Gaming · Friday, 2 October 2026

01 Briefing what happened

EU consumer watchdogs name nine game companies and say anything bought with coins must show its price in real money

On 30 September the EU's network of national consumer authorities named Supercell, King, Mojang, Riot, Ubisoft and four others. It wants coin prices shown in money, and unspent coins refundable within two weeks.

game companies named by the EU's consumer authorities on 30 September

Activision Blizzard faces a separate action over two of its games. [1]

2 weeks

for a player to take back a purchase, unspent coins included, under the EU's principles

The principles were first published in March 2025. [2]

principles the nine companies are told to follow

They run from a clear price before buying to protecting children and other vulnerable players. [2]

The lead story — what happened

On 30 September, the EU's network of national consumer authorities named nine game companies over how their games sell in-game coins. [1][2]
The nine include Supercell, King, Mojang, Riot Games and Ubisoft, the makers of Clash of Clans, Candy Crush Saga, Minecraft, Valorant and For Honor. [1]
Crytek, InnoGames, Plarium and PLR Worldwide Sales are on the list too. [1] Activision Blizzard faces a separate action over Diablo Immortal and Call of Duty Mobile. [1]
The authorities want any item bought with coins to show its price in real money as well. [1][2]
They say a game must not push players to buy more coins than they need, or make them swap between several currencies. [2]
Players should be able to take back a purchase within two weeks, including coins they have not spent. [2]
The authorities published these principles in March 2025, and say many companies have made no real changes since. [2]
Their statement says players should not be "tricked into spending more money or time" than they want, and that some games urge children to buy. [2]
Michael McGrath, the EU's consumer commissioner, said roughly half of Europeans play video games, and national authorities will enforce the rules. [2]
The European Game Developer Federation, which speaks for studios, said the network was not ready to work further on the industry's own proposals. [1]
A lawyer who advises games companies argues the network is stretching the law. [1] He says no court has ruled that game coins count as money, and the rule it leans on was written for cryptocurrencies. [1]
The European Commission plans a draft Digital Fairness Act in November, which is expected to take up in-game currency again. [1]

5 of 10

Europeans who play video games

About 5 in every 10 Europeans play video games, by the EU consumer commissioner's count.

Who is involved

The CPC Network

the EU's network of national consumer authorities, working with the European Commission; it named the nine companies
Michael McGrath

the European Commissioner in charge of consumer protection; he says national authorities will enforce the rules
Supercell, King, Mojang, Riot Games and Ubisoft

makers of Clash of Clans, Candy Crush Saga, Minecraft, Valorant and For Honor; five of the nine named
The European Game Developer Federation

a group that speaks for game studios across Europe; it says the network was not ready to keep working on the industry's proposals
Andreas Lober

a lawyer who advises games companies; writing in GamesIndustry.biz, he argues the network is stretching the law

How it unfolded

March 2025 EU consumer authorities publish principles for in-game currencies [2]
2025 They open talks with the games industry [1]
Mid-September The European Commission presents its draft KIDS Act [1]
30 Sep Nine companies are named in a joint statement [2]
November A draft Digital Fairness Act is due [1]

Where this points

Watch whether the nine companies add money prices to their shops in the EU, and what the draft Digital Fairness Act says when it arrives in November. [1][2]

What is pushing on the whole day

The bar and the word are our reading of how hard each one is pushing today. The arrow is where it is heading. The evidence is in the stories below.

Paying to play early Building↑

Gears of War: E-Day, Xbox's big new shooter, charges $30 more for five days of early play. [26] Ace Combat 8, a fighter-jet game, opened three days early for buyers of its $90 edition. [28] Aion 2, an online game from NCSoft, sells its early start only in packs. [25]

Online games needing huge crowds High↑

Riot says its fighting game 2XKO needed hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of monthly players to pay its way. [13] Krafton stopped making PUBG: Black Budget after several rounds of tests. [9] The maker of the shooter Arc Raiders says its team is worn out by constant updates. [14]

Game workers on edge High↑

Staff at The Coalition, the Xbox studio behind Gears of War, fear layoffs before a bonus paid in late October. [3] More than 300 Ubisoft Montreal workers have signed a petition against a five-day office rule. [18] Seven of the nine people at Nerial, maker of Reigns, are losing their jobs. [21]

Old games being rebuilt Building↑

CD Projekt patched the lighting in its free Witcher 3 remaster within days of release. [36] 4A Games is updating two older Metro games for today's consoles before a new one in February. [51] Sega's Sonic producer says a remake now takes about as much work as a new game. [34]

The rest of the day

25 more stories on this beat.

