One of the developers behind Highguard says the concurrent player count for the new first-person shooter does not need "to be super huge in order to be successful."

As Highguard launches, previews are rolling out across a variety of different publications, including GameSpot. A flurry of interviews with the game's developers are also revealing more about the game that's now in players' hands. Lead Designer Mohammad Alavi shared the aforementioned sentiment about player count in a group interview attended by PC Gamer, saying that Highguard finding a core, passionate community that can grow is more important.

"Honestly, we don't need [player counts] to be super huge in order to be successful," he explained. "We're a small team. A six-player match [Highguard's max player count at launch] is not hard to find. What we're really hoping for is a core group of fans that love us. That will allow us to grow. Being the ire of the internet hate machine sucks, but at the same time, I try to just focus on making the best game I can and getting that game into people's hands. At the end of the day, that's all that really matters."

Ubisoft's year is not off to an auspicious start, as the video game publisher has already shut down Ubisoft Halifax and laid off 70 developers before going on to cancel six games in development, including the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake. Now, a report has emerged that morale among the devs has significantly declined.

According to the French video game industry union Solidaires Informatique (via GamesIndustry.biz), "Anger and despair [are] reigning supreme" at Ubisoft. Although Solidaires Informatique called for a one-day strike against Ubisoft last week, Le Monde is reporting that only 10 people showed up for that protest. However, more protests are planned for the near future.

"At this stage, it seems clear to us that [Ubisoft CEO] Yves Guillemot has no knowledge or understanding of his company or its employees," said Marc Rutschlé, a union representative at Ubisoft Paris. "The company is continuing its cost reduction and lay off plan. Our teams are already working under pressure, often understaffed. After several years without pay rises (or very small increases), we understand that once again, employees will not receive a raise this year. At the same time, the reorganization is creating a number of high-level positions with excessive salaries."

Highguard developer Wildlight Entertainment has revealed it originally planned to shadow-drop its free-to-play "raid shooter," until host Geoff Keighley offered to highlight it as the final reveal of 2025's The Game Awards instead.

In an interview with GameSpot, studio cofounder and game director Dusty Welch said the plan was always for Highguard to be a "quiet shadow-drop." It's a strategy that worked well for Apex Legends, the popular free-to-play battle royale that many of the Highguard team at Wildlight previously worked on, he said.

That was the plan, at least until Keighley told Wildlight he loved the game and had an idea. He wanted to highlight the free-to-play shooter from an independent studio as part of the show, according to Welch.

Highguard, the high-fantasy shooter from former Respawn Entertainment devs, will receive six major updates in 2026, introducing new playable characters, weapons, maps, and more.

Developer Wildlight Entertainment revealed all the content players can expect both at launch and coming throughout the year as part of its "2026 Game Plan" roadmap.

At launch, Highguard will include 8 playable Wardens (aka heroes), as well as 10 weapons, three raid tools, five maps, six bases, and three mounts to choose from (a horse, cat, and bear).

While it is not the next game from the studio that brought us the likes of Titanfall 2 or Apex Legends, Highguard is coming from many former members of the Respawn team--developer Wildlight is about 100 employees and more than 60 worked on Titanfall 2 and/or Apex Legends. Highguard does not look anything like those games, though. The reveal trailer for Highguard saw you riding a horse, not piloting a mech, and casting fantastical magic instead of utilizing sci-fi tech. But the trailer did not do much to tell us what the game actually is. So for about two months now, I have been looking for the answer to one question: What is Highguard?

Having now finally played Highguard, I am still unsure if I can actually classify it. If put on the spot, I would probably describe Highguard as a first-person shooter that follows both the attacker-versus-defender structure of Rainbow Six Siege and the lane-focused bomb-planting format of Valorant, but within the much larger objective-focused, base-destroying scope of the space battles of Star Wars Battlefront 2. And on top of that, the game features an upgradable armament system that combines how looting works in Apex Legends with the "shopping" mechanic of Call of Duty's Zombies mode, as well as hero-character archetypes seen in a ton of different shooters. You have played or experienced pieces of Highguard in other games, but I feel very confident in saying that you have probably not played this exact chimera of pieces before.

