At dawn on Wednesday, French antitrust authorities conducted a surprise raid on a company in the country that specializes in graphics cards — and according to The Wall Street Journal and Challenges business magazine, that company was NVIDIA. We reached out to NVIDIA for clarification and a spokesperson declined to comment. Here's what we know for sure:

The French Competition Authority conducted a surprise raid early Wednesday morning on "a company suspected of having implemented anticompetitive practices in the graphics cards sector," according to a brief press release from the regulator. The raid was tied to a larger investigation into the health of the cloud computing market, with a focus on identifying whether new companies were being unfairly squeezed out by larger, existing ones. The results of that investigation were published in June and they centered on three "hyperscalers," Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure. 

The results read, in part, "The likelihood of a new operator being able to gain market share rapidly appears limited, excluding companies who are already powerful in other digital markets." NVIDIA is not mentioned in the original cloud investigation.

NVIDIA has seen significant financial success this year amid the AI boom. NVIDIA's AI chips and data centers are in high demand, and the company crushed its most recent earnings expectations, pulling in $13.51 billion in the second quarter of 2023, compared with $6.7 billion in 2022.

As the French Competition Authority noted, a raid does not mean the targeted company is guilty of anticompetitive practices — but it's a confident step from the regulatory body.

Looks like Cities: Skylines II is truly going to be colossal. The console release of Cities: Skylines II has been delayed to spring 2024, and the game's minimum and recommended PC specs are now slightly more demanding. The PC version of the game will still land on October 24, 2023, as originally planned.

Anyone who pre-ordered the game on PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X/S should automatically receive a refund through those platforms. Developer Colossal Order is shutting down pre-orders of the console version for now. Cities: Skylines II is still coming to PC Game Pass on October 24, and it'll hit Xbox Game Pass next spring, alongside the console release.

The new minimum and recommended PC specs aren't wildly different than the original figures, but there are two notable changes. The recommended specs now call for an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X processor, rather than a Ryzen 5 5800X. The minimum specs start with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 graphics card (or AMD equivalent), an upgrade from the original GTX 780.

Colossal Order explained that the console delay and the PC update stem from the same root cause: This game is bigger and requires more optimization than they first thought. Here's how the studio explained the adjustment to the game's PC specs:

"Cities: Skylines II is a next-generation title and therefore has certain hardware requirements. The recommended specs were set when the game was still in development. After having done extensive testing with different hardware we made the decision to update the minimum/recommended specs for a better player experience."

It's been a rough year for PC games in general. The diversity baked into the PC market has always been a challenge for developers, but ninth-generation console hardware is now outstripping many common PC setups, leading to ambitious games with lots of bugs on PC. With today's Cities: Skylines II news, it seems like Colossal Order is attempting to insulate itself from this phenomenon.

Developers have also had a tough time offering parity between the Xbox Series X — the most technically powerful console this generation — and the Series S, Microsoft's cheaper and less powerful option. Microsoft requires all games to launch with the same features on both consoles, and this has led to a handful of delays, dropped features, and at least one accidental PS5 console exclusive. Microsoft recently allowed Baldur's Gate 3 creator Larian Studios to bend these rules, but the requirement remains in place generally.

Colossal Order has an FAQ about the changes to Cities: Skylines II right here.

Joy-Cons are the Switch’s weakest feature. The two itty-bitty controllers have caused a plethora of issues for players — and Nintendo itself — since the Switch first came out in 2017, tarnishing the sheen of an otherwise fantastic hybrid console. Stick drift was the main problem and it became such a widespread phenomenon that Nintendo faced a class-action lawsuit over it, and the company is still offering free repairs for all busted Joy-Cons, even outside of warranty terms.

The left Joy-Con on my Switch went wonky about a year ago, but I also had a Switch Lite and a few Bluetooth controllers, so I never bothered to get it fixed. And now, I never have to. The Nitro Deck is a handheld frame for the Switch screen, complete with Hall Effect thumbsticks and incredibly clicky buttons. It’s so, so much better than the standard Joy-Con setup.

