The Russian company Game Art Pioneers has announced a complete restart of the development of DISTORTION, a role-playing game that had previously been projected to cost over $100 million. The reason for the project’s reconsideration was the team’s lack of a definitive vision for what the game should be.

The number of games released on Steam through the Early Access program continues to rise, and for many studios, such a launch has already become comparable in significance to a full release. According to SteamDB, by mid-October 2026, 2,924 games were released in Early Access on the Valve platform — 18% more than in 2025 and 60% more than in 2020.

Epic Games intends to modify the Unreal Engine licensing agreement to lift restrictions on AI training using materials created with the engine and MetaHuman technology. This was announced by the company’s CEO, Tim Sweeney. Game developers, however, will be able to independently decide whether to permit such use of their content.

Discord announced that starting mid-December, messages from some large public servers will become accessible for web search. This applies only to servers in the Discoverable Servers category, which includes individual public communities with a thousand or more users.

The developer of Needle in a Haystack Simulator, Nas Nakarus, has introduced a humorous mode called Find the Original Game, which challenges players to locate the original game among numerous copies. This mode is the developer’s response to the emergence of a large number of similar projects.

The initiative called “Casino in the Children’s Room” aims to shift the focus in discussions about young people’s digital habits from screen time duration to the content of games and the mechanics used in them.

In the Sony-owned studio Sucker Punch Productions, known for Ghost of Tsushima and Ghost of Yōtei, a wave of layoffs has occurred. According to media reports, 24 people—approximately one-tenth of the team—lost their jobs. These layoffs happened amid the studio transitioning to its next project.

Microsoft has extended consultations about the future of Arkane Lyon, the French studio known for Dishonored and Deathloop, by a month. Initially, the process was expected to conclude by November 13, but the new tentative deadline is December 13. If a solution is not found, the studio faces closure and 217 employees risk losing their jobs.

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has once again criticized Steam’s requirements to disclose information about the use of generative AI in games. In his opinion, such practices could negatively impact the sales of their projects.

Microsoft has launched a voluntary layoff program with compensation. The offer covers roughly 60,000 people, or 27% of the corporation’s employees. According to Reuters, the Xbox division is among the departments participating in the program.

Valve announced the full launch of Personal Calendar — a tool that recommends upcoming and recently released Steam games to users based on their interests. The company also published detailed guidelines for projects to appear on the calendar.

The British studio Auroch Digital announced a restructuring, under which about 25% of the staff may be laid off. The decision was made 12 days after the release of Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 and shortly before the studio’s next game, Warhammer Survivors, is set to launch.

The cumulative revenue from the Call of Duty series since its inception in 2003 has surpassed $40 billion. Asha Sharma, head of Xbox, announced this on October 26 while commenting on the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4.

Last week, on October 15–16, the WN Conference was held in the capital of Armenia. The event was supported by App2Top and gathered 410 representatives of the gaming industry from 211 companies. Here’s how it all went down and what participants think about the conference.

It was developed by just one person using AI.

The CEO of New Blood Interactive, Dave Oshry, believes that the term “immersive sim” is not ideal for promoting games. In his opinion, developers would benefit from using more familiar genre labels that resonate with a broader audience, such as RPG or stealth.

Arrowhead Game Studios has no plans to develop Helldivers 3. In an interview with Rock Paper Shotgun, the studio’s creative director Johan Pilestedt explained that the main issue with a potential sequel would be the competition with the already existing Helldivers 2.

Users of Claude Opus 5.5 have started to complain that the service is increasingly refusing to perform tasks related to reverse engineering software and games. The first such complaints appeared on October 21st.

The number of indie games that managed to sell at least 500,000 copies within the first month increased from 13 to 33 over the year. This is according to a study by Sensor Tower, prepared for GamesIndustry.biz. Analysts note that the growth was driven not only by cooperative friendslop games but also by original projects from other genres.