Latest News - Page 171

New court filings in the now-settled class action lawsuit against Aspyr reveal key details on Lucasfilm's game slate, including remakes of both Kotor I and II.

Aspyr had previously been sued in a class-action lawsuit (Malachi Mickelonis v. Aspyr Media, Inc. 8:23-cv-01220) for alleged false advertising, stemming from the original Kotor Switch release. At the time, the developers had advertised the Switch release would include a famous mod that restores tons of cut content. That never happened--the game launched on Switch without the mod, and new reports from Game File's Stephen Totilo reveal why.

Nestled in GameFIle's reporting, which combs through recent court filings in the case, is mention of a Kotor II remake. Lucasfilm had greenlit the project, which was codenamed Juliet, but it would come after. The Kotor II remake is apparently still part of Lucasfilm's game production roadmap, at least that was the case back in March, however things can change quickly in the games industry.

Microsoft could announce the melding of Xbox and Windows sometime in 2026.

Next year, Xbox turns 25, and the brand has been anything but static over its multi-decade run. Xbox was built on disruption, first through Xbox LIVE online play, then with subscription services like Game Pass. Now the next disruption is on the way: Merging PC and consoles together in a hybridized device.

Reports indicate Microsoft's next Xbox console won't be a console at all, but a Windows 11 PC that mimics a console experience. It's possible that the Xbox console as we know it will be relegated to an app "experience" within this new Windows 11 gaming framework. Exact details on what's going on are unclear, however a key Xbox hardware designer says that the future of the Xbox ecosystem will be revealed in 2026 to coincide with the division's 25th anniversary.

US deep-tech AI startup Tiiny AI has just unveiled the world's smallest personal AI supercomputer, with the new Tiiny AI Pocket Lab, which has been officially verified by the Guinness World Record under "The Smallest MiniPC (100B LLM Locally)".

This is the first global unveiling of the new Tiiny AI Pocket Lab, which will fit in your hands -- or your pocket, duh -- and is capable of running up to a full 120-billion-parameter LLM (Large Language Model) entirely on-device, without the need of cloud connectivity, servers, or high-end GPUs.

Tiiny has developed its super-small AI supercomputer for energy-efficient personal intelligence, and the Tiiny AI Pocket Lab runs within a 65W power envelope. The new Tiiny AI Pocket Lab enables massive AI model performance at a fraction of the energy and carbon footprint of traditional GPU-based systems.

NVIDIA has built a new location verification technology that would help the company know where its AI GPUs are being operated, in a bid to help prevent its AI chips from being smuggled into countries where US exports apply.

In a new report from Reuters, the outlet said that NVIDIA has demonstrated its new location verification feature privately over the last few months, but hasn't released it just yet. When it's released, it'll act as a software option that customers and data center operators can install, so they can keep a tighter eye on the AI chips in their fleets.

The newly-developed software from NVIDIA is an opt-in, customer-installed service that keeps an eye on GPU usage, configuration, and errors. It has a pretty decent feature set, providing data center operators with the following abilities:

Microsoft has posted an update covering all of the advances and improvements it has brought to PC gaming on Windows in 2025, from the arrival of the full-screen experience (FSE) for gaming handhelds through to Windows on Arm gaming improvements and the arrival of DirectX Raytracing 1.2 (DXR 1.2).

However, with the general sentiment that gaming on Windows 11 has only gotten worse in recent times, as most Windows updates either focus on adding new AI features and bloat to the operating system, or worse, cut game performance in half for GeForce RTX owners, the post also makes a statement on the future of Windows gaming as we head into 2026.

"We're committed to making Windows the best place to play," Ian LeGrow, Corporate Vice President, Windows + Devices, writes. "And we will continue refining system behaviors that matter most to gaming: background workload management, power and scheduling improvements, graphics stack optimizations, and updated drivers."

AMD's FSR 'Redstone' update is now available for RDNA 4 owners to play with, improving image fidelity and performance across a wide range of games, including Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, which also features the brand-new FSR Ray Regeneration technology that improves ray-tracing lighting effects. Alongside the debut of FSR 'Redstone,' AMD has also released the AMD FSR SDK 2.1, now available on GPUOpen for all game developers.

AMD FSR SDK 2.1 includes the full FSR 'Redstone' suite of neural rendering technologies: AMD FSR Upscaling 4.0.3, AMD FSR Frame Generation 4.0, AMD FSR Ray Regeneration 1.0, and AMD FSR Radiance Caching (Preview).

