Latest News - Page 178

Final Fantasy 7 Remake is finally coming to Xbox and Nintendo Switch in 2026, complete with some pretty hefty quality of life improvements and valuable pre-order bonuses.

It's official: After years of waiting, Final Fantasy 7 Remake will release on Xbox Series X/S and Switch 2 in January 2026. Square Enix announced the news as part of the recent Nintendo Direct, and surprisingly the game is a Play Anywhere title on Xbox.

What makes this version of FF7 Remake stand out is an interesting new mode called Streamlined Progression, which is basically an easy mode that lets you play with cheats enabled. "The Streamlined Progression feature introduces unlimited MP and HP at all times, unlimited limit and ATB gauge during battles, 9,999 damage, easier weapon ability acquisition, and more to streamline gameplay and allow players to focus on the story and hybrid combat."

We finally have RAM with a built-in OLED display thanks to v-color introducing its new XFinity+ DDR5 memory kits with OLED displays, available in various capacities and for both AMD and Intel platforms. Check it out:

V-color's new XFinity+ is the world's first DDR5 memory module that rocks a built-in display, debuting earlier this year at Computex 2025. The introduction of the new XFinity+ DDR5 memory from v-color marks a "major leap forward in visibility, system diagnostics, and personalization at the module level" says the company.

XFinity+ is the result of close collaboration between v-color and the GIGABYTE engineering team, ready for speeds of up to DDR5-9066 on both AMD and Intel platforms. The company used an Intel Core Ultra 5 245K processor inside of a GIGABYTE Z890 AORUS MASTER motherboard, using 48GB of CU-DIMM (2 x 24GB sticks) with speeds of up to 9068 MT/s with 1.4V.

NVIDIA wants to co-develop new SSDs with KIOXIA that would be close to 100x faster in read speeds than current SSDs, and use them inside of AI servers to partially replace HBM as GPU memory expanders.

In a new report from Nikkei, we're hearing that KIOXIA is looking to partner with NVIDIA to commercialize new SSDs by 2027 with nearly 100x faster read speeds, to use inside of AI servers and to partially replace HBM as GPU memory expanders. KIOXIA has previously said that by 2029, almost half of NAND memory demand is projected to be AI-related.

Nikkei reports that NVIDIA is aiming for 200 million IOPS, with KIOXIA planning to use two SSDs to achieve that, which will also be on the next-next-generation PCIe 7.0 standard. Masashi Yokotsuka, Executive Vice President of KIOXIA said: "we will collaborate with the world's largest GPU manufacturer to achieve super performance in GPU systems".

Ripple Effect has provided some performance stats for Battlefield 6, saying that it will run at 4K and locked 60FPS on Fidelity Mode on the PS5 Pro, and at 1620p on Performance Mode with a "higher frame rate".

The base PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles will run Battlefield 6 at 1440p on Fidelity Mode and at 1280p on Performance Mode, with Ripple Effect noting BF6 would run at 70-110FPS on Performance Mode, or around 85FPS on average. The base Xbox Series S console runs at 1080p, but Battlefield 6 Technical Director Christian Buhl said it runs "very solidly" at 60FPS, despite needing to tweak some levels, and make changes to make sure that happens.

Buhl explained: "We turned down some fidelity settings in Series S, both to hit our performance targets and to lower the amount of memory. The biggest challenge for us, honestly, was memory - much less than the other consoles, also less than our mid-spec PC - So, that was our biggest challenge: making sure that all of our levels could fit into the memory on the Series S".

GIGABYTE has just unveiled some new X870E AORUS X3D motherboards, ready for AMD's new Ryzen 9000X3D processors on the AM5 socket. Check them out:

GIGABYTE's new X870E AORUS X3D motherboards have X3D Turbo Mode 2.0, a new AI-powered performance enhancer that users can enable on their X3D processors. The proprietary X3D Turbo Mode 2.0 technology from GIGABYTE intelligently dynamically optimizes gaming performance by up to 25% using its built-in AI model, providing more gaming or productivity performance that adapts to your usage scenario in real-time.

Another part of the launch is that these new X870E AORUS X3D motherboards also have GIGABYTE's breakthrough D5 Bionic Corsa technology, a revolutionary system that uses AI-enhanced innovations in software, hardware, and firmware to boost DDR5 memory speeds up to the lofty heights of 9000 MT/s.

Capcom has announced a new Mega Man game just a few months after investors asked about the franchise during an earnings call.

Mega Man is one of Capcom's most evergreen franchises--it's a retro staple that matured to sell 43 million in its lifetime. Investors think similarly about the iconic series and have asked Capcom multiple times about new Mega Man games. Now just a few months after the latest inquiry, Capcom revealed the Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection at today's Nintendo Direct.

"The Mega Man series is one of our most important IPs, and we are continuously considering ways to develop it further," Capcom had said in July, months before today's Star Force announcement.

Capcom surprise announced Resident Evil 9 Requiem will be coming to the Switch 2 on launch day, but it won't be the only game showing up to Nintendo's new platform.

