“I know for a fact there are senior executives in Disney who want them to buy Epic, and are just waiting for that moment,” said Heath. “And then there’s others who think it’s a bad idea. So, I think if Epic ever sold, if it ever decided to call it quits on being an independent company, Disney would be the most natural home for it for a lot of reasons, for the park integration. Can you imagine a Fortnite park?”

Heath went on to discuss Epic Games’ recent legal battles against major tech industry companies like Apple and Google, and how this might also play a pivotal role in keeping Disney from buying the company outright, at least for now. In the long term, however, both companies might want to team up to a greater degree to take on the ever-popular Roblox.

“And, I can see that, but at the same time you have to understand Epic is a founder-controlled company, so Tim Sweeney has full voting stock control and can make unilateral decisions, and it’s really up to him. And he is, as we saw, he was the guy who went to battle against the app stores, against Apple and Google, to open those up. And it’s almost an illogical crusade when you’re running a company like Epic to do something like that.”

“But that kind of thinking is something that’s going to keep Disney a little bit at arm’s length.”

Belloni brings up the fact that the recent financial hardships faced by Epic Games, which led to the company laying off over 1,000 of its employees, could also play a role in Disney’s potential acquisition plans. “If this is the beginning of a long, slow decline for Fortnite, which I’m not sure it is, it’s not great if Disney’s putting all their chips into a declining business.”

“Gaming in general is having a hard time,” responded Heath. “But if you look at Roblox‘s growth, which is where Epic has been trying to take Fortnite into more of an open-world creator-first ecosystem where creators can build businesses, building on top of Fortnite, Roblox is just killing it with that. And I think these experiences are probably still the future of not only gaming, but social media for young people, right? They’re hanging out in these worlds. So Fortnite‘s not dead.”

Belloni responded by saying that his 10-year-old “would be stoked if Tony Stark showed up and Yoda and a bunch of Jedi, and they could play with those.”

“It’s the best combination to potentially actually challenge Roblox‘s dominance here,” noted Heath. “You can call it gaming, but it’s really entertainment, and it’s also social media. I mean Disney’s on the cap table. They’re supposed to be doing this integration.”

It is worth noting that, for now, neither Epic Games nor Disney have made any announcements or statements that indicate that there might be discussions about an acquisition in the works. As Heath and Belloni noted, however, it could potentially be a beneficial partnership, especially in the wake of Disney’s deal with OpenAI falling through in light of the latter bringing an end to its video generation technology Sora.

Gameplay producer Robby Williams described the event as “a brutal day at Epic,” noting that “what comes next is very hard and painful” for those affected by the lay-offs. On the subject of now having to make do with a team that is now smaller by around 1,000 developers, he said that the crew will have to “pick up the pieces and try to keep moving forward.

“Our teams will have to pick up the pieces and try to keep moving forward,” wrote Williams on social media, “but we cannot even fully understand what kind of impacts this will have on the game for the rest of the year and likely beyond.”

“I’ll continue to do my best to keep making the best game for you,” he continued, “and I’m confident that my peers feel the same, but please be patient with us as we navigate this tough time and do our best in spite of these truly gut-wrenching losses.”

In announcing the lay-offs, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeny said that the company was “spending significantly more than we’re making, and we have to make major cuts to keep the company funded. This layoff, together with over $500 million of identified cost savings in contracting, marketing, and closing some open roles, puts us in a more stable place.”

As for the future of Fortnite, Sweeny said that the company will have to focus on offering players “awesome Fortnite experiences with fresh seasonal content, gameplay, story, and live events.” He also said that Epic Games has to work on its developer tools “with greater stability and capability as we evolve from Unreal Engine 5 and UEFN to Unreal Engine 6. And we’ll be kicking off the next generation of Epic with huge launch plans towards the end of the year.”

The lay-offs were far from the only things coming about at Epic Games in light of Fortnite seeing a downturn. The company is also shutting down three popular game modes available in Fortnite: Rocket Racing, Ballistic, and Festival Battle Stage. The modes will be shut down in a staggered manner, with Ballistic and Festival Battle Stage being on their way out in April, and Rocket Racing remaining live until October 2026.

“We’ve built a lot of Fortnite modes, and in some cases, we failed to build something awesome enough to attract and retain a large player base,” said Epic Games when it announced these shut downs. “We are going to shut these modes down on the schedules outlined below – we’re grateful for everyone who played.”

