Latest News - Page 317

The long-rumored Half-Life 3 is now said to be the final chapter in the series that arguably helped shape PC gaming into what it is today.

It has been 20+ years since the release of Half-Life 2, and since the release of the monumental game, fans of the series have been wondering how the story wraps up, especially considering the second chapter is left on a cliffhanger. Since the release of Half-Life 2, fans have been speculating about the third installment in the franchise, with rumors really heating up in 2020 when Valve released Half-Life Alyx, which also ended on a cliffhanger and directly connected back to the end of Half-Life 2.

It's fair to say fans have been frothing at the mouth for any news on Half-Life 3, and previous rumors pegged its release for "sooner than we think". However, no date was given, nor an official word or recognition of the game by Valve. But, a new rumor from DanielRPK on Patreon has claimed that whenever Half-Life 3 releases, Valve will be finished with the series - it will be the "final chapter in the franchise". Given the cliffhanger ending of Half-Life 2 and Half-Life Alyx, it does make sense chronologically that if Half-Life 3 releases, it will be the final pages in the book.

The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered has been a massive success for Bethesda Game Studios and Xbox, quickly becoming one of the year's best-selling games. The visually impressive remaster (developed using Unreal Engine 5) doubles as a friendly reminder that gamers are hungry for Elder Scrolls titles and that The Elder Scrolls 6 will be a Cyberpunk 2077 or GTA 6-style event when it launches.

However, that could be several years away. So, if you've been enjoying Oblivion Remastered's old-school RPG charm, there's another upcoming Elder Scrolls release called Skywind. This ambitious mod project is a labor of love from a large team of passionate fans recreating and remaking The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind within the Skyrim engine. This includes all locations, NPCs, quests, and more, fully voiced with new visuals and animation.

We've been following this project for years, and the Skywind team has just released a new video showcasing around 20 minutes of gameplay and providing an update on the game's development status.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and former Apple chief design officer Jony Ive are currently developing a new hardware product that will ship under the ChatGPT creators company, and when it's ready, there will be 100 million units going out to consumers.

OpenAI is preparing to broaden its horizons beyond ground-breaking AI-powered software and step into the realm of hardware. In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed he is developing this new secret device alongside Ive, which neither Altman nor Ives specified a description for. 

Presumably, it would be a device that enables ChatGPT to be taken on the go by users but somehow provides more value to consumers than the currently available software downloadable on smartphone devices via an app. If it's an AI companion device, possibly wearable, it would likely be running an AI model locally rather than requesting processing power from OpenAI's servers for an answer to a user's question.

Corsair's latest mechanical keyboard is all about customization and has been designed specifically for the growing DIY market. The Corsair MAKR 75 Barebones Keyboard Kit blends the best of both worlds - DIY and prebuilt keyboards for gaming, focusing on making the whole process easy enough for beginners, thanks to the new CORSAIR Web Hub.

Yes, this is a Corsair product that doesn't require iCUE for customization. The web-based CORSAIR Web Hub offers users access to all of the Corsair MAKR 75's features without the need for a dedicated app. This is part of a broader push for the company to offer more versatile and straightforward tools for customizing its products.

The Corsair MAKR 75 Barebones Keyboard Kit's high-level features tick all the boxes we associate with a high-performance gaming keyboard in 2025. The MAKR 75 supports 8K hyper-polling for low-latency performance, FlashTap for competitive shooters, gasket mounting, different switch plates, eight layers of sound dampening, screw-in stabilizers, your choice of different hot-swappable switches, and a full aluminum frame.

The new Logitech G522 Lightspeed Wireless Gaming Headset is available now, and it might just be the company's most impressive headset yet. With countless design passes, testing, and revisions, the Logitech G522 is designed to offer competitive gamers incredible sound and voice chat quality paired with impressive comfort, versatility, and durability.

Naturally, we'll be saving our final judgement after going hands-on with the new Logitech G522 Lightspeed Wireless Gaming Headset, but in the meantime, let's go through some of the key features that stand out. On the comfort front, the 290-gram headset features redesigned, wider ear cups and now includes an additional layer of memory foam for cooling and comfort.

