Welcome back to your monthly report of game news, where I do my best to compile everything into one convenient ad-free place, so you don’t have to worry about the pesky cracks that info can fall through at other publications.
Thanks and credit for the banner image as always goes to the Avocado’s one and only Space Robot!
August 1st: It’s being reported that Starfield will launch for PS5 and Switch 2 in 2026 alongside its second paid expansion, as Microsoft continues spreading its first party blockbuster catalog to the rest of the industry and begins its Switch 2 port initiative.
This news arrives alongside further escalations of the situation surrounding Microsoft’s business with the Israeli military, as The Guardian and +972 Magazine offered an extensive further exposé on the history of Azure cloud technology used against Palestine with information sources from directly in the IDF. The article reconfirms all previous allegations and further details them, it lays out the timeline of Satya Nadella himself directly negotiating with Israel’s military surveillance agency, going straight from late 2021 negotiations to a massive system becoming operational in 2022 to record, playback, and store the phone calls of all Palestinian civilians, “a million calls an hour,” which are used for the planning and airstrikes and military operations in Gaza and the West Bank. Israel also uses the information stored in the Azure cloud platform for blackmail and extrajudicial detention and killing. Israel made the deal with Microsoft because it had no other way to achieve this scale of surveillance.
Internal protest has escalated with a protest at HQ and the French union SJTV demanding that Microsoft support Palestine and end the business deal, with SJTV representing Arkane Lyon in this situation. Microsoft says that it’s launching a new investigation and that these uses would violate terms of service, but all of the Guardian’s information clearly indicates what was already obvious, that Microsoft knows full well what its technology is being used for and is more invested in suppressing the awareness of it, as seen in shutting down interviews on the Gamescom floor where the questions of Palestine and mass-layoffs came up, and having protesters arrested.
August 6th: RedOctane Games has returned with a new rhythm game in development to be revealed later this year and published by Embracer Group under its new Fellowship Entertainment banner. RedOctane was, along with Harmonix, the original publisher and codeveloper of Guitar Hero before Activision bought it all out and shut RedOctane down in 2010. The new RedOctane is led by Simon Ebejer, who directed Guitar Hero 3.
Technical enthusiasts and analysts Digital Foundry announced that they had successfully become independent from former parent companies Ziff Davis and Eurogamer after buying out their own company. Founder Richard Leadbetter clarified that he had been pursuing this since before Ziff Davis bought Eurogamer, but it was the former that actually agreed to negotiations. This occurs amidst Ziff Davis once again clashing with its union at IGN, having downsized the team after significant financial growth.
Scottish indie publisher Firestoke shut down and started exploring options to transfer its portfolio of games and developers to a new owner.
August 7th: Jason Schreier and Stephen Totilo both broke the news that Microsoft has canceled Contraband, a co op action game from the makers of Just Cause, and another tentpole announcement from the start of the current generation. Both Schreier and Totilo got confirmation from Microsoft that Kojima Productions’ xCloud game OD is currently still ongoing. Despite the heavy cuts to Xbox publishing, its partnerships for Microsoft Flight Sim and Ninja Gaiden 4 are also confirmed to be unaffected. Microsoft publicly will only admit that the game is “paused under evaluation.” At the start of QuakeCon on the same day, Microsoft had a different announcement, Heretic + Hexen. These are 90s fantasy first person shooters made by Activision’s Raven on the old Doom engine, newly remastered by Nightdive just like the classic Dooms and Quakes, shadowdropped onto PC, PS4/5, Switch, and Xbox One/Series.
