Bungie's independence is ebbing away and the Destiny developer will eventually become part of PlayStation Studios.

In a recent Q1'25 earnings stream, Sony CFO Lin Tao confirmed that Bungie will eventually be integrated into PlayStation Studios.

Bungie's internal independence is "getting lighter," Tao says, with Sony now controlling more and more of the decision-making. The developer's upcoming extraction shooter Marathon is still scheduled to release this fiscal year. This take-over is actually part of Bungie's acquisition contract; if Bungie fails to meet specific financial earnings targets, then Sony would dissolve Bungie's board of directors and take full control over Bungie's operations.

Marathon should be out by March 2026, but Sony isn't ready to make an official commitment just yet.

A bit ago, Bungie and PlayStation delayed Marathon to an indefinite period. The live game reportedly wasn't passing internal playtest reviews, and Sony doesn't want another $400 million Concord-level disaster on its hands. So Marathon was delayed...as to when, we don't know.

In a recent Q1'25 earnings webcast with analysts, Sony CFO Lin Tao directly commented on Marathon's release, saying that the intent is to launch the game in FY25 but no promises can be made.

Now that it has handily beaten Xbox console sales, Sony moving on with the next phase of the PlayStation business.

In a recent Q1'25 earnings call, Sony management said that PlayStation is "moving away" from being a hardware-based business into a more community business, potentially indicating that Sony could break exclusivity on more PlayStation Studios titles (including Helldivers 2).

In the webcast, Sony senior VP Sadahiko Hayakawa affirming that the company now prioritizes users and engagement rather than raw unit sales. "In the gaming business [we're] moving away from hardware-centric business more to community-based engagement business. As we move to more entertainment creation, the stability and productivity and performance is increasing," Haykawa said.

The new Xbox Ally handheld duo will launch mid-October in Europe, sources tell Dealabs' billbil-kun.

The release date for the first-ever Xbox handheld has apparently leaked out, with Dealabs' reporting both the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X handhelds will release on October 16, 2025 in Europe. It's unclear if this is the same release date for all worldwide geographies including the United States, especially given the current tariff situation.

Microsoft plans to reveal full details including pricing and availability at European games festival Gamescom 2025. While these details have yet to be confirmed, reports say that the Xbox Ally will be €599, and the higher-end Xbox Ally X with its 24GB of RAM and AI-powered chip will be a hefty three hundred euros more at €899. Full specs can be found here.

RedOctane is back - with a very slightly different name, RedOctane Games as opposed to RedOctane Inc - and is promising that it's already begun work on the 'next great music rhythm game' no less.

The announcement came on X (as noticed by Wccftech), and for those thinking 'Red-who?' - RedOctane Inc was the publisher and creative force behind the Guitar Hero games that first came out in 2005 (the outfit was subsequently closed down in 2010).

Yes, those were the very first plastic guitar games, before Rock Band came along, and the remit was expanded to not just axes, but mics, drums, and indeed the keyboard.

The PlayStation 5 has reached a new sales milestone with 80.3 million shipments made from launch to midsummer, Sony has announced.

Sony revealed the latest PS5 sales figures in their Q1'25 earnings report. According to the data, Sony shipped 2.5 million PS5s in Q1'25, pushing the PS5's total cumulative shipments to 80.3 million.

Despite the new sales bump, the PS5 still isn't beating the PS4 in launch-aligned sales. In its first 19 quarters on the market, the PS4 shipped 82.4 million units including the PS4 Pro. The PS5, on the other hand, shipped 80.3 million including the PS5 Pro. Interestingly enough, both Pro iterations helped spike sales of their respective console generations; PS4 shipments hit a record 9.7 million when the PS4 Pro released in 2016, and PS5 shipments reached 9.5 million when the PS5 Pro launched in 2024.

The release of Helldivers 2 was a phenomenal moment for PlayStation, as it was the first time PlayStation released a game on consoles and PC at the same time.

The release was a monumental success and led to one of the most successful simultaneous platform launches in 2024, with Helldivers 2 becoming a viral sensation and attracting as many as 450,000 players on Steam. Helldivers 2 has retained a healthy player base on Steam ever since its release, and now the title has arrived on Xbox, despite Helldivers 2 being a first-party PlayStation title. Helldivers 2 stands as an example that the walls of exclusivity are coming down for both Xbox and PlayStation, or at least when it comes to live-service games.

To further illustrate that point, we have now learned that Helldivers 2 arriving on Xbox was "all PlayStation," as confirmed by Helldivers 2 CEO in response to a Discord message to a fan praising the work developer Arrowhead Studios did on bringing the title over to Xbox. "It was all PlayStation. Send them your thanks! We were all in support of course," said Arrowhead Studios CEO Shams Jorjani.

UPDATE: Avalanche has delivered a statement, confirming that development on Contraband has stopped.

