I haven't played Crimson Desert enough, but we had everything that I've seen from Crimson Desert in the plans for that game. It was signed with a big publisher that has a lot of famous IPs...And then they just changed business direction again and wanted to focus on their existing IPs instead of new ones. They broke up with us on a text message, which I will never forgive them for.
A six-week-old Instagram post from Shaun Escayg, featuring a cannon and the word 'Research,' has sparked speculation about a return to the Uncharted series. The post's vibe reminds fans of the Panama segments in Uncharted 4, leading to excitement about a potential new game.
Around the middle of the year, the primary source of entertainment isn't a new Netflix series or a big-budget Hollywood movie, but rather a seemingly endless supply of video game showcases. Recently, we've seen the idea of dedicated livestreams expand further, with publishers and various gaming initiatives hosting them year-round. What that means is that you can look forward to digital events that'll keep you in the loop with all of the upcoming games on the horizon.
Thousands of games are released every year, with numbers increasing recently thanks to an explosion of indie games across all platforms. That means there's more opportunity than ever to find something new and unexpected among the latest releases, but for a lot of players, the comfort of a few familiar games wins out. Newly released statistics show that, at least on consoles, the biggest games of 2025 were exactly the same as 2024's top titles. Do those figures point to an industry in crisis.
There has been a demo renaissance in the last few years, and we couldn't be happier. Demos have been a part of video game history for a long time, but whether or not they've been good for sales has been up in the air for quite some time. Fortunately, in the last couple weeks we've gotten a Dragon Quest 7: Reimagined and Final Fantasy 7 demo for Switch 2.
But what has a lot of people online talking is the new map, Meltdown. This map, set inside a nuclear power plant facility, was extremely popular in the original Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 back in 2012 on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC, where I spent many hours playing it. So naturally, I was excited for its return in BLOPS7. But, well, this ain't exactly the same Meltdown from 14 years ago.