Hideo Kojima said on his radio show Koji10 that he is deliberately holding back teasers for his horror project OD so players get a proper shock when they play it. OD was announced in 2023 as an experiment about overdosing on fear, with Xbox supporting development and Hunter Schafer and Sophia Lillis among its cast.
A Newzoo report says free-to-play is not dying, with its share of playtime falling 2.9 percentage points to 29.3% between 2021 and 2025 while absolute hours remained broadly flat. Annual F2P live-service launches on PC and console fell 31%, from an average of 21.3 titles in 2020-2022 to 14.7 in 2023-2025. Gacha has become the main area of F2P growth on PC, with 17 major gacha titles in 2025 versus three in 2021 and PC gacha playtime up 92%.
After CD Projekt Red recently released a remastered version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, many players reported performance issues, particularly on PlayStation 5. On Reddit, players cited dropped frames, screen tearing, audio issues, crashes, and environmental flickering. CD Projekt has promised fixes.
Manufacturer YuMe has released three officially licensed PlayStation blind box sets: Pocket Hero, Bobble Hero, and All-Stars Hero, featuring characters Aloy, Astro Bot, Atsu, Helldiver, Kratos, and Ratchet. All three sets are currently available at Target in the US, with a nationwide Walmart rollout planned for 17th October. The items are officially licensed, but Sony is not involved in their production.
2K Sports confirmed NBA 2K25 will be delisted from the PS Store on 30th October and its online servers will shut down on 1st January 2027. Multiplayer, MyCareer, and MyTeam will then be unavailable and Virtual Currency can no longer be earned, while Play Now, MyNBA, The W, and MyWNBA remain playable. The game launched on 3rd September 2024, so it will be under two years old at delisting. The same October list includes Tower of Fantasy's PS4 version going offline on 20th October, Call of Duty Warzone on PS4 ending on 23rd October, and the PS3 and PS Vita PS Store in the UAE closing on 5th October.
‘ARC Raiders,’ ‘The Finals’ Video Games Set TV Series and Film Adaptations at Chernin Entertainment https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/arc-raiders-the-finals-tv-series-movies-chernin-1236899094/
XBOX FanFest will be held at the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) in Seattle on Thursday, November 12, 2026, as the final stop of this year's eight-city FanFest Tour. The event coincides with the celebration of 25 years of XBOX on November 15, and will feature hands-on gameplay, XBOX history and artifacts, chances to meet the people behind the games, trivia, collectibles, fan activities, and an XBOX Gear pop-up shop. XBOX is also running the FanFest Seattle Ticket Sweepstakes and the Green Ticket Trip Sweepstakes, both ending October 11, 2026, for eligible U.S. residents 18 and older.
Several new games are charting surprisingly high on Xbox's "Top Paid" charts to begin October, including Halloween: The Game at #6, Valheim at #10, Active Matter at #12 and Samson - A Tyndalston Story at #17. NASCAR 26 sits at #38 and Gladio Mori at #45. Xbox updates its charts slowly, so the data should be taken with a pinch of salt, but the high placements suggest strong launch sales.
Jagex apologises after AI-generated six-fingered character: 'That's pretty hard to explain away' https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/runescape-dev-apologises-after-runefest-debut-of-an-ai-generated-six-fingered-character-thats-pretty-hard-to-explain-away/
Developers at Ninja Theory announced they are facing redundancy as the studio starts laying off staff. The layoffs follow widespread cuts at Xbox, according to Eurogamer.
Warhorse Studios co-founder Martin Klima - the developer behind last year's historical RPG Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 - is crossing his fingers for higher game prices, and he thinks GTA 6 might be the one to usher in a new normal. https://bit.ly/3THSAGD
Nexon, parent company of developer Embark Studios, is teaming up with Chernin Entertainment to develop film and TV adaptations of Arc Raiders and The Finals. The teams are exploring all possible options, including TV shows and films, with no release dates or specifics announced yet. Embark Studios says it will work directly with Chernin Entertainment to ensure the games' worlds and lore are respected.
Infold posted cocktail recipes themed around Love and Deepspace's male leads on X, using fire lily and datura—the signature flowers of Rafayel and Sylus—as garnishes, with datura being a psychoactive and potentially deadly plant. A follow-up tweet 36 hours later stated all drinks are fictional and for in-game purposes only, warning players not to recreate or consume them in reality.
Push Square reports that layoffs have begun at the Dark Pictures developer, with over 70 staff reportedly let go. The report links to Push Square's news page on the cuts.
