The Final Fantasy 14 community is in mourning following news that Eikichi Iwai, the bassist for the game's house band, The Primals, has died at the age of 57, and is taking to the MMORPG's main hub cities to honor his legacy.

An "Important Announcement" post on the official FF14 website from developer Square Enix on November 11 broke the news, and stated the development team was "deeply saddened" to inform the community of Iwai's passing.

"Having witnessed his truly unforgettable performance on stage at the recent Final Fantasy 14 Fan Festival in Japan, the sudden news of his passing has come as a profound shock," the statement reads. "The members of The Primals and the entire FF14 development and operations team are overcome with deep sorrow. 

"As we reflect on all that Eikichi-san has left behind, our thoughts are with him, and we offer our heartfelt condolences." 

The Primals, with Eikichi Iwai second from the left.

The Primals, composed of Iwai on bass, composer Masayoshi Soken, localization lead Michael-Christopher Koji Fox, and band members Tetsuya Tachibana and GUNN, are behind some of FF14's most memorable tracks. Iwai's bass in particular stands out on songs like Shadowbringers' To the Edge and Stormblood's Amatsu Kaze. The band performed worldwide at various FF14 Fan Festivals, as well as at a UK rock festival, earlier this year.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/1xtygrg/rest_in_peace_eikichi_iwai_vigil_in_siren_limsa/

Final Fantasy 14's community has a reputation as being one of the best, and most welcoming, in gaming, so it's no surprise it took the time to honor Iwai's passing. As spotted on Reddit, the game's playerbase has come together to pay their respects Iwai, with large gatherings of players holding firelight vigils in his memory across the game's various servers and cities.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/1xtgw3a/memorial_to_eikichi_iwai_on_omega_chaos_rest_in/

"It's so good to see everyone come together, he deserves it for playing such a big role in the music we've fallen in love with. May he rest peacefully," one community member wrote.

More of Iwai and The Primals' music will be heard in Final Fantasy 14's next upcoming expansion, Evercold, set to release on February 23, 2027.

As Xbox celebrates its 25th anniversary, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has shared her thoughts on where gaming is going over the next 25 years, and people are saying her message is really more about pushing AI.

Sharma said modern games demonstrate the "heights of human craft in ways unimaginable just decades ago." However, the costs, resources, and risks that companies need to take on have "grown just as dramatically," she said.

"As a result, too many ideas never become games, and too many games fall short of what their creators imagined. For decades, this has been the unavoidable tradeoff of ambition. We must change this," she said.

The 25th anniversary of Xbox has been rough for the company.

Historically, to create anything at scale required immense resources, but Sharma said that's changing. Without saying AI, Sharma said it won't be long until a single person can "wield capabilities that once required entire nations."

"A small team will be able to build worlds that today demand hundreds of developers and hundreds of millions of dollars. And our largest studios will be able to pursue ambitions as far beyond today’s games as Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is from its first entry in 1982," she said.

Sharma went on to say that the future of gaming "will look more like its beginning," which is to say that a small team with a bold idea can make a real impact. "Our responsibility is to deliver great games, unmistakable hardware, and give more people the chance to make something the world has never seen," she said.

Xbox recently launched Xbox Labs, which is a pretty obvious push into the world of vibe-coded games. Sharma has promised that she has "no tolerance for bad AI." She added, “We will not chase short-term efficiency or flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop.”

Sharma became Xbox CEO earlier this year, replacing Phil Spencer. Sharma immediately made lots of big changes to "reset" the business, including mass layoffs, game cancellations, and studio closures/divestitures.

Sharma comes from an AI background, having previously been an executive on the CoreAI team at Microsoft. She may be bullish about having smaller teams make big games going forward, but it's not an all-or-nothing approach. After all, Xbox continues to own and fund large-scale, expensive productions like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Forza just to name a few.

AI is a big push for Xbox's owner, Microsoft, so it makes sense to see Sharma undertake efforts to increase Xbox's own efforts in that department. This is happening after a study of game developers found that more developers than ever think generative AI is bad for gaming.

It's the end of an era for Nvidia, as its founder and longtime CEO, Jensen Huang, has resigned effective immediately. The face of one of the largest companies in the US and the growing AI boom, Huang's retirement comes after news broke of his two extramarital affairs, one of which was with a suspected Chinese spy.

Nvidia has appointed its Chief Financial Officer, Colette Kress, to serve as interim CEO and Harvey C. Jones as Chair of the Board, but Huang's departure will leave a void that won't be easily filled, as he was heavily involved in Nvidia's day-to-day operations.

