Thursday, November 12
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GDC's latest State of the Game Industry report, based on responses from over 2,600 game industry professionals, puts generative AI use at 40%, up 4% on the previous report. It also covers layoffs, funding, platforms, engines, crunch and unions.
gamesindustry.biz5h ago3 min read
Black Forest Games, the studio behind the Destroy All Humans remakes, has separated from THQ Nordic through a management buyout. It co-founded Third Signal, a new independent studio group aimed at small development teams.
gamesindustry.biz5h ago2 min read
GDC Festival of Gaming has released The State of the Game Industry: November 2026, based on a survey of over 2,600 game workers. It covers layoffs, generative AI, co-development and next-gen consoles, and the full report is free.
gamedeveloper.com5h ago2 min read
Paradox Interactive CEO Fredrik Wester is stepping down, and deputy CEO Mattias Lilja will take the role on January 4, 2027. Wester stays on the board and remains the largest shareholder.
gamesindustry.biz13h ago2 min read
The European Commission presented a draft Digital Fairness Act, a proposed EU regulation that would set rules for loot boxes, virtual currency pricing, pay-to-win mechanics and subscriptions. It now goes to the European Parliament and the Council for negotiation.
80.lv13h ago3 min read
Bloomberg reports that Fairgames, the multiplayer shooter from PlayStation's Haven Studios, has been cancelled. A Sony spokesperson said Haven will see no job cuts.
gamedeveloper.com1d ago2 min read
PlayStation has cancelled Fairgames, the live-service shooter in development at Montreal-based Haven Studios, after a playtest fell short of goals. No jobs have been cut because of the cancellation, according to GamesIndustry.biz.
gamesindustry.biz1d ago2 min read
Sony has canceled Fairgames, the online extraction shooter in development at its Montreal subsidiary Haven Studios. The company said a recent playtest fell short of its goals and that the studio will not face layoffs.
80.lv1d ago2 min read
The European Commission has formally presented its draft Digital Fairness Act, a regulation that would restrict loot boxes, paid virtual currencies, pay-to-win mechanics and engagement features. If adopted, it would apply directly across all EU member states.
gamesindustry.biz1d ago4 min read
Defold 1.14.1 was published on GitHub on 10 November 2026 under the stable channel. The release page lists 17 assets and the build commit.
github.com1d ago2 min read
PlayStation has ended development of Ratchet & Clank: Ranger Rumble, a free multiplayer mobile shooter. The game leaves app stores on November 21, and its servers close permanently on May 1, 2027.
80.lv2d ago2 min read
Take-Two reported second-quarter results for the period ending September 30, 2026, with net bookings and revenue down year-over-year. CEO Strauss Zelnick said Grand Theft Auto VI pre-orders are running well above the company's initial expectations.
gamedeveloper.com2d ago2 min read
In an interview with 80 Level, Wlad Marhulets, the developer behind DARQ, explained how Bloody Hell Hotel is built by a rotating pool of contractors rather than full-time staff. He also covered the game's procedural dungeon rules and the studio's stance on AI.
80.lv2d ago3 min read
Section 9 Interactive, a Malmö studio founded by former Tarsier Studios developers, spoke to 80 Level about making End of Abyss. The interview covers lighting, creature iteration and the challenges of Metroidvania design for a small team.
80.lv2d ago3 min read
Blender 5.3 is out from the Blender Foundation. It brings 3D Gaussian Splat import, a DLSS viewport denoiser, new Cycles and EEVEE material features, and a new optional project system.
blender.org2d ago3 min read
Epic Games has released an early Unreal Engine 5.9 preview that focuses on AI agent workflows, including a shared workspace for people and AI agents and an experimental return of WebAssembly export. GameFromScratch describes it as a very early, less polished preview tied to the upcoming Epic AI Megajam.
gamefromscratch.com2d ago2 min read
Epic Games has released the Unreal Engine 5.9 MegaJam Preview, which brings back Web as a target platform and expands AI-assisted workflows. Epic says it is the first engine release built primarily with agentic workflows.
