Gaming, in brief

Gears of War: E-Day, Xbox's big new shooter, sold about 230,000 copies in its first week, according to estimates from Alinea Analytics, a research firm. [1][2]

Steam, Valve's PC game store, sold 168,000 of those copies, and Xbox's own console and PC stores sold about 62,000. [1][5]

Game Pass is Xbox's subscription: members pay a monthly fee and can play many games, and E-Day was included from its launch day. [1][4]

About 1.7 million people played E-Day through Game Pass instead of buying it, Alinea estimates. [2][4]

Of those, 722,000 paid $30 more for the Premium Edition upgrade, which let them start on 1 October, five days before everyone else. [1][5]

Buyers outside Game Pass paid $99.99 for that Premium Edition, or $70 for the standard game. [1][2]

Alinea counts about $37 million in revenue so far, and about three-quarters of it came through Xbox, not Steam. [3][4]

Rhys Elliott, Alinea's analyst, wrote that Xbox is "charging its most valuable customers the least". [2][4]

Mat Piscatella of Circana, another research firm, pointed out that Game Pass members already pay about $23 a month, and not all of them would have bought the game. [4]

Microsoft has not confirmed any of these figures. [2][5]

Critics liked the game: it scores 88 on Metacritic, a site that averages reviews, the series' best in more than a decade. [5]

Staff at The Coalition, the Xbox studio that made E-Day, told Eurogamer they fear layoffs now that the game is out. [1]

Why it matters. Watch whether Microsoft keeps its other big games out of Game Pass on launch day, as it already does with Call of Duty; Kotaku reads Elliott's figures as pointing that way. [3][7]

Staff at Double Fine, the studio behind Psychonauts, asked the US labour board for a union in May and withdrew the request two weeks later, Kotaku reports. [8] Under US law, managers who can hire and fire cannot join a union. [9] At Double Fine, many people had led a team at some point, so nobody was sure who could join. [8] Organisers had the support of about 75% of the staff they thought could join, and those staff were just under half of the studio. [8] In July, all eight organisers were among 23 people laid off. [8][9]

Why it matters. Tim Schafer, the studio's founder, told Kotaku the layoffs did not target anyone, and that the studio kept the people it most needed. [9][10] The case shows a law written for workplaces with clear bosses meeting a studio where almost everyone has led something. [8]

Lawyers for 31 developers fired by Rockstar, the studio making GTA 6, questioned its HR manager Charlie Kinloch at an employment tribunal in Glasgow on 9 October. [11] An employment tribunal is a court for workplace disputes. [11] The workers say they were fired for organising a union; Rockstar says they leaked secrets and broke its trust. [11][12] An employee called "AB" had sent Kinloch screenshots from the union's private Discord chat for over two years. [12] Asked why Rockstar waited 18 months to act, Kinloch said public attention on GTA 6 was at its peak. [11][12]

Why it matters. Kinloch first said he did not know who was in the union, then said he could not know "definitively", and the workers say that change misled the tribunal. [11] Days after the firings in October 2025, Rockstar delayed GTA 6 from May to November 2026. [12]

The FBI arrested a man in Pennsylvania on 9 October over the September hack of the FBI itself by ShinyHunters, a gang that steals data and demands money. [13] The same gang broke into Rockstar in April and published its financial details when Rockstar would not pay. [13] An FBI official has said ShinyHunters took over $70 million from more than 140 organisations. [13] Another suspected member, detained in Jordan on 29 September, is helping the FBI, Reuters reported. [14] The man's name and charges have not been released. [13]

Why it matters. ShinyHunters also hit GrubHub, the European Commission and Carnival Cruise this year, so Rockstar was one target among many. [13] The FBI's director says the bureau is now working to break up what is left of the group. [13]

Gigabyte, which makes the main circuit boards PCs are built on, says Intel will release new processors for an older socket in early 2027. [15][16] That socket, from 2021, works with DDR4, an older and slower kind of memory. [15] Memory has become far dearer as AI data centres buy it up. [17] A 32GB DDR5 kit costs about $480 against $210 for DDR4, PC Gamer found. [16] AMD is also re-releasing a chip for its older DDR4 boards. [15] Intel has not confirmed the plan. [15]

