CD Projekt Red says The Witcher 3's upcoming expansion Songs of the Past will be "a lot dreamier" in style than the base game, similar to how Blood and Wine experimented with tone. Quest designer Paweł Sasko said the expansion will explore Geralt's friendship with Dandelion and show a side of the character not seen before. The expansion is expected next year.
Evil Empire co-founder Benjamin Laulan said the Triple-I Initiative uses a 45-minute "in and out" structure with only trailers and no host, out of respect for viewers' time. The showcase focuses on "high-quality" indie games for an enthusiast audience, balancing world premieres with returning big names. He described assembling a showcase as a puzzle.
IO Interactive has confirmed that 007 First Light will receive free DLC on Thursday, October 2, though it has not yet revealed what it includes. It is speculated to be the long-teased Aston Martin Valhalla update, possibly featuring a new TacSim mission. A separate story DLC centered on Bawama, the pirate king played by Lenny Kravitz, is also planned as a premium add-on with no release date yet.
Analyst Rhys Elliott of Alinea Analytics said most of Gears of War: E-Day's Xbox revenue will be eaten up by Game Pass. The game has sold over 120,000 copies on Steam for more than $7 million, ahead of its October 6 launch, with paid early access starting October 1. Elliott also said E-Day has already sold more than 2X what Halo: Campaign Evolved did in a similar period, though it is unlikely to ever reach 1 million copies on Steam.
Polygon rounds up 10 canceled games that players are still upset about years later, including StarCraft: Ghost, announced in 2002 and put on indefinite hold in 2006, and Dead Space 4, which began development in February 2013 before EA halted it. The list also covers Fable Legends, canceled in 2016 just before its open beta, and Star Wars Battlefront 3, canceled by LucasArts in late 2008, with a playable Wii build surfacing in late 2024.
Rockstar Games sent developers to Miami and South Florida for GTA 6 research, where they visited strip clubs and rode around at night with ex-cops, among other experiences. Senior vice president of narrative Rupert Humphries shared the details with Game Informer. GTA 6 launches in November on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S.
In Satisfactory's upcoming expansion Core Values, Coffee Stain must fit players' factories inside underground caves, making space a core constraint for both players and designers. Game director Emmet Burke says the team tests factory layouts across the biome to judge how much room players will need, while art director Torsten Gunst describes balancing cave shape, factory volume, recipe cost and building size as a triangle. Players who struggle to optimize are given roughly 25% extra cave space.
The Big Break Showcase 2026 featured updates and expansions for a range of Xbox games. Highlights included Satisfactory's first paid DLC Core Values, Goat Simulator 3's Ticket to Dizzyworld expansion on November 19, 2026, and Lightyear Frontier's 1.0 release on November 4, 2026. Neighbors: Suburban Warfare shadow dropped as free-to-play, and Deep Rock Galactic confirmed Seasons 07 and 08 plus a new expansion DLC.
Modder SquallyDaBeanz released a solo-developed Act Two Expansion custom campaign for Baldur's Gate 3 in beta in mid-September, adding a chapter set in The Chionthar Wilds between the RPG's second and third acts. The modder said the goal was to keep the narrative structure close to the base game, letting players explore a large area that still ties into the main quest before urgency returns for the mod's finale. The mod is available on Nexus Mods in a main download or quickstart version, and the modder is preparing a 1.0 release with fixes and balance changes in the next patch.
The Sekiro: No Defeat anime will come to Crunchyroll in January 2027, and it won't be the movie version shown in Japanese theaters. The 2-hour film will be re-edited and extended into an eight-episode TV series, with each episode running 24 minutes, adding roughly an hour of story. Producer Tetsushi Suzuki apologized for the confusion over the different versions, and the TV release will include new cuts and improved animation.
Polygon rounds up six PS5 games launching in October, ahead of Zelda and GTA 6 in November. The list includes Ghost of Yōtei Complete Edition on Oct. 1, Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve and Star Wars: Galactic Racer on Oct. 2, Valor Mortis on Oct. 13, Anomalith on Oct. 28, and Phantom Blade Zero on Oct. 29.
Five new games arrived on the Xbox Store on September 30, led by Neighbors: Suburban Warfare, a free-to-play multiplayer party brawler announced as a shadow drop at the Big Break Showcase with PvE and PvP modes. The other releases are The Vorlec, Cat Lines, King's Blade and Mia's Journey, all for Series X|S. Balloon Bomber, part of the Arcade Archives 2 series, was pushed to "midnight tonight" and will be covered in the October 1st roundup.
