A Call of Duty movie is still happening, but don't hold your breath for it to hit screens any time soon. Today, the popular FPS' social media revealed that the movie's theatrical release date will be June 30, 2028. A film adaptation of the game franchise was first revealed last year, and shortly after, we learned that Taylor Sheridan and Peter Berg would be serving as the producers. The duo, whose past credits include Friday Night Lights and Yellowstone, will also be co-writing the project under Berg's direction. We still haven't heard anything about the cast, or even what era of the long-running series will be depicted, so it seems like a safe bet that there's still a ways to go before this wraps. But CoD is nothing if not a money-maker, so reimagining it as a summer blockbuster seems pretty expected.

While I dabble in other Overwatch modes, I spend the vast majority of my time there in Mystery Heroes, a casual mode in which you load in as a random character and automatically switch to another one when you respawn. It's by far my favorite way to play Overwatch (which I do a lot!), since it helps me switch off and relax. Others play it as a warmup for competitive action. It requires a particular skillset, as players need a working knowledge of all 51 heroes to help them coordinate with teammates and know what the opponents have on deck. But with the arrival of the new Overwatch season this week, Blizzard changed Mystery Heroes, and made it much less fun to play. The developers say they modified Mystery Heroes "to help keep the mode's casual pace intact while mitigating some of the more extreme pain points it's had in the past." That might have something to do with how the mode handled perks. In other modes, players earn perks (upgrades to their existing tools or entirely new abilities) throughout a match. In Mystery Heroes, they load into a round with random perks already equipped. That's fun! I love the chaos of Mystery Heroes and trying to make things work with whatever hero and perks I have. Now, perks are gone from Mystery Heroes. I kind of get it. Nixing them helps players clock what's going on a bit faster — they won't feel the need to quickly check which perks they have when they're racing back to the action when the time is running out. Perks were only added to Overwatch a little over a year ago and they've helped make the game more enjoyable. Removing them from Mystery Heroes diminishes it compared with other modes, especially given that some heroes are now more oriented around their perks. The other major change in Mystery Heroes is a switch from teams of five players to 6v6. I'm fine with 6v6 in other game types, but it makes Mystery Heroes much worse. In other 6v6 formats, you typically have two tanks, two supports and two damage heroes. In Mystery Heroes, the defense might load in with four tanks and two supports (teams are limited to three heroes from any class after respawns). While tanks generally have lower health pools in 6v6 modes, that's still an oppressive composition to run into. Attackers lack the agency to switch to other characters that can counter such a setup. For instance, if the attackers don't spawn in as heroes that can get behind a chokepoint and take out those supports, they might never break through. That doesn't make for a fun round. Trying to keep five other players alive as a solo support isn't exactly a blast either. I’m not the only one who’s disappointed with these changes. In every single Mystery Heroes game I’ve played since the update, other players have lamented the loss of perks (the reaction to the 6v6 switch is more mixed). They're protesting on Reddit and the Overwatch forums too. It’s not like I’m averse to change. Blizzard has made a ton of updates to greatly improve Overwatch over the last few years. It added the big Stadium mode in 2025 and the game recently had a soft, successful relaunch. Even in this season, there are lots of positive tweaks, including some welcome hero updates (and some that are less welcome) and the return of post-match awards. New damage hero Sierra is rad too. The Mystery Heroes changes, though, are a step in the wrong direction. I dearly hope Blizzard reverses course on those soon.

Playdate is getting a third season of curated, surprise games, Panic announced today. We don't know much beyond the fact that Season Three is officially happening, but Panic's Head of Playdate Greg Maletic said in an announcement video that it will be here "in time for the holidays" this year. Considering we had to wait a whole three years for Season Two to come out following Season One's release with the console in 2022, that doesn't sound so bad. Panic hasn't yet said how many games Season Three will include, or how much it will cost. While Season One had a total of 24 games — with a release schedule of two games per week for 12 weeks — last year’s Season Two had half the amount (plus Blippo+), and cost $39. But that drop in quantity thankfully didn't mean a drop in quality. Season Two was great, with a collection of games that felt stronger overall than the first. I, for one, can't wait to see what Season Three brings. In other exciting news, Panic also announced today that the much, much-awaited game Office Chair Curling is finally available for purchase on Playdate and Steam, with the option for online cross-play.

