5 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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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 Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
CRKD added TMR thumbsticks to its tiny Atom gamepad.

The new $29.99 Atom Plus, shipping in late June, isn’t quite as compact or cheap as CRKD’s original Atom gamepad that launched in 2024 for $19.99. But it’s a massive upgrade that adds a pair of drift-resistant TMR thumbsticks, motion controls, vibration feedback, and button remapping through CRKD’s mobile app.

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<em>The Atom Plus includes a wrist strap for use while playing or to hang the controller from your bag.</em>
<em>The Atom Plus is available in smoke black, pal grey, glacier blue, and retro purple color options.</em>
<em>The front of the gamepad includes two multi-function rocker buttons for controlling various Switch functions.</em>
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The Atom Plus includes a wrist strap for use while playing or to hang the controller from your bag.
Image: CRKD
Andrew Webster
Andrew Webster
Some expansive Xbox news.

Later this week Xbox will hold its latest games showcase. Unlike the Developer Direct in January, which focused on titles from Xbox studios, this stream will cover upcoming third-party titles, including the upcoming Expanse game. You can watch it live on March 26th at 1PM ET.

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AI was everywhere at gaming’s big developer conference — except the games

Of the many developers I spoke to at GDC, nearly every one disavowed using AI in their projects.

Jay Peters
Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Here’s some concept art for the Minecraft World theme park coming to the UK next year.

Chessington World of Adventures is getting a new rollercoaster, “interactive adventures,” and, of course, a bunch of block-built attractions. There’s no exact opening date yet, but in the meantime, fans in Buenos Aires will be able to craft gear and explore “iconic Minecraft biomes” at Minecraft Experience: Moonlight Trail when it opens this May.

Concept art for Minecraft World, featuing people walking into a large block-built structure.
Concept art for Minecraft World, featuring people walking through a block-built gate.
Concept art for Minecraft World, featuring people riding a roller coaster.
Concept art for Minecraft World, featuring people waiting on line.
Concept art for Minecraft World, featuring people seated inside a restaurant.
Concept art for Minecraft World of a gift shop loaded with blocky things.
1/7Image: Mojang
Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
Expedition: Handheld.

It’s a delightfully nerdy new handheld gaming podcast from The Full Nerd Network and Retro Game Corps… and I’m the first-ever guest! What’s that in my hand?? The episode airs Saturday at 9am PT (Update: you can watch it embedded below). I bring a future Today I’m Toying With item on the show, too!

Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
Intel’s Big Battlemage GPU is imminent — but not for gamers.

A VideoCardz leak has the Arc Pro B70, with 32 Xe2 graphics cores, 32GB of RAM and a 230W TDP, launching next week alongside a B65 with 20 Xe2 cores. It’s not clear if we’ll ever get the B770 gaming variant; Intel deleted a tweet about it in December.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Vampire Survivors’ deckbuilding spinoff launches on April 21st.

Vampire Crawlers will cost $9.99 on PC and consoles, and it’s coming to mobile later this year. There’s a demo on Steam you can try right now, it’s good!

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Lina Khan was right

Khan’s FTC tried to expand the scope of antitrust law. Meta’s floundering VR ambitions shows why that mattered.

Victoria Song
Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
8BitDo’s latest Retro Receiver brings wireless controller support to the Nintendo 64.

The new $24.99 adapter plugs into the N64’s front ports and serves as a wireless bridge for modern Bluetooth controllers including Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch gamepads. The company also released a new $39.99 2.4GHz version of its 8BitDo 64 controller with a similar adapter for use with the N64 or Analogue 3D.

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<em>The N64 Retro Receiver supports rumble functionality and includes a USB-C port for firmware updates.</em>
<em>The adapter is compatible with 8BitDo’s controller lineup but also any standard Bluetooth gamepad.</em>
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The N64 Retro Receiver supports rumble functionality and includes a USB-C port for firmware updates.
Image: 8BitDo
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics is laying off staff — again.

The studio, which is working on a remake of the first game and a new title and has announced a few sets of cuts in the past 12 months, is laying off 20 staffers, as reported by Kotaku.

Crystal Dynamics says it “remains fully committed to the future development of our already announced Tomb Raider titles.”

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
iii III.

The third iteration of the Triple-i Initiative Showcase, a showcase that’s dedicated to indie game news, will air on April 9th at 12PM ET. It will feature “45 minutes of back-to-back trailers.”

Weird Nintendo never went awayWeird Nintendo never went away
Andrew Webster
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Xbox has a serious branding problem.

Kiln launches on April 23 for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Xbox Cloud, PlayStation 5, Steam, and with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. It will be an Xbox Play Anywhere title, and arrive Handheld Optimized.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Double Fine’s new pot-breaking party game launches on April 23rd.

The new game, Kiln, will also get an open beta on Steam from April 9th through April 11th, according to an Xbox Wire post. It looks like a smashing good time.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
A tiny tease about Silksong’s big expansion.

Team Cherry released a new patch for Hollow Knight: Silksong this week, and in the update notes, the developers say that it is “intended as the last significant update before Silksong’s upcoming major expansion: Sea of Sorrow.” The free expansion is set to launch sometime in 2026.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Seems like the new Xbox boss wants to earn some goodwill.

Microsoft announced some new features in testing for Xbox Insiders today, including settings to manage Quick Resume per game and more groups on the home screen, and newly-appointed Microsoft gaming CEO Asha Sharma says work started on the updates just “two weeks ago.”

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Saros looks like another showcase game for Sony’s DualSense controller.

Housemarque’s previous game, Returnal, used the DualSense’s haptic feedback and adaptive triggers to great effect, and Saros will take advantage of those features too, as shown in a new trailer. The game is set to launch on April 30th.

Nvidia has lost the plot with gamers

Nvidia wanted its cake immediately.

Sean Hollister
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Jensen Huang, on the critical reaction to DLSS 5: “Well, first of all, they’re completely wrong.”

“The reason for that is because, as I have explained very carefully, DLSS 5 fuses controllability of the of geometry and textures and everything about the game with generative AI,” Huang said, according to Tom’s Hardware, and he noted that developers can “fine-tune the generative AI.”

Still, it’s maybe not the best thing to say about the blowback to DLSS 5 right now.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Meta is shutting down its VR metaverse on June 15th.

Meta announced last month it would be shifting its strategy to go “all-in on mobile” for Horizon Worlds, and today, the company shared exactly when the VR version of the app would be going away.

Update: Linked to Meta’s website about the changes.