Xbox's CEO says the games division is not growing as fast as Microsoft hoped, which is supported by recent financial performance. It's possible that Xbox has hit a slow point following its $70 billion Activision buyout.

Microsoft has big plans for Xbox: A new console PC hybrid is on the way, Game Pass is getting adjusted, there's a ton of games in development, and the new CEO is promising affordable games, hardware, and services. But there's just one glaring issue; Xbox still isn't growing. What we're seeing now is Microsoft planting the seeds for change, and those are already materializing in the form of new games, surprise Xbox console updates, and even a major Game Pass shakeup.

This revitalization comes at a time when change is sorely needed at Xbox. Microsoft's holiday console revenues just hit a 12-year low through 2025, and the last two quarters delivered the lowest revenues since Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard King.

The team at Xbox has been hard at work recently trying to revive the brand and clean up its image. Ever since the new boss, Asha Sharma, took over from Phil Spencer in February, there has been a wave of changes at Xbox. Part of it may be the hiring of a new reputation manager, but the new branding and logo have quickly become a fan favorite. Sharma has also changed the "Microsoft Gaming" branding back to Xbox.

Perhaps the most interesting change in Sharma's short tenure as CEO has been to Game Pass, with the Ultimate edition receiving a price cut to $22.99 a month. Moreover, a Discord partnership has been leaked with a cross-subscription model between Discord Nitro and Xbox Game Pass Starter Edition.

To expand on the future of Game Pass, Xbox Executives Asha Sharma and Matt Booty gave an interview to The Game File on the 23rd of April. Sharma said that the recent price drop of Game Pass Ultimate was the first step towards attracting a long-term player base. The team at Xbox is apparently considering making Game Pass more affordable and evaluating how value looks in today's gaming scene.

Intel just had its Q1 2026 earnings call, and it went better than many expected. In Q1 2026, Intel generated $13.58 billion in revenue, up 7.2% year over year. Industry experts had predicted $12.42 billion in revenue for this quarter, which Intel has clearly surpassed. Much of this revenue is down to Intel's data center and AI divisions, which brought in $5.1 billion this quarter. Revenue from external customers for Intel foundry was less than $200 million and was mostly centered around legacy wafer work.

Intel's foundry division has been slow to get started, but now it seems like it's on its way up. With $5.4 billion in revenue generated in Q1, Intel's foundry business is starting to establish itself as a clear second option to TSMC. Intel needs to do that quickly, not just for its own sake, but also for the sake of the CPU industry. Intel's adjusted earnings per share rose to 29 cents, sending the stock up more than 15% shortly after.

Intel has had some major wins for its foundry recently, especially with Tesla becoming the first external customer for the next-gen 14A production node. They have also (finally) ramped up production on the 18A node with Panther Lake and Wildcat Lake now rolling out. Intel has also joined forces with Google to deploy Xeon processors for its AI infrastructure and has joined Tesla in the ambitious TeraFab project.

Meta continues to bet heavily on Agentic AI, as the company has signed an agreement with Amazon to deploy AWS Graviton processors at scale. In late February, Meta signed a deal with AMD to deploy 6 gigawatts of AI hardware. In March, Arm released the Arm AGI CPU for Agentic AI, built in collaboration with Meta. The new partnership with AWS is another step in the same direction for the company.

Recently, we have been seeing a significant shift in the compute demands for Agentic AI workloads. While GPUs remain the dominant force behind most AI workloads, CPUs are slowly gaining significance, thereby increasing demand. This is why Meta is now partnering with Amazon's AWS to deploy tens of millions of Graviton cores to its compute portfolio.

The Graviton5 chip is a 192-core chip built on the AWS Nitro System and features a cache that is five times larger than its previous generation. AWS claims an "up to 33%" improvement in core-to-core latency, greater bandwidth, and the ability for Meta to run its own virtual machines without compromises to performance or security.

Original Bungie dev shares quick details about a behind-the-scenes Halo Reach prototype that never made it into the final game.

Like any game, Halo is full of cut content and went through many changes throughout development. Some of this is documented in Bungie's excellent Vidocs, but other info kind of gets lost to time. Unless, of course, the people who made these classics continue to openly talk about them.

