Grand Theft Auto 6 is the biggest game that Rockstar Games has ever made, and it was no doubt very expensive to produce. But just how much did it cost? We know it's not $1.5 billion, but Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has now reacted to the discussion around the game's development costs.

He told The Wall Street Journal, "It was expensive and it took a long time."

The game has been in development for years, and was delayed multiple times. Zelnick said Take-Two's mission is to "make the best entertainment on Earth," and this takes time.

"Our strategy is to be the most creative, the most innovative, and the most efficient. Our cultural tenets are seek excellence in everything we do, work together as a team, and be kind. That approach sometimes is, in fact, really expensive," the executive said. "The good news is that we have a P&L and a balance sheet that supports that. And if we get it right--we don't always--but if we get it right, it actually pays for itself and then some."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klc0fQmAL6k

Everyone expects GTA 6 to be a huge commercial success, but Zelnick said in the interview that he will not claim success before it occurs. "Arrogance is the enemy of continued success," he said.

Rockstar's ambition is to make the "most amazing entertainment experience of all time," Zelnick added. "They've done that before, and I'm hopeful that we will do that again. Like everyone else, I'm going to wait and see how it's received. I feel really good about it, but I'll wait and see," he said.

Also in the interview, Zelnick addressed GTA 6's latest delay to November 2026, saying it was "expensive and inconvenient" but was the right call for the game.

"There are a lot of companies who have a great mission statement, a stated strategy, and a culture, but then when push comes to shove, they do something that's at odds with that," he said. "My view is that culture, like character, is tested in the breach. It's a testing moment."

At the same time, Zelnick said he got a similar call from an executive asking for more time on a Take-Two project--and Zelnick said no. "I got a similar call and said, 'Actually, we're shipping,'" he said. "Thankfully, I was right, but imagine if I had been wrong?"

A dig at Cyberpunk 2077?

Also in the interview, Zelnick said other game companies can be too devoted to hitting deadlines, instead of taking more time, and spending more money, to get a game out in a better state. He didn't single any companies out, but he said a recent "high-profile" game that launched in such a rough state that it had to be pulled was an example of this--this could be a reference to CD Projekt Red and Cyberpunk 2077.

"That's the other piece that was left out of this discussion," he added. "What happens when people take the other approach? The other approach being, we're slavishly devoted to a schedule, and we're just going to ship despite what is going on. I am not going to throw any competitors under the bus, but if you know anything about the video game business, in the past few years, there was a very high-profile release that fell into this category. They shipped, and they had to pull the title after shipping, because it didn't work."

Cyberpunk 2077 had such a rough launch that it was pulled from the PlayStation Store; thousands of people separately sought refunds.

Despite releasing in such a rough state, Cyberpunk 2077 sold nearly 14 million copies in its first three weeks to become one of the most commercially successful RPG releases of all time. Executives at CD Projekt Red got gigantic bonuses, too.

CD Projekt joint-CEO Michał Nowakowski said it “was for sure wrong” to launch the game in that state, but he pushed back against the theory that the studio did so to appease investors who wanted to see financial returns.

Following Cyberpunk 2077’s rough launch, CD Projekt Red steadily supported the game with numerous updates and improvements over the years, culminating with a massive, game-changing 2.0 update in 2023 alongside the Phantom Liberty expansion. Today, the game has sold more than 40 million copies.

According to Sensor Tower, GTA 6 could reach 25 million pre-purchases by launch, and that would work out to around $2 billion in revenue. That would be enough to cover the game's development cost and most of the marketing spend.

GTA 6 releases on November 19 for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.

Since its launch last year, the Switch 2 has proven itself to be a portable powerhouse, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake may just be the best game to show off its capabilities. The upgraded version of the timeless adventure looks even better when compared to the original N64 game that first debuted in 1998, as Nintendo has leveraged the Switch 2 hardware to create the definitive version of the game, blending atmospheric design with imaginatively designed character models.

And if you want to see just how gorgeous that glow-up is, click the video below for a guided tour of Hyrule across two eras of Nintendo hardware. No commentary, just comparisons.

https://youtu.be/M1DfD7B5oUM

For this video, we captured footage using an original NTSC 1.0 N64 cartridge running on an Analogue 3D with de-blur enabled. While there are a couple of Nintendo 64 emulators on the market, the Analogue 3D is generally considered to be the best of the lot. It's designed to capture the essence of a CRT TV display through various effects and filters.

Ocarina of Time on the N64 was a game that had to work creatively around the limitations of the console and its cartridge system, at a time when the gaming industry was embracing CD-ROMs. Limitations do breed creativity, and the game is still fondly remembered for being a visual tour de force from an era when 3D games were making impressive strides. As for the Switch 2 version, the footage speaks for itself. It's crisp, the text is sharp, the extra effects are nice little touches, and the art direction has a Studio Ghibli feel to it.

