Publisher Secret Mode announced on 8th October that Escape the Backrooms will add three new levels this December in a party-themed update called the After Party. The update also brings new skins, with free and paid cosmetics arriving in October. The Fancy Games co-op horror title has been played by more than 12 million people since its Early Access launch in 2022.
Embark Studios' extraction shooter Arc Raiders has launched its 2.0 update alongside the Frozen Trails content drop, adding an emissive toggle so players can turn off their backpack lights. The patch also brings mouth animations for proximity chat, the ability to open the map while downed, new contextual animations, and an increased max stash size of 328 without expedition bonuses. Average player count has risen sharply recently, likely helped by an ongoing free weekend.
Agent Spider Reveal Trailer | Invincible VS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZCF8fcSrNE
Solo developer Megaglope has released a new demo for Into the Crypt, a first-person roguelike deckbuilder, with the full release set for Oct 29. The game supports solo and co-op play, with players using cards and keys on doors while fighting enemies across multiple dungeon depths. It is inspired by Slay the Spire, and co-op is available in the full release version.
Sony Interactive Entertainment and Arc System Works have announced Thor (Jane Foster), Venom, and Jubilee as DLC characters for MARVEL Tokon: Fighting Souls, all part of the "Year One Characters & Stage Pass." Thor (Jane Foster) arrives in Winter 2027, Venom and the Kylntar Stage in Spring 2027, and Jubilee in Summer 2027. The four-versus-four tag fighting game is available now for PS5 and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store.
Tekken 8's EVO France trailer revealed Roger Jr joining the roster on 12th November in early access and 17th November for everyone else, with a moveset built around acrobatics and stomp moves. The trailer also gave the first look at the previously announced Baki the Grappler crossover, with Yujiro joining in the winter and more to be shown at the Tekken World Tour Finals on 17th January. Season 3 has already featured Kunimitsu and Bob.
Tekken 8 revealed a gameplay trailer for Roger Jr., who enters early access on Nov 12 and releases on Nov 17. The trailer also gives a first look at Yujiro Hanma, whose new trailer arrives Jan 17, 2027.
Phasmophobia has confirmed 30 million sales, and its Crimson Eye Halloween event has returned. Eurogamer reported the news.
"We can't control what the publisher scene looks like, but we can control what we're making, and how we ship it, and how we communicate with an audience" – Why two of the developers behind Multiversus ditched AAA for indie https://bit.ly/4rNOmtG
Valve's Deadlock has received the City Never Sleeps update, which reworks the entire map, adds new neutral monsters, and gives the lanes and mid-map districts new looks. The update also introduces new heroes including Deadman Danny, Nurse Harrow, Rat King, Solomon, and Baba, plus many new conversations and voice lines for the existing cast. The author, who has put in 350 hours, calls the reworked Cursed Apple one of his favorite game settings in years.
Pierogi Games has revealed Rune Runners, a 3D coop adventure platformer inspired by Mage Bros, with a demo available now. Up to two players pick a Mage with an element (thunder, fire, wind, water) and can combine elements for special attacks in coop. The core loop is smashing through levels, slaying monsters and activating all runes to reach each level's portal, with boss fights, staff upgrades, skins, accessories and pets in between.
Krafton's Wisconsin studio PUBG Madison is developing PUBG Ded.Net, a third-person battle royale shooter in which players are contestants in an ultra-violent gameshow. Its twist is a pick-three-style roguelite system that carries across consecutive matches, where upgrades and injuries from one game affect the next. Creative director Dave Curd says chasing that power-up fantasy is meant to take the edge off losing.
Infinity Ward detailed the new DMZ mode in Modern Warfare 4, calling it Call of Duty's definitive extraction shooter experience. Eurogamer relayed the news with a link to its report.
Bandai Namco has detailed a new road map for Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO, marking the game's second anniversary with more events, free updates, game modes and additional fighters through the rest of 2026 and into 2027. The new Tower of Power mode will launch first as a Solo experience, while the paid Super Limit-Breaking NEO DLC is set for Switch and Switch 2 in Spring 2027. Cross-play will enter a beta after Summer 2027 on PlayStation 5, Xbox and Steam.
