Thursday, October 15

Ubisoft cuts again while Epic and Sega lean on AI

Gaming Editorial

Ubisoft plans to close RedLynx as layoffs continue despite Assassin's Creed sales

Aftermath (Nathan Grayson) · Oct 15

Aftermath's Nathan Grayson treats the latest round of Ubisoft cuts as a constant of the company's year. Ubisoft told PC Gamer it will eliminate 70 roles at Ubisoft Singapore, the studio behind Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, which sold three million copies in a week. It also proposes closing RedLynx, maker of the Trials series, in Finland, affecting up to 52 positions pending local change negotiations. VGC reports the reason was that RedLynx had no new project and resizing alone would not make it sustainable. Game File separately reports a planned reduction of 100 roles across Ubisoft Mainz, Dusseldorf and Berlin, ideally through buyouts.

Grayson ties this to a restructuring into genre-focused "creative houses", a $1.25 billion Tencent investment and a target of €200 million in cost cuts before March 2028. Headcount fell from 20,729 in September 2022 to 16,590 in March 2026, and he expects it to keep falling. Strikes by workers have slowed the cuts but not stopped them, in his telling.

Counterpoint: Ubisoft's position, as reported by VGC, is that the cuts are needed to simplify and cut costs, and that a studio with no active project cannot be kept sustainable by shrinking it. Supporters of the plan would say a publisher that has lost this much ground has to cut regardless of how one title sells.

Continuing · Generative AI in games and modding

Epic rebuilds Linux anti-cheat but brags about a vibe-coded launcher

Aftermath (Chris Person) · Oct 14

Aftermath's Chris Person covers two Epic announcements. The first is a preview of a new Epic Games Launcher that Epic says it vibe coded, calling it faster and lighter on features, "a speedboat and not a yacht". Person tried it on Bazzite and found it quick to start but buggy. He calls the boast tacky for a company valued in the billions.

The second is EAC Linux v2, a rebuild of Easy Anti-Cheat's Linux support meant to bring protection closer to Windows without a kernel driver. It relies on signed kernels, signed kernel modules and secure boot with attestation, and Epic is working with Fedora's project lead Jet Spaleta. Epic's FAQ says the Steam Deck lacks the required features and that it is talking to Valve. Person calls this the work Epic should be doing, and argues Valve earns goodwill by quietly shipping open source improvements instead of boasting.

Counterpoint: Epic would say that it released the launcher as an openly labelled preview, and that faster development is the point. Defenders of AI-assisted coding would add that tools are now routine at large studios, so disclosing it is honesty rather than gloating.

Previously: Aftermath and Respec responded to Epic's AI pivot, with Sweeney's X post, a Star Wars game delay and GDC survey figures. — Wednesday October 14 edition.

Continuing · Generative AI in games and modding

Sega's enhanced Shogun 2 pulls the original and brings AI-upscaled art

Aftermath (Luke Plunkett) · Oct 15

Aftermath's Luke Plunkett calls the new Total War: Shogun 2 "enhanced" edition a letdown for a game many regard as the series' best. He lists four problems. There are new and carried-over bugs. Old mods no longer work because Steam Workshop was swapped for Mod.io, though modders had fixed many of the old bugs. Sega delisted the original from Steam on release, though existing owners keep it. And some art, including flags and faces, appears to have been AI-upscaled without human review, turning them into unrecognisable blobs.

Plunkett notes that credited developer Mataboo was also accused of using AI imagery in its STALKER work. He sees no need for a second pass at a 2011 game that still looked and played well.

Counterpoint: A publisher-side view would likely hold that a single supported version and a unified modding platform are easier to maintain, and that bugs and art problems can be patched after release. Sega is not quoted in the piece.

Previously: Aftermath and Respec responded to Epic's AI pivot, with Sweeney's X post, a Star Wars game delay and GDC survey figures. — Wednesday October 14 edition.