Jagex has taken down a new RuneScape 3 trailer and says it will "investigate urgently" after fans raised concerns it appeared to use generative AI. The trailer, which debuted during Runefest and revealed a new questline called Dragon Slayer 2, showed oddities such as a knight with six fingers. Jagex said the trailer was produced by a trusted external partner who had confirmed GenAI would not be used, marking the second such incident in quick succession.
Bill Skarsgard will play the lead role in Hideo Kojima's Physint, a role he landed after Death Stranding 2: On the Beach composer Woodkid introduced the two. Kojima traveled to Sweden to meet Skarsgard, a Metal Gear fan who accepted the part, and says the actor's scan is already complete while he eagerly awaits the script. Kojima also cited Skarsgard's on-screen chemistry with co-star Charlee Fraser as a key factor in the casting.
Jagex has taken down its Dragon Slayer 2 trailer after its RuneFest debut showed a player character with six fingers, which social media users identified as generative AI. Alec 'Mod Sween' Sween said the trailer was made by a trusted external partner that had explicitly confirmed GenAI would not be used, and apologised while saying Jagex is overhauling its review process. It is the second generative AI controversy for Jagex in quick succession, following its clothing collaboration with 100 Thieves days earlier.
Layoffs have begun at Supermassive Games, with former IT and Facilities Director Frank Tindle saying on LinkedIn that more than 70 developers, artists, producers, QA and operations staff are leaving, as reported by Insider Gaming. Supermassive had warned a couple of months earlier that the cuts were needed to ensure the company's sustainability. The report also notes that Hellblade studio Ninja Theory has reportedly begun cutting staff the same day.
DarioSamo, a member of the team behind Banjo: Recompiled, argues that claims generative AI speeds up PC ports of classic games are either "false" or misguided. He says getting a game running is only the first step, and that polish and a sustainable project are what actually take time. He points to the non-AI DK64 Rekongpiled port, whose developers' familiarity with Donkey Kong 64 let it progress well while an AI-based effort stalled.
NBA 2K25 is being delisted after just two years. Its single player story mode will become unplayable.
Supermassive Games has laid off more than 70 people.
Gears of War: E-Day studio The Coalition has revealed it used the Xbox Series S's internal SSD as makeshift RAM to get the game running smoothly on the 10 GB RAM console. Technical director Kate Rayner said a couple of gigabytes of SSD storage can add around a gigabyte of usable system memory, with only Lumens-based reflections removed to maintain 60 frames per second. Other game teams are already interested in replicating the technique.
Rockstar North head of development and co-studio head Rob Nelson told Love magazine that the team builds the game through a series of eight-week milestones, pulling agreed-upon sections together, evaluating them, and using notes to set the next milestone's focus year after year. Open-world writing director James Horton said Rockstar set up a Los Angeles team solely to write pedestrian dialogue, working with a local production team on the game's thousands of unique NPCs. Grand Theft Auto 6 has been in development in some form since 2014, and players will get to try it next month.
Epic Games has quietly replaced a piece of in-game artwork in Fortnite after fans spotted a Google Gemini AI watermark in its original version. The artwork belonged to the music track "Meow" by Ironmouse, Sleeping Forest & HalaCG, which was added to Fortnite last month. The Gemini watermark was present in the track's original art that Epic Games simply incorporated in-game, not created itself.
NBA 2K25 is being delisted two years after launch, with 2K stopping sales on October 30, 2026, and shutting down online servers on January 1, 2027. Multiplayer modes and the single-player MyCareer story mode will then become unplayable, since progression and virtual currency depend on a server connection. Players who buy the game before October 30 can still download it and play offline modes.
VGC and journalist Chris Kerr report that layoffs have begun at Ninja Theory as Microsoft moves forward with a proposed closure. Microsoft said last month, in its second wave of job cuts, that it could not find a path forward for the studio and had started a consultation process with employees. Gameplay programmer Katrin Mair said it is sad not to finish what the team was working on, four months after the studio revealed its new game Senua at the Xbox Showcase.
Hellblade developer Ninja Theory has started letting employees go after two deals to save the studio fell through, with multiple former staff posting on LinkedIn about redundancy risk or seeking new roles. Xbox announced last month that the two deals had failed and the studio would enter the UK consultation process ahead of mass layoffs and a presumed shutdown. Xbox's restructuring is expected to cut about 3,200 jobs over a year, with Double Fine, Undead Labs, Compulsion Games and Arkane Lyon also separating from Xbox.
