#video-games

#video-games

For years, gambling lived on the outer edges of the video game business. It was boxed in by geography, hemmed in by regulation, and treated as culturally separate from mainstream gaming. However, the wall has now largely come down. The State of Video Gaming in 2026 by Epyllion's CEO Matthew Ball argues that gambling, especially iGaming, online sports betting, and prediction markets, has become one of the biggest forces redirecting how players use their time and money.

An advert for a Call of Duty game has been banned by the UK's advertising regulator for trivialising sexual violence. The commercial for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 featured fake officers at an airport security check - as the real ones were too busy playing the game. Viewers complained the video, which included a man being told to strip down while an officer put on gloves and said "time for the puppet show", was "irresponsible and offensive".

Video games are a major part of many children's lives, offering opportunities to build problem-solving skills, foster creativity, strengthen hand-eye coordination and connect socially with peers. In many cases, gaming can promote teamwork, critical thinking and even emotional resilience. When played responsibly, it can serve as a healthy and enriching activity. However, like any social environment, whether in-person or online, gaming platforms can also expose children to difficult situations, including conflicts, exclusion and occasionally bullying behavior.

January is often a quiet month for big video game releases. So this cold, wintry month becomes a perfect time to evaluate your ever-growing backlog of video games and start chipping away at it. That's what many of us at Kotaku are doing right now, and so we figured hey, let's turn our lives into content for the website. Welcome to the start of Backlog Week, a way to celebrate, critically evaluate, and document those massive lists of games we all have.

Over the past 24 months, Ubisoft has undertaken company-wide actions to streamline operations, improve efficiency, and reduce costs. We are committed to supporting all impacted team members during this transition with resources, including comprehensive severance packages and additional career assistance.

I feel I'm finally getting established enough that we can make a Mistborn game happen. ... This is at Step One only, but it's an encouraging One.

A common response to negative reviews, no matter the subject, goes something like this: 'Well, what would you do to fix this?' Normally, I would answer this with some kind of rude joke about how the purpose of criticism is not to tell you how to fix your sink, or capitalism. I leave that work to the YouTubers. But this time, I'll make an exception. I will tell you what I am doing to fix all this. The answer is: Nothing.

The story presented the Federationa fictional alliance of South American countries whose capital was Caracasas a military superpower that becomes the main enemy of the United States. At the time, this narrative choice sparked considerable controversy in Venezuela, where the newly elected president, Nicolas Maduro, considered that the game was associating his country with a global military threat and symbolically positioning it as an antagonist.

The Lego Group is set to host its very first press conference at CES 2026 but exactly what it plans to unveil is still under wraps. The iconic toy brick maker has offered no clues about what's on the agenda, leaving speculation wide open, from new video games to Formula 1 race cars. Here's how you can watch Lego's presentation at CES, along with what we think the company could reveal.

Three generations have grown up with video games since home consoles with swappable game cartridges were first released in the mid-1970s. These systems brought versions of popular arcade games, such as Space Invaders and Pac-Man, into people's living rooms. At about the same time, tabletop fantasy role-playing games, such as Dungeons & Dragons, made their appearance. This fantasy genre would also lead to the development of card-based games, such as Magic: The Gathering and Pokémon.

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What I think is kind of baked into doing an origin story for a character like James Bond, is that everyone knows the character and who he's going to become,

I'd been in full production mode every single day from the very start of each project to the very end, for 20 years. I stayed so long because I loved the games. It was a real privilege to be there, but it was probably the right time to leave. I turned 45 just after Red Dead 2 came out. I thought, well, it's probably a good time to try working on some other stuff.

Ah, the '80s - a time when blowing into Nintendo cartridges like it was a life-saving ritual was a regular occurrence, Saturday mornings belonged to cartoons, and the biggest flex was having the perfect Trapper Keeper. If you ever got frustrated trying to solve a Rubik's Cube or begged your parents for a neon Lisa Frank folder, this one's for you. Take the poll below and tell us just how deep your '80s kid cred really goes!

Bluey embodies the talent, heart and character of Australia's creative industries. But unfortunately, until now, the beloved franchise's video games had a track record spottier than her friend Chloe the dalmatian. Some parents treated Budge Studios' 2023 mobile game Bluey: Let's Play! with caution, with its $9.99 monthly subscription and persistent adverts for Budge's other licensed games. Later that same year, Artax Games' Bluey: The Videogame was widely criticised on release for its barely two-hour run time, technical problems and $60 price tag.