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

02
Gears of War staff fear losing jobs before a bonus

Gears of War: E-Day, Xbox's big new shooter, opened on 1 October for players who paid for early access. [5] Staff at The Coalition, the Vancouver studio that made it, told Eurogamer they fear layoffs soon after launch. [3] Their bonus depends on review scores and is paid near the end of October, only to people still employed then. [3] Xbox is cutting 3,200 jobs, and it declined to comment on the report. [3] Reviews are split: The Verge calls the game confident, and The Guardian calls its campaign boring. [4][53]

Why it matters — Staff do not know whether anyone laid off before payday would still get the bonus. [3] Some of the people who finished the game may be gone before the bonus for it is paid.
03
Steam has its best September, by one estimate

Steam, Valve's PC game store, took about $1.7 billion in September, by the estimate of Alinea Analytics, a research firm. [6] That is 13% more than its previous best September, a year earlier. [6] Alinea puts Steam's takings so far this year at $16.5 billion, against $14.5 billion by the same point in 2025. [6] Its analyst Rhys Elliott says the year will pass $20 billion for the first time. [6] Steam's Autumn Sale opened on 1 October and runs to 8 October. [7]

Jan-Sep 2025$14.50bn
Jan-Sep 2026$16.50bn
Steam's takings in the first nine months of each year, by Alinea Analytics' outside estimate.

Why it matters — Alinea says older games still selling, as well as new hits, drove the growth. [6] Valve does not publish these figures, so they are estimates made from outside the company.
04
Krafton cancels PUBG: Black Budget

Krafton, the publisher of the battle game PUBG, stopped making PUBG: Black Budget on 1 October. [8] It was an extraction shooter, a game where players fight over loot and must get out alive, and was first shown in November 2025. [8] Krafton said its direction would not give players something to enjoy over the long term. [9] It is the second PUBG spin-off cancelled this year, after PUBG: Blindspot in March. [8][10]

Why it matters — Krafton made the call after several closed tests with players. [9] Kotaku notes the game began testing just as Arc Raiders took off, and the genre is now crowded. [10]
05
Memory maker says chips will be scarcer in 2027

Micron, a big maker of computer memory, reported quarterly sales of $54.2 billion, up 379% on a year earlier. [11] Its chief executive, Sanjay Mehrotra, said demand will outrun supply in 2027 and 2028 even more than in 2026. [11][12] AI is driving the demand, and new memory factories take a long time to bring up to speed. [12] Memory prices have reportedly risen as much as 500% in a year. [11]

Why it matters — Every console, graphics card and gaming PC needs memory, so the shortage reaches players as higher prices. [12] PC Gamer notes that two next-generation consoles and new graphics cards are expected in that window. [12]
06
Riot says 2XKO needed up to millions of players

Marc Merrill, a co-founder of Riot Games, said its fighting game 2XKO needed monthly players "in the high hundreds of thousands, if not millions" to justify what Riot spent on it. [13] Riot stopped developing the game this year and refunded what players had spent. [13] On The Lemonade Stand podcast, Merrill said Street Fighter 6 came out about eight years after Riot started 2XKO, and took away the moment Riot had hoped for. [13]

Why it matters — IGN calls the figure unrealistic for a fighting game. [13] A game built to be updated for years has to keep a crowd big enough to pay its team every month.
07
Arc Raiders' boss says the team is worn out

Aleksander Grondal, executive producer of the hit shooter Arc Raiders, told Game Developer his team is "super tired". [14] Embark Studios, its Swedish maker, planned to add new content every month after launch. [14][15] In May it dropped that plan for two bigger updates a year. [15] Grondal said the work of keeping the game running, from bug fixes to exploits, kept pushing the team past what it could do. [14] He said he was not fully prepared for how hard it would be. [16]

