We all know how vague official system requirements for games can be. They hardly provide any useful information about what performance level you can expect from a game based on your system specifications. If you're lucky, you may get a hint as to whether you can even run the game on your PC in the first place. Well, it looks like that may be about to change very soon with a new feature that Valve is working on.

Recently, user Dex3108 on the ResetEra forums spotted a line in the Steam Client code that wasn't there before. The line read "Select an App and a PC config to get a chart of estimated frame rates, based on the frame rates of other users." This line suggests that users may be able to use a Steam Store tool to get estimated performance data for each game based on their system specifications.

If that feature becomes publicly available, it will be a huge benefit to PC gamers and even users of the Steam Deck and the upcoming Steam Machine. It will most likely put an end to the "recommended system specifications" that are posted by game developers. Instead, users will be able to get a good idea of the performance level that they can expect in the game that they're looking to buy.

Intel's Wildcat Lake CPU lineup has been a hot subject in the news lately. They were first spotted on Crossmark and Geekbench, giving us a rough idea of their performance levels. Then, another leak outlined the total number of SKUs and their specifications. Now, even more information has surfaced from OEM Advantech, which has posted a technical datasheet that mentions the specs of various Wildcat Lake CPUs.

According to the datasheet for the MIO-5356, three yet unreleased processors are supported on the platform: the Core 7 350, the Core 5 320, and the Core 3 305. Interestingly, the datasheet also lists detailed specs of the CPUs. The documentation clearly states that the model supports "Next Gen" Intel Core processors.

The Core 7 350 apparently has a maximum frequency of 4.8 GHz and a base clock of 1.5 GHz. It uses the same 2P+0E+4LPE core configuration that was previously leaked, and has a TDP of 15W. As a reminder, Wildcat Lake CPUs omit traditional "Darkmont" E-cores in favor of LPE cores.

Samsung has finally decided to kill its messaging app and push Google Messages as the default across its devices. The manufacturer has been slowly nudging users toward Google Messages as the default SMS and RCS app on its newer devices, and the Galaxy S26 series already ships with Google Messages as the default while skipping Samsung Messages entirely.

Now there is an official timeline for Samsung Messages' death.

In an end-of-service announcement on the Samsung Messages US page, the company confirmed the app will be discontinued in July. This applies to Galaxy users on Android 12 or newer. Devices running Android 11 or earlier will continue to support Samsung Messages, likely due to compatibility reasons.

Despite the Star Fox cameo in Super Mario Galaxy, Nintendo says there are no plans to make a kind of inter-connected Nintendo cinematic universe, so-to-speak, with intricate crossover events that evolve over time. It's more about fun and what feels right to Miyamoto.

Super Mario Galaxy is rocketing towards a record-breaking opening, and is expected to make $350 million in global five-day ticket sales. A big draw of the new film is how it uses more of Nintendo's iconic characters, including Star Fox's dashing pilot Fox McCloud.

But fans shouldn't expect a vast webwork of strategically-plotted storylines any time soon--in other words, Nintendo has no plans to make its own take on the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The new Mass Effect TV show hasn't actually been greenlit just yet, and its fate could hinge on multiple script rewrites.

Hot off two back-to-back successful seasons of the hit new Fallout show, Amazon wants more gaming adaptations. Back in 2025, it was revealed that a live action Mass Effect show had been pitched to Amazon. Now it's been reported that Amazon MGM Studios has yet to actually order the Mass Effect show, and whether or not this actually happens will depend on script approvals from higher management.

Hollywood newsletter The Ankler reports that Amazon MGM Studios head of global TV Peter Friedlander will go through every project script to help weed out undesirable shows and help re-align the content slate. With Amazon having launched its new streaming subscription, the $5/month Prime Video Ultra, the company is now shoring up what kinds of shows it will produce and host on the platform.

Netflix recently announced a price hike for its US customers across all its plans, as part of improvements to its "wide range of entertainment" and service quality. Since it launched at $7.99 in November 2010, this is the eighth price increase Netflix has introduced for its Standard plan. That means the price has increased by 150% in just over 15 years. While US customers have largely accepted their fate, Italian consumers seem to have had enough.