During the company’s latest earnings release which also confirmed 80 million PS5s sold, Sony executive Sadahiko Hayakawa commented that the company as a whole will increasingly focus on media creation over tech and hardware, with movies, TV, anime, and games taking precedence as the biggest sources of revenue, and “In the gaming business we are moving away from a hardware centric business model, more to a platform business that expands community and engagement.” They are acknowledging that all of their hardware lines, including PlayStation hardware, will continue to downturn as hardware costs massively rise and software plateaus into no longer needing to be exclusive to highest end hardware. The PlayStation 6 will simply not be a mass market product at the same level as its predecessors. That can be supplemented by multimedia expansion, but it is likely to also need increased software proliferation like I’ve been suggesting. Hardware sales don’t need to completely crater like they have for Microsoft, especially if Sony can achieve a remotely friendly price for rumored weaker devices like their new handheld.
Indie World Showcase: Yacht Club Games opened the presentation by confirming that all console ports for Mina the Hollower including a Switch 2 edition will release on Halloween alongside the PC version, also releasing a limited time demo for the game on both gens of Switch, and confirming that the Switch 2 port has a 120fps mode. Next up, developer Top Hat Studios revealed the new game Well Dweller, their fourth title after Sheepo, Islets, and Crypt Custodian. It’s a sidescrolling Metroidvania set in a dark fairy tale world, scheduled to launch for PC and Switch in 2026. Returning from Day of the Devs, Coldblood’s dark farming game Neverway was confirmed for Switch and a 2026 launch. Developer Okomotive and publisher Panic announced the launch date of their game Herdling after many appearances, setting it for August 21st 2025 on PC, Switch, PS, and Xbox. The quirky puzzle game Is This Seat Taken? was revealed and shadowdropped onto PC, Switch, and mobile by developer Poti Poti Studio and publisher Wholesome Games Presents. It’s about precisely arranging social situations around each character’s needs.
A free major DLC was announced for Little Kitty Big City, which released August 27th for all existing platforms. It features new story content, new character customization, new photo mode additions, and more. Landfall, the makers of the Totally Accurate Battle games, announced that their hit game 2024 game Content Warning is coming to Switch and Switch 2 in 2026. Content Warning is a first person multiplayer horror game about influencers exploring a monster-infested underground to record viral videos of the horrors. Kenny Sun and Devolver Digital brought Ball X Pit, their previously revealed action roguelike, announcing that it will launch on Switch October 15th 2025 and release natively on Switch 2 later in fall 2025. Ultimate Chicken Horse developer Clever Endeavour Games revealed their sequel Ultimate Sheep Raccoon, announcing that it will launch in Winter 2025 for PC, Switch and Switch 2, PS4/5, and Xbox One/Series, with full crossplay support and 8 person multiplayer.
Japanese indie developer Snowblind Studio announced that their story driven, fully 3D and fast paced action game Glaciered is coming to PC and Switch 2 as a timed console exclusive in Holiday 2025. The game is set in a massive underwater world during a future ice age. The sizzle reel highlighted survival game Winter Burrow coming to Switch 1 in late 2025, casual game Undusted coming to Switch 1 in October 2025, Tiny Bookshop shadowdropped onto Switch 1, and more. Freehold Games and publisher Kitfox announced that their roguelike text-based RPG Caves of Qud will come to Switch 1 in Late 2025 a year after its launch on PC, Strange Antiquities was shown to be releasing for Switch 1 on September 17th 2025, Opus: Prism Peak was announced to be releasing for Switch and Switch 2 in Fall 2025, Go Go Town was announced to be coming to Switch 1 in Spring 2026, and lastly… UFO 50, one of 2024’s most acclaimed games, was shadowdropped onto Switch 1 by developer Mossmouth.
August 8th: After launching their new game and second Disney project Tron Catalyst in June, Thomas Was Alone creator Mike Bithell announced that he’s firing eleven people, a majority of the full time staff for his development studio Bithell Games, due to failing to secure a new project or partner quickly enough and running low on funds, like so many other indie devs.
August 11th: Sony filed a copyright and trademark infringement lawsuit against Tencent for Light of Motiram, a game which overtly copies the Horizon franchise and comes after Tencent previously tried and failed to develop an official Horizon spinoff. The game’s Steam page was then edited to downplay the similarities.
