Grand Theft Auto 6 will cost $79.99 in the United States for the standard edition and $99.99 for the Ultimate Edition when it launches on 19 November 2026, but a widely-shared comparison of regional PlayStation Store prices shows players in some countries paying nearly double what others do. The standard edition ranges from roughly $58 in South Korea, the cheapest market, to about $107 at the top end, a near-2x global spread for the same game.

Rockstar Games confirmed the official US pricing on 24 June, a day before pre-orders open at midnight local time on 25 June. The per-country figures below come from a player compilation posted to r/gaming, which converted regional PlayStation Store pre-order prices into US dollars. They are not an official Rockstar regional price list, and the dollar equivalents shift with daily exchange rates, but they line up with confirmed local listings and lay out the scale of the gap.

GTA 6 Prices By Country, Standard And Ultimate Edition

South Korea sits at the bottom of the list at the equivalent of $58.07 for the standard edition, with Japan close behind at $60.61. At the other end, the most expensive markets clear $100, with the top entry landing at $106.88. The United States price of $79.99 falls in the lower-middle of the table once national taxes elsewhere are factored in, since most listed markets include VAT in the sticker price while the US figure does not. The Ultimate Edition tracks the same order, sitting roughly $15 to $27 above the standard price in each market, from $72.95 in South Korea up to $133.68 at the top.

Rank	Country / Market	Standard Local	Standard USD	Ultimate Local	Ultimate USD
1	Israel	ILS 319.00	$106.88	ILS 399.00	$133.68
2	Hungary	HUF 31,990	$101.85	HUF 39,990	$127.32
3	Switzerland	CHF 79.90	$98.31	CHF 99.90	$122.92
4	Czech Republic	CZK 2,009	$93.98	CZK 2,499	$116.88
5	Poland	PLN 349.00	$92.30	PLN 429.00	$113.45
6	United Kingdom	£69.99	$92.11	£89.99	$118.43
7	Sweden	SEK 899.00	$91.97	SEK 1,149.00	$117.54
8	Denmark	DKK 599.00	$90.87	DKK 749.00	$113.61
9	Euro-price markets	€79.99	$90.71	€99.99	$113.39
10	South Africa	ZAR 1,499.00	$90.23	ZAR 1,899.00	$114.31
11	Australia	AUD 129.95	$89.66	AUD 159.95	$110.35
12	Romania	RON 399.90	$86.58	RON 499.90	$108.23
13	Brazil	BRL 449.90	$86.53	BRL 549.90	$105.76
14	Turkey	TRY 3,999.00	$86.02	TRY 4,999.00	$107.53
15	Mexico	MXN 1,499.00	$85.08	MXN 1,879.00	$106.63
16	Singapore	SGD 109.00	$83.96	SGD 136.00	$104.75
17	Malaysia	MYR 339.00	$81.92	MYR 419.00	$101.25
18	Thailand	THB 2,690.00	$80.47	THB 3,390.00	$101.43
19	United States	$79.99	$79.99	$99.99	$99.99
19	Saudi Arabia	$79.99	$79.99	$99.99	$99.99
19	United Arab Emirates	$79.99	$79.99	$99.99	$99.99
22	New Zealand	NZD 139.95	$78.97	NZD 174.95	$98.72
23	Ukraine	UAH 3,499.00	$77.98	UAH 4,299.00	$95.82
24	Canada	CAD 109.99	$77.28	CAD 139.99	$98.35
25	Hong Kong	HKD 568.00	$72.45	HKD 708.00	$90.30
26	Indonesia	IDR 1,190,000	$66.20	IDR 1,490,000	$82.88
27	India	INR 5,999	$63.36	INR 7,499	$79.20
28	Japan	¥9,800	$60.61	¥12,280	$75.95
29	South Korea	₩89,800	$58.07	₩112,800	$72.95

Ranking is by standard edition USD equivalent. The United States, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates share rank 19 on an identical $79.99 listing, as the PlayStation stores in both Gulf markets price GTA 6 in US dollars rather than local currency.

Why GTA 6 Is Cheaper In South Korea And Japan

The explanation players have put forward centres on exchange rates. Publishers typically lock their regional pricing tiers when a console generation launches and avoid changing the internal conversion rates mid-generation, since a sudden hike would make new games look more expensive than older titles on the same platform. Those tiers were set at the start of the PS5 and Xbox Series era in 2020, and the Korean won and Japanese yen have both weakened sharply against the US dollar since then. With the won down roughly 40% over that span, the unchanged local price now converts to far fewer dollars than it did at launch.

A low US-dollar figure does not mean the game is cheap for locals, though, and players in those markets were quick to point that out. Japan’s ¥9,800 standard price still represents a meaningful share of a median monthly wage there, with the yen’s slide cutting local spending power even as the dollar conversion flatters the price. The same caveat undercuts the popular suggestion of simply switching store regions to Korea or Japan to save money, since the saving is real only when measured in dollars from a stronger economy.

Why Some Countries Pay More Than The US

At the expensive end, the pattern is driven heavily by tax. Several markets that show up near the top, including Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic, are charged the standard euro-market price and then have their own national sales tax stacked on top. Hungary carries a 27% VAT rate, the highest in the European Union, which pushes its standard edition past $100 despite the country being one of the bloc’s lower-income members. Hungary does not use the euro, but its PlayStation Store pricing still tracks the euro-market figure before that tax is applied.

