[PATREON UNLOCK] Update Patch - August 2025

Update Patch News Roundup (11/08/25)

This week in gaming news feels like it can be described both as bittersweet and also flavourless. A lot of what happened is largely sigh-inducing, but there are some things on the up-and-up peppered within, such as Digital Foundry’s independence.

That Was An Unremarkable Nintendo Direct (Even For A Partner Showcase, Which Are Actually Pretty Decent Usually)

Nintendo has brought the public two showcases full of well-needed announcements after the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 in June of this year. The first of these was the Nintendo Direct - Partner Showcase on July 31, 2025. Partner Showcases can often be unfairly over-scrutinised by fans for featuring not as many first-party announcements, but in this case, the disappointment was not particularly centred around first-party reveals, but the unsubstantial reveals and lightweight upcoming release schedule following the strong launch of the new system. Former Nintendo of America PR manager and podcaster, Kit Ellis, on the Kit & Krysta YouTube channel, commented on how this Partner Showcase failed to deliver any information on previously revealed third-party heavy-hitters like Final Fantasy VII: Remake and Elden Ring - Tarnished Edition whilst not bringing any real new heavy-hitters to the table–outside of HD-2D titles Octopath Traveler 0 and The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tale. Ellis also criticised the poor messaging and lack of release date for the Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment trailer.

Christopher Dring, Editor-in-Chief at The Game Business, noted after the presentation that there were three games he was told were ‘100%’ in that direct that were absent, noting how things may have changed very quickly between the discussions–that Dring clarified were directly with company representatives–and the actual presentation. This was all after Dring theorised that this direct would be a ‘Chunky One’.

One of the biggest failures, albeit definitely not the most important to everyone, that I noticed in this presentation was the new formatting of announcing whenever a Nintendo Switch or Switch 2 game would receive a physical release. Every single physical release announced for Nintendo Switch 2 in this partner showcase was indeed revealed to be a dreaded Game-Key Card, which, whether or not physical media is something that matters to you aside, does 100% undoubtedly make the Nintendo Switch 2 retail copy an inferior product to their PlayStation 5 or original Switch counterparts in terms of accessing game data securely offline and being something more appealing to physical collectors and simply just people who cannot afford to upgrade to a Micro SD Express card. 

Regardless of the likelihood of these games receiving full physical releases if circumstances were more favourable for third-party publishers to do so, the outright refusal to clarify whether or not an announced physical release in a Nintendo Direct is a Game-Key Card was frustrating. Game-Key Cards symbolise the odd feeling that all three “current-gen” consoles represent to me, that supposed technological advancements we have been seeing nonetheless represent a regression in quality of the consumer end-product, all as an effort for companies to save money.

I believe the Indie World presentation that occurred a week later fared a lot better. Announcements like UFO 50, a demo for Mina the Hollower, and trailers for Content Warning, Neverway, and more highlighted a good sign of things to come for courting the viral and highly reputable indie titles, at least in the general Nintendo Switch Ecosystem. Switch 2 reveals were light, but I was actually really intrigued by Studio Snowblind’s underwater RPG Glaciered as a Nintendo Switch 2 console exclusive. Here is a full list of Indie World reveals below.

Indie World August 7, 2025 Announcements:

• Mina The Hollower (Yacht Club Games) - Nintendo Switch + Switch 2 - Oct. 31, 2025 (Demo Available)

• Well Dweller (Top Hat Studios/Kyle Thompson) Nintendo Switch - 2026

• Neverway (Outersloth/Coldblood Inc.) Nintendo Switch - 2026

• Herdling (Panic Inc./Okomotive) Nintendo Switch - Aug. 21, 2025

• Is This Seat Taken? (Wholesome Games Presents/Poti Poti Studio) - Nintendo Switch - Available Now

• Little Kitty, Big City – The Picture Purrfect Update (Double Dagger Studio) - Nintendo Switch - Later This Year

• Content Warning (Landfall/Wilnyl, Philip, thePetHen, Skog, & Zorro) - Nintendo Switch + Switch 2 - 2026

• Ball X Pit (Devolver Digital/Kenny Sun & Friends) - Nintendo Switch + Switch 2 - Oct. 15, 2025 (Switch 1) Fall 2025 (Switch 2)

• Ultimate Sheep Raccoon (Clever Endeavor Games) - Nintendo Switch + Switch 2 - Winter 2025

• Glaciered (Playism/Active Gaming Media, Inc./Studio Snowblind) Nintendo Switch 2 - Holiday 2025

• Winter Burrow (Noodlecake Studio/Pine Creek Games) Nintendo Switch - Winter 2025

• Undusted: Letters from the Past (Toge Productions/5minlab Corp.) - Nintendo Switch - October 2025

• Tiny Bookshop (Skystone Games/neoludic games) - Nintendo Switch - Out Now

• Caves of Qud (Kitfox Games/Freehold Games) - Nintendo Switch - Winter 2025

• Strange Antiques (Iceberg Interactive/Bad Viking) Nintendo Switch - Sept. 17, 2025

• OPUS: Prism Peak (Shueisha Games/Sigono) Nintendo Switch + Switch 2 - Fall 2025

• Go-Go Town! (CULT Games/Prideful Sloth) Nintendo Switch - Spring 2026

• UFO 50 (Mossmouth) Nintendo Switch - Out Now

• Demonschool was also shown but only in the Japanese Direct for some reason and is releasing on Switch on September 3rd.

Sony’s Q1 Financial Report Footnoted With Admitting Ongoing Struggles With Live Service Games… Plus A Continued Commitment To Keep Making Them

As reported by Chris Scullion at VGC, Sony CFO Lin Tao, in a post-Q1 earnings report Q&A, reminisced on Sony Interactive Entertainment’s recent struggle with live service projects such as Concord’s near-immediate shutdown in 2024 and Marathon’s indefinite delay. Lin Tao stated that Sony “recognise[s] that there are still many issues” and that the company “should learn the lessons from mistakes and make sure that [Sony] introduces live service content where there’s less waste and it’s more smooth.” Lin Tao also reflected on the success of live service games between five years ago and now, detailing the increase in cash flow from games like Helldivers 2, MLB The Show, Gran Turismo 7, and Bungie’s Destiny 2, encouraging investors to consider live service prospects with that long-term mindset. Lin Tao also earlier noted that 40% of first-party software revenue was from live service games. 

