Monday, October 19

Credits, juries and AI: who makes games and who judges them

“I wish I could say that the advances in AI will make it easier to create hits, obviously it won't. Hits are created by genius. And data sets plus compute plus large language models does not equal genius. Genius is the domain of human beings and I believe will stay that way.” — Nathan Grayson, in As a Principled Video Game Executive, I Believe AI Is ‘Metadata’ Mixed With a ‘Parlor Trick,’ and We Should Be Skeptical of It. Then Again, Counterpoint: Never Mind

Gaming Editorial

Galactic Racer's 'core team of 75' and the 1,109 names behind it

Aftermath (Luke Plunkett) · Oct 19

Aftermath's Luke Plunkett takes issue with how Star Wars: Galactic Racer's development has been described. In a GI.biz interview, Fuse Games CEO Matt Webster outlined three tiers of distributed development: traditional outsourcing of assets, external development of self-contained features (photo mode went wholesale to an outside studio), and co-development with people embedded in Fuse's stand-ups, Slack and code base. GI.biz nonetheless framed the game as made by a core team of 75, while MobyGames lists roughly 1,109 credited people.

Plunkett says Webster is working within the realities of the 2026 industry, and his main complaint is with the coverage. He argues that repeating the small-team figure, as happened with Manor Lords and Expedition 33, misrepresents how modern games get made. He also says the model risks entrenching a permanent underclass of contractors, naming Electric Square, Expression Games, Mindwalk and Original Force. He lands on bafflement at why the industry keeps trying to narrow the spotlight.

Counterpoint: Studio heads such as Webster, and the GI.biz writers, would say the core-team figure describes who steered design and direction, which differs from headcount of everyone who touched the project. Webster also argues that distributed work lets a studio scale up and down without laying off its permanent staff.

The Game Awards jury loses its American majority

Polygon (Oli Welsh) · Oct 18

Polygon's Oli Welsh reports that the 2026 Game Awards jury has just 17 American outlets, down from 24 in 2024 and 2025. The UK rose from 14 to 17 and now matches the US, while Brazil gained four outlets and holds 14 votes. Latin America makes up about 21% of the jury, and continental Europe (27%) now nearly matches the Anglophone bloc (28%). The US decline comes largely from mainstream, lifestyle and tech outlets leaving, among them Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, Wirecutter and Wired. Welsh says he cannot tell whether the cause is TGA's choice or newsrooms losing their games writers.

He restates last year's argument that a bigger international jury has narrowed taste toward games that travel easily, which has hurt indies that cannot afford localisation. He adds a caveat: the winners' countries of origin have diversified, with no American GOTY winner since 2020 after four wins in the first seven years. Grand Theft Auto 6, which squeaks under the eligibility cutoff, is the overwhelming favourite, and Welsh calls it likely a last hurrah for the American blockbuster.

Counterpoint: Welsh himself concedes the US-UK shift looks mostly symbolic given how similar the two gaming cultures are. Defenders of the jury would say a broader panel better reflects a global audience, and that winners follow quality rather than outlet nationality.

Continuing · Generative AI in games and modding

Sweeney says AI coding will bring a 'golden age of gaming'

Polygon (Ashely Claudino) · Oct 18

Polygon reports that Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney is again defending AI in development, arguing that AI coding has improved sharply over the past year and will let studios build large open-world games with far fewer resources. He says the time he spent writing Unreal Engine 1 could have been saved with AI producing equivalent work. Ahead of a report that Epic's upcoming Disney title prioritises AI, he posted that Epic is moving developers around to retool for maximum AI acceleration.

The piece also gathers earlier reports: developers allegedly told there is no more hand-written code, rumours that some partners are refusing Fortnite collaborations over Epic's AI use, and a new store launcher, in preview, that was vibe coded. Polygon describes player reaction as largely hostile and calls Epic's upcoming products a litmus test for how comfortable players are with generative AI.

Counterpoint: Many developers and gamers oppose the stance, as Polygon notes, citing concerns about quality, effort and labour. Sweeney's critics point to the vibe-coded launcher, which fans felt lacked polish, as evidence that the promised gains have not yet arrived.

Previously: Konami's president said people and creators matter most, while a vibe-coded San Francisco game drew backlash. — Sunday October 18 edition.

A Game Boy cartridge that holds an entire Game Boy museum

Eurogamer (Robert Purchese) · Oct 18

Eurogamer's Robert Purchese profiles Dr Marcel Pflug, who spent years of evenings and weekends fitting his Game Boy Museum archive onto a cartridge that runs on real 1989 hardware. The site catalogues the handheld's products, peripherals, hardware revisions and hundreds of journal articles, and the cartridge makes it searchable like a chapter-by-chapter paperback. The limits were severe: only 255 tile blocks on screen, many consumed by each line of text, which Pflug calls making the Game Boy a spectacularly bad e-reader.

He added QR codes, a format invented in 1994 for a Toyota factory, so the handheld can point phones to photos, and drew the title screen by hand because photo conversion turned his face into a skull. The ROM is free to download. Purchese reads the project as a human counterweight to AI, because the work is done purely for the pleasure of it, at a time when similar projects might take minutes to generate.

Counterpoint: AI-tool advocates such as Tim Sweeney would argue that automation lowers the barrier to making things and does not stop hobbyists from doing it the slow way. The framing also sets this hobby project against AI rather than against a specific use of it.