August 12th: 160 workers at Blizzard’s Story and Franchise Development team have newly unionized under the CWA, consisting of narrative teams, lore archivists/historians, and cinematic animators for Diablo, Overwatch, etc. Here’s an interview with members of the new Blizzard union. Even more workers at Blizzard unionized before the month was over, the entire 450-person main Diablo team in fact, who are planning to fight Microsoft over its AI mandates.
August 13th: Clapperheads announced that their bodycam zoo horror game Zoochosis will release for PS4 and PS5 on August 25th after launching on PC last year.
Krafton announced that it’s ending support for the original PS4 and Xbox One versions of its flagship shooter PUBG, focusing exclusively on the new native PS5 and Xbox Series versions of the game which will launch on November 13th 2025.
August 14th: Hardspace Shipbreaker creators Blackbird Interactive announced that they have become the sole owners of their own game after buying the IP rights from their former publisher Focus Entertainment. They have multiple Hardspace projects in active development.
August 15th: Despite troubled development and lofty playercount/sales expectations, Battlefield 6 is doing well so far with two absolutely massively popular beta tests ahead of its October launch.
August 16th: New Tiktok commercials for Nexon’s FTP shooter The First Descendant were found to be not only be AI/LLM-generated, but they were taking the likenesses of real streamers and using them to endorse the game without their permission. Nexon says it’s investigating the issue but is aggressively placing the blame on Tiktok in the meantime.
August 17th: In the wake of financial difficulties and a meeting scheduled for September where shareholders will vote on discharging the current CEO, Puzzle & Dragons maker GungHo Online Entertainment has accused a former executive of embezzling millions of dollars from the company with fraudulent work orders and fees. The same company also announced that their Switch exclusive FTP live service Ninjala will be closing support with Season 21 now running indefinitely, with server support currently scheduled to remain live through at least 2037.
Some announcements were made during the closing ceremony of the latest Pokémon World Championships closing ceremony: A four player multiplayer mode was announced for Pokémon Legends Z-A, and the new arena battle game Pokémon Champions had several confirmations. Champions will be the franchise’s main VGC title for 2026, it will have a native Switch 2 port, and on Switch consoles it will have a premium option alongside the FTP version.
August 18th: Indie roguelike shooter Morsels was announced by Annapurna and developer Furcula to be launching on November 18th 2025.
The remaster Shenmue 3 Enhanced was announced to be releasing for PC, PS5, Xbox Series S|X, and “Nintendo,” with an upgrade path for PS4 and PC owners. The remaster was featured on the showfloor at GamesCom: it offers many gameplay and quality of life changes to address fan criticisms, on top of the visual uplift.
Shinen announced the Switch 2 exclusive The Touryst Deluxe, an expanded remaster of their adventure game which was an early technical showpiece for the current gen consoles when it first launched in 2020.
August 19th: Jason Schreier followed up his previous BioShock 4 report by breaking that Cloud Chamber Games will indeed suffer major layoffs as it takes on new management, hiring Rod Fergusson as its new studio head after he originally helped clean up BioShock Infinite’s development and final release many years ago. Fergusson will oversee both BioShock 4 and the BioShock movie, and had recently announced that he was leaving Blizzard after leading Diablo 4 development for five years. Fergusson’s reputation for getting games out the door is built on serious crunch, as seen in this report about Diablo 4. Ultimately, more than 80 employees at Cloud Chamber Games were fired out of about 250 total, and the game was internally delayed yet again from its previous Q4 2026/Q1 2027 release target. Schreier further detailed the game’s decade worth of problems in that newer article, which included a switch from Unreal 4 to Unreal 5.
After previously leaking it, Bandai Namco officially revealed their latest RPG rerelease, Tales of Xillia Remastered coming on Halloween 2025 for PC, Switch, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X.
Arrowhead Studios and Microsoft announced that when Helldivers 2 launches for Xbox Series S|X on August 26th, a Halo crossover DLC with ODST weapons will release alongside it for all platforms, becoming the first main form of Halo representation on PlayStation.