Why it matters. Someone building or upgrading a gaming PC could keep cheaper memory instead of paying more than twice as much. [16] Robert Hallock, an Intel vice president, said "lots of people are still interested in DDR4". [16][17]

Sony agreed to transfer 419 virtual-reality patents, legal rights over inventions, to Meta, the owner of Facebook, GamesIndustry.biz reports. [18] The deal was signed in December 2025. [18] 180 were filed in the US, and the rest in Japan, China, Korea, Europe and elsewhere. [18] Sony moved more than 40 of them between June and September. [18] Sony's own headset, the PSVR 2, came out in 2023 at $549.99. [18]

Why it matters. Meta is moving from headsets to $1,299.99 VR glasses due in spring 2027, even though its VR division lost $19.2 billion last year. [18] GamesIndustry.biz reads the deal as Sony winding down its own VR work; Sony has not said so. [18]

Nordisk Games owns both Avalanche Studios Group, maker of theHunter: Call of the Wild, and Supermassive Games, a British studio known for horror games. [19] On 9 October it said Avalanche will publish, market and sell Supermassive's games worldwide, starting with Directive 8020. [19] The two studios will also share finance, staff services and IT, while each keeps making its own games. [19] Supermassive has cut jobs three times in three years. [19]

Why it matters. Nordisk's chief executive says one shared back office lets more money go into making games. [19] Both studios have shrunk: Avalanche also closed its Liverpool studio in November 2025, losing 31 jobs. [19]

Full Circle, the EA studio behind the skateboarding game Skate, said on 9 October it welcomes player mods, but not ones that unlock items players pay for. [20][21] It follows ReSkate, a fan-made tool downloaded more than 350,000 times, that lets the online-only game run offline. [20][21] ReSkate lifted Skate to over 7,000 players at once on 5 October, its highest in months. [21] Full Circle says it is building official tools that let players create more inside the game. [21]

Why it matters. Skate makes money by selling cosmetic items inside the game, so a mod that hands them out free takes that money away. [20] ReSkate's makers say they do not allow such mods, and will take their tool down if EA's lawyers ask. [20][21]

Copies of Halo, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Call of Duty: Black Ops and The Simpsons: Hit and Run now run inside a web browser, Kotaku reports. [22] Kotaku says a new AI model, Claude Opus 5.5, has made such copies quick to build, because it can turn a game's finished files back into code. [22] That job used to take people months. [22] Kotaku's writer found some copies ran almost perfectly, and one Halo copy had working online play. [22]

Why it matters. The games belong to big publishers, including Microsoft and Take-Two, Rockstar's owner. [22] Kotaku expects their lawyers to be busy, because a copy that is taken down can be rebuilt quickly. [22]

Pearl Abyss, the studio behind the open-world adventure Crimson Desert, confirmed 6 million sales. [23] Critics gave it a middling 77 on Metacritic, a site that averages reviews. [23] Lybee Park, who runs Pearl Abyss in Europe, said critics played a version that was not the one sold at launch, and had limited time. [23] A day-one fix and a big first-week update changed things critics disliked, such as limits on how much players could carry. [23]

Why it matters. A review scores the version critics were sent, while buyers got a game that kept changing after launch. [23] Its first paid add-on arrives on 29 October. [23]

Bandai Namco said Ace Combat 8, the latest game in its fighter-jet series, sold 1 million copies in about a week. [24] That is the fastest start of any game in the series. [24] It came out on 2 October. [24] It is also the series' second-best-reviewed game, at 86 to 88 on Metacritic, behind Ace Combat 4's 89. [24]

Why it matters. It adds online modes where players team up, fight each other and meet in a shared hub, which give players a reason to keep playing after the story ends. [24] Its launch was marred by a bonus game that would not run on its own on PC. [24]

Bulkhead, the studio behind the war shooter Wardogs, will give extra in-game cash and experience points to players who pick the Blue team, from Season 2 on 15 October. [25][27] Many players avoid Blue, some waiting minutes at team selection for a place on Red or Green. [25] Bulkhead admits Blue's spawn points and bright uniforms hurt it, and is changing both. [26][27] Season 2 also adds a "Wager Vendor", where players bet in-game cash on how well they will play. [26][27]

