Overwatch's Original Jeff Is Back

And he's mining for gold.

Author

Rutledge Daugette
March 13, 2026 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

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Jeff Kaplan, the original face of Overwatch 10 years ago, has revealed his new studio Kintsugiyama and its debut project The Legend of California. It’ll enter early access some time this year. This game isn’t set in the U.S. state of California; instead, it could be based on the mythical island from a 16th-century Castilian novel, where the real state got its name from.

The Legend of Zelda turns 40 this year, and Senior Editor Andrew Stretch interviewed the voice behind the newest Zelda to reflect on her time as the first fully voiced iteration of the character and the series’ long-spanning history.

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This is a bit of a weird one. The PRS alleges that Steam has many games on its platform that use music protected by the PRS, like Forza Horizon and Grand Theft Auto V. But, historically, getting the relevant music licenses would fall on the publishers’ shoulders, not the marketplace? It sort of reminds me of Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934, which currently protects social media platforms from any liability regarding content posted by third parties (e.g. its users).

Finally, some meaningful progress. PEGI, which is like if the ESRB used the metric system, is instituting a new policy that will rate games with loot boxes at PEGI 16, minimum. If a game doesn’t have chat restriction, it’s immediately a PEGI 18. Will this create meaningful change? Well, many kids years ago played M-rated games, so I’m not sure how strongly these age gates will be enforced. But it’s a start.

On X, the actual for-real White House account used some of Master Chief’s voice lines in pro-war messaging related to the attacks in Iran. Steve Downes has come out to condemn them, which is nice but also sucks that we live in this timeline where the White House is in the state it’s in.

Speaking of the war in Iran, the developer BeryMery has an art team living there. In a recent update, they’ve detailed the struggles that their Iranian team is facing amid the unnecessary strikes. They’re still making progress, but it isn’t easy, especially after losing someone “very important to them.”

In an unsurprising turn of events, there are layoffs in the industry this week. This time, it’s at EA across its Battlefield studio groups. This is after the game has seen a roughly 90% player count drop since it first launched in October to highly successful numbers. I feel like a broken record, but that’s always the problem with live-service games today. The expectations are too high for the reality that most will deliver, even with a “successful launch.”

Unfortunately for the loyal Like a Dragon fan base out there, Gang of Dragon, the potential spiritual successor, might be on the rocks now. On one hand, I’m disappointed that once again, business is dictating (and destroying) creative works. On the other, it’s been four years with not much to show besides a trailer. Nagoshi needs funding from somewhere to buy the rights to Gang of Dragon from NetEase and continue working on it, lest it be shelved.