Nintendo’s latest entry in its “ask the developer” interview series has some fun new details about the Switch 2 launch title Mario Kart World. Among the many things discussed is an explanation for why the game isn’t called Mario Kart 9, despite being a sequel to the best-selling Mario Kart 8 — and it has to do with the game’s approach to open-world design.

“If the idea had just been to add more courses, then I think we would’ve called it Mario Kart 9,“ explained producer Kosuke Yabuki. “But, that wasn’t our approach this time. We wanted to take the series to the next level. So, we decided to drop the numbering this time and go with a completely new title, Mario Kart World. So, we’d already added “MARIO KART WORLD” to the concept art from the early stages of development.“

The development team also discussed the game’s origins on the original Switch. Many of the key aspects of World — including its interconnected map and increasing the number of players per race from 12 to 24 — were in place early on, but they apparently proved to be a challenge on the previous hardware.

“When we were developing for the Nintendo Switch system, it was difficult for us to incorporate everything we wanted, so we were always conscious of what we were giving up in return,” programming director Kenta Sato  said. “We discussed things like toning down the visuals, lowering the resolution, and we even considered dropping the frame rate to 30 fps in some cases. It was a tough situation.” Yabuki added that when the idea of moving the game to the Switch 2 came up, “It was truly a ray of hope.”

There’s a lot more to dig into in the four-part Q&A, including the fact that there will be 200 tracks to listen to and how important food is to the game from a worldbuilding perspective. So you should definitely check out the full thing. My favorite detail, though, is how a character named Cow made it onto the roster of racers. As art director Masaaki Ishikawa explains it “Cow is actually a pivotal character in the Mario Kart series.“

After looking at this concept art, I can’t help but agree:

One of the more surprising moments in volume four of Love, Death, and Robots is an appearance from YouTube star MrBeast. He shows up in the episode "The Screaming of the Tyrannosaur," playing a sort of twisted game master presiding over a death race on one of the moons of Jupiter. Also, there are dinosaurs. According to LDR creator Tim Miller, who also directed the episode, the collaboration started out simply because MrBeast was a fan of the show. It then solidified once Miller realized he had the ideal role.

"I have this evil game master here, and I thought he would be perfect for that," Miller says. "I watched his Amazon show and I thought 'what a dick' often. With some of the contestants, he seemed to take a particular joy in their uncomfortableness. Not because he's an evil guy - he's not, he's a super nice guy. I think he just enjoys the whole machination of people and how they can either work together or against each other. And it seemed to fit this particular role very well."

Miller says that because MrBeast was such a fan, he didn't actually charge anything for his performance. "The cool thing is he likes the show so much - we couldn't afford MrBeast prices or anything …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Sunny days are on their way to Netflix. The streamer just announced that the next season of Sesame Street will be available on Netflix “later this year.”

Season 56 of the show won’t be fully exclusive to Netflix, as the company says that it “has exclusive worldwide premiere rights and episodes will be available day-and-date on PBS stations in the US and across PBS KIDS digital platforms.” The streamer also says that the new season will include some format changes, describing it as “reimagined.” Those include new animated segments and what Netflix calls “one 11-minute story” per episode. “The longer format provides the opportunity to tell stories with even more character-driven humor and heart,” Netflix explains.

Sesame Street has been searching for a streaming home ever since it was dropped from Max (now HBO Max once again) at the end of 2024. In addition to the new episodes, Netflix says that it will be streaming “90 hours of previous episodes,” though there are no specifics as to what will be available. The streamer also intends to develop Sesame Street games as part of the deal.

The addition of Sesame Street will provide another boost to Netflix’s kid-oriented programming, joining recent additions like Ms. Rachel.

At this point, there are more than enough ways to play Street Fighter II. But Project Justice and Plasma Sword? Well, those are something entirely different, and much harder to find. And Capcom has made the smart decision to continue to make some of its more obscure fighters the focal point of its growing library of retro collections.

While it's called Capcom Fighting Collection 2, the latest release is actually the third in the series from Capcom. The first, in 2022, focused on 2D games like Darkstalkers, Cyberbots, and, yes, SFII. That was followed by the long-awaited collection of Marvel vs. Capcom releases. The latest collection isn't quite as focused, but instead covers eight Capcom fighters released between 1998 and 2004, spanning arcades and consoles like the Dreamcast.

