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Oct 14Wed
  1. GamesIndustry.biz60

    ESA recommends adding retro handheld maker Anbernic to US Notorious Markets List

    The Entertainment Software Association has asked the US Trade Representative to add Chinese retro handheld maker Anbernic to its annual Notorious Markets List, saying the devices are routinely shipped with hundreds or thousands of unauthorised games. The ESA also proposed listing cracked game sources, torrent sites, unauthorised digital goods marketplaces and commercial cheat markets, naming G2A under the digital goods category. It asked the USTR to adopt seven measures, including treating preloaded unauthorised libraries as core evidence of commercial-scale piracy and improving customs targeting of preloading-related devices.

  4. Eurogamer58

    Former game retailer Zavvi enters administration again, says it cannot fulfil outstanding orders or pre-orders

    Former game retailer Zavvi has announced it has entered administration again and ceased trading, with BDO LLP handling the insolvency process. A notice on its website says it cannot fulfil any outstanding orders or pre-orders and cannot accept returns, and advises customers who paid for undelivered goods to contact their bank, card issuer or payment provider about recovering payment. Zavvi's intention to appoint administrators was reported a month ago; the company was formed in 2007 when Virgin Megastores split from Virgin and was bought out of administration by The Hut Group in 2009.

  5. Eurogamer34

    "You don't listen to the loudest people in the room" — World of Warcraft: Forever boss discusses how to approach a deluge of feedback

    World of Warcraft executive producer Holly Longdale spoke at PAX Australia about the World of Warcraft: Forever beta, calling it the biggest beta in Blizzard's history. She said the team has to be selective about feedback, noting "you don't listen to the loudest people in the room." The game fully releases on the 4th November.

  6. Kotaku71

    Ubisoft Proposes Closing RedLynx Studio and Cutting 70 Roles at Ubisoft Singapore

    Ubisoft announced a proposal to close Finnish studio Ubisoft RedLynx, the long-time developer of the Trials motorbike stunt series, which it acquired in 2011 and which has a 25-year history. Ubisoft Singapore is also losing 70 positions, which the company said is to align the studio with upcoming production needs. RedLynx had already lost more than half its staff in 2025 and the remaining team was told to focus only on mobile games; according to VGC, the closure rationale is that it is not currently working on a new project and resizing alone would not keep it sustainable, affecting 52 staff. Finnish law requires change negotiations before layoffs, so Ubisoft describes the move as a proposal at this stage. The article also notes Ubisoft's share price fell from a 2018 peak of €100 to €3.84 in March 2026 and has hovered around €5 since.

  7. Reddit · Gaming Leaks and Rumours66

    Jason Schreier reports on GTA VI development: studio doubled in size, project was once Project Americas

    Jason Schreier's report details the challenges behind GTA VI's eight-plus years of development and how Rockstar changed during production. Rockstar grew from 2,441 employees at Red Dead Redemption II's 2018 release to 4,711 across 12 offices, and the game went through a dark period as leadership struggled to settle on its vision. GTA VI was originally codenamed Project Americas and aimed to cover large areas of North and South America before being scaled back to Vice City and its surroundings, with Rockstar leadership maintaining the November 19 release date is achievable.

  11. IGN71

    Ubisoft cuts 70 staff from Skull and Bones dev and shuts down Trials studio RedLynx

    Ubisoft Singapore, the developer of Skull and Bones, is losing 70 staff, about a fifth of its headcount according to GamesIndustry.biz, while Finnish studio RedLynx will close with up to 52 job losses. Ubisoft said in a statement that Ubisoft Singapore remains an important part of its global production organization. RedLynx made the Trials series before becoming a support studio after Trials Rising in 2019.

  12. Reddit · Gaming Leaks and Rumours71

    VGC: Ubisoft plans to close Trials developer RedLynx and lay off 70 staff at Ubisoft Singapore

    According to VGC, Ubisoft plans to propose closing RedLynx, the Finnish studio behind the Trials series, affecting around 52 employees. VGC understands RedLynx currently has no active project and that downsizing alone would not make the studio sustainable. Ubisoft also plans to restructure and downsize Ubisoft Singapore, resulting in roughly 70 layoffs, while the RedLynx closure proposal is subject to mandatory change negotiations with employees in Finland.

