After Xbox laid off 1,600 employees over the summer, Microsoft's gaming division followed up with more layoffs and studio closures this week. In the wake of these events, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is taking a look at the bright side and praising Xbox CEO Asha Sharma's actions as a necessary step.

"There's some amount of streamlining the team is doing, and Asha is doing, which is great to see," said Nadella during his appearance on the Sources Podcast. He also noted that he feels "fantastic about the IP we have right now. If I look at the studios, the IP portfolio we have, and our ability to then take that and produce great games going forward, I feel fantastic."

"We have to invent the right sustainable business model that allows us to deliver gaming to more and more people," added Nadella.

Regarding AI, Nadella questioned why Western consumers are so skeptical about the technology compared to other parts of the world.

"I think we've not given [AI] breathing space," said Nadella. "In fact ... I was reading the Gallup poll on AI and it's not good in the West. What's also very interesting … it's not a uniform thing around the world. And in fact that's the thing we should ask: 'What did we get wrong in the West that these other countries may not have?' Why are people in Nigeria more optimistic about AI than in the United States?' And I think we should reflect on it and my belief here is the industry [has] to earn the trust [and] show the benefits to both consumers and enterprises and the communities. And then ... we'll be fine. But without it, just any amount of just celebrating technology for technologies sake is not working."

Prominent AI skeptic Ed Zitron has blamed Xbox's precarious position on "catastrophic mismanagement" by Microsoft and AI bets that didn't pan out. Even after the most recent layoffs, there are indications that more job cuts are coming to Xbox.

Diablo 4 players are decking themselves out in full sets of Mythic Unique gear as part of Season 15, resulting in characters that are more powerful than ever before. Whether that was Blizzard's goal, or this is simply a mistake of some kind, is currently up for debate.

It's about as big of a change from one season to the next that Diablo 4 has ever experienced. Back in Season 14, Blizzard added the "crafted" item tag to Mythic Uniques made via the Horadric Cube, Blacksmith, or Jeweler, with a limit of only one crafted Mythic being equippable at a time. Even if you had the Resplendent Sparks resource needed to make more Mythics, you couldn't use them. Instead, you had to rely on good old-fashioned luck to find natural Mythic drops without the crafted tag.

The changes weren't popular, so Blizzard walked it back mid-season, and has made further improvements as part of the latest season, Hell's Legacy. Mythics made by the Blacksmith or Jeweler are no longer considered "crafted," while ones made via the cube still are. Once again, players could have several Mythics of your own creation equipped at once, much like the previous seasons.

However, for players with more sparks than they know what to do with, there is technically a way to get around the "crafted" tag.

It takes combining three of the same Mythic Unique (not exactly an easy task) in the cube using the Recycle Uniques recipe, resulting in a new version of that same item. While the item will have all new stat rolls, the key here is that this recycled Mythic Unique won't have the "crafted" tag, letting players equip as many of them as they can create.

The result is players running around with full sets of Mythic gear, something we've never seen before in Diablo 4. This would be a huge problem and could completely break the game in many ways, if it weren't harder to do than it sounds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9IHlOYCrbg

Considering it costs 15 Resplendent Sparks to just create one Mythic Unique this way, it's definitely a huge time investment. To do this trick with all 12 gear slots would cost an enormous 180 Sparks, something that seems nearly impossible for an average player and would require an ungodly amount of grinding and farming. That hasn't stopped some of the game's most dedicated content creators from doing exactly that, however, as highlighted by Wudijo. 

Whether the ability to create non-crafted Mythic Uniques this way is an intentional choice on Blizzard's part or an oversight remains to be seen. Diablo 4's next update is slated for September 29, but the 3.2.2 patch notes make no mention of this trick and instead are mostly bug fixes.

Overall, Season 15 seems to have been well-received by players after the largely unpopular Season 14. The season finally added Diablo to Diablo 4, as players relive past Prime Evil encounters from previous Diablo games and rub shoulders with none other than the legendary Deckard Cain. 

Diablo 4 won't receive new expansions going forward, but it is set to receive a new class, the Amazon, in the first half of next year. Meanwhile, Blizzard is hard at work on Diablo 5, set to release in 2029, and has already revealed three of its playable classes.

No news is good news, they say. They also say that some news, however little, is good news, too, and girl, do we have some news: Ubisoft's struggling action-adventure game Beyond Good & Evil 2 is still alive despite remaining in development hell.

Ubisoft Bordeaux's lead writer and associate narrative director Rik Godwin took to Bluesky on September 22 to provide a brief update on the game.

"Odd sort of non-announcement but for the past few months I've been working on Beyond Good & Evil 2 in a support/consultant role," Godwin, who was a writer on Assassin's Creed Shadows, said. "I am allowed to say this, I checked."

It makes sense that Ubisoft Bordeaux would assist with Beyond Good & Evil 2. According to IGN, Ubisoft Montpellier, which is leading the project's development, is just south of the Bordeaux studio. And although Ubisoft Bordeaux was the lead developer on both 2023's Assassin's Creed Mirage and Shadows' 2025 expansion Claws of Awaji, that studio typically operates in a support role for Ubisoft's myriad other teams.

This minor update comes nearly 10 years after Ubisoft re-revealed Beyond Good & Evil 2 at E3 2017, and nearly 20 years after Ubisoft announced the action-adventure sequel all the way back in May 2008. There have been some rumblings of progress, with Ubisoft posting hints that development was ongoing in November 2025 and January 2026. However, whatever progress that has been made has been slow at best and invisible at worst.

