We can’t believe we’ve come yet again to another roundup of the gaming news for the week. These moments just seem to come and go so quickly, don’t they?
We hope you’ve got your customary drink and comfortable chair ready; once again, while this week hasn’t been desperately busy for news, there’s still quite a lot to pore over, so you’ll need your best analytical hat on.
Here are the highlights of the past week or so in the world of gaming news!
Paradox and Cities: Skylines developer Colossal Order part ways
This week, Paradox announced that it’s splitting from Cities: Skylines studio Colossal Order after more than 15 years, and that development on Cities: Skylines 2 will be shifting to a new studio.
Work on the sequel will now be done by Iceflake Studios, the developer responsible for Paradox’s Surviving the Aftermath, so the two studios have past form together.
As for what Colossal Order will do now, CEO Mariina Hallikainen says her company will “channel our experience, creativity, and passion into new projects that align with our long-term vision”.
The Game Awards has its nominees
This year’s Game Awards will take place in mid-December, as usual, but the nominees were announced this week, and as expected, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is sweeping all of the categories.
The French-developed turn-based RPG is up for Game of the Year, as well as Best Indie Debut and Best Indie Game. Expect to see it pick up at least a few of the twelve awards for which it’s been nominated.
Other Game of the Year nominees include Hideo Kojima’s profoundly strange Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Team Cherry’s Hollow Knight: Silksong, and Nintendo’s 3D platforming smash Donkey Kong Bananza.
Hytale has been rescued from the jaws of death
Voxel sandbox Hytale may have been killed by parent company Riot Games earlier this year, but that hasn’t stopped some of its original founders from saving the project.
Original Hytale server co-founder Simon Collins-Laflamme announced this week that, alongside fellow originator Philippe Touchette, he’s resurrected the project, and it will be entering Early Access soon.
The new version won’t feature developer-created minigames at launch, but it will have in-built modding functionality, which the founders say is “a top priority” and “at the core of our vision” for the game.
There isn’t going to be an F1 26
Sorry, Formula One fans, but the coming year’s F1 season isn’t going to get its own official standalone game. Instead, EA says it will develop a new expansion for the existing F1 25.
According to EA and developer Codemasters, the paid expansion will feature “new cars, sporting regulations, teams, and drivers”, and will “bring players closer to the sport’s major changes for 2026”.
This isn’t the end for full F1 experiences, though; you’ll be getting a brand new game in 2027 that will “mark the start of a new and more expansive F1 experience”.
Dispatch is doing pretty well
AdHoc Studio’s Telltale-style workplace comedy Dispatch reached a new sales milestone this week, proving that there is still an appetite for games of this nature.
The game has now crossed 2 million sales across PC and PS5, the two platforms on which it’s currently available (with no Xbox Series or Switch 2 port on the horizon, apparently).
This will likely come as a pleasant surprise to the folks at AdHoc, especially after the studio emerged from the ashes of what Telltale once was back in 2018. Here’s hoping for a second season of Dispatch as soon as AdHoc wants to make it!
FBC: Firebreak’s next update has been delayed
Remedy’s FBC: Firebreak isn’t exactly wowing players right now, and to add further insult to injury, the game’s next update, Rogue Protocol, has been delayed.
The developer says the update needs “a bit more time” before it’s ready, and so it’ll now be arriving in January 2026, bringing “a completely new game mode” and more.
Given that FBC: Firebreak proved disappointing in sales terms for Remedy, we’re not sure this delay is exactly what the game needs at the moment, but honestly, we’re also not sure it’ll save the shooter when it does arrive.
Xbox’s Partner Preview shows off some games
Xbox held a Partner Preview show this week, and it featured announcements from some big games and some smaller studios alike, including a couple of surprises we didn’t see coming.
We got to see more from IO Interactive’s upcoming 007 First Light and Tarsier Studios’ Reanimal, and announcements were also made for a sequel to Raji: An Ancient Epic and a new Elusive Target for IO’s Hitman World of Assassination.
That’s on top of a sequel to voxel RPG Echo Generation, a surprise release for “indie” hit Dave the Diver on Xbox, and a new look at Metroidvania platformer Crowsworn.
PUBG is getting an extraction shooter spinoff
PUBG: Black Budget is a brand new extraction shooter spinoff from the folks behind smash hit battle royale PUBG: Battlegrounds, and it’s getting a closed alpha test next month.
The game is designed as a first-person perspective experience, and it sees you and your squad descending onto an island consumed by a time-looping supernatural phenomenon known as the Anomaly.
From there, you know the drill: grab loot, fight off hostile enemies and squads of other players, and extract with whatever you’ve managed to keep on your travels.
Microsoft might be upping Xbox Series prices yet again
With Xbox hardware currently struggling to compete with Nintendo and Sony’s offerings on the market, you’d think a price increase would be the last thing on the company’s mind, and yet, just such a thing might be in the offing.
According to YouTuber Moore’s Law Is Dead, Xbox prices could go up thanks to the potential hike in RAM prices that could be coming soon, something that Microsoft apparently hasn’t planned ahead for.
As such, it could get even more expensive to pick up a console that nobody really seems to want to buy anyway. Ouch.
