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In a shareholders meeting, Pearl Abyss CEO Heo Jin-young tells investors that the company will prioritize more game sales over additional things like mod support and/or post-launch DLC.

Pearl Abyss's first-ever singleplayer game is a big success. Crimson Desert has reached multiple high-profile sales milestones, first selling 2 million copies in its first day, then hitting 3 million copies in five days. As for the latest sales, the company's CEO says Crimson Desert is nearing 5 million sales.

As per South Korean news site Inven, the news was revealed during the Pearl Abyss's 17th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, where Heo Jin-young also answered multiple questions from investors. Two of these inquiries were focused on what happens next with Crimson Desert, asking about potential mod support to enable users to create and share custom additions to the game, as well as potential official expansions and DLC from Pearl Abyss.

Everything seems to be going up in price nowadays. Even if we ignore the massive oil barrel-shaped elephant in the room, 2026 is just not a good year to be a tech enthusiast. There is a massive DRAM shortage that is expected to last into the 2030s, AMD and Intel have increased the prices of their CPUs, and even Sony has jacked up the price of its PlayStation 5 consoles. Entertainment giant Netflix wants a piece of that action, too.

According to an updated "Plans and Pricing" page, Netflix is raising prices across all subscription tiers in the U.S, with no exceptions. This price hike follows Netflix's last price increase in January 2025. If you had just made peace with paying the additional $1 (or more), you'd better gear up for another price increase coming soon.

The new pricing structure sees the ad-supported Standard tier go from $7.99/month to $8.99/month, while the Standard ad-free tier goes from $17.99/month to $19.99/month. Even Premium tier users are not exempt from this price increase, as they will pay an extra $2, bringing the price to $26.99 per month.

Google has developed three AI compression algorithms designed to reduce the memory footprint of large language models without sacrificing performance and quality. Published on Google Research, the tech is described as a way to shrink AI's working memory, known as the "KV cache", by using a form of vector quantization.

The company plans to present its findings at the ICLR 2026 conference next month, along with the three algorithms making this possible, namely TurboQuant, PolarQuant, and Quantized Johnson-Lindenstrauss.

TurboQuant would allow AI to remember more information while taking up less space and maintaining accuracy. There is a lot more detail in the Google Research article on how the compression technology works, but the results are what's exciting.

BREAKING: Nintendo has a big nostalgia bomb waiting to go off later this year, as reports have surfaced of a fully-fledged remake of Ocarina of Time coming to the Switch 2.

Nintendo's iconic The Legend of Zelda franchise turns 40 this year, and to celebrate, the company is planning something huge. Sources tell both NateTheHate and VGC that Nintendo will release a new Ocarina of Time remake for the Switch 2 later in the year.

"There is another anniversary this year, and it's the anniversary of The Legend of Zelda... what I can share with you today is that in the second half of 2026, approaching the holidays, we are going to receive an Ocarina of Time remake for Switch 2," Nate said in a recent podcast.

Crimson Desert has had a strong debut, selling 3 million copies in just 5 days. The game has been a big hit among players, with its Steam rating now sitting at "Very Positive" with over 28,000 reviews. The title is currently available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, with support for Intel Arc GPU owners and MSI Claw handhelds rolling out following recent criticism. This leaves Nintendo Switch 2 gamers on the sidelines. That might not be the case forever.

South Korean outlet Yonhap News Agency reports that during a shareholder's meeting, Pearl Abyss CEO Heo Jin Young talked in detail about its open-world action RPG. Among the topics covered, the CEO discussed the possibility of releasing the game on Nintendo's newest console. He stated that the team has started looking into this potential port, and R&D, which is Research and Development, has already begun.

It's official: The PlayStation 5 is getting a price hike around the globe, including the US.

On the heels of yesterday's report, Sony today announced that it will indeed be raising the prices of PlayStation hardware. The prices go into effect on April 2, 2026.

The company confirms an increase of $100 in the United States: the PS5 disc edition will now cost $650 (+30% over launch price), the PS5 digital is now at $600 (+50% increase over launch), and the PS5 Pro is now a whopping $900 (+27% over launch price).

