ARC Raiders Reward Pass | Gaming News #53
ARC Raiders Reward Pass replaces Raider Decks on October 8, an extraction shooter monetisation reset whose $10 premium track pays back more than it costs.
Gaming News · Issue #53 · 29 September 2026
TL;DR
- ARC Raiders Reward Pass replaces Raider Decks on October 8, an extraction shooter monetisation reset whose $10 premium track pays back more than it costs.
- Arena Breakout: Infinite dropped 8,000 ten-year bans and hit 14,000 players for teaming with cheaters.
- MW4 finally pauses Double XP tokens in menus, but your Warzone camos stay behind.
- Minecraft Dungeons 2 lands on Game Pass today with reviews in the mid-70s.
- Sony Japan now wants 60 hours of playtime on your account before it sells you a PS5 Pro.
🎯 Extraction shooters
ARC Raiders Kills Raider Decks for a $10 Reward Pass That Pays for Itself
Embark Studios posted on September 28 that Raider Decks are gone when the Frozen Trail update lands October 8. Players banked so much Cred that they finished new decks on day one. The replacement Reward Pass has 60 levels: a free track with every new weapon and gadget plus up to 200 Raider Tokens, and a premium track for 1,150 tokens (about $10) that adds up to 1,150 more. Pendola Pass also gets dynamic loot zones that reshuffle each POI's value every session.
Player impact: Progress now comes from Feats, so a Cred stockpile stops skipping the grind. Gameplay items stay on the free track, and your favourite Pendola Pass hot drop may be a dud next run.
Sources: Insider Gaming · PC Gamer
Arena Breakout: Infinite Hands Out 8,000 Ten-Year Bans and Punishes 14,000 Cheater Teammates
The Arena Breakout: Infinite security team posted its Season 6 report on Steam on September 28. It counts over 45,000 cheating cases, more than 8,000 accounts banned for 10 years, and over 14,000 players penalised for teaming with cheaters, including squads sharing wallhacks through radar websites. A new coordinate encryption targets DMA cheats (hardware that reads game memory from a second device). Victims were compensated over 310,000 times, worth more than 371.3 billion Koen.
Player impact: Queueing with a suspiciously accurate random now carries real ban risk, and DMA hardware is the named target. If a cheater wiped your kit last season, check your in-game mail for Koen.
Sources: Arena Breakout: Infinite on Steam
🔫 FPS
MW4 Pauses Double XP Tokens in Menus While Warzone Camos Get Left Behind
Call of Duty confirmed on September 28 that Double XP tokens in Modern Warfare 4 will only tick down during live matches, pausing in lobbies and menus, and that existing tokens carry over. The same day, Activision corrected its own blog: weapon camos from MW2, MW3, Black Ops 6, and Black Ops 7 will not transfer to the MW4 version of Warzone. Operators, skins, and blueprints still do. MW4 launches October 23.
Player impact: Bank your tokens now, since they finally count only in matches. Camo grinders should stop chasing legacy mastery camos for Warzone; the Armory will hand out five-attachment versions of old guns instead.
Sources: Push Square · Dexerto
🔜 Coming soon
God of War Laufey Pre-Orders Open Today for a February 16 PS5 Launch
Sony opens physical and digital pre-orders for God of War Laufey on September 29 at 10am local time, ahead of a PS5 launch on February 16, 2027. Every pre-order gets the Last Wish armour set, a Phranque Golden Leaves cosmetic, and a resource pack. The Digital Deluxe Edition adds Dark Alchemy armour, blade, and bow scales, a catalyst, an art book, and the soundtrack. Faye's new Serpent Bow can charge up to five arrows at once.
Player impact: The pre-order bonus is cosmetics and resources, so nothing forces a day-one commitment. PC players get no date at all, which matters if you skipped the PS5 generation.
Naughty Dog Goes Quiet on Intergalactic Until a Full Reveal in 2027
Naughty Dog studio head Neil Druckmann wrote on the studio's site on September 28, closing out The Last of Us Day, that the team will stay quiet for the rest of 2026 and fully reveal Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet in 2027. He called it Naughty Dog's most ambitious game yet. The sci-fi PS5 game was announced in December 2024 and got new artwork alongside the note. The studio also confirmed two new The Last of Us projects in very early stages.
