The Friday gaming news are here:

SALES/PLAYER COUNTS & DEALS

Borderlands 4's sales were 'a little softer than we would've liked' due to PC performance issues, says Take-Two CEO, but he's confident it'll have a long tail
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/borderlands-4s-sales-were-a-little-softer-than-we-wouldve-liked-due-to-pc-performance-issues-says-take-two-ceo-but-hes-confident-itll-have-a-long-tail/
Borderlands 4, by most accounts, seems to've landed well. A solid critical reception (including by yours truly in my Borderlands 4 review) and hefty playercounts seem to indicate Gearbox has once more put out another ol' reliable. Well, a somewhat reliable. More on that in a moment.
Its sales, which were reported to be very solid in the US, haven't quite panned out to the rest of the world. At least, if Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick's to be believed in an interview with The Game Business. It's not all doom and gloom, though: "The critical acclaim [for Borderlands 4] was superb, and we’re really happy with the release.
"Equally, as you know, there were some challenges with the Steam release. Gearbox has been addressing those challenges and will continue to do so. So, in terms of units sold out of the gate, the numbers were a little softer than we would have liked. In the fullness of time, we think it’s going to do great."

There are four new deals at Humble:

• Humble Bundle presents the The Telltale Collection Bundle, with 9 items to get (6 games + 3 DLCs) during 21 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/telltale-collection
• Humble Store has three new sales:
  • Hypetrain Publisher Sale features up to 90% discounts and will last 6 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/hypetrain-publisher-sale
  • Autumn Allies Sale has games up to 92% off during the next 6 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/autumn-allies
  • Publisher Frozenbyte’s Autumn Sale brings up to 85% discounts on its games during 11 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/frozenbyte-autumn-sale

Fanatical has three new 24h Flash Deals:

• Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars: Reforged is 55% off: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/broken-sword-shadow-of-the-templars-reforged
• Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance Digital Deluxe Edition has a 61% discount: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/shin-megami-tensei-v-vengeance-digital-deluxe-edition
• Baldur's Gate I & II Pack is 80% off: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/baldurs-gate-i-and-ii-pack

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

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MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

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GAMING NEWS

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is free to play until Monday
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/kingdom-come-deliverance-2-is-free-to-play-this-weekend
Warhorse Studios and Deep Silver have announced that starting today, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is free to play on PC. Until Monday, players can download the game from Steam and start playing it.
>> It’s part of the Kinfdom Come Deliverance Franchise Sale that will last until until the 13th of November with up to 80% discounts (link).

Friday gaming news, part two:

Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser wanted to kill Niko Bellic at the end of GTA 4, and only stayed his hand because the studio was 'Full of fear' and the game didn't quite work with it
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/grand-theft-auto/rockstar-co-founder-dan-houser-wanted-to-kill-niko-bellic-at-the-end-of-gta-4-and-only-stayed-his-hand-because-the-studio-was-full-of-fear-and-the-game-didnt-quite-work-with-it/
Red Dead Redemption's ending—which, heads up, I am gonna spoil here—is famous for a reason. Gamers are a cosseted bunch, and it was (heck, it continues to be) very rare that an open world didn't stick you right back in the protagonist's boots after credits rolled, so you could go mop up whatever side quests and activities you hadn't done yet.
(...)
Turns out, though, that Rockstar would have liked to subject you to that emotional trauma even earlier. In a chat with Lex Fridman, Rockstar co-founder (who has since departed the company) Dan Houser said that he would've really liked to break your heart in GTA 4. "I would like to have, at the end of GTA 4, killed Niko," said Houser, with what I can only describe as a bit too much relish.

'I briefly burst into tears': After 11 years of work, the dev of this fantasy sim is 'elated and grateful' to reach Overwhelmingly Positive reviews on Steam only 3 days after launch
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/i-briefly-burst-into-tears-after-11-years-of-work-the-dev-of-this-fantasy-sim-is-elated-and-grateful-to-reach-overwhelmingly-positive-reviews-on-steam-only-3-days-after-launch/
Fantasy management sim Tavern Keeper has only been out on Steam for three days but it goes back a ways—quite a long ways. Developer Greenheart Games, maker of 2013's Game Dev Tycoon, has been working on its pub sim for more than a decade.
Looks like all that hard work has finally paid off: Tavern Keeper launched into early access on November 3 and has already clambered over one impressive milestone: an "Overwhelmingly Positive" review score on Steam. All those votes of approval from players haven't gone unnoticed by the team who have been pouring their efforts into the game for the past 11 years.

