Happy Friday, *Game Informer* audience! While January remains the quiet period before the massive wave of releases set for February, this week was absolutely packed with major news stories and significant progress on our next physical magazine issue. We are currently finalizing the upcoming issue—a cover reveal you won’t want to miss—and will be debuting it on our social channels next week, so stay tuned.
On the logistics front, we appreciate the patience shown during previous shipping delays for *The Outer Worlds 2* and *Dragon Quest VII* editions. We are pleased to report that the most recent *World of Warcraft: Midnight* issue is reaching mailboxes successfully and on schedule.
Despite the lull in game releases, the news cycle was hot. Capcom dropped details from the *Resident Evil Requiem* showcase, confirming Leon Kennedy’s ability to finally wield a chainsaw. Adaptation news dominated headlines as well: the actor who played Thor in *God of War Ragnarök* has been cast as the live-action Kratos, and we got a preview of Sophie Turner as Lara Croft for the upcoming Amazon Prime series. In lighter news, the first-ever official *Pokémon* Lego sets were unveiled, and Square Enix confirmed a new *Life Is Strange* title is coming this year. Conversely, the industry saw some unfortunate turbulence, with Meta shutting down Twisted Pixel, Sanzaru Games, and Armature Studio, and Ubisoft proposing layoffs at Massive Entertainment. We capped the week with a look at the indie title *Big Hops* and drafted our most anticipated games of 2026 on *The Game Informer Show*.