80.lv3d ago2 min read
Take-Two Interactive reported second-quarter net bookings of $1.60 billion, down 18% and slightly below its guidance. It kept its full-year outlook at $8 billion to $8.2 billion, with Grand Theft Auto 6 due November 19.
gamesindustry.biz3d ago2 min read
Game, the German Games Industry Association, says the draft EU KIDS Act could override national age-rating systems for video games. It wants games treated differently from social networks and the USK and PEGI systems kept as the standard.
gamesindustry.biz3d ago3 min read
Freelance biome artist Michael Gerard explained in an 80 Level interview how his Alpine Forest scene was built. It covers a SpeedTree-to-Unreal Engine 5 workflow using Nanite Assemblies and his studio FoliageLab's custom tooling.
80.lv3d ago3 min read
SNEG has re-released the 2001 D&D RPG on Steam and GOG after reverse-engineering its original engine from retail discs. The studio's interview details the UI, upscaling and scoping choices behind the restoration.
80.lv6d ago3 min read
SAG-AFTRA has published a framework for using union actors in game pitches, vertical slices and demos made before funding. Until now there were no specific union guidelines for that work.
gamedeveloper.com6d ago2 min read
Rockstar has added 39 new screenshots of Grand Theft Auto 6 to the Launch Gallery on its website, two weeks before release. The game launches November 19, 2026 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
80.lv6d ago2 min read
In its Q2 financial report, Sony said preparation for its next-generation platform is on schedule, and it raised its full-year profit forecast by 9 percent. Executives also addressed memory prices and supply on the investor Q&A.
gamedeveloper.com6d ago2 min read
Unity's blog describes how Klang Games renders SEED, a persistent MMO sandbox, across PC and mobile using URP, BatchRendererGroup and Mesh LOD. The team also explains how server snapshots of real player societies exposed a CPU bottleneck tied to LOD Groups and GPU Resident Drawer.
unity.com6d ago5 min read
Reuters reports that Unity has talked with a consortium of investors including Silver Lake and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund about an acquisition. No deal has been made, according to the reports.
80.lv6d ago2 min read
A Reuters report says a consortium including Silver Lake Partners and Saudi Arabia's PIF approached Unity about an acquisition. Talks are described as preliminary, and no deal is assured.
gamefromscratch.com6d ago2 min read
Unity has reportedly held acquisition talks with Silver Lake and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, the two firms that bought Electronic Arts for $55 billion this year. Reuters reports a $25 billion valuation was discussed, and no deal is certain.
gamesindustry.biz7d ago2 min read
Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said the company is confident it can secure enough memory for its Switch hardware, despite rising component costs across the industry. Switch 2 forecasts stay unchanged at 16 million units for the financial year.
gamedeveloper.com7d ago2 min read
Itch.io said it removed a couple terabytes of AI-generated spam and added a filter that hides games with generative AI disclosures from search. The platform says the action targets bulk uploads, not all games that use generative AI.
80.lv7d ago2 min read
Epic Games is making the full Quixel Megascans library free on Fab, with listings updating between November 5 and 12. Terms for all Quixel assets now also allow training AI models on Megascans and Megaplants.
gamefromscratch.com7d ago2 min read
Yoshinori Kitase told IGN that Square Enix is more likely to invest in new titles than more remakes, though he left the door open to further Final Fantasy adaptations. The comments come ahead of Final Fantasy VII Revelation, set for April 8, 2027.
80.lv7d ago2 min read
NVIDIA is rolling out DLSS 5 to more games this month, starting with Hogwarts Legacy on November 5. Official support is limited to GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs and RTX Spark systems.
