September 25, 2026

Microsoft has filed a patent for an “ad-credit” system that could show ads during natural gameplay breaks like loading screens, menus or between rounds. Watching an ad could earn players 15 minutes to an hour or more of ad-free play, with credits potentially tied to completing levels, matches or other in-game activities. The patent doesn’t mean Microsoft plans to actually launch the system.

Meta has introduced Horizon Create and Horizon Studio, new AI-powered tools that can turn natural-language prompts into complete 2D or 3D games, including characters, environments, progression, and multiplayer. Horizon Create works from a phone, while Horizon Studio provides deeper browser-based editing, with projects transferring between both. Published games can be distributed natively across Instagram, Facebook and Horizon, potentially putting creator-built games directly in front of billions of users.

The Irish Games Fund has relaunched with three funding tracks covering different stages of development: Development, Prototype and Release. The first offers €50,000 each to four Irish studios moving validated projects toward commercial release. Projects can disclose prior generative AI use, but the fund won’t support games planning to commercially release with substantially AI-generated creative assets.

Game marketing agency Ukiyo Studios has opened a bar and café in Tokyo’s Ginza district built around showcasing current indie games year-round. The 20-seat space features playable titles from Ukiyo’s portfolio, indie-themed cocktails and even a real-life Buckshot Roulette installation, giving developers a permanent physical space to put their games in front of players outside traditional events.

Global mobile game consumer spending reached $6.57 billion in August, down 1% month-over-month, according to Sensor Tower. Honor of Kings was the world’s highest-grossing mobile game, while Roblox led downloads. The U.S. accounted for 28.6% of spending, and global downloads reached 3.76 billion. Tencent also had a particularly strong month, with five of the top 10 games by revenue growth.

Artist Scott Jardine has released True Lens, a UE5 tool that recreates the look and imperfections of real film directly inside the engine. The Blueprint-based tool includes anamorphic bokeh, film grain, halation, Pro-Mist diffusion, lens distortion, flares and chromatic aberration. Everything is adjustable in real time and keyframable through Sequencer with no external post-processing required.

TrenchBroom is a free, open-source 3D level editor originally built for creating Quake-style maps, but it can also be used with Godot, Unity, Unreal Engine and custom engines through community integrations. It offers fast in-editor 3D building, CSG operations, vertex editing, UV tools, automatic backups and support for huge maps—making it particularly useful for boomer shooters and blockout-heavy level design.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend! ❤️