What the future holds for Fortnite might seem murky for now. However, Epic Games likely has plans already in place. The company’s partnerships with others might also play a role, like the deal it had signed with Unity to bring in the latter’s game engine capabilities into Fortnite.

The first among them is Rocket Racing, a Mario Kart-like addition from developer Psyonix (Rocket League) that brought quite an entertaining arcade racing gameplay loop that’s sure to be missed when it goes offline in October 2026. That includes all raving islands created with UEFN, along with racing templates for new ones. There will be no more Rocket Racing Quests and Ranked Rewards starting next week, although the fact that you can still use your custom cars in other game modes is a small consolation.

While Rocket Racing’s exit is still a while away, Ballistic fans aren’t going to be so lucky as the mode is on its way out next month, leaving you with precious little time to enjoy it. While FPS island support will continue to be provided on UEFN, Epic Games asserts that the platform will need more functionality before a similar mode is possible (and there’s no timeline for the same).

Last but not least is the Festival Battle Stage, which will continue to operate normally in Harmonix’s Fortnite Festival until it shuts down on April 16, presumably to enable a more robust approach to content creation for other music modes such as Main Stage and Jam Stage. Epic Games had this to say about the removal of the three modes:

“We’ve built a lot of Fortnite modes, and in some cases, we failed to build something awesome enough to attract and retain a large player base. We are going to shut these modes down on the schedules outlined below – we’re grateful for everyone who played.”

The path forward remains murky for Fortnite, but perhaps its partnership with the Unity Engine could help turn its fortunes around. Either way, the tweet below is now the latest blow to the title, and all we can do is commiserate and share fond memories of these modes before they disappear.

https://x.com/FortniteStatus/status/2036451164347109440

Apparently, the “downturn in Fortnite engagement,” which seemingly began last year, has led to the company “spending significantly more than we’re making, and we have to make major cuts to keep the company funded. This layoff, together with over $500 million of identified cost savings in contracting, marketing, and closing some open roles, puts us in a more stable place.”

Sweeney also cited other “industry-wide challenges,” including the weaker sales of current-gen consoles compared to the previous generation, “tougher cost economics,” and overall lower spending. Of course, it also doesn’t help that Fortnite has “other increasingly engaging forms of entertainment” to compete with.

Then there are all the other problems that the free-to-play title has faced, such as consistently delivering “magic with every season” and only recently returning to mobiles. “We have taken a lot of bullets in a battle, which is only in the early days of paying off for ourselves and all developers.” So what’s the plan going forward?

“What we now need to do is clear: build awesome Fortnite experiences with fresh seasonal content, gameplay, story, and live events; accelerate developer tools with greater stability and capability as we evolve from Unreal Engine 5 and UEFN to Unreal Engine 6. And we’ll be kicking off the next generation of Epic with huge launch plans towards the end of the year,” said Sweeney.

Of course, this isn’t the first time that the company has seen mass layoffs. In 2023, 830 employees, roughly 16 percent of the total workforce, were let go due to Epic “spending way more money than we earn.” It echoes the same sentiment as today, only with Fortnite having lower engagement.

Recently laid-off employees will benefit from a severance package with four months’ pay (with further amounts “based on tenure”) and six months of health care coverage in the US. “We’ll also accelerate their stock options vesting through January 2027 and extend equity exercise options for up to two years.” More details will be revealed in an upcoming meeting on March 26th.

Interestingly, Sweeney said that the layoffs were unrelated to AI. “To the extent it improves productivity, we want to have as many awesome developers developing great content and tech as we can.” Of course, you can’t fault players for being skeptical, especially since AI-generated art was discovered in-game with Season 7.

The post is a the latest iteration of the Xbox Excellence Awards, which was created last year to celebrate how players engaged with various releases on Xbox. The Store Rating category lists 2025 games with the best ratings on the Microsoft Store, with an added requirement of the title having at least 500 ratings. Player Engagements is about the average number of hours spent on a game by each player within the first six weeks of a game’s release. Daily Active Users celebrates titles, expansions or updates with the highest single-day active users throughout the year. And finally Units Sold is fairly self-explanatory.

Going down the lists, you’ll find many of the biggest releases of the year, from ARC Raiders and Battlefield 6, as well as award-winning RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Indie titles have also been well-represented, with games like Crime Scene Cleaner and Satisfactory making it into the lists. There also doesn’t seem to have been a singular genre to dominate the lists, since everything from sports games like EA Sports Madden NFL 26, to fantasy adventure life sims like Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time, and even fighting games like Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics are well represented.

