Latest News - Page 146

A new Sony patent (PDF) spotted by Insider Gaming shows the company is working on a PlayStation controller without traditional buttons. The design, which could be a game-changer, includes various touch, optical, heat, and pressure sensors. The best way to describe it is like a blank canvas, allowing users to customize and configure a layout that best suits their playstyle or the game they're playing.

As part of Sony's patent, the document notes that a major drawback of existing controllers with physical buttons, sticks, and triggers is their fixed layout and configuration. Different players have different needs, and a single controller design might be too big, too small, or simply uncomfortable for some to use.

This new controller, PlayStation design from Sony, is a bold departure even from the impressive DualSense controller for the PlayStation 5, as it allows users to configure not only where buttons, directional pads, and even virtual analog sticks are placed, but also the number of buttons and how they respond to input.

TSMC is pumping out as much silicon as it can for virtually every big tech company, but NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang is in Taiwan right now handling business, where he spoke with local media saying TSMC needs to double production over the next 10 years for the "world's largest infrastructure" buildout.

Jensen told local Taiwanese media: "TSMC's production capacity may grow by more than 100% in the next ten years, which is a very significant scale expansion, the largest infrastructure investment in human history, and it will have to double just to meet NVIDIA's demand".

TSMC has been expanding its semiconductor fabs for a while now, as it has factored in geopolitical issues, which has seen TSMC pump serious money into regions including the EU, Japan, and the US. TSMC also plans to build out a supply chain in the US with a massive $250 billion mega-buildout which includes advanced packaging, semiconductors, and R&D centers.

NVIDIA hasn't said much about its upcoming Arm-based N1X + N1 processors, but now NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has mentioned the N1X + N1 and his company working with MediaTek on the new chips.

Jensen is in Taiwan right now where he talked with local media, bringing up the N1X + N1 chips and saying they're a joint venture with MediaTek as a system-on-a-chip (SoC) designed for "AI computers". Jensen said the new N1X + N1 processors are being tweaked for low power and high performance, with rumored gaming performance levels of an RTX 5070.

NVIDIA's new N1 branding goes hand-in-hand with the company's push into AI PCs and laptops using an Arm-based CPU complex developed with MediaTek, and will compete directly against AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm in the laptop market.

The memory crisis is causing havoc across the consumer hardware market, and for PC gaming graphics cards, that brief period when GPUs were sold at near-MSRP in late 2025 now feels like a distant memory. As we head into 2026, higher-end GeForce RTX 50 Series cards like the RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 are seeing the most significant price increases.

Looking at the current U.S. retail market, most new GeForce RTX 5080 GPUs with 16GB of fast GDDR7 memory are priced 45% or more above the $999 MSRP. Things are worse for the flagship GeForce RTX 5090, with its 32GB of GDDR7 memory, which is now so scarce that models are priced at 75% or more above the $1999 MSRP.

Of course, as the AI boom has led us to this point, cards like the RTX 5080 and RTX 5090, even at inflated prices, are highly sought after by AI enthusiasts and AI companies alike. And in many regions, such as Europe, this leaves NVIDIA's Founders Edition models as the only way to get either of these GPUs at a reasonable price. The only problem? They're selling out in minutes.

Based on everything we've seen so far, Logitech's new PRO X2 SUPERSTRIKE LIGHTSPEED Wireless Gaming Mouse is on track to be a game-changer for competitive gamers. This all comes down to moving away from traditional mechanical switches to a new Haptic Inductive Trigger System (HITS) for its left- and right-click buttons.

This offers a magnetic or Hall-effect-like solution with near-instant actuation and the ability to adjust actuation and reset points. Each switch also features customizable haptic feedback, with Logitech claiming the technology can reduce click latency by up to 30 milliseconds.

What does this mean when you're playing Arc Raiders, Counter-Strike 2, or Battlefield 6? Well, when you take a shot, the response will be faster than ever. Developed and fine-tuned alongside a team of pro players and esports athletes, Logitech is so confident in the PRO X2 SUPERSTRIKE wireless gaming mouse that it will give early adopters in Australia their money back if it "doesn't change the way you play."

NVIDIA ended official GeForce Game Ready Driver support for its Maxwell, Pascal, and Volta architectures in October 2025, marking the end of an era (or two) for some of the most iconic PC gaming graphics cards of the 2010s. From the GeForce GTX 980 to the GeForce GTX 1080 and GeForce GTX 1060, NVIDIA finally put these GPUs to rest after a decade of support, including game optimizations for new releases.

Announced several months before official support was set to end, NVIDIA did confirm that GPUs from these older architectures would "transition to receiving quarterly security updates for the next three years (through October 2028)."

And that's what we've got with the GeForce Security Update Driver 582.28, a new security update for Maxwell, Volta, and Pascal-series GeForce GPUs. Basically, you're looking at drivers that lack game-specific support but still receive the latest security updates. NVIDIA points to its NVIDIA GPU Display Drivers - January 2026 security bulletin for details on what has been addressed.

LG has officially pulled out of making 8K TVs in both 8K OLED and 8K LCD form, following the footsteps of both Sony and TCL in recent times leaving the 8K TV market.

