September 15, 2026

AI is already reshaping hiring in games: 35% of founders say they’ve decided against hiring someone because AI could do the work instead, according to a survey of 1,800 industry workers across 90 countries. Meanwhile, 78% say AI has changed how they work, and 60% of founders are deliberately keeping teams small. The shift comes as 48% of founders say their companies are currently operating at a loss.

Saber Interactive CCO Tim Willits says the company no longer does its actual game development in North America because costs have become too high. Instead, Saber spreads development across 15 studios worldwide and favors a lower-risk AA strategy to keep budgets controlled, release more games, and spread investment across multiple projects rather than betting everything on a single blockbuster.

China’s video game market is expected to grow 4% to $53.9 billion in 2026, before reaching $59.8 billion by 2030, according to Niko Partners. The country already generated a record $51.8 billion in 2025, while its player base is projected to reach 769 million by 2030. Mobile is expected to remain dominant, accounting for 68% of player spending.

With larger, more frequent and more global cohorts. The six-month Incubator currently supports 26 studios, including experienced teams from outside the Roblox ecosystem, providing technical and development support as Roblox pushes for more ambitious games, new genres and experiences aimed at older players.

Dave the Diver, the hit adventure RPG, has now sold more than 10 million copies worldwide, while its In the Jungle expansion has surpassed 1 million sales. Developer Mintrocket plans to continue expanding the franchise, including with the upcoming cooking-adventure spin-off Bancho the Chef.

Valve has opened the waiting list for its new Steam Frame VR headset, with the 256GB model priced at $1,059 and the 1TB version at $1,299. The standalone headset runs SteamOS on a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, features 2160×2160 resolution per eye and supports refresh rates up to 144Hz, with Half-Life: Alyx included.

Com2uS Platform unveiled Hive Axyl, a new game backend that lets developers configure infrastructure and integrate features using natural-language prompts. Through its SDK, developers can add systems like authentication, payments, mailboxes and push notifications, with the goal of spending less time building backend infrastructure and more time on the game itself. Hive Axyl launches September 30.

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