Patch Notes #58 - weekly gaming digest
Welcome to the 58th edition of Patch Notes. Let’s get this bad boy going.
This edition will cover the week from 26 January to 1 February.
What caught my attention?
The Genie3 release from Google was quite interesting. It caused:
Stocks to fall
LinkedIn specialists are calling for the end of gaming as we know it and a new crop of AAA solopreneurs already developing GTA7.
Always fascinating to see.
There were rumors that an infamous individual was responsible for the MTX on Call of Duty, but I won't waste time on such nonsense or a terrible person.
TLDR
Larian Studios uploaded “Chill Demonic Beats To Long Rest To” to Channel From Hell, a half-hour animation of relaxed Raphael’s Final Act featuring Spud Gun Studios’ animated origin characters and references to popular Baldur’s Gate 3 mods and memes. PC Gamer
Octopath Traveler 0 received a small update on Switch and Switch 2 including improvements to performance, sound quality, and other fixes. Nintendo Life
IGN published an explanation of the Resident Evil timeline covering key events from Spencer Mansion to Requiem ahead of Resident Evil Requiem. IGN
Highguard launched this week after appearing as a reveal at last year’s The Game Awards, drawing scrutiny as a live-service game. Eurogamer
Capcom revealed the top 20 designs and opened voting for the Mega Man: Dual Override Robot Master Design Contest. Nintendo Life
Gen.G completed a clean sweep in the LCK Cup group stage, eliminating Hanwha Life Esports, with Gen.G, T1, and BNK FearX advancing directly to playoffs while others go to Play-In. Sheep Esports
This week’s Japanese game releases include Dragon Quest VII Reimagined for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, Switch, and PC, Nioh 3, and My Hero Academia: All’s Justice. Gematsu
Ashes of Creation director and leadership team quit in protest against board decisions they could not ethically agree with or carry out, following its 2017 crowdfunding with $3.2 million from almost 20,000 backers. Eurogamer
Battlestate Games confirmed Escape from Tarkov’s first major crossover event with Escape from Duckov. Eurogamer
Gaming companies saw share prices plummet after Google rolled out Project Genie 3, an AI tool generating virtual worlds in 60-second bursts from text prompts. Eurogamer
Nintendo Life reviewed Super Nintendo: How One Japanese Company Helped The World Have Fun by Keza MacDonald, which promises new information over 12 chapters and 250 pages. Nintendo Life
Bandai Namco announced Tekken 8 Season 3 consisting of four new playable DLC characters. Gematsu
Tetsuya Nomura revealed concept art from Final Fantasy 7’s very earliest stages envisioning combat not fully realized until FF7 Remake, for the game’s 29th anniversary. GamesRadar
Blizzard developers stated Diablo 4’s Paladin class, released early in the Lord of Hatred expansion after two and a half years of requests, owes much to Zelda and Lord of the Rings. Polygon
Skyrim lead stated Starfield would be talked about like the second coming if made by a new studio but faced much higher expectations from Bethesda. GamesRadar
Polygon described Code Vein 2 as epitomizing the trend of middling games that are neither memorably good nor bad. Polygon
Markiplier’s low-budget horror film Iron Lung, based on the video game, earned 21.5milliongloballyinitsopeningweekendwith21.5milliongloballyinitsopeningweekendwith17.8 million domestic and $3.6 million international. IGN
Early access MMO Ashes of Creation ceased development with Intrepid Studios laying off the entire team two days after promising it was worthy of investment, following its $3.3 million 2017 Kickstarter as the most successful MMO fundraiser. PC Gamer
Helldivers 2 lead writer had seven days to cast John Helldiver, seeking the funniest person possible for the game’s intro cinematic featuring the Super-Earth Spokesperson. PC Gamer
TSM let go of its entire Apex Legends roster including Ira ‘Dooplex’ Shepherd, Rigoberto ‘Gent’ Padilla, and Nathaniel ‘Panic’ Arthur. Esports Insider
Guild Wars 1 added an ‘Ironman’ mode 21 years after release, inspired by a community-driven challenge, as part of its soft remaster tweaks. PC Gamer
Pokemon Go February 2026 events include Raid bosses, Spotlight Hours, Community Day with Vulpix and Alolan Vulpix, Flamigo debut in Carnival of Flamigo, Valentine’s Day, and Lunar New Year celebrations to end the Precious Paths season. GameSpot
Deadlock added hero banning allowing players to avoid certain heroes when queuing, excluding the newest ones. PC Gamer
Moroccan pirate queen Sayyida al-Hurra, largely omitted from history books, was added to Civilization 7 through a professor’s years of research. PC Gamer
Sony patented a touchscreen PlayStation controller that lets players choose button positions, noting standard controllers are not comfortable for everyone. VGC
GTA: San Andreas speedrunners discovered a 31-step skip allowing the original PC port to be beaten in under an hour, 21 years after release. GamesRadar
Paper Mario-inspired RPG Escape from Ever After released after 5 years in development and received great reviews on Steam and consoles. GamesRadar
Group SNE, known for Record of Lodoss War and Sword World and maker of Dark Souls tabletop RPG, announced a tabletop RPG for Elden Ring Nightreign. PC Gamer
PlayStation’s 2026 roadmap features early releases like Marathon and Saros following a quiet 2025 with Death Stranding 2: On the Beach and Ghost of Yotei. GameSpot
Old-school MMO Project: Gorgon launched into 1.0 with an update adding its largest and most complex map in Statehelm and 200 new quests. PC Gamer
Falcom, GungHo, and CLE released a new gameplay trailer for Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter at Taipei Game Show 2026. RPG Site
GameSpot listed the biggest new game releases for February 2026 across PC and consoles including sequels and remakes. GameSpot
Pokemon Legends: Z-A + Mega Dimension soundtrack featuring 148 tracks across 5 CDs launches on April 17 in Japan. RPG Site
Square Enix released the original Final Fantasy VII Rebirth soundtrack on streaming services including Spotify and Apple Music worldwide. RPG Site
Pearl Abyss shared a 15-minute features overview video for Crimson Desert discussing Kliff and the Greymanes, Pywel world, two other playable characters, factions, exploration, and a missile-firing mech. RPG Site
Game Developer Podcast Episode 63 analyzed the 2026 GDC State of the Industry Report from the GDC Festival of Gaming. Game Developer
Wildlight released an update for live-service hero shooter Highguard reducing crashes by 90% and adding crouch toggle option. Eurogamer
Amazon’s live-action God of War series, following the 2018 Norse epic plot, cast stars from Severance and Homeland as Odin and Thor alongside Ragnarök characters. Eurogamer
Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio acknowledged graphical issues in the Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties demo on Switch 2 and other platforms, stating it does not represent the final experience with a launch update planned. Nintendo Life
Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined producer stated he always includes a cleric in his party because he is not particularly skilled at RPGs. GamesRadar
Biggest releases of the week?
