Gaming, in brief

Valve says Steam now takes up to 12 business days to review a game, not the usual 3 to 5. [1]

Steam, run by Valve, is the shop where most PC games are sold. [8] Every game must pass Valve's review before it goes on sale. [4]

Small studios say the longer wait has made them miss their own launch days. [2]

Big studios can ask Valve to speed up their games, developers say. [5] Small studios without that pull wait in line. [5]

Economists call this a congestion cost: Valve says re-reviewing failed games is much of why everyone now waits. [3]

Each failed build goes back into the queue for a second review. [3] Every game behind it then waits longer, through no fault of its maker. [5]

One shopper with a broken card holds up the whole checkout line, and everyone behind them waits.

Valve has not said why submissions rose, so nobody can prove what caused the jam. [5]

Valve's page still told makers to expect 3 to 5 days while some waited weeks. [5] Kamon asked Valve to say plainly that it may take weeks. [5]

Valve says more changes to its review process are on the way. [1]

Valve says Steam reviews now take up to 12 business days because far more games are being sent in and many must be reviewed twice. [1][3]

Developers blame AI-made games, and October's new Steam games nearly doubled to about 4,000, but Valve has not said what caused the rise. [4][5]

A launch date told to fans feels like a promise, so when Valve's queue makes it slip, players blame the small studio. [3]

Developers say large studios can ask Valve to hurry their reviews, which small studios cannot. [5]

They worked late and at weekends to make 3 November, and the delay may leave the studio short of money. [5]

Visits to their store page from Steam's own features stopped after the missed launch. [5]

How much of Steam's extra load comes from AI-made games.

Valve's post names no cause. Kotaku says nearly 50% of October's games disclosed AI, while Game Discovery Tool counts over 50%. [5][4]

How many games October's Steam Next Fest really held.

The Verge cites 7,240 games, 65.2% more than June, while Kotaku says over 8,000 demos. [2][5]

When Food Devils and Cubic Earth will be approved.

Valve has given neither studio a date, and Food Devils' director says he cannot make plans. [5][4]

Itch.io, a website where small makers sell games, says it deleted a couple of terabytes of AI slop. [8]

Its rules say mass-produced AI pages count as spam and may be taken out of search. [8]

New game pages on itch.io doubled from 3,000 to 6,000 a day in two months. [7]

Downloads and purchases have not doubled, itch.io said. [8]

Buyers can now tick a No AI box to hide games that say they used AI. [6]

Makers of tabletop games, books, comics and soundtracks must now also say if they used AI. [8]

Games made by hand were being drowned out by the flood, Rock Paper Shotgun writes. [9]

Information scientists call a box like this a filter: buyers hide what they do not want to see. [6]

The No AI box hides only games whose makers ticked the AI label. [6] It cannot catch a maker who leaves it unticked. [6]

A no-nuts sign on a cake helps only if the baker wrote it truthfully.

Itch.io has 1 full-time worker, plus contractors and volunteers. [9] Checking every page by hand is not possible for so few, RPS writes. [9]

Why each extra game sent to Steam slows every other maker's launch

Valve has one team reviewing every new game

Submissions rise, and many games fail the first time

Each failed game goes back into the line

Every game behind it waits longer

The maker who caused the delay pays none of that wait

A game that fails Steam's review costs its own maker a few days.

The longest a Steam review usually takes, against the longest it takes now, by Valve's own figures.

one author posting many mods at once pushes every other author's mod down the Recently Added page, so Nexus will cap how many show

new pages doubled to 6,000 a day while sales did not, so every hand-made game sits in a longer list for the same buyers

Warcraft Logs says surging requests are swamping it, so every player using the site waits on the same busy servers

Kotaku expects console servers to be hammered when everyone downloads at once, so each extra download slows the rest

It only bites when the line is close to full. With spare reviewers, an extra game slows nobody.

Studio Daimon's nine people, Valve's reviewers and the makers of every new game are standing in the same line.

The new No AI box lets buyers hide every game that carries an AI label. [6]

Nexus Mods, the biggest site for fans' changes to PC games, now makes new uploads say if AI was used. [10]

Mods marked AI-assisted must also explain how and where AI was used. [10]

Owner Victor Folmann said the site will not ban AI mods. [10] A ban, he said, would only stop people mentioning it. [10]

Makers of existing mods have 60 days to comply, until 2 January. [10]

Nexus Mods says it will not use mods to train AI, or sell them to anyone who does. [10]

Some authors upload many mods at once, pushing everyone else's down the Recently Added page, Folmann said. [10]

So the site will limit how many mods from one author show there at once. [10]

Lawmakers call this mandatory disclosure: a rule that makers must say what is in a product, as Nexus now requires. [10]

Folmann says AI is in every step of making a mod, so no clear line can be drawn. [10] Labels let each player decide instead. [10]

Food packets list their ingredients, so each shopper can choose what to avoid.

one author posting many mods at once pushes every other author's mod down the Recently Added page, so Nexus will cap how many show

World of Warcraft: Forever, Blizzard's new take on its early World of Warcraft, launches on 4 November. [13]

