That is an unusual path for community work. A fan team’s campaign now sits inside a licensed release from Nightdive Studios, Eidos-Montréal and Atari. The Black Parade itself came out in 2023 as a mod. The new campaign will lean into Thief’s horror side, much as The Black Parade did, PC Gamer reported.

A fan team’s campaign joins the official Thief story

The remaster runs on Nightdive’s KEX Engine. Its content covers the original game’s 12 missions, plus three Thief Gold missions that bring five new enemy types. Visuals reach up to 4K at 120fps.

Mod support is part of the package too. The remaster runs player-made mods, The Black Parade among them. Players who already know the fan team’s earlier work can run it alongside the new official campaign.

The project was revealed on June 7 at the PC Gaming Show 2026. At the time, Nightdive gave only a winter 2026 window. In that announcement, Nightdive CEO Stephen Kick argued that Thief did more than introduce stealth mechanics and actually defined them.

Platform coverage is wide. The remaster is coming to PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S with Xbox Play Anywhere, Switch and Switch 2. On PC, it is listed for Steam, Epic Games Store and GOG.

Editions range from $30 digital to a $70 big box

The Standard Digital Edition costs $30. Stepping up to the $35 Digital Deluxe Edition adds the soundtrack and an art book. Buyers of that version also get a sample of a forthcoming novelization of Thief: The Dark Project.

Physical pre-orders opened with the November 2 announcement in three versions: Standard, Steelbook and Deluxe Trapezoid. The Steelbook Edition is $40. The $70 Deluxe Trapezoid Edition adds a Remaster Diary. It comes in a recreation of the original 1998 trapezoid-shaped big box.

The calendar matters as well. Thief will arrive once Grand Theft Auto VI’s launch window has passed, rather than going head to head with it.

The post Thief remaster dated for December 3 with a fan-made campaign that becomes official canon appeared first on The Escapist.

A studio that avoided layoffs for 24 years now has two

CEO Jesse Schell described the August round as rebalancing. It was the first layoff in the studio’s 24 years. It left Schell Games with roughly 125 staff. Those earlier cuts reached marketing, art, design and visual effects.

The October round is far larger. It takes a big bite out of a team that had already shrunk once this year.

The turn is notable given the studio’s past stance. In a 2024 interview, Schell called layoffs a choice. At the time, he described the studio’s core principle as not putting jobs at risk.

The studio’s work had already been changing shape. Headset VR once made up 80% of its projects. By August, that share had fallen to about 30%. Schell Games was moving toward VR-adjacent work, such as interactive projection for location-based entertainment.

That shift matters for fans of its VR catalog. Fewer staff could affect support for the studio’s other VR games, including I Expect You To Die.

Among Us 3D players are insulated from these cuts

Among Us 3D is not part of this round. The four-year partnership behind the game had already ended before these layoffs.

Innersloth has no plans to shut the game down. It took over player support once the handover update went live. Monthly cosmetic drops will continue under Innersloth’s control.

For players in VR more broadly, the picture is harder. Sanzaru Games, Twisted Pixel and Polyarc have all closed this year. Moss developer Polyarc shut down after almost 12 years, and 29 employees lost their jobs. That closure came about six months after major layoffs at the studio in March. Other VR studios have cut staff as well. Mighty Coconut, Kluge Interactive, Survios, Camouflaj and Combat Waffle all made cuts in 2026. Vertigo Games Amsterdam and two internal nDreams studios have shut down.

The cuts also fit a wider pattern across the games business. For the full year, the ASGC Games Industry Layoffs Tracker projects 13,077 game industry layoffs.

The post Schell Games Cuts 49 More Jobs, Two Months After Its First Layoffs in 24 Years appeared first on The Escapist.

That news follows a strong launch. Black Flag Resynced arrived on July 9. Ubisoft press releases put it at 2 million copies sold on July 10. It passed more than 3 million within its first week. The remake sold 3.5 million units within its first two weeks, GamesRadar+ reported. It also became the first Assassin’s Creed game to pass 100,000 concurrent players on Steam.

A hit remake, but no follow-up planned

Ubisoft’s teams are working on the next set of Assassin’s Creed games instead. Those include unannounced projects with new settings and stories. The remake’s latest update is also the last major content currently planned for Black Flag Resynced.