As introduced with AMD FidelityFX SDK 2.0 (AMD has renamed all FidelityFX tech to the simple AMD FSR), once a game adds new FSR 'Redstone' technologies, future AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition driver releases for Radeon GPUs can automatically update the version of ML or AI-based technologies used.

AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 25.12.1 is here, and it adds official support for FSR 'Redstone,' which launched earlier today. For a breakdown on everything you need to know about FSR 'Redstone,' check out our main story on the technology, which includes the new AI-powered FSR Upscaling, FSR Frame Generation, FSR Ray Regeneration, and FSR Radiance Caching - which now fall under the AMD FSR banner.

As we've seen with the launch of FSR 4 earlier this year, which has been renamed to FSR upscaling (ML), the FSR 'Redstone' suite is exclusive to the latest RDNA 4 and Radeon RX 9000 Series graphics cards. With over 200 games set to add FSR 'Redstone' by the end of the year, AMD FSR just got its most significant update since the technology first debuted.

The new AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 25.12.1 drivers for Radeon GPUs are available for all RDNA gamers, as they also include some fixes for existing issues, alongside adding support for new workstation GPUs, the Radeon AI PRO R9600D and Radeon AI PRO R9700S. Here are the full Release Notes.

Nintendo shares have slid as much as 4.7% on Wednesday, hitting their lowest levels since May, wiping $14 billion in market share, as there are major concerns over the increasing price of DRAM memory chips required for the Switch 2.

Inside of the Nintendo Switch 2 is 12GB of RAM which the company needs, but they have gone up a huge 41% in the last quarter, with the NAND storage board for the Switch 2 also now 8% more expensive, and expected price increases for the add-on storage cards in 2026, too.

Pelham Smithers of Pelham Smithers Associates said: "The rise in NAND prices is starting to really impact express SD card prices. A 256GB express SD card costs $89.99 on Amazon. This is effectively a cost that Nintendo has passed on to the gamer".

HKC teases its next-gen RGB Mini-LED technology that will be presented to the world at CES 2026 in a few weeks time, using new RGB Mini-LED tech that will unleash ultra-bright, ultra color-accurate displays, overcoming the limitations of conventional Mini-LED technology.

The Chinese display maker has introduced what it's calling "the world's first" RGB Mini-LED display, but we did see Hisense launch its massive 116-inch RGB Mini-LED TV at CES 2025 at the beginning of the year, but HKC will use the new RGB Mini-LED technology inside of new gaming monitors in 2026. This is how RGB Mini-LED technology differs from regular Mini-LED tech:

If we compare this to Hisense RGB Mini-LED tech that has over 20% more color volume, even when compared to high-end QD Mini-LED displays, that shows that RGB Mini-LED tech should rival OLED and its advantages.

AMD has announced and launched FSR 'Redstone,' which is a suite of four AI-powered technologies designed to improve PC gaming performance and image fidelity. Exclusive to RDNA 4, we've already seen one of the significant components of FSR 'Redstone' arrive alongside the latest generation of Radeon graphics cards with the AI-powered FSR 4 Super Resolution.

However, as FSR 'Redstone' introduces AI-powered FSR Upscaling (what we previously called FSR 4), FSR Frame FSR Generation, FSR Ray Regeneration, and FSR Radiance Caching, all FSR technologies now fall under the AMD FSR banner - including the older FSR 3.1 Super Resolution for RDNA 3 and RDNA 2 GPUs, which is now called FSR Upscaling (Analytical).

And with AMD confirming that over 200 games will be getting FSR Upscaling (ML) and FSR Frame Generation (ML) support by the end of the year, if you've got an RDNA 4 GPU like the Radeon RX 9060 XT, Radeon RX 9070, or Radeon RX 9070 XT, you've come to the right place. Here's the complete list of FSR 'Redstone' games supporting these new technologies.

NVIDIA is celebrating the 5th anniversary of Cyberpunk 2077 by giving away an ultra-rare GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Cyberpunk 2077 Edition graphics card personally signed by NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang.

This is all part of NVIDIA's huge GeForce Holiday 2025 giveaway event, where it has listed not one but two custom GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Cyberpunk 2077 Edition graphics cards, with one of them signed by Jensen. The entries are done through NVIDIA's various GeForce social channels, with NVIDIA running anniversary and CES-themed prompts.