The Nitro Deck comes from CRKD, a new company founded at Embracer Group’s Freemode incubator lab. The Nitro Deck is a simple idea executed well: Slide your Switch screen into the frame and it acts as a self-contained, beefed-up gamepad. It feels like the offspring of a Switch Lite and a Steam Deck, and it comes in black, gray and white as default colorways. Limited edition styles include mint, GameCube purple and an SNES-y gray. (The hottest versions come from a collaboration with Limited Run, but these transparent lovelies are sold out).

CRKD

The Nitro Deck includes a stand for Bluetooth play, but it really shines as a handheld. The D-pad is responsive and face buttons are crisp. They have a satisfying weight and pop back up quickly after each press. The shoulder buttons are clicky, the triggers are buttery-smooth, and though I haven’t actually found a use for the four back-panel buttons, I’m happy with their positioning and the way they feel.

The analog sticks are the star, though, simply because they’re such an upgrade from the standard Joy-Con experience. Hall effect joysticks mean there’s no chance of drift and they offer a wide, accurately tracked range of motion. The Nitro Deck carry case kit includes two spare sticks with different textures, and it’s incredibly simple to pop one out and replace it with a new one.

As evidenced in my Steam Deck review, my hands are on the smaller side, and the Nitro Deck fits just fine in my palms. I have a touch of anxiety over the distance between the right thumbstick and the face buttons directly above it, but it hasn’t actually affected my ability to play any games. Tiny Hands Gang, I think this one’s OK.

CRKD

The most jarring aspect of the Nitro Deck is its rumble function. The rumble on this thing isn’t particularly powerful in terms of physical feedback, but it’s certainly loud. This was especially noticeable while playing Mario Kart 8, which activates rumble with every drift, crash and off-track tire touch, sometimes for seconds at a time. The noise generated is obscene. It sounds like a ghost with a cold groan-screaming into your hands, and it doesn’t offer any subtlety. That said, it’s easy enough to turn off the rumble completely. That’s what I did, and I didn’t miss it.

Hades is the game I’ve spent the most time with on Switch and Switch Lite, and playing it on Nitro Deck was a refreshing experience. The Nitro Deck supports a larger screen than the Switch Lite and its inputs are much better than the classic Switch, making the game look and feel like something new. I’ve been playing with a traditional Switch screen, but the Nitro Deck also supports the OLED model.

While I’ve been putting off getting my weird Joy-Con fixed for free, this device might be the final push I need to actually drop some cash on an OLED Switch. With clearer visuals, a slightly bigger screen and updated controls via Nitro Deck, the complete package would feel like a brand-new, end-of-cycle refresh.

CRKD

The Nitro Deck costs $60 on its lonesome, or $90 with the carry case. The case itself is worth the extra $30, in my opinion: It’s sturdy and thick, and it comes with two swappable thumbsticks, a screen wipe and an eight-foot USB-C charging cable. Nitro Deck pre-orders placed before September 18 are currently shipping, and any units purchased from now on should be sent out this week or next (more detailed information can be found here).

The Nitro Deck improves the Switch in ways I didn’t know I wanted. Truthfully, I may never connect the Joy-Cons to my Switch again. This is simply my Switch’s final form: bulbous, purple, loud and, more than anything, satisfying to play.

Resident Evil Village is a haunting horror romp starring a very tall and elegant vampire lady (and some other monsters, sure), and it's heading to iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max on October 30. It'll hit the M1 and M2 models of the iPad Pro and iPad Air on the same day. The base game will cost $40 and its Winters’ Expansion DLC will be an additional $20.

