The Week in Gaming - Issue #9

July 2025 Nintendo Direct

For a robust wrap-up, please see Ash Parrish’s writeup over at The Verge.

• Apex Legends will be getting a Switch 2 upgrade on August 5. Nintendo Life

• Open world sci-fi adventure, Star Wars Outlaws, will launch for Switch 2 on September 4th. Eurogamer

• Disgaea 7’s launch date has been announced as October 10 and will be a Switch 2 exclusive in the West. Nintendo Life

• A remaster of the original Plants vs. Zombies will be hitting PC and console platforms on October 23. Get your lawnmower ready. GamesBeat

• A brand new Katamari game, called Once Upon a Katamari, is rolling onto PC and consoles on October 24. Video Games Chronicle

• Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero will be coming to Switch and Switch 2 on November 14. Nintendo Life

• Prequel game, Octopath Traveler 0, has been announced for Switch 2 and will be launching December 4th. ComicBook Gaming

• The team behind Hello Kitty Island Adventure has just announced their first DLC for the game, called Wheatflour Wonderland. ComicBook Gaming

• Bandai Namco has announced that Pac-Man World 2 is getting a remake and will feature a two-player mode. Video Games Chronicle

• Hack and slash Zelda spinoff and “canonical tale”, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment has a new teaser trailer. Its release date is still unknown. ComicBook Gaming

Game News

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 were removed from the main Call of Duty install and became standalone downloads this week. Legacy content and modes will be automatically removed on August 7 to free up storage space for players. Eurogamer

• Funcom has disabled Steam’s Family Sharing as they crack down on exploitation and duplication cheats in Dune: Awakening MMORPG.com

• Microsoft has announced that a playable demo of Hollow Knight: Silksong will be available at Gamescom for PC and ROG Xbox Ally X. Eurogamer

• The Pokémon Company apologized for plagiarizing artwork in TCG Pocket’s latest expansion set, after discovering that an illustration of Ho-Oh included art from artist Ianjiujiu. PC Gamer

Upcoming

• Play! Pokémon Access, a new competitive app to track events for Pokémon TCG, Pokémon Go, and mainline games, has launched in parts of Europe and will be coming to the US on August 4. Nintendo Life

• EA has confirmed a launch date of October 10 for Battlefield 6 and showed off multiplayer gameplay this week. GamesBeat

• Rust is coming to iOS and Android and preregistrations are now open. A hands-on demo will be showcased at Gamescom and a reveal trailer has been published this week. Pocket Gamer

• A first look trailer has been released for Darksiders 4 this week. The action game will be launching for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. ComicBook Gaming

New Releases

• Mario Paint is finally available on Nintendo Switch Online! Eurogamer

• Grounded 2 released as Early Access on Steam and Xbox this week. MMORPG.com

• Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake received a free Switch 2 update that adds graphical improvements for frame rate and resolution. Video Games Chronicle

• Psychological horror game, Dead Take, launched on PC this week. GamesBeat

Game Updates

• The duo mode update for Elden Ring: Nightreign was postponed to Thursday, due to the tsunami warning generated from the 8.8 earthquake near the Kamchatka Penninsula. Eurogamer

• The latest patch for co-op climbing game Peak introduces cannibalism, in case you need to eat your friends on your way to the top. PC Gamer

• World of Warcraft introduced a Rotation Assist feature to help players manage an increasingly complex ability rotation for characters and includes a feature that allows you to cast the next ability with a single button press for a small global cooldown penalty. PC Gamer

• Horse girl training game Umamusume: Pretty Derby is facing server issues due to an exploding player population. Cygames has confirmed that it is aware of connectivity issues and is working on a solution. ComicBook Gaming

• MLB the Show 25 has added the Bristol Motor Speedway (NASCAR track) as a playable park, in celebration of the MLB hosting the first ever Speedway Classic. ComicBook Gaming

Game Tech

• Microsoft is rolling out its Xbox age verification in the UK. Verification prompts will be shown for players who indicate they’re over the age of 18 and will eventually become a requirement to access Xbox services in early 2026. The Verge

• Steam's redesigned store menu is out in beta and features a single menu bar, a larger search bar that immediately suggests options when clicking into it, a drop-down browse menu, and a revamped categories tab. Rock Paper Shotgun

• PlayStation’s first wireless fight stick now has an official name, the FlexStrike. Features include simultaneous PlayStation Link audio, Dual FlexStrike wireless connections, DualSense controller connectivity, and adjustable controls and DualSense input. PlayStation Blog

• Nintendo has announced pricing changes will be rolled out to Switch consoles and accessories next week (~13-15% price hikes). GamesIndustry.biz

Social Impacts

• Fans are accusing Activision Blizzard of using AI-generated art in the Diablo Immortal x Hearthstone event marketing materials. Eurogamer

• Amazon MGM Studios has selected Wolfenstein for the next game series to get a TV adaptation. Eurogamer

• Bloober's The Medium will be adapted to film, with writer-producer Gary Dauberman securing the screen rights to the game and produced alongside Mia Maniscalco. Eurogamer

• Epic is being sued by choreographer Felix Burgos over a Fortnite dance animation in the “Touching the Sky” emote. The dance sequence was registered by Burgos and the choreographer indicated it is being used in the game without his permission. PC Gamer

• PlayVS has launched their PlayVS College League (PCL), a new competitive ecosystem that offers a pathway to professional esports as early as middle school. Esports programs from different schools have the chance to join PCL as it has no roster caps, per-seat fees, or team limits. GamesBeat

Spotlight: Digital Censorship

• IGDA released a statement this week that it is “serious alarmed” at the crackdown on NSFW games, triggered by Australian pressure group Collective Shout. The group says that “vague or overly cautious” enforcement of new payment processor guidelines could see games that feature consensual adult content “easily targeted” and could force developers into “silence or self-censorship”, particularly for LGCTQ+ creators and content. GamesIndustry.biz

• The UK games industry trade body, UKIE, has also provided a statement, directing payment providers and platforms towards existing age rating systems and suggesting that they should have trust within them. “…Ukie strongly supports the use of robust classification systems like PEGI across all platforms, including those hosting adult or experimental content. This ensures that content is labelled appropriately, that younger audiences are protected, and that creators can publish with transparency.” GamesIndustry.biz

• Indie platform itch.io has posted new guidelines for adult content, in light of last week's deindexing. Game Developer

• Collective Shout, in response to questions on why the group involved payment processors, pointed to lack of response from Steam for its objections to rape and incest games on the platform. Eurogamer

• Itch.io has announced that it is seeking out new payment processing partners who are more willing to handle the purchase of NSFW games. The company is also “re-indexing” free adult content and will re-introduce paid content gradually to ensure it can “confidently support the widest range of creators in the long term”. Rock Paper Shotgun, GamesIndustry.biz

• YouTube has eased its demonetization guidelines, saying that videos containing "moderate profanity" would be eligible for full monetization while those using "stronger profanity" in the first seven seconds or "repeatedly throughout the majority of the video" would be eligible to run "limited ads." PC Gamer

Till next week,

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