GameBurst News - 29 Mar 2026

Today Sunday the 29th of March, 2026 and this is your game burst news.

I'm Gary, I'm Tira Blower, Ben & Zan, and joining me in the pod this week we have Taylor.

Hello, and Jerome. Good day sir.

Use your format, we've got some new stories and we've got a small selection of in our pick

of the week. Starting off though the first new story and that's the Epic Games is

casting a thousand jobs as Fortnite engagement forms. Epic Games is confirmed on the 24th

of March, it's laying off more than a thousand employees, it's second major round of redundancies

in three years, citing a sustained decline in Fortnite engagement that has left the company

spending significantly more than it earns. CEO Tim Sweeney was in fatigue that the artificial

intelligence was not a factor and said the cuts combined with more than half a billion

in identified cost savings would put the company in a more stable footing.

Effected staff will receive at least four months of severance pay six months of health

care coverage in the US and accelerated investing of stock options. What that news item doesn't say

is that most of that spend was on their legal cases. Yep. And who'd a thought Fortnite was it

10 year plus game? Who'd have thought that eventually would start to fall in popularity?

Yes, that particular thing of believe or not, there's no such thing as infinite growth.

You know that little bubble that happened around the pandemic,

yet that can't go on forever. So maybe don't spend money as if it will.

I mean, it's kind of funny because you can look at previous cases and draw parallels. It's like,

your world of all craft isn't world of all craft anymore. In terms of its numbers,

of its cultural impact of just a massiveness that, wow, what a world of all craft was

unescapable for the longest time, but even that way you've been fed. And yes, they had to go

through changes like bringing in classic modes and whatnot. It's still there, but it's not the

behemoth that it wants once. And it was never just going to happen to Fortnite. It's never

going to happen to things like roadblocks and probably grand theft autos, another one.

They're on mine, but it's ticked on quite nicely and been nice to learn it. It'd be very

interesting to see what happens when a grand theft autos 6 comes out to the online day.

Obviously, they're probably going to try and shift or something because obviously that has been

for the longest time a nice earner for, but it can't. These things can't last.

It's why you have sequels and things, but the extended life that comes from these sort of,

I mean, it's an online service game and it's cashed in to all the popular content that it could.

I mean, it must be scraping the barrel by now because it's got, it's had everything by now.

Exactly. It's running out of road. I don't know if it's Fortnite still on the Apple Store

after the whole lawsuit thing. I don't believe so. Let's have a look.

Yeah, because I mean, they spent money like competing like on that, they all say with

Apple, but in doing so, they lost what was quite a decent sum of people on the mobile platform.

And they've also increased the cost of the V bucks and everything and it's just like

it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy of just like, well, you're still

over the people consistently spending money in it, but there's less of that draw as time goes on.

The funny thing is Fortnite is not on there, but PUBG is.

Yeah.

Yeah, okay. Well, there we go.

Yeah. Next up, Nintendo Cut Switch 2 production by one-third amid weak US sales.

Bloomberg reported that Nintendo has reduced the Switch 2 production target for the current

quarter by six million from six million to four million units, following disappointing

holiday sales in the United States. The console priced at $450 sold 35% fewer units than

its predecessor did in its first holiday season, according to analyst data, with the same analyst

pointing to a thin software lineup as the primary culprit. Nintendo is yet to confirm officially,

but some observers have tempered the reports conclusions given that Pokemon Polka Pia

has had recent strong performance boosting the console's momentum.

I mean, all the other stats were that it smashed previous sales targets. So, I guess,

I think it's more of a given the social economic or situation, especially in the US,

right? They're still doing okay, but yeah, it's not going to reach those high targets because

the average person isn't in a position to purchase consoles currently.

No, the US had the high-sorry Taylor. The US had the tariffs as well. Go on Taylor.

Yeah, exactly. I was going to say the Switch 2 was maybe a firm believer in the Switch.

