Love it or hate it, Fortnite is pretty much THE crossover game of our time, with the Battle Royale / platform collabing with countless different IPs over the years. Even so, next Season looks to be particularly heavy on the crossover front, with rumoured franchises including Mega Man, Minecraft, Sonic the Hedgehog and other “Gaming Legends” said to be dropping onto the battlefield.

As reported by multiple leakers, Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 4 could be one of its biggest when it comes to crossovers. This is not only due to the sheer number of supposed collabs said to be happening, but also because Season 4 will reportedly be the first time in which an entire Battle Pass is being dedicated to crossover characters (not including past Disney collabs).

Of course, this should all be taken with a pinch of salt, but according to the leakers, some of the IPs seemingly dropping next Season include:

• Mega Man
• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Minecraft
• Persona
• Kingdom Hearts
• Crash Bandicoot

At this point, Fortnite has crossed over with so many characters and IPs that nothing would come as a surprise. Still, it would be interesting to see how Season 4 will be presented assuming this leak proves to be true.

Will we see multiple different changes to the map based on these franchises? We will have to wait and find out.

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KitGuru says: What do you think of Fortnite in 2026? Are you over the whole crossover phase? What IPs would you consider to be part of ‘Gaming Legends’? Let us know down below.

Yesterday, we reported on comments made by an ESA representative during a court hearing proposing new game preservation laws, in which they claimed that private Minecraft servers were “illegal” and constituted “piracy”. The clip quickly went viral, prompting the ESA to issue additional clarification. 

In a follow‑up statement sent to us, the ESA says the representative was responding to a multi‑part question in which the committee used the terms “community server” and “private server” interchangeably. The organisation then provided the following clarification on its position:

“Private servers that host or distribute copyrighted game content without authorization infringe on the intellectual property (IP) rights of game publishers. While publishers may take different approaches, all publishers reserve the right to exercise their rights against IP infringement. The provision in CA AB 1921 that proposed these servers as a legitimate alternative to keep games running raises concerns about a publisher's ability to enforce their IP rights. In addition, private servers operate with no oversight from the publisher and do not uphold the same trust and safety standards. This could create an unsafe environment for players and be counter to the industry's commitment to fostering safe and fun game play for all players.”

KitGuru Says: Community hosted servers have existed since the earliest days of multiplayer gaming. I'm still not sure why that can't be a viable alternative even after the ESA's statement. It is a way to keep your game alive for generations without continued investment and I struggle to see how that isn't considered a win for publishers. 

A new hearing for California’s Protect Our Games Act took place this week, and once again, the ESA pushed back hard against the Stop Killing Games movement. The bill aims to require publishers to provide a way for players to continue accessing games after online services are discontinued. While technically feasible in many cases, major publishers have consistently resisted the idea, preferring to shut games down entirely rather than relinquish control.

During the hearing, ESA vice president for state government affairs Jennifer Gibbons made a particularly surprising claim, arguing that private servers are “illegal” and constitute “piracy”. As reported by PCGamer, Gibbons responded to a comment from assemblymember Chris Ward, who noted that private servers already exist as a way to keep games alive.

“Minecraft is currently hosted by community servers, Call of Duty has community servers,” Ward said. Gibbons interrupted: “They’re illegal. They are not in any way affiliated with Microsoft… we consider it piracy.”

This statement contradicts the reality of Minecraft, which was designed with community‑hosted servers in mind. Microsoft openly provides server tools on the official website, free for anyone to download. Gibbons later referenced two ongoing ESA lawsuits involving private servers and pointed to the USTR’s Notorious Markets Report, which has named certain private servers in the past, but those cases involved servers enabling access to paid games like World of Warcraft without a subscription, not legitimate community servers for games that support them.

A volunteer for the Stop Killing Games campaign commented on the proceedings in a Reddit post, arguing that the ESA’s claims were “designed to scare a busy legislator who does not have time to fact‑check a well‑dressed lobbyist in real time.” They added that the movement plans to expand its lobbying efforts, bring developers and players directly into future hearings, and introduce similar bills in other states.