Curiously, none of the games was present in all four of the categories. At most, we got to see titles like Borderlands 4 being able to make it on to three of them: Player Engagement, Daily Active Users and Units Sold. Even ARC Raiders, which has seen quite a bit of success, is only on the Units Sold and Daily Active Users lists.

Microsoft has also emphasized that the lists represent a diverse collection of games developed by studios of varying sizes. All in all, it represents 48 unique developers based out of 13 countries, with 24 publishers having had a hand in their release. 19 of the games were self-published. “Taken as a whole, it’s an encapsulation of development on Xbox – we want gaming to reach you wherever you are, and for the teams making those games to find you from wherever they are,” wrote the company.

Full list of games:

Store Rating:

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Crime Scene Cleaner
• Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles 2
• Digimon Story: Time Stranger
• Dreamcore
• Dynasty Warriors: Origins
• Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
• Final Fantasy XVI
• Lies of P: Overture
• Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
• Little Nightmares III
• Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics
• Minami Lane
• Mullet MadJack
• Poppy Playtime Chapter 4
• Satisfactory
• Silent Hill 2
• Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds
• The First Berserker: Khazan

Player Engagement:

• Borderlands 4
• Digimon Story: Time Stranger
• Dynasty Warriors: Origins
• EA Sports College Football 26
• EA Sports FC 26
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
• Farm Together 2
• Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles
• Helldivers 2
• Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
• Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
• MLB The Show 25
• Monster Hunter Wilds
• NBA 2K26
• NHL 26
• Rust
• Satisfactory
• The First Berserker: Khazan

Daily Active Users:

• Arc Raiders
• Avowed
• Battlefield 6
• Borderlands 4
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• DOOM: The Dark Ages
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Fortnite
• Forza Horizon 5
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Grounded 2
• Helldivers 2
• Marvel Rivals
• Minecraft
• NBA 2K26
• Rematch
• Roblox
• Rocket League
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege

Units Sold:

• Arc Raiders
• Assassin’s Creed Shadows
• Battlefield 6
• Borderlands 4
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• EA Sports Madden NFL 26
• EA Sports College Football 26
• EA Sports FC 26
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Helldivers 2
• Hollow Knight: Silksong
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
• MLB The Show 25
• Monster Hunter Wilds
• NBA 2K26
• PGA Tour 2K25
• Ready or Not
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
• WWE 2K25

On Xbox? Fortnite, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto 5, Roblox and Minecraft. What’s even crazier is that these are the same as 2024’s most-played titles on both platforms, though Call of Duty on Xbox fell from first to second place year-over-year.

However, despite critics and fans dragging last year’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 for its horrendous campaign, and Battlefield 6 emerging as the best-selling premium title, the brand still has some pull. Of course, there’s also the free-to-play component, Call of Duty: Warzone, which remains a significant presence. The same goes for Grand Theft Auto Online, although even standalone, it isn’t free.

Then again, Grand Theft Auto 5 has shipped over 220 million units and is available on three different console generations, so its popularity seems a given. Which only makes you wonder just how much more successful Grand Theft Auto 6 will be, even if it doesn’t ship with its own multiplayer mode at launch. It’s slated for launch on November 19th after two big delays.

Many of these games are so addictive and well-designed, you’re probably going to be thinking about them when you’re not playing them. Let’s get started!

1. Where Winds Meet

This wuxia-based RPG is simply unmatched when it comes to the number of activities it offers you, the quality of each one, and the variety you can find. It’s an open world where exploration without having a specific destination in mind is the best possible way to experience it, with a lot of great side content baked into the game aside from a compelling main campaign.

With online multiplayer and MMO elements integrated into the gameplay loop, and combat and gear systems that are great for creating unique PvP characters, there’s just so much to do in this game, and so much more to come with subsequent updates, that hitting triple figures on your playtime is almost an inevitability.

2. EA Sports FC 26

The football simulator that’s been around forever continues to be a viable option for a game that has you coming back to it every chance you get, for a very long time after you first boot it up. With a very detailed Career mode, regular online events, the option to pit your team against your friend, or perhaps have a buddy join your team instead, there’s a lot to experience.

The gameplay on offer is also quite solid, with a lot of realism baked into the experience to make you feel like you’re on the pitch and not staring at it through a screen. However, its systems and some of its challenges are going to require that you literally put your best foot forward on the pitch. If you decide to dive into this one, the game is on and is going to stay that way for a while.