The gap looks even wider measured against local incomes rather than dollars. Players in Brazil noted the standard edition runs at roughly a quarter to a third of the national monthly minimum wage, while in South Africa the ZAR 1,499 price works out to close to 30% of a minimum-wage worker’s monthly salary. Wealthier markets such as Hong Kong, by contrast, see the same game land at a small fraction of a median monthly income. The result is a list where relative affordability bears little relation to the dollar ranking, and where some lower-income countries pay more in absolute terms than richer ones.

No Disc, Just A Download Code In The Box

The regional pricing stings harder because there is no cheap physical workaround. Rockstar has confirmed the boxed editions of GTA 6 will not contain a disc, shipping instead with a download code, which removes the option of importing a cheaper physical copy from another region or reselling it second-hand. Buyers are tied to the digital price in their own store account, making the regional figures above the effective floor for most players rather than a starting point for bargain-hunting.

Pre-orders open at midnight local time on 25 June across all regions, locking in these prices for anyone deciding which store to buy from ahead of the 19 November launch. The open question for PC players is whether the eventual Steam release will mirror this regional structure or undercut it, a possibility some are already weighing as they decide whether to commit now or wait.

The post GTA 6 Prices By Country Revealed With South Korea Cheapest At Around $58 appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Bandai Namco have confirmed One Piece: Grand Gourmet, a Baratie-themed restaurant management simulator developed by Kairosoft, with a 23 October 2026 launch across Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PC via Steam, Apple’s App Store, and Google Play. The project was unveiled during the 9 June 2026 Nintendo Direct and pairs the Straw Hat Crew with a roster of more than 400 One Piece characters, all rendered in a retro-styled pixel art presentation that sets the title apart visually from every previous game in the franchise.

The reveal arrived alongside an official Bandai Namco press release confirming the developer, the platforms, and the setting. The player is tasked with turning the second location of the legendary floating Baratie into the most renowned restaurant on the seas, working alongside Sanji and a steady inflow of guest characters from across the One Piece cast.

What Grand Gourmet Brings to the One Piece Catalogue

Bandai Namco’s catalogue of licensed One Piece games has tended toward arena combat, open-world adventure, or card battlers. Grand Gourmet steps outside that pattern entirely, dropping the franchise into a pixel-art management sim that visually has more in common with Kairosoft’s Game Dev Story or Hot Springs Story than with Pirate Warriors or One Piece Odyssey.

The pixel art presentation is the most immediate point of difference. Kairosoft’s house style, a top-down chibi sprite layout with bright primary colours and animated UI overlays, has been mapped wholesale onto One Piece’s cast. Sanji works the stove, Luffy moves through the dining room, and the player builds out the second Baratie one room and one staff slot at a time.

The 400-character roster is the second hook. Few licensed sims try to surface that much franchise material as gameplay-relevant content, and the One Piece anime and manga combined offer enough named cooks, sailors, marines, and pirates to make a number that large credible without leaning on filler. Each character feeds into ingredient ideas, signature dishes, and presentation cues that unlock as more of the cast joins the kitchen.

How the Restaurant Sim Plays

Grand Gourmet is built around three core loops. The player draws inspiration from One Piece characters, chooses ingredients, and works with Sanji to cook dishes, then composes those dishes into curated meal sets to serve to specific guests. Character inspiration drives the recipe library, so each Straw Hat or guest character contributes flavour ideas that expand the menu over time.

The structural template is recognisable to Kairosoft veterans. The Tokyo studio has spent more than a decade refining the same management-sim core through titles spanning game studios, hot springs, racing teams, and ramen shops, and Grand Gourmet maps that template onto a One Piece skin without diluting the franchise’s flavour. The second Baratie expands one floor and one room at a time, with staff hires, ingredient unlocks, and customer-satisfaction targets driving the day-to-day progression.

Working alongside Sanji is positioned as the central narrative thread. The Straw Hat cook takes the lead role in the kitchen, with the rest of the crew folding in across the game’s content cadence and the wider One Piece cast cycling through the dining room as guests, suppliers, and inspiration sources.

A First for Kairosoft on the Series

Grand Gourmet is the first One Piece title that Kairosoft has developed. The studio has worked almost exclusively on its own original IP since the late 2000s, building a long catalogue of pixel-art management sims under in-house brands rather than on licensed properties. A high-profile collaboration with Bandai Namco on a franchise the size of One Piece is a meaningful step outside that pattern, and explains the visual signature now attached to the project.

The development handover preserves Kairosoft’s identity. Grand Gourmet is built in the studio’s pixel art style rather than translated into the cel-shaded look used by other One Piece games, and the official materials present it as a Kairosoft sim first and a One Piece tie-in second. The anime aesthetic has been mapped onto Kairosoft’s sprite work rather than the other way around.

The collaboration also expands Bandai Namco’s licensing strategy for the series. Recent One Piece releases have leaned on internal teams and large external action-game studios; pairing the licence with a specialist mobile-and-PC sim developer points to a broader push to cover more genres under the One Piece banner rather than concentrating on tentpole action titles.

Where and When You Can Play

Grand Gourmet ships on 23 October 2026 across a five-platform spread. The mobile inclusion sits alongside the console release on the same day rather than rolling out later as a port, which lines up with Kairosoft’s mobile-first development history. The two Nintendo SKUs are treated as sibling releases, with Switch 2 owners and original Switch owners both able to pick the game up at launch on Nintendo’s eShop.

The Steam version brings Kairosoft’s house style to PC alongside the mobile releases, and the simultaneous launch across all five platforms removes the staggered rollout that has often separated Bandai Namco’s console releases from their mobile counterparts. Pre-order pages on each storefront have not yet opened at the time of writing, and Bandai Namco has not yet broken out edition tiers, regional pricing, or any in-game economy details.