The news is also expected to complicate things for Nvidia's stock price, as it has been in decline for over a month. The internet is already having a field day with Huang's departure, with hot takes and memes dominating the discourse right now. Huang's days of pulling on his signature leather jacket and hitting the stage to show off Nvidia's new hardware are now over.

https://bsky.app/profile/zaaack.bsky.social/post/3n24ng6vzak2c https://twitter.com/MorningBrew/status/2120885382690558328 https://twitter.com/limewire/status/2120882209749901505 https://twitter.com/SoundDobad/status/2120675281421619612 https://twitter.com/MorningBrew/status/2120887634553618762 https://bsky.app/profile/ditzkoff.bsky.social/post/3n24n7bbn6s2n https://twitter.com/kevinxu/status/2120682063682806184 https://bsky.app/profile/richycraven.bsky.social/post/3n24qeysiek2h

What's next for Huang? Only he knows, but he'll likely retire with a pretty substantial golden handshake. As the largest shareholder in Nvidia--a company currently valued at trillions--Jensen's stock is also worth billions if he ever decides to sell.

Nintendo has announced its 2026 Black Friday deals, with a Mario Kart World Switch 2 hardware bundle as the centerpiece for $500.

The Switch 2 launched in 2025 with a similar bundle for the same price, but it was discontinued at the end of the year. It later returned, but at a higher price point--$550. Now, the bundle is on "sale" again, though it's the same price as it was in 2025 before the price hikes. In addition to a digital copy of the game and the console, it comes with a three-month Nintendo Switch Online membership.

The Mario Kart World Switch 2 bundle is back to its 2025 price.

The bundle goes on sale November 22 and will be available through December 5. It's not the only hardware bundle that people can buy, as Nintendo also offers a system with a digital copy of Nintendo Switch Sports Resort and three months of Switch Online for $530. This bundle is not on sale for Black Friday, though.

Get the Mario Kart World Switch 2 hardware bundle here:

• Amazon
• Best Buy
• Walmart
• Target

Additionally, for just one week--November 22-29--Nintendo will offer games like Donkey Kong Bananza and Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 for $20 off.

What's more, Nintendo announced that the Nintendo eShop and the Nintendo Store will offer a range of deals November 19-December 2, but it hasn’t yet detailed what you can expect.

Black Friday used to be just one day of deals--the day after Thanksgiving in the US--but now it's an entire season of savings. Keep checking back with GameSpot for more Black Friday deals in the days ahead.

Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto 6 looks like it will have an impressive attention to detail, and that includes how one of the main characters, Jason, can drink a beer and eat a donut at the same time. Now that's living.

Rockstar boss Rob Nelson geeked out to The Guardian about GTA 6's finer details, including this one. According to the report, Jason can "take bites of a donut with one hand while sipping a beer with the other."

Drink up.

It’s unclear whether this is under the player’s active control or it just happens. In any event, the report also mentioned how Rockstar paid close attention to "the way that Jason eats a hot dog." These are very important details.

GTA 6 features a body-shaping system, so if Jason, or Lucia, drink a lot of beer and pound hot dogs and donuts, they'll likely gain weight. But that weight can then be transformed into muscle by hitting the gym and pumping out sets.

Another example of Rockstar's attention to detail in GTA 6 is how Jason can buy a six-pack of beer, then start jogging, holding the beers in the crook of his arm. The game shows you the liquid sloshing around in the bottles as he runs.

GTA 6's attention to detail is a little ridiculous, with Rockstar seemingly going all out to create little details that players may never even notice.

GTA 6 launches on November 19 for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Preloading is underway now, but the game itself doesn't unlock until November 19 at midnight local time.

After years of post-apocalyptic survival stories and archaeological adventures, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet looks like a fresh opportunity for Naughty Dog to showcase a new sci-fi universe. Visually, the game draws on '80s sci-fi movies with analog technology and ancient hardware like CD players, but you can also thank a genre-defining anime film for shaping Intergalactic's look and feel.

In an interview with Patton Oswalt during the Comic Creators Block Party 2026, Naughty Dog director Neil Druckmann said that Akira inspired Intergalactic on multiple levels, alongside other big anime properties like Cowboy Bebop.

"For Intergalactic, we actually took a lot of inspiration from anime. Akira--everybody loves Akira--just like the animation, the big ideas, the kind of philosophical sci-fi ideas within that," Druckmann said. "We took a lot of inspiration from anime, stylistic inspiration, how they approach the story. The big kind of philosophical questions and ideas. We really want to tackle that, and surprise players in interesting ways. By the time you get to the end of Akira, it just goes on this wild ride. And we want to take someone on a similar wild ride."

https://twitter.com/IntergalacticES/status/2120653537847742808

Druckmann mentioned that he grew up with the laser-disc version of Akira, the landmark 1988 anime film directed by Katsuhiro Otomo. It's not hard to see that influence visually, as the protagonist Jordan A. Mun wears a jacket that looks like it was pilfered from the wardrobe of Akira lead Shotaro Kaneda, and her spaceship also looks like it was manufactured by the same company responsible for the hotheaded biker's iconic motorcycle--maybe we'll even see an Akira slide in the game.