In a new report from FlatpanelsHD, which talked to LG to confirm the news, LG has left the 8K TV market. 8K TVs have been mostly a flop so far, with almost zero content in the form of movies and TV shows, and while a super-high-end gaming PC can play 8K... they're not the target market.

There has been heavily misleading 8K upscaling marketing, and most high-end 4K TVs outperform 8K TVs in picture quality. Sony enabled 8K support on its high-end PlayStation 5 Pro console in late 2024, but there wasn't a big shift in the market, which brings us to another issue: most 8K TVs don't accept compressed 8K signals over HDMI 2.1.

Philips has just unleashed what they're calling the world's first dual-mode 1000Hz gaming monitor with its new ENVIA 27M2N5500XD. Check it out:

The new Philips ENVIA 27M2N5500XD gaming monitor features a 27-inch Fast IPS panel that is capable of 1440p @ 540Hz or 720p @ 1000Hz. Philips explains in its press release: "As the first dual-mode monitor with a true 1,000Hz panel, the 27M2N5500XD eliminates motion blur and screen tearing in fast-paced FPS games like CS:GO and Valorant, making moving targets and bullet trajectories crystal-clear".

We also have a 1ms gray-to-gray (GtG) response time, 2000:1 contrast ratio, 100% coverage of the sRGB color space (96% of DCI-P3 and 107% of Adobe RGB), with a peak brightness of 500 nits and DisplayHDR 400 certification. On the back, Philips includes 2 x HDMI 2.1 ports, 1 x DisplayPort 2.1 port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

AMD's next-generation Zen 6 architecture will debut this year, with its CCD packing more density, more CPU cores, more cache, and it'll only be a bit bigger than the CCDs on the Zen 5 and Zen 4 chips, all fabbed on TSMC's fresh new N2 process node.

In a new post on X by leaker "HXL" who provided the Zen CCD die sizes starting from Zen 2 through to the next-gen Zen 6 CCD, you can see that the new Zen 6 CCDs will feature 50% more cores (12 cores per CCD versus 8 cores on Zen 3/4/5), 50% more cache (48MB per CCD versus 32MB on Zen 3/4/5) and fabbed on TSMC's latest N2 process node using NanoSheet technology.

AMD is expected to use TSMC's new N2P process node for all of its Zen 6 processors, with the IOD fabbed on N3P, which we heard about in leaks previously (more on that in the links below). The CCD die size is only a bit bigger with Zen 6 coming in at around 76mm2, compared to 71mm2 for Zen 5's CCD and 72mm2 for Zen 4, but smaller than Zen 3's CCD which is 83mm2.

In a new batch of Jeffrey Epstein files that were released by the US Department of Justice, it has been revealed that Epstein was banned from Xbox LIVE services in 2013.

According to the now-released email chain, Epstein was removed from the Xbox LIVE service due to being a registered sex offender, with the email from Xbox LIVE stating that Epstein's account has been "permanently suspended due to harassment, threats, and/or abuse of other players." Additionally, the email states, "This conduct has been determined to be severe, repeated, and/or excessive."

In another email, it reads that the action taken against Epstein's account was based on the New York Attorney General's partnership with Microsoft and other online gaming companies to remove registered sex offenders from online gaming services, such as Xbox LIVE. The rule to remove registered sex offenders from online gaming services is to preserve and protect the service from the potential risks registered sex offenders pose to others, particularly children.

Sony is reportedly cooking up a refreshed PlayStation Portal gaming handheld for 2026. It is rumored to debut with an improved OLED panel, replacing the LCD used in the current handheld.

In some new posts on the NeoGAF forums, leaker "KeplerL2" explained that Sony is working on an updated PlayStation Portal that would be released this year. He explained: "unfortunately, the recent AMD leaks confirm that AMD intends to keep RDNA 3.5 until 2029 and even then in when they release the RDNA 5 APUs they are going to exclusively reserve them towards their "Premium APUs" so those chips are going to go towards Handheld PCs that will cost $1200+ on release".

Kepler added: "this is probably why Sony came up with their own Dynamic Technology because that PlayStation Handheld that's coming out in 2027 is still going to be RDNA 3.5".

A new mysterious Dragon Ball game is in the works, and fans think it could be related to the franchise's MMORPG from 2010.

Bandai Namco has revealed a new Dragon Ball game as part of the franchise's big 40th anniversary, and it seemingly takes place some 680 years after the events of Dragon Ball Z.

The project is codenamed Age 1000, and not much is known about the game, but fans speculate that it could be related to the old Dragon Ball Online MMORPG that was released in 2010 because the both take place in the same age.

More than half of all Xbox consoles sold in the US in 2025 were digital-only devices, new data from Circana reveals.

The days of physical media seem to be numbered as more and more consumers are choosing to buy cheaper, disc-less video game consoles. According to Circana analyst Mat Piscatella, 66% of Xbox Series consoles that were sold in the United States throughout 2025 didn't have a physical media drive.

