Xbox Game Pass may have generated $2 billion in annual revenue during the pandemic

Game Pass is somewhat of a mystery. Over the years, we've indirectly discovered how much money the service makes. Brazilian regulatory board CADE accidentally published that Game Pass made $2.9 billion in 2021 (this info was later redacted). Then in 2022, Phil Spencer gave us a percentage that we used to calculate Game Pass earnings for both 2021 and 2022.

Somehow we missed an interesting tidbit from the LinkedIn profile of Richie Choudhary, who served as the Xbox head of product from 2019 - 2021. According to Choudhary, Game Pass "stands at $2 billion per year," indicating that the service could have made $2 billion throughout 2021, or even that Game Pass made around $2 billion per year in the 3-year span from 2019 - 2021.

Amazon is (or indeed was) considering showing the supposed effect of Trump's tariffs on a limited number of budget products that the retailer sells, and the White House has been quick to condemn this potential move.

The controversy was sparked earlier today when a report emerged from the Punchbowl News, which was highlighted on X by its founder, Jake Sherman. It claimed that Amazon is going to display how much of the price of any given item is down to the effect of the tariffs.

However, as CNBC later reported, this is only the case for some of the budget products sold by the retail giant (Amazon Haul merchandise), and it was a move that was only being considered at any rate.

Gearbox is ready to showcase Borderlands 4 gameplay, and they're teaming up with PlayStation to make it happen.

Today, Gearbox's Randy Pitchford announced that Borderlands 4 will now release on September 12, 2025, which is 11 days earlier than its original release date of September 23.

The devs will highlight guided Borderlands 4 gameplay during a special PlayStation State of Play coming tomorrow at 5PM EST. It'll include co-op gameplay, so expect to see everything from crazy new skill synergies to outrageous weapons and ridiculous bosses.

Despite an increase from Call of Duty's launch on Game Pass, spending on video game subscriptions has been relatively stable yet flat throughout the last few years, Circana analyst Mat Piscatella says.

Game subscriptions aren't expected to replace full game sales any time soon--in fact, trends show that subscription hasn't really grown since a spike in the holiday season when Call of Duty was launched on Game Pass.

"US spending on video game subscriptions had been basically flat for years following 2020-21 growth, only boosted by 12% in Q4 thanks to CoD going to Game Pass," Piscatella said on Bluesky.

Lenovo has just unveiled its new ThinkCentre neo Ultra 2025, a new Apple Mac Studio competitor powered by up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 285 processor and NVIDIA's desktop GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB GPU.

The company revealed its new fleet of ThinkCentre neo Ultra 2025 systems at an event in China this week, with Intel Core CPU options, Thunderbolt 4 connectivity, and a desktop GeForce RTX 5060 Ti with 180W of TGP. Lenovo says its new Mini-PC can handle up to a desktop Intel Core Ultra 9 285 processor, too... no laptop chips here, folks.

Lenovo did say that the base configuration of its new ThinkCentre neo Ultra will feature an unknown CPU model from the Intel Core Ultra 5 family, and a desktop NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060. In the middle, we've got an also unknown CPU, this time from the Core Ultra 7 family, and the higher-end RTX 5060 Ti GPU.

Curious as to what the PC spec requirements are for Elden Ring Nightreign? Well, wonder no longer, as FromSoftware has let us know what the next instalment in the franchise will ask for hardware-wise.

As you can see from the above post on X, there's some good news on the GPU front, as Nightreign isn't hugely taxing on the graphics front (assuming you don't want to crank the details, naturally).

The developer tells us that it'll be possible to run Nightreign with an NVIDIA GTX 1060 3GB or AMD RX 580 4GB, although as this is the minimum requirement, don't expect a great experience.

Suppose you're a retro gamer who has been gaming on console and PC hardware for decades. In that case, 8BitDo is a brand that creates high-quality peripherals and gear that taps into that nostalgia vein of retro gaming goodness. Last year, we reported on 8BitDo's retro original Xbox console-themed mouse and keyboard. Before that, we took a look at the company's NES-inspired keyboard.

