Love and Deepspace's official social account shared five cocktail recipes inspired by in-game slimes, including one garnished with Datura, a psychoactive plant known to cause hallucinations. After players pointed out the danger, the account posted a follow-up safety notice saying all drinks shown are fictional and for in-game purposes only, and should not be recreated or consumed in reality.
Sam Cornwell is developing Boxxy, a free Sokoban-style game with more than 200 hand-designed puzzles plus a new Daily puzzle every day. The developer says it is currently at v442 after hundreds of iterations, and that every level is made by hand rather than generated by AI. It runs in the browser with no download or ads on desktop, phones and tablets.
TrampolineTales, the developer behind Luck be a Landlord and Maze Mice, has announced Category Connections, a chill puzzle game where players sort 3,000 things into 100 categories with no timers or stress. It is coming to Steam and mobile in 2027, with the Steam page live and pre-registration open on iOS and Android.
The first "TapTap Play Festival" was held on September 12 and 13 at Hall A of the West Bund Art Center in Shanghai, coinciding with TapTap's tenth anniversary. The small player-facing show fit nearly 100 games into an 8,000-square-meter venue and drew about 3,000 visitors per day, with overseas developers from Control Resonant, Terraria, Two Point Studios and inZOI attending. Event lead Lisa said the team set out to make a consumer show and wanted to preserve offline connections between players and developers.
The official Love and Deepspace social account warned players that the five "Shimmering Blend" cocktail recipes revealed on September 28 for an in-game event are fictional and should not be recreated or consumed in reality. The recipes include garnishes such as datura and flame lily, which are poisonous to humans, prompting fans to urge the account to delete the post.
In Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 4, flushers are port-a-potties that act as teleporters, sending you to a nearby location or another port-a-potty. The third step of the second part of Geno's story quest requires using a flusher to block Geno from listening to The Order's message, and the best spot is the Chopped Shop POI, which has two in the immediate area.
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said "I think so" when asked at Bloomberg's Screentime event whether Netflix will still host games in five years. He called Netflix's mobile gaming push "a gateway to cloud gaming," which he said the company is "much more interested in," and said cloud gaming makes more sense for Netflix "in a post-console world." Netflix's mobile games, including Red Dead Redemption, Sonic Mania Plus, and RollerCoaster Tycoon Touch, are included with a membership and have no ads.
Pokémon Go's 2026 "Harvest Festival" runs from Sept. 29 to Oct. 5 and debuts shiny Applin, which can be found by using Mossy Lure Modules on PokéStops. The event's second part is a Team Go Rocket Takeover that introduces shiny Shroodle and refreshes Giovanni and the leaders' line-ups. The event Go Pass has 30 ranks plus 30 bonus ranks, with the Super Rocket Radar as the rank 30 reward and a $4.99 deluxe upgrade.
In Aion 2, main story Episodes become locked at set points until the Ascension Gauge is filled. Completing Regional side quests raises the gauge by just under 5% each, and Episode quests also fill it, so players focused on the main story likely need only three or four extra Regional quests.
RED LAND, Xiaohongshu's open-world adventure island event, opened on October 2 on Fuxing Island in Shanghai's Yangpu district and runs through October 6. The site doubled from 80,000 to 150,000 square meters, with over 160 game and anime IPs and the world's first large-scale game and anime float parade featuring about 150 community-registered users. Official figures say all five ticket rounds sold out in an average of 20.6 seconds each, and 80% of ticket buyers came from outside Shanghai.
Sloclap will release iOS and Android versions of its kung-fu third-person brawler Sifu on October 12. Sifu is available now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC via Steam, Epic Games Store, and Microsoft Store.
In Aion 2, old gear cannot be sold, but Item Extraction lets you recycle it instead. Select a piece of gear in your inventory (The Cube), click the flask icon on the description panel, and confirm; each extraction costs a small amount of Kina currency. Extraction rewards upgrade materials such as Enhance Stones plus a cosmetic skin of the extracted gear.
Aniimo codes grant bonus level-up materials and other currency, including glimmer. Though the game lacks a traditional gacha system, these freebies remain useful for raising your aniimo army, buying items in the in-game shop, or exchanging for Sparkling Cubes to use on eggs.
