Latest News - Page 35

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has obliterated launch expectations, reportedly doubling the Steam sales of Shadows on its first day, marking a tremendous success for the title.

According to the latest Alinea Analytics report, the game sold 701,000 copies on Steam in 24 hours, generating $35 million in gross revenue, which outpaces Shadows' launch day revenue by 2.35 times. Additionally, the report states Black Flag Resynced also pulled in nearly $1 million from its day-one DLC, while hitting a peak concurrent player count of 416,000 on Steam. As for specifics, Steam day-one sales for Black Flag Resynced generated $22.4 million, which is far more than Shadows' $9.5 million day-one Steam revenue.

The success of Black Flag Resynced compared to Shadows highlights a growing fatigue with Ubisoft's latest entries in the Assassin's Creed franchise, with many critics pointing to invasive and unnecessary cosmetics in a single-player game, repetitive gameplay, lackluster campaigns, and a general sense the franchise has strayed far and wide from its roots.

Bethesda has released a large studio update that confirms the status of the group following mass layoffs at Xbox, outlining various new projects in development.

Xbox's latest layoffs have cast doubt on what's next for various studios. Bethesda has issued an update that confirms its slate of games, including mainline games like Fallout 5, The Elder Scrolls VI, as well as remasters. The studio confirms that The Elder Scrolls VI is the top priority, and that Fallout 5 is in pre-production phases, with both games sharing the common Creation Engine 3 technology.

Remasters of Fallout New Vegas and Fallout 3 are also confirmed, as well as official acknowledgement of a new Fallout game with Obsidian: "We're happy to confirm [our longtime friends at Obsidian Entertainment] are working with us on a new Fallout project."

The last time we heard about GameStop, the CEO was attempting to buy eBay by selling items on eBay after the online marketplace asked how the CEO was going to afford the acquisition, and now GameStop has officially partnered with Uber Eats to deliver new video games, consoles, accessories, and collectibles to customers nationwide. So, in theory, you will be able to order Grand Theft Auto 6 and pizza in the same cart when the game releases this November, and get both dropped off for an epic night.

The collaboration brings the world's top physical gaming retailer into the delivery space, allowing consumers to order directly through the Uber Eats app from participating GameStop locations. The move expands GameStop's reach beyond physical stores and into the digital retail ecosystem, a space the company should have adopted many years ago.

According to the press release, customers can now choose between immediate or scheduled delivery, with products ranging from the latest game titles to high-end hardware. The partnership is a clear attempt to digitize GameStop's presence in a market that is moving away from physical media, and, in all honesty, it's an effort to prevent the retailer from being phased out altogether.

ZeniMax Online Studios is undergoing a leadership overhaul as part of Microsoft's broader Xbox restructuring, which confirmed that 1,600 jobs will be immediately let go, and as many as 6,400 across Microsoft's entire workforce, equating to approximately 2.1% of all Microsoft employees.

Studio head Joe Burba and three other senior leaders are exiting the company, according to recent reports. The cuts, revealed in a WARN notice, include 379 roles eliminated in Maryland, with more than 200 from ZeniMax Online Studios alone, including positions such as Studio Head, Studio Operations Director, Studio Game Director, Studio Art Director, and various other C-level positions. Burba, who took over the studio alongside ESO executive producer Susan Kath, game director Rich Lambert, and production director Ala Diaz, will be departing.

The leadership transition is expected to take "a few months," with Josh Henderson taking over as head of ZeniMax Online Studios, who was previously head of business operations, and Nick Giacomini, who was promoted to Game Director last August, will be taking on a larger role. The news of executives departing, along with a selection of employees, has raised concerns about the continued growth of Elder Scrolls Online, a massively multiplayer online game (MMO) that maintains its player base through constant content updates.

Steam has generated an estimated $11 billion in the first six months of 2026, which is more money than the platform made in the entire year of 2017.

New data estimates from Alinea Analytics put a number on Valve's successful PC games storefront. According to the firm's latest estimates, Steam could have made up to $11.1 billion in gross sales revenue throughout the first half of the year. This milestone could make 2026 a record-breaking year for PC gaming. One important thing to remember is that this is the total sum of all the earnings and sales from games and content on Steam--it doesn't just represent Valve's cut, but the whole pie.

"Steam's full-year revenue has climbed from around $5.5B in 2017 to roughly $20B in 2025," Alinea's Rhys Elliott said in the coverage. The FTC v Microsoft trial from 2023 also revealed that Valve's Steam storefront was estimated to have made $7 billion in 2021, illustrating a major boost to sales over nearly 10 years.

In the past week, we've seen tools like HWMonitor, HWiNFO, AIDA64, and others expand their support for GeForce RTX 50 Series GPU monitoring by adding readings for GPU hotspot temperatures. This was a feature that was actively blocked by NVIDIA, even though it's been a staple of previous generations. It was third-party monitoring tools and engineering that restored access to hotspot readings, and it's opened the door for countless gamers to re-run benchmarks and tests to get a clearer picture of the thermal performance of their GeForce RTX 50 Series cards.

