Microsoft's third Game Pass price increase has affected PC Game Pass, but the extra cost offers day and date access to new first-party games.

Game Pass is getting overhauled with a rebrand and price hikes. Ultimate is now $30 a month, and includes Ubisoft+ with the promise of 75 day one games per year. Game Pass PC has also gone up from its original $11.99 price to $16.49 per month, an increase of +37%.

Interestingly enough, this price increase was not mentioned anywhere in the official Xbox Wire announcement post, nor did Microsoft make a new promotional trailer video for PC Game Pass like it did for the other tiers. The new PC pricing is only available via a clickable drop-down section on the Game Pass join page. Perhaps the imminent launch of the Xbox Ally PC handheld duo has something to do with this obfuscation, as Microsoft may want new users to initially buy games at full price.

A consortium of investors is taking Electronic Arts private in a $55 billion leveraged buyout, but experts are saying that the deal's timing doesn't make a ton of financial sense.

EA will soon become a private company. A consortium of three investor groups has pooled $55 billion together to buy out all existing EA shares: Saudi Arabia's PIF sovereign wealth fund, investment firm Silver Lake, and Jared Kushner's investment group Affinity Partners. The deal, which is expected to close in April 2027, is a bit of a head-scratcher for institutions like Citigroup.

In a recent interview with Yahoo Finance, Citi managing director Jason Bazinet says the timing of this move is unusual, mainly because EA will likely divulge metrics of Battlefield 6 during its upcoming quarterly reports and that info can potentially be used to secure a higher price.

Polish game dev Bloober Team has confirmed Silent Hill 1 is in production at the studio, and also mentions some interesting new game world technology for future projects.

Work on the Silent Hill 1 remake is in full swing. On the heels of the successful Silent Hill 2 remake, Bloober is applying their horror mastery to the first game in the series, and it could use new "open cities" technology created by the game devs.

In a recent Q&A with investors, management for the publicly-traded Bloober Team discussed plans for new games, including Silent Hill and beyond. The studio, who just released Cronos: The New Dawn, aims to streamline game development so that fans aren't waiting too long in between major title releases. This could mean that the Silent Hill 1 remake will release sooner than expected.

New Call of Duty games are exclusive to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for at least a year, Microsoft has announced, and some existing Call of Duty games can still be played by Premium subscribers.

Microsoft has announced key changes with Xbox Game Pass, with new Essential and Premium tiers and Game Pass Ultimate increasing to $30 a month. Due to the timing, the hike was designed in part for Call of Duty; Microsoft is locking access to new Call of Duty games like Black Ops 7 behind the more expensive Ultimate tier.

This sets the trend for new Call of Duty game releases on Xbox Game Pass, however older Call of Duty games will remain in the Game Pass catalog to be played by mid-tier subscribers. Doing a quick search, I found that there are three mainline Call of Duty games offered on the $15 per month Xbox Game Pass Premium: WWII, and the newer Modern Warfare II and Modern Warfare III reboots. This feels like an important distinction to make, and is indicative of Microsoft's willingness to break apart premium franchises for potential long-term gain (Call of Duty is so popular that even the older games would still sell millions of copies per year, and in one year, the franchise sold 25 million games).

Xbox president Sarah Bond reiterates that the Game Pass model is profitable, sustainable, and beneficial for game developers.

About a week before Microsoft chose to increase Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to $30 per month, executive management was reminding Japanese games publication Game Watch about the service's recent milestones. Xbox's president, Sarah Bond, says that Game Pass continues to be profitable.

When asked by Game Watch if Xbox was a viable business, Bond answered: "Last fiscal year, Xbox Game Pass sales reached a record high of $5 billion. It's a profitable business, and as more creators join Xbox Game Pass, payments to creators increase, so we think it's a good business for creators."

In the by now long and established tradition of weird stuff happening in the world of gaming, somebody has built an actual AI within Minecraft.

As TechSpot reports, this is the work of YouTuber Sammyuri, who is no stranger to pulling off novel stuff in Minecraft, and this latest installment is called 'CraftGPT' - dropping a hint as to the inspiration here.

