Weekend Highlights (October 11-12)

Battlefield 6 has entered the top 15 most popular games in Steam's history, MindsEye developers accused Build A Rocket Boy management of organizing crunches, and Josh Sawyer stated that classic RPGs have nearly stopped being made due to retailers — here's a recap of the main events in the gaming industry over the past weekend.

• The new installment of Battlefield had a very successful launch in terms of peak online users on Steam. According to calculations by SteamDB, the Steam version of the shooter simultaneously attracted 747,440 players. This is significantly more than Call of Duty's hub peak at the time (491,670 players). Overall, as of today, only 13 games have boasted a higher online count on Steam. Battlefield 6 has also done well in terms of ratings. The game has a "mostly positive" rating on the platform, with 76% of 56,000 reviews being favorable.
• Following the release of Battlefield 6, Steam broke its record for concurrent users on the platform. On Sunday, October 12, its peak online count reached 41.6 million people. The previous record of 41.24 million was set by Steam in March 2025 during the spring sale.
• Staff at Build A Rocket Boy published an open letter complaining about the disrespect from management and harsh working conditions. They stated that during the development of MindsEye, managers repeatedly refused to listen to feedback from experienced specialists, leading to "one of the worst game releases of this decade." Additionally, developers were forced to crunch four months before the release of MindsEye — they were promised compensatory time off for overtime, but only a few managed to take it. Employees are also unhappy with the lack of transparency, communication issues, and recent mass layoffs. They demand apologies from the studio’s leadership and improvements in working conditions.
• Hacker group Crimson Collective claimed to have breached Nintendo's internal network. They shared a screenshot listing folders with allegedly stolen data, including administrative documents and files related to game development. Nintendo has not commented on the rumors about the breach, so the authenticity remains unknown.
• Obsidian Entertainment's design director Josh Sawyer explained at the GCAP 2025 conference why, since the mid-2000s, game companies have been less inclined to work on classic RPGs like Baldur’s Gate and Planescape. He said that retailers play a significant role in the disappearance of these games. Back then, retailers wielded considerable influence: they were picky about which games to sell and could even force developers to buy back unsold copies in the absence of demand. So when retailers once claimed that no one wanted to buy classic RPGs anymore, companies simply had to abandon the genre. Interestingly, Sawyer recalls that the retailers did not provide sales research results at the time, only asked developers to take their word for it — and that was enough. Sawyer noted that with platforms like Steam and other digital services, there is much more freedom in the gaming industry today. Although success is not guaranteed, companies can still take risks and try to find their audience.