If the real world isn’t grim enough for you, Ukranian developer 4A Games has your back: Metro 2039 has been announced and is scheduled to arrive this winter. And based on the developer’s first look at the title, Metro 2039 looks to be an even darker affair than previous titles in the series. A tall order, but the real-world turmoil that has enveloped 4A Games since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sounds like it has turned into a painful inspiration for the developer. The lengthy cinematic reveal, which also contains a brief bit of gameplay at the end, doesn’t give much of the story away. But it does serve to place you right in the ruined, terrifying world of the Metro series. Metro 2039 arrives about 25 years after a nuclear apocalypse wiped out most life on the planet. The series focuses on survivors who live in Moscow’s ruined metro system. 4A says that this time out, the different underground factions have been united by a group known as “the Novoreich,” complete with a new ruler, the Spartan known as Hunter. Despite Hunter promising “salvation and a new life” for the survivors left on the surface, things aren’t exactly rosy underground. As you might expect, this supposedly “united” society is still a complete disaster, with propaganda, authoritarian rule and violence the hallmark of the regime. The Metro series is based on novels by Dmitry Glukhovsky, a Russian author who has been in exile due to his public denouncement of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 4A Studios says that while this new game isn’t based specifically on one of his works, they worked in collaboration with Glukhovsky on the story for Metro 2039 “shaped by shared values of freedom and truth, and informed by the harsh realities of the world today.” In statements from the studio, 4A directly acknowledges the conditions that Metro 2039 was created under. “Many developers continue to work from multiple locations, facing daily challenges never anticipated,” the studio says. “Through power outages, reliance on generators, and disruptions from missile and drone attacks, development has continued – driven by resilience, shared support, and a commitment to the work.” It goes on to state that: “The war has directly shaped the development of Metro 2039, with its story focused acutely on choices, actions, consequences, and the cost of securing a future. While told from a distinctly Ukrainian perspective, Metro 2039 remains an authentic Metro story.” While the Metro series has been unfailingly bleak, it’s not hard to imagine how Russia’s invasion could have influenced the storytelling coming out of a Ukranian studio with an exiled Russian being part of the story team. But the limited bit of the game we’ve seen so far doesn’t make anything too explicit. The trailer shows off the new player-character known as The Stranger, the first voiced protagonist in the series (though we don’t hear him do anything but scream in the preview). The Stranger has apparently been surviving in the above-ground wasteland but is forced to return to the metro. The little bit of gameplay we saw was the standard first-person shooter view of The Stranger heading underground to be immediately ambushed by a pretty horrific monster that he barely escapes from — he’s then dragged to “safety” by a group of survivors who just get the doors to their shelter shut before being overrun by a larger horde. Creepy stuff. The rest of the preview largely feels like a dream (or nightmare) sequence — but while it’s hard to put together what is going on, there’s no doubt that the detail in the environments and characters is top-notch. Given that the last metro game, Metro Exodus, was released way back in 2019, it’s fair to say that we’re getting a more graphically impressive rendering of ruined Moscow and the tunnels beneath it. There’s no exact release date yet, but 4A Games says Metro 2039 will arrive this winter for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5 and PC.

The Crew Motorfest, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, Warriors: Abyss and Wild Arms 4 will hit PS4 and PS5 consoles, while the rest of the month's additions are PS5 only. In the case of Horizon, PS4 players will receive Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition, rather than the PS5 remaster. Horizon, The Crew and Football Manager are self-explanatory at this point in gaming history, but here's a quick rundown of the more underground titles on April's list: Warriors: Abyss is a hectic hack-and-slash roguelite from Koei Tecmo; Squirrel with a Gun is a silly yet competent third-person shooter from a two-man indie team; Monster Train is a much-loved demonic deckbuilder from Shiny Shoe and Good Shepherd Entertainment; and Wild Arms 4 is a PS2-era RPG from Japanese studio Media.Vision. The Casting of Frank Stone is what PlayStation Plus was made for, in my estimation. It comes from Supermassive, a campy-horror studio that I'm quite fond of, but it's a crossover with Dead by Daylight, a game I've never played, despite a latent interest in its vibe. For whatever reason, Frank Stone never eclipsed other titles in my to-play pile and in the harsh light of 2026, I was on the verge of forgetting all about it. Now that it's free and being shoved in my digital face (complimentary), I'm ready to give it a go. And who knows, maybe it'll be a gateway into the rich world of Dead by Daylight. Most of the games on this month's list can fit this description to some degree — minus the Dead by Daylight hook, unless you really squint at Monster Train — so it feels like a quality batch.

