Gaming, in brief

Microsoft expects its next Xbox console, code-named Project Helix, to cost buyers $1,200 to $1,800 unless it pays part of the price itself, Fortune reports. [1][2]

Fortune, a US business magazine, found the figures while writing a long profile of Asha Sharma, who has run Xbox, Microsoft's games division, since February. [2][5]

Helix is now due in the 2028 holiday season, later than people expected. [1][3] A new Xbox handheld comes first, by the end of 2027. [3]

Console makers often sell machines below cost and earn the money back on games. [1] Phil Spencer, the former Xbox boss, said in 2022 that Microsoft paid $100 to $200 towards every Xbox sold. [6]

Memory chips are scarce and dear because AI data centres buy so many of them. [6][11] Microsoft is one of the biggest backers of that build-out. [5]

Today's machines are already dear. A six-year-old Xbox Series X now starts at $750, and a PlayStation 5 Pro costs $900. [2]

Sharma plans more Xbox layoffs this month, in November and in January. [4] About 2,000 Xbox jobs have already gone this year. [5]

Xbox and Windows teams fought over the software the handheld will run. [7] A senior Xbox executive threatened to scrap the handheld rather than use Windows, and Xbox now mostly decides. [2]

Game Pass, Xbox's monthly games subscription, may be split into add-ons. [9] Players would pay separately for cloud play, online multiplayer and console-only games. [10]

Former staff told Fortune that Game Pass cut sales of Xbox's own games. [9] Teams judged on different numbers, subscriptions for some and store sales for others, made it worse. [9]

Judson Althoff, who runs Microsoft's business with other companies, brushed off talk of selling Xbox. [4] He said: "We would not have put her on a business we intend to sell." [4]

Engadget says the high figure may have been floated so that a lower final price looks generous. [11] It notes that the Steam Machine, a games PC from Valve, which runs the Steam store, already costs less. [11]

Why it matters. Xbox has said it will share more about Helix by the end of the year, so watch whether a price or a design comes with its 25th anniversary in November. [8]

Gavin Goslin spent 15 years making Call of Duty levels at Treyarch, the studio behind Black Ops. [14] He says makers should be paid when old games sell again. [13] Activision, the Call of Duty publisher Microsoft owns, put Black Ops (2010) and Black Ops 2 (2012) on PS4 and PS5 in July, at $40 each, with no new features. [16] Alinea Analytics, a research firm, estimates 11.2 million copies and about $435 million in July alone. [13] Goslin says the makers "don't see a dime". [15]

Why it matters. Kotaku notes that payments for later sales, common for film actors, barely exist in games. [16] Activision's marketing chief says the ports did far better than expected, so more re-releases are likely. [13]

Don't Nod, the French studio behind the first two Life is Strange games and Jusant, has opened "safeguard proceedings". [12] It is a French court process, a bit like America's Chapter 11, that stops lenders from collecting for 6 to 18 months while a debt plan is agreed. [12] A month ago Don't Nod said it might run out of cash by January 2027. [12] Its newest game, Aphelion, also sold below its hopes. [12]

Why it matters. Up to 85 people could lose their jobs as the studio shrinks to one team in France. [12] Its chief executive blamed "highly selective access to financing" for game studios. [12]

Hasbro, the US toy company, said Magic: The Gathering earned more than $600 million in three months for the first time, up 34%. [22][23] Magic is a card game where players build decks and battle, made by Hasbro's Wizards of the Coast. [24] Sets based on The Hobbit and Reality Fracture led the growth. [22] The Wizards and digital games part of Hasbro grew 31%, and toys only 4%. [23] Hasbro raised its forecast for the year. [22]

Why it matters. Wizards earned $367 million in operating profit, and Kotaku counts that as about two-thirds of all Hasbro's operating profit for the quarter. [24][23] Fans complain that so many new sets make their old cards worth less. [24]