You remember that sensation the first time you ever played a battle royale, or looter shooter, or extraction shooter? There are pieces of those genres we can identify in many different games that came before them, but with the earliest games in each of those genres, there was this sensation of novelty and inventiveness. They could not easily fit into the established boxes of the existing genres that inspired them.

RuneScape developer Jagex has made its stance on AI clear, stating that it will never use the technology to create in-game content.

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Jagex senior vice president of product James Dobrowski made it known where the MMORPG developer draws the line when it comes to AI use.

"We've got a pretty hard line stance with the team, which is a commitment that no generative AI will ever be present in any asset that a player can touch, hear, or feel," Dobrowski said. "There will be no generative AI in the game that they experience."

The developers behind MLB The Show 26 appear to be up to something, sharing a curious announcement stating that the upcoming baseball game won't have a cover athlete like entries in the series traditionally do. But the wording leaves open several possibilities.

A Twitter/X post on the official MLB The Show account reads: "We know that you are all just as excited as we are for the release of MLB The Show 26, so we wanted to let everyone know that this year we have decided that we will not have a new cover athlete." The sly message urges readers to "stay tuned" for further news.

Many in the replies were quick to point out that this statement doesn't rule out that a previous cover athlete could feature on the boxart. A looser reading of the statement could also take it as multiple athletes gracing the cover; last year's MLB The Show 25 featured three players: Paul Skenes, Elly De La Cruz, and Gunnar Henderson. If you want to let your imagination run wild, feel free to picture MLB mascots making the cover this year as well.

After last week's news that Ubisoft would split its development teams into five "creative houses" overseeing specific projects, the company has announced a proposal to cut up to 200 jobs in its international offices, particularly in Paris, France.

According to an email sent to staff on January 26 and reported on by VGC, Ubisoft has entered negotiations with French unions for a Rupture Conventionnelle Collective (RCC). An RCC is a voluntary mutual termination agreement that gives French companies the option to cut their workforce as long as a collective agreement is reached with unions and validated by French authorities. Until then, no decision will be finalized, and the deal only impacts the company's International employees who hold French contracts.

An Ubisoft spokesperson told VGC that, since this "mutual termination" only impacts the company's French headquarters, only about 200 jobs could be eliminated.

This year marks the 35th anniversary of Blizzard Entertainment, and to celebrate, the company plans to make major announcements for key franchises such as World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Hearthstone, and Diablo. Similar to Microsoft's annual Developer Direct livestreams, these "developer-led spotlights" will kick off soon and will also serve as a celebration of Blizzard and its history.

Each livestream will be broadcast through YouTube and Twitch channels, with the first one being a World of Warcraft State of Azeroth presentation on January 29. Here's the full list of livestreams on the way:

January 29 at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET

BioShock creator Ken Levine has discussed some of the blowback to 2007's BioShock, and specifically around the game's Little Sisters and how there were calls to remove them from the game. He also discussed the current climate of online discourse in a wide-ranging interview.

Speaking to Reason, Levine said there was a "contingent" of people pushing him to "get rid of the Little Sisters" out of fear of public backlash. For anyone just catching up, Little Sisters are people in BioShock who carry a valuable resource in their stomach, and people can decide to kill them to harvest the resource, or not. "I wanted to give that economic question to the player," Levine said.

"People did talk to me about it and they were very concerned. And that element almost got pulled from the game because the publisher got nervous. But we had a great defender of ours at the publisher who said, 'No, without that there's no game.' And so they let us do it," he explained.

Valentine's Day might not be the only event to get excited about in February, as Sony is supposedly set to host a new PlayStation State of Play next month. Reliable leaker NateTheHate2 answered in the affirmative on X when asked about the possibility. Intriguingly, this comes just mere days after stating he wasn't aware of any plans.

Betting on a PlayStation State of Play for February isn't some longshot. Sony is going on five years in a row of highlighting PS5 games during that month--dating back to 2021. So if this event becomes official, that would make it six years straight. As for what could be showcased, Marvel's Wolverine and Saros seem the most likely, though NateTheHate2 didn't supply any additional details.

The last PlayStation State of Play took place a couple of months ago in November, with the focus being on PS5 titles developed in Japan. Marvel Tokon: Fighting Heroes, Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, and Fatal Frame: Crimson Butterfly 2 were a handful of the games discussed. Meanwhile, Marvel's Wolverine and Saros got the spotlight in the PlayStation State of Play in September.

