Latest News - Page 216

It's been a big couple of months for NVIDIA's GeForce NOW cloud gaming service, from expanding the library to allow users to install their own games, to the arrival of new GeForce RTX 5080-class pods, offering premium subscribers the full suite of DLSS 4 technologies. NVIDIA notes that these new RTX 5080 pods have been rolled out in Miami and Warsaw, Poland, in the past week, with Portland and Ashburn the next locations to get them.

And with that, October is set to be a big month for GeForce NOW cloud gaming, with 17 titles coming to the platform, including some of the most anticipated releases of the year. The big one, naturally, is Battlefield 6, which could be one of the first major titles to support the service's new 360 FPS streaming at 1080p with NVIDIA Reflex technology delivering cloud-gaming response times as low as 30 milliseconds.

Other big releases for the month include ARC Raiders, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, Jurassic World Evolution 3, Painkiller, and The Outer Worlds 2. Here's the list of games coming to GeForce NOW in October 2025, alongside some recent additions to the library added in the last week.

Intel is reportedly in "early talks" with AMD to add the company as a customer to its Intel Foundry semiconductor services, where it could be making AMD chips in the future (say what).

In a new report from Semafor, we're hearing that "Intel is in early-stage talks to add AMD as a customer at Intel's factories, in what would be another vote of confidence in the struggling chipmaker" according to the usual "people familiar with the matter".

We don't know how much of AMD's semiconductor manufacturing would shift from TSMC to Intel if the two companies do indeed ink a deal, or whether it would come with a "direct investment" from AMD, adds Semafor. We could see the two chipmakers team up on process nodes like Intel 18A and Intel 14A, which would be a big deal for Intel Foundry Services, as it is desperately in need of big tech companies using its new nodes.

Keychron is quickly becoming a well-known entity in the keyboard market, offering a wide range of options that cater to various use cases, from gaming to productivity and ergonomic needs. The company's latest, the Keychron Q16 HE 8K Magnetic Switch Keyboard, is something new as it's described as the world's first fully ceramic keyboard.

In addition to ceramic keycaps and a ceramic build, the Keychron Q16 HE 8K also supports 8K polling, adjustable magnetic hot-swappable switches, and compatibility with a wide range of operating systems and devices. It's also a relatively compact keyboard with a 65 percent TKL layout, available in two colors: Navy Blue and a Light Green that resembles a cream-colored hue.

The big thing here, of course, is the use of ceramic for both the keycaps and keyboard shell. This kiln-fired material is dramatically different than the usual mix of aluminum and hard plastics used to create most keyboards. Ceramic keycaps have been a popular choice for a while, offering a durable, smooth, and scratch-resistant feel with a unique acoustic profile.

AMD's upcoming Zen 6 CPU architecture is on track for release sometime in late 2026 or early 2027, and it's expected that the next generation of Ryzen CPUs will once again use the AM5 platform. The AM5 socket and related motherboards first debuted with the Zen 4-powered Ryzen 7000 Series. As AMD has already announced that AM5 will be around for a while, it's reassuring to receive confirmation that AM5 motherboards will be Zen 6-ready.

Although 'Zen 6' or any potential future Ryzen CPU models weren't called out, an MSI representative by the name of Jason responded to a community question on Discord (via Wccftech) relating to one of the company's new motherboards - the MSI X870E Tomahawk Max WiFi Project Zero.

This is one of MSI's new hidden-connector motherboards for cleaner-looking builds with more efficient cable management. The user posed the question of whether or not the motherboard will be updated for Zen 6 (BIOS-wise), including new memory requirements and support. MSI's response was short and straight to the point: "It will be future CPU ready."

Much to the dismay of physical media aficionados, the new Oblivion remastered deluxe edition apparently won't be shipped complete on disc.

The box art for Bethesda's anticipated Oblivion remaster deluxe physical edition has been updated, confirming that the game will indeed require internet downloads, but it's unclear whether or not this refers to the bonus content, which also requires users to download a separate app in order to fully access. Gamers had initially hoped that the physical copies would ship complete on disc, with the full game and all associated bonuses packed onto the Blu-ray.

