Sony Interactive Entertainment has trademarked the name ‘Break In’ less than two weeks before its next PlayStation State of Play showcase, fuelling speculation that the publisher is preparing to relaunch Haven Studio’s long-quiet Fairgame$. The filing landed on 20 May 2026 in both the United States and Europe, and arrives with the State of Play broadcast already locked in for 2 June.

As of 22 May, Sony has not said what ‘Break In’ is or whether it relates to any announced project. The timing of the filing, the trademark classes it covers, and a piece of beta terminology have been enough to set the PlayStation community connecting the trademark to a heist game that has stayed almost entirely out of view since its 2023 reveal.

The ‘Break In’ Trademark Filing

The ‘Break In’ trademark appeared on the United States Patent and Trademark Office database with a filing date of 20 May 2026, listed under Sony Interactive Entertainment. A matching filing was lodged in Europe on the same day, giving Sony coverage across two of the largest markets for PlayStation hardware and software. Filing in both territories at once is the kind of step a publisher takes when it intends to use a name commercially rather than simply reserve it.

Both registrations cover two trademark classes, and the pairing points clearly at a video game rather than any other kind of product.

That combination of classes is the standard pairing Sony uses when protecting a game title. IC 009 covers the software a player buys or downloads, while IC 041 covers the entertainment service wrapped around it, the category that fits live-service titles, online play, and ongoing content. Seeing both classes on a single filing all but rules out ‘Break In’ being a hardware accessory, a subscription tier, or a non-gaming product.

A trademark filing on its own is not proof that a game exists under that name. Publishers regularly register names defensively, protect working titles that change before launch, or file for projects that never reach shelves. The ‘Break In’ filing carries a second signal, though. Sony has also registered several social media accounts under the handle ‘PlayBreakIn’, a detail revealed by Insider Gaming. Securing matching handles is a stronger indicator of intent than a filing alone, since social branding is typically locked down only when a marketing rollout is being prepared. Taken together, the trademark and the handles read less like a defensive registration and more like groundwork for an announcement.

Why Fans Suspect a Fairgame$ Rebrand

Community attention turned to Fairgame$ almost as soon as the trademark surfaced. Haven Studio’s heist game is the project most PlayStation followers expected to resurface at a 2026 showcase, and ‘Break In’ slots neatly into its established design language.

The clearest thread tying the trademark to Fairgame$ runs through the game’s own closed beta. ‘Break In’ is the name of a phase of play inside that beta. Earlier Insider Gaming reporting described an extraction-style mode in Fairgame$, with the phrase ‘Break In’ appearing in the mode description, language that mirrors the heist fantasy the game has been built around since its reveal.

That overlap is the foundation of the rebrand theory. Rather than a brand-new project, ‘Break In’ would be the retail name for the heist-and-extraction experience Fairgame$ already contains, with Sony trading a divisive title for something cleaner and easier to market. The current name, styled with a dollar sign as Fairgame$, is an unconventional choice, and a straightforward verb like ‘Break In’ communicates the heist hook far more directly. Renaming a game between reveal and release is not unusual when a studio wants distance from a rough announcement.

None of this is confirmed. No official document ties the ‘Break In’ trademark to Haven Studio, and Sony has not stated that Fairgame$ and ‘Break In’ are the same game. The connection rests on shared beta terminology and the timing of the filing, both of which are circumstantial. Until Sony addresses it directly, the rebrand should be treated as community speculation rather than established fact, however well the pieces appear to line up.

What We Know About Fairgame$

Fairgame$ was announced in 2023 as a live-service heist game from Haven Studio and then effectively disappeared from public view. Sony has shown almost nothing of the project since the reveal, with no extended gameplay showcase, no firm release date, and no sustained marketing campaign following the announcement. For a game positioned as a live-service title, that silence has been striking.

In February 2025, reporting indicated that Fairgame$ had been delayed into 2026, moving the game well beyond the timeframe implied by its original reveal. The delay is central to the current speculation. A 2026 release window lines up naturally with a 2026 reveal at a major showcase, and a State of Play on 2 June sits comfortably inside that window. A publisher preparing to ship a game in 2026 would need to put it back in front of players at some point this year, and a State of Play is the obvious venue.

A rebrand would also hand Haven a clean slate. Fairgame$ has spent close to three years out of the spotlight since its 2023 reveal, long enough that a renamed relaunch could function almost as a fresh announcement. It would let the studio reset expectations, present the heist-and-extraction loop on its own terms, and reintroduce the project to an audience that has largely moved on. Whether that is the plan, or whether ‘Break In’ is an unrelated title, remains unconfirmed, and the answer may not arrive until Sony chooses to show the game again.

June 2 State of Play – What Is Confirmed

The trademark surfaced against a fixed date on the PlayStation calendar. Sony has confirmed that State of Play returns on Tuesday, 2 June, running more than 60 minutes of updates, announcements, and gameplay reveals from studios around the world. A showcase of that length leaves room for a deep slate, and only one segment has been confirmed so far.

That opening segment is Marvel’s Wolverine, the third-person action-adventure game from Insomniac Games. Sony has promised a closer look at the title, showing off Logan’s brutal, relentless combat alongside new details, and confirmed that this take on the comic book character launches on PS5 on 15 September 2026. Insomniac’s game leading the broadcast sets the tone, but the rest of the runtime is unannounced, which is where the speculation about ‘Break In’ and Fairgame$ takes hold.

The broadcast streams live on YouTube and Twitch. Start times across the major regions are below.

Sony is also partnering with Alamo Drafthouse on free live watch parties in the United States, hosting in-person screenings across six metro areas:

• Raleigh
• Los Angeles
• San Francisco Bay Area
• Chicago
• Dallas/Fort Worth
• New York City

‘Break In’ has not been named on any confirmed lineup for the showcase, and Sony has so far attached only Marvel’s Wolverine to the broadcast. With more than an hour of runtime and the bulk of the slate still unannounced, there is space for a Fairgame$ reveal, a ‘Break In’ reveal, or neither. Whether the trademark filed on 20 May becomes an on-stage announcement will be settled when State of Play airs on 2 June.