Although there's no release date at the moment, Ubisoft has continued to swear that Beyond Good & Evil 2 will be released in due time. Just don't expect it anytime soon, and at this rate, maybe don't expect it in this current console generation.

After suing a former Reddit moderator in October 2025 for pirating Switch games, a Washington court has ordered the individual in question to pay Nintendo $4.5 million in damages.

According to a September 25 TorrentFreak report, US District Judge Lauren King ordered former r/SwitchPirates moderator James "Archbox" Williams to cough up $4.5 million in damages to Nintendo after the company accused him of operating several pirate shops to illegally decrypt and distribute Switch games to the public.

The lawsuit, which was filed in a Washington federal court in June 2024, stated that Williams had been running this racket since at least 2019, using "circumvention device" software to bypass the company's systems and gain access to over 30 Nintendo Switch games. This includes titles like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Williams reportedly ignored the complaint at the time, which prompted Nintendo to seek the statutory maximum of $150,000 per title in October 2025. And just this week, Judge King agreed with Nintendo's request, stating that Williams was aware of the case, as he both hired a lawyer to object to a Google subpoena and continued posting on Reddit but opted to not respond to the company's lawsuit.

In one screenshot saved by TorrentFreak, Williams called himself a "pirate" in a Reddit thread, clarifying that he--and others like him--won't "give Nintendo $50 for a game" when there are "months of releases unavailable anywhere."

It's a bit like that I Think You Should Leave skit, where Tim Robinson, in a hot dog suit, drives a hot-dog-shaped car through a suiting store and is "looking for the guy who did this." Both Judge King and Nintendo know the guy who did it, and they want him to pay a lot for his actions.

"The last factor also weighs heavily in favor of the statutory maximum penalty because NOA's complaint contains well-supported and extensive allegations that Williams knew the videogames were copyrighted but willfully undertook his copying and distribution efforts anyway," Judge King concluded in the suit. "Williams' egregious infringement activities merit substantial punishment here."

In addition to the $4.5 million in damages, Williams has also been ordered to cease all illegal distributions of Switch games through a permanent injunction. This includes barring him from encouraging others to download pirated games or bypass Nintendo's systems to do so, disabling his myriad pirate shops, and deactivating his social media accounts. According to TorrentFreak, much of this has already happened, as Williams' Discord, Instagram, Reddit, Telegram, TikTok, and X accounts are gone. Further, some of the pirate shops Williams ran were taken offline after Nintendo sent a cease-and-desist letter in March 2024.

For Nintendo, this is another win against thieves who think they can get away with pirating the company's games. According to the lawsuit, the company wanted to both stop Williams' infringing activities and use him as an example of what happens when you go up against the ever-litigious Mario maker. Be careful. Those white gloves might serve you papers.

Castlevania celebrated its 40th anniversary this week--an impressive milestone in video games and a terrifying pair of numbers for anyone who was born in 1987. Konami marked the occasion with a new video paying tribute to the original whip-slinging hero of the 1986 Famicom game, as well as all of the other influential entries in the Castlevania series over the last four decades. It's a cute little retrospective, and it might also be teasing something else from Konami, if our tinfoil-hat-speculation is right.

https://youtu.be/U9hmHw0JFUc

Right near the end of the video, Castlevania's first protagonist, Simon Belmont, takes a quick stroll past a series of non-ruined portraits in Dracula's castle. Eagle-eyed observers will note that these feature cover art from three of the 3D-era games--Lament of Innocence, Curse of Darkness, and Lords of Shadow. The fourth one is for Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, which launches in October 2026. Could Konami be teeing up a new compilation that bundles together the PS2 and Xbox 360/PS3-era 3D Castlevania games?

Portraits of ruin? Nah, just some really good games.

The company isn't saying anything, and there's a good chance that the games were chosen purely because they still have some of the best cover art in the franchise. They're pretty neat, artistically! But a Castlevania collection isn't uncommon, as Konami has released a few of these in the past. The Castlevania Anniversary Collection from 2019 collected eight games spanning the first 10 years of the series, and the Castlevania: Dominus Collection bundled all three DS-era games alongside the 1988 Haunted Castle arcade game.

What Konami did confirm is that it will hold sales for select Castlevania titles, new vinyl record soundtracks for classic games are available to preorder, and Castlevania on mobile is also free for a limited time through the iOS and Android stores.

For Castlevania fans, next month's release of Castlevania: Belmont's Curse marks a major moment for the series. Following the release of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 in 2014, the video game series went on hiatus, aside from the two compilations released. The Castlevania animated adaptations released for Netflix proved that there was still an appetite for the IP, and last year, it was announced that the developer of The Rogue Prince of Persia--Evil Empire--was reviving castlevania for PC and console.

So far, Belmont's Curse looks like a return to the series' roots, as it follows Rose Belmont through the ruined streets of Paris on her quest to stop Dracula. The game will let you turn tough bosses into powerful allies, and a demo for it will go live on October 1 ahead of its October 15 release date. Beyond that, there's hope that we could see more Castlevania in the future, as Konami's decision to outsource development to studios like Bloober Team and Screen Burn has led to several excellent new entries that have redefined what Silent Hill can be.

It looks like it's repeating this approach with Castlevania, and a compilation of the cult-classic 3D games sandwiched between new releases would be a fun way to kickstart a Castlevania renaissance.

A Pile Of Secrets: The Hidden Gems Of The Castlevania Series View Images

Several years have passed since the last new Gears of War game was released, but at long last, that drought is almost over. Gears of War: E-Day will be one of the early highlights of October, and if you're looking to rev your Lancer up and turn back the Locust tide, you can start playing really soon. Like other big upcoming games, you'll also have the option to preload Gears of War: E-Day, so you can jump right into the fray on launch day. Here's a closer look at the timing for this new chapter in the series.