Each of the game boxes say different things. The PS5 box says "internet required" while also confirming that the deluxe DLC content has to be downloaded from the PlayStation Network. The Xbox Series X version says "requires content download," which is vague, but erring on the side of caution never hurts. It's expected that even if the disc contains most of the game itself, that players will have to download a portion of Oblivion's juggernaut file size from the internet. And for no particular reason at all, the physical deluxe edition is $40, whereas the base game (not deluxe) is currently $50 on both the PS Store and Xbox Store.

Battlefield 6 is just over a week away from release if you can believe it, and according to new reports, the game has already seen 1.7 million pre-orders fly out the door (well, onto gamers' systems) on Steam alone.

In a new report from The Game Business and some new statistics from data firm Ampere Analysis, Battlefield Studios has already had 1.7 million copies of Battlefield 6 pre-ordered on Steam, with the firm predicting that we'll see another 5 million copies of BF6 sold in the first week alone.

The report also has some Newzoo estimates that the Battlefield 6 beta was played by around 25 million people, while Ampere's numbers have the BF6 beta being played by 22 million people. Newzoo reports that the peak concurrent player count for the Battlefield 6 beta across all platforms -- PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S -- sat at around 10.4 million, double the peak of 5.1 million for the Battlefield 2042 beta.

The new Halo Combat Evolved Remake is being co-developed by Abstraction Games, sources tell insider Rebs Gaming.

Halo Studios is poised to unveil the next Halo game on October 24, but until then it appears new reports and rumors have surfaced about the project. According to the latest info from Rebs Gaming, the new Halo game, which is expected to be a Combat Evolved remake in Unreal Engine 5, is being co-developed by a Virtuos-owned studio in the Netherlands.

"Two of my sources say Abstraction, a Virtuos studio located in the Netherlands, is developing the Halo: Combat Evolved Remake," the YouTuber, who has an accurate track record of reporting Halo leaks, said in the video.

Microsoft's third Game Pass price increase has affected PC Game Pass, but the extra cost offers day and date access to new first-party games.

Game Pass is getting overhauled with a rebrand and price hikes. Ultimate is now $30 a month, and includes Ubisoft+ with the promise of 75 day one games per year. Game Pass PC has also gone up from its original $11.99 price to $16.49 per month, an increase of +37%.

Interestingly enough, this price increase was not mentioned anywhere in the official Xbox Wire announcement post, nor did Microsoft make a new promotional trailer video for PC Game Pass like it did for the other tiers. The new PC pricing is only available via a clickable drop-down section on the Game Pass join page. Perhaps the imminent launch of the Xbox Ally PC handheld duo has something to do with this obfuscation, as Microsoft may want new users to initially buy games at full price.

A consortium of investors is taking Electronic Arts private in a $55 billion leveraged buyout, but experts are saying that the deal's timing doesn't make a ton of financial sense.

EA will soon become a private company. A consortium of three investor groups has pooled $55 billion together to buy out all existing EA shares: Saudi Arabia's PIF sovereign wealth fund, investment firm Silver Lake, and Jared Kushner's investment group Affinity Partners. The deal, which is expected to close in April 2027, is a bit of a head-scratcher for institutions like Citigroup.

In a recent interview with Yahoo Finance, Citi managing director Jason Bazinet says the timing of this move is unusual, mainly because EA will likely divulge metrics of Battlefield 6 during its upcoming quarterly reports and that info can potentially be used to secure a higher price.

Polish game dev Bloober Team has confirmed Silent Hill 1 is in production at the studio, and also mentions some interesting new game world technology for future projects.

Work on the Silent Hill 1 remake is in full swing. On the heels of the successful Silent Hill 2 remake, Bloober is applying their horror mastery to the first game in the series, and it could use new "open cities" technology created by the game devs.

