Latest News - Page 141

If you can't wait for The Witcher 4, well, you'll have to I'm afraid, but you might be able to keep yourself entertained for a spell with a new mod for The Witcher 3 that acts as a prelude to the incoming next instalment.

PC GamesN highlighted the 'Dawn over Kovir' mod (via TechRadar) which lets you take control of Ciri as she's becoming a Witcher.

The maker of the mod, Alexander Fandera-Maslov, explained that it took some 800 hours to create this add-on. It's apparently inspired by the cinematic reveal trailer for The Witcher 4 (and the content therein may "overlap or be enhanced by the new Ciri game", we're told).

Remedy's revenue has spiked throughout the Holiday 2025 quarter, which is good news for the developer because their most recent game, FBC Firebreak, bombed on the market.

Last year, Remedy released an experimental live service co-op shooter set in their Control universe. The game, funded by Game Pass and PlayStation Plus deals, was the first game that Remedy self-published. The project didn't do well upon release, leading to profit warning impacts and Remedy's previous CEO, Tero Virtala, being ousted by the board.

Remedy's fortunes have temporarily reversed, as the Finnish auteurs have now reported a strong +46% spike in revenues for the Oct - Dec 2025 period. Remedy generated 17 million euros (~$20 million) through Holiday 2025, most of which came from royalties from in-development games like the Max Payne remakes as well as the Control sequel.

Intel's new flagship Nova Lake-S desktop CPUs are going to be chewing a chunk of power according to new rumors, with the dual compute tiles (52 cores) using upwards of 700W+ of power... HEDT style.

In a new post on X from leaker @kopite7kimi, we're hearing that the full-load power consumption of a Nova Lake K-series processor (unlocked for OC) is "over" 700W for the dual compute tile version. Each of the Nova Lake-S compute tiles will feature 28 cores with dual compute tiles sporting 52 cores... and a TON of power consumption for that.

Intel's next-gen Nova Lake-S desktop processors will be arriving in two variants: a single compute tile version with up to 28 cores, and a dual compute tile variant with up to 52 cores. They'll also be the first processors from Intel with its own bLLC cache design -- similar to AMD X3D cache -- with up to 144MB of cache on a single compute die, and a chunky 288MB of cache on the dual compute tile variant.

Intel's new Core Ultra 5 250K Plus "Arrow Lake Refresh" processor has just turned up on Geekbench, showing us its performance levels with its 18 cores at up to 5.3GHz.

Intel is reportedly launching its new Core Ultra 200S Plus "Arrow Lake Refresh" desktop CPUs next month, with rumors that the new flagship Core Ultra 9 290K Plus was cancelled recently, but the new Core Ultra 7 270K Plus and Core Ultra 5 250K Plus will still be launching. The 250K Plus CPU is expected to debut at under $300, acting as the new Arrow Lake Refresh replacement to the Core Ultra 5 245K, which costs around $200-$215 or so.

The new Core Ultra 5 250K Plus offers an additional 4 cores (4 x more E-Cores) than the 245K as well as 100Hz more CPU boost clock, with 18 cores split between 6P+12E (Performance and E-Cores). The new 250K Plus is expected to have 4.20GHz base CPU clocks and up to 5.3GHz boost, with 30MB of L3 cache, 6MB of L2 cache, and will work on the current LGA 1851 socket motherboards.

OpenAI has announced that it is currently testing ads in ChatGPT in the U.S., for users on the Free and Go subscription tiers. The AI company is quick to note that the addition of ads won't "influence the answers ChatGPT gives you" and that your conversations with the AI platform will remain private and won't be used for marketing.

The good news for those who pay for or use Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, or Education accounts is that you won't see ads, and ChatGPT will remain unchanged. OpenAI has showcased what the ads will look like and how they will clearly be marked as sponsored. Ads will be related to the subject or topic, with a food-and-recipe example interaction delivering the sort of ad you might see elsewhere online.

OpenAI notes that it's adding ads to ChatGPT to support "broader access" to its features, presumably to cover the costs of hundreds of millions of people interacting with ChatGPT every day.

Blizzard's StarCraft is an iconic PC gaming franchise, a real-time strategy series that helped birth modern-day esports while still delivering cinematic single-player campaigns. It's also a PC gaming franchise that has been missing for years, and one that has seen multiple rumors and even announcements of third-person and even first-person shooter spin-offs - the most well-known being StarCraft Ghost from the Nintendo GameCube era.

In 2024, Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier reported that the developer was working on a new first-person shooter set in the StarCraft universe, with Far Cry veteran Dan Hay at the helm. This project is apparently still in development and could receive a major reveal at BlizzCon 2026 later this year.

In addition, in 2025, we learned that Blizzard was partnering with Nexon (owner of Arc Raiders studio Embark) to create a new StarCraft game for the Southeast Asian market, which, at the time, we assumed would be a successor to StarCraft and StarCraft II's iconic RTS multiplayer. Well, fast-forward to today, and a new report from Korean site dnews (via ResetEra) claims that this, too, is also going to be a shooter.

