a lavish attention to detail on everything from the way blood splatters on the camera after a particularly gruesome kill to the outline of a leather wallet in the back pocket of Marcus’ jeans as he’s forced into combat in civilian clothes.

This conceit also means that, much like Avatar and its sequels, E-Day’s story is to the point and straightforward. Cutscenes give you just enough detail to care about the characters when dramatic things happen, but don’t get in the way of the action. No, the series hasn’t reached the emotion promised by the memorable “Mad World” commercial, but it doesn’t need to. In fact, much of the writing feels intentionally stupid, driving home that this is, at its very core, a dumb action game. The amount of ridiculous one-liners in the game approaches an art form, with pivotal moments punctuated by lines like “A giant floating ballsack with glowing eyes is trying to kill us!” or “Hold on to your dicks!” The true spiritual energy of E-Day can be found in its barks, those lines tossed out by Marcus and his comrades as they mow down bad guys. Here are a few examples:

“Too ugly to live.”
“Where are you going? I thought you wanted some of this.”
“Rest in pieces.”
“It ain’t your day, asshole.”
“Looks dead to me.”
“Lights out, fuckface.”
“How do you like that, you stupid-ass spider bitch?”

That’s just a sampling. There’s a strangely joyous nature to the dialogue. The game is violent, the story is dire, but you’re still meant to enjoy the action of firing big guns and using a chainsaw to cut monsters in half. It feels good to play, and the campaign puts you through a range of emotions — at points it even approaches horror, with pitch-black tunnels teeming with bloodthirsty creatures — while never letting go of its action core. E-Day is a 2006 version of Gears rendered with the technology of 2026, which I mean as a total compliment: It’s a pure action game that isn’t saddled by modern trends.

It is also launching at an especially challenging time. Xbox is in the midst of “reset,” in which new CEO Asha Sharma is gutting the division, slashing around 3,200 jobs, and dramatically shaping how its current studios operate, with the ultimate — and perhaps unattainable — goal of focusing entirely on Xbox’s biggest franchises to reach a billion players. In a certain light, E-Day is indicative of this new approach, even if it predates Sharma’s time in charge. After launching tentpole franchises like Forza and Halo on the PlayStation 5, E-Day appears to represent a shift back to Xbox console exclusives. In essence, it’s a big, boisterous return for an iconic series, one that you can only play on Microsoft platforms. If you wanted an idea of what the future of Xbox could look like, E-Day offers an enticing vision.

I’m not entirely confident that the future will play out like that. Xbox’s strategic plans shift constantly, and E-Day developer The Coalition was hit with at least one layoff before launch, and staff fear more are coming. Xbox’s new leadership says that it wants to “focus on higher priority projects,” which on the surface sounds a lot like a bold, confident return for Gears of War. That’s exactly what you get with E-Day, but it might not be enough for whatever comes next for Xbox.

_{Gears of War: E-Day launches on October 6th on the PC and Xbox.}