Development on Cities: Skylines 2 is changing hands after publisher Paradox Interactive and developer Colossal Order have "mutually decided to pursue independent paths."

In a forum post, Paradox announced Cities: Skylines' development would be moving to one of its internal studios, Iceflake. The studio will take over "all existing and future" development updates for Cities: Skylines 2 and continue development on the game's long-delayed console versions.

As for Colossal Order, the studio will deliver a few more updates before Iceflake fully takes over. Those will include a major update that will add bikes, Old Town buildings, and other improvements. A beta version of the game's editor with mod-asset support will also arrive before the end of the year. Iceflake will then take over the franchise at the start of 2026.

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Sonic Colors celebrated its 15-year anniversary on November 16, 2025. Below, we look back at how the game shifted the nature of Sonic games with new gimmicks.

Sonic Colors marked a significant turning point in Sonic the Hedgehog's gaming career. Four years prior, the franchise had hit a horrifying low with Sonic the Hedgehog 2006. Two years after that, Sonic began a slow and shaky climb from rock bottom with 2008's Sonic Unleashed. And in 2010, Sonic Colors finally brought the blue hedgehog back into gamers' good graces, becoming the best-received 3D title since the Adventure games of the late '90s and early 2000s. Things were finally starting to look bright again for the franchise--but with the good came the bad as well.

Up to that point, 3D Sonic games had learned more heavily into their narratives, with the Sonic Adventure duology and Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 standing out as significant examples. For Colors, the plot was scaled back considerably, harkening back to the simpler stories of Sonic's classic games. In fact, like most of the classics, Colors foregoes an opening cinematic completely. Once the player moves beyond the title screen, they're immediately dropped into the first level. Only then does the story begin to take shape: Sonic and Tails have made a trip to space to investigate Eggman's Interstellar Amusement Park, a creation of the mad doctor designed as penance for his evil misdeeds in the past.

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It's not every day that a billionaire gets a new superyacht and the chance to unveil a new video game console. But Valve co-founder Gabe Newell experienced just that last week. On November 12, Newell received his new luxury boat--a diesel-electric yacht that's over 360 feet long--from Oceanco. It's named Leviathan and was delivered the same day that the Steam Machine was revealed.

The Leviathan has a hospital, science lab, dive center, hot tub, basketball court, and 15 "gaming stations." That's not all for video games, either, as there are two racing simulators to take for a spin on the superyacht. It's unknown if a Steam Machine is on board--or even some form of Half-Life 3.

"Yachts have great potential to serve as platforms for scientific research," said Newell. "It's about recognizing that you're part of a broader community and ensuring the yacht's presence adds value to the communities around it."

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The new line of Rog Ally devices made by Asus in partnership with Microsoft and Xbox have exceeded expectations, and Asus is now undertaking efforts to ramp up production to meet demand.

Asus management said during the company's latest earnings briefing that the new Xbox-branded devices have seen an "extremely positive" response from the market, "exceeding expectations."

Some balked at the $600 and $1,000 price-points for the Rog Xbox Ally and Rog Xbox Ally X devices, but Asus said the market has spoken and there is demand for "premium, higher-end models" of the Rog Ally.

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Concord barely lasted two weeks before Sony pulled the plug on it, and it seems determined to keep the game offline as it just issued DMCA notices against a fan-made effort to revive the live-service shooter as Concord Delta. Recently, several Concord fans had managed to resurrect the game with some technical wizardry, and although the project was in a buggy WIP state, it was still a playable build on a custom server.

The team of developers responsible for reviving Concord did take measures to protect themselves and kept the player circle small, but copyright infringement claims against videos filed by Marscan--a company that monitors online content for large clients such as Sony and has issued DMCA notices to multiple creators in the past for content like the Bloodborne demake--has the group fearing that legal repercussions might be on the way.

"Due to worrying legal action we've decided to pause invites for the time being," one of the devs behind the project said in the team's Discord group (via The Games Post). So far, the custom server for Concord Delta has not yet been targeted by Sony--only footage of it in action on YouTube or other social media platforms.

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Bungie has fully settled the copyright lawsuit over Destiny 2's Red War campaign, closing a dispute that lasted more than a year. According to an entry cited by The Game Post, a settlement conference held on November 12 was successful. As the filing states, "Negotiations were successful and resulted in the settlement of all claims," and the court thanked both sides for reaching "an amicable resolution."

The case began in October 2024, when sci-fi writer Matthew Kelsey Martineau claimed the studio copied "major parts" of his 2013–2014 stories posted on his Wordpress site. He argued that elements such as the Red Legion faction, the Red War storyline, and several plot details were "taken directly" from his original work.

After Bungie failed to get the case dismissed, both sides entered a long discovery process. Bungie repeatedly called the accusations "baseless," but because the original campaign is no longer in the game, the company had to rely on community videos and wiki entries instead of submitting the game itself as evidence. However, since those are third-party sources, the judge dismissed them.

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The Entertainment Software Association has released the results of its annual holiday shopping survey, and the data shows that kids really want video games, but not as much as they want cash.

The ESA's survey found that video games are among the top three things that kids want this holiday, with 58% of kids saying they would like games as gifts this year. Money and gift cards (69%) was the most sought-after gift for kids, followed by clothes/accessories (63%), and then video games at 58%.

The survey also found that 58% of kids want to play more video games with their parents; the percentage increases to 73% for kids ages 5-7, 66% for ages 8-9, and 62% for ages 10-12.

