Meta shows off $1,299 VR glasses mostly as a screen for films, sport and work. Every game made for its Quest headsets still runs on them

The rest of the day

11 more stories on this beat.

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

1. 02

   Capcom's next Ace Attorney is a 2013 game rebuilt for VR

   Capcom, the company behind the Ace Attorney series, announced Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Dual Destinies VR at Meta Connect. [9][8] It is the fifth main game in the courtroom series, first sold on Nintendo's 3DS in 2013. [8][1] The studio AMATA K.K. rebuilt it so players point at witnesses and shout 'Objection!' out loud. [10][8] It comes out in 2027, sold only through Meta's store. [8] The last new game came out in 2016 or 2017, depending on which one counts. [8][9]

   2013On Nintendo's 3DS

   ↓→

   2027Rebuilt for VR

   Why it matters — Polygon reports Capcom said on 20 September that the Ace Attorney Trilogy has sold more than 5 million copies, and the whole series more than 15 million. [9] Fans quoted by IGN and Polygon wanted a seventh new game instead, and the series turns 25 on 12 October. [8][9]

2. 03

   Meta's AI tools turn a sentence into a game

   Meta showed two AI tools for making games: Horizon Create for phones and Horizon Studio for web browsers. [4] A user describes a game in words, and Meta's Horizon Engine builds a playable game from it. [4] The game can then be published straight to Facebook and Instagram. [4] Selected creators are testing the tools with money from Meta's Horizon Creator Fund, and early access will open bit by bit. [4] Roblox added a similar AI tool for its creators earlier this year. [4]

   Why it matters — Meta says making a game usually takes months of work, costly hardware and special skills, and that these tools remove those barriers. [4] Details on how these games can make money are still to come. [4]

3. 04

   Japan buys more PC and PlayStation games

   Sensor Tower, a market research firm, says 21 million PC and PlayStation games were sold in Japan in the first half of 2026, 13% more than a year earlier. [11] Its count covers Steam and PlayStation only. [11] Capcom was the top publisher, led by Resident Evil Requiem, which sold an estimated 2.6 million copies on Steam in its first month. [11] Spending inside phone games in Japan fell 5.1%, to 1.56 trillion yen, about $10 billion. [11]

   32%Apr-Jun 2025

   vsvs

   28%Apr-Jun 2026

   Why it matters — Sensor Tower says Steam matters more and more to big Japanese games, because it gives a game like Resident Evil Requiem a worldwide audience at once. [11] Japanese publishers made 28% of phone game downloads in Japan in the second quarter, down from 32% a year earlier. [11]

4. 05

   Rockstar sets new rules for GTA mods

   Rockstar Games, maker of Grand Theft Auto, updated its rules for mods ahead of Grand Theft Auto 6. [18] Mods may not 'expand or modify' its official stories, missions or characters. [18] Mods that carry maps or characters from one Rockstar game into another are banned. [18] Mods for playing online together must use Rockstar's own Creator Platform. [18] PC Gamer says the guidelines came out earlier this month and tell modders to 'respect our games'. [19]

   Why it matters — PC Gamer says Rockstar can remove a rule-breaking mod easily on FiveM, and much less easily on sites it does not own. [19] In 2021 Rockstar sent takedown notices to projects rebuilding older GTA games, then released its own remasters later that year. [19]

5. 06

   Blizzard reads WoW: Forever players' names by hand

   Blizzard opened a beta test of World of Warcraft: Forever, a new version of its 2004 online game, earlier this month. [15][14] Its name filter was not ready, so staff checked every character name by hand, senior producer Tom Ellis said. [13] Bans for the worst names went out with the beta's first big patch. [13] Some players said they were punished wrongly. Ellis said every one who posted had another rude name he could see. [13] The full game comes out on 4 November. [14]

   Why it matters — Ellis said such names were never allowed in any version of the game, so there is no new rule. [13] Players in the beta can reach level 20, and new items hidden from data miners already change how old character classes play. [14]

