Xbox, Ubisoft's reset, Highguard's existential struggles and more

Plus reviews, previews, and a brand new Drop C++

Feb 02, 2026

What in the news

What’s better than not having to work on a Monday? Not having to work on a Tuesday as well. Or the whole week. Or your entire life. Sure, but have you considered a gaming newsletter? While the others are mere fantasy, this is as real as that Monday morning migraine. You’re welcome.

Starting off with the Xbox Developer Direct, and after months of waiting we finally got an extended look at the Playground Games’ Fable. And it looks… alright, I suppose. If you love chicken-related gags over and over again, this just might be your jam. But it was not the only title being shown off.

We also got a preview of Playground Games’ other upcoming release, the Japan-set Forza Horizon 6, as well as Game Freak’s (yes, the Pokémon developer) action RPG Beast of Reincarnation and Double Fine’s latest eccentricity, pot-based (the clay kind) Kiln. Only Forza got a definite release date — that of May 18 — but the rest will be out this year as well.

Speaking of eccentricities, Nintendo announced that their upcoming social sim, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, will be out on April 16 this year. This will be the third entry in the series that sees players take the role of Mii characters living on a remote island. Among other things, this year’s title will introduce advanced customisation for characters, more ways for players to control interactions, and same-sex relationships.

Moving from to-be-released to just-released, and Wildlight Entertainment’s much-discussed (not in a good way) PvP live-service hero shooter Highguard opened to an almost 100K concurrent players on PC, but struggled with a slew of negative reviews from players, including review-bombing on Steam. Critics were a little more level-headed and forgiving, and a number of developers even came in defence of the title. Since its release on January 26, the game has received a patch fixing a bunch of issues, and has seen its rating go up from mostly negative to mixed on Steam. Perhaps better days lie ahead.

But not so much for Intrepid Studios’ MMORPG Ashes of Creation. The game that raised over $3 million on Kickstarter back in 2017 is facing a crisis after its director and creator Steven Sharif resigned “in protest” against decisions his board was making that he could “not ethically agree with or carry out”. This followed further resignations across the senior leadership, after which the Board “proceed[ed] with a mass layoff”.

Things were also not looking too good at Ubisoft, which announced a “major organisational, operational and portfolio reset to reclaim creative leadership and restore sustainable growth”, and canned six games including Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. You can read all about it in detail here.

Something that’s definitely in development is the highly-anticipated Haunted Chocolatier. Stardew Valley creator Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone shared an update on his next game, saying he has been working on the game and has “been very productive lately”, but was not ready yet to give out a release date. “I’m alive, the game is still in development, and it will come out when it’s ready.” As we say here at Story Mode, better late than broken.

But back to Nintendo for a minute, and AdHoc, the studio behind last year’s acclaimed title Dispatch, found itself in strange waters after the Switch version of the game featured censorship (with the option of turning it on and off removed unlike other platform releases). First, the studio said in a statement that the “core narrative and gameplay experience remains identical to the original release” regardless of the censorship. Next, Nintendo chipped in saying that the company “requires all games on its platforms to receive ratings from independent organisations and to meet our established content and platform guidelines”, and that they do not “make changes to partner content”. Finally (as of now), AdHoc issued another statement insisting it was not “trying to hide” a disclaimer about censored content on Switch, but that it inadvertently put the notice in “the absolute worst spot” on the Nintendo eShop. Classic goof up, innit?

Meanwhile over at Valve, a major update dropped for Deadlock, bringing six new characters to the roster, a new game mode, and various quality-of-life tweaks. The MOBA, first unveiled in 2024, is still invite-only, with no release date in sight.

On the topic of release dates and playing with friends, Tarsier Studios’ Little Nightmares spiritual successor Reanimal will come with a friend’s pass for easy co-op, much like last year’s Split Fiction. Meaning you’ll be able to invite friends to play the game even if they don’t own it (but enjoy twisted horror games, of course).

Moving on to some numbers, and the Metal Gear Solid series has now sold over 65.5 million copies worldwide following the release of Metal Gear Delta: Snake Eater Delta last year, according to Konami. Also selling well has been Switch 2 Zelda spin-off Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, with a million copies shipped in less than three months.

And finally, onto some news related to upcoming video game adaptations, and Amazon’s live-action God of War has added a few more names to its cast. After the announcements of Ryan Hurst as Kratos, Teresa Palmer as Phoebe/Sif and Max Parker as Heimdall, we now understand that Severance actor Ólafur Darri Ólafsson will portray the Norse God of Thunder, Thor, while Homeland actor Mandy Patinkin will play the role of Odin. Meanwhile, Amazon’s other series, Tomb Raider, starring Sophie Turner as Lara Croft and Sigourney Weaver as Evelyn Wallis, began filming in London.