Gaming, in brief

Tim Sweeney, who runs Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite and owner of the Epic Games Store, spent 24 and 25 October posting on X against a rule on Steam. [1]

Steam is the biggest store for PC games, run by the company Valve. Its rule makes developers tell buyers when a game was made with AI tools. [1]

Sweeney wrote that these AI statements are 'just as partisan as mandatory political essays'. [1]

He also wrote that Valve, 'besides taking 30%', takes an even larger share of developers' living by inviting 'AI hate campaigns'. [1] The 30% is the cut Steam keeps from most sales.

When another user called it a big opening for Epic, Sweeney replied 'Yep!'. [1]

Valve brought the rule in while the law on AI was unclear, and said it would revisit the decision when necessary. [1]

Steam released 18,433 games in 2024, against about 1,100 on Epic's store, so Valve has far more games to sort. [1]

PC Gamer points out that Valve is not against AI: its co-founder Gabe Newell gave $20 million to OpenAI when it was a non-profit. [1]

Siliconera, a games news site, writes that studies have found AI labels cut a game's sales. [2] It names no study, so that claim is unchecked.

Sweeney's own company moved its Disney shooter to 'AI first' work this month, then announced a game contest that required AI before dropping that requirement. [1]

Players asked Valve for a filter to hide AI-made games during its demo festival, Steam Next Fest, which opened on 19 October. [3]

Some small studios now hold back public demos because AI tools can copy a game fast, Ars Technica reports. [4]

Why it matters. Valve has said it will revisit the rule when necessary, and PC Gamer's writer expects an update; the next test is whether Valve answers Sweeney or rewrites the label. [1]

A petition asking EA to keep making Mass Effect games passed 200,000 signatures over the weekend. [5] It asks EA, which shut BioWare, the studio behind the series, last week, either to fund new games or to license the name to another studio. [6][7] Jennifer Hale, a voice of the hero Commander Shepard, imagined fans and investors funding a new team together. [5] Its technical director said the cancelled game would have let players join old saves into parallel worlds. [9] IGN's sources at Amazon say its Mass Effect TV series is still in development. [8]

Why it matters. EA owns the name, so no fan group or studio can make a game without EA's permission. [7] The show keeps Mass Effect on screen even with no game coming.

Tomb Raider, the game that made Lara Croft famous, turned 30 this weekend. [10] Amazon Game Studios and the studios Crystal Dynamics and Flying Wild Hog showed new footage of a remake, Legacy of Atlantis, at fan events in Derby and London. [10] It comes out on 12 February 2027. [10] More than 100 million Tomb Raider games have been sold since 1996. [11] A small team in Derby made the first one. [11]

Why it matters. Two studios are building the remake while Crystal Dynamics also makes a new game, Tomb Raider: Catalyst, for 2027. [10] Prime Video, Amazon's streaming service, is also making a Tomb Raider series with Sophie Turner. [12]

Chiikawa the Movie, a Japanese anime film about a small cartoon character and its friends, took 44.7% of South Korea's cinema takings over 23-25 October. [13] It was its fourth weekend at number one, with $2.5 million from 320,293 tickets. [13] It has now sold 2.25 million tickets and earned $17.5 million there since 30 September. [13] A week earlier its share was 42.7%. [14] Toho, a Japanese film company, distributes it, and it comes from a manga by an artist called Nagano. [13]

Why it matters. Its share rose from 42.7% to 44.7% between its third and fourth weekends. [13][14] Variety puts that down to children and families who keep coming. [13]

Resident Evil, a film of Capcom's horror games, led China's box office for a third weekend, with $5.6 million. [15] It has made $64.8 million in China since 5 October. [15] China's cinemas have earned 29.1% less this year than last. [15] Capcom's other film, Street Fighter, fell 72.1% in its second US weekend to $8.6 million, and has $79.6 million worldwide. [16] Its first US weekend took $30.8 million. [16] In Japan it opened in eighth place. [16]

Why it matters. Capcom, the Japanese company behind both games, did not make either film: Resident Evil is a Constantin Film and Sony film, and Legendary bought the Street Fighter film rights in 2023. [15][16] After ten days, Street Fighter's US total was 25% behind Mortal Kombat 2's. [16]

Makoto Yukimura, who wrote the Vinland Saga manga, told a fan on X that a third anime season 'is not currently in progress'. [17] The manga ended in 2025 after 20 years. [17] The first season was made by Wit Studio in 2019 and the second by MAPPA in 2023. [18] MAPPA is now making Chainsaw Man, Jujutsu Kaisen's fourth season and three new shows for 2027. [17] Neither MAPPA nor Kodansha, the manga's publisher, has commented. [18]

Why it matters. The second season was the third most watched anime on Netflix in the first half of 2023, Kotaku notes. [17] A hit can still wait years when the studio's teams are booked.

At an online event on Sunday run by Fantasia Bunko, Kadokawa's light-novel imprint, Date A Live's final story was set as a film for 26 March 2027. [19] Light novels are short illustrated books, and these anime come from them. [19] The same event said a third season of Our Last Crusade is being made. [20] Its second season was due in 2023, came in July 2024, stopped after four episodes and restarted in April 2025. [20]

Why it matters. Both shows stream outside Japan on Crunchyroll, so the news reaches viewers well beyond Japan. [19][20] The writer and character designer of the last two Date A Live seasons return for the film. [19]

Aniplex, Sony's Japanese anime company, said on Sunday that King's Proposal will become an anime in 2027. [21] Rie Takahashi will voice the lead, Saika Kuozaki, the most powerful mage in the world. [21] The light novels are by the same writer and illustrator as Date A Live. [21] Kadokawa ships the ninth novel in Japan on 18 December, and Yen Press sells them in English. [21]

Why it matters. The ninth book arrives two months after the anime news. [21] Fans of Date A Live now have a new series from the same pair.

