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Goodbye Jason Voorhees, hello Michael Myers: Friday the 13th developer and publisher return with a new multiplayer survival horror game based on Halloween
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Goodbye Jason Voorhees, hello Michael Myers: Friday the 13th developer and publisher return with a new multiplayer survival horror game based on Halloween

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Halloween: The Game Reveal Trailer – Future Games Show gamescom 2025 – YouTube

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Seven years after IllFonic and Gun Media had to say farewell to their hit multiplayer survival horror game Friday the 13th, they’re back—except this time, it’s Halloween. Announced at today’s Future Game Show, Halloween is a “one-versus-many stealth horror experience” in which players don the creepy mask of Michael Myers to hunt down the citizens of Haddonfield, or work together as his potential victims in a desperate effort to stop him.

“Stick to the shadows as Civilians, seeking out Haddonfield residents to warn them and searching for a way to contact the authorities,” the press blast says. “As Michael Myers, give them a reason to fear the dark and cut the phone lines to prevent the police from ruining his favorite holiday. Whether playing solo in story mode, against bots offline, or facing others in online multiplayer, each mode rewards stealth, strategy, and skillful play.

“Staying true to the original film, IllFonic masterfully recreates the eerie atmosphere of Haddonfield across multiple maps and authentic locations. With a haunting ambience and score inspired by the legendary movie, Halloween brings the terror home in a new experience that will keep both old and new generations looking over their shoulders.”


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I’m not much of a horror fan so I’m really in no position to speak to the distinctions between the Friday the 13th and Halloween franchises—it’s all just freaky masks, huge knives, and screaming teenyboppers to me. But I do find it very interesting, and amusing, that IllFonic and Gun Media are coming back with a game that, superficially at least, looks so much like Friday the 13th. There will definitely be differences in gameplay: Players will alert NPC townsfolk and police to the looming threat, for instance, leading to “increasingly powerful and thorough neighborhood patrols” that will help even the odds against the killer.

But the bottom line is that a small group of soft, squishy locals are going to have to work together to survive an unkillable maniac who exists only to hack those locals into little bloody bits, and, well… that sure sounds like tomayto, tomahto to me.

I might be reading too much into it, but IllFonic co-founder and CEO Charles Brungardt also seemed to throw a little shade at his former partners while praising his new ones.

“Working with Compass International Pictures and Further Front has been a dream,” Brungardt said. “As rights holders of the film and producers on the game, they’ve shared incredible insights to help us stay true to the soul of the 1978 film. Their tremendous passion for Michael Myers has pushed us to craft something that fans of the franchise will truly appreciate.”

Friday the 13th: The Game, you’ll recall, was brought low by a dispute over the ownership of the franchise between Victor Miller, the writer of the original film, and Sean Cunningham, the producer and director of the film.

Halloween is set to launch sometime in 2026 and will be available for PC on Steam and the Epic Games Store. For now, you can take a closer look at what’s coming at halloweengame.com.

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Chun-Li, on the cover of the Street Fighter Legends comic
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Udon, publisher of Street Fighter, Mega Man, Elden Ring, and other videogame comics and art books, is the latest to cut ties with bankrupt distributor Diamond Comics

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Until 2020, Diamond Comic Distributors held a near-monopoly on getting comic books to retailers in the US. Publishers like Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Image, Viz, Boom, and Udon all sold their comics exclusively through Diamond, though hearing retailers grumble about them—often claiming books arrived damaged, late, or not at all, especially in small-town shops—was common.

When Diamond announced it would cease shipments during the Covid-19 pandemic in March of 2020, DC took it as an opportunity to jump ship, switching to Lunar Distribution and UCS Comic Distributors for its monthly releases and Penguin Random House for book-sized releases. One by one other publishers followed, including Marvel, until Diamond declared bankruptcy in January of 2025.

