An October 27 statement from employees of Don't Nod, the developer best known for making the original Life is Strange games, warn that the company is in danger of insolvency and layoffs, and accused its management of "illegal" practices that have caused staff "uncertainty and anxiety."

The damning statement comes from employees who are members of the French game industry union Le Syndicat des Travailleureuses du Jeu Vidéo, which revealed that Don’t Nod is currently under a safeguard to help protect itself from insolvency (meaning that the company wouldn’t be able to pay its debts).

The statement claims employees were approached by management and given “several financial scenarios” that could happen in the near future, both of which “included redundancies," with the worst case forecasting the “liquidation of the company through 2026.”

The message states that “nearly all of the non-managerial jobs” were cut at Don’t Nod, which reportedly included all animators, character artists, concept artists, associate producers, and most environmental artists, sound designers, level designers, programmers, QA testers, HR and developers. Half of its game designers were also laid off, according to the statement.

“Management is extremely clearly going for heavily individualized targeting and hasn’t been shy about their intent to keep selected people in rather than jobs, which is illegal,” the union wrote.

The statement goes on to claim that management is betting on outsourcing to take on the workload of these fired team members — a decision that the union feels is “out-of-touch.”

The letter then says Don't Nod employees have been “living on the edge, in uncertainty and anxiety” for the last two years, to the point where six workplace accidents occurred this year and an inquiry was recently launched into a “serious and immediate danger.” It also alleges that management “refused to let those who would be willing to leave earlier go through a voluntary leave plan,” saying they “do not care about the damage it deals to employees’ health.”

The statement ends on a striking note; a government agency that represents employees is set to make its ruling on November 3. After that, management will have 21 days to decide on a plan. If this plan is accepted by the government agency, it’s possible that employees could “get their firing letters on November 25.”

“If it were to be rejected however, management would have to go back to the drawing board and improvise because, as you might have gathered, planning for contingencies isn’t their forte,” the letter concludes.

This is the latest news to surface regarding Don’t Nod’s dire financial straits after it was warned by auditors in a financial report that it could run out of cash as early as November. Its latest game, Aphelion, was released earlier this year to middling reviews, and given this recent union tell-all, its next project could be in peril.

The 1993 first-person shooter Doom is legendary. Its place in history is both untouchable and inarguable. The details of that history, though, are currently being debated on social media. Not by fans, mind you, but instead by two of the very people that created it. Doom co-creator John Romero and Doom level- and game-designer Sandy Petersen took to X (formerly Twitter) to dispute each other's recollection of the origin of Doom's groundbreaking DeathMatch PvP multiplayer mode.

It started with Petersen posting a thread titled, "How Doom changed the world." He discussed his history in the video game industry prior to getting hired at id Software to work on Doom – specifically on a real-time strategy game released in 1990 called Command HQ, and how designer Danielle Bunten Berry "thought that since 65% of gamers had modems it would mostly be played head-to-head. It bombed. I think it had about 40,000 sales." That set up a memory he shared next about working on Doom, about which he said, "We all agreed at id that it was unlikely anyone would ever play Deathmatch, except in very small numbers. After all, zero games had a robust head-to-head experience, and my personal time with Command HQ just hammered home the point. However, everyone at id loved Deathmatch, so we kept it in the game. We figured, even if no one else played it, WE could keep doing it."

Romero responded to politely take issue with Petersen's recollection of the team's sentiment around DeathMatch prior to release. He posted, "Hi Sandy. Are you well? This is wrong. On January 1, 1993, we sent a press release saying that multiplayer would be in DOOM, a full 8 months before you joined the company. We knew deathmatch would be huge. In that press release, in January 1993, we said multiplayer would be 'the number one cause of decreased productivity in businesses around the world.' We were sure of it, and we needed no convincing. I understand you are proud of your work on DOOM, and you should be, but please also respect the accuracy of your statements, particularly around game history. My concern is that these false statements are designed to trigger replies (like this one), reposts, and outrage discussion, all with the view of increasing your followers and subscriptions, particularly since this false deathmatch story (among others) is so easily disproved. I’ve even welcomed you to reach out to me ahead of time. You seem to appreciate game history as much as I do. Could you not also make yours accurate?"