Riot Games released a pile of updates for its long-running MOBA League of Legends. One of the more noteworthy changes coming to the game is the official launch of WASD controls. This alternate option, allowing players to traverse the rift by keyboard rather than by mouse, is rolling out to ranked matches in patch 26.9. Riot first announced that it was pursuing support for WASD controls last August. The studio said it wanted to ensure that the alternate control scheme wasn't more powerful than point-and-click movement; Riot said it was targeting a low win-loss rate difference between the options before releasing it to League players. "There's still a small delta in the win-rates between the control schemes, with Point and Click having a minor advantage," according to today's devlog dedicated to this new feature. "We expect that difference will decrease over time as players gain more mastery with WASD, but we will continue to monitor this stat in the future." That blog post goes into more detail about how the team tested and gauged community responses to WASD, which is pretty neat stuff if you're a game dev nerd. League will be receiving a few new accessibility improvements, such as custom inputs for moving the mouse cursor and some new flexibility for keybinds, along with the new control scheme. Although Riot was clear to say that it's not adding official support for controllers or gamepads, players will be able to use WASD controls with a joystick.

Super fast gaming displays have grown in popularity recently following the release of several new models back at CES. Now Sony is hopping on that bandwagon with its latest display featuring a tandem OLED panel from LG that offers the choice of either 540Hz or 720Hz refresh rates. That said, priced at $1,100, the new 24.5-inch Sony Inzone M10S II is only for the most dedicated and deep-pocketed gamers. In normal use, the monitor offers a 540Hz refresh rate at QHD (2,560 x 1,440). However, in competitive situations where that still might not be enough, the display can go even faster by reducing its resolution to 720p while boosting its refresh rate all the way up to 720Hz. On top of that, to help make visuals clearer, Sony added a new Motion Blur Reduction algorithm with Black Frame Insertion that boosts brightness while still delivering a response rate of just 0.02ms. Elsewhere, a new Super Anti-Glare film helps reduce reflections. The company also used feedback from pro gamers to create a stand with a smaller footprint and a wider range of tilt adjustability (from -5 to 35 degrees). For those worried about the panel's long-term performance, the Inzone M10S II comes with a three-year warranty and OLED protection features like a custom heat sink. Aside from its new monitor, Sony is also releasing a pair of open-back wired headphones in the Inzone H6 Air. Priced at $200, they are based on the company's well-known studio monitor headphones — the MDR-MV1 — but with some additional tweaks for gaming. Not only is it really light at just 199 grams (not including its detachable cable and boom mic), it also features a dedicated RPG/Adventure profile designed to improve clarity and environmental details. The one caveat is that to access this mode, you need to use Sony's USB-C Audio box, which offers additional features like virtual 7.1 surround sound and support for 360-degree spatial audio. Finally, while they aren't brand new, Sony is releasing a translucent Glass Purple version of its Inzone wireless gaming earbuds that conjures up nostalgic memories of Nintendo’s Atomic Purple N64, along with Fnatic Editions of its Mouse-A, Mat-F and Mat-D peripherals. All of Sony's new gadgets are available today, aside from the Inzone M10S II monitor, which is due out sometime later this year.