The reversible suspension headband, a first for Logitech, ensures universal comfort, taking into account those who wear glasses or earrings. The sound side of the G522 is also impressive, with Logitech's 40mm PRO-G drivers delivering high-fidelity 48 kHz/24-bit audio tuned to capture the immersive sounds of modern games.

Samsung will be bursting onto the next-gen HBM4 memory business later this year, with its new 1c DRAM driving its upcoming HBM4 memory, which the South Korean firm will be sampling to tech giants including AI GPU leader NVIDIA, in Q3 2025 ready for next-gen AI chips arriving later this year, and into 2026.

In a new post from @Jukenreslove on X and reported on by South Korean media outlet The Bell, we're hearing that Vice Chairman Jeon Young-hyun -- who was freshly minted the "firefighter" of Samsung Electronics' semiconductor business -- looking closely over the DRAM business as the new boss as the head of the Device Solutions (DS) division.

The chairman has been personally overseeing and instructing Samsung's huge redesign of 10nm 6th generation DRAM (1c DRAM) which is being prepared as the next-generation HBM4 core die, with Jeon "taking care" of major product development issues. Jeon was appointed the head of the DS division back in May 2024, and promoted to the head of the memory division and president of Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT) in November.

Samsung has announced that its 2025 OLED TV line-up will receive an update that will add NVIDIA G-SYNC compatibility. This is perfect for those connecting a GeForce RTX-powered rig to their TV. This will allow the OLED TV's refresh rate to sync with a GeForce RTX GPU's performance (in FPS), where, alongside Samsung's Motion Xcelerator technology, it can deliver smooth, tear-free visuals up to 165 Hz.

Samsung confirms that its flagship S95F Series will get NVIDIA G-SYNC compatibility first, with other models to follow. Samsung's 2025 OLED TV line-up is optimized for gaming thanks to the inclusion of AMD FreeSync Premium Pro support, Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM), and Samsung's dedicated Gaming Hub, which includes instant access to cloud streaming services like Xbox and GeForce NOW.

Samsung's flagship S95F OLED TV differentiates itself from the competition by featuring the company's 'OLED Glare-Free technology', which removes glare and reflections - a feature of most other OLED TVs on the market.

Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage Service is all about bringing cost-effective, fast, and reliable cloud storage solutions to small, midsize, and enterprise customers. Since 2022, the company has been working closely with KIOXIA to deliver access to SAS and NVMe SSDs.

As part of this collaboration, KIOXIA's high-performance enterprise and data-center NVMe SSDs are now available as part of Wasabi's Hot Cloud Storage Service. This includes KIOXIA's high-speed, low-latency CM7 Series PCIe 5.0 NVMe Enterprise SSDs for server and storage applications, flash-based storage designed for demanding workloads like AI and processing online transactions.

KIOXIA's CM7 Series is available in capacities ranging from 1.6 TB to a massive 30.72 TB. It supports both the 2.5-inch (US) and E3.S SSD form factors and is compliant with PCIe 5.0 and NVMe 2.0 specifications. The CM7 Series is joined by KIOXIA's CD8 Series PCIe 4.0 data center NVMe SSDs, which offer double the bandwidth, 16 GT/s (gigatransfers), compared to traditional PCIe 3.0 SSDs.

It looks like another prototype NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card has leaked, sporting not one, not two, but 4 x 16-pin power connectors. Check it out:

In a new post on X from leaker @Yuuki_Ans, we're getting a look at a purported engineering sample (ES) version of NVIDIA's flagship GeForce RTX 5090 that never reached the market, although we wish it did (just to see how insane it would be). The prototype RTX 5090 features 4 x 16-pin power connectors, meaning this beast would have up to 2400W of power consumption at the ready.

The prototype RTX 5090 also features doubled VRM sections on the right of the card, allowing that juicy 2400W to flow into the card. It looks like the ES card also features 5 display connectors, which is weird as we usually get only 4 display connectors on graphics cards... so, it could be a TITAN Blackwell prototype that has been leaked before (in the links below) or something completely different, but whatever it is... it would've been an absolute beast in terms of power flowing into the card at a wall-busting 2400W.

