Gaming · Tuesday, 20 October 2026

01 Briefing what happened

PEGI starts moving download-only games that sell loot boxes from ratings of 3, 7 or 12 up to 16, through October

Europe's games age-rating system has begun re-rating games already on sale that sell paid random items, while small studios hold back public tests for fear of AI copies, Lucasfilm opens Star Wars to smaller teams, and rioters wreck an esports team's Paris base.

3, 7, 12 to 16

the jump in age rating for download-only games already on sale that sell paid random items

the change rolls out through October [1]

the rating for games with NFTs and for social casino games

a battle pass usually gets 12, or 7 if spending can be switched off [3]

11 Nov

when the European Commission plans the first draft of its Digital Fairness Act

it may cover loot boxes and in-game money aimed at children [2]

The lead story — what happened

PEGI, which gives games their age ratings across Europe, has started moving download-only games that sell paid random items from ratings of 3, 7 or 12 up to 16. [1]
Paid random items are things you pay for before you know which prize is inside, such as loot boxes, card packs and gacha pulls. [3]
The Games Rating Authority, which runs PEGI ratings in the UK, began applying the rule to a first set of games already on sale last week. [1]
Its policy manager, Connor Hinde, announced it in a post on LinkedIn. [1]
The new label reads "PEGI 16 - Paid random items", and it applies however the game was first rated. [1]
The changes roll out through October, and the authority says a large number of ratings will change in a short time. [1]
Since June, PEGI has given NEW games with paid random items a 16 by default. [2] This step reaches games that were rated before the rule. [1]
Under the same rules a battle pass, a season of rewards bought for a limited time, usually gets a 12, or a 7 if players can switch spending off. [3]
Games with NFTs, and social casino games, go straight to 18. [3]
PEGI's director Dirk Bosmans said publishers who object should "read the room" about growing pressure from regulators. [3]
Belgium has treated paid loot boxes as gambling since 2018, while courts in the Netherlands and Austria declined to call football player packs gambling. [2]
The EU's top court is weighing whether app stores can be blamed for selling games with illegal loot boxes. [2] A proposed EU law, the KIDS Act, would make parental tools compulsory. [2]

1Old ratings: 33
277
31212
4New rating for paid random items: 1616
5NFTs and social casino games: 1818

Download-only games that sell paid random items move from 3, 7 or 12 up to 16. Games with NFTs go to 18.

Who is involved

PEGI

the age-rating system for games across Europe; it wrote the 16 rule for paid random items
Games Rating Authority

the body that runs PEGI ratings in the UK; it began re-rating games already on sale
Connor Hinde

policy manager at the Games Rating Authority; he announced the change
Dirk Bosmans

PEGI's director; he told publishers to read the room on regulation
European Commission

the EU's executive; it is drafting the Digital Fairness Act and has proposed the KIDS Act

How it unfolded

2018 Belgium starts treating paid loot boxes as gambling [2]
June 2026 PEGI rates NEW games with paid random items 16 by default [2]
Last week the Games Rating Authority starts re-rating games already on sale [1]
October the re-rating rolls out, with many ratings changing [1]
11 Nov the EU's Digital Fairness Act draft is due [2]

Where this points

Watch which well-known games move to 16 as the re-rating spreads through October, and whether the EU's Digital Fairness Act draft on 11 November goes further than a label. [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.

AI copies of new games High↑

Digital Sun, the studio behind Moonlighter, moved its next game's test to a smaller one on Discord for fear of AI copies. [4] Indie makers quoted by Ars Technica say they now hold back early work for the same reason. [8] Steam Next Fest opened with 8,202 demos, more than double last year. [10]

New rules for games Building↑

PEGI is moving download-only games that sell loot boxes up to a 16 rating. [1] Ukie, the UK games trade body, now sells studios a check that their use of AI is legal. [24]

Gaming hardware out of reach High↑

Nvidia's most powerful gaming graphics card, the RTX 5090, has vanished from Nvidia's own US store. [27] Video appears to show looters in Paris pulling memory chips out of an esports team's gaming PCs. [21]

Game jobs disappearing Building→

Liquid Swords, a Swedish studio, is closing, and all 27 of its staff lose their jobs. [30] IGN, a big games news site, cut most of its weekly podcasts after layoffs last month. [26]

The rest of the day

24 more stories on this beat.