Apple has pulled the plug on its long-running tower workstation line, discontinuing the Mac Pro. The tech giant confirmed to 9to5Mac that there are no plans for future Mac Pro hardware. The Mac Studio will now sit at the top of Apple's desktop lineup, powered by the M5 Ultra, which is due for release in the first half of this year.

Apple has since removed the Mac Pro from its website, with the buy page now redirecting users to Mac's homepage. For professional users, the Mac Studio is available in M4 Max and M3 Ultra configurations, offering up to a 32-core CPU, up to an 80-core GPU, Thunderbolt 5, and support for up to 512GB of unified memory.

The decision is not a surprise. The Mac Pro last received an update in June 2023, when Apple moved the system to M2 Ultra while keeping the aging 2019 chassis. Even then, it sat in an awkward spot. The Mac Studio, equipped with the same chip and offering similar performance, was available for $3,000 less.

The humble DIY PC builder just can't seem to catch a break, as more bad news is coming our way, this time from AMD. Earlier this week, we covered a report that said Intel planned to raise CPU prices by 10% by the end of this month. Now, it seems like the Red brand is also following the same pattern as its rival.

A new report from Nikkei Asia suggests that AMD plans a CPU price hike that will likely take effect from the end of March into the start of April. The report suggests that AMD could be looking at a price increase of "up to 15%" across its different CPU SKUs. The timing couldn't be worse for someone looking to buy a new desktop CPU, as Intel is planning to raise CPU prices at the same time.

Moreover, if the news wasn't already bad enough, we recently reported that the ASUS Joint Technology Systems Division General Manager, Yi-Hsiang Liao, announced that ASUS is also planning to raise PC prices by up to 30%. While this news is not surprising, it is still quite alarming for the average DIY PC builder who just wants to build a budget gaming PC.

The ongoing AI push has been nothing short of a nightmare for consumers. Everyone has felt the impact of DRAM and NAND shortages, with a 256GB DDR5 memory module now costing a staggering $5,700 in China. One would assume this is about as bad as it gets. But AI datacenters' appetite for resources is far from satisfied, as reports suggest CPUs are next in line.

PC and server manufacturers recently told Nikkei Asia they are unable to meet demand because Intel and AMD have stopped supplying enough processors. On top of that, server and OEM PC manufacturing could face delays and price hikes of up to 10% to 15%.

TrendForce also recently reported that Intel has already raised prices on certain entry-level and older generation notebook CPUs by more than 15%. The blue team is also reportedly planning a 10% price increase for its consumer CPUs, including the Intel Core Ultra, effective at the end of this month.

Developer Rogue Factor and publisher Nacon have yet to announce a Nintendo Switch 2 version of Hell is Us, but an ESRB rating has seemingly spoiled that announcement, as an official rating for a Switch 2 version of the title has been discovered.

Unfortunately, we don't have a release date for the Switch 2 version of the game, but given that ESRB ratings are assigned late in a game's development, it's possible we could hear about a Hell is Us Nintendo Switch 2 version during the next Nintendo Direct. For those who don't know, Hell is Us is a third-person action-adventure game built in Unreal Engine 5 that leans heavily into atmosphere, player-driven exploration, and a rejection of modern UI-heavy design.

Described as a title dedicated to "no handholding" gameplay, Hell is Us doesn't feature any minimaps, waypoint markers, or traditional quest tracking systems. Instead, players will be required to navigate and progress through the title using environmental clues, NPC dialogue, and raw memory. As you can probably imagine, this design choice of "no handholding" was immediately controversial upon release, with some players praising it for its sense of immersion and discovery, while others criticized it for the lack of guidance, which can lead to frustration.

Counter-Strike is one of the biggest first-person shooter games to exist, and with regular peaks of nearly 1.5 million concurrent players on Steam, it begs the question - how many of those players are actually human?

