Paradox Schrifts & Volts are generally quite good and set a higher standard than some Shikai for example. They're very combo-oriented with prime examples being Explode and Heat. Let's try to find the best ones in this Paradox Schrift and Voltstanding tier list and guide. Table of contentsParadox Schrift and Vollstandig Tier ListS-Tier Schrift/VollstandigA-Tier Schrift/VollstandigB-Tier Schrift/VollstandigC-Tier Schrift/VollstandigParadox Overall Tier ListParadox Schrift and Vollstandig Tier List Image by Destructoid Check out the ranking reasons below for more details on the best Schrifts in Paradox. Overall, whatever you pick you'll have a moveset with a lot of potential. That said you'll have to practice combos since Schrifts are very skill-based in most cases, especially Heat and Explode. Note that the B-Tier isn't bad, it's just less flexibile than higher tiers and requires a specific build to be powerful. Let's dive into individual ranking reasons. Other Paradox tier lists: Clans - Clan Tier ListSoul Reaper - Shikai & Bankai Tier ListHollow/Arrancar - Resurrection Tier List S-Tier Schrift/VollstandigS-Tier Schrift/VollstandigRanking Reasons Deathdealing Legendary• Deathdealing by itself and especially in a Kido build is the best Schrift for PVP • You just need to learn to kite well and stack the passive Poison and Deadly bar %HP damage burst • And it's really easy with X's slow and flashstep-disable which guardbreaks • Then for teamfights, you can pop your Bankai for massive AOE damage moves which also apply Poison and the %HP bursts • Overall the most flexibile moveset that's great in 1v1 PVP, teamfights and PVEA-Tier Schrift/VollstandigA-Tier Schrift/VollstandigRanking Reasons Fear Legendary• Fear is really good but it requires more setup than Deathdealing which is why I put it lower • Basically you have to play around the passive Fear effect which randomly disables enemy skills after a brief ******* • This is where you have to be ready to pop off with your Z and C guardbreaks for a combo starter • Then for defense you have auto-dodges for 5 seconds in Voltstanding • Overall one of the best movesets for damage and defense but requires you to play around random Fear proc times Heat Common• Heat is my favorite Common moveset due to massive combo potential • It's good both here and in Type Soul because if you're good, you can just keep extending and restarting combos • C is such a great gapclose and guardbreak for starting chains and the Volt T deals heavy damage and is an excellent finisher • If you don't want to put in the time to practice combos then Explode is a better optionB-Tier Schrift/VollstandigB-Tier Schrift/VollstandigRanking Reasons Explode Rare• Explode by itself is B-Tier but it can be A-Tier or higher with Hakuda if you practice the combos • It's similar to Heat where it's extremely combo-based since you have excellent tools for starting combos • The Z bypasses block and can be proced later when you need it and C is massive mobility and guardbreaks • Combine this with delayed explosions from passive on every move except Z and you can just keep chaining combos • Hakuda comes in as the best option making this an A/B depending on if you're good at HakudaC-Tier Schrift/VollstandigC-Tier Schrift/VollstandigRanking Reasons Power Common• Power suffers because it wants to be a combo-based moveset due to the passive buffs on style • That said the moves are low range and hard to land making it a bit unreliable • Yes the X bypasses block and C guardbreaks but the moves have start-up lag and low range making it hard to play effectively • It can output some great damage and works well if you can keep chaining combos for CD reduction with passive • But it's just hard to do that in practiceParadox Overall Tier List Image by Destructoid Quincy Schrifts are on average better than Soul Reaper movesets and slightly behind Hollow Resurrections. That said, they're very combo and skill-based. I can see Explode being A as well but it's a very specific build where you're going Explode+Hakuda. That said, overall, Quincy have a lot of great tools even though they don't have the easiest progression. Check out the other tier lists for more details. Soul Reaper - Shikai & Bankai Tier ListHollow/Arrancar - Resurrection Tier List That's it for my Paradox Quincy Schrift and Vollstanding tier list and guide. Check out our Paradox codes for free rewards. The post Paradox Schrift & Voltstanding Tier List [April 2026] appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article
Paradox Resurrections for Hollows/Arrancar are among some of the best moveset options in the game since most of them are good. That said, some of them are movesets with simple strong moves but not a lot of combo potential so the best ones have both combos and the latter. Here's my Paradox Hollow Resurrection tier list and guide. Table of contentsParadox Hollow/Arrancar Resurrection Tier ListS-Tier ResurrectionA-Tier ResurrectionB-Tier ResurrectionParadox Overall Tier ListParadox Hollow/Arrancar Resurrection Tier List Image by Destructoid All of Paradox Resurrection movesets are pretty good. Each one has either strong base moves or great combo potential. The best Resurrections just have both and synergize well with the stat moves like Panther going well with Hakuda. This list mostly focuses on PVP but most of the movesets here are great for PVE too. Let's dive into the individual ranking reasons. Other Paradox tier lists: Clans - Clan Tier ListSoul Reaper - Shikai & Bankai Tier ListQuincy - Schrift & Voltstanding Tier List S-Tier ResurrectionS-Tier ResurrectionRanking Reasons Panther Rare• Panther is so opressive with its Guard Breaks if you learn to combo it with Hakuda and play aggressively • Also some of the best M1s in the game • Each move is a GB and both Z and X are flexible starters and extenders with Z dealing massive damage • C is the weakest move but it's still decent in duels and teamfights if you have some distance • Shallow Dance even disables flashsteps for 3 seconds allowing you to be extremely aggressiveA-Tier ResurrectionA-Tier ResurrectionRanking Reasons Gunners Legendary• There's so much damage potential here but it's not as straightforward as Panther • The M1s are decent and X deals a ton of damage and GB but it has a hyper windup so it requires setup • You can set it up with Wolves or dash after the counter but it's easy to miss/dodge against good players • Still, the wolves and counter are great utility and your M1s are some of the better ones • Overall quite strong but Panther is better Bat Legendary• You have a lot of strong tools like the AOE GB pull with C that's good for setting up combos/CC and drains Rei which is OP • X is great mobility and chasedown after a combo setting you up with an M1 boost if you hit • Plus in Res form your M1s heal so it's a lot of sustain • Z is a decent guardbreak for mixups but you need to aim it well manually • Overall Bat is a ton of strong tools that don't create a lot of combos but are still quite strong as a movesetB-Tier ResurrectionB-Tier ResurrectionRanking Reasons Divinity Legendary• Very fun to play but slightly weaker than Bat and Gunner due to X's windup and anti-synergy with other moves • Still, Z is really good for guardbreak, damage and chasedown • C is also amazing for combos and if X was more combo-friendly Divinity would be much higher Heaven Common• Heaven is another strong moveset like Bat that doesn't necessarily have the best combos but all the moves are pretty good • Pop Z before going in and it's both a combo tool to keep hits going and a defensive tool to stagger enemies • X is a great guardbreak move grab that can be followed up and C is just great for ranged pressure • Overall, a solid moveset and the passive for a bit of extra damage and debuff immunity is a cherry on topParadox Overall Tier List Image by Destructoid You can see here how Resurrections compare to Schrifts/Volts and Shikai/Bankai in Paradox. Generally speaking Resurrections are pretty good all-around even though they lack a diversified moveset like the other options. Panthera has some of the best M1s in the game even. Check out the other tier lists below for a deep-dive into other factions: Soul Reaper - Shikai & Bankai Tier ListQuincy - Schrift & Voltstanding Tier List That's it for my Paradox Hollow/Arrancar Resurrection tier list and guide. Check out our Paradox codes for redeemable rolls like for clans and abilities. The post Paradox Resurrection Tier List [April 2026] appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article
