Latest News - Page 169

GOG has introduced Patrons, a new $5 monthly subscription that helps fund games preservation.

CD Projekt Group's GOG storefront has announced its own Patreon-like support system that allows gamers to directly contribute to helping permanently secure classic PC games. GOG Patrons is a subscription where users pay $5 a month to help boost the budget to preserve more old-school digital games.

So...why charge money? Doesn't CD Projekt already make a ton of money? While the publisher does make hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue a year, GOG is an ancillary, loss-leading part of the business. GOG, which stands for Good Old Games, will buy the rights to original versions of legacy PC games to resell on their storefront.

Nintendo's shares have dropped 10% from December's trading high as the company once again faces the dreaded combination of component shortages and rising costs.

Nintendo's aspirations for the Switch 2 could be stymied throughout 2026, leading to hardware production disruptions and potentially even price hikes for consumers.

New reports from Bloomberg indicate that Nintendo is now paying more money to secure parts for its Switch 2 system. Data from TrendForce suggests that Nintendo is now paying 41% more for the memory chips used in the handheld-console; the Switch 2 uses 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM, split evenly across 2x 6GB modules from Micron.

Season 2 of the Fallout TV show premieres tomorrow, and Bethesda is ready to capitalize on the series with a bunch of paid digital products and updates in its slew of Fallout games.

Xbox is being pressured by Microsoft to deliver 30% margins, and ZeniMax, while a limited integration company, is still technically part of the overall Xbox brand. Bethesda has some of the most enduring games franchises, and Fallout in particular has been cracked open in the hopes of exploiting the new Fallout TV show.

Bethesda has readied a multitude of Fallout games, content, and buyable products in the hopes of capitalizing off of Fallout season 2's momentum; Fallout 76 got the Burning Springs update, there's a new Fallout 4 re-release being sold for $60, and even a $155 anniversary bundle for a 15-year-old game. Now the studio is adding a paid $10 season pass into Fallout Shelter with a New Vegas-themed update.

You want a PC game that's 100% been created by AI? No, neither do I, but we've got one, and it's a bullet hell roguelite called Codex Mortis.

PC Gamer picked up on the game, which is still under development, but it's on Steam and there's a demo of Codex Mortis available if you dare to try it.

In a press release, the developer (Crunchfest) states: "Crunchfest today released the playable demo for Codex Mortis, a necromantic survival bullet hell that makes gaming history as the first 100% AI-generated playable game. Plan your build, combine spells into synergies, and watch the battlefield erupt in beautiful chaos. The demo is available now on Steam for solo or local co-op play."

NVIDIA's RTX 3060 is finally going to sell through entirely likely later this month, after Team Green pulled the plug on the graphics card some time ago.

VideoCardz highlighted a post on the Board Channels, a source of a lot of hardware rumors in China - but one that should be regarded with some caution - insists that time has been called on the RTX 3060.

We're told that board manufacturers including ASUS, Colorful, Galax, GIGABYTE and MSI cleared their remaining RTX 3060 supply in September and October, with Zotac being the only player with a meaningful level of stock left after that - and that went dry in November.

When the mainstream and entry-level Intel Arc B580 launched in December 2024, we were all expecting to see the flagship mid-range Intel Arc B770 sometime this year. There have been several rumors pointing to a potential 'Big Battlemage' launch throughout this year, and just when we were about to lose hope, Intel updated its VTune Profiler performance analysis tool, adding support for the BMG-G31 GPU, which is the chip that will power the Intel Arc B770 or an AI-focused workstation equivalent.

Throw in shipping manifests detailing brackets and parts for a new desktop graphics card, similar to what we saw before the Intel Arc B580's launch, and you could say that the chances of getting an imminent announcement or a CES 2026 reveal are pretty good. Especially now that the official Intel Gaming account on the social media platform X responded to a fan who got excited about upcoming Intel architectures and technologies.

The post, which has since been deleted, basically name-dropped the B770, Panther Lake, and Nova Lake as exciting technologies on the horizon. In response, Intel Gaming opened with, "We're thrilled to hear you're pumped about the B770." Which would be a strange thing to say if there was no plan to release an Intel Arc B770 GPU with the BMG-G31 chip.

Recently, Microsoft posted a rather lengthy blog post covering all the advances in PC gaming on Windows devices this year, while providing some information on what's in store for the future. With Windows 11 widely regarded as a bottleneck standing in the way of optimized performance, the good news is that one of the key things it's focusing on is fixing that with improved "background workload management, power and scheduling improvements, graphics stack optimizations," and more.

Now, one of the reasons Microsoft is actively looking to improve Windows 11 as a platform for PC gaming with more urgency than we've seen in recent years comes down to the company's push into the portable PC gaming handheld space with the ROG Xbox Ally and the rumors that the next-gen Xbox console is set to be a PC-hybrid device. This is why the Xbox Full Screen Experience is now available for everyone to try out. Xbox is slowly becoming a part of Windows.