Gears of War: E-Day install size

According to the official PC requirements for Gears of War: E-Day, the game will require 115GB of storage capacity on that platform. Xbox Series X|S install sizes are typically on par with PC, so overall, you'll want to make sure you have at least 100GB of free space available on your machine. That's a pretty noticeable increase in size, as the previous game, Gears 5, required a chunky 80GB of space when it was first released back in 2019.

One other thing to note is that if you're planning to play on PC, the game requires a solid-state drive to be installed on. This is a mandatory requirement for the game to run optimally.

Gears of War: E-Day preloading times

Preloading will kick off on September 29 at the following times:

• 11 AM ET
• 10 AM CT
• 9 AM MT
• 4 PM BST
• 5 PM CEST
• 3 PM UTC
• 5 PM SAST
• 1 AM AEST (September 30)

Gears of War: E-Day early access global launch times

If you purchase the Premium or Collector's Edition of Gears of War: E-Day, you'll get a five-day headstart to play the game, starting October 1.  Early access will kick off at these times across the globe:

• 11 AM ET
• 10 AM CT
• 9 AM MT
• 4 PM BST
• 5 PM CEST
• 3 PM UTC
• 5 PM SAST
• 1 AM AEST (October 2)

Saw: Genesis was set to be the next asymmetrical multiplayer horror game to debut, but its 2026 early-access launch has been pushed to 2027, developer Bloober Team announced. 

The horror-focused studio said it needs more time to get Saw: Genesis to a place the team is satisfied with.

It's an interesting admission, since some teams use Steam Early Access for exactly that purpose: to get the game in good shape. But in the increasingly competitive and crowded space of licensed multiplayer horror games, a bad first impression may be more damaging than a reverse bear trap strapped to your face.

We've seen a lot of games like this since Dead by Daylight kicked off a wave of them in 2016, but my appetite remains insatiable because no two are really quite alike. It's exciting to see how studios transpose different horror movies' signature elements into interactive experiences, but when I checked out Saw: Genesis at Summer Game Fest, I came away underwhelmed. 

The 3v1 gameplay loop wasn't easy to follow in my hands-off demo. It's set about a century before the movies, with one person playing as a Jigsaw-like "Judge" who runs three others through his maze of torture devices and traps, trying to kill them all before any of them can escape the end of his trials. 

The team of three may have brief windows of opportunity to attack the Judge, though a really skilled Judge may never even give them a chance, lurking in corridors the victims can't access, slinking out to activate his next hellish device. Things like complex puzzles for the victims and best practices for the Judge were really hard to follow. Some understanding would come with more experience, no doubt, but the first impression was rough enough to make me think it'll scare off players for being so unintuitive right away.

Animations and visuals were lacking, too. I figured those issues could and likely would be polished over time, but if the core experience is unclear or convoluted, Saw: Genesis may struggle to compete for players' time, especially since its closest comparison is Red Barrels' already successful Outlast Trials. The delay feels warranted.

I've been rewatching the Saw series lately, and it's reminded me that these movies aren't very good. Many of the 10 of them are plainly bad. Even the first one, which I'd long remembered as a milestone in low-budget horror, now feels like it has too many plot contrivances and nu-metal music-video editing choices for my liking. 

And yet, I'm totally on board with Saw: Genesis if it works as a game. I don't have any reverence for the '80s B-movie Killer Klowns From Outer Space, but I had a blast with Illfonic's adaptation.

I'm looking forward to seeing how Saw: Genesis changes shape between now and the next time we hear about it. Even though it's horror season and a Saw: Genesis launch would've made sense on the calendar--"If it's Halloween, it must be Saw," I was always told--I like the idea of Bloober Team pushing it out a few months to try to clean it up. This is a studio that told me it's done making "shitty games," and while that's not a guarantee, Bloober Team surely hopes to follow through. 

Anyone looking for a creepy adventure to play in November will want to check out Saraab: Beyond the Veil. Solo developer Lubna Ahmed has announced a November 3 release date for the game on PC via Steam and Itch.io, and a demo will be available for it during the October edition of Steam Next Fest.

An Arabian folklore-inspired horror visual-novel game, Saraab follows Elham, a schoolgirl whose brother has suddenly been kidnapped. Rescuing your sibling means confronting your own inner demons, who have been externalized as monsters born of Elham's own psyche. To overcome them, she'll have to unlock the powers of her bloodline and uncover the truth of who she truly is.

"I'm incredibly excited to bring this story to players and share a world shaped by authentic cultural themes, folklore, and emotional experiences that are rarely explored in games," Ahmed said in a press statement. "I hope players everywhere can connect with the game's story and characters, because ultimately, it's a story about the human heart."

Horror is the crux of Saraab, but healing also plays a vital role in moving the story forward. As Elham comes to terms with her destiny and beliefs, she'll gain the ability to change reality based on the choices she makes along the way. Saraab's narrative is complemented by hand-drawn, anime-inspired art and an emotional soundtrack, and you can expect branching storylines, gameplay focused around Elham and her shadow, and a story about confronting the past to reclaim the future.

If you're keen to try it out, the demo will be available starting October 19.

