The Weekly Round-Up: EA’s macrotransaction, PS5 goes matte and RIP Rock Band
Our light-hearted recap of the week’s most interesting news
Chris Scullion
This is a blog post, where VGC writers post irreverent and (occasionally) entertaining coverage of video game culture.
It’s time for another of our weekly news round-ups.
If you’re new to these – we’ve been doing them on Patreon for more than a year but have just started bringing them to the main site – this is our way of winding up the past week by recapping its more interesting stories, often with a terrible dad joke at the end.
VGC Patreon subscribers on all paid tiers have been receiving these round-ups for more than a year, and will continue to get this in newsletter form on Friday afternoons, so if you enjoy and and would like them earlier than the site gets them, you might want to consider supporting us on Patreon.
That said, let’s crack on with this week’s round-up.
The late film star appears in The Dragon, a two-level Arcade contract in which players have to take down an Elusive Target called The Infiltrator.
However, whereas previous celebrity-based Elusive Target missions – featuring the likes of Mads Mikkelsen, Sean Bean, Jean-Claude van Damme and Gary Busey – have had players trying to kill the celebrities in question, this isn’t the case for the Bruce Lee mission.
Instead, Lee will join the player as their partner, and help them take down the Elusive Target.
“Bruce Lee stars as Agent Lee, an operative aiming to infiltrate the Concord Union, a powerful criminal syndicate based in Hong Kong,” the mission’s description reads.
The Concord Union is appropriately named because the mission will only remain active for a few weeks before it’s pulled from sale.
In a statement, EA said it had “entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by an investor consortium comprised of PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners”.
EA says the transaction, which has been approved by its board of directors and is expected to close in Q1 of its fiscal year 2027 (meaning by the end of June 2026), “positions EA to accelerate innovation and growth to build the future of entertainment”. The deal will see EA continuing to be led by its current CEO Andrew Wilson, and will remain headquartered in Redwood City, California.
The PIF – or Public Investment Fund – is the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia and is reportedly central to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s goal of making the Saudi economy less reliant on proceeds from oil. The fund already owns billions of stock in other video game companies, such as Take-Two, and owns other companies such as SNK.
SNK was criticised by fans when it added Cristiano Ronaldo – who currently plays for the PIF-owned Saudi football team Al-Nassr – as a playable character in its latest Fatal Fury game. Let’s see what happens if EA tries boosting his stats in the next EA Sports FC game, because he’s currently playing in a league where most players struggle to kick their own arse.
All matte and a box of chips
The new revision of the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition console rolling out across Europe is now fully matte, a new comparison video shows.
Earlier this month it was reported that the Digital Edition of the PlayStation 5 would get a new revision, which has now started replacing the previous model in Europe.
Whereas the PS5 Digital Edition previously had 1TB of storage, the revised version now only contains 825GB of storage, but will retail for the same price.
Now, in a new comparison video, it has also been revealed that the revised model also changes some of the materials used for the console’s shell. The video reveals that while in the previous model the top half of the white section and the entire black middle section were made of glossy plastic, now the entire console has a matte finish.
It’s an interesting move by Sony, especially when you consider a drop from 1TB to 825GB of storage is something it should be trying to gloss over.
Nintendo‘s tiny handheld was released in 2005 and is essentially a miniscule Game Boy Advance, small enough to fit in the palm of the player’s hand.
Despite its small size, the Game Boy Micro doesn’t often feature in modding projects, partly because it’s already somewhat customisable (due to replaceable face plates) and the fact that these days they’re hard to find at a cheap price.
However, this didn’t stop modder MaSaKee, who posted photos on the Game Boy Reddit page of their Game Boy Micro modded into a Nintendo 64 controller, with all its buttons mapped to work on the Micro.
While it’s clearly a technical feat to fit a handheld inside a controller, it’s an even more impressive feat to find a use for the N64 controller in a way that everyone knows how to hold properly.
Gee Bee was originally released in arcades in 1978, and got its first ever home release as part of the Arcade Archives series by Hamster Corporation.
The game was designed by Toru Iwatani, who would go on to create Pac-Man, and was developed as a compromise because Iwatani wanted to manufacture pinball machines but Namco’s bosses weren’t keen on the idea.
Instead, Iwatani created Gee Bee, a video game inspired by Breakout but with pinball table elements such as bumpers, spinners and ‘NAMCO’ rollover letters.
The Arcade Archives series – which started in 2014 – has seen the release of 487 arcade games, with a new arrival every week. You can set your watch by it – as long as it’s one of those massive calculator watches from the ‘70s which look like a microwave on your wrist.
In a message on the game’s official Discord page, community manager Kyle Wynn announced that the game’s 10th anniversary will arrive this weekend.
“With this milestone comes one big change,” he said. “The original licenses for the core soundtrack are expiring. Because of that, Rock Band 4 will be removed from the PlayStation and Xbox digital stores.
“If you already own the game, nothing changes – you’ll keep full access and still be able to download the game and songs to any new, compatible devices. The same applies to Downloadable Content (DLC) – songs will come down as they hit the 10-year mark, but anything you’ve purchased will remain in your library.”
The news was said to have Thunderstruck the game’s fanbase, many of whom still have a Whole Lotta Love for the series. All Along the Watchtower, players are starting to buy as many DLC tracks as they can, Comfortably Numb at the idea that soon their favourite game will Surrender to licensing issues. Will the various record labels Come Together at the last minute and renew the deals to ensure they keep getting Money for Nothing? Dream On.
Amazon Luna launched in 2022, and since launch has seen a steady stream of high-profile titles on the streaming platform. Amazon has now announced that the service is being refreshed with a focus on party games, as well as core titles.
The biggest change to Luna as part of this revamp is GameNight, which Amazon pitches as a way to get players who aren’t interested in traditional consoles invested in games.
Game Night will launch with more than 25 multiplayer party games, the most prominent of which is arguably Courtroom Chaos: Starring Snoop Dogg.
The game is described as “a human‑built, AI‑powered improv courtroom game where players invent outrageous characters, spin wild stories, and do whatever it takes to defend their testimonies before Judge Snoop Dogg.”
It all sounds like fun and games until the game gives you a life sentence for attempted murdizzle, grievous bodily hizzle, and embizzlement.
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