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Valve is making a play for living rooms again with its new Steam Machine hardware, and the company believes that the compact gaming PC could be equal to or better than what "70%" of people have at home currently. In a new interview, Valve engineer Yazan Aldehayyat explained that the Steam Machine is designed to be both a powerful and entry-level gaming device, capable of running most of the games in your Steam library at high performance levels.

"As you know, we definitely learned a lot, from 10 years ago. We learned a lot from the Steam Deck. We really feel like we have all the hardware and the software bits to make that vision a reality," Aldehayyat said to Tested. "It needs to have enough performance to play all your Steam games; we wanted it to be a pretty simple experience. We also wanted to target more of an entry-level device. Affordability is really important, and definitely the price-point played a huge factor in what performance level we're trying to target. Another thing we looked at is the Steam Hardware Survey. It gives us a good benchmark of where people's home devices are at in terms of performance, and the Steam Machine is equal or better than 70% of what people have at home."

Aldehayyat's comments might not be too far off the mark. Older gaming PCs are still capable of running a wide variety of games thanks to upscaling technologies, while in the console space, many games are still released for both current and last-gen machines, like the PS4 and the Switch. Valve has also said that the Steam Machine is over six times more powerful than the Steam Deck, and the official tech specs released for it do suggest that it'll be capable of comfortably playing modern PC games.

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Retailer GameStop has announced a "Trade Anything Day," and as part of this, people can visit a store and trade anything. Well, not quite anything. There is a list of items that GameStop will not accept, including dead animals and illegal drugs.

The fine print for the December 6 event states that people can only bring in for trade items that fit into GameStop's own 20x20x20 box and that employees have discretion to reject any item.

In terms of the specific exclusions, GameStop said people cannot bring hazardous waste, weapons, dead or alive animals (taxidermy is OK, though), alcohol, tobacco, drugs (illegal or otherwise), "sexual and explicit" items, or items "resembling body parts." The full list of exclusions is available on GameStop's website.

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Earlier this month, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 players called out the apparent use of AI in the game, especially the "Ghibli-style" Calling Cards. Activision subsequently acknowledged that some AI was used in the creation of Black Ops 7, but it insisted that the creative process is still in the hands of humans. Regardless, a US Congressman has weighed in on the Black Ops 7 debate and called for extensive AI regulations.

California Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna--who has previously accused Roblox of not doing enough to protect children who use it--reposted a message about the Ghibli-like Calling Cards and wrote, "We need regulations that prevent companies from using AI to eliminate jobs to extract greater profits. Artists at these companies need to have a say in how AI is deployed."

We need regulations that prevent companies from using AI to eliminate jobs to extract greater profits.
Artists at these companies need to have a say in how AI is deployed.
They should share in the profits. And there should be a tax on mass displacement. https://t.co/uU2tmt8pDJ

— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) November 14, 2025

In a subsequent post, Khanna shared some proposals from Nobel Laureate Acemoglu, including "tax reforms to discourage excessive automation" and allowing workers and unions to benefit from AI gains rather than being replaced by artificial intelligence. Khanna also stressed that he isn't calling for a complete ban on AI.

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Embark Studios' brand-new extraction shooter Arc Raiders hit a new peak player count on Steam over the weekend, seeing 481,966 raiders online at the same time. As Arc Raiders was breaking its own concurrent player record, Black Ops 7's launch weekend saw lower than usual player counts for a Call of Duty Steam launch, suggesting the competition may be impacting CoD's success on Steam.

Black Ops 7, the latest mainline Call of Duty game, hit a launch weekend peak of 100,332 players on Steam, less than a quarter of Arc Raiders' weekend high. Of course the two numbers aren't directly comparable--Arc Raiders is only available on Steam and the Epic Games Store for PC, while Black Ops 7 can also be purchased through Battle.net or the Microsoft Store, and is playable on PC Game Pass from launch--however the Black Ops 7 launch numbers are also lower than CoD's previous Steam launches.

While last year's Black Ops 6 also was available on Game Pass from launch, it still saw a Steam launch peak of over 300,000 players, almost three times the numbers clocked by its direct sequel. Modern Warfare 3's November 2023 release was also higher, with a launch window peak of 190,000 players.

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Lego Disney Pixar: Up House (598 Pieces)

$30.39 (was $60)

See at Amazon See at Target See Walmart Bundle

If you have a Disney Pixar fan on your holiday shopping list, there's an early Black Friday deal at Amazon and Target that you should consider before it inevitably sells out. Both retailers have discounted the 598-piece Lego Up House to only $30.39 (was $60). The nearly 50% price cut is one of the best deals yet for the highly rated Pixar building set. The Up House is recommended for kids ages 9 and up, but just like the wonderful 2009 animated movie, parents might appreciate this "playset" even more than their kids.

Lego Disney Pixar: Up House (598 pieces)

Despite releasing in 2023, Lego's Up House remains one of the most popular Disney Lego sets at major retailers each month. It has received similarly large discounts during previous Black Friday and Prime Day sales, and retailers almost always run out of units before the promotion officially ends. The only Pixar Lego set that has outsold the Up House on Amazon recently is WALL-E and EVE. The new 811-piece set hasn't received any price cuts yet, but Walmart has a 2-in-1 bundle with the Up House and WALL-E and EVE for $95 (was $130).

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A handyman is tasked with refurbishing an old apartment in the city of Berlin, Germany. In the course of his extensive renovation work, he digs deeper and deeper into the history of the apartment. Relics from past times turn out to be silent witnesses - and former companions - of the apartment's previous inhabitants. With each new find, he tells his daughter the story behind this trace of a past adventure - with its own protagonists, in its own genre, with a very different atmosphere, but always set in the same four walls.