Why it matters — Game Developer says Embark must balance the needs of over 16 million players with those of its staff. [14] The same team that makes new content must also fix whatever breaks.
08
Ubisoft Montreal staff petition to keep working from home

Workers at Ubisoft Montreal started a petition on 30 September to keep hybrid work, which splits the week between home and office. [17] On its first day it passed 300 signatures, many collected in person. [18] Ubisoft ordered all staff back to the office five days a week in January, alongside layoffs, delays and studio closures. [18] Ubisoft says working in person helps its teams make better games. [17]

Why it matters — A second union backing the petition says the rule falls hardest on parents, disabled staff and people who moved home or country for the job. [17] The petition is the first public action of a new union campaign at the studio. [18]
09
Reigns studio Nerial closes after 13 years

Nerial, the studio behind the swipe-left-or-right strategy game Reigns in 2016 and Card Shark in 2022, is closing after 13 years. [19][20] Devolver Digital, the publisher that bought it in 2021, agreed the decision and keeps the rights to all its games. [20][21] Seven of the studio's nine people lose their jobs, while the two founders, Tamara and Francois Alliot, keep making games. [21] Francois Alliot told Kotaku that being owned meant every Nerial game had to suit Devolver. [21]

7 of 9
Nerial staff losing their jobs
Seven of Nerial's nine people are let go. The two founders carry on making games.

Why it matters — Rock Paper Shotgun notes Devolver told shareholders in August it wants to leave the London Stock Exchange, after writing down games that sold poorly. [20] Alliot also blames a hard market and AI tools that copy new ideas within a day. [21]
10
Sony brings AI sharpening to the standard PS5

Sony launched Quick Spectral Super Resolution, or QSSR, for the standard PS5 on 1 October. [22] It uses AI to sharpen a low-resolution picture, which until now only the pricier PS5 Pro could do. [23] Marvel's Wolverine and Ghost of Yotei got it first, in patches that day. [22] Digital Foundry, a group that tests game graphics, expects about 1440p on the PS5 against 4K on the Pro, because the PS5 has no dedicated AI chip. [22]

Why it matters — Owners of the cheaper console get a sharper picture without buying new hardware. [23] For now only two games support it, and each game's makers must add it themselves. [24][23]
11
Aion 2 sells early access before it goes free

Aion 2, an online role-playing game from the publisher NCSoft, came out in Korea and Taiwan about a year ago. [25] Its worldwide release is days away, and then it will be free to play. [25] Until then the only way in is a founders' pack, the cheapest costing 18.49 pounds with items included. [25] This week those packs earned more on Steam than EA Sports FC 27, Ace Combat 8 and Gears of War: E-Day, Eurogamer reports. [25]

Why it matters — A game that will be free still earns heavily before launch by charging its keenest players to start first. [25] It is ninth among Steam's most-played games while only paying players can get in. [25]
12
Five days early costs $30 more in Gears

Gears of War: E-Day costs $70, and its $100 Premium Edition adds five days of early play from 1 October plus some cosmetic packs. [26] So buyers pay $30 for the early days and the skins together. [26] The game goes on general sale on 6 October, and it will also be on Game Pass, Microsoft's games subscription. [27] PC Gamer asked who pays the extra when the game is on Game Pass a week later. [26]

$70Standard edition
$100Premium edition
The $30 gap buys five early days and some skins. The game also comes to Game Pass, a subscription.

Why it matters — The price of the early days is never shown on its own. [26] A buyer has to subtract one edition from the other to find it.
13
Ace Combat 8's makers apologise over a bonus game

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, a fighter-jet game, gave pre-order buyers a 2006 game, Ace Combat Zero, as a bonus. [28] On Steam the bonus runs only inside Ace Combat 8, so buyers must install the new game first. [28] Players who paid $90 for three days of early play were unhappy. [28] The makers apologised for not saying so in advance, blamed licensing limits, and said they cannot promise a fix. [28]

Why it matters — The limit comes from licensing and platform rules that buyers could not see when they paid. [28] The game's Steam rating has since recovered from Mixed to Mostly Positive, Eurogamer reports. [28]
14
Kingdom Come's co-founder wants GTA 6 to raise prices