As you work through the many missions you're presented with in Disney Dreamlight Valley, you'll often be tasked with setting out to find unique items that only exist within the quest. Since these assets can't be found otherwise, tracking them down can be tricky, as is the case for the Stage Blueprint. Finding this item is a crucial part of Pocahontas's level four friendship quest, which also means it's an important item to get your hands on if you want to progress her storyline and unlock her rewards. If you're having trouble finding this quest item around your village, here's where to find the Stage Blueprint in Disney Dreamlight Valley. How to get Stage Blueprint in Disney Dreamlight Valley Screenshot by Destructoid The Stage Blueprint for Pocahontas's Working Together quest can be found inside Belle and the Beast's castle in DDV. It's a sparkling scroll that you can find sitting on a small end table right behind the room divider near the bathtub. This item blends in with the castle quite well, as it looks like just another decoration from afar. It doesn't sparkle until you're quite close to it, so you might pan the camera around the room several times before you spot it. To get this item, make sure you visit the valley version of Belle and the Beast's castle, not the Beauty and the Beast Realm. It can be a bit tricky to make sure you're in the right place, as there are technically two versions of their home you can visit. For the purposes of this mission, though, you want to find the castle in your valley, which is home to Belle and the Beast, as well as Cogsworth and Lumiere if you've unlocked them. Like most villager homes, Belle and the Beast's castle can be placed anywhere you like, whether it be in the main valley or a DLC world. Only a select few villagers, like Elsa, Mother Gothel, Jafar, and Maleficent, have fixed house locations, as they live in map landmarks. All others can be set up wherever, so only you know where you need to go to find their home for this mission. Screenshot by Destructoid If you're having trouble recalling where you set this home up, check your map and look around for the house icon. All homes are marked with the same logo, but at this stage of the Working Together quest, the castle will be marked with a purple circle, helping you distinguish it from other homes. Since four residents call this castle home, there's also a good chance that at least one of them is inside, so you can check for the character icons of Belle, the Beast, Cogsworth, and Lumiere on the map too, to pinpoint the location of their house. Successfully finding this item gets you one step closer to unlocking all of Pocahontas's friendship rewards. There's still quite a bit to get done, though, including the A Little Algae Problem quest, the A Raccoon’s Return quest, and unlocking Meeko. The post Where to find Stage Blueprint in Disney Dreamlight Valley appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article
Hollywood actors keep bringing up a potential Red Dead Redemption movie and saying they would love to be in it. After Jack ****** revealed he’d love to star in a Red Dead Redemption movie, despite the fact he doesn’t think Rockstar would ever greenlight it, Karl Urban has thrown his hat into the ring. Urban, star of The Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, The Boys, Dredd and so much more, even suggested the character he’d love to play: John Marston. In an interview with Square Mile, Urban was asked if there were any other video game adaptations he’d love to star in, having played Johnny Cage in the upcoming Mortal Kombat 2. “Red Dead Redemption is one of my favourites,” he replied. “Red Dead is a fantastic game. It’s interesting because I didn’t really have too much of an opportunity to get that heavily invested in the gaming culture. Although I absolutely enjoy the opportunity to indulge in that kind of escapism, when gaming consoles came out in 1994, I was an unemployed actor living in Sydney. I couldn’t afford those consoles. “By the time I could, I was so busy working on various projects around the world that I was never able to get into it. From time to time, when I did get the rare opportunity, Red Dead was certainly one of the games that spoke to me.” Then, Urban delivered the kicker: “I mean, come on, John Marston! I’d love to play that character.” John Marston, for the uninitiated, is the protagonist of 2010’s Red Dead Redemption, and a secondary protagonist of its sequel, 2018’s Red Dead Redemption 2. He’s a former outlaw trying to escape his violent past and protect his family while being forced by federal agents to hunt down his former Van der Linde gang members. While Urban does seem perfect for the role, it seems unlikely he’ll ever get the chance to realize this particular dream. Rockstar and parent company Take-Two have shown no indication of allowing Hollywood anywhere near their prized properties, and that includes Grand Theft Auto. In 2024, Rockstar Games co-founder and former head writer Dan Houser said a Grand Theft Auto movie "never made sense,” insisting it would have been a "huge risk" considering the reputation of the GTA brand. "Why would we do this?," Houser and the other Rockstar leads asked the film executives. "What you've described is you making a movie and us having no control and taking a huge risk, that we’re going to end up paying for with something that belongs to us." "They thought we’d be blinded by the lights and that just wasn't the case. We had what we considered to be multi billion dollar IP, and the economics never made sense. The risk never made sense. In those days, the perception was that games made poor-quality movies." Photo by Elisabetta A. Villa/Getty Images. Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at *****@*****.tld. View the full article
While 2026 was already projected to have the decade's best Box Office yet, it already looks like the prediction wasn't too far off with the massively successful movies we've seen so far. From the ******** Pegasus 3 dominating the global box office to even video game adaptations like The Super Mario Galaxy Movie taking off, the year is already off to an excellent start, but 2026 is only getting better thanks to one upcoming spin-off. View the full article
A new RPG can be played for free on Steam right now, ahead of its highly anticipated release later this year, and you won’t want to miss out on this opportunity. There are several games that you can test for free on the platform, even if the games themselves are premium paid products. This allows you to know what you’re in for, and if the game clicks with you before you conclude a purchase. Recently, Steam added several free demos for players to check out as part of an event. View the full article
