Valve’s much-anticipated Steam Controller went on sale on Monday, May 4, and quickly sold out amid what many consider a chaotic launch. Payment processing errors at checkout prevented many customers from buying the controller before it went out of stock (which occurred in minutes), leaving frustrated players empty-handed. Valve has acknowledged this rough start and is going back to the drawing board to ensure the next wave of orders goes more smoothly.
In a Steam post, Valve announced it will open reservations for the Steam Controller tomorrow, May 8, starting at 10 am PT/1 pm ET. Once you reserve your controller (limited to 1 per customer), your place in line will be saved. After making your reservation, you will receive an order email stating you will have three days (72 hours) to complete your purchase, or you will lose your reserved controller. Those who bought a Steam Controller the first go around will not be eligible to reserve another one during this second wave.
Additionally, there are two other prerequisites users must meet to purchase a Steam Controller at this juncture:
Your account must be in good standing on Steam
You must have made a purchase on Steam prior to April 27, 2026
“Replenishment of inventory will vary from region to region,” reads Valve’s Steam post. “We will start fulfilling reservations next week in the US / Canada, and UK / EU / AU in the following weeks.”
The Steam Controller is priced at $99 and launches ahead of the Steam Machine console that was announced last November. Although the Controller is designed to be compatible with the upcoming console, which is coming this year but has been delayed due to ongoing RAM shortages, it can be used independently as a dedicated PC gamepad. Reviews of the Steam Controller have been largely positive, which has contributed to its hype, so hopefully those looking to reserve one tomorrow have a much smoother time than what customers endured on Monday.
This year marks 30 years of Persona, and to celebrate the occasion, developer Atlus has revealed a new addition to its Persona vinyl collection with the Persona 30th Anniversary Jazz Album. It’s available to stream on Spotify, Apple Music, and elsewhere today, and vinyl preorders are live as well.
This collection of jazz covers, which includes songs like “Last Surprise,” “Heaven,” and “Aria of the Soul,” comes from iam8bit’s in-house jazz group, Blueshift Big Band. You can preorder the iam8bit-exclusive “Blue Butterfly” variant of the vinyl today through June 1, with shipping expected to start in Q4 of 2026. Other variants include a standard 180-gram Black Vinyl Edition at select retailers and an FYE-exclusive “Translucent Purple” vinyl.
Here’s a look at the Blue Butterfly variant, the cover, and the included slip art:
Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2, a sequel to 2021’s PvE shooter Aliens: Fireteam Elite, has been announced, and it’s launching this summer on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Developers Cold Iron Studios and Daybreak Game Company revealed the news with an exclusive trailer over at IGN, which reveals returning Xenomorphs, weapons, and more, with one big new addition: a fourth party member.
Unlike its predecessor, Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 is not a trio-based third-person shooter but instead, a four-player party shooter. The game will support crossplay across all playable platforms and feature new Xenomorph types, player classes (including the Specialist, which IGN describes as a “fully customizable class that lets you mix and match abilities from any class”), and more. The publication writes that Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 will include a Horde mode, too.
Check out the Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 trailer for yourself below:
Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 launches on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC (via Steam and the Epic Games Store) sometime this summer.
We’re excited for Lego Batman’s return in Legacy of the Dark Knight, especially following our hands-on preview that went up earlier this week, and luckily, we won’t have to wait much longer for it to emerge from the shadows. Today, publisher WB Games uploaded the game’s final launch trailer, which shows a wide overview of what players can expect from the game. It’s also set to “Kiss From A Rose” by Seal, a song that was included in the Batman Forever soundtrack back in 1995. You can check it out for yourself below.
In addition to showcasing all the eras of Batman and his villains, the part of this trailer that stands out most to me is a showdown between Mr. Freeze and the duo of Nightwing and Batgirl. It’s most likely a reference to Batman & Robin, since Dick Grayson and Batgirl team up in that movie, but it’s interesting that, in the context of this game, it takes place after Dick has left home to create his new hero persona. I’m a big Nightwing fan, and I’m looking forward to seeing how Legacy of the Dark Knight approaches his character.
Legacy of the Dark Knight will come out on May 22, but if you pre-order the Deluxe Edition, you can play three days earlier, on May 19. The game will launch on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, and will come to the Switch 2 at a later date. For more on this upcoming Lego Batman game, check out our recent episode of New Gameplay Today.
