Gaming News — 2026-05-18#

Top Story#

Sony is officially rolling back its strategy to bring massive single-player games to PC. During a company town hall meeting, PlayStation studio business CEO Hermen Hulst affirmed that major upcoming narrative-driven titles like Ghost of Yotei and Marvel’s Wolverine will remain permanent console exclusives to drive PS5 hardware sales.

News & Reviews#

PlayStation Plus Prices Are Going Up Again · IGN Just as we march closer to the launch of GTA 6, Sony is hiking the price of PlayStation Plus subscriptions starting May 20, vaguely blaming “ongoing market conditions”. The 1-month and 3-month tiers will see jumps of $1 and $3 respectively, adding yet another annoying squeeze to your gaming budget. With Microsoft recently cutting Xbox Game Pass prices, this move feels particularly disconnected from the current market reality.

GTA 6 Budget Reaches Astounding Highs as Release Details Clarify · IGN Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick revealed that Grand Theft Auto 6 is currently running about 18 months behind its original internal target of Spring 2025. The long-awaited sequel carries an estimated $1 to $1.5 billion budget, dwarfing practically every other AAA video game budget in existence. Despite the massive delays and astronomical costs, Zelnick sounds firmly confident that the game will indeed hit its locked-in November 19, 2026 launch date.

Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight Review · IGN TT Games is back with an 8/10 plastic pastiche that seamlessly mashes together iconic scenes from Batman’s cinematic history. The combat borrows heavily from Rocksteady’s Arkham series and feels great, though the lack of difficulty makes encounters more of a chaotic joyride than a true tactical challenge. The open-world Gotham is absolutely packed with collectibles and clever puzzles, cementing it as one of the best Lego titles in years.

Subnautica 2 Players Debate the Value of Immortal Fish · IGN Subnautica 2 has launched in early access with a strict “no-kill” philosophy for its aquatic life, leading to heated debates among players who are tired of being defenseless against hostile alien wildlife. Unknown Worlds developers admitted the topic is being heavily debated internally and promised that better tools to deter predators will arrive in future updates.

Terraria Celebrates 15 Years With Promises of More Updates · IGN Re-Logic’s beloved sandbox adventure has crossed an astronomical 70 million copies sold across its impressive 15-year lifespan. Proving the “final update” joke will never die, the developers just confirmed that content drops and updates will continue well beyond the upcoming 1.4.6 and crossplay patches.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Switch 2 Preorders Go Live With Promo Card · IGN The highly anticipated Nintendo Switch 2 port for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth drops on June 3, and physical preorders have officially popped up at retailers like Amazon UK. Early buyers will score a highly limited, borderless Zack Fair Magic: The Gathering card featuring variant art by Tetsuya Nomura.

Free Games & Deals#

Memorial Day sales have officially kicked off at Best Buy and Amazon, bringing some superb tech and gaming hardware discounts. Handheld fans should absolutely grab the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally, which has dropped by $100 to its Black Friday all-time low of $499.99. PC builders can snatch our favorite 4K-capable graphics card, the AMD Radeon 9070 XT GPU, for just $629 at Amazon. Finally, horror fans should take advantage of the Alan Wake 2 Deluxe Edition for PS5 sitting at its lowest price ever, $29.99, while Forza Horizon 6 preorders are temporarily 15% off at Newegg.

Also Worth Knowing#

• Tom Kane, Legendary Voice of Yoda, Passes Away at 64 (IGN): The incredibly prolific voice actor behind Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ Yoda, Boba Fett, and Call of Duty’s Takeo Masaki has passed away.
• PlayStation Slapped With Class-Action Over PS5 Tariffs (IGN): Disgruntled console buyers are suing Sony, alleging the manufacturer owes them refunds after raising PS5 prices due to tariffs that were later completely struck down.
• Rare PS4 Game ‘Poop Slinger’ Mysteriously Arrives at Retailers (IGN): Over 30 independent game stores randomly received unprompted, sealed copies of an ultra-rare 2019 PS4 game that currently goes for upwards of $1,000 on eBay.
• Borderlands Art Change Cost $50 Million (IGN): Take-Two’s CEO revealed that making the 11th-hour pivot to Borderlands’ now-iconic cel-shaded art style cost a staggering $50 million and delayed the original release by a full year.
• GTA 6 Pre-Order Rumors Squashed (IGN): A wildly popular internet rumor pointing to May 18th pre-orders for Grand Theft Auto 6 via Best Buy turned out to be completely false.