Resident Evil Village originally came to PC, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S in 2021, and it became a cultural touchstone for its monster-mashing storyline. The game includes werewolf creatures, a mutant fish man, a murderous cult leader and festering, zombie-like enemies, though its breakout star was Countess Alcina Dimitrescu. She's an exceptionally tall, undead, razor-fingered villain who leads a trio of vampiric daughters, and she's simply fantastic.

Village landed on Mac in 2022. Apple revealed the iPhone and iPad versions during its annual iPhone event on September 12, 2023, but it didn't share a release date at the time. Capcom provided the date on its site this week. The Resident Evil 4 remake, which landed on PC and consoles this year, is also due to hit Apple's mobile devices in 2023, but no date has been confirmed just yet.

Other games coming to the iPhone 15 Pro — thanks to the new A17 Pro chipset — include Death Stranding and Assassin's Creed Mirage. Death Stranding is due out this year, while Mirage is scheduled to hit in early 2024.

It's the day after the largest document leak in Xbox's history, and now that the important news is on the record, we can all take a step back and process the ridiculousness of the whole situation. One facet that made the debacle so delicious was the insight into Xbox's corporate communications, from executive emails simmering with ill-concealed annoyance to internal slide decks filled with imaginary quotes from fictional, diehard Xbox fans.

Here we've collected a handful of email messages and slides from the Xbox leak that made us giggle, raise our eyebrows, or enact some strange combination of the two:

The emails

Wild rumors can lead to actual product discussions

Five months before the launch of the Xbox Series X/S, division chief Phil Spencer was pleased to discover that, due to a series of logistical hurdles, Yakuza: Like a Dragon would be a next-gen Xbox exclusive. He was so pleased, in fact, that he wrote in an email to other executives, "They are really doing a nice job support us, great to see. I love the rumors that we'd launch our Xbox in Japan with a Sega logo on it." Just 16 minutes later, Spencer followed up with a pitch to actually roll out a limited-edition Sega-branded console in Japan, writing:

There is a root of an idea here. The idea that Sega could have an LE version of XSX in Japan is very interesting. They are doing good work with us on a lot of fronts and it could be something to consider, not the traditional LE but something special if they are up for it. Maybe even a Sega wrap with their IP (including JSR, PSO, Rally, Sonic etc).

The proper people were roped into the thread and it seems the conversation eventually fizzled out, but we'll still call this a win for the rumor mill.

Valve, a Microsoft company

One of the biggest headlines to spawn from the leak was the fact that Phil Spencer really wanted to buy Nintendo at one point in 2020, calling it a potential "career moment" for himself. We already knew that Microsoft was interested in purchasing Sega and a handful of other major game studios — including ZeniMax, which it successfully acquired in 2021, and Activision-Blizzard, which is the reason we're reading these internal messages in the first place. The leaked emails reveal additional businesses that Xbox wanted to gobble up, including Warner Bros. Interactive, Valve and TikTok.

"Our BoD has seen the full writeup on Nintendo (and Valve) and they are fully supportive on either if opportunity arises as am I," Spencer wrote.

Warner Bros. Interactive makes a modicum of sense here, but Valve feels as out-of-reach as Nintendo in terms of a potential acquisition. Valve is a private company and it doesn't publicly share financial data, but one of Xbox's slides estimated its 2021 revenue total at $7 billion, about the same as Electronic Arts or Activision-Blizzard. But more than profitability, Valve has a stable position as the leading distributor of PC games via Steam, and it would be completely out-of-character for the company to entertain a buyout.

This whole email thread started because Microsoft Commercial Chief Marketing Officer Takeshi Numoto sent an email to Spencer with the subject line, "random thought." In it, Numoto expressed confusion over internal discussions to purchase TikTok, suggesting Nintendo as a better option. Neither of these purchases happened, of course.

Mark Cerny talks too much

Sony unveiled the first details about the PlayStation 5 on March 18, 2020, and Microsoft executives discussed the specs that same day in an email chain. The initial breakdown included commentary about PS5 architect Mark Cerny's presentation, complete with the lines, "Cerny talked at length about the move to SSDs," and, "Cerny also spent what seemed like a disproportionate amount of time on audio innovations." In an otherwise sterile, completely professional email, these lines might as well have been direct insults about Cerny's lineage.