3. Fortnite

Once again, there’s so much to do in Fortnite, which is more of a platform than a game at this point. With so many modes on offer, regular content being added into the game, social features that make it a blast when it’s enjoyed in company, and a PvP Battle Royale mode that has become quite popular in its own right, this one’s definitely a game where 200 hours might go by before you even notice.

Dive in and you’re going to find a lot of freedom for self-expression, and a lot of fun to be had on the islands. Just be careful not to put too much of a strain on your wallet, as those outfits and goodies can be very tempting indeed.

4. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim + Expansions

Step into the shoes of the Dragonborn and begin your journey into Skyrim, and you’re probably not going to look at another video game until you’ve explored every corner of its sprawling map. Anything can happen along the road to your next point of interest, and with some of the finest RPG mechanics to grace the genre, you’re going to spend a lot of time tinkering with your build.

This is an RPG that has more than earned its popularity and ranks high among modern gaming’s finest for a reason. It’s also smart to dive in now and perhaps brush up on the story ahead of the sequel that’s eventually coming our way. The expansions are worth a mention, and can add a significant amount of hours to your total playtime. Every second of them is going to be worth it, though.

5. GTA Online

A thriving community of players, a massive map to explore in San Andreas, and interesting activities to engage with. GTA Online was kind of a no-brainer for this list. With heists to plan and execute, quests to carry out for some of the main story’s characters, and a reputation to build for your silent protagonist, this one’s going to have you avoiding plans and spending your weekends indoors for a while.

It’s GTA at its finest, and if the delay to GTA VI has had you feeling down, perhaps this one can act as a suitable placebo until the real thing gets here.

6. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt + Story Expansions

Geralt’s search for Ciri, and all the shenanigans he can get up to in the process, continues to be among the best open-world games we’ve played despite it being a decade old at this point. CDPR’s ability to hide a frankly overwhelming amount of secrets across three vast maps, and a whole lot of quality side content to distract the Witcher from looking for his adoptive daughter, is nothing short of a marvel.

The story expansions are a whole other ball game, bringing some very satisfying arcs full of possibilities to change the narrative’s direction, along with excellent new monsters to hunt and more secrets and lore to uncover. You might not be able to get enough of this one, if we’re being honest.

7. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

The first open-world Metal Gear Solid is a great option for those of you who like a game that takes a while to outstay its welcome. Big Boss’s adventures continue in a main campaign that works very well as a bridge between previous entries, while side ops, Metal Gear Online, and the Forward Operating Base systems are all reasons for this one to have you enjoying many entertaining hours of espionage and skullduggery.

Indeed, a significant part of your playtime is going to be planning the best possible route to your objectives without your enemies being none the wiser to your presence. This is a hunt that takes a satisfyingly long time and is definitely worth considering.

8. Destiny 2

This award-winning online FPS title from Bungie has a staggering amount of content for you to take on in its story-based PvE mode, while your multiplayer options range from cooperative three-player missions to PvP battles. There’s a lot to take in, both in terms of the game’s lore and the amount of gear and potential build options you can find.

With a lot of content to get through, and a lot of fun to be had as you dive into all it has to offer, Destiny 2 is a dream come true if you’re an FPS player who wants a game that can take over their holidays.

9. Elden Ring + Shadow of the Erdtree

FromSoftware’s ambitious open-world and the Tarnished’s incredible journey is nothing short of a masterpiece. The Lands Between are full of places to explore, mysteries to uncover, NPCs with haunting stories, and a lot of weapons, armor, gear, and loot to plunder as you try to become Queen Marika’s consort and impose your will on the world.

It’s easy to forget about all that as you ride your horse through the Lands Between, and that feeling only intensifies when you finally make your way to the Land of Shadow in the game’s DLC. Tracing the steps of Miquella is an adventure worth taking on, and coupled with the base game, this one’s a behemoth.

10. Monster Hunter: World + Expansions

Taking on the role of a representative of the Research Commission and exploring every region and zone of the New World was a fun and engaging experience from start to finish. There are so many monsters to hunt, so much to discover, and a whole lot of activities to engage in at your camp and the main base.

Quests flow from one to another almost as smoothly as the water in some parts of the New World, and you’re going to be helping your fellow companions and NPCs while having tons of fun along the way. It helps that this is a game that’s both charming in its writing and enchanting on the visual front. You can’t go wrong with this one, and it’s going to have you getting very creative in your approach to each distinct monster you’re tasked with bringing down.

