GTA 6 Details, Deadlock Record, Grasshopper Goes Indie
Rockstar Games gives Grand Theft Auto VI a major information drop, while Valve’s Deadlock breaks its concurrent-player record despite remaining unreleased. Grasshopper Manufacture also leaves NetEase Games, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered drives the RPG to its highest-ever Steam player count.
Grand Theft Auto VI Reveals a Larger Leonida and Dynamic Storms
Rockstar Games’ latest Grand Theft Auto VI preview details new animal species, side activities, fast travel, and 13 additional screenshots ahead of the game’s November 19, 2026 release. Rockstar says the map is twice the size of Grand Theft Auto V’s and the largest it has ever created by a considerable margin.
Weather is a major part of the new preview, with Grand Theft Auto VI featuring localized, persistent clouds, rainbows, tropical storms, and hurricanes. The exclusive coverage also caused the Game Informer website and app to crash as players tried to access the report.
Valve’s Deadlock Update Sets a New Steam Player Record
Valve’s Deadlock remains an invite-only closed beta, but its “City Never Sleeps” update has pushed the MOBA hero shooter to a new concurrent-player record and the top of Steam’s most-played-games chart. The update adds six new heroes, more than 10,000 voice lines, and a broad collection of other changes as Valve continues active development before a full release.
Grasshopper Manufacture Leaves NetEase and Returns to Independence
Grasshopper Manufacture, the Japanese studio behind No More Heroes and Killer7, has split from NetEase Games and returned to independent ownership. NetEase acquired the studio in 2021, but founder Goichi “Suda51” Suda says the separation follows extensive discussions between the companies.
The studio says independence will help it pursue a wider variety of game styles for players.
The Witcher 3 Remastered Reaches a New Steam Player Peak
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered has driven the 11-year-old RPG to its highest-ever concurrent player count on Steam. The remaster is available as a free update for existing owners, helping bring the game back to PC and current console players.
The response is not entirely positive, with players reporting performance problems, audio-mixing issues, and visual changes that make the lighting appear brighter and more washed out. PS5 Pro performance also appears to vary substantially between players, despite the remaster running smoothly for others.
Xbox Rolls Out Mythic Achievements and Disc-to-Digital
Xbox has begun rolling out Mythic Achievements to Xbox Insiders, rewarding players who complete every original achievement in a game. The rewards can be granted retroactively for games reaching back to the Xbox 360 era, making the feature Microsoft’s answer to PlayStation’s Platinum Trophies.
Xbox has also made its disc-to-digital feature available to all console owners after testing with Insiders, allowing supported Xbox One and Xbox Series X discs to be converted into digital licenses.