SpaceX, and by extension Elon Musk, has been focusing on building a colony on Mars for many years. Over the weekend, Musk took to the social media platform X to confirm that SpaceX has "already shifted focus," with the new goal being to build a "self-growing city" on the Moon.

Elon Musk believes this goal could be achieved in less than a decade, while the dream of building a colony on Mars is still a 20+ year project. "The mission of SpaceX remains the same: extend consciousness and life as we know it to the stars," Musk wrote, adding that the ability to launch a Lunar mission once every ten days versus once every 26 months for a trip to Mars played a role in the decision.

This ability to "iterate much faster" should result in the creation of a city on the Moon. This pivot from Mars to the Moon represents a major shift for SpaceX; as recently as last year, Musk referred to the Moon as "a distraction," with SpaceX's goal being to head straight to Mars.

ASRock has announced the release of a "comprehensive BIOS update" for AMD AM5 motherboards, now available. ASRock has confirmed that it has been working closely with AMD to review recent CPU-related issues and optimize BIOS functionality and stability. This new update is the result of that collaboration.

And with that, ASRock's new Beta BIOS version 4.07.AS01 for AM5 motherboards includes AMD's AGESA 1.3.0.0a, the latest version of AMD's library responsible for initializing the CPU cores, memory, and other hardware. ASRock notes that one highlight of this BIOS release is that it resolves motherboard issues related to boot failures with certain AMD Ryzen CPUs.

"This update is specifically designed to address system no-boot scenarios, including cases where systems may fail to boot after being used for a period of time," ASRock writes in the announcement. "Users who encounter such behavior are recommended to update to this BIOS version to help restore normal system boot functionality."

In a new post tagged 'the future of gaming is AI,' the company, best known for creating gaming peripherals, explains why it's investing over $600 million in AI. And that's primarily about AI tools and technologies for game development, with Razer believing that how generative AI is used is more important than whether AI is used at all.

"The way we see it is that AI is a tool to help game developers make better games, rather than replace human creativity," Razer CEO and Co-founder Min-Liang Tan said during a recent episode of The Verge's Decoder podcast. "As gamers... what we're unhappy with is GenAI slop. When I play a game, I want to be engaged. I want to be immersed. I want to compete. I don't want to see characters with extra fingers or shoddily written storylines."

That comment is in response to the influx of AI-generated images and videos, widely referred to as "AI slop," which are considered inferior to human-created art. For Razer, generative AI in games is more of an extension of NPC behavior, procedural systems, and AI used to "strengthen the craft of making games."

Apple is expected to unveil its refreshed Studio Display 2 later this year, with a rumored 5K @ 90Hz Mini-LED display, and a faster A19 or A19 Pro iPhone processor inside.

In the latest rumors and tease from Mark Gurman's recent PowerOn newsletter on Bloomberg, the new Studio Display from Apple "looks quite similar to the current one". It was only last month that a purported Apple monitor (model A3350) turned up in a Chinese regulatory database, leading to more speculation on this being the new Studio Display 2.

The current Studio Display was launched in 2022 with a 27-inch LCD screen with a 5K resolution @ 60Hz, up to 600 nits of brightness, an A13 Bionic processor, a single Thunderbolt 3 connector, and 3 x USB-C ports, with pricing starting at $1599.

Apple's new entry-level MacBook release is right around the corner, and while the $799 laptop will only have 8GB of RAM, it'll reportedly account for 25% of all 2025 Mac sales.

In a new post from yeux1122, we're told that the new MacBook will indeed only have 8GB of RAM, with the ongoing DRAM crisis forcing Apple to launch the new low-cost MacBook in just a single memory configuration, saving costs, also the new MacBook is using the A18 Pro processor, which is an iPhone processor.

Apple is expected to sell somewhere between 5.5 million and 7.9 million units of its new entry-level MacBook, with prices of between $699 and $799, up from the $599 of the previous low-cost MacBook. Apple shipped a total of between 24.8 million and 25.6 million Macs in 2025, and while the MacBook Air is cheaper, it's not as cheap as the regular MacBook.

With Tero Virtala being ousted on the heels of FBC Firebreak's bad sales performance, Remedy Entertainment has appointed a new CEO who has made a commitment to keeping Remedy's signature style intact.

Remedy has appointed a new CEO, Jean-Charles Gaudechon, to lead the studio. Gaudechon has had a long history in the video games industry, spending over a decade handling high-level exec functions at EA's international divisions--distribution, publishing, live services, etc.

In the announcement, Gaudechon made interesting remarks on Remedy's creative operations, outright pledging to essentially shield the studio's artists and developers using good business savvy. This is important, because Remedy still plans to self-publish new games, and that can be risky.

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Ghost of Yotei proves that PlayStation users still show up for exclusive content, with the game generating hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue in Sony's Holiday 2025 period.

Sucker Punch's new standalone sequel Ghost of Yotei is a big hit for PlayStation. In Sony's latest Q3'25 results, company management specifically mentioned Atsu's new adventure was a big driver for earnings in the quarter.