Petersen continued the discussion with Romero, responding with, "John. First, 8 months before release is before I joined the company. So I have no knowledge of what you did then. Second, AFTER I joined we had a discussion in which I talked about my experience with Command HQ and YOU YOURSELF agreed that Deathmatch wouldn’t be that big a deal. Do you not remember? Third yes we all wanted Deathmatch anyway. And I’m glad my predictions were wrong. Perhaps check your own memory before gaslighting mine. Hope you’re well."

Romero came back with, "I am well, thanks, and so is my memory. I do not believe your recollection is accurate and neither do other members of the team. We KNEW deathmatch would be huge from the beginning. We said so. Once it was in, those aspirations were confirmed." As of the publication of this story, that's the last post in their online discussion.

Regardless of who is correct about DeathMatch's pre-release history, it certainly blew up once Doom shipped in December of 1993, and every multiplayer first-person shooter released since can trace some part of its lineage back to Doom. For my part, Doom is one of my favorite games of all time, and I was fortunate to get to check off a personal and career Bucket List item by playing through the entire legendary first episode of Doom (called "Knee-Deep in the Dead") in co-op with Romero to celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2013. Today, Doom of course lives on with the new-generation team currently at id Software, with the studio having shipped the amazing Revelations DLC for Doom: The Dark Ages earlier this summer.

Capcom is celebrating its highest software unit sales for the first half of a fiscal year in the company’s 47-year history, with games like Monster Hunter World, Resident Evil 2, and RE7 Biohazard leading the fray.

It’s safe to say that 2026 was a hugely successful year for Capcom, and its next fiscal year is already looking just as rosy. In the 2026 calendar year, the developer launched three Game of the Year contenders in Resident Evil Requiem, the new but ambitious Pragmata, and Onimusha: Way of the Sword, all of which were met with critical acclaim.

These recent titles aren’t responsible for making up the bulk of its profits for its current fiscal year, though. Instead, older titles like Monster Hunter World (a live-service game that released in 2018), Resident Evil 2 Remake (2019), and Resident Evil 7: BioHazard (2017) took the top three spots in its top ten best-selling titles for the first half of its 2027 fiscal year.

Given their popularity and prestige, it’s not a massive surprise that these three titles continue to do gangbusters for Capcom almost a decade after their release. For example, in July, Resident Evil 2 Remake officially dethroned Resident Evil 5 as the series’ best-selling game at 19.75 million copies sold — a number that, as of Capcom’s latest public financial report, has increased by 2.06 million to sit at 20.38 million total copies sold.

Monster Hunter World takes the cake far and away, though, sitting at 30.83 million units sold at a 1.17 million increase. RE 7 takes third place at 20.38 million units, with a 2.06 million unit increase.

The total list of Capcom’s top ten best-selling games in the first half of its 2027 fiscal year is as follows:

It's worth noting that the newest Monster Hunter entry, Monster Hunter Wilds, isn't listed on here. However, the previous game in the series is still a juggernaut for Capcom, going to show just how unpopular Wilds is following oodles of player complaints in the year since it's February 2025 launch... and that's even after Capcom 'permanently' slashed the game's price.

According to Capcom's financial report, these figures mark the company's highest-ever total and catalog unit sales for an H1 period, and most of them were digital. This same report shows that a staggering 92.4% of sales were digital, with 57.1% coming from PC and 35.3% from consoles. In stark comparison, physical units make up just 7.6% of sales. (This is actually a bit of a drop from its previously reported digital sales figures back in Q1 2026, which was listed at 93.3%.)

This all comes hot off the heels of Capcom’s two newest film adaptations, with Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil movie becoming the most profitable in the series’ history and Street Fighter launching to number one at the box office during its opening weekend (news of a sequel, however, is still up in the air).

Pragmata also performed well for Capcom, with corporate officer Yoshikazu Shimauchi suggesting that sales were so good that the likelihood of a sequel is high. Combine that with Onimusha selling one million copies on day one, it’s clear that 2026 is Capcom’s year. Now, we just need to see how The Game Awards pan out.