Spencer shared his summary of the PS5's capabilities with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella that same day, concluding with, "This was a good day for Xbox."

Leave Baldur’s Gate 3 alone

Baldur's Gate 3 is the surprise, smash-hit RPG of 2023, so it's interesting to see how Xbox classified it in last year's internal Game Pass projections. While some games were described as, "Huge PC nostalgia play with new title from legendary designer" (Return to Monkey Island), or, "Sequel to strong GP performer" (Wreckfest 2), Baldur's Gate 3 was called a "second-run Stadia PC RPG." It may have technically been true at the time, but it still feels like a personal attack, you know?

Get 'em, Jean-Emile

At one point, Xbox Partner Software Architect Jean-Emile Elien sent an email to Spencer that essentially asked, "Is the Game Pass model going to screw over developers?" Spencer argued, in vague terms at first, that it shouldn't. The two traded emails over two days, with Elien asking for clarification on how the company will measure a game's success, and repeating that he wasn't trying to armchair quarterback. The bureaucratic tension builds up beautifully with each sent message. Here's a sampling of their discussion:

Elien: "So how should studios now measure their worth to the portfolio? I know you dislike the Netflix analogy, but I am trying to understand the equivalent of 'ending a show' in their model."

Spencer: "Different games perform differently, some are very high on play and therefore a higher impact on retention, others are good top of funnel for attract but don't get much play. You need both. I'd be lying to you if I told you we had the excel sheet of the value of a game completely figured out."

Elien: "I'd be really saddened if the reduction of an inherently creative endeavor to a single cell going red was the determinant. How about looking back on the studio closures of the past —would a product like Game Pass have changed your mind on any particular studio's closure?"

Spencer: "I feel like the highlighted question is a preview of an opinion you have. Do you think gamepass would have saved a studio we once owned?"

Elien: "My turn to say: Honestly, I don't know. I don't really know what goes into closing a studio: how much funding vs. personnel vs. output feeds into the decision."

Spencer: "I don't think we've ever closed a studio due to the studio's P&L. It's almost always been either from leadership leaving (Lionhead as an example) or team just losing it's passion (Ensemble as an example)."

Elien: "Fair. ... This is also the second time you've called me on a 'question that sounds like an opinion' which leads me to believe this happens to you a lot. I promise, if I have an opinion that is worth me sending an email, I will give it. I appreciate this forum too much to be disingenuous."

King King

This is your regularly scheduled reminder that Microsoft's attempt to acquire Activision-Blizzard is actually all about King, the mobile developer behind Candy Crush. Even though "King" is often left out of the Activision-Blizzard moniker entirely, this studio consistently brings in the most money of any segment.

Here's how Spencer put it in an email on January 28, 2020, before acquisition talks began: "Activision is unique partner given their King acquisition. Q3 revenue for King was $500M (all mobile) while Activision (Call of Duty) was $209M and Blizzard $394M (leaning PC but also includes mobile and console). Activision is really a mobile first publisher (through their $6B King acquisition)."

Just something to keep in mind as the Microsoft-Activision acquisition continues to play out in court.

Phil seems chill

One of the most adorable takeaways from the leaked Xbox emails is how approachable (and downright nerdy) Spencer seems to be. In the included messages, Spencer responds quickly and thoroughly, and he offers fun ideas for branding and software partnerships amid the corporate speak. It seems like senior-level employees feel comfortable emailing him with feedback and even questioning his goals, which says a lot about his management style.

Also, Spencer's tone becomes noticeably more formal when he's emailing Nadella, which is endearing and relatable. Everyone has a boss.

The slides

Go to the American Southwest?

