David Fernandez Remesal took the job of CEO of Sandsoft in 2020 and moved to Saudi Arabia, where his mobile game company is based. He set up a studio in Riyadh and also hired mobile game developers in places like his native Spain, Finland and China. Fernandez Remesal focused on esports at first, but pivoted to mobile games as a more viable business approach. The summers are a lot hotter for sure, but Fernandez has sweated out the hard work of establishing a new studio in a place where game development skills are only just being fostered now for the new generations of game developers. While Brazil is a bigger and more established market, Fernandez Remesal, who worked on games like Candy Crush Saga and Bubble Witch Saga before leading Sandsoft. We talked about mobile game trends at our fireside chat at Gamescom Latam in a talk entitled, “The Mobile Frontier: Big Trends and Smarter Moves for 2025.” We covered a lot of ground in our fireside chat at Gamescom Latam in Sao Paulo, Brazil. We hit topics like Apple’s move to emphasize user privacy over targeted ads as it deprecated the Identifier for Advertises (IDFA). We also covered the antitrust ruling that could bust the floodgates open when it comes to developers being able to advertise their own web shops (where they can charge lower prices and don’t have to pay a 30% commission to Apple and Google) inside their mobile games on the Apple and Google app stores. We explored the consequences if game developers are also able to use their own payment systems — which take around 3% commissions rather than 30% — in mobile game transactions. Sandsoft is focused on taking advantage of these trends by focusing on midcore gamers, which is becoming a bigger part of the overall mobile games market. And Sandsoft is also busy working on AI tools that can help developers work more efficiently. And we looked at other opportunities for mobile to grow as the mobile-first generation grows up and becomes a bigger part of the population of gamers. We also assessed when it’s the right time for local talent to take on local stories and spread them to the global stage with authentic triple-A development. Here’s an edited transcript of our on-stage interview. Sandsoft CEO David Fernandez Remesal GamesBeat: I’m here with David Fernandez Remesal, the CEO of Sandsoft. I’ll have him introduce himself, his career in games, and the origins of Sandsoft. David Fernandez Remesal: I’m pleased to be in Brazil. It’s my first time. I’d like to thank everyone here. You’re doing an incredible show. I’m kind of what I could call mobile native when it comes to game development. I started my career working on mobile games almost 20 years ago. Those of you that were around, that means before smartphone games. I worked at a company called THQ that you may remember. They were one of the pioneers, as a triple-A games company, in doing mobile games as well. I started my career at THQ Juarez, their mobile game division. After that I had the privilege of working with two industry titans at a company called Digital Chocolate. That was Trip Hawkins, the founder of Electronic Arts, and Ilkka Paananen, who happens to be the CEO and founder of Supercell as well. I spent part of my career working on an app store with Nokia. I also worked on the N-Gage handheld device. In that particular case I made the wrong choice. I went for the loser in the smartphone era. But eventually I learned quite a bit about how you need merchandise, games, and apps on an e-commerce platform. After doing something in the mobile advertising space, I also had the honor of joining King, where I worked for almost five years on a couple of franchises. One was Bubble Witch Saga, and then Candy Crush Saga. I was at the King London studio when I left to run Sandsoft five years ago. GamesBeat: Sandsoft is interesting to this market in part because you’re also in an emerging market, albeit a very different part of the world. The company is headquartered in Saudi Arabia. Can you talk about how that happened to come about? Fernandez Remesal: We’re slightly earlier in terms of the game industry in Saudi compared to what we see here in Brazil, particularly toward game development capabilities. But we have a nice consumer market. It’s not as big as Brazil. But let me get started with how Sandsoft was created. For those of you who are not familiar with Saudi Arabia, they have a plan called Saudi Vision 2030. The main proposal is to diversify the economy away from oil and gas. As part of that program, they’re trying to build what we call a knowledge economy. Gaming is a pivotal part of that transition. We’re part of a large Saudi corporation that was founded to support that plan. They decided to diversify their group. Gaming was one of the things they wanted to do. Sandsoft was born in 2019, originally as an esports company. The first thing we did as a company was the PUBG Mobile event in Saudi Arabia. But [we] realized esports was not a business. It was maybe more of a show, rather than proper commercial ongoing activities you can run in a sustainable way. They decided to venture into mobile game development and publishing, which is what we do today. We’re developing games in our own studios, and we’re a global games publisher. We’re supporting game development studios in the mobile space to commercialize their games. Iza’s Supermarket GamesBeat: What are you working on? What is your focus? How big is the team, and where are they? Fernandez Remesal: We now have roughly 100 people. We’re split into four different markets. We have people in Saudi Arabia, where we’re headquartered. We also host a game development studio there. We have satellite offices in Spain, where we also have a development studio. Then we have a couple of publishing operations in China and Finland. We also have a small studio in France. That’s where we have our operations. In terms of focus, as I mentioned to you, we’re focused on mobile platforms. We have a few games with aspirations to become cross-platform, but we’re mobile first. GamesBeat: You moved to Saudi Arabia. Can you talk about what that was like for you? Fernandez Remesal: Yes, I did. I’ve been there for four years now. The weather aside – the summer is really hot – it was a big cultural change for a European to come over to a country that was maybe more conservative, that was more closed than other countries I’ve lived in. But I felt that if you are respectful, if you try to understand the things that are changing, and if you adapt to the pace of change, it’s quite livable. The people are very passionate about games specifically. There’s a young, savvy population. They consider themselves gamers. When you tell them you work in games, they respect you. It’s different from other countries, where people think you play games all day. They don’t realize that this is an art form, that this is something that goes beyond just play. GamesBeat: A reminder that it’s a global industry. Gaming is not what it used to be. It used to be from Japan, the U.S., and Europe. Now it’s a very different world. Fernandez Remesal: Correct. It’s becoming very global. Like we see here. It’s not just about all the people attending to play games, but also all the game companies showcasing their games, which is really exciting. GamesBeat: How far along are your games? Fernandez Remesal: In terms of our game development studios, we’re just starting our first prototypes. Both studios started in 2023, but it took us some time to get the initial core teams that we could trust to develop their game ideas into commercially viable games. We have been in a kind of boot camp at both the studios for a year. Now they’re starting to prototype what we can see as more commercial games. As a publisher we have a few games already in the market. Maybe the first we released was in partnership with Jam City, DC Heroes and Villains. We’re also raising a few other games that–mobile free-to-play games, you don’t have a red button where you hit it and the game is live. It’s more about ongoing progress. You’re keeping them in development and improving the games. Then you try to find ways to scale. In this case through user acquisition. In that sense we’ve had games available in the market for more than three years. We have six games in our portfolio. Two of them are more mature. We expect to scale them in the first half of the year. GamesBeat: Let’s get into some of the trends in the mobile industry. What do you see? What matters to you? What is important to pay attention to in mobile? Fernandez Remesal: Let me start with something that is in many cases not looked into enough. We’re seeing a change in the audience itself. We need to acknowledge that Generation Z is coming in. They bring a completely new way of consuming content. They’re less attracted to deep, engaging experiences. If I could call them, in a way, the digital generation, they’re focused on short-term or short-form entertainment, where they can get their dopamine and adrenaline and then engage further. They’re a generation that doesn’t pay a lot of attention until they get really hooked on the things they’re doing. From that perspective, we see a shift in consumer behavior. We see different session lengths, different ways of engaging with games. The industry is growing by double digits in regions like South America and the Middle East and southeast Asia, while the more western markets aren’t growing as much. That’s linked to the average age in these regions. They have much younger populations in these emerging markets, where they consume games as a native entertainment form. There’s a new consumer coming in from Generation Z, bringing new consumption patterns in their session habits and rates of play. At the same time, there’s an opportunity to propose different kinds of content. Epic Games is still tangling with Google and Apple on antitrust. GamesBeat: One of the interesting trends that’s emerged in mobile is the importance of the relationship between developers and platforms. We saw Apple’s decision a few years ago to prioritize user privacy over targeted advertising. It made targeted advertising much harder. Game companies lost the ability to very precisely target people who favored certain kinds of games. They had to go back to more of a guessing game around how to zero in on which users they wanted to target. This had an impact over years. Do you think we’ve learned how to deal with this change in the market and still be able to find the users that you need? Fernandez Remesal: IDFA is not going to go away. Privacy is going to be with us. It’s going to be something that everyone has to pay attention to. That’s been critical in the mobile space, because of the merchandising problems we see in the app stores. We see a lot of problems in content discoverability. That means most of the growth we’ve seen in these games has been through performance marketing user acquisition. One thing that we’re seeing more and more is game developers trying to build communities everywhere. Trying to expose their games. Trying to create communities through influencers, through Discord and content creation. But eventually IDFA is here to stay. GamesBeat: Speaking of the developer-platform relationship, we’ve had an antitrust case going on for a long time, four and a half years now, between Epic Games and Apple. Yesterday we got a ruling from the judge that held Apple in contempt of court. This has a lot of