Why it matters. PC Gamer suggests Blue's bad name feeds itself: players avoid it, so it fills with newer players, who lose more. [25] Any team far behind will now also get 20% off in the game's shops. [27]

Joe Brammer, who runs Bulkhead, said the Xbox Series S, Microsoft's cheaper console, is one reason Wardogs has no weather that changes during a match. [28] Its new rain will stay the same for a whole match. [28] Xbox requires games to launch on both the Series S and the stronger Series X, with the same main features. [28] Wardogs is not due on consoles until 2028, but the team plans for it now. [28]

Why it matters. Because of that rule, the cheaper console limits what the game can have on every machine, PC included. [28] The makers of No Rest for the Wicked and Baldur's Gate 3 have also struggled to fit their games onto the Series S. [28]

Since 1 October, Valve, which runs the Steam store, has shown game makers the frame rates that real Steam Deck owners get. [29] Frame rate is how many pictures a second the screen shows, and a higher one looks smoother. [29] The data comes from players who agree to share it, and Valve says most do. [29] Valve already gives some games a "Verified" badge for the handheld, and PC Gamer says some badged games still run poorly. [29]

Why it matters. Makers can now see when players are lowering the frame rate to keep a game smooth, and change its settings. [29] Valve calls the data a starting point, and for now it covers only games that already have the badge. [29]

Konami will make "second and third waves" of Silent Hill horror games, producer Motoi Okamoto told Famitsu, a Japanese games magazine. [30] The first wave was three games: the Silent Hill 2 remake, Silent Hill f and Silent Hill: Townfall, out last month. [30] All three came out and were well reviewed, Okamoto said. [30] He said it was hard to convince his bosses that more than one remake was worth making. [30]

Why it matters. Okamoto said that with only one release, people would have assumed the series was being cancelled again. [30] Bloober Team, which made the Silent Hill 2 remake, is already remaking the first game. [30]

Blumhouse, a Hollywood horror film studio, will make films of viral indie horror games with Matthew Patrick, a YouTuber known as MatPat. [31] The first is Amanda the Adventurer, a puzzle game about a creepy children's cartoon. [31] They announced it at New York Comic Con and are talking to writers and directors. [31] Another YouTuber, Markiplier, paid for his own film of the game Iron Lung this year. [31]

Why it matters. IGN links the deal to the success of Backrooms, a film made from an online horror series, after which studios approved other such films. [31] Games with a big following online bring a ready-made audience to a film. [31]

Assemble Entertainment will remove its two Leisure Suit Larry games, Wet Dreams Don't Dry from 2018 and Wet Dreams Dry Twice, from Steam on 23 October. [32] Until then they cost under $2 each, 95% off. [32] The older Larry games were pulled from sale in 2025. [32] Assemble gave no reason. [32]

Why it matters. PC Gamer guesses that the right to use the Larry name, first owned by Sierra, is running out. [32] When such a licence ends, a game can leave the shops even while people still want it. [32]

EA will add a full server browser to Battlefield 6 in December, as part of Season 5. [33] A server browser lets players choose, or set up, a game with their own maps and rules, instead of being matched automatically. [33] The game launched with one only for its custom mode, and a producer had asked why players wanted more. [33] Season 5 starts on 13 October with maps set in Las Vegas and Area 51. [33]

Why it matters. Battlefield 6 was the best-selling game in the US in 2025. [33] It joins Game Pass on 13 October, a year after it came out, which is the opposite of how Xbox launched Gears of War: E-Day. [7]

Christopher Didriksen, a student at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, built a way to recognise Counter-Strike 2 players by how they use the mouse and keyboard. [34] In a test of over 1,000 players, keyboard patterns picked the right person 98% of the time. [34] A banned cheater can make a new account and be back the same evening. [34] His method found such second accounts that nobody had reported. [34]

Why it matters. Most bans block one account, and new accounts are free to make. [34] A check on how a person plays could follow them from account to account, which is the gap Didriksen says today's tools leave. [34]

Razer's new Basilisk V4 mice, at $110 and $170, can turn a player 180 degrees at the press of a button. [35][36] Razer says its Perfect 180 feature helps players in shooting games react to threats from behind. [35] PC Gamer's writer says it would look like cheating to anyone on the other side. [35] It comes in Razer's own official software, not a hidden program. [35]