Following its reveal at The Game Awards on December 11, developer Remedy Entertainment announced that the Control sequel--now known as Control Resonant--will launch sometime this year. And that's all we know about that for now, because any other release date information you may see circulating online is pure speculation, according to the team's communications director.

Thomas Puha has been at Remedy Entertainment for almost 11 years, per his LinkedIn, serving as the Finnish studio's communications director the entire time. It's safe to assume he knows a thing or two about relaying important developer information to the masses, which is why he took to X on January 26 to reiterate that Control Resonant doesn't have a firm release date right now.

"Since some news are crediting us saying something, that we havent," Puha said in an X post. "Remedy has only ever communicated that the release window of Control Resonant is 2026. Anything else is speculation."

Barring any further delays, Rockstar Games will release Grand Theft Auto VI this November, and it's expected to have a massive launch. The title's debut looms so large that some have theorized other developers may change their own plans to stay out of the way. Craig Duncan, the head of Xbox Game Studios, said in an interview that a busy and competitive landscape is nothing new.

He told GamesRadar that Rockstar is "going to do what they're going to do." His job as the leader of Xbox Game Studios is to "do what we should do for the best of our games." He reminded people that there are "always other games" that take up time and attention.

GTA 6 is not just another game, though. It's coming to market with a mountain of hype behind it, and it's projected to sell 40 million copies and generate $3 billion or more in the first year.

Craig Duncan, the head of Xbox Game Studios, has reflected on some of the momentous moves Microsoft made in 2025, which included cancelling games, laying off staff, and shutting down development studios. Duncan said in an interview with GamesRadar that the decision to cancel games like the Perfect Dark reboot and Rare's new game Everwild was "difficult," but he said it was also necessary.

"Sometimes business decisions have to be made, which have wide reach and impact. We don't like doing that. So the lesson is: how do we make sure we don't have to do that? That's really the goal there," he said.

Part of Duncan's job is to perform portfolio reviews, he said, and sometimes these reviews lead to difficult outcomes for specific teams and projects.

Nintendo has announced that the next Nintendo Direct event will take place this coming Thursday, January 29. It will be the second Direct in the past seven days, following the January 25 Nintendo Direct that was focused on The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.

The Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream Direct will take place on January 29 at 6 AM PT / 9 AM ET. The broadcast will run for about 20 minutes and will include "more info" on the new Switch game.

The event will stream in all the usual places, including YouTube and Twitch, along with the Nintendo Today mobile app.

Rocket League released back in 2015, but it's still performing exceptionally well and just recently surged to new heights not seen in years, at least in terms of concurrent players.

Developer Psyonix announced that Rocket League reached more than 900,000 concurrent players across platforms on Friday, January 23. "Today has been a wild ride," the studio said of the achievement. Rocket League apparently surpassed 1 million concurrents over the weekend, and that's the highest concurrent-player count for the free-to-play game in five years.

It's not immediately clear what drove the recent surge in Rocket League players. People are pointing to streamer Jynxzi playing the game recently, but there could be any number of factors contributing to Rocket League's popularity.

Resident Evil players have been dodging chainsaws for decades now, but at long last, the tables have turned. While Leon Kennedy returns to Raccoon City with a pistol in one hand and a hatchet in the other, he can finally do some vicious DIY with a chainsaw of his own. And as Resident Evil Requiem director Koshi Nakanishi explained to GameSpot, that new addition to Leon's arsenal brings a few pros and cons with it.

"Leon, he's an experienced combatant of close to 30 years by the time of Resident Evil Requiem. Leon's actually gone up against so many chainsaws in his history here," Nakanishi said (via a translator). "Isn't it about time that he, himself, used a chainsaw? And so, that's where things started."

Nakanishi did caution that enemies will still be using chainsaws of their own in Requiem, but in surprising ways. "Zombies can use the chainsaws in different ways. They might attack you with it. They might throw it at you," Nakanishi teased. "The zombies do retain some nature of themselves before they became a zombie, and so you see doctor zombies, you see nurse zombies. Actually, depending on the zombie, they might use the chainsaw in slightly different ways."

