Andrew Willis, a producer on Doom: The Dark Ages and its Revelations expansion, described the July id Software layoff call in an interview with Kiwi Talkz.

Staff were told not to come into the office. About 95 people then got a Teams invite. Cameras off, chat disabled, everyone muted except Marty Stratton.

I received a Microsoft Teams invite, there were about 95 of us, no cameras on with chat disabled, everyone muted except Marty Stratton. He took about 50 seconds to say that if you were on this call, your positions were eliminated. He said it wasn't a reflection on our performance.

He said that was the last direct word from id or Microsoft for many of them, and that people were not allowed back in to collect their things.

Source: Kiwi Talkz

EGB Cup #69, the sixth QL TDM 2v2 in the series, is Saturday 26 September at 11:00 UTC. $100. Double elimination. Winners semis, winners final, lower final, and the grand final are bo3. The other rounds are bo1.

AGENT, ash, cYpheR, pavel, and Latrommi can play, but none of them can team with each other. Each has to pick a partner from outside that five. AGENT and ash won TDM 2v2 #4 and #5, so they cannot defend the title together.

Maps: Almost Lost, Bloodrun, Campgrounds, Devilish, Hidden Fortress.

Source: EGB

250 FPS has set four Quake Live qualifiers for Season 6. The winner of each one takes a group-stage spot. The group stage start is not set, and the season dates are marked approximate.

Qualifier 1 is Sunday 27 September at 11:00 UTC. Then 4 October, 11 October, and 18 October, all at 11:00 UTC. Double elimination: lower bracket bo1, upper bracket bo3, grand final bo5.

Already in from the Season 5 group-stage top eight: cYpheR, AGENT, ash, pavel, k1llsen, cherepoff, baksteen, and Spart1e.

Source: EGB

1.31 Point release introduces new way to play the game, plenty of major changes or plain removals of "DLC" content.

Today’s update marks a new chapter for Quake Champions as we transition the game from a free-to-play service to a paid application on Steam. Along with 30 Seasons worth of content to enjoy, all Champions are now unlocked for everyone, and most vanity content is available to equip. Battle Passes and microtransactions have been removed. Quake Champions is now available for one low price on Steam. No additional content updates are planned at this time. If you previously played Quake Champions on Steam, the new version will appear in your Steam Library at no additional cost.

Full changelog can be found here:
Changelog

United Kingdom won the QL CTF 4v4 European Nations Cup on 20 September, the first leg of the Fall Nations Cup. They went 5-0 in the Swiss, 10-3 on maps, and beat Germany 2-0 in the grand final: Japanese Castles 3-2, Infinity 2-1. Benelux finished third, Denmark fourth.

11 teams. Five Swiss rounds from 13:00 UTC Sunday, playoffs the same night. Semis: UK 2-1 Denmark, Germany 2-0 Benelux.

CTF points toward the overall cup: UK 10, Germany 7, Benelux 5, Denmark 3. Poland, Russia, France, and the Czech Republic each took 1.

Duel is Sunday 27 September. 4v4 TDM is 4 October. The three events combine for the Nations Cup title.

Source: Plus Forward

cYpheR won EGB Cup Final #3 on 20 September, beating k1llsen 4-3 in the grand final. $500: $300 / $100. ash third.

The field was the top eight from the weekly cups: AGENT, k1llsen, cYpheR, ash, Spart1e, pavel, ARSENY, H3LLDOWN. Two groups of four. In Group A, ash, AGENT, and pavel each beat one of the other two 2-0, so one-map tiebreakers decided it. ash and AGENT advanced. In Group B, k1llsen went 3-0 and cYpheR finished second at 2-1.

k1llsen beat AGENT 2-1 in the winners semi and ash 2-1 in the winners final. cYpheR lost 0-2 to ash, then beat AGENT 2-1 and ash 2-0 from the lower bracket.

The final moved to Sunday. k1llsen could not play late Saturday. He started the best-of-seven a map up. cYpheR won four of the six maps played: Silence 10-7, Aerowalk 13-7, Toxicity 12-4, Furious Heights 12-1. k1llsen took Sinister 5-2 and Battleforged 8-5.

Source: Plus Forward

Adam "SyncError" Pyle told the official Quake Discord on 20 September that he is no longer working on Quake Champions updates. The four-week return that started 31 August, to finish 1.31, is over.

On 18 September he had stopped new code and was only answering QA tickets for features already in testing. This goes past that. A player suggested more changes for 1.31. He replied:

I'm no longer working on QC updates.

Asked whether to retire the Discord channel, he posted a farewell GIF and added:

Everyone's dad dies eventually. It's time for me to leave you.

He said the dad is dying. Turns out he was just dying to leave.