NetEase closes a fifth Western studio: Just two years after it was founded, Bad Brain Game Studios will shut down for good next week
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/netease-closes-a-fifth-western-studio-just-two-years-after-it-was-founded-bad-brain-game-studios-will-shut-down-for-good-next-week/
Just three days after Greg Street confirmed that Fantastic Pixel Castle is closing due to the loss of NetEase funding, yet another NetEase-backed studio says it's suffered the same fate. Bad Brain Game Studios, founded in 2023 and headed up by former Ubisoft Toronto lead producer Sean Crooks, announced today that it will close its doors on November 17—the same day as Fantastic Pixel Castle—after being unable to find a new source of funding.

Things are so bad for Payday 3 at this point, even Crime Boss: Rockay City is making fun of it
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/things-are-so-bad-for-payday-3-at-this-point-even-crime-boss-rockay-city-is-making-fun-of-it/
Starbreeze recently handed Payday 2 off to a new studio, Sidetrack Games, so it can focus its efforts on salvaging the mess that is Payday 3. Whether Payday 3 can be saved is a wide open question, but as a new trailer for an entirely different game makes painfully clear, it sure doesn't look good right now.
The trailer in question is for update 18 of Crime Boss: Rockay City, and we might as well get this out of the way first: Yes, Crime Boss: Rockay City has had 18 updates since it launched in June 2024, yes it's still running, and yes, people are still playing it—not many people, no, but some. (More on this later.)

Square Enix aims to have AI doing 70% of its QA work by the end of 2027, which seems like it'd be hard to achieve without laying off most of your QA workers
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/square-enix-aims-to-have-ai-doing-70-percent-of-its-qa-work-by-the-end-of-2027-which-seems-like-itd-be-hard-to-achieve-without-laying-off-most-of-your-qa-workers/
With the release of its latest quarterly financial results, Square Enix published a progress report on its "Square Enix Reboots and Awakens" medium-term business plan. Initiated last year, the three-year plan aims to overhaul the company's game development and publishing strategy.
(...)
According to the report, Square Enix's goal for the joint research team, which incorporates both UTokyo researchers and Square Enix engineers, is to "automate 70% of QA and debugging tasks in game development by the end of 2027" by using generative AI to "improve the efficiency of QA operations."

It took a staggering 28 days, but DICE has finally disabled the bugged lock-on missile that broke Battlefield 6
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/it-took-a-staggering-28-days-but-dice-has-finally-disabled-the-bugged-lock-on-missile-that-broke-battlefield-6/
Beep-beep-beep-BOOM. One of the most disruptive bugs in Battlefield 6 has finally been addressed. DICE has temporarily disabled the lock-guided missile in the IFV tank, bypassing a bug that causes countermeasures not to work against the attack. Hear that? That's the sound of thousands of helicopter and jet pilots collectively sighing.
The bug itself has yet to be fixed, but DICE lead producer David Sirland has said that it will be in a patch next week.

Despite another big delay, Devolver is still hell-bent on releasing a game on the same day as Grand Theft Auto 6: 'you can't escape us'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/grand-theft-auto/despite-another-big-delay-devolver-is-still-hell-bent-on-releasing-a-game-on-the-same-day-as-grand-theft-auto-6-you-cant-escape-us/
GTA 6 delay news usually follows the same beats. The initial reaction is annoyance, and from some quarters, even dismay. Then comes the wave of contemplation regarding what the delay could mean for the industry as a whole (usually bad stuff). In our case, there's always a moment taken to mourn that every GTA 6 delay pushes its still-unconfirmed PC release date out even further. Then, usually towards the end—but sometimes right in the middle—Devolver Digital pipes up with its own delay.
Since the announcement of GTA 6's initial release date, Devolver—the publisher of Cult of the Lamb, Baby Steps, and Ball x Pit—has been threatening to release a game on the same day as GTA 6. With every new delay, Devolver delays too. "You can't escape us," the publisher reiterated today, just as it did back in May.

