The final full week of March is coming to a close, and it has been a rollercoaster of emotions if you’ve been following the recent gaming news. Between showcases and turmoil in the industry, you never know what you’re in for whenever you open your phone and start scrolling through your feed, but if you need a quick roundup, we’re here to help. We’ve listed the biggest stories of the week below, so grab a fresh cup of your favorite hot beverage, settle down into a comfy seat, and take a quick dive into everything that happened this week.
Epic is laying off more than 1,000 employees
This week had a lot of bad news, starting with Epic Games announcing that more than 1,000 people would be impacted by sweeping layoffs. CEO Tim Sweeney framed them as a necessary step to ensure sustainability, and the impact from losing hundreds of seasoned workers will see several Fortnite projects and games shut down or scaled back. Rocket Racing, Ballistic, and Festival Battle Stage will go offline later this year, while Horizon Chase and Horizon Chase Turbo will be removed from digital stores starting June 1. This comes in the wake of Epic hiking the price of Fortnite’s in-game currency V-Bucks as player engagement has begun to dip as of late.
PlayStation is testing out dynamic pricing
Rumors of Sony testing out dynamic pricing system have been circulating for years now, but it looks like it might be real after all. People browsing the PSN Store have reported seeing wildly different prices for games, but at least this week’s PlayStation news can’t get any worse…right?
This week’s PlayStation news gets worse with massive PS5 console price hikes
As I said to my orthopedist after I got my new shoes, I stand corrected. Sony announced global price hikes for PS5 consoles, starting at an extra $100 for the base and Digital Edition models, an extra $50 for the PlayStation Portal, and the PS5 Pro will cost a whopping $150 more. The new prices go into effect starting April 2.
Pokemon Champions gets a release date
Pokemon Champions brings one of the best parts of the Pokemon experience–battling–to console and it now has a confirmed release date of April 8. The free-to-start game will be headed to Switch consoles first, but there’s no word yet on when it’ll be coming to mobile devices. If it takes off, we’re imagining that it could solve the onboarding issue that has plagued the IP for decades now and make it more approachable. Just don’t expect to see all 1,000-plus Pokemon present in it.
Star Fox is in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
Hey, we’re as surprised as you are! Fox McCloud will appear in the movie, and he’ll be voiced by Top Gun: Maverick actor Glen Powell.
The best publisher of 2025 may surprise you
Between industry giants and rising names in the video game industry, last year had tons of great games to try out. So which publisher was the best of the lot? According to GameSpot’s sister site Metacritic–and some serious number-crunching–Square Enix rose to the top thanks to a solid mix of quality and quantity across its 2025 portfolio.
Meta and YouTube just lost a crucial case
In a groundbreaking ruling, California jurors have found YouTube and Meta liable in a civil court for getting a young adult woman addicted to social media and impairing her mental health. This sets a new precedent for social media companies, as amid numerous studies and claims of these platforms being harmful to a person’s health, they could face even more lawsuits in the future, thanks to the success of this case.
Nintendo is changing up how much it charges for exclusive games
Physical and digital games have shared the same price for years no, but Nintendo is the first company attempting to tackle that longstanding setup. Starting in May with Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, digital versions of games that Nintendo releases exclusively for the Switch 2 will have a different price tag when compared to the physical version.
“Nintendo games offer the same experiences whether in packaged or digital format, and this change simply reflects the different costs associated with producing and distributing each format and offers players more choice in how they can buy and play Nintendo games,” Nintendo said in a press release.
Sony shut down a PlayStation studio before it could make a single game
Former Call of Duty developer Jason Blundell’s studio, Dark Outlaw Games, was shut down as part of Sony’s efforts to make cuts at PlayStation. Established in 2025, Blundell said at the time that it was “such a privilege” to start a new studio with PlayStation, and the career’s page for the developer said it was aiming to make “the next groundbreaking AAA original IP” for Sony. In a livestream with level designer JC Farmer, Blundell said it “f**king sucks” that the 20-person studio got shut down, but he understood why it happened.
Netflix is also getting more expensive
All three tiers of Netflix will cost you a few bucks more, which means you’ll have to pay extra to access the streaming giant’s library of games that it barely advertises to its subscribers.
Xbox had a big showcase this week
The Xbox Partner Preview was packed full of trailers for third-party games, and in case you missed it, we’ve rounded up everything for you to quickly scroll through. Some of the highlights included Hades 2 landing on the platform starting April 14, Dispatch is also headed to Xbox, and Stalker 2 is getting a massive expansion. New game reveals included a charming Bluey adventure, cyberpunk investigations in Artificial Detective, and Atomfall studio Rebellion is making a sci-fi game where nasty aliens want to murder you horribly. Most of these games will also be coming to Game Pass on day-one.
GameSpot originals
The GameSpot team was busy this week cracking out original features and videos. We got to go hands-on with Housemarque’s Saros, added another collection of banger tracks to our 2026 video game soundtrack list, and celebrated 30 years of Resident Evil.
- Even In The Age Of The Steam Deck And The Switch, The Nintendo 3DS Is The Best Portable Console
- The Best Video Game Soundtracks Of 2026 (So Far)
- How Resident Evil Shifted Perspectives And Framed Fear Over 30 Years
- Top 20 Best-Selling Games Of 2026 So Far In The US
- Marvel Rivals Battle Pass Season 7 – All Skins, Emotes, And Other Rewards
- Resident Evil Requiem Kills The Past So The Series Can Move Forward
- One Of Resident Evil’s Fundamental Joys Is Watching Beautiful Men Get Hurt
- Zero Parades Makes Failing Fun
- 37 Things You Didn’t Know In Crimson Desert
- Saros Looks Like Returnal, But Feels Unlike Anything Else Housemarque Has Made
- Saros Gameplay Breakdown With Boss Fight (w/ Commentary)
- We’re Already Sick Of DLSS 5
- DLSS 5 Is Coming For Us All | Kurt & Lucy Gotcha Covered
- Pokemon Champions Is Something We’ve Needed For A Long Time