Stacey Rockford is about to move to New York to follow her dreams, potentially leaving her friends and hometown forever. It’s the end of an era, the death of their childhoods, and the ticking clock has serious emotional weight. I love coming-of-age stories, but Mixtape stands out even among my favorites for how well it nails its earnest, whimsical tone, treating life milestones with grave sincerity. Its stellar writing, concise runtime, and inspired use of its licensed soundtrack make it an instant classic and a heartfelt trip down memory lane.
Rockford and friends drive down the coastline as Rockford conducts the fireworks in the sky.
To commemorate their final day together, Rockford puts together a playlist to score her remaining time with her best friends, Van Slater and Cassandra Morino. That titular mixtape plays in the background (and sometimes the foreground) for the game’s full three- to four-hour length. The songs are similar to playable music videos, with developer Beethoven & Dinosaur providing light interactivity to engage with the story. You do skate tricks as you cruise down a hill, take photos, skip rocks on a lake, hit baseballs, and float listlessly through a rainy day. They’re incredibly varied, with few repeated mechanics, and they never overstay their welcome; I didn’t measure, but I’d be surprised if any segments lasted more than three minutes. I greatly enjoyed these, as they functionally make the player a more active participant in an otherwise passive experience. It’s heavily dialogue and cutscene-driven, but I played the whole game without setting my controller down.
It helps that Rockford, Slater, and Cassandra are an amazing trio of characters, each with much more depth than meets the eye. I especially appreciate the work that went into writing Rockford. It’s clear that the concept of “a mixtape game” was conceived mechanically before the story was written, but Beethoven & Dinosaur really thought about the kind of person who would insist on listening to one playlist all day long. How would she feel about music? Why would that structure be so important to her? The concept was developed into a fully fleshed-out character, with a great supporting cast to contrast her romantic view of the world.
Rockford, Slater, and Cassandra drunkenly stargaze on the hood of a car.
Of course, Mixtape also has a killer soundtrack. As someone with a more modern taste in music, I recognized very few of the game’s songs, but it didn’t detract from my enjoyment. Rockford is correct that she has a cosmic talent for picking the right song for every moment, because the playlist was both fitting and sonically diverse. And for being a collection of licensed tracks, Beethoven & Dinosaur did a killer job editing each song to fit the minigames’ varied lengths, and the transitions between tracks are seamless.
If I have any gripes with Mixtape, it’s with the pacing in the game’s first half, but even that’s a minor complaint. After Rockford and friends declare their intent to prepare for and attend an epic beach party, most of the opening is instead a trip down memory lane, with Rockford touching various keepsakes in a series of bedrooms to reminisce about her past with her friends. I don’t dislike this section; it provides important, worthy context for the characters and their relationships, but playing so many memories back-to-back made me slightly impatient.
Rockford and Cassandra talk on the phone.
By contrast, gameplay in Mixtape’s second half is more grounded in the modern day and has higher stakes, as players don’t know what will happen next. The game is so short that this pacing issue isn’t much of a hurdle, and ultimately accentuates my enjoyment of the game’s conclusion. Rockford’s whimsical view of the world isn’t limited to her perception of the past; it’s how she lives her whole life.
Mixtape has an incredible atmosphere, and like my favorite coming-of-age stories, makes me nostalgic for a life I never lived. I do not often finish reviewing a game and immediately contemplate my next playthrough, but I am certain I will be replaying Mixtape for years to come. Rockford and her friends are right to feel emotional at this story’s bittersweet ending, but as the player, I’m lucky enough to add this game to my rotation to play again and again.
During a surprise Nintendo Direct today, legendary designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Yoshiaki Koizumi announced a Switch 2 remake of Star Fox 64. The news comes hot on the heels of Fox McCloud’s appearance in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
Stage layouts are the same from Star Fox 64, but the dialogue, graphics, and character designs have been completely revamped.
The Mortal Kombat franchise has one of the most storied links to film adaptations in the entire video game industry. Following 1995’s excellent adaptation, it was followed by the universally bashed Annihilation in 1997, before giving way to a series of decent-to-good animated Legends films that ran from 2020 to 2023. In 2021, we received Mortal Kombat, a modern take on storytelling in the MK universe. While I overall enjoyed it, the film was largely criticized for its lack of a tournament structure and an overemphasis on Cole Young, an original character created for the film, and his family. Mortal Kombat II corrects course on both of those major criticisms, delivering a stronger product in the process, but a paper-thin narrative and uneven pacing prevent it from being a flawless victory.