As a surprise, developer HoYoverse has officially confirmed that a Honkai: Star Rail anime is in the works, exciting fans of the popular turn-based RPG. The popular game is currently in Version 4.1, though HoYoverse has successfully presented the Version 4.2 livestream, revealing all the content planned for the release of Honkai: Star Rail 4.2 later in April. This includes two new, highly anticipated playable characters, Silver Wolf LV.999 and Evanescia, as well as more story updates. View the full article
New Slay the Spire 2 patch notes have arrived for the latest beta-branch update, and it's good news if you've found yourself falling foul of the whims of Act One. The opening floors of the roguelike deckbuilder can frequently prove some of its most threatening, throwing some serious threats your way before you've had much chance to start developing your deck. While Acrobatics is being restrained slightly, there's plenty of good news here, with an expansion to the list of Neow relics, some improved survivability for Ironclad, and a nerf to one of the most problematic normal enemies. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Slay the Spire 2 is cooking a "competitive" mode, but I'm most excited about its new short-time format Slay the Spire 2 nerfs card removal, buffs shivs, and adds a new reward system Slay the Spire 2 redesigns the map and rescues the Regent in a new balance patch View the full article
Pearl Abyss is giving Crimson Desert players a look at what the studio has planned for its popular open world game, from upcoming new content, to quality of life features, and continued improvements. Despite the game's continued popularity since launch, Crimson Desert is by no means a perfect experience, as indicated by the mixed reviews from critics as well as the multitude of patches that have since released over the past few weeks. View the full article
Matthew Ball’s 165-page slide deck was a bit relentless about giving sobering news for the game industry. Things might not be going as well as we thought, and some folks were mad at Ball for pointing it that gaming faces an attention war. I talked to Ball about the reaction to his somewhat tough message and the hopes he has that gaming can evade some of the traps ahead in its future and move on to its rightful place in the entertainment pantheon. To summarize Ball’s findings, he started out saying that global video game content sales had a strong 2025, with revenues hitting $195.6 billion, 5.3% above last year’s numbers per eight different market researchers including Ball’s own Epyllion firm. Mobile, PC and console numbers all grew and there were plenty of indie hits like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Blue Prince, and more. Many have noted gaming’s inexorable growth in most years, despite the multiple years of layoffs numbering in the tens of thousands. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Is gaming in a doomed fight, or can it win? But those numbers are perhaps an inch deep. When Ball examined the numbers more closely, he found that gaming now has some serious fragmentation in parts that are growing and shrinking, and that it also has deadly competition Ball in what Intel CEO Andy Grove once called the “war for eyeballs.” Ball calls it the “attention war,” where there is so much competition for our attention and only have 24 hours in a day. The growth of the “addiction markets” include fast growth for Only Fans, AI companions, online casinos, sports betting, prediction market wagering, YouTube, TikTok, and cryptocurrency and meme coins. Meanwhile, growth has stalled in gaming, with almost all of the 2025 growth coming from China’s growth, the share of the world market held by ******** publishers, console platform fees and Roblox. If you back out all of those growth factors, the net growth for Western game publishers and developers is zero. Profits are down, layoffs were still large and private investments in game companies fell 55% below 2024 numbers. Few new IPs are taking off in games, and even older stalwart IPs are weaker. Game makers canceled scores of titles in the works. The layoffs in 2025 amounted to 9,200, and 44,000 over four years. Hiring has resumed, with 13,000 new openings, but these jobs are concentrated in low-cost markets — not the U.S. A heavy dose of new content development is going to external development partners. Ball said 2025 content investment as a share of net revenues hit a non-pandemic seven-year low. And among 34 game publishers, the average operating margins for companies outside China were far below pre-pandemic numbers. The margins fell since 2019 even though consumer spending surged 40% during the same time frame. The battle for time The growth isn’t going to Western game devs and publishers. Ball created this slide to hammer home the point that much of gaming is suffering from the illusion of growth. Source: Matthew Ball Time is the key slice of the report that I would like to focus on. It’s the reason why Netflix chairman Reed Hastings once said that his competitors included video games because they were competition for the time of his customers. And it turns out that Netflix has KPop ****** Hunters, with more than 540 million viewers — and gaming does not. But it turns out that gamers can be as fickle as other consumers. The attention across gaming has focused mostly among older games. Six-plus year old games account for 72% of time spent in 2024 across the PC, PlayStation and Xbox, with one to five-year-old games accounting for 21% of time spent and new releases accounting only for 7%. On Steam, new releases account for only 14% of time spent compared to older games. Mobile game spending is flat for the past five years as older hits get stronger and user-acquisition costs crowd out discovery of games. Ball looked at eight countries — the U.S., Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Canada, Italy and the rest of the world. He measured their share of global consumer spend on gaming content in 2019 and the years since and he concluded they are losing the “war for attention.” Reports from Circana, ESA and Ampere suggest that the share of the U.S. population that plays games has fallen by 2.5 to four points since before the pandemic. There are similar declines in the rest of the countries. This loss of the attention of players means growth only comes rom greater monetization of remaining players; if players don’t spend more, all new investments must be borne by existing players; individual games can only grow by stealing other games’ players, playtime or spend. Stealing time TikTok is growing fast. Ball found that other industries that exploit interactivity, social play, progress loops and skill mastery are taking time from gaming in order to extract more money from consumers. The aforementioned addiction markets are what you might call “sin” industries, in contrast to the “fun, fulfilling and artistic” industry of gaming. Does it mean that sin is beating out fun? I noted before that I hope the war for attention doesn’t turn into a war for addiction. And they are all chasing the same people. I quizzed Ball about these points and whether he sees bright sports. I foresee that gaming can win the culture war, even on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and film and TV — where the conversation is increasingly about games. Fortunately, ****** sees those bright opportunities as well. You’ll see them below, and yet he believes that telling the tough news is what people need to hear so they can still do something about it. And I also asked him about the averages bury the notion of opportunity, as there are always