Why the Baratie Setting Matters

The Baratie occupies a specific corner of One Piece lore that maps cleanly onto a restaurant-sim premise. The original floating restaurant is where Sanji is introduced to the Straw Hat Crew in the early manga arcs, a working kitchen run by chef-pirates that doubled as a recruitment ground for the cook who would become the crew’s third major member. Setting Grand Gourmet at a second Baratie location lets the game lean on the established setting without retreading the original arc, and keeps Sanji at the centre of the kitchen where the source material always placed him.

The second-location framing also opens narrative room for guest appearances from One Piece’s full cast across pirate, marine, and Revolutionary Army factions. The 400-character figure makes more sense when treated as a steady inflow of cameo customers and ingredient providers rather than a fixed playable roster, and the Baratie’s reputation as a neutral feeding ground for pirates and marines alike supports the kind of mixed-faction guest list that a management sim relies on.

What Comes Next Before Launch

The 9 June 2026 Nintendo Direct reveal sets up roughly four and a half months of pre-release marketing before the 23 October launch. The current confirmation covers the date, the five platforms, the developer, the Baratie setting, and the 400-character roster, with menu-design specifics, progression systems, and any online or multiplayer features still to follow in subsequent trailers.

The next checkpoint is the storefront opening on each platform’s listing, where Bandai Namco is expected to confirm pricing, regional editions, and any pre-launch bonuses ahead of the October release.

The post One Piece Grand Gourmet Launches 23 October – Kairosoft Baratie Sim On Switch 2 And Mobile appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Nintendo have confirmed Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave launches worldwide on 17 September 2026 as a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive, locking in a launch window for the eighteenth mainline entry in the tactical role-playing series. The release date dropped during the 9 June 2026 Nintendo Direct, alongside fresh footage of a gladiatorial story set in the Dagdan Empire, a four-protagonist structure that lets players pick which lead drives the campaign, and a dynamic battle system that builds directly on the framework Intelligent Systems introduced in Fire Emblem: Three Houses.

A special edition containing a steelbook and an art book was also confirmed during the segment, rounding out a reveal that pins the series’ next chapter to a Switch 2 holiday-adjacent slot roughly three months out from the Direct itself.

September 17 Release Confirmed Worldwide

The 9 June 2026 Nintendo Direct closed with a dedicated Fortune’s Weave segment that fixed the eighteenth Fire Emblem to a single global launch day. Nintendo’s UK product page lists the same 17 September 2026 date with no staggered regional windows attached, and the game is positioned as a Switch 2 exclusive across all territories. There is no Switch 1 release, no PC port, and no cross-generation version on the slate.

The window puts Fortune’s Weave just over three months out from its reveal, a brisk publishing turnaround for a major Intelligent Systems project. It also slots the game into Nintendo’s first full pre-holiday quarter on Switch 2 hardware, ahead of the bulk of cross-platform releases targeting the Christmas RPG window. Pre-orders for the standard edition opened through Nintendo’s regional storefronts immediately after the broadcast.

Four Leads Drive the Heroic Games Story

Fortune’s Weave hands players a choice between four protagonist characters at the start of the campaign. Each lead carries a unique combat ability that shapes how their personal route plays out across the game’s tactical battles. The lead choice also locks in story perspective: the reveal trailer framed the four protagonists as competitors in the same overarching event with distinct motivations for entering it.

That structural decision echoes the house-selection model from Three Houses, which split the Garreg Mach academy story across Black Eagles, Blue Lions, and Golden Deer routes. Fortune’s Weave shifts the conceit from political faction to individual champion, with each of the four leads representing a different combat archetype within the game’s gladiatorial framework.

Nintendo has not yet publicly named the four protagonists or confirmed the full roster of recruitable units that join each lead’s army through the campaign. Series tradition suggests each route will pull from a shared cast with route-exclusive members, but the specifics remain unconfirmed at this stage.

The Heroic Games and the Dagdan Empire

The campaign is built around a competition called the Heroic Games, hosted inside the Dagdan Empire and presided over by a figure called the Divine Sovereign. The Sovereign promises to grant the wishes of victors, a hook that positions every protagonist as a wisher with something specific on the line.

The Dagdan Empire is a new setting for the series, separate from the Fódlan continent of Three Houses, the Elyos continent of Fire Emblem Engage, and the Tellius and Magvel settings that anchored earlier mainline entries. The reveal trailer leaned into colosseum imagery, sun-bleached stonework, and ceremonial robes during the Heroic Games sequences, a clear visual contrast with the medieval-European aesthetic of recent Fire Emblem instalments.

The gladiatorial framing also gives Intelligent Systems a natural in-fiction justification for the series’ grid-based tactical combat. Battles in Fortune’s Weave are explicit performances staged for an audience, not skirmishes hidden inside a wider war, which is a notable structural departure from the army-versus-army backdrop of most prior entries.

Battle System Builds on Three Houses Foundations

The reveal trailer showed dynamic combat sequences that expand on the Fire Emblem: Three Houses battle system rather than reinvent it. Three Houses introduced the Combat Arts and Battalions framework on top of the series’ base weapon-triangle tactics, layered with class-change progression and instructor-driven character growth. Fortune’s Weave appears to carry the same structural skeleton into the Switch 2 generation with additional moving parts bolted on top.

Specifics on the new combat layers were not detailed beyond the four-lead unique abilities mentioned during the Direct. The trailer footage showed multi-stage battle maps, character-specific finishing animations, and what appeared to be team-up attacks involving multiple units acting in sequence, though Nintendo has not formally named that system yet.