In a recent Q&A with investors, management for the publicly-traded Bloober Team discussed plans for new games, including Silent Hill and beyond. The studio, who just released Cronos: The New Dawn, aims to streamline game development so that fans aren't waiting too long in between major title releases. This could mean that the Silent Hill 1 remake will release sooner than expected.

New Call of Duty games are exclusive to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for at least a year, Microsoft has announced, and some existing Call of Duty games can still be played by Premium subscribers.

Microsoft has announced key changes with Xbox Game Pass, with new Essential and Premium tiers and Game Pass Ultimate increasing to $30 a month. Due to the timing, the hike was designed in part for Call of Duty; Microsoft is locking access to new Call of Duty games like Black Ops 7 behind the more expensive Ultimate tier.

This sets the trend for new Call of Duty game releases on Xbox Game Pass, however older Call of Duty games will remain in the Game Pass catalog to be played by mid-tier subscribers. Doing a quick search, I found that there are three mainline Call of Duty games offered on the $15 per month Xbox Game Pass Premium: WWII, and the newer Modern Warfare II and Modern Warfare III reboots. This feels like an important distinction to make, and is indicative of Microsoft's willingness to break apart premium franchises for potential long-term gain (Call of Duty is so popular that even the older games would still sell millions of copies per year, and in one year, the franchise sold 25 million games).

Xbox president Sarah Bond reiterates that the Game Pass model is profitable, sustainable, and beneficial for game developers.

About a week before Microsoft chose to increase Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to $30 per month, executive management was reminding Japanese games publication Game Watch about the service's recent milestones. Xbox's president, Sarah Bond, says that Game Pass continues to be profitable.

When asked by Game Watch if Xbox was a viable business, Bond answered: "Last fiscal year, Xbox Game Pass sales reached a record high of $5 billion. It's a profitable business, and as more creators join Xbox Game Pass, payments to creators increase, so we think it's a good business for creators."

In the by now long and established tradition of weird stuff happening in the world of gaming, somebody has built an actual AI within Minecraft.

As TechSpot reports, this is the work of YouTuber Sammyuri, who is no stranger to pulling off novel stuff in Minecraft, and this latest installment is called 'CraftGPT' - dropping a hint as to the inspiration here.

This is a small language model (SLM) AI running using Minecraft's Redstone mechanics (which is akin to the electricity of the blocky world).

Microsoft is experiencing backlash after announcing a price hike for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate by 50%, and now the director of gaming and platform communications for Microsoft has come out to defend the decision to increase the price of the subscription.

Dustin Blackwell spoke to The Verge regarding the 50% price increase on the Ultimate subscription plan, and said that Microsoft understands that a price increase is "never fun for anybody," but Microsoft is attempting to make swallowing the hike easier by adding more value to Game Pass Ultimate. Blackwell admits the backlash from the community is "something we don't take lightly" and that "we're listening to the feedback of players and the community".

What value is Microsoft bringing to the new, now-overhauled Game Pass tiers? Blackwell explained that Microsoft has decided to give subscribers access to more than 75 day one releases each year, which is a "50 percent increase over the day one titles we provided last year." In addition to day-one access to titles, Blackwell pointed to additions to Game Pass such as Ubisoft+ Classics and Fortnite Crew.

A new leak has suggested that Sony is working on a new PS5 DualSense wireless controller that will feature a removable battery, which is slated to be released sometime this year.

The rumors come from the publication PPE, which, to add some credibility to the source, predicted the release of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 coming to the PS5. As for the new controller, the publication states the new DualSense controller, internally referred to as the "DualSense V3" will launch alongside a revised PS5 Pro in November, and replace current PS5 controllers.

While the controller will be very much identical to current PS5 controllers, the big difference the DualSense V3 will be ushering in will be a removable battery, which, if true, means Sony has taken a page out of Microsoft's book with its Xbox controllers. For those who don't know, current PS5 controllers come with a built-in rechargeable battery that gets power through a USB cable or docking station. However, these rechargeable batteries aren't removable.