Continuing · Generative AI in games and modding

Steam Next Fest passes 8,000 demos as vibe-coded games multiply

PC Gamer (Shaun Prescott) · Oct 19

PC Gamer's weekly Steam roundup for the week ending October 18 notes that Steam Next Fest has more than 8,000 demos. Its headline also describes vibe-coded games as worthless slop that is levelling up on the platform.

Previously: Konami's president said people and creators matter most, while a vibe-coded San Francisco game drew backlash. — Sunday October 18 edition.

Continuing · Rising console prices and the next hardware generation

PS6 memory and storage reportedly cost more than $680

Eurogamer (Vikki Blake) · Oct 18

Eurogamer reports that the memory and storage in the PlayStation 6 reportedly cost more than $680 between them. The figure adds a concrete number to the debate over how expensive the next hardware generation will be.

Previously: Rob Fahey argued a hardware market freeze could reshape the industry just as GTA VI should be boosting console sales. — Saturday October 17 edition.

AI & Industry

Continuing · Anthropic IPO preparations

Anthropic sets aside shares for a new public benefit fund

Anthropic · Oct 18

Anthropic says it is committing a portion of its shares to the Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, a new entity structured so that its stake increases as the company grows.

Previously: Anthropic told investors Q3 revenue reached $16.8bn with an 11% adjusted operating margin. — Friday October 16 edition.

Leaked Anthropic-drafted AI safety bill sets high thresholds for intervention

PC Gamer (Justin Wagner) · Oct 18

PC Gamer reports on a leaked AI safety bill from Anthropic that would require government intervention only when 50 or more injuries or $1 billion in harm are at risk. The outlet's framing is sceptical, mocking how high that bar sits.

Disney details Kamino, the simulator behind its Olaf animatronic

WDW News Today (Shannen Ace) · Oct 19

Disney Research shared a video and paper on Kamino, a GPU-accelerated physics solver for simulating complex mechanical systems. It was used to program the walking, talking Olaf animatronic and other park robots, according to WDW News Today.

Monstropolis gets monster-themed trim at Disney's Hollywood Studios

WDW News Today (Austin Haughton) · Oct 18

WDW News Today's latest construction update shows teeth, scales and weathered paint added to Monstropolis facades on the former Muppets Courtyard site. Painting is concentrated around the restroom building attached to the future Archie's Scare Pig Pizza.

Tower of Terror refurbishment adds lightning-strike scarring

WDW News Today (Austin Haughton) · Oct 18

The Hollywood Studios Tower of Terror refurbishment now shows new lightning-strike detailing on the pink facade, visible through the scaffolding. WDW News Today describes a diagonal scar with dark purple shading and brighter white around it, recalling the hotel's fateful strike.

Science & Archaeology

Japan's 7,300-year-old eruption hit communities unevenly

ScienceDaily · Oct 18

New research on the catastrophic eruption of 7,300 years ago finds its effect on prehistoric Japanese populations was more complex than assumed. Some communities vanished or declined, while others flourished as survivors migrated and adapted.

Black Death cut biodiversity as farmland was abandoned

Live Science (Sarah Wild) · Oct 18

A study reported by Live Science finds that biodiversity fell during the Black Death, when a third of Europe's population died, as people abandoned farmland. Researchers say understanding the farming practices involved could help increase diversity in modern agriculture.

Gemini North images knotted remnant of the 1181 supernova

Live Science (Jamie Carter) · Oct 18

A new Gemini North image of Pa 30, linked to the supernova seen in 1181, reveals chains of tiny gas knots. Live Science describes the remnant as full of mysterious structure.

Mrk 501 may host two black holes merging within a century

ScienceDaily · Oct 18

Astronomers report evidence of two supermassive black holes spiralling together at the centre of galaxy Mrk 501, revealed by a previously unseen particle jet. The pair appears to orbit every 121 days and, depending on their masses, could merge in as little as 100 years.

Altermagnetism discoverers win a major physics prize

ScienceDaily · Oct 18

The physicists who identified altermagnetism, described as a third form of magnetism, have won a major physics prize. The discovery challenges more than a century of established understanding and could affect future computing, electronics and quantum research.

Sound & Music Tech

ACME Synthworks opens pre-orders for the XP60, a compact Xpander revival

Synth Anatomy (Synth Anatomy) · Oct 18

The ACME Synthworks XP60 revives the Oberheim Xpander analog polysynth in a compact design that keeps to the original architecture. It is now available for pre-order, per Synth Anatomy.

Olydian's VC-01 Voicecrafter is a hardware vowel-and-consonant synth

Sonic State · Oct 18

Sonic State's Brooklyn EXPO video features Olydian Music's VC-01 Voicecrafter, a hardware vocal synthesizer that lets players play vowels and consonants.

Greenwaves is an Ondes Martenot-inspired instrument from Idiotech Devices

Sonic State · Oct 18

At Brooklyn EXPO, Idiotech Devices showed Greenwaves, a synthesizer inspired by the Ondes Martenot and presented as a tribute to Greenway.

Hop's Tactile is an open-source standalone synth

Sonic State · Oct 18

Sonic State's Brooklyn EXPO coverage shows Tactile from Hop, an open-source standalone synthesizer pitched as easy to play.

1010music pushes major firmware updates for Bento and Blackbox 2

Sonic State · Oct 18

1010music showed Brooklyn EXPO visitors new firmware for the Bento and the Blackbox 2, which the company described as a major update.