Gaming News Daily

🎮 Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 Launches August 25, 2026 Cold Iron Studios has confirmed Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 will release on August 25, 2026. Source

🛠 Final Fantasy 14 x FF7 Crossover Raid Series Announced Square Enix has announced Beyond the Lifestream, a Final Fantasy 14 and Final Fantasy 7 crossover raid series, revealed at the Final Fantasy 14 Fan Festival in Berlin. Source

🏢 Bethesda Says Elder Scrolls 6 Roadmap Unaffected by Layoffs Bethesda has stated that its internal roadmap for The Elder Scrolls 6 remains unchanged despite recent Xbox layoffs that cut hundreds of staff across the company. The studio also announced four new Fallout games alongside the workforce reductions, though no release windows for any of the projects were mentioned in the source. Source

🛠 FF14's Evercold Expansion Adds FF7 Collab and Shield Job Final Fantasy 14's next expansion, Evercold, has been revealed at the latest FF14 Fan Festival, bringing a Final Fantasy 7 collaboration and a new job centered on fighting with massive shields. The shield-based job is one of two new jobs confirmed for Evercold. Details on the second job were not announced at the festival. Source

🛠 Viral Raccoon Jimothy Joins WoW as Earnable Pet Blizzard has confirmed that Jimothy — a Seattle raccoon who went viral for his short-spined appearance — will be added to World of Warcraft as an earnable companion pet in the upcoming 12.1 Curse of Ula'tek update. Blizzard says Jimothy is currently being tested and is "targeted to go live" when the patch launches, though exact unlock requirements haven't been announced. The studio described player response to an initial mock-up as "overwhelming." Patch 12.1 also introduces a new zone, raid, dungeon, and delves, along with housing features that let players display up to 15 pets in their in-game homes. No firm release date has been set, though Blizzard expects the update within the next few weeks. Source

🎮 Tomb Raider: Catalyst Pushed to 2028 Amazon Games boss Jeff Gattis confirmed in a July 23 interview that Tomb Raider: Catalyst has slipped from its 2027 window to sometime in 2028. Gattis cited a desire to build identity for Amazon's Luna streaming service around the Tomb Raider brand before the game launches. Catalyst is a sequel to 2008's Tomb Raider: Underworld, developed by Crystal Dynamics — the same studio that suffered its fourth round of layoffs in March 2026. The other Amazon-published Tomb Raider title, Legacy of Atlantis (co-developed with Flying Wild Hog), remains on track for February 12, 2027. Source

🛠 PSN Down Across All Services on Marvel Tokon Beta Day Sony's PlayStation Network is currently experiencing a full outage affecting all services — account management, gaming and social, PlayStation Store, PlayStation Video, and PlayStation Direct. Users are reporting issues with logging in, launching games, and connecting to servers, with Downdetector showing the problems have persisted for hours. The timing hits hard for players trying to access the Marvel Tokon multiplayer beta, which launched today, July 24. The game's developers confirmed they are "actively investigating the problem." Sony says it is "working to resolve the issue as soon as possible." Source

🎮 GTA 6 Codes in Japan Expire 170 Days After Launch Physical copies of Grand Theft Auto 6 sold in Japan will include redemption codes that expire 170 days after the game's November 19, 2026 launch date, according to a June 24 FAQ on Rockstar Games' support page. The expiry is attributed to regional regulations. No other region has been given a similar time limit so far. Source

🎮 Halo: Campaign Evolved Secret Ending Teases Halo 2 Remake Halo: Campaign Evolved includes a secret Legendary ending in which Sergeant Johnson breaks the fourth wall and tells the camera: "See you in the sequel" — a clear nod toward a Halo 2 remake. The tease aligns with prior unconfirmed claims from leaker Rebs Gaming, who reported that remakes of Halo 2 and Halo 3 — without multiplayer — are in active development, and are moving forward "regardless of how well Campaign Evolved does." Campaign Evolved itself launches July 28 on Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC, with premium edition owners getting early access yesterday. Source

🎮 God of War: Laufey Launches February 16, 2027 Sony Santa Monica confirmed the release date for God of War: Laufey at San Diego Comic-Con 2026, with the Faye-led title arriving on February 16, 2027. The game will ship with physical discs — notable given Sony's announcement that it will halt physical disc production entirely from 2028. Game director Cory Barlog also confirmed the next God of War after Laufey will return players to Kratos. He told IGN: "Everything we are doing in the Faye game is a continuation of what came before and to set up and expand what comes next." Laufey was first shown with 20 minutes of gameplay at a Sony State of Play in June 2026. Its February launch puts it alongside Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, Persona 4 Revival, Fable, and Metro 2039 — all releasing within two weeks of each other. Source

