Double Fine lays off employees amid Xbox separation
Double Fine has been hit with layoffs less than a month after being cut loose by Xbox.
Wednesday, July 29, 2026
Double Fine lays off employees amid Xbox separation — Wednesday, July 29, 2026
Double Fine hit with layoffs weeks after Xbox separation; PlayStation Plus confirms August Essential lineup with Dying Light 2 Reloaded Edition; BeastLink kaiju multiplayer sets Steam Early Access for August 18. AAA studios are leaning hard on remasters and annualized sports titles, while Sony quietly prepares to kill physical discs for new PS5 games by 2028; meanwhile, Ubisoft’s staggered PC launch for Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced and Microsoft’s continued push of Call of Duty ports highlight how much of the current pipeline is repackaged IP rather than fresh franchises.
Biggest developments
PlayStation Plus Monthly Games for August 2026
Dying Light 2 Stay Human: Reloaded Edition, Big Walk and Signalis will all be available to PlayStation Plus members from Tuesday August 4.
BeastLink launches in Early Access for PC on August 18
Multiplayer kaiju action game BeastLink will launch in Early Access for PC via Steam on August 18.
Important posts & threads
Call of Duty Black Ops cut Zombies mode discovered
YouTuber JTAG uncovered a tower defense Zombies mode in the recent PS4 port of Call of Duty: Black Ops and uploaded gameplay of it.
Sprawl Zero 10 minutes of PS2-era FPS gameplay
Enjoy 10 new minutes of gameplay, narrated by the game director, from Sprawl Zero, a fast-paced sci-fi first-person shooter built as if it was made in the glory FPS days of the PS2 era.
The Sinking City 2 12 minutes of new gameplay
Check out 12 minutes of new gameplay from The Sinking City 2, the upcoming Lovecraftian third-person survival horror game set in the 1920s.
Bullish takes
- PS Plus Essential tier adding day-one and major titles like Big Walk and Dying Light 2 Reloaded Edition
- Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced PC launch timing and strong early player counts on Steam suggest robust demand for remastered AAA IPs; Sony’s 2028 physical‑disc phase‑out signals a clear, if late, bet on full digital distribution; EA SPORTS College Football 27’s strong debut on Steam and Xbox storefronts indicates the college‑football license remains a reliable revenue engine.
Critical takes
- Double Fine layoffs underscore ongoing studio instability after Xbox divestment
- Sony’s 2028 physical‑disc cutoff for new PS5 titles will alienate collectors and regions with poor broadband, while doing little to slow the broader console‑hardware slowdown; Ubisoft’s decision to stagger Black Flag Resynced’s PC launch behind consoles feels like a relic of old‑school platform‑gatekeeping; the continued reliance on annualized sports titles and remasters (Black Flag, Black Ops 1/2 ports) underscores how thin the true AAA pipeline has become.
Why this matters
Subscription catalogs and post-split studio health continue to shape release pipelines and developer viability.