BioWare's closure reverberates as Phantom Blade Zero dominates guides

BioWare co-founder speaking out on the studio's closure and the cancellation of Mass Effect puts a somber cap on one of the more painful chapters in RPG history. The comments add a human dimension to what had been, until now, mostly a corporate story — and they arrive as the industry continues to reckon with what the loss of that studio means for the franchises left behind.

Phantom Blade Zero is clearly the game people are actually playing right now, judging by the volume of guides and tip pieces flooding in — New Game Plus breakdowns, weapon locations, and multiple beginner walkthroughs all landing in the same cycle. Separately, Epic Games is doubling down hard on generative AI across Fortnite and Unreal Engine 6, with engineers reportedly no longer writing the bulk of the code themselves, a statement that is already drawing sharp reactions. Alien: Isolation 2 also surfaced with some concrete-ish detail: its lead developer says the Xenomorph will hunt players more aggressively than in the original, and its PS5 release window may have been narrowed.

On Switch 2, Dokapon Kingdom: Connect 2 has been announced for the platform alongside Switch and PC, and Palworld's developer has expressed openness to a Switch 2 release if the opportunity arises. Walmart canceling Zelda Switch 2 pre-orders a day before release is the kind of logistical failure that tends to overshadow whatever good news surrounds a launch. Xbox, meanwhile, pushed out a new update adding ten features, though an early assessment of the platform's performance following its stated reset suggests the results look familiar.