And with that, we're starting to see some concerning results across a wide range of cards. In one case, a user with a COLORFUL iGame GeForce RTX 5080 Vulcan graphics card found that their GPU hotspot temperature hit 98.5 degrees Celsius even though the overall GPU temperature reading was sitting at 68.6 degrees. This is a 30-degree discrepancy and enough of a cause for concern that they got in contact with COLORFUL's support team.

The good news is that COLORFUL's response was detailed and reassuring, noting that sustained temperatures above 90 degrees were abnormal, that if this continued after a sustained 10 minutes of gaming, it could indicate faulty cooling, and that they should contact "after-sales service" for next steps. But first, they suggest ruling out airflow issues and even dust to ensure that the cooling was working as intended.

A couple of days ago, we got word that Valve was reportedly ceasing production of replacement parts for the original Steam Deck LCD gaming handhelds, which are no longer being produced in favor of the refreshed OLED models. This was based on a response from the hardware repair specialists at iFixit, who had received a customer request stating that Valve was sunsetting the availability of replacement batteries for the device.

The firm expanded on the response by adding that it was looking at and testing alternatives due to Valve no longer supplying replacement batteries, which led to stories like ours popping up online, and a consensus among the PC gaming community that dropping repair support so soon for the Steam Deck LCD handheld was not a consumer-friendly or PC gamer-friendly move from Valve. One of the reasons why batteries currently need to be sourced directly from Valve comes down to "special calibration not publicly available."

Well, it turns out that the sunsetting is no longer happening or was never really a thing, as iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens has taken to the social media platform X to confirm that, "Valve has reached out and is sending us a new batch of Steam Deck LCD batteries."

According to a new report over at VideoCards, which cites access to Intel's internal roadmap, we've got some new details on the company's upcoming next-generation desktop CPUs built on the Nova Lake-S architecture. The report stated that these CPUs will adopt the Intel Core Ultra 400 Series branding, with multiple models on track for release in 2027.

The report includes an image of the unannounced Intel Core Ultra 9 400 K processor, which you can see above. This release plan aligns with previous rumors that Intel would use CES 2027 as both an announcement and a launch platform for the lineup.

As with all Intel CPU generations, there will be multiple models; however, this new information points to the company's first Nova Lake-S CPUs being 28-core DS packages or models, which are on track for Q1 2027 - specifically late January through to March 2027.

If you're wondering what an Inkjet-printed OLED display is, here's a quick primer. And yes, if you're thinking about an office printer, you're on the right track. Essentially, it's an updated, more efficient manufacturing process that allows OLED makers to precisely "print" RGB pixels directly onto the panel, eliminating the need for stencils and more costly traditional methods for creating OLED displays.

The big thing with Inkjet-printed OLED display production, which is still brand-new, is that it means less material waste. And the result is a boon for users, too, as it leads to a more precise RGB stripe layout, delivering improved brightness, text clarity, and color accuracy.

TCL CSOT recently began large-scale mass production of Inkjet-printed OLED displays, and the new Lenovo Legion R9000P laptop is the first notebook in the world to feature one of these new panels. TCL touts the "Real RGB Stripe side-by-side subpixel arrangement" as a boon for the laptop, saying it offers more detail for crisper text and images, along with 99% of the DCI-P3 color gamut for impressive color accuracy.

With PlayStation announcing the end of physical disc production for new games in January 2028, game ownership and physical media have become hot topics. However, one PC gamer on Reddit isn't ready to let go of physical media just yet, turning old 2.5-inch SSDs into custom Steam game cartridges complete with printed cover art and 3D-printed cases.

Reddit user Jibril-sama shared the setup online, where it has since picked up over 17,000 upvotes. The games are installed onto individual 128GB SATA SSDs, each dressed up to look like a game cartridge. When one is plugged into a SATA dock, a script automatically navigates Steam to the game's page and offers the option to launch it automatically as well. The SSDs were picked up for around $7 to $8 each, making this an affordable flex as much as a practical one.

The system runs on Linux, using a udev rule to detect when an SSD is connected and triggering a systemd daemon that finds and executes the launch script. Jibril-sama notes that it should be replicable on Windows as well, though without the seamless auto-navigate and auto-launch functionality that Linux enables.

XPG has announced a pair of new ergonomic gaming chairs: the NIMBUS and NIMBUS PLUS. In addition to providing all-day comfort and support, XPG notes that the flagship NIMBUS PLUS's high-back mesh design was built with breathability in mind. Breathable mesh provides continuous ventilation that minimizes heat buildup during long sitting sessions.

