#game-development

#game-development

Last year's Game Awards featured the first look at The Witcher 4, which is now nominated for most-anticipated game at The Game Awards this year. But if you were hoping to catch a fresh glimpse at The Witcher 4 at the ceremony than you're going to be disappointed. CD Projekt Red co-CEO Michał Nowakowski has confirmed that the company isn't bringing any new to The Game Awards this year.

After previously working with Bandai Namco's studio in Singapore on Splatoon 3, Nintendo has revealed that a deal has been struck to bring that developer in-house. Nintendo made the announcement online, which notes that it will own 80% of Bandai Namco Studios Singapore by April 2026 per its agreement with Bandai Namco. The remaining 20% the Singapore studio will be purchased at a later date,

Last year's Beyond Good & Evil 20th Anniversary Edition set the stage for the prequel story by adding a side quest that allowed the main character, Jade, to learn about the people and creatures who raised her when she lived among a pirate crew while she was a child. However, it doesn't appear that the sequel will address the post-credits cliffhanger from the original game.

Yes, Destiny 3 is in extremely early development," said Colony Deaks. "Some of you may have seen a tweet early this afternoon that mentioned that. We have been sitting on the info for a few weeks now and wanted to wait to talk about this seeing as it is in such an early state, and it just sucks to see others post about it carelessly for free internet points. We plan to share more info in the coming months as we wait on the larger scale things to develop and take shape. Sit tight.

"We are dabbling in using AI," Houser said, "but the truth is a lot of it's not as useful as some of the companies would have you believe."

Not every delay is a disappointment. In the release-driven world of video games, players naturally get bummed out when news breaks that a highly anticipated game (looking at you) gets pushed a few months. But as Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto said, "a delayed game is eventually good, a rushed game is forever bad." And while the jury is out on whether or not he actually said this, there's no denying that a delayed game is among his very best.

EA Sports has announced that its F1 racing series is undergoing a "strategic reset" and will skip a new release in 2026 before returning in 2027 for a "new and more expansive F1 experience." In lieu of a brand-new release for F1 in 2026, EA Sports and developer Codemasters are releasing a paid expansion for F1 25 that includes new cars, teams, drivers, and more.

By all appearances, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 features a not insignificant amount of AI-generated art, Kotaku reports. The game's over 680 Calling Cards - collectible backgrounds earned through in-game achievements or purchases - appear to be the main offenders, featuring art that imitates the knockoff animation style of ChatGPT. While it's hard to authoritatively claim that Studio Ghibli-inspired illustrations are a smoking gun, the Calling Cards players have spotted do at the very least seem unpolished for a splashy $70 game.

CD Projekt Red co-CEO Adam Badowski told PC Gamer that the option to romance Triss was added late in the game. Until then, the team had been focusing on Geralt's relationship with Yennefer. But adding Triss back into Geralt's heart gave the game more personality . "[The romance with Triss] wasn't [there] from the beginning," recalled Badowski. "But at some point we understood that this lack of conflict, personal conflict... There was a lack of something... This decision was made pretty late, but it was great. It was a great decision."

Today we've made the difficult but necessary decision to reorganize Crystal Dynamics' studios and teams. As a result, we've parted ways with just under 30 team members across various departments and projects as we restructure the company and business for our next generation. Crystal deeply thanks all of those impacted for their incredible talent, hard work, and dedication, which helped shape the studio in so many ways. We are committed to offering our fullest resources and support to you during this transition.

The first game from the development team is Prologue: Go Wayback, a single-player survival roguelike that tasks you with navigating worlds generated through machine-learning technology. It'll be available in early access starting November 20. Greene has stated in the past that he expects players to hate the game at first. The second planned game from the studio "aims to test limited multiplayer, maybe up to 100 versus 100 players," Greene told Eurogamer.

They came to me and said, 'We have to stop.' I do not exactly remember the reason--probably the team was not able to find the game. It was a great concept, great idea, but you know, the gameplay didn't really come to be,

Halo Infinite's next major update, Operation: Infinite, will be the last major update the sci-fi shooter receives, as confirmed by Halo Studios (formerly 343 Industries) in a new blog post.

As part of Nintendo's latest earnings briefing, the company said it is open to spending some of its cash reserves on a variety of business functions, including buying game developers. Nintendo said it wants to spend money to invest in strengthening its game development pipeline, and this includes acquiring companies to make them subsidiaries. Nintendo historically does not buy many companies, but it's something the company would consider under the right conditions.

Research firm Ampere Analysis tracked data from January 2024 to September 2025, looking at 42 re-releases (specifically, 15 remakes and 27 remasters). These releases accumulated 72.4 million players across Xbox, PlayStation, and Steam, with consumers spending $1.4 billion from purchasing these games and related in-game monetisation. Overall, the average remake produced 2.2 times the amount of consumer spending as remasters did during that time frame.

The spinoff of a popular first-person RPG series gets handed off to a new studio that's never made a first-person game before. Envisioned as an expansion, it grows into a full game, though its developer has only 18 months to finish it. It launches with a host of bugs that make it frustrating if not unplayable for large parts of its audience. That might sound like a nightmare, but instead, it ended up as a nearly universally beloved entry in the series,

The creativity of the teams is, in my mind, the most important thing and the thing that we need to protect and foster,

Halo fans are eagerly awaiting the Halo World Championships later this week, where new details about the next Halo game will be revealed. Now, a new report suggests that there are actually two Halo games coming in 2026 for the franchise's 25th anniversary, and one of those titles may be a live-service game. According to Rebs Gaming, Halo Studios is working on "a live-service long-term updating [Halo] multiplayer game," before adding, "Its live-service component is like Fortnite."

This time, sporting a bit of a new look in a recent interview, Kojima has said he sees AI as a boon that can help cut out what he describes as "tedious" tasks, helping developers to lower costs and produce games faster. In an interview with Wired Japan ( h/t Dexerto), Kojima described "a future where [he stays] one step ahead; creating together with AI,"

That new project? A competitive multiplayer game, a markedly new direction for Quantic Dream who usually specialises in single-player, narrative-focused games. Titled Spellcasters Chronices, this new adventure for the team is a 3v3 action-strategy game, but so far the Youtube comments have not been kind to it. Mostly, they seem concerned that this is going to be an attempt to chase the live-service trend and that it will be dead-on-arrival.

Of course, development of Star Wars: Eclipse continues, and we are eager to share more with you in the future,

"There's long stretches of time between game releases, and you lose touch with the players, people lose touch with what you're up to--and they generally cost a lot more, the longer they take," he said. Part of what Relic will look to do in the future is "get to market more frequently," and that doesn't mean the company wants to lower the quality bar and simply ship things faster for the sake of it. Already, the studio has improved how fast it can prototype new ideas, Dowdeswell said, noting that staffers can now get a prototype up and running in four weeks.

The studio shared the announcement on its official site, and noted that Sackbird is self-funded "for multiple years" without the aid of outside investors. That will allow the team to retain full creative control of their own games. "After years in AAA, we wanted the freedom to take smart risks without waiting for a greenlight or chasing quarterly targets, said Sackbird Studios chief creative officer David Worley in a statement. "We're fully employee-owned and funded, which means we only answer to people who are passionate about games."

... it's my last game. It just is.

After an incredible journey, my time at Xbox has come to a close with the wind-down of Perfect Dark and The Initiative. I couldn't be prouder of the talented and passionate team I had the privilege assemble and lead,