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

02
Moonlighter's makers hold back a public test

Digital Sun Games, the studio behind the Moonlighter series, has dropped a public Steam test of its next game, ReVamp. [5][9] It said news of games being "reverse-engineered, cloned and published before the original is even out" made a big public build too risky. [7] A smaller test on its Discord server starts on 29 October, and a public one may follow around January. [6] ReVamp is due in March 2027. [5] Kotaku and PC Gamer tie the wave of copies to Claude Opus 5.5, an AI model from Anthropic that can turn a game back into readable code. [7][5]

Small Discord test29 Oct
Public test, maybeJanuary
ReVamp comes outMarch 2027
Digital Sun's new order: a closed test first, the public one only months before launch.

Why it matters — Digital Sun wrote that showing a game early is how small studios find their fans, so hiding it costs them attention. [4] It follows Alliance Arts, which pulled a public demo of Drunken Goddess Reflux days earlier. [8]
03
Steam players ask to hide AI-made games

Steam Next Fest, a week when Valve's store offers free demos of coming games, opened on 19 October with 8,202 demos, more than double last year's event. [10] In June about 17% of the festival's demos said they used generative AI, which makes pictures, text or code from a typed request. [10] One player, noting that Steam already makes developers declare AI use, asked Valve for a filter to hide every game that does. [11] Valve would first have to add AI as a tag that its filters can read. [11]

Why it matters — A declaration only helps a player once the store's search can act on it. [11] Real demos also get harder to find among thousands of others, Eurogamer says. [10]
04
Lucasfilm opens Star Wars to smaller studios

Lucasfilm Games, which licenses Star Wars to game makers, says it is now more flexible about whose pitches it takes. [12] Its vice president Douglas Reilly told The Game Business that a studio need not be a "top five publisher". [13] Both of this year's well-reviewed Star Wars games came from independent studios: Zero Company from Bit Reactor and Galactic Racer from Fuse Games. [13] After buying Lucasfilm in 2012, Disney gave Electronic Arts sole rights to Star Wars games for ten years. [13]

Why it matters — One licence holder now chooses among many studios, so smaller teams can bid for one of the best-known names in film. [12] Reilly says big games like Battlefront stay part of the plan. [14]
05
Rumour puts Bungie on Battlefront 3

A new issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, a games magazine that stopped printing in 2014, carries a rumour that Lucasfilm wants a Star Wars Battlefront 3. [15] Reporter Jeff Grubb read it out on his podcast on 19 October. [16] It names EA DICE, which made the last two Battlefront games, as the likely maker, and Bungie, the studio behind Halo and Destiny, as the other choice. [15] Grubb said it does not sound like the game is being made yet. [15]

Why it matters — No company has confirmed it, and its only source is an anonymous gossip column. [15][16] Bungie is between projects as its shooter Marathon winds down, Kotaku notes. [16]
06
Xbox manager praises AI, then quits X

Brandon Stirrup, a senior business strategy manager at Xbox, posted on X on 18 October. [17] He said he had made a game by typing instructions to an AI tool, with about three hours of real work. [17] He wrote "we use AI, just as all companies do in 2026", and said studios that do not are "planning for a fake future". [17] He then deleted his account. [17] A source at Xbox told PC Gamer he did so because of the number of replies. [17]

Why it matters — It is one manager's post, not an Xbox announcement. [17] It came a day before Digital Sun said AI copying had made it hide its own game. [4]
07
Call of Duty plans a new series

Activision says next year's Call of Duty will start a new sub-series, instead of continuing Modern Warfare or Black Ops. [18] Its marketing chief Tyler Bahl said players did not want two games in a row from one series, as happened with Black Ops 6 and 7. [18] This year's Modern Warfare 4 comes out on 23 October, and its campaign, open early to buyers who pre-ordered, holds a 92% positive score from over 3,100 Steam reviews. [19][20] YouTuber MrBeast marked the launch with a video offering $1 million to a winner. [19]

92 of 100
92 in every 100 Steam reviews of the campaign are positive
Modern Warfare 4's early campaign score on Steam, from over 3,100 player reviews.

