Gaming News · Issue #87 · 2 November 2026

TL;DR

• GRAVHOUNDS hits Game Pass and Steam early access today, and EscapeFromSeoul brings a second co-op extraction launch.
• Nikita asked if Tarkov's zombies should become their own co-op game, and the replies mostly said yes.
• Fortnite's rarest chest prize makes the whole Item Shop free for 14 days, for your squad too.
• Valve's cancelled Portal prequel F-Stop is playable after fans stitched three leaks together.

🎯 Extraction shooters

GRAVHOUNDS Drops Into Game Pass and Steam Early Access Today, and EscapeFromSeoul Launches Alongside It

Two co-op extraction games launch on November 2. GRAVHOUNDS, from Octopus Panic, is a 1-4 player game where a squad of bio-engineered dogs builds a base on a hostile planet, then extracts with whatever it can carry before the swarm overruns it; it arrives in Steam early access and on Xbox Game Pass the same day. EscapeFromSeoul, a top-down PvE extraction shooter from solo studio yougong, launches on Steam for solo play or 3-player co-op after its free demo.

Player impact: Game Pass subscribers can try GRAVHOUNDS at no extra cost, so squads tired of PvP extraction have a zero-risk test tonight. EscapeFromSeoul is the pick for solo players who want Tarkov-style contracts without getting third-partied.

Sources: Steam: GRAVHOUNDS · Pure Xbox · Steam: EscapeFromSeoul

Nikita Asks if Tarkov's Zombies Should Become Their Own Co-op Game, and Most Replies Say Yes

Battlestate Games head Nikita Buyanov asked his roughly 250,000 X followers "Tarkov Zombies separate CooP game. Yes or no?" during this year's Halloween event, which floods Labs and Factory with endless zombie waves and a long questline. Forbes and Insider Gaming report most replies were positive, while some players said the studio is already stretched thin. Nothing is announced: there is no scope, platform, or date. He asked a similar question after the 2024 zombie event.

Player impact: Treat it as a temperature check, not a project. If you want zombies to stay, the event window is where Battlestate is reading the numbers, so play it now and say what you want in the replies.

Sources: Insider Gaming · Forbes

🔫 FPS

Fortnite's Rarest Chest Prize Makes the Entire Item Shop Free for 14 Days, and Your Squad Gets It Too

Fortnite's Treasure Hunters update, the One Piece mini-season that went live November 1, added a Pirate Shop prize to skull-marked Treasure Hunt chests in Battle Royale. Dataminer HYPEX says a winner gets two tokens, one for 2026 (usable until December 15) and one for 2027, and each unlocks every Item Shop cosmetic for 14 days once activated. Gifting, real-money offers, and Battle Pass levels are excluded. Epic has not published drop odds. HYPEX tracked nearly 5 million concurrent players across Fortnite on November 1.

Player impact: Every skull chest is now a lottery ticket, so expect hot drops around chest routes and squads fighting over who opens them. Hold off on Item Shop purchases until you have opened a few.

Sources: Dexerto · Push Square

Deadlock's Halloween Patch Hits Almost Every Hero and Makes the City Never Sleeps Six Bannable in Ranked

Valve's October 30 Deadlock update added a Halloween event, running through November 2, where breaking cauldrons with a heavy melee drops candy for an 8-second Sugar Rush buff to move speed, fire rate, and spirit power. The bigger change is balance: the Mid-Boss gets 20% more health and drops three Rejuvenator crystals instead of one, Baba, Rat King, Nurse Harrow, and Violet are nerfed, and Abrams gains gun damage. The six City Never Sleeps heroes now need the full 15 wins for ranked and can be banned.

Player impact: If you climbed on Baba or Rat King, your build just got weaker. The Mid-Boss now splits three crystals, so a team that loses the fight can still steal a buff, which changes when to contest it.

Sources: Deadlock on Steam · PCGamesN

Warframe's Tau Expansion Lands Free in December, and Frame 67 Gets Revived by His Own Dog

Digital Extremes used Devstream 198 to confirm Warframe Tau, the free expansion into a new star system, for December 2026, with the exact date coming at Devstream 199 on November 27. Players must finish the Prologue to Tau first. Ten Prime sets move permanently into the Perita region so their relics can be farmed there, and a new Tau damage type combines with Impact, Puncture, and Slash. Warframe 67, Brysko, has a Hound that revives him when he falls and an ultimate hand cannon called Corecracker.

Player impact: Ten Prime sets with permanently farmable relics is a big grind reduction for newer players. Finish the Tau prologue before December so you are not locked out on launch night.

Sources: PCGamesN

Selaco's Free Chapter 2 Adds 19 Maps and Lands November 13

Altered Orbit Studios confirmed on October 30 that Selaco: The Machines of War, the second chapter of its Doom-engine sci-fi shooter, arrives November 13 as a free update for early access owners. The studio lists 19 new campaign maps, roughly 6 to 8 hours of extra content, more voiced story, a companion who fights beside Dawn for part of the chapter, and an unstoppable machine that hunts the player. PC Gamer reports it roughly doubles the game's size. Full patch notes come at launch.