Kirby Air Riders Direct: This Direct featured the core details and extended gameplay reveal of the Switch 2 exclusive Kirby Air Riders, as presented by its director Masahiro Sakurai: the game will launch on November 20th 2025 for $70, with a complete physical release and a 25GB digital version, adding King Dedede, Meta Knight, Bandanna Dee, Chef Kawasaki, Cappy, Magalor, Gooey, Waddle Doo, Susie, Knuckle Joe, and Starman as playable characters on top of the four colored Kirbys from the 2003 predecessor and previous trailer. Every character has unique stats and Special abilities and for the first time, the power to use every capture and Copy Ability just like Kirby, and the power to choose between unique Machines to ride. The original’s streamlined controls mostly return: the machines don’t need any input to move forward, just direction with the stick and speed boosts around curves with the B button, but now the Y button has been added to control your Specials.
The predecessor’s main modes, the traditional racing of Air Ride and the beloved* sandbox exploration mode City Trial, are both returning in refined and expanded forms. Air Ride now has six player races. City Trial now takes place on the large floating island of Skyah with multiple biomes, which can hold up to 16 online players, eight local wireless players, or four splitscreen players, and featuring many new competitive events inside the main world, which players vote on. The game footage features clear evidence of DLSS upscaling, which some first party Switch 2 games don’t use. The Direct ended with a promise for much more information to come, and a cinematic teaser featuring a dramatic new character.
GamesCom Opening Night Live: The presentation started with a preshow hosted by Kyle Bosman, starting with Bubsy 4D, the series’ second ever fully 3D platformer after the infamous Bubsy 3D from the 90s. It’s coming to PC, Switch and Switch 2, PS4/5, and Xbox, from Atari and Fabraz, the indie devs behind 3D platformers Demon Turf and Demon Tides. Next was Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes, a roguelike RTS coming in early 2026 to PC, developed by Alt Shift and published by Dotemu. Atari and Nightdive announced Outlaws Remaster, a rerelease of Lucasarts’ cult classic Wild West FPS built on the Star Wars Dark Forces engine, coming to all platforms on November 20th 2025. Indie dev Undercoders revealed their game DenshAttack!, a 3D action platformer about pulling Pro Skater style stunt tricks with trains. Double Fine’s Keeper made its second appearance with a quick interview. The latest licensed retro beatemup is He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Dragon Pearl of Destruction by Bitmap Bureau, coming soon to PC, Switch, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X. An animated trailer announced that the indie roguelike beatemup Absolum will launch on October 9th 2025. Indie devs Hillfort brought their narrative adventure game and survival game Long Gone, now with support from Outersloth.
The developers of Ghostrunner revealed their new first person soulslike Valor Mortis, set in a fantasy horror take on Napoleon’s invasion of Russia, coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X in 2026. Bippinbits and Kepler announced their sim game PVKK. The long gestating sci fi horror game Routine was announced to be launching in late 2025 for PC and Xbox including Game Pass. A new trailer premiered for the Chinese action RPG series Gujian, with its new entry Swords of Legends. Trucking simulator Road Kings was shown off. Bandai Namco and Sega announced that Sonic Racing Crossworlds will have Pac-Man DLC and Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac will have Sonic DLC. The first announcement of the main show was none other than Team Cherry showcasing new gameplay for Hollow Knight: Silksong and confirming that it is launching soon, before the dedicated presentation for it two days later. Then, Black Ops 7‘s gameplay reveal, which announced that it will launch on November 14th 2025, and the cinematic reveal of Lords of the Fallen 2, whose makers…suck, quite simply. FromSoft and Crunchyroll announced the anime Sekiro: No Defeat. Wargaming had two announcements: World of Tanks 2.0 will release at the beginning of September, and the brand new game Heat.