Audio logs in Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 4 are scattered across the map, and some show their exact location as a pin while others do not. The guide covers four sets released on Aug. 20, Sept. 3, Sept. 17, and Oct. 1, the last three added in v42.30 in the southeast portion of the map. Each entry lists the landmark and route for finding the log.
On 30 September 2026, the EU's Consumer Protection Cooperation Network launched coordinated actions against nine games companies to enforce the EU's Key Principles on in-game virtual currencies, covering titles such as Hunt: Showdown 1896, Candy Crush Saga, Minecraft, Valorant, Clash of Clans and For Honor, alongside a parallel action with Activision Blizzard UK over Diablo Immortal and Call of Duty Mobile. The CPC Network argues that purchases made with in-game currency should also show real-world prices, while the author notes that bundle pricing and earnable currency make real value hard to assign and could create duplicate notices and a double right of withdrawal. The author also points to inconsistency with the EU Commission's EU KIDS Act draft and a Digital Fairness Act draft expected in November.
Aion 2 is out now, but incorrect PC settings can prevent players from finishing character creation. The guide suggests enabling automatic date and time, then switching DNS servers to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4. If the account or IP has been flagged and banned, the only workaround is using a Taiwan VPN and creating a new Taiwan-region account.
Touch Music editors recommend six games for the National Day holiday. Flotsam has over 80% positive reviews on Steam, TOEM 2 launched on September 29 with a 15% off first-release discount until October 14, Casualties: Unknown has a free demo with a full version expected this year, Goblin Sushi is in Early Access with a $4.99 mobile version, Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve launches on October 2 with Simplified Chinese support, and the visual novel about an overworked office worker is a gentle pick for laborers.
Nintendo has officially shut down its free-to-play mobile game Mario Kart Tour, with players greeted by a notice confirming the service has ended and a thank-you message, plus a final report summarizing player data. The game launched on 25th September 2019 and, per AppMagic estimates, was downloaded over 276 million times and earned around $268.5 million, with US players accounting for 39% of lifetime revenue. Nintendo said in an official FAQ that there are no plans for an offline version.
Nintendo officially shut down its free-to-play mobile game Mario Kart Tour this week. According to market intelligence platform AppMagic, the title launched on 25th September 2019 and is estimated to have been downloaded over 276 million times and earned around $268.5 million, with US players accounting for 39% of lifetime in-app purchase revenue. Nintendo said in an official FAQ that there are no plans for an offline version.
SEGA and developer Sports Interactive announced that Football Manager 27 will launch on November 10. The PC version arrives on Steam, Epic Games Store, and Microsoft Store, the console version on PS5 and Xbox Series, and the mobile version on iOS and Android via Netflix, with Game Pass availability as well. SEGA said the game reworks interface navigation and personalization and adds tile customization.
Pokemon Go enters the second month of its Twilight Trails season in October with Zorua Community Day and a two-part Halloween celebration. Legendary and Mega Pokemon return to Raid Battles, while Bramblin, Gigantamax Cinderace, and Astronaut Pikachu make their debuts.
The European Commission and the Consumer Protection Cooperation Network named nine game companies, including Activision Blizzard UK, Mojang AB, Riot Games Limited, Supercell Oy and Ubisoft EMEA SAS, in a joint statement on September 30, 2026, asking them to align their in-game currency and transaction systems with the Key Principles released in March 2025. The principles require games to show the real-world price of items bought with virtual currency, avoid obscuring costs through multiple currencies or exchanges, and let players withdraw from contracts within two weeks, including for unused virtual currency. Commissioner Michael McGrath said roughly half of Europeans play video games and the industry must ensure its games do not expose players, especially children, to harmful or unfair practices.
Microsoft Jewel is available now as a standalone app for iOS and Android, the fifth mobile app from Microsoft Casual Games and its first new mobile launch in seven years. Players can earn XBOX Achievements on mobile and sync progress across the iOS, Android, and PC apps with a Microsoft account. XBOX Game Pass members get Premium benefits on PC, while Game Pass Ultimate members get them on both PC and mobile.
Honor of Kings: Chess announced on September 30 that a new Diamond Frenzy mode will unlock once one million players server-wide reach the top King rank, meaning over a million had already done so within about half a month of launch. The author, who has played over 100 hours, estimates that experienced players need 70 to 80 matches, roughly 40 hours, to reach that rank. The game topped the iOS free chart from pre-download through its first week, and after the Sun and Moon Walker skin line launched on September 25 it rose to sixth on the top-grossing chart and stayed in the top ten for several days. The author also notes community discussion moving from memorizing answers to understanding them, with players studying lineup logic and mid-game branching.