In a recent Twitter thread, OG Bungie dev Niles Sankey talks about an interesting battle sequence prototype for Halo Reach. The game's so-called global battles (seen here at the 1:32 mark) show a more widespread and open theater of war, with banshees soaring the skies and scarabs stomping the ground.

Sony's live service plans haven't worked out according to plan, and former exec Shuhei Yoshida shares his thoughts about the company's current position.

It's 2026, and Sony originally wanted to have 10 live games out by this time. So far, Sony has only released a handful of games, one of which is now synonymous with total failure (Concord). Others, like MLB The Show 26, become #1 best-sellers by revenue in the US at launch. Marathon, the latest extraction shooter from Bungie, seems to be doing okay too, at least sales-wise; it was #4 in the US and estimates put it at 1.2 million copies sold. Helldivers 2 has also become one of the most popular and fastest-selling PlayStation games of all time, leading the live service charge with single-title sales exceeding 12 million copies on PS5 and PC in just 3 months.

Concord's crash and burn was very costly for Sony, however, and the company has since cancelled multiple live service games, including The Last of Us Online, which was said to be mostly complete before it was scrapped by management. Sony has also shut down some teams, including Concord developer Firewalk, and more recently, Dark Outlaw Games. Other groups like Bluepoint, who made the highly-regarded Demon's Souls remake, were also shuttered.

ASUS has started rolling out its ROG Equalizer cable. The redesigned 12V-2x6 PCIe power cable was introduced two weeks ago and is now available on the official ASUS store. ASUS positions it as a hardware-level protection layer for high-end graphics cards, particularly RTX 50-series GPUs, using the 12V-2x6 or 12VHPWR connector.

As spotted by @unikoshardware, ASUS has priced the ROG Equalizer at $49.99, close to the pre-launch estimate of around $41. At the time of writing, the cable is already out of stock, which, given the number of reports of PCIe cables melting or overheating, is not particularly surprising.

For those out of the loop, ASUS designed the ROG Equalizer to address overheating and melting issues associated with the notorious 16-pin 12V-2x6 connector. The cable distributes the load equally across all wires in the connector, increasing each wire's load capacity from 9.2A to 17A, and making it significantly more reliable than a standard cable.

South Korea's prime minister has acknowledged Crimson Desert's success, saying the game is having a profound effect on the country's cultural representation in the interactive entertainment space.

Crimson Desert's wild success has reached the highest point of South Korea's government, prompting Prime Minister Kim Min-seok to make public comments praising the best-selling console game.

"I sincerely congratulate the success of 'Crimson Desert,' which has elevated the status of the South Korean gaming industry on the global stage," the South Korean prime minister said at a recent press event, as per Inven Global.

Following early sightings on the App Store, X's standalone messaging client is now available for iOS users. XChat brings many of the messaging features X had already introduced to its direct messaging, including the ability to delete and edit messages, block screenshots, and send disappearing messages. The app also supports video and audio calls and lets users connect with their existing X contacts.

Along with replacing direct messaging in X, XChat is also expected to become the home for groups that formed around X's Communities feature. The company recently announced it would shut down Communities at the end of May, citing low engagement and high spam volumes, and pointed to XChat's group chat support as a potential alternative. Group chats currently support up to 350 participants, with X planning to expand that number down the line.

X claims there are no ads or tracking mechanisms in XChat. The app is built in Rust with Bitcoin-style encryption and includes end-to-end encryption, ensuring only the sender and recipient can access message content. Despite those credentials, security experts who examined the app at launch warned that XChat appeared less secure than established encrypted messaging apps like Signal. Whether xAI has addressed those concerns with the broader release remains to be seen.

The price of Valve's new Steam Controller may have been accidentally leaked, with the device believed to cost $25 more than a PS5 controller at launch.

The Steam Controller may cost $99.99 at launch, making it a more expensive peripheral and double that of Valve's original Steam Controller ($49.99) that was released over a decade ago.

The pricing was outed via a recent review from a tech YouTuber that accidentally broke Valve's embargo date, and while the review was ultimately taken down, users grabbed screenshots and recordings of the info before the review went offline.