Madden, the David O. Russell-directed John Madden biopic starring Nic Cage, got its first full-length trailer today, and to be completely honest, I have no idea what to make of this movie. Based on the two minutes seen in the trailer, it could either be a subversive comedic delight or The Room 2, but with even more footballs and fewer tuxedos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzh7HzLXXpk

The trailer, which shows some of John Madden's time as the head coach of the Raiders before shifting to broadcasting, gives us a very good look at the makeup and prosthetics that turned Nic Cage into the most famous NFL broadcaster of all time. Does he look like John Madden? No, but he does look like Nic Cage wearing John Madden's face as his own, so perhaps this is a secret sequel to Face/Off.

Madden's name is borderline synonymous with football video games today, and we get a brief look at how the game-development process began. This includes John Mulaney as EA founder Trip Hawkins, and we see how Madden was not interested in the original prototype, as it didn't feature 11 players on a team.

David O. Russell hasn't exactly been on a winning streak the last several years, with Amsterdam losing a whole bunch of money. Perhaps viewers' morbid curiosity to see Nic Cage hamming it up as John Madden will improve its performance, but it's getting a Prime Video release on November 18 rather than a theatrical one. How often Madden will mention Brett Favre remans unclear. Alongside Cage and Mulaney, the film stars Christian Bale, Shane Gillis, Kathryn Hahn, and Marshawn Lynch in an Urkel outfit.

Zelda fans have had no shortage of new games to play in recent years, but it appears that one game--starring the franchise's iconic villain--was also in the works at one point. Rather than having Nintendo internally develop the game, however, the project was in the works at Ubisoft.

In a September 24 report, Insider Gaming says that Ubisoft Milan was working on a Zelda spin-off with the internal name "Goliath," which was set to star a new protagonist. During the early period of development, this was changed to have longtime big bad Ganondorf be the playable character. Outside of the Super Smash Bros. series, this would be a first and would presumably be quite different from other Zelda games.

However, the report says that Nintendo "rejected the prototype" back in late 2023, and the team--including Davide Soliani, who directed the Mario + Rabbids games--opted to leave Ubisoft and form their own studio, Day 4 Night, which is currently developing Bradley the Badger. This occurred despite Ubisoft's attempts to pitch Nintendo on a different IP in its place, with both Star Fox and Mario mentioned, but it wasn't meant to be.

It isn't the first time a Zelda spin-off has been canceled, apparently, with Retro Studios' Sheik-focused Project X reportedly getting canned during the Wii's lifespan.

We won't have to wait too much longer to play the next game in the Zelda series, of course. The Switch 2 remake of Ocarina of Time is out on November 5, giving a whole new generation the chance to play what many consider to be the greatest game in the entire series, and possibly of all time.

Punks are taking over Steam starting on October 9 with the Punk Games Showcase, a week-long, curated digital festival celebrating games made with and expressing a punk spirit. 

Over 400 games were submitted for consideration, and the final list includes over 100, with the intention of filtering out any that included generative AI, among other factors. Many featured games have already been released, while others are still to come. A few of them are even out this month or during the event.

I'm still digging through the lengthy list of games that will be featured, but a few that have my heart include:

• Too Many Fucking Nazis: A fast-paced first-person shooter about creatively destroying Nazis. You can also flip them off before you blow them up, naturally.
• Punk Juice: Join a band, go thrifting, play dead-end gigs, and get mad at code-locked bathrooms.
• Wax Heads: Work in a struggling record store, slacking off with your buddies while tending to customers and listening to music.
• Club Soko: Turn the mosh pit into a puzzle as you navigate around security, crowd-killers, and those people who stand at the edge of the pit and then get mad at others about it.
• Enter the Moshpit: A "cynical" 2D adventure game in the vein of Monkey Island where you'll explore the Italian underground music scene.
• Tonight We Riot: A 2D "crowd-based brawler" where you play protestors resisting tyranny in the streets, developed by a worker-owned indie team.
• 10 Second Mixtape: A music game where you create songs, then upload them for others around the world to remix and perform.
• Tetherpunk: Kitbash a spaceship from scrap parts taken from the corporate overlords who ruined your world, then use that ship to destroy what they've created.

Some of the many games to be featured in the Punk Games Showcase.

Brad Smith of studio Miracle Tea, the creators of Club Soko, has been involved in itch.io's Hardcore Punk Jam since 2018, and is organizing the Steam showcase that will run alongside the game jam's latest edition.

Smith said the showcase has a few simple goals: to highlight games that "feature this style of music, are about the subculture, or are from creators who understand this scene, and it shows significantly in their games." He also hopes the showcase will influence Valve to add a "punk" categorization label on Steam, so developers can tag their games accordingly and players can find them more easily.

I caught up with Smith for more insight into the upcoming showcase and the movement to uplift games that wear their punk roots. 

GameSpot: How did you choose participants for the Punk Game Showcase?

Brad Smith: With 443 games submitted, it was tough to curate, but I did my best. I basically had to create arbitrary categories to help lock in a decision, which looked like: Does this game have punk music, or is it about punk culture? Does this game align with the general vibes of this showcase in its aesthetics, tone, or intent? Does this game/developer have design intentions that feel genuine? 

Often the deciding factor would come down to what people wrote in their application, a lot of which was deeply moving and relatable to read. It helps if devs have collaborated with punk musicians or are also in punk bands, which many of the selected are! Also, released games that were self-published get special treatment in the showcase, as to me that isn't too different from punk musicians folding the sleeves of their own albums or starting a label, like how Dischord Records did, you know?

Were there certain qualifications teams had to meet? 

Haha, not really; maybe the only qualification is to go out and buy a punk record, or attend a show (just kidding)! I realize how silly and gatekeepy this whole thing might come across as labeling what game is punk in a "real recognize real" manner is so subjective and broad. 

