The main events of the weekend (July 11-12)

The European Commission will not oppose PlayStation's move away from physical discs, layoffs have hit id Software Frankfurt, and sales of the Assassin’s Creed Black Flag remake have surpassed 2 million copies. Here’s a rundown of the major events in the gaming industry over the past weekend.

• The European Commission does not intend to pressure Sony to abandon plans to cease the production of physical games for PlayStation consoles. This statement was made by European Commissioner for Democracy, Justice, and Rule of Law Michael McGrath. The politician explained that companies have the right to distribute games in any format as long as they comply with the law. McGrath’s comment comes amid the buzz surrounding a petition asking Sony to “not kill discs,” which has already garnered 299,000 signatures.
• According to Aftermath sources, layoffs have reached the German branch of the studio id Software. It is reported that id Software Frankfurt has reduced its staff by six people — half of the already small team in the branch.
• Simultaneously, id Software released a statement officially commenting on the situation. The studio confirmed that the mass layoffs have affected various departments, but reassured that there are still enough specialists in the team to work on games and tech. They noted that the current number of developers across id Software is roughly the same as during the creation of DOOM (2016).
• Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced has shown excellent initial sales. As reported by Ubisoft, the number of copies sold in the first 24 hours surpassed 2 million. Notably, Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced outpaced the previous game in the series — Assassin’s Creed Shadows — in terms of sales speed. It took Assassin’s Creed Shadows two days to reach the 2 million user mark, which included both game buyers and Ubisoft+ subscribers. Regardless, following the release of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, overall franchise sales have grown to 250 million copies.
• Meanwhile, Polish studio Rebel Wolves boasted that their upcoming game The Blood of Dawnwalker has been added to wishlists over 2 million times. They did not specify how the wishlists are distributed across platforms, but it's likely that the majority is from Steam. According to SteamDB, The Blood of Dawnwalker is currently ranked 13th among the most anticipated products on Valve’s store, right behind Resident Evil Veronica, Unrecord, and Steam Frame. The release of The Blood of Dawnwalker is scheduled for September 3, 2026, on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series.