"Over the past several years, Avalanche Studios Group and Xbox Game Studios Publishing have collaborated on Contraband. Active development has now stopped while we evaluate the project's future. We're thankful for the excitement we've seen from the community since we announced and will give an update on what's next as soon as we can."

Microsoft has chosen to cancel Contraband, a new game that had been in development for years, sources tell Bloomberg's Jason Schreier.

Apple has just announced it's expanding its end-to-end American silicon supply chain, alongside its announcement of spending another $100 billion on US manufacturing.

The US-based company announced the news next to President Trump and his administration pushing for more US-based semiconductor manufacturing. The US silicon supply chain is on track to producing over 19 billion chips for Apple products in 2025, including TSMC Arizona which is producing tens of millions of chips for Apple using its most advanced process technologies on American soil.

Apple is TSMC Arizona's first and largest customer.

We have the final PC system requirements for the Battlefield 6 open beta, which goes live in 6 hours' time, with an RTX 3060 Ti all you require for 1440p @ 60FPS on High settings.

The official Battlefield account on X posted the specs, with the minimum requirements being 16GB of RAM and 75GB of storage space (at launch), with TPM 2.0 enabled, UEFI Secure Boot enabled, HVCI and VBS capable. The CPU for the minimum PC specs is between the Intel Core i5-8400 and AMD Ryzen 5 2600 processors.

Battlefield 6's open beta will require an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT, or Intel Arc A380 graphics card for 1080p @ 30FPS on Low settings.

MSI's new GeForce RTX 5080 16G EXPERT graphics card is available now. As the successor to the impressive MSI GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER EXPERT from last year, it presents a unique take on the custom high-end GeForce RTX 50 Series GPU thanks to its FLOW FROZR 2 cooling system that incorporates a push-pull airflow configuration with one large fan on either side of the GPU.

If the design looks a little familiar, that's because it borrows the setup seen with NVIDIA's Founders Edition designs that it introduced with the GeForce RTX 30 and RTX 40 Series. As far as we know, MSI is the only major GeForce RTX partner to offer a model with this unique cooling solution, which makes the GeForce RTX 5080 16G EXPERT a notable release and one that stands out.

We've been eager to get our hands on it after getting to see it up close at Computex 2025, and with our full review coming soon, we thought we'd showcase the design while comparing it to MSI's EXPERT GPU we reviewed in 2024.

Apple has just announced a new $100 billion commitment to America, totaling its US investments at over $600 billion, with the company also launching its new American Manufacturing Program (AMP) that will bring more of Apple's supply chain and advanced manufacturing onto US soil.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said: "Today, we're proud to increase our investments across the United States to $600 billion over four years and launch our new American Manufacturing Program. This includes new and expanded work with 10 companies across America. They produce components that are used in Apple products sold all over the world, and we're grateful to the President for his support".

Apple parts and components manufactured in the US ship to customers across the planet, with around 2/3 of the components made in the US, exported to customers across the globe.

The official Windows channel on YouTube has posted a new video where David Weston, Corporate Vice President of Enterprise & OS Security at Microsoft, talks about what using Windows in 2030 might look like. And that vision doesn't include using a keyboard and mouse to navigate Windows to open up a browser or fire up Explorer or an app like Steam.

"The world of mousing around and keyboarding around and typing will feel as alien as it does to Gen Z to use DOS," David Weston says. So then, if we're not "mousing around," how will we interact with our Windows PCs? AI Agents. In this relatively strange vision of Windows in 2030, you'll talk to your team of AI Agents with natural language and get them to do everything for you.

"These agents will be net amplifiers and enable us to do things that we could only dream of just a few years ago," David explains. "I think we will do less with our eyes and more talking to our computers. The computer will be able to see what we see, (listen to) what we hear, and we can talk to it, and ask it to do much more sophisticated things. I think this will be a much more natural form of communication."

Samsung Electronics has reportedly started sample production of its next-gen HBM4 memory, ready to head over to NVIDIA for validation.

In a new report picked up by @Jukanrosleve on X, Samsung has reportedly commenced sample production of its next-generation HBM4, with these samples targeted for qualification by NVIDIA, and if it goes without a hitch, it would mark a shift in competitive landscape for the global memory market, especially against fellow South Korean memory rival, SK hynix.

Samsung reportedly started producing HBM4 sample wafers at its Pyeongtaek Campus, with the production of the HBM4 samples made for the purpose of testing and certification by global AI semiconductor companies, like NVIDIA.

ASUS's ProArt line-up is all about offering high-performance in a sleek and stylish form for creators, professionals, and enthusiasts. This week, the company has unveiled new ProArt GeForce RTX 50 Series graphics cards sporting a compact, elegant design that incorporates wood panelling for looks and a USB Type-C display port for versatility and compatibility with a wide range of displays.