Ultimately, I just want to celebrate the underground and see more games from true creative people who aren't solely motivated to make money in this industry or that simply feature aggressive hardcore punk music. I always felt like certain depictions of punk culture in video games seemed oversimplified, disingenuous, or compromised in some way. What I've learned from this music, its community, and attending hardcore shows felt so much deeper in that sense; it's almost become sacred to me, which might sound weird.

On the flip side, was there anything disqualifying, like generative AI usage or certain themes?

Yeah, I consulted with an illustrator Camille Carpentier, from the Belgian scene who has a good eye for spotting AI-generated art. We did our best to curate and filter that stuff out in our spare time but there was a lot! Hopefully nothing slipped through the cracks. 

I think some people saw the word "punk" and submitted their cyberpunk- or steampunk-style games, which is far from what all of this is about. Submissions from studios with known questionable ethics toward their employees or shady business practices get binned off too, by the way.

What are some of your favorite punk games, from this showcase or just in general?

I have a real soft spot for CRUST SHMUP; it's free and feels like the game equivalent of Napalm Death's 1987 record Scum. Its crusty style influenced how I ended up doing some of the graphics for the event Steam page, too. 

A game releasing soon that's worth checking out is Beat, Heart, Beat, which has cool grungy Midwest emo vibes. Others to keep an eye on in the future are 4MECHEROS, Urine Nation, CHILDREN OF SATURN, and Creatures Like Us. 

The one game that's not in the showcase that deserves to be would be VILE: Exhumed, [which] Cara [Cadaver] entered in the Hardcore Punk Jam back in 2022, and I've been a fan of her work since. Also, shoutout to Teenage Blob, which is an older favorite of mine!

You're hoping to get a Punk label on Steam eventually. What's that process look like?

Yup, that's the plan! I can see why some people think labels are a bit silly, as I do feel like the term "indie" has lost a lot of its original meaning these days. But I figured it makes sense to have an intention behind organizing all of this and to try to help represent these kinds of games differently to the wider industry. 

I'm currently unsure what that process will look like with Valve, to be honest, but I'd love to be able to easily find more games like this on Steam. It already exists on itch.io! Maybe with a few more emails and as new moshing/stage-diving games with aggressive music emerge into the world, the tag will get added.

My plan is to continue running Hardcore Punk Game Jams where submitted entries are guaranteed a spot in any future Punk Game Showcases on Steam until this happens!

The Punk Games Showcase will be featured on Steam from October 9-16, with the Hardcore Punk Jam kicking off at the same time on itch.io. You can follow the Punk Game Devs community on Bluesky and Instagram to learn more.

Arc Raiders developer Embark Studios has officially announced that fans of the popular extraction shooter will soon have a more cooperative-focused way to enjoy exploring topside, as a long-awaited PvE mode will be available to test from October 13-20.

The announcement comes three months after news that Embark was testing a unique PvE map condition on Chinese beta servers. This time around, though, players won't be forced to seek a specific map condition to get their PvE fix. Instead, a new toggle will be available during the week-long test, allowing the choice between standard matchmaking and the PvE mode.

Solos, duos, and trios will all share the same lobbies in PvE mode, as they no longer pose any threat to each other. However, Embark has stated that some major map conditions, such as Night Raids, Hidden Bunker, Locked Gate, and Frigate, will remain only available in standard matchmaking.

In a press release, Embark has clarified that there is no guarantee a permanent PvE mode will come to Arc Raiders.

"It’s possible that this will not work," the release says. "This test is not a promise that there will be a PvE mode in the future, but take this as an indication that we are seriously considering it. We don’t yet know how the potential future version of this setting might look. It’s plausible that any future version could look very different from what you experience in the beta test."

However, I'd be quite shocked if the new mode doesn't land well, given that a substantial portion of the player base has expressed interest in a strictly PvE option. In the press release, Embark states that 37% of players are cooperative-only raiders, meaning they actively avoid PvP encounters whenever possible. And of those players, 70% have expressed a desire for fewer hostile encounters with other raiders. Even more shockingly, 40% of PvP players say the same.

All of this comes as player numbers have steadily dwindled in recent months, at least partially due to Embark's decision to turn to bi-yearly updates for Arc Raiders. The resulting content drought has been concerning over the past six months, but the addition of a PvE mode a handful of days after the game's upcoming Frozen Trail update could be the kick in the pants it needs to recapture those lovely early days.

Ailing extraction shooter Marathon added PvE modes to its lineup back in July, which briefly boosted player counts. However, it has since continued struggling to maintain a significant player base in the time since. Arc Raiders' overall mainstream appeal may yet help to keep it from the same fate, but there's no doubt that a lot is riding on these upcoming changes.

The Arc Raiders PvE test will run from October 13-20. Until then, you can dive into the Frozen Trail update on October 8, which will contain a smorgasbord of new quests, a fresh map to explore, extra weapon customization options, and a wide variety of quality-of-life changes. So, keep an eye on our comprehensive Arc Raiders guides hub for all of your needs when the update lands.

Bungie has big plans to revive not only Destiny 2, but to also evolve its extraction shooter, Marathon. Following its launch in March 2026, the studio says that it has been reviewing feedback around Marathon, and it revealed how it plans to evolve the experience as it heads toward a big update in March 2027.