Gcores released a seven-day playlist for the National Day holiday, with one episode for each day covering a different theme. Episodes range from a Nuclear Market Odd Tales talk on works like Inside No. 9, Lord of the Flies, This Bed We Made and Unheard, to a game chat about companions and romance in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, a Soviet Aesthetics lecture on Tsiolkovsky and rocketry, a discussion of physical disc production ending, mushroom and fungi knowledge, a philosophical breakdown of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, and a Gadio Story on Left 4 Dead's original four survivors centered on the official comic The Sacrifice.
The new adaptation of Ernest Cline's 2011 novel Ready Player One is more faithful to the book than Steven Spielberg's film. The story is set in a near future where humans spend most of their time in a virtual world called the OASIS, which began as an MMORPG. Its creator, James Donovan Halliday, bequeathed control of the OASIS to whoever can find a set of keys to pass through various gates.
Halo's former creative director Frank O'Connor has urged Activision to hire laid off Bungie and Halo Studios developers to build the next game in the series, saying it should keep the shooter's sandbox DNA. The Halo franchise is moving under Activision's control, with a new purpose-built Halo team separate from Call of Duty, while Halo Studios will be downsized to a small team supporting existing games. Earlier this year Sony Interactive Entertainment confirmed significant cuts at Bungie affecting most of the Destiny team and some Marathon team members.
Kyoto-based developer Cicada Games announced that Isles of Sea & Sky will launch for Switch via Nintendo eShop on October 8 for $19.99. The Kickstarter-funded oceanic open-world puzzle adventure first launched for PC via Steam on May 22, 2024. Players solve block puzzles, meet new friends that change the puzzle landscape, and unlock powers that open up new ways to progress.
An analysis by the game marketing blog How To Market A Game counts 470 third-party online game festivals around Steam, yet only about 31% of new games released since 2020 have appeared in one, leaving two-thirds with no access at all. The Wandering Village topped the list with 59 festivals, while Lost Twins 2 joined 35 festivals but drew only 53 reviews after launching last year. A YouTube channel was also reported to sell exposure, with a $2,228 package yielding just 1,622 impressions and zero wishlist growth.
Publisher Shochiku and developer Denneko Yuugi announced that the roguelite action game Eternal Palace Sakura will launch for Switch and PC via Steam on November 5, with the Switch version newly announced. Players control Retla, a brown-skinned, cat-eared, dual-wielding hooded heroine, fighting through a mystical dream dungeon and triggering Over-Tension to unleash the special move Over Arts.
Wang Hongxian, product lead at NetEase Leihuo's Fuxi AI Lab, spoke at the Alibaba Cloud AI Game Industry Forum during the 2026 Yunqi Conference, outlining three directions for AI in games: rebuilding the R&D pipeline, refreshing gameplay experiences, and exploring AI-native games. He presented a full-process AI Native solution connecting character, scene, GUI and video toolchains, and showcased the AI Copilot teammate in Naraka: Bladepoint plus long-term-memory AI NPCs and the "film crew mode" in Justice Online.
Tencent is reportedly running a secret beta for an AI game companion product called "Eciyuan," offering digital human characters, voice chat and real-time screen recognition. Players can pick male or female companions with different personas and enable a game companion mode, with the beta free for now. The product also includes a desktop pet feature, and its interface shows an energy system tied to conversation turns or companion time, though launch timing and final pricing remain undisclosed.
Publisher AMATA Games and developer Flypot.LLC announced that Kaguya, a bullet hell shoot 'em up described as friendly for beginners, will launch for PC via Steam in 2027. The classic vertical-scrolling shooter is planned to feature six stages, bombs and power shots, and three difficulty modes: Normal, Hard, and Hell. It includes full voice acting and a Library Mode for replaying voiced lines at your own pace.
Nintendo's Switch Online service has brought back many SNES classics, but 10 essential SNES games are still missing, ranked from 10 to 1. The SNES library spanned simulation, RPG, sports, adventure, and platformer titles, and many licensed greats are unlikely to ever appear on the service.
David Jaffe, creator of the original God of War, spoke out on Twitter/X after his critical live-stream remarks about Laufey creative director Ariel Lawrence went viral, urging people not to use his comments as an excuse to harass her. Jaffe said the two never got along during their time at Santa Monica Studio but called personal attacks on her "low and s**tty." God of War Laufey releases on February 16, 2027, exclusively for PlayStation 5.
Coffee Stain studios announced Core Values, the first paid DLC and a major expansion for Satisfactory, which will take the construction sim underground for the first time with new resources, flora and fauna. It is coming "later," though a Steam page is already live.
In a 14-page Game Informer preview, Rockstar was asked whether GTA 6 would feature central Florida locations like Disney World, Orlando, or NASA's Space Center. Rockstar senior vice president of environment art Paul MacPherson said the team may not include those exact locations, though everything is geared toward delivering the full Florida experience. GTA 6 launches on November 19 on PS5 and Xbox.