I loved my Switch 1. I didn't quite get it as much because my song claimed it,

but actually having the Switch 2 and sitting down and playing a AAA title,

not an Nintendo title. A AAA title in Resident Evil 9 really sold me on it,

and I think it is a fantastic console, and I don't think Nintendo have to worry. I think that

thing's got great legs on it. It shows that it can handle brand-spanking new titles, and

to a degree where it's not like Mortal Kombat 1, which was noticefully janky and held back

by the hardware, whereas Resident Evil 9 was a fully playable end-joggle experience start to

finish on the console itself, and I can't knock it. Can I just say a little side story,

because you guys know this, but I don't know if I told the business. I bought a nother controller

for the Switch 2, but it's a wired controller. It's a massive long cable, but it's great.

It's a GameCube style controller. I don't replayed Resident Evil 6. It's not a problem with the A1

at all, and it's firmly convinced that that GameCube controller is my favorite controller ever.

Definitely. I don't understand why they dropped the asymmetric buttons. It was genius.

Honestly, it's still, muscle memory on that still works now for me. It's like I just went through

playing Resident Evil 9 again just with that controller, and that automatically knew every time

where A was, because of its size. I thought there's 40 quid, a really great 8-bit

do controller that I do love, but I choose the Y controller that, because I just get

I know where my buttons are. It's all set up from modern, you know, it's got the 4 shoulder buttons

and stuff like that. But the Switch 2 is great. Yeah, and it's got the original

and little triggers as well, which they dropped. Sometimes, well, it's because they went

for the Wii, didn't they, and they went for their whole industrial design, but yeah, it's a shame.

Four NACE on-owned studios, far for insolvencing. So, Fresh Developer Studios Spiders,

who make greedful cyanide, who I'm familiar with, who made Bloodborne sticks, and Kyloton,

who made WRC and Test Drive Unlimited, and NACE on's Motion Capture Division, NACE on Tech,

have all filed for judicial reorganisation with the little commercial call on the 23rd of March.

Following the parent company, NACE on's own insolvency, filing in February. Together,

the studios employ 320 people and represent roughly a third of NACE on its global workforce,

making it one of the most significant collapses in the French games development in recent memory,

and Ubisoft aren't too healthy either. Under French law, the reorganisation process can last

up to 18 months, giving the studio time to continue operating while renegotiating depths with its

creditors. Yeah, this is going to be quite a bit of a blow to the French development scene.

I mean, the little inside baseball thing is that I'm currently in the same position as Michael

Neade I work for, has now for administration, and we are in an administration with no hope of

being sold, so we're actually going to be closing down, and I can tell you, you don't wish this

on anyone, and knowing just partially what people like this are going through is tremendously

upsetting and horrible, especially because I guess some of those games are a little bit janky,

like the Sun of the Crown isn't particularly great, but Greedfall was really good, and you know,

up until Obscura came along, it was a really good French style RPG, it just, I mean,

Clara Obscura just came in and blew everybody out the water, you know, it's not their fault,

you know, football has been ticking on for what, three games now, and it's...

Yeah, the third game is a bit of a mess, but yeah, one and two were good, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, and the stick's games are okay, right, it's all good.

You also go, remember, spiders just released a new Greedfall game,

and same with Sinai, they just released a new stick's game, so it's hit writers, and because it's

their parent company, like there was no... it's that thing where they don't get any forewarning

of that, because that's the people who are supposedly funding them, so it's that knock-on effect of,

oh, because the people fund you is now, uh,

installment, now you automatically become so, no matter what happens for the next 18 months.

Right, so let's move on to some more positive news. Life is Strange Reunion launches,

launch this week. Deck 9's Life is Strange Reunion launched on the 26th of March,

on PlayStation 5, Xbox and PC, bringing the Max and Chloe saga to a close after more than a decade,

for the first time in the series, both characters are playable simultaneously,

Max with her evolved rewind ability and Chloe with her back talk mechanic,

as the pair attempt to prevent a catastrophic fire at the Calladon University,

a game launches as a complete non-interprisodic experience,

a deliverable departure from the format that defined the original title in 2025.

