The Sonic the Hedgehog film franchise has emerged as one of the unlikeliest of success stories in the video game adaptation space. Originally a laughing stock thanks to its now-infamous original character model of the series' star, the team reworked the character model and doubled down on action, comedy, and heart to deliver one of the biggest ever film franchises based on a video game. Following the success of Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which introduced Keanu Reeves as Shadow and grossed nearly $500 million at the worldwide box office, series director Jeff Fowler has shared that Sonic the Hedgehog 4 has begun production.

Taking to Instagram and X, Fowler shared an image of him holding a clapperboard as well as what appears to be the hammer of Amy Rose, who was revealed in a post-credits scene of Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Recently, actress Kristen Bell was confirmed to provide the voice of Amy in the upcoming fourth film. The social media post said, "Ready 4 Action. #SonicMovie4 now filming. In Theaters Worldwide March 2027," and included the photo below.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 is slated to arrive in theaters on March 19, 2027. While no other actors have been confirmed, the series' cast includes Ben Schwartz, Jim Carrey, James Marsden, Idris Elba, Colleen O'Shaughnessey, Keanu Reeves, Tika Sumpter, Krysten Ritter, Adam Pally, Lee Majdoub, and others. 

The Call of Duty franchise has long been synonymous with competitive shooting, but in recent years, it's also elevated to become a major player in the ascendant battle-royale genre. Today, Treyarch and Activision announced Black Ops Royale, an original take on the genre inspired by the series' first battle-royale mode, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's Blackout.

Black Ops Royale serves as a return to the Blackout style of battle royale gameplay within the existing Warzone infrastructure. "There are clear influences from the core Blackout experience — like bullet drop and weapon handling, as well as the armor system and use of the Trauma Kit — capturing the Blackout pacing, traversal, and combat feel in a modern way," the blog post said. "This isn’t a remake; it’s a unique experience that pays homage to the Blackout core gameplay while keeping the flow of a match feeling right for Call of Duty: Warzone players."

In Black Ops Royale, 100 players across 25 squads wingsuit in with no loadouts, no gulag, no buy station, and weapon upgrades that are obtained through rarity. The goal is to outlast 24 rival squads on the massive Avalon map. Avalon first appeared as a large-scale Endgame map in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, and now serves as the big map in Warzone. Avalon offers connected locations and intentionally designed combat zones, with no hint of the red fog that's present in Endgame. For its appearance in Warzone and Black Ops Royale, Treyarch tinkered with the map, reducing its reliance on water and adding connections between the islands to feed into the larger battle-royale gameplay.

Once you arrive, you must scavenge the map to find your weapons with fixed archetypes and five-attachment upgrade paths. As you find and equip attachment kits, you raise your weapon's rarity, which unlocks your preset build, hopefully en route to upgrading your arsenal to Legendary. Speaking of the weapons and gadgets at players' disposal, players also have Blackout-inspired equipment, including grappling hooks, sensor darts, and trauma kits, not to mention Killstreaks and a tiered armor vest system. 

Players will combine their weapons archetypes with class benefits along with build themes to earn better firepower, with a HUD that follows closely to Warzone's existing UI, but gives players information like enemy health, weapon rarity and archetype, attachment upgrade paths, and more. The original Perk system also comes back, this time, with no fixed slots. Instead, players have five consumable boosts that you can swap on the fly. Each one grants temporary advantages that can be activated on a moment's notice with the aim of providing critical boosts when strategy or the situation at hand demands.

Once the match starts, players battle it out over land, sea, and air to keep alive and avoid the encroaching perimeter collapse. Players can also take part in optional activities like hunting bounties, cracking strongboxes, capturing relays, and fighting through guild defenses. These side-objectives offer rewards like armor, UAV sweeps, and other upgrades to your on-the-fly loadout. 

Black Ops Royale arrives on March 13. Players looking for a Season 2 Reloaded roadmap for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 should look forward to a new blog on March 4. 

Over the weekend, former Halo and Destiny 2 developer Bungie opened up its upcoming extraction shooter, Marathon, to the public with a "Server Slam" that allowed anyone to hop in and try a limited (but extensive) offering of the game. As the Server Slam comes to a close today, with just a few hours to go until it's over, Bungie has posted a feedback recap of how it went. 