Former games journalist Alanah Pearce said on a live stream that GTA 6 likely has a poor chance of sweeping The Game Awards this year because its release timing falls near the show's nomination cutoff. Last year's cutoff was November 21, two days after GTA 6's release date this year, but questions remain over whether jurors could finish the game before voting. If GTA 6 is ineligible this year, it could contend in 2027, when its online mode is heavily rumored to launch.
Garry Newman has added necks to s&box characters, which previously had none, and included a slider so players can remove them again. The Facepunch Studios founder said he personally liked the neckless look but that the lack of necks came up consistently in negative reviews. The update also adds sliders for chest, waist, nose size, and eye colour.
Diablo 5 director Joe Shely said the game will keep some moment-to-moment execution mechanics but will on balance be a planning-and-investment game, designed around the ARPG tenet that any challenge can be overcome with the right build. He framed Diablo 4 as more reflex- and dodge-driven, while Diablo 2 rewarded preparing a character before a fight. What Blizzard has said about Diablo 5 at BlizzCon shows it knows many players want more of that old DNA.
Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve's pre-order bonus, Ace Combat Zero, runs as a DLC executable rather than the standalone app the Steam store page once promised, drawing negative reviews. Players must install 140GB of data to play the 3GB 2006 game, and the Steam version lacks the console version's achievements and separate cloud saves. Among nearly 1,000 negative reviews, the bait-and-switch over the bonus is a common complaint.
Bulkhead CEO Joe Brammer acknowledged in a video responding to YouTuber JbowenDaMan that Wardogs' endgame is "a bit sh*t" right now, while saying the studio is fine with something being overpowered for a season and underpowered the next. The 100-player FPS has been in early access for almost three weeks and has a serious XP grind. Bulkhead also plans Tarkov-style skills that improve through repetition and persist across seasons, plus a future "intel" resource for unlocking gun parts and attachments.
The Witcher 3 Remastered is out today, and some players find the new lighting too bright compared to the original. PC players can toggle bloom off in the settings menu to reduce the washed-out look, a fix that was widely praised on the Witcher subreddit. There is no way to toggle bloom on PS5 or other consoles, and CD Projekt Red says there are no updates yet on further tweaks.
Naughty Dog studio head Neil Druckmann said in a September 28 Outbreak Day blog post that the team will stay quiet about Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet for the rest of this year. In 2027, the studio will fully reveal the sci-fi action game and give a proper look at protagonist Jordan's adventure. Druckmann said the project is shaping up to be Naughty Dog's most ambitious yet and thanked fans for their patience.
IO Interactive has teased a free DLC drop for 007 First Light, with more information coming this Thursday, 1st October 2026. A short video accompanying the social media post shows a car speeding past, suggesting James Bond may get a new Aston Martin to drive in the game. The DLC will be free, and the tease could be part of a wider update to the Tac Sim mode.
Rockstar has confirmed to Game Informer that GTA 6 will not include spoof versions of Walt Disney World, Universal Studios, SeaWorld, or Florida's "Space Coast" around Cape Canaveral. Jack McPherson said the team evaluates landscapes, towns, structures, and landmarks before distilling a list, but the game will still deliver the "full Florida experience" in other ways. GTA 6 is set in Vice City, a stand-in for Miami, roughly a 230-mile, four-hour drive from Orlando.
Developer Speldosa Interactive announced that Muri: WildWoods will launch for PC via Steam on December 7. The cozy cleaning adventure casts players as a muri who cleans corruption, solves puzzles with a water gun and paws, and chases a mischievous heron to find the island's source of corruption.
Hearthstone executive producer Nathan Lyons-Smith and senior design manager Brenden Sewell join Jessica Cogswell to discuss how their time playing World of Warcraft and top TCGs like Magic: The Gathering influenced their work on Hearthstone.
Naughty Dog announced on its blog that it is working on "a couple of very exciting new projects in very early stages" that will expand The Last of Us canon beyond Part I and Part II. Neil Druckmann did not specify whether these are standalone games or expansions for existing titles. The studio officially scrapped The Last of Us Online, a live service take on the series, in 2023.
Rockstar Games has confirmed in an exclusive cover story that Grand Theft Auto VI's Leonida setting will feature dynamic weather systems simulating Florida's tropical climate, including dynamic cloudscapes, localized storms, persistent puddles, and rainbows. The game will also include tropical storms and seasonal hurricanes, though Rockstar has not revealed how often these larger storms occur or how they affect gameplay and storytelling.
Strange Scaffold has revealed Something is Wrong with the Library, a game about organising a haunted library with the help of its former administrator, Phillip Shed, using the Dewey Decimal System. A modular chaos system gives each playthrough a different set of books to shelve, and the game also features a room called The Drowning Room. It is due out by the end of this year and can be wishlisted on Steam.