Philosophically, Akira covers a wide range of topics explored over the decades, with the film primarily centered on themes of human technological overreach, spiritual immaturity, and the cyclical nature of creation and destruction. Those ideas have been debated for decades, and Naughty Dog has proven adept at balancing heavy themes with engaging gameplay, particularly in The Last of Us, which balanced a tale of vengeance with shootouts and stealth.

A closer look at its themes isn't too far off either, as Druckmann confirmed that Naughty Dog will have more to share about the game in 2027.

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet developer Naughty Dog has been largely radio silent about its upcoming sci-fi game since it was first revealed in 2024, but it looks like 2027 will bring a lot more information.

Speaking to Patton Oswalt during the Comic Creators Block Party 2026, director Neil Druckmann teased that the game is entering its "final stage" of production. "We've only teased it, so I can't talk too much about it," Druckmann said. "But we're kind of like at the last stages of production, where we can play it, and we're refining and polishing it, and I can't wait to show it to the world."

https://twitter.com/IntergalacticES/status/2120653537847742808

Druckmann also said that after 20 years of relatively grounded games set on Earth, Intergalactic represented an opportunity for the studio to combine everything it learned from its biggest franchises into an experience that blends "cinematic" storytelling with deep gameplay.

"Something we've been really hungry for is to go sci-fi. We used to have another game franchise, called Jak and Daxter. We wanted to take everything we learned from that franchise--which is sci-fi, fantasy, the kind of pulp-action adventure stuff we learned with Uncharted, the kind of serious drama we got from The Last of Us. It really is a combination of those three franchises, and we really wanted to expand our deep gameplay systems. Like, can we sustain the kind of cinematic storytelling we're used to doing, and go even deeper with gameplay systems?"

So when will we actually get to see the game in action? "We're going to show a lot next year, Druckman said. "We're going to show gameplay, more of the story. I think we’re going to really surprise people with what they think the game is and what it actually is."

Previously, reports said Naughty Dog has entered a period of crunch to get the game over the finish line. Focused on the protagonist Jordan A. Mun--played by Tati Gabrielle--a bounty hunter who becomes stranded on a planet called Sempiria, this will be Naughty Dog's first new IP after two decades of Uncharted and The Last of Us games, as well as its first original PS5 release. In addition to Intergalactic, Naughty Dog is reportedly also working on The Last of Us: Part 3.

Amid multiple delays and radio silence, a rumor that Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra had been canceled began circulating this week. Developer Skydance quickly said the game is on track and nearly done—but it might not be what you expect.

According to Kotaku, executive producer Lu Gigliotti told Skydance employees that he had spoken with the studio's executive leadership team, and that the game had not been canceled. "They asked me to make sure you all hear that directly. There is no truth to these claims," Giglotti reportedly wrote in the Skydance Slack group. Kotaku added that the game is approaching its Alpha milestone and is "close to done," but after reportedly running significantly over budget, the vision for this project has been scaled back. Marvel 1943 was also originally envisioned as a Netflix game before it was announced for PC and consoles, but most of its action is apparently mapped to a single button, and it's "lacking significant interaction" during gameplay.

https://youtu.be/_T0j_rKZhT0

Essentially, the game might be structurally similar to Quantic Dream's interactive stories like Detroit: Become Human, rather than a meaty brawler like Insomniac's Spider-Man games. "We're continuing development on it, but Amy and the team have big ambitions for the level of quality that they want to hit. They are a relatively small team considering the AAA quality that they're delivering,” senior executive Shawn Kittelsen said earlier this year about the game's lengthy development. "What you've seen in previous footage is what the game looks like, and we're making it with a fraction of the resources that you see on other AAA games of the same type, and really trying to push a new development model that's a lot more responsible and sustainable."

First announced in 2022 and fully revealed in 2024, Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra drew attention for its good-looking graphics and a storyline featuring multiple characters, including Captain America and Black Panther. The new report comes in the wake of layoffs at Skydance's parent group, Paramount Games Studio, which is also changing following Paramount's acquisition of Warner Bros. While live-service Marvel games like Marvel Rivals and Marvel Snap continue to draw in players, the same can't be said for the big-budget Wolverine game that was released earlier this year. Despite a strong start in September, the game quickly lost momentum and has sold 2.4 million units so far.

Things look dire for Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, as his future at the company may be in jeopardy. Recently, it was revealed that Huang had been involved in an extramarital affair with a suspected Chinese spy, and this week, news broke that he'd been involved in a second affair with one of his executives.