For more on the technical wizardry behind it, you can read our big The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake interview with producers Eiji Aonuma and Hidemaro Fujibayashi, as they spoke to GameSpot about what it took to modernize a classic game and keep its soul intact. "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is a reverent remake with stellar presentation, letting the original greatness shine through," Steve Watts wrote in GameSpot's Ocarina of Time remake review.

There's no shortage of dedicated video capture devices on the market, but if you're looking for something that cuts down on cable clutter and adds some cyberpunk vibes to your setup, you'll want to check out the Chizha Mount Ling 2 Pro. GameSpot recently went hands-on with it, and while it's a great capture device for PC handhelds like the Steam Deck and the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X, it's hard to recommend if you're planning to grab Switch 2 footage specifically.

See on Kickstarter

According to Chizha, the Mount Ling Pro 2can be used as a dock; it has a built-in capture card that can record gameplay at up to 4K 60fps, and you can install an NVMe solid-state drive (up to 4TB) in the bottom slot for your recording purposes. This essentially condenses multiple devices into one portable hub, and if that sounds good to you, you can check out the Kickstarter for it right now. If you pledge now, you can get the device for $150 for the version with a capture card, after which it will cost $250 at retail.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/m543mHe3bKU

One of the cool things about it is that it has a front display that will tell you what resolution your system is currently outputting as well as how much power you're drawing from it--useful information for content creators. In our testing, we found that it works very nicely with PC gaming handhelds, but there's still work to be done on the Switch 2 front.

"I noticed that the color being displayed was a lot more washed out than when using an official Switch 2 dock," senior video producer Jean-Luc Seipke explained. "This happened when testing on our Samsung TV. When we tested it again using a portable monitor, however, everything looked consistent. I did speak this concern to the creators, and they told me it might be a firmware issue, and they're currently trying to sort out and fix it. The other issue I noticed is with upscaling. When running games that are clearly not 4K and are upscaled, I noticed that the quality of the image looked significantly worse than on the official Switch 2 dock. When docked, the Switch 2 triggers an upscale method that kind of like smooths out the image and makes everything look nicer. For whatever reason, that is just not triggering correctly when plugged into this dock."

Another thing that Seipke pointed out is that the internal storage drive only works with PC handhelds, so again, it's not recommended to buy the dock purely for Switch 2 gaming at this time. Hopefully these issues can be addressed in time. But if you want to use this with a PC handheld and are looking to take advantage of the capture capabilities and additional storage? This is one device you'll want to check out.

During a briefing on its latest financial results, Sony revealed it sold 2.6 million PS5 consoles in its last quarter, which ended on September 30. This brings lifetime PS5 sales to 97.9 million, just months before the console enters its sixth year on the market. By comparison, the PS4 had shipped 103.0 million units at the same point in its lifecycle, but Sony's gaming ecosystem is performing much better thanks to higher digital revenue and a massive active user base.

This comes at a time when the PS5 has only gotten more expensive since launch, thanks to the global components shortage that has seen memory prices surge. Sony says it has been in discussions with manufacturers to secure enough memory for the next fiscal year and expects its hardware sales to remain profitable into the next year. The company has raised its forecast, as it expects sales of first- and third-party games--like GTA 6--to increase.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmKu9Uow-os&t=2s

GTA 6 is projected to have sold almost 8 million copies ahead of its November 19 launch, and PS5 sales are said to be dominating by a wide margin compared with Xbox Series X|S. Sony also keeps 30% of the revenue from the game through platform fees, so GTA 6's early success will only improve PlayStation's fortunes.

With manufacturing adjustments that make the PS5 cheaper to produce and monetization of its monthly active users--which peaked at 127 million in September--business looks solid for Sony's game division.

Sony also touched on plans for its next PlayStation console, saying it's making "solid progress" on development and will announce it at an "appropriate time" in the future.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has been regarded as one of the best games ever made for nearly 30 years, and its new Switch 2 remake is seeing similar levels of acclaim. Part of the reason for its critical success seems to be its deep understanding of the source material, and that shouldn't be a surprise when considering how well Nintendo has retained staff over the years--something very few other game companies have managed to do.

Speaking to GameSpot, longtime Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma acknowledged the benefits of having developers on the team who have been working at Nintendo for decades.

