nintendo
Nintendo Switch becomes gaming giant's best-selling console in history
Nintendo Switch becomes gaming giant's best-selling console in history The Switch is now the best-selling Nintendo console in history, having surpassed 155 million sales since it launched in 2017. It means the device, which saw a huge boom in sales over the pandemic, has now surpassed the Nintendo DS as the firm's most successful gaming hardware. And the Switch is now behind only Sony's PlayStation 2 in the overall gaming charts, which sold more than 160 million units in the years following its launch in 2000. But Nintendo's latest financial report, where it announced the news, also saw shares in the company fall 11% following investor concerns over software sales and memory chip prices. Despite this, the company said its sequel the Switch 2, had got off to a good start since its release in June 2025, selling 17 million units as of the end of the year.
- North America > United States (0.31)
- North America > Central America (0.15)
- Oceania > Australia (0.06)
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The Animal Crossing: New Horizons 3.0 expansion has arrived earlier than expected
Apple's Siri AI will be powered by Gemini The Animal Crossing: New Horizons 3.0 expansion has arrived earlier than expected The Switch 2 update is live, as well. For a number of very obvious reasons, we don't want to roll back the clock to early 2020. But if there was a feel-good lockdown story, it was the perfectly timed arrival of, which allowed friends who could no longer meet up IRL to do so virtually on their carefully pruned islands. The game will almost certainly never be as popular as it was back then again, but Nintendo is hoping a good chunk of lapsed islanders will return for its latest DLC drop, which arrived on January 14, a day earlier than planned. The Switch 2 update went live as expected on January 15.
- Leisure & Entertainment > Games > Computer Games (0.79)
- Marketing (0.57)
- Information Technology > Artificial Intelligence (0.79)
- Information Technology > Communications > Mobile (0.37)
The latest Animal Crossing: New Horizons expansion has arrived earlier than expected
Apple's Siri AI will be powered by Gemini You'll need to wait until January 15 for the Switch 2 update, though. For a number of very obvious reasons, we don't want to roll back the clock to early 2020. But if there was a feel-good lockdown story, it was the perfectly timed arrival of, which allowed friends who could no longer meet up IRL to do so virtually on their carefully pruned islands. The game will almost certainly never be as popular as it was back then again, but Nintendo is hoping a good chunk of lapsed islanders will return for its latest DLC drop, which has arrived a day earlier than planned. As spotted by, the free update is available to download now and, as previously announced, brings a host of new features to the cozy life sim, including a brand new resort hotel on the pier that you can help decorate.
- Information Technology > Artificial Intelligence (0.80)
- Information Technology > Communications > Mobile (0.38)
Analogue3D Review: A Retro Gamer's Dream
This is the best way to play classic N64 games in 2025. Perfectly handles any original N64 game. Brace yourself, millennials--the Nintendo 64 turns 30 in 2026. The console you spent countless hours huddled around as a kid is now old enough to be crippled by student debt and burdened with existential despair, just like you! If that reminder of the cruel and ceaseless march of time makes you want to retreat into a nostalgic bubble when life was easier and, say, play some N64 games, unfortunately, that's been pretty tricky in recent years.
- Asia > Japan (0.05)
- North America > United States > California (0.04)
- Europe > Slovakia (0.04)
- Europe > Czechia (0.04)
Is Sega restarting Nintendo rivalry with new Sonic Racing game?
The slogan, from the 1990s, is one of the most famous in video game history. It was a time when the bitter rivalry between the two Japanese game companies was at its fiercest. Today, that relationship has softened. You can play Sonic games on Nintendo consoles and the characters have even appeared in games together. But is Sega trying to restart the beef?
- South America (0.15)
- North America > Central America (0.15)
- Oceania > Australia (0.05)
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Forget Tomb Raider and Uncharted, there's a new generation of games about archaeology – sort of
The game I'm most looking forward to right now is Big Walk, the latest title from House House, creators of the brilliant Untitled Goose Game. A cooperative multiplayer adventure where players are let loose to explore an open world, I'm interested to see what emergent gameplay comes out of it. Could Big Walk allow for a kind of community archaeology with friends? When games use environmental storytelling in their design – from the positioning of objects to audio recordings or graffiti – they invite players to role play as archaeologists. Game designer Ben Esposito infamously joked back in 2016 that environmental storytelling is the "art of placing skulls near a toilet" – which might have been a jab at the tropes of games like the Fallout series, but his quip demonstrates how archaeological gaming narratives can be.
- North America > United States > Indiana (0.05)
- Europe > United Kingdom (0.05)
- Asia > Japan (0.05)
AI Slop Is Ripping Off One of Summer's Best Games. Copycats Are Proving Hard to Kill
Peak is this summer's finest co-op game. The game, created in partnership with developers Aggro Crab and Landfall as part of a game jam, is currently in Steam's top five bestsellers. It sold over a million copies in its first week, and has now surpassed 8 million, according to Aggro Crab cofounder Nick Kamen. Now, as a result of its success, says Kamen, scammers are selling cheap, AI-made versions of it wherever they can. "We hate to see it," says Kamen.
- Leisure & Entertainment > Games > Computer Games (0.55)
- Law > Litigation (0.53)
Microsoft backs down on 80 triple-A games
The top price of new video games is suddenly a hot topic, with many publishers pushing for a higher 80 price tag just a year or two after 70 suddenly became commonplace. Notably, Nintendo's price ceiling for Switch 2 games like Mario Kart World is 80. Microsoft had planned to jump on this particular bandwagon starting with The Outer Worlds 2, but now seems to have reversed course. Back in May, Microsoft had announced that base prices for its biggest games for the 2025 holiday season would be increasing to 80 (or 79.99, if you ask the marketers). Today, The Outer Worlds 2 social accounts announced that it would get a preemptive price cut, down to the current 69.99 standard for new, heavily-promoted triple-A games. Microsoft confirmed to Windows Central that its first-party games for PC and Xbox will remain at the 70 USD level this year, with similar pricing in other markets.
Top Bananza! Donkey Kong's long-awaited return is a literal smash-hit
When you think of Nintendo, it's almost impossible not to picture Donkey Kong. Yet despite Donkers' undeniable place in gaming history – and obligatory appearances in Smash Bros and Mario Kart – for the last few console generations, Donkey Kong platformers have been MIA. Enter DK's first standalone adventure in 11 years, Donkey Kong Bananza. While Mario's recent adventures saw him exploring the reaches of outer space or deftly possessing enemies with an anthropomorphic hat, DK's grand return is all about primal rage. As you smash and punch your way through walls, floors and ceilings, you can burrow all the way to the ground below, forging new paths and unearthing hidden treasures.
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- Asia > Japan > Honshū > Kantō > Tokyo Metropolis Prefecture > Tokyo (0.05)
A real issue: video game developers are being accused of using AI – even when they aren't
In April, game developer Stamina Zero achieved what should have been a marketing slam-dunk: the launch trailer for the studio's game Little Droid was published on PlayStation's official YouTube channel. The response was a surprise for the developer. The game looks interesting, people wrote in the comments, but was "ruined" by AI art. But the game's cover art, used as the thumbnail for the YouTube video, was in fact made by a real person, according to developer Lana Ro. "We know the artist, we've seen her work, so such a negative reaction was unexpected for us, and at first we didn't know how to respond or how to feel," Ro said. It's not wrong for people to be worried about AI use in video games – in fact, it's good to be sceptical, and ensure that the media you support aligns with your values. Common arguments against generative AI relate to environmental impact, art theft and just general quality, and video game developers are grappling with how generative AI will impact their jobs.