Latest News - Page 41

PlayStation's decision to end physical disc production for all new games starting January 2028 has been controversial enough on its own. It has now come to light that the announcement surprised not only players but also publishers, major business partners, and even PlayStation's own regional offices. None of them were apparently given any advance notice before the news went public.

According to sources speaking to High Chaos Run, an executive at a major AAA publisher described the situation bluntly. "Despite our seemingly close working relationship with PlayStation, we weren't informed that this was happening. It's only hitting us now that we may be out of jobs sooner rather than expected." The secrecy reportedly extended throughout PlayStation's own organization, with regional divisions learning about the decision at the same time as the general public.

The PlayStation India situation is perhaps the most striking example. At the time of the announcement, PlayStation's India office was negotiating with local distributors and retailers to set up exclusive PlayStation brick-and-mortar stores, targeting around 100 locations by 2028.

A new report from Bloomberg says that multiple people pushed back against launching new AAA games day-and-date into Xbox Game Pass.

Game Pass was always a controversial topic from the get-go. How could a service that launches games for effectively half of the purchase price actually make money for Xbox? The service introduced a new replacement effect, also called cannibalization, wherein gamers would just buy a month of Game Pass for $25 (then $30, now $20) instead of paying the more expensive $60-$70 purchase price for new games. The idea was to convert Xbox's user base to the higher-margin business model of subscriptions, which are all-digital and delivered in a more controlled way, and then (hopefully) entice subscriber growth through must-have value propositions.

The model wasn't entirely popular behind the scenes, though. Five sources that used to work at Microsoft tell Bloomberg's Cecilia D'Anastasio that Game Pass' core day-one value strategy faced criticism and push-back. We've already heard former Bethesda comms VP Pete Hines voice his apprehension of Game Pass, and former Xbox Game Studios VP Shannon Loftis said that the Game Pass model created "weird inner tensions" due to its replacive effect.

The RTX 50 Super series has been in limbo for a while now, with the memory crisis and shifting priorities making a launch look increasingly unlikely. However, a new entry in Seasonic's PSU tool has brought the topic back, with the RTX 5080 Super now appearing alongside the RTX 5070 Super and RTX 5070 Ti Super that were added last September. All three rumoured Super models have now shown up in the tool.

According to the listing, the RTX 5080 Super carries a 415W TDP, which lines up with earlier rumors that placed the card somewhere above 400W. That is a 15% increase over the standard RTX 5080's 360W, and it pushes the recommended PSU from 750W to 800W in a system paired with something like a Ryzen 7 9800X3D. The higher power draw is expected to come from upgraded memory rather than additional CUDA cores, which remain at 10,752, the same count as the non-Super model.

The memory upgrade is the headline change. The RTX 5080 Super is expected to move from 16GB to 24GB of GDDR7, a 50% increase in capacity, using newer 3GB modules instead of the 2GB chips on the current card. Memory speed also gets a bump from 30 Gbps to 32 Gbps, which pushes total bandwidth from 960 GB/s to just over 1 TB/s. The bus width stays at 256-bit.

IO Interactive shares some updates on what's next for the studio, confirming that it has acquired the rights to its latest new game.

007 First Light developer IO Interactive has ambitious ideas for a very different new kind of game. It's called Project Fantasy, and reports indicate that it could have flying dragons set in a world of myth and mystery. Originally, Xbox had been funding the project, but that deal got scrapped after Microsoft set the reset switch on its gaming business. Now IO Interactive has managed to get both the publishing and IP rights to Project Fantasy.

Unfortunately, the studio has also announced layoffs and the closure of its studio in Istanbul, Turkey.

Before headlines turned to the Steam Machine's red line issue and its $1,000-plus price tag, much of the conversation centred on Valve's vision for the hardware. From the start, the company framed it as an open PC rather than a locked-down console. Owners would be free to install any operating system or storefront they wanted, and Valve's latest move reflects that same philosophy.

Valve has published official Windows drivers for the Steam Machine, giving owners the files needed to install Microsoft's operating system on the device. The driver package covers the essentials: graphics, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and SD card reader, enough to get Windows running with full hardware functionality on the cube.