With any massively popular video game, you will almost inevitably discover a botting problem, but given that Counter-Strike has an extremely lucrative skin market attached to it, the botting situation is a far greater problem than other multiplayer titles. However, that problem may have been partially pruned as Counter-Strike 2 developer Ido Magal, the project lead on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Counter-Strike 2, has said that Valve has banned 970,000 bot accounts.

The banning of nearly 1 million bot accounts was a result of a "bunch of investigations that benefited from user reports". Looking at the CS2Stats website, we can see that Counter-Strike 2 VAC and game bans have skyrocketed as of the 26th of March. Currently, 17,000 bans have been issued, but CS2Stats only tracks official Valve matchmaking modes, such as competitive and premier, not casual matches such as Deathmatch or bot lobbies / farming servers.

Apple is planning to open Siri to third-party artificial intelligence systems to bolster the iPhone's value proposition, as it is falling far behind in the race to develop the best AI-powered personal assistant.

Apple is lagging behind the competition in rolling out its own in-house AI-powered service, as the company initially intended that its AI-infused Siri upgrade would be released alongside the iPhone 16 line-up. However, due to technical difficulties and the product not meeting Apple's exceptionally high standards for uniformity across its product line, the company delayed the release of the new, smarter version of Siri until sometime in 2026.

Now, a report from Apple insider and Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman has revealed that the Cupertino company is planning to open up Siri to artificial intelligence systems as part of its Siri overhaul in the upcoming iOS 27 operating system update. Notably, Siri is already capable of pulling up ChatGPT for any answers that it can't work out on-device, but following this update, users will reportedly be able to select from other competing services.

CD Projekt Group's executive management confirms that teams are using AI to help make new games, but humans are firmly in control over the tools and software.

AI is everywhere, especially in games development, but not everyone is using it in the same way. Some firms have gone all-in on AI, generative or otherwise, and other groups and teams see it as an optional tool that can help speed along development. How exactly the tools are used remains a mystery, but in the general sense, AI is used to help automate grueling tasks while also providing visual guidance in pre-production.

Whatever the case may be, it's always interesting to hear major game studios talk about their view of AI. For Polish games-maker CD Projekt, the goal is to experiment with AI and see if it actually helps, while always keeping the developers and creatives in the driver's seat.

Everything is getting more expensive, even smaller-scale niche gaming products like the Nex Playground.

On the heels of an Xbox price hike, and the PS5's suspected 100 Euro price increase across Europe, another lesser-known console-maker is also raising prices.

The kid-friendly Nex Playground mini-console will soon raise prices by $50, going from its current $249 price to a $299. If that price looks familiar, it's actually the same price that the best-selling Nintendo Switch launched at in 2017.

Oasis Management is now the largest singular shareholder in FromSoftware parent Kadokawa, and the group could pressure the company into making changes to its operations.

Sony is no longer the largest shareholder in Kadokawa Corp, and its 10% stake has been surpassed by an investment firm known for its aggressive tactics in obtaining shareholder returns. It's been revealed by video games industry analyst Dr. Serkan Toto that activist investor Oasis Management now has accumulated 11.85% stake in Kadokawa, more than any investor or group.

"Activist investor Oasis' ownership in Kadokawa reached 11.85% today - higher than Sony or anybody else. They could still add more shares. Expect Oasis to make their 'proposals to management' public soon,"Dr. Toto said on Twitter.

New reports indicate that Sony could be raising the price of its PS5 and PS5 Pro consoles in Europe.

Sony's PS5 duo may get more expensive overseas. New reports from French games content creator Gyo indicate that both the PS5 and PS5 Pro could get a steep €100 price hike, leading to a console generation with a mid-gen refresh priced at €900.

Sony has yet to confirm or deny the news, and it currently remains a speculative report, yet the company has already conducted a previous price hike on both PS5 models back in April of last year. That increase tacked on €50 to both the base and Pro systems. If accurate, this will be the second price hike in two years, with the base model having increased by a strong €150 since 2025.