Overall, Sony has recently finished a very successful first fiscal quarter for 2025, with its Games & Network Services division seeing a crisp ¥147.96 billion in operating income compared to ¥65.2 billion in Q1 of last year. The full financial results report can be found here. Special thanks to Vic Hood at gamesindustry.biz.

Evo also happened at the beginning of the month, which is owned now by Sony, so I figured I’d go over the reveals and announcements we got while we’re in the Sony mood.

EVO Reveals: (Compiled by Marc Griffin at Polygon)

• Street Fighter 6 - Revealed Swimwear for the goon in us all. (Hot take: Trixie Mattel made gooning popular, remember your drag history) and C.Viper was announced as a returning playable character after last being seen in Street Fighter 4.

• Tekken 8 - Armor King got a release date trailer, and new character, Miary Zo, was revealed.

• New VIRTUA FIGHTER Project - Gameplay First Look looked really nice.

• Guilty Gear Strive - Lucy (Cyberpunk Edgerunners) got a Gameplay Trailer and there was an announcement of the 2.00 Update. 

• Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves - Ken Masters (Street Fighter) was shown off.

• Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls -  Got Closed Beta dates (Sept. 5 - 7), with registration also going live

• Invincible VS - Revealed Omni-Man as a playable character in an extremely unsurprising move

• Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising - Wilnas got a Gameplay Trailer

• Capcom Fighting Collection 2 - Received a new Title Update inlcuding:  Alpha 3 Max Characters, Ingrid, Yun, Maki, Eagle. being added to Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper, Plasma Sword Combo Routes Update, and new OST and artwork additions. All of which I wish  could be included without download on future prints of the physical release. Dang it, Capcom.

• Under Night In-Birth 2 Sys:Celes - Izumi got a Release Date Trailer. Always happy for more fishgirls.

• Hunter X Hunter Nen X Impact - Season Pass + Neferpitou Reveal

The Week In Ziff Davis - IGN Lays Off Union Staff And Digital Foundry Goes Independent!

DISCLAIMER: This is a satirical dramatisation of this week’s news and does not accurately depict the amicable departure of Digital Foundry from IGN, nor precisely depicts the communication line between Ziff Davis and IGN regarding cost-cutting measures.

On August 4, 2025, the IGN Creators Guild announced via Bluesky, that “despite several quarters in a row of year-over-year revenue increases,” eight union staff members (representing 12% of the IGN Creators Guild bargaining unit) were laid off as a cost-cutting measure from parent company Ziff Davis—a week after similar layoffs impacted 15% of Ziff Davis Creators Guild members. The IGN Creators Guild criticised the continued practice of IGN Entertainment making costly acquisitions of other games media enterprises and outlets such as Gamer Network and subsequent layoffs of Gamer Network staff, highlighting a lack of response from the union’s questions “whether its budget for future acquisitions is being reconsidered as a cost-saving measure alongside…apparently necessary personnel cuts.”  

The union states that it is committed to demanding further support alongside enforcing its interim agreement with the publication regarding severance and other protections to laid-off and affected staff members. The union also remains committed to bargaining with IGN for the main purpose of enshrining layoff protections in its first union contract—alongside improved working conditions amidst understaffing and protections from generative AI.

Three days later, on August 7, 2025, games media outlet Digital Foundry, which strongly “specialis[es] in game technology and hardware”, announced its independence from IGN via a YouTube DF Direct Special panel. As described by technology editor Richard Leadbetter, after former DF parent company Gamer Network’s acquisition by ReedPop and subsequent selling to IGN Entertainment, IGN recently offered to sell Leadbetter the publication’s 50% share at market value in order to buy DF out from under IGN ownership. 

Leadbetter recounts the high price of the buyout and noted partial co-investment help from Gamer Network co-founder Rupert Loman, but nonetheless, Digital Foundry is now fully independently owned and operated. Senior staff writer John Linneman and Alex Battaglia joined Leadbetter to discuss the future of DF and what independence means for the team’s operations going forward. You can see the full DF Direct Special panel here.

We at startmenu congratulate the staff at Digital Foundry for their newfound independence, following a streak of other games media outlets going independent, such as GamesBeat and Giant Bomb, and we look forward to what their future has in store. I personally cannot help but be remiss at the dichotomy between the effects this week has had between the laid-off IGN Creators Guild staff and Digital Foundry. It is the difference between the fight from within and the fight for autonomy. The reporting acumen from IGN staff and Digital Foundry have there own merits to them–IGN acting under the domain of megaconglomerate Ziff Davis does not negate the credit that belongs to many individual staff members and writers–but for IGN to undervalue the careers of the folks that make its company reputable, lest they have enough money and  goodwill to chart out a new avenue for themselves. Furthermore, the contract negotiation process amidst layoffs directly affecting the bargaining team has to feel very demoralising, and I further commend IGN Creators Guild for keeping at it.

Other News

• Battlefield 6 Open Beta for this weekend ends at 8:00 AM GMT tomorrow, Aug. 11, 2025. Resumes Aug. 14, 2025 at 8:00 AM GMT

• Nintendo Switch Online Playtest Program wraps up early tomorrow, 12:59 AM on Aug. 11, 2025.

• Drag x Drive Global Jam wraps up today at 9:00 PM (21:00) GMT

• Grand Theft Auto VI release date confirmed for May 26, 2026.

• Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick (not shirtless this time) details word salad about how BioShock 4 will come out ‘hand on heart, without question.’

• Speedrunning charity event in Japan, RTA, announced that its summer 2025 event will not feature first-party Nintendo games due to not having previously obtained prior permission at any previous events. RTA is in current negotiations with Nintendo to allow its software at future events, but could not gain permission in time for the August 4th event.

• Microsoft Cancels Contraband from Swedish Just Cause developer Avalanche Studios. (Not to be confused with Salt Lake City, Utah, USA developer of Cars 3: Driven to Win and Hogwarts Legacy, Avalanche Software).

PSA: THE FIGHT AGAINST PAYMENT PROCESSORS AND THE ONLINE SAFETY ACT CONTINUES

It is still important to keep contacting payment processors about the censorship their policies have imposed on platforms like itch.io and Steam. Payment processors want this story to die down as surrendering via disinterest is a way they manufacture consent. Below are two sites with more information.

https://yellat.money/

https://stop-paypros.neocities.org/

Additionally, for UK Readers, keep signing the petition to repeal the Online Safety Act! Strength in numbers is still important even past the 100,000 signatures needed. I can’t sign as I am a Yankee, so I am counting on you all to stand up for your rights.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/722903 

Update Patch News Roundup (18/08/25)

A slow news week that acts as the calm before the storm that is Gamescom 2025. Still, I found a way to get mildly dissatisfied with what the games industry had to say this week.