Microsoft

If you need us to explain why an Xbox-branded photo of an American highway next to an "inspirational" quote attributed to African Proverb is funny, then we really don't know why you're here.

The Voice of the Player™

Microsoft

These appear to be made-up, not-real, imaginary, fictional, fake quotes extolling the virtues of the Xbox ecosystem, placed under photos of people who didn't say these things. Also, there's a Series X with sprouts growing out of it. Manifest it, Microsoft.

ZeniMax's sales pitch

Microsoft

Microsoft's financial year ends and begins in July, which makes this chart from 2020 even harder to digest. This is how ZeniMax presented its release calendar to Microsoft during acquisition negotiations, and it starts with Starfield coming out by summer 2021, followed by Bethesda's Indiana Jones game by summer 2022, Doom Year Zero by summer 2023 and Elder Scrolls VI and Dishonored 3 by summer 2024. In actuality, Starfield came out this literal month, and we've heard very little — or nothing at all — about Indiana Jones, Elder Scrolls VI or Dishonored 3. Elder Scrolls VI likely isn't coming out for five more years, in fact. And you thought you were bummed out by major game delays.

Amazon debuted an updated Echo Show 8 during its live event today, highlighting the device's new display, camera, microphones and spatial-audio capabilities. Generative AI helps the Echo Show 8 respond dynamically to the user's position in the physical world, offering different displays depending on how far away someone is from the screen. A new language model increases the device's on-board Alexa response time by 40 percent over the previous edition.

The Echo Show 8 costs $149.99 and is available for pre-order today. The device will hit the market and start shipping in October.

Amazon unveiled the original, 7-inch Echo Show in 2017 and has rolled out various versions over the years, with the latest notable refreshes landing in 2021. That year, Amazon announced the third-gen Echo Show 10, the second-gen Echo Show 5 and Echo Show 8, and the brand-new Echo Show 15, which is designed to be wall-mounted. Amazon did release an updated Echo Show 5 in 2023, offering minimal improvements in processing speed and audio quality, but otherwise leaving the device's design unchanged.

Follow all of the news live from Amazon’s 2023 Devices event right here.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

After a day of leaks comprising an all-digital Xbox Series X, an advanced controller, a "cloud-hybrid" console, fruitless Nintendo acquisition plans and some very mean words about Baldur's Gate 3, Xbox head Phil Spencer has spoken publicly — and semi-privately — about the situation for the first time.

On X, Spencer said, "It is hard to see our team's work shared in this way because so much has changed and there's so much to be excited about right now, and in the future." He added that the company "will share the real plans when we are ready."

In an internal memo sent to employees at Microsoft's gaming division, and published in full by The Verge, Spencer went further. The full note reads:

Undoubtedly, it's been a long day for everyone at Xbox. Spencer is doing his best in both missives to downplay the significance of the leaked documents by suggesting that Xbox's hardware plans have changed since they were first internally shared in 2022. The original slides outline a plan to debut a disc-less, cylindrical, 2TB version of the Xbox Series X in 2024, as well as an updated controller with "precision haptic feedback" (like PlayStation's DualSense) and direct-to-cloud capabilities (like Stadia's controller). Looking even further ahead, the documents included plans for a 10th-gen Xbox console with a focus on "cloud-hybrid games," penciled in for a 2028 release. 

Also, Spencer really wanted to buy Nintendo at one point, apparently (but it seems Microsoft is settling for Activision-Blizzard instead, which is how we ended up in this leaky mess to begin with). We've rounded up all the news from today's document dump right here.

“What are we willing to fight for? What do we deserve, morally speaking? What is our place, our relationship with the universe, with nature?”

During a preview of The Talos Principle 2 in August, series writer Jonas Kyratzes posed 19 questions about the essence of humanity in just 90 seconds. Between explanations of new mechanics and puzzle systems, he rattled off deep musings about society and the natural world as easily as if he were reading his weekly grocery list. It felt like these questions were constantly on his mind, poised at the tip of his tongue.

