Clear your April 2026 calendar: updated release dates for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Switch 2 and PC. (via @ign.com). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/z3svrb3n

Volcano replaces the cold: Breach of Trust for Frostpunk 2 arrives June 23 — survive lava and tremors, manage a Vote of Trust, plus two maps, new buildings and factions. (via @destructoid.bsky.social). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/5akjwbf8

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Magic's TMNT set plays like an arcade: the Turtle Power precon gives Character Select, letting you field two commanders—pick any turtle, Splinter or April. (via @gamespot.com). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/5rse52bt

Release timing could cost you the first battles — Pokémon Champions rolls out at different times worldwide; check your local launch time and whether you can preload ahead. (via @polygon.com). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/emachecc

Lucas Pope, creator of Papers, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn, is keeping new projects under wraps because he’s worried AI could slurp them up. (via @ign.com). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/hb65rwsk

Secret ultra-hard final phase upended the World of Warcraft: Midnight world-first race — one of the top two raiding guilds thought they'd won after the third raid opened last week. (via @ign.com). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/5ct6jrdf

Players lost a pioneer: Yoshihisa Kishimoto, creator of Double Dragon, has died at 64 — his design helped define the beat‑'em‑up genre. 🕹️. (via @gamedeveloper.bsky.social). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/538vjfrz

Player spent days watching NPCs build a statue in real time in Crimson Desert; Kingdom Come: Deliverance's boss called it "this is absolutely insane.". (via @gamesradarplus.bsky.social). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/5ttf3zhb

Co‑op gets a boost: Lords of the Fallen just got a major PS5 update ahead of its April PS Plus arrival, further improving the 2023 Souls‑like experience. (via @pushsquare.com). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/46u3p2ka

Even if you quit your job, your chances of finding another will be slim — Guilty Gear creator warns AAA devs are being forced into dangerous siloes, choking talent mobility and game variety. (via @gamesradarplus.bsky.social). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/58s7h5pp

New rating suggests Halo: Campaign Evolved may be the darkest Halo entry since 2014 — players should brace for a noticeably grimmer campaign. (via @dualshockers.bsky.social). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/5n6vp775

US players average 20+ hours/week in Crimson Desert on consoles, dwarfing almost every other open-world game. (via @gamesradarplus.bsky.social). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/cjk29auz

World of Warcraft: Raiders celebrated a world-first Midnight boss kill — then it resurrected into a secret final phase, leaving the race for first place still up for grabs. (via @pcgamer.com). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/3fvzrw3j

Half-Life: Players beware: Baby Steps developer says designing levels to troll you is intentional — even as Valve's Half‑Life deliberately avoids that approach. (via @gamesradarplus.bsky.social). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/yc8h4m2d

RPCS3 (PlayStation 3 emulator) adds a new in‑game UI for handheld PCs like the Steam Deck, letting you tweak performance and graphics on the fly. (via @pcgamer.com). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/mvn83ta2

New court documents reveal Universal sued Nintendo in 1983 over Donkey Kong — the studio lost, keeping the arcade classic in players' hands. (via @polygon.com). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/cyeakemx

Servers go dark this week — Amazon's King of Meat shuts down; play now if you want to see the live-service flop before it's gone. (via @polygon.com). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/3japfvfa

April 10 — Level-5’s Vision 2026 Craftsmanship stream airs 6am PT/8am ET/2pm CET/9pm JST; expect trailers and updates for Decapolice, Inazuma Eleven RE and Professor Layton. (via @siliconera.bsky.social). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/2dv2xz6k

$25 — Samson: A Tyndalston Story launches this week: a GTA-ish open world with no guns, mob debt to pay (sister held as collateral), weaponized cars and 25+ upgrades. (via @gamespot.com). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/26x6x4rk

Original Frostpunk is coming to Nintendo Switch, 11 bit studios announced — the city-survival sim is heading to handhelds. ❄️. (via @gematsu.com). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/mrxhvyzm

Frostpunk 2 DLC Breach of Trust announced; release date and price TBA — brace for more brutal choices and survival headaches. (via @gematsu.com). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/5n7h4zht

World of Warcraft: L'ura secretly healed to 1 billion HP in a hidden 4th phase, flipping the Mythic World First race. Team Liquid and Team Echo now scramble to master the light-bubble, lasers and raid heals. (via @gamespot.com). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/3n5ujxdu

Don’t pick up the Fruit of Life in Crimson Desert early — players warn grabbing it during the Passage of Malice Abyss can softlock the Fragment of Life quest, so wait until it’s requested. (via @gamespot.com). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/4r6jkvv7

Italian TV aired the DLSS 5 reveal, then appears to have issued a copyright strike against NVIDIA's YouTube channel hosting the trailer — awkward content-claim inception. (via @pcgamer.com). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/3v2pjsnn

1,000+ Super Mario Maker levels wiped after Switch accounts were suspended — possibly traced to reports from a single cheater. (via @kotaku.bsky.social). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/yc294cn6

Mass Effect TV scripts are being rewritten to be "more appealing to non-gamers"—fans fear it could strip the franchise of the stakes, politics and sci‑fi that made it special. (via @destructoid.bsky.social). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/9d6z35t3

