11 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Gaming

The Verge’s gaming section brings the latest video game news, reviews of the most exciting releases, and interviews with the industry’s biggest names. We cover everything from PlayStation and Xbox blockbusters, to quirky Nintendo games, to the cool indie gems on PC and Android that you might otherwise miss.

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Andrew Webster
Andrew Webster
It’s going to be a hot Tarnished summer.

The delayed Switch 2 port of fantasy epic Elden Ring is now launching on August 28th. For those playing on other platforms, FromSoftware says that the extras from the Switch version will be available as DLC on the same day.

Antonio G. Di Benedetto
Antonio G. Di Benedetto
Afraid the Steam Machine will be too expensive? Imagine the price of this NUC with a mobile RTX 5090.

At Computex, Asus announced the ROG NUC 16 Edition 20 — a mini-PC with Intel’s highest-end mobile chip and a flagship RTX 5090 Laptop GPU. It’s even decked out in gold accents for the Republic of Gamers’ 20th anniversary.

Like other Asus Computex announcements, there’s no pricing. But as Liliputing points out, the standard model with an RTX 5080 costs $3,799.

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1/4Image: Asus
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Meta’s metaverse team is now headed up by a former Fortnite exec.

The previous boss, Gabriel Aul, announced his retirement in February with Saxs Persson, once the EVP of the Fortnite ecosystem at Epic, taking over, Business Insider reports.

Persson, who joined Meta in October, had a big role in making Fortnite the giant that it is today — we interviewed him a few times during his tenure at Epic.

Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
This mouse is a Stream Deck.

Corsair owns Elgato, so here’s synergy: the $130 Nightsword V2 Wireless. Hold the Stream Deck button to summon virtual Stream Deck buttons, no LCD keys necessary. (Or map to other buttons on the 89-gram mouse.) 170 hours of 2.4GHz battery life or 164 hours on Bluetooth; far less with RGB or 8K polling.

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The Stream Deck mouse.
The Stream Deck mouse.
Image: Corsair
Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
Samsung Display was holding out on us: the 4K 360 QD-OLED has a third mode.

We told you the new 31.5-inch OLED could do 4K at 360Hz or 1080p680, but MSI made it do 2K520 as well — in “the world’s first triple-mode QD-OLED gaming monitor” the MPG OLED 322URDX36. Also, the RGB-stripe monitor has customizable HDR, with 1500-nit peaks. 98W USB-C PD, too. Flatpanels says it won’t ship till 2027.

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Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
Would you buy a power supply that splits in two?

Spotted at Computex 2026 by OC3D among others, the Thermaltake Dockpower makes power supplies even more modular — so you can theoretically upgrade to more power without unplugging and plugging all your cables, hopefully without introducing another common point of failure. $120 and up in Q3, in 750W, 850W, 1000W and 1200W flavors.

<em>Gallery: Thermaltake Dockpower.</em>
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Gallery: Thermaltake Dockpower.
Image: Thermaltake
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Crystal Dynamics used “AI-assisted tools” while developing the Tomb Raider reboot.

According to the Steam page for Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis:

AI-assisted tools were used during development to support some early exploration and temporary development content. Any AI-assisted assets were either replaced or refined by humans in order to maintain the creative and artistic vision of the development team.

Crystal Dynamics tells Eurogamer that “we leverage AI tools to help our teams iterate on ideas faster and more efficiently, while ensuring that all finished content in the final product is human-crafted.”

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
The studio from the creator of PUBG is laying off staff.

PlayerUnknown Productions is restructuring to a “smaller team” and stopping work on Prologue: Go Wayback, the survival roguelike launched in early access last year.

The studio plans to release one more update and then bring the game out of early access and make it free. It’s “investigating” refunds for people who already bought it.

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Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
Toying with MSI’s new Intel Arc G3 handheld.

This one’s going to cost some serious cash, but it seems to finally be moving handheld chips forward! Intel handhelds went from an embarrassment to pretty good in a little over a year; at this rate, they might be the leader once RAMageddon is over.

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Survey shows two-thirds of Americans are gamers now.

The ESA / YouGov data unsurprisingly shows that an estimated 212 million Americans play games, with gaming at least one hour a week most prevalent among young people, including over 80 percent of Gen Alpha and Gen Z.

Older Americans are playing games, too, though, including 50 percent of Boomers, the only generation where more women play games than men.

A chart showing the percentage of Americans in each generation who report playing video games
A chart showing the percentage of men and women of each generation who report playing video games
1/2Image: Entertainment Software Assocation
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Pokémon Champions surges onto mobile June 17th.

Along with announcing when Pokémon Champions will arrive on iOS and Android, The Pokémon Company revealed the signature abilities of Mega Raichu X and Y, which will become playable in Champions after receiving free in-game rewards.

1/4Image: Nintendo / The Pokémon Company
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Phranque-ly hilarious.

It was great to see how motion capture was used by the cast of the upcoming God of War Laufey game in Sony’s behind-the-scenes video. Jack Quaid was especially in character for his portrayal of Phranque, a sentient gelatinous cube. 10/10, no notes.

Jack Quaid performing the motion capture for Phranque in God of War Laufey.
Looking forward to your edgy performance, Mr Quaid.
Image: Sony / Santa Monica Studio
Andrew Webster
Andrew Webster
Until Dawn gets a little sun.

The slasher movie-turned-game series is back with a full-on sequel that launches in 2027. It has a new setting and characters, but the same interactive film format.

