Todd Howard x Obsidian collab 🎮 Steam Machine costs rising 💸
2026-07-20 · 9 stories · 37 min read
Top Stories
Todd Howard says 'the timing is right' for a collaboration with Obsidian (3 min read)
Bethesda Game Studios and Obsidian Entertainment are developing a new Fallout game, confirmed by franchise director Todd Howard, who said "the timing is right" for the collaboration. The project joins Fallout 5 (in preproduction) and remasters of Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 3 in the franchise roadmap. The teams previously collaborated on 2010's Fallout: New Vegas. The announcement comes after Xbox's July mass layoffs eliminated 1,600 jobs immediately, with another 1,600 planned; Obsidian lost approximately one quarter of its staff. (Game Developer)
Valve engineer Yazan Aldehayyat told Bloomberg that component prices are still rising, with retail inventory lagging bulk supply by three to six months—suggesting a Steam Machine price increase is likely. The comment aligns with Microsoft's August price hike across Xbox Series X/S and its forecast that component costs will double by autumn 2027. Sony and Nintendo have also raised console prices recently, citing similar supply pressures on RAM and storage driven by AI datacenter demand. (Eurogamer)
Business & Finance
Netflix Playground drives 600% surge in kids games engagement (2 min read)
Netflix Playground, a dedicated kids games app launched in April, tripled daily players and drove a 600% year-on-year surge in kids engagement. Netflix plans to expand titles for ages six to eight and reported cloud games monthly active users increased elevenfold over eight months, with adoption ahead of mobile games curves. (GamesIndustry.biz)
Sky-high prices risk disaster for a console market struggling to grow | Opinion (8 min read)
S&P Global forecasts console unit sales will slump to 27 million in 2026, down from 45 million in the early 2020s, with recovery remaining slow through 2030. High component costs and inflated hardware prices are expected to depress sales for years. (GamesIndustry.biz)
Studios & People
UKIE: 22% of UK games industry workforce affected by job losses in last three years (3 min read)
UKIE's industry census found 22% of UK games workers experienced job loss in the past three years. Non-binary (29%) and female (23%) workers were more likely to lose jobs than men (20%), with writers and artists disproportionately affected at 44% and 31% respectively. Job loss correlated directly with declining mental health. (GamesIndustry.biz)
Cliff Bleszinski Blames Personal Ego And Alcohol Issues For Boss Key’s Failure (5 min read)
Cliff Bleszinski blamed personal ego and alcohol issues for Boss Key Productions' failure in a new interview. The studio's hero shooters LawBreakers and Radical Heights couldn't compete with Overwatch and Fortnite, but Bleszinski acknowledged being an absent leader and underestimating competitive threats. (Kotaku)
Marathon director Joe Ziegler leaves Bungie just four months after launch (5 min read)
Marathon director Joe Ziegler departed Bungie after three and a half years, passing the role to Del Chafe III and Julia Nardin. Ziegler, who previously spent 12 years at Riot, did not disclose his next destination. (Eurogamer)
Games & Releases
The Unlikely Story Of How Konami Asked Evil Empire To Make Castlevania: Belmont's Curse (4 min read)
Konami approached Evil Empire to create Castlevania: Belmont's Curse rather than Evil Empire pitching the idea. The collaboration grew from a Dead Cells DLC discussion into a full game partnership. The project launches in October, marking the first new mainline Castlevania entry in years. (GameInformer)
How The PS2 Hardware And Lord Of The Rings Shaped The Development Of Final Fantasy 10 (5 min read)
Square Enix veterans reflected on Final Fantasy X's 25th anniversary, citing PS2 hardware advances in water rendering and Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings as influences that shifted the game from sci-fi toward fantasy, alongside writer Kazushige Nojima's desire for Eastern-inspired worldbuilding. (Kotaku)
gg! see you in game!
— [james](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesrjennings/)