Electronic Arts recently killed off Mass Effect and closed developer BioWare entirely, but the publisher is still trying to make money from the franchise's fanbase. Ahead of the annual Mass Effect holiday of N7 Day on November 7, EA is promoting Mass Effect via posts about what fans can buy on the BioWare Gear Store. A lot of people online are saying this is tone deaf and gross behavior. The BioWare Gear Store's social media presence came back to life after a month of darkness today to start hawking Mass Effect merch. The post that kicked things off is the one below, in which fans are invited to "celebrate the legacy" of Mass Effect by giving EA money. EA followed the post up with eight more, pushing people to visit the BioWare Gear Store to buy things like mugs, tote bags, clothing, and shoes, among other things. https://twitter.com/BioWareGear/status/2118417071415476477 The replies under every one of the posts call out how cold and gross it is to promote the brand so soon after cancelling Mass Effect 5 and closing BioWare. EA made the drastic changes as part of a big organizational shift and wider pullback that also included layoffs and other game cancellations, like a new The Sims game. These moves came after EA was taken private by an investor consortium led by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund in a deal that included billions of debt. It subsequently was reported that EA chose to pursue a new Star Wars Battlefront game over funding the next Mass Effect and BioWare's continued operation. A Change.org petition to "save Mass Effect" has drawn 300,000+ signatures, and Canadians are rallying their lawmakers to step in and fund the continued future of BioWare...
If you're among the millions of Amazon Prime subscribers--maybe you use the platform to buy games--you're getting a new perk in the form of free delivery with Uber Eats. Amazon and Uber today announced a partnership where US Prime subscribers can get free delivery on orders of $25 or more. Orders can be placed on Amazon's website or through the app, as opposed to the Uber Eats app. https://twitter.com/UberEats/status/2118334756274241547 The benefit works for Prime members in the US, including the cheaper Prime for Young Adults and Prime Access membership tiers. Additionally, Uber Eats is offering $20 off each of your first two orders of $25 or more through November 18. With this added perk, you can order some wings or a burrito to enjoy after buying GTA 6, all within one app. And that's the whole idea: Amazon does these partnerships to help keep you subscribed. 
Lucia and Jason in GTA 6. It bears mentioning that Amazon is a good place to buy games, but it's not perfect or without issue. In fact, a lot of Nintendo fans are upset with the marketplace for delaying their Ocarina of Time remake deliveries. Here are some more detailed instructions on how this works, as written by Amazon: Prime members can visit www.amazon.com/ubereats or open the Amazon Shopping app and search “Uber Eats” to get started in three simple steps. Log in with existing Amazon credentials, browse from nearby restaurants, and then place an order with existing Amazon payment methods. Once an order is placed, Amazon will send email and push notifications with delivery status updates, and Uber Eats will follow up with a final order confirmation...
As part of Nintendo's latest earnings briefing, the company said it has no plans to increase the Switch 2 price again, or at least not anytime soon. VGC reported that management said Nintendo has enough memory stockpiled to shield itself and thus not need to implement another price hike. Nintendo raised the price of the Switch 2 in September, bringing it up from $450 to $500. This followed price hikes for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles, meaning that all three major platforms have seen hikes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xMM7L2XoMc The price increases are the result of macroeconomic factors including tariffs and the demand for memory and components from AI companies. Following the US midterm elections, technology stocks--and specifically AI stocks--have massively sold off, at least temporarily. It remains to be seen when or if there would be any relief on the memory and component market, though. Nintendo also reported in its earnings briefing that it received many millions in tariff refunds, but the company is keeping all of it for themselves, just like PlayStation and other companies are doing with their own refunds. Nintendo had a tone-deaf and cringey tariff sale. Nintendo's latest big game release was The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time's remake for Switch 2, and it's the best-reviewed game of 2026 overall...