Kallie Plagge
Kallie Plagge
Marathon season 2 kicks off.

The second season of Marathon, Bungie’s highly stylized extraction shooter, starts today. It’s called Nightfall and will be available for everyone to play for free from June 2nd to June 9th, so now’s the time to see if Bungie’s doing enough to keep Marathon alive in the long run. Bungie has the best gunplay in gaming, so here’s hoping.

Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
Ace Combat 8 release date: October 2nd.

Ace Combat’s been a lovely mix of anime plot and dogfighting action for a long time now, and it looks like we’re getting even more of the former with installment eight. So many pretty cutscenes, where we generally get comparatively static exposition.

Andrew Webster
Andrew Webster
A different take on Silent Hill.

The franchise has been on quite a run between the SH2 remake and the excellent F, and Townfall looks like it’ll add a new flavor to the horror. It launches on September 24th.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Onimusha: Way of the Sword launches in September — and a demo is launching today.

Try the demo ahead of the game’s full release on September 25th. Hopefully Capcom’s strong 2026 run continues.

Andrew Webster
Andrew Webster
Arrakis on console.

Survival game Dune: Awakening is getting a port, and will be hitting the PS5 on September 22nd. It’ll include an all-new single-player mode when it does.

Kallie Plagge
Kallie Plagge
Dino crisis.

We got a look at a dinosaur survival game called The Lost Wild: True Fear Is Primal. It looks like all my Jurassic Park video game dreams come true. It’s slated for PS5 in 2027, and I will be seated.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
The Tomb Raider reboot is getting a small delay.

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis was scheduled to launch in 2026, but during Tuesday’s State of Play show, it got a release date of February 12th, 2027. Like Fable, seems it’s steering clear of Grand Theft Auto VI.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Yokai-slaying fun.

Kemuri: Hunt the Unseen, which comes from The Evil Within artist Ikumi Nakamura, is heading to the PlayStation 5 in 2027. The first gameplay trailer offers a glimpse at its characters zipping around the city and battling paranormal creatures.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Dave the Diver is getting a prequel game.

Bancho the Chef tells the story of how Bancho, the intense chef from Dave the Diver, learned his craft. No word when it will be available, but it’s in the works for PS5.

Kallie Plagge
Kallie Plagge
Rayman reimagined, revealed.

Sony showed a reveal trailer for Rayman Legends Retold, a 3D reimagining of the 2013 platformer. It launches August 27th. You can watch the trailer below.

Andrew Webster
Andrew Webster
A little more Marvel.

If Wolverine was too bloody for you, we also got a new look at Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, the 2D fighting game that might be the ideal way to test Sony’s new fight stick.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Strange Scaffold’s next game launches in July, and it looks out of control.

Here’s what you can expect from the game, which has the full title Truck-kun is Supporting Me from Another World?!:

Pressed into the service of the newly-incarnated buff anime elf, you’ll speed your magic delivery truck to complete objectives across two worlds, running over pedestrians, sending them to another world as Truck-kun, and helping Carissa power up a Galactic Gate with the stars you generate together.

It’s coming to PC and Xbox on July 29th.

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Jay Peters
Jay Peters
PlayStation’s next big State of Play kicks off soon.

The show, which will run for more than 60 minutes, begins at 5PM ET. First up, Sony is promising a “closer look” at Marvel’s Wolverine, which launches on September 15th.

Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
That next-gen MSI Claw handheld apparently costs $1,700 now.

Minutes after I published my story below, eagle-eyed commenter P_Devil pointed out the price is $200 more than journalists were told. $1,699.99 for an Intel Arc G3 Extreme with 32GB of RAM, according to Best Buy. Perhaps an unfortunate typo? The listing does say 144Hz when the screen is actually 120Hz… either way, it’s coming June 23rd.

I held the next-gen handheld

Sean Hollister
I held the next-gen handheldI held the next-gen handheld
Sean Hollister
Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
Crocs has a new Nintendo collection.

The Crocs x Super Mario collection will be available starting on July 15th and features five designs inspired by Princess Peach, Yoshi, Mario, Bowser, and the Super Mario Bros. game. Each pair comes with a set of exclusive Jibbitz charms but additional Nintendo charms will also be available if you already own a pair.

Correction, June 5th: An earlier version of this article misstated the collection’s launch date. It will be available starting on July 15th.

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1/6Image: Nintendo
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Mina the Hollower has already sold more than 300,000 copies.

The revenue will help Yacht Club Games stay afloat after Mina’s lengthy development, per Bloomberg. The game rules, I highly recommend it — it’s also one of the highest-reviewed games of the year.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Hyte is launching a cheaper version of its popular Y70 case.

The company showed off the Y50 RGB during Computex 2026, which costs just $99.99. It supports an array of motherboard sizes and comes with the same three-piece panoramic glass as the pricier Y70.

Hyte is just one of the PC component makers grappling with the effects of the RAM crunch, and is likely launching this more affordable case to offset surging prices.

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1/4Image: Hyte
Lego’s Smart Play Pokémon can train and battle, but don’t do the one thing I wish they could

Why, oh why, can’t Pikachu say ‘pika pika’?

Dominic Preston
Andrew Webster
Andrew Webster
Here’s seven minutes of info about Star Fox.

Nintendo just put out a lengthy overview video about the upcoming N64 remake, which continues to look impressive. The game also launches pretty soon: it’ll be out exclusively on the Switch 2 on June 25th.