Criterion, a legendary UK development studio, is going through something of a re-brand. Its legacy is built upon a foundation of classics, Burnout Paradise and Star Wars: Battlefront to name but a few. However these days, it now finds itself one of many Battlefield Studios, a collective of separate studios all collaborating on EA's premier military shooter.
Hello and welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little about the games we've been playing. This week, everyone's hot again. Nice of you to notice, Bertie. Kelsey's getting into embroidery with Silksong providing artistic inspiration; Bertie's banging on about the time system in The Blood of Dawnwalker; Marie's got a crush on Death; and Matt thinks he's found an ingenious bit of fourth-wall breaking in a game.
Robert Yang, the award-winning designer behind the likes of The Tearoom and Rinse and Repeat, is battling increasingly restrictive rules adopted by digital storefronts to launch an "ongoing re-remaster" compilation of his short experimental games. It's called Radiator Forever and is available now for free - although it might take a bit of hunting to find it.
Valve's PC storefront Steam continues to go from strength to strength. In the first half of 2026, it recorded its highest-ever results, generating an enormous $11.1bn in revenue, which is more than it made during the game-heavy end of last year, and considerably more than it made during the first half of 2025.
Few people know more about helping run a successful console business than Shawn Layden. He was there at Sony when the PlayStation dream was first dreamt, and over the course of three decades he helped realise it and shape it. He was there for PlayStation 1, 2, 3, and 4. He helped lead the Japanese side of the business, the American side of the business, the European side of the business. By the time he left in 2019, Layden was overseeing the company's 13-strong roster of first-party studios. He knew the console business inside out.
Bethesda Game Studios union workers have announced plans to protest the recent mass layoffs impacting Microsoft's Xbox division, telling members, "The company wants us to accept this as a done deal and quietly disappear. We won't let that happen."
Last night Pokémon Go celebrated its 10th anniversary by fulfilling the final promise of the game's original trailer: giving players the chance to battle Mewtwo in Times Square.
The remake of Assassin's Creed Black Flag, Resynced, is off to a flying start. Before it even launched, the game was already on track to out-perform,Assassin's Creed Shadows, pulling in "roughly $14m in gross revenue" for publisher Ubisoft. Not bad!
After spearheading a restructuring of Xbox that resulted in 3200 job losses, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has been asked to be an advisor to the US Federal Reserve for Productivity and Jobs, where she will seemingly lead a task force related to, ironically, employment.
Following the poor commercial performance of 2024's Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Dragon Age creator David Gaider has said he believes developer BioWare's beloved fantasy RPG series is likely dead. But if some twist of fate ever meant he had the opportunity to work on a new one - despite no longer being at BioWare - he'd be interested in taking it in a "dark and dangerous" direction, and do with it "things that will make people upset".
Destiny 2 developer Bungie surprised fans earlier this week with something of a farewell gift. The developer posted a code on X that players can redeem on Bungienet to claim a free emblem.
Earlier this month, Sony announced that it's ending manufacturing of physical PlayStation discs beginning January 2028. The shocking decision means future releases, both from Sony Interactive Entertainment and every other publisher on the planet, will only be available in digital formats.
The impact of this week's massive wave of Xbox layoffs on individual projects and teams is starting to become clear. The latest revelation comes from multiple staff at Bethesda, who have told IGN they expect a "substantial and cascading effect" on the long in-development Elder Scrolls 6.
A director at Obsidian Entertainment has shared their thoughts about the "extremely difficult week" at the studio, stressing how hard it's been to see "a bunch of cold take artists coming out of the woodwork" and "spouting off" about "what Obsidian is or what it isn't".
John Carmack, the co-founder of legendary Doom and Quake developer id Software, has shared his thoughts on the reported "bloodbath" of layoffs at his former studio, following Xbox's devastating "restructuring".
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