Weekend Highlights (April 11-12)

Pete Hines explained his reasons for leaving Bethesda, Blizzard won a lawsuit against the creators of unofficial World of Warcraft servers, and the sales of Road to Vostok exceeded 140,000 copies. Here are the main events in the gaming industry from the past weekend.

• Former Publishing Director of Bethesda, Pete Hines, in an interview with Firezide Chat explained why he decided to retire in 2023. He admitted that he was no longer satisfied with what was happening in the company. At some point, Hines realized that he could no longer do anything to protect Bethesda, and watching it "fall apart and crumble" was unbearable for him. Hines did not specify what exactly happened with Bethesda at that time, but it should be noted that a few years before he left, Microsoft acquired the company, so it is possible that this played a role.
• The hacker group ShinyHunters claimed they had stolen internal data from Rockstar Games. According to the attackers, they breached the company's network through backdoors via the Snowflake and Anodot platforms, gaining access to marketing plans, financial reports, and partner agreements. The hackers threatened to release all this to the public unless a ransom was paid by April 14. Rockstar Games confirmed the breach in a statement to the media but emphasized that the hackers were unable to steal anything significant. The company stated that they gained access only to "a limited amount of non-critical information."
• The court case between Blizzard Entertainment and the creators of Turtle WoW, unofficial World of Warcraft servers, has concluded. Blizzard Entertainment emerged victorious. According to the court's decision, the server developers must cease further work on the project and stop accepting donations. Additionally, they are prohibited from creating or assisting in the creation of a successor to Turtle WoW. To recall, the litigation lasted eight months. Blizzard Entertainment filed the lawsuit against the authors of Turtle WoW in August 2025, accusing them of copyright infringement and stating they wanted to "protect the world it created" through legal means.
• According to rumors, the Chinese studio Leenzee, which developed the soulslike WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers, is facing serious problems. The portal Gamersky reported that it parted ways with a significant portion of its staff due to insufficiently high sales of the game. Among others, the producer of WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers, Xia Siyuan, reportedly left the studio and has already managed to start his own company. It is also reported that Leenzee stopped paying salaries to employees, leading them to file a lawsuit against it. Leenzee has not commented on the rumors.
• Finnish solo developer Antti Leinonen revealed the initial sales of the shooter Road to Vostok. He announced that in the first five days of early access, the game sold over 140,000 copies. The developer added that Road to Vostok had a zero marketing budget, which makes such sales a significant success for the shooter. Notably, Leinonen had previously stated that the game fully recouped its development costs within the first day, and the revenue earned will support its development for several years.