Grand Theft Auto 6, Rockstar's next crime game, has been pre-ordered about 6.08 million times as digital copies in the US, Sensor Tower, a research firm, estimates. [17] That is 148% ahead of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 at the same point before its 2022 launch. [17] Most buyers chose the $100 edition, and 74% bought on PlayStation. [17] Sensor Tower's live count passed 6.45 million copies. [18]

Why it matters. Shops' boxed copies are not counted, so the real total is higher. [17] Sensor Tower expects most pre-orders in the last week, possibly 25 million before the 19 November launch. [18]

US regulators have approved labels for three beers named after brands in Grand Theft Auto games, IGN reports. [19] They include Pisswasser and Patriot Beer, joke brands from earlier GTA games, and a new one, No Mames Vice City. [19] A Florida brewery, Tripping Animals, will make them. [19] Rockstar has also covered Miami, the model for GTA 6's Vice City, in ads, and fans have filmed camera crews shooting cars from the game. [20]

Why it matters. Nobody has said when or where the beer will be sold. [19] Rockstar has turned a real city into an advert for a fictional one a month before launch. [20]

Sony will remove 11 games from the PlayStation Plus catalogue over the next few weeks, including Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2. [21] PS Plus is Sony's subscription, where members play a rotating library of games. [21] Both Rockstar games have left and come back before: GTA 5 returned in November 2025 and Red Dead 2 in May. [21]

Why it matters. GameSpot reads the timing as Rockstar and its owner Take-Two clearing the way for GTA 6 on 19 November. [21] Neither company has said so. [21]

Only 3.5% of Netflix subscribers play its games each month, an internal memo seen by The Wall Street Journal says. [25] That is short of Netflix's target for 2026. [25] Netflix now focuses on phone and party games, some of them tied to its shows. [25] On Tuesday it gave a weaker forecast than expected. [26] One analyst said Netflix, which has spent on games, podcasts and live events, had "too many unwanted distractions". [26]

Why it matters. Netflix's letter to investors named the Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer it showed as an example of what it now carries. [27] Co-chief Ted Sarandos has said Netflix will not drop games soon. [25]

Hiroki Totoki, head of Sony, and Strauss Zelnick, head of Take-Two, which owns Rockstar, spoke at the Paley summit in New York on Tuesday. [28] Totoki said "creativity is for humans, not AI" and that Sony tries to protect rights holders and artists. [28] Zelnick said AI learns from what already exists, while a hit is unexpected. [29] One of his division heads tells staff people who use AI will replace those who do not. [28]

Why it matters. Both firms still tell their staff to use AI tools. [28] The comments come in a week when an Xbox manager quit X after praising AI and Steam players asked to filter AI-made games. [28]

Griffin Gaming Partners, an investor in game studios, and Entertainment 360, a Hollywood talent firm, have set up HITpoint Entertainment. [30][31] It will spot games early and pair them with film and TV makers. [31] Griffin's Peter Levin backed Amazon's Fallout series, and Entertainment 360's clients are working on the Zelda film. [30] Independent games will come through Griffin's $100 million fund for small studios. [30]

Why it matters. HITpoint says it will keep game makers involved from start to finish, "aligning incentives". [30] Hollywood has long bought books early in the same way, and games are now treated as story material too. [31]

Mattel, the maker of Barbie, Uno and Hot Wheels, has nearly 300 staff in its new Mattel Game Studios, in Los Angeles and Hangzhou, China. [32] Marcus Liassides, who runs it, told GamesIndustry.biz it will both make games itself and license its brands to others. [32] It is publishing Uno Wild itself and making games for Roblox, the platform where young players build and share games. [32]

Why it matters. Liassides says making games in-house lets Mattel own more of its relationship with players. [32] Hasbro, its rival, now earns most of its profit from games rather than toys. [24]

Forest Willard, co-founder of Innersloth, which made Among Us, runs Outersloth, a fund that pays for other small studios' games. [33] He told Game Developer, a trade news site, he has seen "truly abysmal deals" offered to independent studios by publishers. [33] Some deals leave a studio little chance of earning anything after launch, he said. [33] He has thought about offering to sign such studios himself instead. [33]