Udon was one of the last publishers to remain with Diamond (alongside Dynamite, which would rather like to retrieve half a million dollars it claims Diamond owes), but now Udon has declared it’s found an alternative as well. Udon has halted all shipments to Diamond in favor of Lunar Distribution, with its Manga Classics imprint now being distributed by Simon & Schuster.


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“With the current state of uncertainty and lack of communication from the new owners to both retailers as well as many publishers, we have to do what is best to serve our customers,” Udon chief of operations Erik Ko said. “We realize this is a deep inconvenience for many retailers, but we’re trying to do our best to serve our partners and fans, while minimizing risk and moving forward in an uncertain time.”

This has affected the first issue of Udon’s new series Mega Man Timelines, which has been pushed back a month to a June 25 release. Udon’s future comics, manga, and art books will be distributed though Lunar, which presumably includes any more of the Capcom-licensed books it’s famous for—like Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, and Final Fight—as well as its books based on games like Elden Ring and Persona.



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‘Grand Theft Auto’ Publisher Swaps DEI for ‘Diversity of Thought’ in Annual Report
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‘Grand Theft Auto’ Publisher Swaps DEI for ‘Diversity of Thought’ in Annual Report

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Take-Two Interactive, the publisher behind Grand Theft Auto VI, is forgoing any mention of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts and promoting “diversity of thought” in its latest annual report.

The change, first spotted by Game File, is part of the company’s annual 10-K report, which offers insight into the company’s business, financials, and risk factors. In 2024, the report included a robust section about DEI, expressing support for groups working to “eradicate social injustice,” LGBTQ+ rights, and minority game design students, and “celebrating cultural differences” through employee groups.

In the 2025 report, Take-Two only mentions diversity in one area: “We firmly believe that diversity of thought drives the innovation that is integral to our success.” The report adds that the company aims “to provide an inclusive workplace in which everyone feels respected, heard, and safe,” but does not include commitments to provide scholarships to minority game design students, which were made in 2024.

“By empowering our colleagues to embrace an entrepreneurial mindset and to take calculated risks, we believe that we have created an environment where our people can thrive,” the report reads.

The move is part of a growing trend of companies rolling back their DEI initiatives amid a crackdown on anything perceived as DEI by the Trump administration.

DEI efforts in the video game industry have grown since the early days of gaming, but it wasn’t until 2020 that major companies began to throw support behind minority developers in acknowledgement of greater systemic issues. After George Floyd was murdered by police, companies began to vocally support movements like Black Lives Matter and pledged to help marginalized developers. As President Donald Trump has been cracking down on DEI in both the public and private sector, however, those efforts may now be in danger.

Reached by WIRED, a spokesperson for Take-Two declined to comment. The company’s website still includes a statement that says it believes “more diverse teams are more valuable and effective. Diversity is key to our success.”

DEI backlash, which has most recently spread across companies in fields like tech and retail, has a firm foothold in gaming communities. Last year, an online harassment movement styling itself as “Gamergate 2.0” attacked consultancy companies hired to provide guidance and advice on cultural sensitivities and created lists that deemed even a whiff of anything non-white, cis-male, and heterosexual as DEI. In modding communities, mods for games like The Sims 4 are being created to remove LGBT and Black non-player characters from the game.

The language in Take-Two’s report echoes that of companies like Meta, which said it would seek “cognitive diversity” in its own 10-K earlier this year, as it ended its own DEI programs.

The Entertainment Software Association, which organized the now-defunct E3 and acts as an advocate for the video game industry among regulators and lawmakers, declined to comment about the impact of DEI rollbacks in video games. Instead, a spokesperson directed WIRED to the ESA’s “Inclusion & Belonging” page on its website, which champions representation and that “the video game community is vast and diverse.”



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Embracer Group says it'll put out 76 different games in the coming year, as it ditches friends for a fellowship and spins off Goat Sim publisher Coffee Stain
Game Reviews

Embracer Group says it’ll put out 76 different games in the coming year, as it ditches friends for a fellowship and spins off Goat Sim publisher Coffee Stain

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Damn, the nice little friendship thing Embracer Group had decided to morph into after earning the ire of lots of folks by going hard on the layoffs, closures and sales is no more.

