Capcom's ‘Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection' Is Slated for 2026
Capcomhas officially unveiledMonster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection, the next chapter in its turn-based RPG spin-off series. The announcement trailer introduces a sweeping narrative set in the fractured kingdoms of Azuria and Vermeil, where a mysterious egg hatches twin Rathalos — legendary creatures tied to a centuries-old civil war. Players take on the role of Azuria's royal heir and sole Rathalos Rider, tasked with investigating a crystalline blight and geological anomalies known as 'egg quartz,' while navigating rising tensions between the two nations.
Joining the protagonist is Eleanor, princess of Vermeil, who offers herself as a diplomatic hostage to prevent war and embarks on the journey with her Monstie companion, Anjanath. Together, they venture beyond the northern Meridian in search of answers, confronting ancient threats and unraveling the truth behind Eleanor's enigmatic sister, the Queen of Vermeil. The game promises deep turn-based combat, new Monsties to raise and ride, and a richly animated world rendered in a cel-shaded style reminiscent ofBreath of the Wild.
Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflectionis slated for release in 2026 across Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC via Steam.
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Engadget
a day ago
- Engadget
Video Games Weekly: Censorship and stolen puritanical valor
Welcome to Video Games Weekly on Engadget. Expect a new story every Monday or Tuesday, broken into two parts. The first is a space for short essays and ramblings about video game trends and related topics from me, Jess Conditt, a reporter who's covered the industry for more than 13 years. The second contains the video game stories from the past week that you need to know about, including some headlines from outside of Engadget. Please enjoy — and I'll see you next week. Let's all agree to stop talking about that awful conservative activist group out of Australia. You know the one — like a parasite, it attached itself to the censorship campaign that erased thousands of adult games from Steam and and successfully positioned itself at the center of the delisting narrative. However, logic and evidence suggests this group had very little to do with the mass removals. This Australian anti-porn organization led a movement in April to remove the edgelord simulator No Mercy from Steam, and since everyone agreed that game sucked, the campaign worked and the title disappeared from the storefront. This is where I believe the organization's involvement in the current drama ends. It seems No Mercy spurred payment processors including Visa, Mastercard and PayPal to turn their attention to the PC gaming market (an irony that I would find funnier if it weren't actively eroding an industry I love). These institutions took the opportunity to dictate the types of games they would support, and in response on July 16, Steam added a clause to its ruleset banning content that "may violate the rules and standards set forth by Steam's payment processors," including 'certain kinds of adult only content.' Censorship on Steam is not new; Valve has for years had rules banning mislabeled adult content, hate speech, anything violating local laws and many other regulations. But outsourcing censorship to payment processors is new, and hundreds of games were removed from the platform following the rule change. On July 24, rolled out its own changes and summarily de-indexed every adult and NSFW game it hosted, which amounted to roughly 20,000 titles being hidden from search and browse pages. The conservative Australian group claimed responsibility for the Steam bans on July 19, three days after the platform's rule change went live. The organization said the censorship was the direct result of two of its recent efforts: an email campaign that sent 1,067 messages to Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and others claiming Steam and were hosting illegal sexual content, and an open letter addressed to the same financial institutions, signed by faith-based, anti-sex work and anti-queer activist groups. There is no evidence that these campaigns were directly responsible for payment processors' renewed enforcements. In fact, it's ludicrous to suggest that roughly 1,000 emails or an open letter would even register at companies the size of Visa, Mastercard or PayPal. What's more, after taking credit for the removal of hundreds of Steam games, the Australian group has attempted to distance itself from the whole shebang. Actually, following intense scrutiny from players, industry watchdogs and media outlets, every group in this situation is trying to avoid accountability. Valve says Mastercard made this happen, while Mastercard says it's just following the law, and PayPal says it's simply doing what companies like Mastercard tell it to do. Meanwhile, the Australian group is trying to avoid blame for the sweeping delistings while simultaneously attempting to exploit the Steam bans and gain momentum for its conservative bullshit. In the most likely scenario, the Australian activist group saw these PC gaming audits coming and, in a strange act of stolen puritanical valor, took steps to center itself in the conversation. We can stop helping