"I think you see a real benefit to having some very long-term-tenured staff members around who have shared the same experiences over time, because every time you get to the next step, it's easier to discuss how to proceed, or if you're going to do something new," Aonuma said via an interpreter. "When you have new staff coming in, of course you want to make sure that you're bringing everyone up with a lot of discussion, explaining how to do things, why you're doing things certain ways, as well as the language that you're using. But that takes some more time, as well. So you need a bit of a balance."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xMM7L2XoMc

Despite not having everyone move from one Zelda project to the next, enough developers have remained at Nintendo to provide a consistent throughline.

"And so you do see the Zelda team change over time, but there is a continuity of core staff--certainly at least from one project to the next--so that we have that base that we can build from and bring up new staff with it," Aonuma added. "And this is something that I think Nintendo has done for a very long time, even since Miyamoto [was] originally working on projects like this. And it contributes to some of the sense of continuity that you do feel in games in the Zelda franchise, for example."

"Continuity" might not be the first thing you think of when Zelda gets mentioned, but Nintendo certainly knows what it's doing with Zelda as of late. In our Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake review, Steve Watts said, "By approaching this remake with a degree of reverence and respect for the source material, Nintendo has shown that a true masterpiece can stand the test of time."

Remaking a game like The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time required Nintendo to nail a fine balance between staying faithful to the original and updating it where it mattered. The Ocarina of Time remake largely sticks to the original's foundations while adding features like a dedicated jump button and updated controls. That was one of several changes, as Nintendo's core design philosophy was to modernize execution and comfort while preserving the original emotional and narrative intent.

As Legend of Zelda producer Hidemaro Fujibayashi explained in an interview with GameSpot, early pre-production focused on setting clear boundaries for what would and wouldn't change in the remake. "One of the first discussions we had leading up to the full-blown development of the title was really clearly establishing what it is we were going to change and what it is that we weren't going to change," Fujibayashi said via a translator. "Starting with the kind of stuff that we wanted to change, was really focused on leveraging the capabilities of the Nintendo Switch 2 hardware because it was going to be developed for that hardware. Leveraging all that capability so that we can remove any stress from the gameplay experience so that people can enjoy the game, fully."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xMM7L2XoMc

In addition to the changes in the game's controls, Fujibayashi added that the updated graphics also allowed the team to "provide a lot more information" to players, and the sound design also got a big upgrade: 5.1-channel surround sound for the background music.

To reduce friction, the team concluded that a dedicated jump action would give players more agency to explore the world without changing the core experience. "There was a lot of heavy discussion, as you mentioned, about the jump button," Fujibayashi said. "Ultimately, we ended up in the conclusion that being able to allow players to jump anywhere will make the gameplay experience a lot smoother and allow players to be really able to fully enjoy the experience that this game is trying to provide."

The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time launches for Switch 2 on November 5, and it's already one of the year's best-reviewed games.

"The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is a reverent remake with stellar presentation, letting the original greatness shine through," Steve Watts wrote in GameSpot's Ocarina of Time remake review.

World of Warcraft: Forever's launch hit some minor hiccups immediately upon release, but overall is going surprisingly well, much to the surprise of players who anticipated the worst.

As soon as the countdown timer clicked to zero at 3 PM PT, players began to encounter short login queues. Sitting through the queue would bring up the game's list of possible rulesets, but they were grayed out an unavailable. It took around 30 minutes of players requeuing and waiting with bated breath to see if the servers would come online or if they were out of luck, but lo and behold, eventually everything started working as intended.

In all previous versions of WoW, players picked a server to call home and create their character on, then logged in to that server to play. Servers generally ranged from anywhere between 3,000 to 10,000 or more players, with server sizes increasing in recent years as Blizzard experimented with larger, but fewer, servers. In the past, that approach to WoW Classic launches have seen their fair share of issues, from hours-long queues to login issues.

https://www.reddit.com/r/classicwow/comments/1xo3xzs/was_release_smooth_enough/

For Forever, Blizzard opted for a different, "realmless" approach. Instead of individual servers, players would instead pick their desired "ruleset," like player vs. environment, roleplaying, or player vs. player. All players on the same ruleset are then placed on essentially one giant mass of interconnected servers.

So far, that seems to have been a good call. Aside from the first 30 minutes, launch has been smooth, with minimal lag and few issues. Starting zones are crowded, but it's not impossible to make progress on quests. Some players on Reddit are calling it "possibly the best Blizzard launch ever," with another saying they've "never seen a smoother launch."

In other Forever news, Blizzard gave all classes a big damage boost ahead of launch, is teasing what looks to be a new legendary weapon players will be able to acquire, and even hinted at new class and race combos that could be coming to the game in the near future.

World of Warcraft: Forever's launch is imminent, and Blizzard is using the occasion to reveal what might be the game's first new legendary weapon.