Why it matters — A new series is a gamble: the last one, Vanguard in 2021, sold poorly and never got a sequel. [18] Sledgehammer Games, which made Vanguard, is understood to be making next year's game. [18]
08
Rioters wreck an esports team's Paris base

Team Vitality, one of France's leading esports clubs, whose players compete in video game tournaments, says looters broke into its Paris base, V.Hive, during protests on 17 October. [21] Its windows were smashed and its trophies and computers taken. [21] Video appears to show looters pulling memory chips out of gaming PCs in the street. [21] Nobody from the team was hurt. [21] In Nice, a worker at a Micromania game shop was kicked while trying to chase rioters away. [22]

Why it matters — The riots grew out of protests over living costs and school conditions, and about 1,500 shops were damaged that weekend, Kotaku reports. [22] V.Hive stays closed until the damage is counted. [21]
09
US visas hold up an Umamusume concert

Cygames, the Japanese maker of the horse-racing game Umamusume: Pretty Derby, says US visas for its voice actors have not been approved. [23] The actors were due to sing at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on 22 and 23 October, the first stop of the game's first world tour. [23] Cygames says it started the visa process more than six months ago through US lawyers and promoters. [23] Shows in London and Seoul are planned for later. [23]

Why it matters — Kotaku links the delay to the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, which other foreign musicians have also blamed for cancelled shows. [23] Some fans paid thousands of dollars to travel from across the US and from Japan. [23]
10
Ukie launches an AI check for studios

Ukie, the UK games industry's trade body, has started an AI compliance service with Sheridans, a law firm that works for games companies. [24] A studio goes through four steps and earns the Ukie Certification Mark, which it can show to publishers and investors. [24] A first check plus a new AI policy costs 1,500 to 2,000 pounds for members and 2,000 to 2,500 pounds for others. [24] Ukie's chief Nick Poole says most members use AI tools daily but worry about the legal risks. [24]

Why it matters — Sheridans partner Anna Poulter-Jones writes that material made with AI can sometimes infringe on other people's work. [25] The mark gives a studio proof that it checked. [24]
11
Fired IGN hosts start their own podcasts

IGN, one of the biggest games websites, is pulling back from its podcasts after layoffs last month, Kotaku reports. [26] Its PlayStation show Beyond! is on hold, and only Game Scoop will still come out every week. [26] Staff were told the other shows did not earn enough to justify weekly work. [26] Three former hosts, Brian Altano, Seth Macy and Max Scoville, have launched X Button, a podcast network paid for by listeners on Patreon. [26]

Why it matters — The hosts now depend on listeners paying them directly through Patreon. [26] Kinda Funny, a network started by earlier IGN staff, shows the model can pay, Kotaku says. [26]
12
Nvidia's top gaming card vanishes from sale

The RTX 5090, Nvidia's most powerful graphics card for gaming PCs, has disappeared from Nvidia's own US store, PC Gamer reports. [27] Jeff Fisher, who runs Nvidia's GeForce gaming business, denied rumours that production had stopped, saying supply is "somewhat constrained". [27] Memory chips are also in short supply. [27] In Brazil, the distributor Oderco says two pallets of the cards, worth about $495,000 at cost, went missing at Guarulhos airport in Sao Paulo. [28]

Why it matters — Rumours say Nvidia is moving the chips into its data-centre products, which Nvidia denies. [27] The only cards left for sale come from third-party sellers at very high prices. [27]
13
Arc Raiders hits a six-month high

