If your app store feels packed with new games lately, AI is the reason behind it. Research company ATTN Economy found that 181,000 mobile games launched in the six months to May 2026, up 118% on iOS and 73% on Android compared to the same period last year.
Much of that surge comes down to vibe-coding, a growing trend where people with little to no programming knowledge can use AI tools to build and ship games without actually coding. The barrier to entry has never been lower, but the rewards are still going to the same people they always have.
Even with AI reducing development time, the productivity gains are more modest than you might expect. One former executive at French mobile gaming studio Voodoo told the Financial Times that AI shaved game development time from around 14 days to 10 days, which is useful but hardly the industry transformation many predicted.
Meanwhile, the top 1% of game publishers controlled $75.6 billion in revenue in 2025, while the remaining 99% shared just $6.1 billion between them. That top tier also accounted for nearly 80% of all worldwide downloads. Vibe-coding may have made game development easier for newcomers, but big gaming companies still have too much money, talent, and decades of player data which makes them nearly impossible to displace.
More games and faster production have come at a cost. One in four gaming employees has been laid off in the past two years, according to a GDC Festival of Gaming report. Sentiment inside the industry has shifted sharply too, with 52% of gaming professionals now viewing generative AI as harmful, up from just 18% in 2024.
The gaming boom is real, but so is the tension underneath it. AI may be making more games, but it still cannot recreate the human instinct that makes a game feel special. For you, that may mean more choices, but not always better quality.
Earlier today, Sony announced it will stop making physical game discs for new PlayStation titles starting in January 2028. It looks like Microsoft is heading in the same direction, but with a consumer-friendly approach: Xbox owners may not have to leave their disc collections behind.
According to The Verge’s Tom Warren, Microsoft has been quietly working on a disc-to-digital feature for Xbox. It’s called Disc2Digital internally, and lets players convert their physical games into permanent digital licenses.
Sony is closing the PlayStation Store on PS3 and PS Vita, ending new digital purchases on two of its most beloved older platforms after a remarkably long run.
The PS3 launched in 2006 and 2007, depending on the region, while the PS Vita arrived in Japan in late 2011 before reaching North America and Europe in February 2012. By the time the final closures happen in July 2027, Sony will have supported PS3 store purchases for nearly two decades, and PS Vita purchases for more than 15 years.
Merely a few days ago, Rockstar courted plenty of flak for not releasing a physical copy of GTA VI, despite pricing charging up to $100 for the highly anticipated title. Well, it seems that the final days of game discs are nigh. Sony has just announced that it is shuttering physical releases for PlayStation titles.
Starting in January 2028, new titles released on PlayStation consoles will no longer be available on disc. Everything after that date, which is about a year and a half away, will be digital-only, whether you buy it from the PlayStation Store or at a retailer.
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