I Would Really Love To Proverbially Trespass Inside Electronic Arts’ Mind Palace Right Now

EA might as well be taking a well-deserved victory lap for how well the simple open beta for the multiplayer of the upcoming Battlefield 6 has done in terms of active players for the short weekend window. According to Eurogamer, the previous beta period during the first weekend of August amassed over 400,000 concurrent players just on Steam. Additionally, Rhys Elliot of video game analytics firm, Alinea Analytics, had tweeted on August 12th, an infographic highlighting that Battlefield 6 had an estimated 605k preorders on Steam, with that number rising to 800k when followed up on in an interview with Connor Makar of Eurogamer on August 15th.

Meanwhile, as highlighted by Jordan Middler at VGC, former BioWare executive producer, Mark Darrah, in an interview on the MrMattyPlays YouTube Channel about the recent troubled history of the Dragon Age: The Veilguard studio, noted the repeated refusal from EA when the studio pitched remasters for the first three Dragon Age games multiple times, stating that the publisher has “historically been…kind of…”(in other words, vehemently)”against remasters”. Darrah—in a statement I feel is often said when a fan is upset a game publisher is deliberately making a bad PR choice but nonetheless I couldn’t agree more with—further lamented that the “publicly traded” Electronic Arts appeared to “basically…be against free money.” It is important to note that this was not the only thing making Dragon Age remasters a challenge for the studio—as how much it would be harder in comparison to the Mass Effect remasters was largely an unknown factor, according to Darrah. Notably all three Mass Effect Games included in the Legendary Collection ran on Unreal Engine. While Dragon Age and Dragon Age 2 both ran on the internet house engine used for KOTOR, and Inquisition ran on the nutritiously finicky Frostbite Engine

Additionally, there were other challenges Electronic Arts had given BioWare over the lengthy development, such as its overlap with the development and release of Anthem, along with the shifting of live-service elements to the final single-player form the game is in now. You can see the full interview here.

Just like with last week’s dichotomous observation of IGN, layoffs of union staff + Digital Foundry’s independence, the operations of Electronic Arts additionally feels like a heterogeneous mixture of just making things work out. The fact EA managed to clinch out a victory with Battlefield 6’s beta still feels like it could be undercut with the same fate Dragon Age: The Veilguard met last year—not meeting EA’s friggin’ ridiculous revenue expectations after being successful given the circumstances. There is the factor Battlefield 6 does not exactly lend itself as well to the Fortnite “we’re just a billboard you use a controller to look at” mindset that would be the best way to get revenue, not so much because Battlefield is principled but because fans are somewhat wanting this game to be true to its grittiness, flooding every possible comment section surround the game reminding the dev that they want, “No clowns” in the game. Even with the likes of Call of Duty now featuring Nicki Minaj and actually how the hell is nobody talking about how Stan and Roger from American Dad are in Black Ops 6, the space in between crossover festival and full-on military simulation is still something that could stand to be filled a bit more, which the success of the open beta may be attributed to being a way to palette cleanse from that sensory overload. 

Game-Key Cards Will Not Sell Your Overhyped Collector's Editions

“We’ve got it all, dood!” (Screenshot taken on August 18, 2025)

I do want to clarify that my usage of the word Overhyped is not in reference to the design or development quality of games like Disgaea 7 Complete and The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon, but rather, the prospect of dishing out extra money for a collector's edition from a company that prides itself on having fun stuff with their big collector's Boxes. I actually own the Disgaea 7 collector’s edition for the original Nintendo Switch. It honestly is not that much to write home about, but I am glad I bought it. It has this quaintly printed foldout shaped like a Shoji screen, the box has some nice gold printed accents, and ordering them with the Pirilika and Fuji plushies made it a treat to have it come in a big box at my home. 

What made me spring for the full collector's edition in that case, however, was not the draw power of those admittedly superfluous knick knacks alone, but the fact this box still came with the assurance I would be owning the physical release of the next Disgaea game—a series I have a lot of fondness for. I have gotten many NISA published physical releases for similar reasons, though, to be honest, even before Nintendo Switch 2, they were definitely not my favorite publisher of physical games by any means.

It is true that for the builds Nippon Ichi Software America may let onto their initial print (and by extension, all prints, since the company or the distributor that prints NIS America physicals do not allow for revised game cards or discs) of a physical release may contain game-breaking bugs, such as Makai Kingdom and La Pucelle: Ragnarok in Prinny Presents: NIS Classics Vols. 2 and 3 respectively, and therefore may render the physical hard or impossible to finish without some less-than-above-board “fixing” after the online servers used for accessing the updates get shut down. That is all to say that the fervent sea change from full game cards on the original Nintendo Switch to Game-Key Cards on Nintendo Switch 2 did not fully surprise me to see. However, when I think of the physical collecting world, which largely does eat up NIS America physicals like sugary, tooth-decaying sludge, they are also a lot like me in that they will be anal about any drawbacks to the items they dish out a lot of money for.

Canadian online video games retailer Videogamesplus is highly heralded for being a common site of NIS America reprints, including the Falcom games they happen to publish outside of Japan like the The Legend of Heroes / Trails and Ys series, as well as the delisted God Wars - The Complete Legend from Kadokawa Games.

The way NIS America prints almost get the red carpet treatment when Videogamesplus is able to do a reprint signifies that they somewhat fall into a semi-”boutique publisher” status in my eyes, and it is not far-fetched to say that most people buying their games physically or at retail are enthusiasts. So when I see that their foray into Game-Key Card collector's editions has real-time trackers showing that they have sold whatever the opposite of gangbusters is, I have to ask if they really have a way of communicating with their core audience. In terms of the toxicity, I would not blame them for dreading that communication channel, but to what extent was the “most beneficial to our customers” line when discussing the Trails Beyond the Horizon physical release actually telling the truth with how much NIS America talked to their customers?

Game-Key Cards will never feel like the end-user owns the game, arguably less than how a digital download would. To buy a collector's edition under this concept is like willingly paying money to have the very selfish kid at school who, nonetheless, always wants to show off their toys (to be fair, kinda same) to give you a gift whilst tying a fishing line to that gift to take away from you at any moment. The fishing line and physicality of the gift is already flimsy and showoffy enough; it is not worth the investment or the space if it is not worth the emotional attachment. It would 100% be less ridiculous if NISA owned up to how they feel about physical games and just stopped producing them, but to see them hype up these key cards as good enough for its collector’s editions and see this venture fall flat on its face at this time is just very much at least a moment for me to chuckle.