Don't sleep on the new solarpunk colony sim from devs behind Firewatch, Mini Motorways, Gone Home and more
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/city-builder/dont-sleep-on-the-new-solarpunk-colony-sim-from-devs-behind-firewatch-mini-motorways-gone-home-and-more/
Back in September, more than a few indie developers pushed back their release dates by a few weeks or months to get out of the way of the arrival of Hollow Knight: Silksong, which they feared would suck up all of gamingdom's attention. And maybe that was the right call, but one side effect has been an almost comically packed release schedule on Steam through October and straight into this first week of November.
Case in point: on Tuesday colony builder Generation Exile dropped on Steam to a total of three user reviews, despite a seasoned indie team behind it. Studio founder Nels Anderson was previously the lead designer of masterful stealth game Mark of the Ninja before co-founding Campo Santo to make Firewatch. Generation Exile's team also includes Karla Zimonja, designer on Gone Home and Tacoma, and Niamh Fitzgerald, lead designer of hit traffic sim Mini Motorways. Oh, and a soundtrack from FTL and Into the Breach composer Ben Prunty!?
>> Here’s the link to its Steam page.

Creative Assembly has revealed unique mechanics for the armies in Total War: Warhammer 3's Tides of Torment DLC, and their unit rosters too
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/creative-assembly-has-revealed-unique-mechanics-for-the-armies-in-total-war-warhammer-3s-tides-of-torment-dlc-and-their-unit-rosters-too/
Total War: Warhammer 3's long-awaited Tides of Torment DLC is finally due on December 4, and like other recent expansions it'll be available as three separate add-ons—each containing a new legendary lord and army—and as a bundle combining all three at a discount. Those three seem like they'll play quite differently, as Creative Assembly's latest blog highlights.

Arc Raiders clears up the mystery of Trials, explaining the challenges are unfortunately harder than they first appear: 'Here's the 101'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/arc-raiders-clears-up-the-mystery-of-trials-explaining-the-challenges-are-unfortunately-harder-than-they-first-appear-heres-the-101/
I finally got to level 15 a few days ago in Arc Raiders, and my reward? Unlocking more tasks to complete. Now that's not a bad thing, I love completing little missions in exchange for trinkets, but at first glance Arc Raiders' Trials seemed easier than they turned out to be.
(...)
This is because you don't gather progress over multiple runs, you have to complete the challenge in one go. "Raider Trials have raised a few questions, so here's the 101," an official Arc Raiders social media post says. "Progress only counts per single surface raid you safely extract from, numbers don’t add up across multiple raids. For example, to complete 'Damage Hornets', you’ll need to deal 4000 damage to those pesky ARC units in one single surface scuffle."
>> Oh, and players aren’t happy with the price of the skins (link).

CD Projekt Red tells Rockstar not to make the same mistake it did—posts a self-burn over Cyberpunk 2077's historically bad launch to support GTA 6's delay
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/grand-theft-auto/cd-projekt-red-tells-rockstar-not-to-make-the-same-mistake-it-did-posts-a-self-burn-over-cyberpunk-2077s-historically-bad-launch-to-support-gta-6s-delay/
It's trotted out every time a game is delayed—that apocryphal Shigeru Miyamoto aphorism that a delayed game is eventually good, but a game you rush is bad forever. Miyamoto never said it but, hell, the truth is the truth. As frustrating as it can be to have something you're looking forward to punted back, we'd all rather a game be good and late than bad and on time.
Perhaps no studio has had this lesson drilled into it (kind of; its game didn't end up being 'bad forever') like CD Projekt Red. Cyberpunk 2077 is, now, an excellent game—worthy of inclusion on our list of the top 100 games you can play right now, no less. At launch? Less so. Now, the studio has extended a little social media backing to Rockstar over yesterday's delay to Grand Theft Auto 6.

And here are the Steam weekend deals, because GOG has no new deals:

+Steam

• Cities: Skylines II is going to be free to try during the weekend and 20% off until the 12th of November: https://store.steampowered.com/app/949230/Cities_Skylines_II
• Mark of the Ninja: Remastered gets a 70% discount until the 13th of November: https://store.steampowered.com/app/860950/Mark_of_the_Ninja_Remastered
• Sonic Frontiers will be 80% off until November 13: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1237320/Sonic_Frontiers
• Legion TD 2 - Multiplayer Tower Defense will also be free to try during the weekend and will have a 70% discount until the 17th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/469600/Legion_TD_2__Multiplayer_Tower_Defense
• These are the new sales:
  • Publisher IndieArk puts its games up to 70% off. Some deals will end tomorrow while others will last until November 13: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/IndieArkPublisherSale2025
  • Mythwright’s Publisher Sale features up to 80% discounts until November the 13th: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/mythwrightpublishersale2025
  • Publisher Playstack has its games on sale with up to 90% discounts until the 13th: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/PlaystackPubSaleAutumn2025
  • Publisher Abylight Studios also puts its games on sale with up to 90% discounts, but until the 20th: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/40206441/sale/HiddenGems2025
  • HeroCraft’s Publisher Sale comes with games up to 95% off until the 20th of November: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/herocraftpcpublishersale2025

And that’s it. Until the next time, I wish you a happy and gaming weekend.