Recent Resident Evil games have experimented with giving players more freedom, and while they weren't technically open-world games, they did offer more space to engage in both survival horror and action. Resident Evil Village is the notable example here with its interconnected hub areas, but for Resident Evil Requiem, Capcom has gone in a different direction.

Speaking to GameSpot (via a translator), game producer Masato Kumazawa confirmed that Resident Evil Requiem is not an open-world game, but it does have a different direction that the development team considers to be the best fit for it. This direction has led to a game that's heavily inspired by two of the best entries in the series, Resident Evil 2 and 4, and applies the knowledge from modern-day Resident Evil games to evolve them. Resident Evil Requiem features two protagonists--Grace Ashcroft and Leon Kennedy--and their respective gameplay leans hard into classic Resident Evil survival-horror and survival-action.

"Grace's game plays very close to Resident Evil 2, and Leon's gameplay is very close to Resident Evil 4, but when talking about the technical side of things, the portrayal of characters, environments, and things like that, they've taken basically what they learned through 7 and 8, and of course, used that here," game director Koshi Nakanishi said. "Again, the idea was basically to evolve the gameplay that was in [Resident Evil] 2 and 4. Beyond that, expression and artistic direction, a lot of the know-how from Resident 7 and 8 came into play.

Between hulking bioweapon super-soldiers and mutated wildlife, your run-of-the-mill zombie in Resident Evil games is mostly regarded as cannon fodder. But in Resident Evil Requiem, Capcom is aiming to put a fresh twist on its rank-and-file zombies, transforming them into an unpredictable menace that you'll have to approach with caution. Speaking to GameSpot, Resident Evil Requiem director Koshi Nakanishi said that this new breed of infected--who recently succumbed to their viral infection--retain some of their lingering personalities.

"When making a Resident Evil title, the question of how to present zombies is always something that comes up in discussions," Nakanishi said (via a translator). You want to have some variety, but at the same time, if you make too many changes, it doesn't feel like a zombie anymore, so there's always that element or that challenge of designing enemies for a Resident Evil title. In this setting, you're dealing with a lot of zombies who literally just became zombies momentarily or a while ago. It's pretty fresh."

Capcom expanded on that idea, creating zombies with behavior patterns players could exploit, especially when playing as Grace Ashcroft, whose segments are more focused on the classic Resident Evil survival-horror experience. "Part of that fear experience is not knowing what the enemy is going to do when they approach you or when you see them, and so if you just had a standard zombie, you probably by now have an idea of what a zombie's going to do," Nakanishi explained. "But if you had these zombies here that retained some of their memories or behavior from their previous life, then there's more of a mystery element. You're not exactly sure what they're going to do."

With Resident Evil's ninth mainline entry, Capcom finds itself at something of a crossroads. In recent years, Resident Evil games have flitted between nail-biting horror and enjoyably explosive thrills, leaving fans split between wanting the all-out action of Resident Evil 4 and VII's more unsettling brand of survival horror.

When I played Requiem last year, it seemed pretty clear to me which spooky path players were being led down. As junior FBI agent Grace Ashcroft was relentlessly pursued, scrambling to survive while defenseless and alone in a dark asylum, I assumed that Requiem would merely be re-treading the same PT-esque ground it did with Resident Evil VII. After spending another three engrossing hours with Requiem more recently, however, it turns out that I couldn't have been more wrong. Capcom's long-awaited sequel manages to channel both the action-packed thrills of Resident Evil 4 and the raw, disquieting tension that made Resident Evil VII so captivating. Where Resident Evil Village felt like an uneven compromise between action and horror, Capcom does not seem worried about Resident Evil Requiem being either too scary or too trigger-happy--it's just giving players the best of both.

Requiem's final preview kicks off by putting me in the dust-coated boots of the internet's favourite Unc', Leon Kennedy. After pulling into Rhodes Hill hospital in the dead of night, he's met by a nurse who wearily answers the door before showing Leon around the dimly lit facility. As we roam the deathly quiet corridors, she explains that Rhodes Hill is a chronic pain treatment center under the control of one Dr. Gideon, a renowned surgeon who administers "experimental therapies" to patients. We can all guess where this is going. Sure enough, as I'm led up the eerily silent and half-illuminated halls moments later, I come face-to-face with a staff doctor--but he's wielding a blood-soaked chainsaw.