Arc Raiders, Embark Studios' shooter set in a wasteland full of robots, peaked at 1.7 million daily players across all platforms on 14 October. [29] That was its most in six months, says Alinea Analytics, a firm that estimates game sales. [29] The rise followed its Frozen Trails update on 8 October and a free weekend that ended on 12 October. [29] About 150,000 new players joined that weekend, while the game was half price at $19.99. [29] Alinea estimates 150,000 more copies sold in the next three days, worth about $3 million. [29]

Why it matters — A big update, a free weekend and a sale landed together. [29] These are Alinea's estimates, not Embark's figures, and they leave out spending inside the game. [29]
14
Liquid Swords' founder confirms it is closing

Christofer Sundberg, who founded the Swedish studio Liquid Swords, has confirmed that "Liquid Swords is closing", after reports that it had gone bankrupt. [30] He said the console version of its crime game Samson, out in September, "did far better" than the April PC version, but not enough. [30] All 27 staff lose their jobs, and Swedish law covers the two months of wages they were not paid, GameSpot reports. [30] Sundberg says talks on keeping Samson supported continue. [30]

Why it matters — Samson will be the studio's only game. [30] Sundberg had set Liquid Swords up to make games without crunch, the long overtime common in the industry. [30]
15
Buggy WoW patch as WoW: Forever booms

World of Warcraft's latest update for its Midnight expansion, patch 12.1.5, came out on 13 October with bugs that stopped players finishing its biggest new feature, a long solo dungeon called a labyrinth. [31] Blizzard fixed the worst bugs on 16 October, but a labyrinth still cannot be saved halfway. [31] Meanwhile WoW: Forever, a new version built on the game's early years, is breaking beta records, Blizzard developers say. [31] It launches on 4 November. [31]

Why it matters — Blizzard apologised for a similarly buggy patch in April and promised to do better. [31] At BlizzCon it put almost all its attention on Forever, not on the current game. [31]
16
Penguin Colony blocked from sale in Israel

Penguin Colony, a new game from the studio Origame Digital that mixes penguins with the horror story At the Mountains of Madness, cannot be bought on Steam in Israel. [32] Its publisher told a player on the game's Steam forum that the developer asked for the block "to demonstrate solidarity with Palestine". [32] The publisher said developers have "the right to control where their games are sold". [32] The makers of Big Walk recently kept their game off Xbox for the same boycott campaign. [32]

Why it matters — Store tools let a developer pick the countries where a game is sold, so a political choice can be applied one country at a time. [32]
17
A Tekken 6 fan mod splits players

A fan-made mod lets players run Tekken 6, Bandai Namco's fighting game, on Windows PCs and play online with rollback, a method that predicts moves to hide lag. [33] It passed 10,000 players by 17 October, and players must supply their own copy of the game. [33] Top Japanese player Dogura called it a "pirated version" that "crosses the line". [33] Many Western players reply that there is no legal way left to buy the game. [33]

Why it matters — Some Japanese players argue that money spent this way stops reaching Tekken 8, the official game. [33] Bandai Namco has not acted against the mod so far. [33]
18
PS5's Demon's Souls runs on a PC

Demon's Souls, Sony's 2020 remake that has only ever been sold on the PS5, now runs on a PC through KytyPS5, an unofficial program that lets PS5 games run on a computer. [42] A YouTuber showed it reaching 120 frames a second at 1080p on an Nvidia RTX 5070 card, using frame generation, which adds extra in-between frames. [42] On the PS5 the game is locked to 60 frames a second. [42] The footage still shows stutter. [42]

Why it matters — The PS5 is still Sony's current console, and a fan tool already runs one of its exclusive games faster than the console does. [42]
19
Jun Maeda chooses palliative care

Jun Maeda, who wrote the Japanese visual novels Kanon, Air and Clannad, has throat cancer, his publisher Visual Arts said on 19 October. [34] He has chosen palliative care, which eases pain instead of trying to cure, over chemotherapy, to keep his strength for his work. [34] He was writing the phone game Heaven Burns Red, which he has finished up to chapter six. [34] Visual Arts says he is in hospital and determined to keep creating. [34]

