Razer has just announced its new premium Atlas Pro glass gaming mouse mat, the world's thinnest, with the glass layer measuring just 1.1 mm. With the rubber base, the low-profile design is 1.9mm, making it a mouse pad that sits flush and close to any surface it's placed on. Razer notes that "crossing the sub-2 mm threshold for the first time" leads to a more comfortable and seamless experience.

Razer has been creating tempered glass mouse mats for over a decade, with surfaces designed and optimized for a smooth, low-friction glide for competitive gamers seeking fast, consistent movement. To deliver that in the thinnest profile to date for a glass mouse mat, the new Razer Atlas Pro features a new micro-etched texture, created in collaboration with its mouse sensor partners.

Of course, on paper, the idea of a glass mouse mat might sound fragile, but the Razer Atlas Pro is both ultra-thin and durable, with a 9H Mohs hardness rating. That's one number below diamond, and when you add dirt and scratch resistance, it's impressive stuff.

A new and potentially explosive report from Reuters claims that Meta is installing tracking software on all its employees' computers to log mouse movements and keyboard keystrokes. According to the report, this is part of a new "broader initiative" to overhaul the company's workforce by training and building AI agents that can "perform work tasks autonomously."

The report notes that it has seen the internal memos from Meta regarding this, which is being called the Model Capability Initiative (MCI). Apparently, it will run on all work-related apps and websites, and will even take screenshots of employees' displays. According to one of the internal memos, the purpose of the new initiative is to accelerate AI model training in areas where they struggle.

This includes choosing options from dropdown menus and using keyboard shortcuts. "If we're building agents to help people complete everyday tasks using computers, our models need real examples of how people actually use them, things like mouse movements, clicking buttons, and navigating dropdown menus," Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said.

Announced earlier this year, NVIDIA's DLSS 4.5 update is a pretty big one for the technology, reaffirming its position as the gold standard for neural rendering. In addition to introducing a powerful new Transformer model that delivers impressive upscaling (Super Resolution) results, it brings updates to Frame Generation and introduces the new Dynamic Frame Generation mode for GeForce RTX 50 Series gamers.

Dynamic Frame Generation is definitely one of the stand-out features of the update, as it presents a natural evolution of what Multi Frame Generation brought to the table. As Frame Generation is all about improving performance and the overall smoothness of a game's presentation, Dynamic Frame Generation allows users to set a specific frame-rate target, which they can match to their display's refresh rate.

And with that, Dynamic Frame Generation adjusts the Frame Generation intensity on-the-fly, from 2X to 6X, to maintain consistent performance. And when paired with the improvements to image quality and latency, it's a big step forward for the technology. Check out our full hands-on here. And now, all game developers can natively integrate DLSS 4.5 into their games thanks to the new DLSS 4.5 SDK.

Setting aside the multiplayer offshoot Fallout 76, it's been over a decade since single gamers have gotten a proper single-player Fallout game to sink their post-apocalyptic teeth into. Even so, the franchise remains as popular as ever, thanks in part to the success of the Amazon Prime Video adaptation, which has delivered two seasons of acclaimed wasteland action so far.

When it comes to Fallout 5, the current word from Bethesda Game Studios is that the team will tackle that after it completes development on the highly anticipated Elder Scrolls 6. And with that, when you factor in that modern games are taking longer and longer to develop, there's a good chance it could be 20 years between mainline Fallout releases. Which is why rumors are pointing to remake-style remasters for both Fallout 3 and fan-favorite Fallout: New Vegas.

Depending on the source, both games are reportedly getting overhauled similarly to last year's The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered release, which, naturally, has Fallout fans excited. However, according to Fallout: New Vegas designer and writer Chris Avellone, a remake or remaster is unlikely.

We got our first look at MSI's new VERSA 300 Wireless 8K Gaming Mouse at CES in January and were impressed by the specs, features, and performance. Essentially, MSI has crafted a wireless gaming mouse for competitive gamers, and a premium option for PC gamers who regularly jump into competitive or co-operative shooters like Counter-Strike 2, Overwatch, Apex Legends, Battlefield 6, and ARC Raiders should take note of.

The big headline features of the MSI VERSA 300 Wireless 8K, spec-wise, are its PixArt PAW3395 optical sensor that supports true 8K or 8,000 Hz polling, sensitivity of up to 26,000 DPI, its lightweight 66-gram weight, and a competitive-friendly symmetrical shape that supports the most popular grip styles. This also includes diamond-patterned side grips for added comfort.