Why it matters. Willard says one fund can never be enough to rescue them all. [33] Tim Bender, who runs the publisher Hooded Horse, has said a fair deal puts the risk on whichever side can best carry it. [33]

Arrowhead, the Swedish studio behind the shooter Helldivers 2, moved the game to Easy Anti-Cheat on 20 October. [36] It said the old tool, GameGuard, "wasn't as effective as it could have been". [35] Easy Anti-Cheat is used in over 200 games. [35] Some harmless mods that change how the game looks will stop working until their makers update them. [37]

Why it matters. Players posted 846 negative Steam reviews on the first day, against 146 positive ones. [36] Helldivers 2 is still not on sale on Steam in the UK. [35]

AMD, which designs the chips in Xbox and PlayStation consoles, is bringing FSR 4.1 to Xbox Series X and S. [42] FSR 4.1 draws a game at a lower resolution and uses AI to sharpen it, so it runs faster. [43] It works today on Radeon RX 6000 graphics cards and comes to Xbox "soon". [42] Each game must still be updated to use it. [44]

Why it matters. Sony gave the base PS5 a similar upgrade a few weeks ago. [42] Xbox says AMD's next version will power Helix. [42]

Thieves broke into a FedEx truck outside the Santa Ana, California, offices of PSA on 13 October. [46] PSA checks and grades collectors' trading cards, including Pokemon cards. [45][46] Police say two pallets of packages were worth about $963,000, and a third is still being counted. [46] PSA has switched off the ID numbers of the stolen cards so they are hard to resell. [45]

Why it matters. Owners will be paid only up to the insured value they picked before grading. [45] One collector paid $8,468 to grade 104 cards and insured them for $156,000. [45]

CD Projekt Red, the Polish studio, is releasing update 2.5 for Cyberpunk 2077 on 22 October, timed to a new season of the Netflix cartoon Edgerunners. [48][47][49] A leaked list says it adds two side quests, a dual-wielding skill and mods on consoles. [50] The game launched full of bugs in 2020, and it has since sold over 40 million copies. [48][50]

Why it matters. The first Edgerunners series in 2022 is credited with bringing players back to the game. [48] Most of the studio is now making The Witcher 4, due in 2028. [50]

Aspyr, a company that brings old games to new machines, will release Shrek 2 Remastered on 10 November. [51] The 2004 game, based on the film, was published by Activision. [51] The new version adds 4K graphics and online play for up to four people. [51] Its trailer mocks Grand Theft Auto 6, which comes out nine days later. [52]

Why it matters. Most publishers moved their games away from GTA 6's launch, but Shrek 2 kept its date. [52] A new Shrek film is due in 2027, and reviews of the original were lukewarm. [51][53]

Critical Reflex, a publisher of strange small games, is bringing three hits to Xbox for the first time. [55] Arctic Eggs, a cooking game, came out on 20 October. [55] Mouthwashing, a horror game set on a broken spaceship, joins Game Pass on 29 October. [55] The news came at an ID@Xbox show for independent games, which also dated a director's cut of ZA/UM's spy role-playing game Zero Parades for 3 November. [54]

Why it matters. All three went viral in the last three years, and Mouthwashing first came out in September 2024. [55] Two of the three will be in Game Pass, Xbox's subscription. [55]

Square Enix's Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade, a 2020 remake of the 1997 role-playing game, joins Xbox Game Pass on 29 October. [56] It comes with seven other games arriving between 21 October and 3 November. [57] Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted and The Seance of Blake Manor are among them. [56]

Why it matters. They arrive as Microsoft plans to split Game Pass into add-ons. [9] Kotaku expects the new Game Pass before Fable, Xbox's next big game, in February 2027. [10]