The company’s decided to ditch the “and friends” tag it had given to different bits of its business, and form a fellowship, as it does yet more corporate shuffling around. It does also plan to actually release some more games.

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As announced by Embracer, the bit of previously dubbed Middle-Earth and Friends will now be known as Fellowship Entertainment. As you might have guessed, that’s the part that looks after The Lord of the Rings, as well as housing the studios behind likes of Kingdom Come Deliverance, Tomb Raider, the Metro series, and Dead Island.

With Asmodee, the second of the three bits Embracer divided itself into last year, having spun off from the company as of February this year, it’s the turn of the third bit formerly known as Coffee Stain & Friends to do the same. Now named Coffee Stain Group, the subsidiary that includes the dev teams behind the likes of Deep Rock Galactic, Valheim and Goat Simulator is being released into the economic wild as a separately stock market-listed company.

“The games industry is more competitive than ever, but also more rewarding if you do things right, and we believe this move gives us the clarity and control to navigate the landscape better on our own terms,” Coffee Stain Group CEO Anton Westbergh said, “We can now focus even more on what we do best—supporting our developers, staying close to our communities, and building an even brighter future for Coffee Stain.”

Right, that’s enough on the corporate shuffling of people’s livelihoods. In the financial results it’s published alongside this spin-off announcement, Embracer says that it’s got “76 different games” it plans to release in the coming financial year. There’ll be “a mix of new IPs, sequels, and remasters”, including Killing Floor 3 and the recently delayed Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, with Embracer expecting the latter to “drive notable revenues but to have lower margins due to shared economics with several other partners”.

Another as of yet unannounced AAA game that Embracer things will have “financial dynamics more similar to Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2” is also in the works, but the company reckons it’ll have to be pushed back to the 2026/27 financial year to allow for more “polish”

The rest of the lineup for the upcoming is being filled by the likes of Deep Rock Galactic: Rogue Core, Metal Eden, and “the next SpongeBob SquarePants game”. Spongebob Squarepants tries to get to the Bikini Bottom of where Embracer’s friends have gone, maybe?



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Six One Publishing Is A New Game Publisher From The Team Behind This Year’s Best Indie Showcase
Game Updates

Six One Publishing Is A New Game Publisher From The Team Behind This Year’s Best Indie Showcase

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The Six One Indie Showcase just wrapped, highlighting more than 40 rad indie games with world premieres, exclusive reveals, and more. It was this year’s best indie game showcase and one of my favorites ever, which is why it’s exciting to see the team behind it announce its new publishing arm: Six One Publishing.

Coming from the Six One Indie team, Six One Publishing was “created for developers who need an impactful partner to help them cross the finish line.” The team describes itself as an “integrated, indie-first platform” that aims to reimagine what publishing can look like in 2025 and beyond.

“We’re here to blur the lines,” Six One Publishing creative director Mike Towndrow writes in a press release. “The number of games hitting the market grows by the day, but unfortunately, the people to cover and amplify them seem to dwindle just as fast. Six One Indie has evolved into an ecosystem that can now offer a unique opportunity to get indies in front of players through fresh, unconventional means.”

 

Six One Publishing says working with it means “gaining direct access to every part of the Six One ecosystem – from original video content and editorials to our growing slate of indie showcases and creator collabs. By fusing the best parts of publishing, media, and community into one agile framework, we’re rewriting the rulebook to serve developers – not shareholders.”

Towndrow concludes the press release by stating he believes indies “deserve a major push backed by authenticity, genuine enthusiasm, and a new approach for an unpredictable industry.”

If you want an idea of the types of indies Six One Indie wants to get eyes on, look no further than Game Informer’s round-up of every game shown during today’s Six One Indie Showcase. 



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