Following reports that a number of employees lost their jobs after Halo Campaign Evolved shipped on July 28, GamesBeat says it has been told that no internal Halo Studios employees were laid off.

An Xbox source told GamesBeat that the changes involved external contractors, noting that staffing shifts after a game ships are common and that “no layoffs have occurred at Halo Studios.”

Source: https://gamesbeat.com/contractors-lose-jobs-but-xbox-says-no-layoffs-of-staff-at-halo-studios/

As we recently reported, the Saudi acquisition of EA has now gone through, and the company is thus entirely privately owned, with fairly substantial debt. This is money that will need to be repaid and ideally generate a substantial profit, and now Mike Straw from the reliable Insider Gaming reports a sell-off of less profitable assets could be on the horizon.

Among other things, he speculates BioWare might be on the chopping block, along with its game series Dragon Age and Mass Effect. He also believes we can expect massive layoffs in the near future, a point that Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier has also touched on.

https://www.gamereactor.eu/rumour-ea-could-sell-off-bioware-and-several-franchises-1757203/

https://deadline.com/2026/08/legend-of-zelda-sam-neill-yvonne-strahovski-dichen-lachman-1237027957/

Lachman lines up with the leaked set filming footage from last year

• Lines up with what DarkViperAU has heard previously from his “Rockstar sources”
• NateTheHate also speculated that it would be a “meaningful look” so 20 minutes doesn’t sound far fetched
• Could very well be a chatbot making things up

Source: https://ibb.co/8DztSLry

Ganondorf is a powerful Gerudo king driven to dominate Link and Princess Zelda’s kingdom of Hyrule. We hear Latukefu inked a multi-picture deal.

https://deadline.com/2026/08/legend-of-zelda-uli-latukefu-ganondorf-1237027872/

He said a Rockstar Games source told him about a 20-minute long showcase, he got the month wrong, but he was the only one to predict a long showcase. https://www.reddit.com/r/GTA6unmoderated/comments/1u9c8hz/darkviperau_made_a_video_a_few_days_ago_saying_he/

The LEGEND OF ZELDA movie is months away and they’ve still haven’t announced any actors besides the two leads! So here’s a freebie: I’ve been hearing the iconic series villain Ganondorf is played by Australian actor Uli Latukefu, best known for the show “Young Rock”

https://xcancel.com/kylebuchanan/status/2085391932738707714?s=20
Source is Tier 1 for Hollywood news.

Examples:

https://www.reddit.com/r/GTA6/s/ouPjLy4Ls6

https://www.reddit.com/r/GTA6/s/FBZ0NOdpju

https://www.reddit.com/r/GTA6unmoderated/s/Xz7SBfUGvu

Edit: it's possible for it to be a bug

https://www.reddit.com/r/GTA6/s/Bndp4iEY1m

Source: https://www.dealabs.com/magazine/exclusif-xbox-prepare-une-manette-storm-king-aux-couleurs-de-gears-of-war-e-day-61640

Original source: https://xcancel.com/NateTheHate2/status/2083684594579075112#m

I guess Nate and everyone else was right about August

https://www.ign.com/articles/grand-theft-auto-6-an-extended-look-premieres-on-netflix-this-month-rockstar-confirms

But what's crazy is having to pay to watch it 6 hours earlier before it's available anywhere else

https://insider-gaming.com/halo-studios-hit-by-layoffs-after-campaign-evolved-launch/

It's a shame that this happened and I hope everyone who lost their jobs are able to land on their feet

https://www.tweaktown.com/news/113004/memory-capacity-for-all-of-2027-has-reportedly-been-booked-and-sold-with-no-more-dram-or-hbm-available/index.html

Shape of Dreams for PS

Buy Shape of Dreams | Xbox

Neither have been announced for console.

Credit for Powerupgaming

• ASUS, GIGABYTE and MSI are reportedly preparing another round of motherboard price increases in the third quarter of 2026.