significance for whether or not mobile game companies can go outside of Apple’s store and advertise lower prices on their web shops or other sites. They can sell the same things at lower prices than the app store because Apple takes a 30% cut. Apple appealed this and had been able to dodge the effects of it, even in Europe, where they had a 27% core technology fee they introduced. Now the judge has said, “No more of that. You can’t evade this ruling anymore. You have to allow game companies to tell their users that there are lower prices elsewhere.” This is a fundamental antitrust protection for consumers. The ruling should affect the whole industry. What’s your view? Fernandez Remesal: We were talking last week, early this week. Eventually, we’ll see some form of platform disruption, especially when you look at mobile platforms. Mobile has been mostly governed by two platform companies, Google and Apple. There have been other app stores in the Android ecosystem, but in the end there are few opportunities for you to get content, and particularly games, on your mobile device. That’s a situation set for disruption. Eventually, particularly in countries that are more protective toward consumers–they’re upset about these oligopolies. They’d like to offer consumers more opportunities to discover content and do so in a way that’s fair for both consumers and game developers. The Digital Markets Act, in the United Kingdom, was one of the first changes we saw trying to open the mobile gaming ecosystem a bit more, trying to ensure that developers have some choice and consumers have some choice. But as you mentioned, that was a segue way for Apple to introduce a new tax, a new fee for game developers if they wanted to go that route. What we saw a few hours ago–it looks really recent. But game developers now have the opportunity to have a direct relationship with consumers. They can build that relationship in a way where they can offer consumers more alternatives and choices. First of all, price points. You can offer different price points compared to what’s available in the app stores. For those of you who are game developers, in the app stores you cannot select any price point you want. They’re fixed. They have ranges you can pick from, but you can’t just select any price point at all. The second factor, as you mentioned, is discounts. Trying to ensure that if you’re proposing this direct to consumer offering, you can adjust your margins and provide more value to consumers. Eventually that ensures that you as a game developer can get a broader part of the value share you’re creating with the consumer, but at the same time give some back as well to the consumer in a way where they can pay less when they’re using a web shop. The thing that we’ll hopefully start to see soon is that it’s not just about you informing consumers that they can have other ways to consume your content and buy content outside of your app, going to the web to buy it. Eventually it will open up the actual app to more real payment methods in games, as you see in other apps in the app stores. GamesBeat: We’re not quite sure what the line will be. Will Apple allow people to use their own payment systems as an alternative to Apple Pay? Fernandez Remesal: Right. But from that perspective, games have been punished compared to other apps. Why are we not able to build that kind of relationship with consumers? Why can’t we propose a specific payment or subscription mechanic that other entertainment options can do in the app stores? Sandsoft’s Potions & Spells. GamesBeat: Assuming that payments are not going to change, the next best thing is web shops. Set up your own store on the web. In the past companies could not advertise that web shop’s existence inside the app, but now they can. They can say that you can get something for cheaper prices elsewhere. Xsolla has been opening a lot of these web shops and operating them for companies. They have more than 500 of them now. But nobody knew about them. They do say that consumers are using them. They’re going back at a 30-40% rate and creating a 10-16% lift in revenues for developers, or in some cases higher. Those sound like fairly promising results relatively early for alternative web shops. Fernandez Remesal: That’s correct. Particularly, if you’re a consumer that pays in mobile free-to-play games, you’re trying to get the best value for money. Eventually this kind of core, engaged audience that makes up the payers in your game, they already know they can go to the shop to get a better offering. For the greater mass of consumers that don’t pay, they’re not really aware they can go to the web shop to buy content and get better deals than going through the app stores, the in-app shops. There are two issues here. One is about consumers getting more value for money here. The second is about developers getting more value from the value chain and delivering more of it back to consumers as well. GamesBeat: The net result is that it’s more money going to the bottom line for developers to reinvest in their business. That’s been sorely needed, especially in the last two and a half years. We’ve seen a real painful downturn in the global game industry. Every penny counts these days. Fernandez Remesal: It’s a better distribution of value in this case, considering what everyone puts on the table. Maybe in the early days of the app stores there were more merchandising options for developers, ways to get value from the app stores. There was less content. Your content could reach more users. There was value in the promotional activity the app store would run for you. Now that’s heavily driven by UA. In that context, the app stores really just become a payment method. From that perspective, developers capturing more value and giving more value back to consumers is good, because that’s reinvested in the game industry. Game developers capture more value and that helps them create better content and engage better with consumers. GamesBeat: We’ve talked about some of these trends. How are you most closely aligning your company to some of these trends, to take advantage of them? Iza’s Supermarket is a game from Sandsoft. Fernandez Remesal: There are a couple of trends we didn’t discuss much. One is about how mobile games in particular are becoming more complex. Three years ago we were talking about hypercasual games, games mostly monetized through in-game advertising. Because of the challenges around privacy, games are becoming more deep now. They have microtransactions. Even casual games are becoming more complex. They have metagames on top. They have deeper economies. Casual games are becoming more mid-core. Mid-core games are going this way as well, to more core game mechanics. You see plenty of games with battle passes, with more core engagement loops that you didn’t see before. And then when you go to really core games, they’re becoming more like casual games. They’re trying to simplify at the core, trying to make themselves more accessible. There are some shifts on the way. Game developers are making games that are in a way more complex, but they’re trying to simplify the core game mechanics to be more accessible. As a company we’re trying to follow these trends. We’re working on a few casual games that we’re releasing with our exterior partners. We’re trying to observe how we can propose these deeper economies in games that feel very accessible, that are easy to play, that are easy to grasp and explain through a simple ad, but that can eventually retain and engage people for a long time. The second trend we didn’t discuss much was generative AI. That’s transforming not just game development, but many industries. It’s a new tool for everyone to use and leverage. Any game company, or any company at all, in the long term needs to have a proper AI strategy. In our case we’re leveraging AI mostly for content creation, mostly for ads at this moment. We’re enriching our NPCs through AI. But I presume that we’ll be adding efficiencies in most of the things we do, like game programming. We’re doing code reviews with AI now. We’re doing some small level designs with AI. That’s one of the tools that’s going to provide superpowers to game developers. David Fernandez Remesal moved to Saudi Arabia to run Sandsoft. Teams that, a few years ago, were considering building an engine of their own, they don’t do that any more. They use Unity or Godot or Unreal. Now there are pipelines for game development that will be transformed by the use of AI. Things that need 10 people to do them nowadays, one developer might be able to do them more efficiently a year from now. GamesBeat: Would you consider bringing mobile ads into the company because of AI advances? Mobile ad optimization now can be done quite well by AI. Fewer people can get much more work done in terms of creating variations on ads to test them in the market and see which particular ad does well. That optimization process was often handled by outsiders. Could that change? Fernandez Remesal: On the go-to-market you’re precisely right. For mobile games, what we call creative optimization is part of the way that you can optimize your growth strategy. But it’s broader than that. When you think about how, particularly in this case, artists work, they work on content production. You create some illustrations of characters and environments, and this is transformed by AI. With one artist you can get 100 different concepts with just a couple of prompts. Before, in the manual world, you’d need to spend probably half a day to just create one. This is about being more open for creativity, to get more options for exploring characters, environments, and art styles. It’s not just on the advertising side, too. It’s on game creation, too, to explore new concepts in a broader way. GamesBeat: In Saudi Arabia you have some parallels to Brazil in some ways, in terms of what you do with the team that you have. The team is relatively new to games. You’re growing a local staff. We saw some very interesting trends in the past year around Black Myth: Wukong. It was a Chinese-made game made for Chinese consumers, the Chinese market. It did spectacularly well on the global stage as well, 25 million copies sold right off the bat. It validated the notion that a country’s local content could be appealing on a global scale. A lot more games are being greenlit in China now with hopes that they’ll reach a global market. Sandosoft’s PocketNecro For you, in Saudi Arabia, do you have a choice to make around whether to make local content or global content? Fernandez Remesal: As a game developer, we’re creating content for global markets. We’re not doing content to be consumed locally. But that doesn’t mean–as in any part of the world, you have local stories, local myths, local themes that you can expose and eventually create connections with consumers and players everywhere in the world. When I think about our talent pool, I won’t deny that we’re quite an international company. We have 100 people on the team who come from 30 different nationalities. We’re still a nascent state in terms of local Saudi talent. We don’t have enough capability to create these local stories in a way where they feel authentic, where they’re told by the right people. But that will come eventually. I think there’s a good analogy when you think about movies and television. There are plenty of stories from this part of the world that