One of Bungie's major points of focus is a Marathon experience that is more than just an extraction shooter. "PvEvP will remain an important part of Marathon, but it will become one point in a connected set of survival experiences," Bungie wrote in a blog post. "More approachable entry points will help new and returning players understand Marathon’s systems and build confidence before taking on its highest-stakes challenges. At the same time, experienced players will have more opportunities to test their mastery and pursue deeper challenges."

https://youtu.be/YaLvrG6-kkM

Bungie says it's building out connected PvE, PvP, and PvEvP experiences, as well as options for solo players and crews. A Nightfall Refresh is coming in October and the Symbiosis expansion will add more ways to play in December. Bungie will connect all these pieces together in a big March 2027 update. This will also include deeper progression systems for players, a refactored Cradle, a new onboarding experience, more narrative beats to discover, new enemies to battle, and an entirely new zone to explore.

There'll be plenty of new content along the way, but it sounds like March 2027 will be Bungie's chance to show what Marathon is truly capable of. This isn't the first time the developer has successfully turned things around; after numbers began to dip, Destiny surged back to life in 2015 with the critically acclaimed Taken King expansion. Destiny 2's audience also quickly nosedived after launch, but Bungie's focus on structural updates to the game and the Forsaken expansion that arrived a year later helped to turn things around. You might be noticing a pattern here.

All of those changes and updates to Marathon do sound positive, as Bungie is aiming to cater to multiple audiences. Again, this is something the studio achieved with Destiny 2, as players were spoilt for choice with various PvE, PvP, and PvPvE modes introduced across the game's seasonal and expansion model. The challenge isn't just to draw new and lapsed players back to Marathon, but to keep them around for the long run.

Bungie added that as it builds towards the big December and March updates, it plans to continue making meaningful quality-of-life improvements and running focused experiments to fine-tune the game. Beyond March 2027, Bungie says that it'll have a stronger foundation to continue building Marathon on from this point.

The last couple of months have been rough for Bungie, as mass layoffs hit the studio, Marathon game director Joe Ziegler announced his departure, and multiple projects were canceled.

Control Resonant has officially launched, and Remedy Entertainment has also paired it with a fresh patch to make it a little less brutal. Hotfix 1.3.3 is primarily focused on adjusting enemy health pools and Dylan's overall strength, and once it's installed, you can expect the parautilitarian to have an easier time making enemies falter.

"We strongly believe these changes will improve the gameplay feel and flow while still providing a challenge," developer Remedy Entertainment wrote in the hotfix notes. "Depending on player progression, enemies can feel too tanky during the early hours of the game."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cK_KUK2p4Q

Applying a "Falter" status to the enemy Hiss in Control Resonant is a crucial part of the overall gameplay loop, as it sets them up for an instant-kill finisher. Once the hotfix is active, the base health and required Falter level for enemies will be reduced, while Aberrant strength and maximum Ability strength will be increased.

Remedy says that it also wants to encourage buildcrafting and experimentation in the game, so it's permanently reducing the cost of respeccing and increasing the stock of the Reset Items across all vendors in the game. The first Resonant boss fight (The Artist) will also drop two Reset Items instead of one.

This should make the game a little easier to play on its default difficulty level, but if you'd prefer to breeze through Control Resonant, you can use Assist Mode to toggle various gameplay options. You can essentially make Control Resonant a walk in the park by making Dylan immortal and capable of dishing out one-hit kills, which is good news for anyone who wants to focus primarily on the story and the delightfully weird world of Control Resonant.

Lastly, Remedy will also update a couple of English UI texts to better explain Build Power and Aberrant Strength. These changes will only be present in English for now, but the tweaks will be available for other languages in due time.

“Alongside the stellar art direction and a surprisingly touching story, Control Resonant’s gameplay loop feels more mainstream than anything this team has made since Max Payne,” Mark Delaney wrote in GameSpot’s Control Resonant review.

RGG Studio's Stranger Than Heaven is certainly living up to its title, as the decision to resurrect the late rapper Tupac Shakur as a character in the game was perceived as odd when it was first announced at Summer Game Fest. In a new update on the game, RGG Studio revealed more details about the game's cast, including a brief description of how it revived Shakur using traditional research methods. The main takeaway is that the Yakuza and Like a Dragon developer managed to avoid making the casting more controversial by confirming that no artificial intelligence technology was used.

"RGG Studio is treating this integration with the utmost respect for his legacy, crafting every aspect in close collaboration and without the use of AI, including his character design based on archival footage and photographs," the studio wrote. More details on the character who uses Shakur's likeness, Amaru, will be shared at a later date.

The likeness of Tupac Shakur was used for the character Amaru.

According to RGG Studio head Masayoshi Yokoyama, it was Snoop Dogg himself who suggested Tupac for the role. The rapper also appears in Stranger Than Heaven, where his official character description notes that he plays the globe-trotting merchant Orpheus, who has an "open mind" about the legality of his wares. In the game, Orpheus discovers that the protagonist, Daito, has stowed away aboard his ship, and he mentors him in the harsh life that awaits him on his way to 1915 Japan.

The rest of the game's cast also features a varied and talented selection of performers from across the globe, including musicians Tori Kelly and Satoshi Fujihara, Shogun actor Tokuma Nishioka, and famed voice actor Akio Otsuka. You can expect to encounter all of them throughout the game's story, which covers 50 years of history.