80.lv7d ago2 min read
AMD says ML-based FSR Upscaling 4.1.2 is now available on Xbox Series X|S through the October 2026 Microsoft GDK, the first time ML-based FSR Upscaling has run on Xbox consoles. It uses the same SDK API as on PC, and it also reaches ROG Xbox Ally handhelds through FSR SDK 2.4.
gpuopen.com8d ago3 min read
A new analysis of PC and console studios acquired since 2000 finds one in three has since closed, with the buyer the strongest predictor of outcome. Sebastian Cardoso published the results and full dataset on his Game Studio Unlocked newsletter.
gamesindustry.biz8d ago2 min read
Environment artist Frankie Povarchik detailed how he built a stylized Barcelona street using a Blender modular kit, Substance 3D Designer materials and Unreal Engine 5 variation techniques. The breakdown, published by 80 Level, covers kit design, trim sheets and ways to break up repetition.
80.lv8d ago3 min read
Valve is removing event banners from the top of Steam game pages and adding a personalized section next to the "More like this" carousel. Developers can track the new visibility in their Steamworks traffic report.
steamcommunity.com8d ago3 min read
Katsuhiro Harada, longtime director of Tekken, discussed his new studio VS Studio in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz. He covered the SNK backing, hiring veterans, AAA costs, indie discoverability, esports and AI.
gamesindustry.biz8d ago3 min read
Valve says Steam build and store page reviews are running behind, up to 12 business days against its usual 3-5 days. Developers with planned launch dates are affected, and Valve has posted tips to help games pass review the first time.
gamedeveloper.com8d ago3 min read
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said at Unreal Fest Tokyo 2026 that Unreal Engine 6 will remove Blueprints, Actors and the C++ Gameplay Framework outright, with gameplay moving to Verse and Scene Graph. Unreal Engine 5.9 was also confirmed, with a preview due next week.
gamefromscratch.com8d ago2 min read
Microsoft released Agility SDK 1.620 retail and 1.722-preview on October 28, and AMD shipped matching drivers the same day. The retail release brings crash dump files and Partial Graphics Programs to production games, while the preview adds new DirectX Raytracing features.
gpuopen.com9d ago4 min read
Remedy Entertainment says Control Resonant sold over one million units in three weeks, with about half of buyers new to the series. The figures come from the studio's third-quarter results for fiscal year 2026.
gamedeveloper.com9d ago2 min read
Remedy's third-quarter revenue rose 226% after Control Resonant launched on September 24. The game has since passed one million units sold, making it the studio's fastest-selling title.
gamesindustry.biz9d ago2 min read
In an Ask the Developer Q&A, Eiji Aonuma explained why Nintendo is remaking The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for Nintendo Switch 2. He links it to the series' 40th anniversary and to what the current team can learn from the original.
80.lv9d ago2 min read
Toshihiro Nagoshi's Tokyo studio was formally dissolved on October 31, according to a Japanese government gazette notice. The studio had revealed its first game, Gang of Dragon, at the 2025 Game Awards.
80.lv9d ago2 min read
CI Games signed a $32 million syndicated credit facility to complete and launch Lords of the Fallen II, which is now planned for Q1 2027. The studio is self-publishing after ending its PC publishing deal with Epic Games.
gamesindustry.biz10d ago2 min read
Simulation publisher Astragon Entertainment is closing its German studio Astragon Development, which employed more than 40 people. The closure follows other cutbacks at the publisher this year.
gamesindustry.biz10d ago2 min read
Nagoshi Studio, founded by ex-Sega executive Toshihiro Nagoshi, has been dissolved, according to Game Developer's reading of a Japanese government gazette report. The studio was making Gang of Dragon with NetEase funding.
gamedeveloper.com10d ago2 min read
Pittsburgh VR studio Schell Games has announced a second round of layoffs in 2026, following cuts in August. The studio did not say how many employees are affected.
gamesindustry.biz10d ago2 min read
IllFonic's Chief Creative Officer Jared Gerritzen explains how the studio built Halloween: The Game in Unreal Engine 5, from dynamic lighting to motion capture of original Michael Myers actor Nick Castle. The interview covers the shift away from baked lighting and the game's reactive NPC systems.