Why it matters — His games became anime series that brought Japanese visual novels, story games told in text and pictures, to many fans outside Japan. [34]
20
Game Pass drops Double Fine's old adventures

Eight games leave Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft's games subscription, on 31 October. [35] They include Double Fine's remastered Day of the Tentacle and Full Throttle, two 1990s adventure games, and Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. [35][36] Double Fine, the studio behind Psychonauts, is independent again after leaving Xbox. [36] Subscribers can buy the leaving games at 20% off before they go. [35]

Why it matters — GameSpot links the Double Fine exits to the studio no longer being part of Xbox. [35] A subscription holds a game only while the deal behind it lasts. [35]
21
Game makers' awards open to entries

The Game Developers Choice Awards, prizes voted on by people who make games, will take entries from publishers and developers for the first time. [37] Any PC or console game released in 2026 can enter, free, until 1 November. [37] Until now an invite-only panel of over 500 industry people nominated the games. [37] Two new prizes, Best Game Launch and Best Gaming Tech, will be given on 2 March 2027 at GDC, a big annual meeting of game makers. [37]

Why it matters — A game that is not entered can no longer win, so small studios now have to put themselves forward. [37]
22
A new Croatian conference replaces Reboot

Splitscreen, a new games industry conference, will run from 20 to 22 April 2027 at a seafront hotel in Split, on Croatia's coast. [38] It aims to fill the gap left by Reboot Develop, a popular conference whose organiser was served a bankruptcy order this year. [38] Its first speakers include Ilari Kuittinen, a co-founder of the studio Housemarque. [38] Its director Hrvoje Mitic says Croatia's game makers have doubled their yearly revenue since 2019. [38]

Why it matters — Meetings like this are where small studios find publishers and partners. [38] Mitic says Croatia's studios have also had layoffs and closures. [38]
23
Saros adds a slow-motion setting

Housemarque released a free Zenith update on 19 October for Saros, its PS5 shooter where players dodge waves of bullets. [39][40] It adds a setting that slows the whole game down, instead of cutting the number of bullets. [39] There are also 10 new modifiers that make runs easier, others that make them harder, a boss-rush mode and a New Game Plus. [39] Saros came out in April and sold slowly at first, Eurogamer says. [39]

Why it matters — Housemarque said it did not want fewer bullets on screen, so it gave players more time to react instead. [39]
24
Faraway gets a date after 16 years

Faraway, a one-button space game by developer Steph Thirion, first announced in 2010, will come out on 5 November on PC, PS5, Xbox and Switch. [41] Players guide a shooting star and use the pull of other stars to slingshot across a universe built as they play. [41] It is published by Annapurna Interactive, known for games with a strong artistic style. [41]

Why it matters — Annapurna, which also published last month's Silent Hill: Townfall, now puts its name behind a game one developer has worked on for more than a decade. [41]
25
Witcher 3 sharpens its Switch 2 version

CD Projekt Red is rolling out patch 5.01 for The Witcher 3 Remastered on the Nintendo Switch 2, after players said the game looked blurry in handheld mode. [43] It changes the sharpening and resolution to make the picture clearer. [43] It also turns down the brightness that players have complained about since the remaster came out in late September. [43] Other fixes stop player-controlled boats moving on their own. [43]

Why it matters — The same brightness change had already reached the game on other consoles, Eurogamer notes. [43]

02 Lesson why it matters

Why an age label on a game works through the filters that read it

A rating bans nothing by itself, but stores and parents' settings are built to act on the number, so changing it changes who can buy.

The twist

A rating board does not need the power to ban a game. It needs the stores and parental settings that already read its number.

The picture

16PEGI prints 16

16The store reads it

12Child's account allows

An example account set to 12. The number 16 blocks nothing on its own; the store and the account settings do the blocking.