Fortune’s Weave is the first mainline Fire Emblem built natively for Switch 2 hardware. Fire Emblem Engage shipped in January 2023 on the original Switch and represents the most recent mainline release before Fortune’s Weave. Three Houses, the more direct mechanical predecessor, launched in July 2019 and remains the studio’s commercial high-water mark for the series.

Special Edition Contents Confirmed

Nintendo confirmed a Fortune’s Weave special edition during the Direct, packing the base game alongside a steelbook case and a hardcover art book. Pricing and exact regional availability for the special edition were not specified during the segment, and Nintendo’s UK storefront lists the standard edition as the only confirmed product for now. The special edition listing is expected to follow as a separate SKU closer to launch.

The art book is a recurring inclusion in recent Fire Emblem premium bundles, building on similar steelbook-plus-art-book packages offered for Three Houses and Engage at their respective launches. Each previous bundle landed at a premium over the standard edition, and Fortune’s Weave is positioned to follow a similar structure once full pricing lands.

Where Fortune’s Weave Sits in the Series Timeline

Fortune’s Weave is the eighteenth mainline Fire Emblem and the first new entry in the series since Engage in January 2023. The franchise dates back to 1990’s Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light on the Famicom, with Intelligent Systems developing every mainline release since. The series broke out internationally with Fire Emblem on the Game Boy Advance in 2003 and has appeared on every Nintendo platform across the two decades that followed.

Three Houses, released in July 2019, sold more than four million copies and stands as the franchise’s best-selling entry. Engage followed in January 2023 with a more orthodox tactical structure and shipped just over 1.6 million copies in its opening quarter. Fortune’s Weave is positioned by Nintendo as a generational reset for the series on Switch 2, pulling from the Three Houses battle template while pivoting into a wholly new setting and the four-lead protagonist structure.

The September launch leaves roughly three months between reveal and release for Nintendo to fill in protagonist names, full pricing for the special edition, and the deeper picture of how each lead’s unique combat ability rewrites the campaign. Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave arrives on Nintendo Switch 2 on 17 September 2026.

The post Fire Emblem Fortune’s Weave Release Date Set for September 17 on Switch 2 appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

NBA The Run launched on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC via Steam on 9 June 2026 at 6:00 PM UTC, reviving the licensed arcade basketball lineage that has been dormant since the NBA Street era wound down in the mid-to-late 2000s. The 3v3 game ships with cross-play, rollback netcode and a 32-player NBA roster on day one, priced at $29.99 for the Standard Edition and $39.99 for the Deluxe. The developer has confirmed no microtransactions will appear in the game at any point.

The Run the World Tournament mode is live from day one, putting teams of three through a circuit of iconic streetball courts before a finals court championship closes out the run.

Cross-Play And Rollback Netcode Across All Three Platforms

NBA The Run runs cross-play across PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Steam from launch, with no platform partitioning of the player pool. Console and PC players queue into the same matchmaking lobbies, and parties can be formed across hardware boundaries without an opt-in toggle on either side.

The technical headline is rollback netcode, a feature long associated with the fighting-game scene and rarely seen in licensed sports releases. The implementation predicts inputs locally and reconciles silently when packets arrive, which matters in a 3v3 game where a single missed steal or contested rebound flips possession. The decision puts NBA The Run on roughly the same network footing as Street Fighter 6 and Guilty Gear Strive, rather than the delay-based netcode that defined the original NBA Street trilogy.

Run The World Tournament Mode At Launch

Run the World is the headline mode on day one, sending three-player teams across a circuit of iconic streetball courts before culminating in a finals court championship. The mode is structured as a global tour, with each court representing a real-world location and the run ending at the finals stage rather than looping endlessly into a ladder grind.

The tournament structure is designed for both solo-queue trios and pre-made squads, with the cross-play infrastructure feeding teams of three from any combination of platforms into the same bracket. The full list of courts on the Run the World circuit has not been published in detail, with the developer framing the route as a tour through globally recognised outdoor venues rather than naming each stop individually.

32 NBA Stars In The Launch Roster With More To Come

NBA The Run ships with 32 NBA players in the playable roster on day one. The developer has signalled that additional names will arrive ahead of the 2026-27 NBA season, though no specific roster expansion date has been attached to that commitment.

The Deluxe Edition adds rookie variants for Stephen Curry, Luka Doncic and Kevin Durant to the base lineup, alongside 1,000 CRED, the in-game currency. The roster scale sits between the small named cast of NBA Jam, which built each release around a handful of two-player teams, and the deeper benches of NBA Street Vol. 3, which carried hundreds of pros across multiple tiers. The 3v3 format keeps any single match focused on six players on the court, with the larger pool feeding team selection and unlock progression rather than match-time complexity.

Standard And Deluxe Edition Pricing

Two editions are available from launch, both built around the same base game and the same competitive feature set.

The $29.99 entry price undercuts the $69.99 to $79.99 ceiling that has become standard for current full-priced console releases, sitting closer to the digital-only revival bracket occupied by Windjammers 2 and remastered arcade compilations. The Deluxe upcharge is held to $10 rather than the $20 to $30 premium typical of annual sports releases, with no Ultimate, Champions or MVP tier above it.

First Major NBA Arcade Revival Since The NBA Street Era

The release ends a 19-year gap in the flagship licensed NBA arcade subgenre. The NBA Street series wound down in the late 2000s, with EA Sports BIG sunsetting the brand soon after, and no subsequent licensed release has tried to occupy the same open-floor, signature-dunk space at full retail scale. NBA Jam returned in 2010 and 2011 under EA, but those releases sat closer to the original Midway two-on-two lineage than the street-basketball formula NBA The Run is targeting.

