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This Week (Sept 27 - Oct 3) |
We close September and welcome October amid major changes across the games industry. Debates around physical media continue as several projects face cancellation and major games reach new milestones on Steam. Publishers are also adjusting to changes in the market, with some reconsidering their approach to physical releases as hardware moves further toward digital distribution. At the same time, live-service games continue to attract large audiences and generate strong revenue, driving competition across platforms through major collaborations, anniversaries, and expanded server capacity.
Our reviews this week found plenty to appreciate across different genres, with strong gameplay serving as a common thread. Repetition and technical issues held back several otherwise promising experiences, while some story-driven titles struggled to maintain a consistent pace. The week’s reviews ultimately covered games with clear creative ambitions that did not always receive the polish needed to fully realize them.
Nevertheless, here’s a quick look at some of the week’s biggest gaming headlines.
Gaming News At A Glance
Golden Joystick Awards 2026 Public Voting Now Open
Freddy Fazbear From FNAF Comes to Fortnite
Gacha Game Revenue Rankings for September Is Out Now
Punishing: Gray Raven Adds Kurumi Tokisaki in Date A Live V Crossover
Aion 2 Reaches #1 on Steam Despite Rough Advanced Access Launch
Other News and Developments This Week
Review Roundup: Sept 27 to Oct 3
The 2010s Called…
⚫︎ Gears of War: E-Day
⚫︎ The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Remastered
⚫︎ Aion 2
Other Reviews This Week
Gaming News At A Glance: Golden Joystick Awards 2026 Nominees Announced, Fortnite Collabs With FNAF, Gacha Game Revenue Rankings September 2026 Released, PGR x Date A Live V Adds Kurumi Tokisaki, Aion 2 Tops Steam Charts
Golden Joystick Awards 2026 Public Voting Now Open
The 44th Golden Joystick Awards are now open for public voting. Fans are able to cast ballots across 21 categories until October 23. Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, NTE: Neverness to Everness, and Wuthering Waves are among the nominees for Still Playing - Mobile. ANANTA is competing for Most Wanted Game alongside upcoming titles such as Persona 6 and The Witcher 4.
The winners will be announced at a London ceremony on November 11, with the event also streamed worldwide. The Golden Joystick Awards have been publicly voted on since 1983 and recorded more than 21 million votes last year, when Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 led the ceremony with seven awards. This year’s show will also introduce a new design for the long-running Golden Joystick trophy.
Freddy Fazbear From FNAF Comes to Fortnite
The wait is over for Fortnite and Five Nights at Freddy’s fans as the crossover arrives on October 1. Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza will appear on the island as part of Fortnitemares 2026. The location will feature security cameras, jump scares, and four animatronic bosses: Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy.
The four animatronics will also arrive as skins, each featuring a Withered style based on FNAF 2. Epic has teased gameplay that lets players take on the animatronics’ forms after defeating them. The company has yet to confirm whether the crossover will include a dedicated game mode.
Gacha Game Revenue Rankings for September Is Out Now
September reshuffled the top of the gacha market as Genshin Impact reclaimed first place at an estimated $50.23 million in mobile revenue. Naruto Mobile and Honkai: Star Rail followed closely at around $35.75 million each. GachaRevenue’s estimates put them just $15,000 apart. Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle also made a major jump into fourth place after its September revenue estimate nearly tripled.
Further down the rankings, Zenless Zone Zero fell to 18th place despite launching Version 3.2. Love and Deepspace climbed to fifth after its second straight monthly increase. Fate/Grand Order dropped from first to 10th after its August anniversary and summer campaigns ended. The figures come from Sensor Tower estimates covering iOS and Android spending, so they should be treated as rough indicators of mobile revenue trends.
Punishing: Gray Raven Adds Kurumi Tokisaki in Date A Live V Crossover
Kurumi Tokisaki has entered the fight as Punishing: Gray Raven’s latest crossover character. The S-Rank character arrives as part of the game’s collaboration with Date A Live V, which launched on September 29 shortly after the Anchored in Faith update. Her Astral Dress and signature abilities are also featured in the crossover showcase.
The launch has already drawn attention from fans who have been waiting to play as Kurumi since her reveal in August. Some players reported that the collaboration banner was missing after the daily reset on launch day, which led to questions about its actual release time. Kuro Games has also marked the crossover with a giveaway featuring signed boards from Kurumi voice actor Asami Sanada.
Aion 2 Reaches #1 on Steam Despite Rough Advanced Access Launch
Aion 2 made a strong early impression on Steam, reaching the top of the Global Top Sellers chart during its Advanced Access period. The MMORPG also hit 171,530 concurrent players on September 30 and reached No. 1 in eight countries. The numbers came before its full free-to-play launch on October 5.