80.lv13d ago2 min read
Blender 5.3 can import, edit and render 3D Gaussian splats (gsplats), with support in EEVEE, Workbench and Cycles. The Blender developers blog covers the file formats, the Geometry Nodes attributes and the current limitations.
code.blender.org13d ago3 min read
Bloomberg reports that Electronic Arts shut down BioWare after choosing to fund a new Star Wars Battlefront game rather than Mass Effect: Universe. Game Developer relays the report, which ties the decision to debt from EA's leveraged buy-out.
gamedeveloper.com13d ago2 min read
Epic Games has deleted two restrictions from Section 6e of the Unreal Engine EULA, covering generative AI training and MetaHuman data use. The change applies to all versions of Unreal Engine.
reddit.com13d ago2 min read
Adobe's Substance 3D Painter 12.2 lets artists paint baking cages directly on models. In an interview, Product Manager Laurens Corijn describes why baking became a 2026 priority and how the feature was built.
80.lv14d ago3 min read
IO Interactive's new Hitman Elusive Target, The Host, features YouTuber Jacksepticeye as a villain. Two IO designers explain how the level and character were built.
80.lv14d ago3 min read
Godot 4.8 beta 2 is out two weeks after beta 1, focused on regression fixes. The 4.8 feature set is considered complete, so testers are asked to check for remaining regressions.
godotengine.org14d ago2 min read
JangaFX's node-based real-time VFX authoring tool IlluGen has reached version 2.0, with GPU particle simulation, mesh fracture and pivot animation textures. The current build is 2.0.1, and a new exporter writes particle caches for Unreal Engine's Niagara.
digitalproduction.com15d ago4 min read
At a developer conference in South Korea, Valve staff reportedly said Steam will not take hands-on steps against AI-made clones of games. They put the onus on developers to make games harder to copy and to build loyal communities.
gamedeveloper.com15d ago2 min read
The Pokémon Company has announced that the Nintendo Switch and mobile versions of Pokémon UNITE will go offline on March 23, 2027. Aeos Crown 2027 qualifiers will still run before the shutdown.
80.lv15d ago2 min read
AMD released FSR "Redstone" SDK 2.4, extending ML-based FSR Upscaling 4.1 to Radeon RX 6000 Series GPUs and select Ryzen processors with integrated graphics. It also adds Vulkan support at feature parity with DirectX 12 for upscaling and frame generation.
gpuopen.com15d ago3 min read
Fuse Games CEO Matt Webster explained how Star Wars: Galactic Racer was built across a core studio and three kinds of outside partner. The breakdown gives production teams a clear vocabulary for splitting work between studios.
gamedeveloper.com15d ago2 min read
A community post says Epic has stopped adding features to Movie Render Queue as of Unreal Engine 5.8, and that new work will go to Movie Render Graph only. The claim is unverified here, but teams that render with MRQ should check their pipelines.
reddit.com15d ago2 min read
A Vivrato report based on 101 interviews finds nearly all studio leaders in Europe and North America have used AI in some form during development. Most rate their pipeline integration at three out of ten or lower.
gamesindustry.biz15d ago3 min read
Flax Engine 1.13 has been released with .NET 10 and C# 14, DDGI specular reflections, occlusion culling and split-screen rendering. Reversed Z depth is on by default, so existing projects should be checked after upgrading.
gamefromscratch.com15d ago3 min read
Fortune reports that Xbox's next-gen console, Project Helix, is aimed at the 2028 holiday season with a projected price of $1,200 to $1,800. The figures come from unnamed sources and have not been confirmed by Microsoft in the material we have.
gamesindustry.biz15d ago2 min read
Sensor Tower data shows indies and new IP made up a larger share of the biggest PC and console launches in the year to August 2026. AAA and AA hit counts were flat.
