Indie games are refusing to sit still. As of September 5, 2026, the scene spans a developer going independent, a worm trapped in remote work, and a $100 million sequel stretch goal that sounds like a dare. Meanwhile, major publishers are lining up platformers, horror games, virtual reality projects, and the occasional spacefaring city.
Double Fine Productions recently left Microsoft and became independent again, returning to the sort of autonomy developers tend to discuss with careful smiles. The studio is also running a Kickstarter campaign to fund a game jam, with four of its 26 pitches set to move into further development.
The campaign includes one particularly enormous carrot: a stretch goal for Brütal Legend 2 if it raises $100 million. That target is less a funding milestone than a monument to ambition, but the studio has also made more immediate moves—its former Xbox exclusive Keeper has come to PS5, and its most recent game, Kiln, now costs $8.
Another developer is using success to widen the road for other studios. Aggro Crab is putting money from Peak toward funding and publishing games from other developers, and it says those teams will not need to repay the entire investment before they begin earning.
“Revenue needs to be flowing back towards the developers so they can continue to support themselves and the games after launch,” Aggro Crab said. The publisher has signed Rebounder, a precision platformer from ThirtyThree, and it also publishes Subway Midnight, a horror game.
Small Games, Long Development Timelines
Eric Barrone also offered an update on Haunted Chocolatier, saying he is making progress and that it remains his most eager project. He added, “I don’t stress too much about how long it’s taking because, well, that’s just how it is, given my pace and all of my other commitments.”
That is not a release date, but it is a status update—an increasingly valuable currency in game development. The project continues to move forward at Barrone’s pace, which is the only schedule he provided.
Worming from Home takes a smaller premise and commits to it without apology: you play as a worm in a remote work simulator. It is available on Steam, usually priced at $10, with a 25 percent discount running until September 18.
Nintendo has also released the Mario vs. Donkey Kong demo on Nintendo Switch. The demo arrived on February 1, 2024, offering a playable preview while the rest of the industry continued announcing games with titles that sound like committee decisions.
Big Announcements Fill the Calendar
Hideo Kojima revealed PHYSINT during Sony’s State of Play, describing it as a “next-generation action espionage” game. Kojima confirmed that he is working on the new IP with Sony, production will begin after Death Stranding 2 launches in 2025, and he called the project “the culmination of my work.”
Sony also has the remake of Until Dawn on the way for PC and PS5 in 2024. Until Dawn originally released in 2015, proving that the modern game industry can turn a nine-year-old horror game into a fresh appointment on the calendar.
Rise of the Ronin is scheduled for PS5 on March 22nd, 2024, while Helldivers 2 launches on PS5 and PC on February 8th, 2024. Metro Exodus is getting a VR spinoff called Metro Awakening for PSVR 2 later in 2024, with Deep Silver attached to the project.
Judas, from Ken Levine’s Ghost Story, is a narrative shooter set aboard the Mayflower, a spacefaring city. It has no announced release date, which places it in the familiar category of games that have a compelling premise and an empty calendar slot.
Sega is bringing Sonic and Shadow together in Sonic x Shadow Generations, launching in fall 2024. The release arrives 14 years after Sonic Generations launched in November, giving the remake—or sequel, depending on how generously one reads the title—a long runway of nostalgia.
Dave the Diver is also moving to PlayStation in April 2024, followed by a free Godzilla-themed update in May. The cult hit is therefore getting a new platform and a giant radioactive visitor, which is still a cleaner expansion plan than many live-service roadmaps.
Handhelds Add Synthetic Smoothness
The Asus ROG Ally is getting AMD’s Fluid Motion Frames for DX11 and DX12 games. The feature adds fake frames to improve smoothness, while Lenovo is considering bringing Fluid Motion Frames to the Legion Go.
That leaves handheld players with a familiar trade-off: smoother motion created through extra generated frames, rather than only through the game’s original output. Whether the result feels worthwhile will depend on the game, but the feature is heading toward more devices because apparently even portable hardware now needs a frame-generation debate.
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