No replacement developer is named. He has not said whether 1.31 ships, or whether it is the last QC update. That build still drops the Store, Battle Pass, and paid currencies, and unlocks most vanity.

Source: Plus Forward

Bloodrun BUILD 2026-09-12, a week after the UI rebuild. Mouse accel: Q3, IOQ3, and QL schemes now have independent settings. QL gets a speed threshold, power, and cap, including negative accel. Zoom can use its own scheme or none. Zoom sensitivity no longer leaks into hipfire.

CTF is a menu mode with a capture limit. Carriers drop the flag on the ability button, 2s before they can pick it up again, teammates can take it immediately. Picking up a flag cancels an active ability. Bots now attack flags, escort teammates, and intercept carriers. Ultra Nightmare bots hunt when behind. Nav points on 11 maps.

Also: ten HUD crosshairs with per-weapon shapes, a duel scoreboard, server-side rewind toggle per hitscan (MG, SG, LG, RG), pickup radius 80 to 75, BSP 47 support.

PTS MOSCOW 1-3. Build on Google Drive and Yandex Disk.

Source: Bloodrun Telegram

cYpheR went unbeaten through EGB Cup #68 on 12 September and 3-0'd k1llsen in the grand final. $51: $41 / $10.

Upper bracket: 2-0 ant1, 2-1 Spart1e, 2-0 ash in the winners final. k1llsen dropped 0-2 to ash, then through losers over LOKOMOTIV, Spart1e, and 2-0 ash.

After two runner-up finishes to AGENT at #66 and #67. Last regular QL duel before EGB Cup Final #3 on 19 September ($500).

Source: EGB Cup #68

k1llsen won EGB QC Cup #8 by beating Thri11er 2-0 in the winners final and 3-0 in the grand final. Week earlier Thri11er had 2-0'd him at Cup #7. $75: $60 / $15, klyb third.

k1llsen opened 2-1 cYpheR, 2-0 Yup. Thri11er through losers 2-0 klyb after the first loss.

Fourth EGB QC Cup title for k1llsen in eight events.

Source: EGB QC Cup #8

The StarCraft site glitch was the shooter. BlizzCon opening ceremony, 12 September: StarCraft returns as an original open-world shooter, spring 2030. Not an RTS. Set in the Koprulu Sector, about 70 years after Legacy of the Void. Cinematic only, no gameplay.

Dan Hay (Far Cry 3-6, now Blizzard GM) introduced it:

This is something new: an open-world shooter where every step is earned. Not from above, but down on the ground, in the mud, in the fire.

Blizzard: "it's about damn time." Title is just StarCraft. Ghost and Ares were the last two shooter attempts; both died.



Also: Diablo V, spring 2029, Sanctuary already fallen. Diablo IV Season of Hell's Legacy 15 September (Prime Evils, Deckard Cain). Animated Diablo series with Netflix.

World of Warcraft: Forever, third track next to Modern and Classic, Vanilla-era, 4 November, beta 17 September. Warcraft III: Reforged Forsaken Kingdom campaign is out now, first new WC3 story in 23 years.

Source: Xbox Wire / Eurogamer

After weekly maintenance Valve shipped a bug that made private Steam achievement lists public. Aggregators such as Exophase and SteamDB ingested them. Exophase owner Mike Bendel called it a Valve API error, not a hack. Unnamed apps showed up as AppIDs.

Named so far: Fable, Persona 6, Kingdom Hearts 4, Control Resonant, Gears of War: E-Day, Clutch, Horizon Hunters Gathering, Ace Combat 8, Metro 2039, Star Wars: Galactic Racer, Stranger Than Heaven, Rayman Legends: Retold, Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis.

This is not the 12TB Steam2 dump. Valve has not commented. GamesIndustry.biz asked.

Source: GamesIndustry.biz

Strongsage went unbeaten through EGB QC Cup #7 on 6 September and 3-0'd dramiS in the grand final. First all-American title match in the seven cups. $100: $88 / $22.

Upper bracket: 2-0 cYpheR, 2-0 dramiS, 2-0 Thri11er in the winners final. dramiS came back through losers over St0n3, k1llsen and Thri11er, then lost 0-3 again.

Second EGB QC Cup title for him after #4. After seven cups: k1llsen 3, Keltz 2, Strongsage 2.

The day before he 3-0'd Thri11er in the NAQCL Duel Tournament #71 grand final. Same 1-2-3 as #70: Strongsage, Thri11er, St0n3. Upper bracket 2-0 klyb, 2-0 Thri11er, 2-0 St0n3. Thri11er through losers over Yup, dramiS, St0n3.

Source: EGB QC Cup #7 / NAQCL #71