The price and release date for the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X have leaked online, with the new handheld devices now slated to release in October.

The news has come from reliable gaming industry insider billbil-kun, who has penned a new article claiming to have learned the US prices for both handhelds and the release date. According to the leaker, pre-orders for both handheld devices are expected to go live during Gamescom 2025, which is happening between August 20 and August 24. As for prices, the leaker writes it has learned the ROG Xbox Ally will be priced at $549.99, and the ROG Xbox Ally X will be priced at $899.99 in the US.

These prices are in line with previous reports citing leaks that ASUS would be pricing both handhelds between $599 and $899. The previous report mentioned the Euro prices of both handhelds, which are seemingly the same as the US prices, €899 (Ally X) and €599 (Ally).

MSI has just unveiled its new MPG 271QR QD-OLED X50 gaming monitor, rocking a 27-inch QD-OLED panel with a native 2560 x 1440 resolution, uber-smooth 500Hz refresh rate, and a built-in NPU for AI workloads.

The new MSI MPG 271QR QD-OLED X50 gaming monitor has some first-of-its-kind features that integrate real-time human detection, a huge 500Hz refresh rate, 0.03ms response time, and a built-in NPU. MSI's in-house OLED Care 3.0 system on the MPG 271QR QD-OLED X50 gaming monitor makes a big splash, using a built-in NPU-based AI Care Sensor and always-on CMOS sensor.

This will see the monitor checking if you're sitting in front of it every 0.2 seconds, and if no one is detected in front of the MPG 271QR QD-OLED X50, the monitor will automatically turn off or trigger panel protection measures, reducing power consumption and extending the lifespan of the panel.

NVIDIA is reportedly cooking up the Blackwell B30A chip that will replace Hopper H20 in China, where the new B30A will beat the H20, but it will offer just half the performance of the Blackwell Ultra B300 AI GPU.

In a new report from Reuters, NVIDIA has reportedly finalized the new B30A chip design for China that is compliant with US regulations, with B30A being faster than H20, but much slower than higher-end AI chip offerings like B200 and the upcoming B300.

NVIDIA's purported B30A will feature a single-chip design, compared to the dual chiplets found on B200 and B300. NVIDIA's upcoming Blackwell Ultra B300 features 50% more performance than B200, with 50% more HBM3E memory, and twice the interconnect speeds. The highest-end B300 AI GPU will feature two reticle-sized GPUs with a total of 15 PetaFLOPS of FP4 compute performance, and up to 288GB of HBM3E memory.

Gamescom 2025 Opening Night Live has officially come to a close, and among the numerous game announcements, Saber Interactive and Focus Entertainment debuted a gameplay trailer for John Carpenter's Toxic Commando.

Saber and Focus Entertainment were the minds behind the critically acclaimed Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, and now they are back with a new title set to release sometime in 2026. John Carpenter's Toxic Commando aims to combine classic 80s action horror with over-the-top humor, as players will be able to take on hordes of enemies as a team to prevent them from infecting the entire world.

Players will be able to carve their way through the endless swarms of enemies and face challenging bosses either on foot or behind the wheel of a vehicle. John Carpenter's Toxic Commando fully supports cross-platform co-op, and according to the description of the title, an experimental attempt to harness the power of Earth's core ends in a terrifying disaster that creates the "Sludge God."

Gamescom 2025 Opening Night Live has officially wrapped up, and to close out the show, Game Science has revealed the next Black Myth game.

For those who don't know, Game Science is the developer behind the critically acclaimed Black Myth: Wukong game that took the world by storm when it released in 2024. Wukong quickly became a massive success, with the title reaching a staggering 2.4 million all-time peak concurrent player count on Steam. Black Myth: Wukong is an action RPG rooted in Chinese mythology, and is based on the classic tale "Journey to the West," one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature.

The new Black Myth game isn't straying too far away from the roots of Wukong, as the teaser trailer that debuted at Gamescom 2025 showcased the new title "Black Myth: Zhong Kui," which is based on the famed Chinese folk figure "Zhong Kui". For those who don't know, Zhong Kui is regarded as a vanquisher of ghosts and evil beings. Game Science writes in the YouTube video description for the trailer that Black Myth: Zhong Kui is currently in early development, and no in-game footage is available at this time.

