"Videogame maker EA is nearing a deal to go private in what would likely be the largest leveraged buyout of all time... "A group of investors including private-equity firm Silver Lake and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund could unveil a deal ...as soon as next week" www.wsj.com/business/dea...

My tip for playing Hades II: Have an 8 1/2 year old son (or daughter!) who is into Greek mythology and will be excited when you reach, say, Polyphemus (My impressions after a week of playing: even better combat than the first; cumbersome currency/upgrade system) www.gamefile.news/p/he-looks-d...

A lovely Game File shoutout from @caseynewton.bsky.social, in his 5-year anniversary post for Platformer Casey was very supportive heading into the launch of Game File in late 2023. And I certainly hope Platformer thrives for years to come! www.platformer.news/platformer-y...

Looked up Apple app store reviews of Fire Emblem Shadows and saw claims it is "woke" Read a Forza Horizon 6 interview and the first comment was: "lets hope they stick to racing and leave the rest of the SJW stuff out of it. Horizon 5 was a bit of a let down" www.gamesradar.com/games/racing...

Microsoft president Brad Smith: "I want to let you know that Microsoft has ceased and disabled a set of services to a unit within the Israel Ministry of Defense (IMOD)." blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issue...

Embracer’s new CEO on generative AI in game development: “Players aren't longing for generic, soulless side quests or synthetic AI voices” He’s still very into using AI, but seems more wary of its limits than some other gaming execs www.gamefile.news/p/embracer-g...

In Game File, I looked at six Capcom franchises that haven't had an original release in 7+ years Three of them (Onimusha, Dino Crisis and Lost Planet) had a sequel that failed to sell a million--no sequels followed. One of those, Onimusha, gets a new try in 2026 www.gamefile.news/p/7-new-capc...

For my article about Sucker Punch last week, I was able to find a scan of the mini-review I wrote about the studio's debut game: Rocket Robot on Wheels This ran in the November 29, 1999 issue of Newsweek and was one of my first games-related clips www.gamefile.news/p/sucker-pun...

My son likes the Eagles, but they are out of market. What’s the best service to subscribe to for him to see their games? Hulu isn’t cutting it.

NEW: I spoke to Sucker Punch's Brian Fleming about how the Ghost of Yotei studio's quarter-century PlayStation relationship, their smaller-dev-team strategy and lots more “In order to do something great, you need a really incredible idea and not quite enough time” www.gamefile.news/p/sucker-pun...

hi, hello, here's a story. nintendo of america is ending hundreds of customer support contracts in the U.S., and is outsourcing those jobs to south america ahead of switch 2's first holiday season: www.ign.com/articles/nin...

oh dear...

Highly disturbing open.substack.com/pub/erininth...

The Resident Evil remakes have been a smashing success, with the RE2 and RE3 remakes greatly outselling all prior versions combined. A good chance RE4 remake (2023) does the same

 They probably should make more of these!

 This is from yesterday's Game File dive into 24 years of Capcom sales info

"if I’ve forgotten about the story, I use chatgpt. I tell it which quests are in my log, and ask it to recap the story so far. This helps so much." www.reddit.com/r/assassinsc...

Watch Monster Hunter World drag the entirety of the Capcom catalog forward Its truly remarkable what an insane success that game was, and how it revitalized the entire company and its catalog

NEW: I've sifted through 24 years of Capcom sales data and made a bunch of charts that help tell the story of one of gaming's top companies There is a LOT in today's Game File. - Resident Evil Remakes vs originals - Capcom's Disney games - GTA in Japan - More! www.gamefile.news/p/7-new-capc...

Suing them in Florida, huh? Why does that sound so familiar? www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

This gets at exactly why I fail to enjoy most open world games in the Ubisoft mould: you're not playing the game, you're playing the UI. With a little bravery and trust in the player, as Stephen discovers here, they could be so much better

I like to revisit open-world games after I've reviewed them When I returned to Assassin's Creed Shadows, which I'd liked, it began to feel tedious I figured out why, figured out how to avoid a baffling design element and experienced Shadows as a way better game www.gamefile.news/p/assassins-...

As others have been noting, console gaming is priced more as luxury experience than ever before. In this case... - Virtual Boy on Switch will require the system, a $50/year sub and either a $25 or $100 peripheral - Donkey Kong Bananza, retailing at $70, has received a $20 expansion two months later

I am having a hard time reconciling "Charlie Kirk was a fierce advocate of open dialogue and free expression" with "we must identify and persecute everyone who is insufficiently mournful"

A surge of Google search interest today in “Helldivers 2” Especially in Utah. And Washington DC

I wrote about Nintendo's big news day, the Virtual Boy surprise and the clear sign that Nintendo is undeterred by the very "market conditions" that recently cause them to raise Switch prices They hope to sell a LOT of games, books and toys in the next 9 months www.gamefile.news/p/virtual-bo...

