Sega pulls a botched remake; Activision QA nears a strike

Sega has taken Total War: Shogun 2 – Complete Edition off sale days after release. It is working with platform holders to reinstate the original game while it investigates, and existing owners keep access. Its statement concedes the remake "fell short of both your expectations and our own standards". It is signed by Sega and Creative Assembly but not by Polish studio Mataboo, which co-developed the remake and has previously been accused of using AI-generated assets.

Aftermath's Luke Plunkett argues that the bugs, poor textures and AI-generated portraits were obvious to customers almost immediately, and asks how the game cleared QA and milestone reviews. He sees no deadline that would justify rushing a remake of a 15-year-old game, so he reads the release as careless. His conclusion is that, whatever the usual caution about calling a game lazy, the publisher's responsibility leaves only "lazy or reckless".

CounterpointDefenders of Sega would point out that it reversed course quickly and restored the original, and that critics have only accusations, not proof, about Mataboo's use of AI. Some developers and critics also argue that shortfalls like this often trace to budgets and schedules the publisher sets, which complicates pinning it on one studio.

Previously: Epic's openly vibe-coded launcher and Sega's AI-upscaled Shogun 2 art were extending criticism of AI use at big publishers. — Thursday October 15 edition.

Activision's QA union, represented by the CWA, has voted to authorize a strike after two years of bargaining without a first contract. Remote work, wage increases and AI protections are among the open issues. Aftermath's Nathan Grayson frames the story around Jordan Kunze, a former steward who spent over a year seeking a remote-work accommodation for a documented medical condition. Kunze filed complaints with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights and the EEOC, and says internal investigations of his conduct in 2026 felt retaliatory. He took a voluntary severance in September, which ended his legal complaints, and now works at a gas station for about half his old pay, compared with a 53-mile commute each way.

Bargaining committee members Jenna Huffman and Emily Danko say Activision has granted no remote exceptions since the union formed, apart from two employees who were already remote. They say management has stalled in the way workers at Blizzard and Zenimax described before those groups won contracts. Members describe a strike as a last resort, and they have rallied outside company offices this week.

CounterpointActivision says it has bargained in good faith with the CWA and made "meaningful progress", and it has offered to meet again on October 21 and 22. It says it has plans to avoid disruption to players or upcoming releases. Neither Activision nor Microsoft answered Aftermath's questions about Kunze's case.

Previously: The Rockstar tribunal now runs into November, close to GTA 6's launch. — Thursday October 15 edition.

The studio behind Untitled Goose Game and Big Walk said in a statement that the game will not come to Xbox. It cites the Palestinian-led BDS movement's call to boycott Microsoft and its designation of Microsoft Games and Xbox as a priority target. Big Walk was announced in June 2026 for PC, Switch 2 and PS5, and the studio says it received many questions about Xbox afterwards. It acknowledges that the decision cuts against its aim of letting groups of friends play together, and says it is disappointed too. It will not change course until Microsoft and Xbox are no longer boycott targets.

Aftermath's Luke Plunkett mostly relays the statement and adds that the boycott has run for well over a year. Ice Water Games pulled its releases from Xbox in 2025, while other developers have distanced themselves from Microsoft after recent closures and studio moves.

CounterpointCritics of the BDS movement, including many pro-Israel groups, argue it unfairly singles out Israel and the companies tied to it. Some fans would also say the decision penalises players who wanted to join Xbox friends rather than pressuring Microsoft.

Respec's Tom Orry marks the decade since PS VR's launch by calling it a complete failure. He remembers a strong launch lineup, including VR Worlds, Driveclub VR, EVE: Valkyrie, Rez Infinite and Thumper, though motion sickness limited his own play. His central argument is that the games never delivered what players wanted. Most releases felt like novelties, with Astro Bot: Rescue Mission and Capcom's Resident Evil titles the best of them. He says the audience is a fraction of the console base, so a God of War-scale game was never feasible.

Orry faults Sony for treating VR as an experiment it never gave a chance, saying PS VR2 was "essentially dumped on launch day". Beyond Horizon Call of the Mountain, a Gran Turismo 7 VR mode and Firewall Ultra, he sees little first-party support. With hardware prices rising (Valve's Steam Frame starts at £889), he expects VR to survive through enthusiasts but thinks Sony's effort to build the market is over.

CounterpointVR advocates would say Sony's difficulties don't show VR itself has failed, since PC and standalone headsets keep an engaged audience. Sony's defenders could argue that a niche market made big-budget first-party games hard to justify, a point Orry himself concedes.

Rep. Ritchie Torres, a New York Democrat, says he will introduce the Power To The Players Act. The bill would direct the FTC to write rules protecting consumers' "ability to own and play" purchased games, including the right to transfer them. It would also require offline modes before online games are shut down. Torres calls a game that can vanish when a company pulls the plug "a rental disguised as a sale".

PC Gamer's Tyler Wilde places the bill in context: consoles are moving away from discs, and Sony has said it will end physical disc production in 2028. He cites the Stop Killing Games campaign, whose organizers gained an audience with the European Parliament, and Ubisoft's The Crew, which went offline in 2024. Wilde notes that DRM-free games such as those on GOG already sidestep the problem. He doubts the FTC would mandate an end to copy protection, so he expects a softer definition of ownership if the bill passes, and he has asked Torres' office how enforcement would work.

CounterpointPublishers have generally argued that online games depend on servers with ongoing costs, and that licences let them manage those costs and end support. Others question whether the FTC can or should define ownership of software at all.