Mostly these games are divided into two categories. There are a bunch of 2D crossover releases that mash up characters from different franchises. That includes two SNK vs. Capcom games - Millennium Fight 2000 Pro and Mark of the Millennium 2001 - along with Capcom Fighting Evolution, which brought together characters from Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, and Red Earth. If nothing else, Fighting Evolution is n …

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It’s not the next mainline entry in the series, but Atlus did announced a new Persona game today. It’s called Persona 5: The Phantom X, and it’s a spinoff that’s launching on both mobile and PC on June 26th.

As the name implies, The Phantom X is set in the same universe as 2017’s Persona 5, and will feature a new main character leading a new band of Phantom Thieves. This story takes place in “a mysterious Tokyo where desires have been lost.” The structure of The Phantom X sounds a lot like traditional Persona, as players will experience normal high school life during the day, before heading off to explore dungeons at night. There’s also turn-based combat and a “synergy system” where players can form close ties with NPCs in the game.

There are also multiplayer elements, including guilds which allow “players to interact with one another in-game.” From the sounds of it, The Phantom X is an attempt to blend the single-player RPGs the franchise is known for with live-service mobile games designed to keep players coming back. It’s hard to say right now how well those two sides will gel together; it’s also not clear at the moment if the game will be free-to-play. Hopefully it still has curry.

Given it’s been nearly a decade since Persona 5 launched, Atlus releasing another spinoff will likely be a disappointment to some fans expecting any sign of life from Persona 6 (at least Metaphor: ReFantazio turned out well). Then again, The Phantom X at least looks the part, and might be a good way to fill in the time before the next major release.

At its best, Netflix's Love, Death, and Robots creates the same feeling as picking up a collection of sci-fi short stories. You don't always know what to expect, and not everything is brilliant, but you're guaranteed to experience something interesting. That was especially true of volume 3 of the animated anthology, which offered nine shorts, all of which were excellent. The latest volume doesn't quite hit the same heights, nor does it have a singular standout episode like "The Very Pulse of the Machine," but it's still a strong offering.

What volume 4 does do well - and it's something that's a strength of LDR as a whole - is offer a wide variety of tones and styles. There are still the dark, violent, and hyperreal episodes that are so closely associated with LDR, like "Spider Rose," a follow-up to last season's "Swarm," which tells a cyberpunk story about a woman consumed with revenge who ends up finding it with the help of a very strange creature. There's also "The Screaming of the Tyrannosaur," in which trained warriors fight to the death in front of rich dignitaries and royalty, all while racing on dinosaurs. In a strangely inspired bit of casting, the death races are hosted …

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Netflix is adding an important category to its live offerings: talent competition. The streamer announced that it will be reviving Star Search, the classic American Idol and America’s Got Talent precursor that has been off the air since 1995. The modern iteration will air live twice a week on Netflix, and viewers will be able to vote on contestants across four categories: music, dance, variety / comedy, and kids.

A lot of details are still to be announced, including who the host and judges will be and when the new Star Search will start streaming. But Netflix has tapped longtime America’s Got Talent showrunner Jason Raff to lead the project.

The announcement comes as Netflix continues to push on live programming as an important part of its service. When it does premiere, Star Search will join the likes of the WWE, John Mulaney’s late night talk show, and sports including boxing, the NFL, and upcoming editions of the Women’s World Cup. Netflix previously said that its Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight was “the most-streamed sporting event ever,“ with an average of 108 million viewers.

Another glimpse at James Gunn’s Superman just dropped — and this time things aren’t looking so great for the hero. While previous looks at the movie had a more inspirational tone, the latest has the Man of Steel defending his heroic actions in an interview with Lois Lane. There’s clearly going to be some conflict here between what Superman is trying to do and how the world perceives him. Also, Lex Luthor is here, and is appropriately menacing.

We’ve already had a few looks at the movie, starting with an initial trailer that evoked a hopeful vibe, followed by one that focused on the more important elements: robot assistants and Krypto the dog.

Gunn is leading the Superman reboot as writer and director, making it his first major project since taking over as co-CEO of DC Studios. (It’s also not his only project in the work for 2025, as the next season of Peacemaker hits Max in August.) The cast of characters includes Superman (David Corenswet), Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi), Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan), and Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion).

Superman hits theaters on July 11th.

As promised, Marvel just released the first proper trailer for its upcoming Ironheart series on Disney Plus.

Ironheart takes place after the events of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and follows Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) as a genius inventor with a badass mech suit (she also made her first appearance in Wakanda Forever). The new trailer starts out with just about the worst-possible job interview — which, naturally, Riri aces in her own unique way — before shifting to her actually designing the suit of armor itself, and dealing with some shady characters to get it done. By the end of the clip, of course, are some beautiful shots of a suit that would make Tony Stark jealous.