Martin Klima, co-founder of Warhorse Studios, which makes Kingdom Come: Deliverance, told PC Gamer he hopes GTA 6 lets other studios charge more. [29] GTA 6 comes out on consoles on 19 November. [29] Klima says games keep getting more expensive to make while the number of players has stopped growing. [29] He says raising the price of each game is the last option left, and everyone is scared to try it. [29]

Why it matters — If GTA 6 sells at a higher price, Klima expects other studios to follow. [29] That cost would land on every player buying new games after it.
15
Arc Raiders bans cheaters for good on the first offence

Embark Studios now permanently bans any Arc Raiders account caught using a known cheat program, with no warning. [31] It says it was too cautious about banning first-time cheaters before, and should have acted differently. [31] It will also ban cheaters' computers, so they cannot simply open a new account. [31] The change comes before the game's big update on 8 October. [31][30]

Why it matters — Embark says its systems cannot ban a player the instant something looks wrong, or they would ban honest players by mistake. [31] That is why players still see cheaters playing before a ban lands. [31]
16
PS5 games start running on ordinary PCs

Programs that copy how a PS5 works are now running real PS5 games on PCs, Ars Technica reports. [32] One, SharpEmu, has 10 games playable, including Astro Bot, and its developer says six run at 60 frames a second. [32] Another, KytyPS5, lists 134 games as controllable, though many still have serious bugs. [32] Separately, a new exploit called Relapse lets owners unlock any PS5 still on software from before mid-September. [33]

Why it matters — Sony has said it will make fewer PC versions of its PS5 games. [32] These tools reach games that may never get an official PC release.
17
Sega and Capcom take opposite paths on remakes

Takashi Iizuka, who produces the Sonic games at Sega, said fans ask for remakes, but Sega would rather spend its limited staff on new games. [34] He said remaking an old game now takes about as much work as making a new one. [34] Capcom, which has remade Resident Evil 2, 3 and 4, says it is already planning for when its remakes catch up with its newer games. [35] It has a remake of Resident Evil Code Veronica due in 2027. [35]

Why it matters — Iizuka says a remake gives players the same experience again, at close to the cost of a new game. [34] Capcom has made remakes a steady part of its plans for years ahead. [35]
18
CD Projekt tones down the Witcher 3 remaster's lighting

CD Projekt Red patched the lighting in The Witcher 3 Remastered on 1 October, days after the free upgrade came out. [36] Players had complained the new version looked too bright. [37] A second PC fix of about 5GB followed hours later, and a fix for bloom, a glow effect, is on the way. [38] More than 450 player-made mods were released or updated for the remaster within two days. [39]

Why it matters — Eurogamer says the bloom setting seems to be a main cause, and PC players can turn it off while console players cannot. [36] The remaster prepares the game for a third expansion, Songs of the Past, due next year. [36]
19
Magic's maker reopens a sale that went wrong

Wizards of the Coast, which publishes the card game Magic: The Gathering, sold a special set called The Zeta Set in early September. [40] The sale broke down: thousands waited about an extra hour and a half, and only a few of them got one. [40] Its Secret Lair director, Matthew Hodgins, blamed an outside service failure. [40] On 9 December Wizards will take orders for 24 hours and fill every one, and earlier buyers may cancel by 9 October. [40]

Why it matters — Selling to everyone who orders removes the scarcity some early buyers paid for, which is why Wizards lets them cancel. [40]
20
Madden and Big Walk lead August's new games

Newzoo, a games research firm, published its August charts of what players spent. [41] EA Sports Madden NFL 27 entered at number two on consoles, and Big Walk, a co-op game from House House, at number three on PC. [41] Helldivers 2 rose 30 places on consoles after joining PlayStation Plus's game library. [41] Fortnite stayed the most-played game on consoles. [41]

Why it matters — Newzoo says a yearly sports series and a famous name sold best among new releases. [41] Subscriptions and film tie-ins brought players back to older games. [41]
21
Kena sequel slips to 2027

Ember Lab has delayed Kena: Scars of Kosmora, the sequel to its 2021 adventure Kena: Bridge of Spirits, from this year to 2027. [42] The studio said it needs more time to polish a bigger game. [42] It is a linear adventure like the first, with what the studio calls a broader and deeper scope. [42]

