Gaming Mondays #7: The Fall of Monolith, Impossible SNAP, Twitter (X) Down, EPIC, PS Movies, Mario 10 Day and more.
Gaming Mondays is back, and we’ve got a wild ride lined up for you. Whether you’re here for the latest industry shake-ups, the hottest gaming news, or just some good old-fashioned chaos, we’ve got you
Hey Gamers, Rebels, and Digital Gladiators, you know what time it is. Gaming Mondays is back, and we’ve got a wild ride lined up for you. Whether you’re here for the latest industry shake-ups, the hottest gaming news, or just some good old-fashioned chaos, we’ve got you covered.
This week? It’s a rollercoaster. We’re talking about the heartbreaking end of Monolith Studios, a Marvel Snap challenge so broken even Doctor Strange couldn’t fix it, and Epic Games once again battling in court like it’s a Fortnite endgame scenario. But it’s not all doom and gloom since we’re celebrating MAR10 Day, Rockstar’s big moves, and a stack of free movies for PlayStation Plus subscribers.
So, grab your headset, energy drink, or whatever fuels your gaming sessions, and let’s dive in. Because Mondays may suck, but Gaming Mondays? Always a win.
The Fall of Monolith Studios is a Tragic Loss for Innovation
If you’ve been a gamer long enough, you know the sting of seeing a beloved studio shut down. But some losses hit harder than others. Warner Bros. shutting down Monolith Productions isn’t just another case of corporate consolidation—it’s a devastating blow to gaming history. This was a studio that took risks, pushed boundaries, and created systems that could have redefined game design for decades. And now? Gone.
Monolith wasn’t just a developer; they were pioneers. They weren’t afraid to shake up the industry, whether it was with the groundbreaking Nemesis System from Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, the masterful horror of F.E.A.R., or the sharp-witted spy action of No One Lives Forever. These weren’t just great games, they were innovations that should have inspired the future of gaming. Instead, they’ve been locked away behind patents, abandoned by the very industry that should have embraced them.
How did we get here? How did we go from an era where creativity thrived to a corporate culture that suffocates anything that doesn’t fit neatly into a billion-dollar franchise mold? This is the fallout of an industry where passion takes a backseat to profit.
Let’s talk about what we’ve lost.
Monolith: A Legacy of Innovation
There was a time when studios like Id Software, Looking Glass, Troika, and Westwood defined the gaming industry. They were the rebels, the visionaries, the ones who didn’t play it safe. Monolith was one of them.
For younger gamers, Monolith is best known for Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War, two games that took open-world action RPGs and injected them with something we’d never seen before the Nemesis System.
This wasn’t just some gimmick. The Nemesis System gave enemies personalities, memories, and grudges. Kill an orc, and their underling might rise to power. Lose to one, and they’d remember, taunting you, adapting, hunting you down. No open-world game had ever created a world that fought back like this.
It was a revolutionary idea. One that could have changed how every open-world game was designed. Instead? Warner Bros. patented it and never used it again.
And now, with Monolith gone, the Nemesis System, one of the most innovative mechanics of the last decade, is buried with them.
More Than Just the Nemesis System
But Monolith was so much more than just Mordor.
F.E.A.R. wasn’t just a horror shooter. It was the first FPS with truly intelligent AI, enemies flanked, coordinated, reacted dynamically. It made every firefight feel like a chess match against an enemy that could think for itself.
No One Lives Forever was a spy thriller ahead of its time, blending stealth, humor, and some of the smartest NPC dialogue ever written. It was the anti-Call of Duty, a game that dared to be fun and colorful when the industry was chasing gritty realism.
Aliens vs. Predator 2 gave players three interconnected campaigns: Marine, Predator, and Xenomorph, where choices in one campaign directly affected the others. A genius design that most modern games still don’t attempt.
Monolith never made games like everyone else. They always added something different, something that made their games feel alive. And now, a studio that took risks is gone, while soulless live-service cash grabs continue to flood the market.
What We’ve Lost
Monolith’s closure isn’t just another headline. It’s a warning.
A studio that redefined horror FPS, revolutionized enemy AI, and created the most innovative open-world system in years was shut down, not for failing, but for not being the right kind of success.
And if Monolith, a studio that constantly pushed gaming forward, can be erased like this. What does that mean for the future?
What other ideas will be buried under corporate greed? What other innovations will be lost because they don’t fit into a neat monetization strategy?
If we don’t fight for the studios that take risks, if we don’t push back against the idea that every game needs battle passes and microtransactions to survive, then this industry will lose everything that made it great in the first place.
Rest in Power, Monolith
Monolith is gone, but their influence lives on. Their games still exist, still playable for those willing to seek them out. Their ideas still ripple through the industry, even if they’re trapped behind legal walls.
So here’s to them. To the risks they took, the stories they told, and the games they made. They may be gone, but their mark on gaming is forever.