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Ubisoft has pulled back the curtain on Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, with hands-on previews published on 21 May 2026 detailing four new story chapters, an expanded Caribbean, recruitable crew officers, and naval combat rebuilt on the studio’s modern Anvil engine. The remake of the 2013 pirate adventure has been in development at Ubisoft Singapore for around three years, and the previews from a closed Ubisoft showcase confirm it reaches well beyond a visual touch-up. Black Flag Resynced launches on 9 July for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, returning Edward Kenway and the Jackdaw to a Caribbean that now stretches as far as the tip of Florida.

A Three-Year Rebuild Around One Question

Black Flag Resynced has been in active development since 2023. Director Richard Knight told GameReactor in an interview at Ubisoft Singapore’s showcase that the team is still finishing the project, putting the timeline at “around three years now.” The brief was never a straight remaster. It started as a question the studio had carried since the original shipped.

“We always had this dream, what if it were today; what if we had the latest Anvil; what if we had some of the gameplay from Shadows or Mirage? What if we put all of these things together, what can we get?” Knight said. He framed the work as part preservation, part reinvention, explaining that the team wanted “to preserve Edward’s story and flavour” while still giving themselves room to “dream a little too.”

Knight said the studio kept returning to what defines the game: a strong central character, the Caribbean setting, and the fantasy of being both a pirate and an assassin. Those pillars stayed fixed while the systems around them were rebuilt. The table below sets the remake against the 2013 original.

Four New Story Chapters Replace the Modern-Day Sections

The most structural change is the removal of the original game’s modern-day sequences. The 2013 release split its time between Edward’s 18th-century career and first-person sections inside Abstergo Entertainment, and Resynced cuts those present-day segments entirely. In their place sit four new story chapters set within Edward’s own era.

Those chapters carry ten new quests built around the crew officers players can recruit for the Jackdaw. The content is woven through the campaign rather than bolted on as optional side activity, broadening the story without displacing the beats that made the original land. Replacing the much-criticised Abstergo material with playable pirate-era content also keeps the player at sea and in character for longer stretches.

The change answers one of the most common complaints about the 2013 game, where the modern-day interludes pulled players out of the Caribbean. With ten quests attached to the officers, the four chapters also give the remake a meaningfully larger campaign than a straight remaster would offer, and they keep the focus on Edward throughout.

Crew Officers Unlock New Ship Abilities

Recruitable officers sit at the centre of the new content. Each officer joins Edward’s crew through their own questline, and once aboard, unlocks a distinct ability for the Jackdaw. Knight pointed to Lucy Baldwin as one example, an officer whose recruitment opens up a new ship capability that was not available in the original.

The system turns crew management into a progression layer. In the 2013 game the Jackdaw’s sailors were background colour with no story role, but Resynced gives them quests, names, and mechanical payoffs. Building out the roster of officers becomes a reason to explore the expanded map and take on the new chapters, rather than a cosmetic afterthought.

Each officer’s ability ties back into naval combat, which means the choice of who to recruit and prioritise shapes how the Jackdaw performs in a fight. The officer questlines and the new ship abilities are designed to feed one another, linking the on-foot content directly to time spent at sea.

The Jackdaw’s Reworked Naval Arsenal

Naval combat gains a layer of alternate-fire weapons for the Jackdaw. Where the 2013 ship ran a largely fixed loadout, Resynced lets players equip specialised armaments and switch up their approach from one engagement to the next. The previews listed a handful of the new options:

• Heated shots that set enemy vessels alight
• Shrapnel barrels that can be dropped in the water behind the Jackdaw
• A concentrated mortar fire mode for sustained bombardment
• Swivel guns with manual aim for precision fire

Knight singled out the concentrated mortar fire and the swivel guns among the additions designed to give the Jackdaw more tactical range. Naval combat was the standout of the original Black Flag, and Resynced treats it as the system with the most room to grow. Together with the officer abilities, the new weapons turn each fight at sea into a question of loadout and timing rather than a straight trade of broadsides.

Melee Combat Rebuilt From Shadows and Mirage

On foot, sword fighting has been rebuilt to bring it in line with modern Assassin’s Creed. PCGamesN reviewer Tom Hopkins, who spent three hours with the preview build, wrote that combat now centres on “parries, counters, and combos,” echoing recent entries such as Shadows and Mirage rather than the timing-based counter-kills of the 2013 game.

Enemies have changed alongside the player’s toolkit. The hands-on noted that opponents “now adapt to your playstyle,” punishing players who lean on the same approach across encounters. Hopkins reported that switching tactics from fight to fight became necessary rather than optional, a shift that asks more of players than the original ever did.

The reworked melee system is one of the clearest examples of Knight’s “what if it were today” brief in practice, taking a decade of combat design from later games and folding it back into Edward’s story. Hopkins’s verdict on the build was emphatic, calling Resynced “a brilliant update to one of the series’ most iconic games” on the strength of its new content and personalities.

An Expanded Caribbean and On-Demand Shanties

The Caribbean itself has grown. Knight confirmed Resynced runs on “one big open-world map” that has been expanded to take in the tip of Florida and Cuba, adding new coastline and territory to sail and explore. The seamless structure means players move between open sea, ports, and the new regions without loading breaks.

Sea shanties have also been reworked into an on-demand feature. Knight described a system where holding a button on the D-pad brings up what he called “a sort of visual iPod player,” letting players pick exactly which song the crew sings while sailing, rather than waiting for one to trigger at random. It is a small change, but it hands players direct control over a part of Black Flag that many remember fondly.

The visual leap drew the strongest reaction in the previews. Hopkins wrote that the upgrade “blew me away,” describing Resynced as “the brightest and most colourful game I’ve ever played,” with deep blue seas, white crashing waves, golden beaches, and lush green forests rendered with a paradise-like sheen on the modern Anvil engine.

When Black Flag Resynced Launches

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced launches on 9 July for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. The release lands roughly seven weeks after the May previews, and with Knight saying in May that the team was “still finishing it right now,” that window leaves a short runway to the launch.