However, it's worth noting that installing Windows currently requires wiping SteamOS entirely. Dual-boot support is not yet available, even though the hardware itself is fully capable of it. Valve says the SteamOS installer's dual-boot wizard is not ready yet and will ship alongside a future SteamOS update. Anyone hoping to switch between SteamOS and Windows on the same machine should wait rather than jump in now.

Legendary Doom developer id Software is facing downsizing as Microsoft makes major restructuring moves.

Xbox has announced more sobering news: The games division will lay off 3,200 workers total in FY27 as part of a major strategy reset. The first round of layoffs is beginning now, and will affect a total of 1,600 people. The layoffs are affecting multiple parts of Xbox, and now there are reports of numbers of people affected from individual studios, including id Software.

Sources tell Game Developer that nearly half of id Software's staff have been let go. That's over 90 people affected, including significant cuts to quality assurance (QA). Id Software isn't being shut down, however, and Bethesda apparently has no plans to shut down any studios as part of the layoffs.

Console represents the large majority of the Xbox business, however, without further context it's hard to extrapolate what exactly this means outside of more obvious metrics like Game Pass subscribers.

Xbox recently announced heavy layoffs as part of a major restructuring plan. Microsoft wants to entertain 1 billion people, but there's just one problem: Right now, console represents 80% of its business. The news was spotted as a data point in a recent Fortune article, and no exact clarification was offered, but we can interpret this based on previous data and info.

We know that Game Pass is heavily weighted to consoles (just not by how much), so it's possible that the 80% statement is more of a generalization for overall revenues. It stands to reason that most people who have an Xbox console may subscribe to Game Pass in some form. This metric also underlines the significant potential for growth on PC, which falls in line with comments from Xbox's previous management about PC being a major growth vector for the business.

Nintendo will stop selling Switch 1 systems in Europe starting mid-February 2027, with new units no longer being sold to retailers after this time.

Nearly 10 years after its original launch, Nintendo is making moves to phase out the original Switch console. The company announced that it will no longer sell new Switch 1 hardware in Europe. The news was delivered on a FAQ section on its support page.

The news comes as Nintendo readies a new array of Switch 2 consoles and accessories for the European market--a potentially expensive revision, especially during the current hardware climate. Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony are all being squeezed by the chip shortages, forcing them to raise hardware prices so that the books even out against extreme production cost increases. While it's likely that Nintendo always planned to start phasing out the Switch 1 sometime soon, the ongoing chip crisis may have accelerated these plans.

Xbox Game Pass could have lost as many as 4-5 million subscribers following the price hike to $29.99 per month, new reports indicate.

Microsoft is making radical changes to its Xbox games division, and new Game Pass subscriber counts were revealed in the news fallout. Microsoft's game service has lost multiple millions of subscribers, and sources tell The Wall Street Journal that Game Pass is currently at 30 million subscribers.

Our tracking data shows that Game Pass could have lost as many as 5 million subscribers following the price hike. In October 2025, right before Black Ops 7's release onto the service, Microsoft raised the price of Game Pass Ultimate by +50% from $19.99 to $29.99 per month. There are always fluctuations in subscription services, so it's hard to know exactly when the drops happened, yet the price hike was widely disliked by fans so cancellations during this period seem likely.

One of the biggest PC and gaming-related stories of the past week has been the rumors that Microsoft was set to close multiple Xbox studios, along with other gaming-related job losses, as part of its big 'Xbox reset.' This was made official today, with the company confirming that its Xbox team would be "reduced" by 3,200 people through financial year 2027, with 1,600 of those "eliminated" today.

However, these job cuts are part of a broader shift at Microsoft, with Amy Coleman, EVP and Chief People Officer at the company, confirming that this "company transformation" will result in 4,800 job cuts. This represents 2.1% of Microsoft's global workforce, with Amy Coleman stating that these jobs are "not being replaced by AI" even though "AI is changing how work gets done."

With 3,200 of the 4,800 job cuts being related to Xbox and Microsoft's commercial business, the announcement says that it's all about "restructuring to position the business for long-term success." In other words, corporate speak for a division that grew exponentially with the recent $70 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition, which it has seemingly failed to capitalize on through mismanagement and a confusing strategy.

Intel's upcoming Nova Lake-S desktop CPUs are set to debut later this year or early 2027, depending on how things pan out. With mid-range options set to feature 22 cores with plenty of cache for PC gaming and flagship models set to sport up to 52 cores for premium performance, several Nova Lake-S variants will also sport integrated graphics based on the company's latest Xe3 'Arc Graphics' architecture.