NBA The Run inherits the visual shorthand of the genre, with bold colour palettes, exaggerated player models and signature finishes, and pairs it with cross-play and rollback netcode, neither of which existed in any meaningful form when the NBA Street series shipped its last entries. The arcade basketball category has effectively been holding ground through smaller indie releases rather than a flagship licensed line, with the new game positioned as the first proper revival on the licensed side.

No Microtransactions Confirmed By The Developer

The developer has confirmed no microtransactions will appear in NBA The Run, a commitment that covers both currency top-ups and cosmetic store layers. CRED, the in-game currency bundled with the Deluxe Edition, is earned through play rather than sold in additional packs after launch.

The position sets NBA The Run apart from the dominant sports-game monetisation pattern, where annual NBA, NFL and FIFA releases lean heavily on Ultimate Team-style card economies and seasonal battle passes that compound across multiple paid tiers. The $29.99 Standard and the one-time $10 Deluxe upgrade are the only paid touchpoints the developer has acknowledged, and the no-microtransactions commitment is being used as a launch-week selling point alongside the rollback netcode line.

What Comes Next For NBA The Run

The next milestone for the game lands ahead of the 2026-27 NBA season, when the developer plans to expand the playable roster beyond the 32 stars available at launch. No date has been attached to that update, and no post-launch roadmap covering new courts, modes or seasonal tournaments has been published. The Run the World finals court remains the highest-stakes content in the game until that roster expansion arrives.

The post NBA The Run Launches – First Licensed Arcade Basketball Game in 19 Years, $29.99 appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Gameplay Group International have pushed the launch of Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game from 2 July to 23 July 2026, citing unplanned new content as the reason for the three-week delay. The studio confirmed a cross-play closed beta running 2 to 5 July for players who pre-order on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam, replacing what would have been the original launch weekend with a hands-on test of the 2D fighter. The announcement was issued on 3 June 2026, less than a month out from the original release date.

To our Avatar community: To ensure AVATAR LEGENDS™: The Fighting Game delivers the best possible experience at launch, we wanted to let you know that we’re taking a little extra time to cook up an exceptional Avatar adventure, including brand new content previously unplanned!… pic.twitter.com/3hMwbFgu0D

— Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game (@avatar_fighters) June 3, 2026

The decision keeps the hand-drawn fighter inside its original July release month, with the four-day closed beta now serving as the public preview ahead of the final release.

The New Release Date And Beta Window

Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game now ships on 23 July 2026 across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam. The 21-day slip is short by industry standards but lines up directly with the originally scheduled launch weekend, with the closed beta filling the 2 to 5 July gap. The schedule keeps the title from sliding into August or beyond, where it would have collided with the late-summer release window already crowded with established franchises.

Cross-play between PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Steam during the beta confirms the netcode supports the full platform set before launch, which is the harder technical lift for a fighting game. PS5 players will be matched into the same queue as Steam and Xbox opponents across the four-day window, with no platform partitioning announced.

Gameplay Group International’s Statement

The studio framed the delay as content-driven rather than a fix-the-bugs slip. In its 3 June statement, Gameplay Group International told the community: “To our Avatar community: To ensure AVATAR LEGENDS: The Fighting Game delivers the best possible experience at launch, we wanted to let you know that we’re taking a little extra time to cook up an exceptional Avatar adventure, including brand new content previously unplanned!”

The phrasing carries two key markers. The “brand new content previously unplanned” line signals the studio added scope mid-development rather than cut back to ship on time. The “exceptional Avatar adventure” framing centres the single-player story mode rather than competitive depth, suggesting the unplanned additions sit in story or character content rather than gameplay systems.

The statement did not detail what the new content covers. Roster additions, extra story chapters, additional stages, and new modes are all live possibilities, and the studio has not narrowed the list. The community-direct format of the statement, addressed to “our Avatar community” rather than press, signals the studio is treating the fighting-game audience as the primary stakeholder rather than the wider Avatar franchise viewership.

How To Access The 2-5 July Beta

Beta access is gated to pre-orderers across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam. Players who place a pre-order on any of the three platforms before the beta window opens on 2 July receive entry for the four-day test, which closes on 5 July 2026. Cross-play is enabled across all three platforms, so a PS5 pre-orderer can queue into matches against an Xbox or Steam opponent without restriction.

Pre-orders are now live on PC via Steam, with PlayStation Store and Microsoft Store listings expected to mirror availability. The studio has not yet announced whether the beta will operate on a single global server or region-locked queues, nor has it published the beta hours or downtime windows for the 2 to 5 July run.

Image Credit: Gameplay Group International

The studio has also not specified which characters, stages, or modes will appear in the beta build. Typical pre-launch closed beta windows for 2D fighters surface a slice of the roster, one or two stages, and online ranked or casual matchmaking, but Gameplay Group International has not confirmed the scope.

What’s In Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game

The game is a 2D fighter with a single-player story mode and online PvP. The hand-drawn art style is built to mirror the original Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series, with stage backdrops and character animations carrying the same colour palette and frame cadence as the show.

Confirmed characters include Aang, Korra, and Zuko, with the full launch roster not yet disclosed. The three named fighters span both Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, signalling the studio is drawing on the full animated continuity rather than a single show. Zuko represents the Fire Nation arc from the original series, Aang the founding Avatar narrative, and Korra the next-generation continuation.

The combination of story mode and online PvP positions the title as a dual-audience fighter. The single-player content targets Avatar series fans drawn by the animation style and character roster, while the cross-play netcode and online PvP target the competitive 2D fighting-game community. The hand-drawn aesthetic puts the project closer to Guilty Gear Strive and Skullgirls in production direction than to a 3D Tekken or Mortal Kombat lineage.