The price of nearly every type of gaming gadget has skyrocketed recently. RAMageddon has caused the cost of memory to double or triple in the last six months, with companies like HP saying that RAM now accounts for more than a third of a new PC’s bill of materials. Meanwhile, the Xbox Series S/X and the PS5 have gotten price hikes, and a similar bump for the Switch 2 is starting to look “inevitable.” Even mobile devices are not immune, with Samsung jacking up the cost of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 nine months after release. But with the $350 27-inch QD-OLED (AW2726DM), Alienware hasn’t just created a gaming display that’s an excellent value, it’s made a beacon of hope for anyone looking to upgrade their setup without emptying their bank account. In a world where every piece of gaming gear seems to be getting more expensive, Alienware’s  $350 AW2726DM 27-inch QD-OLED monitor feels like a gift to gamers on a budget. Unlike some of Alienware’s more expensive displays, the AW2726DM’s design couldn’t be simpler. It sits on a square 8.75-inch base that supports tilt, pivot and height adjustments. Though it does require a little assembly, everything you need comes in the box. Alienware’s monitor arm attaches via a captured thumb tab, while the monitor relies on four screws and a VESA mount that can be connected using the bundled Philips wrench. (Though if you have a proper screwdriver, that would be even better.) Setup only took me a few minutes and after arranging it properly on my desk, the monitor felt quite solid. The only potential drawback is that if you have limited desk space or you’re the kind of gamer that likes jamming your keyboard as close to your monitor as possible, Alienware’s stand might get in the way. At around 4mm thick, the AW2726DM’s panel is exceedingly sleek, though naturally that expands a bit on the lower portion of the monitor where its ports are located. This brings us to one of the biggest differences between Alienware’s budget display and more premium options: limited connectivity. All you get here is two HDMI 2.1 jacks, one DisplayPort 1.4 slot and a 3.5mm plug for audio out. There’s no support for data transfer, power sharing or anything else. Heck, there isn’t even any RGB lighting, which feels weird on a product from Alienware. But given its price, I’m not upset. In fact, it’s actually kind of refreshing. Finally, there’s a handy control stick on the back of the display for navigating its on-screen menu. The AW2726DM features a QD-OLED panel supplied by Samsung that comes with a QHD resolution (2,560 x 1,440) and up to a 240Hz refresh rate. Alienware supports VRR via AMD FreeSync Premium and VESA AdaptiveSync, though sadly there’s no native option for NVIDIA G-Sync. That means if you have a GPU from Team Green and want to take full advantage of the monitor’s potential, you’ll want to rely on that DisplayPort for optimal compatibility. Regardless, for a $350 gaming display, the AW2726DM checks all the most important boxes and it looks fantastic. Alienware’s budget monitor showcases the strengths of OLED panels versus LCD, even when compared to Sony’s Inzone M9, which was a much more expensive monitor when it debuted back in 2022. Alienware offers richer colors (it covers 99 percent of DCI-P3), and thanks to its deep inky blacks, contrast is significantly better as well. The one big drawback is that, with a typical brightness of 200 nits, the AW2726DM is dimmer than more expensive rivals. That means the monitor doesn’t have fancy certifications for stuff like VESA True Black and instead relies heavily on general HDR10. Furthermore, Alienware chose a glossy (and quite reflective) finish that makes colors look even more saturated while improving perceived brightness. The one thing you need to watch out for is glare, especially if your PC or console lives in a room that gets a lot of sunlight. But if you’re like a lot of gamers that prefer to frag at night or in the dark, this may not be an issue. Outside of gaming, there’s another shortcoming of the AW2726DM. Between its QHD resolution and the arrangement of Samsung’s QD-OLED subpixels, folks with good eyesight may notice a little fringing, especially when compared to higher-res 4K displays. This means some Word docs and web pages may not look quite as sharp as you’d like, but that’s a small price to pay for some of the best visuals you can get on a gaming monitor in this price range. One of the major concerns about OLED displays when they first hit the market was the potential for burn-in, resulting in permanent damage to the panel from things like static UI elements staying on the screen too long. Thankfully, the AW2726DM comes with a three-year warranty that includes a clause covering burn-in, along with a free panel replacement in case there’s even a single bright pixel. Furthermore, Alienware uses a graphite film heatsink and an AI algorithm to prevent any sort of ghosting from appearing in the first place. The AW2726DM might not have all the fancy features you get on more expensive monitors, but it’s an excellent example of a no frills gadget done right. You get just enough ports, a straightforward design and a beautiful QD-OLED panel with a solid resolution and refresh rate — all for just $350. It would certainly be nice if it was a little brighter or if text looked a touch sharper, but those shortcomings are pretty easy to live with. For anyone looking to upgrade what might be arguably the second most important part of your gaming setup (your screen is your window into new worlds after all), this display is budget gold.

If you love Pokémon and electronic dance music, the Pokémon Company made the perfect event for you. As part of Pokémon’s 30th anniversary festivities, the company is holding EDM concert experiences called “Pokémon Night Out” in Los Angeles and London. American DJ Marshmello, known for wearing a marshmallow-like mask on stage, will be headlining the events, with Australian DJ Alison Wonderland as a supporting act. The experiences will feature custom sets and Pokémon-inspired visual storytelling. The events will be open to fans 16-years-old and up. It will be held at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles on October 24, 2026, and at the O2 arena in London on November 10. You can get tickets for both concerts starting on April 18 at 10AM Pacific time for the Los Angeles concert and at 10AM British time for the London experience. In addition to holding EDM concerts, Nintendo and the Pokémon Company re-released the Game Boy Advance remakes of Pokémon Red and Blue on Nintendo Switch Online for the franchise’s 30th anniversary. They also released a Game Boy-shaped portable Pokémon jukebox, little music players that can be loaded witha different melody or sound effect from the original games' soundtracks.

