Game News Round-Up

Epic says it’s ‘vibe coded’ its new Epic Games Launcher with AI, because ‘programming is hard’

• Epic also announced that it is working on bringing Fortnite and Easy Anti Cheat to specific Linux distributions

S&box plans to go free-to-play and embrace human curation saying "Netflix for games doesn't work"

• Facepunch founder Garry Newman acknowledges the platform has struggled with reviews and retention
• Facepunch has changed the Play Fund into an approval system, where creators must apply and be accepted rather than enrolling themselves. Newman said the previous setup encouraged "the wrong type of games" and rewarded botting
• Facepunch is also moving toward the Steam Workshop and away from its own backend, which Newman said he is concluding has "mostly been a waste of time and resources"

Casual game marketplace Legacy Games to close online store this December

• From February 28, 2027, players will no longer able to re-download previous purchases despite slogan saying games are "yours to keep forever"

Valve has sunset the Valve Index

October’s PS Plus Game Catalog titles Announced

• Mafia: The Old Country
• Horizon Forbidden West
• Mycopunk
• Poppy Playtime: Chapter 2
• The Midnight Walk
• Tales of Arise
• Monster Energy Supercross 25 The Official Video Game
• Dino Crisis 2
• RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Complete Edition

Three more GBA games come to Switch Online: Metal Slug Advance, Monster Rancher Advance and Kururin Paradise

A new game from Kotaro Uchikoshi (of Zero Escape and The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy fame) has been cancelled, leaving the studio's (Crash Keys) fate in doubt

Funcom to lay off staff as it pivots to focusing solely on Conan Exiles and Dune: Awakening

• CEO and 22-year company veteran Rui Casais to leave Tencent-owned developer once "difficult phase" of restructuring completes, to be replaced by Scott Junior