Supermassive Games Cuts 75 — Third Round of Layoffs in Three Years

The Guildford studio behind Until Dawn and The Dark Pictures Anthology is cutting up to 75 positions, citing sustainability concerns. This follows 36 redundancies in July 2025 and an earlier round in February 2024 — and comes two months after the CEO quietly stepped down. Three waves of cuts at a studio that isn't even working on its own biggest IP anymore is a grim trajectory.

Game Developer →

An id Software Dev Says Layoff Cycles Are Producing Worse Games — and He's Still a Microsoft Employee

Chris Hays of id Software argues that mass layoffs don't just reduce headcount, they destroy the institutional knowledge and motivation that make good games possible. The pointed part: he's saying this while still on Microsoft's payroll, making it one of the more candid internal critiques the industry has heard in a while. His argument — that owning great IP means nothing if you keep gutting the people who understand it — is worth sitting with.

PC Gamer →

Walmart-Backed Gaming Publication Restart.run Shuts Down Editorial Team

Restart.run, a gaming news site launched in December 2024 with Walmart funding, has laid off its editorial team. The site was positioned as 'independent gaming news powered by Walmart' — a pitch that was always going to be a hard sell — and it has now folded less than two years after launch. Another reminder that corporate-funded editorial experiments in games media tend to end the same way.

Modern Retail →

Gamescom Dev Survey: 47% of Developers Expect AI to Have the Biggest Impact on Production Over the Next Three Years

The 2026 Gamescom Dev Speaker Survey polled 100 industry professionals, and nearly half flagged AI-assisted development as the single biggest force reshaping game production — ahead of hardware costs at 28%. Of those, 34% specifically see AI's value in coding and production workflows. With 83% expecting AI to affect team structure or productivity in some way, the conversation has shifted from 'if' to 'how fast'.

GamesBeat →

AI Is Quietly Eliminating Junior Roles — Turkey's Dev Scene Is the Case Study

A Windows Central analysis uses Turkey's once-booming games development sector as a lens on a global pattern: AI tools are compressing the bottom of the talent ladder, cutting off the entry-level roles that have traditionally been how developers build careers. When junior positions disappear, the pipeline for senior talent dries up too — a problem that plays out over years, not quarters.

Windows Central →

Panache Digital Is Still Using AI on 1666: Amsterdam — 'Less and Less', But Still

Patrice Désilets's studio has addressed the controversy around AI tool use on 1666: Amsterdam by saying it's scaling back but not stopping. The studio's position — essentially 'we live in a world full of AI, let's be honest' — won't satisfy critics, but it's at least a direct answer rather than corporate deflection. How much AI use ends up in the shipped product remains the real question.

Eurogamer →

Saber Interactive Allegedly Replaced Its Lead Writer With ChatGPT Mid-Development — and Didn't Disclose It on Steam

A former lead writer at Saber Interactive claims the studio swapped them out for ChatGPT partway through a project, with no disclosure on the game's Steam page — which Valve's own policy requires for generative AI used in shipped content. Whether Valve enforces that policy consistently is the question the industry keeps not answering.

GamesRadar+ →

Google DeepMind's Genie 3 Generates Photorealistic, Explorable Environments From Text

DeepMind has released Genie 3, a world model that turns plain text descriptions into real-time-explorable photorealistic environments. The jump from Genie 2 to 3 in visual fidelity and interactivity is significant — and the game-dev implications for rapid prototyping and environment blockout are obvious, even if a production pipeline is still some distance away.

Google DeepMind →

Unreal Engine 6 Targets 2028 — Live-Service Development Is the Pitch

Epic's next major engine version is confirmed for 2028, with live-service game development as a stated focus. Rocket League is already being used as the first test case, which makes sense given Epic's ownership. Two years is a long runway, but studios planning multi-year projects are already making engine decisions now.

TechSpot →

August Free GameDev Asset Round-Up: Unreal Fab Giveaway #2, Unity Assets, and DragonRuby

GameFromScratch has compiled the second August batch of free game development assets, covering Unreal Engine's Fab marketplace giveaway, Unity assets, and content for the DragonRuby engine. Routine but genuinely useful for smaller studios and solo developers watching their tooling budget.

GameFromScratch →

God of War Greek Trilogy Remake Confirmed — Santa Monica Studio, Early Development

Sony's Santa Monica Studio has confirmed a remake of the original God of War Greek trilogy, with original Kratos voice actor TC Carson making the announcement during February's PlayStation State of Play. The project is described as 'very early development', which means it's probably years away, but confirming it now sets expectations and protects the brand while the studio works on whatever comes next.

GamesRadar+ →

Big Walk Sells 1 Million Copies — Bigger Than Untitled Goose Game

The co-op open-world puzzler Big Walk has crossed 1 million copies sold, making it a larger hit than the genre-defining Untitled Goose Game. That's a meaningful commercial benchmark for an indie title, and another data point suggesting co-op puzzle games have a reliable audience when the concept is strong enough.

PC Gamer →

Horizon Hunters Gathering Announced — New Co-Op Action Game in the Horizon Universe

Sony has announced Horizon Hunters Gathering, a co-op action game set in Guerrilla's Horizon world. Details are thin, but the co-op framing suggests Sony is trying to expand the IP beyond its single-player comfort zone. Whether Guerrilla is developing it or handing it to a support studio matters a lot for how to read this.

GamesRadar+ →

This Week in Releases: August 13 Is the Busiest Day of the Week

Week 33 of August 2026 is front-loaded, with August 13 shaping up as the most packed single day of new releases. The slate includes a high-school music chaos game that sounds like it's either going to be beloved or completely ignored.

DLCompare →

EA's $55 Billion Take-Private Has Closed — and the Debt Is Already the Story

The $55 billion take-private buyout of Electronic Arts closed on 4 August 2026, and the leveraged structure means EA is now carrying significant debt obligations against future game revenue. Previous issues have covered the deal mechanics; the live question now is which studios and franchises the new owners consider expendable versus essential as they start servicing that debt.

Inverse →

India's Games Market Breaks $1 Billion for the First Time — Mobile Is Driving It

India has crossed the $1 billion games market threshold for the first time, according to Niko Partners, with mobile and UGC platforms like Roblox leading the growth. The market has been 'about to arrive' for years; now it actually has, and the audience demographics skew young and digitally native. Publishers who ignored India for the last decade are going to have to catch up fast.

Niko Partners →

Gamescom 2026 Fully Integrates the Developer Conference Track — 'Gamescom Dev' Is Now Part of the Main Brand

Gamescom has formally merged what was previously the Devcom Developer Conference into the main Gamescom brand as 'Gamescom dev', running 23–25 August ahead of the consumer show floor. The structural change is partly cosmetic, but consolidating the developer and consumer tracks under one brand reflects where the event wants to position itself internationally.

Inven Global →

COREBLAZER Game Fest Builds a Global Stage for Indie Developers — Epic Games Store's Portfolio Director Among Speakers

COREBLAZER Game Fest has announced a speaker lineup that includes Kyle Billings, Epic Games Store's Director of Portfolio Strategy, alongside developers from Pengonauts, Deep Field Games, and others. An indie-focused event with direct access to platform gatekeepers is more valuable than a general conference — if the sessions are substantive rather than promotional.

Game Developer →