Sony's own sales data takes this even further. Back in November, just a month after release, Sony had confirmed Ghost of Yotei hit 3.3 million sales. Sony also confirms that it sold 13.2 million first-party games total during the entire quarter. This means that Ghost of Yotei made up over 25% of total PlayStation first-party games sold in Q3'25.

Google's hoping to get Windows 11 users to choose to fire up its Chrome browser as soon as the operating system boots to the desktop.

Windows Latest noticed that a regular contributor of browser info on X, Leopeva64, pointed out the latest step in this grand plan of Google's, which is to nag Chrome users to configure the browser in this way.

The addition of the option to automatically start Chrome on first bootup with Windows 11 - opening the browser in the foreground, it should be noted, not stealthily in the background - actually went into testing a couple of weeks ago.

Discord today announced new age-restriction protocols in a bid to keep teen users more safe on the platform, including requiring some users to prove their age via ID or facial scan in order to get access to certain areas.

Discord is one of the most influential communication platforms on the planet, and has become the de-facto place to talk about--and promote--the billion-dollar video games industry, among many others. It's also where communities thrive, allowing users to engage in a forum-like environment with the added bonus of real-time chatting. With swelling engagement and adoption, Discord is eyeing a public offering, and making some transformations.

One of the biggest changes is that users may now have to prove their age in order to access Discord in its totality: "Beginning with a phased global rollout to new and existing users in early March, users may be required to engage in an age-verification process to change certain settings or access sensitive content. This includes age-restricted channels, servers, or commands and select message requests."

Intel's next-generation Core Ultra 400 series "Nova Lake-S" desktop CPUs are gearing for release later this year, with more details on the new 900-series chipset platforms and its different motherboard offerings on the way.

In a new post on X by leaker @Jaykhin, we're hearing that there will be 5 different PCH variants: Z990, Z970, W980, Q970, and the mid-range B960 chipsets. The new 900-series chipsets are crafted for the next-gen Nova Lake-S desktop CPUs which will arrive on a totally new LGA1954 socket, meaning new motherboards for all -- and they're DDR5 only this time around.

The new Z990 and Z970 chipsets will be used on OC-ready motherboards with higher-end features and hardware than the rest of the 900 series boards, with the flagship Z990 chipset expected to feature 48 PCIe lanes, 2 x USB4/TB4 ports, 12 PCIe 5.0 lanes, 12 PCIe 4.0 lanes, 8 x SATA 3.0 ports, up to 5 x USB 3.2 20Gbps ports, and will include IA OC, BCLK, and Memory OC support.

Microsoft's next-generation Xbox will reportedly run a full version of Windows 11 alongside its Xbox "mode" with a console-like UI, be found in different shapes, sizes, and power, and run the likes of both Steam and the Epic Games Store... all rumored for 2027.

In a new report from Windows Central, the next-gen Xbox will come in all shapes and sizes, and its 2027 rumored launch is the "best case scenario". The outlet reports: "Turn your next-gen Xbox into a streaming PC, coding station, music production studio, or whatever else. The difference here is that the Gen-10 Xbox "PC" will also run all of your current Xbox games, in addition to games from Windows 11 PC stores like Steam".

Windows Central also reports that Microsoft is working with OEMs like ASUS and others to build a "variety of options for next-gen Xbox gamers across a range of price points, like the two Xbox Ally models". The outlet was also told that Microsoft is still forging ahead with its first-party Xbox handheld, even "if the traditional Xbox console is the focus for now".

Intel is reportedly set to launch its new Core Ultra 200S Plus "Arrow Lake Refresh" desktop CPUs next month, with the flagship Core Ultra 9 290K Plus cancelled, and the new Core Ultra 7 270K Plus and Core Ultra 5 250K Plus reviews going live on March 23.

We'll also see the KF variants of these two Arrow Lake Refresh processors, sans their integrated graphics, while the K series models keep the integrated GPU. Intel hasn't announced its Core Ultra 200S Plus processors to the public just yet, but the latest leaks suggest a March 23 embargo for Intel and its board partners for its new Arrow Lake Refresh processors.

Rumors from the last couple of weeks have suggested that Intel has nixed its upcoming Core Ultra 9 290K Plus processor, which would've featured the same 24-core CPU with 8 P-Cores and 16 E-Cores as the current Core Ultra 9 285K processor, but with higher CPU clocks and a higher Intel Thermal Velocity Boost peak.

Qualcomm's next-gen Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro and Gen 6 mobile processors to support LPDDR6 + UFS 5.0 storage for the flagship SoC, the Gen 6 non-Pro to offer LPDDR5, to save partners on costs to the consumer.

The latest rumor on the next-gen Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro chip is that it will be compatible with new, and older memory and storage standards, which will help reduce costs for Qualcomm's vast family of partners... some somewhat good news to hear in the midst of the ongoing DRAM crisis.

Qualcomm is expected to charge even more for its next-gen flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro processor, with Weibo's Fixed-focus digital cameras claiming that phone makers will have multiple options when it comes to integrating LPDDR6, LPDDR5X, or LPDDR5 memory as well as UFS 5.0 storage. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 (non-Pro) chip is expected to only feature LPDDR5.