gamesindustry.biz15d ago3 min read
BioWare announced it is closing, and early development on the next Mass Effect project is ending. Bloomberg reports EA is cutting about 400 jobs overall, around 50 of them at BioWare, and reshuffling other projects.
gamedeveloper.com15d ago2 min read
Microsoft and AMD have announced that FSR 4.1, a machine-learning-based temporal upscaler, is coming to Xbox Series X|S. Developers will need to patch their games to use it, and no date has been given beyond "soon".
gamesindustry.biz15d ago2 min read
Crystal Dynamics Game Director Raul Siqueira told 80 Level how the studio is balancing the original game's isolation with optional hints in Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis. The design lets players tune combat, puzzle and exploration help separately.
80.lv15d ago3 min read
A solo developer has released an early alpha of Starship Space Program, a fan-made Starship and Super Heavy flight sim built in Unreal Engine for Windows PC. The developer shared technical details of the custom physics, scaled-space planet and Slate-only UI for other UE developers.
reddit.com15d ago2 min read
Adobe has released Substance 3D Painter 12.2, which lets artists paint baking cage distances directly on a model. The update also adds new Polygon Fill selection modes, texture-set highlighting and better viewport sorting for overlapping transparent materials.
80.lv15d ago2 min read
CD Projekt Red's free Update 2.5 for Cyberpunk 2077 is set to launch October 22, according to 80 Level. It adds dual-wielding, Mod.io-powered mod support across platforms and a round of rendering upgrades.
80.lv15d ago2 min read
Electronic Arts has set out which franchises it will back after laying off about 400 people and closing BioWare. A new Fight Night is in pre-production, and early Mass Effect development has been discontinued.
80.lv15d ago3 min read
Xbox has revealed launch pricing for cloud playtime packs, which add hours on top of the new monthly cloud gaming limits on Game Pass. Players who stream a lot will pay more once the limits apply.
gamesindustry.biz15d ago2 min read
Fortnite is back on iOS in Australia after the Federal Court of Australia found Apple restricted alternative app stores and payment methods. Further App Store changes are due in March 2027, and Apple says it will seek a stay and appeal.
gamesindustry.biz15d ago2 min read
A Fortune report, relayed by 80 Level, says Xbox is planning Project Helix hardware, a tiered Game Pass and further job cuts. None of this is confirmed by Microsoft in the source material.
80.lv15d ago2 min read
EA executives said Respawn and DICE will work together on a project. Variety's sources reportedly identify it as Star Wars: Battlefront 3, which EA has not confirmed in the material we have.
80.lv15d ago2 min read
11 bit studios environment artist Artem Ostapchuk described how the team built the terraforming pipeline for The Alters: Last Variable in UE5. The setup lets every level work in both barren and overgrown states.
80.lv15d ago3 min read
In an 80 Level interview, the producer and director of Final Fantasy Resonance describe how they blend pixel sprites with 3D scenes, lighting and a moving camera. The details cover sprite orientation fixes, scene blocking and VFX timing.
80.lv15d ago3 min read
A two-person team building Farm & Feast in Unity posted their process for adding GPU-driven pedestrians and traffic to an empty-feeling town. The post is a community write-up, not an official Unity release.
reddit.com15d ago2 min read
Google-owned Owlchemy Labs has announced Hyper Visor, an XR arcade blaster for the Google Play Store, timed as a launch title for HTC's XREAL Aura. It is a sign of a VR-focused studio targeting a sunglasses-style device.
gamedeveloper.com15d ago2 min read
UVgami is a free, open source tool that automatically UV unwraps 3D models. It is available as a web app, a desktop app for Windows, Mac and Linux, and a Blender version.
gamefromscratch.com15d ago2 min read
The developers of INKURSION, a narrative platformer built in Unity 6 HDRP, posted the optimizations that made the game run on low-end hardware and Steam Deck. The biggest wins came from throttled planar reflection probes, batching and physics tuning.
reddit.com15d ago3 min read
Cyberpunk 2 Associate Game Director Paweł Sasko said during an October 21 livestream that about half of CD PROJEKT RED's quest team used to be modders. He called modding a gateway into game development.