winners and losers every year in gaming. This year’s winner looks likely to be Grand Theft Auto VI. Will that be enough to lift gaming? I really enjoyed this great conversation. Here’s an edited transcript of our interview. Matthew Ball is founder of Epyllion. Source: Matthew Ball GamesBeat: What was the reaction you got? Was there a pattern to it? Did anything strike you as a ******* reaction? Matthew Ball: I would say there were three core pieces of feedback. Number one, surprise at how stagnant and/or declining many of the core western markets are. There was broad familiarity with a market or two, a general sense of course that revenue wasn’t growing as much as hoped, and there had been some pullback over the last two years. But so many different individuals, publishers, marketers, game devs focus on one or two or three markets. Sometimes that’s the U.S., U.K., and Germany. Other times it’s Japan and South Korea. Seeing it across all of these markets was a surprise, and definitely changed their perspective on what was happening in the market. I didn’t know that I was going to write a report in 2026, or summarize 2025. Everyone assumed I would, but I hadn’t planned to do so until early in the fall. That was because I found this data that I reported on in the piece that was showing the declining player participation rates in the United States. Then you naturally say, is this survey bias? Is it reporting bias? Is it too noisy to rely on? Then I started taking a look at other markets. Circana, which does the best reporting in the United States, also runs in Canada. The same curve. I started looking at the U.K. and saw a similar trajectory. Videogames Europe and Sparkers run a similar survey across five or six or seven different markets. All of a sudden I started going deeper into this thesis. I started seeing a consistent trend of either stagnant engagement rates or declining participation rates. That’s what led me to the second bit. As I produced this report, I was increasingly sure that there was clear evidence explaining the first part, the decline in revenue, and second, the declining participation rates, which is this growing substitution of time, energy, and dollars into newer, emergent quasi-interactive media. At the same time, I expected that there was going to be more pushback on that. Especially in some areas like online sports betting or iGaming. I expected to hear quite a bit of, “Yeah, we see it broadly. Everything is in competition. Restaurants, movies, going for a walk.” But that it wasn’t felt so acutely. Instead I found a lot of people agreeing with this. Partly because they have sons or daughters, or their customer research teams are in the field, and they look at cohorts of 16-, 18-, 25-year-old men and women in high school or college who, a decade ago, one of their primary uses of spend would be video games. Now it was secondary or tertiary behind these other categories. So the second was that scenario, where I was surprised by the strength of the following. The third has been–it’s best put within the context of all three reports. I wrote an essay at the start of 2024. I put out a presentation at the start of 2025. Then another at the start of this year. When you go back two or three years ago, there was this “survive until 2025” mentality, followed by “stick it out to 2026.” Those all suggested a temporal challenge, not a structural challenge. Part of what I was trying to write is that it is structural. It’s not longitudinal or temporal. In my conversations since the report came out, there’s very much an agreement there. That has led to much deeper conversations. No, it’s no it’s just about rethinking our slate, our portfolio. It’s not just critically examining our cost structure, our platform strategy. It’s a much more fundamental look at whether we’re in a new era of video gaming, one that faces different forms of competition, and not a new era defined by new technologies per se, or new devices. And if so, what do we have to do as a company? GamesBeat: The thing I was predicting you would say there–I thought people were going to shoot the messenger and go into a state of denial. Gaming is not in a universally happy situation. Source: The ESA Ball: I will say, I expected–this is really the second point I made to you. I expected there to be controversy that there wasn’t. GamesBeat: The presentation brought home reality to a lot of people, I think. They may not like the news, but it’s persuasive. Ball: Honestly, a very fundamental part of the presentation, I discovered it late. That was the pivot around–if the numbers seem so good, why doesn’t anyone feel it? As I shared with you on that slide, part of that was me refining that message even post-release. Trying to find clearer and clearer language, representations, data, and cuts to show that yes, there’s more money coming in the door than ever, but it’s not going to everyone. In fact, it’s not going to many. That is, I think, one of the reasons why the report is perhaps less controversial than it might have been two to three years ago, prognosticating challenges to come. Now everyone very much feels it. Partly because–there’s this common refrain I hear from publishers and developers and game makers. Many of them are actually humble post-release. They understand when and how their game might have fallen short of what they hoped for. After testing with mass audiences, they have a different, more critical lens. But many of them still believe that it is common to have games that are better than they are popular. Everyone is trying to understand, what does it mean for the next game? What does it mean for the next dollar? What does it mean for a live ops plan that hopes to bring a great game to a great enough game? GamesBeat: I’ve been watching The Studio, that show. I’ve been imagining, what if this were a video game executive, a video game publisher’s CEO that we were satirizing here, instead of a Hollywood guy? Some of the answers and denials and things like that would be interesting. I did wonder how much data you had to create or dig up. It seems like there’s just not enough data on the game industry. Even though there are lots of market research companies, finding that useful data, how did you go about that? Ball: The industry is tough. It’s actually funny when you put it in contrast to many others. Isn’t it kind of stunning that all of the major movie exhibition chains and all the major movie studios report their daily box office globally, in most instances? We have an exact streaming count. Billboard will tell you how many times someone played a song every week and over the weekend. The data is scarce here. But most of this was actually very high-level allocations. I’ll give you one example. We know that from 2021 to 2025, total console consumer spending on content, software, and services was up about a half-billion dollars. But over that same time PlayStation Plus spending grew by $1.2 billion. That’s actually not a very difficult portion of data to get. There’s general consensus across all the major research organizations as to how much money is spent on consoles per year. Sony reports PlayStation Network. This was less a question of how hard it is to get the data. It’s about framing the data the right way. One of the primary challenges in the game industry right now is the separation between the headline figures and the distribution of them. When you take a look at Circana, for example, they do consistently report now, fortunately, that consumer spending is up one, two, three percent year over year in most months. But of course most of that tends to be in mobile. In PC and console it’s