The video games industry is unpredictable. If you'd told us this time last year that a previously unknown French studio would claim game of the year, Battlefield 6 would knock Call of Duty off the top of the annual charts and that Saudi Arabia would buy gaming giant Electronic Arts (EA) we'd have been... sceptical. So you'd have to be very sure of yourself - or very foolish - to try and predict what's going to happen in the year ahead. Luckily, we're not in the crystal ball business here at BBC Newsbeat, but there are a few things we can be confident video game fans should keep an eye on in 2026. GTA 6: Will it actually arrive in 2026?

Call of Duty's Vince Zampella was a video games visionary O n Sunday, Vince Zampella, the co-creator of the Call of Duty video game series, died in a car crash in Los Angeles at the age of 55. Though best known for that series of blockbuster military shooters, Zampella touched a huge number of lives - not only the hundreds of people who worked at the game development studios he led under Activision and EA, but the millions of people who played the games that bore his imprint. A lifelong gamer, Zampella had a Pong console as a child, then an Atari 2600 and a Commodore 64. He told IGN in 2016 that his favourite game from childhood was Donkey Kong: "I would spend hours at the arcade playing it." Zampella's first job in the industry was at GameTek in Miami, which specialised in video-game versions of popular US quizshows.

Vince Zampella, who co-created the widely-popular video game Call of Duty, has died in a single-vehicle Ferrari crash in California, aged 55. Zampella's death was confirmed by Electronic Arts, which owns Respawn Entertainment, a game studio he co-founded. This is an unimaginable loss, and our hearts are with Vince's family, his loved ones, and all those touched by his work, a spokesperson for Electronic Arts told the BBC. Officials said the person on the vehicle's passenger seat was ejected while the driver remained trapped. It is unclear if Zampella was driving the car.

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Electronic Arts (EA), one of the biggest gaming companies in the world, has agreed a deal to sell the company for $55bn (£41bn). The consortium of buyers include Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), Silver Lake and Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners. EA is known for making and publishing best-selling games such as EA FC, formerly known as Fifa, The Sims and Mass Effect. It is understood to be the largest leveraged buyout in history - where a significant amount of the purchase is financed by borrowing money. The deal will take EA private - meaning all of its public shares will be purchased and it will no longer be traded on a stock exchange.

Console makers and game developers like Microsoft, Nintendo and Electronic Arts have created a new initiative, managed by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), that aims to make it easier to know what accessibility features games have. The new Accessible Games Initiative has defined a set of 24 accessibility tags that will appear in participating game storefronts and product pages so players can know what features a game has before they buy it. The tags have easy to understand definitions and cover a range of accessibility features games offer, like subtitles, input remapping for controls, text-to-speech and speech-to-text in chat and narrated menus. All of the tags and definitions are available to view on the Accessible Games Initiative's website. The ESA also says it will provide developers with criteria for the tags so they can develop accessibility features with them in mind.

It is widely agreed that 2023 was a stellar year for video games. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur's Gate 3, Alan Wake 2, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 … barely a week passed without some blockbuster hit or independent gem. But beneath these accolades there is a sadder, more worrying story: it was also a year of widespread industry redundancies, and the trend is continuing into the opening weeks of 2024. Microsoft laid off 1,900 Activision Blizzard staff after its 69bn purchase of the company. Publisher Embracer Group let at least 900 staff go across its many studios, as well as closing veteran UK developer Free Radical Design. Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, one of the most successful titles of the decade, laid off 830 employees; Electronic Arts shed 6% of its workforce, amounting to approximately 780 jobs.

The gaming industry is experiencing a rapid evolution in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), which has traditionally focused on improving computer-controlled opponents. However, the latest example of AI's expanding role in gaming is the creation of intelligent computer-controlled characters. Sony AI, the company's artificial intelligence research division, has partnered with PlayStation developers to create game AI agents that can be players' in-game opponents or collaboration partners. By using reinforcement learning, an area of machine learning where an AI teaches itself to act through trial and error, the characters will mimic human players and, to some extent, think. As open-world games become more complex and ambitious, developers must build systems capable of generating intelligent, reactive, creative characters and emergent side quests.

Amazon has reportedly made a bid to buy Electronic Arts (EA), the US video game company behind the hugely successful FIFA series. According to Stockholm-based gaming content agency GLHF, Amazon will confirm its bid to take over the gaming firm on Friday. Rumours have circulated since the spring that EA had been looking to be acquired by a large company, including Disney, Apple or Amazon. The rumoured takeover was first reported by USA Today, which said'Amazon has finally made an offer', citing GLHF as its source. Such a purchase could broaden Amazon's push into sports, following its purchase of live streaming rights of NFL and the Premier League on its Prime platform.

Earlier this year, at the famed La Romareda stadium in Zaragoza, Spain, EA Sports organised two football matches, one each for male and female pro players. During these competitive 90-minute fixtures, all participants, including subs and officials, wore advanced Xsens motion capture suits that recorded their every movement, shot, tackle and celebration. Involving more than 70 people it was, according to gameplay producer Sam Rivera, the largest number of players ever motion-captured in a single session. Every year, the developers of Fifa tell us that their key aim is authenticity. This year, Fifa 23 – the final product of EA Sports and Fifa's 30-year partnership – is about making key moments more intelligible, detailed and dramatic, zooming in ever closer to the action at pitch level.