Latest News - Page 42

Infinity Ward today revealed Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4, confirming that the campaign centers around a North Korean invasion set in a linear storyline.

This year's Call of Duty has been revealed as Modern Warfare 4, and is set to launch this October on current-gen consoles--even the Nintendo Switch 2. Infinity Ward promises that MW4's campaign is a "return to form," and that it will be "darker and more dangerous than ever before."

MW4's campaign will take players all over the world with car chases through Paris, as well as missions in New York and even Mumbai. There's also reports that the campaign will be playable offline, unlike last year's Black Ops 7, which had a widely unpopular forced online campaign. Story-wise, it will feature Captain Price, Valeria, and Shadow Company, as well as Private Park's new team of South Korean soldiers.

The new PlayStation Days of Play sale discounts a bunch of products, including annual PS Plus subscriptions, giving gamers a prime opportunity to buy in.

New and lapsed subscribers can grab a full year of PlayStation Plus Premium for $108 in Sony's latest Days of Play sale, which is a lot more manageable than the original $159 per year. The annual event will likely spark a lot of sign-ups and re-subscriptions, especially for the Premium tier, which is priced so competitively against the Extra tier that users will only be spending an extra $7 for substantial benefits.

The discount also comes shortly after Sony raised the prices of all PlayStation Plus tiers in the United States and other regions. What's interesting about this move is that Sony only increased the prices of its 1-month and 3-month subscription tiers, leaving the 12-month options the same. It appears to be a move to push consumers towards the 12-month options in a bid for maximum engagement with the services--MAUs are important--as well as improved chances of recurring memberships through embedded investment.

Subnautica 2's stellar launch sales have reportedly triggered a bonus that will award developers at Unknown Worlds up to $250 million, as per an acquisition contract signed in 2021.

Years ago, PUBG giant Krafton bought Subnautica dev Unknown Worlds for half a billion dollars. Included in that buyout deal was a clause that Krafton would pay $3.12 for every $1 earned in excess of $69.8 million across any given month. Krafton laid off Subnautica 2's leadership team, laying off management, leading to a lawsuit that eventually reinstated the developers to ensure they have a fair shot of hitting the bonus target.

Now it appears that target has been hit thanks to Subnautica 2's release. Sources tell The Korea Economic Daily that the developers at Unknown Worlds have indeed broken the earnings threshold and triggered the bonus. It's unclear how much Krafton will have to pay, but the clause is for up to $250 million, which is 35% of Krafton's annual operating profit, the KED notes.

After years of being banned from Apple's platform, Fortnite is finally back on iOS worldwide, and the return has been anything but quiet. The legal battle with Apple over storefront taxes and payment options isn't over, but the first week's download numbers make it very clear why Epic spent years fighting to get back on Apple devices.

According to AppMagic data cited by PocketGamer, Fortnite pulled 3.4 million iOS downloads globally during its first week back on the App Store. This figure makes it the fourth-strongest week for Fortnite since its launch, just 0.3 million downloads shy of the 3.7 million seen in the 2018 launch week. Considering the game is eight years old and has undergone several major changes, matching its highest-ever popularity shows how the game can still move like it's brand new.

When comparing daily downloads, Fortnite's global return marked the highest daily download numbers in eight years. From approximately 19,000 installs on May 18, 2026, daily downloads surged by 1,408% to almost 290,000 on May 19, then peaked at 674,000 on May 23. Throughout the week, daily installs consistently surpassed numbers seen before the global relaunch, with 445,000 additional downloads recorded on day seven.

NVIDIA's Vera CPU has been making headlines ever since it was announced at GTC 2026, and Phoronix has finally put some real numbers behind the hype. The publication was given early access to pre-production Vera hardware and ran it through a permitted subset of workloads, including code compilation, STREAM memory benchmarks, video encoding, database performance, and Python and Java tasks.

Under the hood, Vera is built around 88 custom Armv9.2 "Olympus" cores on a unified monolithic die, delivering 176 threads through physical resource partitioning. The chip supports native FP8 processing for AI workloads, pairs with up to 1.5 TB of LPDDR5X memory in the SOCAMM2 form factor, and hits 1.2 TB/s of memory bandwidth. A second-generation Scalable Coherency Fabric provides 3.4 TB/s of bisection bandwidth, which helps sidestep the latency issues that typically come with chiplet-based designs.

