Gaming News Roundup: Arc Raiders Film & TV Deal, Xbox Elite Series 3 Leak, Supermassive Layoffs & More (Oct 6, 2026)
Tuesday’s feed is a weird mix of Hollywood money, hardware leaks, and another rough day for UK studios. Embark’s two shooters are headed for film and TV, the Xbox Elite Series 3 basically leaked itself out of Microsoft’s own Design Lab, Supermassive and Ninja Theory both started saying goodbye to staff, and Modern Warfare 4’s DMZ finally got a real deep dive. Here’s the Lanbrew gaming roundup for October 6, 2026.
Arc Raiders (image via Eurogamer / Embark Studios)
Arc Raiders and The Finals are getting film and TV adaptations
Embark is teaming with Chernin Entertainment, the company behind this year’s Backrooms box-office hit, to adapt both shooters for film and TV. Variety reports several production companies fought for the rights. Embark CEO Patrick Söderlund calls it the next step toward “deeply integrated transmedia experiences,” and Arc Raiders has now sold over 16 million copies. No directors, writers, or cast yet, but giant robot stalkers feel made for a movie screen. This is separate from the Oct 8–12 free trial we covered yesterday.
Xbox Elite Series 3 leaks: Hall Effect or TMR sticks, advanced haptics
Data dug out of the back end of Xbox’s own Design Lab site (and posted to Reddit) looks like a near-full spec sheet for the still-unannounced Elite Series 3. The headline is a choice of Hall Effect or TMR magnetic sticks, which should mean no more stick drift. There’s also “advanced haptics” that sound a lot like DualSense, returning impulse triggers, an audio scroll wheel, swappable faceplates, and multiple d-pad options. The listing points to Base and Complete versions, each with or without the haptics motor, so four SKUs in total.
Supermassive lays off more than 70 people
The Until Dawn and Directive 8020 studio went through with the cuts it warned about in August. Departing IT & Facilities Director Frank Tindle wrote on LinkedIn that “more than 70 brilliant people” are leaving, across dev, art, production, QA, and operations. The August notice said up to 75 roles were at risk. It lands less than six months after Directive 8020 shipped in May, with that game’s online co-op patch still due this month. The Until Dawn sequel is now in Firesprite’s hands for 2027.
Read on Kotaku → · Eurogamer →
Ninja Theory staff start facing redundancy
After Xbox said two separate deals to sell the Hellblade studio fell through, the UK consultation process now seems to be turning into layoffs. Several developers posted on LinkedIn that their roles are at risk. Gameplay programmer Katrin Mair: “It’s incredibly sad knowing that we won’t get to finish what we were working on.” That presumably means Senua, which was only revealed in June. Xbox has said it will keep exploring “other paths forward,” so a full closure isn’t certain yet, but it doesn’t look good.
Read on Eurogamer → · Kotaku →
Modern Warfare 4 DMZ (image via IGN / Activision)
Modern Warfare 4’s DMZ gets a deep dive, and it won’t be free-to-play
Infinity Ward says players told them the first DMZ didn’t have enough at stake, so this time your operator is a character you level up and have to pay to bring back if they die. Loot can be lost for good. Recovered materials feed a 3D printer that crafts plates, gear, and what look like killstreaks. There’s a 70-level progression track, a forward operating base with a firing range, threat levels that rise when you get loud, and drones, choppers, and tanks on patrol. It launches with MW4 on October 23, and unlike MWII’s version it isn’t free-to-play.
Sega says it won’t hand creative work to AI
Sega senior executive Tsuyoshi Saito told Nikkei the company is “very cautious” about AI in game development and is “not entrusting the creative aspects of games to AI.” Sega does use it for efficiency in publishing and corporate departments, and for generating business ideas. It also has a Generative AI Committee with PR and legal members in each region. This comes after Sega confirmed genAI was used in Crazy Taxi: World Tour’s early research phase, though not for any of the game’s art assets.
Watch Dogs: no new game for now, but a Legion Director’s Cut is reportedly coming
At Ubisoft’s annual investor meeting, Yves Guillemot called Watch Dogs “an important brand for the future,” but said it isn’t going into one of the new creative houses “before it’s potentially remade.” That line could be a translation quirk. Separately, Insider Gaming reports (and IGN says its own sources agree) that Ubisoft will try to relaunch Watch Dogs: Legion early next year with a revamped Director’s Cut. The last Watch Dogs game came out in 2020.