Earlier today, a stream went live on the Warcraft Twitch channel that shows the creation of what looks to be a full-scale night-elf-themed staff weapon. The name of the stream is titled Camelot_revealv2_final.mp4, with Camelot being a reference to Forever's development codename. Twitch itself is hyping up the stream, stating in a blog it will lead to a "major reveal and a particularly exciting moment you don't want to miss."

The builders on stream can be seen using 3D printers and all other kinds of tools to craft what looks like a life-size replica of a specific staff that has been popping up in recent Forever promotional materials. A staff wielded by a skyborne Druid that looks extremely similar to the one being built can be seen in the recent Warpath animated music video. New promotional Forever artwork on Battle.net also looks to feature the same, distinct staff, once again wielding by a skyborne Druid.

New WoW: Forever promotinal artwork looks to show the same staff.

In the latest episode of the WoW: Forever podcast, a board in the background contained a night elf phrase that fans have roughly translated to something close to "The Hidden Blade is the guiding light." Given the words were written in the night elf language and that the staff that keeps appearing is also night-elf-themed, players are beginning to think the two are connected.

How players will find this new weapon remains to be seen, as are these classes that will be able to wield it. So far, it seems likely it will be a Druid weapon, but it's possible other staff-wielding classes could also acquire it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/wowforever/comments/1xiovjz/anyone_speak_elven/

Forever's raids don't unlock until December 9, but two of them, Hyjal Summit and the Barrow Downs, both have deep night-elf-lore connections. It seems plausible the staff will be related to these two raids in some way, but given how involved previous legendary weapon questlines in WoW Classic are, players shouldn't expect it to be a straightforward, easy, or quick process.

Whatever the reveal ends up being, we'll update this post once we know more. WoW: Forever launches today on PC, but sounds like it could come to other platforms in the future thanks to its controller support. In other Forever news, Blizzard looks to have teased new class and race combos that could come to the MMORPG in the near future.

Developer Blizzard may have just revealed new World of Warcraft: Forever class and race combos less than a day before the game's launch.

Forever already features a number of new class and race combos not seen in WoW Classic, like troll Warlocks, human Hunters, and more. In a launch overview video diving into what players need to know about this new version of Blizzard's genre-defining MMORPG, however, eagle-eyed players noticed a few peculiar sights.

Along what appeared to be various class abilities that aren't currently in the game, certain class and race combinations that aren't currently possible can also be seen. A total of three new race and class combos are shown in the footage, including a tauren Mage casting frostbolt, a skyborne Paladin, and what appears to be a night elf Shaman (or at least a night elf wearing a Shaman armor set). 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2Wg46fwmb0

Those would each be big additions, particularly when it comes to more options for Paladin and Shaman players. Currently in Forever, only dwarves can be Shamans on the Alliance side of the MMO's faction divide, while the only Paladin option on Horde is undead. Having additional choices is never a bad thing, and a second Shaman option would likely be well received by the game's community.

Since skyborne can be either faction, this would give Horde players another race choice for Paladin, but could also ruffle some feathers. Skyborne are currently locked behind a $30 paywall, and some players might not take kindly to having a new paladin option cost additional cash. 

Though it's certainly possible the new race and class combos seen in the launch overview video were included by mistake and no longer something Blizzard is planning, that seems unlikely given Blizzard's past comments.

While they won't be included in the game at launch, Blizzard has made clear they are something players should be expecting in the near future. In an interview with GameSpot last month, Forever associate production director Clay Stone said Blizzard was "holding back" some features that were originally planned for day one. He specifically said players can expect new class and race combos "not that far after launch."

WoW: Forever launches today for PC, but thanks to its controller support, it certainly sounds like it might be playable on other platforms in the future. Blizzard has made some big changes to Forever just in time for release, including a major damage boost for all classes and updates to racial abilities.

Rockstar Games has announced that Grand Theft Auto 6 will now released in stores two days earlier than anticipated--but this doesn't change anything about when you'll actually be able to play the game.

GTA 6's code-in-a-box physical edition will be available to purchase in stores starting on November 10; it was previously going to be November 12.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klc0fQmAL6k

Rockstar also moved up the preloading date for GTA 6 from November 12 to November 10 for the digital and code-in-a-box versions. The developer offered no explanation as to why it made these changes, and the company did not respond to GameSpot's request seeking comment.

While you might walk into a Target or Best Buy or GameStop on November 10 and see a copy of GTA 6 that you can spend real money on, you cannot actually play the game until November 19 when the game goes live. If you're in the US, you'll be among the last people in the world to get in due to how the game is launching non-simultaneously.

Also in the post, Rockstar confirmed what everyone expected: The $100 Ultimate Edition of GTA 6 is not going to be sold in stores. This move, along with ditching discs entirely, is all about making money.