Although not part of the physical design, one important and notable feature of this new VERSA 300 is that customization is supported by the company's new web-based MSI Portal X, so there's no need to fire up or install MSI Center to change settings. This is great news, as the shift to web-based customization for peripherals has been a positive step for hardware in the past year or so.

NVIDIA's RTX Remix platform has ushered in a new era for modding and remastering classic PC games, with a tool that offers unprecedented control and access to in-game assets and environments. And by converting everything you see to a modern physically-based rendering system, it opens the door to advanced path-traced lighting that can transform a game like Half-Life 2, Portal, or the original Max Payne, into a cutting-edge visual showcase.

NVIDIA announced earlier this year that the next major update for RTX Remix, Advanced Particle VFX, is now available to developers and modders everywhere. This update, as the name suggests, adds a modern path-traced particle system with accurate physics and simulation capabilities. With tens of thousands of particles on-screen that can collide and react to gravity and their surroundings, while also casting their own shadows and reflections, it's another impressive addition to RTX Remix.

This is a feature modders have been asking for, and with the official launch of RTX Remix Advanced Particle VFX, NVIDIA has added new features based on community feedback and requests. One of these is Dynamic Animations for particles, which lets modders tinker with color, size, transparency, and speed, so particles change and evolve over time.

Capcom is set to replicate the positive transmedia effect from the Devil May Cry TV series, and this time around they have a new product ready to capitalize on the buzz.

Season 2 of the Devil May Cry TV series will premiere on Netflix on May 12, complete with eight episodes lasting 30 minutes each. This roughly 4-hour series will continue Adi Shankar's take on the series, which is described as a non-canon re-imagining of the games.

The show has significantly boosted full game sales in the Devil May Cry game series, with DMC5 passing the 10.5 million sales threshold following the upbeat reception of the first season. Capcom hopes to recapture this effect once more, using season 2 to hopefully spark sales within the series.

The current DRAM and flash memory crisis has seen the cost of everyday PC hardware steadily rise in recent months, with the biggest pain points in memory and storage. If you've been tracking the prices of high-capacity DDR5 memory modules and SSDs, you're probably aware that building a new PC or upgrading an existing rig is slowly becoming prohibitively expensive.

And although it feels like regular consumers are being left behind in favor of AI infrastructure and the data center market, there is some good news. Specifically, KIOXIA's new "value-oriented" EG7 Series SSDs, which the company says it created to deliver an affordable solution for PC OEMs and PC makers.

These DRAM-less QLC-based SSDs adopt KIOXIA's impressive 8th-generation BiCS FLASH technology to deliver performance on par with more expensive storage options while improving power efficiency. These new SSDs are set to be offered in the M.2 2230, 2242, and 2280 form factors, with 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB variants. Performance-wise, you're looking at PCIe Gen4 levels, with sequential read speeds of up to 7,000 MB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 6,200 MB/s.

Kiki Wolfkill has left Microsoft after 28 years of game and transmedia development, leaving behind a legacy of projects including Halo 4 and the Halo TV series.

Original 343 Industries executive and Halo creator Kiki Wolfkill has announced her departure from Microsoft on LinkedIn, highlighting decades of work helping define Xbox's film and TV focus.

"I'm so grateful for the opportunities that Microsoft has given me and the career that it let me build in an industry that I love. At the same time, there is a version of me outside of Microsoft that I'm excited to grow and evolve. I have so many learnings to carry forward and more impact to be made and I couldn't be more inspired to climb the next mountain!" Wolfkill said in the post.

It seems like not a day goes by without a new price increase for gaming hardware. First, RAM prices went through the roof due to the ongoing global DRAM shortage, which is expected to last until 2030. CPUs quickly followed suit with both Intel and AMD announcing price hikes. Storage started to join the trend, and even Netflix and YouTube Premium got in on the action. Not to be left behind, the Windows gaming handhelds are next to join the party.

Lenovo has increased the price of its Legion Go S gaming handhelds. The price of the Z1 Extreme version with 32GB of RAM has increased from $899 to a whopping $1579 with SteamOS and $1679 with Windows. The latter currently has a discount running that reduces its price to $1049, but that's still a noticeable bump over the release price. The lower-end Z2 Go model with 16GB of RAM is now priced at $989, up from a launch price of $649.

This comes on the heels of a price hike for Lenovo's Legion Go 2, which raised its price from $1349 to $1999 recently. Mind you, the Legion Go S is supposed to be Lenovo's budget-oriented handheld gaming console, and even that is now priced at nearly $1700.

Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 Elite series has proven itself to be a decently competitive gaming lineup compared to competing chips from Intel and AMD. However, the chip has thus far not been integrated into any handheld gaming PCs, raising the question of how this chip would perform if someone were to stick one of these chips into a handheld device. YouTuber ETA Prime answered that question in a recent video testing the X2 Elite in its low-wattage mode to simulate handheld gaming. The results show the chip is more than capable of a playable experience at 17 to 20 watts.

The YouTuber tested Red Dead Redemption 2, Cyberpunk 2077, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, Japanese Drift Master, and Mortal Kombat on a laptop paired to an X2 Elite Extreme X2E94100 rated at up to 4.7GHz, and 48GB of memory running at nearly 9600MT/s. The chip can be controlled with three power modes: performance mode offering up to 60 watts, balanced mode offering 45 watts, and low-power mode offering 16-23 watts of power headroom.

Red Dead Redemption 2 achieved around 75 FPS in performance mode at 1080p high settings, and just under 60 FPS in low-power mode at 720p high settings. Cyberpunk 2077 achieved around 65 FPS in performance mode at 1080p high settings and a similar frame rate in low-power mode running at 720p high settings. Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart ran at around 68 FPS at 1080p medium settings in performance mode. Dropping to the low-power mode and 720p resolution, the game achieved a similar frame rate. Japanese Drift Master ran at around 60 FPS using performance mode at 1080p high settings and around 60 FPS again in the low-power mode at 720p high settings. Mortal Kombat ran at 60 FPS in performance mode at 1080p medium settings and 60 FPS in low-power mode at 720p high settings.

Intel's Robert Hallock, vice president and general manager, has announced plans to expand overclocking support to a much wider range of processors. The company wants to take overclocking out of the hands of the enthusiast and mainstream segments and give the budget market a piece of the pie, too.

In an interview cited by PC Games Hardware, Hallock said Intel wants to deliver "more and more unlocked SKUs over time," adding that the capability shouldn't be reserved for people paying the most. Just because a PC enthusiast buys at a lower price point doesn't mean their enthusiasm is any less.

It is a significant shift for Intel, which has historically locked overclocking behind its K and KF SKUs, most of which cost more than $500. The groundwork has already been laid with this year's Core Ultra 200S Plus lineup, which includes the 250K Plus at a competitive $199 and the 270K Plus, offering 285K-level performance with overclocking support, for just $299.

The global semiconductor shortage is in full swing, and it seems like no PC component is safe. After the crippling DRAM shortage that led to memory prices skyrocketing, Intel raised CPU prices not once but twice, citing a supply-demand mismatch. AMD quickly followed suit with a 15% price increase across its various lineups. However, it seems there is light at the end of the tunnel for those waiting for CPU prices to drop.

A Digitimes report quotes industry insiders who say the ongoing CPU shortage is "more acute" than the memory shortage, suggesting it will not be as long-lasting as the DRAM shortage. We recently reported the words of SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won, who claimed that the ongoing DRAM shortage could last until 2030. While that is a harrowing thought, it seems like CPUs are not going to follow the same trend.

The savior? Intel. The industry is banking on Intel's 18A process node to ramp up production and alleviate some of the demand. TSMC is effectively slammed right now, and there seems to be no respite coming for its customers anytime soon. In the meantime, Intel has started production on its 18A node with Panther Lake CPUs, and Wildcat Lake has followed suit recently. The 18A process has had a hard time getting up and running, but now it seems like Intel will have to double down on it for its own good, and for the industry's.

ASUS has returned to its ProArt series with a new release. Unlike most monitor manufacturers with their eyes set on gamers, the ProArt lineup caters to professionals. The series covers everything from laptops to graphics cards to motherboards, giving creative professionals the premium features they need to do their best work. Now it has expanded that portfolio with a new monitor.

Meet the ProArt Display OLED PA32USD, one of ASUS's most premium offerings to date. It is a 32-inch display built around a QD-OLED panel with 4K resolution for sharp, vivid visuals. The PA32USD also delivers a 240Hz refresh rate and 0.1ms GtG response time, which is rare in a professional monitor, but even creators need some gaming time.

ASUS lists 250-nit SDR and 1,000-nit HDR peak brightness, in line with other recent 32-inch QD-OLED releases. The PA32USD covers 99% of the DCI-P3 color space with a ΔE<1 for color accuracy. Unlike most creator displays, the PA32USD has a built-in motorized colorimeter that automatically calibrates the monitor without additional hardware or software. ASUS also lists Calman Ready and ColourSpace integration, along with HDR support for Dolby Vision, HLG, and HDR10.