This recap discusses the real-time changes made to Marathon during the Server Slam as well as some of the possible changes the studio is thinking about implementing in light of the feedback it received over the weekend. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given Bungie's pedigree and experience in the live-service shooter space, the developer seems quite receptive to feedback and working with the community to improve the upcoming extraction FPS. 

"We've learned a lot from you, watched from the shadows as you've hit snags or found moments of glory, and taken notes the whole time," Bungie's recap post on X reads. "Your input during this time has given us a lot of items to sort through and we'll be doing just that in the coming days, so thank you." 

Alrighty, let's break this recap down, starting with the new topics Bungie is looking into following the Marathon Server Slam. 

Additional Queue Options

Right now, you can queue into Marathon as a Solo player (either as the solo-only Rook shell or as a Runner in a solo lobby), or you can queue into a trio match with one friend or two friends. However, Bungie says it has heard the feedback from players requesting "duo dedicated lobbies." The studio says this request has been logged and shared with the wider team. 

Unbinding Keys Altogether

Bungie says that, for players, especially those on console, there's already been a steady feedback loop about the desire not just to rebind a key but also to clear a keybinding option altogether. This desire has been passed along to the wider team as well. 

Feedback Bungie Is Still Tracking On

• PvP Feedback: Bungie is reviewing Runner density on non-beginner maps in light of time-to-kill discussions, and player feedback regarding longer duels and more Runner contact.
• Med and Ammo Economy: Bungie says it is aware that players are using a lot of their early loadout budget on meds, noting that back-to-back fights can chew through meds and ammo reserves quickly, putting players in a tough position for the rest of the run. It says it has also heard from folks both for and against Depleted items, as well as how rewarding (or not) drops from AI enemies are – Bungie says it is keeping a close eye on all of this.
• UI Feedback: As someone who put many hours into the Server Slam this weekend, tracking what others were saying online, the UI and general organization of the menus are probably the biggest pain points in Marathon. Bungie says to keep the feedback coming, noting that it plans to continue iterating post-launch to ensure players can easily navigate menus, read what's happening mid-fight, manage equipment effectively, and see pings without any noise.
• PC Performance: Bungie says it is digging into reports of high CPU use, low GPU utilization, FPS ceilings in the 80-100 FPS range, and frame hitches when runs get sweaty.
• Movement and Heat Generation: Bungie says it is seeing lots of discussion around slide feel, momentum, and heat, which builds up when sprinting or performing certain actions (and slowly cools down, though it can be sped up when crouching). The studio says the common asks are a smoother slide transition that lets downhill speed carry, and lowering heat on core movement for cleaner chases and disengages. It encourages players to keep the feedback coming regarding these topics. 

Fixes Made During The Marathon Server Slam

Below, we'll list the fixes to Marathon that developer Bungie made in real time as the Server Slam ran this weekend. 

• In-Run Voice Chat Bug: Bungie says this is fixed, but if you still have issues hearing other players when you're out on a run (whether that's your party or other players via proximity chat), double-check your in-game input and output devices in the Social options menu.
• Lobby Size: Early on, players felt fights were too sparse, according to Bungie. It bumped the number of crews loading into Perimeter (Beginner), the easiest map and recommended for new players, to test the higher contact change. Bungie asked for more feedback on this change, adding that it will keep watching non-beginner maps as well.
• Mouse Input Lag on PC: Early in the Marathon Server Slam, some players using streaming/capture software experienced input lag with their mouse. Bungie says a fix was rolled out via Steam and that if it hasn't been implemented yet, restarting the game should trigger the download.
• Names Changing to "Redacted": In a bit of an awkward moment this weekend, some players discovered that innocuous terms, like "Arc Raiders," which is Marathon's biggest competition in the extraction shooter space, were censored. Bungie says it believes it found the cause of "normal names being changed and has been working all week to address and update things server-side." 

That wraps up the Marathon Server Slam feedback recap. In the meantime, check out the rewards you will earn in Marathon when it launches on Thursday if you played in the Server Slam this weekend. If you played this weekend, let us know what you thought of the game in the comments below!

Update: 3/2/26

Last month, Nacon, the publisher behind the upcoming GreedFall: The Dying World, filed for insolvency, a move indicating the publisher is out of money. Insolvency entails a request to initiate judicial reorganization proceedings, which could change many aspects of the company. At the time, Nacon did not indicate its upcoming Nacon Connect showcase, scheduled for March 4, would be affected, but today, the publisher announced it will be delayed to May. 