it do so. Forget its name and, as the IGDA suggests, direct your ire toward the organizations with power in this situation, namely Mastercard and Visa. Still. It's notable that an organization backed by conservative Christian groups that loudly oppose sex work, queer rights and freedom of expression was able to so cleanly align itself with financial companies censoring content on Steam and This uncontested endorsement is especially worrisome in a political and social climate where women, the queer community, people of color and those who don't conform to a traditional conservative lifestyle are under attack. At a time like this, subversive and raw art is more necessary than ever, but it's also in its most vulnerable position. Choosing this moment to activate a censorship campaign is not only dangerous for our most vulnerable communities, it's cowardly. There's been some additional misinformation wrapped up in this censorship mess, of course. Three games were incorrectly reported as delisted or removed from or Steam as part of this situation: Mouthwashing , Trials of Innocence and Console Me . One game that was unjustly removed during the chaos was the psychological horror game VILE: Exhumed — read my interview with creator Cara Cadaver right here. The news In most contexts, I'd be pretty stoked on the thought of a hell-based BioShock, but this is the worst possible iteration of that idea. According to Bloomberg , BioShock 4 failed a recent review with executives at its publisher, 2K Games, and it's heading back to developers at Cloud Chamber for a narrative revamp. Plus, Cloud Chamber studio head Kelley Gilmore is gone and creative director Hogarth de la Plante was moved to a publishing role. Not much is known about the game that's assumed to be BioShock 4 , but it was revealed in 2019 alongside the formation of Cloud Chamber, so it's already been in development for quite a while. In related Rapture news, 2K's remake of the original BioShock was canceled earlier this year, Bloomberg reports. Ken Levine, the creator of the BioShock series, is currently working on a familiar-looking FPS called Judas at his own studio, Ghost Story Games. GOG gave away millions of games to protest censorship GOG partnered with developers to release 13 games with adult themes for free from August 1 to 3, in protest of all the censorship going down on Steam and None of the free titles were specifically banned in the censorship campaign, but they featured sexual, queer or violent content that could easily be targeted by similar efforts. GOG handed out its free games to more than 1 million players. is reindexing free NSFW games After deindexing all of its adult games on July 24 — like, all of them — on August 1 relisted all free games in this category. is currently auditing thousands of adult and NSFW games that it swept up in the payment processor ban, and it's unclear how the platform will support titles with these themes going forward. One of longstanding partners, Stripe, said it will no longer facilitate transactions of titles "designed for sexual gratification," but there's apparently room for negotiation in the future. Battlefield 6 will land on October 10 In a shocking twist, EA also revealed that Battlefield 6 will have multiplayer content. Age verification is coming to an Xbox near you The video game world is feeling the effects of the UK's Online Safety Act. Platforms including Discord and Xbox are implementing new age-verification methods to comply with the law in the UK, and Microsoft is planning to expand its program to other regions. It's in no rush, though, saying it'll use the UK as a guinea pig for these systems first, and then implement what it learns across the globe. Sony is suing Tencent over its blatant Horizon clone At its unveiling in 2024, viewers instantly called out Polaris Quest's Light of Motiram for looking an awful lot like Guerrilla Games' Horizon series — our headline called it a "pretty blatant Horizon ripoff," even. It took the better part of a year, but PlayStation's lawyers have finally kicked into gear. Sony is now suing Tencent, which owns Polaris Quest, over what it calls a "slavish clone" of its IP. Raven finally has a union contract with Microsoft Recent layoffs at Microsoft have only heightened the importance of proper labor organizing in video games, and one of the industry's first unions is finally making things official. Three years after initiating the process, Call of Duty support studio Raven Software has ratified its union contract with Microsoft. Raven Software initially voted to organize under Activision Blizzard, but after Microsoft completed its acquisition of the studio in October 2023, it continued negotiations with the tech titan. Play VILE: Exhumed , the game that Steam doesn't want you to see After VILE: Exhumed was removed and permanently banned from Steam for reasons that don't actually apply to the game, developer Cara Cadaver and publisher DreadXP have rolled out their own distribution model, and prices start at $0. You can download and play the game right now for free, and there's an option to throw some money Cara's way. A portion of the profits will benefit the Toronto-based charity Red Door Family Shelter. Additional reading Have a tip for Jessica? You can reach her by email , Bluesky or send a message to @jesscon.96 to chat confidentially on Signal.
