Gaming Lore

The stories behind the games. Studio politics, cancelled projects, and industry drama.

LORE

Eidos Montreal Spent Hundreds of Millions on a Game Nobody Will Ever Play. Then They Fired 124 People.

Seven years. Four game engines. Hundreds of millions of dollars. A Deus Ex sequel killed to fund it. Then Embracer canceled Wildlands and fired 124 people. Full breakdown with receipts.

James Brooke
10 minApr 6, 2026
LORE

Epic Games Laid Off 1,000 People Five Days After Charging Fortnite Players More Money

The 14-day timeline that tells you everything about what is happening at Epic Games. V-Bucks shrinkflation, mass layoffs, and three game modes killed. All in two weeks.

James Brooke
11 minMar 26, 2026
LORE

One-Third of US Game Developers Were Laid Off in Two Years. The Industry Did This to Itself.

The GDC 2026 report surveyed 2,300 professionals and the numbers are devastating. 33% of US devs laid off, 74% of students afraid to enter the industry, and 82% want unions. Here's the full breakdown.

James Brooke
13 minMar 22, 2026
LORE

Crimson Desert Sold 2 Million Copies in 24 Hours. Wall Street Says It's a Failure.

James Brooke
11 minMar 20, 2026
LORE

EA Laid Off Battlefield 6 Devs After the Biggest Launch in Franchise History. Let That Sink In.

Battlefield 6 was the best-selling game in America. It dethroned Call of Duty for the first time in 23 years. And EA just laid off the developers who made it.

James Brooke
11 minMar 10, 2026
LORE

Highguard Is Dead. 45 Days. That's All It Got.

From secret Tencent funding to leadership hubris, how Wildlight's hero shooter went from 100K players to shutdown in 45 days.

James Brooke
11 minMar 5, 2026
LORE

Highguard Developers Are Missing the Point—And That's the Real Problem

Wildlight's Highguard collapsed in just 16 days—and now laid-off devs are blaming "gamer culture" for their failure. But when you dig into the actual criticism—performance issues on RTX 5080s, an art style so generic reviewers couldn't name the characters after 14 hours, and hero shooter fatigue that everyone saw coming—the real story is a lot less convenient.

James Brooke
9 minFeb 14, 2026
LORE

How Blizzard Almost Made a Pokémon Killer

The untold story of Project Odyssey, Blizzard's ambitious attempt to dethrone Pokémon that was cancelled just months before announcement.

James Brooke
1 minFeb 13, 2026