A court in Rome recently ruled that Netflix owed its Italian users a refund for price hikes between 2017 and January 2024. Each subscriber would be entitled to a reduction in their current subscription price, and Netflix Italia would notify customers within 90 days of their right to a refund and publish the ruling on its website, or face daily fines of € 700.

According to the court, the clauses allowing the increases violated Italy's Consumer Code by failing to set out valid grounds for the hikes. The lawsuit was originally filed by Movimento Consumatori, a consumer rights organization based in Rome, whose president, Alessandro Mostaccio, said over 25,000 Netflix users had complained about the price increases.

AMD recently revealed its latest entry in the Ryzen 9000 lineup, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition, the world's first CPU with a dual 3D V-Cache design. While the Red Team shared detailed specifications, including core count, total cache, TDP, and an April 22 launch window, it did not reveal pricing. Now, with only a few weeks left until launch, early retail listings have started to surface, giving us our first glimpse at possible pricing.

The listings, spotted by Wccftech via @momomo_us, appeared on multiple UK and Canadian retailers showing the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition listed at $958 and $1,196, respectively.

Popular Canadian retailer PC-Canada.com listed the 9950X3D2 Dual Edition at CAD $1,373, which translates to around US$984. That puts it almost $300 above the launch price of its single-V-Cache sibling, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D ($699 at launch). Another Canadian store, ShopRBC, listed the new CPU at CAD $1,375, which comes to around US$986.

Last year, a series of rumors began circulating, claiming that a new Prototype game was in development. A Reddit user claimed the game would feature Alex Mercer from the original Prototype as its protagonist, introduce new shapeshifting mechanics for infiltrating areas, and take place in New York City.

Some of the speculation was also fueled by changes at Radical Entertainment, which was rebranded as New Radical Games. The studio's updated website featured Prototype alongside The Simpsons: Hit and Run, leading fans to speculate that remasters or new projects could be in the works. Additional rumors were sparked by datamined updates to the original Prototype, which revealed test maps and changes to the credits.

Since then, fans of the hack-and-slash series have hoped for official confirmation. Now, an insider pushes back on those hopes, claiming the narrative about a new Prototype is entirely false and that neither Microsoft nor Activision currently has any plans for a new game.

In a profile on Japanese businesses, Sony CEO Hiroki Totoki discusses the company's overall goals for its PlayStation games entertainment division, saying that users are just as important as the content that they consume.

Sony keeps the top spot for two big reasons: Gamers continue buying games, and publishers keep selling them. PlayStation is so big because it can efficiently funnel a vast swath of games into its storefront ecosystem, leading to a veritable market of third-party content to choose from. This size is maintained through carefully-inked deals with publishers and developers that offer favorable terms for both sides.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Sony CEO Hiroki Totoki says that the overall focus for PlayStation is bifurcated between these two points--consumers and publishers.

We all know how aggressive Microsoft can be when pushing Windows updates. You can be in a hurry to fire off that work email, or to jump on the game with the boys, but as soon as you turn your PC on, you're met with the Windows update screen. Well, now it seems Microsoft is taking things to the next level and forcefully updating your Windows device, even if you had no plans to do it yourself.

According to Microsoft, an update to Windows 11 25H2 is now available for all devices that are running the older 24H2 version. Not only that, your device will be "automatically" updated to the new version. At the moment, this forced update applies to users of Home and Pro versions, whereas IT departments and organizations are currently excluded from the rollout.

Microsoft claims that users will have to perform "no action" to get the update, but they do have limited control over when the update is installed. You can postpone the update, but of course, that functionality is only temporary. It is interesting to note that Microsoft is labeling this as a "machine learning-based intelligent rollout", although there is no explanation provided about what that entails.

Pearl Abyss continues molding and shaping Crimson Desert based on player feedback, but the latest update also makes an unwelcome change that fans already miss.

Crimson Desert's new update makes a few big changes to the game that are tailored to fan feedback, and one that isn't. Patch 1.02.00 expands in-game storage from 240 slots to 1000, but you'll have to upgrade your camp five times before you unlock the full amount. Pearl Abyss also added a new control scheme, fixed V-Sync issues on Xbox, and put in a new armor set for your pet cat.

