As part of a daily quest to turn GTA 5 into a PC version of GTA 6, I installed the ScamV mod, which promises to turn Los Santos into a digital playground where you play a cyber-criminal using cloned cards and exploits. In practice it mostly just gave Franklin a duffel bag. Trying to pay a bank teller with fake cheques only gets the message "You don't have any fake cheques," with no hint on how to get them.
Star Wars: Galactic Racer continues a running gag in Star Wars games since Rogue One: reminding players that the galaxy sees Anakin Skywalker as the boogeyman. In this racing game, little Anakin haunts the mind of an elderly superstar racer, echoing how Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order portrayed Vader as an unstoppable force.
After Crazy Taxi's AI Drama, SEGA Says It's Being 'Very Cautious' About Using the Tech
SEGA says it uses AI to improve efficiency in publishing and corporate departments and to generate business ideas, but is "very cautious" about its use in game development and does not entrust the creative aspects of games to AI. The stance, given in a Nikkei interview, follows news months earlier that Crazy Taxi: World Tour used generative AI tools during development, later clarified as limited to the "initial research phase" with no AI assets in the final game. SEGA established a Generative AI Committee last year to oversee the tech's usage across the business.
Warhorse co-founder Martin Klima said the idea that studios can lay off half their staff and replace them with AI is "fundamentally flawed," arguing AI doesn't work the way execs' "simplified mental model" imagines. He believes player demand for bigger games will push studios to keep human dev teams the same size but augmented by AI, allowing them to make bigger games for the same cost. Klima added this could mean more branching classes or more missions.
Nolan North said at a Q&A at the Gamergy show in Puerto Rico that he would be "110%" up for playing Nathan Drake again in a new Uncharted game, adding it would be one of the biggest games ever if Sony Interactive Entertainment decided to do it. He said he hadn't heard anything about a new game. Last week a report, which VGC can partially verify, claimed Naughty Dog is working on a new Uncharted game that could star Nathan Drake and his daughter Cassie.
Veteran actor Nolan North said he hopes to reprise his role as Dr. Edward Richtofen from Call of Duty's Black Ops Zombies mode, but believes a new Black Ops game might not arrive until 2028 at the earliest. North said he thinks 2027's Call of Duty could be developed by Sledgehammer, though he clarified this is only conjecture and not inside knowledge. He also said he hopes to return as Nathan Drake in Uncharted.
Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden questioned Sony's decision to phase out PlayStation discs starting in 2028 on The Expansion Pass podcast. He said digital downloads are more convenient but argued the minority who still buy discs are often the most loyal customers, and that the real issue is ownership. He added that players tend to imagine the worst case, which carries a brand and reputation cost for Sony.
The article revisits Infinity Ward's DMZ Beta, an Escape From Tarkov-inspired multiplayer mode released alongside Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (the 2022 version), noting it was more casual and showed promise and innovation but fell short of the studio's presumed expectations. It then asks whether MW4 could dethrone Arc Raiders as the best extraction shooter of all time.
Blackbird Interactive and publisher Secret Mode partnered to take over development and console ports of Escape the Backrooms, a game originally made solo by a developer using the pseudonym Fancy. The game has drawn over 4 million players across PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch 2. Work on the project, codenamed Minotaur, began in September 2025, targeting a 1.0 launch on PC, Xbox, and PS5 on October 23 plus a Switch 2 version built from scratch.
Alinea Analytics estimates Valve could make $20 billion this year from Steam game sales alone, including $1.7 billion in September 2026, $5.5 billion in Q3, and $16.5 billion so far this year. Steam takes a 30 percent cut of every sale, and with 20,000 games launching on the store each year, the article argues Valve should reduce that cut, create a developer panel, and curate the store in-house.
Senior executive officer and deputy chief business officer Tsuyoshi Saito said Sega is "very cautious" about how it implements generative AI during development
nafany: "I don't understand why players in Europe are not doing what we did with TDK" https://www.hltv.org/news/45650/nafany-i-dont-understand-why-players-in-europe-are-not-doing-what-we-did-with-tdk
After leading 1win past Spirit to reach the ESL Pro League playoffs in Katowice, nafany said he doesn't understand why players in Europe don't follow what his team did with TDK, funding their own tournaments while inactive. He pointed to cheap flights and plenty of LANs in Europe, arguing the real problem is that people don't want to do things by themselves. 1win had already beaten G2 and Legacy, and now sit 11th on the live VRS with an 89% chance of making the Major.