Compared to previous games in the series, Grand Theft Auto 6 looks like it'll only be a few steps removed from reality when it launches this month. Actions have consequences, working on a relationship requires more than just hitting a few button prompts, and bulking up means that you'll have to visit an in-game gym regularly. Will all of that add up to an experience that can give a little dude in green a run for his money as the best-reviewed game of the year? Who knows, but what I do know is that Rockstar Games better have some hygiene options in the game, because Jason's gym etiquette is disgusting. Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but amongst the dozens of new GTA 6 screenshots released today, there's this one of Jason pumping iron: 
GTA 6 has a gym hygiene problem, and I can't stop thinking about it. While I keep telling myself that comparison is the thief of joy and that I shouldn't compare the few strands of muscle fiber I have next to a digital character who looks like he curls Jack Reacher actors for a morning routine, I also can't help but find myself repulsed by Jason's lack of hygiene. I'm also told that Miami--the city that GTA 6's location of Vice City is inspired by--is hot as hell, but that's still no excuse to not be wearing any gym clothing up top. Hell, even if it's one of those gym tank tops with spaghetti straps, that's still better than nothing, because I cannot imagine how much disinfectant you'd need to clean up that rack when Jason is done with it. There's no sign of a sweat towel either, so you just know there's going to be a rank puddle of perspiration waiting for the next unlucky person who uses it. Revolting. Maybe it's his home gym, but that's still no excuse to work out in this state. Sure, maybe he's the only person who uses that facility, but I bet you the nearby NPCs are going to smell it from across the block. Am I reading too much into this? Absolutely. But if Rockstar can spend several years agonizing over the most minute details for its new Grand Theft Auto experience, then as someone who is potentially thinking of dropping $80 on it, I'm allowed to obsess over seeing a jacked-up protagonist turn the rack into a breeding ground of bacterial infections on par with a Resident Evil campaign. There are all kinds of escapism that I'm expecting from GTA 6, but poor gym hygiene certainly isn't one of them. I was fine with weaponized dog poop, but bareback bench presses are where I draw the line...
Rockstar has released a big batch of new Grand Theft Auto 6 screenshots as part of what the developer is calling a "launch gallery." The brand-new images show off main characters Jason and Lucia in a variety of settings, including a nightclub, the dive bar The Rusty Anchor, and the gym, where Jason is putting in some work on the bench. 
A new look at GTA 6's dive bar, The Rusty Anchor. There is also a shot of people on an airboat hunting alligators in the night, and another scene where police are closing in on a superyacht, presumably in pursuit of Jason and Lucia. Another image provides a close-up look at Jason as he leans out of a car window, wielding an automatic rifle while police helicopters chase him. 
A new look at Jason in GTA 6. Head to Rockstar's GTA 6 website to see all of the newly released images. Rockstar released these images to celebrate the fact that GTA 6 is now under two weeks away from its release date of November 19. The game has reportedly already sold 8 million units, generating close to $1 billion. The game’s file size is about 212GB, and thankfully, preloading begins more than a week before launch. The game unlocks on November 19 at midnight local time, and that means US players will be among the last in the world to get in. People in New Zealand, meanwhile, will be the first in the world to play GTA 6. If you’re thinking about booking a flight to the land of Hobbits, here are some tips for packing your PS5 safely...
