Gaming News — 2026-07-27#

Top Story#

Physical copies of Grand Theft Auto 6 in Japan will actually just be a box with a digital download code that expires 170 days after the game’s November 19, 2026, launch date. This controversial move by Rockstar bypasses strict Japanese consumer protection laws but has added massive fuel to the ongoing anger over the death of physical media.

News & Reviews#

Stalker 2’s Huge Free 2.0 Update and Its First Major Story Expansion Have a Joint Release Date · IGN GSC Game World has announced that Stalker 2: Cost of Hope, the game’s first massive story expansion, will launch on August 20, 2026, alongside a huge free 2.0 update. The expansion promises dozens of hours of content as Skif gets drawn into the unraveling peace between the Duty and Freedom factions, while the 2.0 update transitions the game to Unreal Engine 5.5.4 with fresh content and performance tweaks. This is fantastic news for fans hungry for more of the Zone, especially with the technical leap to a newer engine.

Critics of Sony’s Decision to Kill Physical Discs Call on Gamers to Boycott PlayStation for a Week Next Month, but Will Anyone Listen? · IGN Physical media purists are organizing a massive “PlayStation Blackout” boycott from August 23 to August 30 in furious response to Sony’s plan to eliminate physical game discs by 2028. While analysts predict the protest will be a drop in the bucket against Sony’s lucrative digital sales margins, the sheer volume of backlash highlights the growing resentment toward an all-digital gaming future. As someone who loves hunting for physical game deals, it is incredibly disheartening to see corporations push so hard to strip true ownership away from players.

Final Fantasy 14 Will Be The Biggest Game on Nintendo Switch 2 by Install Size, and Take Up Almost Half of the Console’s Entire Memory · IGN If you plan to play Final Fantasy 14 on the Nintendo Switch 2 this August, you better start clearing space or buying a massive SD card, because the MMO will demand a staggering 117.2GB of storage. This eye-watering install size consumes nearly half of the new console’s 256GB internal memory and easily dethrones Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth as the largest game on the platform. While the download thankfully includes all five previous expansions, players will undoubtedly need even more space when the upcoming Evercold expansion drops next January.

Now Xbox Is Down for Some, Microsoft Says It’s Working to Fix a Major Outage Affecting Library, Sign-In, and Game Launch · IGN Microsoft is currently scrambling to resolve a severe Xbox Live outage that is preventing players from signing into profiles, viewing their game libraries, and launching digital titles. Coming right before the full launch of Halo: Campaign Evolved, this badly-timed server crash gives physical media advocates even more ammunition following a similar PlayStation Network outage last week. It is a stark reminder of the inherent flaws in an all-digital ecosystem where you can completely lose access to your owned games the second a server goes down.

Ubisoft Gives Free PC Copies to Xbox Owners of Select Games · IGN In a fantastic pro-consumer move, Ubisoft and Xbox have partnered up to give Xbox console owners free PC copies of select titles, including Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and Skull and Bones. As long as your accounts are linked, these games will automatically populate in your Ubisoft Connect PC library by next week. It is a brilliant perk for anyone transitioning from console to PC, and a great excuse to revisit some huge open-world games on stronger hardware.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Fans Discover Cut Zombies Content Over 15 Years After Release · IGN Over a decade and a half after its original release, dedicated fans have dug into the recent PS4 port of Call of Duty: Black Ops to discover an unreleased, bird’s-eye view tower defense Zombies mode. This crude but fascinating prototype let players place turrets to stop undead hordes, and was likely abandoned in favor of the cult-classic Dead Ops Arcade minigame. It is an incredible piece of gaming history that showcases just how much Treyarch experimented with the beloved Zombies formula back in its golden era.

Free Games & Deals#

It’s an absolutely packed week for gaming and tech deals, starting with Target running a stellar physical PS5 game sale that drops recent hits like Saros by $20, alongside a massive 57% discount on God of War Ragnarök. On the hardware front, the PlayStation VR2 headset has received a rare $100 price cut straight from Sony. If you’re looking for portable power, Best Buy is offloading “excellent condition” Asus ROG Xbox Ally handhelds for a mere $497.99, saving you $100 off MSRP. Lastly, if you have unlimited cash and want the absolute bleeding edge of PC gaming, Lenovo is slashing a massive $2,000 off its flagship Legion Tower 7 desktop equipped with the monstrous new RTX 5090 GPU and 64GB of DDR5 RAM.

Also Worth Knowing#

• Baldur’s Gate 3 True Third-Person Camera Mod Goes Viral, Sparks Debate About Whether It Erases the Game’s Identity (IGN): A viral mod giving Baldur’s Gate 3 a modern, over-the-shoulder third-person camera has triggered a massive debate among fans over whether it ruins the classic cRPG design or offers a brilliant new way to explore Faerûn.
• The Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls Beta Proves Fans Still Really Want That Blade Movie (IGN): The upcoming 4v4 fighter Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls smashed Steam beta records with over 33,000 concurrent players, with Magick and Blade emerging as the absolute top-tier character picks.
• The Pokémon Company Announces Facial Recognition System to Help Kill Scalping at Japanese Card Stores, Mandatory From Elementary School Age (IGN): In a drastic measure to combat rampant card scalping, The Pokémon Company is implementing mandatory facial recognition for all customers elementary school age or older at official Japanese stores to enforce a strict one-visit-per-day rule.
• Game Pass Was Supposed To Save Xbox – Instead, It’s Killing the Company (IGN): A scathing report analyzes how Xbox’s enormous Game Pass investments and massive studio acquisitions are backfiring, as the service sits at just 30 million subscribers and the company bleeds money on day-one releases.