2K invites all Xbox Insiders in North America to Ball Without Limits in a special Beta test this weekend for NBA 2K Playgrounds 2! The sequel to the original smash hit takes street balling to the next level with a massive roster of current and retired NBA players, improved online matchmaking with dedicated servers, four-player online matches, three-point contests, new playgrounds, custom matches, and more! Pick your team, get ready to jam, and Ball Without Limits!

We need your help to put as much stress on the servers as we can, so let’s all jump in and have some fun! Servers will be open for dedicated Beta test sessions. See below for instructions on how and when to join 2K, the Xbox Insider Program team and other Xbox Insiders in the playtest this weekend.

PLAYTEST DATES/TIMES:
• Join the Beta, install and get ready to play – Thursday 9/27 at 11:30 AM PDT (2:30 PM EDT)
• Play the Beta – Friday 9/28, 8 AM PDT (11 AM EDT) – Sunday 30th September 11:59 PM PDT (2:59 AM EDT)

HOW TO PARTICIPATE:
1. Ensure your console is in one of the supported regions for this Beta: United States, Canada, and Mexico.
2. Sign in to your Xbox One console and launch the Xbox Insider Hub. If you are not yet a member of the Xbox Insider Program, all you need to do is download the Xbox Insider Hub from the Store.
3. Navigate to Insider content > NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 Beta
4. Select Join
5. Joining will automatically direct you to the Store to download the NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 Beta

If you encounter any issues while participating in the NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 Beta, please submit feedback via Report a problem from your console (hold down the Xbox button and select Report a problem from the power menu)

SUPPORTED REGIONS: 
We apologize for the inconvenience, but this limited Beta will only be available in specific regions in North America. If you are not in a supported region, you will not see the Beta in the Xbox Insider Hub.

• United States
• Canada
• Mexico

The latest Nintendo Download update for Europe has (FINALLY) arrived, and it’s bringing new games galore to the eShop in your region. As always, be sure to drop a vote in our poll and a comment down below with your potential picks for the week. Enjoy!

Switch Retail – New Releases

Super Mario Party (Nintendo, €59.99 / £49.99) – The original board game style has been kicked up a notch with deeper strategic elements, like specific Dice Blocks for each character. The game also introduces all-new ways to play, including Joy-Con controller enabled minigames, and new modes to enjoy with family and friends. – Read our Super Mario Party review

Switch eShop – New Releases

Mega Man 11 (CAPCOM, €29.99 / £24.99) – The eleventh entry in this global multi-million-selling series blends classic challenging 2D platforming action with a fresh new visual style. The new double-gear system lets you boost Mega Man’s speed and power for a new twist on the satisfying gameplay the series is known for. – Read our Mega Man 11 review

Gaokao.Love.100Days (Navila Software Japan, €8.49 / £7.64) – This is a dating simulation game based on Chinese students’ real life. You can have romantic relationships with classmates, but remember that you have just 100 days while preparing for “Gaokao” (National College Entrance Exam), the exam that may change your destiny.

Batman: The Enemy Within (Telltale, €44.99 / £39.99) – The Riddler has returned to terrorize Gotham City, but his gruesome puzzles merely foreshadow an even greater crisis. With the arrival of a ruthless federal agent and the return of a still nascent Joker, Batman must navigate uneasy alliances while Bruce Wayne undertakes a perilous series of deceptions.

Valthirian Arc: Hero School Story (Pqube, €12.99 / £11.99) – Oversee the development of your hero school, build structures, upgrade facilities, and manage the day-to-day activities of your students. Use powerful skills and cast explosive spells in real-time combat with a party of four students.

True Fear: Forsaken Souls – Part 1 (Digital Lounge, €9.99 / £8.99) – True Fear: Forsaken Souls combines the best of the psychological thriller with intuitive gameplay mechanics for a mind-bending mystery escape game.

Urban Trial Playground (Tate Multimedia, €17.99 / £16.19) – Backflip from the rooftops, over palm trees and sand dunes in ‘Urban Trial Playground’ and become the ultimate stunt racer! This new instalment of the stunt bike racing series is moving the action from city streets, straight to the sunny and colourful beaches of California. – Read our Urban Trial Playground review

oOo: Ascension (EM Studios, €8.09 / £7.19) – Navigate your ship through short but ferociously difficult levels in the shortest time possible without touching any walls, spinning blades, lasers or countless other hazards that will try to destroy you in the process.