have been told. We talked about Aladdin, about Prince of Egypt. There are plenty of stories that resonate with global audiences. But we need to have the real people, the local talent that can tell these stories in a way that eventually attracts a global audience and can become a mass market opportunity, rather than a niche thing for the local market. GamesBeat: A lot of this is maybe a stepping-stone process. You have to level up your team. You have to make sure that they can grow to be veterans of the industry. Then at that point the opportunities change. You can use them to be the central creators of the content. Fernandez Remesal: Correct. When you’re creating games, when you’re creating many kinds of content, it comes from your own passion. There’s some sense of the market involved, understanding whether there’s a commercial opportunity, but it comes from people’s passion. The passion is there, but the skills and capabilities are not there yet to think about a global game opportunity. We’ve seen that in other games. Assassin’s Creed is a good example of that, where they’ve taken worlds and themes that resonate in the region, but not to the extent that it feels like a proper story from that part of the world. But you’re precisely right. We need to wait a few years to have this capability in place so we have a credible story to tell in a commercial way and can meet the quality expectations that global audiences have. GamesBeat: From what you’ve seen, what is your assessment of where talent is? Whether in your region or other regions of the world as well. Where is the best mobile gaming talent now? Sandsoft’s Wizario Fernandez Remesal: The answer for me is quite easy. You just need to look at the games that make the top of the charts. China has definitely become the world leader in game development talent for mobile games. It’s not just about Tencent or Netease or MiHoYo. Plenty of game developers are creating games that are consumed globally. That’s the larger talent pool for mobile games. It’s true as well that the pool is expanding quite broadly. Creating mobile games is more accessible than going for triple-A console games. There are plenty of pockets of excellence in Europe, in the U.S., in Latin America. I’m really impressed by people here in Brazil, in Argentina, in Uruguay, in Chile. That’s becoming more accessible. Talent is developing in many parts of the world. In my region, in Saudi Arabia, it’s very new. I think that’s resonating with people here in Brazil. Maybe we’re Brazil five years ago. There were some pockets of talent that were trying to get their first companies into the market. We’re on the route where we’re importing talent to support game development, but also building local talent, so we can develop the whole industry. Another topic that’s not so much a trend as a reality now, it’s about going cross-platform. There are plenty of mobile first games that are thinking about moving to different platforms. When you think about how you can go to market, how you can prototype, mobile is usually the cheaper platform to do that. We see more and more teams getting their IP into PC and console coming from mobile. We’re observing that more and more. Another trend we see is transmedia. Maybe that was a buzzword at one point, people thinking about migrating IP from games into other art forms, but we definitely see it quite a bit now, particularly the series we’ve seen from Netflix and Amazon and so forth. Rovio is doing movies. Transmedia is becoming a trend for companies with deep pockets and deep budgets. GamesBeat: The biggest thing to watch right now, I would agree, is AI and where it’s going to change things. I believe that mobile gaming is one of the areas where it’s going to have the biggest impact. AI can’t create triple-A games yet, but there are a lot of things related to the business of mobile games that can be automated. We’ll see where that takes hold and gets traction. Fernandez Remesal: Something that we’re seeing quite a bit here in Brazil is the renaissance of web gaming. WebGL has really improved lately. We see amazing experiences on the mobile web. Mobile web will be an opportunity for game developers. It links to what we mentioned before with web shops and how you can monetize. GamesBeat: We have the Nintendo Switch 2 launching very shortly. The interesting thing about now versus years ago is that Nintendo is no longer the first device that kids get their hands on as a gamer. It’s smartphones and tablets now, mobile games. That’s how they learn to play games, which represents a sea change for companies like Nintendo. They have to follow this trend. The youngest gamers are only going to know the brands that they see on mobile. Fernandez Remesal: That’s precisely right. Mobile is the first gaming device for many, many people, particularly kids. That’s where they discover content. It’s not just games. It’s how they find all forms of entertainment – streaming media, music, and games as well. Disclosure: Gamescom Latam paid my way to Brazil. GB Daily Stay in the know! Get the latest news in your inbox daily Read our Privacy Policy Thanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here. An error occured.

Iconic video game maker Hideo Kojima has left behind a USB stick filled with game ideas in the case of his death, as indicated in an interview with Edge Magazine that VGC reported on. Kojima says it's "kind of like a will" and that he hopes that his staff will continue to make games after he passes. Don't worry. He isn't going anywhere anytime soon. This was spurred on by the pandemic. "Until then, I didn’t think I was old, you know? I just didn’t feel my age, and I assumed I would be able to create for as long as I live," he told the magazine. Kojima is 61 years old, which is a spring chicken when compared to luminaries like Shigeru Miyamoto (72) and Sid Meier (71.) Death Stranding 2 covers the next issue of EDGE Magazine with exclusive artwork from Yoji Shinkawa.Releasing June 26th on PS5. pic.twitter.com/27bL9cZgHx— KAMI (@Okami13_) May 15, 2025 While Kojima isn't planning on leaving this mortal coil in the near future, he does say that he only has so much time left for active game development. He gives himself around ten years before he reaches an age in which his creative energy could be depleted. So, the idea of a USB stick was born. He hopes it will allow Kojima Productions to carry on as an entity after he passes or retires. "This is a fear for me: what happens to Kojima Productions after I’m gone? I don’t want them to just manage our existing IP." While we don't know what type of ideas are on the USB stick, Kojima did recently introduce a few off-the-wall game concepts regarding the passage of time. He discussed a concept involving memory, in which the main character gradually forgets important information and abilities if someone takes too long of a break from playing. Kojima also discussed a game that encompassed an entire life and another one that would involve the real-time creation of wine or cheese. The designer also planned on a mechanic that made Sam's beard grow over time in the forthcoming Death Stranding 2. However, he scrapped it because "Norman Reedus is a big star" and he didn't "want to make him look uncool."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/kojima-is-leaving-behind-a-usb-stick-with-game-ideas-for-after-he-dies-184029255.html?src=rss

Roughly a month after Moonvalley, a Los Angeles-based startup developing AI tools for video creation, said it secured $43 million in new funding, the company has raised more, according to a filing with the SEC. The filing, submitted Thursday, reveals that Moonvalley actually landed (so far) around $53 million total from a group of 14 unnamed investors. The filing indicates that this is an additional $10 million in cash, rather than a whole new round. It brings the company’s total raised to about $124 million, estimates Pitchbook, following on the heels of Moonvalley’s $70 million seed round last November. Moonvalley declined to comment. The wide availability of tools to build video generators has led to such an explosion of providers that the space is becoming saturated. Startups such as Runway, Lightricks, Genmo, Pika, Higgsfield, Kling, and Luma, as well as tech giants like OpenAI, Alibaba, and Google, are releasing models at a fast clip. In many cases, little distinguishes one model from another. Moonvalley’s Marey model, built in collaboration with a new AI animation studio called Asteria, offers customization options like fine-grained camera and motion controls, and can generate “HD” clips up to 30 seconds long. Moonvalley claims it’s also lower risk than some other video generation models from a legal perspective. But where Moonvalley is attempting to differentiate itself — hence the high VC interest — is on the data it’s using to train its models, as well as the safeguards in its video creation tools. Many generative video startups train models on public data, some of which is invariably copyrighted. These companies argue that fair-use doctrine shields the practice, but that hasn’t stopped rights holders from lodging complaints and filing cease and desists. Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 REGISTER NOW Moonvalley says it’s working with partners to handle licensing arrangements and package videos into datasets that the company then purchases. The approach is similar to Bria’s and Adobe’s, the latter of which procures content for training from creators through its proprietary Adobe Stock platform. Moonvalley is also crafting an interface for its model. The company’s software, which it hasn’t previewed publicly yet, has storyboarding and “granular” clip adjustment tools, Moonvalley’s co-founders revealed in recent interviews. Marey can generate videos not only from text prompts but sketches, photos, and other video clips, claims Moonvalley. Naeem Talukdar, who previously led product growth at Zapier, founded Moonvalley with former DeepMind scientists Mateusz Malinowski and Mik Binkowski. John Thomas joined as Moonvalley’s COO — he and Talukdar had founded another startup, Draft, several years ago. Moonvalley also counts Asteria head Bryn Mooser as a co-founder. Many artists and creators are understandably wary of video generators, as they threaten to upend the film and television industry. A 2024 study commissioned by the Animation Guild, a union representing Hollywood animators and cartoonists, estimates that more than 100,000 U.S.-based film, television, and animation jobs will be disrupted by AI by 2026. Moonvalley intends to allow creators to request their content be removed from its models, let customers delete their data at any time, and offer an indemnity policy to protect its users from copyright challenges. Unlike some “unfiltered” video models that readily insert a person’s likeness into clips, Moonvalley is also committing to building guardrails around its tools. Like OpenAI’s Sora, Moonvalley’s models will block certain content, like NSFW phrases, and won’t allow users to prompt them to generate videos of specific people or celebrities. “We founded Moonvalley to make generative video technology that works for filmmakers and creative professionals,” Moonvalley wrote in a blog post in March. “That means addressing fear and distrust, as well as solving technical problems that keep generative AI from being a realistic tool for professional production.”