And early next year, the company is set to release a new OS-level feature designed to benefit handhelds like the ROG Xbox Ally X. It's called Auto SR, and it's an AI-powered upscaling solution that is very different from DLSS or even FSR.

Well, this won't end well... HDD prices are rocketing upwards, with prices on mechanical HDDs rising the highest they've been in the last 2 years.

According to new reports from Nikkei, the demand for HDDs is through the roof, with contract HDD prices rising 4% quarter-over-quarter, the highest figure in the last 8 quarters (two years). The demand is coming mostly from large-scale data center build outs across the planet, with HDD requirements used more in US-based facilities.

AI needs as much data as it can get, with cloud service providers (CSPs) using HDDs the most, as they're the most cost-effective and efficient medium for storage.

Samsung Foundry is reportedly in discussions with AMD to fab its next-gen EPYC "Venice" CPUs on its new 2nm (SF2) process node.

In a new report from Korean media outlet SEdaily, we're hearing that after Samsung Foundry's recent discussions and semiconductor deals with tech giants Tesla and Apple, the South Korean semiconductor giant is looking to secure AMD as a customer on its new SF2 process node.

It's disclosed that Samsung Foundry and AMD are working together on a "next-generation" CPU that is believed to be AMD's next-gen EPYC "Venice" CPUs. SEdaily reports: "the two companies plan to finalize the contract around January of next year after evaluating whether the process can actually achieve the performance level AMD demands. However, the industry believes that production is likely".

ASUS has announced that it has claimed the No. 1 position in global OLED monitor market share, which has surged throughout 2025, to a leading 21.9% market share.

In a report from TrendForce on November 18, we learned that global OLED monitor shipments hit 644,000 units in Q3 2025, which is up 12% quarter-over-quarter, and up 65% year-over-year. TrendForce also projects that total 2025 OLED monitor shipments will hit 2.62 million units, representing 84% growth from 2024.

ASUS announced: "ASUS today announced that it has claimed the No. 1 position in global OLED monitor market share, following a surge in sales throughout 2025. According to independent market research firm TrendForce, ASUS now holds an estimated 21.9% share, surpassing competitors and cementing its leadership in this fast-growing market".

Apple is reportedly using a new bezel-less display for its 20th anniversary iPhone, with both LG Display and Samsung Display spending hundreds of millions of dollars preparing for the iPhone 20 in 2027.

In a new report from Korean media outlet Dealsite, we're hearing that Apple would be using a "4-sided bending design" and "monolithic full-screen design" and that in order to achieve this, Apple aims to adopt 4-sided bending technology that won't only cover the front, but all four edges of the display on the iPhone 20.

LG Display's current 4-sided bending display is known to be a different concept from the edge display that Samsung has previously used on its Galaxy smartphones. Samsung used its edge display in previous smartphones, applying curvature to the display concerns, but the Galaxy Note Edge was released over 10 years ago, back in 2014. Curvature was used to the left and right sides to be utilized for edge panels and notification displays.

NVIDIA's monster TITAN Ada prototype GPU has been given the teardown treatment by overclocker "Der8auer", and it looks damn right beastly in the flesh. Check it out:

Der8auer has previously benchmarked the elusive NVIDIA TITAN Ada prototype GPU in the past, comparing it against the GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 4090 graphics cards, then had a gander at the custom power adapter from NVIDIA. The power adapter converts dual 8-pin PCIe connectors into dual 12VHPWR connectors and is used for the huge 900W power design of the TITAN Ada prototype GPU.

The teardown reveals NVIDIA's huge quad-slot design and full metal exterior, comparing what he saw with the RTX 4090 Ti prototype GPU teardown from GamersNexus, noting that the backplate assembly on the TITAN Ada uses additional heat pipes and a different surface finish than the other prototype card.

Microsoft wants Xbox to make more profit, and the Xbox games division is pulling out all the stops to make that happen. But there's one thing they may not do for a while: raise game prices to $80.

In June, Microsoft made one of the most unpopular announcements in recent memory: new first-party Xbox games would now cost $80, starting first with Obsidian's The Outer Worlds 2. The decision was lambasted and Microsoft changed its mind, dropping The Outer Worlds 2 back to $70 and implying that all future first-party games would retain this price. It's interesting to note that Nintendo actually was the first to charge the $80 baseline for new AAA games with Mario Kart World's launch on the Switch 2.

In a recent interview with Variety, Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty was asked directly about $80 games, and while he responded that Xbox "does not have any pricing updates," he did seem to indicate that it might be a while before Microsoft tries to raise baseline software prices again.