Stranger Than Heaven cast

• Makoto Daito (Portrayed by Yu Shirota)
• Yu Shinjo (Portrayed by Dean Fujioka)
• Orpheus (Portrayed by Snoop Dogg)
• Heigo Yashima (Portrayed by Akio Otsuka)
• Tae Matsumoto (Portrayed by Moeka Hoshi）
• Suzy Day (Portrayed by Tori Kelly）
• Kiyoshi Otsuru (Portrayed by Tokuma Nishioka）
• Takashi (Portrayed by Satoshi Fujihara）
• The Veiled Stranger (Portrayed by Cordell Broadus）
• Keiko Shirai (Portrayed by Ado）
• Genzo Iwaki (Portrayed by Bunta Sugawara/Voiced by Takashi Ukaji）
• Tadashi Hataoka (Portrayed by Takashi Ukaji）
• Takeo Godai (Portrayed by Takaya Kuroda）
• Suekichi (Portrayed by Kouhei Tsuji）
• Tetsuya Hama (Portrayed by Yasukaze Motomiya）
• Amaru (Portrayed by Tupac）
• Kimura (Portrayed by Daisuke Shiba）

Tupac Shakur isn't the only famous face to have been used in a video game lately, as Capcom's Onimusha: Way of the Sword used the likeness and mannerisms of the late actor Toshiro Mifune. As Yokoyama explained, this has become commonplace in Japan and isn't generally frowned upon. "In Japan, there isn’t really so much sensitivity over this issue because this is something that’s kind of part and parcel of the Japanese gaming culture for 20-plus years. There’s been a lot of people who have modeled their characters after actors alive and passed away," Yokoyama said to GameSpot earlier this year.

Stranger Than Heaven launches on January 15, 2027, for PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PS5. The game will also be available day-one through Xbox Game Pass.

Rockstar Games has officially confirmed a $400 Grand Theft Auto 6 collector's edition, which doesn't include the game. The developer says The Goodtime State: Vice City Collection is inspired by Leonida’s hit TV show, Macca the Gator, and it's now available to preorder. It'll launch on November 19, the same day as GTA 6.

Here's a closer look at what $400 gets you:

The Goodtime State – Vice City Collection contents

• Six-inch figure of Macca the Gator with stash compartment 
• Matte black GTA 6 Oakley Frogskins sunglasses with Prizm Sapphire lenses  
• New Era 9FORTY A-Frame snapback hat with Vice City Leonida embellishments  
• Macca the Gator magnetic mirror
• Vice City swizzle spoon
• Vice City razor blade keychain
• Leonida Keys crossbody bag
• Chunkee the Manatee shot glass
• Leonida Keys enamel pin set in a custom metal tin 
• Premium stickers in a stash bag  
• Double-sided souvenir poster showcasing the full Leonida landscape 

It's a pretty solid selection of swag, but is it worth $400? Immediate reactions online have been very critical to the price that Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive are charging for this box of collectibles, but as people online have pointed out, this collector's edition will likely sell out fast--and there are already eBay listings for it. Scalpers pounced on the GTA 6 DualSense controllers when they were first announced, and on eBay, they're currently selling them at a premium.

It's also not too surprising to see a collector's edition that doesn't include the video game it's based on, as several big games have opted to sell standalone merchandise bundles. Marathon, Diablo 4, and Borderlands 4 are a few notable examples, and in the case of GTA 6, Take-Two Interactive won't have to risk preorder cancellations. According to a third-party research company, GTA 6 has already generated over $400 million in revenue from preorders alone.

Xbox Achievements have remained mostly the same since they were first introduced decades ago, but it looks like they're set to evolve slightly with the introduction of "Mythic" Achievements. Similar to PlayStation's platinum trophies, it looks like players will have to earn every Achievement in a game before they're awarded one of these. How do you know if you've earned this rare level of kudos on your PC or Xbox? Don't worry, unlocking a Mythic Achievement will result in your system rewarding you with a lot of digital fanfare.

As spotted by Klobrille, unlocking a Mythic Achievement will trigger a lengthy animation and sound effect, running almost 15 seconds in total:

https://twitter.com/klobrille/status/2102548362914365594

On the surface, it looks like adding a Mythic Achievement to your shelf is a sign that you've truly done everything there is to do in a game, so sitting back and enjoying the lengthy applause from your Xbox after you've poured hours into it makes sense.

According to TrueAchievements, Mythic Achievements are worth zero Gamerscore and are tracked separately from your usual Achievements. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma had teased the rollout of these new awards back in August, but it looks like they're rolling out during another bleak week at Xbox.

As part of ongoing cuts, hundreds of people have been laid off across Xbox Game Studios, studio consolidation has resulted in various developers being grouped under new arms of Xbox, and things are not looking good for Ninja Theory. Undead Labs has also found a new owner--that has not been officially revealed yet--but the move away from Xbox has resulted in downsizing at the State of Decay 3 developer.

For years, Meta has had one of the best entry-level virtual reality headsets with the Quest 3 and its slightly lower-specced successor, the Quest 3S. The VR hardware packs a punch, but if you're looking for an even lighter option, the company's new VR glasses could catch your attention. Essentially a Quest 3 that's designed to be easier to carry around, the Meta VR Glasses also come equipped with some impressive screens--and a massive price tag of $1,300 when they launch in Spring 2027.

According to Meta, the VR Glasses weigh just 100 grams, thanks to a pocket-sized puck that is tethered to the specs. This unit houses all the tech for running apps and games on the VR Glasses, and inside you'll find a Qualcomm Snapdragon Reality Elite chipset, 128GB of storage, 12GB of RAM, and a battery. The glasses feature 5K Micro OLED lenses, which can output 2412 x 2288 pixels per eye at a 120Hz refresh rate.

https://youtu.be/xyD_bmMy5nQ

Out of the box, these can access all apps and games from the Meta Quest catalog, and they support Xbox Cloud Gaming. Meta also says that they're "IMAX-Enhanced certified" as they support the Dolby Vision HDR format, and they can be used to watch 3D movies. When they arrive, users will have a library of 75 games that they can play using only their hands, or they can connect it to a gaming console or handheld as an alternate display option. These do not come with controllers by default, but you can buy Touch Plus controllers separately or pair an existing Quest 3/3S set with the glasses.

