The Week in Gaming - Issue 5

Today’s issue will be the sole publish this week due to US holidays (July 4). Keep reading for game news and game business updates. The leading highlights (lowlights?) this week are a wrap up on the Microsoft layoff event.

The Microsoft Massacre

Microsoft began its substantial layoff process targeting 9,000 employees in its biggest round of cuts for the year. The impacts include:

• Blizzard: Warcraft Rumble development is ending and other cuts across the studio have impacted around 100 developers. The Verge

• King: The Candy Crush developer cut 10% of its staff, resulting in a layoff of around 200 employees. Jason Schreier (Bloomberg)

• Halo Studios (343): At least five employees have been laid off as a part of the week’s activity. Engadget

• High Moon Studios: The Warzone developer has been rumored to be affected, reported by @charlieINTEL via social media. X

• Rare: Everwild has been cancelled, and employees were notified that they may lose their jobs. Creator Gregg Mayles and Executive Producer Louise O’Conner are leaving the studio. Video Games Chronicle, Eurogamer

• Raven Software: An undisclosed number of employees have been impacted. Raven Software has been working with Treyarch on Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. Insider-Gaming

• Romero Games: Microsoft cancelled funding for the studio’s project, reportedly resulting in layoffs and imminent studio closure. Video Games Chronicle

• Sledgehammer Games: An undisclosed number of employees have been impacted. Insider-Gaming

• The Initiative: The studio has been closed and Perfect Dark cancelled. The Verge

• Turn 10 Studios: According to a former employee, the Forza Motorsport franchise has been shuttered and around 70 employees have been laid off. Eurogamer

• Zenimax: Around 300 employees have been laid off and Zenimax’s upcoming MMO game, which had received executive praise after an internal playtest, has been cancelled. Zenimax Online Studios President Matt Firor has also left the studio. Jason Schreier (Bloomberg)

• Xbox: Sources on the user research team at Xbox indicate that half of the team has been laid off. The Verge

Game News

• A Short Hike development has been shelved by its developer, Adam Robinson-Yu. The dev admitted the scope was too large and they felt “overwhelmed” trying to develop the Paper Mario-like RPG. If you were looking forward to this title, the developer released a demo with 1-2 hours of content for both PC and Mac. Eurogamer

• FBC: Firebreak devs get fully immersed in live service iteration after seeing statistics showing players struggling to progress their Perks system, with less than 5% of the player base owning a Level 3 Perk. Changes to smooth out the experience are intended for their 1.3 patch. PC Gamer

• EA announced this week that it will be finally shutting down servers for Anthem on January 12, 2026. The sci-fi multiplayer game will remain downloadable and playable from digital libraries until that date, premium currency can no longer be purchased, and existing currencies are still usable. Polygon Gaming

Upcoming

• An enhanced remaster for classic Backyard Baseball ‘01 is coming to Steam and mobile devices on July 8. ComicBook Gaming

• 2K has confirmed that WWE 2K25 is releasing for Switch 2 on July 23. Nintendo Life

• Helldivers 2 is officially coming to Xbox with full cross-play on August 26. The title will not be on Game Pass, but preorders for the game are now available. Video Games Chronicle

• Destiny’s alternate-timeline mobile game, Destiny Rising, now has an official launch date of August 28. Pre-registration signups have been ongoing and recently reached a milestone of 5 million registrations. Pocket Gamer

• D3Publisher has announced action-shooting game, Full Metal Schoolgirl, for Playstation, Switch 2, and PC. The title will launch on October 23. PlayStation Blog

• Dave the Diver’s In the Jungle DLC has been delayed to 2026. In the meantime, the title is now available on the Epic Games Store and a free upgrade is on the way for Switch 2 players. Eurogamer

• On the heels of EA Sports announcing a return of college basketball games after a 16-year drought, 2K Sports teased on social media with the line, “The campus has been quiet for too long” in response to a post asking for 2K to make one. Video Games Chronicle

• Aniplex Inc, in collaboration with Joycity Corporation, have announced a brand-new Resident Evil mobile game, called Resident Evil Survival Unit. ComicBook Gaming

• Distinct Possibility Studios has unveiled its new game, Reaper Actual. The title is an open-world extraction shooter with persistent base building, large-scale (200 player) servers, and optional Web3 economy features. GamesBeat

New Releases

• Summerfall Studios has launched their roguelike deckbuilder game, Malys, into Early Access on Steam. With their Kickstarter failing, the team changed plans in order to launch the game and attract an early audience to (hopefully) sustain it. Rock Paper Shotgun

• Supercell’s mobile-based MMO Mo.co has had its invite only restriction removed to allow all players the chance to hunt down monsters together. GamesBeat

Game Updates

• Monster Hunter Wilds dev team, locked in monstrous battle with the legendary beasts, “VRAM Crash” and “Shader Compiling During Play”, patched the game earlier this week in their quest to improve PC performance. Rock Paper Shotgun

• The latest Sims 4 update has introduced transparent walls, an update for the Notebook feature, and a new interface for household collections. ComicBook Gaming

• Zombies have invaded Red Dead Online with its latest update, called Strange Takes of the West: Volume 1. The update features four new zombie-based missions. ComicBook Gaming

• Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2 will be getting a second year of free and paid updates. The next update for the title is in September and will commemorate the one-year anniversary of its release. Rock Paper Shotgun

