Gaming
Consoles, blockbuster releases and the companies behind them: hardware generations, pricing, delays, sales records and the memory and tariff pressures that move them.
All events
Most recently updated firstOct17
Do You Own Your Games? The Crew, AB 2426 and the Buy-Button Lawsuits
Ubisoft’s shutdown of the online-only game The Crew, followed by reported licence removals from customer accounts, made the difference between a purchase label and a revocable digital licence a live consumer issue. California responded with Business and Professions Code Section 17500.6, effective January 1, 2025, requiring sellers that use terms such as “buy” or “purchase” to separately disclose or obtain acknowledgement that digital goods are licensed.
Oct14
Grand Theft Auto VI: From 'Well Underway' to Two Delays, the $79.99 Price and the November 19 Launch
Rockstar confirmed in February 2022 that the next Grand Theft Auto was in active development, then said a September 2022 network intrusion would not change its timeline. Trailer 1 formally revealed Grand Theft Auto VI, Vice City, Lucia and Jason, with a 2025 release target, but Rockstar later delayed the game first to May 2026 and then to November 19, 2026.
Oct14
Nintendo Switch 2: From the Successor Tease to a Record Launch, 23 Million Units and the $499.99 Price
Nintendo first promised a Switch successor in May 2024, revealed Switch 2 in January 2025, and launched it on June 5, 2025 at $449.99 in the United States. The system set Nintendo’s four-day hardware sales record, sold 19.86 million units in its first fiscal year, and reached 23.68 million units by the quarter ended June 2026.
Oct14
The Road to PlayStation 6: PS5 Pro, Project Amethyst, Two Price Hikes and the Memory Crunch
Sony’s PS5 began at $499.99 in 2020, then moved through a Slim revision and the higher-priced PS5 Pro, whose PSSR upscaling introduced machine-learning hardware to the PlayStation line. Sony and AMD have since made Project Amethyst a joint technology program, publicly outlining AI, ray-tracing and compression designs for a future console while continuing to update PS5-era graphics technology.
Oct14
Xbox Game Pass: The Price Rise, the Reversal and the Metered Cloud
Microsoft launched Xbox Game Pass in 2017 as a $9.99-a-month catalogue subscription, then made new Microsoft Studios games available on release day in 2018 and built the broader Ultimate tier around console, PC and other benefits. Microsoft reported more than 25 million members in January 2022 and 34 million in February 2024, although the latter figure included Game Pass Core subscribers and is not directly comparable with earlier disclosures.
Oct14
Magic's Universes Beyond Era: From The Walking Dead to Half the Release Calendar
Magic’s crossover program began with the 2020 Secret Lair x The Walking Dead release, became the Universes Beyond brand in 2021, and was given a stated reprint path for mechanically unique Secret Lair cards. Wizards then moved licensed properties into major retail sets and, for 2025, scheduled three Universes Beyond sets in a six-set calendar while making new Universes Beyond booster sets legal in all Constructed formats; it announced the same three-and-three split for 2027.
Oct14
Pokémon Cards: Record Printing, Empty Shelves
Pokémon card availability tightened after Pokémon TCG Pocket launched in October 2024 and the Surging Sparks and Prismatic Evolutions expansions quickly sold out. The Pokémon Company International says it is printing affected products at maximum capacity and reprinting them, but reported global output fell from the 11.9 billion-card record in the year ended March 2024 to 10.2 billion and then 10 billion in the next two fiscal years.
Questions answered
All questions →How did retailers respond to Pokémon card sellouts?
Sellers progressively replaced open access with managed access. After sellouts and reduced allocations, GameStop stopped taking Pokémon TCG preorders; U.S.…
How did The Crew shutdown turn into a $2 million settlement?
Ubisoft first announced that it would delist The Crew and switch off its servers; the online-only game then stopped operating, and users reported that their…
Why are Pokémon cards still hard to find despite record-scale printing?
The shortage began with Pokémon TCG Pocket and the rapid sellouts of the sets that followed it, after which retailers reported receiving only a small share of…
Why did California start requiring digital-game licence disclosures?
California acted after The Crew showed how an online game sold through a storefront could become unusable and reportedly disappear from purchasers’ accounts.…
Why did Game Pass fail to grow as expected?
Game Pass initially expanded its offer from a $9.99 catalogue to day-one Microsoft games and PC access, while Microsoft publicly reported more than 15 million…
Why did GTA VI's release date shift from 2025 to November 19, 2026?
Rockstar first confirmed only that the next Grand Theft Auto was actively in development, and its 2023 reveal put GTA VI in 2025. Take-Two subsequently…
Why did Nintendo raise Switch 2 to $499.99 after a record launch?
Nintendo held the U.S. launch price at $449.99 after tariffs made it pause pre-orders, and the 3.5 million-unit four-day launch shows the later increase was…
Why did PS5 Pro sell out after GTA VI's Extended Look?
The immediate trigger in the timeline was Rockstar's 27-minute GTA VI Extended Look, shown in PS5 footage on August 27, which was followed within two days by…
Why has Sony not set a PS6 launch date?
Sony has a next-generation graphics program, but that is not a launch commitment. Project Amethyst has yielded PS5 Pro software work and technologies Sony…
Why is Switch 2 demand at $499.99 still uncertain despite 23.68 million sales?
Do not treat the 23.68 million cumulative total as proof of demand at the new price: those sales were recorded before the September increase, and Japanese…
Why is Xbox cloud gaming becoming metered?
Microsoft first tested cloud access for Core and Standard subscribers, then rebuilt Game Pass into three tiers and later cut subscription prices while…