That is one of those games that just, um,

everyone goes on about, but I've never played and don't feel that desire to play,

I know people love it, but never, never draw me in. I mean, I'm glad for the people that are

drawn into it, and you get those two characters back, because those were the first two characters,

but yeah, it's all a bit weird. It's just not much I can say to it, because it's like,

I haven't gone back since the, this recent reboot. I haven't, I've heard like,

it's very hit and miss, like the last, these last two ones, and there were, for people who were

fans of the first one and the, and two and three, like the original's done by, don't not in that

sort of canon, bringing Chloe, Chloe back is a bit of a, oh, they, they chose a specific canon

ending that didn't quite fit with what other people or some of the fans think, and I think it's

just a case of, I mean, I'll wait to hear more from the reviews, but I haven't felt any

pause to try this new reboot, well, pseudo reboot, I should say.

Yep, great, yeah, my daughter's played them all, but she's more excited about

the new Tamadotchi Life demo. Okay, next up is Minecraft Dungeons 2, announced for autumn 2026.

Mengen Studios revealed Minecraft Dungeons 2 during Minecraft Live on the 21st of March,

with a 2026 autumn release window across PC, PS5, Xbox, and both Nintendo Switch models,

co-developed with Double 11, the action RPG sequel promises deeper customisation,

new biomes, including the deep dark, and four player cockpit play, building on the original's

25 million player legacy, wow, you'll be available on Game Pass at launch and is already available

to wishlist on Steam. Cool, that's where Minecraft has sort of got it right under Microsoft's

stewardship, where they've sort of branched off into trying new things while keeping the spirit

alive. What's the other one, is it? Dungeons is another one, isn't it? I can't look

well, that was cool. They did the, there was like a telltale type.

Yeah, which was awesome. Yeah, game. Also, at the same event, the world's first Minecraft theme park

is coming to London. Mengen Studios and Merlin Entertainment announced this week that Minecraft

world, a 50 million dedicated theme park land, will open at Chezenton Worldhood Adventures

in Greater London in 2027. The attraction will include the world's first Minecraft themed rollercoaster,

block built, playscapes, interactive adventures inspired by the games I've kind of, I've biomes,

and the world's largest Minecraft shop. Notable Minecraft creators, including Dan, TDM,

Greene and LD Shadow Lady have been brought in as collaborators to help ensure authenticity

for the Glames Games Global fanbase. No one's like this. I guess it won't, to go to London.

It won't be Chezenton Worldhood Adventures anymore then, it's going to be Minecraft world.

You know, you want to laugh, but I was going to make jerky comments there, I sat there and went,

Lego land exists and Lego land is popular. And I don't know if you know, they are very close to

each other. So the distance from Chezenton to Lego land is probably only about maybe eight miles,

maybe ten miles, still three miles. Yeah, it's not very far at all. In fact,

Thought Park is even, it's very close as well. Thought Park and Chessons are really close to

each other. They're only like two or three miles away from each other. So they're all three of

those are in one little corner. So location makes sense then. It can be part of the attraction

sort of center around that part of London. Well, yeah, I mean, Chezenton at one time was,

was quite a well regarded thing. Cox, it had the vampire rise, don't you remember that.

Which is like a one of the very first suspended rollercoasters where you're suspended underneath.

And you kind of, oh, yeah, I don't do rollercoasters. Yeah, it's kind of over the last sort of

ten years, it's kind of played second fiddler a little bit to like Thought Park and Orton Towers,

but at one time it was it was up there as like one of the one in the main ones. So and it used to be,

it used to be Chezenton used to be like a zoo, it used to be Chezenton Zoo, so I first started.

So yeah, anyway, we'll see.

GDC, the game developer conference, has rebranded. The game developer conference held its reinvented

GDC festival of gaming in San Francisco from the night to the 13th of March, attracting around

20,000 attendees. A reduction on previous years attributed partly to the international

geopolitical climate and visa uncertainty. The revamped format featured more than 700

cross disciplinary sessions across five distinct neighborhoods on the expo floor with a keynote

addressed from Hideo Kojima, marked in the conference's first keynote in five years.