“What does society owe me?” he asked. “What do I owe society? What is our relationship with nature? What is our relationship with the universe? Is the universe kind? Is nature understanding or is it cruel and random? And if it is cruel and random, where do we fit in? What degree of control should we have?”

Croteam

He wasn’t craving answers. TheTalos Principle 2 is filled with provocations like these, and according to Kyratzes, they’re designed to generate conversation and debate, even if it’s all internal. The goal is to spawn deep thoughts about the future of humanity and the role technology can play in our evolution.

“They're statements that are intended to make you think,” Kyratzes told Engadget a few weeks after the initial preview. “Let's say the robots are human and they're capable of love. Like, that's our premise.… Hopefully that is also the sort of thing that will provoke some thought.”

This philosophical approach to the future is the heart of The Talos Principle, an award-winning sci-fi puzzle game that debuted in 2014, and its tender curiosity is baked into the sequel as well. The Talos Principle 2 is due out this year for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, and it directly follows the story of the original. It’s set in a burgeoning society built by sentient robots, and its main gameplay mechanic involves solving complex laser riddles, interspersed with conversations about the nature of consciousness, love and survival.

Croteam

Co-writer Verena Kyratzes didn’t work on the original game’s story, but she and the other developers at Croteam used its calm, question-asking approach as a blueprint for the sequel.

“It didn't only ask you a question, but once you gave the answer to the question, it kind of very politely asked you to just think about whether you're really sure about that,” she said. “It's a game that constantly tries to make you think, to interrogate yourself and your beliefs, and I really hope that we managed to do that in the second one, too. The gentleness of it is something that's very important to me because I think if you're talking down to somebody, if you're just telling them, ‘That was stupid,’ then they will immediately close off.”

The Talos Principle 2 represents an old-school brand of sci-fi that invites people to play around with the ideas it poses; warm, welcoming and slow. Even the series’ conclusions, when it offers any, are inherently optimistic, centering on humanity and the ability society has to thrive with nature in the future. It’s a return to a Carl Sagan era of forward thought, positioning people as the solution, not just the instigator, in problems like climate change, overpopulation, rogue AI, pandemics and space travel. This alone is a refreshing perspective in a sea of mainstream sci-fi media that only envisions the future as a miserable, sterile void manufactured by society's stubbornness and greed.

Croteam

“Consistently, science fiction presents itself as being original for taking a dystopian view, as if it was subverting a mainstream narrative of hopefulness,” Jonas Kyratzes said. “They'll be like, ‘In our story technology is bad.’ Oh really, you mean like every other story?”

As a series, The Talos Principle is more thematically aligned with the aspirational sci-fi of the original Star Trek or The Next Generation than it is with the gloom of today's Picard. This optimistic, human-first approach makes The Talos Principle 2 subversive as a work of contemporary sci-fi.

Here’s how Jonas Kyratzes and Verena Kyratzes discussed the modern glut of pessimistic sci-fi among themselves:

Jonas: “[Dystopia] is of course, on some level, a response to the conditions we live in. But it's also limiting our ability to imagine something else. And I think this kind of optimism, that's so crucial, it's so fundamental in a way that it's hard to talk about, because what are we without a future? I think that also reflects our alienation from our own humanity. The tendency to always go, ‘Humanity is a virus, humanity is bad, all humans are evil.’ Einstein once remarked that this is a very troubling thing, a sign of alienation, because it's such a fundamental thing to have a connection to humanity. Because you are human. … It's the most mainstream idea, it's the ruling ideology of our time: Nothing will get better and you shouldn't expect anything to get better.”

Verena: “Often we’ll watch something that is set 300, 400, 1,000 years in the future, but what they're actually talking about is something that is [current]. They're no longer imagining a future. They're just talking about what upsets them in the present.”

