PlayStation still hasn’t blinked in the face of the “no disc, no buy” outcry its recent announcement has prompted. Nintendo gets a stern rebuke from the patent office. And another studio is on the brink of collapse. Welcome to Kotaku Checkpoint for the week ending July 24, 2026, where we are obsessed with re-watching old Emeril Lagasse clips.
This shit is electric https://t.co/WCNKbysw0D pic.twitter.com/aSb8vWj8ia
— nacho (@nachoeveryday) July 21, 2026
San Diego Comic-Con is currently underway, the only place in the world this week where you could watch the Rizzler bowl a double strike with his eyes closed in Nintendo Switch Sports Resort. The event is quieter this year than it often is, with little presence from both Star Wars and the DCU.
All eyes are on the Marvel panel planned for Saturday where we might finally get an explanation for why Robert Downey Jr.’s Doom appears to be invincible in the recent trailer, unlike PSN.
Sony killing discs has one rule: don’t talk about Sony killing discs
According to former God of War Laufey writer Alanah Pearce, Sony is enforcing the “strictest social media guidelines” ever on its employees during the current fallout from its decision to end PlayStation discs in 2028. “Sony does somewhat regularly tell employees what they can or can’t say about certain things,” she said in a recent YouTube video about the controversy.
“I was under a lot of guidelines when I was working on God of War Laufey—I still am,” she continued. “And they did send me guidelines regarding what I could say on the day the game was announced. But in this instance, it’s apparently the strictest the employees I spoke to have ever seen regarding public communications. They would only have done this if they knew it was going to be an enormous PR issue. This is no surprise to them.”
Nintendo gets a stern rejection from the Japan Patent Office
The Pokémon Company’s divisional patent application No. 2026-019762 for an “in-game monster-capturing system” was recently refused by the JPO, Automaton reports. A 2013 YouTube video showing similar gameplay for the fan-made game Pokémon Generations was cited in the rationale for denying the patent. As you can guess, Nintendo really didn’t like this. The company’s legal response said the JPO “acted extremely inappropriately by deliberately mischaracterizing an infringing product as though it were an authorized one.”
In its response to Nintendo’s response, the JPO chided the company for not grounding its appeal in patent law. “The mere possibility that the reasons for rejection could be subject to such an unreasonable misunderstanding has no bearing on the assessment of inventive step,” the office argued. Essentially, whether or not the gameplay used ripped-off assets had nothing to do with Nintendo’s own claim to having invented it first.
The Age of Empires III expansion has been un-canceled
The Definitive Edition of the 2005 real-time strategy game was supposed to receive an expansion a while back, but it then got delayed and later got abandoned altogether. “While considering the inclusions for last year’s show, we wanted to ensure that Age III: DE players felt part of the franchise celebration as we know you have huge passion and love for the game,” the development team wrote in the beginning of 2025. “However, pushing to ensure that the game was included meant we announced content before it had been built, and we now feel that announcement was premature.”
Over a year later, however, the DLC has been revived. “In response to your passion and feedback, we are excited to announce that a brand-new expansion is coming to Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition on September 10, 2026,” the team announced this week. “The Baltic Powers brings two new civilizations, new Challenge Scenarios, new game modes, more than 25 maps, and over 50 hero customizations.”
A new Kingdom Come game has been trademarked
It’s called Kingdom Come: Salvation and the filing was spotted recently in the European Union database by ThePhraseMaker. The filing includes some references to “matching players,” which also has some fans wondering if the game might have an online multiplayer component. Warhorse Studios hasn’t confirmed anything about its next Kingdom Come game other than it will be another open-world RPG. The company is also working on a Lord of the Rings game.
The maker of a 2026 horror shooter is in trouble
Crisol: Theater of Idols is a Spanish mash-up of Resident Evil and BioShock, but despite some neat survival horror design elements and cool encounters, it didn’t hit big on Steam or console. Developer Vermila Studios has now reportedly let go of most of its workforce and is teetering on the brink of closure.
“Unfortunately, due to financial reasons, we’ve had to dispense with the staff at Vermila Studios,” CEO David Carrasco told Game Developer in a statement. “We’re going to try to pull through for the time being without shutting down, but the circumstances are quite difficult and it is a feasible possibility in the upcoming months.”