This is a small language model (SLM) AI running using Minecraft's Redstone mechanics (which is akin to the electricity of the blocky world).

Microsoft is experiencing backlash after announcing a price hike for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate by 50%, and now the director of gaming and platform communications for Microsoft has come out to defend the decision to increase the price of the subscription.

Dustin Blackwell spoke to The Verge regarding the 50% price increase on the Ultimate subscription plan, and said that Microsoft understands that a price increase is "never fun for anybody," but Microsoft is attempting to make swallowing the hike easier by adding more value to Game Pass Ultimate. Blackwell admits the backlash from the community is "something we don't take lightly" and that "we're listening to the feedback of players and the community".

What value is Microsoft bringing to the new, now-overhauled Game Pass tiers? Blackwell explained that Microsoft has decided to give subscribers access to more than 75 day one releases each year, which is a "50 percent increase over the day one titles we provided last year." In addition to day-one access to titles, Blackwell pointed to additions to Game Pass such as Ubisoft+ Classics and Fortnite Crew.

A new leak has suggested that Sony is working on a new PS5 DualSense wireless controller that will feature a removable battery, which is slated to be released sometime this year.

The rumors come from the publication PPE, which, to add some credibility to the source, predicted the release of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 coming to the PS5. As for the new controller, the publication states the new DualSense controller, internally referred to as the "DualSense V3" will launch alongside a revised PS5 Pro in November, and replace current PS5 controllers.

While the controller will be very much identical to current PS5 controllers, the big difference the DualSense V3 will be ushering in will be a removable battery, which, if true, means Sony has taken a page out of Microsoft's book with its Xbox controllers. For those who don't know, current PS5 controllers come with a built-in rechargeable battery that gets power through a USB cable or docking station. However, these rechargeable batteries aren't removable.

Xbox Cloud Gaming is no longer in beta, entering v1.0 and is now being carved up in various Game Pass subscription tiers.

Xbox has achieved a major milestone as its cloud game streaming service has now officially launched. The news was included in today's Xbox Game Pass restructuring announcement, which saw Game Pass Ultimate increase by 50% to $30 per month.

Microsoft is bringing cloud streaming to all Game Pass tiers, but it's also treating the user experience as a commodity to leverage added value. Each of the Game Pass tiers has different wait times--cloud gaming isn't instant, at least maybe not any more--with the Ultimate tier getting priority fast-lane treatment. Ultimate has shortest wait times at the best quality (up to 1440p), Premium has shorter wait times, and Essential, the cheapest tier, is the slowest. All three clearly mention "unlimited cloud gaming," but the experience will differ among each.

Apple is reportedly shifting its focus from overhauling the Vision Pro headset to developing a pair of smart glasses that will rival Meta's Ray-Ban AI glasses.

The news comes from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, known for having his finger extremely close to the pulse of what is happening inside Apple. Gurman wrote in a recent Bloomberg piece that Apple has "hit pause" on the development of its planned overhaul of the Vision Pro headset, which included the company creating a cheaper, lighter version of the original headset.

The cut-down version of the Vision Pro was slated for release sometime in 2027, but now it appears plans have changed. It appears Apple has recognized the potential of smart glasses technology, particularly in the form factor of sunglasses, as Gurman reports the company is working on at least two types of smart glasses.

Intel has just confirmed that its next-gen Core Ultra 400 series "Nova Lake" desktop CPUs will feature Coyote Cove P-Cores and Arctic Wolf E-Cores.

In its new 59th Edition of the ISA Extensions Reference, Intel packs in details for its next-generation architectures that will power its next-gen Nova Lake desktop CPUs and its next-gen Diamond Rapids server Xeon CPUs. Both of these new CPUs will be launching in 2026, with full details on the P-Core and E-Core architectures.

