The European Union has answered the Stop Killing Games movement following a successful petition campaign earlier in the year.

The European Commission today recognized the Stop Killing Games initiative and delivered a formal response to the group's worries. STG (also called Stop Destroying Games) gained traction after Ubisoft pulled online-only game The Crew offline, cutting off access to anyone who bought the game. The movement argues that developers should be made to keep these products, which consumers have paid for, available for play in an offline state.

In its response, the EU says that it will not introduce any new laws to force publishers to keep their games playable even when delisted from storefronts.

Commodore is launching a retro flip phone which very definitely isn't a smartphone, but isn't a dumb phone either - it strikes a balance between old and new.

Or as Commodore puts it, the Callback 8020 (as spotted by Tom's Hardware) is the "not dumb dumbphone", a mobile which doesn't have a touchscreen - it really is a traditional flip-open handset - and dispenses with a browser, while completely doing away with social media.

Installing those apps (and other email or work-related software) is blocked on this device, and doom-scrolling is a thing of the past here. ("Less scroll, more soul" is another soundbite that's aired, and Commodore's marketing department has plenty of these - they're pretty catchy, too).

The Arc B390 is Intel's latest and fastest iGPU to date; however, one quirk of the GPU is that it requires high-speed LPDDR5X to reach its advertised performance. YouTuber ETA Prime tested the Arc B390 with slower DDR5-5600 SO-DIMM memory to see what the performance repercussions were and saw noteworthy performance losses compared to running the same iGPU with much speedier LPDDR5X memory.

The system ETA Prime used to test was an ASRock NUC BOX-358H featuring a Core Ultra X7 358H with 16 cores and an Arc B390 iGPU. The small form factor PC features two SO-DIMM DDR5 slots rather than embedded LPDDR5X, with support for up to 128GB of memory at up to 7200MT/s. But for testing, the YouTuber opted to put in two 16GB DDR5 sticks running at 5600MT/s. The YouTuber put the system through several benchmarks but only compared the Panther Lake system to an identical system running LPDDR5X memory in one benchmark, 3DMark Time Spy.

In 3DMark Time Spy, the Core Ultra X7 358H with DDR5-5600 memory achieved 6,221 points; by contrast, the same CPU with speedier 8335MT/s memory achieved 7,345 points, representing an 18% advantage in performance. In Forza Horizon 6, the NUC achieved roughly 73 FPS average at 1080p high settings, around 65 FPS average in Spider-Man 2, at 1080p medium settings using XeSS in balanced mode. In Cyberpunk 2077 at 1440p high settings, the game hit around 85 FPS average using XeSS frame gen set to a 3x multiplier.

EA is introducing a new ad program aimed at pulling in more revenue from targeted in-game advertisements, including dynamic placements as well as user-generated content.

Electronic Arts is no stranger to advertising--its billion-dollar sports franchises typically have in-game ad placements. The group wants more, and has opened up a new initiative called EA Advertising that's somewhat akin to Activision Blizzard Media (now Xbox Advertising).

The idea is sponsors now have more ways to advertise in EA games, including the traditional in-game billboards and signs as well as things like dynamic and interactive experiences. The publisher even mentions that ads could show up as or in user-generated content.

Alinea analyst Rhys Elliott echoes my own thoughts on Game Pass: launching big marquee games day one into the service is not sustainable long-term.

Xbox's current issues are the result of multiple years of unfortunate events--the Xbox One, COVID-19 disruptions, bad investments, overspending, economic turmoil, the current hardware crisis, etc--but one business decision has had affected Microsoft's software the most: Xbox Game Pass. After years of steady pricing, Microsoft was forced to raise subscription prices, and millions of people dropped the subscription. This shows the volatility of Xbox's business model--putting a lot of the weight on a subscription--and after years of risk, Xbox was hit hard when so many people left the service.

Now fast-forwarding to present day, it appears that Game Pass needs an overhaul. High-level sales analysis from firms like Alinea highlight Game Pass' cannibalization effect that has reduced sales in favor of cheaper access via subscription. According to Alinea head of market analysis Rhys Elliott, Game Pass is essentially not really a sustainable solution for Xbox in its current state.

