The Evolution Championship Series Japan 2025 takes place this weekend.
It is a fighting game tournament where the best players compete against one another in titles like Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8. Its US counterpart will take place later this year.
Historically, these major fighting game tournaments have had a lower prize pool compared to their peers like Dota 2 and League of Legends. And yet, there is often more hype around them compared to big-league MOBA or battle royale tournaments.
Nothing against those, but fighting game tournaments are the equivalent of seeing double elimination mixed martial arts showdowns – just with fantastical moves you’d only find in kung fu action flicks.
Also, video game company SNK is hosting an end-of-year fighting game tournament featuring their own titles – the newly released Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, The King of Fighters XV, and Samurai Shodown – with a grand total prize pool of US$3.5 million.
It’s taken fighting games a long time to reach this level, with a prize pool comparable to The International or League of Legends Worlds. But they’re finally there. Let’s hope for a brighter future for fighting game tournaments.
Short beats
Rockstar Games has released a new Grand Theft Auto VI gameplay trailer showcasing the characters and locales in Vice City. The game will be out on May 26, 2026, pushed back from its original fall 2025 release window.
Palworld is patching out various features in its gameplay due to a Pokémon lawsuit.
The FTC has lost its appeal against Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, effectively allowing the now-completed deal to stand.
After 19 years, the first Gears of War third-person shooter title will finally be released on PlayStation platforms this August in remastered form.
Indonesian developer Game Changers has announced a new title called 1998: The Toll Keeper Story, an adventure game where you play a toll keeper during the late 90s Southeast Asian financial crisis.
The upcoming remake of classic Japanese role-playing game Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky First Chapter will be out in English on Sept 19.
2K Games’ upcoming action-adventure crime title Mafia: The Old Country will be out on Aug 8 for PC, Xbox Series, and PlayStation 5.
Op-Eds
To celebrate Wesak Day, we bring up our favourite monks in video games.
Games out this week
Captain Blood is a pirate-themed action game that spent a decade in development hell before finally setting sail this week for PC and consoles. Expect cannon firing, pistol shooting, swashbuckling sword fights, and plenty of pirate shenanigans in a game clearly stuck in the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 era.
Revenge of the Savage Planet is a first-person co-op sci-fi shooter where you jump, shoot, and collect your way across vibrant alien worlds. You’ll also gain powers and unlock new areas in classic Metroidvania style. Out for PC, Xbox Series, and PlayStation consoles.
Spirit of the North 2 is a third-person adventure game where you play an isolated fox on a quest to restore the lost guardians of the wild and return home.
Recommended viewing
Kotaku and Polygon creator/co-founder Brian Crecente has published an insightful editorial on the latter publication’s fitful birth and sudden “death”.
If you’ve got three hours to spare, here’s a video of YouTube content creator Caddicarus reminiscing about the good old days of PlayStation 1 game cheat codes. Yes, there was a time you didn’t have to pay for these.