Deluxe Edition Contents

The Deluxe Edition bundles three extras above the standard release:

• A curated digital artbook
• A One-Year Pass covering five additional playable characters
• The original soundtrack

The One-Year Pass is the structural anchor of the bundle, indicating Gameplay Group International is planning post-launch character drops across the first 12 months of support. The five Deluxe characters sit outside the base launch roster and arrive as season content rather than day-one fighters, mirroring the post-launch DLC cadence common to modern fighting games.

Regional pricing for the Standard and Deluxe Editions has not been confirmed for New Zealand at the time of writing. The Steam listing currently shows pre-order availability without a confirmed retail figure, and PlayStation Store and Microsoft Store pricing has also not been published.

What Comes Next

The 2 to 5 July beta is the next public touchpoint for Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game, and the first opportunity for the fighting-game community to assess the netcode, the hand-drawn animation in motion, and the depth of the combat system. Pre-orders on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Steam between now and 2 July are the only route into the test window, and the studio has not announced whether the beta entitlement carries over to a wider open beta or a launch-day demo.

Final launch follows on 23 July 2026 across PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam.

The post Avatar Legends Fighting Game Delayed to 23 July – Cross-Play Beta 2-5 July appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

The Pokemon Company have confirmed that Pokemon Champions will launch on iOS and Android on 17 June 2026, bringing the competitive battle simulator to mobile devices two months after its Nintendo Switch debut. The announcement, made on 3 June through an official press release, opens pre-registration on the iOS App Store and Google Play and confirms full cross-platform play with the Switch version. Anyone logging in between 17 June and 2 September receives a free Raichu paired with both Raichunite X and Raichunite Y Mega Stones through the in-game mailbox.

The mobile launch lands fourteen days after the announcement, a short pre-registration window that signals The Pokemon Company are confident the Switch infrastructure ports cleanly to phones. Champions is the publisher’s first dedicated competitive battle simulator on mobile, and the unified ranked pool means the mobile player base joins the Switch competitive scene already in progress.

Mobile And Switch Players Share The Same Ranked Pool

Pokemon Champions ships with full cross-platform play between the Nintendo Switch version and the mobile build from launch day. Switch and mobile competitors will be drawn from the same global ranked queue, meaning a player climbing the ladder on an iPhone matches against the same opponents as a Switch player at home. The unified pool addresses the fragmentation problem that has hampered other cross-platform competitive titles and gives the mobile player base immediate access to the active Switch community that has been ranking since April.

Save data syncs across both versions through Nintendo Account. A player who logs in with the same Nintendo Account on iOS, Android, and Switch carries the same roster, ranked progress, and unlocked items between devices. The flexibility positions Champions as a portable practice tool for competitive players who want to grind ladder during a commute and continue the same account on Switch in the evening, without resetting any of the work they have already put in.

The cross-play model also opens Champions to the wider Pokemon competitive audience that has historically been Switch-locked. Mobile-only players can now enter the same ranked ecosystem without buying a console, and Switch players gain a phone-based option for casual ladder runs away from the dock.

Free Raichu Distribution Runs Until 2 September

The mobile launch carries a global distribution event running from 17 June to 2 September. Every player who logs into Pokemon Champions during the window can claim a Raichu from the in-game mailbox along with the Raichunite X and Raichunite Y Mega Stones.

 The two Mega Stones unlock the branching Mega Evolution forms for Raichu, which entered the metagame as one of the headline new Mega options when the Switch version went live in April.

The roughly eleven-week claim window covers both casual returning players and the start of the new ranked season, giving everyone a competitive Pokemon to drop straight into ranked matches. There is no in-app purchase required to claim the Raichu, the Mega Stones, or the associated tools, with mailbox delivery handled automatically for accounts that log in during the window. The Switch version receives the same distribution under the same dates, so existing Switch players claim the freebie from the same mailbox they have been using since April.

Raichu’s appearance as the featured distribution Pokemon also doubles as a soft promotion of the dual-Mega Stone mechanic. Raichunite X and Raichunite Y are among a small set of Pokemon in Champions with two distinct Mega Evolutions, giving players an immediate hands-on look at the format’s branching Mega builds without having to grind the Mega Stone unlock requirements first.

Regulation M-B Opens The New Competitive Season

17 June also marks the start of a new competitive season under the Regulation M-B ruleset. Regulation M-B will govern Pokemon Champions ranked play from the mobile launch through to the end of the season, replacing the Regulation M-A set that has governed the Switch version since April. Players who have been grinding ladder on Switch carry their existing accounts into the new season under M-B, and mobile players entering Champions for the first time are placed into the same competitive structure.

The Regulation M-B kick-off coincides with the platform expansion to maximise the size of the active ranked pool from day one. A larger pool reduces matchmaking queue times, raises the average opponent quality, and gives tournament organisers a healthier pipeline of qualified ranked players to draw from for invitational events.

The Pokemon Company have not yet published the full Regulation M-B banlist or restricted list, though the ruleset is expected to broadly mirror the late-season Regulation M-A format with adjustments based on the Switch competitive meta data collected over the past two months. Pokemon Champions ranked seasons run quarterly, so the Regulation M-B window will define the competitive meta through to the next regulation change later in 2026.

Pre-Registration Open On iOS App Store And Google Play

Pre-registration on both the iOS App Store and Google Play opened on 3 June, the same day as the launch announcement. The mobile version is free-to-play with optional in-game purchases, matching the monetisation model The Pokemon Company chose for the Switch release. The publisher has not yet detailed which in-game purchases will appear at mobile launch, though the Switch shop centres on cosmetics, additional roster expansion packs, and quality-of-life conveniences rather than competitive advantages, and the mobile build is expected to follow the same approach.