in platform subscriptions. As a result we know that the remnant is actually declining. That was less a question of how you find the data. It’s more about what’s the right question to ask with it. It was much more difficult, of course, to figure out the right data sets outside of gaming that have the appropriate applicability inside gaming. GamesBeat: The contrast between 2025’s report and 2026 for you, what are some observations you’d have about that? How different is this report from the one a year earlier? Matthew Ball, CEO of Epyllion, talks with Dean Takahashi at our Hollywood and Games event in December. Ball: The 2025 report was 2024 historical. It ran through the year. What that was basically trying to say is that there is a fundamental challenge in the industry, which is it had a decade of outstanding growth because it was powered by many parallel, convergent, and often compounding new technologies, genres, and business models. The battle royale is the best instantiation of that. That was a new genre by and large. It brought about new monetization models, such as the battle pass. It took advantage of new platform capabilities in cross-play. Of course there were others. Mobile overall is one example. The advent of free-to-play in triple-A was another. But basically, by 2021, most of those growth engines, as I called them, had exhausted. It was easy to say that this was all post-pandemic pullback, but I made the argument that there was something much more fundamental. Those growth engines are still relevant, but they’re not driving change. All the games that could shift to free-to-play, launch a battle royale and season pass model, had already done so. The 2026 report is in many ways taking a look at the consequences of that. One way to look at the exhaustion of growth drivers is we’re no longer propelled by that which propelled us in the past. But no industry exists in isolation. If we say, and this tends to be the consensus, that games are not that much better today than they were five years ago, that’s in and of itself a challenge. But many other things are much better. We can have social discussions around whether or not short-form video is good, whether iGaming, OnlyFans, online sports betting, crypto have a net positive or deleterious effect on society. But those are multiple categories that are much better than they were five years ago. We’ve been watching short-form video for decades, but clearly TikTok, reels, and shorts are a much better way to deliver it. Prediction markets have existed for decades, but it’s new that they’re this popular, that they’re covered by the New York Times, that global discourse is driven by them. Online sports betting has existed in some form for quite some time, lawfully and unlawfully, but it’s new that everyone in certain age brackets more or less does it. The fact that they do it means that it’s all much better. This report is in some respects saying, “What are the consequences when one industry loses its technological, genre, and business model growth areas?” And substitutes do not. GamesBeat: Look at the neighbors. I remember the time when I had some insight into taxes. It was in SimCity, when I realized, “Oh, I can raise taxes so I can spend on lots of cool things to build in my city,” and then the taxes got so high that the residents of my city were leaving for other places. The blind spot for me is that I don’t cover the addiction industries. I don’t cover OnlyFans or gambling. I didn’t realize that they were growing while gaming was barely growing or somewhat stagnant. They’ve discovered that the interactivity of gaming is something they can also provide. ****** Diamond Casino from Rising Tide Games. Ball: Totally. I would mention one other thing that I think is important. There has been a lot of coverage, especially recently, with more and more games thriving at lower price points of $25, $40, $50, as well as coverage of rising console prices and how that may price out core gamers. It’s without question that economic duress, especially unemployment under 25, is constraining growth in the video game market. That’s without question. At the same time, what I remind people of is that total disposable income is at or near all-time highs for most cohorts. Consumer spending is at or near all-time highs. Consumer recreational and leisure, entertainment spending is at or near all-time highs. The economy is relevant to the success of any form of discretionary spending. But consumers are not struggling to find new things to pay for. They’re actually not struggling to grow their spend in various leisure categories. It’s that they’re not doing so in video games. In many instances they’re cutting back to instead spend elsewhere. To reduce this to a purely economic challenge would be to misrepresent that it’s not just about the economic constraints. It’s about the substitution with alternative forms of entertainment. GamesBeat: Does this make you more discouraged this year, more pessimistic? Or do you find some way to be optimistic despite all this data? Ball: I think any time there’s greater clarity on the challenges, that’s a reason for optimism. I mentioned earlier that two years ago–three years ago, when I wrote the first report, I was arguing that while there were acute challenges post-pandemic, such as the implementation of IDFA, the general weakness of game slates as a result of a shift to hybrid remote work, as well as supply shortages of consoles–my argument was that those were useful explanations, but they were insufficient excuses for gaming stagnation. Even after last year’s report, I still received a lot of–no, we just need to last another year. The category will rebound. One core reason for optimism is that I think there’s a universal sense that there are enduring challenges that are structural. The gaming industry needs to re-prioritize, re-assign, and re-think its business models, its plans, and its cost structures in order to find growth, and in many instances seek growth abroad as well as just at home. That’s a reason for optimism. But beyond that, no. Look, I find a lot of it distressing. I’m definitely not someone who believes that the American, and in particular youth, and more so than that–I don’t know. The epidemic of young men spending considerable sums on various forms of gambling is bad. Plain and simple. I would say that while I didn’t get into this in the report, the report in many ways understates the consequences of these other categories. There’s a brilliant report from MIT that has found that for every dollar that someone loses in online sports betting, there’s roughly $1.99 in net reduction in their wealth. Why? Because they couldn’t afford to lose that dollar. As a result they go into credit card overdraft fees. They have more credit card debt. They have compensatory gambling. They drink more. We see this cataclysmic effect. There was another study showing that within 14 quarters or so, there’s a roughly 40%–not 40 points, but 40% decrease in credit scores. The consequences of these various forms of gambling-based vices really cascades economically. GamesBeat: There were a few areas where I wanted to challenge the report and see what you had to say. I’ve heard from other folks that when GTA comes out, this is all going to change. The picture is going to look so much brighter. The industry will grow, whatever, 20% because of one game. Does that seem like a realistic hope? GTA VI’s main characters. The game is coming out November 19, 2026. Ball: I think there will be long-term positive impacts from GTA. The console hardware growth is obviously going to be more constrained as a result of DRAM-led