AMD has officially announced the latest entry into its Ryzen 9000 X3D lineup of CPUs, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition. The bizarrely named CPU is the world's first CPU with a dual 3D V-Cache design. What this means is that, unlike the previous Ryzen 9000X3D chips, which had 3D V-Cache on only one CCD, the new 9950X3D2 has vertically stacked cache on both core complexes.

Under the hood, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition features a 16-core, 32-thread configuration with a base clock of 4.3 GHz and a boost clock of 5.6 GHz. Notably, the boost clock is 100 MHz lower than the Ryzen 9 9950X3D, which can be attributed to the additional power required for the second cache stack. Speaking of power, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 CPU has a massive TDP rating of 200W, which is at least 30W higher than any other CPU in AMD's Ryzen 9000 lineup.

Of course, having a unique dual-cache design has its drawbacks as well, and the power draw certainly seems like a major one. The main selling point of the CPU is its massive 208MB cache pool, distributed across the two CCDs. Both core complexes have 64 MB of 3D V-cache each, in addition to 32 MB on-CCD cache, for a total of 192 MB of L3 cache. Adding L2 cache brings the total to 208MB for this single CPU.

A new benchmark has surfaced on Geekbench, thanks to BenchLeaks on X (formerly Twitter), showcasing the Core 3 304, another supposed Wildcat Lake (WCL) chip caught in the wild. The chip demonstrates a near doubling in performance versus Intel's incumbent Twin Lake (Nx50), a series of low-power E-core only processors.

Intel officially unveiled Wildcat Lake at CES this year under the Core 300 series branding. These chips omit the "Ultra" designation reserved for the flagship Panther Lake lineup. Wildcat Lake features (up to) a 2P+4LPE design, employing the same core architecture as Panther Lake: Cougar Cove for the P-cores and Darkmont for the LPE-cores. Intel is equipping these chips with a 2 Xe3 core integrated GPU, which is accompanied by an 18 TOPS NPU for on-device AI.

Unlike the complex Foveros 3D-stacking used in premium tiers, Wildcat Lake features a traditional multi-chip design (likely through UCIe), including the Compute Tile hosting the CPU, iGPU, Memory Controller, NPU, and Media Engines, fabricated on Intel 18A, while the Platform Controller tile is dedicated to I/O and connectivity, built on an external node, believed to be TSMC's N6.

Industry insider and Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier has revealed in a recent post that AAA game development costs exceed $300 million, and in some cases, much more.

Schreier revealed the details in a recent report explaining why video games now cost so much money to develop. Within this report, Schreier outlines the current state of the industry, explaining that budgets for AAA titles have been sharply increasing for quite some time, with the reporter pointing to Naughty Dog's Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, which was released in 2009, costing $20 million, while The Last of Us Part 2, released in 2020, cost $220 million.

The report goes on to note that video game budgets have ballooned, mainly due to the combination of development time and salaries. Schreier writes that one employee in Los Angeles could cost the studio anywhere between $15,000 and $20,000 a month, when taking into account salary, benefits, and overhead. If the studio has 100 employees, it will be spending as much as $18 million per year. Now consider studios with thousands of employees.

Amazon has unveiled the actress who will step into Freya's shoes in the upcoming God of War live-action TV show, which recently showcased the actors playing Kratos and Atreus in costume, only to receive immediate backlash from fans.

A new report from Variety has claimed Sonya Walger, known for her role as Penny Widmore in ABC's "Lost", who joined the show in the second season and remained part of it until the sixth and final season, will be playing Freya in the upcoming God of War TV show. Additionally, Walger appeared in Apple TV series "For All Mankind" as Molly Cobb, and has been in other shows such as "The Catch", "Get Shorty", and "Night Sky".

Walger will join the other cast members, such as Ryan Hurst as Kratos, Callum Vinson as Atreus, Max Parker as Heimdall, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as Thor, Mandy Patinkin as Odin, Alastair Duncan as Mimir, Danny Woodburn and Jeff Gulka as brothers Brok and Sindri, and Ed Skrein as Baldur.