It is an MMO, an online game where many players share one world. [13]

Just before launch, Blizzard raised every class's power in a big batch of changes. [12]

The Shaman players' Discord server, with about 80,000 members, went read-only in protest. [12]

The server said: "Community feedback gets completely ignored and class fantasies are getting destroyed." [12]

Blizzard says it expects no more big class changes for at least a month. [12]

AI-made add-ons for the game also flooded in before launch, 404 Media reports. [11] One maker made their code private after finding AI copies. [11]

Warcraft Logs, a popular stats site, says it is struggling to keep up with surging requests. [11]

The server says its complaint is not about damage, but about what makes a Shaman feel like one. [12]

Players call it the hybrid tax: Blizzard keeps classes that both heal and fight below pure damage classes. [12]

Shamans can heal and fight, so their damage is held down. [12] The server says it accepts that if the class makes sense. [12]

A footballer who can play in any position is rarely the team's top scorer.

Warcraft Logs says surging requests are swamping it, so every player using the site waits on the same busy servers

Ubisoft, which makes Assassin's Creed, has bid to buy Arkane Lyon from Microsoft, Bloomberg reports. [18]

At least two other games companies have also bid. [14] Microsoft has also weighed selling the studio to its managers. [14]

Arkane Lyon, a studio in France, made the Dishonored games and Deathloop. [14]

In July Microsoft said it would sell off Arkane and 4 other studios in its Xbox reset. [14]

Microsoft closed Arkane's other studio, in Austin, Texas, in 2024. [20]

Microsoft added a month to its 13 November deadline to find a buyer. [16] Xbox says it is exploring options ahead of a December deadline. [14]

A deal would likely let Arkane finish Marvel's Blade, due within a year or two. [14]

If no deal is reached, closing the studio is still on the table, Kotaku reports. [18]

Under French labour law, a firm of over 1,000 staff must seek a buyer for 3 months before closing. [17]

PC Gamer names it the Florange law, and says it is why Arkane is still open while other studios went. [16]

A shop that must advertise its lease before closing gives someone else a chance to take it over.

Ubisoft itself cut jobs in January, March, June and October this year. [19]

Bloomberg's sources say a deal is far more likely than a closure. [14]

Their jobs depend on a buyer being found before December, or the studio can still close. [17][18]

Who will buy Arkane Lyon, and on what terms.

Bloomberg's sources say the terms were not available. [14] Xbox has not accepted any offer yet. [15]

Remedy, a Finnish games studio, says its sales more than tripled to 39.6 million euros last quarter. [23]

Most of it came from Control Resonant, its new game, out on 24 September. [21]

Chief executive Jean-Charles Gaudechon called the game "a defining milestone for the company". [24]

Only its first 7 days of sales fell inside the quarter. [23]

Remedy made a 0.6 million euro operating profit, against a 16.4 million euro loss a year before. [21]

That profit is 1.5% of its sales, a thin margin, PC Gamer notes. [23]

Close to 50% of Resonant's players were new to Control, its chief executive said. [23]

It is the first game Remedy has published itself. [22] Another 2.4 million people have it on their wishlists. [23]

Many players in 2026 stick with games they already play, Game Developer says. [22] So new players are hard to win. [22]

Publishers call this recoupment: Remedy pays its partner Annapurna a share of sales until Annapurna's investment is paid back. [21]

Once Annapurna has its money back, Remedy says its royalty costs will fall. [21] Then Remedy keeps more of each sale. [21]

A friend who lent you money for a bike gets part of your paper-round pay until the loan is repaid.

Selling Control Resonant itself, its game sales and royalties rose to 35 million euros from 6 million. [21]

Whether Control Resonant has earned back its making costs yet.

Remedy's operating profit is only 1.5% of sales, and Annapurna's share falls only once its investment is recouped. [23][21]

Remedy turned a 16.4 million euro loss a year ago into a 0.6 million euro profit. Close to half of Control Resonant's players had never played Control before.

Bethesda confirmed on 3 November that its next Elder Scrolls game is called The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel. [28]

The Elder Scrolls is a fantasy role-playing series, and its last main game, Skyrim, came out about 15 years ago. [25]

The name came 8 years, 4 months and 23 days after the game was first shown. [25]

The sandy teaser all but confirms the game is set in Hammerfell, a region of its world, RPS says. [27]

A report last week had already given the name. [25]

Bethesda says it will be some time before it shares more. [26]

The reveal came less than 6 months after sweeping job cuts at Microsoft's studios, Eurogamer notes. [25]

Marketers call an early glimpse a teaser: Bethesda showed one because fans were demanding news, Skyrim's lead designer said. [25]

The 2018 teaser showed only some hills, RPS notes. [27] Then fans heard almost nothing for 8 years, PC Gamer says. [26]

A film poster months before release keeps people talking about a film nobody can see yet.

When The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel will come out.