Black Panther director Ryan Coogler, who also made a splash recently with Sinners, will serve as executive producer, while Chinaka Hodge (Snowpiercer, The Midnight Club) is the head writer.

Ironheart starts streaming with a three-episode premiere on June 24th. It’s one part of a fairly busy 2025 for Marvel, which so far has included a return to Daredevil and a new animated Spider-Man series.

Finnish studio Remedy is best known for its single-player action games, like the survival horror of Alan Wake and the supernatural thriller Control. With FBC: Firebreak, the developer is going in a different direction. It's the studio's first multiplayer release: a three-player co-op shooter set in the universe of Control. But while it won't have the more traditional cinematic storytelling the studio has become known for, that doesn't mean Remedy is abandoning its narrative roots. Instead, it is trying to explore them in a new genre. "This game actually has quite a bit of narrative design thinking in it, especially because there is not a lot of room for direct storytelling," says game director Mike Kayatta.

Firebreak is set a few years after the events of Control, after which a building known as the Oldest House - the NYC headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Control, a government organization that investigates the supernatural - was sealed off to prevent a deadly force called the Hiss from getting out. But there were still people inside. While many of them were FBC bureaucrats and office workers, Firebreak follows members of the titular emergency unit, who serve as the first res …

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The Cocomelon empire is expanding once again. A few years after the massively popular kids YouTube channel turned into a Netflix series, now it’s also becoming a feature film. Cocomelon parent company Moonbug Entertainment announced that a theatrical movie has been greenlit, which will be developed in part by DreamWorks Animation.

There aren’t really any details about the movie yet, though a press release says that “fans will follow JJ and his friends on the big screen for a new adventure when the film premieres in theaters in 2027.”

First-launched on YouTube in 2006, Cocomelon’s kid-oriented videos have proved to incredibly popular. The channel currently has more than 190 million subscribers, and Moonbug says that it averages 4 billion monthly views. It expanded into streaming with the series Cocomelon Lane on Netflix, which released its fourth season this year.

A move into film makes for a logical next step, particularly as releases like A Minecraft Movie have proven that there’s still very much an appetite for family-friendly theatrical experiences.

The Office cinematic universe is expanding this fall. Peacock has given the previously announced spinoff of the mockumentary series a streaming date and name, while also revealing a first image. It’s called The Paper, and it will premiere in September. The image, meanwhile, sure looks like an office. Of a newspaper.

The show will feature the same documentary crew as The Office, but this time they’re following the exploits of a small town newspaper. As the official logline explains, “the crew is in search of a new subject when they discover a historic Toledo newspaper, The Truth Teller, and the eager publisher that is trying to revive it.” Greg Daniels, showrunner on The Office, and Michael Koman — best-known as a writer on Nathan for You and Late Night with Conan O’Brien — are serving as writers and executive producers.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Daniels said that “the villain here is the internet and the ability to look at everybody’s news for free, and all the ad revenue going to Google.”

Meanwhile, the cast includes Domhnall Gleeson, Sabrina Impacciatore, Chelsea Frei, Melvin Gregg, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Alex Edelman, Ramona Young, Tim Key, and Oscar Nuñez.

The Paper is one of Peacock’s bigger swings as it attempts to carve out its own distinct space in the streaming landscape. In addition to The Office spinoff, the streamer also has new seasons of Twisted Metal and Ted on the way, a prequel to Friday the 13th called Crystal Lake, and it just kicked off season 2 of Poker Face.

I did not expect a TV show called Murderbot to be quite so relatable. On the surface, the Apple TV Plus sci-fi comedy is a somewhat generic futuristic story about a group of humans exploring a dangerous planet with the help of a security bot that's designed to protect them. The key is the perspective: the story is told from the bot's point of view, and that bot is really going through it. It's experiencing free will for the first time and struggling with the ramifications of that, making it anxious, awkward, and addicted to streaming television. It may be built to kill - but it's just like me.

The show opens on Muderbot's (Alexander Skarsgård) awakening. While seemingly idle and working security at a mining facility, internally it's actually hacking away at the chip that governs its free will. These bots, called sec units (which is short for security unit) are hybrids, powered by AI and with bodies that are a mix of machine and organic material. But they also have to do whatever they're told thanks to something called the governor module. Somehow Murderbot manages to disable this and then - well, he's free, but only kind of. It's illegal to have a sec unit without a working modul …

Read the full story at The Verge.