The mainstream desktop GeForce RTX 5060 launched last week (while the TweakTown team was at Computex 2025 in Taipei), and the GPU's arrival has not been without incident. RTX 5060 (and RTX 5060 Ti) owners have been reporting blank or black screen issues after a system reboot, with some systems being unrecoverable. The fix? Update the firmware on your RTX 5060 or RTX 5060 Ti.

Having to update the firmware, or VBIOS, on a mainstream and popular GPU like the GeForce RTX 5060 is not something you usually see, as it points to a fundamental issue or flaw. Issues like this are often discovered and fixed before a consumer launch, with NVIDIA and its partners updating GPUs long before they hit retail shelves.

Several users on NVIDIA's forums have reported blank or black screen issues with the RTX 5060, occurring after a system reboot or at random times. NVIDIA has been asking for Windows crash dump files to figure out what's happening, which involves forcing a manual Windows crash and rebooting into safe mode.

The launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 is right around the corner, and we have just learned Nintendo's upcoming console will arrive with support for normal USB mice in certain games, begging the question of whether users will also be able to plug in a keyboard.

Mouse gaming is coming to the Nintendo Switch 2, with Nintendo baking in their own version of mouse gaming straight into the Joy-Con 2 controllers, which can be rotated onto their side and used as a mouse in a claw-grip-like fashion. Nintendo intends for gamers to take advantage of this new feature in first-person-shooter titles and possibly creative games such as Mario Maker, as both categories of games benefit from precision. 

However, if the claw-gripped Joy-Con 2 controllers aren't satisfactory, users are able to plug in their own mouse via the USB port. The compatibility was revealed during a look at Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening CE, where producer Michi Ryu did that very thing - use the Joy-Con 2 controllers, stop, and then connect a USB mouse and continue playing. 

Total Grand Theft Auto series revenues have now broken $9.72 billion since the release of GTA V in late 2013.

Take-Two Interactive's latest Fiscal Year 2025 earnings report gives us a new update on how much money the Grand Theft Auto series made throughout the year. According to data published by Take-Two and reviewed by us, the total sum of Grand Theft Auto products and services made about $710 million in revenue in the period (April 2024 - March 2025).

Rockstar released multiple updates for Grand Theft Auto Online in FY25, including Bottom Dollar Bounties and Agents of Sabotage. Series engagement was also driven by the continued support of the GTA trilogy collection on mobile, and GTA V's inclusion on PlayStation Plus in the holiday season.

Nacon secures a big multi-year deal to make new WRC games from 2027 - 2032, the companies have announced.

A bit ago, we reported that EA and Codemasters halted development of new WRC games, and that WRC 24 would be the last title in the series from this particular developer. Now the WRC franchise has found a new home with French video games publisher Nacon, a group known for its popular sports games like its Rugby League and Cricket titles, as well as AA games like Robocop: Rogue City.

Nacon's new WRC games will offer a "complete reboot" of the series, and the publisher will have exclusive rights to make games across six seasons from 2027-2032 across PC and consoles.

Mortal Kombat 1 will not receive any future DLC content, including new fighters and story updates, NetherRealm has confirmed.

NetherRealm is officially moving on from Mortal Kombat 1. The visceral fighting game released in September 2023 and has received a steady flow of content drops, including a slew of extra fighters across two Kombat Packs as well as a story expansion. Now the game has run its course, and NetherRealm is focusing on its next big project.

"We are hearing players' requests for continued game support of Mortal Kombat 1, and, while we will continue to support Mortal Kombat 1 through balance adjustments and fixes, there will not be additional DLC characters or story chapters released from this point on," the studio wrote in a Twitter update.

Physical gaming is slowly being ebbed away as digital continues its dominant sales streak for major publishers like Capcom.

Capcom wants to eventually sell 100 million games per year, and it has a plan on how to make it happen: Carefully drive up sales through specific platforms using the tools provided. This plan usually sees Capcom deeply discount its games on digital platforms like Steam, the Nintendo eShop, and the PlayStation and Xbox stores. As we can see from the company's FY24 earnings report, the results speak for themselves.