TV Asahi, a Japanese broadcaster, said the second season of Akane-banashi starts in January 2027. [22] The anime follows a girl learning rakugo, a Japanese form of comic storytelling. [22] The first season ran from April to June 2026. [22] Its full episodes stream free on YouTube in North and Latin America, with an English dub on Netflix. [22] Shueisha published the manga's 24th book on 2 October. [22]

Why it matters. The second season starts about seven months after the first ended. [22] Free episodes on YouTube carry the show to viewers in the Americas who have no Japanese TV. [22]

A sequel anime to BanG Dream! It's MyGo!!!!! and Ave Mujica will start on Japan's NTV on 8 January 2027. [23] The first Ave Mujica series aired in January 2025 and streams on Crunchyroll. [23] BanG Dream is a mix of music, anime and films that Bushiroad, a Japanese company, started in 2015. [23] A film from the project opened on 16 October. [23]

Why it matters. BanG Dream was built from the start to run across bands, anime and films, so a new season feeds the rest of the project. [23]

Pokemon marked its 30th birthday with a dance-music concert at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles on Saturday. [24] The DJs Marshmello and Alison Wonderland played in front of giant moving pictures of Pokemon. [24] A Pokemon Company manager said it had never done anything like it before. [24] The show was streamed online, and a second one is at London's O2 Arena on 10 November. [24]

Why it matters. The Pokemon Company said it wanted to bring dance-music fans and Pokemon fans together. [24] Pokemon's business spans games, shows and merchandise, and the concert reached people who came for the DJs. [24]

Bandai Namco is giving Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 a free tenth-birthday update on 27 October, with an event called the Final Festival from 30 October. [25][26] The game came out on 25 October 2016. [25] Items earned in the festival unlock rewards in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3, due in 2027, when players link a Bandai Namco account. [26] Players also earn 25 times the usual in-game coins. [26]

Why it matters. The update rewards players of the old game for moving to the new one. [26] IGN reads the festival as the old game's send-off. [25]

Knightmare, a British children's TV show from 1987 to 1994, is becoming a free point-and-click game on PC next year. [27] It marks the show's 40th birthday, and its creator Tim Child has given his blessing. [27] Most of the original cast is back, including Hugo Myatt as the dungeon master Treguard. [27] Its lead, Ewen Watson, says everything in it is made by real people, not AI. [27]

Why it matters. Because it is free, there are no plans for consoles. [27] Its makers chose to promise no AI in the same week Epic's boss attacked Steam's AI labels. [27][1]

Cygames, the Japanese maker of the horse-racing game Umamusume: Pretty Derby, cancelled its first US concert, due this weekend, less than a week before it. [28] It said recent US visa changes stopped its musicians and voice actors from coming. [28] It refunded tickets and also paid back fans' booked flights and hotels. [28] Fans who came anyway met at Knott's Berry Farm, a California theme park. [28]

Why it matters. The cost of the US visa change landed on a Japanese company and on the fans who had already booked travel. [28]

Riot Games has brought back K/DA, its pop group made of League of Legends characters, with a four-song EP. [29] The group had been quiet for six years. [29] K/DA was the first K-pop girl group to be certified platinum, for its song Pop/Stars. [29] Riot also revived two other character bands, and K/DA and True Damage will play the League of Legends world finals in New York next month. [29]

Why it matters. PC Gamer's writer barely plays League but has owned a K/DA chair for five years, which shows how far the songs reach beyond players. [29] Fortiche, the studio behind the Arcane series, made the new video. [29]

Goddess of Victory: Nikke, a phone and PC game by the Korean studio Shift Up, will get a new manga this winter. [30] Kadokawa's Dengeki Maoh magazine announced it for the game's fourth birthday. [30] The game mixes shooting with gacha, where players pay for random draws of characters. [30] It launched worldwide on 4 November 2022. [30]

Why it matters. It follows an earlier slice-of-life Nikke manga. [30] A-1 Pictures, an anime studio, also made a short video for the game in 2024. [30]

Japan named Rintaro, an 85-year-old anime director, a Person of Cultural Merit, a national honour. [31] He directed the 1979 Galaxy Express 999 film and Metropolis, and worked with Osamu Tezuka on Astro Boy. [31] He is writing the story draft for Toei Animation's new Galaxy Express 999 film. [31] His life-story manga won the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize. [31]

Why it matters. Last year the same honour went to Masako Nozawa, the voice of Dragon Ball's Goku, the first voice actor to get it. [31]

HBO has renewed It: Welcome to Derry, a Stephen King horror series, for a second season. [32] Polygon reports it is one of HBO Max's four biggest series debuts worldwide. [32] The new season moves back to 1935 and the Great Depression. [32] HBO has not given a date or a cast. [32]

Why it matters. HBO renewed it after it became one of the service's biggest debuts. [32] Its makers, Andy and Barbara Muschietti, had already said they wanted more seasons. [32]