Since its earliest days, the video game industry has been built on developers creating clones of competing games, with varying levels of originality and varying levels of enforcement from game platforms. Now, though, AI coding tools are making that cloning process so efficient that many developers are getting extremely cautious about sharing their early work too widely.
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/10/ai-game-clones-are-making-indie-developers-afraid-to-show-their-work/
“We have a huge pivot underway here at Epic, moving developers around to retool for maximum AI acceleration,” Epic CEO Tim Sweeney wrote on social media shortly after the Bloomberg story was posted. “The aim isn’t to do the same stuff with fewer people, but to enable everyone here to build MORE and BETTER stuff, and to bring the benefits to all teams using Unreal.”
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/10/report-epic-games-goes-all-in-on-ai-for-disney-collaboration
Unity is taking a bold step in the push for AI-powered game creation. During a recent earnings call, CEO Matthew Bromberg announced that an upgraded Unity AI will enter beta at the Game Developers Conference in March, promising to let developers generate full casual games from a simple text prompt.
https://www.creativebloq.com/3d/video-game-design/unity-ai-will-let-you-build-entire-games-with-just-words
The union representing employees at the Halifax office of international video game giant Ubisoft has filed a labour board complaint over the Nova Scotia studio’s closure.
The union, CWA Canada, was certified last month to represent 61 of the studio’s 71 workers. Three weeks after certification, the France-based company announced Jan. 7 the Halifax office would be shuttered, citing cost and efficiency concerns.
The union filed its labour board complaint on Tuesday, accusing the company of closing the studio in order to keep out the union, in violation of the Trade Union Act.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/union-files-labour-board-complaint-over-closure-of-ubisoft-s-halifax-studio-9.7044915?cmp=rss
Valve, the company behind PC gaming platform Steam, has revealed a new console to rival Nintendo, Xbox and PlayStation. In an unusual move, Valve has also announced further hardware – its Steam Frame virtual reality (VR) headset. The device is entirely wireless – and it described it as a "streaming-first" device – but it is also itself a PC running SteamOS.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd679n9lnx5o
The writing has been on the wall since 2020, when Microsoft and Sony introduced their (at the time) next-generation Xbox and PlayStation consoles with versions that didn’t have a place to put your discs. Ultimately, they were responding to the emerging trend of people buying fewer physical games for consoles. Can you even remember the last time you bought a physical game for PC?
https://www.theverge.com/games/638535/physical-digital-video-games-nintendo-xbox-ps5-disc-cart
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Sony is closing Firewalk Studios, the studio behind its PlayStation Concord game that it took offline last month after a disastrous launch. In a message to PlayStation staff, Hermen Hulst, CEO of the PlayStation studio business group, says Firewalk Studios will close alongside Neon Koi, a mobile game studio. The shutdowns will affect about 210 jobs, Bloomberg reports. “We have spent considerable time these past few months exploring all our options,” says Hulst. “After much thought, we have determined the best path forward is to permanently sunset the game and close the studio. I want to thank all of Firewalk for their craftsmanship, creative spirit and dedication.”
https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/29/24282900/sony-shutting-down-concord-firewalk-studios