Gaming, in brief

Xbox, Microsoft's games business, announced Xbox Labs on 13 October: a small team of game makers, engineers and scientists. [1][5]

Its boss, Asha Sharma, said fans had prompted it by pulling old games apart and rebuilding them to run on machines they were never made for. [1][3]

Fans have made Halo: Combat Evolved playable in a web browser with 128 players, and Bloodborne, a PlayStation game, run on PC. [3]

Many of these copies were made with AI coding tools such as Claude, Kotaku reports, though Sharma's note never uses the word AI. [5]

Sharma said easier access and new life for old games are "unmistakably good outcomes for players", even when they challenge how Xbox makes money. [1]

A spokesperson told GamesIndustry.biz that Labs hires no new staff, has no order to use AI and has no products planned yet. [2]

Labs gathers work Xbox had already started: running games in web browsers, moving PC games onto Apple's own chips, and helping people who make mods, fan changes to games. [2][4]

It is run by Scott Van Vliet, Xbox's chief technology officer. [3]

In February, when she took over, Sharma promised not to flood Xbox with "soulless AI slop". [3]

At a staff meeting last week, Sharma said Xbox will back its biggest series and still needs new ones. [7][8]

Eurogamer checked the transcript and gives her words as: "We will not survive if we only rely on the past." [6]

Xbox's cuts, which it calls a reset, have removed at least 1,600 jobs. [7] Microsoft also stopped paying Double Fine, Ninja Theory, Compulsion Games and Undead Labs, four studios that made new series. [7][9]

Why it matters. Watch whether Xbox Labs puts anything in players' hands, and whether Microsoft treats fan ports of its own games as experiments or as copying it will stop. The Verge asked, and Microsoft did not answer in time. [1][2]

GamesBeat, a games news site, reports that Rockstar will release Grand Theft Auto 6 on PC in the first three months of 2027. [12][15] It cites four unnamed industry sources, and Rockstar did not comment. [14][15] The game comes out on PlayStation 5 and Xbox on 19 November. [13] GTA 5 reached consoles in September 2013 and PC only in April 2015. [13] Red Dead Redemption 2 took about a year to reach PC. [12] Take-Two, Rockstar's owner, reports its results on 9 November. [16]

Why it matters. PC players would wait months instead of years, if the report is right. Sensor Tower, a research firm, estimates more than 6 million copies pre-sold, about $600 million. [16]

The Entertainment Software Association, the US trade group for games companies such as Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony, asked the US Trade Representative last week to name Anbernic on its list of piracy markets. [17] The Trade Representative is the US office that handles trade deals. [17] Anbernic is a Chinese company that makes handhelds built to run old console games. [17] The group says its devices are often sold with memory cards holding hundreds or thousands of copied games. [17] Anbernic itself does not appear to load such cards when it sells from its own website. [17]

Why it matters. The list carries no penalty by itself. [17] But it can lead to a US trade investigation, which could bring legal action or limits on bringing the devices into the US. [17]

Ludeon Studios moved RimWorld, its colony-building game, off Unity, the engine many games are built on, and onto its own Waylith engine. [18][19] An engine is the base software a game runs on. [18] Ludeon says the game runs two to four times faster in its tests. [18] A pack of 1,500 mods now loads in 6 minutes instead of 14, and old saves still work. [18] The update is in an early test version, and Ludeon's next game will use Waylith too. [18][19]

Why it matters. Players get a faster game without losing their saves or most of their mods. [19] One player says the new version uses 12 to 13GB of memory as soon as it starts. [18]

Legacy Games, an online shop that sells bundles of up to 15 small puzzle and casual games from $14.99, is shutting down. [20] Its site promised the games were "yours to keep forever" and says it has served over a million customers. [20] Its monthly deals end on 1 December, and its download codes stop working on 31 December. [20] Everything goes offline on 28 February 2027. [20]

Why it matters. Buyers must download their games through its launcher before 28 February or lose them. [20] Points and rewards held by members expire at the end of this year. [20]

EA's Battlefield 6, a war shooter, now sells an Ultimate Shortcut Kit for $30. [21] It unlocks every gun for all four classes, fully upgraded, which players would otherwise earn by playing for many hours. [21] The same kits cost $40 in Battlefield 3 and $50 in Battlefield 4. [21] On 13 October the game also joined Game Pass, Xbox's $23-a-month subscription, and added maps set in Las Vegas and Area 51. [22]

Why it matters. Some players say buying every gun is unfair to those who earned them. Others say they lack the time to play that long. [21]