It's been a while since we've seen a GeForce RTX GPU that offers DisplayPort output over a USB Type-C connection, so right off the bat, this makes ASUS's new ProArt GeForce RTX 50 Series graphics cards a fantastic choice for those looking for this specific feature. Of course, this is in addition to getting access to NVIDIA's latest RTX Blackwell architecture for cutting-edge gaming performance and up to 1858 AI TOPS of power for intensive AI workloads.

The flagship ASUS ProArt GeForce RTX 5080 includes 16GB of fast GDDR7 memory for gaming in 4K with DLSS 4 enabled, and running more complex memory-intensive AI models. It also ships in a compact 2.5-slot design and form factor, which ASUS says makes it small enough to fit in compact PC cases. And the thinner design also means access to PCIe x16 expansion slots, which is essential for creators.

KIOXIA's new LC9 Series offers the industry's first 245.76 TB NVMe SSD built for the enterprise data center market and the AI era. With PCIe 5.0 speeds and KIOXIA's advanced 8th Gen BiCS FLASH with CBA (CMOS directly Bonded to Array) technology delivering density, performance, and power efficiency, nearly 250 TB of storage capacity in 2.5-inch and Enterprise and Datacenter Standard Form Factors (EDSFF) is an impressive achievement.

At the FMS: the Future of Memory and Storage event this week, KIOXIA showcased its new high-capacity LC9 Series SSD with a live demonstration as part of a Dell PowerEdge 7715 system. And with attendees getting to see the SSD in action, the KIOXIA LC9 Series 245.76 TB enterprise SSD won the 'Best of Show' award in the 'SSD Technology' category.

With sequential read speeds of up to 12,000 MB/sec and sequential write speeds of up to 3,000 MB/sec, it's a storage solution designed to meet the demands of cutting-edge generative AI systems head-on thanks to its speed and low power consumption. In addition to winning a 'Best of Show' award, KIOXIA has confirmed that it's now sampling KIOXIA LC9 Series SSDs to select customers.

SK hynix has reportedly "drastically" raised next-gen HBM4 supply pricing, as it is at a "war of nerves" with NVIDIA.

In a new report from Chosun picked up by @Jukanrosleve on X, we're hearing that SK hynix has decided to supply its 6th generation HBM (HBM4) 12-Hi stack memory to NVIDIA in the first half of this year at a price approximately 70% higher than its 5th generation HBM (HBM3E).

However, negotiations for additional HBM supply volumes are reportedly progressing slower than expected, presumably because Samsung and Micron are entering the HBM4 supply chain, with both companies delivering their own HBM4 samples. Until now, SK hynix has dominated over 90% of the cutting-edge HBM memory provided to NVIDIA, but starting with next-gen HBM4, Samsung and Micron will be expanding their supply volumes.

Grand Theft Auto 6 could be priced at $100 when it launches, said Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter just yesterday, but now another analyst has said a $100 price on GTA 6 is a bad idea.

Alinea Analytics' analyst Rhys Elliott has come out reporting on why a $100 base pricing for GTA 6 isn't a good idea, going into a little more detail. His points include GTA Online being the "real cash cow" and that Rockstar moving players from GTA 5 with a higher price on GTA 6 would limit the GTA 5 to GTA 6 player acquisition.

He explained:

Bolt Graphics might not be a brand you've heard of, but it is coming to the GPU market with some surprising features that aren't on its competitors' hardware just yet, like expandable RAM and insane amounts of AI performance.

Bolt Graphics is currently cooking up their Zeus GPU for a 2027 release, with some interesting specifications shared by the company on X recently. Zeus will feature expandable memory with 32GB / 64GB / 128GB soldered + 2x/4x SO-DIMM slots for up to 384GB of memory.

The company claims "massive improvements" to path tracing performance, an ultra-fast 400GbE QSFP-DD port, with built-in high-performance RISC-V CPU cores that are capable of running Linux. All of this is also using the "good old" 8-pin PCIe power connector, which the company quips "is known to not melt". Bolt Graphics says that its Zeus GPU will be in developer kit form in 2026, with mass production planned for 2027.

Battlefield 6 launches into its first public beta over the weekend and there are already thousands of eager gamers filling up the servers now, with 48,000+ players ready to go right now.

According to SteamDB, the PC version of the game has a peak concurrent player count of 24,879 on Steam, with one Reddit user posting a screenshot that showed Battlefield 6's queue system for those trying to get into the BF6 servers hitting close to 50,000 users.

The first Battlefield 6 open beta begins this weekend at 1AM PST on August 9, with the Battlefield 6 Open Beta running through until August 11. The second weekend takes place at 1AM PST August 14, running through until August 16. This means you'll have a few chances to play Battlefield 6 before it officially launches on October 10.