KitGuru Says: The ESA has tried to tell plenty of lies in its effort to shut down the Stop Killing Games movement. Fortunately in this case, the idea that private Minecraft servers are somehow ‘illegal' is easily disproven. 

The 2020s have been a great time for adaptations based on video games, with the film industry in particular seeing an influx of highly-successful properties brought to the big screen. Of course, one of the biggest in this regard was 2025’s A Minecraft Movie – going on to bring in just shy of a Billion Dollars at the box office. Unsurprisingly, a sequel was quickly greenlit, with filming for the sequel now already underway.

Taking to Instagram, actor Kirsten Dunst shared an image of two chairs with the names ‘Steve’ and ‘Alex’ on them alongside the caption “It has begun…..”

Of course, this is in reference to the Minecraft Movie sequel, in which Dunst is set to portray Jack Black’s counterpart Alex, confirming that filming is officially underway.

For the uninitiated, A Minecraft Movie 2 was quickly greenlit following the success of the first film, confirming in October of last year that director Jard Hess would be returning alongside cast members Jack Black; Jason Momoa; Danielle Brooks; Matt Berry and Jennifer Coolidge.

Officially premiering on the 23rd of July 2027, A Minecraft Movie 2 appears to be having quite the rapid turnaround (understandable given the success of the first film).

Hopefully the sequel manages to embrace what worked with the first film while avoiding what didn’t. We won’t have to wait too long to find out.

KitGuru says: What did you think of the first Minecraft Movie? Could the sequel improve upon it? Will the film manage to break a Billion at the box office? Let us know your thoughts down below.

The games industry analysts at NewZoo have revealed the top 20 most-played PC games of 2025, showing that the majority of playtime is concentrated across a select few long-running IPs like Counter Strike, Diablo, WoW, Call of Duty and more. 

We are currently living in an age where every publisher is trying to crack the live-service model, with one big long-running game generating consistent recurring income that vastly outweighs the kind of money made by a typical single-player game. However, as we've seen more recently, these types of games are becoming increasingly risky to release, with games like Babylon's Fall, Rumbleverse, Suicide Squad, Concord and Highguard all shutting down within a year of release.

As the NewZoo data shows, the top 20 most-played PC games is heavily concentrated on legacy franchises. Unfortunately, their resources website is currently down, so I can't link directly to the study, but Insider Gaming managed to grab it beforehand. Below is the full top 20, along with the percentage of overall playtime each game has earned:

1. Roblox – 9.7%
2. Counter-Strike 2 – 7%
3. League of Legends – 6.9%
4. Minecraft – 6.3%
5. Fortnite – 4.3%
6. Dota 2 – 3.6%
7. Valorant – 3.2%
8. World of Warcraft (retail) – 2.4%
9. The Sims 4 – 2.3%
10. Call of Duty – 1.8%
11. Escape from Tarkov – 1.7%
12. Overwatch 2 – 1.5%
13. Marvel Rivals – 1.2%
14. PUBG Battlegrounds – 1.1%
15. World of Warcraft Classic – 1%
16. Grand Theft Auto V – 1%
17. Diablo 4 – 1%
18. Wuthering Waves – 0.9%
19. Genshin Impact – 0.9%
20. Apex Legends – 0.9%

There are just a few genuinely ‘new IP' on the list, Games like PUBG and Apex Legends may not count, as they were preceded by a highly popular mod beforehand in the case of PUBG, and Apex Legends was preceded by the fantastic Titanfall games. Even World of Warcraft had a good fan base built up before launching in 2004 thanks to the prior Warcraft RTS games. Dota 2 famously came to be after starting out as a popular Warcraft mod as well.

That leaves us with just a handful of genuinely brand-new IP on the list, including the likes of Fortnite, Valorant, Escape from Tarkov, Genshin Impact, Wuthering Waves and Minecraft. These account for less than 30% of the most-played titles and the majority of them had launched well before the current live-service development trend across the games industry.

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KitGuru Says: If you need your game to be a top 20 title in order to keep supporting it, then you are likely better off just not going down the live service route at all. As we've seen with Highguard, Concord and Babylon's Fall, having a big budget does not guarantee you any level of success in this saturated market.