Why it matters — Ember Lab says it wants the sequel to beat the first game's quality. [42]
22
Crimson Desert's first add-on moves back two weeks

Pearl Abyss, the studio behind Crimson Desert, moved its first paid add-on, Charting the Unknown, from 15 October to 29 October. [43] It said it needs the time for a more stable game. [43] The add-on costs $24.99 and adds sea travel, new islands and a way to rent out buildings for in-game cash. [43][44]

Why it matters — Pearl Abyss apologised for the longer wait. [43]
23
A leaked chip name hints at a Steam Deck 2

A leaked AMD driver names a chip called Gainsborough, which leakers link to a second Steam Deck. [45][46] The first Steam Deck's chip was called Aerith, after a Final Fantasy VII character whose surname is Gainsborough. [45] Shipping records suggest AMD is already sending test equipment for the chip. [45] Valve has said it wants a big jump in performance before it makes a new Deck. [46]

Why it matters — The Verge is doubtful, because a custom chip does not always end up in the device it was designed for. [45]
24
Final Fantasy XI drops its free trial time limit

Square Enix's Final Fantasy XI, an online game first released in 2002 on the PlayStation 2, has a new free trial. [47] It no longer ends after 14 days, and players can now reach level 75 instead of 50. [47] Free players still cannot trade, use the auction house or hold more than 100,000 gil, the game's currency. [47] PC Gamer counts around 88,000 active players, from an auction house database. [48]

Why it matters — A trial with no end date lets a 24-year-old game pick up new players for free. [47] Square Enix already runs a trial like this for Final Fantasy XIV. [47]
25
007 First Light gets a free update

IO Interactive released a free update called Extended Operations for its James Bond game 007 First Light on 1 October. [49] It adds New Game Plus, a much harder 00 difficulty, a photo mode and timed driving missions in an Aston Martin. [49][50] Enemies can now also throw Bond off ledges. [49] It is out on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X and S. [50]

Why it matters — The update adds features players had been asking for since launch. [49]
26
Two old Metro games get updated before the next one

4A Games will update Metro 2033 and Metro Last Light for today's consoles and PCs, IGN reports. [51] On PS5 and Xbox Series X they will run at 4K and 60 frames a second, or 120 with upscaling, and PC gets Nvidia's DLSS. [51] The PC update comes on 22 October and the console one on 29 October. [51] The next game, Metro 2039, comes out on 4 February 2027. [51]

Why it matters — IGN says Metro 2033 has not run well on modern hardware. [51]

02 Lesson why it matters

Why games make you pay in coins, not in real money

A game prices its items in coins sold in packs, so a player sees what a pack costs and rarely what one item costs.

The twist

A price in coins is hard to compare with money. So a player can agree to pay more than they would if the same price were written in euros.

The picture

$9.98You pay

1,000 coinsTwo packs of coins

800 coinsOne skin

Made-up numbers. The skin costs 800 coins, packs hold 500, so a player buys two and keeps 200 coins for next time.

How it works

A player wants one thing: a skin, a sword, a few days early
The game does not sell that thing alone for money
It sells coins, or a pack, for real money
The thing is priced in coins, or tucked inside the pack
Packs rarely match prices, so coins are left over
The player never sees the one thing's price in money

The same force, elsewhere today

Where this chain is also running, in today's other stories.

Five days early costs $30 more in Gears

The early days come only inside a $100 edition, so a buyer has to take away the $70 game to see they add $30.
Aion 2 sells early access before it goes free

The early start comes only inside founders' packs with items, so no price is given for the early days alone.
Ace Combat 8's makers apologise over a bonus game

An old game came inside a $90 edition, and Steam buyers learned only after paying that it would not run on its own.

Where you've seen this

Casino chips

bets are placed with plastic chips, not cash, so a stack on the table does not look like a week's wages

Air miles

a flight is priced in points, and the airline rarely says what a point is worth in money

Funfair ride tickets

tickets come in strips of ten, and the ride you want costs three

The catch

Not every game currency hides what things cost in money. When players also earn coins by playing, one coin has no single price in money, which is part of why the industry says the EU's demand is hard to meet.