And if there’s one thing we can do to honor them? Never stop demanding better. Never let the industry tell us that creativity doesn’t matter. Never accept that the future of gaming belongs to the bean counters instead of the visionaries.
Because if we don’t fight for innovation now, we might wake up one day in a gaming industry where everything is safe, sterile, and soulless.
And that’s a future not worth playing.
Alright, we know, we kicked off this week’s edition with a gut punch to the gaming industry. Losing Monolith Productions feels like watching a friend get forced out of the party while the least interesting guest keeps droning on about live-service monetization. But hey, let’s shake it off, grab some respawn energy, and move on to something a little more... absurd.
Marvel Snap's Latest Challenge: A Mission Even the Avengers Can’t Complete
In what might be one of the most ironic twists in gaming, Marvel Snap just dropped a limited-time challenge that is physically impossible to complete. Why? Because it requires using a card that doesn’t even exist yet.
The challenge, part of the new Prehistoric Avengers season, asks players to win games with Khonshu in their deck. The problem? Khonshu isn’t set to release until March 25. That’s right, players are being asked to complete a challenge using a character they literally cannot obtain.
Naturally, fans didn’t take this lying down. Reddit is filled with players jokingly demanding “5,000 Gold and 20,000 Charms” in compensation for their suffering. Some have even tried swapping in Eson, the latest Spotlight Cache card, only to find out.....surprise, it still doesn’t work.
The developers at Second Dinner have acknowledged the issue and promised to investigate, but considering Marvel Snap’s history of slow fixes, players aren’t exactly holding their breath. And let’s be real, this isn’t even the first time Marvel Snap has had mission-related bugs. Just last November, an entire event got wrecked by a glitch that left players unable to progress.
At this point, fans are half-joking, half-serious about demanding some serious compensation. Given how the developers recently handed out free resources after the TikTok ban debacle, players are hoping they’ll throw in a few extra goodies to make up for this impossible challenge.
So, Marvel Snap players, while you wait for this broken mission to (hopefully) get patched, maybe take a break and play something that actually lets you complete its objectives. That is the advice I got because yes, you are me.
Twitter Went Down, But By Now, You Probably Didn’t Even Notice
Ah, the internet’s favorite town square took an unexpected coffee break. Earlier today, Twitter (or X, for the three people who actually call it that) experienced a major outage, leaving users staring at loading screens and wondering if they had somehow been shadow banned from reality.
Reports started rolling in around 9 AM CST, with Down Detector lighting up like a Christmas tree as frustrated users scrambled to find alternative ways to waste time. The platform flickered in and out of service, causing brief moments of existential crisis, because how else were people supposed to share their hot takes, hate speech, doomscroll, or tweet at brands demanding better customer service?
But, let’s be real, by the time you’re reading this, Twitter is probably back up and running, and life has resumed its normal, chaotic, algorithm-driven flow. These outages happen every now and then, and while they’re a mild inconvenience for most, they serve as an amusing reminder of just how dependent we’ve all become on one platform to air our thoughts in 280 characters or less.
For now, it looks like the storm has passed. So, go ahead, fire off that tweet about Marvel Snap’s broken challenge, Doom’s missing Glory Kills, or Monolith’s tragic demise. Because if an opinion isn’t tweeted, did it even happen?
Epic Games Faces Another Legal Challenge Over Fortnite’s Item Shop, But Is It Fair?
At this point, Fortnite’s legal battles are stacking up almost as fast as its in-game collabs. This time, Epic Games is facing a lawsuit over its Item Shop practices, with claims that it misleads players into making rushed purchases by creating artificial urgency. Filed in a San Francisco court by two parents, the lawsuit argues that countdown timers in the shop pressure young players into impulse buying, even though many of these items allegedly remain available at the same price after the timer expires.
But here’s the thing, Epic already addressed this issue last year.
Epic’s Response: “This Lawsuit Doesn’t Reflect How Fortnite Operates”
Epic Games was quick to fire back, stating that the lawsuit contains factual errors and does not accurately reflect how Fortnite’s shop works today. In fact, Epic removed the countdown timer entirely from the shop last year and rolled out a bunch of features designed to give players more control over their purchases. These include:
A hold-to-purchase mechanic to prevent accidental buys.
Instant purchase cancellations and self-service refunds.
Parental controls that restrict real-money spending for players under 13 unless explicitly approved by parents.
Epic has also consistently refined its approach to player spending, something not every major publisher can say. After all, this is the same company that fought Apple and Google over platform restrictions, advocating for fairer revenue sharing and more consumer choice in the gaming industry.
The Bigger Conversation
Gaming monetization has always been a hot topic, and this lawsuit highlights the tricky balance between FOMO-driven marketing and player-friendly transparency. But is it really fair to go after Epic when they’ve already taken steps to improve how Fortnite’s shop operates?
