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.
Featured stories
SteelSeries’ multi-platform Arctis Nova Pro Wireless headset is nearly $70 off
We’re also seeing the first discount on the Apple Vision Pro and the lowest price to date on Google’s indoor Nest Cam.
The company’s latest cost-cutting efforts — which include selling off Vancouver-based Company of Heroes developer Relic Entertainment — impact the Sega Europe office, and UK-based Sega Hardlight and Creative Assembly studios.
In an email to staff seen by Eurogamer, Sega Europe CEO Jurgen Post said that “change is necessary to secure the future of our games business.” The news was announced less than a day after Sega’s US union ratified its first contract.
Alto’s Odyssey: The Lost City, Gibbon: Beyond the Trees, and Spire Blast will each get Vision Pro “spatial” apps tomorrow, Apple shared in a release emailed to The Verge.
Also, rhythm game Synth Riders — aka the only game I’ve been coming back to besides bullet hell shooter Void-X — has been updated with Game Center leaderboards and a pass-the-headset Party Mode.
In spite of unfair labor practice complaints and a round of layoffs, the 150 members of the AEGIS (CWA) union at Sega of America have a new contract. It guarantees members annual wage increases, warnings before layoffs, hybrid work schedule commitments, and severance packages.
There has been a growing unionization movement in the video game industry over the last few years, and AEGIS’s new contract marks the first ratified contract at a major developer.
Where can you battle a toaster with a waffle iron? Wield a barcode scanner for fun? Navigate a digital character through a real-life paper pop-up book?
The Game Developers Conference Alt.Ctrl showcase, that’s where. It’s my happy place at GDC, and this year I wanted to share some of the zany magic with ya’ll.
Following last year’s rocky launch, Cities: Skylines: II has released a new patch that introduces a whole bunch of performance fixes, along with support for code modding and a map editor that publisher Paradox Interactive previewed last year. The modding feature is still in beta, and it uses Paradox’s own platform rather than the Steam Workshop.
There’s also a new paid Beach Properties assets pack that adds new building types, variants, and palm trees.
Seeing its remade opening video warms my heart. This game is part of an absolute slew of recent classic Nintendo remakes sending the Switch off in glorious fashion.
If you’ve never played this game, you’re in for a treat when it releases on May 23rd. The Thousand-Year Door is a beautiful, hilarious, and very fun RPG.
Tomorrow at 11AM ET, Marvel Games will unveil its latest title. According to rumors, the game is being developed by NetEase and will be a 6 v 6 hero shooter in the vein of Overwatch or Valorant.
From the key art Marvel shared, I can make out Iron Man and Dr. Strange. The announcement also made references to the timestream so expect the game to involve time travel shenanigans. Whatever shape the game takes, hopefully it’ll look good enough to stand next to the recently revealed 1943: Rise of Hydra.
Did they “fall off a truck”? Kinda! Playdate’s Cabel Sasser says the company lost two entire pallets of the tiny yellow Game Boy alternative in Las Vegas, when they were delivered to a nextdoor gas station instead of Playdate’s warehouse.
It seems whoever signed for the handhelds may have gotten, ahem, creative: “Seven of them have been registered to people who live in north Las Vegas.” More at Game File and Game Developer.
I’m not sure who needs to hear this, but Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs now uses video passthrough on Meta Quest headsets (and the Pico) to project your target for destruction onto a real-life table or whatever.
If you don’t have a VR headset with passthrough though, there’s been standalone version of the game on smartphones for years.
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has dropped some hints that PC stores like Epic Games Store and Itch.io could one day arrive on Xbox consoles. In an interview with Polygon, Spencer says the console market isn’t growing and that there are barriers that exist today. “How can we be part of opening up that model?” asks Spencer, hinting at a potentially radical rethinking of Microsoft’s Xbox console ecosystem.
Things have been quiet since the game was announced five years ago (aside from some details that came out during the FTC v. Microsoft case last year). But as part of a post about the series’ 30th anniversary, Bethesda did have a little bit to say about the upcoming RPG, noting that “playing early builds has us filled with the same excitement and promise of adventure.” Now we just need a release date — and maybe some gameplay.
At launch, there was no easy way to delete a save or start a new game once a save file existed — something PC modders quickly added. Today, Capcom shared that it will make starting a new game a native feature of Dragon’s Dogma 2.
Besides, that, the developer is targeting some quality-of-life and technical fixes.
YouTube channel The Sonic Show leaked a trailer for the Japanese version of the rumored Sonic Toys Party, a multiplayer Sonic game that pits players in a Fall Guys-style race against a pile of others (32 of them, according to Insider Gaming last month).
The trailer starts at the 6:18 mark. Mind your volume — The Sonic Show’s narrator comes in hot at the end.
Neither has any of the apps we’re used to.
Andrew Webster’s reviews of the 3 Body headset and the tablet from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom each drive home the necessity of a healthy ecosystem, even for the coolest tech.
The biggest new battle royale is ready for your phone
Plus, in this week’s Installer: a peek at the Humane AI Pin, new Stardew Valley, 3 Body Problem, and much more.
James Channel altered an original copy of NES Open Tournament Golf so that it can both be played on a Nintendo Entertainment and used as a fully-functioning Nintendo Entertainment System.
Or it can play itself, like some sort of Mariourobouros.
The group that’s been trying to beat every single uploaded Wii U Super Mario Maker level before the servers go dark on April 8th has succeeded.
In fact, a Team 0% member beat it last week. GamesRadar writes that the creator of “Trimming the Herbs,” which Team 0% thought was the final level, revealed he’d faked proving a human could beat it. Team 0% says despite that, some will “keep grinding it for eternal glory until the service ends.”