Pre-registering does not unlock additional rewards beyond the launch-day Raichu distribution that any logged-in player receives during the window. The pre-registration step queues the install to begin automatically on 17 June once the build goes live across both storefronts, sparing players the manual download step on launch day.

The free-to-play model removes the price-of-entry barrier that has kept some prospective ranked players out of the Switch ecosystem, where Champions retails for a one-off cost on the eShop. A mobile player can download the build, claim the launch Raichu, and enter ranked matches without spending money, which is a meaningful shift in how Pokemon competitive entry is structured for new players.

What The Mobile Launch Means For The Competitive Scene

Pokemon Champions is The Pokemon Company’s first dedicated competitive battle simulator on mobile, and the unified ranked pool gives mobile players direct access to the same competitive scene Switch ranked grinders have been building since April. Tournament organisers running Champions events have already begun adapting their bracket structures to support mobile entrants, and the first major ranked event under Regulation M-B is scheduled for the post-launch window.

The 17 June launch and the start of Regulation M-B together set the competitive calendar for the rest of 2026. The Raichu distribution gives every new entrant a launch-day Mega-capable Pokemon for ranked play, and the cross-play infrastructure shifts the centre of gravity for casual ladder runs from console to phone. The next confirmed checkpoint sits at the close of the Raichu distribution on 2 September, which lines up with the expected end of the Regulation M-B season window and the reveal of the next competitive regulation.

The post Pokemon Champions Mobile Launches June 17 on iOS and Android With Free Raichu appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

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.

The post Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced Preview – New Officers, Reworked Naval Combat and Shanties appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

A small indie game called Scarlet Skips has become the most talked-about release on gaming this week, and the reasons are not especially subtle. Developer Yerk introduced the one-button jump rope roguelike on 20 April 2026, and within a day a single repost of the trailer had pulled in roughly 4.1 million views, with most of the attention pointed squarely at the protagonist’s chest physics rather than the gameplay loop.

The game itself is a genuinely clever take on score-chasing roguelikes, built around a single button and stackable upgrades. But the conversation online has split cleanly in two, with one crowd dissecting the mechanics and a much larger crowd making the same joke over and over. The Steam page is now live for wishlisting, and whether that traffic converts into actual sales will be one of the more interesting indie case studies of the year.

How Scarlet Skips Actually Plays

Underneath the memes, Scarlet Skips is a tightly designed arcade roguelike. The entire game runs on press, hold, and release inputs of one button, with the hold duration controlling jump height and rope swing timing. Nail the release and Scarlet keeps skipping, mistime it and the run ends.

The roguelike layer sits on top of that core loop. Each level-up offers a choice of three random power-ups pulled from a pool the developer describes as more than a dozen possible upgrades, ranging from increased jump height to adding a jump rope, to setting the rope on fire. The upgrades stack and combine, which opens up what Yerk pitches as a virtually infinite number of build configurations for players chasing optimised runs.

The premise framing is lightly self-aware. The Steam description frames the game as helping Scarlet break out of her funk by touching grass, with the tagline noting that life can be hard but you can take it one jump at a time. It is a simple elevator pitch for a simple game, which is part of why it has spread so easily.

Why The Trailer Blew Up

The game went viral through a repost from indie curator account IndieGameJoe, which framed Scarlet Skips with a straight description of its mechanics and asked whether people would play it. That tweet hit around 4.1 million views, and the replies quickly made clear that a lot of the audience was not primarily interested in roguelike build theory.

This indie dev is making a game where all you do is skip rope… with one button.

– Time your jumps perfectly
– Roguelike upgrades every run
– Try to survive as long as possible

It’s called Scarlet Skips. Would you play this? pic.twitter.com/yyKYd8TiRa

— Indie Game Joe (@IndieGameJoe) April 20, 2026

One reply noted that the developer had put their focus on “the physics” in a jumping game, to which IndieGameJoe replied that the idea is actually cool though. Another account replied that they play it “purely” for the roguelike mechanics, which earned a simple “ffs” from the curator. The running joke across quote tweets was that the character’s proportions and bounce animations were doing more marketing work than the trailer itself.

A secondary observation that has picked up traction is that Scarlet bears a clear visual resemblance to Princess Daisy from the Mario series, with red hair, a blue top, and a pose-heavy animation style.

Read More: Now You Can Run GameCube and Wii Games on Switch Without Android

Read More: Xbox Game Pass Price Drops by $7, But Call of Duty Loses Day One Access

The Animation System Yerk Is Actually Selling

The uncomfortable irony for the developer is that Scarlet’s animation system is the feature they seem genuinely proud of, and it is the reason the physics look the way they do. The Steam page specifically highlights that the team pushed the animation system to be as dynamic, expressive, and adorable as possible, using Unreal Engine animation tools to combine dozens of candid animations with logic-driven procedural movement.

That procedural layer is what allows Scarlet to respond dynamically to in-game conditions rather than cycling through pre-baked animation clips. It is a legitimately interesting technical pitch, and in a different viral cycle it might have been the headline feature. In this one, it is the reason everything jiggles.

Where To Play Scarlet Skips

Scarlet Skips is listed on Steam with a wishlist button live, though no firm release date or price has been confirmed on the store page at the time of writing. Yerk has not indicated platforms beyond PC, and given the scope and one-button design, a mobile port would be an obvious fit if the current momentum holds.

