Video games, esports, gaming industry, and interactive entertainment
Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game launches July 2 with a hand-drawn aesthetic that matches the beloved series. It's a rare case of a licensed title that seems designed for the fans, not just the corporate bottom line.
Riley Fitzgerald 
Ivy Road, the indie studio behind the acclaimed cosy game Wanderstop, is closing on March 31. The shutdown reveals a harsh truth: critical success and positive reviews don't translate into the financial stability needed to fund a second project in 2026's brutal funding climate.
Jake Nguyen 
Surgent Studios faced closure a year ago. Now, inspired by Scott's working methods, the studio is releasing games at speed while maintaining their artistic vision.
Kate Morrison 
Team Cherry has released a patch for the original Hollow Knight, fixing a Radiance boss fight glitch that plagued players for nearly a decade. The update shows the Australian studio's commitment to supporting even its oldest titles.
Tom Whitfield 
Anathan Pham became the greatest Australian esports player ever by playing for overseas teams. Meanwhile, content creators dominate the globe from home. Australia's gaming scene has a talent problem.
Jake Nguyen 
Valve has updated Steam's regional pricing tools with three new conversion methods designed to help developers price games fairly across 35 currencies. The update comes after months of complaints about games costing 20-30% more in some regions.
Liam Gallagher-Walsh Australia's games industry is thriving with record government funding, but rising console prices, streaming costs, and the cost-of-living crisis are squeezing the budgets of the players who will actually buy these games.
Jake Nguyen 
An Ocarina of Time remake for Switch 2 is reportedly arriving in late 2026, according to credible Nintendo insider NatetheHate. The move would tie directly to the franchise's 40th anniversary and prime audiences before the live-action Zelda film drops in 2027.
Yuki Tamura 
Saros balances accessibility with challenge by reducing session length, adding save slots, and tweaking difficulty systems. Housemarque says the game remains tough but opens doors for more players.
Megan Torres 
Zero Parades trades the fallen detective of Disco Elysium for a compromised spy operative, reflecting not just a genre change but a shift in how the developers view the world.
James Callahan 
The founder of Path of Exile's largest third-party trading platform has been permanently banned with over 1,500 irreplaceable items lost. Grinding Gear Games offered no detailed explanation for the suspension.
Patrick Donnelly 
Bluey's Happy Snaps will let players explore Brisbane locations through a camera lens when it launches across PC and consoles in spring 2026.
Tom Whitfield 
Dispatch, one of 2025's breakout hits, will come to Xbox Series X|S and Xbox Cloud Gaming later this year, finally closing a major platform gap for the narrative game that has already sold over 2 million copies.
Sophia Vargas 
Lost Lake Games announces Vaunted, a tactical RPG that lets players reshape the story when characters die. Coming to PC and Game Pass in 2026.
Jake Nguyen 
Sony is abandoning PC ports for big single-player titles like Saros and Ghost of Yotei, reverting to console exclusivity to protect PlayStation hardware value.
Kate Morrison 
Gaming's most expensive premium titles are increasingly reserved for affluent players, while free-to-play giants dominate player engagement. This market split raises questions about accessibility and industry sustainability.
Tom Whitfield 
Starfield's modding community has cracked seamless custom animations, marking a major milestone weeks before the Terran Armada story DLC launches this month.
Zara Mitchell Screen Australia has backed 26 new game projects with $1.4 million, signalling growth in a sector that now employs 2,443 full-time developers and plans over 400 new hires. The funding shows Australian game-making is moving beyond traditional studios.
Jake Nguyen 
Horizon Chase Turbo, an acclaimed arcade racer with no licensing complications, is being delisted from digital stores next month, likely as fallout from Epic's latest round of layoffs.
Tom Whitfield 
Freehold Games ported their deep roguelike to Nintendo Switch not because it made business sense, but because they're drawn to solving technically impossible problems.
Jake Nguyen