Arc Raiders launched its Frozen Trail 2.0 update on October 8 across PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, alongside a free weekend running October 8 to 12, pushing its Steam concurrent player count to 166,670, a seven-month high. The update adds the Pendola Pass map, new enemies Bully, Skulker, and Hydra, and new items including the Grappling Hook and Tether Launcher, plus a revamped skill tree, the Reward Pass, and Weapon Stencils. The game is currently 50% off on all platforms, and testing for a dedicated PvE mode is planned.
Valve's upcoming Deadlock added the chess grandmaster hero Solomon in its recent "City Never Sleeps" update, alongside five other heroes. Each time Solomon reloads, the pieces on his board rearrange into a layout based on his remaining ammo count, with every position taken from an actual historical game. Fans have picked up on the detail, which references matches including the 1851 "Immortal Game" and Deep Blue's 1996 win over Garry Kasparov.
Arc System Works will bring its 2015 fighter BlazBlue: Central Fiction natively to PS5, with no release date announced. The port adds rollback crossplay netcode with the PC release, four new text languages, and improved training modes. The studio also recently confirmed a new PS4 character, Trinity Glassfille, though no date has been given and the PS5 launch may not align with her addition.
Deadlock's concurrent player count has surpassed Team Fortress 2's all-time peak. The update also adds a chess wizard character.
Valve's Deadlock reached 262,145 concurrent players after adding the latest of six new heroes, surpassing Team Fortress 2's all-time peak of 253,997 according to SteamDB. The figure excludes TF2's Xbox 360 and PS3 players from The Orange Box. The new hero is Solomon, a chess mage whose gun is a chessboard that players say recreates a different historic game state on each reload depending on bullets loaded.
Arc Raiders is getting a free trial to celebrate its biggest update yet. https://bit.ly/4yylQ1N
Reina from Tekken 8 has been officially confirmed as the sixth Season 3 DLC character for Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, with a short trailer and a December release. Before that, two Tokyo Revengers characters, Manjiro 'Mikey' Sano and Ken 'Draken' Ryuguji, arrive on 22nd October alongside game updates, each with arcade arcs and a shared Episodes of South Town campaign featuring Krauser and Rock.
Arc Raiders could eventually be split into PvE and PvP, says executive producer
SNK announced that Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves will crossover with the Tekken series, with Reina joining as the sixth DLC character of Season 3 in December. Season 3 is built around the concept of characters burdened by revenge and adds seven DLC characters in total, with Mikey and Draken arriving together in October's fourth drop and Raoh in November. Reina, who debuted in Tekken 8, will see her fighting style merged with the REV system of Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves.
Xishanju's Jianxia World 4: Infinite is set for a full-platform open beta on October 15, billed as the final entry in the Jianxia World mobile series with a stated plan to run for 20 years starting in 2026. On October 9 the team published a long letter answering questions about monetization and design, describing the game as a pure MMO built on free trading, open-world PvP and large-scale guild GvG, with tighter control of stat gaps than games that claim not to sell stats. After the departure of key figure Guo Weiwei and continued pressure on the company's game business, the announcement sparked a trust crisis in the player community, prompting two letters and closed comment sections.
Stage Fright is the next co-op adventure from Overcooked maker Ghost Town Games, published by Hello Games, and co-director Oliver De-Vine says "Overcooked broke you apart and Stage Fright is there to put you back together." Two players guide a pair of kids through a Luigi's Mansion-style adventure of puzzles, threats, and mystery, relying only on verbal communication with no inventory management. The game supports both local and online splitscreen co-op, with the developers aiming to make online play feel as close to sitting on the couch together as possible.
The 2026 multiplayer shooters Arc Raiders and Marathon both use a loop of venturing from a safe hub into hostile areas, shooting enemies, grabbing loot, and returning to safety. These hits owe a debt to Outriders, a maligned 2021 loot-shooter published by Square Enix.