That NES-inspired keyboard, the 8BitDo Retro 87 Mechanical Keyboard, is now listed as the "perfect companion" to the company's latest offering - the NES-inspired 8BitDo Retro R8 Mouse - N Edition. Similar to the Xbox version, but with Nintendo Entertainment System colors, the 8BitDo Retro R8 Mouse might look old-school, but it's packing some serious hardware.

The wireless 8BitDo Retro R8 Mouse - N Edition is powered by the PAW 3395 sensor, which features a sensitivity of 26,000 DPI and a polling rate of up to 8K. Underneath the buttons, you'll find Kailh Sword GM X Micro Switches rated at up to 100 million clicks. It also supports tri-mode connectivity with low-latency wireless, Bluetooth, and wired over USB.

Bethesda's surprise The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered launch has been a massive success, highlighting the enduring popularity of the original 2006 game and the Elder Scrolls series. The new Unreal Engine 5-powered visuals look incredible, even when paired with the almost twenty-year-old RPG's fun Bethesda-jank and dated design. With over four million players, it's still one of the most-played games on Steam, with an impressive peak player count of 216,784 recorded yesterday.

And now, with the game's success, Bethesda Game Studios is opening the floor to the Elder Scrolls community and Oblivion fans to chime in and tell them what they'd like to see added to the game or changed. You can access the new 'oblivion-suggestions' channel on the studio's official Discord, and already it's chock-full of great ideas that we'd love to see added.

From a dedicated photo mode so gamers can capture stunning shots and funny photos to a new difficulty mode that should sit between Adept and Expert, here's a list of the most requested and up-voted changes the community would like to see.

The new GAMEMAX T20 micro-ATX chassis for compact PCs features an interesting design and layout you don't usually see. Its wraparound glass panels allow panoramic views of your components, but it's the 90-degree motherboard that stands out. GAMEMAX notes that it enhances cooling via a 'stack cooling effect,' but from what we can see, it gives the case and build a unique look with a vertical GPU and AIO CPU cooler that catches the eye.

I love how it allows you to vertically mount a GPU without needing a PCIe riser - something that has been an issue with the latest GeForce RTX 50 Series. Although it's a compact case for small form factor builds, it still supports radiators up to 360mm in size and comes pre-installed with two of the company's 120mm Tornado T12-R ARGB PWM fans. GPU-wise, it supports cards up to 383mm long, so there's room here to assemble a PC gaming beast.

And with BTF Motherboard Support, superior cable management opens the door to some aesthetically pleasing (and clean) panoramic views.

When Microsoft unveiled its new AI-powered range of Copilot+ PCs, one feature that drew immediate criticism was a new AI tool for Windows called Recall. Of course, Windows and criticism go hand in hand, but when it came to Recall - a tool that took screenshots of your PC that could then be used to navigate through your PC's usage history - it was a little different.

Early versions of the technology captured sensitive information like banking details and passwords and then put everything in an indexed database that could be searched, raising immediate security and privacy concerns. That's the old Recall; the new and improved version has been rebuilt with security in mind and is now available for all Copilot+ PC users.

"Recall is an opt-in experience with a rich set of privacy controls to filter content and customize what gets saved for you to find later," Navjot Virk, Microsoft Corporate Vice President, Windows Experiences, writes. "We've implemented extensive security considerations, such as Windows Hello sign-in, data encryption, and isolation in Recall to help keep your data safe and secure."

ASUS has enabled a new and previously unreported feature in its flagship ROG Astral line of GPUs for the GeForce RTX 50 Series, available in RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 form. As spotted by Uniko's Hardware (translated), a recent update to ASUS's impressive GPU Tweak software unlocks the ROG Astral line-up's Bosch Sensortec BMI323 Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) chip.

ASUS's flagship ROG Astral line of GPUs can automatically detect and monitor GPU sag.

If you're wondering what this chip is, it includes a gyrometer and accelerometer (the same technology used for videogame motion controls). In GPU Tweak, the chip detects GPU sag and ensures that a horizontal ROG Astral installation has been done correctly. It's even used to monitor the GPU's position and warn you when the card's angle crosses a certain degree threshold.