price increases. It’s definitely going to be a re-onboarding opportunity for many lapsed gamers. It’s going to bring a lot more attention to the category. That’s all positive. That’s all true. At the same time, the question is not, “Are some companies doing extraordinarily well in the game industry?” The question is, “How is the median game company doing? How are most game publishers doing?” As I report on, the industry has grown in its top line about 40% since pre-pandemic, but we’ve nevertheless seen total profits are well down. If GTA comes to market and single-handedly grows console by $2-3 billion, but those proceeds all go to Take-Two, that’s just a different version of this year’s report. Yes, the industry added $10 billion and hit an all-time high, but all of that money went to three destinations: the ******** publisher ecosystem, the console platform services, and Roblox. A year where there’s a fourth category, Take-Two, is better than one with three categories, but it doesn’t change the overall picture. Even if it raises the tide more broadly, if the answer is that in 2027 there was some $400 million split across the entire ecosystem as a fifth bucket, that’s not much better either. GamesBeat: Part of my response might be, if you’re thinking about entering the industry, making a game, making it your career, you shouldn’t be discouraged by averages. It’s always been an industry of winners and losers. If you have a winning idea, a winning game, you don’t have to worry about averages. In that sense there’s always a reason to find optimism for staying in the industry. Ball: I would say three things that are important. One, these are aggregate figures, but no one ships games in aggregate. Two, no individual game maker, title, publisher, or creative lead is aided or harmed by plus two or minus two percent growth. It’s just not that relevant for that individual. Three, and this is the most important thing, as much as we can talk about whether or not two or three or four or five percent annual growth would be better than zero or negative one or one, a more important measure to me is whether or not we see one, or ideally all, of the following four things: new studios breaking out, new franchises breaking out, old studios achieving altogether new highs, and old franchises doing the same. In 2023, in 2024, and in 2025 the market was hard, but each of those four things happened, and they happened repeatedly. The overall figure is primarily driven by a dozen or so major game releases and a handful of major publishers. It is more important to me, and a better measure of health, what happens to the rest. I totally agree with you. GamesBeat: I’ll try to ask this question succinctly, because it gets to the heart of where I’m hopeful. I think of gaming’s chance to win the culture war–if you become mass culture better than anyone else does, then you win. You don’t have to conquer everyone else because you have the attention, as you framed it. If gaming is counterattacking into some of these areas with transmedia–you look at EA and its larger sports strategy that you wrote about it, or the inroads that games have made into movies. The new Super Mario movie launched yesterday. Games have a presence on things like TikTok and YouTube and Twitch. You see gaming making gains in these areas. Plus, with Roblox, gaming has this chance to catch people at the youngest ages. The addiction industries, by contrast–unless there are prediction markets inside Roblox, that should be the thing that cements gaming as a habit in the next generation. People grow up increasingly immersed in a gaming culture, and that becomes mass culture. As long as that’s the case, to me, gaming can’t lose. What’s your reaction to that argument? Civ VII: You can still win it by winning the culture war. Source: Take-Two/Firaxis Ball: I agree. I think the challenge is that it still sits a little bit in isolation. When we take a look at some of these other categories–online sports betting is the best example. That’s seen massive cultural ascendance as well. There’s now a major sports book branded under the ESPN brand. Sports betting is integrated into the live sports broadcasts. You can’t escape it. We talk about video games being ubiquitous on TikTok, but it’s not literally forced into every experience. Of course many sportscasters talk about betting odds while covering the nation’s most popular content, like the NFL. When you open up the New York Times, conversation around boots on the ground in Iran is partly predicated on what prediction markets say, what the experts are betting on in comparison to that. I agree with you that we’re seeing a massive cultural ascendance for gaming. That’s clear. The Last of Us, Super Mario, Minecraft, these are among the most significant cultural moments of the last few years. At the same time, those other categories are still growing. The top OnlyFans star, the literal highest-grossing OnlyFans star, is a frequent appearance on the top youth YouTuber channels. It’s mind-boggling. It would be inconceivable 15 years ago that a major porn star would be in children’s and youth YouTube videos as a form of customer acquisition and brand-building. But that’s the nature of social media today. I agree with you. I think we just see it in those other categories as well. GamesBeat: When I thought about why gaming has gotten to where it is, it feels like gaming has always offered the best value. If you look at it from that perspective, I wonder if that value is perceived as increasing now or decreasing. I suppose that’s partly dependent on what kind of monetization model you’re using. But where do you see that? If we haven’t raised prices in a long time and inflation has happened, does that mean the value you’re getting from games has increased? Ball: Without question. A harder to pinpoint reality of the game industry right now is that–part of the reason why profits have gone down and it’s hard to push up pricing is that it’s an incredibly competitive marketplace. In economic terms you would say that it’s so hypercompetitive that consumer surplus has grown and producer surplus has inevitably gone down. In many ways that’s a reflection of the indie and single-A *****. The fact that there are so many studios spending single-digit millions or low double-digit millions with teams of a few people or a few dozen people – supported of course by outsourcing – who now compete with and often outperform megalith studios is a reflection of that. In effect, you would say that yes, by nearly every measure gaming has become a higher-value category. But that’s of course difficult for the average video game publisher. GamesBeat: I think back to some earlier reports you’ve done, but also a lot of reporting I’ve done over time. There’s a resistance to technological changes that have happened when they come along in gaming. The players themselves have resisted the metaverse. They resisted blockchain. Now it looks like they’re resisting AI. People are trying to come up with technological advances for the industry to get it out of these problems, but players don’t accept them. This may turn into a disadvantage for gaming if it’s not the first, like it has been in the past, to adopt new technologies. Is the metaverse not coming? Ball: There is certainly a consensus opinion that video gaming has become ground zero for gen AI controversy. It’s a challenge with employees far more so than in most creative organizations, because most publishers employ all their creative teams. In Hollywood most of them are contractors. They’re outsourced. They’re not actually working hand in hand. On top of that, consumers are