  13. GamesIndustry.biz74

    Ubisoft proposes closing Trials developer RedLynx and cutting 70 jobs in Singapore

    Ubisoft has proposed closing Finnish studio RedLynx, affecting up to 52 positions subject to local negotiation, while 70 roles are impacted at Ubisoft Singapore, roughly a fifth of its headcount. RedLynx, acquired in 2011 and known for the Trials franchise, had already cut staff in 2025 and shifted toward small-screen titles. The move is the latest step in Ubisoft's cost-reduction programme, which this year has closed studios in Stockholm, Halifax, Winnipeg and Belgrade, cancelled six games and reorganised into six Creative Houses.

  14. VGC71

    Ubisoft plans to shut down Trials studio RedLynx and cut 70 jobs at Ubisoft Singapore

    VGC understands Ubisoft plans to shut down its Finland-based RedLynx studio and downsize Ubisoft Singapore, resulting in 70 layoffs. RedLynx is known for the Trials series and was acquired by Ubisoft in 2011; the closure proposal would affect around 52 staff and enter mandatory change negotiations in Finland. Ubisoft Singapore was founded in 2008 and has supported most Assassin's Creed games and led work on Skull and Bones.

  17. Eurogamer53

    Microsoft forms Xbox Labs, led by former Azure for OpenAI head Scott Van Vliet

    Microsoft announced Xbox Labs, a new initiative led by Xbox CTO Scott Van Vliet, who previously led Azure for OpenAI at Microsoft. The news came in a staff message from Xbox CEO Asha Sharma published on Xbox Wire, which never mentions AI or generative AI and instead frames Labs as exploring games being decompiled and rebuilt for hardware they were not designed for. Sharma said Labs is a small group of game makers, engineers and scientists that will build in the open and measure success by whether more people are playing and creating.

  20. GamesIndustry.biz62

    Xbox CEO reportedly warns firm will not survive if it only relies on existing franchises

    Xbox boss Asha Sharma reportedly warned at a recent town hall that the company will not survive if it only relies on the past, and that it must keep creating enduring new IP with the courage to reach new audiences. She also said Xbox is backing its strongest franchises and wants them to become global billion-dollar franchises. Xbox cancelled several new IP projects last year and last month proposed closing Ninja Theory as part of a business reset that has seen an estimated 3,200 job losses and the divestment of five studios; yesterday it announced Xbox Labs, a team of game makers, engineers and scientists testing new projects, with no new staff recruited.

  21. 游戏LOOK62

    Epic's Disney-partnered shooter delayed as project shifts to AI-first development

    Bloomberg reported that Epic Games' Star Wars and Marvel shooter with Disney has been delayed over development progress and staffing shortages, and the project lead told the team production would move to an AI-first model with code no longer hand-written and art generated through a full AI workflow. Epic cut about 1,000 roles in March 2026, 20 percent of its staff, the same month the Star Wars project slipped. The game is led by an internal Epic team for PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, with no title or release plan announced.

  23. 游戏LOOK22

    Yoozoo AI Red Coast Lab's Yu Huasong: How AI Agents Reshape Game Creation and Interaction

    Yu Huasong, head of Yoozoo Network's AI Innovation Institute Red Coast Lab, shared at the 2026 China Metaverse Conference that AI Agents have three major game applications: multimodal content generation, intelligent NPCs with memory and decision-making, and one-click game creation from an idea. He said AI now covers all six major scenarios and over 100 sub-scenarios within Yoozoo, and presented the content production system YOOLab and the development collaboration platform YOOSpark.

  24. 游戏LOOK74

    China's publishing regulator issues the 15th Five-Year Plan for Publishing, bringing online games into a national five-year plan for the first time

    China's National Press and Publication Administration recently issued the 15th Five-Year Plan for the Publishing Industry, marking the first time online games are systematically included in a national five-year publishing plan. The plan calls for stronger supply of publication numbers for high-quality content, a selection program for outstanding online literature and games, and support for games expanding in international markets. From January to July 2026, 1,147 game publication numbers were issued, including 197 in July alone; in the first half of 2026, domestic game market revenue reached 188.45 billion yuan, up 12.17 percent year on year, while overseas revenue from self-developed games reached 12.372 billion US dollars, up 30.22 percent.

