The Last of Us Online Was Around '80%' Complete when Naughty Dog Canceled It
The Last of Us Online, a multiplayer spin‑off from Naughty Dog, was about 80 percent complete when the studio cancelled it in late 2023. Director Vinit Agarwal, who spent seven years on the project, learned of the decision just a day before it was announced publicly. The shutdown stemmed from a strategic shift to prioritize the studio’s core single‑player sequel over an experimental live‑service title. The move mirrors Sony’s broader retrenchment from ambitious multiplayer ventures amid waning post‑pandemic demand.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Appears to Earn an Estimated $30,000 on Steam per Negative Review
GameDiscoverCo released an April‑Fool’s data portal that calculates Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 earns an estimated $30,000 for each negative Steam review. The metric, dubbed “Revenue Per Negative Review,” compares revenue against reviews below a 50 percent rating and places Black Ops 7 ahead...
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Krafton, Flyquest, Arbitrum Invest $3.5M in Psychedelic Games' MOBA Golden Tides
Psychedelic Games secured a $3.5 million funding round from PUBG publisher Krafton, esports org FlyQuest, and Arbitrum Gaming Ventures to develop its new MOBA, Golden Tides. The studio deliberately avoided traditional venture capital, opting for strategic partners that can contribute operational...
'More Time Innovating; Less Time Writing Code:' Arc Raiders Publisher Nexon Believes AI Will Liberate Its Workforce
Nexon unveiled Mono Lake, an end‑to‑end AI platform trained on billions of player sessions, to inject contextual intelligence into every development decision. CEO Junghun Lee said the system will free engineers from routine coding, letting them focus on creative problem‑solving....
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Donkey Kong Bananza Has a Big-Brained Approach to Asset Recycling
Nintendo’s GDC 2026 presentation unveiled a Maya‑to‑Houdini pipeline that lets developers convert existing 3D models into runtime‑voxelized, destructible terrain. Programmer Tatsuya Kurihara demonstrated the system using a Void Kong head sculpted as a voxel shrine, confirming the tool supports both purpose‑built...
Important Lessons From Running a Successful Video Game Crowdfunding Campaign
At GDC Festival of Gaming 2026, Playable Worlds’ vice‑president Niina Fujioka detailed how their Kickstarter campaign for the MMORPG *Stars Reach* exceeded its goal by over four times. The success stemmed from a story‑focused trailer, a modest funding target, and...
Capcom Says It Will Use Generative AI to Speed up Production
Capcom announced it will actively employ generative AI to accelerate game development while explicitly refusing to ship AI‑generated assets in final products. The company is testing the technology across graphics, sound and programming, leveraging models such as Gemini Pro, Gemini Flash and...
Pentiment Director: Experimenting During a Game's Production Is 'Extremely Risky'
Josh Sawyer, director of Obsidian’s indie title *Pentiment*, warned that experimenting during the production phase is extremely risky and can add six months to a year and a half to a game’s schedule. He emphasized keeping big‑picture experimentation confined to...
Two More Leadership Exits Take Place at Xbox
Xbox announced the departures of two senior leaders: Lori Wright, the vice‑president of partnerships, business development and marketing, and Haiyan Zhang, general manager of gaming AI. Their exits come just weeks after Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer retired and Xbox...
To Make Video Games for Gen Z, Be Authentic
Sharon Tal Yguado of Astrid Entertainment warned that studios aren’t losing Gen Z—they’re simply engaging with games differently. The younger cohort favors social, sandbox‑style titles like Roblox and Fortnite over high‑priced AAA releases, and they consume gaming content on TikTok and...
Starbreeze Lands New Partner to Adapt Payday Series for Film and TV
Starbreeze Entertainment announced a partnership with VICE Studios to develop film and television adaptations of its Payday franchise. The deal follows an earlier, now‑unclear collaboration with Stockholm Syndrome and retains full IP ownership for Starbreeze. While Payday 3 underperformed, Payday 2 outshone...
'Text Is Evil:' How Making Peak Changed Indie Studio Aggro Crab
Indie co‑op Peak, built in roughly four weeks of intensive iteration, sold millions of copies and generated over $2 million in revenue on a sub‑$200k budget. Studio head Nick Kaman said the project forced Aggro Crab to rethink its development culture, adopting...
How Voxels Enabled a Juicy Gameplay Loop in Donkey Kong Bananza
Nintendo’s Donkey Kong: Bananza showcases a new gameplay loop built around destructible voxel environments, some reaching 347,070,464 voxels. By letting players pick up terrain pieces as weapons, combat directly creates pathways to hidden areas, merging fighting and exploration. The GDC...
Using Choreography to Enhance Battlefield 6's Game Feel
At GDC Festival of Gaming 2026, DICE designer Jac Carlsson revealed that his background in dance choreography shaped Battlefield 6’s visual feedback and game feel. The team introduced a Kinesthetic Combat System to tighten movement, aiming, and firing latency, aiming to...
Games for Change Research Director Unveils Training Program for Community-Facing Professionals
Games for Change research director Dr. Rachel Kowert announced the DLC Leadership Program, an evidence‑based certification for digital community leaders in gaming. The program, launching a pilot in May 2026 and a public rollout summer 2026, targets moderators, community managers,...
The Key to a Great Video Game Performance? Team Trust.
At GDC Festival of Games 2026, video‑game actors Debra Wilson and Jane Perry and performance directors Tom Keegan and Damien Goodwin emphasized that trust is the cornerstone of a great in‑game performance. They explained that performance directors act as a bridge, marking...