As the fate of Arkane Lyon hangs in the balance, a union representing workers from the French studio offered strong words toward Arkane's parent company, Microsoft. In short, the union blames Microsoft for "sabotaging" the production of its Blade game. French trade union STJV (per VGC) claimed that development on Marvel's Blade is "going fine," but said that workers face the "harsh reality" that Microsoft may close the studio for financial reasons. But the union said that the onus for Arkane's tough financial situation is on Microsoft itself, claiming that a hiring freeze that lasted 19 months "artificially caused delay and additional cost." STJV asserts that closing Arkane would be more costly than finishing Marvel's Blade, adding that a studio closure would be the result of Microsoft's "never-ending search for maximum profit optimization." The union argues that Arkane is profitable, but "not profitable enough for Microsoft." The union's statement lists demands that include protections for employees and giving workers a say in a potential buyer for Arkane. In accordance with French labor laws, the studio has been in a "consultation period" since Xbox began its reset earlier this year, and it was recently granted an extra month to find a buyer before facing closure. A recent report suggests that three companies, including Ubisoft, submitted bids to acquire Arkane. Arkane is perhaps best known for developing the Dishonored games. Its Arkane Lyon team is primarily responsible for Dishonored 2 and Deathloop, while its sister team in Austin developed Prey and Redfall before Microsoft closed Arkane Austin in 2024. Bethesda and Arkane Lyon announced Marvel's Blade at The Game Awards 2023, but besides the release of official concept art showcasing the game's setting of Paris, practically nothing of the game has been shown since then. The title's future remains as unclear as the fate of its developer...
Marvel's Wolverine got off to a strong start when it launched in September, but since then, it looks like things have cooled off massively for the game. In its new earnings report, Sony finally dropped a sales number for Insomniac's new Marvel game, revealing that it has sold 2.4 million units so far. Marvel's Wolverine, as it initially debuted as September's best-selling game, delivering the highest launch-month dollar sales for a Sony-published game since Helldivers 2 back in February 2024. While 2.4 million sales on its own sounds pretty impressive, compared to other Sony first-party titles, the numbers do not look good. In its report, Sony listed several more games that drastically outperformed Marvel's Wolverine, including Insomniac's previous release, Marvel's Spider-Man 2. That game sold through 2.5 million units on its first day of release, while other titles like Ghost of Yotei outperformed Marvel's Wolverine in just a few days. The game also arrived during a busy time on the gaming calendar, as the last two months have seen multiple games launch ahead of GTA 6 on November 19. https://youtu.be/7nGnaG7kVIA Between Control Resonant, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, and live-service games jockeying for both attention and money, Marvel's Wolverine was facing an uphill battle--and that hill probably felt very steep amidst lukewarm reviews and negative online chatter. Sony hasn't revealed how much it cost to develop Marvel's Wolverine either, but it probably wasn't cheap. The holiday season should see sales increase, and a Black Friday discount will always help shift more units, but for now, Marvel's Wolverine looks like a black mark on an otherwise-solid quarter for Sony. PS5 sales are closing in on 100 million units sold, development on the PlayStation 6 is picking up speed, and the company made a cool $3.95 billion in the last quarter across all of its divisions...
Grand Theft Auto 6 is the biggest game that Rockstar Games has ever made, and it was no doubt very expensive to produce. But just how much did it cost? We know it's not $1.5 billion, but Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has now reacted to the discussion around the game's development costs. He told The Wall Street Journal, "It was expensive and it took a long time." The game has been in development for years, and was delayed multiple times. Zelnick said Take-Two's mission is to "make the best entertainment on Earth," and this takes time. "Our strategy is to be the most creative, the most innovative, and the most efficient. Our cultural tenets are seek excellence in everything we do, work together as a team, and be kind. That approach sometimes is, in fact, really expensive," the executive said. "The good news is that we have a P&L and a balance sheet that supports that. And if we get it right--we don't always--but if we get it right, it actually pays for itself and then some." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klc0fQmAL6k Everyone expects GTA 6 to be a huge commercial success, but Zelnick said in the interview that he will not claim success before it occurs. "Arrogance is the enemy of continued success," he said. Rockstar's ambition is to make the "most amazing entertainment experience of all time," Zelnick added. "They've done that before, and I'm hopeful that we will do that again. Like everyone else, I'm going to wait and see how it's received. I feel really good about it, but I'll wait and see," he said. Also in the interview, Zelnick addressed GTA 6's latest delay to November 2026, saying it was "expensive and inconvenient" but was the right call for the game. "There are a lot of companies who have a great mission statement, a stated strategy, and a culture, but then when push comes to shove, they do something that's at odds with that," he said. "My view is that culture, like character, is tested in the breach. It's a testing moment." At the same time, Zelnick said he got a similar call from an executive asking for more time on a Take-Two project--and Zelnick said no. "I got a similar call and said, 'Actually, we're shipping,'" he said. "Thankfully, I was right, but imagine if I had been wrong?" A dig at Cyberpunk 2077? Also in the interview, Zelnick said other game companies can be too devoted to hitting deadlines, instead of taking more time, and spending more money, to get a game out in a better state. He didn't single any companies out, but he said a recent "high-profile" game that launched in such a rough state that it had to be pulled was an example of this--this could be a reference to CD Projekt Red and Cyberpunk 2077. "That's the other piece that was left out of this discussion," he added. "What happens when people take the other approach? The other approach being, we're slavishly devoted to a schedule, and we're just going to ship despite what is going on. I am not going to throw any competitors under the bus, but if you know anything about the video game business, in the past few years, there was a very high-profile release that fell into this category. They shipped, and they had to pull the title after shipping, because it didn't work." Cyberpunk 2077 had such a rough launch that it was pulled from the PlayStation Store; thousands of people separately sought refunds. Despite releasing in such a rough state, Cyberpunk 2077 sold nearly 14 million copies in its first three weeks to become one of the most commercially successful RPG releases of all time. Executives at CD Projekt Red got gigantic bonuses, too. CD Projekt joint-CEO Michał Nowakowski said it “was for sure wrong” to launch the game in that state, but he pushed back against the theory that the studio did so to appease investors who wanted to see financial returns. Following Cyberpunk 2077’s rough launch, CD Projekt Red steadily supported the game with numerous updates and improvements over the years, culminating with a massive, game-changing 2.0 update in 2023 alongside the Phantom Liberty expansion. Today, the game has sold more than 40 million copies. According to Sensor Tower, GTA 6 could reach 25 million pre-purchases by launch, and that would work out to around $2 billion in revenue. That would be enough to cover the game's development cost and most of the marketing spend. GTA 6 releases on November 19 for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S...
Top titles Nintendo has nine Switch 2 games that have sold more than 1 million units, and you can likely guess which game sold the best: Mario Kart World. The game sold 16.48 million copies through September 30, 2026, and this includes copies sold in the $500 Switch bundle (which has since been discontinued). Check out the full gallery to see all of Nintendo's best-selling Switch 2 games. Nintendo shared all of these new sales numbers on its website. #9: Star Fox - 1.17 million copies #8: Super Mario Party Jamboree - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition - 1.28 million copies (Combined with Super Mario Party Jamboree (Nintendo Switch), total sales reach 12.01 million units.) #7: Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave #6: Kirby Air Riders - 1.94 million copies #5: Splatoon Raiders - 2.42 million copies Advertisement #4: Pokemon Pokopia - 4.04 million copies (Figure only includes units sold outside of Japan where Nintendo is the publisher.) Advertisement #3: Pokemon Legends: Z-A - 4.04 million copies (Combined with Pokemon Legends Z-A (Nintendo Switch), total sales reach 13.31 million units.) Advertisement #2: Donkey Kong Bananza - 5.05 million copies Advertisement #1: Mario Kart World - 16.48 million copies Advertisement...