The decision stands out against earlier talk from the top. CEO Yves Guillemot promised several Assassin’s Creed remakes in a 2024 interview, Kotaku reported. For players, the signal is clear. The next new Assassin’s Creed experiences will be fresh games, not revisits of older ones.

Ubisoft’s July 23 release also covered its finances. In the first quarter of fiscal 2026-27, net bookings came to €255.8 million. That figure was down 9.2% on the year before. For the second quarter, the publisher expects about €370 million.

Hexe’s next major update waits until 2027 as Invictus changes course

Codename Hexe is making steady progress but still has work ahead. Fans will not get its next major update until 2027. Ubisoft’s March 4 franchise post described Hexe as a darker, story-driven Assassin’s Creed. A veteran team at Ubisoft Montreal is making it. By that point, Jean Guesdon had become the game’s creative director. Hexe was first teased in 2022.

Codename Invictus is changing direction. Guesdon described it in March as a PvP multiplayer game led by For Honor veterans at Ubisoft Montreal. It is now being reworked after its Insiders playtest. Testers liked its foundations. They wanted more of the core elements that define Assassin’s Creed.

That feedback suggests the multiplayer project will lean harder into series identity. The series itself turns 20 next year.

Existing players get something sooner. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s New Game+ update adds new runes, achievements and a stash system. It also brings a Master Assassin outfit based on Naoe’s look in Assassin’s Creed Shadows. The free mode arrives in Valhalla on November 5.

The post Ubisoft Rules Out More Assassin’s Creed Remakes Despite Black Flag Resynced’s Hot Start appeared first on The Escapist.

The new date applies to every version of the game. That covers PC, Mac, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2. The Switch 2 version launched on Tuesday, August 4, 2026, so Evercold will be its first expansion release. That version needs its own subscription, even for players who already pay on another platform. It does not require Nintendo Switch Online.

Yoshida made the delay call to buy three weeks

The team was only barely on track for January and needed roughly three more weeks to reach its quality bar, MMORPG.com reported. Producer and director Naoki Yoshida made the decision to delay himself. For players, the cost is a short wait rather than an open-ended one, since the new date is already locked.

Yoshida also bowed in apology on stage for missing the original target, PCGamesN reported. The firm date gives players a clear schedule for buying the expansion in time for early access.

Zephyr brings a crossbow and a bird familiar

Yoshida revealed Zephyr during the opening keynote in Tokyo. It is the second of Evercold’s two new jobs. The job fights at range and gets support from a bird familiar called Nephele. Square Enix also said at the event that Final Fantasy XIV Online now has more than 35 million registered accounts worldwide.

Pre-orders for both the expansion and the previously announced Collector’s Box open on the same day in November. The Collector’s Bundle will be sold in limited quantities, only through the Square Enix Store. Buyers should note one catch. The standalone Collector’s Box contains only physical goods. It does not include the expansion, in-game items or pre-order bonuses.

Those bonuses are an in-game Wind-Up Köttr minion and Halone’s Earring, an item that boosts experience.

An Evercold benchmark that lets players try the new character creation options is currently planned for December.

The post Final Fantasy XIV: Evercold slips from January to February 23, 2027, as Yoshida takes the blame appeared first on The Escapist.

The studio described development as being at its “final adjustment stage.” Fans holding out for the release received an apology from the studio, along with gratitude for sticking with it.

Hidetaka Miyazaki directs The Duskbloods. It is his first game since Elden Ring. The project was first shown at the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct in April 2025.

Kadokawa kept the 2026 window into August

The 2026 window held in Kadokawa’s public materials until recently. Kadokawa’s April 2, 2025 news release announced a worldwide 2026 launch on Switch 2. Nintendo and FromSoftware were named as publishers. The release promised online PvPvE play for up to eight players.

Kadokawa’s February 2026 earnings materials listed both The Duskbloods and Elden Ring Tarnished Edition for 2026 on Switch 2. Those materials confirmed the game would only be available on Switch 2. They also set out joint sales with Nintendo, with responsibilities split by region.

Gaming revenue in that August report fell 37.4% year over year.

