Latest News - Page 25

Discord is one of the most popular chat and community tools among PC gamers, with over 200 million monthly active users. Although Discord is free for everyone, Discord Nitro is the platform's premium subscription that offers expanded upload capabilities, custom icons, emojis, themes, HD video streaming, and Xbox Game Pass in select regions. Plus, monthly discounts on Logitech G and SteelSeries gaming gear.

As part of NVIDIA's GeForce Rewards program, available for those who log into the NVIDIA App, GeForce gamers with a GeForce GTX 10 Series or above PC or laptop are eligible for the Discord Nitro Reward that offers three months of Discord Nitro. There are some terms and conditions, including that it's only valid for those who haven't subscribed to Discord Nitro in the past 12 months, but it's a great offer for those regular Discord users that haven't given Nitro a go.

This Discord Nitro Reward isn't the only thing happening this week, as NVIDIA is also giving away a custom-wrapped CONTROL Resonant GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition GPU, alongside codes for Remedy's highly anticipated CONTROL Resonant. All you need to do is go to the social media post (embedded below) for the giveaway, comment, and you're in the running.

The latest AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 26.7.1 Driver for Radeon gamers is here. In addition to game support and fixing some outstanding issues, it also adds support for the new entry-level Radeon RX 9050 GPU that was quietly announced earlier today. The entry-level 1080p GPU is a cut-down version of the Radeon RX 9060 XT, with half the Compute Units and a power rating of only 92W.

As for new game support, this new driver offers optimizations for the Gears of War: E-Day Open Beta and Early Access weekend that kicks off on August 6 for those who preorder the game and PC Game Pass subscribers. This event will allow gamers to jump into the multiplayer side of the game early, so Radeon owners looking to jump in will definitely want to install the latest driver.

The other new game getting support with AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 26.7.1 is Out of Control Evolution, a survival PvP game based on Rust and published by Tencent Games. As for the fixes, they're mostly for issues with Radeon RX 7000 Series GPUs, including one that fixes crashing when using AMD FSR Upscaling 4.1 for RDNA 3 on Windows 10 systems. Here's a look at the full Release Notes.

Xbox's next-gen Project Helix may not deliver the open PC experience fans once hoped for, or were once told they were going to get, and the reasons are as much financial as they are strategic.

Microsoft previously announced that Project Helix will run both Xbox and PC games, mentioning owners will be able to access multiple storefronts as PC gamers do, listing popular marketplaces such as the Epic Games Store and GOG. However, those teasers were under previous Xbox CEO Phil Spencer, and since the new leadership has come in, the gaming industry has shifted substantially, particularly with the cost of hardware, new competitors, and costs of game development increasing. With memory chip costs through the roof and next-gen consoles already priced north of $1,000, an open system like a Steam Machine may not be such an attractive prospect for Microsoft.

Windows Central's Jez Corden has outlined this in a recent report where he states that he has been informed Xbox is losing around $150 per Xbox Series X|S due to the recent memory shortage, and that it expects to continue losing money on every console following the August 2026 price hike. But what does this have to do with Steam potentially being accessible on the Project Helix console?

With official driver support and AMD's product page live, the company has quietly launched a new entry-level PC gaming GPU in the form of the Radeon RX 9050. Based on the same RDNA 4 architecture as the rest of the Radeon RX 9000 Series, the Radeon RX 9050 features 16 Compute Units, 1024 Stream Processors, and 8GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus. On paper, it's a significantly cut-down version of the Radeon RX 9060 XT, with half the Compute Units and half the memory.

And with that, we've already got details on models from AMD partners ASRock, PowerColor, and SAPPHIRE. As an entry-level SKU, these Radeon RX 9050 GPU variants are all compact dual-slot, dual-fan cards from each partner's more affordable designs. Even so, the compact ASRock Radeon RX 9050 Challenger 8GB still sports a vented, reinforced metal backplate alongside an LED strip that adds some style to the design.

It also sports the company's Striped Axial Fans, a copper base for the GPU, and premium thermal pads for heat transfer. The compact Challenger design is one we're familiar with, with the specs confirming that it ships with the reference Boost Clock speed of 2600 MHz, alongside two DisplayPort 2.1a ports and one HDMI 2.1b port.

In a surprise move, AMD has quietly announced a new entry-level RDNA 4 GPU: the Radeon RX 9050, which will be available with 8GB or 4GB of VRAM. The official product or SKU page for the card is online, and at a high level it presents a significantly cut-down version of the 4nm Navi 44 chip that powers the mainstream Radeon RX 9060 XT, with 16 Compute Units and Ray Accelerators instead of 32.