Stripe Call Center Support Team Tells Multiple Customers Via Phone That Censoring LGBTQ+ Content Is An Official Company Policy, Later Backtracks As A “Totally Wrong” Claim

Bluesky users like Mady Castigan of Trans News Network and former artist/call campaign leader Dieselbrain reported concerning responses from Stripe’s support team via phone that were quick at the jump to categorize LGBTQ+ content as material that violates their guidelines, usually in a pattern of a stubborn, quick response followed by a frantic retraction. As an example, Castigan’s representative later clarified–after specifically stating that LGBTQ+ content was not allowed under Stripe’s policies for a month, giving a specific window of time–that LGBTQ+ content was not at all targeted for censorship, but that “abusive” content was—a even more vague word.

In a statement to Aftermath, Stripe stated plainly that the company has “no prohibitions on the sale of LGBTQ+ content or goods.” 

With no explanation as to how multiple callers independently received this information, and the silent threat of payment processors successfully wanting this issue to die down in terms of cultural momentum, it is hard to trust this notion, and to me, the fact call center representatives, even under false pretenses, thought that a blanket ban on LGBTQ+ content and goods was an okay policy prescription to relay to customers, is far beyond grounds for concern on what intentions are at play.

Other News

• Sora, Ltd. of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate fame celebrates 20 years in business, along with a tweet from director Masahiro Sakurai anticipating that information surrounding the long-awaited City Trial sequel Kirby Air Riders, a game with no gameplay footage shown yet, will be revealed soon.

• BREAKING NEWS: KIRBY AIR RIDERS DIRECT ANNOUNCED FOR AUGUST 19, 2025. (14:00 UK Time, 9:00 AM Eastern US, 6:00 AM Pacific US)

• Bubsy In: The Purrfect Collection from Atari and Limited Run Games now gives infamous eldritch text Bubsy 3D full analogue stick controls.

• GungHo games has set the end date of Season 21 for live service multiplayer game Ninjala at December 31, 2037, causing many to theorise that content support for the game appears to have wrapped up.

• Sonic Mania development lead Christian Whitehead showcases scrapped content from cancelled/rejected Sonic Mania sequel on Bluesky, introducing his Kangus to the world.

• Drag X Drive, Nintendo’s online multiplayer game that, marketingwise, will not let you call its wheelchairs ‘wheelchairs’—a move that seemingly alienates the disabled community—receives an aggregated score of 65 on OpenCritic as of August 18, 2025. The game has also been revealed to only have been made by 18 core developers. 

PSA: THE FIGHT AGAINST PAYMENT PROCESSORS AND THE ONLINE SAFETY ACT CONTINUES

I intend on having this payment processor protest PSA for my particular run of Update Patch, so if you have read last week’s this is pretty much the same.

https://bsky.app/profile/blackshirtboy.bsky.social/post/3lv7tzs4jqs2t

It is still important to keep contacting payment processors about the censorship their policies have imposed on platforms like itch.io and Steam. Payment processors want this story to die down as surrendering via disinterest is a way they manufacture consent. Below are two sites with more information.

https://yellat.money/

https://stop-paypros.neocities.org/

Additionally, for UK Readers, keep signing the petition to repeal the Online Safety Act! Strength in numbers is still important even past the 100,000 signatures needed. I can’t sign as I am a Yankee, so I am counting on you all to stand up for your rights.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/722903 

Update Patch News Roundup (26/08/25)

I apologise for the delay this week. It was actually a pretty good week for news, but honestly, Gamescom Opening Night Live itself rang mostly… Hollow.

A Long-Anticipated Sequel Finally Gets a Release Date Announced Separately From Gamescom Opening Night Live… Twice

Kirby Air Riders, the upcoming sequel to cult favourite one-button racer, Kirby Air Ride, is releasing worldwide for Nintendo Switch 2 on November 20, 2025. This announcement came towards the end of the 45-minute Kirby Air Riders Direct presented by game director Masahiro Sakurai, where he additionally clarified that it was Nintendo, during the development of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s Fighters Pass Vol. 2, that requested a sequel to the cult classic GameCube original be developed. The main additions this new sequel brings, aside from an HD era coat of paint, is the addition of a second special move button (to Mr. Sakurai’s reluctant chagrin), the ability to play Air Ride and City Trial modes online, and a roster of characters from all over the Kirby franchise as playable racers. (with Bandana Waddle Dee, Chef Kawasaki, Susie from Kirby: Planet Robobot, and many other familiar faces taking the wheel, or warp star, many of which being for the first time ever). The game is retail priced at £66.99/$69.99/€69.99 digital/€79.99 physical.

Hollow Knight: Silksong, the hotly anticipated 2D search-action platformer (or metroidvania, if you would prefer) and Hollow Knight’s long-awaited sequel, also finally has a release date of September 4, 2025, after being initially revealed in February 2019. The presentation announcing the release date itself was teased at Gamescom Opening Night Live, before being uploaded on Team Cherry’s YouTube channel on the 21st of August.  With Silksong releasing in only two weeks from the date of that announcement, one could maybe even say the excitement for this release is almost as large as the excitement surrounding the aforementioned Kirby Air Riders. 

(If only, I love you City Trial. ;o;)

Team Cherry Makes Clear That The Game Wasn’t In Development Hell

Team Cherry also wants it to be said that there is no big development hell controversy. In a Bloomberg interview with cutting-edge games industry investigative reporter Jason Schreier, the founders of Team Cherry, Ari Gibson & William Pelllen, described the seven-year-plus development process as mostly “having fun” with the act of making Silksong. In Gibson and Pellen’s eyes, the long development cycle was actually just a “vehicle for [the studio’s] creativity”; nothing more, nothing less. There has been some suspicion as to the team’s deafening silence up until this point, but Pellen remarked that instead of focusing on “bugging people for the sake of it” with PR and marketing, the team thought that it was its “actual responsibility to work on the game”. Pellen laments how this decision was only anticipating an extra year of development, but one year became many, where the team was just enthralled in the creative process. Nonetheless, many are giving the developers the benefit of the doubt, as a healthy game development process for a small team would indeed take a little longer than is expected from the corporate side of the industry, as Hollow Knight: Silksong is set to be one of the largest indie launches of all time.

Silksong Inadvertently Triggers Domino-Effect Delays For Other Indies.