Titanium caught a surreal strategy game by AP Thompson, claimed the shameless McNally grand prize

at the Independent Games Festival Awards.

Okay, then. So this is one of the things where like I'm always interested in, I was always

interested in like some of the talks and conferences that came out of GDC, but is that

I think of GDC was an industry like a proper industry event for game developers. So there's

not really much opinion you can have on it, but this rebranding sort of feels like, okay, we're

widening it out a bit less of a, I was the haven't heard much out of this recent event and like

what the vibe is like, but from an outside labours perspective, it seems like they're

focusing less on the game development industry knowledge side things, but I could be wrong.

Well, I would be interested in finding out whether it's cheaper to get a ticket to go because

I was remember like it is quite a ticket is expensive and if your studio or publisher wasn't

fun, you going, it's hard to get there. It's like most business conferences like the tickets are

normally astronomically expensive, unless you get gifted one. Yeah, yes, yeah, I'll be curious to

know, but yeah, it's interesting how all these these different conferences are kind of rebranding

and trying to fill the gap left by the elephant in the room. So yeah, right, let's move on to our

picks of the week then. And we've got three picks of the week and Taylor promises us a surprise

pick. So once again, we'll go to you last. I'll start off briefly and my pick of the week has

been a weird one. I was actually away last week with work and then I was fat, I was away for the

entire week, which is why we didn't recall. I was over in Belgium and then as soon as I came back,

I had to drive down Southampton to do my first true proper DJ gig. So that's kind of my

pick of the week. So it went, it went very well. Obviously, I was, I was quite nervous. I had

my first proper one for like real people, I guess, is about, so it was a private party, but there was

I think 48 people attended. I knew I didn't know most of them. I knew sort of 35% of the people there.

And I did it with my colleague is also who's been DJing a lot longer than me. He's been DJing

for a lot of the last five, six years. So he DJ ready, did the main set, and I basically did the

warmup act. And then we did do a little bit of like little DJ battle in the middle of Torsie

Endham night. So yeah, it's cool. And I learned a lot because he's so good. So I was like really

watching what he was doing. And the way that he was able to, I mean, he was like, he was doing

crazy things where he was like pulling music through my rig. And then just mixing it in with his

stuff, just all on it. Yeah, it's just absolutely incredible. But the music like gear and like the

the, it's little, it's little understanding of technology as I have music technology, like baffles me

because it takes a while on the outside. It looked very complicated. A lot of as well as like

when you're just having something to help you produce a sound when you run a signal through it.

Yeah, yeah. It's got all that. There's lots of scary concepts and terms like quantizing and

all this kind of stuff, which once you know what they are, you're like, oh, it does that does it.

But it's very difficult to explain in sort of plain English what it means. But it's all to do,

like beat matching and beat grids and matching keys and things like that. So quantization,

if I try to explain it, is when you change the speed on something, normally it would change

the pitch, but if you quantize it, the pitch stays the same. So it's, it's good. Yeah.

Yeah. Good to hear. He was good. Yeah. He would just sort of shout at me. He'd go, he'd go,

give me a song at 122. So basically queue up a song that's ready. That's 120 beats per minute.

And then you just mix it in like just so good. So good. So I did learn quite a lot. But it went

well. It's my set went well and yeah, people enjoyed it. So that's the main thing. That's what it's

all about. Jerome, your pick of the week. Right. Similar to yourself. My pick is a real life

event thing. So I told the others that I made the Paul decision for my wallet, but one that might

be okay for my social life. And I've gotten back into magic, the gathering specifically commander

format, which is that's currently the most popular format because it's a, it's a hundred

deck card. You have a unique commander that has like runs like the theme of the deck. But the key

thing about is it's 4 V4. Sorry, no. Four, four people against it. Everybody. And you are

peloticking. There's a lot of social interaction. Like there's a bit of mini alliance for a short

amount of time. Sometimes you gang up against one person because they become the clear threat. And

yeah, it's a really interesting fresh format for my experience because it's been nearly 16, 17

years since I last paid magic. So it's been fun getting back into it, learn the new mechanics.