"Depending on your progress with the Greymane camp expansion, the capacity of your private storage can now be increased from 240 slots up to a maximum of 1000 slots. Through the expansion of your camp, which consists of 5 stages in total," the patch notes read.

RPCS3, an open-source emulator designed to run PlayStation 3 (PS3) games on PC, has reported a performance boost thanks to a new breakthrough in emulating the console's Cell CPU. In a post on X (spotted by VideoCardz), the team explained that the work centers on new SPU usage patterns discovered by contributor Elad, which allow the emulator to generate more optimized code.

The PS3's hardware makes this a "breakthrough." PlayStation 3 uses the Cell Broadband Engine, which, unlike AMD or Intel CPUs, has a main core (PPU) and several smaller co-processors (SPUs). The PPU handles general tasks such as game logic and system operations, while the SPUs handle parallel workloads, including physics, animation, audio processing, decompression, and some graphics-related compute tasks.

This design is exactly what makes PS3 emulation difficult. Simulating SPU behavior on modern CPUs is complex, and communication between PPU and SPU threads has long caused performance bottlenecks. This update helps by recognizing common SPU patterns and translating them into more efficient CPU instructions.

The bad news just keeps coming for DIY PC builders and enthusiasts, as Intel is reportedly preparing yet another price increase for its CPUs. Earlier, we reported that Intel would implement a 10% price increase by the end of March, and now it seems like that won't be enough for Intel.

Chinese market research firm Minutes Logic Society reports that Intel plans to add another price increase on top of the price hikes already implemented in February and March. The new price increase will reportedly take effect in May and affect Intel's entire CPU portfolio. It seems the total cumulative goal for the price hike is 30% above 2025 prices.

The main driving force behind these price increases is the raging demand from AI data centers and large machine-learning enterprises. We have already seen the DRAM market ravaged by a global memory shortage that is expected to last until 2030. Previously, AMD also followed Intel's lead and planned to increase its CPU prices by 15%. It seems like the pricing snowball is barreling down the slope with no end in sight.

Having issues starting your PS5? Is the dreaded blue light of death (BLOD) blinking steadily? Try these quick tips before disassembling your console all the way.

Like all electronics, consoles will break down eventually. Sometimes, though, it's not an actual hardware fault. If your PS5 is stuck blinking blue, you might be able to salvage it with some quick, easy steps. Note: This only works for the disc-based PS5. If you have a digital-only system, this fix isn't for you.

My disc-based launch PS5 from 2020 has been stuck on the blue light of death boot loop for weeks now, and with the new PS5 price hikes making console ownership prohibitively expensive, I decided to finally break open the box and attempt some repairs. At first, I planned to just swap out/re-apply the PS5's liquid metal, which is the usual culprit for blue light of death errors. Over time, the liquid metal will move and oxidize, leading to dry spots on the PS5's APU, which in turn leads to overheating and triggering the console's safety shut-off. Once the PS5 has gone into this state, it's possible the console will go into the BLOD boot loop, refusing to start in an effort to prevent component damage.

A new leak from renowned Intel tipster Jaykihn claims the premium Nova Lake-S desktop SKU will jump from 42 to 44 cores. This shift has left Intel with many 6P+12E tiles. These tiles, which feature bLLC (Big Last Level Cache) integrated directly on the chip, are now said to be repurposed for a new segment of mainstream 'non-K' gaming CPUs, set to rival AMD's next-generation X3D chips.

Leaks from last year detailed four primary bLLC configurations for Intel: a 52-core and 42-core flagship (both utilizing dual-compute tiles), alongside 28-core and 24-core single-tile variants. For the unaware, bLLC is Intel's response to AMD's X3D technology. While AMD vertically stacks a separate cache chiplet on top of the CPU, Intel integrates the bLLC directly into the Compute Tile's silicon, which will add to manufacturing costs.

According to Jaykihn, Intel is shifting its high-end Nova Lake-S configuration from a 42-core to a 44-core design. This change removes the asymmetrical configuration planned for the original model. That model would have required pairing a fully-enabled 8P+12E compute tile with a binned 6P+12E tile, both with bLLC. The updated 44-core model likely uses two 8P+12E tiles. That being said, the leftover 6P+12E tiles, which still have 144MB of bLLC, are now being reallocated to a new segment of mainstream 'non-K' gaming CPUs. These CPUs are expected to feature 4 LPE cores in the SoC Tile.

