Games Industry News Roundup- February 10th, 2026

Here at Goonhammer, we know that it’s hard to keep track of all the news happening all the time in the games industry. So much is always going on with games of all sorts, and their related media, it can be a real blink-and-you’ll miss it situation.

That's why every week, we round up five of the biggest stories in the gaming sphere from the past week in the Games Industry News Roundup. Our trusty news boy, Dan “Swiftblade” Richardson, is at the very real and cool Goonhammer newsdesk with the scoop.

Discord to Require Face Scan or Full ID Next Month for Access to All Features

Credit: Discord

We’re hitting the ground running this week with the roundup, as this particular piece of news could already be one of the biggest stories of the year just a few weeks in to 2026.

Discord is following a worrisome trend around online age verification, as the company announced last week that it will update next month to set its default experience to “teen appropriate”, limiting access to its full suite of features and will require users to provide a photo of their ID or face scan in order to gain access to them.

“Rolling out teen-by-default settings globally builds on Discord’s existing safety architecture, giving teens strong protections while allowing verified adults flexibility,” wrote Savannah Badalich, Head of Product Policy at Discord. “We design our products with teen safety principles at the core and will continue working with safety experts, policymakers, and Discord users to support meaningful, long term wellbeing for teens on the platform.”

Until users are able to verify their age on Discord, they will not be able to use anything that is considered “adult only” on the app. This includes limiting access to livestream “stage” spaces, receive direct DMs from anyone they don't know, content filters for adult or graphic content, and restrictions on joining servers that are flagged as “adults only”.

Discord also has stated its commitment to working with teens on age verification, creating a “teen council” made up of around a dozen teenagers between the ages of 13-17 to “help ensure Discord understands - not assumes - what teens need, how they build meaningful connections, and what makes them feel safe and supported online.”

While Badalich assured The Verge in a statement that most users won’t need to provide the age verification due to previous history with the app, the move has garnered a sizable backlash from Discord’s userbase. Critics of the move point out the issues with giving Discord total control over determining what is and is not teen-friendly, privacy concerns with providing Discord ID information (especially given Discord’s data breach last year), and finally pointing out that age verification rarely works, as many teens who want to use the app will simply find a way to circumvent the system.

Discord has already rolled out these age verification programs in the UK and Australia, and despite the outcry from its international userbase, intends to go forward with global rollout at the end of March.

Baldur’s Gate 3 TV Series Announced Without Larian’s Involvement

Credit: Larian Studios/Wizards of the Coast

While Larian was happy to walk away from Baldur’s Gate 3 to set their sights on future projects, Hasbro knows that there be gold in that there dead horse, and last week announced that it is moving forward with a TV series sequel for the video game at HBO, sans Larian involvement.

According to the announcement, the show will be helmed by Craig Mazin, who was the co-creator for HBO’s previous prestige video game adaptation, The Last of Us, and will act as a sequel series to the video game.

“After putting nearly 1000 hours into the incredible world of Baldur’s Gate 3, it is a dream come true to be able to continue the story that Larian and Wizards of The Coast created,” Mazin told Deadline. “I am a devoted fan of D&D and the brilliant way that Swen Vincke and his gifted team adapted it. I can’t wait to help bring Baldur’s Gate and all of its incredible characters to life with as much respect and love as we can, and I’m deeply grateful to Gabe Marano and his team at Hasbro for entrusting me with this incredibly important property.”

Larian studios, while uninvolved in the project, did speak with Mazin briefly before the news was broken to the wider public. According to a post on his social media account, Swen Vinke says, “The endings of BG3 were created so they could serve as narrative soil for new adventures. There's plenty of directions they could go. I'm eager to find out which ones Craig and his team will pick. He's reached out for a chat so we'll have the opportunity to tell him our thoughts.”

The series is currently in early planning stages, and no announcements have been made about any characters or voice actors from the game who may be returning for the series, or when the expected release date for the show will be on HBO.