For a kid with an obsession, it's impossible to think about anything else. When I was really into skateboarding, every piece of architecture was filled with a potential for tricks that I could never actually pull off. When I was on a quest to complete Super Mario Bros. 3 on my own, any piece of paper became a sketch of a new level.

For eight-year-old Julián in the new game Despelote, that obsession is soccer, and it becomes the backdrop for a sweet, and short, slice-of-life drama about passion and memory.

Despelote is set in Quito in 2001, just as Ecuador is on the verge of qualifying for the men's World Cup for the first time in its history. The story follows Julián through the qualifying stages, as he goes about his life - or tries to, at least. There's a lot going on at the time, as the country is still dealing with the effects of an economic crisis. Soccer becomes something of a relief valve, a hopeful story to follow during difficult times.

The game plays out from a first-person perspective and takes place across several days, during each of which Ecuador has an important match. The scenes are small but surprisingly open, often forcing young Julián - and also the player - …

Read the full story at The Verge.

It’s been a few years, but Peacemaker is finally about to make its return to streaming: Max announced that the DC series will back for eight episodes starting on August 21st. The news came along with a teaser trailer that includes the titular lead (played again by John Cena) seemingly struggling to join a new superhero team, while the rest of friends are similarly dealing with the aftermath of having just saved the world. Also, there’s a very timely Grand Theft Auto joke.

In addition to Cena, it looks like most of the cast is also returning, including Danielle Brooks, Jennifer Holland, Freddie Stroma, Steve Agee, and Robert Patrick, alongside newcomers like Tim Meadows. DC Studios’ co-CEO James Gunn is back as well; he wrote all eight episodes, according to Warner Bros., and directed three of them. (It’s a big year for Gunn, who also wrote and directed the upcoming Superman reboot.)

While the new trailer provides a good idea of what to expect in season 2, it is missing one critical detail: will the amazing opening credits scene remain the same? We’ll have to wait until this summer to find out.

The Old Guard was one of Netflix’s more memorable action flicks, and if the first trailer is anything to go on, the same will be true of its sequel. The streamer just released the first proper look at The Old Guard 2, which continues to follow Andromache (Charlize Theron) as the leader of a squad of immortal mercenaries, only this time around, she’s having to deal with being mortal. Oh, and there’s a new threat in the form of what sounds like the OG immortal being.

In addition to Theron, much of the cast from the original film is returning — including KiKi Layne, Marwan Kenzari, Luca Marinelli, Matthias Schoenaerts, and Chiwetel Ejiofor — but there are also some newcomers like Uma Thurman and Henry Golding. Meanwhile, The Old Guard 2 will be directed by Victoria Mahoney (You and Lovecraft Country), and Greg Rucka (who wrote the original graphic novel) is co-writing the screenplay with Sarah L. Walker.

The Old Guard 2 is one of Netflix’s bigger swings this summer, propping up the window alongside another, very different, sequel: Happy Gilmore 2. The Old Guard 2 starts streaming on July 2nd, while Happy Gilmore 2 premiers on July 25th.

The ongoing lawsuit between Nintendo and Palworld developer Pocketpair has forced the studio to make some changes to its Pokémon-like game. In a new blog post, Pocketpair explained that a patch in November removed certain gameplay features, and that an upcoming update will cull even more. “We have had to make certain compromises in order to avoid disruptions to the development and distribution of Palworld,” the studio says.

This started with a patch on November 30th, which most notably removed the ability to summon creatures by throwing a “Pal Sphere,” which is reminiscent of summoning pokémon with a Poké Ball. The studio adds that other changes were made, without specifying what they were.

“As many have speculated, these changes were indeed a result of the ongoing litigation,” Pocketpair explains. “Everyone here at Pocketpair was disappointed that this adjustment had to be made, and we fully understand that many players feel the same frustration. Unfortunately, as the alternative would have led to an even greater deterioration of the gameplay experience for players, it was determined that this change was necessary.”

More changes are coming, as well. Pocketpair says that the upcoming patch v0.5.5 will change how gliding works, as “gliding will be performed using a glider rather than with Pals.”

Nintendo first filed its patent infringement lawsuit in September of last year, and Pocketpair initially said that “we are unaware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing upon, and we have not been notified of such details.” However, soon after the exact patents at the heart of the lawsuit were revealed, and they covered elements like riding characters and throwing balls in a field.

