Quick Hits

• The EA earthquake: EA is shutting down BioWare, the legendary studio behind Dragon Age and Mass Effect, with roughly 50 layoffs at the studio and 350 more across the company — and the fallout reportedly includes a cancelled new Mass Effect and a paused new Sims game. Meanwhile, Star Wars Battlefront 3 is reportedly in development at Respawn Entertainment and the Battlefield team.
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4's DMZ is live in early access for pre-orders, and day one is already legendary: players are spawning into oncoming traffic, a self-revive perk is being declared "broken," and PC players should check their BIOS before queueing up.
• London is getting a permanent Pokémon store — the first of "several" planned outside Asia.
• Pokémon Sleep, Pokémon HOME, and Pokémon Champions are coming back online after going down in a global cybersecurity alert triggered by two discovered vulnerabilities.
• Nintendo Switch Sports Resort launches today (22nd October), with its day-one ver. 1.1.0 update already live.

Pokémon & Nintendo

A permanent Pokémon store is finally coming to London. Nintendo Life reports it will be the first of "several" permanent stores outside Asia — the answer to years of fans leaving the European International Championships pop-up and asking why this wasn't a permanent thing. Genuinely huge for European fans.

The apps are waking back up. Pokémon Sleep, Pokémon HOME, and Pokémon Champions all went down after a cybersecurity alert hit sites and apps around the world following the discovery of two vulnerabilities in popular software. Restoration is now underway.

TCG chaos, both bad and good: PC Gamer reports nearly $1 million worth of PSA-graded Pokémon and other trading cards were stolen right outside PSA's headquarters. On the happier side, IGN flags that Amazon is selling Pokémon TCG: 30th Celebration Elite Trainer Boxes below market rate — if you can secure an invite.

Nintendo Direct turned 15 yesterday (21st October), and Nintendo Life is celebrating "Directly to you" with a ranking of the 15 best moments in the format's history. Nintendo Switch Sports Resort arrives today with ver. 1.1.0 patch notes already published to smooth the launch. And the eShop's spooky-season 'Screaming Deals' sale is live in North America — Nintendo Life has a guide to 65 Switch 1 & 2 picks, including every game they scored 9/10 or higher.

Also on Switch 2: Strange Scaffold's super-slick revenge shooter is out now, from the team behind Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown and El Paso, Elsewhere. And Nintendo Life reviewed the JSAUX 6-in-1 dock, which charges four Joy-Con at once alongside TV-mode docking — "attractive enough," but no replacement for the real deal.

Community corner: r/pokemon is showing off today — an oil-on-canvas Charizard Gold Star painting, a Perler bead Giratina Origin Forme, a southern-Spain-inspired hand-drawn Roselia card, Dratini and Raichu master sets, and one very precious Garchomp plush paired with its Cynthia companion.

Call of Duty

Modern Warfare 4's DMZ extraction mode opened overnight in early access for anyone who pre-ordered (campaign access included), and Infinity Ward's launch window is already eventful. Eurogamer reports DMZ players are spawning in the middle of a road and getting flattened before they can do anything. PC Gamer highlights a DMZ perk that lets you self-revive after full death — which players are declaring "broken" — and offers a practical PSA: don't get caught by the BIOS update hammer like their colleagues did, or you may be locked out of multiplayer and DMZ. For the grinders, PC Gamer also has guides on finding electronic sensors and clearing compounds in DMZ.

Indie Games

Talaka's demo is out now, and it's a stunner — a handpainted, watercolour-styled 2D action-roguelike that Rock Paper Shotgun remembers fondly from Gamescom Latam 2026 in São Paulo. Expect colourful combat and, if you're like RPS's writer, plenty of embarrassing yourself in front of the nature gods.

Steam & PC

• A Steam Next Fest demo for a shopkeeping sim has cracked Steam's 100 most-played games list, and PC Gamer takes great "nerdly joy" in that fact. Wholesome capitalism wins again.
• In a spicy Rock Paper Shotgun interview, Paulo "Molleindustria" Pedercini — creator of the lefty tech satire Future? No Thanks! — calls AI "a technofascist, anti-human and anti-art project," before explaining why he used generative AI tools in the game anyway. Complicated, thought-provoking stuff.

Gaming Roundup

The EA restructuring, in full: Per GameSpot (citing Bloomberg), EA is shutting down BioWare with about 50 layoffs at the studio plus 350 elsewhere, cancelling a new Mass Effect, and pausing a new Sims game — the first wave of the shakeups many expected after EA's acquisition by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. PC Gamer sums up EA's "next chapter" bluntly: guns and football are fine, and everything else is under the microscope — with Respawn and the Battlefield team reportedly building Star Wars Battlefront 3. IGN's Jackie Thomas delivers the eulogy for Mass Effect 5, which was supposed to redeem the series after Andromeda, and now we'll never get that.

Disney Dreamlight Valley surprised players with a Seafaring Star Path event — Destructoid has all the duties and rewards, and it looks designed to prep everyone for The Keepsake Sea DLC.

Tabletop crossover alert: Max Miller's Tasting History, the YouTube show turning historical recipes into entertainment, is getting its own board game, per GameSpot.

That's the day, folks — a gut-punch industry story, a chaotic extraction shooter launch, and a Pokémon store for London. See you in the DMZ.