ACA NEOGEO ZUPAPA! (HAMSTER, €6.99 / £6.29) – Control the brave young Zupapa and Zupipi and rescue the Zooks, who have been kidnapped by a mysterious adversary! Run freely through the fun, unique stages using simple controls, and aim for the final stage.

Animated Jigsaws: Japanese Women (RAINYFROG, €8.99 / £7.99) – Complete moving jigsaw puzzles alone or team up with friends and finish them together! Animated Jigsaws: Japanese Women contains short videos as jigsaw puzzles that are pieced together to reveal beautiful ladies.

Art of Balance (Shin’en Multimedia, €8.99 / £7.99) – Puzzle games must be addictive. That’s why we designed 200 levels to not only challenge your skills but also your imagination. With its tight controls, Art of Balance is easy to pick up and hard to put away.

Frutakia 2 (Crazysoft, €3.99 / £3.59) – Match 3 or more fruits and level up! Simple gameplay, ideal for short periods of time, like buses, trains.

Hot Gimmick Cosplay-jong (Zerodiv, €17.11 / £15.21) – The No.1 Mahjong arcade game is coming back to Nintendo Switch!

Jettomero: Hero of the Universe (Ghost Time Games, €10.99 / £9.89) – Play as Jettomero, a giant, indestructible, and incredibly clumsy robot determined to save the human race. Explore a procedurally generated universe by flying through space and landing on planets while trying not to destroy everything in your path.

KEMONO FRIENDS PICROSS (Jupiter, €9.99 / £8.99) – Now you can make dot pictures of cute Friends. There are 300 Picross and Mega-Picross puzzles! Plus Clip Picross, where you solve puzzle pieces to complete an image. Help functions and tutorials to help new players.

The Midnight Sanctuary (UNTIES, €9.99 / £7.99) – A curious, haunting tale. Is it salvation which the Saint who descended into this isolated village brings… or is it the end of things? An occult horror visual novel wrought by mystical visuals & voice artists.

Party Crashers (Giant Margarita, €14.99 / £13.49) – Fast-paced battle-racing with a retro-future aesthetic for 1–4 players, with over 50 included game modes and comprehensive customization.

Revenant Dogma (KEMCO, €12.99 / £11.69) – Have a 3D battle experience featuring transformations that enable various skills and Bursts that can deal massive damage. Weapons can be customized to increase their power or be imbued with various effects. Explore dynamic, constantly changing dungeons, take on many subquests and open up your path in a grand adventure!

Six Sides of the World (Dolores Ent., €9.99 / £8.99) – “Six Sides of the World” is a puzzle video game that takes you into an intergalactic journey through different star systems riddled with brain-racking challenges.

Soulblight (My Next Games, €14.99 / £13.49) – Soulblight is a dark, unforgiving, top-down action roguelike luring you to cross the thin line between good and evil. While travelling through the shattered reality of the Sanctuary, you will receive personality traits based on your choices. These will be the main source of your strength.

Speed Brawl (Kongregate, €19.99 / £17.99) – Speed Brawl is a 2D combat-racer about moving fast and hitting hard! Maintain your momentum, build your combos, and unleash powerful special moves. Find your own fighting style, and assemble the finest team of brawlers ever seen. Then do it all again faster… faster… FASTER!!!

Splash Blast Panic (Digital Smash, €13.99 / £11.49) – SPLASH BLAST PANIC is a multiplayer competitive party game where you must shoot, ram, dodge and overall bully your opponents outside the screen with a variety of water gun-based weaponry. Inspired by old arcade titles as well as newer competitive party games.

Trouserheart (Kyy Games, €6.99 / £6.29) – Defeat monster mobs, slay bosses, hoard treasure and upgrade your sword, shield and armour. Follow your trousers to the world’s end and claim what is rightfully yours! Trouserheart is all about hack ‘n’ slash gameplay with a playful art style and humorous tone.

Switch eShop – Demos

True Fear: Forsaken Souls – Part 1 Demo (Digital Lounge, Free)

3DS eShop – New Releases

Pinball Breakout (nuGAME, €7.00 / £6.00) – Pinball Breakout is a breakout game which combines the game mechanics of a traditional breakout game and a flipper game. Play through 15 exciting levels as you aim for a high score.

