Gaming News Roundup: January 5–11, 2026

The first full week of 2026 brought fresh Game Pass and PS Plus lineups, Steam's Detective Fest sale, and intriguing hints like Nintendo in Call of Duty code. Releases kicked off with DuneCrawl and StarRupture, while CES continues.

🛍️ Steam Detective Fest Sale: Mystery Discounts Live (Jan 12–19)

Steam's first 2026 Fest – Detective Fest – launched Jan 12 with themed deals on sleuth games. Winter Sale wrapped Jan 5; ongoing publisher cuts from Focus/SEGA.

Top Deals Under $30

Daggerless Pick – Deal: Detective Fest – Dive into discounted mysteries.

📦 Key Releases: DuneCrawl & StarRupture Lead Week 1

January opened with indies and ports.

Daggerless Pick: DuneCrawl – Fresh co-op start to the year.

💎 Game Pass & PS Plus January Lineups Launch

Xbox Game Pass Wave 1 (Jan): Brews & Bastards (Jan 6), Little Nightmares: Enhanced Edition (Jan 6), Atomfall (Jan 7), Star Wars Outlaws, Resident Evil Village, more.

PS Plus Essential (Jan 6): Need for Speed Unbound (PS5), Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed (PS5/PS4), Core Keeper (PS5/PS4).

Daggerless Pick: Game Pass – Star Wars Outlaws for open-world action.

📈 Business Buzz: Sega Co-Founder Passes, Nintendo in CoD Code?

• Sega Co-Founder David Rosen died at 95 – pioneer of arcade imports, founded Sega Enterprises.
• Nintendo in CoD Launcher Code: Dataminers spot Switch/Switch 2 mentions – potential ports incoming?
• CES 2026 previews: NVIDIA GeForce updates, smart glasses, AMD GPUs teased.

⏰ What's Next? (Jan 12–18)

Detective Fest ends Jan 19; CES full show Jan 7–10; more Game Pass/PS Plus waves.

January off to a strong start? Tag @Daggerless on X. Stay sharp, gamers.

— The Daggerless Crew