6. 07

   A leaker says the next Xbox outpaces PlayStation 6

   A leaker called Kepler_L2 claims the next Xbox, Project Helix, will reach 56 TFLOPS, a measure of raw chip speed, against 40 for the PlayStation 6. [20] The same leaker says the chip designs for both consoles are finished and ready to be made. [20] IGN India reports the claims as a rumour. [20] Wccftech, quoted by IGN India, says the gap would not make games run much faster in practice. [20]

   Why it matters — Wccftech says price will decide which console stands out. [20] Ampere Analysis, a research firm, has said that if both cost around $1,000 they could sell 38% fewer than the last generation. [20]

7. 08

   Two UK shops cut the Switch 2 to 354.99 pounds

   Smyths and Argos, two UK shops, are selling Nintendo's Switch 2 console for 354.99 pounds. [12] That is 65 pounds below the console's new recommended price of 419.99 pounds, which went up at the start of September. [12] IGN calls it the console's lowest UK price yet. [12] IGN guesses the shops may be clearing stock before a Switch 2 with a battery owners can replace reaches Europe this autumn, and says its guess is unconfirmed. [12]

   419.99 poundsRecommended price

   vsvs

   354.99 poundsAt Smyths and Argos

   Why it matters — The official price went up this month, and two shops now charge well under it. [12] IGN points out that Grand Theft Auto 6 arrives on PlayStation 5 and Xbox, not on the Switch 2. [12]

8. 09

   A virus spreads through People Playground's mods again

   A virus that copies itself is spreading again through mods for People Playground, a game on Steam made by Studio Minus, PC Gamer reports. [16] Last month its lead developer, who goes by zooi, called the game a 'technical hellscape'. [16] The developer said mods could not be properly walled off, and called keeping bad ones out 'a hopeless arms race'. [16] PC Gamer counts three other Steam Workshop malware cases this year, in mods for Project Zomboid, Wallpaper Engine and Meccha Chameleon. [16]

   Why it matters — Steam lets small studios publish easily, and PC Gamer says their games cannot always match the security of bigger studios' games. [16] Its reporter says anyone playing People Playground now plays at their own risk. [16]

9. 10

   Beat Saber and Tetris Effect learn to work without controllers

   Beat Games, the Meta-owned studio behind the rhythm game Beat Saber, is giving it its biggest update yet, due in 2027. [1][2] Players will be able to slice notes with bare hands, and a new mode called Flux brings 35 songs. [2] A mixed-reality Tetris Effect and a hand-tracked Two Point Hospital are also coming to Meta's devices. [1][2] The heist game Payday: Aces High reaches Quest 3 and 3S later this year, with an open test from 19 October. [2]

   Why it matters — Hand controls matter because the glasses ship without controllers. [6] Meta says more than 75 games will work that way when the glasses launch. [7]

10. 11

    Supernatural comes back with its own team

    Supernatural, an exercise app for VR headsets, returns to the Meta Horizon Store this autumn. [2] A newly independent team now runs it, after Meta made wide cuts across its VR and metaverse division at the start of the year. [2] Users keep their points, streaks and badges in the new app. [2] The team is adding more HD scenery, workouts and music, Meta says. [2]

    Why it matters — The app outlived Meta's cuts because a team took it over and kept players' progress. [2] Game Developer lists three of Meta's own VR game studios among those it has closed. [1]

11. 12

    A punk games week on Steam turns away AI art

    A Punk Games Showcase will run on Steam from 9 to 16 October. [17] Brad Smith of the studio Miracle Tea, who has helped run itch.io's Hardcore Punk Jam since 2018, picked just over 100 games from 443 entries. [17] He and an illustrator, Camille Carpentier, worked in their spare time to filter out games made with generative AI. [17] Studios known for treating staff badly were turned away too. [17]

    Why it matters — Games their makers published themselves get special treatment, and Smith hopes Valve will add a 'punk' label to Steam so players can find them. [17] He said there was a lot of AI art to remove, and hopes nothing slipped through. [17]