Europa Universalis 5 has its first public patch, which encompasses over 350 fixes. Among the bigger things it smacks with the heal-o-spanner (an actual game development tool, traditionally carved from the base of a Taito arcade machine) is the Steams achievements system, which will no longer shower players in plaudits they haven't earned. On the plus side, you'll now earn achievements even if you activate the "allow ahistorical" game rule.

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I was nosing around for a feelgood story to perk you up after this morning's depresso news stew. But then I thought: what have you done for me lately? So instead, we're going to write up the release of Diggergun, a life sim platform game about burrowing for lithium, in which you lose a portion of your take-home pay to costs based on real-world current UK tax, national insurance, debt and household expenses. Glorious! That'll teach you to show up here, expecting some kind of escapism.

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Amid announcing another GTA 6 delay during their latest earnings call, Take-Two also raised a glass to comparatively less earth-shatteringly huge crime committer Mafia: The Old Country. As it turns out, there's enough of an appetite for more "contained" tales sold at a lower price point than the usual all-singing, all-dancing affairs big publishers keep pushing more and more of their eggs into the baskets of.

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Final Fantasy developers and publishers Square Enix have announced plans to lay off staff, with workers across "nearly all areas" of their Western business arms being affected. More than 100 UK staff are reportedly expected to be affected, with an indeterminate number of US-based workers also reportedly facing a future that's up in the air. The reasoning given for the cuts centres around that depressingly ever-present word nowadays - restructuring - as Square look to cut costs and consolidate their focus around their Japanese development base.

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You’ve probably noticed that there’s been only a sporadic amount of Nic Reuben in your RPS lately, and we’re sad to say that Nic is leaving the treehouse to resume his glittering freelance career. Please join us in saying goodbye and wishing him well before he jets off on his solid rhodium pleasure plane, never to return (unless we ask him very nicely to review a Warhammer game or something).

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Last week, GTA 6 developers Rockstar Games suddenly fired 31 of their UK-based workers as well as three based in Canada - initially on a charge of "gross misconduct", then for the act of sharing "confidential information on a public forum". According to the UK's IWGB Game Workers union, which all the dismissed UK-based employees were members of, the real reason for the firing was to stop the employees unionising. Since the firings, the IWGB has launched legal proceedings to reinstate all affected UK-based employees, while also holding protests in solidarity.

Yesterday, I attended a protest held outside Rockstar North's offices in Edinburgh - a small but spirited gathering of people chanting slogans like "Say sorry, be nice, stand up for worker's rights". There were a few politicians in attendance and some creative GTA-themed signs, including one with five stars alluding to the game's wanted system, which had two stars filled up in yellow when I first arrived. By the time I left, it had been completely filled in.

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Last night was a bumper time for games being delayed yet again, with Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra quickly following in GTA 6's probably rather expensive shoes. Skydance New Media have now pushed the release of their superhero game "beyond early 2026", with no concrete new release target given.

Rise of Hydra was previously delayed from what looked like it'd be a release around Christmas 2025 to early next year, with Skydance citing a need to spend more time polishing their World War 2-era costumed capers.

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Hi everyone, GTA 6 has been delayed again. It's now set to arrive on November 19th, 2026, about half a year on from the May 26th date it'd landed on following its last delay. November 19th, 2026 will apparently be a Thursday, just in case you were wondering.

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