Zynga founder Mark Pincus said on the Deconstructor of Fun podcast that he and Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen agreed to an all-cash acquisition of Supercell for $400 million in 2012. The deal fell through after Zynga's board refused, saying it wanted him to prove he could manage what he already had, following the failure of the OMGPop acquisition. Pincus added that a year later Supercell made $500 million in net profit.
Coffee Stain Publishing and developer Coffee Stain North have announced Goat Simulator 3 DLC "Ticket to Dizzyworld," launching on November 19. The third major expansion is set in a new carnival sandbox with amusement rides, bumper cars, a first-goat perspective, and player-made rollercoasters, plus collectible Dizzy Tokens that can be traded for rewards. Goat Simulator 3 is available now on PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC, iOS, and Android.
Ghost Ship Publishing and developer Funday Games announced that Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor will launch on PS5, Switch 2, and Switch on October 7. The game previously entered Early Access on PC on February 14, 2024, fully released on Xbox Series and PC on September 17, 2025, and came to iOS and Android on November 12, 2025. The companies also announced the Knockout Expansion, which adds the Brawler class, the Sandblasted Corridors biome, and a high-risk mission with new objectives and a boss, with no release date given.
Turkish mobile studio Circle Games has raised $25 million in a Series A round led by Tencent, bringing its total funding to $32.25 million. The new funds will be used to bring its newly launched Jelly Escape to more markets, grow Sort Express globally, and double its staff. Sort Express, a merge-elimination puzzle game, currently generates about 15 million yuan in monthly revenue.
Delta Force held its second anniversary celebration in Chongqing on September 25, where TES won the summer split finals of the Firestorm Pro League to complete a spring-summer title sweep and White took finals FMVP again. At the September 26 annual showcase, the game announced that Firestorm's "Siege" is planned for Spring Festival 2027, that All-Out Warfare will get a UE5 upgrade next season with the new map "Skyline" arriving in November, and that the Black Tide Blast beta season opened on September 27. The studio also teased new Firestorm experiments for 2027 and asked players to submit ideas.
At the 2026 Yunqi Conference's Alibaba Cloud AI Gaming Forum, Zheng Yinhe, head of miHoYo's Honkai series AI NPC & Gameplay tech team, shared the company's AI practices in gameplay, development, and AI research. The "AI Pom-Pom" launched in Honkai: Star Rail version 4.2 supported story Q&A, guide queries, long-term memory, and emotional feedback, and kept up with the game's 42-day major version updates, though it is now offline. miHoYo also built its own Agent platform EchoX and teased a new tabletop gameplay where AI characters compete autonomously.
miHoYo's Li Yanran, AI lead for Star Valley, spoke at the 2026 Yunqi Conference's Alibaba Cloud AI gaming forum about the game's AI NPCs. All AI NPCs share one brain-inspired Agent architecture and a "super-intelligence memory system" that lets characters share memories and retain them across platforms, while a "multi-teacher online distillation" technique puts different personas into a single model. Li also said miHoYo is trying to enable self-evolving Agents in the game so players and NPCs can grow together.
Onmyoji's tenth anniversary celebration ran for 3 days at Guangzhou Tower Plaza, with the ground floor recreating the classic "Maple Autumn Courtyard" and the second floor hosting a birthday cake inflatable and interactive booths, plus a themed stage show at 8:30 pm nightly. On September 9, the day the tenth anniversary version launched, the game hit Top 3 on the iOS game revenue chart, its best anniversary performance in recent years. Players exchanged fan-made goods, joined the "Hundred Shikigami Parade," and rallied around the new "Battle for Shikigami" season that opened on September 25.
Nintendo's mobile game Mario Kart Tour officially shut down at 22:59 PT on September 29, with players no longer able to log into its servers. Launched in September 2019, it ended with 267 playable characters, 340 karts, 238 gliders and 546 courses. Estimates from AppMagic cited by Mobilegamer.biz put downloads at over 276 million and lifetime revenue at around $268.5 million, with monthly revenue falling from roughly $5-6 million in most of 2020 and 2021 to about $650,000 when Nintendo announced the closure in July 2026.