Despite the forced changes, Pocketpair says that “we remain committed to developing Palworld and delivering exciting new content to our fans.” Nintendo, meanwhile, is set to release the next major Pokémon game with Pokémon Legends: Z-A later this year.

A second trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI had a surprise drop this week, and it looked like it mostly focused on the story and world at the expense of gameplay. However, developer Rockstar Games says that isn’t actually the case, and that the trailer was “comprised of equal parts gameplay and cutscenes.” The fact that it’s hard to discern between the two in the trailer is an impressive achievement for the game, though obviously we’ll have to reserve judgement until we are able to actually play it.

Here, you can judge for yourself:

The studio also confirmed that the trailer was “captured entirely in-game from a PlayStation 5,” something that was noted in the trailer’s fine print. The game will be launching on both the PS5 and the Xbox Series X / S.

The trailer — which came more than a year after the first — was released soon after news came that Grand Theft Auto VI was being delayed. Originally slated to launch this fall, the game is now due to release on May 26th, 2026. In a statement, Rockstar said that “we need this extra time to deliver at the level of quality you expect and deserve.”

Sony just announced a new internal studio called Team LFG, which will be developing “a team-based action game.” According to Sony Interactive Entertainment studios CEO Hermen Hulst, the studio “originated at Bungie, but has also rallied developers from across the industry to bring to life an ambitious incubation project that I’m very excited about.”

Curiously, no specific developers were announced as part of the studio reveal, so it’s not clear who is actually working at Team LFG. As part of the post introducing the studio, it’s described as “a team composed not just of industry veterans who have shipped titles like Destiny, Halo, League of Legends, Fortnite, Roblox, and Rec Room, but also industry newcomers with fresh creative perspectives and skills.“

The existence of Team LFG is part of PlayStation’s push into live service games, which has been scaled back from its original ambitious plan, and has suffered a series of major setbacks.

Sony originally acquired Destiny developer Bungie in 2022, and the studio went through multiple rounds of layoffs in the following years. When announcing layoffs in 2024, Bungie CEO Pete Parsons said that “we are working with PlayStation Studios leadership to spin out one of our incubation projects – an action game set in a brand-new science-fantasy universe – to form a new studio within PlayStation Studios to continue its promising development,” which appears to be Team LFG. Bungie is currently working on a multiplayer shooter called Marathon.

Sony also released the hero shooter Concord in 2024, and the launch was so disastrous the game was taken offline and, eventually, its developer Firewalk Studios was shuttered.

It’s not clear how far into development Team LFG’s first release is, nor when it might be properly announced. The studio says that “we will make immersive multiplayer worlds propelled by action games that players can learn, play, and master for countless hours” and that its first game “draws inspiration from fighting games, platformers, MOBAs, life sims, and frog-type games.” The studio adds that “players will inhabit a lighthearted, comedic world set in brand-new, mythic, science-fantasy universe.”

One of Apple’s biggest series will start streaming again this summer. The company announced that season 3 of Foundation will hit Apple TV Plus on July 11th, with new episodes weekly through September 12th. As part of the announcement, Apple also released the first teaser for the third season.

The show originally premiered in 2021, and is an adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s classic series of sci-fi novels, which span multiple centuries and follow the rise and fall of an empire, and a group intent on saving civilization in the aftermath. It stars Jared Harris, Lee Pace, and Lou Llobell, all of whom are returning.

In addition to the teaser, Apple also put out a series of new images for the season:

The new episodes will jump forward more than a century from the events of season 2, which streamed in 2023. Here’s the official logline:

Set 152 years after the events of season two, The Foundation has become increasingly established far beyond its humble beginnings while the Cleonic Dynasty’s Empire has dwindled. As both of these galactic powers forge an uneasy alliance, a threat to the entire galaxy appears in the fearsome form of a warlord known as “The Mule” whose sights are set on ruling the universe by use of physical and military force, as well as mind control. It’s anyone’s guess  who will win, who will lose, who will live and who will die as Hari Seldon, Gaal Dornick, the Cleons and Demerzel play a potentially deadly game of intergalactic chess.  

The show was renewed for a third season in 2023, though a few months later showrunner David S. Goyer stepped down from the role, reportedly over issues with the series’ budget. Goyer still remains involved with the show, however, and is currently listed as an executive producer.

Foundation is part of a solid line-up of sci-fi on Apple TV Plus, which will soon include adaptations like Murderbot and Neuromancer.