Player impact: No gameplay, trailer, or date this year. The bet: a 2027 full reveal means the marketing starts then, and a launch in the same year looks like a stretch.
Double Fine's First Post-Xbox Game, Thank You Bus Driver, Lands October 14
Double Fine announced on September 27 that Thank You Bus Driver launches October 14 on Steam, self-published after the studio left Xbox. You drive a town's bus route and physically smack passengers who break the posted rules, a pitch the studio sums up as Crazy Taxi meets Papers, Please. It started as a small Amnesia Fortnight game jam project built in a few weeks. Price is not announced yet.
Player impact: Expect a short, cheap chaos toy that is built for clips. It is also the first test of whether Double Fine can sell a game without Microsoft money behind it.
🆕 Just released
Minecraft Dungeons 2 Launches on Game Pass With Reviews in the Mid-70s
Minecraft Dungeons 2 releases September 29 on Xbox Series X|S, PC, PS5, Switch, and Switch 2 for $29.99, and it is included in Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass from day one. Reviews landed September 28 at 76 on Metacritic for Xbox and 74 for PC, up from the original's 70 to 74. Critics praise the combat, loot, and build variety, while IGN called it shallow with a thin endgame.
Player impact: Game Pass players can test it tonight before anyone pays $30. Co-op squads wanting a low-stress night off from extraction runs should try it, then wait for endgame verdicts before buying elsewhere.
Sources: Pure Xbox
🆓 Free to try
System Shock 2 Remaster and Buried Stars Go Free to Keep on Epic From October 1
Epic Games Store's next weekly giveaway, confirmed September 24, makes System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster ($29.99) and the mystery adventure Buried Stars ($39.99) free to keep on PC from October 1 at 8am PT (1am AEST October 2) until October 8. That is about $70 of games, Epic's biggest weekly drop since May. Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles and Mechabellum stay claimable until the swap.
Player impact: Claim both once they unlock and they stay in your PC library for good. System Shock 2 is the immersive sim that shaped BioShock, worth an evening even for shooter players who skip old games.
🕹️ Console specifics
Sony Japan Will Only Sell the PS5 Pro to Players With 60 Hours on the Clock
Sony's Japanese online store is taking PS5 Pro applications until October 7 at ¥137,980 (about $877). Only Japan-registered PSN accounts with at least 60 hours in PS5 or PS4 games between September 27, 2024 and September 27, 2026 qualify, and Sony will run a lottery among them if demand beats supply. Sales start October 26, and winners must buy by November 2. Push Square reported the rule on September 28 as an anti-scalper measure.
Player impact: Playtime gates hit bot and reseller accounts hardest, so scalped Pro stock out of Japan should thin out. Expect chat to ask why other regions do not get the same rule.
Sources: Push Square
🖥️ Hardware
Hori and Thrustmaster Ship Ace Combat 8 Flight Sticks on October 2
Two officially licensed flight sticks launch alongside Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve on October 2, both working on PS5, PS4, and PC. Hori's $129.99 stick adds a dedicated High-G Mode button for the game's High-G Turns. Thrustmaster's $149.99 T.Flight Hotas Neo Ace Combat 8 Edition rebrands its Flight Simulator 2024 stick and adds rumble. The game itself sits at 87 on Metacritic, per Push Square's September 29 roundup.
Player impact: Going deep on Ace Combat 8? The Hori is the cheaper pick with a game-specific button. If you already own Thrustmaster's Flight Simulator 2024 stick, the new one is mostly rumble and paint.
Sources: Push Square
📦 Other
Take-Two Shuts Down a Fan-Made GTA 5 Port That Ran Natively on Switch
Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar's parent company, took legal action against Paralympics Productions, the modding team led by M0jso that built an unofficial native GTA 5 port for the original Nintendo Switch. The port ran at 10 to 25fps, up to 30fps on overclocked OLED units, with no streaming or emulation. The team confirmed the action on September 28 and will shut down on October 3. M0jso admitted Take-Two had solid grounds.
Player impact: Anyone sitting on the port files is on borrowed time. Rockstar keeps showing zero patience for unofficial ports and fan projects while GTA 6 marketing ramps up.
Sources: Dexerto
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