The benchmark results are impressive. Across the geometric mean of all tested workloads, Vera came out nearly 11% ahead of AMD's top EPYC offerings and around 55% ahead of the best single-socket Intel Xeon. From generation to generation, Vera clocked in at roughly 1.63 times the performance of NVIDIA's previous Grace CPU. Phoronix concluded that this is the most capable ARM-based Linux server processor it has ever tested, which is a statement worth sitting with for a moment.

Microsoft has warned users about an active cryptojacking campaign that uses AI chatbots to serve malicious downloads disguised as trusted PC utilities. Microsoft Defender Experts and the Security Research Team said in a report published Tuesday that "this emerging delivery technique extends social engineering beyond conventional search results and increases the visibility of malicious software recommendations."

The campaign impersonates legitimate system utilities like CrystalDiskInfo, HWMonitor, Display Driver Uninstaller, FurMark, K-Lite Codec Pack, and PDFgear. The idea is to target applications favored by PC users with high-performance GPUs to gain access to systems with higher cryptocurrency mining potential, rather than infecting a large number of machines at random.

Downloads from this cryptojacking campaign have also been found to establish persistent remote access through ScreenConnect deployments. ScreenConnect, also known as ConnectWise Control, is a legitimate remote management tool widely used by IT administrators, but it can also be leveraged for data theft, lateral movement, or ransomware.

Take-Two Interactive boss Strauss Zelnick gives some clues on what's next for Grand Theft Auto VI, unofficially indicating that the game will have some sort of online mode ready for the influx of new players.

It's no secret that GTA Online is a billion-dollar success; the service can make $4.4 million per week on PS5 and help the franchise make anywhere from $100 million to nearly $300 million per quarter. Rockstar has transformed Grand Theft Auto into a kind of service franchise, and there's no reason to think the latest GTA 6 release would be any different. While specifics haven't been revealed, Take-Two Interactive's CEO comments that Rockstar Games will be very busy after GTA 6's official November release, likely with a mix of content updates for the online mode as well as critical bug fixes.

In a recent interview with The Game Business, Zelnick answered a question about layoffs at Rockstar once GTA 6 launches. In that response, Zelnick talks about a busy future for Rockstar:

Microsoft is following through on its previously announced "Low Latency Profile" feature with a new optional preview update, KB5089573, for Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2. The official changelog for the update lists the change under "General Performance". It doesn't mention the Low Latency Profile by name, but it appears to be the same CPU-burst feature seen in earlier Windows 11 testing.

Low Latency Profile temporarily boosts the CPU to its maximum frequency for 1 to 3 seconds to make app launches smoother. The feature is designed specifically for core Windows tools, with Microsoft in-box applications like Edge and Outlook seeing around 40% faster launch times, while OS flyouts such as the Start menu, Notification Center, right-click menus, and other shell areas may see speed improvements of up to 70%. Third-party apps aren't part of the optimization package just yet, but they will be in a future update to Low Latency Profile.

KB5089573 is currently optional and in preview, meaning it won't be installed automatically. If you want it early, head to Settings > Windows Update > Advanced options > Optional updates, then install it manually. Due to Microsoft's gradual rollout system, the feature may not be available to everyone immediately after installing the update. Users can force-enable it early using ViVeTool, but this requires running a few commands in a Command Prompt window. If you are not familiar with this, just wait for the official rollout for your system.

Activision started up a mysterious live stream earlier this morning where it showed snippets of this year's Call of Duty game, proving that the leaks surrounding the title were correct.

This year's Call of Duty game is indeed set in the Korean peninsula, new official teaser footage has confirmed. The footage depicts bodycam footage of a group of Korean soldiers walking around a city, which is then struck by a missile attack.

The news comes shortly after Activision formally sent a cease-and-desist to Call of Duty leaker TheGhostofHope, whose original leaks turned out to be accurate. The info says that Modern Warfare 4 will chronicle a conflict between North and South Korea, however official details have yet to be confirmed by Activision or Infinity Ward.

LG may be done making TVs after nearly 60 years in the business, and it's reportedly in talks to sell the division to Chinese electronics giant Hisense.

According to reports from Korean outlet EBN, LG is exploring the possibility of restructuring or even selling its TV business due to weak profits and increasing competition from Chinese brands.

