This Week in Gaming News: October 5th - October 11th, 2026

Welcome along to another in our long-running series of gaming news rundowns! If you’re new around here, the concept is pretty simple: we take a look at what’s been going on in the gaming world for the last week or so.

That’s really all there is to it. No gimmicks, no unnecessary bells and whistles, just the most important news that you need to know from the last seven days.

Without further ado, then, let’s do what we always do: run through the news from the last week and tell you what you need to stay informed!

Arc Raiders and The Finals are the next games to become movies and TV shows

Per a Variety report this week, the next games to be getting the silver screen (and, uh, bronze screen?) treatment will be multiplayer shooters Arc Raiders and The Finals.

The adaptations will be coming via Chernin Entertainment, and developer Embark Studios will, of course, have a hand in proceedings as well, although just how hands-on the studio will be remains to be seen.

We’re almost certainly quite a long way away from these movies and TV shows being released, so we’re still not sure what to expect from them, but suffice it to say you have permission to get hyped if you’re a fan of either game.

The Sonic the Hedgehog Discord launched this week to, uh, chaos

It looks like Shadow isn’t the only one in need of some chaos control, as this week, Sega launched the official Sonic the Hedgehog Discord server, and it went about as well as you’d expect.

Despite some pretty hefty moderation protocols being put in place, Sonic fans found a way to circumvent Sega’s strict family-friendly requirements, resulting in messages that were…less than savoury, shall we say.

At the moment, the Sonic Discord is still up and hasn’t been shut down yet, but we can imagine that it’ll only take one message that goes slightly too far for Sega to pull the plug on the whole thing.

October’s first wave of Game Pass games has been revealed

Are you wondering which games are on their way to Xbox Game Pass in the first half of October? Well, wonder no more, as Microsoft has revealed the service’s lineup for the first couple of weeks of this month.

Big releases like Valor Mortis and Battlefield 6 are joined by indie hopefuls such as Neon Abyss 2 and Chained Beasts. This time around, it looks as though everything is coming to Ultimate, so there isn’t the usual tier-based confusion, it would seem.

This is just the first wave of games coming to Game Pass in October, too, so expect lots more on the way in the second half of the month. Stay tuned!

Sony could be about to revive Ape Escape and other beloved IPs

This week, it emerged (via Jeff Gerstmann and VGC) that an Ape Escape reboot is underway at Sony, and the developers are none other than Sonic Mania’s Evening Star.

We don’t know what the game will look like yet, but given that the Evening Star folks went on to make 3D platformer Penny’s Big Breakaway, we can likely expect something broadly similar from them for Ape Escape.

What’s more, this won’t be the only Sony reboot in the next few years; reports have suggested that the company is also planning to take another look at the Killzone franchise, among others.

Star Wars: Zero Company developer Bit Reactor has started bringing its staff back

Around the time of Star Wars: Zero Company’s release, developer Bit Reactor announced that it had furloughed most of its staff due to the game’s uncertain future.

This week, however, brought better and more optimistic news for the studio, as CEO Greg Foertsch stated that the developer had started to return some of its staff to work following the “difficult decision” to furlough them.

Of course, that doesn’t mean every staff member who was furloughed has returned to work, but it does hopefully mean that Zero Company is doing well enough to continue to support those workers.

Forza Horizon 6 has officially been delayed on PS5

Developer Playground Games has made it official: Forza Horizon 6, which was originally slated for release on PS5 sometime this year, will, in fact, be arriving in January next year on Sony’s console.

The game’s release is now set for January 26th, and you can pre-order the PS5 version now. Much like the Forza Horizon 5 port released in 2025, this version of the game will be developed by Panic Button.

The announcement follows weeks of speculation regarding Forza Horizon 6’s release date, as well as a (now woefully out-of-date) denial by Playground that the game would be delayed. Don’t trust developers, we guess.

There could well be a Cyberpunk 2077 live-action movie on the way

It’s not just Arc Raiders and The Finals becoming live-action movies soon, it seems; a report from Deadline this week revealed that CD Projekt Red’s smash hit action RPG Cyberpunk 2077 is also getting a movie in the near future.

The film is in development at Paramount Pictures, and CD Projekt Red is attached as a producer, although naturally, we don’t know who will be directing the project or who’s likely to star yet.

Whether or not the movie will closely follow the story of the acclaimed game is another burning question. It’s likely to be quite a while before we find out the answer to any of these conundrums, sadly.

Phasmophobia has now sold 30 million copies

Have you played Phasmophobia? Do you know someone who has? The answer to that question is perhaps more likely to be “yes” than you might think, as Kinetic Games confirmed this week that the game has hit a big new sales milestone.

30 million sales puts Phasmophobia firmly in the same league as heavy hitters like Elden Ring, although it has stopped just short of wizarding RPG Hogwarts Legacy. Perhaps some day, eh, guys?

The new number is particularly impressive given that Phasmophobia is technically still in Early Access, with a 1.0 release date set to land sometime next year.

Written by

Jay Allsopp

Meet Jay, the visionary Founder of GamerBolt, who launched this gaming haven in 2010. A dedicated PS5 enthusiast, Jay thrives on the adrenaline rush of Call of Duty and the competitive spirit of EA Sports FC. His passion for gaming goes beyond play; it's about creating a community for fellow gamers to celebrate the worlds and stories they love; Gamerbolt.