CD PROJEKT RED launched the PC version of Cyberpunk 2077 five years ago now if you can believe it, being one of the key showcases of NVIDIA RTX technologies including 4 ray-traced effects including shadows, reflections, ambient occlusion and diffuse illumination, as well as DLSS 2.0 upscaling at the time.

AMD lifted the lid and officially launched its new suite of AMD FSR 'Redstone' technologies today, and with that, it has decided to simplify the naming. FSR originally stood for FidelityFX Super Resolution, an upscaling technology created in response to NVIDIA's AI-powered DLSS Super Resolution. With FSR 'Redstone' introducing new AI-powered technologies and features, AMD FSR now refers to all FSR technologies - past, present, and future.

And when it comes to Super Resolution, FSR 3 and FSR 4 now fall under the same branding - FSR Upscaling. Simple. Well, not exactly, as the new AI-powered FSR 'Redstone' technologies are exclusive to the latest RDNA 4 generation of GPUs - the Radeon RX 9060 XT, RX 9070, and flagship RX 9070 XT. This means there are two versions of FSR Upscaling: the newer RDNA 4-exclusive FSR Upscaling (ML) and the older FSR Upscaling (Analytical).

It's a change that, on paper, makes sense because AMD's Adrenalin drivers and software, or a game with native FSR support, will automatically choose the version depending on the Radeon GPU you have. In a way, it's reminiscent of how NVIDIA has handled its new upgraded Transformer model for DLSS Super Resolution, except the Transformer and older CNN model work across all GeForce RTX graphics cards.

AMD's FSR has entered a new era with the arrival of FSR 'Redstone' for the RDNA 4 generation of graphics cards, led by the flagship Radeon RX 9070 XT. By leveraging machine learning (ML) and AI, FSR 'Redstone' is a suite of four new technologies designed to enhance the performance and fidelity of PC gaming, beginning with the arrival of FSR 4's impressive AI-powered Super Resolution (FSR Upscaling) earlier this year.

And with that, FSR 4 is now called AMD FSR Upscaling (ML), powered by a new ML-based algorithm that delivers a dramatic improvement in image quality when upscaling from lower resolutions to 1080p, 1440p, or 4K. We've already covered this extensively in our reviews of various RDNA 4 GPUs like the Radeon RX 9060 XT, RX 9070, and RX 9070 XT, and it's a game-changer when compared to previous FSR versions like FSR 3 and FSR 4.

As part of AMD's big FSR 'Redstone' reveal, the company has confirmed that FSR Upscaling (ML) is exclusive to FSR 4, and that previous Radeon generations, including RDNA 2 and RDNA 3, will use the older non-AI version, now called FSR Upscaling (Analytical). This brings us to the next FSR 'Redstone' technology making its debut with today's announcement - AMD FSR Frame Generation (ML).

Noctua has teamed up with Prusa Research on two new 3D printing filaments in Noctua's signature colorway, check them out:

The new Prusament PLA Noctua Beige and Prusament PLA Noctua Brown combine Prusa's expertise with in-house manufacturing quality and excellent printing performance with Noctua's iconic beige and brown color scheme, making them the ideal choice when 3D printing parts for Noctua-themed PC builds or DIY projects that use Noctua fans for cooling.

Like other Prusa filaments, Prusament PLA Noctua Beige and Noctua Brown are manufactured in-house by Prusa Research in Prague, Czech Republic. This guarantees flawless, consistent quality with extremely tight tolerances (±0.02mm), maximum colour accuracy and continuous monitoring.

John Romero briefly talks about a new game at the Madrid Video Game Show 2025 convention, confirming that the new project is separate from his previous cancelled game.

Back in July, Microsoft laid off hundreds of employees, closed down a studio, and cancelled a handful of games. John Romero's new FPS had been among those cancelled games. Romero's studio was working on a new shooter for Bethesda before Microsoft pulled funding, leading to the game being scrapped.

That hasn't stopped Romero and his team. At a big gaming event in Madrid, the legendary Doom creator says that he's working on a new game that has a "completely different design"than the original project. To be clear, that original game isn't coming out, but Romero is taking pieces of that $50 million project and inserting them into the new game. The aim is to deliver something that brings the same sense of wonder that Elden Ring brought to the souls-like genre.

SpaceX is rocketing towards its plans for an initial public offering (IPO) that has the Elon Musk-led company targeting a valuation of around $1.5 trillion, making it the biggest stock-market listing of all time.

