The issue of AI in game development remains thorny, but Alistair McFarlane--the COO and company director of Rust developer Facepunch--doesn't see it as a detriment to in the industry. Instead, he embraces it as "another tool" that's "for the better, not the worse."

"[AI is] powerful, it's efficient, and at the end of the day, it's just another tool, one that helps people move faster and focus on the creative stuff," McFarlane told Sky News. "Sure, it's disruptive, no question about that. Every major shift in tech is. But used properly, AI doesn't replace creativity, it amplifies it. It removes busywork, speeds up iteration, and gives teams more space to experiment."

Last year, the 2025 CESA Video Game Industry Report shared the results of a survey that revealed over 50% of Japanese video game developers use AI in some way. Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto has said that the company won't rush into AI, while Sony's approach to AI emphasizes it as a support tool rather than an attempt to replace human creativity.

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What better way to fight off that Valentine’s Day hangover than with a bunch of new games on Steam? Fanatical’s Platinum Collection Bundle for February includes 18 games to choose from--the more you add to your bundle, the deeper your discount gets. Add all 18, and you're picking up $376 of games for just $51. This month’s selection even includes 12 games that are making their Fanatical debut.

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One of the titles included is a dark fantasy RPG, Pale Coins. Blending old-school combat with an atmospheric and moody setting, in Pale Coins, you’ll crawl dungeons, gather loot, craft gear, experiment with different builds, and die. A lot. The punishing but deliberate combat--a familiar vibe for anyone who’s spent more than a few hours in Dark Souls or Elden Ring--doesn’t hold your hand, and that’s one of its strengths. If you’re a glutton for punishment, this one’s well worth checking out.

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It seems like more and more live-service games are dying or being put on life support within mere months of launch. The latest casualty is Amazon Game Studios and developer Glowmade's online multiplayer dungeon-crawler/party game King of Meat.

While King of Meat launched on October 7 of last year on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5 in a massive marketing blitz--including prominent showcases by well-known streamers and YouTubers like Mr. Beast--the game found itself struggling to maintain a strong playerbase. Records on SteamDB show King of Meat struggling to hold a low double-digit player count over the past month. Today, an announcement was posted on the game's official website stating that the game's servers will be shut down on April 9, with refunds for purchases being given to all players.

"Despite the creativity and innovation Glowmade brought to King of Meat, the game has unfortunately not found the audience we hoped for," says the post. "As a result, we have made the difficult decision to conclude our investment in the game, and King of Meat's servers will close on April 9, 2026. Players will be able to access and play all existing content until then, so we encourage you to enjoy your remaining time in the game with your fellow Contenders." The statement further goes on to clarify that refunds for the game will be coming from players' "platform provider" (digital storefront of purchase).

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Diablo isn't a franchise known for frequent new releases, with only five games in 30 years, but that could change in the future.

In an interview with Variety, Diablo 4 executive producer and VP Gavian Whishaw teased Blizzard is looking to release more than five Diablo games in the next 30 years. While Whishaw dodged a question about whether a new entry in the series could be announced at BlizzCon 2026 in September, he did talk about Blizzard's long-term plan for the franchise.

"It's kind of complicated when you're talking about titles that have been around for 20 years and people are still dedicated to and still playing and still going to get excited about new content," Whishaw said. "I'll say at a high level, I think over 30 years of Diablo, we've done five titles. So I would hope that over the next 30 years we do a few more than that, maybe we get some out faster."

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The upcoming Shrouded Sky update for Arc Raiders ushers in the next evolution of the game, and that includes facial hair. Developer Embark Studios has announced that the update, which releases on February 24, allows players to "become feared with a beard," as the studio put it.

Players will be able to deck out their solider with stubble when the update arrives at no extra cost, but to get a full beard, players will need to spend real money. Players will be able to get a full beard with the Surgeon Raider Deck, or the Stubble Beard or Thick Moustache from the in-game store. Pricing was not announced, but with the update going live this week, that information should become clear soon.

You can see a pretty epic full beard in the image below.

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Matt Booty, who just got promoted to Executive Vice President and Chief Content Officer at Xbox, has signaled in a memo that the recent upheaval at Xbox may not lead to any layoffs at the company's collection of nearly 40 game development studios.

He said in his memo, "To be clear, there are no organizational changes underway for our studios."

The new Xbox CEO, Asha Sharma, comes from a background of AI, prompting fears by some that further investments into the technology at Microsoft's studios could result in layoffs. That isn't happening, at least not for now, but the Xbox Game Studios family has faced challenging times of late. Microsoft made deep cuts to the Xbox teams in July 2025, leading to many layoffs and canceled games, along with the closure of Perfect Dark reboot studio The Initiative.

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Thomas & Friends: Wonders of Sodor Deluxe Edition

$50 | Release Date TBA

Preorder at Amazon

The beloved classic children's show, Thomas the Tank Engine, returns later this year in video game form with Thomas & Friends: Wonders of Sodor. The new game will let players explore a corner of Thomas the Tank Engine's idyllic world from the conductor's seat, piloting iconic characters like Thomas, Diesel, and more. Thomas & Friends: Wonders of Sodor will launch in physical and digital formats on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC sometime this year, though at the time of writing, no concrete release date has been announced. However, fans eager to get their hands on the game can preorder the physical Deluxe Edition for $50 at Amazon. This version is available for PS5 and Switch and includes a selection of exclusive bonus content.

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Marathon's official launch is just over a week away, and Bungie has a strong message for any would-be cheaters. Anyone caught cheating in the game will be immediately banned from Marathon by Bungie.

"Anyone found to be cheating will be permabanned from playing Marathon forever, no second chances," wrote Bungie on X. Despite the promise of "no second chances," Bungie has also said that "no system is perfect, so we will have an appeals system to monitor for any issues in detection and if you do suspect foul play, please report in game or through our online report form."

Bungie has also laid out some of the actions and features it's created to catch cheaters. The "Fog of War," for example, will limit the regions of a map that individual players are aware of in order to reduce wall hacks, ESP cheats and "loot revealers."

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James Bond has never been shy to get his knuckles bloody, and in IO Interactive's 007: First Light, the rookie MI6 agent will have the opportunity to get into several scraps. This makes for a big departure from IO's work on the Hitman: World of Assassination trilogy--where combat was always seen as a last resort--as the studio has been inspired by some of the greatest action games of all time for its Bond origin story. Taking a few pages from the Arkham and Uncharted playbook, the studio is aiming to create a combat system that's fast, furious, and flows into cinematic setpieces.

"What are our references here? What are the other games that do this well, on the same scale and the same kind of scope as this game? Obviously, we have some references there in the approach to close combat," gameplay director Andreas Krogh said to Game Informer.

"I think you see the Arkham games, you see those games in it. You also see some modern takes on destructibility in the environment that are not necessarily from the Arkham games, but newer takes like Uncharted. We have a deeper system than that because we want to do more of it, and from shooting, you see references that are also from modern games."

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World of Warcraft players posting screenshots of their virtual homes on Pinterest as part of an official promotion are being banned from the social media site for spam.

Blizzard is hard at work promoting WoW's new player housing feature, and social media site Pinterest is another area where Blizzard is hoping players will find housing inspiration. Those who link their WoW account to Pinterest will unlock an achievement and receive an in-game toy, the Pin-o-Matic Camera. That camera can then be used to automatically post in-game screenshots to Pinterest.

Unfortunately, players attempting to participate are being banned or suspended for violating Pinterest's spam policies, despite players on Reddit and the WoW forums reportedly having only posted a single in-game screenshot.

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