According to The New York Times, the Nvidia board of directors is meeting to discuss the situation, just days after launching an independent investigation into him. After the affair was first exposed, Nvidia quickly issued a statement saying that none of the company's secrets, or US state secrets, had been compromised. Huang also issued a letter to Nvidia employees, apologizing to his wife and children.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang

With AI technology taking off in the last couple of years, Nvidia has become a major supplier of the crucial hardware components powering this boom. While the company is best known for its graphics cards, its fortunes have risen exponentially as it has focused more heavily on AI chips, with Huang becoming the face of the AI boom in the US. Huang is also Nvidia's founder, having started the company in 1993 and run its day-to-day operations for decades. With a 3.56% stake, he's also Nvidia's largest shareholder.

Removing him could also have huge ramifications for the company, given how involved he is in running it and the reportedly lack of a succession plan. The revelation of a second affair has seen Nvidia's stock tumble, and the company's board may feel pressured to remove him as CEO to do some damage control.

"If Jensen Huang is ousted as is expected, an already challenging environment for Nvidia investors and employees will become considerably more difficult," chief market strategist at JonesTrading Mike O’Rourke told CNN. "Nvidia is currently the most important company in the world. "The new CEO will need to make an extensive appraisal of the company, and Jensen’s successor will not have the same latitude or deference to pursue circular deals and pursue aggressive sales tactics."

Steam's growing backlog for approving game builds appears to be getting worse, as yet another studio's game is stuck in the purgatory of the platform's review program. Australia Did It: End-of-the-World Railway Defense Business, a post-apocalyptic game about keeping a cargo railway running after society has collapsed, was originally scheduled to launch on November 10, but it's stuck waiting for Steam's mandatory QA review before it can be published.

"Unfortunately, we're stuck waiting for Steam to review and approve our launch build. We have been waiting for a few weeks now and sadly don't know when they will finally get around to it," Australia Did It publisher Mystic Forge wrote in an update. "We're hoping to be able to launch as soon as possible and will update all of you the second we get an update. We really appreciate all of your continued support and apologize for the situation. We can't wait for you to check out the final game and hope to be able to get it into your hands soon!"

https://youtu.be/pX7HVir6l2o

Australia Did It co-developer and game designer Rami Ismail said the game was originally submitted on October 20, and a minor controller issue caused it to fail. That bug was fixed the same day, but since then, Ismail and Aesthecian Labs have been stuck waiting for Steam approval.

"We've been in the queue again ever since, and have followed up with Valve several times to no result," Rami explained in an email to GameSpot. "The issue was that our in-game feedback functionality does not allow you to send feedback--from a keyboard text input--via controller. I'm used to this kind of hold-and-wait pattern on console, but not really on Steam. 10-14 days pre-launch is usually enough to fail twice over, and usually you only get failed on serious issues."

With reviews for Australia Did It already out, and the game on plenty of wishlists, not having it ready for its scheduled launch isn't doing it any favors. "Pre-emptively delaying the launch would've hurt, as did not doing so," Ismail added. "We decided to take that gamble and trust in Valve's willingness to come through for developers - it seems we bet wrong."

Is a deluge of AI slop to blame for Australia Did It being stuck in QA limbo? Ismail explained that Steam can set its own policies and host "slopware" games on its own servers, but it's also having a negative effect on developers.

"At 30% off of every game sold on the platform, I have to admit I don't really care what the reason is. It's likely slopware is a part of the issue, but the fact that slopware can exist on Steam is their own policy. Whatever the situation, Steam losing the agility and access for developers to launch with minimal friction will mean developers have to treat it more like a console - which means we have to be more careful about launches."

While releasing the game on another platform like the Epic Games Store could be one solution, Ismail noted that the "commercial potential" is much lower than on Steam, which accounts for the lion's share of PC game sales. "With Epic, we're just trading the one billionaire for the other, and the commercial potential is also much lower. For now we're stuck with Steam for commercial game releases."

Ordinarily, every game submitted to Steam undergoes a series of checks to ensure that it'll work on the launcher, a process that used to take a few days. Lately, multiple developers have been complaining that this process now takes up to two weeks, and in some instances, longer, as Steam is reportedly battling to work through a backlog of submitted games. Several studios have blamed a flood of AI slop games, which regularly fail QA and are then resubmitted for review, gumming up the works and creating a bottleneck.

Recently, Valve introduced new measures to help speed up the process, but it's unclear if they've had any real impact. Under the new guidelines, games submitted for QA are required to be run through the Steam launcher for a minimum of five minutes; there will be stricter enforcement on images so that players aren't misled; Steam will run automated checks to flag broken or incomplete achievements; and advertised features will need to be included.

