Epic Games tells the team on its delayed Disney shooter, with Marvel and Star Wars characters, to go 'AI first': no more code written by hand

The rest of the day

21 more stories on this beat.

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

1. 02

   Dragon Quest's creator makes a game in 30 minutes

   Yuji Horii, who created the Dragon Quest role-playing series, posted a new game on X on 11 October. [11] It is a short text game in which the player questions Komiya, a 72-year-old former locksmith, about a break-in at a pawnshop safe. [9] Horii says he made it in about 30 minutes with AI, without drawing or programming anything. [10][11] Kotaku reports he used Anthropic's Claude. [11] In 1983 he wrote, drew and programmed his first detective game, The Portopia Serial Murder Case, all by himself. [9]

   Why it matters — One of Japan's best-known game makers is showing that a person who cannot code can now build a small game alone. It comes the same day as Epic's order, from the other end of the industry: one man instead of a studio.

2. 03

   Console sales fall the most in two years

   Aream & Co, an investment bank that tracks the games business, says players spent $14.1 billion on consoles from July to September. [26] That is 12% less than a year earlier, the steepest drop in two years: Nintendo fell 18%, Xbox 10% and PlayStation 9%. [26] Spending on phone games fell 7%, while PC spending grew by more than a tenth. [26] The bank also counted 54 company deals worth $57.8 billion, nearly all of it the $55 billion purchase of EA by investors using mostly borrowed money. [26]

   Nintendo18%

   Xbox10%

   PlayStation9%

   Why it matters — Studios that sell mainly on consoles are earning less this year, while PC sellers gain: Wardogs, a new PC game, made $103 million in those three months. [26] In the US, fewer consoles sold this August than in any August since 2013. [26]

3. 04

   Nintendo says it will keep selling game cards

   Bill van Zyll, who runs Nintendo in Latin America, told a YouTuber that Nintendo has 'no plans to ditch physical' games. [12][13] Sony said in July it will stop making discs for new PlayStation games from January 2028. [12] The Switch 2 sells games both as downloads and on cartridges. [13] But most Switch 2 cartridges are Game-Key Cards: they hold only a key, and the game itself still has to be downloaded. [15]

   82%PlayStation

   vsvs

   61.5%Nintendo

   Why it matters — Nintendo's players buy more boxed games than Sony's: 61.5% of Nintendo's game sales are downloads, against 82% on PlayStation. [14] A Game-Key Card can be resold, but Polygon asks whether its game could still be downloaded if Nintendo ever closed its store. [13][15]

4. 05

   Steam sets a record of 43.5 million users

   Steam, the biggest shop for PC games, had 43,505,724 people logged in at once on Sunday, the most in its 23 years. [16] More than 14 million of them were playing a game at that moment, which is also a record. [16][18] It beat a peak of about 42 million set in January. [16][18] New games helped, such as Aion 2, an online role-playing game that reached nearly 398,000 players at once. [18]

   Why it matters — Polygon notes that consoles are in a slump while PC keeps growing. [18] Kotaku estimates that Valve, which runs Steam, will make about $20 billion this year, and that Steam now holds about 130,000 games. [17]

5. 06

   VRChat users protest AI-made worlds

   VRChat is a free app where players build 3D worlds and meet each other in them. [31] Patroll, a volunteer who helps run its fan wiki and translations, stopped that work on 4 October in protest at AI-made worlds and images. [31] Many popular worlds now show 'no AI' banners. [31] VRChat banned misleading AI-made preview pictures, and opened a week of consultation on whether to label or ban AI-made worlds. [31]

   Why it matters — Players say AI-made worlds are crowding search and burying worlds people made by hand. VRChat earns its money from in-app purchases and subscriptions, so it needs both its builders and its visitors to stay. [31]

6. 07

   No Man's Sky comes to iPhones

   Hello Games will release No Man's Sky, its space exploration game, on iPhone and iPad on 28 October. [22] It includes every free update since the game's troubled launch in 2016, and runs on phones as old as the iPhone 11. [22][23] Multiplayer is left out, and building settlements needs an iPhone 15 Pro or newer. [23][25] The studio spent three years on it, and says work for its next game, Light No Fire, helped it fit. [23][24]

   Why it matters — Players can try it for free before buying. [22] Hello Games says how far it keeps supporting the phone version will depend on how many people play it there. [23]