If LG goes through the sale of its TV business it would mark a major departure from the TV market, and yet another industry that LG has left after establishing a healthy presence for many years. For those wondering, LG shut down its smartphone business in 2021.

Samsung just shattered the high-resolution vs. high-refresh-rate question any PC gamer asks themselves when they are deciding to upgrade their display.

However, Samsung now has something that is designed to hit the sweet spot, and that's its new QD-OLED panel, which is capable of hitting 360Hz at 4K natively and 680Hz in Dual Mode.

This marks the first time a monitor can deliver both 4K resolution at a 360Hz refresh rate, which has long become a strive point for gaming monitor development, especially with QD-OLED panel technology.

Computex 2026 is just days away. It's become tradition for the organizers to give out a series of Best Choice awards highlighting some of the more attention-grabbing products at the show. The GIGABYTE X870E AORUS Xtreme X3D AI TOP motherboard received an award in the Computer and System category. It's a gloriously ridiculous flagship board that I want, but at over $1,000, I can't afford.

The X870E AORUS Xtreme X3D AI TOP is an updated version of the AORUS Xtreme AI TOP that includes GIGABYTE's X3D Turbo Mode 2.0. It's an AI-powered enhancement that's designed to extract more performance from AMD's Ryzen X3D processors. That aside, the board has almost every conceivable feature you can get on a consumer motherboard.

It features an LCD screen, dual 10G LAN, loads of fast USB ports with 65W PD support, a strong VRM and five M.2 slots. The AORUS Xtreme X3D AI TOP packs in a huge amount of cooling capacity. Finned VRM heatsinks, a memory cooler, a large M.2 cooler and a rear backplate combine into what promises to be a board with one of the best cooling assemblies ever seen. I won't say for sure until I have tested it, but that's surely a safe assumption. I'll ask GIGABYTE for a review sample. This is one board I'll be happy to play with.

Valve has increased the price of its premium Steam Deck OLED duo, causing concerns about the company's upcoming Steam Machine.

Gaming systems are becoming more and more expensive as Valve makes a substantial price hike for its Steam Deck handhelds. The Steam Deck OLEDs went back into stock alongside the effective hike, with the 512GB OLED now at $789, up $200 and +34% from its previous price of $589, and the 1TB model is now an attention-getting $949, up a hefty $300 and +46% from its previous price of $649.

The new adjustment only reflects the OLED models--remember that the original LCD models are now out of production--and Valve offered a simple explanation: "Steam Deck OLED is back in stock, with a price increase for both models due to rising memory and storage costs."

CD Projekt was forced to pre-emptively announce new content for The Witcher 3, one of the most popular video games ever made, and it has caused some damage to the company's stock.

Today, CD Projekt made a surprise announcement that seemed to come out of nowhere: Witcher 3 is getting a new expansion, it's called Songs of the Past, and it's coming sometime in 2027. But there's a good reason this was a surprise--CD Projekt didn't originally plan to reveal the expansion this way, but instead during tomorrow's special Witcher 3 anniversary stream.

The Polish game devs accidentally uploaded Songs of the Past to the Red Launcher, and within minutes, news of the mysterious project spread all over the internet. So instead of just waiting, CD Projekt tried to get ahead of the leaks and just revealed Songs of the Past without any kind of fanfare or triumph--indicating that the group may have accidentally fouled the initial marketing strategy for the product.

The Witcher 3 is getting a new expansion, and CD Projekt is now refreshing the game's minimum spec requirements to reflect the upgrades from the fresh storyline.

Today, CD Projekt announced Songs of the Past, the third major expansion for The Witcher 3. The news confirmed earlier reports, however the rumors were wrong about the release date--Songs of the Past won't launch in 2026, and instead due out sometime next year.

Also included in the reveal was an update to The Witcher 3's main PC spec requirements. The game now requires 12GB of RAM, a graphics card with at least 6GB of VRAM with GPUs like NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 1660 and AMD's Radeon RD 5500XT being examples, as well as incompatibility with HDDs and pushing users to move to SSDs. CD Projekt further confirms that gamers will need to play The Witcher 3 on Windows 11. Songs of the Past will probably work on Windows 10, yet CD Projekt says that it cannot ensure that it will.