Magic: the Gathering has unveiled three new cards from its upcoming “Final Fantasy” set and Variety has the exclusive first look at the preview images from Hasbro’s Wizards of the Coast. The three new cards part of the collection made in collaboration with “Final Fantasy” game developer Square Enix include: The Strahl (an overlay of Smuggler’s Copter), Luka Stadium (Strixhaven Stadium), and Tidus, Zanarkand Fayth (Thrasios, Triton Hero). The will be released with the rest of the set on June 13, which is now available for preorder. Related Stories “The Strahl, a.k.a. Smuggler’s Copter. During the previews, we showed you Balthier and Fran, and they care about vehicles, that’s kind of their mechanic,” principal designer and set design lead for Magic’s “Final Fantasy” collection Gavin Verhey told Variety. “And the Strahl is their ship, and we wanted to get the Strahl somewhere in the set. But it wasn’t really making sense with what the main set was trying to do, we couldn’t quite get it in there. But we thought, let’s put it on this bonus sheet, so that way you can have Balthier and Fran and the Strahl side by side with each other, interacting. So that was kind of a fun little nod for us. Smuggler’s Copter, of course, is a Magic card with a lot of pedigree. So that’s pretty cool.” Popular on Variety Wizards of the Coast/Square Enix “Gavin was so polite when he was like, people were trying to find a place in the main set — that was me,” principal game designer Dillon Deveney said. “Every day I was like, ‘I think we have to have this somewhere. It’s so iconic to ‘Final Fantasy.’ People love these sky pirates in the game, they do this legendary shit. And so eventually, Gavin was like, I think I found the perfect spot on the bonus sheet and then it could be Smuggler’s Copter. And honestly, it’s even better at this point in time that we found that connection back to Magic. Smuggler’s Copter is obviously a very famous card in Magic history, but also just the flavor of Smuggler’s Copter being, in the original set, for a pair of sky pirates. I was just like beside myself. You found my dream, Gavin.” Wizards of the Coast/Square Enix “Thrasios is a really fun example of a card that we really collaborated with Square Enix on,” Verhey said. “We were working out what cards we might want to use, and we sent Square Enix over an initial list of some ideas to show them. And they were really excited about Thrasios, right? I want to really emphasize, it’s not just us going to them, they love Magic tons and tons. And we have weekly calls with them where they play tons of Magic, tells about what they think about Magic. And when we were over there playing with them and hanging out at the Square Enix offices doing work, after hours, we’ll play a commander or play Magic together. So they love cards, too. And we mentioned Thrasios, they got really excited. So OK — we love it, they love it, let’s put it in the set.” Wizards of the Coast/Square Enix “So this was just all encompassing passion of, ‘Final Fantasy X’ is my favorite game of the series, my personal favorite game,” senior game designer Daniel Holt said. “Everybody asked, ‘Is there going to be Blitzball? Is there going to be the laughing scene?’ etc. But Blitzball just kept coming up over and over on ‘Fantasy 10,’ which, you will get some of that in the commander deck. But a lot of fans, once they learned we were doing this collaboration, were like, ‘What about Strixhaven Stadium as Blitzball stadium?’ People asked for this specifically, and I designed the original Strixhaven Stadium, too. So I designed this card. We got to apply it to my favorite game with this overlay. And it goes in the deck because it uses counters, so like Tidus in the deck and everything, it’ll just slot right into the deck. It was just a perfect fit in every way possible.” Releasing June 13, Magic: The Gathering’s “Final Fantasy” collection will include cards based on the sixteen mainline games in the video game franchise. Per MTG’s description for the collection, “Cast powerful spells, call upon classic summons, and even visit your favorite locations on the back of a chocobo. Countless elements from the games are here for you to weave together your own story!” “Magic has existed in Japan since 1995,” executive producer Zakeel Gordon said. “We’ve had a lot of positive market signals and excitement from our Japanese community for distribution and retailers for this IP. There are a couple of special promotions that we will be doing in Japan as a celebration of this moment. So as a whole, I would say it’s obviously very good for Japan, but more than anything, it’s just trying to lean into the authenticity of what it represents to that market — what the history is with respect to video gaming culture in that region, and making our players globally excited.”

During a recent earnings call (courtesy of IGN), Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick said that he was “reasonably sure” that the company wouldn’t be affected by the US tariffs on imported goods. He attributed this to the fact that there has been quite a bit of confusion owing to the tariffs being issued and then withdrawn. Despite this confusion, however, he said that the fiscal guidance for Take-Two Interactive has been decided for the coming year. He also noted that, despite the tariffs, Take-Two already has a solid base of customers on all platforms except for the Nintendo Switch 2, which is slated for launch on June 5. Taking this into account, the company will likely not be affected by any changes to tariffs, according to Zelnick. “Our guide is for the next ten months, essentially, that’s the part of the fiscal year that hasn’t elapsed yet, and it’s very difficult to predict where tariffs will land, given how things have bumped around so far,” said Zelnick when asked about the tariffs. “We feel reasonably confident that our guide wouldn’t be meaningfully affected, unless tariffs ran off in a very different direction than we currently expect. In any case, there’s already a very substantial install base for all of our target platforms except Nintendo Switch 2, which is pre-launch. So we have, I think, enough insight that we wouldn’t be affected by any changes.” In its earnings report, the company has reaffirmed that it will be releasing a host of games on different platforms, such as Borderlands 4 on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2, and Mafia: The Old Country on PC and current consoles. There are also games that are slated for release that don’t have confirmed platforms yet, including NBA 2K26 and WWE 2K26. With this in mind, it can be easy to see why Zelnick isn’t too concerned about the tariffs affecting the publisher. Leading up to the release of the Nintendo Switch 2, Zelnick said that he was feeling “great optimism” about Take-Two’s relationship with Nintendo. In the same earnings call, Zelnick mentioned how well Nintendo has been supporting third-party publishers to ensure that the Switch 2 has a strong line-up of games. “We’re launching four titles with Nintendo Switch 2, and that’s I think a bigger array of releases than we’ve ever offered before with a new Nintendo platform,” said Zelnick. “Historically, being a third party in the Nintendo business has been a bit challenging. I think Nintendo has been very forthcoming in addressing that. And we’re stepping up too, because we have great optimism for the platform.” In an interview with IGN right before the earnings call, Zelnick also spoke about how the decision to push the release of Grand Theft Auto 6 back from Fall 2025 to May 26, 2026 pained him, but that it will ultimately be worth it to give developer Rockstar Games more time to work on the game. “I feel really good about how fiscal 26 looks sitting here today,” he said. “And while of course, delays pain me — how could they not? — the most important thing to do is to support your teams in their search for perfection.”