The other big feature touted by Meta are Holograms, avatars that use a photorealistic recreation of your visage. Similar to the Personas used in Apple Vision Pro headsets, you can use these to interact with people when you call other Meta VR Glasses owners. The catch here is that Holograms will be rendered as a flat stereoscopic video stream, but Meta says it plans to evolve these over time and eventually use them to replace the current cartoon-inspired avatar system.

The price tag will likely be the biggest obstacle for Meta, as at $1,300 it is more than double the cost of a 512GB Quest 3 headset and several times more expensive than a Quest 3S. The portability factor is a plus, but if you're looking for high-tech glasses that you can use specifically for watching movies or as a second screen for your consoles, then something like the Viture Beast and Pro 2 XR glasses are worth looking at. They may not be lightweight virtual reality devices, but they offer plenty of bang for your buck at a much lower price than the Meta VR Glasses.

But for pure VR gaming purposes, Meta's new VR Glasses could be a solid option, considering how the platform is already home to dozens of great games and upcoming ports, like High on Life. If you need a pricy option right now, there's also the Steam Frame, a VR headset from Valve that costs over $1,000 and has begun shipping out.

Discord has officially begun rolling out age-verification measures as of today. The company first announced age verification--and, subsequently, limits placed on accounts of those under 18--back in February of this year, but delayed a full implementation until just recently.

According to the official announcement blog post, this delay was done in order to include more age-assurance options, including several that do not rely on controversial biometric or digital ID systems, which have raised privacy concerns--especially after a well-publicized hack exposed tens of thousands of Discord users' personal IDs. Instead, they are using an algorithmic combination of factors to determine user age, including how long your account has existed, the servers you're in, the games you play, and other factors, detailed in a technical blog published alongside the announcement. (However, this model is not available in all territories, such as the UK and Austrialia--both of which have enacted strict social media bans and age verification laws.)

While Discord assures users that "More than 90% of you won’t be asked to confirm your age," the company also acknowledge that their model isn't flawless, and some accounts will need to verify their age to use a non-age-restricted Discord account. If users want to avoid uploading ID or video, they can use services like Apple Pay, Google Play, Google Wallet, or AgeKey, or enter a credit card number.

With any attempt at age verification comes controversy, however, and users of Discord were quick to notice that age verification was rolling out at the exact same time as sponsored ads for sports betting website FanDuel were appearing for American users. Obviously, it's illegal to use FanDuel if you're under 21 (or 18 in some jurisdictions), so it didn't take much for social media users to assume a connection between the two events.

We have reached out to Discord for comment on the sponsorship, as well as other potential age-restricted product or service sponsorships in the future. A Discord spokesperson responded, "We’re taking a deliberate, user-first approach to evolving our ads business to add genuine value that connects naturally with our users' sports, gaming and entertainment interests.”

According to Discord, this sponsorship was a limited test in the United States and that "Discord’s policies still prohibit ads for traditional real-money gaming, including casinos and sportsbooks." It was also noted that "Daily Fantasy Sports ads, and FanDuel brand ads on Discord are intended for adults, and we are using a range of age signals to help ensure they are age appropriate. We use age group signals to exclude teens from seeing inappropriate ads and to make sure they have the right settings."

In the meantime, if you don't want to see sports betting ads on your Discord, go to Settings, then Data and Privacy, and scroll down to Sponsored Content. Then go to Manage Sponsored Content and choose to disable "Real Money Gaming." This will hopefully continue to work in the future for other advertising categories you may want to disable, as well.

Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto 6 releases this November, and it's expected to take up a lot of time and attention, leading some to worry how other games may fare in its wake. Ubisoft's Joshua Mills, the creative director for Rainbow Six Siege, said it's unquestionable that "you're going to take a hit when that drops."

"All of us are going to play it," Mills told The Game Business.

So what can Ubisoft do for Siege when GTA 6 comes out? He said, "It's about being smart and with your expectations so you can keep the team and HQ aligned." He said if the developers working on Siege see the game's player numbers drop, "they can get anxious." However, he observed that the effect on player numbers from a big competitor release is "generally temporary."

Whatever the case, Mills said the "golden rule" that Ubisoft operates by is by serving "the players who stay like kings and queens."

"We don’t go on vacation just because a competitor is swelling the market. We double down and reward those spending their valuable time with us," he said.

Siege's fourth season (of year 11) will release around the time that GTA 6 comes out in November 2026. Mills teased that there are "some unannounced surprises" that Ubisoft is not disclosing yet, but he said they will "make a splash."

Why there is no Siege 2, at least not yet

Also in the interview, Mills discussed why Ubisoft made Siege X--a new and improved version of the game--instead of Siege 2.

He said "fundamentally rebuilding our entire system is a mountain of work." What Ubisoft came up with in Siege X represents nothing "even close to the level of scale" that the team would aim for with a possible full-on Siege sequel that would "rebuild the entire game."

"The need for doing it is not necessarily there with the cost of shutting the lights off. Because you can’t possibly run both at the same time," Mills said. "You would need the expertise of the team that’s running the game to rebuild it. It’d be really difficult to do.”

The Siege franchise is set to expand further in 2027 with the release of Rainbow Six Siege Tactics, a turn-based tactical game set in the Rainbow Six universe.