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Daggerless Indie Dev Dispatch — Week of October 26, 2026
Electronic Arts is closing BioWare and canceling the next Mass Effect. Steam Next Fest ends today. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launched October 23. No Man’s Sky for iOS and Probably Stolen both arrive Wednesday.
Probably Stolen
Questing Goose Studio’s cyberpunk shopkeeper sim led Steam Next Fest by live concurrent count. The demo sat near 28,000 players on day 7, which is more people than most full releases see in a week. You run a pawnshop on a space station and sell goods whose origins are best left unasked. Rent rises, factions watch, and customers can be security fishing for evidence or something worse. Starting roles include gunsmith, chemist, water merchant, and fence. The demo is still up if you want to see how far the pitch goes before the rent catches you.
The full game launches October 28 on Steam. The 1.0 build adds a proper ending that shows your run stats, Steam Workshop support, finished character storylines, and vending machines that keep selling after you close. The studio said it will keep shipping free content updates after launch. Wishlists passed 100,000 in late August. tinyBuild is the publisher.
Steam Next Fest
Steam Next Fest runs through today at 10am PT. Valve has not ranked the demos, but the live counts are clear enough. Probably Stolen and Worst Class Ever sit at the top. Worst Class Ever is an asymmetrical multiplayer game about students and a teacher from Funcore Games. Its developer said the demo has passed 300,000 total plays. Multiplayer and co-op titles hold most of the upper chart. Steam Scream starts the same day the fest ends, so the horror demos have a short window before the seasonal pile arrives.
Larger industry news
Electronic Arts is closing BioWare and canceling the next Mass Effect, which was in early development. The company is also cutting about 400 jobs, roughly 3 percent of its staff, including about 50 at BioWare. A Sims project codenamed Project Lotus is canceled. The free-to-play skate team is being reduced. EA said it will focus on fewer large-scale action-adventure games. The $55 billion buyout closed in August, and this is the first major cut that follows it.
The rest
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launched October 23 and peaked around 227,000 concurrent on the shared Call of Duty application. Reviews are Very Positive, around 80 percent. That is better than the last entry, which is the number people are watching.
The ID@Xbox Showcase on October 20 announced eight titles for Game Pass. Mouthwashing arrives October 29 and is day one on Game Pass. Scramble Knights Online enters Early Access today and is on Game Pass. Arctic Eggs was a shadow drop on Xbox Series at $9.99. Shrek 2 Remastered is dated November 10.
No Man’s Sky for iOS is still October 28. The download is under 5GB and runs back to the iPhone 11. Multiplayer and settlements are not included at launch. It is free to try, with a one-time purchase for the full game. Hello Games has done this before on Switch. The install size is the interesting part.
Out this week
- Scramble Knights Online enters Early Access today and is day one on Game Pass.
- Minecraft arrives on Switch 2 tomorrow.
- Probably Stolen launches October 28 on Steam.
- No Man’s Sky for iOS is October 28.
- Mouthwashing is October 29 on consoles and day one on Game Pass.
- The Wolf Among Us Remastered is October 29.
- Phantom Blade Zero is October 28 on PS5 and PC.
Industry Notes
- Xbox is pricing cloud gaming limits, starting at $3.99 for 10 hours.
- Xbox chief operating officer Helen Chiang is stepping down after three months.
- Fortnite is returning to iOS in Australia after a court ruled Apple violated competition law.
- Sonic X Shadow Generations has passed three million units worldwide.
Free Tools & Assets
- Kenney.nl — Tiny City and the Shape 2D to 3D application are current. All-in-1 is coming to Steam.
- itch.io free assets and OpenGameArt.
- Epic Fab limited-time free through November 3: Modular Post Apocalyptic Desert by JustB Studios, Celebrations All In One VFX Bundle by Pautinka, Armored Stone Golem by Alexander Lenski. Claim at fab.com/limited-time-free.
Daggerless Verdict
BioWare is closing after more than thirty years. The next Mass Effect is canceled. Steam Next Fest ends today with a shopkeeper sim at the top of the demo chart, which is not the usual shape of a Next Fest. Probably Stolen launches Wednesday with Workshop support and a finished ending already in the build. The demo did the work. The rest of the week was a studio closure and a Call of Duty that did better than the last one.
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