also struggling with the acceptance of gen AI content far more. Every week or two there’s another gen AI song that hits the Billboard Hot 100. We see YouTube is constantly dominated by gen AI content. Of course most of the major social video platforms are as well. We see on Twitter the extent to which it’s reaching. That, plus the strained economics, where the video game industry is under more financial pressure than any other industry, and therefore is in deep need of new cost savings–it’s built up all these tensions to a much greater degree. That’s one thing, this ground zero challenge. At the same time, we should note that there are many parts of the world that are quickly adopting, or not taking the same issue–across much of Asia generative AI has been deployed en masse into video games with very little issue. Because of the different employee cultures there’s less of an internal issue as well. In mobile it’s far more widely deployed, in part for UA advertising. For the most part – not entirely – it is more concentrated among the major western markets and in PC/console content. Is that a constraint? Yes, but on the other hand, it’s up to the industry to articulate the benefits, to prove it in products, and to make sure that the results of the implementation are widely shared. If consumers benefit and employees benefit, the industry does as well. That’s one of those areas which–whether it was in blockchain and related technologies or VR, that’s rarely been front and center in communications. The post Are we hiding from the truth of gaming’s attention war? | Matthew Ball interview appeared first on GamesBeat. View the full article
Olaf has opened his very own building in Disney Dreamlight Valley, and it's packed with exhibitions you need to fill out using key resources found around your village. While working throughout Olaf's Grand Exhibition, you may be wondering how to access additional rooms. Each room inside this museum has an array of displays to finish, and tackling each section gets you some exclusive rewards. There's also a grand prize for filling out the entire room, so you'll want to get all of them done as soon as possible. Here's how to unlock more rooms in Olaf's Grand Exhibition in Disney Dreamlight Valley. Table of contentsAll Olaf's Grand Exhibition rooms in Disney Dreamlight ValleyHow to get more rooms in Olaf's Grand Exhibition in Disney Dreamlight ValleyAll Olaf's Grand Exhibition rooms in Disney Dreamlight Valley Screenshot by Destructoid As of the Whispers of the Wind Pocahontas update that launched on April 8, 2026, for DDV, there are eight rooms throughout Olaf's Grand Exhibition. Each of these rooms corresponds to one of the main biomes in the valley. All the rooms featured in this building so far are as follows. Peaceful MeadowDazzle BeachForest of ValorGlade of TrustSunlit PlateauFrosted HeightsForgotten LandsPlaza In addition to the doors that are marked for each of these rooms, there are also two additional unmarked doors situated at the top of the stairs behind Olaf's desk. The stairs are blocked off, and the doors are incomplete, so it's unclear when or if these rooms will eventually go anywhere. It seems likely, though, that they may eventually be rooms for DLC worlds, like Wishblossom Ranch and Storybook Vale. How to get more rooms in Olaf's Grand Exhibition in Disney Dreamlight Valley Although there are marked doorways to rooms for all of the main valley biomes in Olaf's Grand Exhibition, we can only enter two of them so far, as of the Whispers of the Wind update. Both the Peaceful Meadow room and the Dazzle Beach room are unlocked during Olaf’s Grand Exhibition quest. It's currently unknown when exactly new rooms will be unlocked around this museum. The only concrete information we have comes from the Whispers of the Wind patch notes, which simply state that "More rooms will be arriving in future updates." Screenshot by Destructoid Based on the marked doors featured throughout this building, we do potentially know which rooms to expect next. The Glade of Trust and Forest of Valor doors are next to the first two, so it seems highly likely that these two regions will be unlocked whenever the devs are ready to add more rooms. New rooms may be added with every new update, or instead, only introduced occasionally. We'll have to wait for the next major update to see, since this building is rather new. Luckily, we do have a pretty solid idea of when the next few updates are arriving, thanks to the 2026 DDV roadmap, so it won't be too long before we find out. If we do get new rooms with each update, we'll see the next ones sometime around June when the Hercules update debuts. When new rooms do arrive, they'll likely be unlocked quietly, which means there won't be any actual quests tied to them. The Peaceful Meadow room is part of a mission since it's the first one, but the Dazzle Beach area isn't, so the rest likely won't be either. The post How to unlock more rooms in Olaf’s Grand Exhibition in Disney Dreamlight Valley appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article
If you like JoJo's Bizzare Adventure-inspired Roblox games then Roblox Is Unbreakable is one of the gems on the platform. It's got a huge community of players and a ton of Trellos and servers for skins, tier lists, guides and more. Check out the Roblox Is Unbreakable Trello and Discord links. Roblox Is Unbreakable Trello and Discord Guide Image via Roblox Is Unbreakable Here are a bunch of community links for info, guides and tips on Roblox Is Unbreakable: RIU Game Trello BoardRIU Skins Trello BoardRIU Discord ServerRIU Appeal ServerRIU Tierlist ServerRIU Game PageRIU Roblox Group There's a ton to unpack here but basically the Game Trello is your Wiki-like HUB of info on everything in the game. That's your best place to start if you want to progress as a beginner or experienced player. It's got info on: All game mechanicsAll Story quests, areas and POIsAll SpecialitiesAll StandsAll OutfitsAll WeaponsAll CollectibilesAll Enemies and Bosses Then there's the Skins Trello which will guide you on how to get all skins for stands, weapons and more. It's very well organized by Stand and by Weapon. Up next we have the official Discord server which is the best place to be for RIU news, announcements and updates. It pays to keep track to the update logs for the latest buffs, nerfs and changes so that you can adjust your build. Plus, there's codes, giveaways and other events where you can score free goodies. Last but not least are the community Discords for Tier Lists where you can check out the rankings for everything in the game like Stands, Weapons and more. Plus the Appeal server which is there for support from the devs if you need help with anything technical. That's it for my Roblox Is Unbreakable Trello board and Discord server links walkthrough. Check out our Roblox Is Unbreakable codes for free goodies. The post Roblox Is Unbreakable Trello and Discord Links appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article
