The XP Drop 🕹 Friday June 13, 2025
The Nintendo Switch 2 selling like hot cakes, what went wrong with Dragon Age: Veilguard and Chris is trying to get into fighting games?!
🎮 Happy Friday gamers! After a mental week with Switch 2 and some major announcements, it seems like everything has slowed down. Perfect to sort that backlog or get that game you’ve wanted to buy.
🗣 The Patch Notes
🚨 ICYMI
🛒 Stock Check
💸 This week’s releases
📽 Clip of the Week
👾 RETROspective
🗣 The Patch Notes
The Switch 2 didn’t need hype - because it’s already selling big
Remember last week when we criticised Nintendo’s approach to giving out review units to publications before the release? Well, it turns out Nintendo didn’t even need the early reviews because the console is already the fastest-selling ever.
We furrowed our brows at the lack of early reviews, which we highlighted in our last newsletter, but Nintendo revealed it sold 3.5 million units worldwide in its first four days on sale. Wow.
Eurogamer recently covered the news and made a good comparison — Sony sold 4.5 million PS5 units globally in its first quarter back in 2020, so Switch 2 has just a million less, but in four days.
Christopher Dring over at The Game Business highlighted that over in the UK Nintendo Switch 2 is the fourth best-selling console in terms of units and the third best-ever in terms of revenue. Check out the rest of his article which breaks down all the biggest launches in the UK.
It’s certainly a good start for the Switch 2 with glowing reviews and great sales. Chris has bought himself a Switch 2 and we’ll hopefully give our thoughts very soon.
🃏 Did you know… Lara Croft was originally Laura Cruz. However, developers of the game, Core Design, wanted a more UK-friendly name so settled on the name ‘Croft’ instead.
🚨 ICYMI
🕵️♂️ Jason Schreier has written a superb piece on Dragon Age: The Veilguard and what went wrong. He shared a gift link so readers can avoid the Bloomberg paywall so you can read it here. Thanks Jason!
🧟 After Resident Evil: Requiem was announced last week, some people got an inside sneak peek at the game. And it looks scary af. Eurogamer has a great first-person piece here.
🐛 Nintendo announced that a bug might mean your new Switch 2 might be showing incorrect battery life. The Verge has a good rundown of what’s going on and how to fix it.
✖ Xbox Games Showcase showed off a ton of new games, hardware and more this week. We won’t spoil it all but you can watch it all right here.
👧 Anticipated game Pragmata has some preview coverage out there - and we never thought it would be a puzzle shooter. The Gaming Bible has some great coverage here.
Have we missed a story? Let us know here
🛒 Stock Check
With the Nintendo Switch 2 out, the console hasn’t been hard to get, but the accessories seem to have been the outlier in some cases.
Chris has been on the lookout for a Switch 2 Pro controller since its release, but it has been sold out absolutely everywhere, with most retailers predicting that it will be available until the end of June for more stock.
However, after speaking to sources and stores, some Currys and GAME stores have leftover stock of the Switch 2 Pro controller and some MicroSD Express cards that were not collected. Make sure you check them out if you’re in the same boat!
💸 This week’s releases
👷 MindsEye - PC, PS5 and XBOX (June 10)
⌛ Dune Awakening - PC (June 11)
⚔️ Stellar Blade - PC (June 12)
🧙 Wizard of Legend II - PC, PS5, XBOX (June 12)
🐶 Five Nights at Freddy's: Secret of the Mimic - PC, PS5 (June 13)
🚀 The Alters - PC, PS5, XBOX (June 13)
🎮 What we’re playing this week
👊 Chris is still on his own this week - and after grabbing a fightstick, he’s decided to learn Tekken 8 as his first ever fighting game (as an adult, at least).
“Going wayyyy back to when I was a young’un, I remember Tekken 3 being one of the first games I ever played. Now, I’ve decided to go all in and attempt to rekindle my love of fighting games - and you never know, I might actually get good at them (for once).
📽 Clip of the Week
Helldivers II is a phenomenally fun game to play - and it can result in some amazing clips. This clip by Warpath-343 on Reddit shows just how spectacular the game can be and look.
Keep us in the loop and submit your feedback, news and favourite clips here
👾 RETROspective
RTS fans - it's time to get ready to feel old because Total War: Shogun was released 25 years ago today. 👹
Chris was brought up on real-time strategy games, Total War: Shogun was one of my favourite franchises in the Total War games, and Chris remembers spending hours on the sequel to the original Shogun game.
Thanks to its success, Total War: Shogun helped pave the way for many of the amazing Total War games we see today. The game also marks the transition when many gamers started to pick up 3D graphics cards, resulting in developers Creative Assembly moving from 2D to 3D with the game.
The most-visited links from last week’s newsletter:
Every Nintendo game getting a free Switch 2 update on June 5 for better graphics and bonus features
Switch 2 fans can get Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for the cheapest price with deal stack
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