  25. 游戏LOOK66

    South Korean lawmaker pushes Game Industry Promotion Act amendment over SOL: Enchant streamer spending dispute

    South Korean lawmaker 김재원 raised the case of SOL: Enchant topping the charts alongside roughly 300 million won in streamer spending during an Oct. 12 parliamentary audit, and is seeking to amend the Game Industry Promotion Act to bar publishers from improperly buying in-game items or paying third parties to do so in order to lift sales rankings. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Game Rating and Administration Committee acknowledged no investigation was conducted, and current rules do not require separate disclosure of promotion spending. Netmarble said streamer promotion is one marketing method and that its contracts pay for marketing services, not for top-ups.

  26. 游戏LOOK42

    Apple App Store Launches Indie Game Week, Ports Seven PC Indies to iOS

    Apple has officially launched an "Indie Game Week," bringing seven well-known PC and console indie titles including Sifu, No Man's Sky, Vampire Crawlers and 9 Kings to iOS. Previous 3A ports like Resident Evil 4 Remake performed poorly on iPhone, with 357,000 downloads and about $208,000 in revenue after six months. Apple's 2019 Apple Arcade subscription ecosystem has largely withered, with natively developed mobile indies now nearly absent.

Oct 13Tue
  1. 游戏LOOK22

    September Global Mobile Game Revenue and Downloads Top 10: ROBLOX Ranks in Global Revenue Top 5

    Sensor Tower data shows Honor of Kings remained the top-grossing mobile game worldwide in September 2026, while ROBLOX entered the global revenue top five and also topped both the revenue growth and download charts. Global mobile game spending reached $6.13 billion in September, down 7% month-over-month, with the US leading at 28.7% of revenue, while downloads totaled 3.56 billion, down 5.2%, led by India at 576 million. Tencent's Honor of Kings Chess ranked 7th on the revenue growth chart and 2nd on the download growth chart.

  2. 游戏LOOK36

    Diandian Network Controller Couple Divorce: Hu Jianping's Ex-Wife Chen Fang Becomes Company Legal Representative and General Manager

    Diandian Network's actual controller Hu Jianping and Chen Fang have divorced and split their shares, with Hu transferring 7.2829 million shares (3% of total) to Chen, while the two signed a 36-month concerted action agreement and still jointly control 16.56% of the company, leaving actual control unchanged. On October 9, the company's extraordinary shareholders' meeting approved changing the legal representative from chairman Hu Jianping to general manager Chen Fang, after Hu resigned as general manager in April. The company reported 2025 revenue of 385 million yuan, down 30.08% year-on-year, with a net loss of 214 million yuan, and first-half 2026 revenue of 183 million yuan with losses widening to 58.7737 million yuan.

  3. 游戏LOOK71

    ARC Raiders hits 185,000 concurrents on Steam after 2.0 update as Embark moves to twice-yearly updates

    ARC Raiders' 2.0 update, Frost Trail, launched on October 8 alongside a free-to-play period, and Steam concurrent players rose from about 10,000 in September to 185,000. The update adds the Pendora Pass map, the Outpost home system, tier-5 weapon upgrade paths and a reworked skill tree, while Embark drops monthly updates for twice-yearly deep updates. The article notes the free period as one driver and points to the October 13-20 PvE test, with Tencent's China server still in testing.

  4. 游戏LOOK36

    Apple Releases China App Store Ecosystem Report, Citing miHoYo and NetEase as Web Payment Cases

    Apple published a China-only report on October 8 titled "China App Store Ecosystem — 2025 Developer and User Value Study," authored by antitrust experts Ju Heng and Markus von Wartburg. The report says the China App Store ecosystem generates about 4 trillion yuan annually with over 95% exempt from commission, and names miHoYo and NetEase as examples of developers using web stores and DTC channels to bypass Apple Pay. It also states Chinese apps accounted for 98% of domestic App Store revenue in 2025, with 52% of Chinese developers' App Store revenue coming from overseas.

