Video game news is hot this week, with some new looks at some upcoming games, some new video game initiatives, and an update on that SAG-AFTRA strike, so let's dive in!
Death Stranding 2 updates
There was an entire panel at SXSW 2025 for Death Stranding 2: On The Beach that gave us so much more than we anticipated walking into it.
Firstly, we have an official release date: June 26, 2025 exclusively on the PS5. We got an insanely long trailer showcasing so, so much stuff that we never anticipated from the sequel. Yes, it's increasing the Kojima amount of weird, but it also looks much more like an action-adventure game than a walking simulator like the first one. There's also plenty of easter eggs and truly, this is what we want when it comes to a video game trailer.
You can watch the whole thing below, and get excited for Death Stranding 2.
Some new tidbits on Intergalactic
Neil Druckmann made a guest appearance on Sony's Creators to Creators podcast before the upcoming premiere of The Last of Us season 2 and dropped some interesting tidbits about Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, which was revealed at the 2024 Game Awards.
He says that it will be a game "about faith and religion," set 2000 years in the future. The religion Naughty Dog has invented for the game is called Sempiria, and it's been cut off from communication from the rest of the galaxy for 600 years when the game starts.
It's an interesting premise, and if Naughty Dog's track record is anything to go back, we've got full faith that this will be a game we can't put down.
The Balatro timeline
Man, if you like deep dives into the development of a video game (especially an indie one), does LocalThunk have a fun blog post for you. Over at his website, he's chronicled (to the best of his ability) the process of creating Balatro in all of its ridiculous glory, starting with the name of the folder that houses it all, CardGame. And no, that's never been updated even now.
Truly it's interesting to see how the game as a whole grew and developed from the very beginning. How jokers were barely a thing. How the chips and multiplier were there from the start. It's incredibly cool.
Dungeons of Hinterberg on PlayStation
This game made our list of games you should have played in 2024, because it's the perfect mix of cozy and dungeon crawler, and you can make it as cozy or dungeon crawler-y as you like. And now it's on PlayStation! Not just PC and Xbox. So if you were waiting with bated breath to play this one and you only had a PS4 or PS5, now's your chance!
The Pixel Pack!
Here's another fun deep dive into the video game world: Neil Newbon (aka Astarion from Baldur's Gate 3) has put together a group of some of the biggest, most influential names in video games and is trying to take them to the next level in the industry.
There's a big write-up over at Entertainment Weekly from earlier this week, and it's very interesting. What's the point of all of this? To remind you that actors in video games are still actors and deserve the recognition and respect as artists.
Think about it--video games are very often overlooked and written off. But that was a big moment to have Harrison Ford himself show up at the Game Awards to talk about a video game version of himself. TV shows like The Last of Us, Fallout, and Arcane are insanely popular and bringing much more attention to the video games they're based on.
The voices and creative minds behind video games are just as important as the actors portraying their video game counterparts and it's time the larger population realizes it.
Which segues perfectly into the next topic...
That SAG-AFTRA strike is still going on
Remember last July when SAG-AFTRA declared a strike against video game publishers over pay, lack of AI protections, and other hot-button issues? That strike is well into its eighth month and still has no end in sight.
The most recent offer from SAG-AFTRA still seems to have some loopholes regarding AI, which is a huge problem in the video game industry (in that EW article, Newbon claims a character-creator app used his voice without his permission). We just wanted to provide you with an update that... there's no update, it's still very much an issue.