Why it matters. A game's makers set its rules, but this works in the mouse, outside the game itself. [35] PC Gamer compares it to an earlier row over Snap Tap, a keyboard feature some called cheating. [35]

Kitao Sakurai, director of the new Street Fighter film, says he is already writing a sequel. [37] He says whether it is made depends on how people react to the first film. [37] The film opens on 16 October. [37] It is the second film from Capcom, which makes the games, to reach cinemas this year, after Resident Evil. [37]

Why it matters. The cast told IGN that a second film needs cinema audiences to justify it. [37] So people buying tickets next week help decide whether the story continues on screen. [37]

Crunchyroll, an anime streaming service, dated its anime of Sony's samurai game Ghost of Tsushima for 2028. [38] Takanobu Mizuno, who directed a Star Wars: Visions short, will direct it at the studio Kamikaze Douga. [38] Gen Urobuchi, writer of the anime Psycho-Pass, is co-writing. [38] Mayumi Saco, who voiced the archer Tomoe in the game, returns. [38]

Why it matters. GameSpot counts anime of Sekiro, Bloodborne and Death Stranding also in the works. [38] The game's sequel, Ghost of Yotei, came out in 2025. [38]

Francis Lawrence, director of the coming Hunger Games film, says the script for a BioShock film is "pretty close". [39] A BioShock film has been in development for more than a decade. [39] Netflix took it over in 2022 and later scaled it back. [39] Producer Roy Lee says Take-Two, which owns BioShock, wants the film to come out alongside new BioShock games. [39]

Why it matters. Take-Two's boss Strauss Zelnick says the long-delayed BioShock 4 is not dead. [39] Lee says Lawrence could start work in 2027, after his Hunger Games film comes out in December. [39]

Devon Pritchard, Nintendo of America's new president, told Variety that bringing GTA 6 to the Switch 2 is "a conversation for Take-Two and Rockstar". [40][41] GTA 6 comes out on 19 November on PS5 and Xbox only. [40] Nintendo's remake of Zelda: Ocarina of Time arrives two weeks earlier, on 5 November. [41] Take-Two's boss says it will not bring every game to the Switch 2. [40]

Why it matters. Red Dead Redemption 2 and GTA 5, two of the ten best-selling games ever, are not on the Switch 2 either. [41] Whether the console could run GTA 6 well is not known. [41]

From 14 October, Fortnite players can buy exactly the number of V-Bucks, its in-game money, needed for an item, GameSpot reports. [42] Until now V-Bucks came in fixed packs, so players usually bought more than they needed. [42] The change also reaches Rocket League and Fall Guys, but not on PlayStation for now. [42] EU consumer authorities have named 10 game companies over spending tactics like fixed packs. [42]

Why it matters. Fixed packs leave a player a few coins short of the next item they want, which pushes them to buy again. [42] Epic, Fortnite's maker, is not one of the 10 companies named. [42]

Wizards of the Coast, which makes the card game Magic: The Gathering, announced Marvel's Darkhold Destiny at New York Comic Con, out in April 2027. [44][46] It is Magic's third Marvel set, and the first where Wizards writes its own story with Marvel's characters. [45][43] Marvel chose one of five new heroes Wizards pitched, who appears in a Marvel comic from February. [43][46] It comes with four ready-made decks led by Doctor Strange, Thor, Blade, and Hela and Dormammu. [44]

Why it matters. Crossover sets based on Final Fantasy, Spider-Man and The Lord of the Rings sold well and brought in new players, Polygon says. [43] Some long-time players had complained such sets felt far from Magic's own world, and an original story is Wizards' answer. [44]

Charlie Cox, the actor who played Daredevil and voiced Gustave in the award-winning game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, says he recorded about 40 hours of lines for an unannounced Sega game. [47][48] He told IGN at New York Comic Con that the team had wanted an American. [47][49] So he did the role in an accent he had not prepared. [47] He said the game does not have a name yet. [48]

Why it matters. Cox said earlier this year that Expedition 33 had "opened a new avenue" for his work. [48] Sega's next big release is Stranger than Heaven, in January 2027. [48]