It should also be noted that Devolver Digital and Bennett Foddy’s Baby Steps and Necrosoft Games’s Demonschool have abruptly had their release dates pushed back to avoid the early September Silksong launch window. Some have made comparisons to the fear of GTA 6 supposedly releasing around this same time, but I am going to borrow a notion from our editor-in-chief about this. It is not so much that sales are the biggest concern, but coverage.

It is no secret that many facets of games media are being stripped for parts, with the recent Ziff Davis and IGN layoffs discussed in the Update Patch for the first week of August, that is only a fraction of the job security threats that face this portion of the industry daily. It effectively disenfranchises voices that speak independently of game publishers, and by extension, disenfranchises voices that can lift up new blood to compete against them. Hollow Knight: Silksong is in a fortunate position to have garnered the reputation it has led for almost a decade, but with less gaming press, just like the loss of “the song of the summer”, there is not as likely going to be another Silksong or indie Half-Life 3 to rally around, and if there is, it is going to have Silksong be compared to it and thereby dwarfing it. This is not, by any means, saying that the release of this game is a bad thing, but the industry is in a different, and yes, worse, place for games coverage in a way that I just wish the future could be bright again just as it was for Team Cherry after the release of the original Hollow Knight, so that we can have more amazing moments like the past years of clown makeup have given us.

Opinion: After Opening Night Live, It’s Apparent That the Keighley Tax Is Homogenising Industry-Wide Shows And Events

Gamescom Opening Night Live, broadcast on August 19th, 2025, came and went without much of a unanimous fanfare of “hype” announcements. With a higher percentage of brand-new reveals and quite a few selections to appease the nostalgia crowd, the pre-show, hosted by Kyle Bosman of Delayed Input, honestly felt more balanced than the c-suite sludge that appeared to inundate the main show. The main showcase was given a platitudinous preamble from Geoff Keighley, stating how the spirit of E3 is still right there in Germany. Keighley additionally gave his kudos to the sales success of Aggro Crab’s Peak and Sassy Chap Games’ Date Everything, stating how “small teams with big ideas can change the industry”, and then proceeding to announce the announcement of what would then be Hollow Knight: Silksong’s release date reveal.

Following that preamble praising the innovation of small teams, however, came a slew of not much of anything that reflected that ethos. More news about mostly already announced triple-A titles and mobile games from megaconglomerates flooded the majority of the two-hour runtime. I am sure everyone had at least one announcement they got excited about that their friends would look at them weird for appreciating, but no announcement other than, perhaps just the Silksong pre-announcement, really seemed to stick with worldwide audiences. The ending zinger being a pre-rendered teaser for the sequel to Black Myth: Wukong, Black Myth: Zhong Kui, would certainly have many folks excited for it, as the original game did win Player’s Voice at last year’s game awards, but something about the bizarre “no feminist propaganda” email sent to streamers promoting the game still, to me, prevents this announcement from feeling like it is uniting the gaming community.

Looking back on the presentation, some reporting done by our own Editor-In-Chief Lex Luddy about the increased price of Gamescom Opening Night Live sponsor bookings back in June acts as a revealing autopsy of its bland corporate greyness. There are actually two categories of announcements at Gamescom ONL, there are paid sponsorships which are games that pay to get into the show and are, and then there are editorials, which are games selected by an editorial team that are invited to be on the show for free. However, those editorial slots are, as aforementioned, invite-only, likely from the staff at Keighley’s company, Gameslice. If this recent presentation is anything to go by, it appears sponsorships were plentifully sold, but with that leaving world premieres, the most likely candidates to be editorial slots, being relegated to mostly the pre-show and the first hour.

As the executives and marketers at triple-A companies are where the money gets funneled to in the industry these days, and with companies like Microsoft and Electronic Arts still wanting to boast about record economic growth, it really feels like these companies use that centralised pocket book to keep industry-wide events mostly centred around only what the big, increasingly more homogenised, players have to say. With things like the Opening Night Live Pre-Show and Day of the Devs, it still feels like there’s enough of a space carved out for smaller-ish scale announcements, but it should be said that it’s smaller-ish and not really the little guy. Plus, Day of the Devs is run by its own nonprofit, with Gameslice only hosting Day of the Devs on their YouTube Channel, so Keighley is not really involved with Day of the Devs for anything beyond brownie points by the looks of it.

 The pre-show was still not really very proletarian in my eyes (sorry, Kyle). With the nature of the indie development scene and the nature of getting people excited for smaller reveals, I do not really know what the solution would be to reverse this “Keighley tax” homogeneity. 

Interest in indie games usually comes down to what gets viral in the myriad algorithms digital creators and internet users have to compete with, with everything else swimming in the sea of a thousand niches. Plenty of these niches can and will show up to support what they love, though. I would say this is the reason games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Nubby’s Number Factory, and Blue Prince have all floated to the top at different points throughout the year. There is still yearning for turn-based RPGs beyond what pre-established big-name voices can mutter, many can find joy in an arcadey high-score-based experience without being bogged down by crummy monetisation, and many are always fascinated by what new ways storytelling can be presented in the medium. What delivery method we will use to find these new experiences may just not be something that resembles E3 anymore, which may be a disappointing non-answer, but that is also kind of how I would describe many of Gamescom Opening Night Live’s reveals. 

The one thing I would lastly add is games like Nubby’s Number Factory, et cetera, were something I discovered via word of mouth; the biggest presentation Nubby’s needed for me to buy it is a Northernlion stream and another online acquaintance giving the game its flowers, and in that case, that recommendation feels more genuine and more motivating rather than if it were coming from Keighley’s expensive tongue. Other games I have played or plan to play this year, Of The Devil, the new update for Picayune Dreams, and even midsize titles like Tetris: The Grand Master 4 - Absolute Eye, would only really be on my radar from dedicated fans in their respective series or genre, giving them the push from the heart that I think counts the most. I do not know if Gameslice presentations really have a way to compete with that, other than the events themselves being a way to bring people together. I suppose that makes a good argument for the show floor, but I cannot exactly afford a ticket to Cologne right now. There is something to be said that pop culture is generally in an era that favors the vulnerable and authentic, and Keighley often rarely comes across that way to me, sadly—certainly not as much as hearing about what my friends and acquaintances have going on, but can anything really compete with that at the end of the day?

Other News

• Bungie CEO Pete Parsons retires, with Justin Truman becoming Bungie’s new studio head.