I bought myself two pre-constructed decks, which means they're sort of ready to go out the box.

They're not super strong, but they're good for just getting back into it, like understanding

them, mechanics. They all do what needs what it's set up to do. And you can play a bit of that

social game because it's hard to optimize in commander. And luckily, there's a lot more

for welcoming air to it. Like if you come as a newbie, a lot of people have weaker or less

optimized decks to work well with new people. And yeah, I've been really enjoying it. And

yeah, I'll be buying some more singles to, you know, to create my decks, but I've set a hard

limit on how much I'll spend for one bit. Yeah, yeah, watch this space. I'll let you know if it

ever gets out of hand. But I've got my decks. I know what I want to do. I'm now just getting

better at playing the deck rather than optimizing too much. Right. Okay, well, I'm glad you're

enjoying it. Yeah, I've, it reminds me. There was a two-headed dragon was like a mojo could play

with four people years ago. Remember, commanders are new. I think it's what came out of that sort

too. Because obviously magic has quite a couple of different formats and over time, they've

added in switch, but commanders currently the most popular because the, it's the lowest barrier

of entry because you can buy even compared to even like with the standard beginner decks that they

still do. It's harder to, most people are running the standard or modern format are so there's

so much knowledge and so much optimization already done that it's hard to find entry-level people

with that. So that's why I found commander locked more bulk. Yeah, I think, I think the two-headed

dragon thing was like two versus two is like a team game. I remember right, but yeah, this sounds

cool. It sounds cool, but it's funny when you start saying there's some fun scenes. Oh dear,

honestly, it works well. I know. Let's be honest here, Taylor. This is technically your fault

when you first showed you getting those final Betsy decks. They have a habit of doing that.

Like we're game controllers. Yeah. Okay, and I just put out Jerome is actually the king of us

getting shelling out when he can have any bulk recommendations for all the war has he given

us up years, but to be fair, it's usually right. True. This is true. Yes. Yeah, I took out an

normal subscription so I can keep up. Right. Thanks very much, Jerome. Right then, Taylor,

your surprise pick of the week. Oh, I didn't think this was actually a real thing,

and then it came out. I watched YouTube videos. I'm like, I'm going to have to buy this,

because this kind of scratches an itch that I've always wanted to scratch.

What is a soda? I bought one just a soda, which if you don't know, is a dovetail game,

so you create the train world sim franchise. Yeah. Have actually released a game based on Thomas

and Tencension. Yeah. And it's a lot of fun. It is a simplified version of train world.

of the game. So it's not as sim heavy. So the control system provide it is kind of meant to be

aimed at kids, but I'm to be honest, I think it's aimed at people like me who go, oh, nostalgia.

And what they did was they took the went to the rubber order's

study, which is on display at a railway museum, and they did a scan of the map he has,

so it's rubber order's map. So they did a 3D scan of it and recreated the world from that map.

So it is rubber order's actual map that this game is based on, and it basically allows you to

drive either Thomas, Percy, Gordon, Emily, or Diesel, or if you shell out a little bit extra James

as well. And it's quite, it's a really lucky game. It suffers the dovetail thing of not being

optimised particularly well, but it when she sort of fiddled with a few sessions, you'd get it

running pretty smoothly. I'd take him one look at it, you know, that there's going to be a lot

of DLCs for this, because it's still telling that's happening. Of course. It's the paradox thing,

isn't it? You know, I can't exactly criticize it, because it's what paradox do. But I cannot explain

the joy of being able to literally jump in Gordon that's in the shed, and drive on all the way to

Vickers town, which is the end of the line. It's just my inner child was so happy, and it's really

fun because their faces are animated. They got the narrator back from the CGI series to do the

narration and do voices, so you don't actually have Thomas boy's book. The way it works is you've

got an explorer where you can just do whatever you want, set path and take your train and just go.