WB and TT Games announced Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, which has open world gameplay heavily inspired by the Arkham games and which adapts multiple versions of Batman multimedia, coming in 2026 to PC, Switch 2, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X. Matt Berry is in it! Warhammer 40K RTS Dawn of War 4 was announced for a 2026 release, published by Embracer Group and developed by Iron Harvest makers King Art Games, instead of original dev Relic Entertainment. Monster Hunter Wilds and Final Fantasy 14 will have a crossover DLC coming in October. Capcom premiered another trailer for Onimusha: Way of the Sword, while Daemon x Machina 2 and the FTP game Arknights Endfield also made minor reappearances. Paradox Interactive announced Europa Universalis 5. The roguelike shooter Void/Breaker was announced to be in early access now. Amazon premiered the first trailer for Fallout season 2 ahead of its December 17th premiere. Gameplay was shown for the new Indiana Jones DLC, and the Switch 2 port of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was officially announced to be coming in 2026. Deadpool VR was announced to be releasing November 18th.
Saber Interactive brought back the missing in action John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando, showcasing its gameplay for the first time, updating its launch window to Early 2026. Ron Gilbert and Micro Prose announced their brand new original game after Return to Monkey Island, a roguelike pixel action RPG called Death by Scrolling, where the screen’s endless automatic scroll is one of the biggest dangers. Anti fascist criminal investigation game The Darkest Files was showcased, with a Switch port coming soon and an extended spiel by the director to fulfill Keighley’s quota of satisfying us social justice types. FTP gacha RPG Neverness to Everness was shown. ZAUM’s previously announced espionage RPG had its brief first cinematic trailer, announcing the title Zero Parades. D-Cell and Playstack announced that their hand drawn rhythm action game Unbeatable will launch November 6th 2025. Honor of Kings World. Netflix’s Squid Game mode will start accepting user made minigames. The FTP military shooter Delta Force was shadowdropped for PS5 and Xbox Series. Ninja Gaiden 4 was announced to be launching on October 21st 2025.
NCSoft revealed their new games Cinder City, a tactical shooter MMO, and FTP time travel shooter Time Takers. Konami offered more footage for the impending Silent Hill F. Jyamma Games announced the new Dante Aligheri inspired action game, La Divina Commedia. Will it shape up next to the infamously edgy but surprisingly good 2010 Dante’s Inferno God of War clone? Bloober’s Cronos: The New Dawn and Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds 2 both made quick new appearances and the latter had upcoming story expansions confirmed. Krafton showcased and released a new free DLC, Island Getaway, for their life sim InZoi, which is also officially launching for PS5 in early 2026. Fate Trigger was announced to be releasing in Early 2026 Seven Deadly Sins Origin had a closed beta test announced. Moonlighter 2 was announced to be releasing in early access on October 23rd 2025. Vampire: the Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 was announced to be launching October 21st 2025. It is mired in new controversy on the announcement that two of the series’ main vampire clan options will be locked behind day one DLC. A new update was shown for the survival RPG Enshrouded. Microsoft announced that Age of Empires 4 will release for PS5 on November 4th 2025, including the new Dynasties of the East expansion.
The second story expansion for Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 was shown with a September 9th release date. A new massive paid expansion for Cult of the Lamb was revealed, Woolhaven coming in early 2026. The next WoW expansion’s opening cinematic premiered. The first person horror action game Project Spectrum PlayStation brought another new trailer for Ghost of Yotei, which confirmed that it will get the free multiplayer mode Legends next year. Capcom offered the second trailer for Resident Evil Requiem, which was just an early cutscene about the protagonist Grace Ashcroft losing her mother. The show closed with Black Myth Wukong developer Game Science revealing the game’s sequel Black Myth Zhong Qui with a cinematic trailer for the early in development title featuring a new protagonist.
Other announcements were made on the floor at GamesCom throughout the week, including the following. After Friday the 13th, Predator, Ghostbusters, and Killer Klowns, Illfonic revealed their latest licensed horror game: Halloween: The Game is scheduled to launch in 2026 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X, now offering more fleshed out single player support on top of the usual asymmetric multiplayer.
