Gaming News · Issue #89 · 4 November 2026

TL;DR

• Hunt: Showdown cheater refunds are live: Crytek now pays back your Hunt Dollars when a banned player kills you.
• WARDOGS' CEO says his team crunches, and the whole studio is taking December off while you play GTA 6.
• GTA 6 is a 212GB pre-load starting November 10, so start clearing your drive now.
• Ubisoft is reportedly one of several bidders for Arkane as Xbox's buyer deadline closes in.

🎯 Extraction shooters

Hunt: Showdown Now Refunds Your Hunt Dollars When a Banned Cheater Kills You

Crytek's Blood Testament Chapter 3 patch for Hunt: Showdown 1896 went out on November 3. Players killed by someone who later gets banned now get a Hunt Dollar refund, and anyone who reported a banned player gets a follow-up notice. Europe also gets a temporary high-ping queue for the chapter that separates high-latency players when a match can be found. The patch adds the four-barrel Lancaster pistol and a bladed Cleaver variant.

Player impact: Cheater deaths now cost you less, and reports finally get a reply. EU players should watch whether the high-ping queue makes laggy desync fights rarer or just stretches queue times.

Sources: Hunt: Showdown on Steam (Crytek)

🔫 FPS

WARDOGS' CEO Calls Anti-Crunch Devs 'Californian Bulls***', Then Gives His Studio All of December Off

BULKHEAD CEO Joe Brammer told Edge magazine that the WARDOGS team does crunch before key releases, and called $100K developers who refuse overtime "Californian bulls***". In the same interview he said the whole studio will take leave through December after the early access launch. His message to players: "Go play GTA 6, we need to detox." WARDOGS has sold over 3 million copies since its September early access debut.

Player impact: Expect a quiet December for WARDOGS fixes and balance changes. Players who want Season 3 tuned should get feedback in before the studio goes dark.

Sources: GamesRadar+ · GamesRadar+

Battlefield 6's Server Browser Arrives Weeks Early, Right After the November 10 Phase

DICE says Battlefield 6's server browser, originally set for the final phase of Season 5, will now land shortly after Phase 2 starts on November 10. Servers are split across three tabs, and the Official tab lists both studio-run servers and official player-hosted ones together. DICE also confirmed there are no plans for a rent-a-server program. No exact date has been set yet.

Player impact: You will soon be able to pick a server and stick with a community instead of rolling the matchmaking dice. Clan and community server fans still cannot rent their own.

Sources: MP1st

The Division 2 Turns On Full Crossplay November 17, and Clans Double to 100

Ubisoft's Y8S3.3 update for The Division 2 went live on November 3 after a six-hour maintenance window. It switches on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox crossplay on November 17, enabled by default with an opt-out on the character select screen. Clan size rises from 50 to 100 members, and a Shepherd event runs November 17 to 26 with Exotic Components and a named Mk16.

Player impact: PC and console agents finally share a pool, which should fill dead matchmaking for raids and Conflict. Console players who dread mouse-and-keyboard sweats can turn it off.

Sources: MP1st · MP1st patch notes

🔜 Coming soon

Rockstar Confirms GTA 6 Is a 212GB Pre-Load, and Digital Pre-Loading Opens November 10

Rockstar says the GTA 6 pre-load file needs up to 212GB depending on the device. Digital pre-loading on PS5 starts Tuesday, November 10 at midnight local time, and on Xbox Series X|S at 12am GMT the same day, two days earlier than the November 12 date on order forms. Code-in-box copies still unlock at retailers from November 12. Final install sizes can differ from the pre-load.

Player impact: Clear more than 200GB now, because a stock 1TB console with a couple of shooters installed will not fit it. Pick what you uninstall before November 10.

Sources: GamesRadar+ · Dexerto

The Elder Scrolls 6 Is Officially Called Sentinel, and Bethesda Says Don't Expect More Soon

Bethesda confirmed on November 3 that The Elder Scrolls 6 is titled Sentinel, revealed by Todd Howard in a video for the studio's 40th anniversary. The name matches last week's report. Bethesda also warned that "it'll be some time" before it is ready to share more, eight years after the game was first announced. No release window, platforms, or gameplay were shown.

Player impact: You now have a name and nothing else. Anyone hoping for a 2027 release should treat that as a long shot until Bethesda shows real gameplay.