With AMD noting that it's a 92W GPU, with 8GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus delivering memory bandwidth of up to 288 GB/s, it's definitely something aimed at entry-level 1080p gaming, similar to NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5050. On that note, as an RDNA 4 GPU, it benefits from the advanced AI hardware and video encoding/decoding capabilities of the latest Radeon architecture.

As for pricing and availability, AMD has confirmed a $279 SEP or MSRP with additional reporting by Wccftech's Hassan Mujtaba, stating that it will be arriving in limited markets at first - Asia-Pacific, Japan, and Latin America. As for the 4GB variant, this confusing option (4GB of VRAM in 2026 does feel antiquated) not only lowers the memory capacity but also the overall bandwidth. This model hasn't been officially confirmed, but was spotted in a product listing that has since been taken down.

The Pope's official prayer app leaked the personal data of over 700,000 users for months, with the Vatican offering no response to the ethical hacker who first reported the flaw.

The app, Click To Pray, is the Vatican-endorsed prayer app that attracted more than 700,000 users who are connected the global prayer network. However, Cybersecurity researcher BobDaHacker discovered a flaw in January 2026 and reported it directly to the app's operators. For six months, the bug remained unpatched, allowing anyone to access any user's data simply by altering a number in the URL. The vulnerability also let attackers register and confirm accounts using someone else's email, further increasing the risk of phishing and identity theft.

The user base, skewed toward elderly and devout Catholics, made the breach particularly dangerous. As BobDaHacker noted, "Grandma is clicking that. Every time," referencing how a bad actor could take the information from one of the elderly users and craft a phishing scam by posing as the app in some regard. The flaw was found to expose names, emails, birthdates, and locations due to a severe IDOR vulnerability, but it was quietly patched in late July 2026. However, the Vatican never acknowledged the researcher who originally discovered it, or the exposed users.

Rockstar Games has locked Australian players out of GTA Online's Diamond Casino after seven years of it being available, effectively banning all gambling features, meaning Australian GTA Online players can never acquire the rarest vehicle in the game, as it's locked behind playing Diamond Casino games.

The closure, flagged by players on social media and GTA Forums, includes the removal of the daily spin wheel, pokies, blackjack, horse betting, and basically any in-game betting. This means players can no longer obtain the Lost Slamvan, one of the most exclusive cars in GTA Online, as it can only be unlocked by winning it from the Lucky Wheel in The Diamond Casino & Resort.

For those wondering about rarity, if the wheel lands on a Mystery Reward, there's about a 14.3% chance it will drop the player with something from the vehicle category, and another 0.72% chance of it being a Lost Slamvan. This makes the overall probability of winning a Lost Slamvan about 0.005%, or about 1 in 20,000, or if you live in Australia 0%.

Leadership is changing at Wizards of the Coast, the label behind the highly profitable Magic: The Gathering collectible card game.

According to a recent SEC filing spotted by Game Developer, Wizards of the Coast president John Hight will leave his position and take on an advisory role starting in September.

Hight is expected to serve a full year in the advisory role, and will "have such duties and responsibilities as are reasonably assigned by the CEO from time to time, including assisting with transitional efforts and the successful onboarding of a successor President of Wizards of the Coast for the Company."

NVIDIA has released a new WHQL GeForce driver, version 610.88, that adds game-ready support for Halo: Campaign Evolved, Gears of War: E-Day Beta, and seven bug fixes, including two from the previous hotfix driver.

Fixed gaming bugs feature five total fixes, including game stability improvements in Silent Hill F, and a game crash fix for Strange Brigade/Zombie Army 4: Dead War caused when the NVIDIA App in-game overlay is used. The driver also includes fixes for crashing and performance problems in Halo: Campaign Evolved and Path of Exile 2 that were introduced with the 610.82 hotfix driver last week. Under the "Fixed General bugs" patch notes for the 610.88 driver, a fix was introduced for RTX Dynamic Vibrance being incorrectly applied to Wallpaper Engine, and a crash fix for Paint.NET when NVIDIA Surround is enabled.

Only one known issue was listed in the patch notes, where enabling "Prefer Maximum Performance" may not be applied correctly. This problem is also present in the 610.82 hotfix driver.

TCL has launched a pair of new bleeding-edge monitors, featuring LG's latest 4th-generation WOLED display, including one that features a dual-mode display capable of switching between 480Hz at 1080p and 240Hz at 4K. IT Home reports that TCL has launched its new Ultimate Pro 32X3B and 27X3B, starting at ¥6,499 for the former and ¥3,699 for the latter. The 32X3B is the flagship offering with dual-mode support, while the 27X3B runs at 1440p at 280Hz.