Nintendo closes out the end of an era in 2025 with the introduction of the Nintendo Switch 2 and gradual sunsetting of the original Nintendo Switch. This shift in focus to the new console won’t be overnight, of course, and rarely is whenever console publishers transition to a fresh generation. The first Switch generation was an especially prosperous one for Nintendo, with over 150 million units shipped worldwide and counting, making it Nintendo’s best-selling home console of all-time and second only to the PlayStation 2 as the best-selling home console overall. With a player base that large, Nintendo has to be tactful how it eventually phases out its support for the Switch and maintains continued interest in its overarching brand. That makes us nostalgic too for how previous major home consoles eventually made their respective final bows, wrapping up fondly remembered eras. Here’s a look back on how each major console from the past several decades ended their fan-favorite runs. Nintendo Entertainment System The NES not only revived the video game industry in North America after its cataclysmic crash in 1983, but completely dominated it into the early ‘90s. By 1990 the NES—along with its Japanese counterpart, the Famicom—was the best-selling console ever at that time with more American households having the console than PCs. As such, Nintendo’s support for the NES continued long after the launch of the Super Nintendo, with Japan going as far as to continue manufacturing Famicoms for its domestic market until September 2003. Many of the last games released in the twilight years for the NES were ports of Super Nintendo titles with a significantly less intensive technical presentation. These include NES ports of Mario’s Time Machine, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters, and Wario’s Woods, all released in 1994 and the last of which being the final game released for the console in North America. Over 30 years later, the NES’ tenure remains one of the longest-running and most triumphant generations for any console. Sega Genesis/Mega Drive Also known as the Mega Drive outside of the U.S., the Sega Genesis was the console that gave Sega a prominent foothold in the North American market. In trying to gain a technical edge against its competitors, Sega began producing console peripherals for the Genesis, most notably the Sega CD in 1991 and Sega 32X in 1994, each with their own game libraries. Though Sega continued to produce games for the base Genesis, it saw the 32X as a stopgap effort until the Sega Saturn could be launched in 1994 in Japan and ‘95 in the U.S. Unfortunately for Sega, savvy gamers already knew that the Saturn was coming. So when combined with the high price point for the 32X peripheral, they discreetly avoided it. This meant the library of 32X games released in the Genesis’ final months, which included early 3D Sega games like Virtua Fighter and Star Wars Trilogy Arcade, went largely ignored. The final 32X game was 1996’s The Amazing Spider-Man: Web of Fire while 1997’s NHL 98 closed out the Genesis on a whimper. Super Nintendo The Super Nintendo Entertainment System reaffirmed Nintendo’s place atop the worldwide video game industry, even as it faced stiff competition from Sega and Sony. Even as the Nintendo 64’s 1996 launch loomed, Nintendo continued to support the SNES in its final years. Indeed, some of the most beloved SNES games were originally released in 1996 and 1997, giving the console the fond farewell that cemented its vaunted place in gaming history. Among the memorable games released in the final stretch for the SNES were Super Mario RPG, Donkey Country 3, Harvest Moon, and The Lost Vikings 2. The last licensed game ever released for the SNES was a 1998 port of Frogger, almost as an afterthought for the console. As far as endings go, the Super Nintendo, like the SNES before it, had a great conclusion to its best-selling run. Sega Saturn Between the original success of the Genesis and loving reappraisal of the Dreamcast, the Sega Saturn remains something of the overlooked middle child. This is in no small part because of how badly Sega handled the console’s rollout for the North American market, from a surprise announcement that caught developers outside of Japan off-guard, an uncompetitive price point in comparison to the original PlayStation, and Sega of America deciding not to localize hundreds of games created by Japanese developers. With that in mind, the Saturn generation lasted four years, as Sega rushed to replace it with its successor, the Dreamcast. This fast-tracked decision effectively hobbled the Saturn in its final year when news about the Dreamcast’s development leaked while Sega was still nominally supporting the Saturn in public. Console and game sales in North America cratered with only seven Saturn games released in the territory for the entirety of 1998, the last being a localization of Magic Knight Rayearth. Given the Saturn’s greater success in Japan than overseas markets, Sega continued to support the Saturn after the Dreamcast’s November 1998 launch, primarily through third-party titles and boxed sets, with the last game released for the console in Japan being 2000’s Final Fight Revenge by Capcom. PlayStation The PlayStation, later rebranded as the PSX and then PS1, marked Sony’s triumphant entry into the home console industry in 1994. Buoyed by its games published on compact discs, as opposed to expensive cartridges, and strong third-party developer support, PS1 became the bestselling console of its generation and the bestselling overall for its time. The PS1 continued to sell well into the subsequent generation, even well into the lifespan of its 2001 successor, the PlayStation 2. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! Given the sheer number of its player base and continued flourishing third-party support, the PS1 saw multiplatform sports and licensed titles published for it through 2006, though the last North American title was published for it in 2004. The last major title for the console was arguably 2002’s Final Fantasy Origins, which was just a compiled remaster of the first two mainline games in the series. Sony officially ended support for the PS1 in 2006, the same year it launched the PlayStation 3. Nintendo 64 Though the Nintendo 64 launched strongly and revolutionized the gaming industry in shifting to 3D games, it also saw Nintendo lose its global top spot in the console wars. Surpassed commercially by PlayStation, Nintendo spent the final years of the N64 focusing on development of the GameCube while extending the life and power of the N64 through its crimson Expansion Pak peripheral. This upgrade in technical performance led to some of the most impressive N64 or console games in its final years on the market. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, Perfect Dark, and Banjo-Tooie were all released in 2000, each taking advantage of the Expansion Pak boost in their own way. By 2001 Nintendo completely reprioritized its strategy to support the launch of the Game Boy Advance and GameCube, but still put out bonafide bangers like Mario Party 3 and Conker’s Bad Fur Day. By 2002 Nintendo officially pulled the plug on the N64, releasing a handful of sports titles to close out the generation. Dreamcast Sega’s final home console came out the gate swinging with a launch window that included Power Stone, Sonic Adventure, Soulcalibur, The House of the Dead 2, and NFL Blitz 2000. However, the Dreamcast faced continued stiff competition from the original PlayStation along with news about development on the upcoming PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, and something Microsoft was calling Xbox. With the incoming generation of home consoles reputedly more powerful than the Dreamcast, support for Sega continued to waver, with a remodeled, cheaper PS1 outselling the Dreamcast during the 2000 holiday season as a final nail in Sega’s console coffin. Sega ceased releasing new Dreamcast games in North America by February 2002, closing out its support for the market with NHL 2K2 almost as an afterthought. Like the Saturn, the Dreamcast saw longer support in its native Japan, with March 2004’s puzzle party game Puyo Puyo Fever closing out the generation for good. By December 2001, Sega began developing games for its former competitors, signaling a significant shift to focus on software development rather than hardware, releasing both Sonic Advance for the Game Boy Advance and Sonic Adventure 2: Battle for the GameCube that month. Xbox Though Microsoft’s first foray into the home console industry was off to a shaky start with a hilariously oversized controller and weak launch library, it eventually outsold the GameCube. That said, the console also stands as the shortest generation to date from Microsoft, with the company rushing out its successor, the Xbox 360, almost exactly four years after the original Xbox’s November 2001 launch. That means games initially intended for the Xbox were reconfigured as 360 titles, sometimes late in development, to bolster the next console’s launch library. 2004 saw the strongest first-party games released for the original Xbox, including Halo 2, Fable, and Ninja Gaiden Black before Microsoft shifted its priorities. The majority of games released for the original Xbox after 2005 were multiplatform sports titles, with only three games released for the console in the entirety of 2007 and only Madden NFL 09 released for it in 2008. The original Xbox was, comparatively, a flash in the pan, with Microsoft quickly looking ahead to the future. GameCube The GameCube era was a dark one for Nintendo as the company slid behind Sony and Microsoft in the home console industry in terms of units shipped. This decline, coupled with difficulties in developing games for hardware, meant the console saw dwindling third-party support. As Nintendo readied to launch the motion sensor-oriented Wii in the 2006 holiday season, it repurposed games originally planned for the GameCube for its successor instead. One highlight in the GameCube’s closing window was Resident Evil 4, released at the beginning of 2005 as a GameCube-exclusive before Capcom decided to port it to the PlayStation 2 by the year’s end. A handful of movie tie-in games, like Ratatouille and TMNT, along with the usual multiplatform sports games, filled the gap. As the Wii quickly gained momentum following its breathtakingly successful launch, Nintendo quietly pulled the plug on the GameCube by 2007. However, one major highlight was The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, a fan favorite developed as GameCube’s swan song in 2006… before being delayed so it could simultaneously release as a launch title on the Wii. PlayStation 2 Still the best-selling home console of all time, the PlayStation 2 significantly outsold its immediate competition and helped push Sega out of the hardware console industry for good. This success was also in small part due to the console featuring a built-in DVD drive and being priced competitively compared to other DVD players