Network test feedback will shape final balance work

FromSoftware tied the extra time to its August network test. In a second post, the studio said testers showed strong interest in combat, strategic depth and player expression.

The closed test was scheduled for August 21 to 23 across five sessions. Matches held up to eight players. Its stated goal was to collect game balance data. Taking part required a Nintendo Account and an active Nintendo Switch Online membership.

The test got off to a rough start, and FromSoftware said it would keep working on its servers.

Demand for access was high. Producer Yasuhiro Kitao told viewers of a livestream that more people applied for this test than for Elden Ring Nightreign’s. Nightreign will probably still have more players at launch, he added, because it is on several platforms.

For Switch 2 players, the change means a longer wait for a game built around eight-player online sessions. The studio’s focus on rules and balance suggests the extra time targets how matches play rather than new features.

Kadokawa reports its Q2 earnings, for the quarter ended September 30, 2026, on November 12, 2026.

The post FromSoftware delays Switch 2 exclusive The Duskbloods to 2027 after rocky network test appeared first on The Escapist.

The more telling number is content and services. Once currency changes are stripped out, that business slipped just 1%, a sharp improvement on the slide in the spring. Pointing to that slower decline, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said the division’s accountability margin had improved. The result also beat Microsoft’s own forecast, which had called for a decline in the mid single digits.

Game Pass and third-party sales are still slipping

The narrower decline does not mean every part of the business recovered. Lower third-party game sales and lower Game Pass revenue pulled content and services down. Gains in first-party content sales partly made up for them. Sharma said Minecraft and WoW Forever set records. She added that Xbox PC platform revenue grew by double digits.

Console hardware remains the weak spot. Its latest decline came after hardware sales had already fallen 13% and 33% in the prior two quarters, Kotaku reported. Microsoft raised Xbox Series X and S prices in the US on October 3, 2025. A worldwide increase followed on August 1, 2026, inside the quarter just reported.

Spending is also coming down. Operating expenses in Devices and Consumer fell 3%, and Xbox drove the drop. Continued spending on R&D compute capacity and talent partly offset it. Devices and Consumer, which now contains Xbox, brought in $15.5 billion in the quarter. Microsoft as a whole grew far faster, with total revenue up 19% to $92.3 billion and operating income up 21% to $45.9 billion.

For players, the split matters. Xbox is leaning on first-party hits and PC while console hardware and subscriptions shrink. That mix is useful context for anyone watching Xbox’s hardware future and Game Pass pricing.

Microsoft expects Xbox growth to peak over the holidays

The timing of first- and third-party releases is what CFO Amy Hood expects to lift content and services in the holiday period. Hardware is a different story, and Hood expects that revenue to fall again.

The holiday bump is not expected to last. Microsoft expects Xbox growth to peak in the October–December quarter, slow in January–March and slow further in April–June.

The post Xbox revenue falls 2% in first results since layoffs as decline narrows from 10% appeared first on The Escapist.

In an email to staff, studio leadership pointed to challenges in the market. Leaders also cited a review of team needs for the studio’s next project. The email stated that they had tried to support affected colleagues during the transition.

This is not the studio’s only round of cuts. Sucker Punch also made an unspecified number of cuts in 2014, after Infamous Second Son launched. Sony has owned the studio since buying it in August 2011.

Strong Ghost of Yōtei sales did not prevent job cuts

Ghost of Yōtei launched on October 2, 2025. On Sony’s November 2025 earnings call, CFO Lin Tao put sales past 3.3 million units worldwide as of November 2. Tao also described the game as a major hit like its predecessor.

On a later call, Sony said the game had outsold Ghost of Tsushima over the same period after launch. The company added that it had contributed significantly to its results. Circana data ranked Ghost of Yōtei as the third-best-selling PlayStation game in the US in 2025. It was the 11th-best-selling game on any platform in the US that year.

The studio kept supporting the game into 2026. The Echoes of Sekigahara story expansion and the Most Wanted mode arrived on October 1 in Ghost of Yōtei Complete Edition. Existing owners can add both with a $14.99 upgrade. Most Wanted brings back Ghost of Tsushima hero Jin Sakai as a playable character.