• Japan’s National Diet Library states that Nintendo Switch 2 Game-Key Cards are ineligible for preservation in its archives, as they do not consider them physical media. (via Chris Scullion @ VGC)

• Yooka-Replaylee from Playtonic will be getting a physical release with the full game on the cartridge on the Nintendo Switch 2 from PM Studios in the North American region, retailing for $49.99.

• Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has been subpoenaed to appear in court on October 1, 2025, in relation to a trial that sentenced three former Ubisoft executives to prison and fines(of which the prison sentences have since been suspended).

• Rumours are circulating of a Nintendo Direct happening in early-to-mid September.

• Sony Sells Partial Ownership of the fighting game tournament event series EVO to Indian e-sports firm Nodwin Gaming, other Co-Owner, RTS (founded by Pokimane), and received a large investment from Saudi Arabian firm Qiddiya, strengthening the Saudi firm’s existing partnership with EVO. Sony will still remain as a sponsor of the event.

PSA: THE FIGHT AGAINST PAYMENT PROCESSORS AND THE ONLINE SAFETY ACT CONTINUES

I intend on having this payment processor protest PSA for my particular run of Update Patch, so if you have read last week’s, this is pretty much the same.

It is still important to keep contacting payment processors about the censorship their policies have imposed on platforms like itch.io and Steam. Payment processors want this story to die down as surrendering via disinterest is a way they manufacture consent. Below are two sites with more information.

https://yellat.money/

https://stop-paypros.neocities.org/

Additionally, for UK Readers, keep signing the petition to repeal the Online Safety Act! Strength in numbers is still important even past the 100,000 signatures needed. I can’t sign as I am a Yankee, so I am counting on you all to stand up for your rights.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/722903

Update Patch News Roundup (03/09/25)

Hello, dear readers! As Labour Day can trace its roots in my residing city of Chicago—thanks to the Haymarket Uprising for workers’ rights—I want to say I hope you all had a great Labour Day weekend; (for those that celebrate) I did not feel comfortable disrupting, even though Labour Day is kind of mostly a yankee but also somewhat international thing. I think the principles of workers’ rights are very pertinent to the industry right now, so I do want to emphasize how important a symbol like Labour Day can be for many creative and working class communities over here in the states. 

𝅘𝅥𝅮Get Up, Get Down, Chicago Is A Union Town!𝅘𝅥𝅮

I, nonetheless, decided to have this one bleed a little into September to wrap up my first month with writing Update Patch. It has been a pleasure, and it has been an amazing learning experience, and I cannot thank you enough for tuning in.

The July 2025 Circana Report, A.K.A. A Necessary Reality Check From Mat Piscatella

It is true that for many of us at startmenu, we prefer to write from the perspective of the little guys in the industry—the consumers, both triple-A and indie developers, games journalists, folks in the industry from marginalised groups, and the lifeblood that keeps this medium sane. However, I do find my plight against c-suite industry scourgebringers that harm our communities often can be driven by the emotion of both wanting to continue to enjoy games as I have my whole life despite a changing landscape plus the desire to see the folks in our industry have stable living and working conditions that don’t harm their wellbeing. I do not intend to walk back on those ideals, but purely harping on them may result in neglecting my ability to understand “the method to the madness” that games publishers are operating with. 

By “understand,” I do not mean so much as to sympathise with the perspective, but to rather “know my enemy”, as it were, being the whole systemic conditions the games industry falls under. When a large publisher sits on intellectual property and patents they don’t use for decades whilst simultaneously liquidating the creators and studios of those ideas, bank time after time again and again on poorly thought out live service battle pass poppycock, or simply try harder to push cloud gaming and subscription models, it is easy for me to default on headscratching in confusion and frustration, but despite the distaste I have for these decisions, it would be incorrect for me to say there was not any type of rhyme or reason going into why said decisions were made. However, with the July 2025 Circana report recently coming out for the videogames industry, plus some extra commentary with Mat Piscatella’s lovely appearance on Giant Bomb’s Game Mess Mornings, there is some solid insight that can be gathered on the aforementioned “madness” our industry keeps spiraling in, plus some good news!

Let’s first go over some notable sales takeaways:

• Donkey Kong Bananza ranking third in best selling (in dollar sales) for July purely through physical media shows a strong start for first-party exclusives on the platform.

• EA Sports College Football 26 echoes the success of last year’s predecessor and revival of the collegiate American football franchise, becoming the third best-selling game year-to-date in just its first month.

• Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 ranks high not only for all platforms but within the top 4 for each platform (plus PC) individually.

• Market spending is down from June but is up from July of last year.

• Nintendo Switch 2 primarily drove hardware spending for July, and the console has sold over two million units lifetime-to-date

• Mobile and Non-Mobile subscription sectors have increased in spending since last year, seeing an overall rise in games spending of 4% and offsetting a 9% decrease in console spending

• Call of Duty Mobile sees sharp competition from Garena’s mobile shooter Free Fire

• Accessory spending has fallen 8% from the same time last year. The Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller is the highest grossing accessory year-to-date.

With all of these new details from Circana, there has also been the additional bonus of Mat Piscatella sharing extra commentary with Jeff Grubb on the Game Mess Mornings news podcast for August 27, 2025. Piscatella frequently emphasises how “crowded” and “dominated” the spending market is by large established titles, with the reality that more titles coming out largely means less revenue for non-juggernauts, in other words, oversaturation. 

Many of us, who already have found their niche appreciating smaller titles, fail to understand the refusal for publishers to pull a Blumhouse and attempt smaller scope titles that can afford to not make as much revenue, and offer more individual chances for breakout successes, such as Aggro Crab’s PEAK, and the like. The reality is, often, management is seriously looking at how much of a gargantuan slice these juggernaut games remove from the pie of games spending, like Grand Theft Auto V, Minecraft, Roblox, et cetera. 

To paraphrase Piscatella and Grubb’s discussion on the matter, companies are willing to make a Concord-style failure one after another if it means it produces the golden goose in the process. Piscatella also notes how often other large games happen to be sequels or established IP, stating how other big successes, but also other big failures, are paradoxically taking a large risk on being safe, and when audiences are noticing that, they tend to be less impressed each time after. However, since the market is being dominated by longstanding series like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, College Football, Call of Duty, Mario Kart, Spider-Man, even 1981’s own Donkey Kong, et cetera, it makes the success of even an original mobile game like Free Fire seem like an anomaly.