on the market at the time. Like its predecessor, the PS2 had an especially long lifespan, one that endured through the eventual launch of the PlayStation 4. Leading up to the PS3 launch in late 2006, the PS2 saw the release of some of its most acclaimed games, including its port of Resident Evil 4, Shadow of the Colossus, Gran Turismo 4, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Guitar Hero, Ōkami, Devil May Cry 3, and Final Fantasy XII. The last game ever released for the PS2 was Pro Evolution Soccer 2014, released in 2013. Sony ended post-release support for the PS2 in Japan in 2018, closing out its most successful era to date. Wii After losing industry dominance in its previous two generations, Nintendo catapulted itself back on top with the Wii, which replaced the GameCube as its main home console in late 2006. With its intuitive motion controls and a robust library of games, many of the most acclaimed being console exclusives, the Wii became Nintendo’s bestselling console at the time. By 2013, one year after the launch of the Wii U, Nintendo began ceasing production on new Wii consoles and cutting back online services, with the last major services discontinued in 2019. The Wii’s last real banner year was 2011, which saw the release of Kirby’s Return to Dream Land and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, the latter of which being the last major console exclusive. That said, Nintendo was really focused on launching its last handheld console, the Nintendo 3DS, that year and preparing for the Wii U. Amusingly, the Wii kept receiving third-party support and new installments of Just Dance from Ubisoft until 2019. Xbox 360 The most successful Xbox console to date is Microsoft’s sophomore effort, the Xbox 360, which launched a full year ahead of its generational counterparts in 2005. Though outsold by the Wii, the 360 closed the gap between Microsoft and Sony—even as it was also ultimately outsold by the PS3. What the 360 revolutionized was a digital marketplace for games, allowing players to purchase and download titles straight to their consoles, a feature that became an industry standard. In the years and months leading up to the launch of the Xbox One, the 360 saw its firmware updated to match Microsoft’s other user interfaces while the console began incorporating its own motion sensor gameplay. Branded the Kinect, the peripheral was launched in 2010 to lukewarm response for many of its titles. Though Microsoft continued to support the 360’s online capabilities until 2024, the last two major games for the console were 2012’s Halo 4 and 2013’s Gears of War: Judgment. PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 stumbled at its 2006 launch with its significantly higher price point than the competition and complex hardware architecture, making development for the console particularly difficult. Though price cuts and cheaper models of the PS3 improved its standing, it never got close to catching up with Nintendo’s highly successful Wii. As a result, Sony ended its support for the PS3 faster than it had the PS2 or PS1, shifting its focus to the PlayStation 4. Despite Sony quickly reprioritizing itself for the PS4’s 2013 launch, the PS3 saw some of its most iconic titles released in its final years. The Last of Us, Journey, and multiplatform titles like Mass Effect 3 and Grand Theft Auto V closed out the PS3 era. By 2017 Sony ceased hardware production on the PS3 and, while planning to close the PlayStation Store for the platform in 2021, fan outcry led Sony to reverse this decision, leaving online support running. Wii U After completely revitalizing itself and reclaiming its spot at the top of the console industry, Nintendo endured a follow-up slump with the Wii U. From its confusing launch, insistence on gameplay using the console’s GamePad controller, and limited third-party support, the Wii U squandered the lead Nintendo built during the Wii era. With its muted commercial performance, Nintendo quickly got to work with the console’s successor, the Nintendo Switch, which was released in 2017, five years after the Wii U’s ignominious debut. By 2015 just three years after its launch, Nintendo quietly began to reduce production of Wii U hardware, to cut costs and better prepare for the eventual Switch launch. An HD remaster of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, which was originally released to jointly close the GameCube era and launch the Wii, was the last major Wii U-exclusive release. Mirroring its initial Twilight Princess strategy, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was released concurrently for the Wii U and Switch, with Nintendo ending production on Wii U consoles in early 2017 and terminating online support for it in 2023. Xbox One As alluded to in its name, the Xbox One was intended to be an all-in-one entertainment center for owners, through its broadcast television and streaming-friendly interface. It also marked the point where Microsoft lost the console market gains it enjoyed during the Xbox 360 era, outsold by both the PlayStation 4 and the Nintendo Switch. In its final years, Microsoft offered alternate models of the Xbox One, culminating in the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition in 2019, at a significantly reduced price point to entice one last wave of hardware purchases. There wasn’t a lot by way of console exclusives for the Xbox One in its sunset stages prior to the launch of the Xbox Series X|S at the end of 2020. The console saw a number of multiplatform titles, including games developed by Microsoft’s subsidiaries, with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 being a major exception. Instead Microsoft was already focused on developing titles for PC and the Series X|S while further bolstering the library of its premium subscription service Game Pass. PlayStation 4 Sony reclaimed its market dominance beginning in 2013 with the PlayStation 4, outperforming both the Wii U and the Xbox One by significant margins as the PS4 became Sony’s second best-selling home console of all time. To put things into perspective, the PS4 sold more units than the Wii U and Xbox One combined and was second only to the Nintendo Switch in its generation. And with Sony still manufacturing PS4 hardware while major developers continue to publish games for it, one could argue the PS4 era is still thriving. In terms of the last console exclusives released for the PS4 before the launch of the PlayStation 5 at the end of 2020, the PS4 had a particularly stacked final year. The Last of Us Part II, Final Fantasy VII Remake, and Ghost of Tsushima all came out in 2020, following Death Stranding the previous year. The PS4’s online support services are still very much active and the console continues to receive new games regularly, five years into the PS5 era. Nintendo Switch That just leaves the Nintendo Switch, which launched in 2017 before growing to become the second best-selling console of all time, second only to the PS2. With the Nintendo Switch 2 coming out in June 2025, that will make the original Switch Nintendo’s dominant console for over eight years, its longest console generation to date. And Nintendo has already phased out significant first-party development for Switch titles, with much of the 2020s Switch games being remasters of previous titles, like Donkey Country Returns and Xenoblade Chronicles X, or compilations like Harvest Moon. It was 2024 that saw the last major push of console exclusives for the original Switch, predominantly from its marquee franchises. Super Mario Party Jamboree and The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom were the last first-party titles of note for the Switch era, both released in the back half of the year. Nintendo has been building to the Switch 2’s launch for some time, and it’s looking to hit the ground running with one of its strongest launch libraries yet. The Nintendo Switch 2 will be released on June 5.

During a recent earnings call (courtesy of IGN), Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick said that he was “reasonably sure” that the company wouldn’t be affected by the US tariffs on imported goods. He attributed this to the fact that there has been quite a bit of confusion owing to the tariffs being issued and then withdrawn. Despite this confusion, however, he said that the fiscal guidance for Take-Two Interactive has been decided for the coming year. He also noted that, despite the tariffs, Take-Two already has a solid base of customers on all platforms except for the Nintendo Switch 2, which is slated for launch on June 5. Taking this into account, the company will likely not be affected by any changes to tariffs, according to Zelnick. “Our guide is for the next ten months, essentially, that’s the part of the fiscal year that hasn’t elapsed yet, and it’s very difficult to predict where tariffs will land, given how things have bumped around so far,” said Zelnick when asked about the tariffs. “We feel reasonably confident that our guide wouldn’t be meaningfully affected, unless tariffs ran off in a very different direction than we currently expect. In any case, there’s already a very substantial install base for all of our target platforms except Nintendo Switch 2, which is pre-launch. So we have, I think, enough insight that we wouldn’t be affected by any changes.” In its earnings report, the company has reaffirmed that it will be releasing a host of games on different platforms, such as Borderlands 4 on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2, and Mafia: The Old Country on PC and current consoles. There are also games that are slated for release that don’t have confirmed platforms yet, including NBA 2K26 and WWE 2K26. With this in mind, it can be easy to see why Zelnick isn’t too concerned about the tariffs affecting the publisher. Leading up to the release of the Nintendo Switch 2, Zelnick said that he was feeling “great optimism” about Take-Two’s relationship with Nintendo. In the same earnings call, Zelnick mentioned how well Nintendo has been supporting third-party publishers to ensure that the Switch 2 has a strong line-up of games. “We’re launching four titles with Nintendo Switch 2, and that’s I think a bigger array of releases than we’ve ever offered before with a new Nintendo platform,” said Zelnick. “Historically, being a third party in the Nintendo business has been a bit challenging. I think Nintendo has been very forthcoming in addressing that. And we’re stepping up too, because we have great optimism for the platform.” In an interview with IGN right before the earnings call, Zelnick also spoke about how the decision to push the release of Grand Theft Auto 6 back from Fall 2025 to May 26, 2026 pained him, but that it will ultimately be worth it to give developer Rockstar Games more time to work on the game. “I feel really good about how fiscal 26 looks sitting here today,” he said. “And while of course, delays pain me — how could they not? — the most important thing to do is to support your teams in their search for perfection.”