The previews covered story structure, naval combat, melee, and the expanded map, but pricing, edition details, and any upgrade path for owners of the 2013 original remain unconfirmed. Those details are the next thing to watch before Edward Kenway and the Jackdaw set sail again on 9 July.

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Sony has raised the price of every PlayStation Plus tier for new subscribers, a change that took effect on 20 May 2026. The increase covers the Essential, Extra and Premium memberships across both the one-month and three-month plans, pushing the entry-level Essential tier in the US to $10.99 a month and the top-end Premium tier to $19.99 a month.

Starting May 20, PlayStation Plus prices for new customers will increase in select regions. Due to ongoing market conditions, prices will start at $10.99 USD / €9.99 EUR / £7.99 GBP for 1-month subscriptions and $27.99 USD / €27.99 EUR / £21.99 GBP for 3-month subscriptions.…

— PlayStation (@PlayStation) May 18, 2026

Existing subscribers keep their current pricing for now, but anyone signing up fresh, switching tiers or letting a membership lapse will pay the new rate. Sony has attributed the change to “ongoing market conditions”, a phrasing that has drawn sharp criticism from players who see no added value in return for the extra cost.

What the PlayStation Plus Price Increase Covers

The price increase applies to all three PlayStation Plus tiers and to both of the shorter subscription lengths sold through the PlayStation Store. In the US, the Essential plan rises from $9.99 to $10.99 a month, Extra from $14.99 to $16.99, and Premium from $17.99 to $19.99. The three-month plans climb by a comparable margin, with Essential moving from $24.99 to $27.99, Extra from $39.99 to $43.99, and Premium from $49.99 to $54.99. Across the board, the rises land between roughly 10 and 13 per cent.

Sony’s announcement post on X named only the Essential tier, leaving the Extra and Premium increases unmentioned. The higher rates apply to those plans all the same. Sony also named only the one-month and three-month terms, with no clarification on how the change affects its discounted 12-month memberships. The table below sets out the old and new US pricing for each tier.

Paid month to month, the gap adds up over a year. A subscriber on the Premium tier paying monthly will spend $239.88 across twelve months, around $24 more than under the old rate, with Extra and Essential showing similar annual gaps. The structure of the increase matters because PlayStation Plus is no longer a single product. Essential covers online multiplayer, monthly games and cloud storage, Extra adds a catalogue of downloadable titles, and Premium layers on classic-game streaming and trials. A subscriber climbing the ladder for the wider game catalogue now pays a steeper premium at every step.

Regional Pricing and the Existing-Subscriber Carve-Out

The new rates roll out across select regions rather than every PlayStation Store market at once. In the eurozone, the entry-level Essential plan now starts at EUR 10 a month and EUR 28 for three months, while subscribers in the UK pay GBP 8 and GBP 22 for the same two terms. Sony has quoted the increase in each region’s local currency rather than applying a single flat global figure.

Current members are shielded from the increase in most of the world. Sony has confirmed that existing subscribers keep their current pricing unless they change tiers, let a subscription lapse, or are based in Turkey or India. In those two markets the new rates apply to every user, regardless of how long they have held a membership. For everyone else, the higher pricing is triggered only by a new sign-up or a change to an existing plan, which leaves the renewal cost of an unbroken membership untouched for the time being. That carve-out gives long-standing subscribers a clear reason to keep their plans active and avoid any lapse that would reset them onto the new pricing.

Keeping the Old PlayStation Plus Price

For existing PlayStation Plus members, the increase is avoidable, at least for now. Because the new pricing is triggered only by a new sign-up, a tier change or a lapse, an uninterrupted subscription continues to renew at the rate it was bought on. Current subscribers can hold the old price by keeping the plan active and not switching tiers, trading the wider benefits of an upgrade for a cheaper renewal.

Subscribers who want a longer runway can stack subscription time before any change takes hold. PlayStation Plus has long allowed members to add prepaid time to an account, and time redeemed at the current rate banks against future renewals. Players in Turkey and India do not have that option, since the new pricing applies to them whether or not their membership lapses. For anyone weighing an upgrade from Essential to Extra or Premium, the choice now carries a longer-term cost, because the move also locks the account onto the higher pricing.

Sony Blames ‘Ongoing Market Conditions’

Sony has framed the increase as a response to “ongoing market conditions”, pointing to inflation and shifting economic pressures rather than any specific change to the PlayStation Plus service. The reasoning ties into the surge in microchip demand driven by the AI boom, which has pushed component costs upward across the wider hardware industry.

The subscription change also follows a separate hardware increase earlier in the year. In March 2026, Sony raised PS5 console prices, citing “continued pressures in the global economic landscape”, a near-identical justification. Two price rises inside three months, both pinned on macroeconomic conditions, have left a section of the PlayStation audience unconvinced. PlayStation Plus moved to its current three-tier structure in 2022, folding the old PlayStation Now streaming service into the higher plans, but no comparable expansion of features has accompanied the May 2026 increase. Subscribers are being asked to pay more for the same package they already had.

Players Push Back Against the Price Hike

The reaction across social media has been overwhelmingly negative, with subscribers questioning why the cost of online play keeps climbing. Much of the frustration centres on the gap between a rising price and a service that, in players’ eyes, has not improved enough to justify it.

“Blaming market conditions is insane. It should be free to play online games without paywalls in 2026,” one subscriber wrote. The complaint taps a long-running grievance that paid online access remains a fixture of console gaming more than a decade after it became standard.

Other players framed the increase as one entry in a longer list of rising costs. “Games up. Consoles up. Accessories up. Now subs up again. At some point, market conditions just becomes the industry version of because we can,” another wrote. That sentiment reflects a wider unease that “market conditions” has become a catch-all explanation deployed each time a price moves upward, with little detail offered on what those conditions actually are.