Rockstar's long-awaited open-world action game Grand Theft Auto 6 finally releases on November 19, and among the many things people are excited to find out is how the game will score with reviewers.

Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake is currently the No. 1 most highly rated game of 2026 on GameSpot sister site Metacritic, but could GTA 6 dethrone it?

You can make a prediction of your own via GameSpot's parent company, Fandom, and score a chance to win a gift card for up to $500.

Make your pick.

Now through midnight on November 17, you can submit your prediction for GTA 6's score on Metacritic by dragging the slider on the GTA 6 Metascore Prediction page. Selections are editable up until the contest closes.

There are three prizes up for grabs in the form of Visa gift cards. The first-place prize is a $500 gift card, with $250 going to second place, and $150 for third. Winners will be drawn at random from eligible entries whose prediction exactly matches the GTA 6 Metascore on November 25.

You can see the full terms and conditions of the contest here.

For some context, here's how some of the recent GTA games have fared on Metacritic over the years:

• GTA 5 (2013) - 97
• GTA: Chinatown Wars (2009) - 93
• GTA 4 (2008) - 98
• GTA: San Andreas (2004) - 95
• GTA: Vice City (2002) - 95
• GTA 3 (2001) - 97

Sony has canceled the upcoming live-service shooter Fairgame$, but there will be no job cuts connected to the game's closure. This is according to a report from Bloomberg today.

The game was in the works at Haven Studios in Montreal, a team founded by former Assassin's Creed veteran Jade Raymond. She left the studio back in 2023, and Fairgame$ was delayed to 2026 at the time. Now the game is scrapped entirely.

According to the report, Haven "reworked" the Fairgame$ concept several times in the past three years. The studio was reportedly planning to re-reveal it with a new game. Going forward, Haven staff will support other PlayStation projects, the report said.

You can watch the original CGI reveal trailer for Fairgame$ below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1Jp4K02L1I

Fairgame$ was officially canceled following a playtest that didn't show strong results.

“While the test demonstrated strong operational excellence, live ops readiness and community engagement, player feedback and retention results were mixed and fell short of the goals we had set,” PlayStation executives Sean Decker and John Doyle said in a memo seen by Bloomberg. "Combined with challenging market conditions in the PVP shooter genre, we have made the difficult decision to cease development on the game.”

Creative director Mathieu Leduc said in a blog post that Haven was founded with the goal of making games that its staffers wanted to play, and that’s why the team chose a competitive multiplayer game.

“Fairgame$ came from a desire to create a new type of PvP game with emergent sandbox gameplay. We want to deliver a fresh multiplayer experience that rewards creativity and mastery and delivers surprising stories each and every time you play,” Leduc said.

“In a nutshell, this is a thrilling competitive heist game where you join an underground movement to rob the ultra-rich and rebalance the scales,” Leduc said.

As you can see in the announcement trailer, Fairgame$ has players going after billionaires who have “too much money and too much power.” In the trailer, we see a squad of players infiltrating some kind of compound, working together to take down security guards with the apparent aim of sticking it to the man.

“Fairgame$ will give you an opportunity to break the rules as a modern-day Robin Hood, a thrill seeker, or just someone who wants to collect cool loot,” Leduc said. “Trespass inside forbidden locations around the world, fill your pockets like a kid in a candy store and unravel the nefarious plans of untouchable billionaires.”

Back when Fairgame$ was announced in 2023, Sony was in the midst of a huge push and investment into the live-service market. At one point in time, Sony wanted to release 12 live-service games over the coming years (alongside its commitment to single-player games). However, in May 2023, Sony announced that it was halving its planned live-service game output, with management stressing it wanted to focus on quality over quantity. After this announcement, Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us multiplayer game was canceled in December 2023.

At the beginning of 2024, though, Sony found its biggest success to date in the live-service market with Helldivers 2–the game went on to smash sales records and become the No. 3 overall best-selling game of 2024 in the US.

In July 2024, Sony’s Destiny developer Bungie announced mass layoffs and major structural changes. A month later, Sony launched the multiplayer game Concord. It had such a dismal performance out of the gate that Sony quickly took the game offline and refunded all players. Its developer, Firewalk, was later closed.

At the end of 2024, Sony confirmed that it canceled multiple projects, including a live-service God of War and another live-service title from Bend.

It was reported in 2023 that PlayStation boss Jim Ryan, who left Sony in 2024, had a mandate that Sony’s teams should make more games-as-a-service titles. A number of PlayStation developers were reportedly upset with this, and the blame was said to have fallen not on Ryan but Connie Booth, one of the most important and veteran PlayStation developers, leading to her eventual departure.

