Bit Reactor furloughs loom over Star Wars Zero Company ahead of launch

Bit Reactor, the studio behind Star Wars Zero Company, reportedly furloughed 80% of its staff ahead of the game's release — a stark signal of turbulence at the EA-affiliated developer even as the title approaches launch. The news lands alongside a separate round of developer candor: a former id Software producer says the team endured the worst crunch in the series' history while making Doom: The Dark Ages, describing days without seeing family.

Square Enix pushed back firmly against reports suggesting the company may go private, calling the claims baseless. CD Projekt Red's leadership, for its part, says it is not worried about next-gen console delays even as RAM prices climb, and separately confirmed the studio never considered charging existing The Witcher 3 owners for the remaster. Sony, meanwhile, is facing a different kind of scrutiny: the company agreed to pay out nearly $8 million in a class-action settlement over game prices, and its court argument that players cannot truly own games — because others also own copies — drew sharp attention.

On the game side, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe received a free Nintendo Switch 2 update bringing improved visuals and eight-player split-screen, and Dragon's Dogma 2 landed a patch described as colossal and game-changing on PS5. A new GTA 6 report claims the game's morality system will break permanently if players cause too much mayhem, while Persona 4 Revival's lead confirmed dialogue has been modernized but the characters' core personalities remain untouched.