For players, the layoffs land while that content is less than a month old. The email’s focus on team needs for the next project is consistent with a smaller team for whatever the studio makes next.

The cuts follow Bluepoint’s closure and Bungie layoffs

Sucker Punch is not the only PlayStation studio to lose staff in 2026. On February 19, Hermen Hulst, head of PlayStation’s studio business, told staff that Sony would close Bluepoint Games. He blamed an increasingly challenging industry environment. The closure, set for March, put around 70 people out of work.

On June 25, Hulst announced job cuts at Bungie in an internal email. Most of the Destiny team was affected, and so were some developers working on Marathon. Sony Interactive Entertainment teams that support Bungie’s operations were also affected. At least 292 Bungie employees at its Bellevue location were being laid off.

Both the Bluepoint message and the Sucker Punch email pointed to difficult conditions in the wider market.

Sucker Punch leadership has promised staff more details about the studio’s future next week. Sony is due to report its next quarterly earnings a little more than a week after the October 26 layoffs.

The post Sucker Punch Lays Off 24 Staff Weeks After Ghost of Yōtei’s Echoes of Sekigahara Launch appeared first on The Escapist.

The vote is the next step in a campaign that went public in the summer, when Rockstar Games staff pushed for union recognition ahead of the GTA VI launch. This time there is an actual agreement on the table for employees to accept or reject.

What a yes vote would cover

As Rock Paper Shotgun reports, the recognition deal has been agreed between workers and management. It would give staff a collective voice on pay and bonuses, overtime, redundancies, flexible working and the studio’s policies on generative AI. The IWGB says a successful ballot would make it the largest recognized union anywhere in the UK games industry.

Shanti Easton-Steel, a committee member of the Rockstar Game Workers Union, framed the ballot around transparency. “For me, this vote comes down to ensuring employees at Rockstar get honesty and openness surrounding the decisions that affect them,” Easton-Steel said. “When management choices are kept hidden, we can’t properly address issues like the gender pay gap, the uneven and ever-changing policies on overtime pay, or the concerns many co-workers hold around job security post-release.”

The union is also leaning into the timing. In a statement quoted by Game Developer, a committee member said staff have the chance to “make gaming history not once, but twice.” Game Developer also points to an earlier comment from Rockstar’s head of publishing, Jennifer Koble, who said: “we go where the team goes. If they want a union, they will have a union.”

The tribunal is still running

The ballot is separate from the legal fight over the 31 people Rockstar dismissed almost exactly a year ago. Rockstar has said those workers were let go for gross misconduct, while the IWGB and the former employees call it union busting. That employment tribunal is not over yet. Closing arguments are scheduled for November 17 and 18, which wraps them up the day before GTA VI reaches players, and a ruling from the judge is expected to take longer than that.

So November will be a crowded month for Rockstar. The studio is preparing to ship a game that parent company Take-Two is counting on heavily, with the publisher forecasting $8 billion in revenue for its 2027 fiscal year. At the same time, the people who built it will be deciding how much say they get in what happens after launch, from overtime rules to job security once the game is out.

For everything else on the release itself, our GTA 6 release date, trailers and news hub has the full picture. We will follow up on the outcome once the ballot closes on November 26.

The post Rockstar UK Staff Will Vote on IWGB Union Recognition as GTA 6 Launches appeared first on The Escapist.

The campaign was started on October 21, the same day BioWare confirmed the news that ended the studio’s three decades of work. In a statement posted to its official account, BioWare said it “is closing and early development on the next Mass Effect project is ending.”

pic.x.com/TicSujMWps

 BioWare (@bioware) October 21, 2026

What the petition is asking for

The petition was created by a Change.org user listed as Joe Smith from Denver, Colorado, and it gives EA two options. The first is a firm commitment to keep making Mass Effect games, which the text says “requires proper funding, adequate staffing, and time allocation” to live up to the standards of the series. The second is to hand the property to someone else. “Alternatively, EA could consider licensing the Mass Effect intellectual property (IP) to another studio that shares the passion and vision to keep it alive and allow it to flourish anew,” the petition reads.

