Gaming News Roundup: Arkane Lyon's November Deadline, Xbox's COO Exits, GTA 6's Burger Shot Goes Statewide & More (Oct 23, 2026)
Marvel's Blade, in development at Arkane Lyon (image via IGN)
It's a heavy Friday for Xbox. Arkane Lyon reportedly has until November 13 to find a buyer, Xbox's first COO is out after a few months, and a reported Netflix deal fell apart over money. GTA 6's Burger Shot is spreading to every Skinny Louie in Florida, and Shigeru Miyamoto just became the first game developer to receive Japan's Order of Culture. Also today: new details on the Mass Effect 5 that never was, Phantom Blade Zero's big Steam preorders, Clair Obscur's sales, Modern Warfare 4's rocky multiplayer launch, Square Enix's account break-ins, Capcom's Street Fighter 6 hitbox takedown, Arrowhead on Helldivers 3, Factorio's final big update, Diablo 4's stacking fix and a date for Fallout's reality show. Here's the Lanbrew gaming roundup for October 23, 2026.
Marvel's Blade (image via IGN / Arkane Lyon)
Arkane Lyon reportedly has until November 13 to find a buyer
Arkane Lyon, the Dishonored 2 and Deathloop studio, is still building Marvel's Blade, but its 217 staff are working against a clock. Citing French paper Le Monde, IGN reports that France's Florange Law makes big companies spend at least three months looking for a buyer before shutting a site down. Microsoft's search started over the summer, which puts the deadline at November 13.
A union representative told Le Monde that redundancy talks are "going badly," though "several forms of takeover" are said to be on the table. Unions are pushing for more time and for affected staff to be moved to other Xbox teams. Microsoft says it is "actively seeking a partner" to carry the project forward. An internal document suggests a full wind-down would start at the end of 2026 and run into early 2027.
GTA 6 (image via GameSpot / Rockstar Games)
GTA 6's Burger Shot spreads across Florida through the end of the year
Rockstar's real-world GTA 6 food push is getting a lot bigger. GameSpot reports that Rockstar has teamed up with Florida burger chain Skinny Louie, whose restaurants will be rebranded as Burger Shot, GTA's take on Burger King. The Kaseya Center stand is already open, and every Skinny Louie location in Florida joins in starting in early November. The menu is pitched as coming "straight out of Vice City," with smash burgers, fries and drinks, for dine-in or delivery, and the promotion runs until December 31.
It's not the only new piece of the Miami campaign. Beebom, citing City of Miami Beach documents first reported by GTA Vice, says Rockstar is paying $650,000 to turn the W South Beach into Vice City's "Y Hotel," with a giant Y sculpture and beachfront branding. A pink Vice Beach sign is planned for Lummus Park, with work starting October 26 and an unveiling on November 1. GTA 6 launches November 19 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
Xbox (image via The Verge)
Xbox's first COO, Helen Chiang, is out after a few months
Helen Chiang, who ran Minecraft before becoming Xbox's first chief operating officer in July, is leaving Microsoft, according to an internal memo seen by The Verge. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma's note was just two lines long, and Chiang's duties are being split among other leaders for now. Sharma says more on COO leadership is coming "as plans are finalized," so the role itself seems to be staying.
Chiang spent 21 years at Microsoft, and the COO job was created as part of Xbox's "reset" with responsibility for profit and loss across content, hardware, platform and services. Microsoft declined to explain the exit, saying it doesn't discuss personnel matters. The Verge notes it comes amid talk of more Xbox layoffs this month, in November and in January.
Source: The Verge
Xbox (image via IGN)
Xbox reportedly asked Netflix for $800 million for exclusive film and TV rights
A Puck report, covered by IGN and Eurogamer, says Netflix offered Microsoft $500 million for a seven-year deal that would have made it the exclusive home for adaptations of Xbox games. Xbox's team reportedly came back asking for $800 million. The deal is now said to be dead, possibly helped along by the recent departure of Netflix content chief Bela Bajaria.