  5. 游戏LOOK62

    After Hololive Dreams settles above $100M monthly, COVER announces a mahjong game

    GameLook argues that Hololive Dreams, launched on July 23, has reached Japan's top mobile revenue tier, with about $23 million in mobile revenue in August, prompting parent company COVER to raise its half-year operating profit forecast from 1.93 billion yen to 3.5 billion yen. The piece says the game mixes rhythm play, character growth, park building and multiplayer minigames, letting in-game events and streamer content feed each other. COVER and Aiming announced Hololive Mahjong -Holojan- on October 9 with 37 members, mobile and PC support and a release planned within the year, while ANYCOLOR announced a physical card game for December 26.

  6. IGN23

    Mick Gordon Plans to Take His Doom Concert Performance on the Road

    Mick Gordon said at PAX Australia that his headline show at the UK's RADAR festival on August 1, 2027, is not meant to be a one-off, and he and his agency are discussing taking the Doom and Doom Eternal live show worldwide over the next two years. A few days after RADAR he will play the Brutal Assault Festival in the Czech Republic, a roughly 25,000-person metal festival held in a medieval castle. His soundtrack for Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 arrives October 14 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, with a Nintendo Switch 2 version coming later.

  8. PC Gamer71

    Epic Games' unannounced Star Wars and Marvel crossover shooter pivots to AI-first development and is delayed indefinitely

    An unannounced Star Wars and Marvel crossover shooter at Epic Games has been delayed indefinitely from its planned March 2027 release, with staff told to adopt an AI-first production model using tools such as Anthropic's Claude, according to Bloomberg. CEO Tim Sweeney said on X that Epic has a huge pivot underway to retool developers for maximum AI acceleration, and that the company's modest aim is to survive the AI revolution. He said current AI efficiency gains range from 20% in the most technical areas of Unreal Engine development to 5x in areas like web development. Epic Games laid off over 1,000 employees in March.

  9. Kotaku60

    VRChat community protests influx of generative AI content as platform opens AI policy consultation

    VRChat community volunteer Patroll said they would stop wiki maintenance, translation and community testing in protest at the influx of AI-generated worlds and images, urging other developers to label their work as AI-free. VRChat then banned deceptive AI thumbnails, endorsed AI for translation, code help and engine tools like Blender and Unity, but called user-facing uses such as generating worlds or game logic uncertain and asked users whether to label or ban them. The platform also promised better search to surface higher-quality content, with the consultation running for a week before findings and policies are shared.

  10. IGN15

    Nintendo Was Reportedly Unhappy With Elon Musk's Saturday Night Live Wario Sketch

    Two former Nintendo PR managers, Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang, said on their YouTube show that Elon Musk's 2021 Saturday Night Live sketch playing Wario "did not go well" with Nintendo and was "not beloved." The sketch put Wario on trial for murdering Mario and included jokes about Mario using cocaine and Luigi sleeping with Princess Peach, and it aired when there was no new Wario game or product. The two brought it up after a recent SNL sketch in which The Legend of Zelda's Link and GTA 6's Jason Duvall debated.

  11. Ars Technica65

    Report: Epic Games pivots to AI-first development as Disney shooter is delayed indefinitely

    Bloomberg reports that Epic Games is moving to an AI-first development model for its collaboration with Disney, with AI models writing all code and guiding all artwork while human developers manage the generated assets. The $1.5 billion partnership announced in early 2024 had planned a Marvel- and Star Wars-themed shooter for March 2027, but the project is now delayed indefinitely. Epic said it is embracing AI-accelerated development, and CEO Tim Sweeney said the aim is to let teams build more and better content for everyone using Unreal.

    Why this: Epic's Disney shooter shifting to AI-led development and being delayed indefinitely offers a look at how a major studio's pipeline and schedule are changing.

  13. Kotaku58

    Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Year 2 DLC Including FF7 Revealed, Deluxe Edition Owners Must Pay Extra

    Sega revealed the year 2 DLC roadmap for Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, starting November 3 and including crossovers with Godzilla, Evangelion, and a Midgar Pack, priced at $40 total. Players who bought the $100 Digital Deluxe Edition, which Sega had said included all future paid downloadable content, now have to pay extra, drawing complaints on Reddit and the PS5 subreddit. Individual packs usually cost $6, with the Godzilla pack arriving in early November, Evangelion in early 2027, and Final Fantasy VII timing still TBD.