Today's Top 20 Global Gaming News — 2026-11-09

Major Industry News

• Global Gaming Industry Layoffs Surge: Layoffs in the gaming industry for 2026 have reached 10,977, already surpassing the total figure for all of 2025 (9,197). Additional reductions are expected through December, with 35 studios having shut down.

  

• GAME DAYS 2026 Opens in Korea: Hosted by the Korea Creative Content Agency, GAME DAYS 2026 is taking place for a two-day run starting November 9 at the Lotte World Tower SKY31 Convention. On the 10th, the '2026 Game Production Environment AI Transformation (AX) Performance Sharing Session' will be held to share AI adoption cases.

  

• Former Console Executives Voice Concerns: Former executives from Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox pointed out that the biggest issue in the gaming industry is the "loss of willingness to take risks." This was raised during a GamesBeat Next legends panel interview.

• Ergonomic Controller Market Growth Forecast: The global ergonomic gaming controller market is projected to grow steadily through 2035, driven by expanding eSports participation and a growing health-conscious awareness around injury prevention.

• Gyeonggi Game Connect 2026 Concludes Successfully: Gyeonggi Province's 'Gyeonggi Game Connect 2026' wrapped up in Pangyo, drawing a total of 595 visitors and industry insiders.

• Indian Gaming Market Faces Reality: India's gaming market is facing challenges in securing funding and talent following real-money gaming (RMG) regulations, leading studios to turn their eyes toward the global market.

  

• SharpLink Gaming Earnings Release: SharpLink Gaming (NASDAQ:SBET) announced its Q3 financial results, and the related earnings call transcript has been published.

1 sources

inven.co.kr

inven.co.kr

New Releases & Updates

• Official Title for The Elder Scrolls VI Revealed: Bethesda's upcoming title, The Elder Scrolls VI, has been confirmed to carry the sub-title 'Sentinel'.

• Unreal Engine 6 Development Direction Shift: News broke that UE6 will not include Blueprints or the C++ Gameplay Framework.

  

• itch.io Purges AI Slop: Terabytes of low-quality content produced by generative AI (AI slop) were reportedly removed from the itch.io platform.

• November New Release Rush: A massive wave of new titles across various genres is dropping ahead of GTA 6's November 19 release, ranging from karaoke simulators to returning classic IPs.

  

• Queen's Domain Receives Acclaim: The new title 'Queen's Domain' is being hailed by the community as the top surprise game of 2026, receiving rave reviews.

  

• ELA Games Wins Award: Slot development specialist ELA Games won 'Best Game Studio' at the SiGMA World Awards 2026 held in Rome.

  

1 sources

substackcdn.com

substackcdn.com

Gamer Hot Topics

• LoL Worlds 2026 Finalists Confirmed: In the LoL World Championship semifinals, BLG defeated T1 3-1 to advance to the finals. BLG will face Gen.G for the championship at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on November 14. T1 failed in its bid for a fourth consecutive title.

  

• Pickmon Plagiarism Controversy: The game 'Pickmon' is drawing heavy criticism over allegations of plagiarism and fan art theft. The controversy persists despite changing its name to 'Pickmos'.

  

• GTA 6 and Manatee Ecosystem Interest: Ahead of the release of GTA 6, public interest has surged regarding the manatees expected to appear in the game. A project manager from the environmental group Playing for the Planet projected that this could lead to heightened awareness for marine life conservation.

  

• Steam Tag Analyzer Emerges: The Steam tag analysis tool, 'Steam Tag Analyzer', is drawing attention among developers and the community.

• PS5 Modding Issue: News that fake packages for the PS5 can be distributed via builders up to version 11.40 has become a hot topic in the console modding community (S7ensins).

1 sources

inven.co.kr

inven.co.kr