A messy Pokémon launch and Doki Doki delisted: Autofill for April 8-14, 2026

Hey, readers. It’s a little funny to me that, as exciting as the launch of Autofill has been, it comes during a decidedly unexciting period in the games industry. It’s been an annoyingly slow news week, but I do relish the challenge of curating some compelling stories regardless.

As always, please share Autofill with your friends, and encourage them to submit their own questions and curiosities about the games industry for me to explain. And please consider tipping me a couple of dollars through Ko-fi so I can continue to grow Autofill!

I’m pumped for some anticipated games releasing in the weeks ahead, and we’ll be getting closer to showcases from the big gaming companies. For now, let’s get to it.

Another Pokémon game has launched, but while the cozy life sim Pokopia on Switch 2 was undoubtedly a success, the newly released Pokémon Champions for the original Switch had a more mixed response. It’s a free-to-play (or “free-to-start”) game entirely focused on competitive battling, and you can bring in your ‘mons from the main games through the Pokémon Home cloud service.

There are a good number of fans enjoying it, and it’s a solid entry point for casual Pokémon fans with any interest in competitive play and optimizing their battle teams. But others say it’s missing too much content, and some absolutely bizarre glitches and errors have run rampant.

Complaints include the game’s relatively paltry roster of 200 Pokémon (there are over 1,000 in total), the omission of several competitive items, the lack of 6v6 battles, and some moves not working as intended. There was also a major error that led some players to lose access to some of their Pokémon, and another that inadvertently birthed a trans icon in Gallade.

Perhaps the most baffling bug has Champions not displaying the correct resolution on a TV when playing on Switch 2, with the solution being to remove the console from the dock and putting it back in. On their part, the developers apologized for the issues and promised bug fixes. Unfortunately, that includes taking trans Gallade away.

There are many ways to get invested in Pokémon, from playing the card game to truly trying to catch them all in the main games, but Champions is specifically for those who love battling. In fact, it’s now the main video game for the Pokémon World Championships.

But if you want to get the most out of Pokémon Champions, you’ll probably have to spend some dough. Hardcore players can get a subscription with perks like a higher number of Pokémon they can store and more Pokémon teams they can form. And like a lot of online competitive games these days, there’s also a paid battle pass with rewards.

For those looking for a more traditional monster-catching Pokémon RPG, you’ll have to wait next year (and invest in a Switch 2) for the next mainline title in the series. Pokémon Winds and Pokémon Waves will release exclusively on Switch 2 sometime in 2027—Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have yet to give an exact time frame.

The trailer looked quite promising to fans, showing off a new region ostensibly based on Southeast Asia and graphics that are improved from recent Pokémon games like Scarlet and Violet. While you’re waiting, you can decide which of the three starter Pokémon of Browt, Pombon, and Gecqua you’ll choose.

Many words have been used to describe Doki Doki Literature Club: subversive, controversial, iconic, disturbing, etc. Google apparently has a different word: delisted.

The satirical and horror-infused take on visual novels has been removed from the Google Play Store, meaning you can no longer download and play the game on Android devices. According to the game’s publisher Serenity Forge, Google explained that “the game's content violates their terms of service in its depiction of sensitive themes."

Serenity Forge vowed to find a path toward reinstating the game, which was ported to mobile devices in December. The publisher also defended Doki Doki Literature Club, saying the title “is widely celebrated for portraying mental health in a way that meaningfully connects deeply with players around the world, helping them feel heard, understood, and less alone on their journey.”

It might not look like it from the official screenshots, but Doki Doki Literature Club is a psychological horror released in 2017 that attempts to deconstruct cliches seen in anime and interactive dating simulators. Dan Salvato, a modder best known for his work on the Super Smash Bros. Brawl mod Project M, conceptualized the game based on his “love-hate relationship” with anime.

It’s difficult to describe exactly how and why Doki Doki Literature Club is so impactful and contentious without spoiling the whole experience, but let’s just say that it’s full of unexpected and unpleasant surprises that will creep into your brain. Full of fourth-wall breaking and meta elements, Doki Doki truly is a unique beast with dark and heavy themes, including suicide. It’s not a game that utilizes jump scares, but rather one that uses surrealism and disconcerting scenarios.