GTA 6 Launch and a $7.85 Million Lawsuit

The timing of the increase has sharpened the backlash. The new pricing took hold roughly six months before the planned November 2026 release of GTA 6, one of the most anticipated launches of the decade and a title widely expected to drive a wave of new console and subscription sign-ups. With demand for PlayStation Plus likely to climb regardless, critics have read the hike as Sony raising prices into a captive market rather than responding to genuine cost pressure.

PlayStation Plus is also a gateway for many of the games players will want around the GTA 6 launch window, from online multiplayer access to the monthly game drops. Raising the cost of that entry point months before a system-selling release has, for critics, made the “market conditions” explanation harder to accept.

The increase also lands while Sony is still working through a separate financial matter. Some PlayStation customers have recently become eligible for payouts from a $7.85 million class action settlement tied to alleged monopolisation of the PlayStation Store digital games market. The combination of an active settlement over store dominance and a fresh subscription increase has fed the perception among critics that Sony is leaning on its platform position at subscribers’ expense rather than competing on value.

For now, the higher pricing affects only new and lapsed subscribers, which leaves the bulk of the existing PlayStation Plus base on their original rates. That buffer narrows with every fresh sign-up, and the real test arrives in November, when GTA 6 launches into a PlayStation Plus store that new players can no longer join at the old price.

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Sony is rolling out mandatory age verification for PlayStation users who want to keep using communication features, according to an email from Sony Interactive Entertainment that started landing in player inboxes this week. Messages, voice chat, and party features will all sit behind the new check, with a global rollout planned for later in 2026 and a confirmed start date of June 2026 for the UK and Ireland.

Players who skip the verification step will still be able to play games, earn trophies, and use the PlayStation Store. The restriction only targets the social layer of the platform, which is where most of the regulatory pressure around under-age users has been focused over the past year.

What Sony’s Email Actually Says

The email, first reported by Insider Gaming, frames the change as part of Sony’s compliance with global regulations. It tells users they will need to verify their age later this year to continue using PlayStation communication features such as messages and voice chat, and that other services will remain accessible without verification.

Sony has not attached a specific global date to the notice. The company has, however, locked in a June 2026 start for the UK and Ireland, where the verification page is already live and some users are being prompted to complete the process ahead of enforcement.

Which Features Get Locked Behind Verification

The list of affected features goes further than just console-level chat. Based on the rollout details confirmed for the UK and Ireland, verification will gate communication, broadcasting, and certain in-game functions.

• Joining a party and voice chat
• Text messaging between players
• Third-party chat programs launched through the console, including Discord
• In-game chat inside supported titles
• Sharing user-generated content
• Broadcasting features

Everything outside that social layer, including single-player sessions, online matchmaking that doesn’t require comms, trophies, and PlayStation Store purchases, stays available whether or not a player verifies.

How The Verification Works

Sony is using Yoti, a third-party identity company, to handle the checks in the UK and Ireland. Players in those regions can verify through a face scan or by uploading a government-issued ID. The assumption across reporting is that Yoti will remain the provider when the rollout expands, though Sony has not formally named a partner for other regions.

Yoti markets itself on a privacy-first approach, but the company has a recent record worth flagging. In January, Spain’s data-protection regulator AEPD fined Yoti $1.1 million for mishandling biometric data collected from users. That detail is likely to follow Sony’s rollout into every market it expands to.

Read More: PS6 Price Could Hit $999 As Analysts Warn Of Next-Gen Cost Surge

Read More: PS Plus Game Catalog April 2026 Lineup Confirmed Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, The Crew Motorfest and Wild Arms 4 Headline Eight New Games

Age Verification Is Becoming A Platform-Wide Trend

Sony is not the first major gaming platform to move in this direction, and the push is being driven as much by regulation as by company policy. Several countries and US states adopted age-verification laws through 2025, framed around protecting minors from inappropriate content. The momentum has carried into 2026, even as privacy researchers continue to raise doubts about whether the laws actually achieve their stated goals.

Discord

Discord announced its own verification system for rollout by March 2026 and faced significant backlash from users worried about data handling. The company pushed its plans to the end of 2026 and now says most users will not need to verify at all, a walk-back tied to concerns about personal data and anonymity.

Roblox

Roblox introduced mandatory verification in January, requiring users to upload a photo before accessing in-game chat. The rollout has not gone smoothly, with ongoing questions about how well the system works and how the collected data is handled.

US Legislation

The US House of Representatives is currently reviewing the Parents Decide Act, which could go considerably further than any platform-level measure by requiring age verification before users can access a computer’s operating system at all.

The Privacy Question Sony Will Have To Answer

Biometric verification at this scale raises the same concerns that have dogged Discord and Roblox. Critics have pointed to the risk that identity data could be leaked, used to track consumer behaviour across apps, or handed to governments without clear user consent. Sony’s choice of provider puts that concern on the record before the global rollout even begins, given the AEPD ruling earlier this year.

For players, the practical trade-off is straightforward. Skip verification and keep playing, but lose access to the social features that define how a lot of people actually use the console. Verify, and trust that Sony and its partner handle the resulting data responsibly.

What Else Is Changing On PlayStation

The verification rollout lands alongside another significant shift. Sony plans to phase out all PlayStation Network branding by September 2026, though the online services themselves are not going anywhere. PSN is expected to return under a new name rather than be dismantled, suggesting a broader rebrand of the platform’s online identity is in motion at the same time the verification system is being introduced.

A firm global date for the verification requirement is still the main missing piece. Until Sony confirms one, players outside the UK and Ireland have time to decide how they want to handle the check, but the direction of travel across the industry makes it clear that opting out of verification will increasingly mean opting out of the social side of gaming.

The post PlayStation Age Verification Is Coming For Chat and Voice Features Later This Year appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Bandai Namco has officially confirmed Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3, ending months of speculation that started when the project was first teased as “Age 1000” earlier this year. The reveal headlined Dragon Ball Games Battle Hour 2026 in Los Angeles, where the publisher also dropped news on Sparking Zero, FighterZ, Xenoverse 2 and Gekishin Squadra.

The next Xenoverse is scheduled to launch in 2027 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC via Steam, almost a full decade after Xenoverse 2 hit shelves in October 2016.

