Gaming & eSports

Seattle – September 20, 2026 -- Jones Soda Co. is releasing a club-exclusive 12-pack that turns fictional Nuka-Cola flavors from the Fallout video game universe into real, drinkable sodas ahead of Fallout Day on October 23, 2026.

The "Vault-Dweller Variety" pack marks the fourth Fallout-themed collaboration between Jones Soda and Bethesda Softworks. It is expected to begin shipping September 11, 2026, and will be sold exclusively at participating club retail locations across the United States and Canada.

The pack bottles two Nuka-Cola flavors that have never existed outside the game before

The 12-pack contains four glass bottles each of three flavors: Nuka-Cola Quartz, Nuka-Cola Cranberry and Nuka-Cola Quantum. Quartz and Cranberry are being produced in reality for the first time, while Quantum, the glowing blue variety familiar to longtime Fallout fans, returns as the collection's centerpiece.

Charlotte -- Sandbox VR opens its second North Carolina venue on September 18, 2026, at The Station at LoSo in Charlotte, offering guests 20% off through September.

The Charlotte venue spans over 4,400 square feet with four private VR rooms

Groups of up to six guests can suit up with headsets, haptic vests, and motion sensors for full-body immersion in each room. The technology lets players see and physically interact with one another during sessions, and guests leave with personalized highlight videos of their sessions.

The Charlotte location is operated in partnership with Nextgen Virtual LLC and joins Sandbox VR's existing Winston-Salem venue as the company's second North Carolina site.

Ta' Qali, Malta – September 18, 2026 -- The Thunderpick World Championship 2026 Finals will run Oct. 14 to 18 at BLAST Studios Malta, with eight Counter-Strike 2 teams competing for a $1 million USD prize pool.

Defending champions FURIA headline a field stacked with top-20 talent

2025 champions FURIA, ranked #8 globally, return to defend their title. Seven of the eight qualified teams sit inside the Global VRS top 20.

The full lineup includes Legacy (#3), Brazil's top-ranked team; Falcons (#4), a star-heavy European roster; FURIA (#8); BETBOOM (#9), a Russian squad known for upsets; 9z (#10), one of South America's strongest sides; Aurora (#12), a European org built around international talent; PARIVISION (#17), a rising European team; and Virtus.pro, which enters at #30 after winning the TWC closed qualifier.

Seoul – September 18, 2026 -- Netmarble has opened a new server called "ZERO" for its dark fantasy MMORPG RAVEN2, giving new and returning players an easier path into the game while rolling out a separate rewards event for existing servers.

ZERO server removes growth and combat pressure for newcomers

ZERO went live on September 15 (UTC +0) with a distinct ruleset designed to ease growth burdens, monetization pressure, PK stress, and competition barriers. The server features increased equipment drop rates and EXP gains, adjusted combat balance, and a simplified progression system that excludes Mythic-grade Summons and Awakenings. A new Farming Crystals feature lets players earn Crystals, a core in-game currency, simply through hunting and regular gameplay.

Woodinville – September 18, 2026 -- PowerA has released a new line of officially licensed Harry Potter gaming accessories for Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox, marking the start of a multi-year partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery Global Consumer Products.

Four Hogwarts houses get their own Switch 2 gear

The debut lineup includes a Nintendo Switch 2 Advantage Wireless Controller priced at $69.99 and Nintendo Switch 2 Protection Cases at $24.99, each themed around one of the four Hogwarts houses. The designs let fans display their house pride directly on their gaming setup.

Xbox controllers feature Chibi art and Quidditch styling

An Xbox Wired Controller, priced at $34.99, depicts Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, and other characters in a Chibi-inspired art style. A pricier Xbox Advantage Wireless Controller, at $99.99, draws on the visual language of Quidditch and includes gold-accented details.

Los Angeles – September 17, 2026 -- Kaiju No. 8 THE GAME, the mobile and PC title co-produced by Akatsuki Games, TOHO, and Production I.G, added a new playable character today as part of its first-anniversary celebration.

A new five-star fighter joins the roster on September 14

The character, called [Unorthodox Pursuit] Suited, wields a Hammer-type weapon and draws power from a creature identified in the game's lore as Dimensional Identified Kaiju A. According to the character's in-game backstory, she wears a prosthetic eye made from the Kaiju's cells, which has also altered her hair color and placed strain on her body -- effects she reportedly embraces despite the risks. A matching five-star Hammer weapon, HM-Spolcyc, launches alongside her.

Players get a login bonus tied to a new anime episode

To mark the release of the second episode of the tie-in short anime "Narumi's Week at Work,

San Jose, Costa Rica -- September 11, 2026 -- Americas Cardroom's Online Super Series XL generated $7,216,985 in prize pools and drew 62,847 entries during its opening four days, not counting entries from tournament flights.

From Sept. 6-9, 93 tournaments ran, completing the numbered schedule through OSS XL #70. Thirty-three of those events exceeded their guarantees by a combined $217,170.

The High Roller event delivered the series' largest prize pool so far

OSS XL #13, a $630 buy-in High Roller, drew 1,118 entries and turned its $600,000 guarantee into a $670,800 payout. Player BADGERING took first place for $130,210.

The $2,650 OSS XL #16 also surpassed its target, pulling in 203 entries for a $507,500 prize pool against a $500,000 guarantee. Following a final-table deal, NewYorkMidgets was listed as the official winner for $95,312, with KevinParCoeur taking $93,875 for second and Olivander1 earning $87,459 for third.

Winnipeg – September 15, 2026 -- Activate, the active gaming entertainment brand founded in Canada, is opening its first Australian location in Melbourne in early 2027, marking its entry into the country's out-of-home entertainment market.

The venue lands next to a HOYTS Cinema in Maribyrnong

Activate Melbourne (Highpoint) will open at Highpoint Shopping Centre in Maribyrnong, Victoria, sitting alongside a HOYTS Cinema. The site will be the company's first of several planned locations across Australia.

Twelve game rooms pack in more than 800 levels of challenges

The venue features 12 immersive game rooms with over 800 levels combined. RFID technology tracks each player across rooms, letting them level up, unlock achievements and earn Next Level Rewards. Teams of two to five tackle physical and mental challenges testing speed, coordination and problem-solving together.

SHERIDAN, WYOMING – June 15, 2025 – Panache Digital Games has released a free playable prologue for 1666: Amsterdam, the long-awaited dark narrative action-adventure from Patrice Désilets — the creative mind behind Assassin's Creed and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Available now on both Steam and Epic Games Store, the prologue gives players their first real taste of a project that has been more than 16 years in the making, and it arrives at a moment when the appetite for story-driven, atmosphere-first games has never been stronger. This is a game about secrets, power, and human conflict — and the prologue is where it all begins.

SHERIDAN, WYOMING -- June 2, 2026 -- Indie studio pixelcoven has announced HOMEWAVE, a casual cozy game that recreates the warm, slightly chaotic feeling of early internet culture inside a fully playable virtual operating system -- and an open playtest is live right now on Steam for anyone who wants to jump in early. Players decorate digital roomboxes, take on freelance interior design gigs, and explore a built-in network of forums, blogs, and messengers populated by quirky, story-rich characters. With a release window of Q3 2026 and a charming 2D aesthetic that leans hard into old-school internet nostalgia, HOMEWAVE is shaping up to be one of the more original cozy game releases of the year.