June 2026
Saturday, 13 June 2026
An investor wants the studio behind Elden Ring to "maximise earnings" — and the dev says that's the threat
An activist fund is fighting to reshape FromSoftware's owner around monetisation and hard targets, while Xbox weighs a spinoff and Ubisoft shuts two more studios. One week, three versions of the same question: who gets to decide what a studio is for.
Friday, 12 June 2026
Destiny 2's fans crashed the servers to say goodbye — and to prove a point
Bungie shipped Destiny 2's last content update and the players flooded back in droves, hitting a two-year high and burying Bungie's new game in the process. Plus Valve dates its living-room PC, and another studio gets caught using AI.
Thursday, 11 June 2026
Ubisoft and Xbox both reach for the same lever: cut people to cover a revenue gap
Ubisoft is closing two studios and cutting up to 380 jobs while Xbox warns of 'major' July layoffs and a '100-day reset' — two companies bridging a gap between steady spending and income that hasn't arrived.
Wednesday, 10 June 2026
The richest gamers in the world, and almost no one is making games for them
A wealthy, growing audience of players over 55 keeps spending while the rest of the industry shrinks — but the people who build games, and the dashboards they watch, can barely see it.
Tuesday, 9 June 2026
Xbox admits the price hike cost it "millions" of Game Pass subscribers
At Summer Game Fest, a Microsoft executive said a 50% Game Pass price rise shed millions of subscribers in months — a rare confession of how soft a big number can be. Plus Sony's exclusives keep selling fewer copies, and a record 212 million Americans now play.
Monday, 8 June 2026
When the game you bought stops being yours
A California bill says publishers can't just switch off games you paid for. Live-service shutdowns, a Steam monopoly fight, and a quiet indie hit all circle the same question — what do you actually own when you buy a game?
Sunday, 7 June 2026
The platform takes its cut, and the live-service bet keeps coming apart
Court documents in Valve's antitrust case show how Steam guards its 30% fee, a California bill would force studios to keep dead games playable, and the live-service gamble that was meant to fund the industry keeps producing closures.
Saturday, 6 June 2026
All three console makers are rethinking the bet at once
Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony are each recalculating how consoles make money — while Amazon tries again through owned IP, one indie hit saves a studio, and a lawsuit probes who really controls the store.
Friday, 5 June 2026
A new Tomb Raider used AI to build its world — and players noticed before they played it
A buried AI disclosure on a gorgeous remake set off a backlash, and it points at the real pressure underneath: big games cost more to make while selling fewer copies. This week showed every escape the industry is reaching for — cheaper art, owned franchises, subscriptions — plus a huge market it keeps ignoring.
Thursday, 4 June 2026
Everyone built the same kind of game — now the games business is paying for it
For years studios chased the "forever game" — a live service you keep paying into — because a few of them made fortunes. This week the bill came due: a Destiny goodbye, fresh layoffs, and a chorus of developers admitting not everything can be live-service. Meanwhile two ordinary buy-it-once games quietly outperformed, and an industry that ignores its fastest-growing audience got a number it can't unsee.
Wednesday, 3 June 2026
The games business in retreat: Bungie cuts, Steam goes to court, and a law that won't let you 'kill' a game
Layoffs at Bungie and Epic, a survival game shut six months after launch, an antitrust fight over Steam's 30% cut, and a California bill to keep paid games playable — one week that shows how the money decides what gets made.