11. Dragon’s Dogma 2

This sequel was an excellent new addition to Dragon’s Dogma. It was a pleasure to step into the shoes of the Arisen once again, and each of the playable classes brought something interesting to the table. But it’s when you begin to dive deeper into the world’s mysteries and begin to discover more about it that this one’s true depth shows itself.

You’re going to want to place your teleporting stones quite carefully, as the rest of the world actually has you travelling across it, navigating set pathways via a travel system, while the world’s unpredictability can make those trips quite treacherous indeed. This is an experience that is both memorable and filled with so much content and so little hand-holding that you’re going to be obsessed with discovering more about the world and the people you meet within it.

12. Red Dead Redemption 2

Arthur Morgan is an obvious contender for a place on this list of massive games, and his adventures are so extensive that it can be hard to believe one man lived through them all. From kicking back with mini-games to exploring some truly bizarre stories that can come to you in multiple ways, this is a game that can have you walking and talking like a cowboy from the Wild West every chance you get.

It’s among the finest games in modern gaming, and its world is so full of clever little details to discover that hopping on your horse for a new day of exploring is going to take precedence over your leisure time for a very entertaining and lengthy block of time.

13. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla + Expansions

As the largest one in the franchise, Valhalla’s unique take on living your life as a noble Viking and uncovering the conspiracy across England, is a world worth getting lost in.

The game’s expansions do more to set up a lot of things, while coming with some brilliant new adventures for Eivor to pursue, complete with members of shadowy organizations to hunt down. It’s quite a tale, and a very large one full of fun things to do. Switching the cinematic camera on during a boat ride could have you spending more hours on this one than you’d like to admit.

14. No Man’s Sky

As one of modern gaming’s greatest comeback stories, this is a game that stands in its own class in terms of its shelf life. It’s an almost endless adventure, its narrative justifying multiple playthroughs in a way that makes total sense, while the completely random worlds that you get to explore and engage with are quite hard to leave once you start with them.

No Man’s Sky is a story about enjoying the journey, while also waiting eagerly to see what you’re going to find at its destination. It’s going to have you pushing past your bedtime with a smile on your face, and a sense of wonder compelling you to move forward and see just what you’re about to find.

15. Baldur’s Gate 3

With a stellar cast of actors bringing several NPCs to life, and an expertly narrated Dungeons and Dragons-based tale to have their settings intertwine with yours, Larian Studio’s banger continues to be a game that you can keep replaying, with astounding build variety and stories that never truly take place the same way when you play them.

There’s the Honour Mode, cross-platform modding support, co-op and online multiplayer, and a very dark take on the story to play through. Faerun is a great holiday destination, although the things you might find there can stay in the darkest corners of your mind rent-free.

16. Stardew Valley

We weren’t going to leave out one of the ultimate farming simulations from this one. Stardew Valley belongs here, with a playtime that doesn’t really end. You’re going to keep coming back to the farm that you grew from scratch, a town gradually building out of the effort you sink into, and the relationships with its many NPCs you build along the way.

No two days are the same out in this valley, and bringing in the online component is a great way to make this one as immersive as it can be, thanks to a thriving community of die-hard fans. You’re going to feel very welcome in this one, and you might choose to stay with it for a very long time to come.

17. Animal Crossing: New Horizons

This life sim always has a goal to reach, and things to do to get there. The Nook Miles system is its highlight, while the charming world and its uniquely retro art style make it stand out. Building out your presence in its world is an activity on its own, and you’re going to be quite obsessed with placing your buildings in a layout that’s to your liking, while getting them constructed has you constantly checking back into the game.

This is a game where you come to relax, and do that quite often, thanks to how entertaining it is to play, and how satisfying it is to stay with.

18. Gran Turismo 7

This PlayStation-exclusive racing sim is a great option for those of you who’d like to spend your time behind the wheel of a fast car on some of the world’s most iconic tracks. With PSVR2 support, incredible visuals, a very realistic translation of each car’s real-life track performance, and a lot of options to enjoy races at your disposal, you’re going to rack up a lot of miles on your ODO once you get started with this one.

The astounding visuals work very well with the game’s many systems that work well together to make your time on the track feel truly authentic, and push you to try taking those corners as well as you can. It’s time to let those engines loose and enjoy the results for hours on end.