Warning:While I try to remain as spoiler-free as possible, certain elements of the narrative and characters are mentioned throughout this article.
Much like its predecessor, Mortal Kombat II opens with a flashback scene, delivering a truncated origin story of one of the franchise’s most iconic characters. In the first film, it was the origin of Scorpion, while this time shows us how Kitana’s Realm of Edenia was captured by Shao Kahn, and she became his adopted daughter. And similar to Mortal Kombat, this is an effective way to open the film. However, unlike the 2021 start to this continuity, the subject of this flashback scene plays a substantial role throughout the film.
Mortal Kombat II features a much wider cast of characters from the film, with several iconic characters joining the cast from the first film. While it was great to see Sonya, Raiden, and Liu Kang return (and improve on their appearances from the first film), I particularly loved the addition of Kitana and Johnny Cage. Adeline Rudolph and Karl Urban do a fantastic job faithfully embodying these characters. Rudolph perfectly portrays the conflicted-yet-deadly princess of Outworld, while Urban perfectly plays the fish-out-of-water, washed-up-actor character as an older Johnny Cage.
Cage and Kano are some of the biggest highlights of the film, often serving as comic relief. More often than not, their jokes land, and since they’re usually surrounded by rather self-serious characters in dire circumstances, their comedic dialogue either perfectly diffuses the scene’s tension or plays off the ridiculousness happening on screen. Where Cole in the first film was meant to be a relatable point-of-view character for the audience, Kano and Johnny Cage do a better job in that role, often serving as the obnoxious-yet-entertaining voice in the back of your head, cracking wise about the events unfolding onscreen.
Speaking of Cole, it seems the writers heard the complaints of including the POV character in a major way, and he is largely relegated to a background role. This gives other characters more time to shine: Johnny Cage and Kitana take turns as the main characters, serving as a huge upgrade. Meanwhile, Liu Kang steps into a much bigger role and feels more like the consequential character he should be this time around. Scorpion and Bi-Han (previously Sub-Zero) also return, but are unnecessary. Aside from a fun fight scene, their inclusions are completely unearned and out of nowhere. Following 2021’s Mortal Kombat, it’s getting to the point where I can’t tell if the filmmakers can’t figure out how to make Scorpion compelling over the course of a feature film, or if they just don’t want to pay to have Hiroyuki Sanada on screen for a significant amount of time.
Conversely, Shao Kahn is an intimidating presence throughout the film, serving as a nearly unstoppable force that commands the likes of Shang Tsung, Quan Chi, Jade, and Kitana. Unfortunately, he suffers from the opposite problem to Scorpion and Bi-Han: He’s in the film so often that it feels less special when his giant presence appears. That said, I appreciated the interplay between him and Kitana and the feeling that Shang Tsung is always scheming under him, but I could have done with a bit more mystery.
While we do get one “Finish Him,” the cheesy, overly referential dialogue has, thankfully, been toned way down. However, you shouldn’t go into this movie expecting any kind of exceptional storytelling; Mortal Kombat II‘s plot is merely a device to put the characters together to fight, and it doesn’t really try to hide that fact. Even the beginning, where Johnny Cage is recruited, is rushed through. I know fans are excited to get to the Kombat portion of the equation, but it sets the tone for the story in an incredibly uneven fashion, and it never quite recovers. Thankfully, the forgettable narrative is buoyed by the return of the tournament format and the consistently well-choreographed, awe-inspiring fights. Nearly every character has a chance to shine during the tournament or an unsanctioned brawl, and the Fatalities almost always caused the audience in my theater to erupt in applause or wincing laughter. The one exception here is Raiden, who still feels way underutilized.
Seemingly learning from more subtle mistakes of the first film, which placed fights in locations like a double-wide trailer, a suburban neighborhood, and an MMA cage, Mortal Kombat II places its tournament fights in well-known locations from the first few games. I won’t spoil which stages appear, but seeing these fights play out similarly to the games is a treat for someone like me, who has been playing since the very first entry in the franchise. My only wish is that the sets looked good more consistently. For every location that looks incredible, there’s another that gives the impression the characters are just floating on a green screen, at times making me wonder if the actors in the scene were even all there at the same time.