Riot Lays Off 80 Members of 2KXO Staff as Game Underperforms

Credit: Riot Games

Riot Games’s faith in its new League of Legends fighting game, 2KXO, appears to already be wavering, as the company announced in a blog post that it is laying off around 80 members of the 2KXO team due to a “lack of momentum”.

Tom Cannon, the executive producer for 2KXO at Riot, told fans that the decision to reduce the size of the team by nearly half was not made lightly. In the announcement, Cannon wrote that “as we expanded from PC to console, we saw consistent trends in how players were engaging with 2XKO. The game has resonated with a passionate core audience, but overall momentum hasn’t reached the level needed to support a team of this size long term.”

This announcement comes less than three weeks after the game's official launch on January 20th and a strong positive reception from both critics and players, who have praised the games style, accessibility for new players, and focus on 2v2 matchups.

Despite the layoffs, Cannon states that Riot Games has no intention of changing any of its plans for competitive tournament support for 2KXO, and will continue to work with the Fighting Game Community (FGC) on organized play all over the globe. Riot also plans on continuing to support the game, stating that reducing the staff on the game will allow the remaining team to have a “more sustainable path forward”.

Those affected by the layoffs will be given the opportunity to find other positions within Riot, and if they can’t find a new role will be given a severance package with 6 months pay.

Jervis Johnson Heads Up New Dreadball: All Stars Kickstarter

Credit: Mantic Games

Just in time for the football offseason, Mantic Games is bringing us more gridiron goodness to the tabletop, announcing an all new streamlined version of Dreadball, with Blood Bowl creator Jervis Johnson at the head.

This new standalone version of Dreadball, called Dreadball: All-Stars, is separate from the greater Dreadball line at Mantic and is designed to appeal to both new and veteran players of sports tabletop games. All-Stars will forgo roster assembly by giving players a selection of seven fixed teams, each with pre-assembled miniatures and distinct playstyles, with four different arenas for players to pick from for games. Alongside the traditional one on one matchups we normally see from sports games, All-Stars will include rules for multiplayer games, including a chaotic six team free for all mode.

Jervis Johnson elaborated further on the game’s design ethos, writing "If Blood Bowl is like American Football, then All-Stars is like a full-contact version of NBA Basketball, with lots of opportunities to score, and just as many opportunities to flatten the opposition!"

Johnson is joined by several other industry veterans on All-Stars, including rules designer Alessio Cavatore and artist Stefan Kopinski. Dreadball: All-Stars is set to come to Kickstarter, with its crowdfunding campaign “coming soon”.

Hobbycraft Issues Recall for Basing Sand

Credit: Colour Forge

Hobbycraft, the company behind the popular Colour Forge line of paints and hobby accessories, issued a recall notice for two of their basing sand products due to the discovery that some of these items may be contaminated with trace amounts of asbestos.

The recall includes two colors of basing sand, Moss Green and Atlantiko Blue, and is part of a greater recall of multiple Hobbycraft products that may have been exposed to asbestos during the manufacturing process.

“As part of Hobbycraft’s commitment to customer safety and following the confirmation of trace levels of asbestos in some samples of sand in three of our own-branded products, we immediately removed all products containing sand from sale in our stores and on-line,” Hobbycraft wrote in a recall statement on their website. “At the same time, we requested that suppliers whose products containing sand are sold under their own brands should provide us with an up-to-date asbestos test certificate.”

Hobbycraft was initially made aware of the potential asbestos issue with some of their products back in January, where a concerned parent in the UK submitted samples of pink and green sand that their children were playing with at a party to a lab for testing. The parent noticed that the sand looked similar to the colored sand she had seen in news reports about products in Australia being pulled for asbestos contamination, which prompted a government recall and school closures in November 2025.

Hobbycraft pulled the potentially affected products from shelves following the report, but did not engage in a full scale recall until last week, where it was able to confirm the potential issue internally, when the supplier confirmed the presence of asbestos in two of their product lines.

Hobbycraft has not made any announcement regarding when these products, including the basing sand, will return to store shelves, or if the company intends to discontinue them entirely.

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