Business Insider
a day ago
- Business Insider
Game On: Nintendo raises prices on Switch 1 consoles
'Game On' is The Fly's weekly recap of the stories powering up or beating down video game stocks. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. NEW RELEASES: Among this week's new releases is Take-Two's (TTWO) action-adventure title 'Mafia: The Old Country,' out August 8 for PlayStation 5 (SONY), Xbox Series X/S (MSFT), and PC. Meanwhile, Electronic Arts' (EA) 'Apex Legends' is getting ported to Nintendo Switch 2 (NTDOY) on August 5. NINTENDO: On Friday, Nintendo reported Q1 results, with earnings per share and revenue growing notably year-over-year as the quarter including the release of the Switch 2 console on June 5. 'The system has gotten off to a good start, with global sales exceeding 3.5M units in the first four days after launch, which is the highest-ever global sales level for any of our dedicated video game platforms,' the company said. 'In response to the strong demand that has surpassed our expectations, we are strengthening production to increase supply. Regarding Nintendo Switch 2 software, Mario Kart World, which was released on the same day as the hardware launch, recorded sales of 5.63M units, including units bundled with the hardware. Given that consumers can play both Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive software and Nintendo Switch software with Nintendo Switch 2, titles released for Nintendo Switch in previous fiscal years such as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Super Mario Party Jamboree, also sold well. As a result, Nintendo Switch 2 hardware sales reached 5.82M units, and Nintendo Switch 2 software sales reached 8.67M units. In addition, Nintendo Switch hardware sales totaled 0.98M units, and Nintendo Switch software sales totaled 24.40M units.' Looking ahead, Nintendo guided for FY26 net sales of JPY1.9T, with operating profit expected to reach JPY320B and Switch 2 hardware sales anticipated to hit 15M units. 'There are no changes to the original financial forecast for this fiscal year, which was published on May 8, 2025,' the company added. 'For Nintendo Switch 2, we will aim to invigorate the platform and expand the user base by conveying the unique appeal of the hardware, including its improved performance and newly added features, and by continuing to introduce new titles that can leverage that appeal to the fullest. Regarding Nintendo Switch 2 software, following the release of Donkey Kong Bananza and Super Mario Party Jamboree -Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV in July, we plan to release Drag x Drive and Kirby and the Forgotten Land – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Star-Crossed World in August. In October, we are planning to release Pokemon Legends: Z-A – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, as well as a Nintendo Switch 2 hardware bundle that includes this title. There is also a wide variety of titles from other software publishers scheduled to be released. We will aim to maximize software sales by maintaining the momentum of Mario Kart World, which has gotten off to a strong start, and by continuously introducing these new titles.' Following the report, Nintendo also announced pricing for the original Nintendo Switch family of systems and products will change in the United States based on market conditions, effective August 3, 2025. These include Nintendo Switch – OLED Model, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch Lite and select Nintendo Switch accessories. Other Nintendo products, including certain Nintendo Switch 2 accessories, select amiibo, and the Nintendo Sound Clock: Alarmo, will also see adjustments. More specifically, the game maker raised the price of the standard first-generation Switch to $339.99 from $299.99, the Switch OLED to $399.99 from $349.99, and the Switch Lite to $229.99 from $199.99. The Fly notes that the move was announced just a day after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing new 'reciprocal tariffs' on a range of countries, including Cambodia and Vietnam, where Nintendo has shifted much of its hardware production. Click here to check out recent Media Buzz Sentiment on Nintendo as measured by TipRanks. EA RESULTS: Last Tuesday, Electronic Arts reported Q1 earnings per share and net bookings that exceeded Wall Street estimates and reiterated FY26 guidance, though it provided a downbeat outlook for Q2. 'We delivered a strong start to FY26, outperforming expectations ahead of what will be the most exciting launch slate in EA's history,' said Andrew Wilson, CEO of Electronic Arts. 