August 20th: After holding out for as long as it could, Sony finally announced that PS5 console prices are going up in the United States, its biggest market, with each of the three current models increasing by $50 effective immediately: the Digital-only PS5 Slim is now $500, the PS5 Slim is now $550, and the PS5 Pro is $750.
Krafton further escalated its conflict with former employees/Subnautica creators by countersuing through the Unknown Worlds studio, for alleged breach of contract and downloading company files before quitting.
Microsoft and Asus officially announced that their Xbox-branded handheld gaming PCs will launch on October 16th 2025 with the basic model costing $550 and the premium model costing $900. These prices were leaked by retailers first and as of my publishing deadline still aren’t officially announced, they could go up!
Ubisoft and developer Evil Empire shadowdrop released The Rogue Prince of Persia’s 1.0 version on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X, while announcing that it will reach Switch and Switch 2 before year’s end.
Square Enix unexpectedly shadowdropped Triangle Strategy onto PS5 and Xbox Series S|X, three and a half years after its original launch on Switch.
After vocally struggling with poor sales from their first two games, indie developer Aggro Crab’s ‘friendslop’ game Peak was announced to have sold 10 million copies after only two months of availability, as part of a larger trend of extremely successful viral multiplayer Steam games like REPO, Schedule 1, Lethal Company, and Content Warning.
August 21st: Team Cherry hosted the very long awaited Hollow Knight: Silksong Special Announcement livestream, confirming that the game will launch for all platforms on September 4th 2025. This was accompanied by an interview at Bloomberg with Jason Schreier where Team Cherry’s three core developers clarified that there is no dramatic explanation for the years of waiting, they were financially comfortable and independent so they got to just keep their heads down and enjoy doing the work without rushing. Several indie games have delayed their releases in the wake of Silksong’s sudden announcement, mostly pushed to later in September, but the aforementioned RPG Demonschool was delayed to November 19th, and the Metroidvania Aeterna Lucis was pushed into 2026 so that it could also have new console ports ready.
Bungie CEO Pete Parsons announced that he is leaving the studio after 23 years there, passing the position to Justin Truman amid recent scrutiny of Parsons’ leadership and exorbitant personal spending, and Bungie’s rapidly disappearing independence within the PlayStation corporate structure.
Sony Interactive Entertainment sold its co-ownership stake in the EVO tournament series to Nodwin Gaming, which is technically independent but still backed by the Sony parent company. This is so PlayStation can be a main sponsor for EVO, with a new contract set to last through 2028.
Developer Little Sewing Machine announced that their horror game Bye Sweet Carole will launch on October 9th 2025 for PC, Switch, PS5, and Xbox.
Embracer Group and Coffee Stain Studios announced that their hit first person factory sim game Satisfactory will release for PS5 and Xbox Series S|X on November 4th 2025, after originally launching last year.
A car importer partnered on the development of Forza Horizon 6 has seemingly leaked that the game takes place in Japan, a long requested setting for the series. After it was first teased at this year’s Xbox show, the game is rumored to be revealed soon and launched in the first half of 2026.
August 22nd: Ubisoft announced Survivors, a major new survival extraction shooter mode that is coming to The Division 2 in 2026.
August 23rd: PlayTonic Games released a new trailer for Yooka Replaylee, announcing that it will launch for PC, Switch 2, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X on October 9th 2025, with a complete/non key-card physical release confirmed for Switch 2.
August 24th: As reported by Famitsu, Japan’s National Library has ruled that it won’t be accepting Switch 2 game-key cards , even though game cartridges and discs have been preserved there since 2000. It’s a reasonable decision as long as it also applies to the handful of recent game discs that likewise have no onboard data whatsoever, just like game key cards. These discs have included Doom: The Dark Ages and several years’ worth of Call of Duty entries.