In a new report from Bloomberg, SpaceX's management and advisers are pursuing a listing as soon as mid-to-late 2026, according to people who (as usual) asked to not be identified because the matter is confidential. Elon Musk and SpaceX's board of directors advanced plans for the listing and fundraising -- including hiring for key roles and how it would spend the capital.

Starlink is an incredibly awesome technology and service and is continuously growing, as well as the new promise of direct-to-cell business, as well as the development of SpaceX's exciting Starship moon and Mars rocket. SpaceX is expected to make around $15 billion in revenue in 2025, increasing to between $22 billion and $24 billion in 2026, with most of those sales coming from Starlink.

Nintendo released the Switch 2 in September, and now Bethesda has a native version of Skyrim ready for the holiday season.

Skyrim is re-releasing yet again, this time on the Switch 2 with the new Skyrim Anniversary Edition. This marks the ninth time that Bethesda has released Skyrim, and the third time that Skyrim has appeared on the Switch. Anyone who bought the Anniversary Edition on the base Switch 1 will receive a free upgrade to the Switch 2 version, but that's to be expected, because all players are getting access to is a next-gen upgrade--gen 9 taught us that these upgrades typically aren't worth paying for on their own.

For the Switch 2 version, Bethesda has leveraged the system's new beefier Tegra T239 chip to deliver some gameplay boosts over Skyrim on Switch 1. The studio says that the new version has improved loading times and in-game performance, however users report that Skyrim is still locked to 30FPS on Switch 2 and suffers from substantial input lag.

Samsung's next-gen in-house Exynos 2600 processor will only be found inside of the Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus smartphones sold in South Korea, with Qualcomm handling the rest -- as well as Samsung's next-gen flagship Galaxy S26 Ultra.

In a new report from DigiTimes, we're hearing that Samsung will only use its Exynos 2600 processor in its home market of South Korea, with the report stating that there are yield issues, existing contracts with Qualcomm to use its latest Snapdragon SoC, and residual perception issues with customers all culminating in limiting how much the Exynos 2600 is used inside of its new smartphones.

Samsung is fabbing its new Exynos 2600 processor on its in-house 2nm GAA process node, with the new SoC already in production, but it seems that its use will be super-limited to just the South Korean market. Qualcomm management said during its recent earnings call that it expected to maintain its new 75% baseline share with Samsung for its next-gen Galaxy S26 family of smartphones.

First appearing in 1999 and 2000, the Razer BoomSlang is widely considered the very first gaming mouse explicitly built for PC gaming. Sporting a unique shape meant to resemble a snake's head, the original Razer BoomSlang featured cutting-edge hardware for the time, including a 2,000 DPI sensor and USB support. It also shipped with a customization app that let you remap the buttons, something that hadn't been seen before.

Fast-forward to 2025, and Razer has announced that it's releasing a limited edition Razer Boomslang 20th Anniversary Edition gaming mouse with the company's latest and greatest gaming mouse technology. In addition to 8,000 Hz wireless polling and the Razer Focus Pro 45K Optical Sensor Gen-2, which features a sensitivity rating of up to 45,000 DPI, you've also got Optical Mouse Switches rated at 100-million clicks and 9-Zone Razer Chroma RGB Lighting with an underglow effect.

The Razer Boomslang 20th Anniversary Edition keeps the original look and feel of the original mouse, albeit updated for the modern era. That said, the PU leather-wrapped primary left- and right-click buttons are a very cool retro addition to the body's transparent shell and the included Mouse Dock Pro wireless charging dock.

Ubisoft officially confirmed that it was remaking classic Assassin's Creed games earlier this year, with the first game part of this initiative expected to be fan-favorite Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (2013). This remake has been heavily rumored for 2026 for quite a while, and now, thanks to a PEGI rating listing, we have a title for the project: Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced.

PEGI, the European video game content rating system, has awarded Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced a PEGI 18 rating, indicating that the ratings board played through the game to determine the rating. Interestingly, Assassin's Creed IV is dropping the numerical 'four' or 'IV' branding for the remake, which makes sense if Ubisoft plans to release multiple Assassin's Creed remakes with the Resynced name.

Based on leaked information, it's worth reiterating that Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is a remake and not a remaster, which means it's set to feature all-new visuals and animation for the game's characters and environments alongside updated voice work and other elements. It remains to be seen how faithful the remake is to the original and whether it will introduce some of the franchise's more modern action-RPG aspects into the game.