Latest game development news from across the industry
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XBox Wire
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5 hours, 47 minutes ago
GDC Festival of Gaming
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2 hours, 47 minutes ago
Babylon.js 9.27.x is the one to watch: KHR_interactivity export support plus normalized occlusion queries and frame-graph coverage for splats, sprites, and particles. If you’re building glTF pipelines or GPU-heavy scenes, this cuts down custom glue and makes visibility/geometry handling more consistent across WebGL/WebGPU.
GamesIndustry.biz reports that PM Studios is rethinking its physical strategy as Sony prepares to end PlayStation disc production in January 2028. CEO Michael Yum says the shift is painful, but the publisher is leaning into premium boxed editions, code-in-box releases, and more AA publishing to stay relevant.
GamesIndustry.biz reports that Hideo Kojima says Sony unexpectedly stopped funding Physint in mid-June, prompting Kojima Productions to shift staff to OD and secure Xbox as a new partner. Kojima says the studio avoided layoffs, kept a small Physint team, and still maintains a working relationship with PlayStation.
GDC Festival of Gaming says Finji co-founder Rebekah Saltsman is laying out what indie publishers actually care about after 15 years of self-publishing and working with storefronts and platforms. The talk focuses on the skills small and midsized teams need before self-publishing, from publishing access to funding and co-marketing. For teams weighing a direct-to-market path, the practical takeaway is how much business prep now sits alongside development.
Game Developer reports that French publisher Dear Villagers has confirmed layoffs, adding to a rough stretch for game publishing. The company, known for Caravan SandWitch and The Forgotten City, has not disclosed how many people are affected. For developers, it’s another reminder that even successful indie-facing labels are still tightening.
Gamefromscratch reports that Action Game Maker’s Massive 2.0 beta is trying to make the Maker-branded Godot fork feel like a real product, not just a paid wrapper. The June 2025 launch drew criticism for offering little beyond vanilla Godot, so this update matters most to teams weighing whether the commercial package now adds enough value.
GamesIndustry.biz says Activision's Team Ricochet is treating cheating like a major business, citing estimates that the market reaches $8.5 billion. A survey of 250 multiplayer studios found 69% see cheating as a significant problem, and most are now layering multiple anti-cheat systems instead of relying on one fix.
XBox Wire says Gears of War: E-Day will get a one-night Los Angeles takeover on September 30, with a hands-on demo before Early Access begins. The Hollywood & Vine event is limited to 500 adults, and fans in Gears merch get a fast line. Xbox is also dangling themed food, prizes, and a custom controller.
GamesIndustry.biz says Tokyo Game Show 2026 leaned hard on legacy IP while generative AI loomed over the floor. With the final day canceled by typhoon risk, the clearest signal was a Japanese market increasingly split between nostalgia, platform growth, and anxiety over how AI will reshape production.
Xbox is bringing a Tokyo Game Show 2026 broadcast, FanFest, and hands-on demos for Minecraft Dungeons II and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. The showcase lands September 17 at 7:00pm JST, with region-specific streams and accessibility options. For devs, it’s another signal that Xbox is leaning harder into Japan and broader Asia.
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GamesIndustry.biz reports that Northern Forge Studios and Runaway Play each took two wins at the 2026 Green Games Jam Awards, which spotlight sustainable game development and environmental storytelling. Orna: The GPS RPG and Flutter: Butterfly Sanctuary were among the standout titles, while CD Projekt Red and ustwo Games also picked up major honors.
Blender has added a new way for donors to back specific roadmap items without changing how Development Fund money is allocated. The new “Show your support” option turns donations into visible project likes, helping the team gauge demand while keeping funding non-targeted. For developers, it’s a small UX change with a useful signal for prioritizing work.
Unreal Engine says TT Games is using UE5 to build an open-world Gotham City for LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight. The studio is leaning on World Partition and the Gameplay Ability System to support the city-scale design. For teams shipping large worlds, it’s a useful look at how LEGO’s familiar formula is being pushed into a more ambitious structure.
Tim Ruswick flags a familiar indie-dev trap: error messages that point you in the wrong direction. For experienced teams, the real cost is wasted debugging time, not just annoyance. The takeaway is to treat diagnostics as suspects, verify assumptions fast, and instrument the system until the failure is undeniable.
Tim Ruswick points to ElevenLabs as a way to generate sound effects for games, framing it as a fast option for teams that need custom audio without building a full Foley pipeline. For developers, the appeal is speed and iteration: prototype sounds, swap assets quickly, and keep production moving. It also raises the usual tradeoff between convenience, control, and final mix quality.
Stride samples/4.4.0, released for Stride 4.4.0-beta8, is a broad sample and template refresh with a lot of build-system cleanup behind it. The biggest practical changes are the new 2D Platformer template, expanded dotnet new asset packs, and a migration to .slnx plus Stride.Build.Sdk. Developers also get numerous sample fixes, test harness upgrades, and a few crash/serialization corrections.
XBox Wire says EA Sports FC 27’s 10-hour EA Play trial is live today for Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass members on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC. Progress carries into the full game, and members also get 10% off EA digital purchases plus recurring rewards. The trial spotlights new social, gameplay, and career features.
Freya Holmér is joining an AI doom panel discussion, and she says she’ll argue that generative AI is an anti-humanity technology. The panel is hosted and moderated by Whick-TV, with copanelists @drdarko, @thesoypill, and TheLockheedLib. For developers, it’s another sign that the AI debate is moving beyond tooling into ethics, labor, and creative control.
Marmoset says Toolbag 5.03 adds Text Mode to Vector Layers in Texture Projects, letting artists place editable text directly on vector shapes. For material and texture workflows, that means faster label iteration, cleaner presentation passes, and fewer round-trips to external tools when mockups need typography.
GamesIndustry.biz details how Remedy is rethinking Control Resonant around Manhattan’s open streets, with senior level designer Arhi Makkonen calling it the studio’s biggest world yet. The sequel also shifts to Dylan Faden and melee-first combat, forcing new ways to guide players without boxing them in.
XBox Wire says Hela: Of Mice & Magic will launch on December 1, 2026 and hit Xbox Game Pass on day one. The co-op adventure centers progression on interactive brewing, where recipes are hands-on rather than menu-driven. Remedies then turn those brews into new traversal and puzzle options.
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