Xbox Cloud Gaming is no longer in beta, entering v1.0 and is now being carved up in various Game Pass subscription tiers.

Xbox has achieved a major milestone as its cloud game streaming service has now officially launched. The news was included in today's Xbox Game Pass restructuring announcement, which saw Game Pass Ultimate increase by 50% to $30 per month.

Microsoft is bringing cloud streaming to all Game Pass tiers, but it's also treating the user experience as a commodity to leverage added value. Each of the Game Pass tiers has different wait times--cloud gaming isn't instant, at least maybe not any more--with the Ultimate tier getting priority fast-lane treatment. Ultimate has shortest wait times at the best quality (up to 1440p), Premium has shorter wait times, and Essential, the cheapest tier, is the slowest. All three clearly mention "unlimited cloud gaming," but the experience will differ among each.

Apple is reportedly shifting its focus from overhauling the Vision Pro headset to developing a pair of smart glasses that will rival Meta's Ray-Ban AI glasses.

The news comes from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, known for having his finger extremely close to the pulse of what is happening inside Apple. Gurman wrote in a recent Bloomberg piece that Apple has "hit pause" on the development of its planned overhaul of the Vision Pro headset, which included the company creating a cheaper, lighter version of the original headset.

The cut-down version of the Vision Pro was slated for release sometime in 2027, but now it appears plans have changed. It appears Apple has recognized the potential of smart glasses technology, particularly in the form factor of sunglasses, as Gurman reports the company is working on at least two types of smart glasses.

Intel has just confirmed that its next-gen Core Ultra 400 series "Nova Lake" desktop CPUs will feature Coyote Cove P-Cores and Arctic Wolf E-Cores.

In its new 59th Edition of the ISA Extensions Reference, Intel packs in details for its next-generation architectures that will power its next-gen Nova Lake desktop CPUs and its next-gen Diamond Rapids server Xeon CPUs. Both of these new CPUs will be launching in 2026, with full details on the P-Core and E-Core architectures.

Intel will be launching its next-gen Panther Lake laptop CPUs next week, but in 2026 we'll see a new family of consumer desktops CPUs in the new Core Ultra 400 "Nova Lake" CPU family. We've had plenty of leaks over the last year, but now Intel has officially confirmed that Nova Lake will feature Coyote Cove P-Cores and Arctic Wolf E-Cores, successors to the Cougar Cove P-Core and Darkmont E-Core architectures to the soon-to-be-released Panther Lake CPUs.

Intel will be unveiling its next-generation Panther Lake CPUs on October 9, and it looks like we can expect another naming scheme to be unveiled: Core Ultra X.

The new Intel Panther Lake-H laptop processors will reportedly debut with a new "Core Ultra X" naming scheme, which will include the Core Ultra X5, Core Ultra X7, and Core Ultra X9 processors, according to a new post IndieKings picked up by @momomo_us on X.

New reports suggest we'll be seeing Intel unveil the new Core Ultra X5 338H, Core Ultra X7 358H, Core Ultra X7 368H, and the flagship Core Ultra X9 388H processors under the new Panther Lake CPU family. The new flagship Core Ultra X9 388H is the "flagship mobile SKU" with up to 5.1GHz CPU clocks on the P-cores, aimed at flagship gaming and content creator laptops.

Apple has reportedly halted development on its new Vision Pro headset to handle something more important: making its new AR smart glasses to compete against Meta, which has been making inroads into the market with release after release.

In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg writer Mark Gurman says that even with Apple's (expensive) attempts to interest consumers in the Vision Pro have "fallen flat", so the company is "increasingly trying to pivot its marketing of the device towards businesses".

Gurman says that Apple has "hit pause" on its planned overhaul to its new Vision Pro headset in order to direct resources to a "more urgent effort: developing smart glasses that can rival products from Meta". Apple was reportedly preparing a cheaper, lighter variant of its AR headset codenamed "N100" for a 2027 release, but now Apple has internally announced that it's moving staff from that project to accelerate work on glasses.