As seen in recent Panther Lake mobile CPUs like the Intel Core Ultra X7 358H found in the Dell XPS 14 (2026) laptop, as well as new PC gaming handhelds like MSI's Claw 8 EX AI+ with its Arc G3 Extreme processor, the overall gaming performance for Xe3 is impressive. Granted, this is for the flagship Intel Arc B390 integrated graphics card, but Xe3 is more than capable of delivering a smooth and impressive 1080p gaming experience.

According to a new post over at Phoronix, the latest Intel kernel graphics driver changes in Linux 7.3 now list seven integrated graphics device IDs associated with Nova Lake-S CPUs.

When it comes to the classic cyberpunk aesthetic, there are a few pop culture touchstones and properties that have influenced a generation of artists and creators. One of those is Ghost in the Shell, which began as a manga series in 1989 and led to the creation of the most popular anime films of the 1990s, which in turn spawned sequels, a live-action Hollywood adaptation, TV series, and several video games.

So it goes without saying that it has its fans and admirers, and to help celebrate the iconic franchise, hardware maker IQUNIX has released a pair of Ghost in the Shell-themed keyboards based on its new and premium line of EV63 keyboards that sport a full CNC machined aluminum shell, double-shot PBT keycaps, a set of frosted translucent keys, and customizable magnetic switches built for longevity, performance, and acoustics.

IQUNIX has created two different EV63 Ghost in the Shell Edition keyboards priced at $249.99 USD: the lighter-colored Shell Core and the darker Cyber Blue. Visually, they both look fantastic, capturing the look and feel of the classic anime and its influential cyberpunk style. But perhaps best of all is that the EV63 keyboard is built for pro-level gaming, with IQUNIX noting that pro VALORANT teams are already using it.

There's a key difference between GeForce RTX graphics cards created for desktop PCs and those created for laptops. Naturally, the latter are built for efficiency and fitting inside a compact chassis without overheating. This means they draw far less power, which is why there's a big difference between, say, a GeForce RTX 5080 GPU for desktop PCs and a GeForce RTX 5080 Laptop GPU.

It seems that over in China, some modders (or brands) have been selling GeForce RTX Laptop GPUs in desktop form, with a reviewer in the region recently getting their hands on a GeForce RTX 4080M graphics card over on BiliBili (via Tom's Hardware). Naturally, this isn't an official GeForce RTX graphics card, so it doesn't come with a warranty or even official drivers - hence the Frankenstein reference in the header. Or, Frankenstein's Monster for the literary purists out there.

With the reviewer picking it up for around $300 USD, which puts its price in the same range as the Radeon RX 9070 GRE and GeForce RTX 5060 Ti in China. Performance-wise, it's a little disappointing as the results show it trailing the Radeon RX 9070 GRE in most games, at both 1080p and 4K. Here's a closer look at the results.

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma shared a memo this week outlining her vision for the brand's future, and buried near the end is a goal that's raised plenty of eyebrows. Sharma wrote that she wants Xbox to become "one of the few companies that entertains more than a billion people each day," adding that she believes the goal is achievable given the strength of Xbox's franchises.

That's a big number, so let's put it next to something real. Steam reportedly hit a peak of around 42 million concurrent users this year, which is widely seen as one of the biggest single moments in PC gaming history. Sharma's billion-a-day target works out to roughly 24 times that number, every single day, not just at a record peak.

Counter-Strike, currently Steam's most played game, has topped out at around 1.8 million concurrent players. Xbox would need over 500 games pulling those kinds of numbers at the same time to get there.

Indie developer Zoroarts, creator of the co-op paddling game Paddle Paddle Paddle, has publicly asked Valve to reconsider Steam's refund policy after claiming over 55,000 copies of his game have been refunded so far. He posted on X that the game has a 21 percent refund rate despite sitting at 90 percent positive reviews, calling the situation something that "should not be possible."

The issue seems to come down to how quickly the game can be finished. Steam's no-questions refund policy lets players get their money back if they've owned a game for less than 14 days and played it for under two hours, no matter how they feel about it. Zoroarts had originally designed Paddle Paddle Paddle to take closer to three and a half hours, but speedrunners and experienced players have been finishing it in one to two hours. This keeps them eligible for a refund even after seeing the credits roll.