The US government is looking into taking equity stakes in other big tech companies that receive CHIPS Act funding in order to strengthen next-gen semiconductors made on American soil, and it could include TSMC, Samsung, Micron, SK hynix, and more.

In a new report from Reuters and two of its sources, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in other companies, after its recent 10% stake in Intel under the Trump administration. Lutnick is reportedly looking at how the US government can take equity stakes in exchange for CHIPS Act funding for companies including TSMC, Micron, and Samsung.

Lutnick has said that the US government doesn't want to tell Intel how to run its vast operations, while White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday that Lutnick was working on a deal for the US government to take a 10% stake in Intel. Leavitt told reporters: "The president wants to put America's needs first, both from a national security and economic perspective, and it's a creative idea that has never been done before".

AI is quickly integrating into the day-to-day productivity of many people, from programmers to researchers, to students, engineers, and more. According to a new study from Google (here's the PDF link for the findings), the games industry is "currently in the midst of profound changes," and 97% of game developers agree that generative AI is already reshaping the industry. However, there's a big difference between asking GPT to summarize a document versus using AI Agents as dynamic NPCs that react to play actions in an open-world RPG.

One of the biggest surprises from Google's study, which engaged with 615 game developers across the United States, South Korea, Norway, Finland, and Sweden, is that 87% of game developers are already using AI Agents in their work. AI agents can be viewed as autonomous little digital helpers that can reason and plan, with memory.

In addition to AI Agents being NPCs in a game, they can also be used to optimize difficulty settings, act as virtual game testers, work together as a group of enemies to execute complex battle strategies, and react to players.

There was a time when the RTS genre was huge in the PC gaming space, with franchises like Warcraft, StarCraft, Command & Conquer, and Age of Empires leading the charge. After the genre's golden era in the late 1990s and early 2000s, games like Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War and Company of Heroes from developer Relic pushed the genre forward with new mechanics, physics-based action, and even some light RPG-like elements.

When Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III launched in 2017, high-profile releases in the RTS genre were already few and far between. With Gamescom 2025 now underway in Cologne, Germany, RTS fans got a surprise treat with the announcement of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV. The game is coming soon and is targeting a 2026 release window; however, this will be the first game that isn't developed by Relic.

But, this isn't a red flag as Dawn of War 4 is being developed by KING Art, the team behind the well-received Company of Heroes-inspired RTS Iron Harvest. And with that, Dawn of War 4 is set to be an epic RTS experience with over 70 campaign missions and four playable races - Space Marines, Orks, Necrons, and the Adeptus Mechanicus.

In the most recent episode of the Official Xbox Podcast, Microsoft VP of Xbox Gaming Jason Ronald talked extensively about the future of Xbox gaming devices, services like Game Pass, and how AI will play an integral role in shaping the future of everything Xbox. Part of the discussion revolved around Xbox and AMD's long-term partnership, and how it was planning to create a 'unified platform' for console, cloud, PC, and handheld.

To pull this off, Xbox and AMD will be co-developing custom Ryzen, Radeon, and AI hardware that will share similar architecture and technologies across all devices - where that's dedicated ray-tracing processors to power the next-generation of path-traced gaming, or AI-powered upscaling and frame generation to enhance performance similar to AMD's FSR 4 technology on desktop PC Radeon RX 9000 Series products and its upcoming FSR Redstone initiative.

The upcoming ROG Xbox Ally gaming handheld from ASUS and Xbox will debut with a custom gaming-focused version of Windows, which will likely become the interface for the next Xbox console. However, during the discussion, Jason Ronald confirmed that the Xbox team will be using the ROG Xbox Ally handhelds to test new AI features that are coming to the next-gen Xbox console.

Xbox will expand even further into the cloud, likely facilitated through a combination of new hardware, software, and services.

Microsoft has made big moves in cloud streaming with its Project xCloud infrastructure, and since inception the technology has evolved significantly. Xbox users can now stream games with less friction across the entire platform, with a myriad of options to choose from--remote play, streaming to mobiles & consoles, etc.