Yes, Fortnite is a free-to-play game that thrives on in-game purchases. But it’s also one of the few major publishers that has proactively adjusted its policies rather than doubling down on predatory practices.
The lawsuit is still in its early stages, and it remains to be seen whether it will move forward as a class action. Regardless of the outcome, this case might push further industry-wide discussions about how games should handle digital storefronts, especially when younger audiences are involved.
One thing’s for sure: Fortnite isn’t going anywhere. Love it or hate it, Epic continues to set the bar for the industry, both in innovation and in how it adapts to challenges.
Rockstar Acquires Video Games Deluxe, Forms Rockstar Australia
Rockstar Games just leveled up its roster by acquiring Video Games Deluxe, the Sydney-based studio behind the L.A. Noire VR edition and recent GTA Trilogy updates. Now rebranded as Rockstar Australia, this move signals Rockstar’s commitment to expanding its tech and storytelling expertise.
With deep roots in VR and remasters, Rockstar Australia could be gearing up for next-gen enhancements, new IPs, or even VR projects for GTA and beyond. While there’s no official word on what’s next, one thing’s clear, Rockstar is playing the long game, and we’re all waiting to see the next big reveal.
PS Plus Premium Just Dropped 95 Free Movies
PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers just got a major bonus, 95 free movies are now available to stream via the Sony Pictures Core app. Something for everyone.
Some of the biggest titles include Resident Evil: Afterlife, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, District 9, Big Fish, Snatch, and even Johnny Mnemonic starring Keanu Reeves. Whether you're in the mood for horror, cyberpunk, or nostalgia-fueled favorites, there's plenty to binge.
Sony rotates these freebies monthly, so this lineup is only available until March 31. If you're on PS5, check the Media section on your home screen. For PS4 users, just grab the Sony Pictures Core app from the PlayStation Store. Don’t miss out!
It’s-a MAR10 Day! Celebrate with Sales, Sweepstakes & More!
Time to jump, stomp, and race into the ultimate Mario celebration, MAR10 Day is here! Nintendo is pulling out all the stops, and whether you want deals, challenges, or even a chance to win a Universal Orlando trip, there’s something for every Mario fan!
Top Ways to Celebrate MAR10 Day:
🎟️ Win a Trip to Universal Orlando! My Nintendo is giving one lucky winner and three guests a 5-day trip to visit the brand-new SUPER NINTENDO WORLD™ at Universal Epic Universe! Start redeeming Platinum Points for entries now!
🏁 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Community Challenge! Join forces with players worldwide to rack up 1 million laps between March 7–17 and earn Platinum Points! Jump in with the tourney code 1152-2501-4827.
🎮 Huge Game Discounts! Score big savings on Super Mario Odyssey, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, and more—all dropping to $39.99 (or lower) at Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and GameStop.
🛒 Nintendo Switch – OLED Model + Super Mario Bros. Wonder Bundle! Get the special edition bundle with 3 months of Switch Online for $349.99—a $67.98 value boost!
🔴 LEGO Mario Kart Set is on the Way! A 1,972-piece LEGO® Standard Kart Set featuring Mario is now available for pre-order and drops May 15!
✈️ Mario Takes Flight with JetBlue! Spot the Cloudtop Cruiser, a JetBlue A320 decked out with Mario, Luigi, Peach, and the gang, flying across the U.S.!
🎵 New Nintendo Sound Clock & Music Playlists! Set your alarms Mario-style with Alarmo, a motion-sensing clock loaded with Nintendo soundscapes, and jam out to fresh Super Mario Bros. 3 tracks on Nintendo Switch Online!
This is just a slice of the MAR10 Day festivities! So whether you’re playing, watching, building, or flying, there’s plenty to power up your celebration.
Less go!
Final Thoughts
As we close this edition of Gaming Mondays, it’s easy to look at the industry’s ups and downs and feel like creativity is fighting an uphill battle. But let’s not forget gaming has always been about pushing boundaries, defying expectations, and rewriting the rules.
For every challenge, there’s a studio daring to innovate. For every misstep, there’s a community demanding better. And for every corporate shake-up, there are developers, players, and creators working together to shape what comes next.
The spirit of gaming isn’t lost, it’s evolving (yes, its a cliche).
From Rockstar expanding its vision with a new studio to Epic continuing to adapt to player feedback, from Marvel Snap’s quirky mishap to Nintendo celebrating its legacy with MAR10 Day, we’re reminded that gaming is always moving forward. Not just because of companies, but because of us, the players.
As Shigeru Miyamoto once said, “The obvious objective of video games is to entertain people by surprising them with new experiences.” That wonder, that joy, that thrill of discovery, that’s what keeps this industry alive.
So let’s celebrate the great games, support the studios that take risks, and keep the passion alive. Because the future of gaming isn’t just in the hands of corporations, it’s in ours.
Keep playing, keep dreaming, and never stop having fun.
That's all for now.
See you next time.