Discord now guesses the age of every user outside the UK and Australia. It says 9 in 10 will never be asked for proof.

The rest of the day

15 more stories on this beat.

Each with its own sources. None of these is a link to the story above.

1. 02

   Age of Empires team loses almost half its staff

   World's Edge, the Microsoft team that looks after the Age of Empires strategy games, moved under Activision this week. [7] Its creative director, Adam Isgreen, wrote that he and many colleagues were among the 268 people Xbox cut. [7] A verified creative director at the studio posted that just under half of all staff were let go. [7] Senior engineer Andrew Martz wrote that the team's next project was shelved because of the move. [7]

   Why it matters — World's Edge mostly steers the series, while outside studios such as Relic built recent games with it. [7] The series now sits with the Call of Duty publisher, run by a much smaller team, and the shelved project has not been named. [7]

2. 03

   State of Decay studio cuts up to 40 on its first day alone

   Undead Labs, the studio behind the zombie game State of Decay, left Microsoft on 22 September and became owned by its own staff. [8] The same day it said it was saying goodbye to a significant number of colleagues. [8] One source told Kotaku up to 40 developers were affected. [8] Studios Xbox let go left with their games, their rights and some money to run on. [8] Undead Labs was one of five studios Xbox said it would let go, along with Double Fine and Ninja Theory. [22]

   Why it matters — The staff now own the studio, but fewer of them work there. Studio head Philip Holt said State of Decay 3 stays on schedule, and its new publisher has not been named. [8]

3. 04

   Gears of War's story director laid off before launch

   Juan Vaca, story director on Gears of War: E-Day, said on LinkedIn he had been laid off in Xbox's latest cuts. [10] Five days earlier he had celebrated the game going gold, meaning it is finished and ready to be printed on discs. [10] He spent more than four years at The Coalition, the Xbox studio making it. [9] A Kotaku source says fewer than a handful of Coalition staff went, for reasons said to be separate from the wider cuts. [10]

   Why it matters — The cuts reached a team two weeks before its game comes out on 6 October. [10] How many people The Coalition lost is not public. [10]

4. 05

   Bethesda tells Obsidian it keeps its leaders

   Obsidian, the studio behind Fallout: New Vegas, The Outer Worlds and Avowed, now reports to Bethesda, the Microsoft publisher that owns the Fallout series. [11][12] In a memo seen by IGN, Bethesda head Jill Braff called it mainly a change in who reports to whom. [11] She said Obsidian's own leaders stay in charge and no team's plans are being reset. [11] Bethesda Game Studios will keep leading Fallout, while Obsidian works on a new Fallout project. [11]

   Why it matters — Some had worried Obsidian would become a helper studio for Fallout, IGN says. [11] The memo answers that in words, and no release window has been given for Obsidian's Fallout game. [11]

5. 06

   Analysts say Xbox is being folded into what it bought

   Joost van Dreunen, a professor at New York University's business school, called Xbox's changes a reverse acquisition in slow motion. [13] He means the publishers Microsoft paid a fortune for, such as Activision, are now taking over studios Xbox built itself. [13] Newzoo, a research firm, says grouping studios by type of game stops Microsoft's games competing for the same players. [13] Its data shows players of Obsidian's games were over three times as likely as average to also play Bethesda's. [13] Yet Obsidian's Avowed and Bethesda's Oblivion Remastered came out two months apart in 2025. [13]

   Why it matters — Omdia analyst James McWhirter said Game Pass, Xbox's subscription, moved players' money from buying games to paying monthly. [13] Newzoo's Manu Rosier said a crowded market rewards fewer bets, each made by the most experienced team. [13]

6. 07

   Halo's former leaders react to the handover

   Bonnie Ross, who led Halo at Microsoft for years, wrote that it was hard to wake up to news that Halo Studios had been essentially shut down. [14] Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto said he was shocked but not entirely surprised. [14] Former executive producer Kiki Wolfkill said she was gutted. [14] Kotaku reports the cuts included long-serving Halo staff and at least one person promoted the day before. [14]

   Why it matters — A new team at Activision will make the next main Halo game. [14] What remains of Halo Studios becomes a support team for the Halo games already on sale. [14]

7. 08

   Double Fine's founder says the downturn has run four years

   Tim Schafer, who founded Double Fine, the studio behind Psychonauts, told the BBC on 23 September that he does not understand the economics of making games. [15] He used to expect layoffs to be followed by rehiring, but said the industry has been down for about four years. [15] He noted that people are still playing games and companies are still making money. [15] Double Fine left Xbox this year and is independent again. [15]

   Why it matters — Schafer said staff at the biggest studios can be laid off as soon as they finish a game. [15] Small studios risk running out of money after they ship. [15]

