Game News Round-Up

Neil Druckmann is stepping away from The Last of Us TV show to ‘transition complete focus’ on game development

Blizzard is giving up on its Warcraft mobile game (Warcraft Rumble) amid layoffs - will no longer be developing new content for the free-to-play mobile strategy game, and instead focus on "regular, systemic in-game events and bug fixes."

Nexus Mods is getting age verification for UK and EU users, weeks after changing owners

Rockstar releases surprise Red Dead Online update, despite previously ending major support - The update is known as Strange Tales of the West, includes four missions based on supernatural elements

Dave the Diver director says there’s ‘nothing indie’ about it, and he didn’t apply for its controversial Game Awards nod

Mark Cerny says PS5 Pro will get its major ‘replacement for the current PSSR’ upscaler next year - AMD's FSR 4 will replace PSSR

ZeniMax Online Studios boss confirms departure amidst rumours of Blackbird project cancellation

Xbox closes The Initiative and cancels its Perfect Dark reboot

Three former Ubisoft execs receive suspended prison sentences at harassment trial

9,100+ employees affected by layoffs, studio closures and project cancellations across Microsoft

• Whilst an official list has not been released, it is believed that AT LEAST The Initiative (closed), Rare, Zenimax, King, Raven Software, High Moon, Sledgehammer Games, Halo Studios, Turn 10 (nearly 50% of staff), Xbox’s user research team (nearly 50% of staff) and Undead Labs are amongst the affected studios.

Rare's Everwild has been cancelled