Xbox owners say Microsoft emailed them suggesting they trade in their consoles at Best Buy, the US electronics chain. [58] The email asked those who had moved to playing Xbox games on PC to sell their machines. [58] Best Buy offers up to $375 for a Series X and up to $200 for a Series S. [58] The email came from an official Xbox address. [58]

Why it matters. Kotaku says Microsoft may get a cut of the trade-ins, though nobody has confirmed it. [58] It lands as Microsoft plans a dearer console for 2028. [1]

Xodus Nexus, an unofficial free project, lets people run some PC Game Pass games on Linux and on Valve's SteamOS. [59] It is not made by Microsoft or Valve, and it is still a test. [59] Separately, Intel has asked to add its fast XeSS upscaler to Proton, the layer that runs Windows games on Linux. [60]

Why it matters. PC Gamer says Windows 11 is unpopular with many players, and switches to Linux are in the news almost daily. [59] Intel's move could help handheld PCs with Intel chips run SteamOS well. [60]

Nintendo releases Nintendo Switch Sports Resort for the Switch 2 on 22 October. [61] It has 12 games played by swinging the controller, from tennis and bowling to thumb wrestling. [62] Wii Sports, the series' first game, is the best-selling game Nintendo has ever made. [61] The Verge calls it the best one so far, and Eurogamer the most refined. [61][62]

Why it matters. Nintendo has made one of these games for each new console since the Wii. [61] It arrives between two bigger Switch 2 releases, Fire Emblem and an Ocarina of Time remake. [61]

Square Enix, the Japanese publisher of Final Fantasy, has made Final Fantasy Resonance. It rebuilds Brave Exvius, a phone game that has shut down, as a full game. [64] It strips out the paid random draws the phone game was built on. [64] Reviewers at Eurogamer and Kotaku found its story and characters shallow. [63][64] Kotaku liked its Visions, characters from older Final Fantasy games who join the party. [64]

Why it matters. Kotaku thinks it will please older fans more than draw in new ones. [64] Eurogamer notes that Octopath 0 also turned a closed phone game into a full release. [63]

Aleksi Virolainen, a Finnish Counter-Strike 2 player known as Aleksib, was charged in a court near Helsinki on 16 October. [38] Prosecutors say he did not declare 53,000 euros he earned in 2020 from Valve, which makes the game. [38] Pro teams get a cut of sales of in-game stickers that players put on their guns. [38] Prosecutors want a four-month suspended sentence. [38]

Why it matters. He says he was 22 and thought his taxes were handled, and he pleaded not guilty. [38] The court will rule later. [38]

Electronic Arts announced that Fight Night, its boxing game series, is "coming back". [39] The last games were made years ago by EA Canada, and EA Chicago, which made two others, has closed. [39] EA has given no studio, no date and no machines. [39] EA's UFC fighting series has carried on in the meantime. [39]

Why it matters. IGN's writer expects a new game rather than a remake, because the real boxers in the old ones would need new licences. [39] He calls Fight Night Round 3 the first game that showed what HD consoles could do. [39]

Cygames, the Japanese maker of Umamusume: Pretty Derby, has started CygamesEdge to make small original games. [40] Its first, Where the Seeds Fall, is a three-hour game due next month. [40] Its director wants two or three a year, each made in under three years. [40] He says players in their 30s and 40s have less time for long games. [40]

Why it matters. He notes that more than half of what Steam sells is older games. [40] Cygames is young and has few old games, and CygamesEdge is meant to build some up. [40]

Masahiro Sakurai, who created Kirby and Super Smash Bros., gave his Game Designers Award at Tokyo Game Show for the last time this year. [41] The prize had honoured new ideas for 16 years, whatever a game sold. [41] He said "originality doesn't actually have a strong impact on sales". [41] He also expects AI to fill stores with copies of old games. [41]

Why it matters. Sakurai says Steam sold about 275 new games a year in 2010, against over 19,000 now. [41] He warns that an industry without new ideas "will only die slowly". [41]