7. 08

   Attacks knock Gears of War: E-Day offline

   Gears of War: E-Day, a Microsoft shooter released on 6 October, went down during its first weekend. [20] Its studio, The Coalition, said players were cut off by 'distributed denial-of-service' attacks: floods of fake requests sent to overload its servers. [19][20] Xbox said service was back to normal within hours. [19] The game had already sold fewer copies than hoped, though about 1.7 million people played it through Game Pass, Xbox's subscription. [21]

   Why it matters — Nobody has said who attacked the game or why. [21] It struck in the first days after launch, when a new game builds its crowd. [20]

8. 09

   Sonic Racing buyers say a promise was broken

   Sega has announced a second year of add-ons for Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, its racing game, starting on 3 November. [35] They include packs based on Final Fantasy VII, Godzilla and Evangelion, and cost $40 together. [35] Before the game came out in June 2025, Sega sold a $100 Digital Deluxe Edition that listed 'all future paid downloadable content'. [35] Players who bought it say that should cover year two. [35]

   Why it matters — Kotaku says it is not yet known whether Sega will give those buyers anything. [35] Kotaku says such broken pass promises have become common, especially in fighting games, where content promised at launch later drops out of the pass. [35]

9. 10

   GTA 6 leaker's coin falls by half or more

   Cyberleek, an anonymous account posting leaked clips of Grand Theft Auto 6, ties each new clip to the value of a cryptocurrency coin it created. [33] It says it will release the whole game if the coin's total value reaches $30 million. [32] Nude clips of the character Lucia pushed the coin up, and then buyers sold. [33] Kotaku says its value fell 50% in a day, and Polygon says 71%. [32][33] On 12 October Cyberleek posted a new list of clips tied to higher values. [32]

   Why it matters — Rockstar, the studio making the game, releases it on 19 November. [33] Take-Two, Rockstar's owner, is using the courts to make sites like Discord reveal who runs the account. [34]

10. 11

    Hacked PS5s now play PlayStation 3 discs

    A coder called Swordpdf showed a hacked PS5 playing Gran Turismo 5 from a PlayStation 3 disc on 11 October. [36] The program, RPS5S3, seems to be built on RPCS3, a free PS3 emulator for PCs: a program that copies how an old console works. [36] It came two days after the same coder's PS2 version, which listed Claude as a helper. [36] It is still a test version, and not yet public. [36]

    Why it matters — Kotaku ties this to two other PS5 hacks in the past two weeks that it links to AI coding tools. [36] It says no person working alone would have managed the port in two days. [36]

11. 12

    A games reporter starts a paid news site

    Chris Kerr spent about 11 years at Game Developer, a trade news site run alongside GDC, the industry's big yearly conference. [27][28] He has now launched Vertical Slice, a news site paid for by readers from GBP7.45 a month, with no advertising. [27] Kerr left in September with Game Developer's editor, Danielle Rindeau, who said honest reporting needs 'editorial independence'. [27] He is paying for it from his savings, and needs about 500 monthly subscribers to match his old salary. [27][28]

    Why it matters — Kerr says a site owned by a big listed company has other business interests that can get in the way of tough reporting. [28] He joins other independent games news sites, such as Aftermath and Game File. [27]

12. 13

    Dwarf Fortress gets magic, and its maker rejects AI

    Tarn Adams and his brother Zach have made Dwarf Fortress, a game that builds whole worlds from rules, since 2002. [29] Its new free update, Myth and Magic, invents a different system of magic for each world. [29] Adams says he will not use generative AI, and that code written by it runs badly. [29] The game sold nearly 500,000 copies in its first month on Steam in 2022, and passed 1 million by April 2025. [29]

    Why it matters — The game costs $30 once, with free updates and no paid add-ons, so Adams says new buyers now pay the wages of a team of about 15. [29] He says that during a sale the game sells ten times as many copies as usual. [29]

13. 14

    BAFTA gives GBP270,000 to new creative workers

    BAFTA, the British body behind the film and games awards, gave more than GBP270,000 to 112 people starting careers in games, film and TV in the UK and North America. [30] Its Prince William Bursary gave grants of up to GBP2,000 each to 100 people, 40% more than last year. [30] The money pays for training, equipment, software, moving home and driving lessons. [30] Its scholarships give up to GBP12,000 in the UK and $60,000 in the US. [30]

    Why it matters — Of those it helped in 2024 and 2025, 98% told BAFTA the grants let them take up chances they otherwise could not have. [30] Game artists and designers are among this year's winners. [30]

14. 15

    A fan's free tool brings P.T. to PC

    P.T. was a free horror demo for Silent Hills, a game by Hideo Kojima that Konami cancelled. [38] For over ten years it could only be played on PS4s that had downloaded it while it was offered. [38] Coder Lorean Xavier has released a free, open tool that rebuilds it as a PC game from a player's own PS4 files. [38] He says he spent years studying P.T. and its engine, and used AI only to find and fix bugs. [38]