Product growth expert Aakash Gupta, a former Fortnite producer at Epic Games, commented on X that Nintendo scheduled The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for 5th November, two weeks ahead of GTA 6 on 19th November, while other major publishers cleared out of November. He said GTA 6 doesn't run on Nintendo's hardware, the audiences barely overlap, and the Switch 2 exclusive remake of the highest-rated game ever gives Nintendo two full weeks of space.
Deadlock isn't a MOBA or a third-person shooter anymore—it's a horror game https://www.pcgamer.com/games/moba/deadlock-isnt-a-moba-or-a-third-person-shooter-anymore-city-never-sleeps-has-turned-it-into-a-horror-game/
Sega senior executive officer and deputy chief business officer Tsuyoshi Saito said the company is "very cautious" about using generative AI in game development and is "not entrusting the creative aspects of games to AI." Sega is using AI to "improve efficiency" in areas such as publishing and corporate departments, and for generating business ideas. The company established a "Generative AI Committee" last year that includes an "AI Task Force" developing in-house AI tools.
Player engagement with five Resident Evil games rose 50%, with daily active users climbing from 500,000 on August 30 to 750,000 on September 20 around the release of Zach Cregger's Resident Evil film, according to Sensor Tower data shared with GamesIndustry.biz. Ampere Analysis found franchise DAU grew from 140,000 to 680,000 across two weekends from September 6 to September 20, ahead of the film's September 18 premiere. Analysts said the transmedia impact amounts to only a single-digit percentage uplift to units and revenue, and that the real benefit is IP and brand building.
PS5 jailbreaking has accelerated sharply over the past week, with a new jailbreak working on firmware v7.00 through v13.60; v13.60 shipped in July, so most consoles not on the latest system software are affected. Using AI tools, modders have installed emulators ranging from Switch to the original Xbox on the console, though performance is patchy, while PC emulation of PS5 is also advancing and several exclusives such as Demon's Souls can now run on PC. The rush has also driven up used hardware prices, with GameStop charging up to $1,500 for a used PS5 Pro.
Rodrigo Terra, president of Brazilian games industry trade body Abragames, says he wants Brazil to be among the top five game producers in the world in less than 10 years. Brazil Games executive manager Patricia Sato says foreign players tend to associate Brazil only with football, samba and carnival, and hopes games will show other aspects of Brazilian culture. Newzoo's Global Games Market Report last month predicted a 4.7% rise in players in Latin America in 2026 to 394 million, with games revenue for the region topping $9.3 billion.
PlatinumGames CEO Atsushi Inaba said he "strongly feel[s] that I want to expand" Bayonetta as a character and broaden her world, but declined to comment on whether a new game is coming. The remarks came in a Famitsu group interview with Stellar Blade developer Shift Up CEO Kim Hyung-tae, whose game's Switch 2 port will add four Bayonetta-themed costumes next month.
IGN published an exclusive interview with Dawn of War 4 creative director Jan Theysen about how the Space Marines faction plays. The Space Marines are the game's most elite faction, fielding few but expensive units that are strong early but cannot cover the whole map, and they can call in buildings from orbit and hold units in reserve for Drop Pod or Thunderhawk deployment. The game launches on PC on December 3, 2026.
In a joint Famitsu interview, PlatinumGames CEO Atsushi Inaba said he "can't really answer" about the next Bayonetta move but strongly wants to expand the character and broaden her world, adding "no comment" when asked about a next game. The exchange came as Stellar Blade's Switch 2 port, due next month, will include four costumes based on Bayonetta characters. Shift Up CEO Kim Hyung-tae joked that Bayonetta is "approaching 17" but hasn't lost its freshness.
Rockstar senior vice president of narrative Rupert Humphries said GTA 6 will not be too specific about any particular person, event, or movement, since the games take a long time to make and would risk feeling dated. He noted that previous GTA games have never really focused on national politics, and that GTA 4's Homeland Security and Patriot Act themes stemmed from post-9/11 New York. GTA 6 launches on PS5 and Xbox Series consoles on November 19, 2026.
Former PlayStation US boss Shawn Layden said on The Expansion Pass podcast that Sony's decision to stop making discs starting from 2028 is "a significant brand hit." He argued that while roughly 80% of players download games, the 20% who buy physical are often the most dedicated collectors, and that digital-only shifts the debate to whether players own a game or merely have access to it.
