News
378 article(s)All the latest gaming news, announcements, updates and industry events.
Vandal Hearts II at 27: The Tactical RPG Nobody Wanted to Defend
On July 8, 1999, Konami released Vandal Hearts II on PlayStation, two years after an already demanding first installment. Twenty-seven years later, the game remains an anomaly in the tactical RPG landscape: more brutal, more experimental than Final Fantasy Tactics or Tactics Ogre, yet it has vanished from collective memory. This silence says something about what the industry chooses to celebrate—and what it prefers to forget.
Final Fantasy IX at 26: The Remake We're Still Waiting For
Released in 2000 on PlayStation, Final Fantasy IX turns 26 today in relative editorial silence. Square Enix remade VII, has begun tackling VIII, but the ninth installment remains without an official remake project. Yet it's one of the most beloved titles in the franchise. A paradox that says volumes about a publisher caught between commercial nostalgia and artistic integrity.
Project Fantasy Reclaimed, Studio Shuttered: IO Interactive at a Crossroads
Xbox is pulling funding from Project Fantasy, returning full control to IO Interactive. On the surface, a win—except the studio must close one of its offices to absorb the blow. The maker of Hitman faces a precarious freedom: developing an ambitious fantasy RPG without a major publisher partner is a serious industrial gamble.
WoW: Contagion Debuff Escapes Dungeon, Devastates Moon Guard Server
A bug allowed the "Withering Contagion" debuff to leak from its dungeon of origin in World of Warcraft and spread freely across the American Moon Guard server. Capital cities and social hubs evacuated in emergency, Blizzard forced into damage control: the incident lasted long enough to reactivate a specific collective memory—the Corrupted Blood plague of 2005. What this accident reveals about WoW's persistent fragility in containment systems deserves closer examination.
Samurai Shodown at 33: The Edge That Stands the Test of Time
In 1993, SNK unleashed Samurai Shodown in arcades and redefined what a fighting game could be with a single slash. While Capcom dominated with Street Fighter II and Midway provoked with Mortal Kombat, the Japanese studio played a different tune: slow, surgical, deadly. Thirty-three years later, the franchise remains a textbook case that the industry has never truly managed to replicate.
Red Rover Interactive Lays Off Staff Before Shipping Any Game
Red Rover Interactive, a studio founded just three years ago, announces restructuring that includes layoffs — before even releasing its first game. A scenario growing all too common in the industry, but particularly stark here: no commercial product has shipped, no market performance can be assessed. What's collapsing is a promise, not a completed project.
Solo Leveling: Karma Takes Aim at Hades, and It's Deliberate
Solo Leveling: Karma just unveiled new gameplay footage that makes its ambitions crystal clear: an action roguelite styled after Hades, Supergiant Games' dungeon crawler. In a market already oversaturated with Solo Leveling adaptations, this positioning is either a genuine editorial gamble or an opportunistic bet on a proven genre. The first footage offers a partial answer.
Halo Campaign Evolved Integrates Native Machinima Mode
Halo Studios published a FAQ detailing the contents of Halo: Campaign Evolved, its remake of the first game. Among the revelations: a dedicated Machinima mode, built for creators who have constructed an entire culture around the franchise's in-game staging tools. This isn't a cosmetic gimmick—it's a strong signal about the studio's creative direction and what this remake intends to preserve beyond gameplay.
Bloody Roar at 29: The Lycanthrope Fighter We Couldn't Keep Alive
In July 1997, Hudson Soft and Eighting launched Beastorizer in Japanese arcades before rebranding it as Bloody Roar for PlayStation. Twenty-nine years later, the franchise sits in uncomfortable limbo: memorable enough to recall, but never quite solid enough to defend without reservations. That tension is precisely what deserves close examination.
Frosthaven Launches Full Release on October 15
Available in early access since July 2025, the Frosthaven board game adaptation finally nails down its full release date. Snapshot Games and Arc Games have announced October 15 as the launch date on PC. One year of early access to polish an ambitious dark fantasy tactical RPG — the question is whether that window was enough to turn a promising project into a finished product.
The PS1 in a Controller: Sony's Abandoned Brazilian Prototype
Brian "Biscuit" Watson, an industry veteran, reveals that Sony seriously considered commercializing a DualShock that would embed the entire PS1 hardware—a concept designed specifically for the Brazilian market. A project shelved, but one that says a lot about how Sony sought to penetrate emerging markets at a time when the traditional home console wasn't necessarily the right bet.
Furi at 10: How The Game Bakers Changed Everything with One Game
On July 5, 2016, The Game Bakers released Furi and transformed a mobile studio into a reference point for independent action gaming. Ten years later, this radical boss rush remains a testament to what a small team can accomplish when it commits entirely to a single vision. This milestone deserves a hard look back.