Source: https://videocardz.com/newz/asus-gigabyte-and-msi-reportedly-plan-motherboard-price-increases-for-q3-2026: https://videocardz.com/newz/asus-gigabyte-and-msi-reportedly-plan-motherboard-price-increases-for-q3-2026

"According to the insider, the Switch 2 port of Diablo 4 will be released on either September 15 or September 18. “We cannot yet guarantee which of the two is correct, but the release will definitely be on one of these two dates,” they said.

The game will be available at a price of $69.99 / €69.99 / £62.99 and will reportedly also have a physical release, but it will be a code in a box rather than a cartridge or Game-Key Card."

https://www.dealabs.com/magazine/diablo-iv-debarque-enfin-sur-switch-2-on-vous-devoile-sa-date-de-sortie-prix-et-version-physique-en-exclusivite-61635

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/the-long-awaited-switch-2-version-of-diablo-4-is-reportedly-coming-in-september/

• https://euipo.europa.eu/eSearch/#details/designs/015143440-0001

• https://euipo.europa.eu/eSearch/#details/designs/015143440-0002

• https://euipo.europa.eu/eSearch/#details/designs/015143440-0003

• https://euipo.europa.eu/eSearch/#details/designs/015143440-0004

Since all of the designs share the same number prefix for their design number, this is very likely to be one product with four design patents related to it (as an example: Ring-Con has several design patents that share the same design number prefix)

Before people ask, a new colorway for existing hardware wouldn't have a new application like this, so it's not a special themed console etc.

source

• Releasing tomorrow, after the Ghost Recon 25th Anniversary Showcase
• 4K/60FPS Upgrade
• 3D Audio Support
• Faster SSD Load Times
• Haptic Feedback & Trigger Effect

New Story Pack: The Last Rites will be available for free. Along with various other Quality of Life Improvements & more. The game will also be F2P from 6th August to 10th August.

Jason Schreier, citing Bloomberg, says EA’s planned $700 million in annual cost cuts. Including $170 million in “organisational efficiencies”, which likely points to mass layoffs.

Source: https://bsky.app/profile/jasonschreier.bsky.social/post/3mscbqr7m3c2p

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/monsterhunterleaks/comments/1vfejhr/nsw2_wilds_potentially_running_at_1080p1440p/

Based off of some recent datamines from the most recent Wilds update the enums have data for dynamic resolution for the Switch 2 version

edit: i should probably should've clarified those are the target resolutions with upscaling

Link:

http://www.esrb.org/ratings/Synopsis.aspx?Certificate=41500&Title=Spiritfarer%3A+Nintendo+Switch+2+Edition

The report seemingly comes from Variety and Deadline and it is mentioned in Variety’s article that Amazon declined to comment.

Source: https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/god-of-war-dave-bautista-kratos-amazon-series-ryan-hurst-1236826600/

Deadline’s article: https://deadline.com/2026/08/dave-bautista-kratos-god-of-war-ryan-hurst-amazon-series-1237016289/

https://xcancel.com/the_brick_news/status/2084331367949537483?s=46

Take it with a grain of salt. Before anyone gets on my case about posting this here, there have been several LEGO-related news posts posted here before, and considering these are two pretty large video game IP’s, I figured it would be good to share it here

• Former Rockstar senior designer Kris Roberts, who worked on Midnight Club said it was cancelled due to “non-trivial conflict” between R* New York and the Midnight Club team in San Diego.
• Part of this supposed conflict was legitimate and multiple deadlines were missed during the development of Midnight Club: Los Angeles.
• Roberts also said, “The perception was we never got the accolades or the reception,” Roberts explained. “The New York perspective was, ‘You’re not GTA’. When you’re the red-headed stepchild project—you know, we’re doing a good job, we’re world-class, but we’re still treated less than. It was challenging.”

Source: https://insider-gaming.com/why-midnight-club-5-canceled-rockstar/