Other highlights of the NIMBUS PLUS include a dual-axis headset with height and tilt adjustments for head and neck support, along with height-adjustable lumbar support featuring a rear locking mechanism for lower back stability and additional support. Throw in 4D adjustable armrests and a sliding seat, and the breathability and ergonomics of the flagship XPG NIMBUS PLUS gaming chair are matched with extensive adjustability.

For the more affordable NIMBUS gaming chair, XPG notes that the design was based on a concept of contoured comfort. This means you've got a unibody backrest that includes the headrest and lumbar support in a single frame built to support a healthy posture while gaming.

When Nintendo released the highly anticipated Switch 2 last year, its official dock brought a few welcome upgrades, including a built-in LAN port and an active cooling fan. However, one thing it lacked was backward compatibility with the original Switch. Now, a Nintendo patent filed in China and spotted by Nintendo Patents Watch on Bluesky describes a universal dock designed to work with both the original Switch and the Switch 2.

The dock would detect which system it is connected to and change its output accordingly. With a Switch 2 inserted, it would operate at USB 3.0 speeds, output video at up to 4K, and run the internal fan at a higher RPM to handle the console's greater thermal requirements. Drop in an original Switch instead, and the dock scales back to USB 2.0, caps video output at 1080p, and spins the fan at a lower speed.

The two systems handle power delivery differently: the original Switch is rated at a maximum of 18W, while the Switch 2 is rated at 60W, though it typically draws far less in practice. A dock that intelligently manages both would reduce clutter and make multi-console households considerably less annoying to deal with.

OpenAI's first move into consumer hardware is not the screenless AI companion or smart speaker that has been floating around in rumours. Meet Codex Micro, a $230 mini programmable keyboard developed with Work Louder. It is designed for users of OpenAI's Codex coding agent, letting developers monitor and interact with multiple AI threads without switching between windows.

The device has 13 mechanical keys, a rotary dial, a joystick, an analog stick, and a touch sensor. The most unique feature is six frosted keys in the top two rows that show colour-coded live status updates for up to six active Codex threads. White means a thread is idle, blue means Codex is thinking, green means a task is done, amber means the agent needs human input, and red shows an error. Tapping the right key opens the matching Codex window on the screen. The rotary dial instantly changes the agent's thinking level, letting users choose between speed and computing power or push the agent harder when needed.

The other six keys are mapped by default to common Codex actions including accepting and rejecting changes, branching threads, and a push-to-talk button for audio prompts. All inputs are fully remappable through software, and the kit ships with 32 extra keycaps. Users can program five additional function layers beyond the Codex layer for general computing shortcuts. The housing is CNC-milled aluminium and polycarbonate, and connectivity covers both USB-C and Bluetooth with Windows and Mac support.

In a big surprise to no one, it turns out EA wants studios to design games around ads from day one, because of course it does. In an interview with The Game Business, EA's head of advertising, Alexander Dao, said developers should start factoring in-game ads into a title's design from the earliest stages of development, rather than bolting them on after launch.

When asked directly whether studios should be planning for ads during production, Dao called it a massive opportunity, not just for EA, but for the wider industry. He also pushed back on Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick's stance that interstitial ads have no place in $80 games, arguing that ads can work in any title regardless of price.

None of this should shock anyone who has watched EA operate for the last decade. This is a company that pioneered stadium billboard ads in its sports titles years ago, slapped ads into Battlefield 4 loading screens, and turned Star Wars: Battlefront II into a case study lawmakers still cite when talking about predatory monetization. Calling it an "opportunity" is corporate-speak for finding new ways to squeeze money out of a purchase that gamers already paid for.

If you know David Jaffe, you know how outspoken he can be, and he just published one of his more introspective takes yet. In a new video, the original God of War director argues that the AAA industry spent two decades chasing prestige as a storytelling medium, and that this chase is a big part of why studios are shutting down and projects are getting axed today.

His reasoning is somewhat personal, too. He says that after the first God of War hit in 2005, he became "the flavor of the year," courted by agents who wanted to sign him. Looking back, he calls that entire chapter, the PS2 through PS4 era AAA gaming, a delusion built on the idea that games needed to be cinematic to be taken seriously. He's careful to say the games from that stretch were genuinely great as products; he's just skeptical that the story was ever the reason they worked, a notably different tone from him defending Starfield's narrative last year.

Recent bestseller lists are dominated by mechanics-driven, multiplayer-heavy titles, not narrative epics. He points to where the audience spends its time now: Roblox, Call of Duty, Fortnite, the "virtual skate parks" of gaming rather than anything resembling a linear story.

MSI is now manufacturing some of its RTX 5060s with NVIDIA's GB205 die with the introduction of its new RTX 5060 "V1" graphics cards. Spotted by Uniko's Hardware on X, the new cards feature a different mounting hole layout compared to MSI's existing RTX 5060 lineup that matches RTX 5070 graphics cards. This subtle difference confirms that the new MSI RTX 5060 graphics cards use NVIDIA's larger GB205 die found in the RTX 5070.

