Video games, esports, gaming industry, and interactive entertainment
A labour dispute between Capcom and SAG-AFTRA has left the voice cast of Mega Man: Dual Override in limbo, with the union banning its members from working on the 2027 game.
Sophia Vargas 
Pearl Abyss's highly anticipated RPG gets a clean bill of health on PS5 Pro but draws fire over last-minute DRM reveal on Steam, raising familiar concerns about transparency and performance.
Tom Whitfield 
In a lengthy podcast interview, former Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan took aim at artificial intelligence hype in game development, arguing that no amount of computing power can replicate human creativity.
Ella Sullivan 
Forza Horizon 6's Tokyo City is so large and detailed that Playground Games assigned a dedicated development team just to build it, reflecting the studio's broader expansion as the game approaches May release.
Oliver Pemberton 
Sandfall Interactive's Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 leads the 2026 BAFTA Games Awards with 12 nominations, the most ever for a debut game. The ceremony takes place April 17.
Zara Mitchell 
Crimson Desert will launch with Denuvo DRM on Steam, announced just seven days before release. The timing has angered pre-order customers and reignited debate over anti-piracy software's cost to legitimately paying players.
Tom Whitfield 
Embark Studios' Arc Raiders is now a hit, but early in development, nobody at the studio could even agree on what the game was supposed to be.
Oliver Pemberton 
An analyst report predicts PC gaming revenue will grow faster than consoles through 2028, though industry forecasts for the sector remain contested.
Sophia Vargas 
Phil Spencer has retired after nearly four decades at Microsoft, leaving Xbox in a complicated position. The new leadership promises change, but fundamental problems remain.
Jake Nguyen 
European game ratings are being revamped to account for loot boxes, battle passes, and other interactive features that were previously ignored. EA's popular FC series will likely jump from age 3 to age 16.
Kate Morrison 
When AdHoc Studio struggled to find its artistic voice before pitching Dispatch, a desperate search on ArtStation led them to an artist whose work would define one of 2025's biggest games.
James Callahan 
A Finnish indie horror game marketed as accessible through one-handed mouse controls instead becomes a vehicle for deeply unsettling body horror gameplay.
Mitchell Tan 
Xbox has confirmed Project Moorcroft, a 2022 initiative to deliver curated game demos through Game Pass, will never launch. The abandoned scheme reflects a wider pattern of unfulfilled promises under departing leadership.
Jake Nguyen 
Europe's PEGI ratings board is implementing sweeping changes to how it classifies games, automatically assigning higher age ratings to titles with loot boxes, paid battle passes, and daily login mechanics.
Oliver Pemberton 
In a candid interview, NetEase's creative leadership addresses persistent community concerns about overpowered heroes, suggestive character skins, and the studio's approach to game balance.
Sophia Vargas 
The developer of Phasmophobia says its 1.0 launch remains on track for 2026 despite launching a new publishing division to support indie developers.
Andrew Marsh 
Microsoft's new Zstandard compression codec and Game Asset Conditioning Library promise to tackle the visual nuisance of texture pop-in by dramatically speeding up how games stream graphics assets from NVMe drives.
Sophia Vargas 
AMD announced FSR Diamond, an AI-enhanced upscaling technology for the next-generation Xbox. The catch: it may only work on new RDNA 5 graphics cards, leaving millions of gamers with older hardware behind.
Jake Nguyen 
European gaming regulators are dramatically raising age ratings for games with loot boxes and manipulative monetisation mechanics, a move that could reshape how major publishers like EA approach their biggest markets.
Mitchell Tan 
In a new podcast interview, WoW's legendary designer Jeff Kaplan says the Horde/Alliance faction split was so contested it remained undecided for much of the game's development.
Zara Mitchell