Currently, Elon Musk is celebrating his newly found trillionaire status following the goliath SpaceX IPO, but on the other side of the fence, Tesla is quietly preparing for its Cybercab fleet.

While SpaceX stock exceeds the value of long-established giants such as Amazon, Electrek has spotted an official EPA listing for Tesla's self-driving Cybercab, and the filing has revealed key specifications for Tesla's upcoming vehicle. According to the submission, the Cybercab will feature a single 163kW (219HP) motor with Front Wheel Drive. Additionally, the Cybercab will have a 47.6kWh lithium-ion battery. By comparison, the Rear-Wheel-Drive Tesla Model 3 has a larger 57.5kWh battery.

The document states that the Cybercab will have a combined range of 418.2 miles, including 375.4 miles of highway range. Notably, those estimates are definitely debatable compared to real-world experience, as they are unadjusted EPA test results, which indicate real-world figures will be lower. It's estimated the real-world distance will fall to a combined range of 293 miles, which is still quite good. The Cybercab can achieve this distance largely due to its reduced weight; the document states it weighs 3,113 lbs (1,412kg), which is lighter than the Tesla Model 3 at 3,552 lbs.

A post circulating online is sparking conversation about Xbox and its recent closure of three studios, undoubtedly resulting in layoffs.

The post is a screenshot of Egil Gloersen's LinkedIn announcement, in which he said that, after spending 20 years at Microsoft, 12 of those years on Team Xbox, he has decided to accept the "retirement program". The screenshot was shared by Destin, who wrote, "Xbox is apparently offering a 'Retirement Program' to employees." This isn't unusual for a company of Microsoft's size to do, and Microsoft itself outlined a plan to retire many of its senior staff with an offer that applied to roughly 8,750 employees, or approximately 7% of Microsoft's workforce.

This program, which dates back to May, 2026, was the first retirement plan in the company's history. According to a report, Microsoft offered employees whose years of service plus age totaled 70 or more. Those eligible were offered five years of healthcare coverage, a lump-sum severance payment, and six months of vesting for unvested stock options. The lump-sum cash payment depends on their position: mid-senior staff is offered a week of base pay for every 6 months of service, up to a maximum of 39 weeks.

Valve is quietly preparing for the release of the Steam Machine, a console/PC hybrid that will be the next serious competitor in the console market, right alongside the Xbox and PlayStation.

Valve has said the Steam Machine is on track to release "this summer," and it was only recently that the company put out new Steamworks Documentation that stated the Steam Machine will be approximately six times more powerful than the Steam Deck, and for games to receive a Steam Machine verified badge, they will need to meet specific performance requirements on the system. One of the latest pieces of Steam Machine information, and perhaps the furthest thing people actually want to know about the console, is that Valve rolled out support for the Steam Machine in SteamOS.

We knew this update was on its way, as Valve put out a preview of SteamOS version 3.8 in March, and within that preview, Valve states that the update includes "Initial support for upcoming Steam Machine hardware". That update has now rolled out in SteamOS 3.8.9 Beta: Second Clutch patch notes, which also state that support for the Steam Machine has been added to SteamOS. What people actually want to hear about the Steam Machine is the price. Valve has stated the console is launching "this summer," but hasn't said anything about the price.

PowerA has unveiled its latest controller, and odds are you probably haven't seen anything quite like the new Project X-Ray Flight Deck Wireless Controller for PC and Xbox Series X|S before. Developed in partnership with Meridian GMT, a company known for advanced flight-simulation hardware, Project X-Ray essentially fuses a standard Xbox controller with flight-sim gear.

Described as a "versatile handheld flight system," Project X-Ray features a modular design that integrates authentic aircraft and helicopter controls with standard controller inputs into a single compact, portable unit. It's part of a new initiative at PowerA called "Fueled by PowerA" that will see it partner with hardware specialists like Meridian GMT to develop new and unique controller designs.