Wii U eShop – New Releases

Petite Zombies (Random Spin, €1.09 / £0.99) – Protect your territory from the invasion of petite zombies. For better game convenience, use the stylus.

PING 1.5+ (Nami Tentou, €1.34 / £1.19until 18/10/2018/ 23:59 local time) – Read our PING 1.5+ review

Switch eShop – Pre-Orders

GRIP (Wired Productions, €39.99 / £34.99, pre-order from 01/10/2018) – GRIP is a high octane, hardcore combat racer, packing ferocious speed and armed to the teeth with heavy weapons.

Bombing Busters (Sanuk Games, €5.94 / £5.34, pre-order from 01/10/2018) – Bomb oodles of nasty critters in a series of 30 wicked mazes! Defeat hellish bosses in heroic fights! Embark on a hilarious journey with the witty Dr. Wallow to conquer the galaxy in this explosively fun arcade game!

Chicken Range (Funbox Media, €19.99 / £17.99, pre-order from 01/10/2018) – Pre-Order until 25/10/2018, 14:59 local time – The object of the game is to shoot the chickens using an array of different weaponry, from pistols to AK47, RPG’s to Alien Ray Guns! Gameplay is set over a field twice as wide as the screen, so you must be constantly moving your aim side to side in order to reach the whole game field.

Transistor (Supergiant Games, €16.79 / £15.49, pre-order from 01/10/2018) Transistor is a sci-fi themed action RPG that invites you to wield an extraordinary weapon of unknown origin as you fight through a stunning futuristic city. Transistor seamlessly integrates thoughtful strategic planning into a fast-paced action experience, melding responsive gameplay and rich atmospheric storytelling. Fight your way through the streets of Cloudbank, and piece together the Transistor’s mysteries as you pursue its former owners.

Chasm (Leadman Games, €17.99 / £15.99, pre-order from 04/10/2018) – Welcome to Chasm, an action-adventure game in which you play a new recruit of the Guildean Kingdom. Thrilled to prove your worth as a knight, you track strange rumours that a mine vital to the Kingdom has been shut down. But what you discover in the mining town is that the townspeople have disappeared, kidnapped by supernatural creatures.

Spintires: MudRunner – American Wilds (Focus Home Interactive, €39.99 / £34.99, pre-order from 05/10/2018) – Spintires: MudRunner – American Wilds is the ultimate version of Spintires: MudRunner, putting players in the driver’s seat and daring them to take charge of all-terrain vehicles, venturing across realistic, physics-simulated landscapes with only a map and compass as guides!

Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle (Blue Wizard Digital, €14.44 / £12.99, pre-order from 05/10/2018) – Become horror icon Jason Voorhees and stalk campers across 150+ levels: solve murderlicious puzzles to rank-up and unlock new weapons and special attacks. Help Jason terrorize victims from the campgrounds of Crystal Lake to the high-rises of Manhattan, from supermax prisons to space stations… and beyond!

Switch eShop – Special Offers

New 3DS eShop – Special Offers

3DS eShop – Special Offers

Wii U eShop – Special Offers

DLC / Add-On Content

Nintendo Switch

• Overcooked 2 – Surf ‘n’ Turf (Team17) – €4.99 / £4.79
• Pic-a-Pix Deluxe – Classic 10 (Lightwood Games) – €2.99 / £2.99
• Revenant Dogma – Damage Orichalcum (KEMCO) – €4.99 / £4.49
• Revenant Dogma – Experience Orichalcum (KEMCO) – €4.99 / £4.49
• Revenant Dogma – Encounter Orichalcum (KEMCO) – €1.99 / £1.79
• Revenant Dogma – Full Recovery Orichalcum (KEMCO) – €3.99 / £3.59
• SENRAN KAGURA Reflexions – Yomi Reflexions Course & 12 Outfit Set (Marvelous Europe) – €9.99 / £8.99
• SENRAN KAGURA Reflexions – Yomi Outfit Set 1 (Marvelous Europe) – €free / £free / CHF free
• SENRAN KAGURA Reflexions – Yomi Outfit Set 2 (Marvelous Europe) – €3.99 / £3.59
• SENRAN KAGURA Reflexions – Yomi Reflexions Course (Marvelous Europe) – €3.99 / £3.59
• WorldNeverland – Elnea Kingdom:Small Demon Wings Set (althi) – €3.33 / £2.99
• Zaccaria Pinball – Locomotion 2018 Table (Magic Pixel) – €2.99 / £2.69
• Zaccaria Pinball – Robot 2018 Table (Magic Pixel) – €2.99 / £2.69
• Zaccaria Pinball – Pinball Champ 2018 Table (Magic Pixel) – €2.99 / £2.69
• Zaccaria Pinball – Blackbelt 2018 Table (Magic Pixel) – €2.99 / £2.69
• Zaccaria Pinball – Winter Sports 2018 Table (Magic Pixel) – €2.99 / £2.69
• Zaccaria Pinball – Future World 2018 Table (Magic Pixel) – €2.99 / £2.69
• Zaccaria Pinball – Tropical Table (Magic Pixel) – €1.99 / £1.79
• Zaccaria Pinball – Granada Table (Magic Pixel) – €1.99 / £1.79
• Zaccaria Pinball – Top Hand Table (Magic Pixel) – €1.99 / £1.79