🎮 Black Flag Resynced Hits 3.5M Sales in Two Weeks Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake has sold over 3.5 million copies in its first 14 days, "exceeding annual expectations within its first 14 days," according to a new financial report from the publisher. The game had already reached 2 million sales in its opening days and 3 million within the first week. Source

🎮 Batman: Caped Crusader Gets a Co-op Game on Amazon Luna Amazon Luna and Warner Bros. have announced Batman: Caped Crusader - Chronicles, a co-op party game launching July 31 alongside Season 2 of the animated series. It's free for Amazon Prime members through the Luna library. Up to four players join a Gotham City Police Department task force alongside Batman, working through 11 episodic missions that mix sleuthing and minigames. Villains including Babyface, Scarecrow, Dollmaker, and the Joker appear across the cases. Hamish Linklater and Michelle C. Bonilla reprise their voice roles as Batman and Detective Montoya from the show. Amazon also announced Luna is expanding to Prime Video on Fire TVs in the US and UK, letting users stream games directly from the app using a controller or smartphone. Source

🛠 Halo: Campaign Evolved Early Access Broken on Xbox Players who paid $70 for the Halo: Campaign Evolved Premium Edition — which includes five days of early access — are unable to launch the game on Xbox consoles and the Xbox app for PC, instead receiving a "You're too early" error message. The issue also affects Game Pass users who paid an extra $20 for the Premium Edition upgrade. Halo Support confirmed it is "investigating reports" that affected players cannot access the game, though its statement described it as impacting "some" players — a characterization contradicted by reports suggesting the problem is widespread across the Xbox platform. Meanwhile, the game appears to be functioning normally on PlayStation 5. Halo: Campaign Evolved's full launch for standard edition owners is scheduled for July 28. Source

🎮 Resident Evil 4 Remake Hits 16.8 Million Units Sold The Resident Evil 4 remake remains the best-selling current-gen remake by a wide margin, reaching an estimated 16.8 million lifetime units across PC and console, according to data from Alinea Analytics. Capcom's own figures put it at 13.6 million as of March 31, 2026 — Alinea has not yet clarified the discrepancy. The next closest competitor is Ark: Survival Ascended at 7 million units, followed by The Last of Us Part 1 (6.3M), Oblivion Remastered (4.5M), Dead Space (4.3M), Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth (4.2M), and Silent Hill 2 (3.2M). Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, just launched, already sits at 3.5 million. Alinea analyst Rhys Elliott attributes the remake boom to reduced financial risk: proven design, built-in fanbase, and shorter production cycles compared to new IP development. Source

🎮 Age of Empires III Baltic Powers DLC Returns in September Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition's Baltic Powers expansion, previously cancelled earlier in 2025, has been revived and is now set to release in September. Source

🏢 Crisol Studio Lays Off All Staff Six Months After Launch Crisol Studio has laid off its entire workforce less than six months after launching, with the studio warning that full closure remains a "feasible possibility." Initial reports suggested fellow studio Vermila Studios had also shut down, but those reports were premature — though Vermila is confirmed to be in serious difficulty. Source

🏢 Rockstar Union Calls First Management Meeting "a Step in the Right Direction" The Rockstar Games Workers Union held its first meeting with Rockstar management and described it as "a step in the right direction," saying they've secured "a roadmap for a speedy negotiation process." The union, part of the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain, is still seeking voluntary recognition from the GTA 6 studio. The union also reports it now has "more members than ever before" following Rockstar's controversial layoffs earlier this year — a membership level that could potentially force mandatory recognition if voluntary talks stall. Source

🏢 EU Clears $55B Saudi-Led EA Acquisition The European Commission has approved the $55 billion leveraged buyout of Electronic Arts, ruling it raises no competition concerns under EU merger rules. The deal will hand ownership of EA to Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, private equity firm Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners — the investment firm founded by Jared Kushner. It is set to become the largest private leveraged buyout of all time. Source

🎮 Xbox Tests Ad-Supported Game Streaming for Insiders Xbox has launched a limited test of an ad-supported game streaming feature for its Xbox Insider program. Participants can stream select titles from their existing library in one-hour sessions, with ads playing before each session begins. Source