An R-rated animated film adaptation of Bloodborne is currently being developed by Sony, according to Variety. Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group held a presentation at CinemaCon, where the division’s president said that the adaptation will be “very true” to the violent and graphic nature of the game. Bloodborne was created by Japanese studio FromSoftware and was published by Sony back in 2015. The critically acclaimed title is an RPG in the style of Dark Souls, featuring heavy blood splatters during combat and other body horror elements. Its director, Hidetaka Miyazaki, said his biggest inspiration for the game was HP Lovecraft’s works. Bloomberg had reported in February that Bluepoint Games, the now-defunct Sony studio behind many PlayStation remakes, wanted to work on a new version of the classic Gothic horror RPG for modern consoles. However, FromSoftware blocked the project. Miyazaki reportedly wanted to work on the remake himself. Despite being too busy to do it, he said during an interview that he "doesn't want anyone else to touch it." The Bloodborne film adaptation will be co-produced by PlayStation Productions, Lyrical Animation and Seán McLoughlin, a gaming YouTube known by his pseudonym jacksepticeye. It seems to be early stages at this point, and Variety doesn’t have a target release date for it yet.

Xbox's new chief exec, Asha Sharma, has only been in charge for a few months but things already seem like they might be changing for the better. Or at the very least, they might be getting cheaper. The Verge reported that the new Xbox CEO wrote a memo to employees addressing the current pricing of the Game Pass subscription service. "Game Pass is central to gaming value on Xbox. It’s also clear that the current model isn’t the final one," Sharma allegedly said. "Short term, Game Pass has become too expensive for players, so we need a better value equation. Long term, we will evolve Game Pass into a more flexible system which will take time to test and learn around." After Microsoft upped the price for Game Pass twice within 15 months, many of us certainly felt that the service had gotten too costly to keep. Xbox is still offering a wide range of titles on Game Pass; the April update is adding indies like Hades 2 and new Double Fine project Kiln alongside AAA hits like the remake of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. The Verge's sources suggested that the addition of the CoD franchise might have been a factor in some of the Game Pass price increases, since Microsoft would lose out on revenue by making the latest entries in the series available under the subscription. It's too early to say whether this memo from Sharma means Xbox is on the brink of a resurgence. And there are changes the company could make, like adding ever more complicated tiers, that would further hamper interest and uptake of Game Pass. But acknowledging the problem, even internally, is refreshing to see after so many baffling moves from Xbox in recent years.

Fans of miniature plastic soldiers, rejoice. Games Workshop has brought a host of older Warhammer and Warhammer 40K video games to Steam for the first time, alongside a dozen games that haven't been available on Valve's storefront for a few years. The new to Steam releases consist of three games from the Warhammer fantasy range — Shadow of the Horned Rat, Mark of Chaos – Gold Edition and Dark Omen — and four from its sci-fi 40K universe — Chaos Gate, Fire Warrior, Final Liberation and Rites of War. If you're a Warhammer fan of a certain age, some of these may be formative experiences for you. I know they are for me. I can't count how many hours I spent playing Chaos Gate when I first discovered 40K at the age of 10. Yes, it was an XCOM clone, but by that point I didn't know about the MicroProse original, and Space Marines were cool. Years later and as a Tau collector at the time, I also loved Fire Warrior, even if it wasn't the most polished or deep first-person shooter. I haven't played the other five games included in today's announcement, but I've heard Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat and Warhammer 40K: Rites of War are pretty good if you're into the setting or, in the latter case, a fan of the Eldar. To celebrate the re-release of these old gems, Games Workshop is running a Classics sale on Steam, with discounts on all 19 re-releases. Plus, you can get discounts on some more recent releases, including the excellent Dawn of War – Definitive Edition and Dawn of War 2 – Anniversary Edition. If you're new to the Warhammer 40K universe, and would rather avoid a plastic addiction, one of those would be my first port of call, along with the excellent Space Marine 2.