Jonas: “By taking it into a utopian future, it gives you different ways of thinking about it, and now a lot of science fiction doesn't. It's like, here's future racism, exactly like now racism. As if to say, nothing will change, nothing will get better, nor can it. And it’s like, OK, great — why are we telling this story?”

The Talos Principle 2 will present decidedly humanist ideas in conversations with NPCs and general story beats, but it also makes room for other conclusions. The game’s respect for the human race extends to individual players, and the story will unravel in various ways depending on the choices each person makes and the interpretations they choose to follow. Diversity is one humanity’s greatest strengths, after all.

There are varying levels of engagement with the narrative, too — completing the game’s incredibly challenging golden puzzles, for instance, will unlock a “significant story payoff,” according to Jonas Kyratzes.

The Talos Principle 2 isn’t necessarily a game about utopian sci-fi; it just uses this direction as a backbone. The sequel takes players from sterile, Myst-like testing grounds filled with wildly tricky spatial puzzles, to a clean, shining city built by robots that act like and call themselves human. Robots that feel human. Robots that feel, full-stop.

“All of these things that we're all thinking about and arguing about are going into this game, and hopefully are reflected in the conversations inside that game,” Jonas Kyratzes said. “I would hope it's expressed as a story through characters who have personalities. The game is all of these things, but it's also a love story, as much as anything else. Multiple love stories. It’s intertwined love stories in a lot of ways, that's an undercurrent that's very significant. The ability of sentient beings to love, even if they are robots.”

A multitude of questions spawn from this premise alone. The Talos Principle 2 will invite players to test their own theories about consciousness, AI, sustainability and love in a meditative space. It doesn’t promise answers, but maybe it’ll inspire players to ask different questions about humanity’s future, just like sci-fi is supposed to.

Baby Steps, an indie game that generated a ton of buzz when it was announced in June, is coming out in summer 2024 for PC and PlayStation 5. This update is a smidgen better than the original reveal, which teased a general release window of 2024. It did so using a Death Stranding pastiche featuring a grown man in a onesie trying his hardest to put one foot in front of the other, and today's news comes alongside a new, silly video that ends in Star Wars-style font.

Baby Steps comes from QWOP and Getting Over It creator Bennett Foddy, and Ape Out developers Gabe Cuzzillo and Maxi Boch. It's essentially a narrative-driven, 3D version of Foddy's original extreme walking simulator, where players control each of the main character's steps independently.

Baby Steps looks just as hilarious and strange as the creators' previous works, and the new trailer highlights the various moans, groans and mumbled curse words of the main character, Nate, as he struggles to learn to walk. Apparently, those sounds all came from the developers themselves, since they're handling voice-acting duties firsthand.

Here's how Boch described the recording process: "The developers themselves are handling voiceover duties, recording and experimenting until they discover the humor of each scene. This seat-of-our-pants approach comes through thanks to the unconventional editing, which leaves in giggles and breaks, as well as the playful rapport between Cuzziilo and Foddy, together lending Baby Steps a slacker-comedy feel."

Baby Steps is being published by Devolver Digital.

Now she's just showing off. Princess Peach: Showtime puts everyone's favorite pink-draped mini monarch under the spotlight on March 22, 2024. Nintendo debuted the new game during today's Direct showcase, and it features Princess Peach in a variety of roles, including a swordfighter, a detective, a pastry chef and a kung-fu master. 

Princess Peach: Showtime is a platformer, puzzler and brawler, and it's set inside the Sparkle Theater, which has been overrun by the evil Grape and the Sour Bunch. Along with some friends, Princess Peach uses her transformation abilities to beat the baddies and save the theater. Nintendo teased a new game starring Princess Peach earlier this year, and these are the first details about it.

"In this adventure, the gameplay changes depending on Peach’s role, and even more surprising transformations are waiting to be revealed," Nintendo said.

Princess Peach: Showtime is heading exclusively to Switch on March 22, and pre-orders are open today.