Mobile and subscriptions primarily drove spending more than usual this month compared to July of last year, with subscriptions additionally encompassing console and PC services like Nintendo Switch Online, Xbox Game Pass, World of Warcraft, and even Star Wars: The Old Republic. Piscatella additionally notes when Game Pass offering cloud services to lower tiers is discussed, that cloud streaming services are popular for audiences in nations like South Korea and Brazil, despite the technology not really being super convenient for audiences like the United States. 

This does signal to me, as someone who vastly prefers offline experiences and ownership, that companies can spot a place for growth in subscription models. Internet connections, however, to me, seem to be the largest hurdle in getting cloud gaming to catch on over here, with many parts of the world, including the United States, not really focused on improving that infrastructure to consumers. To see that when this hurdle is overcome, there is an attach rate to this sort of thing, is a bit sobering, and would probably have me rethink my rhetoric about what the downsides for cloud gaming and subscriptions really are.

When discussing Atari’s acquisition of smaller-scale Ubisoft games from the seventh generation of consoles, Piscatella remarks how selling off intellectual property is a rather unusual practice for a company, no matter the size. IP has the most potential to go up in value because what that IP represents can be very dynamic, even if supposedly forgotten. One could point to the history of Iron Man as more a b-tier or c-tier Marvel Comics hero until he was the central focus of the early Marvel Cinematic Universe, and perhaps, it is normal for management to be very scrupulous about treating every little intellectual property under its domain as a potential Iron Man.

At the end of the day, I still think the ideas of treating every intellectual property and trademark under one’s possession as Iron Man, expecting what works strongly in some markets to eventually go global 100% of the time, and being solely reverent for a nonexistent forever game, is still rather crazy, but seeing how the market is shaping, the crazy now kind of makes sense. This reasoning is inspired by the panic the industry still experiences, and such panic still leads to devastating harm. To some, it may not really help knowing how the layoff or cancellation or live service commitment press release sausage is made, but at least having that info on hand, to me, can be a good preamble to the autopsy on what harms and damages these practices keep doing.

Epic Games CEO And Co-Founder Tim Sweeney Passes Buck To Game Developers For Unreal Engine 5 Optimisation Issues On Lower-End Target Platforms.

RedGamingTech on Twitter (currently X) reporting on a translated quote from Tim Sweeney in an article from Korean publication This Is Game. 

Per Nick Evanson at PCGamer, Sweeney made this response to the press asking about Unreal Engine 5 optimisation issues at an Unreal Fest event in Seoul, South Korea. Sweeney’s response boils down to firstly saying the onus of the issue is on developers, and second, stating that there is an industry issue of building for high-end hardware before descaling to lower-end specs. As reporters like Evanson have noted, there is some truth to that notion, with Evanson’s own account of many developers building for the high-end rigs the studio utilizes, with optimising for lower hardware being done towards the end of development—and, of course, closer to tight deadlines where the product needs to ship. 

However, many have also criticised the “pass-the-buck” nature of Sweeney’s comment, even if Sweeney has also added engineers can be sent in to help with issues if necessary. RedGamingTech, again on Twitter, replying to a user noting Digital Foundry’s reporting of Fortnite’s continued Unreal Engine 5 issues, agreed that this framing was made to throw developers under the bus.

As Unreal Engine 5 issues still remain a prescient topic with the both lauded and panned release of Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater, the problem is as apparent as ever to both developers and consumers, but of course, as Tim Sweeney’s job is mainly to defend everything Epic Games is doing, it appears Tim Sweeney is ready to avoid taking criticism for any faults in our “industry-standard” engine to heart.

King (Of Candy Crush Fame) From Activision-Blizzard-King Under Microsoft Allegedly At Low Morale Due To Layoff Tensions And Pressure From Generative AI Mandates.

Per Neil Long at Mobilegamer.Biz, some of the claims of turmoil reported at Candy Crush developer King include staff taking legal action over severance, haphazard and disorganized layoffs, toxic management, and daily AI usage mandates that even leadership is critical of. This AI mandate reportedly demands around 70 to 80 percent daily usage of AI on general tasks, with a year-end goal of 100 percent daily usage from all staff. 

While AI is aforementioned not the sole reason for low morale, the grim reality of 200 staffers being let go at King are to directly be replaced by the AI models the same staffers helped train or develop is frankly a very cynical and dehumanizing thru-line to put the let go and remaining staff through. With the independence of former Activision studio, Toys For Bob, the union organizing at Bethesda and other development studios under Microsoft, and the Microsoft employees protesting the company’s complicity in genocide and surveillance of Palestinians at the behest of the state of Israel, I can only hope for the human in these studios to find a way to resist or escape, but looking at how pro-palestine protesters are being fired & arrested, and with King’s morale in particular, so much lasting damage has already been done.

Opinion: We Would Likely Not Have Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles Without Piracy And Unauthorised Backups. Today, It Still Will Have A Full Physical Release, Avoiding Nintendo Switch 2 Physically, Perhaps Just For Now.

In a panel at PAX West 2025, Director and Art Director for the remaster of the Playstation classic, Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles, (Kazutoyo Maehiro and Hiroshi Minagawa respectively) discussed the peril of initializing this project when the source code for the original Playstation game was lost. Maehiro expressed his gratitude to fans when recalling how the source code for the 1997 original was already dismantled for the purposes of overwriting new languages to build the game for western audiences, done again and again for multiple languages, but when trying to resurface the original Japanese source code for this modern remake, he remarked that the team found themselves relying on fan websites for reverse-engineered and fan-decompiled source code data, which is to say, it is very possible they relied on unauthorized dumpings, and therefore, a pirated copy, of the game data, as remarked by @envinyon.bsky.social. Maehiro also describes being “true to the original” as reasons for passing over basing the remaster on the PSP or mobile versions of the game.

This story is actually a common one for remasters; Final Fantasy Tactics is not particularly in a unique situation, but it is an interesting juxtaposition to put against the modern-day phasing out of physical releases. 

The Physical Media Spiel

I know I tend to shove one physical release story into each of my Update Patches, and for those that dislike physical games or physical game likers, I hear where you are coming from. Physical media has not been an end-all-be-all for preservation since gaming became more online-reliant. DRM-free digital is a promising alternative, cutting out the increasingly expensive cost to produce physical media, but with the biggest caveat being willingness from big publishers to play ball. 

Physical media has just been the most established avenue, especially for console gamers that do not necessarily want to tow the line with ROM sites or simply just want to save storage on their system. For enthusiasts, it does go a bit further; there is a rather sour taste to the idea of “not owning” the home entertainment we love; in the legal sense, there are many cases as to why software “can’t” be owned, but the thing offline access brings to enthusiasts is not so much the legal sense of ownership, but the agency to access software independently from the status of online servers. 