The reports were right: Capcom is bringing the Resident Evil games built on the modern RE Engine over to the Switch 2. All three mainline sequels will all be releasing on the Switch 2 on February 27, 2026: the Texas Chainsaw Massacre-themed RE7 Biohazard, the monster-mash medley of RE8 Village, and the newest game, RE9 Requiem. The games will be on the market in time for the franchise's 30th anniversary in March.

Capcom had not revealed Requiem's launch on Switch 2 until today's Direct showcase, however given the publisher's goal to eventually sell 100 million games in a year, we should expect more ports whenever and wherever possible. Future RE Engine games haven't been confirmed but it seems highly likely that the modern remakes will arrive too. Switch gamers previously had to rely on clunky and costly cloud streaming to play the RE2 Remake.

The Virtual Boy is coming back in early 2026 to blur the eyesight of an entirely new generation.

Nintendo has made the perplexing decision to resurrect its biggest-ever hardware failure, the Virtual Boy, as part of its Switch Online classics program. The headset released in the 1990s and was touted as an early form of virtual reality, but there's just one problem: The screen is only in red. People would complain about eye strain, and ultimately the system failed and became a rare miss for the company. It's somewhat similar to Nintendo's Labo, a cardboard spiritual successor aimed at what the Virtual Boy was trying to achieve.

This version of the Virtual Boy isn't the actual system. It's just an empty stylized case with red viewfinder goggles that you slot your Switch into, just like the Labo kits. Nintendo will release 14 Virtual Boy games (which is nearly the full library, there were only 22 games made for the system) on February 17, 2026 for Switch Online Expansion Pack subscribers, but the mock-up headset will come later.

As Sony cancels multiple projects, closes studios, lays off workers, and tightens budgets, Naughty Dog is making what could be the studio's most costly game yet.

Naughty Dog's new game Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet might end up costing more to develop than all of the studio's previous games, including The Last of Us and the Uncharted series. It's possible that the game, which emphasizes high production quality and cinematic gameplay, could become the most costly PlayStation first-party game--perhaps even beating Concord's purported $250 million budget.

In a recent interview with Variety, studio co-president Neil Druckmann discussed Intergalactic's development, confirming that production is well under way...and that video game actor Troy Baker is joining the cast.

Nintendo's popular Switch 2 can be given a big boost in battery life for those brave enough - or foolish enough, you might argue - to attempt a DIY battery swap.

Needless to say, this isn't for the faint-hearted, but if you're confident enough of your technical knowhow in terms of tinkering around inside the handheld, it's certainly possible to replace the battery with a beefier power pack.

As Tom's Hardware highlighted, this was proved by a YouTuber who goes by the name Naga, and you can watch how the transplant is done in the above clip.

NVIDIA's GeForce Now kicked off its RTX 5080 tier yesterday - the upgraded 'Ultimate' subscription - but it didn't get off to a smooth start.

There was a rush of gamers hitting the streaming service upon the launch of the RTX 5080 plan, presumably checking out exactly how well it performs - and that led to games failing to launch on GeForce Now. Or, in some cases, the GeForce Now app wouldn't even start.

NVIDIA said it would investigate these problems (as VideoCardz reports), then later on yesterday, announced that:

Intel Game On Driver 32.0.101.7029 Non-WHQL is available now, and it adds support for four big game releases - Borderlands 4, Dying Light: The Beast, EA Sports FC 26, and Hollow Knight: Silksong. 2K and Gearbox's Borderlands 4 is the big game release this weekend, and although it has received positive reviews from critics, the Steam response has been mixed due to performance issues.

This means if you plan on jumping in with an Intel Arc graphics card, you'll want to grab this latest driver release, even though it's a beta or Non-WHQL version. Intel Game On Driver 32.0.101.7029 also fixes a couple of visual glitches and corruption issues relating to indie hit PEAK and Mafia: The Old Country.

It's good to see Intel releasing regular driver updates for the latest games, especially with rumors that the company is planning to release its big Battlemage desktop gaming GPU, the Intel Arc B770, later this year. Here are the full release notes for Intel Game On Driver 32.0.101.7029.

We have the full specs leak for the next-gen PlayStation 6 console, which should be powerful enough to offer console gamers the world of 4K 120FPS (and beyond) gaming.

In his latest video, leaker Moore's Law is Dead outed the full specs of Sony's next-gen PS6 console, with AMD's new semi-custom "Orion" APU at its heart, fabbed on TSMC's new 3nm process node. Inside, it'll feature 7-8 x Zen 6c + Zen 6 LP (9-10 cores in total depending on if any cores are disabled) with up to 40GB of GDDR7 memory clocked at 32Gbps on a 160-bit memory bus.