"In order to ensure that future announcements have the impact they deserve, Nacon has made the strategic decision to postpone the next edition of its Nacon Connect, initially scheduled for March 4," a Nacon press release reads. "Faced with a difficult economic environment for the company, we are choosing to focus our resources on upcoming releases and the development of our current games. This period will allow us to polish our projects and prepare for a new Nacon Connect to be held in May, which will showcase the work of our studios in the best possible way." 

Nacon says that until then, "numerous communications" will take place to support games like GreedFall: The Dying World, Dragonkin: The Banished, Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss, and more. 

The original story continues below...

Original story: 2/25/26 

Nacon, the publisher behind the upcoming GreedFall: The Dying World and other games like Hell Is Us and RoboCop: Rogue City, has filed for insolvency. In other words, Nacon is out of money; as such, the publisher has requested the initiation of judicial reorganization proceedings. 

Insolvency, in this instance, means Nacon is unable to pay the debts it owes to a debtor. Insolvency typically involves companies that have assets with value – publishing rights, IP, and the like, in this case – but lack the hard cash needed to make payments it owes.  And because the debtor is seeking payment, non-cash assets that might otherwise be up for sale have little leverage if they don't add up to the funds owed, which is likely the situation Nacon is in.

"In a video game sector marked by long investment cycles and significant transformations, on [February 20, 2026], Nacon announced that the situation of is majority shareholder, Bigben Interactive, which, following an unexpected and late refusal by its banking pool, was unable to make the partial repayment of its bond loan to its bondholders, was significantly affecting its own operations," the filing reads. 

"The Company indicated on this occasion that its liquidity situation required the rapid implementation of a financial restructuring with its creditors in order to ensure the continuity of its operations, and that it was considering procedures intended to facilitate the restructuring of its debt under the supervision of the Court," the filing continues. "To date, the Company reports that its available assets do not allow it to meet its due liabilities. In this context, the Company will, as of today, file for [insolvency]."

As for what this means for upcoming games like GreedFall: The Dying World, which launches into 1.0 on March 12 after years of Early Access, it probably means nothing – GreedFall: The Dying World, which is a sequel to Spiders Studios' 2019 GreedFall, will likely launch as planned next month. In the longer term, Nacon's filing says the aim of insolvency is to "assess all possible solutions to ensure the sustainability of the Company's activity under the best possible conditions, protect employees, and preserve jobs, while renegotiating with its creditors in a calm and constructive framework. This procedure will enable the Company to continue its business, renegotiate its debts, and develop a credible and effective continuation plan." 

Another wrinkle to this insolvency filing is that Nacon is set to hold its Nintendo Direct-style showcase – Nacon Connect – next week on March 4. That's likely to still happen, though, similar to GreedFall: The Dying World's launch the following week. Nacon also just launched Styx: Blades of Greed, the third game in the stealth series that started in 2014 with Styx: Master of Shadows, last week on February 19. 

Game Informer will update this story if it learns more about Nacon's ongoing insolvency efforts. 

In the meantime, read Game Informer's RoboCop: Rogue City review, and then check out our thoughts on the first GreedFall. After that, read Game Informer's GreedFall: The Dying World preview. 

Are you picking up GreedFall: The Dying World next month? Let us know in the comments below!

Nintendo has announced it will hold an Indie World Showcase tomorrow, Tuesday, March 3, beginning at 6 a.m. PT/9 a.m. ET. It will feature "roughly 15 minutes of news and updates" on indie games coming to Nintendo Switch 2 and Switch. 

This Indie World Showcase is one of the shortest in recent memory, and like usual, it will air on Nintendo's YouTube channel here. As for what to expect, that's anybody's guess. We know the live chat won't be exploding with "SILKSONG" anymore as developer Team Cherry finally dropped that long-anticipated sequel to Hollow Knight back in September. However, two months after the launch of Hollow Knight: Silksong, Team Cherry revealed Sea of Sorrow, a free nautical expansion coming to the game this year... so we fully expect the live chat to look something like "SEA OF SORROW" during tomorrow's Indie World Showcase. 

You can watch the Indie World Showcase below when it airs tomorrow morning: 

In the meantime, read Game Informer's Nintendo Switch 2 review, and then read our Hollow Knight: Silksong review after that. 

What games do you hope to see during tomorrow's Indie World Showcase? Let us know in the comments below!