Microsoft just put an end to one of the biggest Xbox rumors of the year, and in doing so, may have quietly reshaped what the next generation of consoles actually looks like for the company.

Microsoft has officially confirmed that Project Helix will launch as a first-party Xbox console, pushing back against growing speculation that the company might abandon traditional hardware in favor of third-party or OEM devices. The confirmation came directly from Xbox's Jason Ronald, who stated plainly that "Project Helix will be available as a 1st party Xbox console," reinforcing that Xbox isn't stepping away from making its own hardware anytime soon.

What makes this announcement particularly interesting isn't just the hardware itself, it's the timing. Xbox has spent the last few years aggressively expanding beyond the console, leaning into PC, cloud, and subscription ecosystems. With Helix, Microsoft appears to be pursuing that even further, doubling down on first-party hardware while simultaneously redefining what that hardware actually is when building an Xbox console.

The new Mass Effect TV show at Amazon Prime might not fall into the same trap as Paramount's Halo show after all--writer and executive producer Daniel Casey clarifies that he was never asked to adapt the fan-favorite series to appeal to broader audiences.

Weeks ago, Hollywood newsletter The Ankler published a report about the upcoming Mass Effect TV series. The report said that Amazon MGM Studios head of global TV Peter Friedlander was closely scrutinizing all script projects, and that the Mass Effect show might not actually get greenlit without being re-written to appeal to non-gamers.

Now we have clarifications from Daniel Casey, who is producing and writing the series for Amazon--Casey says that the report is bogus and he was never asked to do rewrites tailored for people who didn't play the Mass Effect games.

When the Steam Machine was announced in 2025, it was introduced alongside the new Steam Controller. At the time, many assumed both devices would launch together as a complete gaming system. Now, a recent discovery on SteamDB suggests the Steam Controller may debut independently, giving us a clearer picture of what to expect.

The SteamDB file was found by reliable VR leaker Brad Lynch on X under the name "steam_controller_unboxing_2026," which appears to have been uploaded but not yet made publicly available. The entry surfaced on April 20, and the video itself remains unplayable, returning the message: This video has not been processed for streaming.This suggests Valve uploaded the asset without publishing it for general access.

This comes shortly after the same leaker reported on public import records showing a wireless PC controller among Valve's incoming packages. With two clues landing back-to-back, the signs are pointing toward a Steam Controller launch in the near future. Lynch himself said on X that he expects the controller's arrival to happen soon.

Microsoft is officially lowering the price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and will no longer launch new Call of Duty games day and date into the service.

Today, Microsoft announced a price reduction for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, with the service dropping from the $29.99/month rate to $22.99/month, a -23% reduction in price. PC Game Pass is also decreasing from $16.49/month to $13.99/month, which represents a -15% reduction.

Content has been adjusted to reflect this lower price, and new Call of Duty games will no longer launch day and date into Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass.

If you're keen on keyboards, there's a website you need to check out which is a museum of mechanical keyboards, complete with samples of the sound they make.

Tom's Hardware reports that the so-called 'Listening Museum' - the work of The Data Drop (from the staff at sheets.works) - boasts an array of 36 different classic mechanical keyboards stretching back over the last four decades of the history of these peripherals.

Head to the site and you can select the type of keyboard you want to use from the bank of various options, which include the IBM Model M (from way back in 1985), up to more contemporary offerings such as various Cherry MX switches.

TSMC's CapEx (Capital Expenditures) for 2026 is projected to hit $56 billion. This capital is being funneled into a three-pronged effort to address rising chip demand: new fabrication plants, increased capacity, and a massive build-out of supporting infrastructure. However, despite this record-breaking spending, TSMC CEO C.C. Wei admits that shortages will likely persist until 2027 and potentially beyond.

The primary driver of this insatiable demand is, as you guessed, AI hardware, including GPUs (Nvidia/AMD), CPUs, and HBM (High Bandwidth Memory). This demand from NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, and even automotive giants is drying up capacity for TSMC's mature 3nm process node family, which, despite already reaching production targets, is still not enough.

The next issue pertains to packaging constraints. Modern AI processors aren't monolithic chips. Instead, they use technologies such as CoWoS (Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate) to integrate logic with HBM (High Bandwidth Memory). As it stands, TSMC's advanced packaging capacity is significantly tighter than its front-end wafer fabrication capacity. Another constraint is lead times, as each new fab needs years to reach high-volume production.