Gaming News — 2026-05-15#

Top Story#

Subnautica 2 is making massive waves right out of the gate, selling a staggering 2 million copies within just 12 hours of its early access launch. Despite a turbulent development cycle and a recent leak, the highly anticipated underwater survival sequel blew past the original game’s concurrent player peak by nearly nine times, securing over 651,000 peak concurrent players across all platforms.

News & Reviews#

Forza Horizon 6 is a 10/10 Masterpiece Surging on Steam Playground Games has delivered the new standard in open-world racing with Forza Horizon 6, earning a flawless 10/10 review for its beautifully realized Japanese map. Despite only being officially available via the pricey $120 Premium Edition early access, the game has already smashed series records with over 172,000 concurrent players on Steam. The base game officially drops on May 19, bringing 550 cars and indestructible, culturally sensitive cherry blossom trees to the masses.

Sony Testing Public PS5 Player Counts PlayStation seems to be pulling back the curtain on its closely guarded engagement metrics, testing a new PS5 UI feature that shows real-time player counts for popular games. Leaked footage reveals trackers for top 10 and trending titles, showing massive recent numbers for games like Fortnite and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. If widely released, this widget would bring Steam-like transparency to the console space.

Lego 2K Drive Getting Delisted Next Week If you’ve been putting off buying Lego 2K Drive, you have until May 19, 2026, to grab it before 2K pulls it from digital storefronts forever. Offline modes will remain playable for owners, but the publisher is completely killing the multiplayer servers and online services by May 31, 2027.

Crimson Desert Drops Major Update Amidst Massive Sales Pearl Abyss just dropped patch 1.07.00 for its smash-hit action RPG Crimson Desert, adding more boss rematches and a devastating slow-mo “Blinding Flash Finisher” for unarmed combat. The developer is keeping a rapid, MMO-style update pace for the single-player adventure, which has already sold an impressive 5 million copies and generated roughly $178.8 million in revenue since its March release.

EA Killed the Star Wars: The Old Republic Reboot Former BioWare director James Ohlen revealed that his departure from the studio followed EA’s refusal to fund a massive reboot of the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO. Despite Ohlen securing a greenlight from Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy and Dave Filoni to rebrand the title as The New Republic, EA executives balked at the cost, leading to Ohlen’s burnt-out exit from the company.

Free Games & Deals#

It’s an excellent weekend for Nintendo fans and racing enthusiasts. Best Buy has dropped some stellar discounts on Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 titles, including 50% off Persona 3 Reload for Switch 2 (down to just $29.99), alongside steep discounts on Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. If you’re itching to jump into Forza Horizon 6 early, Newegg is offering 15% off the Xbox Play Anywhere Premium Edition with code “SXVPFH6,” bringing it down to $101.99. To complete the ultimate racing setup, Amazon Resale has the Logitech G923 Trueforce Racing Wheel for 50% off, marking it down to an incredibly reasonable $184.79.

Also Worth Knowing#

Xbox Elite 3 Controller Leaks Online: Images of the unannounced Xbox Elite 3 have surfaced, showcasing a sleek redesign, a removable battery, and mysterious new scroll wheels near the mic jack.
Subnautica 2 Pirate Self-Reports to Dev: A player who pirated a leaked, incomplete build of Subnautica 2 accidentally outed themselves by reaching out to the developers for tech support.
LA Chargers Reveal Schedule with Halo Parody: The Los Angeles Chargers used a six-minute Halo multiplayer lobby parody, complete with the iconic announcer voice, to reveal their 2026 NFL schedule matchups.
Hitman Tabletop Game Hits Gamefound: Hitman: The Board Game is now live on Gamefound, successfully translating Agent 47’s stealth, disguises, and assassinations into a competitive multiplayer format.
Monster Hunter Outlanders Pushes Mobile Limits: Capcom’s upcoming free-to-play mobile adaptation successfully preserves the franchise’s core combat loop, though it introduces a monetization gacha system for unique playable “Adventurer” characters.