Whether the viral wave translates into actual wishlists and eventual sales will tell a broader story about how indie games break through in 2026. The attention is real, but a lot of it is ironic, and the gap between a million impressions and a paying customer is wide. If Scarlet Skips lands well mechanically when it launches, it has a genuine shot at converting the joke traffic into a real audience. If not, it will be remembered as a meme trailer that briefly owned a weekend.

The post Jump Rope Roguelike Scarlet Skips Is Going Viral, And Its Jiggle Physics Are Doing The Heavy Lifting 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.

The post Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 Confirmed for 2027 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Pokémon Champions has officially launched on Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 as a free-to-start download, giving players a dedicated competitive battling platform built around the same ruleset used in official Pokémon Video Game Championship events. Unlike traditional Pokémon RPGs, this one skips the story campaign entirely and drops you straight into team building, ranked battles, and seasonal progression.

A mobile version is also confirmed for a later date, and cross-platform play between Switch and mobile will be supported when it arrives. For now, the game is available exclusively through the Nintendo eShop.

What Pokémon Champions Actually Is

Pokémon Champions is not a mainline RPG. There is no overworld to explore, no gym leaders to challenge through a story, and no wild Pokémon to catch in tall grass. Instead, the game is entirely focused on competitive multiplayer battling, using the same Single Battle and Double Battle formats that feature in official Pokémon VGC tournaments.

The battle system uses familiar mechanics from previous Pokémon titles, including types, Abilities, moves, and stat tuning. Mega Evolution plays a significant role too, with transformations like Mega Dragonite, Mega Meganium, Mega Emboar, and Mega Feraligatr all available. Some of these Mega Evolutions carry brand new Abilities that were not present in Pokémon Legends: Z-A.

New Mega Evolutions And Abilities

Several Mega-Evolved Pokémon debut with exclusive Abilities in Pokémon Champions. Mega Meganium gets Mega Sol, which allows it to use moves as though the weather were harsh sunlight, regardless of the actual battle conditions. Mega Emboar has Mold Breaker, letting its moves bypass the target’s Ability entirely. Mega Feraligatr introduces Dragonize, which converts Normal-type moves into Dragon-type moves and boosts their power by 20%.

Players who befriended Chesnaught, Delphox, Greninja, and Eternal Flower Floette during Pokémon Legends: Z-A can bring those Pokémon into Champions via Pokémon HOME to claim their respective Mega Stones (Chesnaughtite, Delphoxite, Greninjite, and Floettite) from the in-game mailbox.

Ranked Battles, Casual Modes, And Seasonal Battle Pass

Online ranked play is live from day one. Trainers compete against players worldwide and earn Season Points based on match performance. Casual Battles offer a lower-pressure alternative for testing new teams, while Private Battles let you challenge friends directly.

Season Points feed into a seasonal Battle Pass system. Both wins and losses contribute toward progression depending on how you perform, so you are not punished for taking on tough opponents. Cosmetic rewards, avatar customisation items, and progression bonuses unlock as you advance through each season’s pass. A Premium Battle Pass is also available, unlocking exclusive seasonal outfits and additional rewards. Certain Mega Stones can be earned through the Battle Pass or purchased with Victory Points in the shop.

Read More: Pokemon Champions Mobile Release Date

Read More: Pokemon Showdown Vs Pokemon Champions, Will They Coexist After Release?

Read More: Pokémon Champions Accessibility Explained As Dev Targets New Competitive Players

How Team Building Works

Instead of catching Pokémon through exploration, Champions uses a recruitment system. You can trial a selection of Pokémon once per day before deciding whether to permanently recruit them using Victory Points. Those same points also let you adjust stats, modify Abilities, and change movesets for your permanent team members, removing the traditional grinding loop entirely.

Pokémon HOME compatibility expands your options further. Supported Pokémon from titles like Pokémon GO and Pokémon Legends: Z-A can be brought into Champions as visiting partners. Visiting Pokémon retain their training adjustments if returned through HOME in the same form. However, Pokémon obtained directly inside Champions cannot be sent back to HOME.

Pricing For The Starter Pack And Membership

While the base game is free to start, optional paid content is available for players who want more flexibility. The Starter Pack costs $6.99 and includes additional Pokémon box space along with faster training tools to help with early team experimentation.

Early Download Bonus And Launch Tournament

Players who log in before 31 August 2026 can claim a free Dragonite from the in-game mailbox. A Dragoninite stone, which allows Dragonite to Mega Evolve into Mega Dragonite, is available through the first season’s Battle Pass. The stone may also appear in the shop or other areas of the game at a later date.

A launch tournament called the Warm-up Challenge is already running. It pits trainers against each other worldwide, with rewards based on performance. Entry remains open until 13 April at 01:59 UTC. Finishing three or more matches with at least one win or loss earns you a Gardevoir and 100 Quick Coupons after final rankings are posted.

Nintendo Switch 2 Visual Upgrade

Pokémon Champions supports both Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 as a single download. Switch 2 owners can grab a free visual enhancement update that improves the game’s graphical presentation. The game runs in TV mode, tabletop mode, and handheld mode across both systems.

Competitive Scene Starts At Indianapolis

The first official VGC event to feature Pokémon Champions will be the 2026 Indianapolis Regional Championships, running from 29 May to 31 May. That tournament serves as a preview ahead of the 2026 North America International Championships, scheduled for 12 June through 14 June. With Champions now being the game used for official championship events going forward, the competitive ladder is essentially live practice for anyone with tournament ambitions.

The post Pokemon Champions Is Out Now as a Free-to-Start Battle Game on Switch and Switch 2 appeared first on Shane the Gamer.