Vitality's ropz said the team still feels it has "a lot more to give and we're not done with anything" when asked how they maintain their era of dominance. He acknowledged parallels to how the Astralis era ended through players stepping away and taking breaks, but said Vitality will do anything to be good again. ropz also said downloadable practice demos make strategies hard to hide, and that playing with stand-ins while apEX and mezii are away for childbirth has been demotivating at times.
Free-to-play playtime is broadly flat as gacha RPGs drive PC growth, says Newzoo
At Wonder Festival 2026 Shanghai, Chinese anime-style game IP figures were the largest category of game-related products, with Genshin Impact, Zenless Zone Zero, Arknights: Endfield and Wuthering Waves all on display, and Kuro Games the most active. inart showed a full line of statues and action figures for the upcoming AAA game Phantom Blade Zero, while Infinity Studio brought League of Legends and World of Warcraft statues. The author notes that game and toy companies are still moving closer together but have not yet reached the near-symbiotic relationship seen in Japan and the US.
Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden has some thoughts on where Team Xbox is at right now and where the green machine can go from here, but the console maker needs to "pick a lane" with exclusive games, either way. https://bit.ly/3VNYdDL
Long-time mod makers are not happy about the latest trend to take over their corner of the internet - the "bullshit 'trend'" of AI-generated, or "vibe-coded", mods. https://bit.ly/4rMbGrv
Recent reports claim Grand Theft Auto 6 will let players carry cocaine and snort it off their hands at any time. Developer Rockstar Games has an opportunity to push game design forward with this detail.
Hideo Kojima revealed on the Koji10 podcast that he has shot a cameo in a "big" live-action movie, but he won't say which film it is or where he filmed it. He also said he has roles with speaking lines in two "major anime" titles. He additionally gave updates on his espionage action game Physint and his horror game OD.
Rockstar senior vice president of narrative Rupert Humphries said GTA 6's team avoided chasing trends that would be outdated by launch, since the game takes years and years to make. Instead, the studio leaned into subjects that interested them, like conspiracy theories and how the public reacts to everyday occurrences, creating their own slanted, overblown versions rather than like-for-like copies of real things. Humphries also discussed the series' long-running take on the American Dream, from GTA 4's hollow commentary to GTA 5's cynicism, ahead of GTA 6's launch on the 19th of November.
Miami-Dade Sheriff Cordero-Stutz had criticized Grand Theft Auto as "a videogame franchise built around criminal activity" and opposed using public facilities to promote GTA 6, but her department said those comments were not aimed at promotional decisions by private businesses. The NBA's Miami Heat went ahead with a "Night in Vice City" rebrand of its arena and team, while Miami Beach approved a discreet campaign managed by Boucher Brothers.
Multi-stage boss fights are called the worst video game mechanic of all time. Boss fights have existed nearly as long as video games themselves, serving as story gates or optional guards for rare loot, and pitting players against unique enemies or tougher versions of familiar foes. Defeating a boss remains one of the most satisfying things a player can do.
Five months after Xbox launched Xbox Player Voice as a feedback portal, Microsoft has implemented several player suggestions, including the return of console exclusives, Mythic Achievements, Achievements for Original Xbox games, voice chat recording in clips, and switching playtime from days to hours. However, Microsoft has only posted a few official responses, and the top requests on the portal all date from its first couple of weeks, making it nearly impossible for new suggestions to reach the front page.
With Grand Theft Auto 6 approaching, the GTA series' Wanted system stands out as one of its brightest design ideas. Rockstar's series is often dismissed as typical open-world games, but its brilliant design decisions are too easily taken for granted.
Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser said he did not watch the "Extended Look" trailer for GTA 6 and does not plan to, because he avoids consuming things that would "disrupt me creatively." Now running Absurd Ventures, he said he also rarely plays open-world games since he deconstructs other teams' strengths and weaknesses in real time, and that he avoided Western films while developing Red Dead Redemption and HBO's The Sopranos while working on GTA.
Warhorse Studios co-founder Martin Klima said he is "bored and tired" of RPGs that are just "power fantasy" trips "for teenagers." He blamed major publishers for recycling the same formula, citing Ubisoft's craftsmanship while wishing it were used on more innovative ideas, and said his comments were not aimed at Expedition 33.
Hideo Kojima said on his KOJI10 podcast that he has mixed feelings about NVIDIA's DLSS 5, which he noted can make CG characters near the uncanny valley look like real people. He argued AI cannot understand creators' intentions, warning that 4K film remasters and audio remasters of classic albums could overwrite the original artists' creative intent. Official DLSS 5 support for Death Stranding 2 has not been announced.