And the whole of it

A child sees coins on a screen, and a parent sees the card bill weeks later. Only the company selling the coins sees both the coins and the money, and most players have only ever been the child or the parent.

03 Truth what's really going on

What is really going on

EU consumer authorities have asked game companies since March 2025 to show the real money price of things bought with coins, and say many made no real change. [2] On 30 September they named nine companies, including Supercell, King, Mojang, Riot and Ubisoft, and said national authorities will enforce the rules. [1][2] Much of the rest of the day was about what online games cost to keep running: Riot said 2XKO needed up to millions of monthly players, and Embark said its Arc Raiders team is worn out. [13][14]

Why it works on us — Calling a coin purchase part of the game, rather than a purchase, makes spending feel like play. That label is exactly what the EU and the industry are now arguing over. [1]

Who gains

Players in the EU who buy coins — If the nine companies follow the principles, items will show a money price, and unspent coins can be taken back within two weeks. [2]
Micron, a maker of computer memory — AI demand has outrun supply, and its quarterly profit reached $38.4 billion, Kotaku reports. [11]
NCSoft, Aion 2's publisher — By selling early access only in founders' packs, it out-earned EA Sports FC 27, Ace Combat 8 and Gears of War this week, before the game goes free. [25]
Valve, which runs Steam — Older games still selling, plus new hits, gave Steam its best September and best third quarter, by Alinea's estimate. [6]
Devolver Digital, Nerial's owner — It keeps the rights to all of Nerial's games, including Reigns, as the studio closes. [21]

Who pays

Developers at The Coalition — Some fear being laid off just before a review-score bonus that only staff still employed in late October receive. [3]
Seven people at Nerial — They lose salaried jobs as the studio closes, and its founder hopes to hire some back later as contractors. [21]
People buying a PC or console — Memory prices have reportedly risen up to 500% in a year, and Micron's chief says supply will be tighter in 2027 and 2028. [11]
Embark's Arc Raiders team — Its executive producer says the team is super tired after trying to update the game every month. [14]
Players who pay to start early — Gears of War: E-Day charges $30 more for five days early, and Ace Combat 8 charged $90 for three. [26][28]

What nobody knows yet

Open questions from across today’s stories — ours included.

01

What the nine companies must change, and by when.

The authorities named them and listed their principles, but neither report gives a deadline or a penalty. [1][2]
02

Whether EU law treats game coins as money at all.

The authorities say consumer law should apply as if real money were spent. A lawyer writing in GamesIndustry.biz says no court has backed that, and that the rule they cite was written for cryptocurrencies. [1]
03

What one coin is worth in euros.

When the price per coin changes with pack size, and coins can also be earned by playing, there is no single number to show. [1]
04

Whether staff at The Coalition keep their bonus if they are laid off after launch.

The bonus is paid near the end of October, only to people employed then, and Xbox declined to comment to Eurogamer. [3]
05

How many games are on sale in Steam's Autumn Sale.

Kotaku counts over 25,000 games and add-ons using Steam's own filter. [7] PC Gamer counts more than 44,000 at $5 or less using the tracking site SteamDB, and in the same article mentions 2,105. [52]
06

How much Steam really earns.

Valve does not publish its takings, so the $1.7 billion for September is Alinea Analytics' estimate from outside. [6]
07

Why Krafton stopped Black Budget.

Krafton said only that its direction would not give players something to enjoy for the long term. [8] Kotaku guesses at a crowded genre and weak feedback from tests. [10]
08

Whether a Steam Deck 2 is coming.

A chip name in AMD's drivers fits Valve's naming, but The Verge notes such chips do not always end up in the device they were made for. [45][46]

04 Hope carry this

On 1 October, owners of a standard PS5 got a free option for a sharper picture in Marvel's Wolverine and Ghost of Yotei, from Sony's new AI upscaling.

Also true today

Final Fantasy XI, first released in 2002, now lets anyone play its free trial with no time limit, up to level 75.
Within two days of The Witcher 3's free remaster reaching PC, players had released or updated more than 450 mods for it.
Everyone who owns 007 First Light got a free update on 1 October, with a harder difficulty, a photo mode and new missions.