It is Monday 28 September 2026, 52 days to GTA 6. This week: Satya Nadella spoke about last Tuesday’s Xbox restructuring for the first time, two of the studios cut said what they lost, Mojang announced Minecraft’s first new dimension since the End, and a fan posted a printable Macca the Gator from Rockstar’s collector’s box.
A fan posted a printable Macca the Gator from Rockstar’s $399.99 box on Cults3D
Rockstar’s Goodtime State: Vice City Collection, the $399.99 collector’s box that ships without the game, includes a Macca the Gator figure with a twist-open stash. On 25 September a fan posted a printable 16cm recreation of the figure on Cults3D, pay what you want, without the compartment, per IGN. Rockstar has not commented.
Why it matters: the box ships 19 November and pre-orders are “while supplies last”; a free file for its most photographed item was online within a day of the announcement. The PlayTheory take: Rockstar has not issued a takedown. Everything confirmed about the box is on the GTA VI hub; the ledger’s scoring of it is in Ed. 11.
Nadella: “some amount of streamlining … which is great to see”
Microsoft cut 268 Xbox jobs on 22 September, its second round after 1,600 in July, and put Ninja Theory into a UK consultation with closure proposed; the round is in last week’s review. This week Satya Nadella spoke about it on Alex Heath’s Sources podcast, as reported by PC Gamer: “There’s some amount of streamlining the team is doing, and Asha is doing, which is great to see,” and “We have to invent the right sustainable business model that allows us to deliver gaming to more and more people.”
At World’s Edge, the Age of Empires studio, former creative director Adam Isgreen wrote that “just under half the studio was let go, myself included”, and former senior engineer Andrew Martz that “our next project was canceled”, both quoted by PC Gamer. At The Coalition, story director Juan Vaca wrote on LinkedIn that he was “part of this round of Microsoft layoffs”, five days after Gears of War: E-Day went gold on 17 September, per PC Gamer. E-Day releases 6 October.
Why it matters: the World’s Edge project is the first game confirmed cancelled in this round, and the confirmation comes from the people who were making it. The PlayTheory take: Microsoft’s next internal update is 6 October, the day E-Day ships; the Ninja Theory consultation and the Halo move to Activision are the two items we expect it to cover.
Alinea puts Resident Evil Requiem at 8.5 million players, 8.6 percent of them on Xbox
Alinea Analytics’ 25 September post estimates Resident Evil Requiem at 8.5 million players and “just passed $500M” in revenue, split PS5 48.1 percent, Steam 43.4 percent and Xbox 8.6 percent, about 731,000 copies, as reported by IGN. These are Alinea’s estimates from its own platform data; Capcom has published no platform split.
Why it matters: Requiem launched on all three platforms on 27 February, so the split is one game across three stores over the same seven months. The PlayTheory take: Alinea has published one other split this month, Star Wars Zero Company at nearly 70 percent on Steam; two estimates from one firm is the whole of the evidence. The full read is here.
Mojang: the Sift is Minecraft’s first new dimension “in over fourteen years”, Java and Bedrock in 2027
At Minecraft LIVE on Saturday 26 September Mojang announced the Sift, a pink fourth dimension after the Overworld, the Nether and the End, and called it “the first dimension to be added in over fourteen years” in its own recap. It comes to Java and Bedrock in 2027; players get a version of it first in Minecraft Dungeons II, out tomorrow, 29 September. The next game drop is ice caves, a cave biome with icicles, ice crystals and a frozen zombie that throws ice balls; Mojang gave it no date. Mojang and Merlin also confirmed Minecraft World at Chessington in London for 2027, with a hotel and an indoor-outdoor rollercoaster called Escape the Nether.
Why it matters: the End was added in 2011; Mojang’s “over fourteen years” counts from there. The PlayTheory take: Mojang’s window for the Sift is “2027” and nothing narrower; the first playable version is the Dungeons II one, tomorrow.
A court orders a former r/SwitchPirates moderator to pay Nintendo $4.5 million
Judge Lauren King of the US District Court for the Western District of Washington on 25 September ordered James Williams, of Arizona, to pay Nintendo $4.5 million and issued a permanent injunction, after he ignored Nintendo’s October 2025 suit over pirate shops that decrypted and distributed more than 30 Switch games since 2019, per GameSpot, which cites TorrentFreak. The judge wrote that Williams “was aware of the case”.
Separately, and unconfirmed: Insider Gaming reported on 24 September that Nintendo rejected a Ubisoft Milan Zelda prototype starring Ganondorf, internal name “Goliath”, in late 2023, and that the team under Davide Soliani later left to form Day 4 Night, as relayed by GameSpot. Neither Nintendo nor Ubisoft has commented. Nintendo did put an extended Ganondorf clip from the Ocarina of Time remake on its Nintendo Today app, per IGN; the remake is Switch 2, 5 November.
Why it matters: Williams did not defend the suit, so the judgment was entered without a trial. The PlayTheory take: the Goliath report rests on one outlet’s unnamed sources about a decision three years old; it enters the ledger as Unverified until Ubisoft or Nintendo speaks.
Naughty Dog puts free Last of Us screen art on PS5, and HBO casts John Goodman for Season 3
Naughty Dog released a free animated Last of Us background for the PS5 on 26 September, the date of the outbreak in the games’ own calendar, per IGN, and moved its anniversary event to today, Monday 28 September, with a No Return charity stream on Twitch: “Expect a partnership announcement, a very cool collaboration, digital surprises, and more.” HBO announced three Season 3 castings the same day: John Goodman as Joey and Ian Alexander as Paco, both “Heroes of the Highway”, and Laura Bailey as Elizabeth, a leader of the Seraphites, per Push Square. Alexander and Bailey both acted in The Last of Us Part II, as different characters. Update, 29 September: Druckmann closed the day with two new Last of Us projects in early development and a 2027 date for the full reveal of Intergalactic, our report. Delta Force’s second-anniversary season, Reorientation, went live on 26 September, per IGN.
Why it matters: Sony’s last Last of Us item for the PS5 was the Limited Edition DualSense, released 10 April 2025 at $84.99, per the PlayStation Blog, and Naughty Dog’s next game, Intergalactic, has no date. The PlayTheory take: the stream is the only dated Last of Us event on the calendar; what it announces goes into next week’s review.
That is the week. GTA 6 is 52 days out, the Xbox cuts have been confirmed by the studios that took them, and Minecraft has a fourth dimension for 2027.
Sources: IGN, Macca print; PC Gamer, Nadella; PC Gamer, World’s Edge; PC Gamer, Juan Vaca; GameSpot, 22 September restructuring; IGN, Requiem; Alinea Analytics, 25 September; Mojang, Minecraft Live recap; GameSpot, Williams judgment; GameSpot, Goliath report; IGN, Ocarina clip; Push Square, Season 3 casting; IGN, TLOU Day; IGN, Delta Force; PlayStation Blog, Last of Us DualSense.