Weekly Roundup: Nacon’s in Trouble, EA Punishes Battlefield 6 Success, GDC in Full Swing, Plus New Games and a Baby Boar
Another Friday the 13th, another round of bad luck in the video game industry. But it’s not all doom and gloom, as you’ll see from this week’s roundup.
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Nacon Summons Cthulhu
Nacon, the French company behind video game peripherals as well as games, started this month off by filing for insolvency. After the company’s majority shareholder was unable to repay debts, Nacon noted that the business needs to restructure so they can “focus our resources on upcoming releases and the development of our current games.”
This week, it revealed further details on one of those games. The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu is a co-op horror set during the Conquistador era. Players can team up with three other people to mount expeditions from a Spanish galleon, with the aim being to explore, retrieve treasure, and return to the ship before cosmic horrors either kill them or send them insane.
While gamers haven’t been very taken with the release trailer’s emphasis on obnoxious streamers shouting over game footage, this hasn’t dampened overall interest in what promises to be a chaotic co-op experience. Based on a short story by H.P. Lovecraft, The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu isn’t afraid to try and freak out players, such as by making one of them look like a monster to everyone else, or by suddenly dowsing everything in a shower of blood.
Nacon has said that it plans to run a game showcase in May, where it’ll give a better look at The Mound and also other upcoming games. The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu is currently set for a July 15 release on all major platforms.
EA “Realigns” Game Studios Despite Battlefield Success
Nacon isn’t the only company going through a restructure at the moment; it’s been reported this week that EA is laying off staff, including many who are responsible for Battlefield 6 (affected studios include the likes of DICE, Criterion, Ripple Effect, and Motive). In a press statement, EA said “We’ve made select changes within our Battlefield organization to better align our teams around what matters most to our community. Battlefield remains one of our biggest priorities, and we’re continuing to invest in the franchise, guided by player feedback and insights from Battlefield Labs.”
This despite Battlefield 6 selling over 7 million copies within three days of release, back in October last year. It also thoroughly beat Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 in terms of sales and player numbers. However, back in July 2025, EA said it expected Battlefield 6 to get 100 million players, a frankly insane number given that a previous Battlefield title, 2042, reached 22 million players.
A report at the time drew attention to Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone for drawing in 200 and 100 million players respectively, but even so developers involved in Battlefield 6 expressed skepticism at such a high number for their game. Although EA has mentioned its decision is largely based on player feedback, it’s worth noting that, as of the time of writing, player numbers top out around 47,500 on PC – a far cry from the all-time peak of 747,440 around its release (it has an estimated peak of 317,588 players on PS5).
While gamers are up in arms that EA is “punishing” Battlefield 6 for its success, these numbers do tell a different story. With more and more live service games shutting down, often due to competition or lack of interest, this latest news shows that this type of game trend may finally be on the out.
GDC in Full Swing
This year’s Game Developer Conference finishes today in San Francisco, and it’s already delivered a bunch of interesting reveals from major companies. EA were there to talk about how it’s using AI tools to, ironically, deliver more human-like behavior in the likes of FC 26; NVIDIA were on hand to promote its GeForce NOW game service, including how CONTROL Resonant and Samson: A Tyndalston Story will be available on it when they launch later this year.
But perhaps one of the most eye-grabbing headlines out of GDC came courtesy of Microsoft, as Xbox revealed its next-generation console, Project Helix. “Project Helix is designed to play your Xbox console and PC games, delivering leading performance and ushering in the next generation of console gaming,” said Jason Ronald, Vice President of Next Generation at Xbox.
“As part of our multi-year partnership with AMD, we are shaping the future of rendering and simulation. Project Helix is powered by a custom AMD SoC and co-designed for the next generation of DirectX and FSR to unlock what comes next.”
He revealed that the plan is to ship alpha versions of the hardware to developers from the start of next year. Ronald also highlighted continued plans to make gaming across PC and Xbox as seamless as possible, plus ensure last (and previous) generation games are still accessible and playable across multiple devices.
Lastly, the GDC also revealed its own report into live service games; although rather than highlight how bad things are, it focuses on what developers should consider if they want to dip their toes into the increasingly murky waters of this sector.
Future Game Showcase
The GDC also played host to the Future Games Show Spring Showcase and FGS Live, which provided a look at some upcoming titles, including a few that have been awfully quiet since their first reveal, like Ritual Tides. This got a brand new trailer that gives a peek into the gameplay and a dank cave filled with skeleton-spiders; the developers, Vertpaint, promise a new take on survival/folk horror, that’s partly bolstered by having noted horror writer Adam Nevill (The Ritual) involved.
It looks like horror games with sanity mechanics are making a big comeback, if this week’s game reveals are anything to go by. They’re joined by Cordura, another co-op extraction title like The Mound that tasks players with exploring somewhere for treasure (this time, a mansion) and getting out before terrible things kill them or send them nuts.
In a marked contrast from a lot of games on show, Adorable Adventures doesn’t just have a name that’s on-the-nose, it features a baby boar who uses his sense of smell to learn more about the world around him. Players control Boris as he explores a vast national park and tries to find the rest of his family. It’s due out on all major platforms on April 30.