AMD's first-ever dual 3D V-Cache CPU, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2, went on sale earlier this week. However, the chip landed in controversy almost immediately. AMD deliberately withheld review samples from several notable publications, including Gamers Nexus, TechPowerUp, and Linus Tech Tips, and the reviews that did make it out weren't particularly flattering.

The consensus was that the 9950X3D2 offers only marginal performance gains over the Ryzen 9 9950X3D, even less than the limited improvements seen when comparing the Ryzen 7 9850X3D to the 9800X3D. Despite featuring dual 3D V-Cache on both sides of the chip, many reviewers struggled to find compelling reasons to recommend the 9950X3D2 at its high $899 price point, particularly for gamers seeking strong value for money.

Yet somehow, despite all the criticism, the chip is outselling every Intel CPU currently listed on Amazon. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 currently sits at 8th spot on Amazon's best-selling CPU list, pulling ahead of most of AMD's own mid-range and budget Ryzen 9000 and 7000 processors.

Hardware enthusiast Jaykihn has laid out several key details regarding Intel's Datacenter and AI roadmap for the next few generations. Intel's Xeon 6+ "Clearwater Forest" (CFW), the highly anticipated E-core-only family, is on track for launch in the first half of 2026. First previewed at Hot Chips 2025, these CPUs can support up to 288 energy-efficient E-cores based on the Darkmont architecture, delivering high parallel performance for server workloads.

To achieve this massive density, Intel is using Foveros 3D packaging, which stacks 12 compute chiplets on three active base tiles and two I/O tiles. The CFW family remains compatible with current Xeon sockets and introduces higher memory bandwidth, supporting 12-channel DDR5-8000 memory.

On the P-core side, Granite Rapids will remain in production for at least another year, as Intel has pushed back the 16-channel Xeon 7 Diamond Rapids (DMR) to mid-2027. Last year, Intel decided to axe the 8-channel versions of the chip, fully committing to the high-end enthusiast and enterprise market.

After winning tons of awards and selling millions of copies, Clair Obscur is one of the most successful games in recent memory and proves the AA market is prime for expansion.

Following the humdrum and predictable cycles of AAA games and live service titles, Indies are finding a new foothold. AA games are attracting new users in droves, and some of the most popular best-sellers of the last two years have been independent titles. Clair Obscur was a leader in the space when it broke the mold, amassing 1 million copies in just 3 days thanks to powerful online buzz and word of mouth. Now it's been revealed the game has crossed the 8 million sales milestone, fortifying Clair Obscur as a bonafide franchise for developer Sandfall Interactive.

"We're so thrilled, and honestly still quite overwhelmed, to announce that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has officially reached 8 MILLION copies sold," the developer wrote on Twitter. "Thank you so so much to every single person who has played, created art, shared, streamed, discussed, and supported this game!!"

Developer Virtuos inadvertently highlights why Forza Horizon probably won't ever return to Xbox as an exclusive series.

In 2024, Microsoft broke exclusivity, and a year later the company saw its biggest cross-platform success with Forza Horizon 5. While official numbers are light, analyst firm Alinea Analytics estimated that FH5 had sold 5 million copies on PS5 in a triple-five news headline. Now it looks like these numbers could be legit, or at the very least Virtuos, the game developer who helped with the PS5 port, is using Alinea's figures to highlight the game's cross-platform success.

"Forza Horizon 5 was one of the best-selling titles on PlayStation 5 in 2025, surpassing 5 million copies sold on the platform and earning widespread acclaim with a 92 Metacritic score. Praised for its stunning visuals, immersive open-world environments, and finely tuned gameplay mechanics, the game set a new benchmark in the racing genre," the developer writes on its website.

Arrowhead keeps the 1990s macho chaos evolving with Helldivers 2's new warbond, adding in two new mechs into the digital pass for the first time ever.

Helldivers 2's latest warbond continues the franchise's penchant for overpowered satirical military warfare by adding in two new playable exo mechs that are capable of unleashing unique havoc.

The Exo Experts warbond includes the EXO-55 Breakthrough, a shield-toting sci-fi phalanx shieldbearer made specifically for defensive measures, and the EXO-51 Lumberer with its anti-tank cannon and explosive flamethrower. Arrowhead was obviously a fan of the old Mech Warrior games and the classic Exosquad cartoon from decades ago.