Xbox is now reportedly chasing smaller deals with more partners. The two companies are still working together on individual projects, including the Minecraft and Diablo animated series and Gears of War adaptations. In a statement, Xbox said it has seen "record-breaking interest" in its games as film and TV properties.
Shigeru Miyamoto (image via Nintendo Life)
Shigeru Miyamoto becomes the first game developer to receive Japan's Order of Culture
Mario and Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto will be given Japan's Order of Culture, one of the country's top honors, and he's the first person from video games to get it. The Emperor of Japan presents the award on November 3, Japan's Culture Day. Earlier recipients include director Akira Kurosawa and Godzilla composer Akira Ifukube.
Miyamoto, 73, sounded a little sheepish about it. He told reporters he feels "incredibly awkward but truly honored," per IGN, and stressed that games are made by big teams, so he's accepting the award on their behalf. Nintendo Life adds that he hopes to keep making things that sit "at the heart of the living room."
Source: IGN; Nintendo Life
Mass Effect (image via IGN / BioWare)
Update: What the cancelled Mass Effect 5 would have played like
What's new: after this week's leaked trailer, we now have a fuller picture of the game itself. YouTuber Dantics, who sat on BioWare's external Mass Effect Council, shared what he saw, and IGN says it has confirmed the details. The game, reportedly called Mass Effect Universe, was set more than 600 years after the Reaper War. You'd have played an agent with experimental implants, pitched as a John Wick or James Bond type, who could see through walls, hack systems and set off hazards.
Instead of another galaxy-ending threat, the setting was a "galactic Cold War" between three blocs: humanity, krogan, batarians and others on one side, the Council races on another, and the geth as a rising third power. Missions were handcrafted like the original trilogy but with "Hitman-style freedom," squadmates could clash with each other, romance was back, and Liara was set to return as an asari Matriarch. Polygon has more on the plot details.
Phantom Blade Zero (image via Eurogamer / S-Game)
Phantom Blade Zero has reportedly sold 500,000 copies on Steam before launch
Phantom Blade Zero isn't out until next week, but Alinea Analytics' Rhys Elliott estimates it has already sold about 500,000 copies on Steam through preorders, worth around $24 million, Eurogamer reports. By his numbers that puts it ahead of Gears of War: E-Day and Control Resonant on Steam, with China as its biggest market so far.
It also has about 2.5 million Steam wishlists, and plenty of those players have played Black Myth: Wukong, Elden Ring or Sekiro. Elliott thinks it could be one of the year's breakout single-player hits. It launches on PS5 and PC on October 28.
Source: Eurogamer
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (image via GamesRadar+ / Sandfall Interactive)
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has reportedly sold 8.7 million copies
Last year's big Game of the Year winner keeps selling. Alinea Analytics estimates Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has sold 8.7 million copies for about $366 million, GamesRadar+ reports. Most of those sales, 58.8%, came on Steam, even though the game was on PC Game Pass until last week.
Xbox was a different story. Alinea says 4.3 million people played it through Game Pass, and only 5.5% of sales came from Xbox, which it calls "Game Pass cannibalization." For comparison, the same breakdown has Elden Ring at 36.4 million copies, Baldur's Gate 3 at 23.2 million and Astro Bot at 4.7 million.
Source: GamesRadar+
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 (image via Push Square / Activision)
Modern Warfare 4 is fully out, but early multiplayer feedback is rough
After a staggered rollout, with the campaign unlocking for some players last week and DMZ on Tuesday, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is now fully available, and Infinity Ward switched multiplayer on earlier than expected. Push Square says the first player reactions to competitive multiplayer have been harsh.
Fan site Charlie Intel called it a "mess," pointing to weak maps, spawns that still feel broken after the beta, and very strict skill-based matchmaking. That's a contrast with the campaign and DMZ, which have gone over well so far. Call of Duty launches often get patched into better shape, but this one has GTA 6 arriving less than a month later.