In March, technologies were put through a live demonstration inside an abandoned mine, where the rover and its support equipment ran under field-like conditions.   Image: KIGAM Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. An abandoned mine has reopened its doors–not for miners, but for scientists. The Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) is converting a former mine shaft in Taebaek City into a research facility to test and validate technologies for extracting lunar resources. The plan involves partnering with Taebaek City to transform the site into a large-scale demonstration complex for space technologies. Taebaek City was once renowned for its coal production. When coal dominated South Korea’s energy mix, the city supplied roughly 30 percent of the nation’s total output and earned the nickname “black-gold city.”  But as the energy landscape shifted, its mines shut down one by one. This closure led the city to look for new paths to revitalization. Scientists saw potential in these abandoned shafts, redefining them as experimental sites that can simulate lunar-like conditions.  Dr. Kim Kyeong-ja, director of KIGAM’s Space Resources Exploration and Utilization Center, explained why the team selected an abandoned mine for the new research and demonstration facility: “Subsurface regions and caves on the moon are relatively shielded from radiation and meteorite strikes, so they are leading candidates for future lunar bases. An abandoned mine on Earth can replicate those conditions and serve as an ideal proving ground for the technologies we need,” she said. “A coal mine’s perpetual darkness and stable temperature closely match the sunless environment beneath the lunar surface.” Dr. Kim also stressed the cost-effectiveness of reusing existing infrastructure. “If we didn’t have a site like this, we’d have to build a dedicated facility, and that would consume a great deal of energy and resources. Because the essential structures are already in place and can be adapted with minimal modification, we can conserve both funds and materials.” KIGAM’s rover, equipped with its own Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) system, is purpose-built to survey and map resources on the Moon. Image: KIGAM Scientists Dream of Mining Lunar Resources Researchers working in the mine will focus on demonstrating a range of technologies for extracting and utilizing resources directly from the moon.  The moon is believed to hold sizable quantities of key resources that are scarce on Earth. A prime example is helium-3, often cited as a potential future clean energy source. Fusion reactions that use deuterium and helium-3 generate virtually no radioactive waste, making helium-3 a potential source of environmentally friendly power. While only trace amounts exist on Earth, the moon is estimated to contain more than a million tons.  A KIGAM official explained, “Helium-3 is lightweight and takes up little space, so a large quantity can be shipped from the moon in a relatively small volume compared with metallic ores, making it highly economical. It is the resource we should prioritize returning to Earth.” Rare-earth elements are another set of resources potentially available on the moon. They are vital to sectors such as semiconductors, displays, and batteries. These elements are unevenly distributed on Earth, yet they are thought to be relatively plentiful on the moon. KIGAM says it is working to develop technologies for locating and extracting rare-earth deposits. Before such minerals can be recovered on the moon, the underlying technologies must be proven in environments that mimic lunar conditions. KIGAM is partnering with multiple domestic institutes to design advanced equipment and methods for lunar exploration and extraction. Last March, the institute demonstrated several key in-situ resource-development devices inside the abandoned Hamtae mine shaft. The event was announced as the world’s first use of an abandoned mine as a testbed for rigorously assessing the feasibility and safety of lunar resource-extraction operations. One highlight was a lunar rover designed to traverse the lunar surface and analyze soil. The vehicle can scout the terrain while simultaneously drilling underground to collect samples. Another KIGAM prototype rover carries a Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) system. The institute has also engineered a device that heats regolith to extract and collect valuable elements. Image: KIGAM LIBS can identify the composition and concentration of more than 50 elements in real time. It does so by blasting the soil with a powerful laser and analyzing the resulting plasma light.  During a live demo, the rover drove over a mock lunar landscape, collected soil, and used LIBS to analyze its makeup. In the future, LIBS is expected to work alongside a Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (KGRS) to build comprehensive maps of lunar resources. KIGAM has already produced an elemental map of the lunar surface using the KGRS on Danuri, South Korea’s first lunar orbiter. Beyond mining, work is accelerating on In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) technologies that would enable astronauts to generate vital supplies on the moon. At the mine, KIGAM demonstrated a resource extractor built to remove essentials such as water or oxygen from lunar regolith. The device concentrates solar energy to heat the soil to extreme temperatures, breaking it down at the molecular level and releasing usable materials. During the test, it detected hydrogen, oxygen, and argon in real time. Dr. Kim noted, “With this technology, we can identify any substance with an atomic weight under 200.” Many other core technologies essential to space resource development will also be showcased at the site. They range from CubeSats that survey minerals and provide communications in low lunar orbit to heat-pipe reactors for continuous probe power and wireless power-transfer systems on the surface. Partners include the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI), Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS), and Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER). However, researchers caution that replicating the lunar environment inside the mine still requires considerable effort. A KIGAM official explained, “We are still on Earth, and the differences start with gravity.” They added, “Our aim is to make the environment even closer to real lunar conditions by installing zero-gravity chambers or vacuum pumps in the center.” KIGAM intends to finish developing roughly 10 major pieces of exploration equipment by 2029 in partnership with government-funded institutes and private firms. Dr. Lee Pyeong-koo, president of KIGAM, said: “I find it profoundly gratifying that at the very place where we once mined the coal that fueled our nation’s economic growth, we are now embarking on research to bring helium-3 from the moon to Earth, potentially as a fusion fuel by 2100.” The story was produced in partnership with our colleagues at Popular Science Korea.

One of the biggest questions coming into 2025 was whether Grand Theft Auto 6 would somehow get delayed. Earlier this month, Rockstar Games revealed it would. The head of its parent company now says that delay was necessary to help the studio deliver the game without compromises. Will it get delayed again? Don’t count on it. Suggested ReadingGTA 6 Beers Look Tasty As Hell Share SubtitlesOffEnglishview videoSuggested ReadingGTA 6 Beers Look Tasty As Hell Share SubtitlesOffEnglishOriginally set for release in the fall 2025 window, GTA 6 is now coming out on May 26, 2026. “I think historically when we set a specific date, generally speaking, we’ve been very good about reaching it,” Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick told IGN ahead of the company’s latest earnings report on Thursday. Why the delay after Zelnick himself kept telling investors he felt “highly confident” and “really good” about hitting its original 2025 schedule? “As we get closer to completion of a title that’s seeking perfection, the needs or lack thereof, for continued polish become clear,” the executive told IGN. “In this case there was an opportunity with a small amount of incremental time, we thought, to make sure Rockstar Games achieves its creative vision with no limitations. And I supported, of course, that approach.” He also stressed that Rockstar didn’t begin development on GTA 6 “in earnest” until 2020, two years after the launch of Red Dead Redemption 2 and seven years after GTA 5 originally came to PlayStation 3 and Xbox One. Shortly after the delay was announced, Rockstar showed off its work with the sequel’s most extensive trailer yet and a wealth of screenshots, all apparently captured in-game. The fidelity on display has been blowing fans and other game developers away so far. Take-Two also might have felt a bit better about the delay given that 2025 is already a crowded year for the publisher. It has Mafia: The Old Country coming out in August and Borderlands 4 releasing in September. That’s on top of Civilization 7 earlier in the year, and the continuing popularity of Grand Theft Auto Online and Red Dead Online. Zelnick called the decision to hold GTA 6 until next year a “worthwhile investment.”.

