Speedrunning charity organisation Games Done Quick (GDQ) has pulled out of a sponsored livestream with Saudi-owned Japanese developer SNK, following community backlash highlighting Saudi Arabia’s human rights violations.

The first half of Xbox’s 3,200 layoffs has immediately been dished out, impacting teams and studios right across Microsoft’s gaming division. From 37-year Microsoft veterans, to key figures at celebrated studios, here is a comprehensive look at who has been hit by the cuts, studio by studio:

Xbox has laid off 1,600 staff and divested from four studios. The number of layoffs will rise to around 3,200 over the next 12 months Double Fine and Compulsion Games will go independent, while Ninja Theory and Undead Labs have been sold to undisclosed buyers.

Home building and decorating games continue to become more and more popular as the housing crisis gets worse and worse. @maddie-b-a.bsky.social thinks the two things are clearly connected – we pull these games closer as the dream of IRL housing slips further away.

The internet was quick to dub the close releases of Barbie Rewind and Grand Theft Auto 6 as the new 'Barbenheimer.' @maddie-b-a.bsky.social posits that Barbie Rewind represents an entirely different cultural moment: upholding the tradition of making space for 'girl games' in the market.

I'm working on an article about videogames in local libraries — if anyone's local carries games, or if any librarians on here work in libraries that have games, can get games, or host games programs, shoot me a dm! @uklibrariesnag.bsky.social

With constant price hikes and next-gen gaming hardware likely to break the bank during a cost-of-living crisis, @edmondtran.bsky.social proposes developers keep lowering the bar. Meaning? It's time to really embrace low-spec benchmarks so we can keep playing new games on devices we already own.

Since the release of Tomodachi Life, there's been a trend of people recreating their deceased loved ones in-game and sharing the results. @maddie-b-a.bsky.social speaks to these players, a death doula, and a grief counselor to understand what it means to digitally memorialise the dearly departed.

Really enjoyed talking to @maddie-b-a.bsky.social about how we just left subtlety by the side of the road and learned how to make puzzle the slow and hard way 😬

The 2006 Barnyard game was an ambitious open-world title featuring cows squirting milk, riding bikes, and playing golf. Those who remember it do so fondly. To mark its 20th anniversary @maddie-b-a.bsky.social spoke to its director Nick Hagger about what made the game and its development so unique.

Every time I hit publish on a big feature I’m like, “Damn, this is the best thing on our website.” But man — this one is absolutely killer. I love it. Maddie crushed it. So many great insights and quotes and jokes. Please read it and support independent reader-funded games journalism thank you!!

my mom loves telling everyone who's ever known me where to read my stuff. hope my pre-school teacher likes this one

The Games for Change Summit in London left @maddie-b-a.bsky.social with a lot of questions. Is child safety gaming’s most pertinent social issue now? If so, why has this realisation taken so long? More importantly, what are companies actually doing about it, and why is it probably not enough?

thank you paste games and thank you @garrettmartin.bsky.social for giving me my first experience in a professional newsroom. rest easy, old friend

London Games Festival’s New Game Plus showcase ran for the second time this year, and while @maddie-b-a.bsky.social thought it wasn't without its flaws, she still came away with some new favourite indie games.

Blue Prince creator Tonda Ros says he "will always claim there are still mysteries in the game." He also suggested that his next project will "probably take 10 years," and that it will be about “the letter R.” "It’ll make sense when it comes out."

Tom McKay, who portrays Henry in Kingdom Come: Deliverance, says the games "opened up opportunities and conversations," and shared enthusiasm for the film adaptation. He also called his Shakespeare background "like mountaineering for acting... if you can do that, you can probably do most things."

The success of Dispatch has allowed AdHoc to "assess what the most sane version of doing a future project looks like," according to co-founder Dennis Lenart. On AdHoc's next project with Critical Role, he said, "We feel a sort of kinship with their studio. It’s a creator-led thing just like ours."

Charlie Cox has again praised Clair Obscur's motion capture artists. Speaking to TWIV, he spoke highly of Maxence Cazorla's work on Gustave. "It’s no lie that you feel like a little bit of an impostor." "He’s got a huge amount of recognition... and that’s right, that’s the way it should be."

Shuhei Yoshida, former head of Sony Worldwide Studios, has remarked that he was "fired" by then-CEO Jim Ryan "because I didn’t listen to him." Yoshida suggested Ryan "asked to do some ridiculous things, and I said 'No,'" before saying he highly enjoyed his subsequent PlayStation Indies role.

really into this one having gone up on easter sunday because, as we all know, jesus was a socialist

Dave the Diver has begun using generative AI to aid in translations, which the developer says goes through "substantial internal review." Mintrocket clarified that for languages outside of the team's fluency, the work is assesed “in partnership with a professional translation agency" before use.

With several big investments and a $55 billion acquisition of EA, you may be wondering: Why is Saudi Arabia so determined to be in the videogame industry? We speak to regional experts like @zhugeex.com to try and better understand the motivation behind the country's "elder millennial investments."