Another former PlayStation boss, Shuhei Yoshida, said the chance of finding success in the competitive live-service market was “small,” but his replacement, Hermen Hulst, was given the resources to fund both single-player games and live-service titles at the same time. However, had Yoshida stayed in that role, he said he would have “tried to resist” the push into the live-service market. He joked, “That’s one of the reasons they removed me.”

A new Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer debuted today, November 10, and the video showed off a race car driver doing a backflip. The animation looks smoooth.

That's notable because the Extended Look trailer that debuted back in August showed Jason doing a backflip and people online quickly roasted it for looking ... off. Other said it looked totally fine. Whatever the case, some are saying this new backflip animation being featured in the latest trailer is an example of Rockstar taking feedback seriously, but it could be more nuanced than that.

That's a nice backflip.

That's because it subsequently came to light that the backflip animation in GTA 6 is controlled by the player and isn't locked to one specific animation. However, we don't know who is doing the backflip in this newest clip.

If the character in the trailer is an NPC, as people on Reddit are surmising, then the animation could have been motion-captured as opposed to being player-controlled, hence why it looks less janky.

In any event, this backflip stuff becoming a "controversy," if you can even call it that, is yet another example of how ramped-up people are for GTA 6. People are so jazzed for the release that they are poring over even the smallest details, which you may never even notice when playing the game for yourself.

https://twitter.com/TheCassiniGames/status/2120163720198594774

GTA 6 releases on November 19 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, and preloading is live now. The game unlocks at midnight local time on November 19, and that means people in the US will be among the last in the world to play.

It's no secret that life is expensive. Gas and grocery prices are up, in particular, and against that backdrop, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick believes GTA 6 at $80 is a "bargain" due to how many hours people can play it.

"I think the consumer is under pressure. these are challenging times. Inflation has hit average consumers. Food prices are up. Gas prices are way up, and it's taking a toll," he told CNBC. "I think we are going to see that as we head into the Christmas season undoubtedly. Entertainment is not immune to such forces."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0xfY9UQ74A

What gives Zelnick hope in this environment is that, in his belief, "interactive entertainment is actually a real bargain," and particularly a game like GTA.

"There are so many hours of engagement on offer. Even a short video game is 10 hours of engagement on the low end. You can play Grand Theft Auto 5 for hundreds of hours and not get bored. We'll see how people feel about Grand Theft Auto 6, but I believe that you'll be able to engage for an extraordinary long period of time," he said. "So if consumers look at entertainment value as the intersection of how great it is and how long you can engage with it, interactive entertainment is a great bargain. However, when you give people what they want, no matter what the times are, they will show up for it."

GTA 6's base edition costs $80, while there is also a $100 Ultimate Edition featuring a variety of additional in-game content. GTA 5, meanwhile, launched at $60 in 2013; that same $60 is about $85 today after adjusting for inflation. This is a point that Zelnick has made repeatedly when explaining why GTA 6 is actually a very good value. He's also said Rockstar could have charged even more for GTA 6, but chose not to so the game could reach more people.

While GTA 6's price is actually lower than what GTA 5 launched at in 2013, the same cannot be said for the hardware people need to play it on. The PS5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles are more expensive than ever due to the ongoing global component and memory shortages. If you're OK streaming the game, Microsoft just announced a 10-year deal with Take-Two that includes bringing GTA 6 to Xbox Cloud Gaming on the older Xbox One console.

GTA 6 launches on November 19 for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, and preloading is now underway.

Valve's Steam Deck verification program has been a helpful, if somewhat flawed, method of determining if a game is a good fit for the company's handheld PC. But while many games might be granted a "Verified" badge, there have been many cases where real-world performance doesn't live up to the expectation of players. That's why Valve has introduced a more nuanced way for you to determine if a game is a good fit for the Steam Deck.

Along with the Steam Deck verification status, games will now feature average frame-rate data on the store page once Valve has gathered enough data from players. This will give you an indication of real-world performance on the Steam Deck, collecting data from other players using the Steam Deck in their default states and averaging it across their total playtime.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOWq-zO-5t4

"The current Steam Deck Verified compatibility rating is based on standardized test criteria, but it may not match every customer’s bar for acceptable gameplay," the announcement post reads. "This is especially true around performance - a game with an Unsupported rating due to unstable performance may be considered playable by some customers, and a Verified game may not reach a framerate that some customers prefer to play at."

Alongside the average, Valve is also adding a histogram that let's you see numerous averages spread out over playtime. This can help you determine if a game has pockets of poor performance that might be dragging down the average, giving you even more information to help you determine if a purchase for Steam Deck play is worthwhile.

Valve relies on other players for this data. So while it says that thousands of games already have this featured on their store pages, there are still many more that require more playtime before they can be calculated and displayed. The data collection is opt-in, too, meaning only Steam users actively sharing their data through the Steam Beta Client will count towards these averages. Valve says it will be rolling out this program to the main Steam branch soon.

