Apple has acquired RAC7, the two-person video game developer behind Apple Arcade hit Sneaky Sasquatch. This is the first time that Apple has acquired a video game studio in its history, but the company describes the move as a unique situation.
RAC7 is a two-person studio whose previous credits include indie titles Dark Echo and Splitter Critters. In 2019, the team released Sneaky Sasquatch as an Apple Arcade exclusive. The adventure game was a breakout hit among the service’s 71 launch titles, according to Apple, and it has received regular updates since launch. Now, the team will continue its partnership with Apple as an internal studio.
“We love Sneaky Sasquatch and are excited that the 2-person RAC7 team has joined Apple to continue their work on it with us,” an Apple spokesperson tells Digital Trends. “We will continue to deliver a great experience for Apple Arcade players with hundreds of games from many of the best game developers in the world.”
The acquisition doesn’t necessarily signal the beginning of a new gaming strategy for the tech giant. Apple notes that the move is a unique circumstance, as it saw an opportunity to help the team grow its game more on Apple Arcade. It says that it will continue to work with third-party studios big and small to create games for the service.
Though the partnership may come as a shock to those who haven’t been following Arcade closely since its launch, it’s less surprising in context. When I spoke to Apple Arcade Senior Director Alex Rofman about the service last year, he cited Sneaky Sasquatch as one of the service’s major success stories (“We hear from customers all over the world whose kids want Sneaky Sasquatch birthday parties!” Rofman told Digital Trends at the time). RAC7 is just one of a handful of indie studios who has consistently developed for the service since its launch alongside names like Lykke Studios and Triband Games.
Even if it’s a one-off acquisition, the move signals that Apple is still committed to its Arcade service, which continues to release new games on a monthly cadence. Recent additions have included a brand new Katamari Damacy game, a sequel to Xbox Live Arcade hit Space Invaders: Infinity Gene, and Apple Vision Pro exclusive Gears & Goo.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.