Bethesda says only that it will be some time before it shares more. [26]

Rockstar Games says GTA 6 will need up to 212GB of free space. [29]

GTA 6 is the next game in the Grand Theft Auto series, an open-world game out on 19 November. [31]

Players can download it early from 10 November, so it is ready at launch. [30]

On a base PS5 that is roughly a third of the free storage, Kotaku says. [31]

The game costs $79.99 and is sold only as a download. [29] Boxed copies hold just a code. [29]

Codes from boxed pre-orders work from 12 November. [31]

Kotaku expects console servers to be hammered when everyone downloads at once. [31]

Rockstar says the game needs up to 212GB depending on the device, without giving each console's size. [29]

Players with small consoles will have to delete other games to make room, Eurogamer notes. [30]

Kotaku expects console servers to be hammered when everyone downloads at once, so each extra download slows the rest

Microsoft built one Xbox Series X into a model alligator about 5 feet long, as a prize. [32]

Sony appears to hold the marketing rights to GTA 6, so Xbox cannot name the game. [33]

Microsoft's post never says GTA 6. [32] Its marketing boss said the console has "pure Miami vibes". [32]

GTA 6 is set in a version of Miami, so the hint is plain, GameSpot says. [32]

Microsoft values the console at $800. [32] Entries close on 10 November, and the winner is drawn at random. [32]

The game still comes to Xbox, but Microsoft may not talk about it in its posts. [33]

Marketers call this exclusive marketing: Sony's deal lets PlayStation tell buyers GTA 6 plays best on PS5. [33]

GTA 6 will likely play much the same on Xbox, Kotaku says. [33] Yet only Sony may say where to play it. [33]

At a school fair only the sponsor's logo goes on the banner, even if others sell the same drink.

The terms of Sony's deal with Rockstar are not public. [33]

A smaller share of console players tried Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 at launch than last year's game. [34]

Circana, a US market research firm, tracks play on Steam and PlayStation in the US, and on Xbox worldwide. [34]

19% of PlayStation players played it in its first week, against 23% for Black Ops 7. [34]

On Xbox it was 17%, down from 29%. [34]

On Steam its share rose, to 4.2% from 1.5%. [34]

Unlike Black Ops 7, the new game did not launch in Game Pass, Xbox's games subscription. [34]

Being in Game Pass usually brings more players, though not always more sales, Eurogamer says. [34]

Market researchers call this engagement: the share of a platform's players who played a game that week. [34]

Eurogamer links Xbox's big drop to the game not launching in Game Pass. [34]

A club counts how many members came to practice, not how many bought the kit.

Activision's only launch statement did not name the game. [34] It praised Call of Duty's $40bn lifetime revenue instead. [34]

Sony will help pay for Lionsgate's live-action Naruto film and release it outside North America. [36]

Naruto is a Japanese manga about a young ninja, and it has sold more than 250 million copies. [35]

Destin Daniel Cretton, who directed Sony's Spider-Man: Brand New Day, will write and direct it. [35]

That Spider-Man film took $2.5 billion this summer. [35]

Sony won the deal after a bidding contest among several studios. [35] Filming is due to start in spring 2027. [35]

Lionsgate has now officially approved the film, Deadline reports. [37]

Lionsgate has held the film rights since about 2015, reports at the time said. [38]

Sony also owns Crunchyroll, an anime streaming service that shows Naruto series. [35]

Film financiers call this co-financing: two studios share a film's cost and split where they sell it. [36]

Lionsgate keeps North America and runs the production. [36] Sony takes the rest of the world. [36]

Two friends split the cost of a bike and take turns riding it.

It wins the right to release the Naruto film outside North America, and its Crunchyroll already streams Naruto series. [35]

Netflix is adding an AI Discover tab to its TV app in the US. [39]

Viewers pick a theme, such as Something Light or Scare Me, and get matching shows. [40]

A tune button lets viewers keep a pick, or ask Netflix not to show it again. [40]

It starts with English users on some smart TVs, and not on children's profiles. [40]

Netflix has long used AI behind its picks. [40] This is the first feature it labels as AI. [40]

Netflix says it has worked on how to suggest shows for 20 years as its catalogue grew. [41]

Netflix recently laid off around 1,000 staff as its growth slowed. [39]

Netflix hopes the tab raises watching time, after viewing per subscriber dropped. [40]

Engineers call this a recommender system: software that guesses what you will like from what you watched. [40]

Tell it a pick is not for you, and Netflix says it will remember. [40] That pick then stops turning up. [40]

A friend who knows the films you loved suggests the next one.

Netflix's animated series Blue Eye Samurai returns on 19 January 2027. [43] Season 2 has 6 new episodes. [43]

In it, Mizu, a sword fighter, hunts in London for the men who may be her father. [42]

The show is made for adults by Blue Spirit, a French and Canadian animation studio. [43]

Its first season won several Emmys, the top US television awards. [43]

Its creators, Amber Noizumi and Michael Green, return to write it. [42]

Blue Spirit is animating it again, so the same team keeps the show's look. [42]

NBCUniversal, the US media group, co-led an $80 million investment in EloElo of Bengaluru, India. [44]

EloElo runs Story TV, an app of microdramas made to be watched on phones. [44]

Story TV carries over 5,000 microdramas in 6 languages and adds one every 3 hours. [44]