Top Stories

Four Nacon subsidiaries file for insolvency (1 min read)

Spiders, Kylotonn, Cyanide, and Nacon Tech have filed for insolvency, joining parent company Nacon in court-supervised reorganisation proceedings in France. The crisis stems from majority shareholder Bigben Interactive's failure to repay a €43 million loan. (Gamesindustry)

Meta Quest usage reaches "all-time high" in 2025 despite studio closures and layoffs (2 min read)

Meta Quest hit an all-time usage high in 2025, with 100+ titles grossing over $1M and IAP revenue up 10%. The Horizon+ subscription also crossed 1M subscribers, paying out nearly $20M to developers. (Gamesindustry)

Business & Finance

Reforged Studios acquires Super Meat Boy 3D publisher Headup Games (2 min read)

Reforged Studios has acquired indie publisher Headup Games (Super Meat Boy 3D) in an undisclosed deal, with no staff changes planned. Headup founder Dieter Schoeller stays on to run operations and takes the CPO role at Reforged. (Gamesindustry)

Team17 parent company Everplay reports 10% profit increase in 2025 (3 min read)

Everplay (formerly Team17 Group) posted £166M in flat revenue but grew gross profit 10% to £76.3M in FY2025, crediting the exit from low-margin physical distribution and strong new-release performance across its Team17, Astragon, and StoryToys divisions. (Gamesindustry)

Studios & People

"They wouldn't look at any game that was less than £50 million" Why Tencent's all-in strategy didn't suit Bulkhead (9 min read)

Bulkhead CEO Joe Brammer says Tencent wouldn't greenlight games under £50M, clashing with the studio's £10–12M Wardogs budget. After nearly shutting down, Bulkhead spun out under new holding company Super Media Group, with ~50% of staff owning equity. (Gamesindustry)

Games & Releases

Pokémon Champions is releasing on Nintendo Switch consoles in early April, but its "free-to-start" package raises some questions about its pricing model (5 min read)

Pokémon Champions launches April 8 on Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 as a free-to-start title, with a mobile release to follow. Its monetization layers — Battle Pass, Starter Pack, Champions Membership, plus a required Pokémon Home Premium plan — stack costs that complicate the "free" pitch. 💸 (Eurogamer)

Capcom Apologizes for Street Fighter 6 Alex and Patricia 'Incest' Controversy, Announces Patch on the Way (3 min read)

Capcom's SF6 director apologized after Alex's arcade ending — which reveals he married his adoptive sister/second cousin Patricia — sparked widespread fan backlash. A text patch is planned, though Capcom says character backstories won't change. (IGN)

Splitgate studio 1047 Games is working on something new: 'If you're a fan of games like Titanfall or Black Ops 3, we would love to hear from you' (5 min read)

1047 Games (Splitgate) has confirmed a small team is developing a new movement shooter, drawing inspiration from Titanfall and Black Ops 3. CEO Ian Proulx says playtesting is expected to begin soon. (PC Gamer)

AI/Tech & Tools

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Studio Head Defends DLSS 5’s Slop Filter: ‘No Way Haters Will Stop This’ (4 min read)

Warhorse co-founder Daniel Vávra is backing Nvidia's widely criticized DLSS 5, arguing the AI upscaling tech could eventually replace expensive raytracing — even as most developers have publicly condemned it. (Kotaku)

Culture & Community

"Heavyweights ruined the industry... now we live on the indies" Nordic Game embraces smaller devs and games with soul (5 min read)

Nordic Game program director Jacob Riis says ticket sales are up 33% — best since COVID — as the conference doubles down on indie devs, citing four of Steam's top ten sellers over the past year being indie titles. (Gamesindustry)

Fallout megamod maker says there were 'moments of uncertainty' about how okay Bethesda was with it, but gives props to Todd for staying cool about the whole thing (5 min read)

Fallout: London lead Dean Carter says the team had "moments of uncertainty" over whether Bethesda would tolerate the DLC-sized Fallout 4 megamod during its five-year development. Bethesda stayed hands-off, with Carter crediting publishers' growing reliance on UGC to keep aging titles relevant. (PC Gamer)

As Tomodachi Life demo players push its lack of filter to the limit, former marketing lead says Nintendo may be "rethinking" its approach after being caught out by the internet again (6 min read)

The Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream demo launched with no content filters on Mii dialogue, and players are predictably exploiting it. A former Nintendo marketing lead says the company has repeatedly been caught off guard by player behavior with user-generated content and may be "rethinking" its approach. (GamesRadar)

gg! see you in game!

-james