    Why it matters — Players still need their own copy of the original files, so the tool does not hand out Konami's game. [38] A Stanford library curator told Ars Technica in 2015 that keeping games tied to old hardware is a dead end for saving them. [38]

15. 16

    An actor says AI copies only his voice

    Will de Renzy-Martin plays Coen, the hero of The Blood of Dawnwalker, a dark fantasy game by Rebel Wolves. [39] In a podcast clip he said the sound of his voice is 'the least interesting thing' he brings, and the only part AI can copy. [39] He said a studio that swaps actors for AI will need someone costly to direct it. [39] Rebel Wolves used AI voices only to plan scenes, then hired actors. [39]

    Why it matters — Embark Studios used AI-made voice lines in its shooters Arc Raiders and The Finals. [39] Epic's order now goes further, to the code and art of a whole game. [1]

16. 17

    Call of Duty opens DMZ early to buyers

    Infinity Ward, the studio making Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, will open DMZ on 20 October for players who pre-order a digital copy. [42] DMZ is a mode where squads hunt for loot and must escape to keep it. [42] The story opens on 16 October and the full game on 23 October, so it has three start dates. [42] The studio also said a solo option seen in a trailer was only for its own staff. [42]

    Why it matters — Early players can build up gear and learn the map before everyone else. [42] Players had hoped the solo option meant a mode with no other players in it. [42]

17. 18

    Valve publishes the plans for its headset

    Valve, which runs Steam, has released the full design files for its Steam Frame virtual-reality headset and its controllers. [43] Anyone with a 3D printer can now make parts such as straps, battery holders and face pads, for non-commercial use. [44] The files also explain the headset's extra port for adding powered gadgets like cameras. [43] Valve has now done this for the Steam Deck, Steam Machine, Steam Controller and Steam Frame. [43]

    Why it matters — Owners had already been making parts, such as a back-mounted holder for an extra battery, because the headset's battery runs down quickly. [44] Valve's own strap kit costs GBP59, so home-made parts give owners a cheaper choice. [44]

18. 19

    Valor Mortis arrives needing a cheaper PC

    Valor Mortis, a first-person sword-fighting game set in a Napoleonic war full of monsters, comes out on 13 October from One More Level. [45][46] Just before launch, its Steam page lowered the slowest graphics card it needs, from an RTX 2070 Super to an older GTX 1660 Ti. [45] The studio has not announced the change. [45] Rock Paper Shotgun's review calls it one of the freshest games of its hard-fighting kind in years. [46]

    Why it matters — Lower requirements let people with older PCs buy it. [45] On a ten-year-old graphics card, the reviewer still needed extra help to run it at about 40 to 50 frames a second. [45]

19. 20

    Stardew's maker says his next game is about fighting

    Eric Barone, who made the farming game Stardew Valley, told GQ his next game, Haunted Chocolatier, is 'more of an action RPG'. [40][41] That means the focus is fighting monsters, finding gear and getting stronger, with boss fights. [40] He announced it in October 2021 and has still given no release date. [41] He says he 'won't compromise on the quality' by rushing it. [41]

    Why it matters — Barone says it is for the Stardew Valley players who liked its mines, where most of that game's fighting happens. [40] In 2025 he said he hoped to release it within five years. [41]

20. 21

    Ubisoft pulls a leaked cut scene

    A dataminer called Sliderv2 found an unfinished scene inside Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, Ubisoft's new version of its 2013 pirate game. [37] It shows the hero, Edward Kenway, meeting Miko, a leader of the game's British assassins. [37] Fans read it as a hint of a story set before Assassin's Creed III. [37] Sliderv2 says Ubisoft had the video taken down with a copyright claim. [37]

    Why it matters — Aream says Black Flag Resynced made $55 million on PC from July to September, second only to Wardogs. [26] A scene cut from it now hints at what Ubisoft may make next. [37]

21. 22

    Patapon's old makers finish Ratatan

    Ratatan, a rhythm game in which the player gives orders in time to music to an army of small creatures, leaves early access on 15 October. [47] Early access means it has been on sale while still being finished. [47] It is made by Ratata Arts, led by former makers of Patapon, a Sony series for the PSP handheld. [47] Polygon finds it charming but says its structure falls short. [47]

    Why it matters — Polygon says Sony's own studios no longer make small, odd games like Patapon. [47] So the people who made them are making them on their own, for four kinds of machine at once. [47]