GTA 6 launches on November 19 for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. A recent poll said lots of people are excited to play GTA Online, but GTA 6 is a single-player game with no multiplayer component, at least not yet.

Grand Theft Auto 6 launches on November 19, and the game's file size, 212GB, is truly massive. One internet company, Spectrum, is turning this into a marketing moment for its own services by offering members a "free Gig Speed Lift" in November to help download the game faster.

Available November 9-30, the offer has "no cost and no strings attached," the company said. The offer is fairly straightforward: Customers with a qualifying internet plan and compatible equipment can use the My Spectrum app to opt in. Then on November 9, customers will have their download speeds upped to 1Gbps. If you're already on a plan offering that, you'll get boosted to 2Gbps.

Spectrum said the boost should allow people to download GTA 6 in under 30 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmKu9Uow-os

The free upgrade offer runs through November 30, so that also covers Thanksgiving, when you might have a bunch of people in your home and want faster internet. It also covers the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping holidays.

After November 30, the speed boost gets pulled from your account with no further action required on your part. The whole idea here is that Spectrum thinks you'll enjoy it so much that you'll pay to upgrade on a more permanent basis.

GTA 6 launches on November 19 for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. For more, check out the exact GTA 6 worldwide release times to find out when it unlocks where you live.

Grand Theft Auto 6 releases on November 19, and a lot of people are very excited to play some kind of online mode, according to a new study. The only problem is that GTA 6 is a strictly single-player game and has no online mode, at least not one that Rockstar has talked about yet.

Research firm Piper Sandler recently polled 9,000 teenagers, with 90% saying they intend to play GTA Online. It would be shocking if GTA 6 doesn't eventually have an online mode, but the company has not said anything about that.

Product listings for GTA 6 at retailers make it clear that the game is a "single-player experience," so it's not something Rockstar is trying to be coy about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klc0fQmAL6k

The poll also found that 40% of respondents said they planned to make additional in-game purchases.

Additionally, the survey found that 70% of respondents who own a PS5 or Xbox Series X|S plan to buy GTA 6. Of those, 55% said they are planning to buy GTA immediately, and 15% said they would wait several months.

Before this, Circana reported that nearly 1 in 3 console and PC gamers in the US plan to buy GTA 6; that's the highest purchase intent that Circana has ever measured.

Analyst James Callahan reiterated a $290 price target on Take-Two's stock. After getting crushed so far in 2026, Take-Two stock today stands at about $210/share (after a huge rally today, November 4).

It remains to be seen what Rockstar may do with the existing GTA Online for GTA 6 after GTA 6 comes out--whatever the case, gamers are going to be mad.

GTA 6 launches on November 19 for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Preloading starts on November 10, and gamers in the US will be among the last in the world to get to play the game, so maybe pack your bags for New Zealand.

Santa Monica Studios has delayed God of War Laufey. The new God of War game for PS5 is no longer set for release in February 2027, and has shifted to May 2027.

The game will now launch on May 20, 2027, which is a delay of about three months from its original February 16, 2027 release date.

"We will make the most of each moment until then by putting in the finishing touches and pushing the game to its fullest potential," the developer said. "On behalf of everyone on the team, we appreciate your patience and we'll be back to share more updates soon."

https://twitter.com/SonySantaMonica/status/2118025571020271817

God of War Laufey stars Deborah Ann Woll as Faye. Starring alongside Woll is The Boys actor Jack Quaid, who plays a gelatinous cube named Phranque.

Compared to Kratos and his skillful application of brute force to help solve problems, Faye is far more graceful and nimble. Like the previous games, God of War Laufey is a third-person action experience built around chaining together various skills and weapons to dish out tremendous amounts of damage.

You can see the game in action in the gameplay trailer below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upjpP54xDIc&t=4s

A new Kratos-led game is coming after that, and it will pick up where Laufey left off.

Nexus Mods owner Victor "Foledinho" Folmann has outlined plans to make AI disclosures mandatory for PC mods uploaded to the site. While content built with AI tools won't be banned--despite it being a contentious subject in the modding community--Folmann did reveal that Nexus Mods will ultimately require modders to clearly communicate when AI has been used.

"We already have tags for AI-generated and AI-assisted mods, but we recognize that there’s a lot more we can do to make that information more accessible and clear for you all," Folmann wrote. "As of today, we're making AI disclosure mandatory when uploading a new mod, meaning mod authors will need to declare whether AI has been used in their work. All existing mods will have one of two popups: a persistent one when editing a mod in the upload form, and a dismissible one on the 'My Mods' page."