It also says that tools like this could come to other platforms in the future, but that it chose the Steam Deck first because of its standard hardware configuration. It's easy to see this being extended to the Steam Machine for the same reasons, with Valve potentially waiting for more of them to be in the hands of players before being able to accurately average the data. It's a useful metric that not only helps players make more informed buying decisions, but also potentially helps Valve determine what is, and isn't a meaningful jump in performance as it evaluates a potential Steam Deck successor.

World of Warcraft: Forever received its first post-launch updates over the weekend, giving players a good reason to run each dungeon more than once alongside upcoming class tweaks.

On November 8, developer Blizzard issued a hotfix that increased kill experience while in dungeons by 50%. According to the forum post, Blizzard said this is so it "feels better to go back for more runs," and made reference to a Wailing Caverns dungeon quest to collect Deviate Hides that often requires more than one run.

It previously outlined upcoming class changes that will go live on November 10. Those changes will make it so Hunter and Warlock pets are sturdier, improve Affliction Warlock's damage-over-time spells, and make it so Enhancement Shamans will want to pursue strength and attack power items instead of intellect and spell power ones. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwOWAf06YPg

The debate on how much experience dungeons should grant in Forever has been an ongoing back and forth since the game's beta. Initially, dungeons were particularly lucrative, with massive experience rewards from dungeon quests.

That changed about halfway through the beta due to concerns that players were leveling too quickly while doing dungeons. Blizzard axed dungeon quest experience as a result. While dungeons were still worthwhile to do once thanks to potent item rewards, doing them multiple times proved to be less valuable. With no quests to do, kill experience earned in dungeons was lackluster.

Forever's launch on November 4 carried that philosophy forward, but it quickly became apparent dungeons were simply not worth doing after one quest-focused run. It was even more of an issue considering that many dungeons have item-collection quests that are difficult to complete in a single run when all five members of the group are trying to do it at once. However, because doing a dungeon a second time was so inefficient when it came to earning experience, going back in to try and complete that quest felt like a waste of time. 

In an episode of the WoW: Forever podcast from October 8, Blizzard said it doesn't want dungeons to be a "one and done" experience while leveling, but also doesn't want them to be so rewarding that they become the most "efficient" way to level up. This latest tweak then seems to be Blizzard making good on that philosophy.

The class changes are smaller but still significant, particularly since Blizzard previously said not to expect major class changes prior to the arrival of Forever's endgame raids on December 9. They specifically address a key pain point for Enhancement Shamans, who have complained about their specialization's need for intellect and spell power gear despite being a melee-focused spec. Ahead of Forever's launch, the WoW Classic Shaman Discord shutdown in protest of the state of the class, and now Blizzard has made good on at least one of the Discord server's list of complaints. 

Forever's launch went surprisingly smooth, despite being the biggest concurrent-player launch in WoW's 22-year history. On the eve of launch, Blizzard revealed Forever's first new legendary weapon, Taldramir, the Whispering Wood.

Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick has reacted to the release of Nintendo's recent Switch 2 remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. He said the game is "terrific" and that Nintendo should be "very proud of the title."

But is it a competitor to GTA 6, which hails from Take-Two's Rockstar Games? Zelnick told GamesBeat that in the entertainment business, "You compete against everything and nothing."

Everything, he said, because consumers have so many choices about how to spend their time and money. And nothing because entertainment is not "must-have" like gas or groceries, so people will only buy if they feel compelled to.

"So it’s our job to make the best entertainment on Earth. When we do that, people will show up for it," he said.

The Ocarina of Time remake and GTA 6 are two of November's biggest games.

This isn't the first time that the Ocarina of Time remake has been brought up in a conversation about the biggest games of 2026. Activision marketing chief Tyler Bahl recently said GTA 6 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 are the two biggest games of 2026, not Zelda. "No offense to Zelda," he said.

The Ocarina of Time remake is doing great so far in terms of review scores, currently standing as the highest-rated game of 2026. The game's sales numbers haven't been divulged yet, but its release is helping Switch 2 hardware sales.

As for GTA 6, the game launches on November 19 for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. You can also stream it to your Xbox One as part of Microsoft's new 10-year deal with Take-Two.

The next batch of games for the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog has been revealed. PS Plus Essential and Premium subscribers can grab 10 games in total this month, starting November 11. In the US and UK, several of these games will roll out later in the month.

This month's headline act is Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, a post-apocalyptic open-world game from the mind of Hideo Kojima. A game about human connection at its core, Death Stranding 2 is a polarizing and delightfully weird game, so if the idea of GTA 6's bustling metropolis doesn't appeal to you, then maybe couriering packages in a desolate Australian landscape might appeal to you.