While it has only been pulled from one of many storefronts, its removal strikes a nerve due to fans’ undying admiration (and somewhat obsession) with the game. It’s been streamed by several prolific creators and inspired loads of memes, cosplay, and merchandising. If it’s any indication of how fascinated people are by the characters, each of them has their own Wikipedia page.

You can still download the original version of the game on Steam, itch.io, or the Apple App Store for free, while a paid expanded version of the game called Doki Doki Literature Club Plus is on Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, PC, and iOS.

(Every week, I’ll address a question or curiosity about gaming from readers! Submit your inquiries through this Google Form and read my explainer in a future newsletter!)s

Dear reader René wrote in with a succinct question about Mojang’s famous block-building game:

Let’s start by defining the two main versions of Minecraft: Java and Bedrock. Minecraft was created in 2009 and fully released in 2011 for computers, and as it grew in popularity, things started to get complicated when mobile devices and consoles got involved.

What’s now known as Bedrock Edition started as Pocket Edition in 2011 for Android and iOS, written in the C++ programming language rather than Java. Meanwhile, practically every console at the time received its own bespoke “Edition” of Minecraft, leading to separate versions on (takes deep breath) Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Wii U, Nintendo Switch, New Nintendo 3DS, and even Fire TV and Apple TV. There was also a separate version specifically for Windows 10.

Sometime after Microsoft acquired Mojang in 2014, the appropriately named “Better Together” update in 2017 tried to sort this mess. Pocket Edition, Windows 10 Edition, and Xbox One Edition merged into Bedrock Edition, which supported cross-platform play. Eventually, Bedrock replaced the versions on Switch and PS4, with the other editions kicked to the curb.

Essentially, Java Edition is the original Minecraft, while Bedrock is a console and mobile-friendly version that unifies audiences on all platforms. It’s not entirely clear why these versions remain separate, but two things are evident: 1) there are still major differences between the two, and 2) Microsoft is trying to get feature parity between the two versions as close as possible, even bundling them together on the Windows Store.

For one, Java Edition supports mods, while Bedrock doesn’t—likely due to its different codebase and restrictions on the varying platforms. Bedrock also has an entire item marketplace and tons of DLC. If you’re looking for a pure Minecraft experience and you have a Windows, Linux, or Mac machine, the Java Edition is probably the one for you. But Bedrock is the only real option for groups who play across different platforms.

In an ideal world, Mojang and Microsoft would combine the two editions, but that sounds like a technical nightmare. Maybe they aren’t “better together.”

When I played Red Dead Redemption 2 back in 2018, it didn’t strike me the same way it did for so many players. I admire its graphical prowess, gorgeous visuals, and immense attention to detail (though this all came at a human cost), but its attempts at immersive systems, stiff mechanics, and focus on cinematics (article by yours truly) didn’t make an impression on me—in fact, they all made the game rather annoying to me.

I was still somewhat satisfied getting through Arthur Morgan’s story (even as I was already exhausted by yet another story about the American frontier), but I never actually rolled credits. I played a bit of the epilogue where you play as Red Dead Redemption 1 protagonist John Marston, but I eventually left the game untouched for years, despite my affinity for the original game back in my high school days.

It was probably from my brief return to Grand Theft Auto 4 that sparked my revitalized interest in Rockstar Games’ works, but I booted up RDR2 yet again to finish this epilogue once and for all. Eight years removed from the game, I found the remainder of RDR2 a breeze. It filled some holes between the two games in ways I found underwhelming, but there was the occasional wholesome moment, like John Marston building a house with his buds to a corny country song.

Even after rolling credits, I still found myself looking up character backstories, reading up on the development history of these games, and watching a ton of YouTube videos showcasing some of the wacky hijinks and glitches in the game’s open-world sandbox. While Rockstar fell short of fully immersing me, I’ve been immersing myself in the game in an entirely different way. I guess the world resonated with me in a sense, while the story and mechanics didn’t.

I only wonder how the developers and writers will land with Grand Theft Auto 6 and whatever cursed things it has to say about American culture in this day and age. It’s a tall order when it feels like political satire is dead.

A few exciting games are releasing this week and next, so we’ll have plenty to dig into then!

Buh-bye,
Chris Compendio