What Bandai Namco Revealed About Xenoverse 3

The announcement trailer runs nearly four minutes and sets the new game in an entirely fresh corner of the Dragon Ball universe. The story jumps to Age 1000, a timeline where West City has grown into a sprawling hub that serves as the central setting for the adventure.

Players are recruited into the ranks of the Great Saiyan Squad, fighting alongside both familiar and original allies. Bulma appears in the trailer with English voice acting, and a brief shot around the 30-second mark shows what looks like Piccolo’s cape from behind, hinting at returning faces beyond the new cast.

As with previous Xenoverse titles, character creation sits at the heart of the experience. The trailer leans into this with several stand-ins for custom characters, signalling the series will keep its trademark “make your own Saiyan” hook.

Akira Toriyama’s Final Contributions Are In The Game

Despite Akira Toriyama’s passing in 2024, Xenoverse 3 features original work from the Dragon Ball creator, including never-before-seen characters and key world-building elements. His name appears prominently early in the trailer.

Development on the project reportedly began in the late 2010s, with more than half a decade invested in building out the new world. That long runway explains how Toriyama was able to contribute so heavily before his death, and it puts Xenoverse 3 in rare company as one of the last games carrying his direct creative input.

How The Reveal Played Out Before The Confirmation

The road to this announcement was bumpy. The project first surfaced publicly in January as a mysterious “Age 1000” tease, leaving fans to guess what it actually was. A chunk of the community speculated it could be a successor to Dragon Ball Online, the 2010 MMORPG that never officially launched in the West.

That theory was dented in February when Bandai Namco’s Southeast Asian YouTube channel briefly published material that effectively leaked the game as a Xenoverse sequel. Battle Hour 2026 has now closed the loop with the full trailer and a confirmed 2027 release window.

Everything Else Bandai Namco Showed At Battle Hour 2026

Xenoverse 3 was the headline, but the two-day event packed in updates across the rest of the Dragon Ball games lineup. Here is how the other reveals stack up.

Xenoverse 2 Wraps Up With Future Saga Chapter 4

Xenoverse 2 is heading toward its endgame. Future Saga Chapter 4 was officially revealed as the final DLC for the title, launching in Summer 2026. The chapter is being framed as a climactic farewell to a story that has run for nearly a decade, with the trailer ending on the line “this summer, the last patrol begins.”

Goku SS4 Daima Lands In FighterZ Next Week

Dragon Ball FighterZ gets its next Daima DLC fighter on 22 April, with Goku in his Super Saiyan 4 Daima form joining the roster.

His kit revolves around Wild Dash, a versatile move that branches into four follow-ups.

• Double Combination: a pressure strike that stays safe even when blocked
• Raging Strike: launches opponents upward and feeds into Super Dash combos
• Power Swing: a command throw that breaks guard but whiffs on crouching opponents
• Quick Move: an invincible advance designed to shut down counter attempts

Sparking Zero Adds GT Fighters And A Solo Mode

The Super Limit-Breaking NEO DLC for Sparking Zero brings Vegeta (GT) and Trunks (GT) into a Budokai Tenkaichi game for the first time, alongside a new costume and Super Attack for Goku (Z – End) tied to a fan-favourite moment. The update also introduces Limit Breaker Journey, a solo mode where players grind EXP through battles and events to power up unlocked characters outside of the main story.

Gekishin Squadra Gets A Crossover And A World Championship

The free-to-play Gekishin Squadra is leaning into both fan service and competition. A crossover with Xenoverse 2 will add new hero skins and emotes, with full details still to come. The bigger news is the game’s first offline World Championship, which will fly top players from different servers to Japan to crown a World No. 1. A Half-Year Anniversary campaign with new heroes, emotes and reward events is already live.

Where Xenoverse 3 Sits In The Wider Dragon Ball Pipeline

With Xenoverse 2 officially winding down, Sparking Zero still rolling out DLC and Gekishin Squadra building a competitive scene, Xenoverse 3 inherits the mantle as Bandai Namco’s next big console-scale Dragon Ball project. The 2027 window gives the publisher room to keep monetising the existing slate through 2026 before pivoting attention to the new title.

Wishlists are open now on PlayStation, Xbox and Steam, and Bandai Namco is expected to drip more details through the back half of 2026 as the marketing cycle builds toward launch.

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Sony has officially confirmed the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog lineup for April 2026, and it’s a sizeable drop. Eight games are landing on 21 April, headlined by Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, The Crew Motorfest, and Football Manager 26 Console for Extra and Premium subscribers, plus the PS2 cult classic Wild Arms 4 making its way to the Premium-tier Classics catalogue.

It’s a noticeably stronger month than the recent average, with a mix of major first-party content, a competent racing alternative, and a few left-field picks that genre fans have been waiting on. Here’s the full lineup, what each game actually offers, and what you need to know before download day.

Full PS Plus April 2026 Game Catalog Lineup

All eight titles unlock together on 21 April. Seven are available to anyone subscribed at the Extra tier or higher, while Wild Arms 4 sits behind the Premium paywall as part of the Classics catalogue.

One quirk to flag on Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered: PS5 owners get the proper remastered edition, while PS4 players will be downloading the older Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition instead. Same starting point, different versions.

The Headline Additions

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered

Easily the biggest get of the month. Guerrilla Games’ open-world debut returns with visuals and systems brought up to par with Horizon Forbidden West, which is a substantial overhaul rather than a quick polish. If you’ve never played as Aloy or only made it through the original on PS4, this is the version to commit to. The post-apocalyptic world of tribal hunters and towering machines still holds up, and the remaster removes most of the technical reasons people bounced off it the first time.

The Crew Motorfest

Ubivisoft’s Hawaii-set arcade racer is the closest thing PS5 owners are getting to Forza Horizon for a while, given Forza Horizon 6 isn’t coming to PlayStation at launch next month. Motorfest packs hundreds of vehicles and a festival-style event structure spanning Honolulu’s streets, rainforest trails, mountain passes, and volcanic terrain. It’s not the deepest racing sim on the platform, but as a free addition it slots neatly into the gap.