At the same time, Nexus Mods users will be able to filter out AI-produced mods entirely from their search results, similar to what Itch.io does as part of its efforts to combat AI spam uploads. As for why Nexus Mods will allow AI content to remain on the site, Folmann added that an outright ban would likely lead modders to simply not declare their use of AI tools in their mod-creation-efforts. By allowing and moderating it, the site can motivate users to be more transparent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB0C8z2j6nA

"An outright ban will not eliminate AI from the modding process but will prevent people from mentioning its use. We'd prefer the opposite; it should be out in the open, clearly labelled, and regulated according to the rules that we can implement on our platform," Folmann wrote. "Mod authors should have a chance to decide about the further use of their work, and you should be able to decide for yourselves how much AI-based content you want to see, whether more, less, or no content at all."

Nexus Mods' official stance is that it will not use mods to train AI, nor will it sell or license them out, Folmann added. The site will continue to fine-tune its approach to AI-assisted mods while also punishing anyone caught breaking its new disclosure rules.

AI has been a hot-button issue lately for PC gamers, with the recent Steam Next Fest highlighting a growing problem of slop flooding the platform.

Game developers have also reported that the mandatory QA check every game must pass before launch is taking even longer now, with studios blaming a deluge of AI-generated games for slowing down the process. This week, Steam announced new game submission rules to get things back on track, including requiring developers to ensure their game can run through the Steam Client for at least five minutes before they hit the submit key.

Bethesda just recently lifted the lid on the next Elder Scrolls game, revealing its title to be "Sentinel" and telling fans it will be "some time" before more is shared.

But just when could Sentinel be released? According to reporter Jason Schreier, the game isn't expected to launch for another two+ years.

"TESVI: Sentinel is more than two years away," he wrote on Reddit.

The Elder Scrolls 6 was announced more than eight years ago, and until this week, Bethesda hadn't said much at all in an official capacity about the game. The latest information wasn't much to go on, either, as Bethesda only confirmed the game's title and published a title card video featuring a scroll emerging from the sand. The video also hinted that Hammerfell being the game's location.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJCcHs78iBw

Game director Todd Howard has questioned whether it was the right call to announce The Elder Scrolls 6 so early. “I have asked myself that a lot,” he said. “I don’t know. I probably would’ve announced it more casually.”

He later said announcing The Elder Scrolls 6 in the way that Bethesda did was “not my preference,” but it happened anyway.

He went on to joke: “Just pretend we didn’t announce it. It doesn’t exist. No one has heard a word.”

One of the reasons that The Elder Scrolls 6 might have been announced so early was for the purposes of recruiting staff to work on it. This is a common practice in gaming.

It remains to be seen if Sentinel will be exclusive on console to Xbox or if Microsoft will also bring it to PlayStation 5. We also don't know if the game is in the works for Xbox Series X|S, or the planned next console, Project Helix, or both.

In addition to Sentinel, Bethesda is working on Fallout 5, along with remasters of Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. This is all happening amid a "reset" of the Xbox business that has The Elder Scrolls 6 developers fearing for their jobs.

A Gears of War movie is in development at Netflix, but is it ever going to happen? That remains to be seen, but director David Leitch of John Wick fame recently said the movie will "hopefully" come to fruition "soon."

Speaking to ScreenRant, Leitch said, "I think everybody's excited about the potential of this as a film universe."

He added: "I wish I could tell you more, because there's some much cool stuff going on."

Netflix recently underwent a big shift in management, with film chief Dan Lin exiting the company alongside longtime chief content officer Bela Bajaria. Former Former Disney and Fox executive Peter Rice is now the new chief content officer. He was only just recently installed in the post, so it remains to be seen what changes Rice could make. There is, however, precedent for new management making big changes, as Netflix's BioShock movie was scaled back under the leadership of Lin.

The latest script for the Gears of War movie as of 2025 was written by Jon Spaihts, who previously wrote Prometheus, Doctor Strange, and Passengers, along with Dune 1 and 2.

A decades-long wait

Gears of War fans have been waiting decades for their promised Gears of War movie. All the way back in 2007, a year after the first Gears of War game came out, New Line Cinema purchased the rights to make a movie based on the game. Nothing ever came of that. Then in 2016, the Gears of War movie rights changed hands and went to Universal. Nothing came of that, either.

In 2022, Netflix announced a deal with Microsoft to make not only a Gears of War movie, but also an animated TV series (which we don’t know anything about). It’s been four years since then and the project remains in development, but things tend to fall apart in Hollywood, so there are no guarantees it’ll actually happen.

Netflix is also working on an Assassin’s Creed TV show, and that one is actually going to happen, as it is now filming. Additionally, Netflix is behind the BioShock movie from The Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence, and it’s set to begin production in 2027.

