Good morning!

Luke here, and no, you're not dreaming, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 just bodied the JRPG scene with nothing but vibes, 33 devs, and a French accent sharp enough to cut through Persona’s ego. Meanwhile, Ubisoft’s getting spanked for treating your single-player sessions like an NSA internship, and gaming wallets are apparently on strike in 2025.

In this edition, we’ve got:

• A JRPG banger that walked in like it owned the place

• Ubisoft doing Ubisoft things (hello, $104M fine)

• Assassin’s Creed Shadows finally adding stuff that should’ve shipped at launch

Here’s everything you need to know this week in the world of gaming.

TOP STORY

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Just Wrecked the JRPG Curve With 33 Devs and a Dream

Let’s get one thing straight: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 didn’t just sneak into the JRPG club.

It kicked the door down, stared Persona in the eye, and took its seat.

This is a turn-based RPG that feels like what would happen if Final Fantasy X, Persona 5, and Sekiro had a passionate, brooding French child. It dropped in the shadow of Oblivion Remastered (no big deal, right?), launched day-one on Game Pass, and still managed to pull off 87,000 concurrent players on Steam. That’s more than Metaphor: ReFantazio, Persona 3 Reload, or any Atlus title. Oui oui, indeed.

500,000+ copies sold in a single day. Not bad for a studio whose dev team is literally 33 people. Yeah. They called the game “Expedition 33” and they meant it.

Meta marketing? Divine coincidence? French wizardry? We may never know.

And if you think this was just a fluke? Nope. The devs are ex-Ubisoft refugees who escaped from the land of Ghost Recon: Please Stop and Beyond Good and Evil 2 (yes, it's still alive) to actually make something genuinely original. Turns out, when you let creative people create, wild things happen. Like, game-of-the-year wild.

That’s a real vibe from the community, not just hyperbole. Also, the game’s rocking a 92 on Metacritic, highest of 2025 so far. That’s not just JRPG good. That’s sweep-the-awards-season good.

Also, if you haven’t yet watched my video on this absolute gem, what are you doing?

🎥 Go watch it right now. No spoilers, just love. Trust me, you’ll come out the other side either crying, laughing, or probably both.

LATEST NEWS

GENERAL

• Ubisoft’s getting slapped with a casual $104 million fine for turning your solo sword swings into surveillance data. Turns out, Assassin’s Creed Shadows wasn’t just tracking enemies, it might’ve been tracking you. Mandatory online for single-player? Yeah, apparently that was just their way of pulling a "Monopoly Man with a notepad." Smooth move, Ubisoft. (IBTimes)

• Gamers might still be grinding, but their wallets are logging off. U.S. spending on games dropped 6% in March, hitting $4.7B… turns out, even our DLC habits have a recession mode. Still, Assassin’s Creed: Shadows sliced through the slump to become March’s best-seller, meanwhile, Monopoly GO! continues its reign as the mobile overlord. (ToyBook)

QUICK LINKS

• Apex Legends writer gets laid off 24 hours after the character she wrote is revealed, because that's what the games industry in 2025 looks like.

• IGN and Eurogamer owner Ziff Davis is suing OpenAI for content theft .

• Electronic Arts Cancels Next ‘Titanfall’ Game as It Lays Off More Than 300 Employees.

• As Inzoi players dwindle, Krafton is massively changing how it communicates going forward.

• FromSoftware says "we are profoundly thankful for your lasting devotion" as Elden Ring hits 30 million copies sold ahead of Switch 2 launch.

• Baldur’s Gate 3 director says his studio isn’t interested in making DLC because ‘it’s boring’

• Sony Pulls First-Party PS3 Games Resistance: Fall of Man and Resistance 2 From PS5 and PS4 as Part of Big PS Plus Clearout.

LATEST VIDEO

Ubisoft Drops the AC Shadows Year 1 Roadmap and Finally Adds the Stuff We Wanted at Launch

Ubisoft just dropped the Assassin’s Creed Shadows Year 1 roadmap, and honestly, it’s kind of like finding the good loot after you finish the game.

Late, but welcome.

They’re finally adding hardcore difficulty, proper stealth stakes, and vertical parkour ejects. You know, basic assassin stuff. Oh, and yes, you’ll soon be able to turn off those weird glowy outlines during stealth. Immersion win.

Free expansions, parkour buffs, and story drops incoming. And yep, auto-follow on horses is back for better or worse.

Still, it’s clear Ubisoft rushed the launch, then circled back to clean it up. So if you felt Shadows was good but not great, this roadmap might just change your mind.

🎥 Watch my full breakdown:

WHAT’S TRENDING?

MOST POPULAR:

The Twitch throne is still firmly held by Just Chatting, even with a slight 3.1% dip this week. But the usual suspects aren’t going anywhere… here’s who dominated screen time:

🥇 Just Chatting – 58,094,196 hours watched (📉 -3.1%)
🥈 League of Legends – 19,484,170 hours watched (📈 +6.8%)
🥉 Grand Theft Auto V – 18,283,737 hours watched (➖ 0.0%)
🎯 Counter-Strike – 18,015,599 hours watched (📈 +43.9%)
🎯 VALORANT – 12,123,264 hours watched (📉 -14.8%)

TRENDING:

Looking for what’s blowing up? These titles saw huge watch-time surges and are climbing fast:

🎨 Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – 7,862,431 hours watched (🚀 +395.8%)
🔫 Counter-Strike – 4,771,613 additional hours watched (🔥 +43.9%)
📦 ARC Raiders – 1,909,027 new hours watched (📈 new entry!)
🕰 Oblivion Remastered – 1,902,721 hours watched (➕ +0.4%)
👹 Diablo IV – 1,673,125 hours watched (⚡ +1,597%)