The Wii U and Nintendo 3DS e-shops lasting a bit over a decade may seem satisfyingly long enough to many, but a decade is not really that long in the grand scheme of other entertainment mediums, be it books, movies, music, et cetera. However, it is true that even with how complete physicals are built on Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 today, there are still avenues for those physical releases to render one’s console being banned from online services or straight up not having the cartridge work anymore. It is also true many disc games for Playstation 4, 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X, plus the physical media for little known Tiger NetJet, are meant to be nothing more than license check-ins meant to download the rest, but many are also not anywhere near 100%, with Game-Key Cards being nothing new.

Square Enix’s New Generation Track Record

Square Enix has been proudly dishing out Game-Key Cards for Dragon Quest I & II: HD-2D Remake and Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD Remaster, which feature none of the offline data access that I personally see as the main benefit for a physical release. On top of this, Dragon Quest I & II in particular will not have an upgrade path from the Nintendo Switch full physical to the Nintendo Switch 2 version, as it is not a part of the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition “system” with an upgrade pack. However, it appears Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles is taking a different approach. 

In Japan, the Nintendo Switch 2 physical is, unfortunately, a simple code-in-box, but it has the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition banner at the bottom, rather than a Game-Key Card banner, meaning that this game can be upgraded from the Nintendo Switch 1 full Game Card release. Additionally, this upgrade pack is free (via NintendoLife). I am still saddened by the lack of offline access for Nintendo Switch 2 enhancements, but the commitment to the only physical releases of this game being full physicals on Nintendo Switch and Playstation 5 I believe speaks to the ethos of the game’s development being uncovered through old physical media dumps. (and the code-in-box probably is even cheaper than Game-Key Cards) I would argue, perhaps, we could still see a Nintendo Switch 2 full physical one day down the line.

Note: A Game-Key Card, to me, feels more counterintuitive to the mission of physical media than a code-in-box does, simply because a code-in-box is really just packaging for a download code, which already is simply a digital game, whereas a Game-Key Card is more so posturing itself as what a physical game should be from now on, with its online dependence being tethered to the media itself, rather than just the case. This is my reasoning for, while still absolutely disliking the notion of publishers posturing their code-in-boxes as its physical releases, not really seeing it as much of a “threat” to “download required” discs and game cards. 

Square Enix’s Good-ish Bad-ish Possible Physical Future

Square Enix has partnered recently with Limited Run Games–a company I have many nice and mean things to say about–for the new Fear Effect remaster, which I think could lead to a stronger partnership down the line. Limited Run Games is plagued with quality control issues that are super important not to pass over, often not really caring if the physical release printed for a game is fully bug-free or content complete, and CEO Josh Fairhurst reportedly in the past not being very scrupulous about these issues, per former Limited Run co-founder Douglas Bogart.

“I wasn’t there when they sold CD-R’s to customers but I was there when he proposed the idea and I with a few other co-workers told him it was a bad idea to sell burned discs to customers, but his response was it was cheaper, and they wouldn’t play or notice it. I had hoped he got off that idea but clearly didn’t.”

This is why I previously have described Limited Run Games and boutique publishers as a bit of a “necessary evil” for physical media because they are still companies beholden to making choices that benefit their own profits or ideas of success rather than valuing consumer wants or needs, even if that is really the only feasible avenue said products will be made under. (also an example of why DRM-free digital is more proletarian) Limited Run physicals even these days are still often hit-or-miss, with Yakuza Kiwami on Nintendo Switch being fully complete, but with its Yakuza 3 and Yakuza 4 PS4 prints being the same exact day-one build as Sega’s original printing. 

The Raidou Remastered collector’s edition for Nintendo Switch 2 is still a Game-Key Card, et cetera, et cetera. I find myself in a position of calling balls and strikes with Limited Run, and I am not particularly at “boycott all of Limited Run” territory quite yet, but If I were a developer or publisher, I would be more excited to work with Lost In Cult, iam8bit, or Fangamer, rather than the reputation Limited Run Games has, at least on the Physical games side of things. However, Limited Run Games is the company more successfully able to court big names like Sega, Ubisoft, Konami, and Atari (which owns Digital Eclipse, for instance); plus, their ownership under Embracer Group makes them a go-to for other studios under that umbrella. It is likely that if Square Enix takes this route, it will be through Limited Run, which I cannot say any heartbreak around that fact is invalid.

Other News

• The end of de minimis exemptions for goods coming to the United States paints peril for many video games retailers that ship to the country

• Suda51 reportedly interested in making a Batman game inspired by Batman Black & White, saying how he would like kpop group BLACKPINK to perform the main theme music.

• ORIGINAL REPORTING: As confirmed by myself (additionally posted in the Nintendo Revised Facebook Group) and tested by doesitplay.org, Kirby And The Forgotten Land - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Star-Crossed World is the first Nintendo Switch 2 physical release to not have any updates or day one patches available at launch. There is no extra download available nor necessary for the content on the game card. 

• New Nintendo Sound Clock Alarmo sounds to come, including a set for Kirby and The Forgotten Land + Star-Crossed World

• Atari acquires the rights to several Ubisoft games from the seventh generation of consoles, including Child of Eden.

• LUMINES: Arise from Enhance had a demo period over the weekend for Steam and PS5.

• Unannounced Dino Crisis remake from Capcom reportedly cancelled.

• Per Jason Schreier: Perfect Dark almost brought back from cancellation by Take-Two, but plans fell through, leading to last week’s layoffs at Crystal Dynamics.

PSA: THE FIGHT AGAINST PAYMENT PROCESSORS AND THE ONLINE SAFETY ACT CONTINUES

I intend on having this payment processor protest PSA for my particular run of Update Patch, so if you have read last week’s, this is pretty much the same.

It is still important to keep contacting payment processors about the censorship their policies have imposed on platforms like itch.io and Steam. Payment processors want this story to die down as surrendering via disinterest is a way they manufacture consent. Below are two sites with more information.

https://yellat.money/

https://stop-paypros.neocities.org/

Additionally, for UK Readers, keep signing the petition to repeal the Online Safety Act! Strength in numbers is still important even past the 100,000 signatures needed. I can’t sign as I am a Yankee, so I am counting on you all to stand up for your rights. Show Starmer and his St. George’s Cross party streamers what you’re made of. 

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/722903