AMD has officially announced the Radeon RX 9070 GRE, the latest RDNA 4 GPU built using the same Navi 48 chip as the 9070 and 9070 XT. AMD has posted an official product page for the Radeon RX 9070 GRE (which stands for Great Radeon Edition) on the company's Chinese site. The listing confirms it will ship with 12GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus. Pre-orders are now open in the region for its imminent May 8 launch.

In addition to 25% less VRAM capacity, the Radeon RX 9070 GRE features 14.3% fewer Compute Units (CUs) than the baseline Radeon RX 9070. The regional price of 4,199 RMB (around $575) is 6.7% cheaper than the Radeon RX 9070's price of 4,999 RMB (around $600). AMD has also listed performance numbers on the product page, noting that the GPU is around 6% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 GRE.

Targeting 1440p Ultra performance, the Radeon RX 9070 GRE delivered impressive results in titles like F1 24, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Assassin's Creed: Shadows, and Horizon Forbidden West. The following benchmarks represent native or raw performance, without FSR or the new AI-powered FSR 4 upscaling.

A week ago, NVIDIA released GeForce Hotfix Display Driver 576.15, which fixed a range of bugs and issues related to the GeForce RTX 50 Series and a GPU temperature monitoring bug. This Hotfix is built on the GeForce Game Ready 576.02 WHQL for the new GeForce RTX 5060 Ti that introduced a long list of fixes for all GeForce owners, finally responding to widespread reports of driver instability.

This week, NVIDIA is back with GeForce Hotfix Display Driver 576.26, which fixes several game-specific issues for GeForce RTX 50 Series owners. From random crashes in Black Myth: Wukong to flickering backgrounds in the Resident Evil 4 Remake, there's also a fix for display flickering when enabling DisplayPort 2.1 mode with a high refresh rate on GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs.

Several GeForce RTX 50 Series owners have criticized driver stability, so it's great to see NVIDIA release three driver updates in quick succession that address and resolve reported issues. Here are the release notes for GeForce Hotfix Display Driver 576.26.

According to a new report via ITHome and the Chiphell forum, NVIDIA is already talking to its various GPU partners about an upcoming GeForce RTX 50 Series SUPER refresh, with RTX 5080 SUPER and RTX 5070 SUPER cards planned. This announcement is interesting because the report notes that these new SUPER GPUs will increase the VRAM capacity in both cards by 50%.

This would mean that a GeForce RTX 5080 SUPER 24GB and a GeForce RTX 5070 SUPER 18GB are on the way, with GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit and 192-bit memory bus, respectively. These refreshed cards might make use of 3GB GDDR7 modules, similar to the memory configuration of the GeForce RTX 5090 laptop GPU.

This isn't the first time we've heard about a GeForce RTX 5080 with 24GB of VRAM. Last month, we reported on MSI listing a GeForce RTX 5080 with 24GB as compatible with its MAG X870 Tomahawk WiFi motherboard. What was viewed as a potential misprint is now being seen as a possible first look at the GeForce RTX 5080 SUPER refresh.

NVIDIA's new RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell workstation GPU has had its gorgeous PCB leaked, showing off its 96GB of double-sided GDDR7 memory, check it out:

The new NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell GPU is the flagship GB202-based workstation graphics card from the company, offered in 3 different variants leading up to 96GB of GDDR7 memory. The PCB was recently leaked onto Chiphell, giving us a gander at the amount of work that goes into a ridiculously high-end GPU with 96GB of double-sided GDDR7 memory (48GB per side).

There are no components at all on the PCB pictured -- no GPU, no GDDR7 memory modules -- but GDDR7 memory modules will be placed on both sides of the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell GPU. Each GDDR7 module is 3GB, with 16 x 2 x 3GB = 96GB in total. NVIDIA could re-use this PCB for its RTX PRO 5000 with 48GB of GDDR7 (as it would use single-sided modules, not double-sided), while the RTX PRO 4500 uses 32GB of GDDR7 memory (2GB modules) and the GB203 GPU.