The growth has been fast. In an update on October 24, the organizer thanked supporters for reaching 140,447 signatures and shared a symbol meant to unite the campaign, signing off with a quarian “Keelah se’lai!” for good measure. A second note the same evening asked fans not to pay for Change.org’s promoted placement, pointing out that the money goes to the platform rather than the campaign and suggesting that people give to charity instead.

EA has not changed course

So far there is no sign that the pressure is moving EA. As GamesIndustry.biz noted when the count passed 223,000 on Monday, the publisher has said nothing publicly about the future of BioWare’s biggest franchises beyond confirming that the next Mass Effect is cancelled. The closure arrived less than three months after EA’s sale to a group made up of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake and Affinity Partners was completed on August 4.

According to an internal letter reported by VGC, EA told staff it would keep investing in its sports games, Apex Legends, Battlefield and action adventure work, naming Marvel’s Iron Man and a new Star Wars Jedi entry. Mass Effect was not on that list.

Not the first time fans have rallied

Mass Effect players have a long history of making themselves heard. Back in 2012, unhappy fans shipped 400 cupcakes to BioWare’s Edmonton office in protest of the Mass Effect 3 ending, iced in red, blue and green but all tasting the same. This time the stakes are much higher, because there is no studio left to send anything to.

It is also a sharp turn from where the series stood not long ago. BioWare spent years teasing the next entry, including a mysterious N7 Day teaser in 2023, and that game has now been called off before it was ever properly shown. Petitions rarely bring a cancelled game back on their own, but a quarter of a million signatures in under a week shows that the audience for Commander Shepard’s universe has not gone anywhere, whoever ends up holding the keys to it.

The post Save Mass Effect Petition Passes 240,000 Signatures After BioWare Closure appeared first on The Escapist.

Even the Ultimate Life Form can’t deny the power of our community. Thank you for pushing SONIC X SHADOW GENERATIONS to sell more than 3 million copies!

 Sonic the Hedgehog (@sonic_hedgehog) October 26, 2026

The post leans into Shadow’s famous self-description, calling him the “Ultimate Life Form” while crediting fans for the result. The attached artwork shows Shadow, wings out, facing down a towering monster over a glowing red city skyline.

A steady climb since launch day

The new figure is the third public sales update for the game. SEGA said sales had already passed 1 million around the October 25, 2024 release, and the publisher followed that with a second update in January 2025, when Gematsu reported that the total had climbed beyond 2 million.

Getting from 2 million to 3 million took around 21 months, a slower pace than the opening stretch, which is normal for a game that has moved past its launch window. It did pick up one extra storefront along the way. A Nintendo Switch 2 version arrived on June 5, 2025, the same day Nintendo’s new console went on sale, giving the game a spot in the hybrid’s launch lineup.

Two campaigns in one box

Part of the appeal has always been value. Sonic Team bundled a full remaster of 2011’s Sonic Generations, with sharper visuals and some bonus content, alongside an all new campaign built around Shadow. That second campaign gives Shadow his Doom Powers, letting him fight through crowds of enemies and get around stages in new ways, and it brings back Chaos Control so he can briefly freeze time.

Shadow had a busy stretch around the game’s release, with SEGA framing its fiscal year as the “Year of Shadow” and the character also showing up on the big screen in Sonic the Hedgehog 3. The series has kept moving since then, and Sonic Team’s kart racer is a good example. We called Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds the Sonic R sequel we had been waiting for, and our rundown of the CrossWorlds character roster shows how many familiar faces made the jump.

Sonic X Shadow Generations at a glance

SEGA has not broken the 3 million total down by platform or region, and it has not said whether the number counts only full game sales or includes bundles and digital deals. For a remaster paired with a fresh campaign, though, passing 3 million in two years is a clear sign that fans still want more of Shadow.

The post Sonic X Shadow Generations Passes 3 Million Sales Two Years After Launch appeared first on The Escapist.

Look Outside on Nintendo Switch 2.
Look Outside on Nintendo Switch.
Look Outside on PlayStation 5.
Look Outside on PlayStation 4.

All on October 30.

pic.twitter.com/aA6cb7R7lk

— Devolver Digital (@devolverdigital) October 23, 2026

The timing is hard to miss. October 30 lands the night before Halloween, giving console players one of the stranger horror games of the past couple of years right as the spooky season peaks.