Are the number of games being delisted higher than they were before or is it just that we're now being informed of these things more than in the past?

Don't get me wrong, for some games, like this one, the reason is easy to see, the end of the license to use the brand/IP, but in other cases the reasons seem more obscure than that.

Are e-sport monitors so popular to launch such a thing? It will sure look cleaner, but 720p on a 27" display won't look pretty so, outside of that crowd, I don't see why would anyone want this monitor.

I'll believe that rumor when there's more proof of it.

Then again, Nvidia may be more worried about the raising costs than the lack of availability. After all, they can always cut the range of SUPER cards to only one or two cards instead of three.

The 5070 dropping in price is great news for us. Not only will it force AMD and its partners to lower the price of the 9070, but it will also make the models below it like the 5060TI and 9060XT to cut its price as well.

Finally a gen when GPU prices fall instead of remaining mostly still or worse, going up!

I'm not sure about how well 5070 sells - I mean, who in its right mind is buying 12GB GPU in 2025, for $550 MSRP no less, is beyond me?

But yeah, actual price wars of the olden days are always a good thing for us, consumers.

The 5060Ti 16GB seriously needs a price cut, the 9060XT outperforms it most of the time and yet it's priced lower than the 5060Ti 8GB

Well, currently, price difference between 9060XT and 5060Ti (both 16GB) is $70 (or ~20%) for cheapest models...I must admit, I haven't been looking into latest benchmarks, but IIRC, raster was about the same on average at launch and 5060Ti had some 12% advantage on overall in RT, with much more in PT. So that, along with DLSS support in much more titles than FSR4, might just justify that price difference.

Well, if Conina's Steam Hardware survey thread is anything to go by, I'd say that it's one of the better selling cards this gen, even if the recent price drop doesn't make it seem so.

I know that the recent drivers have made the 9070XT perform on par or faster than the 5070Ti in pure raster or games with light RT but, like HoloDust, I haven't seen new benchmarks with the 9060XT and 5060Ti that makes me think the same is happening with those two cards.

Oh, I've seen someone going for 5070, he has no clue about PCs, and even though he was advised against it, he went for it cause it's nVidia. Which is silly, given that you can get 9070 for about the same money, and that is better than 5070 in pretty much everything.

I went with 9060XT in latest upgrade (out of 4 PCs, two are on RTX 30 series, but two were with old RX 570, so it was time for them to get refreshed - still one left to go I guess), since, at the time, price difference between it and 5060Ti was bigger than it's now.

The 9070 is a surprisingly powerful card. When AMD announced the two 9070 the non-XT one loocked like the typical upsell to push users to the XT version, but it's actually an excellent card, much faster than the 5070 and very close to the 9070XT and also the 5070Ti.

But Nvidia has that much brand power that it can sell anything just because its name is on it.

The 9060 XT is also a really great card and, if I had to buy a card today (I'll rock my GPU for as long as I can), that's the card I'd pick.

An unpopular opinion perhaps, but DLSS and frame gen have been very useful to me with my RTX 4060, so they definitely increase the value of Nvidia cards in my books. AMD is catching up for sure, but it's 'catching up', not 'caught up', and that includes years worth of previously released games too. I hate that DLSS and frame gen are relied on so heavily, but here we are - ignoring them would be worse to me than using them. I imagine I'm not the only one to think this way.

Personally Cities: Skylines 2 is also something that really makes me favour Nvidia over AMD... DLSS at 1080p sucks in the game, but once I discovered DLAA, I don't think I'd want to go back to not using it. I'm not sure if AMD has anything equivalent, but since the game only supports an older version of FXR, I imagine it's not going to help much. Why DLAA? Well, the game has some flickering issues at sunrise and sunset, which DLSS and DLAA fixes. I think temporal AA also does the same, but it looks like garbage. I love the game, but it definitely has its quirks... The first one had pretty consistent quality, but the second one is much more uneven (the good parts are better, but some parts are definitely worse).

...Oh, and Cities: Skylines 2 also has a free weekend on Steam right now, in case anyone cares. Probably not the best marketing speech above, I guess. :)