80.lv15d ago2 min read
Croteam and Devolver Digital have announced Serious Sam: The Third Encounter, a new entry that continues directly from 2002's The Second Encounter. The game is in early development and has a Steam page and a teaser.
80.lv15d ago2 min read
Capcom says an unauthorised third party accessed customer information on October 19, affecting more than 11.7 million Capcom ID accounts. The publisher says its investigation into the scope of impact is complete and credit card data was not affected.
gamesindustry.biz15d ago2 min read
A GamesIndustry.biz opinion piece says the newly private-equity-owned Electronic Arts has shut BioWare, cancelling its Mass Effect project as part of 400 cuts across EA. The author argues the closure caps a long run of management decisions.
gamesindustry.biz15d ago2 min read
GameMaker has announced that its GMRT runtime will be free to use for all developers from January 1, 2027. Console shipping still requires an enterprise license.
gamedeveloper.com15d ago2 min read
Valve says the Personal Calendar has graduated from Steam Labs and is now a full feature of the Steam Store. New developer documentation and a video explain how the calendar surfaces games.
steamcommunity.com15d ago2 min read
A developer who built the official HDR support for The Sinking City 2 has published a technical breakdown. It covers a new tonemapper meant to fix problems in Unreal's out-of-the-box HDR output.
reddit.com15d ago2 min read
Gameloft Brisbane has described how Bluey's Happy Snaps builds its hand-drawn look in Unreal Engine 5 from layered 2D planes, SDF textures and custom shaders. The interview covers rigging, outlines and the 360-degree camera problem.
80.lv15d ago3 min read
In an interview excerpt shared on r/gamedev, Shigeru Miyamoto said AI follows earlier tool shifts and gives people a reason to think harder about what creating means. He also warned against mistaking the satisfaction of doing the work for making something good.
reddit.com15d ago2 min read
A co-creator of the 1987 Amiga/arcade game Sidewinder says he used Claude Code with Opus 5.5 to rebuild it in WebGL with AI-remastered art and sound. His write-up is a candid account of where the AI tooling worked and where it failed.
reddit.com15d ago2 min read
Unreal Engine 5.8.4 shipped on Oct 20 but omits fixes made after Oct 5. Meanwhile the ue6-main branch renames parts of UnrealBuildTool's public C# API and triggers large recooks, per a community weekly roundup.
reddit.com15d ago2 min read
Total War VP Roger Collum says the delisted Shogun 2 – Complete Edition was not a Creative Assembly developed game and skipped its internal reviews and QA. The studio says the generative AI concerns are being investigated.
gamesindustry.biz15d ago2 min read
Microsoft has pushed back the end of its French consultation process over Arkane Lyon by a month while it looks for a new owner. Development on Marvel's Blade continues in the meantime.
gamesindustry.biz15d ago2 min read
Undead Labs, maker of State of Decay, has become employee-owned after Xbox moved to divest it, according to CEO Philip Holt. He told GamesIndustry.biz the studio will finish State of Decay 3 with publisher funding and no outside investors.
gamesindustry.biz15d ago3 min read
Puck reports that Netflix offered Microsoft $500 million over seven years for Xbox film and TV rights, and that Xbox asked for $800 million. Neither company has confirmed the figures, and the deal has reportedly been withdrawn.
gamesindustry.biz15d ago2 min read
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has again criticized Valve's AI disclosure requirements for Steam games. His latest comments, made in replies on social media, frame the policy as partisan, and the source reports no change to the policy itself.
gamesindustry.biz15d ago2 min read
ActionForge is a free web app for rigging, retargeting and editing character animations, all processed locally in the browser. It covers ground similar to Mixamo, with direct animation editing and export presets for major engines.
gamefromscratch.com15d ago2 min read
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