Intel will be launching its next-gen Panther Lake laptop CPUs next week, but in 2026 we'll see a new family of consumer desktops CPUs in the new Core Ultra 400 "Nova Lake" CPU family. We've had plenty of leaks over the last year, but now Intel has officially confirmed that Nova Lake will feature Coyote Cove P-Cores and Arctic Wolf E-Cores, successors to the Cougar Cove P-Core and Darkmont E-Core architectures to the soon-to-be-released Panther Lake CPUs.

Intel will be unveiling its next-generation Panther Lake CPUs on October 9, and it looks like we can expect another naming scheme to be unveiled: Core Ultra X.

The new Intel Panther Lake-H laptop processors will reportedly debut with a new "Core Ultra X" naming scheme, which will include the Core Ultra X5, Core Ultra X7, and Core Ultra X9 processors, according to a new post IndieKings picked up by @momomo_us on X.

New reports suggest we'll be seeing Intel unveil the new Core Ultra X5 338H, Core Ultra X7 358H, Core Ultra X7 368H, and the flagship Core Ultra X9 388H processors under the new Panther Lake CPU family. The new flagship Core Ultra X9 388H is the "flagship mobile SKU" with up to 5.1GHz CPU clocks on the P-cores, aimed at flagship gaming and content creator laptops.

Apple has reportedly halted development on its new Vision Pro headset to handle something more important: making its new AR smart glasses to compete against Meta, which has been making inroads into the market with release after release.

In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg writer Mark Gurman says that even with Apple's (expensive) attempts to interest consumers in the Vision Pro have "fallen flat", so the company is "increasingly trying to pivot its marketing of the device towards businesses".

Gurman says that Apple has "hit pause" on its planned overhaul to its new Vision Pro headset in order to direct resources to a "more urgent effort: developing smart glasses that can rival products from Meta". Apple was reportedly preparing a cheaper, lighter variant of its AR headset codenamed "N100" for a 2027 release, but now Apple has internally announced that it's moving staff from that project to accelerate work on glasses.

Microsoft has announced a significant price hike for Game Pass, along with an overhaul of the names of each tier, which follows the company's increase in the price of Xbox consoles.

The three tiers are now referred to as Essential, Premium, and Ultimate. As for the price hike, Microsoft has specifically targeted Game Pass Ultimate, which is now $29.99/month, or $360 per year. This price hike is accompanied by a rebranding of the Game Pass tiers, with "Core" now renamed "Essential" and "Standard" renamed "Premium".

Notably, when Game Pass Ultimate first launched in June 2019, it was priced at $14.99, which increased to $16.99 in July 2023, then to $19.99 in July 2024, and is now $29.99 as of October 2025. Ultimate has doubled in price since launch.

When it comes to cloud gaming, which involves streaming games over a network to a wide range of devices, the two names that consistently come up regarding game support, features, and overall quality are NVIDIA's GeForce NOW and Microsoft's Xbox Cloud Gaming. Other services exist, like Amazon Luna (which is available for Prime members), which is relaunching as a cloud gaming platform "for everyone."

This means that, in addition to being able to stream modern titles like EA SPORTS FC 25, Assassin's Creed: Shadows, and Fortnite, Amazon Luna is being "completely redesigned and reimagined" to support a renewed focus on social party games that don't require traditional hardware, such as a controller, to play.

These new cloud-gaming experiences will be located in a new section called GameNight, which will feature a collection of these "social party games" where your smartphone serves as the controller. "All GameNight games are designed to be played together with family and friends for maximum laughter and connection," Amazon writes in the announcement.

The new Logitech MX Master 4is the latest version of the company's long-running series of ergonomic mice designed for professionals and productivity. It's the first mouse in the Logitech MX Master series to introduce haptic feedback, which is customizable, offering vibration-based feedback for tasks such as scrolling, navigation, and selection.

And yes, per the headline, the Logitech MX Master 4 delivers the "fastest and most precise scrolling experience" in its lineup, with the electromagnetic MagSpeed scroll wheel's hyper-fast mode allowing users to scroll through 1,000 lines per second when navigating through documents. An impressive statistic that highlights just how different a scroll wheel on a productivity-first mouse is compared to the tactile step-based approach found on nearly all gaming mice.

