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Funcom to lay off staff as it pivots to focusing solely on Conan Exiles and Dune: Awakening
Funcom has begun a reorganisation that will narrow the Norwegian studio’s focus to two games. The company has decided to concentrate exclusively on live operations for Conan Exiles and Dune: Awakening, and an unspecified number of staff are affected by the change. The human cost is the first thing worth stating plainly. An unspecified number is still a number of people, and reorganisation announcements rarely convey much about who is leaving or what support they receive. Until more is known, that uncertainty hangs over the story. The strategic logic is easier to read. Both Conan Exiles and Dune: Awakening are ongoing online games that depend on a steady flow of updates, events and content to keep players engaged. Live operations is not a skeleton crew job; it is a continuous production pipeline, and it competes for the same people who would otherwise build something new. For a studio of Funcom’s size, supporting two live...
S&box plans to go free-to-play and embrace human curation saying “Netflix for games doesn’t work”
Facepunch Studios plans to take s&box free-to-play before the end of the year, a significant change for a platform that has so far asked players to buy in. The shift comes alongside a rethink of how games are surfaced, moving away from a vast catalogue toward a smaller, deliberately chosen selection. The reasoning is captured in the studio’s own framing: Netflix for games doesn’t work. It is a blunt way of describing a real problem. Subscription-style libraries and endless algorithmic feeds are good at offering volume, but volume is not the same as discoverability, and a bottomless list can leave players scrolling instead of playing. Human curation is the alternative being proposed. Rather than presenting everything and letting the crowd sort it out, the platform intends to highlight the top and most favoured games. That puts editorial judgement back in the loop, with all the benefits and risks that implies. The benefits are obvious...
Duke Nukem 3D level designer Richard “Levelord” Gray dies aged 68
Richard Gray, the level designer known across the industry as Levelord, has died at the age of 68. He is best remembered for his work on Duke Nukem 3D, a game whose maps helped define what a first-person shooter could be in the mid-1990s. Level design is one of the least visible crafts in games and one of the most consequential. Players rarely notice a good layout; they simply find themselves moving through a space without friction, always aware of where to go next and rarely sure what is around the corner. Duke Nukem 3D is a useful example of why that matters. Its levels were dense and interactive, packed with details that rewarded curiosity, and they gave the game a sense of place that held up long after its jokes dated. A weaker set of maps would have left nothing but the one-liners. The nickname itself says something about how the role was...
VisionQuest star Paul Bettany once left a complete Avengers: Infinity War script on a plane
Paul Bettany, who stars in Marvel’s VisionQuest, has a story about the perils of carrying a script around. He once left a complete copy of the Avengers: Infinity War screenplay on a plane, and realised what he had done only after he had got into his car. The detail that makes it vivid is the reaction. And I entered my vehicle and thought, oh no, oh no. Anyone who has patrolled an airport departures hall patting their pockets will recognise the feeling, even if what they left behind was a paperback rather than a Marvel blockbuster. Script security on films of that scale is serious business. Marvel productions are famous for secrecy, and with good reason: a plot point leaked in advance can flatten a marketing campaign that cost more than most films. Pages are numbered, watermarked and tracked, and actors are often given only what they need. Print versus digital is part of...
Xbox just announced its brand-new controller, and it’s far from the pro pad we all expected
Xbox has announced a new controller, and it is not the pro-style pad many observers were expecting. The Nano Controller is a compact gamepad that shrinks the standard model in both shape and cost, trading size and features for a lower barrier to entry. That is an unusual direction for a hardware reveal. Recent years have seen premium controllers dominate the conversation, with adjustable triggers, extra buttons and swappable parts aimed at players who treat input as a competitive advantage. A smaller, cheaper pad sits at the opposite end of that spectrum. Compact controllers have a clear appeal. They take up less space in a bag, suit smaller hands and are easier to carry for travel or for a second player who only plays occasionally. For families, a lower price also makes it more practical to keep more than one around. The compromises are predictable. Shrinking a gamepad changes how it sits in the...
GTA 6 has a realistic sweat system that makes Jason and Lucia perspire based on how hard they dance
Grand Theft Auto 6 has a sweat system. That is the short version of a detail that has been circulating: Jason and Lucia perspire realistically, and the amount depends on how hard they dance. It is the kind of headline that sounds like a joke until you consider what it implies about the simulation underneath. Rockstar’s games have long been sold on density of detail. Beyond missions and map size, the studio’s reputation rests on systems that most players never consciously notice: crowds that react, vehicles that carry momentum, weather that changes how a world feels. Each one is small; together they create the impression of a place that exists without you. Perspiration is a good example of that philosophy because it is almost invisible by design. A character who glistens after exertion reads as alive, while one who stays perfectly dry through a chase or a dance floor reads as a mannequin. The...