'From deepening player engagement in EA SPORTS to gearing up for Battlefield 6 and skate., we're scaling our global communities and continuing to shape the future of interactive entertainment.' 'We exceeded the high end of our guidance in Q1 highlighting the resilience of our live services and the breadth of our portfolio,' said Stuart Canfield, CFO of Electronic Arts. 'With strong fundamentals and a robust pipeline ahead, we remain confident in our full-year guidance and long-term margin framework.' Following the report, BofA raised the firm's price target on Electronic Arts to $168 from $166 and maintained a Neutral rating on the shares. The firm said the Q2 guide being low was mostly because of differences in revenue phasing. The analyst also noted that the firm raised its price target due to a higher FY26 EPS forecast of $8.20, noting that it now models 7M 'Battlefield 6' units being sold in FY26, assuming a holiday launch. Additionally, Baird increased its price target on Electronic Arts to $170 from $168 and reiterated an Outperform rating on the shares. The firm updated its model following Q1 results. ROBLOX: Roblox (RBLX) reported Q2 results last week, with earnings per share coming in below expectations but revenue beating estimates. Average DAUs rose 41% year-over-year, while hours engaged jumped 58%. Meanwhile, the company provided upbeat net bookings guidance for Q3 and FY25. Many analysts raised their price targets on the stock after the report, with Benchmark increasing its target to $150 from $77, believing the business has 'entered a new phase of breakout velocity,' with multiple monetization engines scaling in parallel. Additionally, Wedbush raised the firm's price target on Roblox to $165 from $142 and reiterated an Outperform rating on the shares. The firm views Roblox as the most compelling growth opportunity in the video game sector, given the flywheel from recent hit games; developer incentives, infrastructure improvements, and AI-driven discovery that are driving massive platform growth; genre expansion and aging up, which increase potential ad inventory; and pricing optimization across games and regions, driving improved revenue streams. EPIC/ANDROID STORE: Last week, Alphabet's (GOOGL) Google unit post on X, formerly Twitter, 'Thanks to the verdict, the Epic Games Store for Android will be coming to the Google Play Store! It's already available worldwide from our web site, Investors in Epic Games include Tencent (TCEHY), KKR (KKR), Disney (DIS), and Sony. MICROSOFT: Xbox maker Microsoft also reported quarterly results last week, with EPS and revenue for Q4 beating consensus estimates on strong cloud revenue growth. On the gaming side, the company said that Xbox content and services revenue, which includes Xbox Game Pass, rose 13% year-over-year in the quarter, though the software and technology conglomerate declined to provide new Game Pass subscriber numbers. Xbox hardware revenue, meanwhile, fell 22% in Q4. 'We are now the top publisher on both Xbox and PlayStation this quarter,' said CEO Satya Nadella on the company's earnings call. Nadella added that 'Game Pass annual revenue was nearly $5Bfor the first time,' noting that the company has 500M monthly active users across gaming platforms and devices. Looking ahead, Microsoft said on the call that it sees Q1 Gaming revenue down a mid-to-high single digit percentage.
Engadget
a day ago
- Engadget
Banned Steam game VILE: Exhumed is back as a free shareware title
After her game was banned from sale on Steam in a baffling decision with no appeal option , solo developer Cara Cadaver has made VILE: Exhumed available as shareware under a Creative Commons license. The project can be downloaded for free, but players can opt to donate in support of the solo developer's work. Both Cara and publisher DreadXP will pay forward those donations, with 50 percent of the game's profits being given to the Toronto-based charity Red Door Family Shelter . The group aids families, refugees and women who are escaping violence. Both Steam and have recently adopted sweeping and vague policies regarding their approach to projects with adult content due to pressure from payment processors . has begun re-indexing some projects, but only free ones . These changes have disproportionately impacted projects by underrepresented and queer creators, according to a statement from the International Game Developers Association that condemned the broad delisting of adult games. In her post announcing the new distribution plan for VILE: Exhumed , Cara summed up the situation pretty aptly: "What this actually results in is taking power and storytelling away from women, other marginalized artists, and ultimately, from everyone."