Football Manager 26 Console

The big one for football fans. This entry marks the first time the Premier League has been fully licensed in the series, which is a genuinely meaningful change for a franchise where authenticity is half the appeal. The console version comes with a rebuilt Match Day presentation, fresh motion capture, and refined controller shortcuts that make tactical tweaks between highlights faster. Worth picking up just for the league licence alone if you’ve been on the fence.

Read More: PlayStation Plus April 2026 Monthly Games Lords of the Fallen, Tomb Raider I-III Remastered, Sword Art Online Fractured Daydream

Read More: Xbox Game Pass April 2026 Reveals Hades II, Oblivion Remastered, and Every New Game This Month

The Rest Of The April Lineup

Warriors: Abyss

Koei Tecmo’s roguelite take on the Warriors formula. Over 100 historical heroes are summonable as party members, and the loop centres on running successive trials of hell with combined hero abilities. It’s a niche genre crossover, but the deck-of-warriors mechanic gives it more legs than a straight Musou clone.

Squirrel with a Gun

The title is the pitch. You’re a rodent, you’ve got firearms, and you’re escaping a secret underground facility while collecting golden acorns. It’s a sandbox shooter slash puzzle platformer that leans entirely into its absurdity, and it’s the kind of palate-cleanser that works well as a free download rather than a full-price purchase.

The Casting of Frank Stone

Supermassive Games’ branching-narrative horror, set within the Dead by Daylight universe. Standard Until Dawn-style mechanics where decisions ripple through the story and characters can live or die based on your choices. Sony positioning this on the catalogue ahead of Supermassive’s next title, Directive 8020, releasing next month is no coincidence.

Monster Train

Long-overdue arrival on PlayStation for one of the most respected roguelike deckbuilders of the past few years. The hook is defending three vertical battlegrounds simultaneously, with six monster clans, 25 covenant difficulty levels, and over 280 cards to build around. If you’ve burnt out on Slay the Spire or Balatro, this is the next logical stop.

Wild Arms 4

The Premium-only addition, and the one with the most surprising backstory. Originally released on PS2 in 2005 in Japan and 2006 in the West, Wild Arms 4 was the entry that broke from the series’ western-themed aesthetic and divided fans at launch, though it’s since picked up a cult following. The new release adds up-rendered visuals, quick save, rewind, and custom video filters. It’s also being sold standalone on the PlayStation Store for $14.99 USD if you’d rather not subscribe to Premium.

This addition also means the bulk of the Wild Arms series is now playable on modern PlayStation hardware. Wild Arms 1 through 3 were already available, leaving only Wild Arms 5 and the PSP spinoff Wild Arms XF outside the modern catalogue.

Don’t Forget The Monthly Games Deadline

Separate from the Game Catalog drop, all PS Plus members at any tier can still claim April’s monthly games: Lords of the Fallen, Tomb Raider I-III Remastered, and Sword Art Online Fractured Daydream. The deadline to add them to your library is 4 May, after which they’re gone from the free claim window. Worth grabbing now even if you don’t plan to play them immediately, since they stay in your library permanently as long as your subscription remains active.

What This Lineup Signals For The Months Ahead

April leans heavier on first-party catalogue depth than any month so far in 2026, and the Wild Arms 4 addition hints that more PS2-era classics could be on the way. The Wild Arms series isn’t a Sony-owned property, so its arrival on the Premium Classics tier suggests Sony is still actively brokering deals for legacy JRPGs rather than letting that part of the catalogue stagnate. Wild Arms 5 and Wild Arms XF remain the obvious next candidates if this lands well with subscribers.

The post PS Plus Game Catalog April 2026 Lineup Confirmed Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, The Crew Motorfest and Wild Arms 4 Headline Eight New Games appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Red Dead Redemption is finally getting a physical release on PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2, with both versions reportedly launching on 7 May 2026 at €34.99. The leak originated from a Spanish retailer listing before being expanded by Dealabs’ billbil-kun, who confirmed two separate physical editions are in the pipeline. One catch worth knowing upfront: the Switch 2 version is a Code-in-a-Box release, not a true cartridge.

This is the original Red Dead Redemption getting the physical treatment, not Red Dead Redemption 2. That distinction is causing some friction among fans who have been waiting years for an upgraded RDR2 on current-gen hardware.

What The Leaks Actually Show

Spanish retailer Wakkap accidentally published a store listing for a physical PS5 copy of Red Dead Redemption priced at €32.90, with a 7 May 2026 release date. The listing did not include an EAN code, which initially made it difficult to verify whether it was a genuine physical product or a digital placeholder.

Dealabs’ billbil-kun then followed up with additional findings, confirming the physical PS5 edition and revealing a second physical release for Nintendo Switch 2. According to billbil-kun’s reporting, both editions will retail at €34.99, which is €15 cheaper than the launch price of the digital versions. A separate Micromania listing briefly opened pre-orders for the PS5 version before disappearing, suggesting either an early reveal or a retailer error.

Rockstar Games has not acknowledged either leak at the time of writing.

Pricing And Edition Breakdown

Here is how the two physical editions compare based on the leaked information.

Neither version includes online multiplayer, matching the existing digital releases. The original PS4 physical release notably shipped without the classic New Austin map insert, and there is no indication so far that the PS5 version will restore it.

The Switch 2 Code-In-A-Box Problem

The Switch 2 version is the awkward one. A Code-in-a-Box release means buyers get a retail box containing only a download code printed on paper, with no cartridge inside. For a game that clocks in at roughly 12GB, the decision is harder to justify than it would be for a 50GB-plus title where cartridge cost becomes prohibitive.

For collectors who want a true physical Switch cartridge, the existing Switch 1 release remains the only option. Both the Switch 1 cartridge and digital versions are eligible for the free Switch 2 upgrade, provided the game has been updated to the latest version on the newer hardware.