Same story, shown on the selected item Hellblade studio Ninja Theory has started laying off staff after Xbox said it faces closure
At an October 2 open conference for engineers and the games industry, Capcom outlined where it wants to use AI in the RE Engine and where it wants to avoid it. The engine's evolution is part of the REX Initiative (RE neXt engine) first discussed in 2023, and Capcom has released the RE:Dox and RE:Log tools as open-source on Github so AI programs can learn how they work and help with internal playtests, bug detection and fixes. Capcom insists AI is meant to cut repetitive work so human developers can focus on the creative side, saying "AI is not a replacement for humans."
After Microsoft previously revealed that Hellblade maker Ninja Theory faced closure and that two deals to buy the studio following its split from Xbox had fallen through, the studio appears to be telling staff they are at risk of being let go. Several developers posted on LinkedIn that their roles are at risk of redundancy or that they are looking for new opportunities, including technical sound designer Alessio Mellina, performance capture tech Xoe Suvari and gameplay programmer Katrin Mair. Mair said the Senua game the studio had in the works will not be finished, though its fate has yet to be formally confirmed.
After Xbox announced last month its intention to close Hellblade developer Ninja Theory, staff have begun posting farewells on LinkedIn. Gameplay programmer Katrin Mair said the saddest part is not getting to finish what they were working on, while technical director Loong-Wei Ding, technical sound designer Alessio Mellina and performance capture expert Xoe Suvari are also affected. Xbox Chief Content Officer Matt Booty said the changes bring the planned restructures three quarters of the way through, suggesting more job losses in the coming months.
Control Resonant from Remedy Entertainment has won PlayStation Blog's Players' Choice award for September 2026's top new game. Other big September releases included Marvel's Wolverine, Dune: Awakening, and NBA 2K27. The monthly poll lets players pick the best new release, with remakes qualifying but re-releases excluded.
After Xbox said in late September that Ninja Theory could be closed and that it would begin consultation with employees on a proposed closure, multiple team members have now announced they have left or are at risk of leaving, with VGC listing names including technical sound designer Alessio Mellina, gameplay programmer Katrin Mair, technical director Loong-Wei Ding and principal sound designer Daniele Galante. Ninja Theory's most recent project, Senua, was announced in June with a 2027 release window, and its cancellation is looking increasingly likely.
After a second wave of Xbox cuts last week, Ninja Theory's consultation process appears to have resulted in layoffs, with multiple employees saying on LinkedIn that their positions are at risk. Xbox announced a business "reset" in July with 3,200 planned job cuts and several studio cuts, and its attempt to transfer Ninja Theory's ownership to another company failed after two sale-related agreements fell through, according to a letter from Xbox COO Matt Booty. Booty said Xbox would continue to explore other paths forward, while staff including principal sound designer Daniele Galante and principal programmer Stefano Prosperi, who spent 13 years at the studio, posted about the situation.
"It's less risky to be the masters of our own fate" – The AAA developers going indie https://bit.ly/4rNOmtG
Disappointment as Kingdom Hearts PS5 Pulls Back Platinum Trophies https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2026/10/disappointment-as-kingdom-hearts-ps5-pulls-back-platinum-trophies
The developer behind Hellblade has begun shedding staff, months after revealing a new game at an Xbox Showcase. Push Square reported the news with a link to its article.
Developers behind Zelda: Recompiled and Banjo: Recompiled have publicly condemned AI-generated unofficial PC ports, after a project called Banjo-Tooie Recompiled was shared online last week without disclosing its use of AI code. DarioSamo, who worked on the human-led Banjo port, stated his team has a clear no-AI stance and criticized the project for ignoring the existing patching system. X user FunkyLion compiled a list of human-made decomps and recomps to distinguish them from the wave of AI-assisted ports.
2K Sports announced that NBA 2K25 will be removed from sale on October 30, 2026, and fully discontinued on December 31, 2026. Starting January 1, 2026, all multiplayer and online modes will be removed, making the single-player MyCareer and MyTeam modes unplayable and cutting off virtual currency purchases. Owners can redownload and play offline after the shutdown, while Play Now, MyNBA, The W, and MyWNBA modes will remain available.
Fans have spotted that the upcoming Kingdom Hearts Collection I~III re-release on PS5 only offers three Platinums, for Kingdom Hearts 1, Dream Drop Distance, and Kingdom Hearts 3. The PS4 bundles also included Platinums for Kingdom Hearts 2, Birth by Sleep, and Re:Chain of Memories. The limitation stems from Sony's PS5 Trophy system, which prevents bundles from including multiple Platinums per list.
PlayStation Stars will shut down in November. The author reminds users to make the most of their points before the shutdown.