EA closes BioWare as job cuts and restructuring spread across game studios

EA closed BioWare and cut 400 jobs, while Microsoft opened a voluntary exit programme covering up to 60,000 eligible employees, including Xbox staff. Platform policy also shifted, with Epic preparing broader AI permissions and South Korea penalising Apple and Google over app payments.

Key developments

EA closes BioWare

EA announced 400 layoffs across multiple studios, cancelled projects and closed BioWare, with most of its remaining roughly 50 staff losing their jobs. Subsequent reporting said EA chose to direct resources toward a new Star Wars: Battlefront title rather than fund both it and Mass Effect.

The closure removes BioWare’s development capacity and shifts investment from Mass Effect toward a licensed franchise.

Oct 29–30 · Eurogamer · Game Developer · Eurogamer

Microsoft offers voluntary exits

Microsoft offered voluntary buyouts to eligible employees across divisions including Xbox, with the programme covering up to 60,000 employees. The company is controlling costs while expanding AI investment.

Xbox staff face another route to workforce reductions alongside the division’s restructuring.

Oct 27 · GamesIndustry.biz Latest Articles Feed · Latest Updates | PocketGamer.biz · VGC

Xbox revenue and hardware fall

Xbox’s first-quarter revenue fell 2%, with hardware revenue down 14%, partly offset by first-party content. Xbox leader Asha Sharma said console sales were constrained by supply, with demand exceeding availability.

First-party content is cushioning weaker hardware revenue, while supply constraints complicate comparisons with console demand.

Oct 29 · GamesIndustry.biz Latest Articles Feed · Eurogamer

Roblox bookings weaken

Roblox’s third-quarter revenue rose 16% to $1.6 billion, but bookings fell 12% to $1.7 billion and daily active users missed its goals. More than 80% of its top 100 games by hours played used AI in development in October.

Falling bookings point to weaker spending momentum than the revenue growth alone suggests.

Oct 30 · GamesIndustry.biz Latest Articles Feed · Game Developer · Latest Updates | PocketGamer.biz

Arkane Lyon gets more time

Microsoft extended Arkane Lyon’s consultation period by around a month, giving it until mid-December to find a buyer. Marvel’s Blade development continues, but the studio faces closure if no buyer emerges.

The extension keeps a route open to preserving the studio and its 217 jobs.

Oct 26 · GamesIndustry.biz Latest Articles Feed · Eurogamer · VGC

Epic broadens its AI plans

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said the company will change its EULA to permit AI training on Unreal Engine and MetaHuman outputs, while allowing developers to restrict use for individual games. Epic also confirmed generative-AI plans across Fortnite and Unreal Engine 6 and said engineers no longer write the bulk of its code.

The proposed terms would make developers’ game-specific restrictions central to controlling AI training on their outputs.

Oct 27–28 · Game Developer · Eurogamer

Valve rejects AI-game gatekeeping

Valve said it would not gatekeep AI-made games, despite concerns about cloning, and suggested developers make games less copyable. It also said a significant number of staff are working on Steam’s visibility problems.

Developers cannot rely on a broad Steam restriction to keep AI-made imitators out of the store.

Oct 28 · VGC · Eurogamer

App-payment penalties reach $47.6 million

South Korea’s Media and Communications Commission fined Google $32 million and Apple $15.6 million for violating app-payment rules.

The penalties reinforce enforcement of rules governing how mobile developers collect payments.

Oct 29 · Latest Updates | PocketGamer.biz

Pokémon Unite sets shutdown date

The Pokémon Company will end Pokémon Unite service on mobile and Nintendo Switch on March 23, 2027. Microtransactions and monthly Unite Club membership payments have already ended.

Players have a fixed end date for access, and the game can no longer generate revenue through those payments.

Oct 27 · GamesIndustry.biz Latest Articles Feed · Latest Updates | PocketGamer.biz · Eurogamer

Capcom profit climbs

Capcom’s first-half sales rose 49% to ¥120.887 billion and operating profit increased 54.5% to ¥60.769 billion, driven by new releases and existing games. It maintained full-year forecasts of ¥210 billion in sales and ¥83.1 billion in operating profit despite already reaching 73% of its profit target.

New releases and catalog sales have put Capcom well along the path to its annual profit target.

Oct 27 · 机核

Also this week

Studios and staffing

• Sucker Punch cut 24 employees, approximately 10% of its workforce, according to updated reporting that revised an earlier count of 26 and cited market conditions and its next project’s needs. VGC · Game Developer · Eurogamer

• Auroch Digital laid off approximately a quarter of its workforce. GamesIndustry.biz Latest Articles Feed

• Don't Nod faced internal unrest as it attempted to restructure and avoid insolvency. Eurogamer

• Dan Greenawalt departed Microsoft after 27 years following Turn 10’s merger with Playground Games. Eurogamer

• John Romero secured a new publisher for his previously cancelled Xbox project, rescoping it for a smaller team and rehiring some staff. Game Developer · VGC

• Yacht Club Games said Mina the Hollower had provided financial stability for now, with most developers moving to a new 3D game. Eurogamer

• Dimensions Games Studio closed after four years, with founder Mustafa Dabaibeh citing difficult circumstances. Latest Updates | PocketGamer.biz

• Rockstar employees will have two weeks to vote on recognition of the IWGB Rockstar Game Workers Union, with the vote set to coincide with Grand Theft Auto VI’s launch. Game Developer

