Last month, a UK judge ruled that Valve would have to face its day in court over a £656 million class-action lawsuit being led by Parent Zone chief executive officer, Vicki Shotbolt, over the 30% cut that the company takes from all transactions on Steam. It's not a dissimilar case to what Epic Games brought against Apple, as Shotbolt has called Valve's 30% cut "excessive" and that the company "is rigging the market and taking advantage of UK gamers." In a new report from GamesIndustry.Biz, Shotbolt further explained her case against Valve and Steam, adding that Valve is "clearly not" […]

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[UPDATE #2 - February 23, 2026] Asha Sharma's journey as the new Xbox CEO didn't quite start smoothly: gamers are already accusing her of using an AI bot to respond on X, and they're also skeptical of her gaming chops after noticing she just created her Xbox Gamertag last month. [UPDATE - February 21, 2026]: Following the publication of this article, former Xbox president Sarah Bond has shared her statement she sent internally within Xbox and Microsoft on her personal LinkedIn account. Notably, she mentions that her decision to step away comes at a time when she feels she has […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/microsoft-phil-spencer-retires-sarah-bond-resigns-asha-sharma-takes-over-xbox/

Circana executive director Mat Piscatella has shared his first monthly sales report of 2026 for video game sales in the US, and it's Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 taking the top spot on the premium sales charts for January 2026. Overall spending in the video game industry in the US was up 3% compared to last year, with subscription services and hardware sales driving that growth. It's Call of Duty: Black Ops 7's second month in a row sitting atop the US premium game sales charts, though finishing 2025 as the best-selling game of December was not enough to […]

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Ubisoft chief executive officer Yves Guillemot has finally spoken outside of the company's financial earnings reports after kicking off 2026 by confirming a "major reset" that involved huge structural changes to Ubisoft and saw hundreds of developers get laid off, either through cuts at different branches or just full studio shutdowns. In an interview with Variety, Guillemot didn't offer any meaningful comments in response to questions about the strikes across different studios within the company or provide any further comment as to why projects like Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake were cancelled that we hadn't heard before. But […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/ubisoft-ceo-confirms-two-far-cry-projects-several-assassins-creed-games-single-player-and-multiplayer/

Season 2 for Battlefield 6 finally arrived earlier this week after an unexpected one-month delay. While we can hopefully trust the Battlefield Studios teams when they say the length between Season 1 and Season 2 was an isolated case, the new content in Season 2 hasn't exactly set the game's community on fire, and players still have several issues with the new content. Outside of complaints about the new VL-7 gas (which a scroll through the r/Battlefield page will show you players are either very positive on or very against), one thing that Battlefield 6 players agree on is that […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/ea-dice-heard-the-message-players-want-larger-maps-battlefield-6/

After MegaCrit missed its initial 2025 release goal for Slay the Spire 2, the beloved indie developer confirmed today that the long-awaited sequel to the popular roguelike deckbuilder will arrive on March 5, 2026. Announced during the Indie Fan Fest, its Early Access release trailer includes a few sneak peeks at gameplay mixed in between some high-quality animations. Back in September 2025, when MegaCrit confirmed that Slay the Spire 2 wouldn't arrive in 2025, it gave a release window that was vague and specific at the same time. The studio confirmed the game would arrive on "a secret Thursday in […]

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Toronto-based developer Hilltop Studios has just revealed its second major project, Curse of Resthaven, a narrative-driven roguelike that studio director Scott Christian calls "a radical shift" from the team's award-winning debut game, Lil' Guardsman. Announced during the Indie Fan Fest, you'll enter the dark and gloomy island colony of Resthaven with seven days to discover the mystery behind the cursed island and save its inhabitants from the time loop. While the colourful presentation of Lil' Guardsman can make you feel like the stakes are relatively small, deciding whether or not to let people into the kingdom with its comedic twist […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/lil-guardsman-developer-reveals-curse-of-resthaven-radical-shift-from-debut-award-winning-game/

Embark Studios has just revealed the next update and map condition coming to ARC Raiders, with hurricanes arriving next week on February 24, 2026, in the game's new Shrouded Sky update. The short teaser doesn't show any gameplay, but it does make it clear how disruptive and dangerous the hurricanes will be for raiders who choose to brave the weather while the condition is in effect. A blog post on the ARC Raiders' official website digs further into what raiders will have to deal with, and it's a little more than some high-speed winds. "The climate is damaged and unpredictable, […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/new-arc-raiders-hurricane-map-condition-arrives-in-shrouded-sky-update-next-week/

We've been surprised by video game studio closures before, like when Xbox shut down Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks, but this latest studio closure is arguably the most shocking one we've seen in a long time. Bluepoint Games, the studio responsible for the Demon's Souls Remake and decades of remakes and remasters across several iconic franchises, is being shut down by PlayStation. It was Bloomberg's Jason Schreier who broke the news that just five years after the studio officially joined the PlayStation Studios family, its remaining 70 developers are losing their jobs in what is yet another baffling decision by […]

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EA's biggest franchises are undoubtedly its EA Sports games, but on the EA Entertainment side, beyond shooters like Apex Legends and Battlefield 6, it's The Sims that rules the roost as one of its biggest ongoing live service titles. Today, EA studio Maxis, the team behind The Sims, gave players an update on the life sim franchise and its future in a blog post, with insights into what players can expect in 2026 and beyond. But before it got to that, it began with a couple of paragraphs on how the "values" of the game have not changed. The blog […]