Gamers, this is our Oscars. While, unfortunately, the 2025 Game Awards has nothing to do with the Movie Fantasy League, it is still a welcome addition to awards season as a whole. Everyone needs a video game break! Just because the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles was all about video games, it doesn't mean Hollywood wasn't in attendance. JJ Abrams, Gabriel Luna, and Jeffrey Wright were some of the stars presenting and accepting awards, and of course, Miss Piggy is going to more than flirt with host Geoff Keighley as she teased her later appearance in the show. Where's Kermit?!

Clair Obscur, the first game from small studio Sandfall Interactive, tells the story of a group of characters battling seemingly impossible odds in a post-apocalyptic universe with a distinctively French visual style. It has been nominated in a record number of categories and will square up against heavyweights like Death Stranding 2 from industry legend Hideo Kojima of Metal Gear Solid fame, or Nintendo's Donkey Kong Bananza starring the eponymous gorilla.

King of Meat developer Glowmade will layoff "around a dozen people" early next year, according to a new report from Insider Gaming. These "voluntary redundancies" come just two months after the multiplayer party game hit Steam and after it reportedly failed to hit an ambitious 100,000 concurrent player target. King of Meat peaked at just 320 people on PC instead.

Below, we examine how it carried the torch of the classic films to create the best new piece of Indy fiction in decades. Indiana Jones is one of the most revered blockbuster stories of the 1980s. Spielberg and Lucas' work on the original trilogy stands alongside Jaws and Star Wars as timeless classics that are worth revisiting regularly. The more recent entries--the Crystal Skull and the Dial of Destiny--do little to live up to the standard that the first three set.

It's the first Friday of December, which means we're one step closer to the Winter holidays - whatever and however you celebrate, something tells me video games are involved, along with some relaxation, good food, great friends and family, and maybe some more video games. As the year begins to wind down, our backlogs are looking a bit more manageable and I wager I'll look at mine, download multiple games, and touch roughly none of them this month.

On 25 November, award-winning Italian developer Santa Ragione, responsible for acclaimed titles such as MirrorMoon EP and Saturnalia, revealed that its latest project, Horses, had been banned from Steam - the largest digital store for PC games. A week later, another popular storefront, Epic Games Store, also pulled Horses, right before its 2 December launch date. The game was also briefly removed from the Humble Store, but was reinstated a day later.

Marvel Cosmic Invasion, the comic company's new homage to its classic beat 'em up video games of the past, features the surprising inclusion of a lesser-known queer character. A 90-second trailer dropped alongside the game itself on Monday (1 December), offering fans a frantic first look at what's in store for gamers. Developed by Tribute Games, Marvel Cosmic Invasion sees 15 Marvel superheroes traverse a plethora of locations from the comics as they attempt to thwart an oncoming invasion by the interdimensional insectoid Annihilus.

Every year when we look back at all the games that dropped, trends reveal themselves. For 2025, you might boil it down to a year of innovation. Yes, there were many big, anticipated games that overdelivered. But, from Donkey Kong Bonanza to Death Stranding 2, no two looked alike. The further you go, the more creativity you see. From a co-op storytelling game like no other in Split Fiction to the mysterious and completely unique puzzlers in Blue Prince .

A report from Adobe Analytics said video games and consoles are expected to be among the "key drivers of holiday spending" this year in the US, with seven products overall singled out. Ranked in no particular order, the top seven most sought-after gaming items for Holiday 2025 are: Nintendo Switch 2 PlayStation 5 Xbox Series X Donkey Kong Bananza Madden NFL 26 NBA 2K26 Call of Duty: Black Ops 7

do your due diligence regarding where your game is allowed to be distributed and to inform us of any territory where it cannot be.

The Berlin Apartment, a novel new video game, is initially set in 2020. The German capital was in lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and few people walked the streets and cafes and restaurants were closed. The game, created by the Berlin-based indie video game studio Blue Backpack, begins with second-grader Dilara as she accompanies her father, Malik, to work since schools are closed.

I pounced on the Nintendo Switch 2 when it came out earlier this year because I wanted something that felt familiar while living abroad. I've been a digital nomad for nearly ten years and currently live in Bangkok, Thailand, nearly 8,500 miles away from my six children and two grandchildren. The Switch 2 lets me play the latest games with my kids, which I love to do, even when the time change makes schedules wonky.

Even when a video game is inspired by an existing sci-fi movie or book series, as is the case with the Star Wars franchise, a popular game like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic can bring new life to beloved series and illuminate new sides to well-loved sci-fi worlds. Just look at 2025! Whether it's navigating the intricate fraction politics of The Outer Worlds 2 or the isolated desolation of space in Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector,