Gaming Newsletter - Issue #33: 5/6/25

Gaming Newsletter

Hi everyone! This is a new Series I've started. I'm working on doing this every Tuesday for now. If it sometimes comes out late, it will definitely still be weekly. So, what's the Video Game News for this week?

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Borderlands 4 State Of Play Deep Dive

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Grand Theft Auto VI News

Rockstar Games said this: "Grand Theft Auto VI is now set to release on May 26, 2026. We are very sorry that this is later than you expected. The interest and excitement surrounding a new Grand Theft Auto has been truly humbling for our entire team. We want to thank you for your and your patience as we work to finish the game. With every game we have released, the goal has always been to try and exceed your expectations, and Grand Theft Auto VI is no exception. We hope you understand that we need this extra time to deliver at the level of quality you expect and deserve. We look forward to sharing more information with you soon. Sincerely, Rockstar Games."

UPDATE: I know the 2nd Trailer came out today. We'll talk about it next week.

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Xbox News

This week saw gaming website Polygon sold to Valnet, the company that owns Screen Rant and Game Rant among other sites, and many of its staffers laid off. Meanwhile publication at another gaming site, Giant Bomb, is currently on hold as owner Fandom engages in what it calls a “strategic reset and realignment of our media brands” and some staffers suggest the company has interfered with the site’s content and its famously irreverent tone.

Elsewhere, Microsoft announced that Xbox consoles were going up in price, effective immediately, and that by this holiday season, we can expect higher prices on Xbox games as well. And we got a closer look at Borderlands 4 via a new PlayStation State of Play presentation. Read on for all the details on these stories and more.

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EA News

A week after confirming layoffs across their studios, EA has confirmed that some of those layoffs occurred at Codemasters. At the end of April, Respawn announced they had layoffs across the studio, which was shortly followed by rumors that EA had layoffs between 300 to 400 developers across their studios. Without revealing the full number, EA confirmed they had layoffs across the whole company shortly afterwards. They said this: "As part of our continued focus on our long-term strategic priorities, we’ve made select changes within our organization that more effectively aligns teams and allocates resources in service of driving future growth."

And then at the start of May, Codemasters revealed that they were ending for EA Sports WRC, and that they would stop development of their rally racing games altogether. EA took a few days afterwards but they finally confirmed that layoffs in this Southam-based studio. As reported by Video Games Chronicle, EA said this: "As a business, we are constantly evolving to meet the growing needs of our players and driving greater focus across our portfolio. This has led us to look at reducing some roles, while we redeploy as many as possible against our strategic priorities."

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Polygon News

The video game website Polygon has been sold to click-farm powerhouse Valnet and much of its masthead has been laid off, Kotaku has learned. The sale was subsequently announced in a press release. Multiple staff have posted online about losing their jobs or about colleagues now being out of work. “I‘m no longer with Polygon. If you’re hiring, please consider the many talented writers and editors now on the market,” posted Polygon co-founder and EIC Chris Plante. “Every one of them deserves a spot on your staff. I won’t be talking more about the sale because I wasn’t involved. Going to hang out with my kid. Taking wins where I can.”

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That's all for this episode. I hope you guys enjoyed! If I left anything out in the news this week that I might have forgotten about, please comment down below and I'd love to chat Video Games just like I love to 24/7! Thank you guys so much. Happy Gaming!