A Surprise Pokémon in the Wild

The Pokémon Company held their Presents press conference last week. They discussed their upcoming games, including a new one that has already launched. Find out the details below. Also, games continue to be censored and Splitgate 2 rolls back into beta. All this and more. Let’s go!

Pokémon Presents…

The Pokémon Company held their annual press release live stream last week. The stream discussed updates to Pokémon Scarlet and Violet for Switch 2, Pokemon Go and even a new theme park being built in Japan. You can check out everything announced at the event, but here are our top headlines:

Pokémon Friends

Pokémon Friends is a new puzzle game that is out now on mobile devices and the Switch 2. The game offers a variety of different mind teasers and allows players to win plushes that they can use to decorate a virtual room. The game is free for mobile, but costs $10 on Switch.

Pokémon Champions

Create a squad of Pokémon to battle in the arena. Recruit, train and play against players from all over the world. Pokémon Champions arrives in 2026 on mobile and Switch.

Pokémon Legends: Z-A

The latest trailer showed more about the story in the upcoming new Pokémon game. It also provided a launch date: October 16 on Nintendo Switch and Switch 2. The game will also be bundled with the Switch 2 this fall.

More games disappear due to censorship

The censorship of games on popular platforms continues to grow. 

In our last newsletter, we discussed how a journalist had her article removed from Vice’s Waypoint. The article explained how a right-wing group called Collective Shout from Australia was targeting credit card companies to put pressure on Steam to remove games labeled NSFW (Not Safe for Work). Steam bowed to their demands and removed games.

Last week, popular independent storefront Itch.io also gave in to these tactics and removed all of their adult games. On their website Itch says, “we have ‘deindexed’ all adult NSFW content from our browse and search pages. We understand this action is sudden and disruptive, and we are truly sorry for the frustration and confusion caused by this change.”

While some of the games removed contain questionable content, the bulk removal also affected some award-winning games such as Consume Me. Consume Me is an autobiographical story of a girl growing up in a sexist society who is battling an eating disorder.

Consumers, developers and others are not thrilled that credit card companies are censoring adult content. Press Space to Jump interviewed a number of creators who had their content removed from Itch. 404 Media and Wired covered the censorship in-depth. Aftermath made the bold claim that payment processors should not be able to run the world from the shadows. 

For those who oppose these tactics, the ACLU has started a petition to have these policies reversed. You can also contact the various payment processors at the numbers below to voice your concern.

Splitgate 2 goes back to beta

After launching June 6 at Summer Game Fest, Splitgate 2 is unreleasing due to poor reception.

The news was all bad for fans of the game, as publisher 1047 Games plans to cut jobs and is taking Splitgate 1 offline as well. The company posed a lengthy explanation on Twitter:

Some of the negative reaction for Splitgate 2 stems from CEO Ian Proulx wearing a "Make FPS Great Again" hat at the game's Summer Game Fest. Steam reviews also point to significant other issues compared to its predecessor. Can Splitgate 2 recover? Time will tell.

The Games Letter at Gen Con

The Games Letter is returning to Gen Con this week.

The biggest tabletop gaming convention in North America takes place this Thursday through Sunday in Indianapolis. We have already posted our 20 most anticipated board games of Gen Con article, and plan to have more board game news and interviews in the coming weeks. 

If you are interested in following along on social media, you can follow our editor on Bluesky, TGL’s Blusesky account or check us out on Instagram.

Side Quests (more stories worth reading)

📉 After initially saying The Outer Worlds 2 would cost $80, Microsoft backed down and dropped the price to $70. Those who preordered the game at the higher price will receive a refund. 

🔫 EA released their first trailer and more details about Battlefield 6. 

💰 The Final Fantasy expansion for Magic: The Gathering made over $200 million in just one day. 

🏎️ 82% of U.S. consumers who bought a Switch 2 also bought Mario Kart World. 

🤝🏽 Indiegogo is being acquired by Gamefound in an attempt to take on Kickstarter, especially in the board game space. 

🫣 A trailer for a new single-player Hellraiser game released last week, along with news that Clive Barker is advising on the story.  

🤳🏼 Kids in the United Kingdom are getting around Discord’s age verification by using the photo mode in Death Stranding. 

🏒 Netflix released two new video games that tie into the recently released movie Happy Gilmore 2. 

📊 Deltarune and Hogwarts Legacy are the top selling third-party games for the Switch 2. 

🕹️ It is 2025, and a new version of the Atari 2600 is being released. The yellow PAC-MAN Edition is available for pre-order. 

⚁ Elden Ring Nightreign is adding two-player co-op.

🌠 Ubisoft’s CEO said Star Wars Outlaws did not sell well initially because “the brand it belonged to was in a bit of choppy waters.”

🧱 Lego officially announced their Nintendo Game Boy set, which releases Oct. 1. 

🚜 There is now a game about the guy who lost his bitcoin wallet worth millions in a landfill. 

😟 The Game Manufacturer’s Association says President Trump’s tariffs are putting tens of thousands of board game industry jobs at risk.

📺 A TV series adaptation of the video game Wolfenstein is being developed by Amazon.

New Releases this week:

7/29: Grounded 2 (Xbox and PC)
7/29: Tales of the Shire: A Lord of the Rings Game (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC)
7/31: Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC)
7/31: Time Flies (PlayStation, Switch and PC)

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