This year's best April Fools' Day gaming gags: Bears, bugs, and 97,000 floppy disks

Gaming IndustryThis year’s best April Fools' Day gaming gags: Bears, bugs, and 97,000 floppy disksWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

(Image credit: CD Projekt)

Thousands of floppy disks

Over the years I’ve devolved from a fun-loving scamp into a crusty curmudgeon—practically acootat this stage—when it comes to April Fools' Day on the internet. Most April Fools' jokes are… they’re lies, right? It’s justlying. We already get plenty of disinformation the other 364 days of the year, so a day dedicated to even more online BS feels pretty unnecessary.

But when it comes to gaming’s April Fools' Day pranks, there’s a lot more creativity than the usual pointless fakeouts. Sometimes the jokes really are funny (or at least cute) and often an impressive amount work has gone into them. Plus, some of the gaming pranks are real modes you can play, and over the years a few jokes have become actual games (likeConan Chop Chop) because fans liked the idea so much.

Here are the best April Fools' jokes we’ve spotted this year:

Swole-y moley

Tarnished, look upon this #ELDENRING expansion. pic.twitter.com/nR8KlR40XTApril 1, 2024

Bandai Namco teases an Elden Ring expansion… and wow, no joke, it really is expanding.

Terra-flop

(Image credit: CD Projekt)

Thousands of floppy disks

CD Projektreleases a limited time edition of Cyberpunk 2077 on 3.5" diskettes. 97,619 of them. That’s an estimated install time of two months.

Dusk De-master

You’ve played DUSK HD Now get ready for DUSK 1D!“Cardboard DUSK” is a one dimensional reimagining of DUSK as an old school Dungeon Crawler.Coming SOON™️ pic.twitter.com/beJZoasGXHApril 1, 2024

Dusk HD is getting a downgrade to Dusk 1D: it’s now a cardboard dungeon crawler.

Killer update

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

Emoti-con

(Image credit: NYT Games)

Emojis in a grid

NYT’s daily puzzle gameConnections is all emojistoday instead of words. Kinda fun, actually.

Buggin' Out

(Image credit: Ghost Ship Games)

Scientists looking at a giant bug

Deep Rock Galactic’s loot bugis a real creaturediscovered in the deep sea near Barsebäck Nuclear Power Plant in Sweden.

Watch your step

House Flipper 2 becomes a first-person platformer with a new “The Floor is Lava” mode. Not just a joke, either, it’s a real thing.

More than just pals

Every year some game pretends it’s now a visual novel about dating, and this yearit’s Palworld.

Oops, All Bears

(Image credit: Crate Entertainment)

A bear riding a horse

Survival city builder Farthest Frontier has a newbear-based betayou can opt into that appears to turn all your hard-working citizens into bears.

American McGee finally gets his way

EA has agreed to fully fund a new single-player, narrative-driven Alice game with zero in-game monetization! pic.twitter.com/6zyJHINTNhApril 1, 2024

Last year, McGeesaid thatthe Alice series was definitely over, but he must’ve spoken too soon, because now he says that EA is dying to fund a sequel to his cult classics.

Rusty Lake AI

Overwatch 3 just dropped

The Hero balance changes you’ve all been waiting for 👀Jump in this week for our most balanced update EVER ✨ pic.twitter.com/HavuYDjYMjApril 1, 2024

Blizzard released alist of ridiculous changesto every Overwatch hero, like giving Bastion shotguns or D.Va the ability to fly backwards. And you can actually play with all of them in a week-long Arcade mode called “Balanced Overwatch.”

More about gaming industryLords of the Fallen studio embraces fear of the DEI boogeyman, says it will not include ‘any social or political agendas’ in its gamesEpic CEO Tim Sweeney says tech leaders are ‘pretending to be Republicans’ to gain favor with Trump, skirt antitrust laws, and ultimately ‘rip off consumers and crush competitors’LatestToday’s Wordle answer for Saturday, January 11See more latest►

More about gaming industry

Lords of the Fallen studio embraces fear of the DEI boogeyman, says it will not include ‘any social or political agendas’ in its gamesEpic CEO Tim Sweeney says tech leaders are ‘pretending to be Republicans’ to gain favor with Trump, skirt antitrust laws, and ultimately ‘rip off consumers and crush competitors’

Lords of the Fallen (2023) promotional image - very large man with a very large hammer on a very large horse charging a very small man with a very small magic sword

Lords of the Fallen studio embraces fear of the DEI boogeyman, says it will not include ‘any social or political agendas’ in its games

Tim Sweeney

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney says tech leaders are ‘pretending to be Republicans’ to gain favor with Trump, skirt antitrust laws, and ultimately ‘rip off consumers and crush competitors’

LatestToday’s Wordle answer for Saturday, January 11See more latest►

Latest

Today’s Wordle answer for Saturday, January 11

Wordle answers

Today’s Wordle answer for Saturday, January 11

See more latest►

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Swole-y moley#

Terra-flop#

Dusk De-master#

Killer update#

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals#

Emoti-con#

Buggin' Out#

Watch your step#

More than just pals#

Oops, All Bears#

American McGee finally gets his way#

Rusty Lake AI#

Overwatch 3 just dropped#