gaming articles published July 3, 2025

July 3 articles

• Phil Spencer reportedly had so much fun playing the Elder Scrolls Online dev's unannounced MMO that Xbox's Matt Booty had to take his controller from him — 4 months later it's canceled
• Surprise! The Anthem servers are still running—but they won't be after January 12
• The Rise and Fall of Borderlands
• Hidden Gem PS4 Action Game Is Just $1.49 in New PS Store Sale
• Before cancelling ZeniMax's Destiny-style MMO shooter, Xbox executives reportedly enjoyed early demos so much that the controller had to be pulled from Phil Spencer's hands
• A Steam Deck user with an extra thumb asked if anyone had an adapter that would fit their hand – the next day someone had 3D printed one, and then someone else 3D printed an extra thumb so we can all enjoy it
• The Mario Party developer's first new game on Switch 2 is already out: it's Welcome Tour, the weird and divisive tech demo
• "Save them Bucky": Fans hope for the best after Palworld and Pocketpair Publishing lead asks Romero Games about its defunded game – "Would love to hear more about this project if possible"
• Today's Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for July 4, #1476
• MindsEye boss reportedly blames its failure on 'saboteurs' and says a re-launch is in the works, even as the entire development studio is at risk of layoff
• Stop Killing Games Has Enough Signatures for UK Debate
• Brace yourself: Hades 2 just got what 'will likely be our final patch' before full release
• Divisive BioWare PS4 Game Shutting Down
• Mecha Break's $47 skin packs and gameplay-boosting auction house drag user reviews down to "mixed" even as the shooter's concurrent player count hits 132k on Steam
• "No subscriptions. No loot boxes. No battle pass": Subnautica 2 devs address concerns following major leadership changes, insist "it will remain a single-player first experience"
• EA Will Shut Down Anthem in January
• Dying Light dev Techland acknowledges cancelled games but says it didn't lay anyone off: "Developers were moved to other projects and are working on a number of games"
• I accidentally became a god in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and it broke combat so badly that I had to nerf myself to keep things fun even on Expert mode
• The Lego Arcade Machine is exactly what I need in my life, and it's surprisingly affordable
• Marvel Rivals' updated hero hot list reveals the most-played and highest win-rate characters, and it's good news for Support players
• Don't expect Animal Crossing for Switch 2 anytime soon, former Nintendo marketing lead warns: "It's maybe a little bit early"
• FromSoftware actually did it: Elden Ring Nightreign powers up its annoying bug duo boss by – I almost can't believe this – adding a third bug to the fight
• The Best Cheap Gaming Laptops for 2025
• Best Xbox Game Pass games to play in 2025
• Best racing wheels in 2025: our favorite wheels from Thrustmaster, Logitech and more
• Could Sony's Project Amethyst mean a cheaper PS6?
• New Black Panther game - everything we knew before it was cancelled
• Despite rumors to the contrary, Perfect Dark developer confirms the canceled game’s awesome, Dishonored-riffing demo was actually real
• New Battlefield Leak Reveals (Extremely Brief) Look at the Start of a Battle Royale Match, as EA Issues Takedowns
• Nintendo is restricting the Switch 2's USB-C port — most third-party docks and accessories won't work thanks to proprietary protocols
• Dune: Awakening sandworms now linger around recently harvested spicefields, and spice fiends are having such a hard time with it they're not sure if it's a bug or a feature
• Peak devs accidentally released a patch that 'made a number of players totally unable to play' so now there's a new public beta Steam branch for everyone to mess around in safely
• Not quite girl, not quite horse: The latest gacha craze sweeping Steam is a bizarre idol management game for anime highschool horse girls
• Microtransactions reach new level of hell once thought impossible with buy now, pay later options: "Interest-free biweekly payments or longer-term monthly installments"
• I Turned a Mini PC Into a Steam Console With Linux
• Elden Ring Nightreign's Sentient Pest is the second Everdark boss to fall short of expectations set by Gaping Jaw: 'There's almost no challenge'
• Reaper Actual, a Large-Scale Persistent Online Military FPS, Announced for PC
• Consider yourself a game pro? I made a retro game art quiz and you need to try it now!
• Xbox puts a bandage over its latest self-inflicted gaping wound with Helldivers 2 coming to Xbox Series X next month – inexplicably on the same day as Gears of War: Reloaded
• The Elder Scrolls Online Dev's Unannounced MMO Was Doing Well and Even Scaling Up as Xbox Cancelation Blindsided Staff, Sources Say
• All Brawl Stars Brawl Pass Rewards For Season 40
• The games industry is so broken even FPS legend John Romero and his studio are struggling with funding, and now-former staff say it's Microsoft's fault: "Our whole studio is being let go because of the layoffs"
• The best Xbox Series X and Series S accessories in 2025: essential gear for your Xbox console
• Android Games Aren't as Cheap as I Thought
• PlayStation’s ‘Helldivers 2’ Coming to Xbox in August
• Sony Finally Announces a Game for Xbox, Surprising Everyone
• Charging your Switch 2 Joy-Cons is lit with this RGB dock
• Manor Lords' new update is "overhauling a lot of systems at once," and it should be worth the 6-month wait as "we'll be able to shift to smaller, more frequent updates going forward"
• Death Stranding 2: 45 Amazing Details That Blew Us Away
• I wouldn’t buy a GPU with 8GB of VRAM — turns out, neither would you