You have a story like story missions which are based on the actual TV show, so you can recreate

those, and then you've got time table mode, which is literally operating soda, as if it was a real

working train line. And I just loved it. It really scratched the net, because I've been

needing some cheering up stuff, so yeah, actually being Thomas and just playing trains, and it's

just great fun, and seeing the how the internet's really warm to it, because it looks like

it's like that train game, it's like they finally did a Thomas game that everybody always dreamed

of having where you can just jump up on a train, just drive Thomas. All I will say is you bastard.

If you're buying it, do you get the one with James, because it's just...

Yes, it's 10 quid more, yeah. But am I buying it since the person watching Jeff Marsh

every week? It just clicks at nostalgia, switch so hard, but it's so fun, and like I said,

it was just running Gordon from... Oh, it was running Gordon from Tidmouth to Vickers Town,

and I just had the biggest grin on my face. Oh, especially when I didn't, I've had the speed limits

and crashed Gordon. He was flying off his day, it was amazing. Well done. But what I really like about

it is, yes, the line is detailed, but quite a lot of the surrounding area is as well. So if you're

going to free-cam loads, you can actually sort of get out... I'm not going to say out of bounds,

but you can get further out and see that they've actually taken the time to model the villagers

around it. You can't always get out of the stations and stuff, but there's still a lot of real

care and effort put into it, and it's nice that they've brought in a little bit of mix of like

stations, some stations are based more on the model series, some are based more on the CGI

series, some have never been seen in the show, but mentioning books are there. You collect

full-wise, you've got pictures around the place, you've got the story books around the place,

you've got whistles, and all sorts of stuff to collect, and like you will remember stuff that

you've forgotten, like, you'll go for it, I was heading towards a tunnel and all of a sudden my

brain went, that's Henry's tunnel, that's the one where they walled up Henry, and things like that,

it's just like, yeah, it's just a lot of sticks, but yeah, it's really cool, and it's fun,

and because it's a simplified version of the control scheme, it's literally a case of...

It's playable. Yes, it is just a lot playable, and you know, if you just need something to

unwind on, I found it quite soothing, but I am Nora Funky, so trains, but yeah, it just puts

the smile on your face, it's fun, and it's pickup and play, what more could you ask for? Oh yes,

it's coming to the switch later in the year, so portable version two. Yeah, double, left a double

dip, I've just purchased there. That was like an instant buy, I'd forgotten that they were working

on that, I didn't realise it was out, it must have come out last week. Yeah, wow. Yeah, I didn't check

the PlayStation, so I did check the switch for what came out this week, but didn't check the

PlayStation, didn't turn it on. Wow. Yeah, that is what I can't wait to play.

It's a lot of fun. Yeah, it's a very good shot. Yes, I shall definitely be playing that,

this weekend. Trust me. Yeah, it's so cool. There's loads of things about, I'm only the whole

soda thing, it's an acronym, isn't it? I forgot what it stands for now, but he was a bit like

Tolkien in that he invented that entire universe and drew the maps, and the whole island has history,

I mean, it would cover a page history. Yeah, he wrote all the stuff to go with it, brilliant,

right? Well, that was a very positive note to end on. All right, I need to check the

I need to check the comments. I don't think we had any, but I'll just double check.

I didn't forgot to check, I know we check her before we start recording with me.

So, look. No, we didn't have anything from last week, but if you do want to reach out to us

or game best, then you can just find us on Blue Sky. That's the best way to share any comments

or feedback and just use the hashtag game best, and then as you just heard me do on the keyboard

there, I can then just check to see if we've got any feedback or if there's anything,

any stories or news items you want to discuss. Right, okay. Well, on that very positive note,

we will wrap things up there, so it just means me to thank the pod who were, of course, Taylor.

Thank you very much. And Jerome? No worries.

And I've been Gary. So until I blow up, then I'm going to be around next week. Hopefully next week,

maybe not. We'll let you know. But we'll be back next week or the week after, with all your

DVD game news, I do hope you join us then.