Interestingly enough, PlayStation gamers are also moving towards digital as well: 49% of PS5 sales in the US were also digital-only, and this includes the PS5 Pro model, which is digital-only by default. All new PS5 models are also digital-only by default, showing a clear funneling of consumers to Sony's more lucrative and profitable sector, software and services.

Konami's plans to revive dormant franchises expands even further as the publisher promises yet another Silent Hill game for long-time horror fans.

Konami has seemingly confirmed that a new Silent Hill game is in the works, and it could be separate from the previously announced games. A bit ago, Konami confirmed that a Silent Hill 1 remake was in the works with Bloober Team, and there's also the upcoming Silent Hill Townfall game that's expected to launch in March 2026.

Konami's latest Q3'26 earnings results give an update on what's to come from the franchise, with the company saying a "brand-new title" is on the way.

Xbox's operating margins were downwardly affected by an impairment charge, which could reflect lower-than-expected performance from one or multiple games.

According to management, Xbox's holiday 2025 content and services results were "well below expectations." Earnings-wise, Xbox delivered around $5.96 billion in revenue, down over $600 million from last year. Xbox splits its revenue in two, with hardware on one side and digital content on the other, and half of this yearly loss, or $300 million, was from the digital side.

In the report, Microsoft's CFO Amy Hood reveals that Xbox had an impairment charge during the period. This usually happens when a game is performing badly and a company lowers the internal value that it has assigned to the project. Every game has what's called a lifetime value attached to it, and this is monetary. If a game does badly, a company will write it down, or write it off entirely. It's also possible that this impairment charge is related to cancelled games and the studio that Microsoft shut down in mid-2025, during the Q1'26 period.

Following a not-inconsiderable price hike, Microsoft is apparently having a hard time convincing gamers to buy its Xbox Series consoles.

Microsoft's games division didn't have the best results in Holiday 2025. Xbox generated ~$5.96 billion over the season, down some $600 million over last year, driven by lower-than-expected results from game sales, microtransactions, and subscriptions.

The hardware segment was more bad news, at least on a year-to-year comparative basis: Microsoft made a new 12-year revenue low for Xbox console sales throughout Q2'26, which is the Holiday 2025 period. According to data estimates, Microsoft made just $688 million from Xbox Series console sales in the critical three-month holiday window, down -32% year-over-year and representing the lowest results from FY15-FY26.

Microsoft's latest Q2'26 results show that Xbox had a significant downward slide in holiday revenues.

New data shows that Xbox didn't do great over the holidays, at least compared to a year ago when it launched Black Ops 6, a game hailed as the "biggest Call of Duty release ever." Microsoft recently published its Q2'26 results for the Oct - Dec 2025 period, showing a clear decline in Xbox earnings.

Based on calculations from Install Base number-cruncher John Welfare, who does an excellent job cataloging Microsoft's gaming earnings, and Microsoft's own year-to-year calculations, the Xbox brand delivered an estimated $5.96 billion in the holiday 2025 period. These results represent a -9% decline from last year; in Q2'25, the prior year, Xbox generated $6.58 billion through holiday 2024. That's a sizable difference of ~$620 million in year-to-year earnings.

If the RTX 5070 isn't enough for you - and it isn't for many gamers, especially with that 12GB of VRAM - you're looking at a seriously pricey GPU above that tier.

NVIDIA's RTX 5070 Ti is getting seriously pricey, which would appear to back up the idea that this graphics card is now in scarce supply.

If you recall, there were even recent rumblings on the grapevine that the RTX 5070 Ti was effectively at the end of the line, with production having been halted - rumors NVIDIA quickly clarified weren't true.

Apple has just posted its fiscal Q1 2026 financial results, with a record $143.8 billion in revenue and huge iPhone sales of $85.2 billion, up 23% year-over-year.

In the first fiscal quarter of 2026, Apple scooped up $143.8 billion in revenue, representing a 16% year-over-year increase compared to $97.9 billion in Q1 2026. Out of that $143.8B in revenue, Apple earned $113.7 billion from its product segment, and $30 billion from its services business.

Apple beat analysts' expectations for the quarter, which expected the company to pull $78.3 billion for the quarter versus $85.2 billion, while the company noted it now has an install base of over 2.5 billion devices worldwide.

SK hynix has reportedly had "significant progress" in NVIDIA's extensive HBM4 qualification tests, which will end up inside of Rubin AI GPUs coming soon.

In a new report from South Korean media outlet Hankyung picked up by analyst @Jukan on X, we're hearing from industry sources that on January 30, SK hynix achieved "meaningful results" in NVIDIA's HBM4 System-in-Package (SiP) testing earlier this month. SK hynix started the Customer Sample (CS) certification process with NVIDIA in October 2025, where during that time defects were found in some circuits.

SK hynix made modifications to the circuits and adjusted the process, delivering improved HBM4 memory chips to NVIDIA earlier this month. It's been confirmed that these optimized products are very close to being ready for mass production, with the new HBM4 memory chips are good to go at 10Gbps under general environments, they are hitting 9-10Gbps under NVIDIA's rigorous test conditions for temperature, humidity, and impact.