Continuing · Xbox Labs and vibe-coded game ports

Eurogamer reads Xbox Labs as an AI-focused unit that avoids saying so

Eurogamer (Sherif Saed) · Oct 14

Eurogamer's Sherif Saed frames Xbox Labs as an unusually quick reaction to the wave of vibe-coded game ports, decompiles and recompiles circulating online. His reading is that the initiative looks designed to explore that phenomenon even though the announcement avoids the word AI. The article text supplied for this edition was not retrievable, so only that framing is available.

Counterpoint: Xbox's own account is that Xbox Labs centralises existing initiatives and carries no AI mandate.

Previously: Sharma launched Xbox Labs, which Xbox says is a centralisation of existing initiatives with no AI mandate. — Wednesday October 14 edition.

DHS inspector general finds TSA failed to safeguard facial recognition data

EFF Deeplinks (Sophia Cope) · Oct 14

EFF, writing through legal intern Gabrielle Ladun and Sophia Cope, summarises a DHS Office of Inspector General audit of TSA's facial comparison technology. The detailed findings are classified, but the summary cites a "significant weakness". The vendor for TSA's Credential Authentication Technology 2 could access and extract passenger data, including driver's licence and passport images, during troubleshooting without TSA's knowledge. TSA had no clear policies, did not track extractions, could not verify deletion and did not tell passengers their data might be stored. The OIG made one finding and three recommendations, and TSA concurred with all three, though one remains open and unresolved.

EFF uses the audit to restate its opposition to government facial recognition. It cites the risks of data breaches, warrantless biometric records and misidentification leading to wrongful arrests. It reminds travellers that opting out of the photo is possible without delay.

Counterpoint: TSA says it is committed to traveller privacy, and the OIG itself found data was generally protected in routine operations, with the risk coming from vendor oversight. Proponents of the technology argue that facial comparison speeds and strengthens identity checks, and that the fix is tighter vendor controls rather than abandoning it. EFF is an advocacy group that opposes the technology on principle.

AI & Industry

Continuing · s&box launch fallout

s&box to go free-to-play and curate by hand

GamesIndustry.biz (Vikki Blake) · Oct 14

Facepunch plans to make s&box free-to-play toward the end of the year, shifting from offering as many games as possible to promoting the best and most popular. Its stated reasoning is that a "Netflix for games" model does not work.

Previously: Garry Newman admitted the launch burned bridges and promised new character models and discovery changes within about a month. — Monday October 5 edition.

Continuing · Union drives at game studios

Rockstar tribunal pushed into November, near GTA 6's launch

Eurogamer (Connor Makar) · Oct 14

The employment tribunal between Rockstar and laid-off IWGB union members has been extended into November. Its conclusion now falls almost on the same day as GTA 6's release.

Previously: An HR manager cited 'commercially sensitive' information in the employee Discord and was questioned about an alleged mole. — Tuesday October 13 edition.

Rockstar says its next game won't take eight years

GamesIndustry.biz (Sophie McEvoy) · Oct 14

Rockstar, which has more than doubled its workforce for GTA 6, says the engine, tools and team built during that project will let it work faster on its next title. It is adamant the gap will not be another eight years.

States sue OpenAI, alleging it ignored its own safety warnings

PC Gamer (Tyler Wilde) · Oct 15

Several US states have sued OpenAI, alleging ChatGPT is harming the public and that the harms were foreseeable and avoidable. PC Gamer reports the suits accuse the company of disregarding its own safety warnings for profit.

Developer Popcar on AI mass-decompiling games

Simon Willison · Oct 14

Simon Willison highlights indie developer Popcar's piece on the surge of AI-assisted game decompilation. It has produced mashups between existing games and a boom in preservation projects, often running old games in browsers via WebAssembly. Popcar also flags the downside, which is that anyone can decompile and reuse other software.

Continuing · Universal's UK resort in Bedford

Comcast has put over £250m into Universal's UK park

Blooloop (Bea Mitchell) · Oct 14

Blooloop reports Comcast has invested more than £250 million in the new Universal UK theme park.

