#52: It's about to get very busy for gamers

June is a busy season for games with Computex and the Summer Game Festival right around the corner.

Hello, hello, hello!

Welcome to overkill digest, your weekly newsletter for all things handheld gaming, written by yours truly with love, sweat and a metric ton of espresso.

I'm back from vacation, but I shot a little YouTube video showing everything I packed for that trip before I left. Check it out below!

June is peak season

Welcome to June, probably one of the busiest times for gaming aficionados, whether you're into hardware or games.

Starting with hardware: Computex begins tomorrow, and we'll probably get a lot of new handheld announcements. It already started with the full reveal of the ROG Ally X earlier this morning.

While some specs were leaked last month, we have all the missing information, including the price and release date. The ROG Ally X will cost $799 (799£/899€) and will be released in July. Friends of overkill Russ and Phawx went hands-on with the device in NYC, while LTT and Dave2D tested it in their studios.

But the ROG Ally X isn't the only new device. We heard from ZOTAC teasing the Zone, Antec is rebadging the AYANEO Slide, and I heard rumours that a few other big companies are about to drop their take on a Steam Deck competitor. (I can't be specific, but from what I heard, the company names rhyme with Megabyte and Pacer, respectively. We might even see that one handheld with grips like a Nintendo Switch gets a Lite version.)

As to games: While previous years brought us E3, this year will bring us a bigger Summer Game Fest, starting on June 7. Technically, Summer Game Fest already started with Sony's recent State of Play, which brought us more info on the next Astro Bot, God of War: Ragnarok for PC, Alien: Rogue Incursion for PSVR2, an Until Dawn and a Silent Hill 2 Remake, and more.

The following significant events to look forward to during Summer Game Fest are the launch event on June 7, the Future Games Show on June 8, the Xbox Games Showcase followed by the CoD Black Ops 6 direct on June 9, the PC Gaming Show on June 9, and finally Ubisoft Forward on June 10.

As I said, it will be a hectic season. We will keep you updated.

Big this week

The Tomb Raider Anime will premiere on Netflix on October 10 and pick up right after the events of the Survivor trilogy. Also, Netflix is working on a Minecraft series because, of course, they are.
God of War: Ragnarök on PC has a PSN requirement. This might mean that the game will not run correctly on Steam Deck since Valve hasn't backed support for that PlayStation Network overlay into Proton yet.
Someone stole $400.000 worth of Playdates and then just dumped them in front of a restaurant months later? That's the most random thing I've read in a while.
Scuf is working on a controller grip for the iPhone that will go live in early July.
The PS5 is the most successful generation ever thanks to... microtransactions. During Sony's recent business briefing, we also learned that the PSVR2 is not selling well (duh, where are the freaking games?! At least there have been updates as to PC compatibility.) and that we'll get more games on PC and mobile. That last part is especially intriguing since Sony aims to bring games to PC right before a sequel drops on PS5, hoping players will be hyped enough to get a PS5 to continue playing.
Redfall just received its last patch. The new update introduces a few new game mechanics and will allow players to play the game completely offline, as development has officially halted (after Microsoft closed Arkane Austin).
Update number three billion for No Man's Sky will introduce an alternative universe where you're entirely alone. There are no other lifeforms except sandworms, so there are no shops, no trading, and no help.
We finally got a Legend of Zelda Lego Set. It's $300 and has 2.500 pieces.