Slay the Spire 2 soars 🃏 Gen AI use declining 📉 Heart Machine unionizes ✊

<!-- buttondown-editor-mode: fancy --><h2 style="text-align: center;">Top Stories</h2>

Developer use of generative AI may be declining (5 min read)

A new survey suggests game developer adoption of generative AI tools may be declining, reversing earlier growth trends. The data signals growing skepticism among devs about AI's practical value in production pipelines. (Game Developer)

'If we love this work, we have to protect it:' Heart Machine workers secure voluntary union recognition (4 min read)

Workers at Heart Machine (Solar Ash, Hyper Light Drifter) have secured voluntary union recognition from studio leadership. It's one of the few indie studios to reach this milestone without a formal NLRB election. (Game Developer)

Slay the Spire 2 hits nearly 575,000 concurrent players, almost beating Silksong's record (2 min read)

Slay the Spire 2 peaked at 574,638 concurrent players on Steam shortly after its Early Access launch, with VGI estimating 2.8 million units sold and $55.1 million in revenue. Notably, Mega Crit built the sequel on Godot after publicly rejecting Unity's Runtime Fee policy. (Gamesindustry)

<h2 style="text-align: center;">Business & Finance</h2>

NetEase pulls funding of Yakuza creator's Nagoshi Studio, putting development of Gang of Dragon at risk (3 min read)

NetEase will cease funding Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi's studio in May, jeopardizing debut title Gang of Dragon, which still needs ~$44M to complete. The studio is seeking new investors and negotiating with NetEase over IP rights. (Eurogamer)

<h2 style="text-align: center;">Studios & People</h2>

Hytale lead says they're pushing for modding in part because they 'hire from the community': 'We're building a scrappy, agile team full of people who actually make things' (6 min read)

Hypixel founder Simon Collins-Laflamme says most of the studio's 70+ person team were recruited from the Hytale modding community. The approach doubles as a talent pipeline: support modding, identify the best creators, hire them directly. (PC Gamer)

<h2 style="text-align: center;">Games & Releases</h2>

Slay the Spire 2's launch has been so incredibly successful, the studio had to apologise for a joke about Marathon that now "seems a bit meaner than it was intended" (5 min read)

Slay the Spire 2 hit 430,456 peak concurrent Steam players on launch day, dwarfing Marathon's 88,337 — a result Mega Crit co-founder Casey Yano admitted they never anticipated when posting a tongue-in-cheek congratulations to Bungie. (Eurogamer)

The Next Xbox Could Cost You $1,000 To $1,200, According To Expert (3 min read)

Microsoft's next-gen Xbox (Project Helix) could launch at $999–$1,200, per analyst Moore's Law Is Dead, based on estimated hardware costs of ~$900. The hybrid console/PC positioning raises questions about platform openness and upgrade restrictions for developers targeting the device. (Kotaku)

<h2 style="text-align: center;">AI/Tech & Tools</h2>

"We are providing guidance to developers" - Discord promises a fix and "additional protections" following discovery of Arc Raiders bug that stored users' private messages (5 min read)

Discord is updating its Social SDK with "additional protections" and new developer guidance after a debug logging misconfiguration in Arc Raiders exposed users' private messages locally. Developers using Discord's Social SDK integrations should review their logging configurations now. (Eurogamer)

A guide to identifying cheating in online video games in 2026 (6 min read)

Anybrain CTO Serafim Pinto breaks down the seven modern cheat categories developers face in 2026, from DMA cards to screen-reading bots. GenAI has democratized cheat creation, with "humanized AI" bots now intentionally mimicking human error to evade behavioral detection systems. (Gamesindustry)

<h2 style="text-align: center;">Policy & Labor</h2>

Fantasy Author Who Platinumed Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Says The Studio Is Now Trying To Kill His Graphic Novel (3 min read)

Sandfall Interactive sent a legal notice to French fantasy author Olivier Gay demanding he stop selling his graphic novel *L'Académie Clair-Obscur*, despite the title predating the game's success. Gay says he can't afford to fight it and will rename the book. (Kotaku)

<h2 style="text-align: center;">Culture & Community</h2>

Dark Souls and Elden Ring studio FromSoftware was "worried" how its OG RPG King's Field would be received, but the studio wasn't going to be "constrained by existing games" (6 min read)

A newly translated 2001 interview reveals FromSoftware developer Shinichiro Nishida saying King's Field skipped tutorials due to an 8-month dev schedule, not design intent. The studio's "no rules" RPG philosophy traces directly to its Soulslike DNA. (GamesRadar)

WoW's recent revamp of Silvermoon for Midnight is so good, I'm starting to wonder if the MMO's model of a 'new exciting continent every 2-3 years' was ever the right way (9 min read)

Blizzard's rebuilt Silvermoon for WoW: Midnight has PC Gamer questioning whether the MMO's traditional "new continent every expansion" model was ever optimal. The revamp leans into existing world lore rather than introducing entirely new geography. (PC Gamer)

gg! see you in game!

-[james](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesrjennings/)