Gaming News · Issue #67 · 13 October 2026

TL;DR

• ARC Raiders PvE test goes live today: a week of extraction runs where other raiders cannot shoot you, for less loot.
• Epic's Disney extraction shooter reportedly slipped past March 2027, and the fix is "no more hand-written code."
• Infinity Ward says DMZ's solo-squad playlist was a dev tool, so MW4's extraction mode stays PvP for everyone.
• Battlefield 6 Season 5 drops in Vegas today, and the whole game is free on PS5 and Steam from October 15 to 19.
• Hood Warfare 2 is a $5 Call of Duty lookalike that went viral, then had to add anti-cheat four days in.

🎯 Extraction shooters

ARC Raiders Switches Off Player Damage for a Week, Starting Today

Embark Studios' PvE test for ARC Raiders runs October 13 to 20. A matchmaking toggle drops you into lobbies where raiders cannot damage each other, with solos, duos, and trios mixed together. Loot value is lower in PvE, and Night Raids, Hidden Bunker, Locked Gate, and Frigate conditions are off. The test lands as the Frozen Trail 2.0 update pushed Steam concurrents to 185,443, the best since March, though the free trial inflated that peak.

Player impact: Solo players who quit over third-partying get a week to come back without getting dumped on. Watch whether PvPvE queue times stretch, because that number decides if the toggle stays.

Sources: Eurogamer · Shacknews

Epic's Star Wars and Marvel Extraction Shooter Slips, and Devs Are Told to Stop Hand-Writing Code

Bloomberg reports that Epic Games' unannounced Disney shooter, previously reported as an extraction game mixing Star Wars and Marvel characters, has slipped past its planned March 2027 release. An internal message from a game director told staff there would be "no more hand-written code" and that art would come from "full AI workflows," using tools like Anthropic's Claude. CEO Tim Sweeney confirmed a "huge pivot" toward AI acceleration across Epic.

Player impact: The biggest-budget extraction shooter on the horizon now has no date and a production method nobody has shipped a AAA game with. Expect the AI debate to follow every trailer it shows.

Sources: Eurogamer · Insider Gaming

Infinity Ward Says DMZ's Single Squad Playlist Was Never Meant for Players

In a Reddit Q&A, Infinity Ward addressed the "Single Squad Mission" option spotted in early Modern Warfare 4 DMZ footage. The studio says it was a developer playlist for loading in alone to work. In the shipping game, players can turn off squad fill to go solo, but other squads can still be in the lobby. DMZ opens October 20 for digital pre-order owners, three days before MW4's October 23 launch.

Player impact: Anyone waiting for a PvE-only DMZ should not pre-order on that promise. Early access also gives day-one DMZ players three days of separate progression and map knowledge over everyone else.

Sources: Eurogamer

Tarkov's Optional GPS Points New Players to the Nearest Exfil

Battlestate Games head Nikita Buyanov showed the GPS device coming to Escape from Tarkov, reported by PlayGround.ru on October 12. It sits in its own slot, points toward the nearest extraction point, and shows the distance to it. Using it is optional. Battlestate first flagged GPS in August as part of a newcomer package with quest-item hints and bigger starter kits. There is no release date, and how players get the device is still unknown.

Player impact: Lost first-timers get a lifeline, and veterans lose some of the map-knowledge edge that made fresh accounts easy loot. Watch whether it ends up locked to low-level players or open to everyone.

Sources: PlayGround.ru via Steam News · VGTimes

Delta Force Claws Back Tekniq Alloys From Queue Snipers Selling Raid Supplies

Delta Force's G.T.I. Security team says a large number of players manipulated matchmaking to land in the same raid and pass supplies to buyers, a real-money trading (RMT) scheme. Every Tekniq Alloy earned that way is being recovered, with permanent and IP bans on the table. A second October 12 post expands cheat-kill compensation: victims of cheaters who get 30-day bans now qualify, where before only 10-year bans counted.

Player impact: If you bought gear or currency from a seller, expect it to vanish from your account. Getting killed by a cheater who only catches a short ban now pays you back too.

Sources: Delta Force on Steam · Delta Force on Steam

🔫 FPS

Hood Warfare 2 Is a Viral $5 Call of Duty Clone That Needed Anti-Cheat Within Four Days

Hood Warfare 2, a $5 Unreal Engine 5 shooter about Chicago gangs, launched on Steam October 8 and went viral for looking like Call of Duty. Insider Gaming says it peaked at 4,491 players, while the first game's all-time peak was 68. Patch 1.0.10 on October 12 added anti-cheat, lobby voice chat, and spawn protection after complaints about cheaters and spawn camping.

Player impact: It is a cheap squad laugh this week, but small maps still mean short time-to-kill and spawn trades. Check the spawn fixes before you spend the $5.

Sources: Insider Gaming · Hood Warfare 2 on Steam

🔜 Coming soon

No Man's Sky Comes to iPhone and iPad on October 28 With a Free Trial

Hello Games will launch No Man's Sky on iOS on October 28. The App Store listing sells it as a one-time purchase that unlocks the full game and ten years of updates, and GamesRadar reports a free-to-try start with the install compressed under 5GB. Hello Games says work on Light No Fire helped make the port possible.

