Much of the country is reopening as concerns about the coronavirus pandemic lessen, but video game makers have a message: If you want to stay inside, we can keep you entertained. Publishers and developers big and small unveiled video games in the pipeline for the rest of 2021 and 2022 during the Electronic Entertainment Expo, which ran Saturday to Tuesday (June 12-15). Even before that, during the Summer Games Fest kickoff on June 9 we learned that "Elden Ring," the much-awaited collaboration between Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin and From Software, makers of games such as "Dark Souls" and "Bloodborne," had a release date of Jan. Microsoft showed off Xbox games including "Psychonauts 2," coming out in August, "Forza Horizon 5" (November), "Halo Infinite," scheduled for later this year, and games such as "Redfall" and "Starfield," from Bethesda Softworks' studios coming in 2022. And the software giant stressed the advantage of its Xbox Game Pass, emphasizing the slew of games that will be available on the subscription service. 'Madden NFL 22':Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes on video game cover, but inside are new realistic tweaks Nintendo showcased "Mario Golf: Super Rush," coming to Nintendo Switch on Friday, and revealed a new Metroid game called "Metroid Dread," out in October. There was also an update on the sequel to "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild," scheduled for 2022.

Reports have been swirling around Google's development of a subscription-based game streaming service, but a flurry of secret meetings at recent conferences has raised speculation it could soon be revealed. The service, codenamed Yeti, would put Google at the forefront of a new part of the videogame business that lets people play games as they're being streamed, rather than using downloads or disks, a report said. The firm met with big video game companies at the Game Developers Conference in March and took meetings at the E3 gaming expo in Los Angeles a few weeks ago, it has been claimed. It is also believed to be considering buying existing games development studios to bolster the plans. Google is developing a subscription-based game streaming service that could work either on its Chromecast or a Google-made console.

When platforms holders like Microsoft and Nintendo facilitate cross-play between a game on different consoles, that's awesome. When those same platform holders team up to release a trailer enthusiastically promoting the freedom of cross-play with one of the most popular, enduring games on the planet? That might leave Sony shaking in their boots. Today Nintendo released a trailer for the Minecraft cross-play update on Switch, and it's far from the usual fare. Before we get into it, watch the Fortnite trailer Epic debuted at E3.

Pixar and Disney and Warner Bros. Interactive and TT Games and Lego and Sony and Microsoft and Nintendo are teaming up to bring you all the Incredibles action you can handle, except also now the Incredibles are made out of Lego plus it's a video game. It's the greatest team of corporate supers since 2004, when Disney and Pixar and THQ and Apple and Sony and Disney Interactive and Microsoft and Nintendo put aside their differences to turn the first movie into a video game: Technology has come a long way in the last 14 years: Where Playstation 2s and Gamecubes once struggled to approximate the slick look of Brad Bird's 2004 movie, modern gaming systems can render Mr. Incredible and the gang in much higher definitions, plus simultaneously transform them into Lego. It's the latest in a long series of popular media franchises getting converted into Lego form and also into video game form, from Lego Star Wars: The Video Game to Lego Harry Potter: Years 5–7. Sometimes these licensed properties follow circuitous paths to their final Lego video game form--Batman became Lego Batman: The Video Game in 2008, which preceded The Lego Batman Movie in 2017, which then became The Lego Batman Movie Game (iOS only), which, God willing, will lead to Lego Batman: The Lego Batman Movie: The Video Game in a year or two--but in the case of The Incredibles, we're getting the Lego and the video game and the sequel all at the same time: June 15.