Valve Says 5,863 Titles Earned over $100,000 on Steam in 2025
Valve disclosed that 5,863 Steam titles earned over $100,000 in 2025, more than double the 3,000 games that reached the same threshold in 2020. The platform also reported record user activity, with 42 million peak concurrent users and 13.9 million in‑game concurrent...
Google Cloud's Vision for AI in the Game Industry
Jack Buser, speaking at GDC’s Luminaries series, outlined Google Cloud’s vision of a “Living Game” where AI augments development, business strategy, and player experiences. He highlighted how AI can streamline pre‑production, unify player data for hyper‑personalized marketing, and power smart...
Fortnite Leaker Actually Worked for Epic Games, According to New Lawsuit
Epic Games filed a lawsuit in North Carolina against former contractor Hayden Cohen, known as “AdiraFNInfo,” accusing him of leaking unreleased Fortnite content. Cohen allegedly breached a September 2025 NDA by posting confidential details about upcoming collaborations with brands such...
Ghost of Yotei Star: 'Workers Need More Protections' In Game Development
At DICE 2026, Ghost of Yotei lead actor Erika Ishii accepted the Outstanding Achievement in Character award and used the platform to demand fair pay, better treatment, and stronger protections for game‑development workers. Ishii highlighted the industry’s “Wild West” labor environment, noting...
Blue Prince's Somber Tone Was Inspired by Myst, Says Creator
Blue Prince, the award‑winning indie puzzle title, captured two 2026 DICE Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Game Design and Independent Game. Creator Tonda Ros revealed that the game’s somber, atmospheric tone was directly inspired by Cyan’s classic adventure Myst. The...
Book Excerpt: The Game Narrative Kaleidoscope
Jon Ingold’s new anthology, The Game Narrative Kaleidoscope, compiles essays from over 150 game writers spanning indie to AAA studios. The project originated from a speculative call that attracted more than 300 responses in two days, resulting in a curated...
Clair Obscur Writer Shares Production Advice that Could Improve Your Game's Story
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s writer Jennifer Svedberg‑Yen explained at DICE 2026 that effective storytelling hinges on matching information delivery to each team member’s preferred style. She highlighted how the art director needed only concise keywords, while environment artists required detailed suggestions. By framing...
Hades Devs: Accidentally Inventing a Subgenre Was 'Surreal'
Supergiant Games’ Greg Kasavin and Amir Rao reflected on Hades unintentionally spawning a new roguelike subgenre at the 2026 DICE Awards. Hades sold over a million copies and popularized a run‑based storytelling loop that indie titles like Spiritfall, Curse of...
UK Advertising Regulator Issues Enforcement Notice Targeting Loot Boxes
The UK Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) have issued an Enforcement Notice demanding clear loot‑box disclosure on Google Play and Apple App Store listings. Developers, publishers and advertisers have three months to amend descriptions,...
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Ex-Radical Entertainment, Hothead Games Devs Form New Studio
Veteran developers from the defunct Radical Entertainment and Hothead Games have launched New Radical Games, with Ian Wilkinson as CEO and Tim Bennison as COO. Wilkinson, a co‑founder of Radical, sold the studio to Vivendi and later joined Hothead, while Bennison...
How a Surge in Memory Prices Will Affect the Game Industry
A rapid AI‑driven memory boom has pushed DRAM prices up nearly 100% in 2025 and an additional 60% in early 2026, while NAND storage rose 70% in the same period. The surge squeezes console hardware margins, prompting platform holders to...
Todd Howard Says Bethesda Isn't 'Fully Ignoring' AI
Bethesda game director Todd Howard said the studio is not ignoring AI but is using it only for data‑driven tasks, not for creative content. He described AI as an analytical tool to speed up big‑data and player‑behavior analysis while preserving...
Lyrical Games Announces Full-Financing Publishing Deal with The Chinese Room
Lyrical Games announced a full‑financing publishing agreement with The Chinese Room, the studio behind Still Wakes The Deep and Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2. The deal funds development, offers strategic production support and go‑to‑market planning while preserving the studio’s creative autonomy and...
Outgoing Sucker Punch Boss Hopes Studio Can Make Games in 'Shorter Periods of Time'
Outgoing co‑founder Brian Fleming says Sucker Punch wants to shrink its development cycles from roughly five years to four. The studio’s recent hit, Ghost of Yotei, outperformed its predecessor and won a DICE award, proving the model can still deliver commercial...
Ubisoft Says Creative House Leadership Will Include 'Respected' External Hires
Ubisoft announced the creation of five internal Creative Houses to centralise its flagship franchises, with Vantage Studios already backed by Tencent for €1.16 billion. The company will appoint external industry veterans to lead these houses starting in March, aiming to accelerate...
Big Changes at Remedy, Arc Raiders Achieves 'Blockbuster' Status, and Mewgenics Recoups Dev Costs in Three Hours - Patch Notes...
The latest Patch Notes roundup highlights three headline developments: indie rogue‑like Mewgenics recouped its development budget within three hours and sold half a million copies in 36 hours; Nexon’s Arc Raiders achieved “blockbuster” status with 14 million units sold and a peak...
10 Chambers Co-Founder Departs After a Decade
Hjalmar Vikström, co‑founder and chief development officer of 10 Chambers, announced his departure after ten years leading the studio that created the cooperative horror shooter GTFO. He guided the team from a nine‑person early‑access effort to the full 1.0 release in...