A Polygon editor calls Bungie's extraction shooter Marathon the scariest game he has played in a long time, largely because dying means losing all the gear you brought in and looted. Playing solo as Rook turns the experience into straight survival horror, and this week streamer Shroud called the game "a little too sweaty" while Ninja rage quit on launch day.
Exploring Arc Raiders' new Frigate. It doesn't go well. 😅
Activision announced that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4's DMZ mode will be playable early starting October 20, three days before launch, with campaign early access beginning October 16. Preordering any edition, including standard or Vault, grants access on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch 2, and PC. DMZ is an open-world extraction shooter where players loot, craft gear, complete objectives, and reach the exfil point to keep their rewards.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 has added DMZ to the early access content available to pre-order players, alongside the campaign, for those who pre-ordered the standard or Vault Edition on PC, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. Campaign early access begins Friday, October 16, DMZ early access follows Tuesday, October 20, and the full launch arrives Friday, October 23. Infinity Ward described the new DMZ as the series' definitive extraction shooter experience, promising persistent progression in the open-world Hajin Exclusion Zone.
Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves has announced Reina from Tekken as a DLC character. The news was relayed by Gematsu with a link to the original report.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 released a DMZ Early Access gameplay trailer. Early access opens on Oct 20 for any digital preorders.
A Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero cross-play beta is one of many updates featured on the 2026-2027 roadmap. https://www.siliconera.com/dragon-ball-sparking-zero-cross-play-beta-on-update-and-dlc-roadmap/
Wardogs will bribe players with cash and XP to pick Blue team in Season 2 https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/wardogs-will-bribe-players-with-cash-and-xp-to-pick-blue-team-in-season-2/
A teaser trailer for Reina, the Tekken crossover character in Fatal Fury: CotW, has been released. The character is set to arrive in December, with the trailer posted on YouTube.
EA and Dice announced a Dead Space crossover event for Battlefield 6 set in Area 51, where players can unlock unique cosmetics from October 20 to November 7. Season 5 starts October 13 with new Las Vegas-themed maps, followed by European Casino on November 10 and another map on December 8. REDSEC adds Rapid Royale, a faster battle royale with fewer players where kills generate money for respawning.
Wardogs Season 2 launches on October 15 and adds a gambling system that lets players bet on their own performance. The mechanic, called the Wager Vendor, lets players set conditions such as kill counts, with harder conditions raising the odds and paying out more or costing cash on failure. Developer Bulkhead's co-founder Howard Philpott said the feature will not be available immediately at launch, as players must build up cash to unlock it.
Wardogs developer Bulkhead detailed how rain will change gameplay in Season 2, which launches on October 15. Rain is not dynamic weather, so matches with rain have rainfall from start to finish, and senior producer Kane Allard told IGN it "completely changes the game," which some players may not like. Rain darkens the map and worsens visibility, thunder can mask gunfire and other loud noises, raindrops sound different on surfaces such as rooftops and helmets, windows fog up, and players inside are exposed to rain if a roof is destroyed. Bulkhead is not ruling out other weather effects but has to weigh how something like snow would affect gameplay and performance.
Bulkhead co-founder Howard Philpott said bringing Wardogs to PS6 and Xbox Project Helix would be "a straight port," with senior producer Kane Allard adding the studio is already in talks with the platform holders. Wardogs is currently slated for a 2028 console release, while the PC version is in early access and Season 2 launches next week with features such as rain.
Bulkhead, developer of Wardogs, has admitted that the Xbox Series S's limitations have kept certain features out of the game, with CEO Joe Brammer citing it as one reason the game lacks dynamic weather. The rain feature coming this month will persist throughout a match rather than rolling in and clearing mid-game. Co-founder Howard Philpott said Series S also gives the team a baseline that helps optimize performance for lower-spec PCs, and Wardogs Season 2 launches October 15.