August 25th: Atari announced that it had just acquired several small IPs from Ubisoft with plans to rerelease and publish them on current platforms: platformer Grow Home and its sequel Grow Up, Child of Light, disaster game I Am Alive, and survival horror game Cold Fear. This marks further escalations for two currently pressing industry ‘storylines’: the rebooted Atari gradually muscling its way into a position of strength through acquisitions, and Ubisoft shrinking in its Tencent era to exclusively develop its biggest IPs.
Yohei Shimbori announced that is leaving Bandai Namco after serving as assistant director on Tekken 8 for the past four years. He was previously a series director for Dead or Alive at Koei Tecmo before it went on hiatus after 2019’s Dead or Alive 6.
After leaking back in January, Ubisoft officially announced the Saudi Arabia themed free DLC coming later this year for Assassins Creed Mirage after partnering with the oppressive crown prince’s PIF activities.
August 26th: Another report by Neil Long at Mobilegamer.biz discussed Microsoft’s mistreatment of its cash cow subsidiary King, the makers of Candy Crush. Those laid off at King say that they were mistreated on many levels, in ways both typical and completely atypical and haphazard: HR protected abusive leadership, performance reviews were rendered meaningless, anonymity was removed from employee feedback to chill dissent. Those fired were given illegally lowballed severance packages, causing some to move forward with legal action against their former employer. Some were abruptly rehired just weeks after being fired, while others were promoted right before they were fired. And for all the internal and external harm they’re causing, Microsoft’s strict AI mandates still aren’t even working, they’re simply being ignored as usage remains very low at King.
While actively exploring Switch 2 ports for his projects Final Fantasy 14 and 16, Yoshi P confirmed that time is running out on support for the PS4 version of the MMO.
Rec Room, the developers of the self-titled Roblox-alike, fired about half of its employees.
August 27th: Crystal Dynamics announced that it has fired an unknown number of developers who were working on the now canceled Perfect Dark reboot. CD’s sister studio Eidos Montreal was recently revealed to be codeveloping a different Microsoft game as well: alongside its early access release, Obsidian discussed their project Grounded 2 in a large Polygon interview in which it was said that the “vast majority” of Grounded 2’s developers are at Eidos and not Obsidian, Obsidian only has a supervisory leadership team.
August 28th: Both EA and Take-Two/2K teased plans for college basketball games on the same day in June, with EA winning a bidding war for a deal with the NCAA, but Take-Two is trying to move forward anyway through individual deals with colleges like UCLA. It turns out that EA is threatening to cancel its college basketball game if it can’t get a completely exclusive licensing deal like it has with Madden. Neither of these games would be ready to launch anytime soon anyway, since they were only just greenlit.
August 29th: Limited Run Games and Square Enix shadowdropped Fear Effect HD for PC, Switch, and PS4/5, remastering the innovative cult classic action game for its 25th anniversary. LRG is also developing a physical release for PS5 and Switch.
At a concert and then on social media a day later, Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone announced that the game will be receiving another major update, Update 1.7, in the future.
A whole lot of time and effort goes into making my work here possible. Please show your support however you can to help keep this going, whether that means sharing these articles wherever and to whomever there might be interest, or for those able to, donating to my Patreon dedicated specifically to these writings, which is linked here: https://www.patreon.com/lilytina
Here’s a new statement for all my readers here: as many of you already know, I am currently seeking fulltime employment in order to support my wife and family. I am dedicated to keeping Game News Roundup and my other writings here alive for as long as possible without compromising either the articles’ quality or my own quality of life, even as my schedule radically changes and free time decreases. I will find the time to keep working and streamline my workload as needed in order to keep bringing comprehensive coverage to all of you. Now more than ever, thank you for your support and inspiration to keep going.
Thank you to Marcus TAC, Katie, Brakeman, Jarathen, Sloot, Alanna, Ninjaneer, Prestidigitis, Frosst, AJ, Nemrex, Belladonna, Professor, Dashboard, Monsoon, DS, Cedric the Owl, and everyone else among them for your personal and financial support of this project. Thank you everyone for your reading!