Underneath the hood, the Logitech MX Master 4 is powered by an 8,000 DPI optical sensor that is optimized to accurately track on a wide range of surfaces, including glass. There's also a new "high-performance chip and optimised antenna" that Logitech says delivers twice the wireless connectivity strength of previous MX Master models.

Is Windows 7 making a comeback in 2025? Well, it looks to be the case as the latest operating system numbers from StatCounter show that when it comes to the worldwide desktop Windows version market share, Windows 7 is sitting at an impressive (and surprising) 9.6%. And Windows 7 use is surging, with it increasing from around 2% in July to almost 10%.

Windows 7 was first released back in 2009 as the successor to Windows Vista. Unlike Vista, Windows 7 quickly gained popularity among all users, especially gamers and those using their PCs for multimedia purposes. Windows 7 received its last security update in 2023, so it is surprising to see its market share rise in recent months.

According to StatCounter's latest data, although Windows 11 is the most popular version of the operating system, its market share has remained relatively unchanged since June. In fact, even though the market share for Windows 10 has dropped from around 48% to 40%, the chart suggests that Windows 7 has gained those customers.

If you've been a PC gamer for a while and have built a new gaming rig or two in your day, then MSI Afterburner probably needs no introduction. The popular tool for customizing GPU settings, fan curves, and performance monitoring remains the go-to option for many PC gamers in 2025. However, you might be surprised to learn that the tool hasn't received a 'Stable' or non-Beta release for a couple of years. That is, until now.

MSI Afterburner 4.6.6 Stable is the latest version of the tool, available for download and installation now via Guru3D (and coming soon to MSI.com). This new version arrives over two years after the last 'Final' or Stable release, 4.6.5 from 2023, bringing "wide-ranging improvements, expanded hardware support, and security updates."

Under the hood, this new version utilizes the Microsoft Visual C++ 2022 compiler, which means it no longer supports Windows XP. In terms of new stuff, MSI Afterburner 4.6.6 includes full support for NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 50 Series, including GPUs with four fans, as well as AMD's new RDNA 4-powered Radeon RX 9000 Series. As MSI no longer sells Radeon GPUs, this support is unofficial.

Ubisoft's new Tencent-backed subsidiary is named Vantage Studios, and it will oversee the company's largest-value assets.

Today, Ubisoft revealed Vantage Studios, the new group that will lead the future development of high-value Ubisoft franchises including Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six. The subsidiary was formed as part of a billion-dollar partnership between Ubisoft and Tencent; in exchange for a substantial $1.2 billion investment, Tencent would receive 25% stake in this new subsidiary, whose assets were valued in excess of $4 billion at the time.

"Following the recent announcement of Ubisoft's new subsidiary and its two co-CEOs, the company today announced the launch of Vantage Studios, the newly created "creative house" now responsible for some of Ubisoft's largest franchises: Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six. Led by Charlie Guillemot and Christophe Derennes, Vantage Studios will take on development and expansion of these brands, building on the foundation of Ubisoft's experience and expertise, sharing services and technical resources, all while giving developers more hands-on control over the games they are building."

The Steam Hardware & Software Survey results for September 2025 are in, and in the discrete GPU space, NVIDIA continues to dominate with 74% market share compared to just under 18% for AMD and around 8% for Intel. However, a significant portion of AMD and Intel's market share comes from integrated GPUs, as seen in AMD's latest Ryzen AI and Ryzen Z2 Extreme chips for laptops and gaming handhelds.

Examining the top 25 discrete graphics cards used by PC gamers on Steam reveals that they are all GeForce models, led by mainstream options such as the GeForce RTX 3060 and RTX 4060, entry-level models like the GeForce RTX 3050, and mid-range cards like the GeForce RTX 3070 and RTX 4070.

With NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 50 Series launching this year, led by the new flagship GeForce RTX 5090, every model is now listed in the Steam Hardware Survey, apart from the GeForce RTX 5050. Out of the full lineup, far and away the most popular card looks to be the GeForce RTX 5070, which has seen its market share grow to 1.62%.