Capcom's development team inadvertently reveals another big sales figure for the latest Resident Evil game.

Available since the early days of modern 3D consoles, Resident Evil is Capcom's best-selling franchise of all time. The latest game continues this sales spree, pushing total series sales to 180 million+. It's now been revealed that Resident Evil 9 Requiem has sold over 7 million copies worldwide on all platforms, a feat that was achieved in 56 days since the game's original launch.

The update was spotted by Resident Evil expert Aliex Aniel, with Aniel noting that Requiem game director Koshi Nakanishi had shared a celebratory post on Instagram that highlighted the sales figure. Capcom has yet to formally announce the sales figure, and that might happen in the coming days. We've updated our Resident Evil 9 Requiem sales trends chart to give an idea of how well the game has performed since launch--spoilers, things are going very well for the game.

Assassin's Creed Resynced looks to be gaming's next major AAA hit as the game is currently the #1 top pre-ordered game on multiple global PlayStation Stores.

Following the success of Assassin's Creed Shadows, Ubisoft could have another best-seller on its hands with the upcoming Black Flag remake. The game might be a seasonal success, at least on PlayStation, as Black Flag Resynced has become the #1 top pre-ordered game on eight of nine tracked PlayStation Store geographies.

At the time of writing, the game is the #1 pre-ordered game in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and even Hong Kong. The only region in our pool of tracked countries where Black Flag Resynced wasn't #1 was in Japan, a somewhat fickle market with wide degrees of varying tastes.

Square Enix has announced plans to bring its long-running MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn to Nintendo Switch 2 this August. CEO Takashi Kiryu made the announcement during the April 2026 FFXIV Fan Fest keynote, alongside a costly catch that will have players on the hybrid platform rethinking their subscription plans.

Normally, if you own FFXIV on multiple platforms, you can play on any of them under a single subscription. But Square Enix will change that for the Switch 2 version, requiring players to get a separate subscription in addition to buying the base game.

"After discussions with Nintendo, it was decided that the Switch 2 version of Final Fantasy XIV would require a separate subscription," FFXIV director and producer Naoki Yoshida said via translator. "Again, this was decided after many months of discussions with Nintendo, and I understand that this is different to how we've done things before."

It was recently leaked via an Indonesian Ratings database that Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced will feature "new characters and stories". While it had been rumored for months now, nobody really knew what the new Black Flag project was going to be. There was speculation among gamers about whether the new "Resynced" would be a remaster like Assassin's Creed 3 or a remake with brand-new content.

It seems like we have got the answer now, with Ubisoft's official worldwide reveal showcase of Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced. As speculated before, the new Resynced project is indeed a remake with brand-new characters, story arcs, gameplay mechanics, and much more. Ubisoft lifted the curtain on the inner workings of Black Flag Resynced in a 28-minute showcase on 23rd April.

In Resynced, we will meet three new characters who will take the role of officers for our crew. Ubisoft introduced them as Lucy Baldwin, The Padre, and Deadman Smith. These are not faceless NPCs either, as we can see fully detailed, unique models for the characters in the reveal trailer. Furthermore, Ubisoft says each character will have a unique narrative questline that reveals their backstory.

ASUS first introduced the Zenbook Duo 2026 at CES in January, and the company has now opened pre-orders for the Zenbook DUO UX8407 model. The Zenbook Duo is the company's dual-screen laptop based on Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors.

The standout feature here is the displays. Plural. The laptop comes with two 14-inch OLED touchscreen panels at 2880x1800 resolution, 144Hz refresh rate, 500-nit SDR brightness, and 1000-nit HDR peak brightness. The upper screen sits in the top section, while the lower screen replaces the typical keyboard location. ASUS says the new hideaway hinge reduces the gap between both panels by 70%, while the chassis is 5% smaller than the previous model.

The keyboard is detachable and can be placed on top of the bottom screen for a more traditional laptop experience. ASUS lists two configurations. The UX8407 with Intel Core Ultra 9 386H and Intel Graphics is available for pre-order now at $2,499. A $2,699 version with the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H and Intel Arc Graphics is also listed, with availability expected in late Q2 2026.