By Nelson Schneider - 05/24/26 at 03:27 PM CT
Welcome back to another look into the near future! Summer’s nearly upon us, once again, and from the look of things, this year’s Summer Game Drought is going to be a dire one. The entire Industry is in chaos, with one debacle after another putting the future of every major platform on a questionable foundation that seems like it could erode-away entirely without even a moment’s notice. Let’s take a look at the few meager droplets falling on us in June that we’ll have to make due with until – or if – things start to get better.
Over half of the new releases in June fall into the Shovelware category, with three of the four major sub-types represented. In Licensed Swill, there’s a ‘Star Wars Monopoly’ game. In the Annualized Swill category, EA is pooping out another ‘UFC’ entry. There are no super-casual non-games, at least... but there are a couple of Noteworthy Ports: “Gothic,” and ancient (and terrible) Fake RPG is getting a remake, and the 30th Anniversary Remaster of the original “Rayman” is getting ported from PC to some consoles... so it’s a double-port.
In new non-shovelware Multi-platform releases... we’ve got a whopping 3 games... But at least there’s some variety there. First, there’s “The Witch’s Bakery,” which looks like a mashup of banal Shop Simulation, Point-and-Click Adventure, and Friendship Simulation with a painfully 2020s art style that appears in every way to be a worse interpretation of the type of ‘Cozy’ game made popular by “Stardew Valley.” Next, there’s “Corpse Party II: Darkness Distortion,” not to be confused with “Corpse Party 2: Dead Patient,” and definitely not to be confused (as I did when I first saw the title) with the NES’ “Monster Party.” ‘Corpse Party’ seems to be owned by Xseed, and they don’t really seem to know what they’re doing with it... but it’s a stupid Horror game, so #Chriswouldlovethat. Lastly, Square-Enix is pushing out a new game – in spite of their earlier declaration that they would be sticking with remakes only for the next couple of years - “The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales.” When I first heard about this one, I tentatively added it to my Wish List on Steam, but now that it’s closer to release, and people have been able to play the demo and share some first impressions... it really looks like Square-Enix still hasn’t found the plot after losing it 20 years ago. Of course, why would I be surprised that “The Adventures of Elliot” won’t meet expectations: It’s by the same internal dev studio at Square-Enix that brought us ‘Octopath Traveler’ and ‘Bravely Default,’ two of the duddiest attempts at an old-school revival that ever dudded.
What about exclusives? Well, in spite of both Sony and Xbox recoiling from their commitments to broader accessibility and multi-platform releases of first-party titles, along with Nintendo being as covetous as ever with their first-party IPs... there aren’t any. So don’t buy (or borrow) a console thinking it’ll give you access to a bunch of great new stuff this Summer. It won’t.
In spite of some initial excitement about “The Adventures of Elliot,” it seems that Square-Enix still hasn’t come up with anything actually worth investing money and time into experiencing. I don’t even know if Chris thinks ‘Corpse Party’ is a worthwhile IP to indulge in his... proclivities. So... yeah, there’s nothing coming in June. Better play those backlogged games instead.
Backlog Embiggened: +0