Source: Push Square
Final Fantasy 14 (image via Kotaku / Square Enix)
Update: Square Enix says some Final Fantasy 14 accounts were accessed too
What's new: it's not just Capcom. Kotaku notes that Square Enix confirmed on October 19 that an outside party got into a number of Final Fantasy 14 accounts. Unlike Capcom's breach, Square Enix says its own systems weren't hacked. The attacker used logins leaked from other companies' breaches. Square Enix has locked down accounts it thinks are at risk and warns it may force password resets for everyone if this keeps up.
Kotaku says breaches at Japanese companies in 2026 have already passed last year's total, and many have been helped along by AI tools. If you reuse passwords, now's a good time to change them and turn on two-factor authentication.
Source: Kotaku
Street Fighter 6 (image via Kotaku / Capcom)
Capcom has a popular Street Fighter 6 hitbox site take its data down
Ultimate Frame Data, a go-to site for studying fighting game hitboxes, is pulling its Street Fighter 6 pages after a legal request from Capcom, Kotaku reports. Capcom's letter says the hitbox and collision data isn't normally visible in the game and asks for it to be removed by October 30. Site owner MetalMusicMan complied, writing, "Not my choice, sorry everyone."
Hitboxes show the exact range and shape of each attack, and players get that data through mods, which Capcom says it doesn't authorize. The fighting game community is surprised, since Capcom is usually seen as friendly to it. The site's Smash Bros. Ultimate data is still up.
Source: Kotaku
Helldivers 2 (image via Rock Paper Shotgun / Arrowhead)
Arrowhead says Helldivers 3 only happens if it's very different from Helldivers 2
Don't hold your breath for Helldivers 3. Arrowhead chief creative officer Johan Pilestedt told Rock Paper Shotgun there are still no plans for a sequel, and that one would only make sense if it were different enough for both games to live side by side. In his view, a sequel "resets everything," while keeping Helldivers 2 going turns it into a long-term hobby.
About 95% of the roughly 150-person studio is still on Helldivers 2, with a small team prototyping Arrowhead's next, unannounced game. Pilestedt also said the studio wants to grow "on our own terms" rather than doubling in size after a hit.
Source: Rock Paper Shotgun
Factorio (image via GamesRadar+ / Wube Software)
Factorio 2.1, likely its last big update, is out now
Wube Software has released Factorio 2.1 after months of testing, GamesRadar+ reports. The developer calls it a big batch of quality-of-life changes, small features and polish it didn't have time for in 2.0. Highlights include rockets that can carry several different items in one launch, elevated rails over cargo bays, and land mines that work as tripwires and enemy detectors.
Wube has said this is the game's last major update, though smaller bug-fix patches could still come. Factorio has more than 234,000 positive Steam reviews, and Wube still refuses to ever put it on sale.
Source: GamesRadar+
Diablo 4 (image via GamesRadar+ / Blizzard)
Diablo 4 finally lets Prime Evil Splinters stack to 99
After weeks of complaints, Blizzard's latest Diablo 4 patch notes say Prime Evil Splinters will stack up to 99 starting October 28, up from just one per type. Until now, Season 15 players could only carry one of each, which pushed endgame grinders into a fiddly workaround.
GamesRadar+ says the reaction on Reddit is mixed. Players are glad about the change, but many say it came far too late in the season.
Source: GamesRadar+
Fallout Shelter: The Experiment (image via Insider Gaming / Prime Video)
Fallout Shelter: The Experiment arrives on Prime Video January 13
Prime Video's Fallout reality show now has a date. Fallout Shelter: The Experiment premieres January 13, 2027 with four episodes, and the last three arrive weekly through January 27, Insider Gaming reports, citing GamesRadar+.
Contestants will test their "aptitude for the apocalypse" inside Vault-Tec-style shelters through escalating challenges and moral dilemmas, and the winner takes home $1 million.
Source: Insider Gaming
Comments
Post a Comment