Both Sony and Microsoft are researching in-game AI helpers that can take over when you have trouble with a game. One patent even frames forums and videos as “rudimentary” ways to get help. But to undermine guides would be to undermine game communities, suggests @maddie-b-a.bsky.social

Who is Asha Sharma, anyway? Xbox's new CEO has business experience in everything from insurance, home improvement, and grocery delivery, to Meta products, AI, and even a previous stint on Xbox. Here's a primer on her career trajectory and experiences to date, which may inform what happens next.

Between e-waste, rare materials, logistics, and now genAI, gaming's impact on the global climate is significant. We speak to the Sustainable Games Alliance, Playing for the Planet, the Videogame History Foundation, and more to understand what's happening and what they're trying to change.

A three-day international strike held by Ubisoft employees last week has been called a success by French unions, though Ubisoft management has not responded. "Things cannot stay this way," one organiser told TWIV. "They cannot hide their head in the sand and pretend nothing happened."

The first day of an international Ubisoft workers strike saw 1,200 participants, according to French unions. One union told TWIV it's “proud of [ourselves] because we reached a new record.” "Without respect, without negotiation, without decent working conditions, there is no sustainable industry.”

We asked game developers to share their thoughts on Google's Project Genie, a "world builder" powered by generative AI. "Even the deeply misguided notion that this could somehow replace humans in the game development process is dangerous to the continuation of the artform," said @ramiismail.com

Hey - if you're a game developer who for some reason happens to have access to Google's Project Genie, we would really love to hear your thoughts. If you're a gamedev who doesn't have access but has strong thoughts to share regardless, please also feel free to get in touch. Email or DM me!

Best gas masks

Always remember that it's the youngest generations who hate AI *the most*, especially for games/creativity. It's the 45 year old+ folk who don't mind AI so much. quanticfoundry.com/2025/12/18/g...

Real-life young person @maddie-b-a.bsky.social is tired of commentators using Gen Z as a scapegoat for the rise of AI slop, and tired of those using the demographic as a reason to keep churning it out. "Let's level with each other — no one likes being told what they think less than young people."

The jobs were lost, huh? That passive voice doing some work here. The jobs aren't a set of car keys, are they.

Patrick Dane, longtime games and entertainment journalist and News Editor at This Week in Videogames, has died in a motor vehicle accident. He was 34 years old.

For our Best of 2025 series, we asked staff and columnists to share their personal favourites of the year (and they didn’t necessarily need to be new for 2025). @maddie-b-a.bsky.social juggled an exceptionally busy 2025, so it makes sense that her highlights were all about unwinding.

What's actually involved in getting a human voice actor to record lines for a game, and how does that compare to an AI replacement? @maddie-b-a.bsky.social speaks to actors and audio engineers like @selmaleh.bsky.social and @jeffvandyck.com to try and demystify what goes into giving games a voice.

Vince Zampella, Call of Duty co-creator and head of Battlefield, Respawn Entertainment and Ripple Effect Studios, has died. NBC4 reports that Zampella was killed in a single-car crash in Southern California. He was 55 years old.

We spoke to a dozen professional concept artists who are currently or have previously worked in game development about whether generative AI image tools have made their jobs any easier. Zero said it did. Most said it made things harder. thisweekinvideogames.com/feature/conc...

Bloomberg has reported that workers at Naughty Dog recently underwent a seven week, mandatory overtime period. The directive was made to complete an internal demo of its upcoming title, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, for review by Sony after the production missed multiple deadlines.

Horses developer Santa Ragione says the studio is "very much suspended," despite the attention the game received for its ban on Steam. “We were literally at the top of the best selling games on GOG for multiple days. If that had happened on Steam, I could stop working for the rest of my life.”

New interview with Santa Ragione about the Horses bans and the studio's suspension, courtesy of @maddie-b-a.bsky.social “If there is an opportunity for a reunion in the future based on our success, it’d be lovely. If not, we’re still very happy and proud of the eight games that we’ve made."

Charlie Cox has previously downplayed his involvement in portraying Gustave in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Now in a recent press conference he has said that he gives "any nomination or any credit" to the performance capture artist Maxence Cazorla. https://bit.ly/4ifCDz8

Why is Hollywood suddenly so obsessed with mining videogames for ideas, and more importantly, making sure they get it right? We get some industry perspectives, including BAFTA Award-winning actress of film, TV, and games Jane Perry (Hitman, Returnal)

Today, Paste Magazine shuttered all its non-music verticals, a choice I am both professionally and personally heartbroken about. Sadly, I am once again looking for a place that wants to let me write about Books and TV on the regular, so hit me up if that’s you or anyone you know.

Okay, yeah: Endless Mode is now The A.V. Club Games. We speedran this thing. Same editors, same writers, same content, just a different but familiar site. www.avclub.com/new-games-se...

@iwgbunion.bsky.social i love talking to unions i love writing about unions i love unions