Although the announcement is more of a tease than a full product reveal, the image and short video on the social media post above showcase how throttle, flap, and other modular flight simulation controls slot into the controller, with additional support for a replaceable faceplate that can showcase different legends for all of the sliders, dials, and so forth. It's an impressive design and one that feels tailor-made for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.

The new God of War, Faye, was unveiled at the Sony State of Play Showcase in June as a new God of War title that lets players step into the shoes of Faye, Kratos' wife, who wakes up in the afterlife of the gods after being burned by Kratos in God of War 2018.

GOW Faye will take players on a journey through the afterlife of the gods, ruled by two gods of war. Faye, the former protector of Midgard and the Giants, is described as extremely capable in combat and unafraid to fight dirty. After realizing her plan to prevent Kratos and Atreus from fulfilling a tragic destiny she foresaw may not work, Faye sets out on a quest to return from the afterlife and help Kratos and Atreus on their quest.

Faye is accompanied by a cube and a sword that help her escape the afterlife and defeat the two gods of war. The State of Play announcement didn't include a target release date, but reliable industry insider NateTheHate reports that God of War Laufey is targeting the first half of 2027. As always, with release dates for upcoming games or other unconfirmed details, take them with a healthy dose of skepticism, as they are subject to change.

At Computex 2026, we got the chance to go hands-on with a few PC gaming handhelds powered by the new Panther Lake-based Intel Arc G3 Extreme processor, which features the impressive integrated Intel Arc B390 GPU. And we were blown away by the 1080p (or 1200p) performance that lets you play modern titles like Forza Horizon 6 or Battlefield 6 with High graphics settings at 60+ FPS thanks to XeSS.

One of the devices we got to spend some quality hands-on time with was the new MSI Claw 8 EX AI+, which, in addition to featuring the new Intel Arc G3 Extreme processor, has a vibrant 8-inch 120Hz VRR display, Hall-effect sticks and triggers, and premium ergonomics and build quality, quickly make it one of those devices that have you praying that it launches with a reasonable price point. A concern born from the current memory and component crisis driving up the cost of all things consumer tech.

Well, turns out that we weren't praying hard enough, as a retail listing for the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ over on MSI's official US storefront (via VideoCardz) puts the MSRP of this new gaming handheld at an eye-watering $1,799.00 USD. Yes, this would make it one of the most expensive portable gaming devices on the market, with the $1,800 price point also coming in a lot higher than the $1,500 or so that many were expecting - an already inflated price point based on the current crisis affecting consumer tech.

Logitech G is known for delivering high-quality gaming gear across a wide range of peripherals, and the company's latest premium keyboard and mouse are all about lowering the cost of entry while still delivering high performance and a pro-inspired design. Joining the G3 line-up this month, you've got the G316 X wired mechanical gaming keyboard and the new G305 X SUPERLIGHT wireless gaming mouse.

The G305 X SUPERLIGHT wireless gaming mouse, priced at $79.99 USD, features the same shape as the classic G305 mouse, albeit in a lighter 60-gram-or-so build. It's powered by Logitech's HERO 44K sensor, which supports a 44,000 DPI sensitivity with 40G max acceleration, and a greater-than-678 IPS accuracy rating with zero smoothing or artificial acceleration.

In addition to supporting low-latency LIGHTSPEED wireless technology, with the option to upgrade to 8K polling with a PRO LIGHTSPEED wireless receiver, it also supports wired and Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity with over 130 hours of battery life. The G305 X SUPERLIGHT is built for competitive and pro-level gaming, where micro-movements, fast flick shots, and swipes are par for the course.

Xbox is currently going through a major restructuring phase as the publisher seeks to "reset" the brand to better position it for the future. Unsurprisingly, a part of this restructuring is the closure of studios, but what was surprising was the studios that were selected.

A new report from Bloomberg's Jason Schreier has revealed that Microsoft has decided to close down major game development studios as part of Xbox's restructuring and its expenditure control measures. The studios selected are Compulsion Games, developer of South of Midnight; Double Fine, developer of Brütal Legend and Psychonauts; and, most shockingly, Ninja Theory, developer of the Hellblade franchise. The closure of Ninja Theory is particularly shocking as it was only eight days ago that Senua, Ninja Theory's upcoming Hellblade game, was showcased at the Xbox Game Showcase.