The highlight of the new monitors is the display powering both, featuring a fourth-generation LG WOLED panel that is brighter and more power-efficient than the "OLED+" panel found in the older 32X3A. Peak brightness in HDR has been increased from 1300nits to 1500nits thanks to the LG panel's 4-layer panel structure featuring two blue layers sandwiched between a red and green element.

IT Home reports that the new panel supports 99.5% of the DCI-P3 color gamut with true 10-bit color depth, and has a "circular low-reflection layer design" that reportedly reduces screen reflectivity to 1.1%, the lowest in the industry. The panel also comes with a feature dubbed "Matrix-Pure ultra-clear matrix pixel technology" that reduces text distortion, a trait that is common with older OLED panels.

Apple is preparing to announce a new way for consumers to get the company's products into their hands, as Bloomberg reporter and renowned Apple insider Mark Gurman has shared prices for what Apple is planning to offer.

Gurman reported last week that Apple is preparing to announce "Apple Upgrade," a new leasing program designed to make its hardware more accessible to a wider range of people by dramatically lowering the cost of entry to select Apple hardware.

Apple will be partnering with Klarna to provide the service, and it will offer consumers leases on iPhones, Apple Watches, Macs, and iPads for 36 months. At the end of the agreed-upon term, Apple will let users choose if they wish to keep the device and pay off any remainder, return it to the company, or upgrade to a newer model.

The memory shortage hitting the tech world is about to get far worse. By 2027, memory supply is expected to drop 70% as AI and data center demand continues to feed its endless hunger.

Apacer CEO C.K. Chang warned that securing supply is now a bigger operational risk to Apacer than paying inflated prices, meaning it will cost the company more in the long run if they don't secure supply now. He noted that memory manufacturers are expected to release only 30% of their 2026 supply in 2027. For a simple example, suppose manufacturers supplied companies such as Apacer with 100 million memory chips in 2026. The statement suggests they might supply only 30 million equivalent chips in 2027 - a 70% reduction.

To prepare, Apacer has already stockpiled inventory worth $383 million. Reports indicate that other consumer electronics firms are following in the same footsteps as Apacer, locking down multi-year supply deals to avoid worst-case scenarios of being left paying even worse prices, or being locked out entirely.

Valve has officially fixed the issue that was preventing local network game transfers from working properly on Steam, making life easier for an undoubtedly small number of Steam users compared to the entire user base, but those who regularly use local network game transfers are now looking up and thanking Lord Gaben.

The update went live on Monday and fixed errors that prevented users from copying game files between devices over a local area, which is an incredibly handy feature if you have multiple Steam users in the same household and a limited internet connection speed, or total data per month. Additionally, pairing local network game transfers with family sharing makes for an incredibly powerful local setup.

However, prior to this recent update, some users found their local transfers were defaulting to internet downloads instead of using the local network speeds, which are considerably faster, don't cause lag for other network users, and don't chew down on total data allocation. Now, with the latest client update, that shouldn't happen, but only if all devices involved in the transfer are running the same updated version of Steam.

HKC has announced that it will be showcasing a range of new monitors at ChinaJoy 2026, where it states in a new press release that it will debut the world's first tri-mode 1300Hz gaming monitor, along with a 12K, 83.4-inch ultrawide display. These unveilings demonstrate how HKC is prepared to push the envelope of display technology, despite the lack of hardware to actually power it or a large selection of games to take advantage of it.

The company will showcase these groundbreaking products at its booth from August 1 to 4. In addition to the 1300Hz panel, HKC will present a 1000Hz Fast-TN display, both catering to elite esports players and enthusiasts demanding nothing but the highest possible in-game framerate.

But funnily enough, there are only a handful of games that can actually reach that 1300Hz or even 1000Hz refresh rate, with the main one of the small group being Valve's Counter-Strike 2. While it doesn't specifically state if the 1300Hz variant is also a Fast-TN panel, I would assume it would be, as IPS isn't mentioned once in the announcement.

MOZA is a brand that has been delivering an impressive line-up of racing, flight, and other simulation gear over the years. We've been going hands-on with MOZA's line-up for a while, from entry-level products for racing game fans through to flight controls for the diehard simmers and aerial explorers. Alongside announcing a bunch of new hardware, MOZA has also lifted the lid on its new HMA150 Motion System, the company's first "full-cockpit motion system."

Yes, with this cockpit you're no longer limited to haptic feedback on things like steering wheels, as it translates vehicle movement to actual movement and physical feedback throughout the entire cockpit. And it sounds impressively realistic and detailed, which is what simulation is all about.

"Built around four HMA150 Haptic Motion Actuators, the system reproduces pitch, roll and heave effects, including braking dive, acceleration, weight transfer, suspension movement, elevation changes, curb strikes, collisions and road surface vibration," MOZA confirms, adding that it supports 150mm of movement, speeds of 300mm/s, and vibration of up to 200 Hz.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has publicly clarified the company's stance on open-weights models, rejecting calls for a broad ban while warning of two major nightmare scenarios.