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It's been over two years since Ubisoft Massive confirmed that it would be making The Division 3, and that series creator Julian Gerighty would be at the forefront of the project. Since then, Ubisoft has released major updates and expansions for The Division 2, and at Gamescom 2025, we even got a major reveal of what the company has planned for the franchise, with a new survival extraction game called The Division 2: Survivors and an upcoming mobile MMO title called The Division Resurgence. As for The Division 3? Ubisoft did not mention it at the time, but during yesterday's […]

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Hooded Horse, a publisher that made a name for itself when it picked up Manor Lords and has since been known to have a keen eye for strategy and city-building games, has drawn its line in the sand on GenAI tech. In an interview with Kotaku, Hooded Horse's chief executive officer, Tim Bender, made it clear that the publisher will not sign studios that use GenAI. The studio has even gone so far as to add a "no f***ing AI assets" line into its contracts, banning any studios that work with it from using generative AI technology in the process […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/publisher-hooded-horse-added-no-fing-ai-assets-to-its-contracts-calls-genai-cancerous/

Update 09/01/2026: In response to the publication of this article, a separate user on X (formerly Twitter) dug into the Smarty.cz source code to verify the Steam Machine pricing estimates for themselves, and went a step further to look into Alza, another Czech retailer and one of the country's largest. On Alza's listing for the Steam Machine, user Hajedan also found that it had a similar pricing structure for the Steam Machine, though added that the original post's indication that the actual price will be lower than the conversion estimates is almost definitely correct due to Alza and Smarty.cz including […]

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When Larian Studios announced Divinity at The Game Awards 2025, it likely did not think what would follow would be swarms of backlash targeted at the studio and its chief executive officer, Swen Vincke. Not because it had announced a new Divinity game, but because Vincke had made it clear that Larian had been experimenting with using GenAI tools in its development process. Those comments came with considerable backlash, to which Vincke responded fairly bluntly before trying a more measured statement, but that did not stop players and other game developers in the industry who are entirely against the use […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/larian-studios-will-refrain-from-using-genai-tools-to-develop-concept-art-will-use-it-elsewhere/

Starfinder: Afterlight is a new turn-based cRPG from Epictellers Entertainment, a Barcelona-based studio that saw how Baldur's Gate 3 proved there was a commercial appetite for strong cRPG games (as they told us in the linked exclusive interview), and wanted to offer a sci-fi flavour to those fans of the genre and anyone introduced to cRPGs through Baldur's Gate 3. Today, at the New Game Plus Showcase, Epictellers debuted a first look at some gameplay, including some combat and a bit of exploration. It's not a huge look at what's to come, but it does feature some stunning voices, and […]

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2025 saw the return of one of the biggest strategy franchises in the genre, a spiritual successor to a series that fans are dying to see make a comeback, and a beloved game get its long-awaited remake. There was plenty to fill our pick of the Best Strategy and Simulation Games of 2025, and if everything on our list below makes it out before the end of 2026, putting together 2026's list of the best strategy games and best simulation games shouldn't be an issue either. Other Wccftech's Most Anticipated 2026 Games per genre: Role-Playing Games, Indie Games, Platformers, DLC/Expansion, Action, Shooters, Horror, Sports/Racing, […]

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DON'T NOD has unveiled a new trailer for its upcoming game, Aphelion, at today's New Game Plus Showcase, which focused on the game's music and featured an interview with its award-winning composer, Amine Bouhafa. You may have already heard Bouhafa's work in the 2021 short film The Summit of the Gods or in 2025's The Little Sister, though this is the first time the César-winning composer is working on a video game. "This is my first time working on a video game, and I loved the way that [the Aphelion team] thought about the music and about the game. I'm […]

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The 29th annual DICE Awards are set for February 12, 2026, and the full list of nominees has been revealed, with an unsurprising list of games leading the way in nominations. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Ghost of Yotei lead the pack with eight nominations each, while Dispatch and ARC Raiders tie for second place with six nominations each. All four titles are also nominated for the big prize, Game of the Year. The DICE Awards are hosted every year by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, with the nominees and winners picked by an academy of more than […]

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Though not a new Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest game, the first two Octopath Traveler games established the series as an important one for JRPG fans to pay attention to. Octopath Traveler and its sequel, Octopath Traveler II, could easily be considered two of the best JRPGs to be released in the last decade. Now, Square Enix has continued the series with a prequel for the third installment, with Octopath Traveler 0. Here's everything we know about the turn-based prequel. Release Date, Platforms, Pricing, Editions Octopath Traveler 0 was first announced back in July 2025. Its reveal trailer was included […]

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IO Interactive is quickly approaching the launch date for what has been described as the peanut butter and chocolate of video games: IO Interactive behind a new James Bond game. 007 First Light will arrive on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on March 27, 2026, and leading up to that launch, IO Interactive has kicked off a new series of videos on the game's YouTube channel called Beyond the Light, going behind the scenes of the game's development. The first episode of the series includes reactions and insights from the developers regarding gameplay, with IO Interactive's gameplay director on […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/io-interactive-debuts-new-beyond-the-light-bts-007-first-light-series/