vicegold Member Oct 27, 2017 464 PlayStation Executive Jade Raymond Leaves Studio She Founded on Bloomberg.com PlayStation leadership didn't give Haven staff a reason for her departure, but it came several weeks after an external test of Haven's first game, the online shooter Fairgames, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Some developers at Haven were concerned about how the game was received and its progress, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they aren't authorized to speak publicly. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Marie-Eve Danis and Pierre-François Sapinski are now co-heading the studio  Last edited: Yesterday at 5:27 PM Max|Payne Member Oct 27, 2017 9,836 Portugal Oh christ, I almost read something else. My heart jumped a bit. Edit: OP changed the title. The original could almost be misread for something far more tragic.  CloseTalker Sister in the Craft Member Oct 25, 2017 38,101 Does not inspire confidence in the one game they have announced   NinjaScooter Member Oct 25, 2017 60,644 article is paywalled.   Mesoian ▲ Legend ▲ Member Oct 28, 2017 31,672 OH FUCK, I didn't realize she was doing FairGame$. Welp...  SirKai Member Dec 28, 2017 10,146 Washington Now, will Fair Game Dollar Sign actually release?   Yeeboh Member Jul 3, 2024 1,756 Not again   Ant_17 Member Oct 28, 2017 2,903 Greece Fair games, unfair jobs   Uncle at Nintendo 2nd Generation Uncle at Nintendo Member Jan 3, 2018 9,819 Her company, Haven Studios, is developing an online shooter title called Fairgames Click to expand... Click to shrink... Ruh ruh Raggy  Zaheer Member Oct 27, 2017 2,392 raspberrymousse Member Mar 19, 2021 5,299 Sony really miscalculated hard with its live-service push   wagon Member Jan 6, 2025 413 Now I'm extra curious what the game is gonna look like lol   Mocha Joe Member Jun 2, 2021 13,385 Holy fuck   Shard Shinjuku Member Oct 25, 2017 31,560 Tampa Jade just can not catch a break.   PlanetSmasher The Abominable Showman Member Oct 25, 2017 132,614 Considering we've seen literally nothing of the game since it was originally revealed, I can't really bring myself to have much of a reaction to this. Gotta wonder if Jade's just gonna pop up with another new startup studio, join an existing studio or just peace out of the industry entirely at this rate. The chances seem roughly equal for all three options.  Pai Pai Master Member Oct 25, 2017 37,139 Atlanta GA Well then.   GDGF Member Oct 26, 2017 9,130 It's happening again.   krazen Member Oct 27, 2017 15,550 Gentrified Brooklyn The GaaS goldrush is feeling more like a mudslide.   Strike Member Oct 25, 2017 30,510 Uh-oh.   Genesius Member Nov 2, 2018 20,500 They're about to announce it's canned and she's getting out now.   th1nk Member Nov 6, 2017 9,445 I am shocked… well not that shocked   Dust C H A O S Member Oct 25, 2017 40,938 FairGame$ is gonna get shitcanned, I can feel it.   OhhEldenRing Member Aug 14, 2024 2,774 Suspect there's something wrong with the direction of Fairgame$ and although I have nothing to base this on why else would she leave   Nameless Hero Member Oct 25, 2017 23,332 Jason, you keep misspelling Fairgame$ as Fairgames for some reason   CupOfDoom Member Dec 17, 2017 5,150 it came several weeks after an external test of Haven's first game Click to expand... Click to shrink... that seems auspicious.   Wallace Member Oct 25, 2017 27,949 Midwest Concord V3   Lashley <<Tag Here>> Member Oct 25, 2017 65,317 Jesus wept   poklane Member Oct 25, 2017 32,002 the Netherlands Yeah, nobody should be surprised if Fairgames gets canceled and Haven gets shut down. Reveal trailer was only good for putting people to sleep, and the 2 years of silence since then is telling.   DrScruffleton Member Oct 26, 2017 14,833 I'll be shocked if fairgame comes out some day   Lukar Unshakable Resolve - Prophet of Truth Member Oct 27, 2017 28,123 The year is 2014. Jade Raymond has left her studio. The year is 2018. Jade Raymond has left her studio. The year is 2021. Jade Raymond has left her studio. The year is 2025. Jade Raymond has left her studio. (yes I know these circumstances were all different, no I am not trying to suggest anything with this post)  dex3108 Member Oct 26, 2017 24,707 She really can't release game anymore. She didn't released game basically since she left Ubisoft.   Mivey Member Oct 25, 2017 20,602 Someone clearly put a gaming vodoo curse on that poor woman. Any project she touches just withers and dies.   SirKai Member Dec 28, 2017 10,146 Washington Isn't this the like, third or so new studio / project she was involved with in the past decade that didn't launch? Though this might still end up releasing I guess.   maze001 Member Sep 18, 2024 596 Oh man It's been like a slow motion car crash ever since Concord  Fisty Member Oct 25, 2017 22,537 Well there goes any hope i had for Fair Game$   Lepi Member Mar 24, 2020 886 Another disastrously managed project from the looks of it.   Xando Member Oct 28, 2017 37,394 but it came several weeks after an external test of Haven's first game, the online shooter Fairgames, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Some developers at Haven were concerned about how the game was received and its progress Click to expand... Click to shrink... Uh oh   dom ▲ Legend ▲ Avenger Oct 25, 2017 12,366 The falloff of Jade Raymond is crazy   egg The Fallen Oct 26, 2017 7,642 maze001 said: Oh man It's been like a slow motion car crash ever since Concord Click to expand... Click to shrink... How so? Lol.  Threadmarks No more $ for Fairgames New Index jschreier Press Sneak Fuck Verified Oct 25, 2017 1,272 Nameless Hero said: Jason, you keep misspelling Fairgame$ as Fairgames for some reason Click to expand... Click to shrink... I guess I buried the real scoop here, but they dropped the $. Also, here is a gift link so people can actually read this: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...9.qOIF32mVNJUCz17mJYYZM-YWpEEYhCcjFt6lm8BeeFo  New Index GTAce Member Oct 27, 2017 4,579 Bonn, Germany Fairgame$ and Marathon will complete the Concord trilogy.   Tsunami561 Member Mar 7, 2023 5,327 Okay who's next in line to give her 300m dollars   Stibbs Member Feb 8, 2023 4,229 The 518 holy shit the L's for Sony's GAAS games keep coming, I genuinely think Fairgames might get Hyenas'd   pswii60 Member Oct 27, 2017 28,776 The Milky Way I hope the rest of the team can survive this. They already had to go through the Google Stadia shit. Lukar said: The year is 2014. Jade Raymond has left her studio. The year is 2018. Jade Raymond has left her studio. The year is 2021. Jade Raymond has left her studio. The year is 2025. Jade Raymond has left her studio. (yes I know these circumstances were all different, no I am not trying to suggest anything with this post) Click to expand... Click to shrink... You are though aren't you   EVA UNIT 01 Member Oct 27, 2017 7,198 CA Its not releasing   wagon Member Jan 6, 2025 413 jschreier said: I guess I buried the real scoop here, but they dropped the $. Also, here is a gift link so people can actually read this: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...9.qOIF32mVNJUCz17mJYYZM-YWpEEYhCcjFt6lm8BeeFo Click to expand... Click to shrink... NOOOOOOOOO THE ONLY THING ABOUT THE GAME THAT ACTUALLY STOOD OUT TO ME ON FIRST IMPRESSIONS   DrScruffleton Member Oct 26, 2017 14,833 jschreier said: I guess I buried the real scoop here, but they dropped the $. Also, here is a gift link so people can actually read this: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...9.qOIF32mVNJUCz17mJYYZM-YWpEEYhCcjFt6lm8BeeFo Click to expand... Click to shrink... Not playing it without the dollar sign   Jawmuncher Crisis Dino Moderator Oct 25, 2017 44,760 Ibis Island Jade showing up and leaving is just too iconic at this point.   Lukar Unshakable Resolve - Prophet of Truth Member Oct 27, 2017 28,123 pswii60 said: I hope the rest of the team can survive this. They already had to go through the Google shit. You are though aren't you Click to expand... Click to shrink... No, not really. I love the games she's been involved with in the past and wish she could catch a break.   KZXcellent One Winged Slayer Member Oct 25, 2017 4,172 The game already wasn't inspiring confidence between it being a Sony Service Game and also being the GenAI game.