Spotlight: Economic Awareness

• Nintendo has announced that prices will likely increase in some countries, with the first price increases hitting Canada, due to “market conditions”. ComicBook Gaming

• The average weekly spending on video games by Americans aged 18-24 has dropped sharply year-over-year, according to data provided by Circana in a new report. Check out the link for more. GamesIndustry.biz

• Marvel Rivals has revealed their College Student Perks program, where gamers who have verified their student status (using an email verification process) will gain access to 10 free costume trials and MVPs. ComicBook Gaming

Tech News

• Valve has added a new performance monitor to Steam to help players understand how to optimize their experience. The monitor shows up to four levels of etail for FPS, CPU utilization, GPU utilization, and RAM utilization. The Verge Games

• Windows 11 launched in October 2021 but has yet to become the dominant Windows version for Steam gamers. 58% of Steam users are on the latest OS, even as Windows 10 support ends later this year. PC Gamer

• Fans lash out at The Alters developer 11 Bit Studios after AI prompts were discovered in subtitles and flavor text in the game. 11 Bit Studios has issued a statement in response to complaints, indicating that assets intended to be placeholder and some aspects of the game used AI localization due to “time constraints”. Engadget

Social Impacts

• Itch.io has converted their latest game jam into a charity bundle to benefit RAÍCES and Immigrant Defenders Law Center. No Ice in California

• Eurogamer author Keza MacDonald covers a short history of bisexual representation in games. Game highlights include the Sims, Life is Strange, and The Last of Us Part 2. Thanks for the great read Keza! Eurogamer

• Games for Change has announced winners for its 2025 awards. Recipient games included Indika (Best Narrative and Game of the Year), Neva (Best Gameplay), and 1000xResist (Indie Breakout). Hit the link to see the full winners list. GamesIndustry.biz

• Ready or Not developer Void Interactive has confirmed changes its in-game violence and nudity for its console versions in order to meet platform certification processes. Some fans have responded to the changes by review-bombing the game on Steam. Eurogamer

• Nexus Mods is adding an age verification check for EU and UK users in the near future and will be taking steps to remove “illegal” content from their website to protect children as demanded in the UK’s Online Safety Act. Eurogamer

• Sky: Children of the Light will be hosting an in-game awards on August 15 to showcase its community creators. Pocket Gamer

• Seattle Indies has announced its inaugural conference SLICE, taking place on August 27 in downtown Seattle. GamesBeat

• Neil Druckmann is stepping back from the Last of US HBO show to focus on Naughty Dog’s upcoming games. The Verge Games

Spotlight: Delayed Justice

• Former Unity senior client partner Rod Stafford has been jailed for 22 years after being charged with 33 sexual offenses taking place over a period of “several years”. Stafford represented Unity as recently as 2024 and was dismissed from his position as an officer in the British Army in 2002 after a military court found him guilty of sexually abusing colleagues. Game Developer

• Former Ubisoft CCO Serge Hascoët, former VP of Editorial and Creative Services Thomas François, and former game designer Guillame Patrux have been found guilty. Hascoët has received an 18-month suspended prison sentence and a €45,000 fine for lewd behavior. François was given a three-year suspended prison sentence and €30,000 fine for moral and sexual harassment and attempted sexual assault. Patrux has received a 12-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of €10,000 for psychological harassment including violent and intimidating behavior. Video Games Chronicle

Studio and Business News

• Dying Light developer Techland has reportedly cancelled two games. Video Games Chronicle

• Subnautica developer Unknown Worlds has shed its leadership team. Studio CEO Ted Gill, Subnautica game director Charlie Cleveland, and technical director Max McGuire have all departed the company. Game Developer

• Myst developer Cyan Worlds has laid off an undisclosed number of workers just months after cutting half of its workforce. Game Developer

• Mobile game developer Toca Boca has laid off unknown number of employees. GamesIndustry.biz

• 2K mobile studio Cat Daddy Games has laid off an undisclosed number of employees Game Developer

• The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria developer Free Range Games has laid off 80 people. The employees were working on a project that had “its publisher pull funding”. Game Developer

• Around 300 employees at Build a Rocket Boy have received “at-risk of redundancy” emails following the studio’s layoff announcement. Meanwhile, studio head Leslie Benzies has told the team that the studio will attempt to relaunch the troubled game and in the same breath blamed ‘internal and external saboteurs’ for its failed launch. Rock Paper Shotgun

• Digital publishing company Keleops has acquired Kotaku from G/O Media in an undisclosed, all-cash asset deal. Kotaku editorial staff will remain and more senior staff are expected to be hired. Keleops purchased Gizmodo from G/O Media last year. GamesIndustry.biz

Spotlight: This Week’s Optimism

• Hytale’s studio founder is interested in buying back the game/IP to keep the game’s development going. Rock Paper Shotgun

• Cast Iron Games, the sister studio of Double Eleven, has opened in Wakefield (UK). The studio will focus on AAA co-dev and game porting services. GamesIndustry.biz

• VC firm Behold Ventures has raised $59.2M to invest in European game developers. The firm is targeting over 25 early startups in the Nordic region, focusing on developers, tools, and tech. GamesIndustry.biz

• Swedish studio Cold River Games has raised $2M for its free-to-play ARPG game, Crystalfall. The team anticipates using blockchain technology to build a secure game economy for the title, which is focused on loot and item progression. GamesBeat

Till next week,

Pushing Buttons