The initial version of the RTX 5060 arrived with the GB206 die, which comes with 4,608 CUDA cores in total and powers both the 5060 and 5060 Ti. The GB206 die is physically different from GB205 in that it is designed with a square die and mounting holes matching its shape. The GB205 die is a more powerful Blackwell die responsible for powering the RTX 5070 but comes in a rectangular shape with mounting holes that reflect its shape, and a total of 6,400 CUDA cores.

There is no performance difference between the RTX 5060 versions; NVIDIA disables cores on each version to reach the GPU's designated 3,840 CUDA core count. On the GB205 version of the RTX 5060, the memory bus is also partially disabled to meet the GPU's 128-bit spec. NVIDIA and its partners commonly use multiple die variants for a single GPU model to save money by recycling defective dies that are still good enough for powering lower-end SKUs. For instance, a defective GB205 die with 2,560 defective CUDA cores is still good enough to ship in an RTX 5060.

The RPCS3 team has hit another compatibility milestone, and this one's a big deal for anyone who grew up with a PS3. The open source emulator now lists 75% of its tracked library, 2,681 out of 3,559 games, as "Playable." That's up from 70% back in January, so the project added roughly five percentage points of coverage in about six months.

"Playable" in RPCS3's own terms means a game can be finished start to finish with acceptable performance and no game-breaking glitches. It doesn't promise a flawless run. Some titles in that tier still have minor graphical hiccups or audio quirks, but nothing that stops you from reaching the credits.

While that is great news, not everything has cleared the bar yet. The Last of Us, God of War III, and Metal Gear Solid 4 are still stuck in the "In-Game" category, meaning they load and run but hit serious glitches or performance issues severe enough to block a full playthrough. It makes sense that Sony's biggest, most demanding PS3 exclusives are the last ones to fall in line, since those are the games that pushed the Cell architecture hardest in the first place.

When Sony announced that the PlayStation 5 would adopt liquid metal as part of its cooling solution, the consensus was positive: it's the sort of cutting-edge thermal solution you'd expect on a high-end piece of hardware. Unfortunately, the result wasn't entirely successful, with several instances of inconsistent heat transfer, overheating, and even leaks.

Some of the blame for this has been attributed to those who kept their consoles in a vertical orientation, with Sony going so far as to make revisions to mitigate the risk of liquid metal issues with the PlayStation 5 Slim and Pro refreshes. According to a new patent and a new report over at Tech4Gamers, Sony is ditching liquid metal for a new advanced cooling system for the PlayStation 6 that will support both horizontal and vertical orientations.

The design appears to be a proprietary solution that includes advanced heat pipes with tapered sections to enhance efficiency and facilitate fluid or liquid cooling. It appears to be a vaporization-based cooling system with a more traditional, water-like liquid, and it's designed to work effectively regardless of the console's orientation.

One of the small but confusing aspects of the GeForce RTX 50 Series and RTX Blackwell launch was the deliberate removal of GPU hotspot readings. GPU hotspot readings are notably higher than the main temperatures you see when monitoring hardware, as they reflect maximum temperatures recorded by sensors at specific contact points. For the GeForce RTX 50 Series, these sensors are still there, but NVIDIA removed public access to that data. Until now.

Thanks to recent third-party discoveries, access to these GPU hotspot readings has been restored for anyone with a GeForce RTX 50 Series graphics card, and popular tools like HWMonitor have brought this feature back for the Blackwell generation. This has led to a flood of PC gamers and enthusiasts benchmarking and stress testing their GPUs to see the difference in temperatures.

When it comes to MSI Afterburner, one of the most popular GPU overclocking, tweaking, and monitoring tools, it seems these newly discovered GPU hotspot readings won't be coming to the app. And the reason comes down to, well, marketing and MSI's close relationship with NVIDIA.

Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 8 series will use a new foldable display technology that will finally fix the crease visibility. The company is calling it "Flex Titanium", a new display technology for its next generation of foldable devices, ahead of Galaxy Unpacked on July 22. Samsung says the tech is the culmination of everything that the company has learned over seven generations of foldables.

Flex Titanium is built around two titanium-based components to improve strength, flexibility, and slimness. The first component is a titanium-alloy film that sits beneath the OLED panel. Samsung says it offers 20 times greater mechanical stiffness than the polymer films used in previous designs while measuring less than 30% the thickness of a human hair.

The second component is a titanium plate positioned below the film, which eliminates air gaps between the display module and its adhesive using what Samsung describes as advanced hole-processing technology. Micro-patterned holes in the plate's folding section allow it to remain sufficiently flexible for repeated folding while providing more stable support when the device is open.