Who could be in the Gears of War movie?

Wrestler-turned-actor Dave Bautista has lobbied for years to play Marcus, and he does bear a strong resemblance to the character, but no casting announcements for the Gears of War movie have been made. He's already involved in a big video game project, as he's starring as Kratos in Prime Video's God of War show. Meanwhile, Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski has previously been adamant that Chris Pratt shouldn’t play any role in the film.

What about the Gears of War games?

The latest entry in the game series was this year's Gears of War: E-Day, a highly regarded action game that reportedly has not sold very well. No new games in the series have been announced, but developer The Coalition has said it won't take another seven years to make a follow-up.

Zooming further out, Xbox is undergoing a major "reset" that has included mass layoffs, game cancellations, and studio closures/divestitures. Developers at The Coalition said they fear for their jobs.

One of the minds behind the legendary music of Halo fell short in his mission to pivot to politics. Marty O'Donnell, formerly a composer and audio director for Bungie, lost his bid to join the U.S. House of Representatives by a wide margin.

With 86% of votes counted, AP News called the race in Nevada's 3rd congressional district for incumbent Representative Susie Lee, a Democrat. O'Donnell ran as a Republican and had the endorsement of President Donald Trump. The current count has O'Donnell with 38.6% of the vote, trailing Lee's 59.1%. Nevada's 3rd district includes much of Clark County and part of Las Vegas.

Lee, who has held her seat since 2019, has been a target of Republicans in previous election cycles. As it became clear early Wednesday morning that Lee was favored to win re-election, her social media account posted the famous "Halo theme song performed by 80 guys in 1 bathroom" video to mock O'Donnell. O'Donnell responded by saying in a post: "Susie has a lot of class. And it’s all low."

https://twitter.com/MartyTheElder/status/2117901086279541197?a=Tdcz1QfGJvr7Nxw7kxo&s=20

O'Donnell heavily leaned on his video game industry background, hosting a campaign event that doubled as a celebration of early Halo games. At the event, O'Donnell declared that "gamers are not woke" and insisted that games, movies, and comics were "co-opted by left-wing politics."

As Lee's social media video hints at, this wasn't O'Donnell's first attempt at entering national politics. O'Donnell ran for the same congressional seat in 2024, placing fourth in the Republican primary. He won the Republican nomination in 2026 with the backing of Trump.

O'Donnell began his career in video game music composition as a freelancer, producing the music for Bungie's Myth and Myth 2. He joined Bungie as a full-time employee starting with 2001's Oni and went on to compose music for all of Bungie's Halo titles and the first Destiny game. O'Donnell was fired from Bungie in 2014; the composer claimed that he was terminated "without cause" and pursued legal action against the company afterward. According to his campaign website, O'Donnell is now retired from the game industry.

As PlayStation prepares to embrace an all-digital future starting in 2028, Nintendo is seen as one of the last bastions of physical games with its Switch cartridges. A new challenge has emerged: one of Nintendo's major ROM chip manufacturers, Macronix, is preparing to exit the market and shift its focus to the more lucrative flash and memory chip market.

In its latest earnings call (via MST Financial analyst David Gibson), Macronix revealed it plans to drop ROM manufacturing entirely. The company says ROM chips account for only 5% of its business, down from 26% a year ago. While Macronix isn't the only company that manufactures ROM chips for Nintendo, it is a major supplier overall, and losing it could put further pressure on the company and other game publishers to ship more games on Game-Key Cards, or increase prices for cartridges that do have full games installed.

ROM chips--which stand for Read-Only Memory--are specialized storage chips that data is permanently written to. The great thing about them is that they let games load quickly, since a console can read the game code straight off the chip without first installing data to an internal storage drive. Nintendo's proprietary game cards rely on specialized, high-speed ROM tech tailored specifically for Nintendo hardware.

https://twitter.com/gibbogame/status/2117805196130582970

Because of that design, they have high manufacturing costs and only a handful of silicon suppliers--including MegaChips and ROHM--manufacture them for Nintendo. This, in turn, affects publishers' profit margins, which is why Game-Key Cards on Switch 2 are a popular alternative. In comparison, they act as digital authentication keys that require a game to be downloaded directly to the Switch 2 flash storage.

We have reached out to Nintendo, and will update this post if we hear back from them.

The rise of AI companies has also had an impact on virtually every aspect of consoles, and memory is no exception, as prices have risen dramatically over the last two years. Several tech companies have also shifted from selling products to consumers to selling exclusively to AI companies, which have an incredible appetite for memory and storage. That pivot has proven lucrative, as all the RAM for 2027 looks to be sold out already.