GPU-wise, AMD's new Orion APU for the PS6 features between 52-54 RDNA 5 CUs clocked at between 2.6GHz and 3.0GHz with 10MB of L2 cache (with 34-40 TFLOPs of compute power). MLID notes that the RDNA 5-based GPU inside of the PS6 chip is organized into 3 x Shader Engines, each with 9 Workgroups each for a total of 27 Workgroups.

We've got the full specs on the semi-custom APU made by AMD and fabbed by TSMC for Sony's next-gen PlayStation 6 console, which should easily handle 4K 60FPS gaming without AI upscaling, and up to 4K 120FPS in thousands of games.

In his latest video leaker Moore's Law is Dead has provided the full leaked specs for the PS6 console and its AMD Orion APU, after months of leaks on the Orion APU, now we've got the nitty gritty. Inside of the PS6 will be the Orion APU with a 280mm2 monolithic die fabbed on TSMC's new 3nm process node, with up to 160W TDP.

The monolithic die and 160W TDP are highlights of AMD's semi-custom Orion APU for the PlayStation 6, as AMD is also making a semi-custom "Magnus" APU for Microsoft and its next-gen Xbox console, but Magnus is NOT a monolithic die but a chiplet-based die, with a higher TDP. The higher TDP = more cooling = more expensive. The chiplet Magnus APU die = more cost, more cooling = more expensive... meaning Sony could price its next-gen PS6 console at the same price of the PS5 Pro.

Borderlands 4 has set a new launch record on PC, where it achieved over 200K players just a few hours after release...yet the game is currently at a Mixed rating on Steam due to technical issues.

Gearbox and Take-Two appear to have a bonafide hit on their hands with the latest Borderlands game. Data from SteamDB shows that Borderlands 4 managed to hit an all-time franchise record for peak players on the platform; the sequel hit a peak of 201,273 players just hours ago.

While the sales numbers might be doing well, the game is currently at Mixed reviews due to Borderlands 4's alleged optimization issues. Users are reporting problems with the game ranging from the usual crashes and bugs to FPS drops and stuttering cutscenes.

Genki has agreed to settle a trademark infringement lawsuit with Nintendo for an undisclosed sum, new court documents reveal.

The Switch 2's pre-release leaks reportedly caused confusion and fury behind the scenes at Nintendo as Chinese supply line workers, not Nintendo themselves, revealed the new console's new design and uploaded files for 3D-printable mock-ups. Genki, a company that makes gaming peripherals such as cases, printed a Switch 2 mockup and took it to a trade show, and revealed the 3D-printed mockup to both the press and the world via an animated video.

Nintendo responded by suing Genki for alleged trademark infringement. After a few months of back-and-forth, the two parties have reached an agreement to settle. Genki will pay Nintendo a specific amount of money in damages and is barred from falsely advertising Nintendo products in confusing ways--using names like "Genki Direct" for accessory showcases is also forbidden.

Microsoft is bringing Xbox game streaming to your car, but only if you have LG's webOS and a separate paid auto data plan.

Xbox games can now be played on-the-go directly from your car. With the cloud server infrastructure already in place, Microsoft now offers the Xbox app directly on LG's auto platform, allowing passengers to stream games on backseat screens.

"If you're new to gaming, Xbox Cloud Gaming is a great way to get started. All you need to do is connect a compatible Bluetooth controller, launch the Xbox app from your internet-connected in-vehicle infotainment system, log in to your Xbox Game Pass subscription, and start playing."

Dune: Awakening is a survival MMO with, shall we say, a rather mixed bag of reviews - although there's certainly some praise for the game, or parts of it.

If that's left you rather on the fence as to whether to take the plunge, you might be interested to learn that it's free to play the sprawling survival game this weekend, as Wccftech reports. In fact, it's free from today through to Monday, so you've got a long weekend of the spice flowing, should you want to partake.

This is a celebration of the arrival of Chapter 2, a free update for the game, and a new piece of DLC called the Lost Harvest.

Nintendo makes headway on its war against unauthorized modding with yet another lawsuit victory.

In 2024, Nintendo filed a lawsuit against Ryan Daly, who ran an online shop called moddedhardware.com that sold modded Nintendo hardware. Daly made headlines for his refusal to hire legal counsel and choosing to take on Nintendo without a lawyer.

Fast-forwarding to the present day, and Daly has essentially taken the loss against Nintendo's lawyers. In a new joint settlement proposal, Daly has agreed to settle the case for a hefty $2 million on top of a permanent injunction barring Daly from, among other things, ever running a store like this again.

As fans would expect, the BioShock movie will be based on the first game and depict a stylized version of Andrew Ryan's sunken city, Rapture.

Back in 2022, Vertigo Entertainment announced they were making a live action film based on the BioShock games franchise. Not much was known about the project at the time, and Vertigo is working alongside Netflix to make the adaptation happen. Now we have some new snippets of info about the BioShock film.

In a recent interview with The Direct, Vertigo Entertainment producer Roy Lee confirmed the BioShock film would be based on the initial game in the series: "Netflix wants us to keep everything under wraps, but it's definitely going to be based on the first BioShock game."