How it works

A rating board gives each game an age number
Shops, app stores and parents' settings are built to act on that number
An account set to a younger age cannot buy above it
So moving a game from 12 to 16 cuts off younger buyers
The game is not banned, and stays on sale to everyone else

The same force, elsewhere today

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

Steam players asking to hide AI games

Steam already makes developers declare AI use, but no player can hide those games until Valve turns the answer into a tag its filters read.
Ukie's AI certification mark

The mark gives a studio something to show, and it counts because publishers and investors look for it when the studio asks for money.

Where you've seen this

Film ratings

a cinema checks the age on the ticket and turns younger viewers away

Credit scores

a lender's computer refuses loans below a set score, though the score itself refuses nobody

Fridge energy grades

a grant that pays only for the top grades decides which fridges sell

The catch

It works only where something reads the number: a game on an account with no age set, or bought outside the store, is not blocked by it.

And the whole of it

Parents, stores, rating boards and game makers each hold one link in this chain. A parent who never looks at the number is still relying on a console or a store that does.

03 Truth what's really going on

What is really going on

PEGI is not banning loot boxes. It is moving download-only games that sell them up to a 16 rating, and the games stay on sale. [1] Whether a younger player is actually stopped depends on stores and parental tools, and the EU is still deciding what to require of both. [2]

Who gains

Parents in countries that use PEGI — The rating now carries the words "Paid random items", so the reason for the 16 is shown with it. [1]
Independent studios like Bit Reactor and Fuse Games — Lucasfilm now takes Star Wars pitches from studios outside the biggest publishers. [12][13]
Ukie and the law firm Sheridans — They charge studios 500 to 2,500 pounds for AI checks, in a market made by fast-changing AI law. [24]
Sellers holding RTX 5090 cards — With Nvidia's own US store empty, the only listings left carry very high prices. [27]
Embark Studios — A free weekend and a half-price sale brought about $3 million in three days, by Alinea's estimate. [29]

Who pays

Publishers of download-only games that sell loot boxes — Their games jump to a 16 rating, in some cases from a 3 or a 7. [1]
Small studios like Digital Sun — They give up the attention a public test brings, to avoid being copied before launch. [4][7]
Liquid Swords' 27 staff — They lose their jobs as the studio closes. [30]
Umamusume fans who travelled to Los Angeles — Some paid thousands of dollars for shows that may not happen. [23]
Team Vitality — Its trophies and computers were taken, and its Paris base is shut. [21]

What nobody knows yet

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

01

Which games are being moved to 16, and how many.

The Games Rating Authority says a large number of ratings will change through October but has published no list. [1]
02

Whether boxed copies of the same games will change too.

This first step covers only download-only games already on sale. [1]
03

Whether the US ratings board, the ESRB, will follow.

When PEGI set out its rules, no matching change was expected in the US. [3]
04

Whether copying a game's design with AI breaks any law.

Game mechanics have long had little copyright protection, Game Developer notes, and Digital Sun has not said what protection it wants. [4][9]
05

Whether the Umamusume concerts go ahead on 22 October.

Cygames says the visas are still not approved and it is exploring every option. [23]
06

Whether Nvidia has cut RTX 5090 supply.

Nvidia says production continues, yet the card is gone from its own US store. [27]
07

Who will make Battlefront 3, if anyone.

The only source is an anonymous gossip column read out on a podcast. [15][16]
08

What happens to Samson and its players.

Sundberg says talks on support continue, and no buyer has been named. [30]
09

Whether Bandai Namco acts against the Tekken 6 mod.

It has not responded so far. [33]

04 Hope carry this

Faraway, a one-button space game first announced in 2010, now has a release date: 5 November.

Also true today

The Game Developers Choice Awards will let any studio enter a 2026 PC or console game, free of charge.
Three podcast hosts laid off by IGN have started their own network, X Button, paid for by listeners.
Housemarque added a setting that slows Saros down, giving players more time to react without taking bullets away.