Xbox game studios boss Matt Booty discusses EA's $55 billion leveraged buyout, saying that the high share price represents both the existing and future value of the publisher's billion-dollar IPs.

Electronic Arts is going private in a $55 billion leveraged buyout financed principally by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, with contributions from investment firms Silver Lake and Affinity Partners. The deal, which would see EA go private, would also involve billion-dollar entertainment properties like the FC franchise, Madden NFL and college football, Battlefield, and even Apex Legends.

EA is among the last major AAA independent publishers on the market and the publisher's peers have taken notice, especially Xbox, whose own success scales with that of third-party groups like EA. In a recent interview with Variety, Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty shared a prognosticating take on the EA deal, saying that the $55 billion valuation isn't just about what Electronic Arts has produced in the past--it's also an attempt at placing a value on what's on the horizon.

Sony is helping fund and publish 4:Loop, a new live service four-player co-op shooter from Mike Booth, the creator of Left 4 Dead.

PlayStation's live service plans are starting to better take shape as SIE reveals its latest investment project. The game is called 4:Loop, and it's an online shooter where four players team up and blast enemies. 4:Loop has a time loop roguelike element where players will die and try again, accumulating gear and trying out new combinations of playstyles along the way.

According to Mike Booth, the game director leading the project at Bad Robot Games, the core idea is to give players the chance to persistently find advantages and exploit the game as much as possible.

Fate of the Old Republic might be early in development, but the RPG should be out before the turn of the decade--at least that's the plan.

KOTOR is getting a spiritual successor called Fate of the Old Republic, or FOTOR for short. The game was announced at The Game Awards, with original BioWare dev and KOTOR director Casey Hudson leading the new Star Wars title. Not much is known about the project, but given the fact that Arcanaut is relatively new and that development recently started, it's possible that FOTOR is multiple years away. How long until it's out? Hudson says it'll launch sometime before 2030.

"Don't worry about the "not till 2030" rumors. Game will be out before then. I'm not getting any younger!" Hudson said on Twitter, indirectly responding to a post from Bloomberg's Jason Schreier on Bluesky.

The future of smartphones is being heavily impacted by the ongoing DRAM shortages, with smartphone makers reportedly set to reintroduce 4GB smartphones in the future... as well as the return of the microSD card slot for (hopefully slightly cheaper) storage expansion.

In a new report from TrendForce, memory prices are projected to rise "sharply again" in Q1 2026, exerting "significant cost pressure on global end-device manufacturers". Smartphone and notebook makers are compelled to increase their product prices and reduce, yes, reduce specifications.

TrendForce notes that memory is increasingly accounting for a larger share of the BOM (bill of material) costs in consumer devices like smartphones and PCs, where we've seen giants like Dell tell its staff that huge price increases on their laptops and desktop PCs are coming... and they aren't, and won't be, the only ones.

Samsung is reportedly halting SATA SSD production in 2026, with the company to announce the news in January 2026, most likely at CES 2026 or shortly after.

In a new video from leaker Moore's Law is Dead, we're to expect that Samsung's long-term exit from SATA SSD production is coming in January. MLID warns that Samsung diving out of the SATA SSD business could tighten supply and jack up the prices of SSD storage across the board in the months ahead, on top of all of the skyrocketing prices of RAM right now.

MLID notes that Samsung SSDs make up a huge amount of Amazon's top-selling SSDs with around 20% of them being SATA-based, and Samsung takes up a considerable portion of that. Samsung removing itself from the market would reduce overall SSD availability, which would put pressure on the pricing of both SATA and M.2 NVMe SSD drives... oh yay.

SK hynix is expecting DRAM supply issues (and high prices, and probably even higher price than now) through until 2028, lining up with other reports suggesting we'll be in pain for the next 2-3 years when it comes to RAM and SSDs.

In a new post on X by user @BullsLab who shared some screenshots of a purported internal analysis by SK hynix, the South Korean memory leader projects that growth for the commodity DRAM will be constrained until at least 2028... but not for HBM and SOCAMM memory modules.

This is because SK hynix has been busy shifting its focus to fulfill the demand of AI servers, where there are masses of profits to be had, and that the possibility of any decent growth in the production capacity for the consumer market remains low.

Dell will be increasing the price of its laptops and PC systems on December 17, because of the ongoing DRAM shortages.

In a new report from Business Insider, Dell reportedly told its staff in an internal message on December 9 that it will be hiking the price of its systems starting on December 17.

There is an internal list of the upcoming price changes sent to staff, with price hikes for Dell's commercial business -- sales to corporate clients, not individual customers -- but Dell's commercial business accounts for around 85% of its annual revenue in the Client Solutions Group (CSG), the division that sells Dell laptops and PCs, according to its latest annual results.