Since its launch last year, the Switch 2 has proven itself to be a portable powerhouse, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake may just be the best game to show off its capabilities. The upgraded version of the timeless adventure looks even better when compared to the original N64 game that first debuted in 1998, as Nintendo has leveraged the Switch 2 hardware to create the definitive version of the game, blending atmospheric design with imaginatively designed character models. And if you want to see just how gorgeous that glow-up is, click the video below for a guided tour of Hyrule across two eras of Nintendo hardware. No commentary, just comparisons. https://youtu.be/M1DfD7B5oUM For this video, we captured footage using an original NTSC 1.0 N64 cartridge running on an Analogue 3D with de-blur enabled. While there are a couple of Nintendo 64 emulators on the market, the Analogue 3D is generally considered to be the best of the lot. It's designed to capture the essence of a CRT TV display through various effects and filters. Ocarina of Time on the N64 was a game that had to work creatively around the limitations of the console and its cartridge system, at a time when the gaming industry was embracing CD-ROMs. Limitations do breed creativity, and the game is still fondly remembered for being a visual tour de force from an era when 3D games were making impressive strides. As for the Switch 2 version, the footage speaks for itself. It's crisp, the text is sharp, the extra effects are nice little touches, and the art direction has a Studio Ghibli feel to it. For more on the technical wizardry behind it, you can read our big The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake interview with producers Eiji Aonuma and Hidemaro Fujibayashi, as they spoke to GameSpot about what it took to modernize a classic game and keep its soul intact. "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is a reverent remake with stellar presentation, letting the original greatness shine through," Steve Watts wrote in GameSpot's Ocarina of Time remake review...
During a briefing on its latest financial results, Sony revealed it sold 2.6 million PS5 consoles in its last quarter, which ended on September 30. This brings lifetime PS5 sales to 97.9 million, just months before the console enters its sixth year on the market. By comparison, the PS4 had shipped 103.0 million units at the same point in its lifecycle, but Sony's gaming ecosystem is performing much better thanks to higher digital revenue and a massive active user base. This comes at a time when the PS5 has only gotten more expensive since launch, thanks to the global components shortage that has seen memory prices surge. Sony says it has been in discussions with manufacturers to secure enough memory for the next fiscal year and expects its hardware sales to remain profitable into the next year. The company has raised its forecast, as it expects sales of first- and third-party games--like GTA 6--to increase. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmKu9Uow-os&t=2s GTA 6 is projected to have sold almost 8 million copies ahead of its November 19 launch, and PS5 sales are said to be dominating by a wide margin compared with Xbox Series X|S. Sony also keeps 30% of the revenue from the game through platform fees, so GTA 6's early success will only improve PlayStation's fortunes. With manufacturing adjustments that make the PS5 cheaper to produce and monetization of its monthly active users--which peaked at 127 million in September--business looks solid for Sony's game division. Sony also touched on plans for its next PlayStation console, saying it's making "solid progress" on development and will announce it at an "appropriate time" in the future...
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has been regarded as one of the best games ever made for nearly 30 years, and its new Switch 2 remake is seeing similar levels of acclaim. Part of the reason for its critical success seems to be its deep understanding of the source material, and that shouldn't be a surprise when considering how well Nintendo has retained staff over the years--something very few other game companies have managed to do. Speaking to GameSpot, longtime Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma acknowledged the benefits of having developers on the team who have been working at Nintendo for decades. "I think you see a real benefit to having some very long-term-tenured staff members around who have shared the same experiences over time, because every time you get to the next step, it's easier to discuss how to proceed, or if you're going to do something new," Aonuma said via an interpreter. "When you have new staff coming in, of course you want to make sure that you're bringing everyone up with a lot of discussion, explaining how to do things, why you're doing things certain ways, as well as the language that you're using. But that takes some more time, as well. So you need a bit of a balance." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xMM7L2XoMc Despite not having everyone move from one Zelda project to the next, enough developers have remained at Nintendo to provide a consistent throughline. "And so you do see the Zelda team change over time, but there is a continuity of core staff--certainly at least from one project to the next--so that we have that base that we can build from and bring up new staff with it," Aonuma added. "And this is something that I think Nintendo has done for a very long time, even since Miyamoto [was] originally working on projects like this. And it contributes to some of the sense of continuity that you do feel in games in the Zelda franchise, for example." "Continuity" might not be the first thing you think of when Zelda gets mentioned, but Nintendo certainly knows what it's doing with Zelda as of late. In our Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake review, Steve Watts said, "By approaching this remake with a degree of reverence and respect for the source material, Nintendo has shown that a true masterpiece can stand the test of time."...