Read More: Forza Horizon 6 Limited Edition Xbox Controller and Headset Leaked With Prices

Read More: Zelda Ocarina of Time Remake Reportedly Coming to Switch 2 This Christmas

Why Fans Are Frustrated It Is Not RDR2

The leak has reignited a long-running complaint from a section of the community: Red Dead Redemption 2 still does not have a native PS5 or Xbox Series X|S version. The 2018 release continues to run on PS4 and Xbox One code via backwards compatibility, with no upscaled current-gen port despite eight years passing since launch.

Reddit threads responding to the leak surfaced the usual sentiment, with one user joking that they would happily accept “everything other than releasing a PS5 port of RDR2,” and another saying they grew tired of waiting and built a Steam Machine specifically to run RDR2 at 60fps. The demand is clearly there, and Rockstar’s continued silence on the subject is starting to wear thin for a portion of the fanbase.

With Grand Theft Auto 6 reportedly facing further delays, an RDR2 current-gen port would be an obvious goodwill move while fans wait. Whether Rockstar sees it that way is another matter.

Where The Original Currently Stands

Red Dead Redemption was re-released natively on PS5 several months ago, bringing 60fps support at up to 4K resolution along with HDR. Graphical fidelity now sits roughly in line with the highest PC settings, which is a meaningful step up from the original PS4 version that many players were stuck with.

The Switch 2 version, released in December 2025, includes 60fps performance, DLSS support, HDR, and mouse controls via the new Joy-Cons. Nintendo Life scored that release 9/10. The mobile versions on iOS and Android, along with the Netflix release, have collectively crossed 10 million downloads since launching.

What To Watch For Next

Pre-orders have not officially opened yet, and Rockstar has not confirmed any of the leaked details. Given the consistency between the Spanish retailer listing, billbil-kun’s reporting, and the Micromania pre-order page that briefly went live, an official announcement is likely soon. Whether Rockstar will use the same announcement to address RDR2’s current-gen status, or stay silent on it, is the more interesting question.

The post Red Dead Redemption PS5 Physical Edition Leaks For May 7, Switch 2 Gets Code-In-A-Box appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Traysia, a mostly forgotten 1992 Sega Genesis JRPG developed by the now-defunct Telenet Japan, is making a surprise comeback on modern platforms. Publishers Ratalaika Games and Shinyuden have confirmed the game will launch on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam on April 24, 2026.

A Deep Cut From The Mega Drive Library

For those unfamiliar, Traysia (known as Minato no Traysia in Japan) is a traditional fantasy RPG that follows a young adventurer named Roy as he leaves his hometown to explore the world. The game’s story is told across five scenarios, blending classic party-based RPG mechanics with a romance narrative centred on Traysia, a girl who waits for Roy’s return in their home port town of Johanna.

The game originally launched on the Sega Mega Drive in 1991 in Japan before receiving a North American localisation from Renovation Products for the Genesis. To put it kindly, it was not well received. The Japanese magazine Famitsu scored it just 13 out of 40, while Beep! Mega Drive Magazine gave it 5.25 out of 10. The North American release fared roughly the same, and UK publication Sega Pro singled out the game’s poor graphics and shallow gameplay in an import review from 1993. German outlet Video Games compared it unfavourably to far stronger Mega Drive RPGs of the era, including the Phantasy Star series and Shining in the Darkness.

Not Its First Revival

Despite that underwhelming reception, Traysia has quietly experienced a second life in recent years. The game appeared in Evercade’s Renovation Collection 1 back in 2022, and then received a brand new physical cartridge release in 2025 courtesy of Shinyuden, Ratalaika Games, and Edia. That physical re-release featured a redone English translation along with an all-new Spanish language option.

The upcoming digital release appears to be based on that 2025 version. The Steam page lists Spanish as an available language alongside English and Japanese, which strongly suggests it carries over the updated localisation work rather than shipping with the original, rougher translation.

Read More: Final Fantasy 7 New Version Coming To Steam, 2013 Edition Delisted

Modern Quality-Of-Life Features

As with most retro re-releases from Ratalaika, this version of Traysia comes bundled with a set of emulation-based convenience features designed to smooth out the rougher edges of a 30-plus-year-old game.

• Rewind and Turbo functions let players undo mistakes or speed through slower sections at will.
• Save states allow saving and loading at any point, removing reliance on the original save system.
• Screen filters offer visual options including retro-style monitor effects and a black-and-white mode.
• Cheats such as infinite lives and invulnerability are available for those who just want to experience the story.
• A gallery features artwork from the original game’s manual and box design.
• A jukebox provides access to all 21 music tracks composed by Shinobu Ogawa, who also worked on the Valis series. The soundtrack is widely considered one of the game’s few genuine highlights.

Pricing And Availability

Traysia launches across all platforms on April 24, 2026. A price has not yet been announced, and the PlayStation Store page has yet to go live at the time of writing. The game is already available to wishlist on Steam for those keen to grab it on PC at launch.

Whether Traysia deserves a second chance is genuinely debatable, but the quality-of-life additions and updated translation at least give curious players a far more accessible way to find out for themselves. For retro RPG enthusiasts and Mega Drive collectors, it is an interesting curiosity if nothing else.

The post Traysia, the Obscure 1992 Sega Genesis RPG, Is Getting a Modern Re-Release This Month appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Sony has confirmed the PlayStation Plus monthly games for April 2026, and it’s a solid lineup. All PS Plus members can claim Lords of the Fallen, Tomb Raider I-III Remastered, and Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream from Tuesday, 7 April through Monday, 4 May.

The announcement follows earlier leaks that had already revealed some of the titles, though not the full picture. Tomb Raider I-III Remastered turned out to be the surprise addition that the leaks missed.

What’s In The April 2026 PS Plus Lineup

All three titles are available to every PS Plus tier, not just Premium or Extra subscribers. You’ll have from 7 April to 4 May to add them to your library.

Lords Of The Fallen

Lords of the Fallen is a Soulslike set in an interconnected world five times larger than the original game. You play as a Dark Crusader journeying through the realms of the living and the dead to overthrow Adyr, a resurrected demon god. The game’s standout mechanic is swapping between two parallel versions of the world to solve puzzles and find new paths through its environments.

