Weird indies before the storm
Hey readers,
Welcome to November. We have a big month ahead, with the Ocarina of Time remake and Grand Theft Auto 6. But there are still some strange and compelling indies coming out before, in between, and after these big titles.
One is Virtue and a Sledgehammer, which combines a deep and surreal story with really satisfying destruction mechanics. Then there’s Titanium Court, an indescribable mashup of multiple genres (match-3, tower defense, and more) that’s finally on console and mobile. Finally, Terrible Lizards is a first-person horror parkour game that features… terrible lizards.
We have some other games to hit later, but first, the news.
This issue will fill you in on:
Steam (kind of) responds to the onslaught of AI-generated games
It’s a dilemma that defined the latest Steam Next Fest
Three times a year, digital gaming storefront Steam holds a weeklong event highlighting upcoming games, with hundreds of free demos made available. It’s an opportune time for indie game developers to get the word out about their projects, attract potential customers, and bump up their wishlist numbers. But the October 2026 Steam Next Fest raised more alarms than it generated excitement.
There were over 7,200 demos (initially reported as 8,000 demos) featured in the latest Steam Next Fest, certainly more crowded than any Steam event before it. By comparison, the October 2025 event had less than 3,000 demos. Going all the way back to October 2023, Steam Next Fest was short of 1,000 demos. There’s obviously an issue with discoverability when there are that many games to choose from in an event like this, but this time around, “AI slop” was seemingly prevalent at Steam Next Fest.
From low-effort games using AI-generated art and visuals to straight-up clones of other games, Steam users anecdotally expressed despair at the state of last month’s Steam Next Fest. According to two Steam Business Team members, a “significant number” of Valve employees are looking into solutions for this issue. At the same time, they said that they “don’t want to be gatekeepers telling developers which tools they should or shouldn’t use.”
How Valve plans to remedy the situation is unknown, but the company expressed that it wanted to focus less on filtering out low-quality games and clones, and more on elevating original, quality titles.
How are other digital storefronts reacting to games developed with AI tools?
Indie platform itch.io hasn’t escaped the wave of games built with AI, but it’s made a stronger statement in response. The platform’s social media account very casually announced on Monday that it had “deleted a couple terabytes of AI slop.” While it’s unclear what exactly was removed from itch.io, the platform has a policy against “uploading excessive amounts of automatically generated or AI-generated content. The platform also added a “No AI” tag to help users filter out any games where AI played a role in their development.
In related news, Claude Code now has a rule against using the Claude AI assistant to make any “recreation of a specific existing game, even if it is renamed or called original.”
Taking stock of EA after layoffs and BioWare’s closing
Morale is reportedly low, unsurprisingly.
The games industry is still reeling from mass layoffs at EA and the closure of legendary RPG studio BioWare. Reports based on conversations with former and current EA employees paint a dire picture of the corporate culture, describing an air of “secrecy” surrounding the layoffs process and overall mismanagement at the publisher.
A developer who was working on the now-canceled Mass Effect sequel alleged that the studio removed a flag that resembled the Pride flag, out of fear that EA executives would respond negatively. Another report claims that EA’s decision to close down BioWare was the result of the company deciding between moving forward with a new Star Wars Battlefront game or a new Mass Effect—because apparently, the “number one publisher in Western HD gaming” couldn’t afford two expensive sci-fi action games at once.
A “Save Mass Effect” movement has gained traction, even securing a billboard at Times Square. But it appears that the words “Save Mass Effect” were spray-painted outside of an EA office building in Madrid, prompting debates on whether this was an act of vandalism that crossed a line.
Replay: What else happened?
A screenshot from Queen’s Domain. Image source: Future Friends Games
Other news hits
New GTA 6 footage debuted from the strangest source: an episode of South Park. About 20 seconds of never-before-seen gameplay demonstrated that yes, you can throw dog poop at people in GTA 6. Quite a way to market your big blockbuster game.
It’s official: The Elder Scrolls 6 has the subtitle “Sentinel.” Bethesda confirmed the title in a video celebrating the company’s 40th anniversary, but no other details were shared besides a logo.
Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier claimed that Sentinel won’t be released for at least two years.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, which centers on a fictional conflict between North and South Korea, came under fire for using real footage from a 2022 crowd crush in Seoul that resulted in nearly 160 fatalities and almost 200 injuries.
Activision reportedly apologized to bereaved families and will remove the footage from the game in a November 12 patch.
Beloved indie titles Celeste and TowerFall vanished from the Xbox store, and the games’ creator Maddy Thorson confirmed that the games were removed in support of the BDS boycott of Xbox.
As fans predicted, FromSoftware’s The Duskbloods for Switch 2 has been delayed to sometime in 2027. You’ll have to wait a little longer before you can Zork it.
Donald Glover is somehow making a Netflix series based on the battle royale game PUBG. The Atlanta star is set to act, write, and direct for the project. Your guess on what the plot would be is as good as mine.
Big new game releases include…
Already proving to be a massive hit is Phantom Blade Zero (PC, PS5), a Chinese action game that takes heavy inspiration from martial arts cinema. Actor and martial artist Donnie Yen consulted on the project and even plays a character in the story. Upon its release, it was the top-selling game on Steam.
Telltale Games returns to a classic with The Wolf Among Us Remastered (PC, Switch1, PS5, Xbox), which refreshes the 2013 narrative adventure game’s visuals and art. Based on the Fables comic series, the game is a noir story set in a world populated by fairy-tale characters and creatures.
The first-person fantasy adventure game Queen’s Domain (PC, Switch 2, PS5, Xbox Series X/S) takes very obvious cues from King’s Field, which was an early series by Dark Souls studio FromSoftware. Sporting retro 3D visuals and slow, deliberate combat, Queen’s Domain is already shaping up to be a fan favorite.
That’s all for this week. Happy Ocarina of Time week, for all who celebrate.
Catch you later,
Chris Compendio
1 The Switch version of The Wolf Among Us Remastered is currently unreleased after its delay to an unspecified date.