Business and investment

• Private equity firms reportedly explored an Xbox buyout at a $100 billion to $150 billion valuation, but discussions did not reach negotiations with Microsoft, which said Xbox is not for sale. Latest Updates | PocketGamer.biz

• Microsoft’s gaming division reportedly aims for industry-leading profit margins and roughly 500 million daily active players by 2030 through blockbusters, casual games, franchise commercialization and global partnerships. 机核

• Nazara posted record quarterly revenue of $84.3 million, up 53%, with gaming revenue rising 122% to $68.9 million at a 21.5% EBITDA margin. Latest Updates | PocketGamer.biz

• Unity partnered with PvX to offer eligible game and consumer-app developers marketing financing without surrendering equity, paired with Unity Vector targeting tools. Latest Updates | PocketGamer.biz

• Atari appointed Hipster Whale co-founder and Crossy Road creator Matt Hall as EVP of Mobile to support cross-platform releases and mobile platform relationships. Game Developer · Latest Updates | PocketGamer.biz · VGC

• Google Play selected 10 studios in Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana and Kenya for its $1 million African Indie Games Fund, offering each $50,000 to $200,000 in equity-free funding plus support. Latest Updates | PocketGamer.biz

• China approved 183 domestic and 12 imported games in October, bringing annual approvals to 1,766, with Tencent, NetEase and Perfect World among the recipients. 触乐

Platforms and tools

• Steam reportedly introduced a submission check requiring developers to log at least five minutes in their game through a developer account within the past seven days or after the latest build reaches the default branch. 机核

• Steam rolled out Personal Calendar to all users, recommending recent and upcoming releases through play-activity signals rather than paid or manually curated placement. 机核 · Eurogamer

• Anthropic updated Opus 5.5 to steer Claude Code away from recreating someone else’s specific game. Game Developer

• Godot released its feature-complete 4.8 beta 2, reporting progress detecting and resolving nearly 150 regressions since beta 1. Godot Engine Official

• Studio Atelico opened Early Access for its on-device AI Engine, supporting language models, image generation, speech, semantic search and character behavior without cloud services. GamesIndustry.biz Latest Articles Feed · Latest Updates | PocketGamer.biz

• Eligible US customers on T-Mobile’s new T-Mix offering will be able to choose Game Pass Ultimate or Premium as a wireless-plan benefit starting in November. XBOX Wire

• Maddy Makes Games removed Celeste and TowerFall from Xbox in support of the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. GamesIndustry.biz Latest Articles Feed

• A teardown indicated that a European Switch 2 revision makes battery replacement substantially easier. TwistedVoxel

Security and content

• Capcom temporarily delisted Street Fighter 5 and switched off its servers to address a PHP security issue, while leaving offline play available. VGC

• Warhorse Studios confirmed a serious cyberattack involving unauthorized access to company systems and data and is assessing its impact. GamesIndustry.biz Latest Articles Feed · Game Developer · Eurogamer

• 世家 pulled Total War: Shogun 2 Complete Edition and restored the original version after negative reviews, while Creative Assembly said the outsourced release bypassed its internal QA and reiterated its generative-AI ban for external partners. GamesIndustry.biz Latest Articles Feed · 机核

• Activision apologised to victims’ families and committed to removing real footage of the Itaewon crowd crush from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’s introduction. VGC · Eurogamer

Releases and sales

• 《影之刃零》 launched on PS5, PS5 Pro, Steam and Epic with a roughly 5 GB day-one patch intended to improve ray-tracing performance and fix bugs. 机核 · Eurogamer

• FromSoftware delayed Switch 2 exclusive The Duskbloods from 2026 to an unspecified date in 2027. Eurogamer · Wccftech · GameWatcher

• 乐元素 set December 14, 2026, for 《白银之城》’s global open beta on PC, PS5, Android and iOS, with preregistrations exceeding 15 million. 机核

• Meccha Chameleon sold one million copies in its first four days after two Japanese developers built it in Unreal Engine 5 over two months. Unreal Engine

• Bulkhead’s Wardogs topped September’s PC revenue chart ahead of EA Sports FC 27. GamesIndustry.biz Latest Articles Feed

• Crimson Desert Enhanced Edition added a five-hour PlayStation and Xbox demo with save carryover after sales exceeded six million copies in three months. Eurogamer

• Nintendo announced Pikmin 4 Switch 2 Edition for November 12, 2026, with a demo on November 2. My Nintendo News · The Economic Times · Final Weapon

• Final Fantasy 14’s Evercold expansion received a February 23, 2027, launch date, with preorders opening next week and crossbow-wielding physical ranged DPS zephyr revealed as its second new job. Eurogamer

Screen adaptations

• Sony Pictures’ Screen Gems acquired Mouthwashing’s film rights, with Karyn Kusama directing and Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay writing. 机核 · Eurogamer

• Netflix is developing a live-action PUBG series with Donald Glover set to direct, write, executive produce and star. Eurogamer

What to watch

• Watch for Pikmin 4 Switch 2 Edition’s demo on November 2, ahead of its November 12 release.

• Final Fantasy 14: Evercold preorders are due to open in the week following the November 1 announcement.

• Arkane Lyon has until mid-December to find a buyer; the outcome will determine whether the studio avoids closure.

• 《白银之城》’s global open beta is scheduled for December 14 across PC, PS5, Android and iOS.

• Epic’s revised AI-training EULA remains pending, with timing not announced; the final terms will determine how game-specific restrictions work.