Top Stories

Tightening immigration rules will impact the games industry in 2026 (7 min read) US and UK immigration overhauls coming in 2026 are about to make hiring international talent significantly harder. Stricter visa reviews, expanded social media vetting for work-based applicants, and interview backlogs will complicate onboarding and project timelines. Studios dependent on global talent pools—which is basically all of them—need to start planning for longer hiring cycles and tighter documentation now. (Gamesindustry)

Roblox reports significant growth for 2025, hitting $4.9bn in revenue (3 min read) Roblox crushed 2025 with $4.9 billion in revenue (36% YoY growth) and 144 million daily active users—now claiming 3.4% of the global gaming market. The platform's top 1,000 creators averaged $1.3 million in earnings. Despite massive losses ($1.07 billion), Roblox is betting on AI-accelerated content and a billion-user vision. For devs: the creator economy is real money, and the competition just got fiercer. (Gamesindustry)

Nintendo president says a long-term memory shortage 'may put pressure on profitability' (4 min read) Nintendo's president warned that ongoing global memory shortages—driven by AI companies hoarding chips—could squeeze Switch 2 profitability if they persist beyond this fiscal year. The company hasn't ruled out price increases, though it's holding off for now. Meanwhile, Valve already delayed Steam hardware pricing announcements over the same shortage. Welcome to the era where your console's bill of materials is competing with ChatGPT's infrastructure. (Game Developer)

Announcements & Releases

Ustwo Games makes layoffs to facilitate 'PC-first' pivot (3 min read) Ustwo Games is cutting staff to fund a pivot toward PC-first development. The studio, known for Monument Valley, is betting that PC (including Steam) is where the indie-to-mid-tier money is these days. Whether this pays off or becomes another "we're pivoting" casualty remains to be seen, but the shift reflects broader industry skepticism about mobile's profitability. (Game Developer)

Indiana Jones developer MachineGames still plans to finish its Wolfenstein trilogy (3 min read) MachineGames studio director Jerk Gustafsson just confirmed what fans have been hoping: Wolfenstein 3 is happening. He wouldn't commit to a timeline ("it can be now, it can be later"), but made it clear finishing the trilogy remains the studio's intention. Given that modern AAA games take four years to develop and he estimates maybe two or three more projects before retirement, expect this one to land... eventually. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is coming to Switch 2 this year in the meantime. (Eurogamer)

Baldur's Gate to be adapted into HBO series (2 min read) HBO greenlit a Baldur's Gate TV series with Last of Us showrunner Craig Mazin at the helm, set after BG3's events. Mazin reached out to Larian Studios (who aren't directly involved) and plans to recruit the game's voice actors, just like he did for The Last of Us. Larian founder Swen Vincke gave it his blessing, noting the game's endings were "narrative soil for new adventures." The series will coexist with Netflix's upcoming D&D live-action show—because apparently every fantasy franchise needs a prestige TV home now. (Gamesindustry)

Quick Hits

• Blizzard workers ratify union contract, Ghost of Yotei soars, and has Yves Guillemot outstayed his welcome at Ubisoft? - Patch Notes #39 (6 min read) -- Blizzard's union vote passed, Ghost of Yotei is crushing it commercially, and Ubisoft shareholders are eyeing the exit door for Yves Guillemot. A lot moving at once. (Game Developer)

• Games Workshop Issued 'FTL in a Warhammer 40,000 Skin' Steam Game With a DMCA Takedown Because of ‘Oversized Convex Shoulder Pads With a Metallic Rim,’ Dev Says (4 min read) -- Games Workshop actually did issue a DMCA takedown on Void War (an FTL-like with Warhammer 40K vibes) over a single trailer shot—specifically, "oversized convex shoulder pads with a metallic rim." The dev removed the offending image and got the game back on Steam. GW's IP police are apparently very, very thorough. (IGN)

• HBO’s Baldur’s Gate Show Wants To Be a Sequel to BG3. That’s Impossible. (6 min read) -- HBO's Baldur's Gate 3 TV sequel faces an impossible task: BG3 has 17,000 different final cutscenes and hundreds of branching paths, so any "canon" choice will alienate half the fanbase. The show should've learned from Fallout's approach—set it in the same world but years later, leaving past events vague. Instead, it's picking fights with player agency. (IGN)

• Scopely confirms it used generative AI to advertise Star Trek Fleet Command (3 min read) -- Scopely confirmed it used generative AI to create ads for Star Trek Fleet Command. Not exactly shocking in 2025, but a public admission that someone's warp-speed marketing shortcuts came from a machine. The studio apparently decided transparency beats damage control. (Game Developer)

• Consoles are still in good health, despite market fears | Opinion (6 min read) -- Sony and Nintendo's latest financials show consoles are holding up better than doom-scrollers feared. PS5 is tracking well against PS4 despite higher prices; Switch 2 stumbled overseas but Nintendo's software pipeline will fix that. Economic headwinds are real, but both platforms enter 2026 in solid shape—though the 100-120M unit ceiling remains stubbornly unchanged. (Gamesindustry)

• 'From Expeditioners to Knights!' — Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Developer Receives French Cultural Honor (2 min read) -- Sandfall Interactive just got knighted by the French Ministry of Culture for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. The entire studio received the Order of Arts and Letters—rare recognition that usually goes to individual creators, not whole teams. Your game doesn't need to win Game of the Year to matter; apparently it just needs to be genuinely good. (IGN)

• 'Some Kind of Fancy Lawyer Lingo?' — Marvel's Wolverine Developer Just Dropped a Big Tease for Another Hero, Fans Believe (2 min read) -- Insomniac teased Wolverine with a "claws/clause" pun and fans are convinced it's a Daredevil hint. Makes sense given Nelson & Murdock references scattered through the Spider-Man games. Daredevil cameo incoming? Game ships late 2026. (IGN)

• Arc Raiders boss can tell Embark's anti-cheat efforts are working because there's "an influx of people trying to get to the studio, and to me" (4 min read) -- Embark's CEO says Arc Raiders' anti-cheat push is working: tens of thousands banned so far, and cheaters are now personally showing up at the studio to complain. The studio just blocked Steam Family Sharing to close ban-evasion loopholes. Cat-and-mouse game, eternal. (GamesRadar)

• “The worst game mode ever added”: Black Ops 7 players blast Overload following Ranked Play launch (3 min read) -- Black Ops 7's new Overload game mode launched in Ranked Play with a wallhack bug letting players see enemy locations while holding the EMP device. Pro players and content creators are roasting it—JonReflex called it "the worst game mode ever added," and even vets like Xotic think Treyarch made it worse with recent changes. Communication issues aren't helping either. (Esports Insider)

• Guild Wars 2 finally gets the long-awaited option to create fashion templates, so why is the community so angry? (8 min read) -- Guild Wars 2 shipped a long-requested fashion template system this week, but players are furious. The new system requires navigating multiple menus instead of the previous one-click wardrobe swap, and ArenaNet's 1,500-word explanation just made it worse. Even FFXIV's transmog system—which devs call clunky—is somehow better. (PC Gamer)

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