The developer Zoroarts, aka Mateo Covic, told Kotaku he's still in favor of Steam's refund policy as a rule, but flagged how odd it feels watching people enjoy the game and refund it anyway. He's suggested that Steam display the expected playtime next to the price on store pages, so shorter games are not automatically flagged as "too short" once played through.

Samsung's 2026 profits are set to surpass the company's cumulative earnings over the past 40 years, marking a historic achievement for the global tech giant and, for consumers, a bunch of sand kicked into their RAM-shaped wound as prices skyrocket out of control.

At a recent town hall meeting, Samsung's DS division president, Kim Yong-kwan, confirmed that the semiconductor unit is on track to deliver operating profits this year that will exceed decades of combined earnings, highlighting just how much demand there is for memory due to intense draw from the AI industry.

Samsung's Q2 2026 operating profit is expected to hit 85.5 trillion KRW ($55.9 billion), fueled by record demand for AI memory chips, which are used in components that further increase the intelligence/sophistication of AI models. If these expectations are correct, it would represent an 18x year-over-year increase for Samsung, quite an astonishing figure.

Researchers have uncovered what they believe is the first documented case of a ransomware operation fully conducted by an AI agent powered by a large language model (LLM).

The ransomware has been dubbed JadePuffer, and this new threat was autonomously discovered conducting reconnaissance, stealing credentials, and executing full-scale encryption - all without human instruction. JadePuffer exploited a zero-day vulnerability in Langflow, an open-source tool commonly used to build apps that run workflows around large language models. The exploit allowed the agentic ransomware to gain access.

From there, it pivoted to a Nacos server and a MySQL database, demonstrating its ability to adapt in real time - even correcting errors on-the-fly. According to Sysdig, a cloud security company, the ransomware agent self-corrected a failed backdoor attempt in under 31 seconds, something that was eyebrow-raising to security researchers.

Sony's plan to phase out physical disc production for new PlayStation games by January 2028 has triggered a massive gamer revolt, with a Change.org petition hitting 120,000 signatures in just four days, and that comes after a separate petition held by tech experts Digital Foundry, which received 45,000 signatures calling for Sony to reconsider its decision.

The "Don't Kill the Disc" petition, created by the Canadian retail platform PnP Games, focuses on Sony's phasing out of physical PlayStation disc games beginning January 2028. The petition focuses its concerns on ownership, pricing, and the long-term viability of digital-only game sales.

Petitioners argue that discs represent tangible ownership, while digital codes offer nothing more than a revocable license and a complete lack of actual ownership of the title purchased. The petition points to instances in which people have purchased digital copies of movies from platforms and then had those movies already purchased deleted from their libraries.

Epic Games has privately settled a court case with a former contractor accused of leaking unreleased Fortnite collaboration details, closing a contentious legal chapter with the leaker vowing not to leak anything else they have in their possession.

The lawsuit centered on Hayden Cohen, a former contractor who allegedly breached confidentiality terms by sharing sensitive information about upcoming partnerships in association with Fortnite. For those who don't know, leaks like these can completely destroy marketing strategies currently in the works, or undermine the surprise factor that keeps players engaged in a live-service game such as Fortnite.

While the specific collaborations in question weren't named in the filing, the case added another layer to the ongoing scrutiny around content leaks in the gaming sector. Additionally, since specific collaborations were mentioned, it suggests they were accurate leaks, as Epic Games appears to still be protecting them (and, of course, they went to the effort of suing and settling with Cohen).

Cyberpunk 2077 has seen a resurgence in players, with the title recently breaking the 100,000 concurrent player mark on Steam for the first time since 2023.

The new concurrent player record comes as CD Projekt Red announces Cyberpunk 2077 has officially sold 40 million copies, which the developer says shows the "incredible, lasting strength of Cyberpunk 2077 and is a testament to what CD Projekt Red does best: creating high-quality, immersive stories that keep players returning for years."

Cyberpunk 2077 was originally released in 2020, and its launch on gamers' platforms was shaky at best, with almost every platform except high-end PC hardware reporting performance issues that stained the reputations of CD Projekt Red and Cyberpunk 2077.