New entries in the PS5 Software Development Kit (SDK) may point towards a PlayStation handheld, potentially reinforcing reports of a next-gen PS6 Portable.

The latest video from Moore's Law is Dead claims to lay out the evidence of a high-powered PlayStation handheld. MLID presents info that was replicated from the PS5's current SDK, which apparently features an asset-packaging infrastructure similar to Xbox's Smart Delivery. It's called PlayGo, and the idea is that Sony will allow devs to choose which assets are attached to which version of a game; the PS4 and PS4 Pro version, for example, will have lower-res textures compared to a PS5 or PS5 Pro version.

Included in the PlayGo settings is a preset for Power Saver mode, and it's this mode that is believed to facilitate the handheld's performance targets, downscaling raw power profiles into more manageable, portable-friendly CPU and GPU optimization settings aimed at balancing battery life. As we postulated when the mode was announced, the PS5's Power Saver mode is believed to be the backbone of what makes these adjustments possible.

Having already signed a deal with NetEase to bring games to China, Blizzard has inked a similar deal with Nexon to bring Overwatch to Korean markets.

Blizzard has made a deal with Nexon to bring its re-launched Overwatch overseas to Korea, adapting the game specifically for those regional players. Exact details on what this will look like remain unclear. The deal's terms say that Blizzard will continue developing Overwatch's content, and Nexon will publish the game on PC in Korea while handling live operations for the special overseas version of the game.

Blizzard has made similar deals in the past, sometimes morphing their games considerably for foreign markets; China, for example, has a special Diablo 2 server complete with items that are exclusive to the region.

NVIDIA gave us a sneak peek of The Witcher 4's potential real-time performance with its new foliage LOD system for RTX Mega Geometry during GTC 2026. NVIDIA published a talk discussing the future of Path Tracing, and showed off a demo of the tech running with all the dials cranked (allegedly) at 58 FPS or more on an RTX 5090 and RTX 4070.

The demo was comprised of nearly 60 million plants, one million trees, and over 200 different species of plants in a 5x5 km area, with all of the assets running in VRAM. Martin Stich, one of NVIDIA's spokespersons and the leader of NVIDIA's ray tracing team, claims that if you flattened the entire scene at maximum LOD, the demo would have over 5 trillion triangles. What makes the system special is the fact that all of the foliage geometry is modeled, all the way down to the individual pine needles.

All of these assets were running with full path tracing enabled. On the RTX 5090, NVIDIA claims the demo ran at 80 FPS with DLSS quality mode upscaling from 1440p to 4K. The RTX 4070 with DLSS Quality mode upscaling from 960p to 1440p achieved 58 FPS. NVIDIA also laid out the frame time analysis, showing that the path tracing scene takes almost 50% of the GPU's render time per frame.

Remedy's latest dev diary for Control Resonant hypes up the new project, highlighting unique gameplay features like Dylan's teleportation traversal.

Control Resonant looks to be a must-play game of 2026, incorporating fast and stylish Devil May Cry-like hack-and-slash action with a deliberate, power-driven progression scheme. Remedy is taking cues from classic games in the genre while adding their own spin on things, like the wall-shifting mechanic that turns the entire map into an M.C. Escher painting.

In a new video, one dev says that this level of complex design is a result of the biggest-ever gameplay team that Remedy has ever had. "We have the biggest gameplay team in Remedy history," Control Resonant executive producer Juha Vainio said.

Undead Labs has exciting news for post-apocalyptic scavengers across the globe: State of Decay 3 starts alpha testing next month.

Today, Xbox Game Studios group Undead Labs announced that it will be conducting alpha tests for State of Decay 3 starting in May. These will be community-driven affairs where gamers can help shape and guide the sequel's development, offering critical feedback during the game's early rounds of widespread playtesting.

"Over the last few years, most of the team has been doing updates for State of Decay 2. The rest of us have been creating cool sh*t for State of Decay 3. Starting next month, we'll be hosting a series of alpha playtests with the community," series co-creator Brant Fitzgerald said in today's video.