Or if you want the hustle and bustle of a sandbox without the consequences GTA 6 is teasing, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is worth checking out. This spin-off features fan-favorite character Majima as the protagonist, and as you'd expect from a Yakuza game, it's downright strange, melodramatic, and action-packed.

Other highlights this month include the Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake for a modernized spin on a JRPG classic, survival-action meets the irradiated British countryside in Atomfall, and Trepang 2 is a blistering blast of first-person action.

The hardcore World War Two first-person shooter Hell Let Loose features massive multiplayer battles, and if you're feeling sporty, you can attempt to hit a six in Cricket 2026 or taunt gravity with some exceptionally tight cornering in MotoGP 26.

PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers can also add two classics to their library: Soul Reaver 2 and Freedom Wars Remastered.

PlayStation Plus Game Catalog for November 2026

• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach (PS5)
• Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii (PS5, PS4)
• Atomfall (PS5, PS4)
• Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake (PS5)
• Trepang 2 (PS5)
• MotoGP 26 (PS5)
• Hell Let Loose (PS5)
• Cricket 2026 (PS5, PS4)
• Soul Reaver 2 (PS5, PS4) | PS Plus Premium required
• Freedom Wars Remastered (PS5, PS4) | PS Plus Premium required

Sony says it'll also retire the PlayStation Plus app on PC on December 10. The company says fewer than 0.4% of subscribers used the app, so the PlayStation Plus cloud-streaming app on PC will no longer be available starting next month.

All PlayStation Plus subscribers can also grab a trio of freebies between now and November 30: Dead Island 2, Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered, and Monster Train 2.

Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto 6 releases on November 19 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, and the game is breaking records before it even releases.

Sony announced today that GTA 6 is now the most preordered game in PlayStation Store history. Exactly which game it beat to claim the record is unknown, however.

In September, Xbox's Matthew Ball said GTA 6 had broken Xbox records, too, though he didn't clarify which ones. Today, November 10, Microsoft confirmed that GTA 6 is the most preordered game in Microsoft Store history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yl5ELcmugI

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said Microsoft and Take-Two have agreed to terms on a new 10-year "strategic partnership." She didn't clarify what this means, however.

Beyond these records, Circana recently announced that GTA 6 set a new purchase intent record, with nearly 1 in 3 US console and PC gamers saying they plan to buy the game.

According to Sensor Tower, GTA 6 has sold around 10 million copies so far, generating close to $1 billion. The game could climb to 25 million units sold and $2 billion in revenue before the game even launches.

GTA 6 is expected to break even more records when it releases. GTA 5, for example, brought in $800 million in revenue over its first 24 hours and $1 billion in its first three days--those records are expected to be beaten by GTA 6.

Lucia in GTA 6.

GTA 5 has sold more than 235 million units to date, and GTA 6 won't catch up anytime soon, if it ever does. GTA 5 was released into a different console environment, coming out at the tail end of the PS3 and Xbox 360 lifecycles. Rockstar would go on to release the game on PS4 and Xbox One and PC, and later PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.

GTA 6, meanwhile, is coming out when new consoles are more expensive than ever, and no one expects the PS6 or Project Helix to come out soon. Whenever they do release, they're likely going to be astronomically expensive.

A PC edition of GTA 6, meanwhile, could launch as soon as early 2027, and that will no doubt lead to a spike in sales. Additionally, a new version of GTA Online for GTA 6 is expected in 2027, and it has major moneymaking potential.

GTA 6 launches on November 10 for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.

According to Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick, the "nature and velocity" of the company's content releases in its major franchises, including GTA, will look "dramatically different over the next decade."

He told this to IGN, and many are interpreting the quote to mean that Take-Two's big franchises are going to be released on a faster cadence than before. He didn't say that, though, and whether or not GTA games are released any faster in the future remains to be seen. In any event, Zelnick said Take-Two's teams continue to push for releasing the "highest quality entertainment."

He also said Take-Two's studios are attempting to reach "players in new ways and in new places and trying to maintain engagement with our consumers post-launch."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yl5ELcmugI

This doesn't necessarily mean Rockstar is going to release GTA 7 anytime soon, but Zelnick seems to be saying he wants to see things change in some ways as it relates to how fast new GTA games come out. He didn't elaborate on this point, so we don't know how Take-Two and its teams plan to actually achieve this.

Take-Two is among the many video game companies embracing AI, but Zelnick said in a separate interview that it's early days and there is no proof yet that using AI is saving costs or speeding up processes.

GTA 6 launches on November 19 for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Preloading is now underway, while Rockstar has confirmed PS5 Pro and Xbox Cloud Gaming details. On that last part, it means people on an Xbox One can stream the game.