For its part, Nintendo says it doesn't plan to abandon physical games yet, as it prefers to offer consumers an "agnostic" platform to play games on.

The video game research company Sensor Tower has updated its GTA 6 sales tracker to reveal the latest, albeit unofficial, sales data for the open-world crime game. According to Sensor Tower, GTA 6 has now sold 7.71 million total units via pre-purchases, which works out to about $751 million in gross revenue.

The report said PS5 sales are dominating the mix, with GTA 6 selling 5.74 million units on PS5 so far, compared to 1.97 million on Xbox Series X|S. That means of the 7.71 million GTA 6 sales so far, 74% are on PS5 and 26% on Xbox Series X|S.

In total, GTA 6 sales for PS5 have so far reached $559 million in revenue, compared to $192 million for Xbox Series X|S. Sony and Microsoft keep about 30% of revenue due to their platform fees, so GTA 6 being a huge success directly benefits both of those companies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmKu9Uow-os

The huge gap in sales between platforms is not surprising because the PS5 is dominating Xbox Series X|S in terms of console sales. In fact, GTA 6 is breaking records on Xbox, Microsoft has said, and the sales numbers for GTA 6 on Xbox line up with Xbox's share of the console market.

Sensor Tower is projecting as many as 25 million total pre-purchases for GTA 6 by launch, and if the 74/26 split holds, that would be about 18.5 million units on PS5 and 6.5 million on Xbox Series X|S.

Sony holds the marketing rights for GTA 6 on PS5, but that doesn't mean that Microsoft is doing nothing to try to promote the game. Just recently, Microsoft announced a GTA 6-inspired custom Xbox console that sits inside an alligator.

Circana has released new data that shows that GTA 6 holds 29% purchase intent among US console and PC gamers. That means nearly 1 in 3 console and PC gamers in the US plan to buy GTA 6–this is the highest purchase intent that Circana has ever measured for any game.

GTA 6 may indeed be a gigantic hit commercially, and one that helps lift the entire industry with increased sales of hardware and accessories. But anyone looking to buy a new console to play GTA 6 is set for major sticker shock, as consoles today are more expensive than ever. Not only that, but GTA 6 is not going to save the industry’s many serious and deep-rooted issues, experts believe.

GTA 6 launches on November 19 for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. The game's file size is about 212GB, and thankfully, preloading begins more than a week before launch. The game unlocks on November 19 at midnight local time, and that means US players will be among the last in the world to get in.

People in New Zealand, meanwhile, will be the first in the world to play GTA 6. If you're thinking about booking a flight to the land of Hobbits, here are some tips for packing your PS5 safely.

Reviews are in for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake, and they're pretty good so far. On GameSpot's sister site Metacritic, Ocarina of Time has a review aggregate score of 96 from 81 reviews, making it the highest-reviewed game of the year so far--and with only a few months to go, it might stay in the top spot.

A few more reviews will likely filter in over the next few days from other sites Metacritic tracks, but don't expect the needle to shift much in either direction, or at all. According to Metacritic, twin-stick shooter Sektori is second for best-reviewed game of the year (93 based on 10 reviews), followed by the Switch 2 Deluxe Edition of the Resident Evil 2 remake (also 93, based on 16 reviews).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xMM7L2XoMc

But could Grand Theft Auto 6 dethrone Link from the number one spot? Historically, mainline entries of GTA games have reviewed very well, and looking back at previous entries, they've all earned review aggregate scores that are often on par or even higher than Legend of Zelda games. Here's a quick breakdown of how GTA has done over the years:

• Grand Theft Auto -- No metascore
• Grand Theft Auto 2 -- 70
• Grand Theft Auto 3 -- 97
• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas -- 95
• Grand Theft Auto 4 -- 98
• Grand Theft Auto 5 -- 97

The pattern here is that the games developed from GTA 3 onwards earned the highest metascores, and if the tradition holds, then GTA 6 should also be in the 90s when reviews land and the scores are tallied up. That's depending on if the game is actually good, but considering Rockstar's track record, GTA 6 should be a polished experience, even if the new immersive gameplay mechanics create some sense of friction for players who are used to going on crime sprees in GTA games while not worrying too much about the consequences of their in-game actions.

For now, the Ocarina of Time remake will likely remain the best-reviewed game of 2026, a feat that Nintendo and Rockstar have achieved multiple times. The Switch 2 edition of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was the best-reviewed game of 2025, and 2017's Breath of the Wild also took the top spot. Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption 2 was 2018's best-reviewed game, as was GTA 4 in 2008 and GTA 5 in 2013. Who will emerge victorious this year? You'll have to wait until November 19 to find out when GTA 6 launches.