Regardless of any complaints, Mortal Kombat II is a step up from the original in nearly every way. By relying more on the source material, it provides a much more faithful experience that feels more rooted in the Realms of Mortal Kombat rather than trying to connect it too much to our world. The use of the tournament format does wonders to make up for the mess of an overarching story, and by being far less concerned about making sure less experienced audience members aren’t left behind, Mortal Kombat II delivers a great second round.
Shovel Knight developer Yacht Club Games has finally revealed a new release date for its long-awaited retro-inspired action game, Mina the Hollower. Thankfully, it’s only a few weeks away, as the game arrives on May 29th.
First announced in February 2022, Mina the Hollower draws inspiration from top-down Zelda, Castlevania, and sports an 8-bit presentation evoking Game Boy Color titles. It stars Mina, a famous scientist or “Hollower” who travels to a cursed island to help restore its lost power. Playing off her title, Mina can burrow underground, which is used in combat, puzzle-solving, and exploring the overworld and dungeons. Mina also wields a whip to attack enemies and can also use a variety of sidearms. Check out the most recent trailer from last year below to see the game in action (just disregard the out-of-date October release date).
Mina the Hollower was originally crowdfunded on Kickstarter, and backers were the first to learn of the game’s new release date. The game was first scheduled to release last Halloween before it was delayed.
Mina the Hollower will launch on May 29 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, Switch, and PC. For more on the game, check out this 2025 deep-dive feature where we spoke with Yacht Club Games founder Sean Velasco to learn new gameplay details. You should also check out our 2022 documentary about the creation of Mina the Hollower.
Copilot, Microsoft’s AI-powered assistant, has been a controversial feature for some, but it looks like it won’t be introduced to Xbox consoles anymore. Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma confirmed this pivot on X today, citing a need to “move faster, deepen our connection with the community, and address friction for both players and developers.”
In her post, Sharma states Copilot is also being dropped from mobile while announcing a leadership shake-up. “We promoted leaders who helped build Xbox, while also bringing in new voices to help push us forward. This balance is important as we get the business back on track,” writes Sharma. “As part of this shift, you’ll see us begin to retire features that don’t align with where we’re headed. We will begin winding down Copilot on mobile and will stop development of Copilot on console.”
Xbox needs to move faster, deepen our connection with the community, and address friction for both players and developers.
Today, we promoted leaders who helped build Xbox, while also bringing in new voices to help push us forward. This balance is important as we get the business…
The response to this announcement has been positive, especially since some players worried that Sharma, who previously served as the president of Microsoft’s CoreAI product, would push for more AI integration in Xbox products. This move at least aligns with her previous statement addressing concerns about AI on Xbox, where she promised that “Games are and always will be art, crafted by humans, and created with the most innovative technology provided by us.”
Sharma took over as Xbox CEO following the departures of former Xbox heads Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond in February, and has pledged a commitment to “the return of Xbox” and to understanding the Xbox ecosystem and audience despite having no prior experience working in video games. In March, she revealed more details about codename Project Helix, the next Xbox console currently in development, stating it “will lead in performance and play your Xbox and PC games.”
“We thought there might be an opportunity here,” Reich tells me over a Zoom interview. “For like over a year, we were taking pitches from game designers. I had half a vision for what I wanted this to be, which was […] this idea of like, a modular game with episodes inspired by the show. A game designer named Joshua Balvin came to me, shared that vision with me, went away, worked on some game design, [and] came back to us. We played them in the room with my writers and my producers. We were like, ‘Oh my god, this really works.'”
Game Changer: Home Edition, if fully funded on Kickstarter (UPDATE, 12:41 PM ET: the campaign has already decimated its goal), will launch with three games inspired by episodes of the show: Name A Number, Bingo, and Sam Says. Reich describes it as “the only game where the game changes every round,” where players can swap the order of the games each time they play. This maintains the show’s varied nature, though the difference here is that everyone is on the same page. The surprise doesn’t come from the rules themselves, but the subversive nature of the game’s prompts.
On Game Changer, Reich acts as the host but also a game master of sorts, adjudicating the rules, assigning points, and guiding players through each round. I asked Reich if the team considered making a hosted version of the game, and he said no, though in a comedically self-deprecating way.