A whole apocalypse inside one apartment block

Look Outside first released on Steam on March 21, 2025, where it currently sells for $9.99. Its premise is simple and nasty: a mysterious event turns anyone who looks out of a window into a grotesque monster, so the player stays indoors and works through a single apartment building instead.

That building is where the whole game happens. Players scavenge for food, supplies and weapons, then return home to rest by playing games, cooking dinner, crafting tools and getting to know the neighbors who become allies. Some of the odder residents can be recruited and given shelter in the apartment as the mystery unfolds.

Combat is turn based, but it takes space into account, so distance between the player and an enemy matters when choosing which makeshift weapon or item to use. The Steam page promises more than 150 hand crafted creatures, a dozen boss encounters and several endings, all packed into a run of around 10 to 12 hours.

Still getting attention on PC

Coulombe has kept supporting the game since launch. The 2.3 update, released in April 2026, redesigned the battle against Mutt, added new special moves for some weapons, polished several ending cutscenes and introduced extra surprises for the game’s Cursed Mode, according to the official Steam patch notes. The PC version has gathered more than 14,000 user reviews on Steam.

Devolver has not detailed console pricing in its announcement, and it has not said whether every PC update will be present on day one, so players planning to double dip should keep an eye on the store pages before launch. The publisher has a habit of turning up quirky releases across platforms, from the pachinko roguelite HYPERDROP to its many smaller indie partnerships, and Look Outside fits that mold neatly.

Look Outside at a glance

Fans of indie horror who want more ideas for the season can also browse our pick of survival horror and other standouts from Indie Live Expo. Look Outside’s console versions arrive on Friday, October 30.

The post Look Outside Brings Its Apartment Horror to PS5 and Switch 2 on October 30 appeared first on The Escapist.

Three games are coming to Game Boy – Nintendo Classics for #NintendoSwitchOnline members on Oct 27!

Avenging Spirit
Mole Mania
Pinball: Revenge of the 'Gator pic.twitter.com/AikYpD8hg2

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) October 23, 2026

The batch is a small one, but it is an interesting mix. One is a first-party puzzle game with a famous name attached, one is a licensed arcade conversion, and the third is an early HAL Laboratory release from the Game Boy’s first year on shelves.

A Miyamoto-produced puzzle game returns

Mole Mania is the headline addition for many Nintendo fans. Shigeru Miyamoto served as producer on the 1996 puzzle game, which casts players as Muddy Mole on a mission to rescue his family from an angry farmer. Outside of boss battles, every stage ends the same way: find a way to smash open the exit gate using a heavy black ball. It released in Japan in July 1996 and reached North America in February 1997, before turning up again on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console in 2012.

That 3DS store has long since closed, so the Switch Online release will be the easiest legal way for many players to try it today. VGC also notes that the Game Boy library sits within the standard Switch Online membership rather than requiring the Expansion Pack, which keeps the barrier to entry low for curious subscribers.

Ghost possession and a pinball ‘gator

Avenging Spirit is Jaleco’s Game Boy version of a 1991 arcade platformer. Its hook still stands out: the hero comes back from the dead to rescue his partner from a criminal group, possessing enemies along the way and using their abilities to push through stages and bosses.

Pinball: Revenge of the ‘Gator is the oldest of the three. HAL Laboratory developed it for the Game Boy, and it released in Japan in October 1989 before Nintendo brought it to North America and Europe in March 1990. The aim is simple pinball scoring, with the twist that the table’s alligators are always ready to swallow a stray ball.

What it means for the Switch Online library

Nintendo has been adding to its retro apps in small drops rather than big waves, and this update follows that pattern. None of the three is a household name on the level of Tetris or Pokémon, which makes them a good fit for players who already worked through the bigger classics and want something less familiar. Those looking for the bigger names can check every Pokémon game on Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack, while fans of Nintendo’s handheld history may also enjoy our list of the best Game Boy Color games of all time.

All three games arrive on Tuesday, October 27, and will be playable on Switch and Switch 2 through the Game Boy, Nintendo Classics app for active Nintendo Switch Online members.

The post Mole Mania Leads Three Game Boy Additions to Switch Online on October 27 appeared first on The Escapist.