Now that its valuable software catalog is deeply embedded into the cloud following the FTC v Microsoft trial in 2023, Xbox has informally announced plans to further invest into cloud gaming. How that will happen remains to be seen, but Microsoft had been internally developing a cloud-only video game device similar to a set-top box codenamed Keystone. This device would have been low-cost and offer users an easier gateway into the Xbox platform.

SoftBank has just announced that it is investing $2 billion into US chipmaker Intel, as the Japanese bank deepens its investment into advanced technology and semiconductor innovation in the United States.

The deal includes pricing each share at $23, with SoftBank securing around 86.9 million shares, making it one of Intel's top ten shareholders. This follows earlier news that the Trump administration was eyeing off taking a 10% stake in Intel, making the US government the biggest shareholder of the company.

The $2 billion investment from SoftBank ensures its commitment to gain exposure to the growing semiconductor fabrication business in the United States, and that the Japanese bank's belief that Intel would have a "critical role" in the future of US semiconductor manufacturing.

The worlds of PlayStation and Xbox collide with the first-ever official Halo crossover on Sony's platform--the Helldivers 2 x ODST Warbond.

Halo has come to PlayStation, but not with Halo CE or even Halo 3. The aptly-matched Helldivers 2 x ODST crossover brings classic Halo guns like the MA5C Assault Rifle, the lethal silenced SOCOM pistol, and even the shotgun. All weapons have realistic sound effects straight from the Halo games, complete with Halo 3: ODST's weapon models.

The Halo ODST legendary warbond also includes two armor sets--one based on the Rookie protagonist from Bungie's detective-story FPS, and one based on the Recon armor. The warbond will be out on August 26, 2025 and will cost 1500 Super Credits.

Samsung Electronics is coming out swinging in the semiconductor business in 2026, with its next-gen 1c DRAM ready to rock and roll in the HBM4 business.

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong recently returned from a visit to big tech companies through San Francisco and Silicon Valley over the last two weeks, with the chairman saying: "we have prepared for next year's business". Analysts have interpreted that as the company chief personally stepping in and reinforcing its customer base for a full revival, as its semiconductor division in both memory and foundry, both suffering against rivals like SK hynix and TSMC.

We can expect some big changes in Samsung's major customers between the first half of 2025, and the first half of 2026, as it begins mass supplying its next-gen HBM4 memory to customers like NVIDIA and AMD. Samsung has been slowly but surely completing its next-generation technologies one at a time, after a few years of rather big struggles and missteps, but it's preparing for a huge year in 2026.

Black Myth Zhongkui could be next game in the mega-popular Chinese mythology game series.

Chinese game developer Game Science hit it big with Black Myth Wukong, selling an astronomical 10 million copies in just 3 days. The game went on to sell over 25 million copies across the globe--a feat that some entire franchises can't pull off. So what's next? Surely this can't be it?

The Wukong dev team has confirmed plans to continue the Black Myth game series, and adapt more Chinese folklore into interactive content, but exactly how this will work remains to be seen. Now we have more clues on what's next, as Game Science re-filed a trademark for Black Myth Zhongkui, another powerful figure in Chinese legends.

Gamescom 2025 is officially underway and at the Opening Night Live event host Geoff Keighley confirmed that Team Cherry will be releasing Hollow Knight: Silksong in 2025.

Team Cherry was the first developers to be mentioned during the Opening Night Live event at Gamescom 2025, with host Geoff Keighley saying that Hollow Knight: Silksong is, "100% launching this year." Hollow Knight: Silksong is Steam's most wishlisted game, and during the Gamescom 2025 announcement there was some brief gameplay shown of the title, marking the latest look at Silksong since it was showcased in 2022.

Geoff Keighley goes on to say that a demo of Silksong will be playable at Gamecom, specifically the Xbox and Nintendo booths. Furthermore, the host teased that Team Cherry will be announcing some news on their YouTube channel on Thursday. Team Cherry has since taken to its official X account to announce "The countdown is on!" and provided a link to its YouTube channel.