Knack 2, Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection and God of War III Remastered disappeared from the PlayStation Store in several regions, including North America. [23] God of War III appears to have been listed for about 50 cents on the Mexican store, so the removal may be a pricing fix. [23] People who already bought them can still download them. [23] Kotaku asked Sony why, and has had no answer. [23]

Why it matters. Sony plans to stop making discs for new PlayStation games from 2028, so its online store will be the only place to buy them. [23] This week shows Sony can take games off that store without warning. [23]

Polygon found Capcom's Resident Evil 4 remake stutters and looks blurry on Nintendo's Switch 2 when played in the hand, though it runs well on a TV. [24] Bethesda released a patch for Oblivion Remastered on Switch 2 that fixes blurring caused by its own September patch. [25] CD Projekt Red says a Switch 2 patch for The Witcher 3 Remastered is still coming, after it updated the PS5 version first. [26]

Why it matters. All three are older games moved onto Nintendo's new machine, and all three needed more work after they came out. [24][25][26] Polygon says Capcom's other Switch 2 games this year run smoothly in the hand. [24]

Valve says its Index virtual reality headset is no longer being made, and it is selling what is left at lower prices. [27] The headset launched in 2019 at $499 and now costs $399.20, without controllers or base stations. [27] Valve's newer headset, the Steam Frame, replaces it. [27] Replacement right-hand controllers are not on sale. [27]

Why it matters. Index owners can still buy some spare parts, but only while stock lasts. [27]

Some Xbox testers now see a streak counter on the console's home screen, Stephen Totilo of the news site Game File found. [28] It appears to count days played in a row, and may be tied to Microsoft's reward points, which buy games and gift cards. [28] Microsoft has not announced it. [28] Separately, Bird & Bird, a law firm, writes that a proposed EU law on children's safety online could affect daily log-in rewards. [29]

Why it matters. A streak gives players a reason to switch on every day, as Wordle and many phone games already do. [28]

Richard Gray, known as Levelord, has died, Apogee Entertainment announced. [30] He designed levels for Duke Nukem 3D in 1996, then co-founded the studio that became Ritual Entertainment, which made Sin and a Quake add-on. [30] He made his first Doom level at 35, late for the industry. [31] A friend wrote that he had been ill with cancer. [30]

Why it matters. Gears of War's creator, Cliff Bleszinski, wrote that he "paved the way" for level designers. [30] One of his Quake levels is often named as the first set of platforms floating in space, a style later shooters copied. [31]

Bandai Namco will make Ace Combat Zero, a 2006 PlayStation 2 fighter-jet game, run on its own on PC. [32] It was a bonus for anyone who pre-ordered Ace Combat 8. [32] On PC it could only start from inside the new game, while on consoles it was separate. [32] Bandai Namco says the change is in final testing, and saves will carry over. [32]

Why it matters. PC buyers had complained on the game's Steam page, and the company changed course. [32] Console buyers got it as a separate game from the start. [32]

Halo Fest, a fan event in Seattle on 11 to 13 December, will go ahead and is sold out, Halo Studios said. [33] The studio was cut sharply this year, and future Halo games will be made by Activision, the Call of Duty publisher Microsoft owns. [33] The smaller Halo Studios now looks after the games already out. [33] It promised news about the event this week. [33]

Why it matters. Fans had hoped for a new Halo game at the event, and GameSpot says those plans may have changed. [33]

Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, Konami's first game in the vampire-hunting series in over ten years, has been reviewed. [34] It was made by two outside studios, Evil Empire and Motion Twin, who made the hit Dead Cells. [34] Rock Paper Shotgun calls it a fantastic action game but a weaker exploring game. [34] The Guardian says its best ideas take too long to appear. [35] Kotaku found an early fight too hard to get past. [36]

Why it matters. Konami handed one of its oldest series to small outside studios instead of making it itself. [34] Rock Paper Shotgun says it plays a little like Dead Cells, but is not a game you restart from scratch each time you die. [34]

AMD, which makes graphics chips, has reportedly raised the price of the memory it sells with them to card makers. [37] The rise took effect on 1 October, according to sources on a Chinese forum. [37] Intel announced a chip for AI data centres carrying up to 480GB of memory. [38] Gigabyte, a maker of PC circuit boards, deleted a post saying Intel would release more chips for older PCs in early 2027. [39]

Why it matters. Card makers usually pass such rises on, so PC players will likely pay more for graphics cards. [37] Memory is short partly because AI companies are buying so much of it. [37][38]