19. Satisfactory

For a game carrying its title, this one is more than satisfactory, and can have you very immersed in building out your space base in your role as the Pioneer. Your factories are soon going to have you thinking about them while you’re away from your PC, and the potential for self-expression is almost humming with endless possibilities.

While its map is almost overwhelmingly large for most players, the ones who invest the time in hunting down as much to do as they can in this game are going to have a lot of fun building out their factories and playing their part in developing the corporation that put them there. Satisfactory is unique, visually distinct, well-executed, and simply fun to play, plain and simple.

20. Mass Effect Legendary Edition

This is the definitive way to enjoy a trilogy of legendary titles, bringing improved visuals and performance while also bringing in each title’s DLC and expansions into one title with a single character creator and the option to launch any of the three games from a unified menu.

If you’re familiar with the Mass Effect games, you already know that you’re going to be spending inordinate amounts of time with each one. You also know that their replay value is off the charts, and it can be easy to lose yourself in this trilogy’s expansive universe, where spending several hours making memories in it can become an entire holiday on its own.

That wraps up our list of the largest games you can get your hands on. We hope you have as much fun playing them as we did, and that the one you pick gives you many fond memories as you play it.

Dring believes that the daily active users metric for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 has been lower than the series typically gets, especially shortly after launch. While he noted that last year’s Black Ops 6 did incredibly well, this time around, fewer players are engaging with the new entry. Elliot believes the reasons for this might just be a “combination of community burnout, questionable creative and business decisions by Activision/Microsoft, and strong competition.”

“One reason for the decline is the intense competition from rival shooters, mostly Battlefield 6 and ARC Raiders,” explained Elliot. “The new Battlefield title had a massive launch, securing the biggest opening in its franchise’s history. ARC has sold almost 8 million copies so far, and the latest Fortnite Simpsons crossover was a hit. Attention is scarce.”

“Players have expressed growing dissatisfaction with CoD‘s lack of innovation, feeling that the franchise is ailing. The introduction of Fortnite-like cosmetic items like non-military character skins (Beavis and Butthead, Nicki Minaj) has alienated a significant portion of the fanbase who prefer a more grounded military aesthetic. The co-op campaign was a major point of criticism. It was uneven and tedious when played solo, while also requiring an always-online connection. It also drew controversy and ire for its use of AI slop in game.”

Speaking of competition, Dring noted that Black Ops 7’s launch happened to take place during an incredibly competitive time for the shooter genre, thanks in large part to the popularity of games like ARC Raiders and Battlefield 6.

“ARC Raiders had a lesser impact than Battlefield 6 did, but if you’re just launching a brand-new shooter on the market and it’s getting a mixed reception,” he said. “You’ve got ARC Raiders as well as Battlefield 6 out, so it didn’t really come out in the best environment.”

“Now look, even if the franchise has fallen a little bit this year, it’s still mega numbers. We’re still mostly over 20m active monthly players – most games would kill for that. But it’s dipping below what it was before due to a mix of the competitive environment it released in and it perhaps didn’t connect with people in the same way it may have done in the past.”

Elliot puts it down to the “attention economy” in general being saturated with all of the different options that players have these days, especially when it comes to live-service games. He notes that, at this stage, the market is largely dominated by the bigger live-service games that have already been out thanks to general inertia as well as “improvements to their content.”

“This fierce competition, coupled with the difficulty of convincing gamers to abandon their established habits, cosmetic investments, and friendship groups – a powerful sunk-cost fallacy – is the primary reason for the high failure rate among new live-service shooters,” he says.

Further in the interview, Elliot also spoke about the potential for a game to come in that doesn’t purely focus on “hyper-competitive player-versus player” gameplay. Rather, he noted that newer entries like Helldivers 2 focused entirely on PvE and found success, while ARC Raiders managed to meld PvE and PvP in a package that also helped foster strong community interaction.

“So yes, Black Ops 7‘s specific issues contribute to its underperformance, but in general there’s a systemic challenge: the live-service shooter market is now ruthlessly consolidated,” explained Elliot. “Finding consistent success in this segment is difficult, even for a massive, established franchise. The path to success is no longer a guaranteed annual release, but rather requires exceptional product quality, genuine innovation, or finding a neglected sub-genre or new niche, where the inertia of the ‘incumbents’ does not yet hold absolute sway.”