Player impact: Owners get a second campaign for nothing on November 13. If you have been waiting for Selaco to feel complete, this is the update that decides whether full price is worth it.

Sources: Selaco on Steam · PC Gamer

🔜 Coming soon

Two Minutes of Alleged Persona 1 Remake Footage Leaked, and Atlus Hasn't Said a Word

Almost two minutes of what looks like a modern remake of the first Persona appeared on October 31, posted by a YouTube channel named P1REMAKE whose previous upload was more than 14 years old. IGN, Eurogamer, and GamesRadar report the music, effects, and art match Atlus' recent work, and many fans believe it is real. Atlus has neither confirmed nor denied it. GamesRadar notes the studio said weeks ago it was considering more remakes of older entries.

Player impact: Unconfirmed, and AI fakes are good enough now to fool fans, so do not preorder anything. If it is real, expect a reveal soon, with Persona 3 Reload's remake style as the likely template.

Sources: IGN · Eurogamer

Days Gone Studio Bend Is Reportedly Making a Third-Person Co-op Game, With a Reveal in 2027

MP1st reported on October 31, citing anonymous people familiar with Bend Studio, that the Days Gone developer's next game is a third-person title with co-op that will be revealed in 2027. The report says it is not a live-service game, after Sony cancelled Bend's earlier live-service project, codenamed Mirror Pond. Sony has not confirmed anything. Bend has not released a new game since Days Gone in April 2019.

Player impact: This is a report, so treat it as a signal. For PS5 players it means Bend's next game is a boxed co-op adventure rather than another battle pass, and the wait is at least another year.

Sources: MP1st · Push Square

🆕 Just released

Moon Sweepers Hits 600,000 Players in a Week, and Its First Big Update Is Set for December

DragDrop Games' co-op moon-cleaning game Moon Sweepers launched on Steam on October 23 at $8.99 and passed 600,000 players in its first week, with a 70,000 concurrent peak, the studio said on October 30. PCGamesN counted 80,385 players on November 1. Update 1.1 is planned for December with new production machines and chains, more materials, more tools, deeper automation, and better performance for large bases. An October 28 patch already lets players build anywhere and move finished structures.

Player impact: The late game is thin right now, by the studio's own admission, so pace yourself if you are a factory min-maxer. For co-op groups looking for a cheap chill game between raids, it is under $9.

Sources: Moon Sweepers on Steam · PCGamesN

🖥️ Hardware

Sam Altman Says Your PC's RAM Belongs in a Data Center, Then Flies to Seoul to Lock Up More of It

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman argued, in comments reported on October 30, that DRAM sitting in personal computers would be better used in AI data centers, PC Gamer, Kotaku, and Shacknews report. On October 31 he met about 50 Samsung executives in South Korea, Tom's Hardware reports, as AI demand squeezes memory supply. Samsung and SK hynix took roughly 83% of high-bandwidth memory revenue in the second quarter of 2026. Gaming GPU and RAM prices have already climbed through October.

Player impact: Memory is the part of a gaming PC getting priced out first. If you need RAM or a GPU for GTA 6 or the winter shooters, buying sooner is likely cheaper than waiting.

Sources: Tom's Hardware · PC Gamer

📦 Other

Valve's Cancelled Portal Prequel F-Stop Is Now Playable After Three Leaks Got Stitched Together

F-Stop, the Portal prequel Valve cancelled around 2007, became playable this weekend after fans combined three leaks: about 13TB of old Steam depot data that surfaced in late August, plus source code and map source files posted to the Valve Cut Content Discord over 48 hours. Kotaku reports the person with the map files first asked for $1,000, then released them free, and the Valve Cut Content team verified them. Players call it about 99% complete. Valve has not commented.

Player impact: You can see the photo-and-resize puzzle idea Valve shelved, but it comes from leaked files, so expect Valve takedowns and stay away from sketchy downloads. It is prime stream content for anyone who loves Portal history.

Sources: Kotaku · Rock Paper Shotgun

Dead by Daylight Gave TheBurntPeanut Every DLC on Stream, Then Apologised to Everyone Else

Behaviour Interactive unlocked all of Dead by Daylight's paid DLC characters and perks for streamer TheBurntPeanut during a live stream, and the official Twitch account told him "THEY ARE YOURS TO KEEP". After player backlash, the DbD Pulse community account said on November 1 the decision was made without appropriate approvals, that concerns raised during the stream should have been investigated, and apologised for "letting you down". It also called threats against employees unacceptable and said it is reviewing internal processes.

Player impact: Paying players spent real money on what one streamer got for a joke, so watch whether Behaviour offers the community anything back. Creators should expect publishers to get stricter about on-stream freebies.

Sources: Dexerto · Insider Gaming

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12 stories in this issue. Same digest goes out in the Warhogy Discord — reply to this email if there is a story I missed.