“As we were trying to dream up what Game Changer would be in home game form, my feeling was like, if we couldn’t figure out the version of it that didn’t have that person who was left out, I would feel sad for that person,” he says. “Like, I am very content to be that person in the world of Dropout slash Game Changer, because I always feel like the least funny person on stage who should show their worth in that way. It’s like, how I show my value. But, you know, depending on how you structure it: not necessarily a very fun or creative role. Like, at least in Dungeons and Dragons, the DM is the storyteller, right? But here, if you’re not careful, that role becomes merely mechanical.”
To Sam’s point, his role as host means wearing different hats depending on the episode, and it’s not necessarily a clean conversion to a board game. Some episodes of the show have simple rules, while others require more subterfuge, like those when the rules of a game are very slowly revealed. They’re fun to watch, but harder to play, and therefore harder to host. It’s important, then, for the games in Game Changer: Home Edition to be based on the episodes with cleaner premises.
“There are times, even in the most recent season, where Game Changer becomes a little bit more like performance art than true game,” Reich says. “I actually think in the next season of the show, the one that’s to air, we drive way back in the other direction, where it’s like a very gamey game, game game. And you know, the show is based on novelty and variety, so we’ll always, like, steer around a little bit and end up with some episodes that color outside the lines a little bit in any direction. But, like, [the games in Home Edition] are incredibly playable. There will not be ambiguity about winners and losers in Home Edition.”
Despite the lack of ambiguity around winners, scoring in Game Changer: Home Edition isn’t always cut and dry. For instance, Sam Says, a more complicated version of Simon Says, might lead to arguments over whether or not a player correctly followed (or ignored) an instruction. With that in mind, the board game comes with rules for these scenarios, allowing players to call each other out for “overly creative thinking,” as Reich puts it.
He mentions that when he and some Dropout cast members played the game on an upcoming episode of Dropout’s board game show Parlor Room, this ruling method came into play. “There is one moment [when we played] Name A Number where Brennan and Demi come up with a particularly creative answer to a prompt, and it ends with me chasing Demi out of the room and tackling him. Trying to tackle him. Trying unsuccessfully to tackle him.”
Brennan Lee Mulligan yells, “I don’t think I’m f—ing crazy” in a clip from the trailer for the upcoming season of Game Changer.
Reich also mentions that Smosh (a popular family of YouTube channels) also filmed some videos playing Game Changer: Home Edition, and it sounds like both videos will launch during this Kickstarter campaign.
The game is currently “80 percent” done, according to Reich, and the Kickstarter should take them across the finish line. While it’s unsurprising to see him as the public face in this press circuit promoting the crowdfunding campaign, I asked him to clarify how much involvement he had in the board game’s actual design. As Dropout’s CEO, the host of two of its shows, and the producer of basically every other one, he’s publicly very busy, but it sounds like he couldn’t help but add another project to his plate.
“I am too in the weeds on absolutely everything,” he says, joking but also not joking. “Help me. Please, for the love of God, help me.”
Despite his joke about being overwhelmed, he goes on to explain just how Dropout plans to make this Kickstarter special. “As you could imagine, we can’t run a Kickstarter campaign without that Kickstarter campaign being a game in and of itself,” he says. To be honest, reader, I hadn’t considered that at all. Reich continues, saying, “So now we’re designing those games, and I’m also too involved in that process.”
Sam Reich schemes in the dark in the trailer for season 8 of Game Changer.
I’ll cut to the chase: the Game Changer: Home Edition Kickstarter won’t have monetary stretch goals. “What if there were other things that people had to do in order to achieve those stretch goals?” Reich posits. “Like, some of them could some of them could be tangentially monetary or like, have to do with the extent to which the campaign is shared. But what if they were silly, and what if there were a lot of them?”
Day one will begin with “easy” things the community can do, but further goals will increase in complexity. Reich also insists that his team will stand by the specific requirements of each goal. ” So like, if we don’t get one donation from Antarctica,” he says, trailing off and giving me a serious look. I ask if Antarctica is the peak of the stretch goals’ difficulty. He replies with a low-pitched, drawn-out, “No.”
At the time of writing, the game’s Kickstarter has yet to launch, and I am endlessly curious to see what sorts of goals Reich and the team at Dropout come up with. I appreciate the crew’s insistence on creativity, especially since it’s so core to Game Changer’s identity. According to Reich, the show’s specific goals are “kind of a moving target,” based on the season and the game is similar, but their broader priorities – humor and surprise – are shared. “The hope is really that this game can continue to feel like a spiritual extension of the show,” he says, “And so it’ll be fun to continue to answer that question.”