Player impact: If you already play on console or PC, you get a pocket version, and you can try it before paying. Check for cross-save details before launch day.

Sources: Gematsu · GamesRadar+

🆕 Just released

Valor Mortis Launches on Game Pass With Split Reviews and Quietly Lower PC Specs

Valor Mortis, the first-person Napoleonic soulslike from Ghostrunner studio One More Level, launches October 13 on Game Pass Ultimate, Xbox, and PC. Reviews are mixed, sitting around 77 on Metacritic per PlayGround.ru, with console critics warmer than PC ones. Rock Paper Shotgun spotted the Steam page cutting minimum specs to a GTX 1660 Ti or RX 5600 XT, down from an RTX 2070 Super, though storage rose to 60GB.

Player impact: Game Pass players can try it for free today. Low-end PC owners should test before buying, since the new minimums are not officially confirmed.

Sources: Pure Xbox · Rock Paper Shotgun

Gears of War: E-Day's Login Failures Were DDoS Attacks, The Coalition Says

The Gears of War account on X confirmed that disconnects, login failures, and outages in Gears of War: E-Day came from distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, where attackers flood servers with traffic. The outages even blocked campaign play because the game needs online services. Xbox later said service was back to normal, and The Coalition says it is still monitoring and mitigating the attacks.

Player impact: An always-online check means a server attack can lock you out of solo campaign too. If it happens again, it is not your connection.

Sources: Eurogamer

🆓 Free to try

Battlefield 6 Season 5 Lands in Vegas Today, Then Goes Free on PS5 and Steam October 15 to 19

Battlefield 6 update 2.1.1.0 launches Season 5: Siege of Vegas on October 13, with Vegas Strip and Area 51 maps, four guns (MK24, RSPR, Z84M, ELR-40), and Ranked Battle Royale leaving Labs in REDSEC. Light rockets now need 7 hits instead of 4 to down a scout helicopter, and the 35mm AA gun nearly doubles its damage. EA says the full game is free to play on PlayStation and Steam from October 15 to 19, every map and mode included.

Player impact: Helicopter pilots just got much harder to swat, so expect sky-heavy lobbies. If you never bought BF6, the free window is five days on PS5 or Steam, no Game Pass needed.

Sources: Battlefield 6 on Steam · Insider Gaming

🕹️ Console specifics

Nintendo Says It Has No Plans to Drop Physical Games as PlayStation Goes Discless

Bill van Zyll, Nintendo's general manager for Latin America, told YouTuber Coelho no Japão that Nintendo has "no plans to ditch physical." He called the company agnostic: Switch 2 supports both eShop downloads and cartridges, including game-key cards that only unlock a download. The comments come after Sony said PlayStation will go discless by 2028.

Player impact: Switch 2 stays the safest bet for resale, lending, and owning a copy. Check the box for 'game-key card' before buying if you want the game on the cart.

Sources: Eurogamer

Xbox Tests a Daily Streak That Wants You Playing Three Days a Week

Xbox is testing a Streak counter with some Insider program members, per a Game File report from Stephen Totilo. A flame icon and number sit next to your Gamerscore, and a system message says you need to play three days a week to keep the streak alive. Totilo reports repeated streak alerts. There is no word on rewards or a wider rollout.

Player impact: It is a retention mechanic aimed at your habits, and alerts could get noisy. Insiders should look for a way to turn it off.

Sources: Insider Gaming

The New PS5 Jailbreak Now Runs Xbox Cloud Gaming, and a Piracy Store

Homebrew built on the new PS5 jailbreak has spread fast. Windows Central reports a homebrew xCloud app running Gears of War: E-Day on PS5, plus an emulator running Xbox 360 and original Xbox games. Insider Gaming reports an app called Overdrive that acts like a PS Store with no prices, offering pirated downloads of games like Battlefield 6 and 007 First Light. Sony has not commented.

Player impact: Jailbroken consoles usually have to stay offline, and any firmware patch could brick the exploit. Expect Sony to push an update and online bans if pirates take these consoles online.

Sources: Insider Gaming · Windows Central

📦 Other

Steam Breaks Its Own Record With 43.5 Million Users Online at Once

Steam hit 43,505,724 concurrent users on Sunday, October 11, according to SteamDB data reported by Eurogamer. Players actually in-game passed 14 million, also a record. It is the second record this year after January's 42 million peak, and it landed after the Autumn Sale ended. Aion 2's launch peak of 397,905 and Deadlock's jump to 262,145 helped.

Player impact: More people online means faster queues on PC, and it shows that PC launches are where the players are. With MW4 arriving October 23, another record looks likely.

Sources: Eurogamer

Sonic Racing CrossWorlds Deluxe Owners Have to Pay $29.99 Again for Season 2

SEGA revealed Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds' Season 2 with Final Fantasy 7, Evangelion, and Godzilla content, sold as a new $29.99 Season Pass. Fans dug up a June 8, 2025 SEGA post saying the Digital Deluxe Edition included "all future paid DLC," though its image only showed Season 1. SEGA also cut the base game to $39.99 and the Deluxe Edition to $59.99.

Player impact: If you bought Deluxe expecting every future DLC, you are paying again for Season 2. New players get the cheapest way in yet.

Sources: Push Square

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