So that’s your lot for this week’s Nintendo Download. Go on, be a sport and drop a vote in the poll above, and a comment below with your hot picks!

Add Orwell to your account and play for FREE starting now until October 5th at 10AM Pacific Time!
Once you add the game it will remain in your account after the free period, so don’t miss out on this opportunity to play this thrilling, detective simulation!

© 2018 Valve Corporation. All rights reserved. All trademarks are property of their respective owners in the US and other countries.

Michael Gallagher is leaving his post as the CEO and president of the Entertainment Software Association after over a decade with the organization.

The ESA itself is a trade body that counts many of the major players in the United States game industry among its members, and host of the yearly E3 industry conference.

Gallagher has served as the CEO and president of the ESA for 11 years and will officially vacate the post at the end of October. Following that, current ESA senior vice president Stanley Pierre-Louis will serve as interim CEO while the organization begins its search for Gallagher’s official replacement. 

“Under Mike’s leadership, ESA has developed a strong reputation with policymakers for vigorously defending the industry during watershed moments, including the industry’s victory on First Amendment principles before the U.S. Supreme Court,” said ZeniMax CEO and ESA board of directors chairman Robert Altman in a press release. ”Mike was also instrumental in revitalizing E3 into the most prominent and important industry show produced today. We want to thank Mike for his many contributions and wish him well as he pursues new opportunities.”

Gallagher, whose prior roles include chief technology advisor for former US President George W. Bush and assistant secretary for commerce and information in the US Department of Commerce, has not publicly commented on what he has planned following his departure from the ESA. 

Starting at 6:00 p.m. PDT today, members of the Xbox One Preview Alpha Ring will begin receiving the latest 1810 Xbox One system update (180923-1920). Read on for more about the fixes and known issues in the latest 1810 system update.

Fixes:

Clubs

• Fixes to display and show the correct gamertag for the Clubs PromoteToAdmin/RemoveAdmin alerts.

 Display – Dolby Vision & HDR

• Fixes to the performance of Dolby Vision for the Netflix App.
• Fixes to ensure that HDR content is shown as HDR content and not SDR (Standard) content as some users were seeing in the Movies and TV app and the Netflix App.

System

• System Memory and Performance fixes in this build.
• Localization fixes in this build.

Known Issues:

Avatars

• It can take up to 10 seconds to view an Avatar on the profile screen after creating a new Avatar.

My Games & Apps

• We are aware that some users are experiencing crashing of a game or the Youtube app when you are either launching or resuming the Youtube app.
• If you are in the Youtube app and then Resume to a Game the app/game and console may hang or crash.
• We are aware that some users are experiencing challenges navigating the Ready to Install Filter options in My Games and Apps.  Some users are unable to select the filter options at all and we are investigating.

Power

• We are tracking an issue in which the console is fully powering off when it is placed into Instant On mode.

Profile Color

• Sometimes users may encounter the incorrect Profile color when powering on the console.

Virtual Keyboard

• We are aware that special characters appear incorrectly when using the Virtual Keyboard.
• We are aware that the recently used emoji’s/characters are not present when you launch the VK again.

Assault Spy / is Now Available on Steam!

Dash, evade, and smash your way to the truth as the corporate spy, Asaru; or the reckless CIA agent, Amelia! Uncover the dark secrets of the Negabot mega corporation as you save the company from a hostile takeover. Assault Spy is a stylish, fast paced, pure-action game with a dash of comedy.