The one which occurred whereas the Waymos burned

Welcome to Video Video games Weekly on Engadget. Anticipate a brand new story each Monday, damaged into two components. The primary is an area for brief essays and ramblings about online game developments and associated subjects from me, Jess Conditt, a reporter who’s coated the trade for greater than 13 years. The second comprises the online game tales from the previous week that it is advisable find out about, together with some headlines from exterior of Engadget.

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Summer time Sport Fest 2025 shall be remembered as the one which occurred whereas the Waymos burned.

The SGF Play Days occasion area, the place video games media and influencers meet up with builders over a protracted weekend, is within the vogue district in Los Angeles, and this yr it was just a few miles from the guts of sprawling protests in opposition to ICE. After months of inhumane and legally dubious deportations of LA residents by masked federal brokers — emboldened by President Donald Trump’s far-right extremism and geared up with weapons constructed for battle — the bubble of resistance popped. Protestors hit the streets after ICE officers swept up dozens of individuals throughout LA in one other spherical of coordinated raids on Friday, June 6. The protests grew over the weekend and Trump referred to as within the Nationwide Guard, adopted by the Marines. Militarized LAPD officers attacked folks with horses and batons, and so they fired rubber bullets into crowds and directly at one journalist. On Sunday night, protestors lit a line of unoccupied Waymos on hearth.

The thick, black smoke was seen from the Play Days lot. I noticed it as I used to be leaving the media lounge, heading towards the meals vehicles, and it stopped me in my tracks simply in entrance of the Capcom sales space. The low buzz of helicopters and the cries of police sirens had been a relentless companion that weekend, however the smoke was new. I ended and took a photograph as upbeat reggae music pumped out of the speaker beside me. Across the nook, an actor dressed as a Fortnite banana in a swimsuit was attractive passersby to play Ddakji as a part of a cross-promotional effort with Squid Sport. The dissonance made my head spin.

The sickly pallor of encroaching authoritarianism has hung over each online game conference previously six months — as a result of it’s shadowed actually all the pieces in the USA this yr. I’ve spent a big quantity of this time actively shutting down ideas about Mission 2025, government-sponsored human trafficking, neo-Nazis and all method of hateful, bigoted insurance policies concentrating on the USA’ most susceptible folks, as a result of if I didn’t, the stress of those realities would eat me. I believe most of us are doing one thing related these days. We now have to deprioritize particular ideas at sure instances, with a purpose to get work performed, keep relationships and make it by the day. Having to disregard these monumental issues in favor of, a minimum of in my case, video games is a mindfuck.

The smoke from the burning Waymos, seen from the primary alleyway at SGF, felt like a bodily manifestation of this fixed inner pressure. Video video games are a automobile for connection and expression, and so they’re deeply invaluable to society — however, as with anything, their significance is a matter of perspective.

The information

Everything — like, everything — announced at Summer Game Fest 2025

Our SGF 2025 roundup put up is a complete rundown of all of the information from the present, from Day of the Devs to the large Xbox showcase. We’ll be including our hands-ons and interviews as they’re revealed over the approaching week proper on the high of this text, so be happy to maintain checking again. Or, Engadget’s Gaming hub will preserve you coated.

Resident Evil Requiem is a thing

Arguably the largest bit of stories out of SGF 2025, Resident Evil Requiem is due out on February 27, 2026. It’s a mainline Resident Evil title starring FBI agent Grace Ashcroft, and it options acquainted places from the sequence, together with Raccoon Metropolis’s demolished police division.

The Outer Worlds 2 release date

Obsidian’s sci-fi RPG The Outer Worlds 2 is heading to PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Sequence X/S on October 29 — simply in time for everybody to know your fancy-man moon-head Halloween costume.

There’s an official Xbox handheld, but it isn’t made by Xbox

After months of rumors about Microsoft and ASUS teaming as much as make an Xbox-branded handheld gaming system, we lastly have reduction. The ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X are due out this vacation season, able to enjoying Xbox video games natively through the cloud or a distant console connection, and with help for different fashionable PC storefronts like Steam, GOG and Battle.net. There’s no phrase on value or a precise launch date but, however the Xbox handhelds are undoubtedly, lastly coming.

Relooted looks like the kind of fun we need right now

In the event you solely have time to examine one sport from SGF 2025, acquaint your self with Relooted from South African indie studio Nyamakop. It’s a heist sport about rescuing African artifacts from the Western colonizers who stole them, and it’s stuffed with puzzles, motion and Afrofuturism. That is one to control.

Enter the world of Mat Smith writeups

Engadget’s UK Bureau Chief Mat Smith was on the bottom at SGF 2025 and he’s already revealed a trio of tales straight from the present, every yet another pleasant than the final. There’s a look at Lumines Arise, full with enter from director Takashi Ishihara; a preview of Patapon spiritual successor Ratatan; and Mat’s ideas on Supermassive’s sci-fi romp Directive 8020. There’s extra coming from Mat, too, so preserve that Engadget Gaming tab open.

Sword of the Sea is a return to form for the artist behind Journey

I had a stunning little chat at SGF with Matt Nava, the artist liable for Journey, Abzû, The Pathless, and the upcoming sand-surfing sport, Sword of the Sea. Nava has spent the previous decade or so working from his personal shadow, however with Sword of the Sea, he’s lastly following his instinct once more. This story contains impressions of the sport — spoiler: it’s fabulous — and growth perception from Nava.