Generative AI has been a polarizing topic in the video game industry ever since these tools became widely available. While many game developers have already issued statements against the use of generative AI, everyone's favorite usual suspect, Ubisoft, has gone the other way. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot previously praised AI as "revolutionary" for video game development, and we are starting to see its first steps in that direction.

Apparently, according to Tom Henderson from Insider Gaming, Ubisoft has been testing generative AI in future projects, including Far Cry 7. The specific project that Henderson mentioned was "Teammates," but Ubisoft is apparently also testing prompts in Far Cry 7 for research purposes. In a tweet that has since been deleted, Henderson went on to say that the Gen AI experiment "looks like s**t."

Ubisoft has been in troubled waters lately, as both Far Cry 7 and Assassin's Creed Hexe look to be in developmental limbo. In such a situation, generative AI seems like a low-cost tool to speed things up a bit, but at what cost? Ubisoft has also committed to accelerating its generative AI efforts on its FY2025-26 earnings call just a few days ago.

Dragon Quest XII has been rebooted, complete with a new theme and a new subtitle, Beyond Dreams.

Square Enix today announced that development of Dragon Quest XII has been restarted with a fresh new narrative, characters, and overall visual style. The game now better reflects the bright and colorful world of the Dragon Quest series as shown in the teaser trailer released today, also showing a first look at Beyond Dreams' protagonist along the way.

"The game has gone in a different direction to the one we originally announced, but I think you're going to love it," said Dragon Quest XII: Beyond Dreams game designer Yuji Horii. The designer also confirmed that Beyond Dreams would also use Akira Toriyama's characters and Koichi Sugiyama's music, like every other Dragon Quest game before it.

COLORFUL has unveiled a new Limited Edition graphics card with a design inspired by the recent release of 007 First Light, the new James Bond action-adventure from the creators of the Hitman series, IO Interactive. The new, limited-edition COLORFUL iGame GeForce RTX 5070 Ultra OC x 007 First Light Edition features a black-and-gold look, with a custom backplate sporting the game's art, showcasing the titular character and the 007 logo.

This particular GPU design from the company is relatively new, as we recently reviewed the COLORFUL iGame GeForce RTX 5070 Ultra OC earlier this month. In our review, we highlighted the stylish design, excellent cooling, and impressive 1440p gaming performance. In 007 First Light form, the vibrant colors are replaced with darker tones and a more sophisticated look befitting the game and the character.

As an OC model, it ships with a Boost Clock speed of 2557 MHz, and even though it features a triple-fan cooler, the 314 x 135.2 x 50.4mm dimensions make it compact enough to fit in most cases and builds. COLORFUL hasn't confirmed availability or pricing for this new limited-edition graphics card, but it will be on display at the COLORFUL Showroom during Computex 2026.

The rumors were right: The Witcher 3 is officially getting a new expansion, and it's coming in 2027.

Today, CD Projekt confirmed recent reports by announcing Songs of the Past, the third major expansion for The Witcher 3 that's coming almost twelve years after the game's original launch in 2015.

Songs of the Past will launch in 2027 on current-gen PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC (no PS4, Xbox One, or Switch versions) and is being co-developed with collaborator studio Fool's Theory, a group who has frequently appeared in CD Projekt's earnings reports attached to a mystery project that hadn't been revealed until now.

COLORFUL, the gaming PC brand known for its various GPUs, motherboards, laptops, audio, and other hardware, is set to hit Computex 2026 next week in style. The company is prepping an off-site showroom at the Marriott Hotel in Taipei, which will feature four "uniquely themed zones" designed to showcase its ecosystem of gaming, lifestyle, and creator-focused hardware.

Naturally, this will be the place where it debuts its latest COLORFIRE MEOW gear, COLORFUL laptops, mechanical keyboards, custom PC concepts, and the latest in its iGame and Battle-Ax series hardware. COLORFUL always goes above and beyond at the show when it comes to its PC concepts and general booth design, so we're pretty keen to check out this custom showroom when we're in Taipei next week.

For PC gamers, COLORFUL will unveil its new Ultra Zero PC hardware set, as shown above. This is all about delivering a full "Zero Cable" look for a compact gaming PC, and in all-white, it definitely looks impressive. And for enthusiasts, there's the new iGame Ultra Series PC designed for the latest high-end GeForce RTX 50 Series graphics cards, in a sleek design that offers panoramic views.