In a recent post shared to the Anthropic website, Amodei emphasized that open models are a public good when not dangerous, but he sees real threats from powerful AI in the hands of authoritarian regimes. Amodei outlines two primary nightmare scenarios: one where authoritarian governments build superior AI models to achieve military dominance, and another where powerful models are misused for cyberattacks or biological threats.

He stresses that open weights are irrelevant to the first and only a partial risk factor in the second scenario. Instead, he advocates for three strategic measures to be put in place: restricting powerful chips from going to China, cracking down on distillation operations, which are efforts from AI laboratories to extract the capabilities of a model to improve their own, and implementing mandatory safety testing for all advanced models, regardless of whether they are open or closed.

Xbox endured a 16-hour global outage that left users unable to sign in, download games, or launch many titles. The CTO has since put out a response to the outage, describing it as an "unacceptable situation" and saying that users of Xbox products and services deserve better.

In the public statement, Xbox CTO Scott Van Vliet admitted the company "must do better" after a licensing system failure caused widespread disruptions. According to the CTO, the licensing system sits outside of Xbox, but Xbox depends on it, which resulted in users experiencing problems with sign-ins, entitlement checks, launching games you own, and more. Additionally, some publishing partners that rely on this infrastructure were impacted, which is why some games were affected, and others weren't.

Van Vliet said on-call teams declared the outage a "major incident" and worked to reroute traffic onto healthy parts of the system while identifying the root cause. Service returned unevenly across regions, which is why some Xbox users are reporting that they regained access earlier than others.

Take-Two has published a new letter to shareholders informing them when the next shareholder meeting will be held, and it includes a statement from Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick on the release date for Grand Theft Auto 6 and the expected success of the launch.

Zelnick writes that Take-Two delivered "outstanding" fiscal 2026 results with $6.72 billion in Net Bookings, which is the net value of the products and services sold during a period of time. Additionally, approximately $750 million of that total was "above our initial guidance," with each of the company's labels beneath its umbrella exceeding internal expectations. As for the future, Zelnick writes that "Fiscal year 2027 has the potential to be a major inflection point" with "the planned release" of Grand Theft Auto 6.

As you can probably imagine, the release of Grand Theft Auto 6 is central to Take-Two's financial strategy, with the company expecting fiscal net bookings of $8 billion to $8.2 billion, which would be up from the $6.72 billion in fiscal 2026. If accurate, Take-Two will see growth of approximately 19% to 22%. Additionally, fiscal year 2027 runs from April 2026 to March 2027, which means a November 19 launch for GTA 6 would leave roughly four and a half months of GTA 6 sales within that financial year.

Lenovo has shared new details about its upcoming Legion C700 gaming handheld. The pitch is a thin, lightweight device built specifically for game streaming rather than powerful onboard silicon. A new teaser confirms the C700 will ship with a dedicated USB streaming dongle and companion PC software, promising local streaming latency as low as 10ms.

That 10ms figure comes from lab testing using a Legion Y9000P laptop with an RTX 4060 running at 1080p and 120Hz. Real-world results will depend on the strength of the local network and the host PC, but the setup is designed to feel close to native play. The dongle enables one-click streaming from a connected Windows PC, and Lenovo says the handheld can stream locally stored games even in an offline environment when paired with the host machine.

The C700 is not a Windows handheld. It is expected to ship running Android, making it more comparable to the Logitech G Cloud than the Legion Go series. Lenovo has partnered with Tencent's START cloud gaming service for the device, which gives it access to a broad library of streamed titles.

YouTube Premium is getting a significant value upgrade. Starting in early 2027, US subscribers will get Peacock Premium bundled into their existing plan at no extra cost. YouTube and NBCUniversal have announced a "multi-year global strategic partnership" that brings Peacock to millions of YouTube Premium subscribers in the US.

YouTube Premium currently runs $15.99 per month in the US after a price increase in June. Peacock Premium, the ad-supported tier, costs $10.99 per month on its own. Getting both for the price of one is a significant value upgrade. However, the bundled access is limited to Peacock Premium's ad-supported tier rather than the ad-free Premium Plus plan. An option to upgrade to the ad-free plan will be available separately.

For those who cannot wait until 2027, Peacock Premium will be available as an à la carte add-on through YouTube Primetime Channels later this summer, with Peacock Premium Plus already available there. Peacock's library includes live coverage of Sunday Night Football, the Premier League, Big Ten Football, MLB, the NBA, and the Olympic Games, alongside films like Oppenheimer and series including The Office, Law & Order: SVU, and Love Island USA.