8. 09

   Xbox checks Australians' age from their account history

   Australia's new rules mean a buyer must show they are over 18 to buy games rated R18+. [5] PC Gamer's Australian editor got an email from Microsoft saying his account's long history showed he was an adult, so it was marked verified. [5] Steam, Valve's PC game store, asks only for an active credit card, even from accounts over 20 years old. [5] Very few Australians use credit cards, the magazine says. [5]

   Why it matters — Two big stores face the same law and picked opposite checks. Microsoft asks long-time customers for nothing more, and Steam asks everyone for a card. [5]

9. 10

   EA staff told Saudi owners won't make creative calls

   Electronic Arts, maker of The Sims and EA Sports FC, was sold on 4 August for $55 billion to Saudi Arabia's national investment fund, Silver Lake and Affinity Partners, the firm of Jared Kushner. [19] Kotaku's sources say executives told staff the next day that the new owners will not make creative decisions. [19] They say layoffs were not discussed. [19] EA carries $18 billion of debt and told lenders it would cut $170 million in costs, Bloomberg reported. [19]

   Why it matters — Fans of series with gay and trans characters, such as Dragon Age and The Sims, worry because Saudi Arabia makes same-sex relationships a crime. [19] Staff outside EA's biggest series say they have waited a year to learn if their jobs will go. [19]

10. 11

    PlayStation tests store credit on new games

    Some PlayStation Store buyers are getting $10 of store credit when they buy certain new games, Eurogamer reports. [18] One US buyer of The Blood of Dawnwalker got the credit after buying it, and the offer was marked as ending on 29 September. [18] Players have seen it on other recent games too, including Star Wars Zero Company. [18] Sony has not explained the offer, and it is not clear why only some players see it. [18]

    Buy a new game on the PlayStation Store

    ++

    $10Store credit back

    Why it matters — Store credit can only be spent in the same store, and Microsoft has done the same on Xbox for years. [18] Eurogamer says it may be linked to Sony's tests of charging different customers different prices. [18]

11. 12

    Arc Raiders adds a paid pass that pays for itself

    Embark Studios' shooter Arc Raiders is replacing its free reward track with a Reward Pass in its Frozen Trail update. [16] Everyone who owns the game gets the free track, and a premium track costs 1,150 Raider Tokens, about $10. [16] The paid track holds only looks, and new weapons and gear stay on the free one. [16] Completing the pass returns 1,350 tokens, 200 of them from the free track. [16]

    Paid track costs1,150 tokens

    Completing the pass returns1,350 tokens

    Why it matters — A pass is how many games keep charging after the first sale. Embark kept weapons on the free track, so paying buys looks, not an edge in a fight. [16]

12. 13

    Xbox adds a reward for finishing everything

    Xbox has begun rolling out Mythic achievements, awarded when a player unlocks every other achievement in a game. [17] Asha Sharma, head of Xbox, teased them in August, and they are Xbox's version of PlayStation's Platinum trophies. [17] They are worth no Gamerscore, the points Xbox players collect, and add-on achievements do not count, TrueAchievements reports. [17] The unlock sound runs for nearly 15 seconds. [17]

    Why it matters — Most players will rarely see one, because it needs every achievement in a game. [17] It arrived in the same week as Xbox's latest job cuts. [17]

13. 14

    An IGN writer says Marvel Rivals is losing players

    Marvel Rivals, a superhero team shooter from the Chinese company NetEase, began its tenth season with a patch changing more than half its characters. [20] It was a hit at launch in December 2024. [20] In an opinion piece, IGN's Carlos Morales, who has played more than 1,000 hours, says players are leaving. [20] He blames repeated balance problems, unfair ranked matches, a shop pushing players to spend more, and rows over character costumes. [20]

    Why it matters — NetEase is pushing the game into tournaments. [20] A new Avengers film due within months could bring a wave of new players, Morales notes. [20]

14. 15

    Two Lord of the Rings games come to Switch 2

    Aspyr, a company that brings older games to new machines, will release Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War on Nintendo's Switch 2 on 30 September. [21] The bundle costs $70, but is half price, $35, until 6 October. [21] Monolith Productions made both games, and Warner Bros Games closed that studio in 2025. [21] Aspyr re-released War in the North in August and plans more. [21]

    Why it matters — The studio that made these games is closed, but the games are still being sold on a new machine. [21] New Lord of the Rings games are being made at Warhorse, the studio behind Kingdom Come. [21]

15. 16

    World of Warcraft: Forever's test draws a big crowd

    In mid-September Blizzard opened a public test of World of Warcraft: Forever, a new version of its 20-year-old online game. [23] Developer Josh Greenfield posted that the test had the craziest numbers he had seen in 17 years at Blizzard. [23] Producer Tom Ellis said the test servers were small, so players first met login queues and disconnections. [23] Blizzard fixed them the same day. [23]

    Why it matters — Blizzard has published no player figures, so the size of the crowd rests on one developer's word. [23]