Nvidia's DLSS 5, a tool that uses AI to redraw game graphics, comes to Hogwarts Legacy on 5 November. [40] When first shown, it made a 15-year-old character look much older, and players called it AI art. [40] New pictures show much smaller changes to faces. [40] An October update makes the tool 24% smaller and uses 20% less graphics memory. [40]

Why it matters. Nvidia says game makers decide how strongly DLSS 5 changes their game. [40] The first game to use the new version is NBA 2K27, on 16 October. [40]

Sony's collector's box for God of War Laufey holds a light-up statue, 51 illustrated cards and a small art book, and no copy of the game. [41] GameSpot lists it at $150 on Sony's own shop. [41] Kotaku says it costs 130 pounds in the UK, and the US cost is not yet set. [42] The game costs another $70 and comes out in February 2027. [41]

Why it matters. Boxes like this sell to the most devoted fans at a high profit, GameSpot says. [41] Kotaku notes Rockstar's $400 GTA 6 collector's edition also comes without the game. [42]

Sony will sell a black PlayStation 5 Digital Edition, without a disc drive, only in Japan from 19 November for 55,000 yen, about $380. [43] It is cheap because it works only with Japanese accounts and in Japanese, so it cannot be sold abroad. [43] Sony is also selling a matching disc drive. [43] The PS5 Pro is in such demand in Japan that Sony sells it by lottery. [43]

Why it matters. Sony keeps a lower price for Japanese buyers by stopping the console being bought there and sold elsewhere. [43]

Peak, a cheap climbing game for groups of friends, sold over 10 million copies on Steam by August 2025. [44] It has now been rated for PlayStation 5 by the ESRB, the US body that gives games age ratings. [44] Such ratings usually come shortly before a game is announced. [44] Its makers stopped adding new content this summer. [44]

Why it matters. Its $8 price made it an easy buy for whole groups of friends, IGN says. [44] It is not yet clear whether it will cost the same on PS5. [44]

Sloclap, a French studio, released Sifu, its 2022 kung fu game, on Android and iPhone for $8. [45] It added touch controls and a new camera made for small screens. [45] It also works with a controller. [45] Sloclap's latest game is Rematch, a football game. [45]

Why it matters. Fans had hoped for a Sifu sequel, and Sloclap has not said what it will make after Rematch. [45]

Andrew Eiche runs Owlchemy Labs, a Google-owned studio that makes virtual reality games. [46] He told Game Developer, at the Gamescom fair, that VR is still young because most headsets are too clumsy to wear in a cafe. [46] He says newer, lighter ones are getting close. [46] VR studios including Survios, Twisted Pixel and Sanzaru Games have cut staff or closed this year. [46] Eiche says rivals misread what players wanted, which was social games. [46]

Why it matters. Eiche says his own game, Dimensional Double Shift, had its best month yet for players and sessions. [46]

GameDataCore, a start-up in Brighton, UK, launched a service that splits each Steam review into small parts and sorts them by topic and feeling for game makers. [47] It weighs each review by who wrote it, using what else that player owns and how long they played. [47] It has been tested with 24 studios and publishers since March. [47] It launches for Steam Next Fest, a week of free demos from 19 to 26 October. [47]

Why it matters. Its makers say studios rarely check what their own decisions did, and want to make that routine. [47] It runs on small European AI models, so player data is not sent to big US AI firms. [47]

Dan Houser co-founded Rockstar, the maker of Grand Theft Auto, and left in 2020. [48] He told IGN that GTA 3's famous box art was drawn in about two evenings, after 11 September 2001 made the old cover, with burning buildings, unusable. [48] He also called Max Payne 3, on which he played a central role, a failure that players did not like. [49]

Why it matters. The same box style is on GTA 6's cover today. [48] PC Gamer's writer disagrees with Houser about Max Payne 3. [49]

Kaz Hirai ran PlayStation from 2007 to 2012 and later ran all of Sony. [50] He told Nikkei XTrend, a Japanese business magazine, that as PlayStation's head he ignored orders from Sony's top bosses. [50] When he later ran Sony, he tried to stop each division going its own way. [50]

Why it matters. As Sony's boss he pushed a slogan, kando, a Japanese word for being moved by something, to pull every division toward one goal. [50]

Planet Zoo 2, a $50 game about building and running a zoo from Frontier Developments, a UK studio, has been reviewed. [51] It adds fish, birds and nature reserves to the first game. [51] PC Gamer praises its animals and says its menus are hard to use. [51]

Why it matters. PC Gamer's reviewer says he struggled with the building tools more than in any Frontier game before. [51]