The strong demand also put pressure on the launch. NC delayed the start of Advanced Access by about an hour, then added new servers after players encountered queues, connection problems, and restricted character creation. Further maintenance followed to address quest-related issues as the publisher prepares for the full launch.
Other News and Developments This Week
⚫︎ Heaven Burns Red x Persona 5 Royal Collab Goes Global on October 8
⚫︎ WoW: Forever Is So Popular Blizzard Raised the Beta Cap Again Amidst Naming Bans
⚫︎ The Last of Us Saga Moves Forward With New Projects and a Ghost of Yōtei Collab
⚫︎ Silent Hill 3 Could Be Bloober Team’s Next Big Mystery Beyond Its Four-Game Lineup Through 2027
⚫︎ Layers of Fear Has Reached 15 Million Players as Multimedia Expansion Begins
⚫︎ The Witcher 3 Remaster Hits New Steam Peak and Drops Free Rewards and Cyberpunk 2077 Collab
⚫︎ Deadlock Hits New Player Count Peak With a Massive Update, but Valve Still Calls It a Playtest
⚫︎ Among Us New Ghost Role Influencer Lets Dead Players Send Picture Clues
⚫︎ Xbox's Disc-to-Digital Rollout Turns Your Old Game Discs Into Free Digital Copies
⚫︎ Satisfactory's First Expansion Goes Underground With Core Values
⚫︎ Love and Deepspace's Drink Event Featured Toxic Flower Cocktails, and Fans Had to Point It Out
⚫︎ Astrae Oratio Director Explains How Tekken, Street Fighter, and 90s Dating Sims Shaped the Game
⚫︎ Stranger Than Heaven Devs Think Traditional Action Game Controls Are the Weird Part
⚫︎ Crimson Desert's First DLC Gets Delayed Two Weeks for More Polish
⚫︎ PUBG: Black Budget Canceled After Two Closed Alpha Tests, Second PUBG Spin-Off to Shut Down This Year
⚫︎ FF7 Revelation's Director Fought to Save Its Physical Disc, But Even He Thinks the Format Is Dying
Review Roundup: Sept 27 to Oct 3
The 2010s Called…
The 2010s called, and apparently they want their games back. This week’s reviews covered plenty of familiar formulas and returning favorites, from Gears of War: E-Day and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered to sequels like Minecraft Dungeons II. Across the lineup, strong gameplay ideas carried several releases far, though polish, repetition, and technical issues still had plenty to say.
Gears of War: E-Day
Seven years after the last mainline entry, Gears of War: E-Day brings Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago back to the beginning of the Locust War. The prequel puts its focus on their early days as soldiers, pairing the series’ signature cover shooting with larger free-roam sections and a more character-driven campaign.
The Locust War has rarely felt this good to shoot through, even when E-Day starts showing some cracks. The combat remains its biggest strength, and the free-roam sections give the campaign room to slow down and let its characters breathe. Repetition can make the linear firefights drag, and technical issues occasionally undercut the spectacle. Still, finishing a nearly 30-hour campaign feeling satisfied says plenty about how well E-Day captures the core of Gears of War.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Remastered
Geralt’s trip across the Continent still holds up, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered makes the journey easier to appreciate all over again. The new lighting gives familiar locations more depth, while the gameplay changes smooth out some of the rougher edges that have lingered since the original release.
The remaster shines when it lets The Witcher 3’s smaller details do the work. Its quests still turn simple monster hunts into stories about people and their problems, and the world feels lived-in enough that even side content can leave an impression. Movement feels better, and the revamped skill system makes builds more interesting to experiment with. Combat still feels dated in places, and performance issues can take some shine off the upgrade.
Aion 2
An amnesiac Daeva wakes up without the powers they are supposed to have, leaving AION 2 to build its story around the mystery of what happened and why. That personal question gives the usual MMO errands more purpose, especially when the larger conflict can feel disconnected from the character.
Combat gives AION 2 its strongest hook so far. Skills flow naturally into one another, such as abilities that stagger enemies before opening them up to heavier attacks, so learning a class feels like something you pick up through play. The world is also impressive to explore, but the story assumes a familiarity with Aion's lore that newcomers may not have. Flight feels too restricted to live up to its promise, and putting trading behind a subscription puts a core MMO system behind a paywall. Server problems during early access add another layer of frustration.
Other Reviews This Week
⚫︎ Minecraft Dungeons II Review [First Impressions] | More of the Same, But in A Good Way
⚫︎ End of Abyss Review [First Impressions] | Harshing Great Vibes With A Messy Start
⚫︎ Wuthering Waves 3.7 Phase 1 Review | Delivered a Great Climax to an Otherwise Flawed Arc
⚫︎ Honkai: Star Rail 4.6 Review | Rushes Through So Many Major Developments That None Get to Shine
⚫︎ Nivalis Nights First Impressions Review | A Gorgeous Cyberpunk Life Sim That Needs More Polish
