Efforts to Save BioWare From ‘American Dictates’ and Sony’s Call for PS5 Owners to Sell Their Consoles: The Week’s Highlights

A brief roundup of the past week’s entertainment industry news from around the world.

• “We’re doing great”: id Software co-head Marty Stratton is not worried that Microsoft laid off half the studio. He would probably be less upbeat if he had been among those laid off.
• Mass Effect Legendary Edition will get a major multiplayer update on N7 Day, thanks to fans. The developers never released an online mode, but the community will soon remedy that.
• Silent Hill: Townfall’s launch sales were considerably lower than those of the Silent Hill 2 remake and Silent Hill f, analysts say. The game arrived during a particularly crowded release period, with Control Resonant, EA Sports FC 27 and other major titles competing for players’ attention.
• Sony has begun encouraging some PS5 owners to sell their consoles, offering up to $400 for an unused device through a special trade-in program.
• Former Dragon Age series head Mark Darrah said the BioWare team largely ignored his advice during the development of The Veilguard.
• The Elder Scrolls VI has received the subtitle Sentinel, and Bethesda has shown the game’s first trailer. The announcement came almost 15 years after the release of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
• GTA VI has racked up 7.71 million preorders and generated more than $750 million two weeks before release, analysts say. Most sales were on PlayStation 5.
• Saber has added new maps and vehicles to the simulation game RoadCraft with the release of the Foundations expansion. The developers have prepared a lot of new content.
• Epic Games is preparing Unreal Engine 5.9, with a preview version due next week. Its main addition will be expanded AI integration capable of directly editing 3D scenes.
• Gamers weren’t joking: a study found that agenda-related content affects video game sales. Economists concluded that games with more such elements sell worse on average and generate nearly 8% less revenue.
• Valve surprised players by restoring games that a Steam user had removed from their own library because of mental health issues.
• BioWare fans gathered enough signatures to ask the Canadian government to save the studio from “American dictates.” Still, Canadian authorities are unlikely to rescue the sunken studio.
• AMD has officially added FSR Upscaling 4.1.2 support on Xbox Series X|S, giving developers new tools to improve image quality without a significant performance cost.
• New teasers for Skywind, a Morrowind remake built on Skyrim’s engine, show off dark locations and music. The ambitious project is gradually moving toward release.
• Nikita Buyanov acknowledged that most Escape from Tarkov players now play in PvE mode and explained how the audience is divided.