5 years in dev and its Kickstarter hit the goal in 3 hours — PlanetSmith, a voxel survival mixing No Man's Sky scale with Minecraft-style building and "seamless" space travel, heads into alpha soon. (via @gamesradarplus.bsky.social). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/5n6j73zx

Super Mario Galaxy’s streaming and disc dates are still TBD — Netflix and Peacock are the likely streaming homes, with Blu‑ray/DVD expected months after theaters. (via @polygon.com). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/2p9wnmtn

PS5 Pro owners: Patch 1.1.10 lands April 7 for Assassin's Creed Shadows, adding PSSR 2 for sharper visuals and unshackling the Bo staff. (via @pushsquare.com). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/vr6k5znv

Halo players: longtime artist Glenn Israel and other ex-Halo Studios staff accuse the studio of covering up harassment and retaliating against victims, saying bullying went unchecked. (via @gamedeveloper.bsky.social). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/bddnpw6c

$6 Mass Effect Legendary Edition — the full first three games are on sale now in the PlayStation and Xbox stores. (via @polygon.com). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/5fz7fkfv

Sex minigames may return in the God of War PS5 remake — Kratos' original voice actor TC Carson hinted as much, sparking fresh debate over those famously cringey scenes. (via @pushsquare.com). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/mrxe9mwf

JRPG fans crushed: Tales' 30th anniversary is being called "a disaster" after another underwhelming reveal — "The way they hype things up is just terrible.". (via @gamesradarplus.bsky.social). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/4wev84fa

4 years later, players get a lore bomb: an uncovered Elden Ring cutscene suggests Miquella's Haligtree might be a gift, not a prison — huge for DLC theorycrafting. (via @gamesradarplus.bsky.social). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/ym5c9sya

Playtime with Peppa Pig: Kids can play offline: Netflix launched Playground — a free app for ages 8 and under, no ads or in-app purchases, available to all members with Peppa Pig & Sesame Street; global rollout April 28. (via @engadget.bsky.social). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/mvacmz88

The State of Decay 3 reveal trailer wasn't the game — it "existed in a Word document" and only 4-5 people were on it, studio head Philip Holt told Sunny Games. (via @gamespot.com). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/27kjr9sv

Steven Spielberg says Zach Cregger’s horror Weapons satisfied his itch to make a horror film — a major endorsement for Cregger, who’s directing the upcoming Resident Evil reboot. (via @gamespot.com). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/464ycvrh

100,000 copies in 5 days — Retro Rewind, a two-person sim that's a love letter to Blockbuster stores and winding VHS tapes, has found its people on Steam. (via @gamesradarplus.bsky.social). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/f98xpr5x

TC Carson, Kratos’ original voice, hinted at a panel that the cheeky adult QTE mini‑games may return in the God of War remakes, saying he thinks so on IGN's TikTok. (via @destructoid.bsky.social). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/yc47jxjn

God of War: Kratos actor T.C. Carson, reprising the role for the Greece remakes, says the sex minigames will likely return: "I think so". (via @kotaku.bsky.social). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/2a3zktfk

After 100+ hours, some players say Crimson Desert (Pearl Abyss) has gone too "peaceful"—they've basically killed every enemy across the open world. (via @ign.com). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/yethtmp9

Stellar Blade's Eve is beginning to appear everywhere — millions still drop into PUBG and Fortnite daily, so expect sightings on PC, console and mobile. (via @pushsquare.com). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/2hbnt45n

Ace & Aro: Heart to Heart is a new dating sim built around asexual and aromantic players, directly addressing their chronic underrepresentation in games. (via @polygon.com). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/44rzpdxh

Players saw an Xbox reveal for State of Decay 3 despite there being no team or prototype, Undead Labs head Philip Holt says. Reality check for reveal culture. (via @polygon.com). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/3szk3sf3

April 7: Starfield gets two updates—Free Lanes and Terran Armada—and hits PS5; regional unlock times are confirmed, so plan your launch window. (via @gamespot.com). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/mwcdjav3

Switch owners get Kadokawa Corporation's first game adaptation — TAITO announced The Detective Is Already Dead for Switch; release date TBA. (via @gematsu.com). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/s6m3hff4

April 9: Wrath: Aeon of Ruin VR – Brutal Edition launches on PS VR2, bringing the Brutal Edition into VR for players. (via @playstation.com). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/2fa9cs5d

April 20, 2026 is Okami’s 20th anniversary — Capcom teases a celebratory project and shared new Amaterasu/Issun art; the announced sequel still has no release window. (via @siliconera.bsky.social). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/5t4jwj7s

Players pay the price: March layoffs (Epic 1,000; Eidos 124; Red Storm 100+) erode team trust and know‑how — Star Wars Zero Company's director says keeping squads intact made XCOM 2 better. (via @rockpapershotgun.bsky.social). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/6zysfyfx

Ghost of Yotei Legends' brutal 4-player Raid launches April 10 with no matchmaking—grab three friends fast. (via @pushsquare.com). 🔗 https://tinyurl.com/543frrrx