Turns out, this actually was completely timely www.eurogamer.net/virtual-boy-...

Didn't realize the Virtual Boy was this dangerous! www.nintendo.com/us/store/pro... (Looks like this warning, via a longstanding California regulation, is on all sort of products. For Nintendo, it's on both the cardboard and plastic Virtual Boy peripherals announced today) www.p65warnings.ca.gov

The gamers who supported Mr. Kirk... said, “‘Well, I like the things that he liked. I believed in things he believed in. You think I should be murdered?’” Mr. Busch said that he was trying to make the point that Mr. Kirk “said these horrible things, and at the same time, it’s horrible that he died”

$90 video games

As the trailer suggested, Pokemon: Pokopia is being developed by Koei Tecmo. I'm not aware of them having experience in that genre, but maybe I've got a blind spot? I thought it looked promising

Samus' motorcycle in Metroid Prime 4 is called the "Vi-O-La "

The Nintendo Today app is now available in European English

Curious omissions from today's Nintendo Direct: - Rhythm Heaven Groove: announced earlier this year for 2026 for Switch and Switch 2. No sign of it, despite multiple 2026 announcements. RH is one of Nintendo's best/weirdest series - Splatoon Raiders: the spin-off was surprise-announced in June

They must be saving the next WarioWare for last

Pokeminecraft?

Nintendo was so proud of how the Switch redeemed the Wii U that they decided to give the Switch 2 an even more ambitious assignment

Nintendo’s big September Directs are… …just ahead of Tokyo Game Show, so look for 3rd party games that can then be shown there …near the half point of Nintendo’s fiscal year, so look for things that’ll drive company metrics. Perhaps something to push the online service? Plus: Mario anniversary

We're close to reaching a chilling moment; the first time in history where the single largest group of people arrested by ICE in the interior and held in detention are people with no criminal record. The gap is now down to fewer than 300 people.

My piece about Ubisoft and whether AC Mirage's next update is state-sponsored DLC ran the same day news broke of Wrestlemania going to Saudi Arabia in 2027, as part of the country's funding of WWE shows A key line in my report: "MBS...n’est pas le PIF" www.gamefile.news/p/ubisoft-as...

Ubisoft's CEO Yves Guillemot floated the future of Far Cry at a talk in Riyadh The goal, “on Far Cry, it’s really to bring the multiplayer aspects more predominantly pushed, so that it can also be played for a long time by players" From yesterday's Game File www.gamefile.news/p/ubisoft-as...

...a student begins filming an image projected [in] the classroom of a "gender unicorn," a teaching tool [about gender identity] "I’m not entirely sure this is legal to be teaching because, according to our president, there’s only two genders," the student says www.nytimes.com/2025/09/10/u...

My daughter is getting into The Simpsons and started watching from the beginning. She’s on season three and told me she skips episodes that don’t seem interesting. I watched when I was younger but not for ages Which seasons are considered the best? Any problematic stuff like Apu to be aware of?

NEW: The oddly timed confirmation that Assassin’s Creed Mirage is getting DLC tied to Saudi Arabia was due to a little-noticed detail: Ubisoft's CEO revealed it at a Saudi government-backed event I wrote about the project, the Riyadh event and Ubi worker concern: www.gamefile.news/p/ubisoft-as...

Resident Evil fans, Code: Veronica counts as a main series game, on par with the numbered editions? But Revelations does not? (I've only played the latter, on the 3DS)

I might be playing Silk Song, but my daughter is digging the superb Is This Seat Taken? And my son is hooked on... Drag x Drive. Quite the surprise! In today's (free) Game File, I share what's terrific about each game: www.gamefile.news/p/kids-switc...

Half a million on Steam

This article fails to mention the correct answer: Mr. Mxyzptlk

Yay! How lovely it'd be if people could check game credits more and got excited about contributors they saw

Silk Song's "speed completion" achievement challenges players to 100% the game in under 30 hours For comparison, Hollow Knight's version of that achievement was 100% in under 20 First game also had speedrun targets of 5 and 10 hours; this one has a 5-hour one

100k people playing Silk Song on Steam at the moment.