“The Endless Emerge” (image via IGN / Halo Studios)
Halo Studios teases the Halo it won’t get to make
Now that Halo belongs to Activision, franchise writer Alex Wakeford’s new lore blog reads like a farewell. It includes official art of the Primordial (the future Gravemind) by Sam Wood, and closes with a tease of the Xalanyn, the “Children of Abaddon”: immortal beings the Forerunners locked away, which were apparently headed for the studio’s next game. Wakeford also says it’s “absolutely our intent” to get Troy Denning’s Halo: Fireteam Noble novel finished. Kenneth Peters’ Halo: Burn the Road Home is less certain.
Kojima’s Physint update: story locked, filming starts next year
Hideo Kojima brought back his Koji10 podcast after a year off and spent part of it on Physint, his Metal Gear spiritual successor, now published by Microsoft after Sony moved to cancel it. The plot is written, he pitched every actor himself (about 70% of them are apparently Kojima fans), and filming starts next year. Bill Skarsgård, Charlie Fraser, and Minami Hamabe have already been scanned. He wants it to be “quite different” from Metal Gear, with a new kind of spy action. OD is still expected to come out first.
Star Wars: Galactic Racer launches today, and Prime members can stream the campaign
Launch day comes with a twist: Amazon Luna is offering Galactic Racer’s entire single-player campaign, plus its Arcade and Scenario modes, at no extra cost to Prime subscribers. That’s pretty much all the main solo content without buying the game. Amazon’s Jeff Gattis says it’s the first time Luna players have had a game like this day one. (Our review roundup is already up if you’re deciding whether to buy it outright.)
Read on VGC → · GamesIndustry.biz →
Gears of War: E-Day (image via VGC / Xbox)
Gears of War: E-Day uses the Series S SSD as extra RAM
Launch-day tech nerd moment: The Coalition’s technical director Kate Rayner told Digital Foundry the studio put some of the city data that doesn’t need instant access on the Series S SSD, effectively turning a couple of gigabytes of storage into roughly a gigabyte of extra usable memory. The result is 60fps on the 10GB console, and Lumen reflections are the only thing that got cut. Other Xbox teams are reportedly already asking how to copy the trick.
The Witcher 3 Remastered hits a Steam record and gets a list of fixes coming next
Geralt’s glow-up is a hit. The Witcher 3 peaked at 137,724 concurrent Steam players on Sunday, beating its previous high of around 120K, and Alinea Analytics estimates 2.4 million daily players across PC, PlayStation, and Xbox after launch. Not everything’s smooth, though. CDPR says the next update targets PS5 performance, more visual adjustments, and console voiceover audio fixes, plus more cross-platform mods through mod.io. Some players are annoyed that Twitch Drops got a mention while game-breaking bugs are still around.
Read on Eurogamer → · Eurogamer (Steam peak) →
GameStop prices preowned PS5 Pros way above new ones
A leaked internal memo, now matched by GameStop’s website, has preowned PS5 Pros selling for $1,399.99 to $1,499.99 depending on edition. That’s about $600 more than a new one (around $900). Trade-ins are paying $800–$850. GameStop hasn’t explained why, but the internet’s theory is the “Relapse” jailbreak, which only works on consoles that haven’t installed Sony’s firmware 14.00 from September 16. That would make older units valuable.
NBA 2K25 is being delisted, and MyCAREER goes with it
2K will pull NBA 2K25 from digital stores on October 30 and turn off its servers as of January 1, 2027, barely two years after launch. MyCAREER and MyTEAM depend on the servers, so they become unplayable, VC earning ends, and multiplayer, Online Leagues, and community sharing go too. Play Now, MyNBA, The W, and MyWNBA still work offline, and anyone who buys before October 30 can keep re-downloading it.
Read on IGN → · GamesIndustry.biz →
Roundup compiled Oct 6, 2026 (America/Chicago). Reporting credit to the linked sources; images via the linked outlets and publishers.
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