Pokémon Champions offers different items for you to equip with your Pokémon, and all of them have distinct in-game effects. Some of them restore HP, while others raise the attack. Not every item is equally effective, and the launch week has some clear favorites. This guide will help you understand which are the best items to use, and which ones are rather avoidable. Table of contentsComplete Pokémon Champions items tier listS-tierA-tierB-tierComplete Pokémon Champions items tier list To differentiate between all the available items, I have used three different tiers. Some of the items might move up or down a tier or two based on future patches. S-tier items have the best in-game effects, and they're also pretty universal in their use-case scenarios.A-tier items are close to S-tier options, but they are either slightly less powerful or have more niche usage scenarios.B-tier items are those options that are either too niche to use or whose in-game effects are weak in the current meta.S-tierSitrus Berry: This item automatically activates when the user's health drops below 50% and restores 25% health. The Sitrus Berry is arguably the best healing item in the current pool. It's a must-have in your team, and it can work well with almost any Pokémon. Ideally, I love using them with my tanks to make it harder for the opponent to take them down.Focus Sash: Focus Sash is the perfect item to give to your DPS units. Pokémon like Greninja are top-tier in the current meta, but they can get one-shot. Having Focus Sash saves them from getting knocked out in a single attack (if they had full HP). Getting that extra attack might be all you need to secure the vital win.Silk Scarf: This is a no-nonsense item that works especially well with Pokémon that have plenty of Normal-type moves. It raises the attack of all Normal-type moves by 20%, which is a nice boost to have.A-tierChoice Scarf: While this item boosts the speed of a Pokémon by 50%, it's a one-time use. The single use can still prove to be quite significant if you manage to time it correctly. However, I would prefer it to remain for the duration of a game on the Pokémon.Leftovers: This item restores 1/6th of a Pokémon's health after each turn. While it's a good healing item, the use-case scenario is slightly tricky. If you have a bulky Pokémon, you can add it to them since they will be restoring more health every turn (thanks to their higher starting HP).Lum Berry: This is a useful item if your opponent tries to inflict Status Effects. This will completely cure your Pokémon of all status effects and negatives, but it's a one-time use.Scope Lens: This item provides a one-stage Critical Hit ratio boost that can be incredibly useful in certain situations. If you're just one shot away from winning but unsure, using the item could guarantee the instant knockout and the subsequent win.B-tierQuick Claw: If you and your opponent have the same priority in turn, there will be a 20% chance for you to go first. It's a good choice for Pokémon who might not shine in the speed department.White Herb: It allows you to restore the stat of your Pokémon when it gets lowered in a battle. However, it can be used only once in a battle, and not every opponent will purely go for stat-lowering attacks at the cost of something that can eat your HP. It will be mostly required in very limited situations.King's Rock: There's a 10% chance for your opponent to flinch if they take damage. The low probability for Flinch makes this item pretty weak in the current meta.Shell Bell: This item restores 1/8 HP of the dealt damage. Once again, there are better alternatives to this, and the viability of this item depends on the damage dealt by the incoming attack. Screenshot via The Pokémon Company Here's a list of items that boost the power of moves that belong to specific types. All boosts are by 20% Miracle Seed (Grass)Charcoal (Fire)Mystic Water (Water)Magnet (Electric)Silver Powder (Bug)Sharp Beak (Flying)Hard Stone (Rock)Poison Barb (Poison)Soft Sand (Ground)Never Melt-Ice (Ice)****** Belt (Fighting)Twisted Spoon (Psychic)Spell Tag (Ghost)Dragon Fang (Dragon)****** Glasses (Dark)Metal Coat (Steel)Fairy Feather (Fairy) The following set of items helps to cure specific ailments and Status Effects. All of them are one-time use. Cheri (Paralysis)Chesto (Sleep)Pecha (Poison)Rawst (Burn)Aspear (Frozen)Persim (Confusion) The following items halve the damage taken by supereffective attacks belonging to specific types. Chilan (Normal)Rindo (Grass)Occa (Fire)Passho (water)Wacan (Electric)Tanga (Bug)Coba (Flying)Charti (Rock)Kebia (Poison)Shuca (Ground)Yache (Ice)Chople (Fighting)Payapa (Psychic)Kasib (Ghost)Haban (Dragon)Colbur (Dark)Babiri (Steel)Roseli (Fairy) When it comes to situational items like the ones mentioned above, they're all C-tier unless you're building your team in a very specific fashion. On such occasions, they can be considered as either A or S-tier depending on how well you're using them. The post Pokémon Champions items tier list: Best ones to use appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article
It's 2026, and Jeff Kaplan, the former boss of Blizzard hero shooter Overwatch, is still being asked about a supposed "nerf" to Tracer's butt. Cast your minds back to the simpler times of 2016, when the world was quieter and greener, and Overwatch was still in beta. Amid a frenzy of excitement for Blizzard's next big franchise, one big controversy stood out that soured some fans on the game's promise: Blizzard's decision to alter a pose focused on lead character Tracer's bottom. Blizzard made the call back in March 2016 to adjust the Tracer's "Over the Shoulder" victory pose, after the character's somewhat suggestive positioning drew fire from players. Their critique — one that Kaplan ultimately said he agreed with — was that it reduced Tracer "to another bland female sex symbol." After some debate, Kaplan confirmed the pose would be changed — and within a week it was done, replacing its initial look with a replacement "Over the Shoulder" pose that gave fans more of a side-on view. Perhaps predictably, Blizzard's decision to make the change also drew fire — this time from players who said the company had caved to "SJW" complaints. (Remember that acronym?) And now, 10 years on, with Kaplan long gone from Blizzard and busy promoting his next game, it seems this decision is still a bugbear for some. "'Why did you guys nerf Tracer's butt?'" Kaplan says, reading out a viewer question while playing his in-development cowboy survival shooter The Legend of California. "Uh, we actually didn't nerf Tracer's butt. It stayed exactly the same. "That was a good riposte I just had," he then added. As Kaplan seeks to generate interest in his new game, the former Blizzard icon has been making headlines, firstly with a tell-all interview in which he discussed why he left Blizzard after nearly 20 years — a decision he blamed on extreme financial pressures to deliver for Activision Blizzard, or be held personally responsible for 1,000 people losing their jobs. Next, Kaplan issued some choice words of advice to video game fans who like to criticize titles they're never going to play themselves. "If a game comes out, and you don't want to play it, and you've never played it? Shut the f*** up. No one cares," he stated, again while streaming The Legend of California. As for Overwatch, the game continues to respond to fan feedback over the design and presentation of its characters. Just this week, Blizzard revealed the new look for its hero Anran, which it said "moved away from that baby face" design that players — and the character's voice actress — had previously critiqued. Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social View the full article
VRAM management on Linux with AMD GPUs is about to get a whole lot better - which is great news for gaming, especially on the lower-end or hitting VRAM limits. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article
Valve launched the latest upgrade to Proton Experimental, their staging ground for all the latest fixes for Windows games on Linux / SteamOS. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article
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The Silent also had one of its most overpowered cards reworkedView the full article