According to the data, digital made up 90% of Capcom's total software sales for the year. The company hopes digital will hit 94% this fiscal year (FY25, the current period, which ends in March 2026).

PC is now the top platform for Capcom's digital game sales.

Capcom's new Fiscal Year 2024 earnings report highlights an emerging trend for the company, primarily with digital game sales. PC has now overtaken console in terms of digital game sales, with PC raking in 28.211 million games sold, or about 60% of total digital game sales during the yearly period. Console comes in at 18.517 million digital sales, making up about 40% of the total.

For reference, Capcom sold over 51 million games during the year, up significantly over FY23's results of ~46 million game sales. These results highlight the publisher's strong commitment to favorable operating margins (digital means no manufacturing and/or shipping costs) and the shift to digital markets that can better be adjusted through well-timed price discounts.

Thermalright had something that really caught my eye in the halls of Nangang at Computex 2025, a new Mini-PC that isn't just powered by up AMD's Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 "Strix Point" APU, but the new Mini-PC has an AIO liquid cooler. Check it out:

The new 1-liter Mini-PC has a red-and-black themed open-frame design, which looks fantastic in the flesh, with a screen on the front of the system that can display stats from your system (CPU, GPU temps, the date and time, and more). The open-frame design features a large-ish (for a Mini-PC) copper radiator, a fan, and a motherboard. Inside, the system on the show floor featured an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 "Strix Point" APU.

Inside, we've got t e AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 "Strix Point" APU with 12 cores and 24 threads of Zen 5 processing power, 16 cores of RDNA 3.5-based Radeon 8060S GPU, as well as easily-upgradeable RAM and SSD options with accessible M.2 SSD and SO-DIMM memory slots on the back.

NVIDIA showcased some impressive AI technologies at Computex 2025, with the company leading the charge of AI integration into the gaming space. One of those technologies is Project G-Assist, and I got a behind-the-scenes demo of what is new with the feature. For those who don't know, it is a local AI agent designed to enable a user to control their PC through voice/text chat.

G-Assist has received some considerable improvements, with NVIDIA demonstrating the AI agent's ability to launch titles through a user activating the microphone and simply saying, "Open Counter-Strike 2." Moreover, G-Assist, currently available to download within the NVIDIA App, can also optimize a game's settings without user intervention. 

A user will interact with G-Assist either through text chat or via a microphone and simply ask it to optimize the settings for a game. The AI agent will go ahead and optimize the in-game settings based on the PC configuration, improving average framerate.

The Switch 2 will not support Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) while docked, Nintendo has officially confirmed.

A bit ago, Nintendo changed the Switch 2's website to remove any mention of Variable Refresh Rate support on TVs. Previously, Nintendo had expressed that the Switch 2 would support VRR while connected to a compatible TV, similar to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.

Now the company has issued and official statement, confirming once and for all that the Switch 2 only supports VRR in handheld mode: "Nintendo Switch 2 supports VRR in handheld mode only. The incorrect information was initially published on the Nintendo Switch 2 website, and we apologize for the error," a rep told Nintendo Life.

Analysts expected GTA 6 to boost console gaming, but the delay to 2026 has dropped these forecasts by multiple billions of dollars.

Rockstar delayed GTA 6 to May 2026, and this move will have implications for the games industry and its various segments, especially console gaming. GTA 6's launch was expected to drive up sales and adoption of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S and help mature these slow-growing platforms, while also spiking software spending and potentially in-game purchases via any analogous GTA Online multiplayer component.

All-told, analyst firm Ampere Analysis estimates that GTA 6's delay will have a $2.7 billion implication for the console market. That is to say that GTA 6 was expected to contribute to a sizable multi-billion dollar spike in spending on the console platform. Rockstar's hugely anticipated sequel was also to help fire up console sales, with an estimated +21 million combined PS5s and Xbox Series systems forecasted to be sold in 2025 alongside GTA 6.