With nine character classes and hundreds of weapons, there’s a fair bit of build variety on offer. IGN scored it an 8/10, calling it “a great Soulslike” and praising the dual-world system as “an excellent twist to set it apart from the pack.” It joins PS Plus ahead of its sequel, which is set to launch later this year.

Tomb Raider I-III Remastered

This collection bundles Lara Croft’s first three adventures with all expansions and secret levels, brought to modern platforms with upgraded graphics. You can toggle between the remastered visuals and the original polygon look at any time, which is a neat touch for long-time fans. A new Challenge Mode lets you replay levels with custom modifiers and unlock 10 new outfits that give Lara additional abilities.

The timing of this freebie is notable. Tomb Raider I-III Remastered recently drew criticism from fans over new cosmetic additions that were accused of looking like AI-generated assets. Developer Saber Interactive’s staff who worked on the original remaster said the new additions had nothing to do with them. Publisher Aspyr denied using AI-generated art, stating the outfits “were created by our team of artists.”

Read More: Ningtendo PXBOX 5 – Now You May Play PlayStation, Xbox And Nintendo On One Console

Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream

The third game in the lineup is Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream, a co-op action title built around large-scale multiplayer boss fights. The story follows Kirito after a system called Galaxia causes characters from across the Sword Art Online timeline to be displaced, bringing together allies and enemies from various story arcs.

It supports up to 20 players in a single session, split across five parties of four. There are 21 playable characters, each with a specific battlefield role, so preparation and team composition matter when tackling the high-difficulty raid bosses.

Don’t Forget March’s PS Plus Games

Before you get stuck into April’s lineup, make sure you’ve claimed March’s offerings. You have until Monday, 6 April to add PGA Tour 2K25, Monster Hunter Rise, Slime Rancher 2, and The Elder Scrolls Online Collection: Gold Road to your library. Once that deadline passes, they’re gone from the monthly rotation for good.

The post PlayStation Plus April 2026 Monthly Games Lords of the Fallen, Tomb Raider I-III Remastered, Sword Art Online Fractured Daydream appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

If you’ve been thinking about picking up a PlayStation 5, you might want to move quickly. Sony has officially confirmed a new global PS5 price increase, with some models jumping by as much as $150 starting April 2, 2026.

That means the cost of getting into the PlayStation ecosystem is about to get noticeably higher, especially for anyone eyeing the premium end of the lineup.

New PS5 Prices And When They Take Effect

The updated pricing applies across all major PS5 models, including the standard console, the Digital Edition, and the more powerful PS5 Pro.

According to an official PlayStation Blog post by Isabelle Tomatis, Vice President of Global Marketing at Sony Interactive Entertainment, the new recommended retail prices are as follows:

United States

• PS5: $649.99
• PS5 Digital Edition: $599.99
• PS5 Pro: $899.99

United Kingdom

• PS5: £569.99
• PS5 Digital Edition: £519.99
• PS5 Pro: £789.99

Europe

• PS5: €649.99
• PS5 Digital Edition: €599.99
• PS5 Pro: €899.99

Japan

• PS5: ¥97,980
• PS5 Digital Edition: ¥89,980
• PS5 Pro: ¥137,980

The price changes take effect globally from April 2, 2026.

Sony has also confirmed that the PlayStation Portal will increase in price:

• U.S.: $249.99
• U.K.: £219.99
• Europe: €249.99
• Japan: ¥39,980

Official Statement From Sony

In the same announcement, Sony acknowledged the impact on players while explaining the reasoning behind the move.

“With continued pressures in the global economic landscape, we’ve made the decision to increase the prices… We know that price changes impact our community, and after careful evaluation, we found this was a necessary step,” said Isabelle Tomatis.

This lines up with Sony’s broader messaging across multiple sources, framing the increase as unavoidable given current global conditions.

Why Sony Is Raising PS5 Prices Again

Sony points to a combination of economic pressures driving the decision.

One of the biggest factors is the sharp rise in memory chip prices. These components are essential to the PS5, and supply has been squeezed as manufacturers prioritise demand from AI data centres.

On top of that, inflation, tariffs, and ongoing geopolitical tensions continue to push up production costs across the tech industry.

Analysts say this was likely inevitable. Ampere Analysis’ Piers Harding-Rolls noted that Sony may have previously benefited from fixed component pricing deals that have now expired, leaving the company exposed to rising costs.

This Isn’t The First PS5 Price Hike

This marks the second major PS5 price increase in less than a year.

The earlier hike in 2025 was tied to inflation and global uncertainty, and this latest increase suggests those pressures haven’t eased. Instead, they’ve intensified, particularly with ongoing supply constraints in key components.

There are also warnings that further cost pressures could emerge, especially with geopolitical instability potentially affecting global supply chains.

Could Xbox And Nintendo Follow?

Right now, competitors like Microsoft and Nintendo haven’t announced similar price increases for their latest hardware.

However, analysts believe they could face the same pressures soon.

Nintendo, in particular, may be reluctant to raise prices on the Nintendo Switch 2 while it’s still early in its lifecycle, but rising component costs could eventually force a change.

What This Means For Players Right Now

For players, the immediate takeaway is straightforward. If you’re planning to buy a PS5, especially the Pro model, doing so before April 2 could save you a significant amount of money.

Retailers may still offer the current pricing while stock lasts, but once the new pricing becomes standard globally, deals could become less common.

More broadly, this shift highlights a growing trend. Gaming hardware is becoming more expensive, and consoles are starting to feel less like budget-friendly entry points and more like premium devices.

Where The Industry Might Be Heading Next

With memory shortages, AI-driven demand, and global economic instability all in play, the PS5 price increase could signal a wider shift across the industry.

If these pressures continue, future hardware could launch at higher baseline prices, and mid-generation upgrades like the PS5 Pro may become increasingly niche.

For now, though, one thing is clear. The days of stable console pricing are fading, and players may need to be more strategic about when they upgrade.

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