The studio's closure has cast a shadow of concern over Senua, as many are now wondering about the title's fate. Does it get canceled entirely? Or will it release as intended? Notably, Microsoft and Xbox haven't officially canceled Senua, meaning on paper the game is still on track to release sometime in 2027. What is unprecedented here, and will be an unwanted record for Xbox to hold, is the time between a AAA game's first public reveal and the announcement or reported decision to shut down the developer behind that upcoming title. Just eight days.

At Computex 2026, the biggest announcement, from a consumer technology perspective, was RTX Spark. NVIDIA's all-in-one SoC that pairs its Arm-based Grace CPU technology (developed in partnership with MediaTek) with RTX Blackwell graphics. With the RTX Spark launch on track for later this year, these chips are set to power a range of premium laptops and mini PCs, with a focus on powerful local AI, creative workloads, and ray-traced PC gaming.

With its Arm CPU cores, RTX Spark devices will ship with an overhauled and optimized version of Windows on Arm, which NVIDIA has been working with Microsoft closely on. However, RTX Spark isn't the only all-in-one chip with NVIDIA graphics that's set to compete with the likes of Ryzen AI, as Intel is reportedly building a new line of x86 CPUs with integrated GeForce RTX graphics. Although details are scarce, both NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan have confirmed this collaboration last year.

According to a new report over at VideoCardz, citing a former tech site editor, Erdi Özüağ, who has apparently seen Intel's current roadmap, Intel's first x86 processors with integrated RTX graphics are on track for a Q1 2028 release. And with that a potential announcement and reveal could take place at CES 2028.

AMD's FSR 4.1 is coming to more Radeon gamers, starting with desktop RDNA 3 support arriving next month, which brings the vastly superior AI-powered version of FSR to the Radeon RX 7000 Series of graphics cards. Up until now the technology has been exclusive to the latest RDNA 4 generation and cards like the Radeon RX 9070 XT, but that's about to change.

Sitting down with AMD's Chief Software Officer, Andrej Zdravkovic, and AMD's Senior Director of Software, Terry Makedon, TechPowerUp has learned that the version of FSR 4.1 that will debut for RDNA 3 GPUs will arrive with no quality loss when it comes to the final image displayed on screen. This is good news because AMD has had to rebuild and optimize FSR 4.1 to run on RDNA 3's first-gen AI hardware, which uses INT8 data, rather than the more efficient FP8 used on RDNA 4, which served as the basis for FSR 4.

According to the report, AMD has had to modify the underlying model to support RDNA 3, but the end result for image quality will be the same. For gamers with cards like the Radeon RX 7800 XT and previous-gen flagship Radeon RX 7900 XTX, FSR 4.1 support will unlock a new level of performance and image fidelity, especially when gaming at higher resolutions. As for bringing FSR 4.1 to RDNA 2 and GPUs from the Radeon RX 6000 Series, it's a lot more complicated, hence the 2027 release window.

A US-based AI startup is making bold claims against NVIDIA's most advanced hardware. Tensordyne has announced the successful tape-out of its Napier chip, a 3nm AI accelerator built on TSMC's process in collaboration with Broadcom and HPE's Juniper Networks. The company is already reporting over $200 million in projected system demand.

The Napier chip packs 138 billion transistors, 2.1 petaflops of Dense FP8 compute, 144GB of HBM3E memory, 256MB of SRAM, and runs at 300W TDP. The architectural hook is a proprietary logarithmic mathematics method that replaces numerous multiplication operations with simpler addition-based computation. Because adders are smaller and more power-efficient than multipliers, Tensordyne claims this frees up significantly more silicon area for SRAM, which it says gives Napier five times as much on-chip SRAM as NVIDIA's Blackwell.

The full rack configuration, called the TDN72, houses 288 Napier chips across four pods of 72 chips each. The complete rack delivers 608 petaflops of FP8 compute, 42TB of HBM3E memory, and operates within a 120kW power envelope, all while being fully air-cooled.

A sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo Entertainment System just sold for $3 million at Heritage Auctions, which called it the "finest known copy" and "the Holy Grail of video game collecting." The previous record was a $2 million private sale in 2021 for another copy of the same game.

The copy was discovered only a few months ago, still sealed inside a brand-new NES Control Deck console bundle that had sat completely untouched since 1986. The console and game hail from the Los Angeles test-market period, one of Nintendo's earliest US expansion efforts, and the bundle had never been opened.

The cartridge itself is from Super Mario Bros. ' second production run, released in early 1986, with a distinctive gloss sticker seal that replaced the short-lived matte sticker used on the original 1985 launch copies. According to Heritage Auctions, only three sealed second-production copies with this gloss sticker format are known to exist, and this one carries the highest PSA 9.6 A++ grade. It also bears a cardboard hang tab that was discontinued in 1987. That means it is in near mint condition. The other two known examples are graded at VGA 80 and Wata 9.4 A++.

An independent developer has released an Xbox 360 version of GoldenEye 007 on GitHub, which the developer claims offers native PC support and "no emulator".

The developer states that the PC version of GoldenEye was completely recompiled in C++ using the ReXGlueSDK. By doing this, the developer states GoldenEye Recomp v1.0 doesn't require an emulator as "the game runs as a real native executable". Additionally, the new version of GoldenEye supports modern Windows controllers, online multiplayer, various resolutions and aspect ratios, visual filters, and a stable 60FPS framerate.

For gamers who didn't grow up playing GoldenEye, the Nintendo / Rare title was pivotal in the history of video games, particularly first-person-shooter titles, as its popularity indicated that FPS titles also had a home on consoles, which at the time FPS games were thought to be PC exclusive. While this is all well and good, the developer of the recompilation explains the repository doesn't actually contain the game files or a game code, only the source that wraps the game.

OneXPlayer has launched its X2 Mini Pro on Indiegogo, listing the base configuration at $2,399. This is more than double the price of the Lenovo Legion Go 2. Upgrading to 64GB of RAM increases the price to $2,699, while the 64GB RAM with 2TB storage configuration lands at $2,799. A Liquid-Cooled Edition that connects to an external Frost Bay liquid-cooling dock starts at $2,459.99 and tops out at $2,859.99 for the highest configuration.

And that asking price doesn't get you the power the company initially promised. OneXPlayer originally teased the X2 Mini Pro with AMD's Ryzen AI Max+ 395, a 16-core, 32-thread Strix Halo APU with 64MB of L3 cache and boost clocks up to 5.1GHz. The product page now lists the Ryzen AI Max+ 388 instead, which cuts that down to 8 cores, 16 threads, 32MB of L3 cache, and a 5.0GHz boost clock.

Both chips share the same Radeon 8060S integrated graphics with a 55W default TDP and a configurable range of 45W to 120W, so gaming performance should be largely similar. But going from 16 cores to 8 without any announcement or explanation has not sat well with early backers.

AMD is gearing up to release a pair of Ryzen 3000 series 'Picasso' CPUs. But they aren't based on the Zen 4 or even Zen 3 or 2 architectures, but the Zen+ architecture that was released back in 2019. The two chips come with Radeon Vega graphics and are being targeted at entry-level laptops with the FP5 socket. As they are FP5 chips, they don't have retail pricing, and are clearly being released to support OEMs. It's safe to say they will be far cheaper than AMD's Ryzen AI 400 chips.

The Ryzen 3 3100U is a very basic chip by modern standards. It's a dual-core chip without hyperthreading. It has a boost clock of 3.2GHz, 4MB of L3 cache, and a default 15W TDP. It has an 8-core Vega 8 GPU which was actually highly regarded back in its day. Suffice to say this is a chip that won't win any benchmark races in 2026 and it won't be suitable for anything outside of basic Windows tasks. But, it's a well-established architecture that will be easy for OEMs to incorporate into 'new' designs.

The second chip is more powerful. The Ryzen 5 3501U is a 4-core, 8-thread design with a boost clock of up to 3.7GHz. It has the same Vega 8 graphics as the 3100U, but its higher thread count makes it more suitable for multitasking.