2K Games and Take-Two hire known video game wrangler Rod Fergusson to make sure the next BioShock game ships.

A bit ago, Rod Fergusson left Blizzard for new pastures. Fergusson was hired to lead Diablo IV's troubled development and ensure a product actually shipped in 2023. Now that Diablo is in good hands, Fergusson is moving on to help other ailing games...like the new BioShock.

Fergusson confirmed the news on Twitter, where he announced he was the new head of the BioShock franchise. This isn't the first time he's worked on the series; Fergusson also helped Irrational Games ship BioShock Infinite in 2013.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is only minutes away from being officially unveiled at Gamescom 2025, and ahead of what will be a highly anticipated gameplay showcase, pre-orders for the title on both PlayStation and Xbox have gone live.

The pre-order pages being made available to the public confirmed the previous leaks leading up to the Gamescom 2025 unveiling, which suggested Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 was going to receive two editions: a Standard and Vault Edition. With those leaks were the prices, and surprising absolutely nobody, Black Ops 7 is priced as a premium title, meaning it features that $70 price tag. As for the Vault Edition, Activision has slapped a $100 price tag on that.

Below I have listed in full what comes with the Vault Edition compared to the Standard Edition, but in short, the Vault Edition will come with BlackCell (1 Season), the Battle Pass, 20 Tier Skips, 1,100CP, Operator Collection, Operator Skins, Mastercraft Weapons, and more. The Standard Edition is just the game. Notably, pre-ordering any edition of Black Ops 7, or subscribing to Game Pass grants access to the Open Beta, which is scheduled to begin on October 2. Open Beta access will be open to the public on October 5.

Callisto Protocol and Call of Duty dev Glen Schofield shares the tough realities of spinning up a new game dev studio, including audits from the powers above.

Years ago, the owners of PUBG, Krafton, announced they were opening a new AAA video game studio called Striking Distance Studios with Glen Schofield at the helm. The idea was to create a new original horror game set loosely in the PUBG universe. It'd be a Dead Space successor called The Callisto Protocol. Unfortunately, the game didn't do nearly as well as Krafton hoped sales-wise, and years later Striking Distance was hit with layoffs.

A new interview with The Game Business reveals some of the major hurdles that Schofield faced while making The Callisto Protocol, including the incredibly high costs of having to build the studio from scratch--both establishment-wise and tech-wise. Striking Distance spent over $100 million making The Callisto Protocol, a figure that surprised even Krafton, who had audited the developer twice while they were working on the project.

ASUS is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a brand new GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card, with its ambitious new design and limited edition prowess being unveiled at Gamescom 2025.

We caught teasers of ASUS's new GPU a few days ago, following the company saying it was working on something "top secret" in early July. Now that the "top secret" project has been officially unveiled, and the world can bask in the glory of the ROG Matrix GeForce RTX 5090 30th Anniversary Limited Edition. Quite a mouthful of a name.

The card features both 12V-2x6 and GC-HPWR, or BTF connector power options, so users can place the card in any orientation they like. Additionally, users are able to take advantage of both power connectors simultaneously to expand the available power to 800W, which is notably higher than the standard RTX 5090, which is rated for between 575 and 600W.

ASUS has kicked off Gamescom 2025 by unveiling a selection of new products, and one of those is the ROG Strix OLED XG27AQWMG, one of two brand-new gaming monitors.

The XG27AQWMG is rocking ASUS's brand new Tandem WOLED technology, which enables the panel to be 15% brighter, up to 1500 nits, while using less power than a traditional OLED display. The Tandem WOLED technology means two light-emitting layers that are working simultaneously, enabling the image to reach new levels of brightness in OLED panels. One of the biggest concerns with increasing the brightness of OLED panels is the increased risk of burn-in, and the general lifespan of the monitor being reduced.

However, ASUS writes in its press release that its new Tandem WOLED technology can achieve a 15% higher brightness, 25% more color volume compared to an equivalent QD-OLED panel, while maintaining a 60% longer lifespan when compared to standard OLED panels. So, Tandem WOLED introduces a brighter visual, while increasing the total lifespan of the panel.