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 was released just last month on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The title has faced quite a bit of critique since then, and you can check out more details about why we think it’s a mess. Also check out our thoughts on its boss fights. As for how it might be doing in the market, its launch week sales were 63 percent lower than Battlefield 6 in Europe. Check out our coverage for more details. And while you’re at it, check out our review as well.

The user’s primary reason for believing it is AI-generated art largely comes down to the fact that the feet of the creature in the poster have inconsistencies in its number of toes. While the left foot in the foreground has only four toes, the right foot instead has five.

Another user has taken to social media platform X to ask whether yet another in-game poster, advertising the “Sauce Talk Talk Show” with the host seemingly having a tomato for a head is AI generated as well. This user’s question comes from the fact that the artwork in the poster is quite uninspired and looks like something generated with a prompt.

Another social media user, Minimum, has also questioned whether one of the sprays part of the Back to the Future cosmetics set for Marty McFly might be AI generated. The artist behind this spray, however, has noted through an Instagram post that the art itself was not AI-generated. However, the artist also confirmed that they had grabbed pictures of clock faces to create a collage for the background, and that one of these clocks might have been generated.

The artist further confirmed the fact that the spray wasn’t AI generated by posting a video that showcased all the different layers that were created in the process of making the artwork through artist software Procreate.

In the meantime, Epic Games itself is yet to make any statement on the matter, and since the Epic Games Store doesn’t require games to disclose their use of AI in development, no such disclosure has been provided for Fortnite either.

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has previously taken to social media to discuss AI, and went as far as to agree with another X user that Valve should drop the “Made with AI” label on Steam. Sweeney said that while this kind of disclosure is important for companies and artists, especially when it comes to figuring out licensing deals, it doesn’t make sense for game stores to disclose the use of AI since it “will be involved in nearly all future production.”

“The AI tag is relevant to art exhibits for authorship disclosure, and to digital content licensing marketplaces where buyers need to understand the rights situation,” wrote Sweeney. “It makes no sense for game stores, where AI will be involved in nearly all future production.”

For its part, Valve had introduced the AI disclosure section at the bottom of games’ Steam store listings back in January 2024. As part of this, the company noted that listing a game on Steam also means that developers “promise Valve that your game will not include illegal or infringing content, and that your game will be consistent with your marketing materials,” and that the company itself would do pre-release reviews to ensure that AI use was appropriately disclosed.

The partnership will also involve Unity bringing in support for Unreal Engine to its cross-platform commerce platform. The announcement for this happened at Unity’s Annual Developer Conference – Unite – and will provide more choices for developers that make use of Unreal Engine when it comes to managing various things like payment providers, digital catalogues, and web shops across PC, mobile and web.

“We’re excited to partner with Epic Games to create more opportunities for game developers around the world,” said Unity CEO and president Matt Bromberg in the press release. “Choice and open systems create growth for everyone in the gaming ecosystem.”

“Just like the early days of the web, we believe that companies need to work together in order to build the open metaverse in a way that’s interoperable and fair,” said Epic Games CEO and founder Tim Sweeney. “Working alongside Unity we’re helping developers build fun games, reach bigger audiences, and find success.”

This partnership was likely the result of both Epic and Unity wanting to compete with one of the biggest UGC-based (user generated content) titles in the world – Roblox. Epic had previously taken this step when it had announced Unreal Editor for Fortnite back in March 2023. Through this initiative, Epic had essentially opened the doors to just about any developer to make their own video games that can then be published directly into Fortnite.

Sweeney had previously also spoken about how the major next step in engine development for Epic would be to bring Unreal Engine and Fortnite together to an even greater extent. In an interview from earlier this year, Sweeney confirmed that development at the company had been split into two teams – one for Unreal Engine 5, and another for Unreal Editor for Fortnite.

“The idea is that the shipping version gains more and more features over time, but maintaining backwards compatibility with old versions and continuing to improve and approach the ultimate version of it as we go,” said Sweeney. “And we’ve been doing this experiment entirely within the world of Unreal Editor for Fortnite for now. We want to test this and iterate with Fortnite creators in just the metaverse usage case before we make it available to all of our partners using Unreal Engine for all of their projects.”

Ultimately, these two teams coming together will end up forming what Sweeney believes to be the foundations for an Unreal Engine 6. “It’s a few years away, we don’t have an exact time frame, but we could be seeing preview versions of it perhaps 2 to 3 years from now. And we’re making continuous progress towards it,” he said.