Previously: A CMA branch report said Universal required government financial support to commit to the project. — Saturday October 10 edition.

Six Flags shares fall after fatal Georgia coaster incident

Blooloop (Bea Mitchell) · Oct 14

Six Flags' stock dropped after an incident on a Georgia roller coaster left one person dead, Blooloop reports.

Disney's HoloTile Floor patent published

WDW News Today (Shannen Ace) · Oct 14

Nearly three years after the reveal, Disney's patent for the HoloTile floor is public, titled "Modular Omnidirectional Actuated Floors Providing a Reconfigurable Video Production Environment". WDW News Today says it points to uses in parks, video production and VR.

Funcom restructures to focus on Conan Exiles and Dune: Awakening

GamesIndustry.biz (Jon Hicks) · Oct 14

Funcom has begun a restructuring, affecting an unknown number of staff, to focus solely on live operations for those two games. CEO Rui Casais will leave at year's end, succeeded by Chief Product Officer Scott Junior.

Science & Archaeology

Chinese pottery found at Great Zimbabwe

Live Science (Kristina Killgrove) · Oct 14

Archaeologists excavating the medieval kingdom of Great Zimbabwe have found pottery from eastern China. Live Science says it shows trade connections between the continents.

Montreal skeleton DNA shows no Indigenous ancestry among early colonists

Live Science (Charles Q. Choi) · Oct 14

A study of DNA from early colonial-era skeletons in a Montreal cemetery found that none of the individuals had Indigenous ancestry, so there was no detectable genetic mixing with French colonists.

Early New Mexico inhabitants lived through glacial-maximum climate

Live Science (Patrick Pester) · Oct 14

Researchers have reconstructed the climate faced by some of North America's first people around 23,000 years ago, during the Last Glacial Maximum, in New Mexico.

"Harvie's Dyke" found in Scotland

Archaeology Magazine (Jessica Esther Saraceni) · Oct 14

Archaeology Magazine, citing the Glasgow Times, reports that researchers have discovered a feature called Harvie's Dyke in Scotland.

Farside samples point to Earth's gravity in the Moon's two faces

ScienceDaily · Oct 14

Using lunar farside samples for the first time, scientists suggest uneven heating from Earth's gravitational pull drove huge flows of ancient magma. That, they say, explains why the Moon's two sides look so different.

Jurassic Chinese bird was a land-running carnivore with big claws

Live Science (Chris Simms) · Oct 14

A newly described early bird from China, with many dinosaur-like features, appears to have been a fast-running, flightless predator. Live Science compares it to a carnivorous pheasant.

Sound & Music Tech

Dealers say Moog has discontinued the Matriarch

Synth Anatomy (Synth Anatomy) · Oct 15

Synth Anatomy reports dealers worldwide say the Matriarch semi-modular analog synth has been discontinued. The report rests on dealer accounts and a rise in social posts from would-be buyers.

Behringer's JN-80 Juno-60 clone ships in the EU

Synth Anatomy (Synth Anatomy) · Oct 15

Behringer has started shipping the JN-80, an 8-voice analog clone of the Roland Juno-60 with BBD chorus, which was shown at NAMM 2026. It is now available in the EU.

UVI Player replaces Workstation, free, and adds a Builder platform

Synth Anatomy (Synth Anatomy) · Oct 14

The free UVI Player replaces the UVI Workstation plugin and now plays Falcon Expansions. UVI also introduced a Builder platform for third parties, a week after releasing the free Falcon 2027 update.

Doepfer moves into 1U Eurorack with six modules and a new case

Synth Anatomy (Synth Anatomy) · Oct 14

Shown at Superbooth 2026, Doepfer's new horizontal 1U modules and a Eurorack case with a 1U row are now available. The maker of the format is expanding into 1U.

Erykah Badu tours her studio, 'Badudio'

Sonic State · Oct 14

Sonic State has a studio tour with Erykah Badu, who shows her space, where she says everything makes music.