We have prepared a digest of the main news for October 23, 2026, for Players readers.
Is Esports Growing Up or Dying?
Why legendary clubs are shutting down, teams are leaving disciplines, and tournament winners are waiting for the money they earned
Jensen Huang Showcases Microduck Robots Trained with AI and NVIDIA RTX Spark
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang demonstrated the small Microduck bipedal robots at the GTC conference in Berlin, developed by Hugging Face and French robotics company Pollen Robotics. During the presentation, the robots independently walked onto the stage and followed Huang’s commands — sitting down, standing up, and even going to “sleep.”
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 — The Game That Gave Players More Freedom
On October 23, 2002, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4, the fourth installment in the popular skateboarding series from Neversoft and Activision, was released in North America. The game launched on PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, and the original PlayStation, and later made its way to other platforms.
Microsoft tests hourly Cloud Playtime packs for Xbox without a Game Pass subscription
Microsoft has started testing a new cloud gaming access format called Cloud Playtime. This initiative allows users to play online without the need for an Xbox Game Pass subscription.
Epic Games Massively Pivots to AI: Tim Sweeney Confirms Studio's Change of Course
Epic Games has begun a massive pivot toward the use of artificial intelligence in the development of its projects. According to Bloomberg, some developers received instructions to work on an "AI-first" principle, and CEO Tim Sweeney officially confirmed this change of course, emphasizing the goal of accelerating production processes.