GALAX has just announced the availability and pricing of its flagship GeForce RTX 5090D graphics in OC LAB XOC, OX LAB Plus-X, and OC LAB variants, priced at up to $4100.

The new GALAX GeForce RTX 5090D HOF (Hall of Fame) series of graphics cards has been tweaked by the company's in-house OC Lab, with the finely-tuned graphics card featuring a 36-phase VRM and 70A high-current DrMOS. Inside, we've got NVIDIA's new GB202-250 GPU packing 21,760 CUDA cores, alongside 32GB of ultra-fast GDDR7 memory at 28Gbps.

GALAX is launching 3 different models today including the GeForce RTX 5090D HOF OC LAB XOC, OC LAB Plus-X, and OC LAB with the most powerful model being the OC LAB XOC model. The GALAX RTX 5090D OC LAB XOC graphics card features the world's only RTX 50 series GPU with not one, but two 12V-2x6 power connectors.

The 8K Association has shown off the world's first 8K @ 120Hz gaming over HDMI 2.1 at the recent NAB 2025 show (National Association of Broadcasting).

The team used a special 65-inch 8K 120Hz-capable Samsung Neo QLED QN950F TV over HDMI 2.1, plugged into a MAINGEAR desktop gaming PC with an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor and Radeon RX 9070 XT graphics card. 8K Association fired up Horizon Forbidden West, rendering the game at 5K and then using AMD FSR 3 upscaling technology to bump it up to 8K. The signal was sent to the 8K TV using HDMI 2.1b with DSC (Display Stream Compression) technology.

It's an impressive feat -- 8K is 33 million pixels, compared to the 8.2 million at 4K -- but even more so at 120Hz. AMD's flagship Radeon RX 9070 XT isn't the GPU that I'd be using for 8K 120Hz. NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 5090 is a much more powerful GPU with even more VRAM -- 32GB on the RTX 5090 versus 16GB on the RX 9070 XT -- and furthermore, FSR 4 or better yet, DLSS 4 should've been used.

The Homebrew Channel, a critical component for modding Wii consoles to run custom software, has now ceased development amid allegations of copyright infringement.

Wii modding may be at a standstill when it comes to homebrew applications as one of the major players in the space has stopped updating the Homebrew Channel. It's been revealed by the digital wizards at fail0verflow that the Homebrew Channel was essentially built on pirated code lifted directly from Nintendo Software Development Kits (SDKs). As a result, updates and development on the Homebrew Channel have been shut down, potentially preempting any potential legal action from Nintendo.

"The Homebrew Channel (HBC) is a vital tool for Wii homebrew enthusiasts. It's essentially a launcher for homebrew applications, allowing users to access them directly from the Wii's main menu," reads a quick description.

FromSoftware's macabre dark fantasy epic has sold over 30 million copies across the globe, Bandai Namco has announced.

By amassing over 30 million sales in little over 3 years on the market, Elden Ring is one of the most popular new games in recent memory, and it's also one of the best-performing new IPs in gaming history. The punishing action RPG hit the ground running with a meteoric 12 million sales in just 2 weeks, and after a year on the market, Elden Ring had moved 20 million units.

If we take a look at Elden Ring's sales trends, we can also see the possible effects that the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion may have had on repeated sales of the base game. Elden Ring sold 2 million copies in the period between February and June 2024, before Shadow of the Erdtree released, likely influenced by timely discounts as well as potential adoption for the Erdtree expansion.

Blizzard has reportedly chosen Nexon to make a new StarCraft game for the Korean/Japanese market, sources tell South Korean news publication MTN.

Last month, reports broke out that Blizzard was interested in releasing a new StarCraft game for enthusiast markets like ASEAN. Blizzard had reportedly courted various Korean developers including NC Soft, Netmarble, Krafton, and Nexon, pitting them against one another in a competitive bidding war landscape on a new StarCraft project.

New information indicates that Blizzard narrowed its selection down to free-to-play juggernaut Nexon, who is responsible for billion-dollar hits like Dungeon & Fighter, Maple Story, and KartRider. According to MTN's sources, each competing firm submitted their own unique ideas for a new StarCraft game in a series of pitches and concepts.