Sources: PC Gamer

WoW: Forever Goes Live Worldwide on November 4 at 3pm PST, With a 50GB Pre-Load Ready Now

Blizzard's WoW: Forever launches simultaneously worldwide at 3pm PST on November 4 (6pm EST, which is the morning of November 5 in Australia). It is a fresh take on classic World of Warcraft with new content, updated visuals, and class and race tweaks. A pre-load of roughly 50GB is live on Battle.net now, and it shrinks if Classic or Retail is already installed. Character name reservations closed on November 3.

Player impact: Pre-load today or you will be downloading while everyone else is queuing. Expect launch-night login queues, and pick a server your friends can actually get into.

Sources: PC Gamer

🆓 Free to try

Epic's Next Free-to-Keep Game Is Flotsam, Claimable From November 5 to 12

The Epic Games Store gives away Flotsam, a floating-town survival builder, as a free-to-keep claim on PC from November 5 at 16:00 UTC until November 12 at 16:00 UTC. In the same window, Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms players get Morte's Champions of Renown Pack free. The current freebie, Sorry We're Closed, can still be claimed until November 5 at 16:00 UTC.

Player impact: Claim Flotsam once and it stays in your Epic library for good. Grab Sorry We're Closed before Thursday's swap if you missed it.

Sources: Epic Games Store · GameGrin

🖥️ Hardware

Razer's $349.99 Raiju V3 Pro Signature Is a Magnesium PS5 Pad Limited to 1,337 Units

Razer unveiled the Raiju V3 Pro Signature Edition on November 3, a limited PS5 and PC controller priced at $349.99. Only 1,337 serialized units will be sold worldwide from November 10. It wraps the standard Raiju V3 Pro in a magnesium alloy frame and keeps the same competitive features: drift-resistant TMR thumbsticks, six remappable buttons, two claw-grip bumpers, and four mouse-click back buttons.

Player impact: The extra money buys the metal shell. Competitive players get the same sticks and back buttons in the regular Raiju V3 Pro for much less.

Sources: Dexerto

Microsoft's DirectX Preview Could Cut Ray Tracing Memory Use by Up to 90% on Any GPU

Microsoft is previewing two DirectX Raytracing features, Clustered Geometry and Partitioned TLAS (the top-level structure ray tracing uses to find objects), which it calls the biggest DXR update since 2018. Its own testing shows ray tracing memory load dropping by as much as 90%. The tech works much like Nvidia's RTX Mega Geometry but is not tied to Nvidia cards. It is a preview, so games still need to adopt it.

Player impact: Mid-range and older cards that run out of VRAM with ray tracing on could get headroom back. Do not expect a fix in your current games until developers patch it in.

Sources: PC Gamer

📦 Other

Ubisoft Is Reportedly Bidding for Arkane, One of Several Buyers Circling Xbox's Blade Studio

Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the talks, that Ubisoft and at least two other unnamed game companies have made offers for Arkane Lyon, the Dishonored studio making Marvel's Blade. Xbox has also weighed selling Arkane to its own management. France's Florange Law forced Microsoft to look for a buyer after its July cuts, and the deadline was recently pushed back a month from November 13.

Player impact: Marvel's Blade now has a real chance of shipping instead of dying with the studio. Whoever buys Arkane decides when and where it launches.

Sources: PC Gamer · VGC

Valve Admits Steam Game Reviews Now Take Up to 12 Business Days, and Indie Launches Are Slipping

Valve updated its Steamworks FAQ on November 3, admitting it is "running a little behind" and taking up to 12 business days to test builds, against its usual 3 to 5 days. It blamed having to re-review games. Indie developers including those behind Food Devils, Wheel Make It, and Cubic Earth say their finished games have waited up to 20 days, missing announced release dates.

Player impact: Small games you wishlisted may miss their dates through no fault of the devs. If a Steam release slips this month, the review queue is a likely culprit.

Sources: PC Gamer

Itch.io Deletes Terabytes of AI Spam, and Nexus Mods Will Make Modders Label AI Content

Itch.io said on November 3 it had "just deleted a couple terabytes of AI slop" and added a generative AI disclosure filter to its search results, so users can hide any game that uses it. The same day, Nexus Mods announced it will require modders to disclose AI-generated content and let users filter it out, while ruling out a full ban. Steam requires AI disclosures but has no filter.

Player impact: PC players can now hide AI-made games on Itch and AI-made mods on Nexus. Steam is the big store left without that switch.

Sources: VGC · GamesRadar+

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