Bethesda is retiring its free-to-play Elder Scrolls Blades in June, and has already delisted the game from Switch, iOS, and Android.

The unpopular Elder Scrolls Blades has been removed from all storefronts and is no longer available to download. Bethesda announced that the free-to-play game will also be pulled offline on June 30, 2026, and from then on will no longer be able to be accessed.

As a farewell to players, the studio has opened up the floodgates to Blades' microtransaction storefront, reducing the costs of all items while giving users a batch of free currency.

Spiders Studio, the team behind RPGs like The Technomancer and Greedfall, is now up for sale as its parent Nacon goes through French insolvency proceedings.

Nacon is currently in financial trouble. The company missed a payment on one of its debts, and has filed for insolvency in French courts--a process that involves the group restructuring and essentially divesting parts of itself in an effort to stay afloat.

As part of this process, Spiders Studio, one of the subsidiary game development studios that Nacon owns, has been put up for sale. A filing on the ASPAJ website gives key stats about Spiders, showing that the studio currently has 75 employees and revenues that are "less than or equal to 1 million Euros," however, this is unclear whether or not this is on a quarterly or annual basis.

The current state of the gaming market is pushing budget gamers to cut corners on RAM, SSDs, and even CPU prices. AMD's long-running AM4 platform is single-handedly saving budget gamers by bringing its most affordable X3D chip to the UK market, offering higher gaming performance at a budget price.

AMD's Ryzen 5000 series has been one of the company's strongest sellers, but it discontinued its more powerful Ryzen 5000 gaming processors, the Ryzen 7 5700X3D and 5800X3D, last year. It kept the more affordable Ryzen 5600X3D and Ryzen 5500X3D available, though both remained limited to certain regions. The 5500X3D was initially limited to Latin America, but earlier this month, AMD launched the 6-core CPU in China. Turns out, that launch is still slowly expanding as we speak.

The Ryzen 5 5500X3D has now appeared at UK retailer PC Tec UK, spotted by VideoCardz. The retailer has listed the chip for 179 pounds, which works out to be around US$237. Unlike the China launch, this is an OEM tray version rather than a boxed retail part. PC Tec estimates orders will dispatch in the week of March 30, with the listing showing limited availability.

AMD's RX 9070 XT is finally trending towards reasonable territory, with three custom triple-fan models from Sapphire, GIGABYTE, and ASRock now available for $699 via promo codes, courtesy of VideoCardz. In fact, Newegg has bundled these GPUs with extra hardware. Depending on the listing, builders can walk away with either a free 512GB SSD, a 750W PSU, or a 360mm AIO at no extra cost.

With no manufacturer immune to the recent surge in DRAM costs, GPU prices have been trending upward for months, with models having more than 8GB of memory hit the hardest. This has caused a significant restructuring in the mid-range market, where the RTX 5070 has climbed to $649 from its $549 launch, while the RTX 5070 Ti is reaching four-digit territory. It took several months for the RX 9070 XT to finally hit its $599 MSRP. This milestone only lasted several weeks before the DRAM crisis took hold, sending prices shooting above $700.

Newegg lists three models of the RX 9070 XT. The ASRock Challenger includes a 360mm AIO ($70 value), the GIGABYTE Gaming OC comes with a 512GB Gen 4 SSD ($113 value), and the Sapphire Pulse features a 750W PSU ($80 value). While all listings have a base price of $729, applying the on-site promo codes brings the final price down to $699. This is not a direct price cut, but the math speaks for itself. If you factor in the bundled goodies, the effective value of the GPU drops to near MSRP levels.

Microsoft's Xbox has made some questionable marketing decisions lately, and new CEO Asha Sharma is trying her best to clean up the mess left behind. Following a report earlier this week suggesting she was quietly trying to scrub the controversial "This is an Xbox" campaign from the internet, a Microsoft spokesperson has now confirmed it officially.

The anonymous spokesperson confirmed to Windows Central that the company is putting the towel on the controversial marketing campaign. Sharma ended it because it "didn't feel like Xbox," and is now "personally leading a reset of how we show up as a brand."

Analysts and industry experts weigh in on the current state of game console prices, warning that the next-gen PS6 and Project Helix might cost $1,000 at release.

Afflicted with sticker shock, gamers are balking at the newly announced PS5 price hikes, particularly to the $900 price tag attached to Sony's mid-gen PlayStation 5 Pro console. But key figures in the games industry say that this new era of prohibitive pricing may just be the beginning of things to come, and higher MSRP could be here to stay throughout Gen 10.

"We're quickly moving towards a world in which a $1,000 console will be the norm, and console gaming will become a luxury expenditure," Joost van Dreunen, co-founder of analyst firm Superdata (acquired by Circana) and a current professor of NYU Stern School of Business, tells GamesRadar in a recent interview.

Sony is boosting PS5 prices, and soon the PS5 Pro will cost $900 in the United States. Ampere Analysis analyst Piers Harding-Rolls says it "wouldn't be a surprise" if Nintendo and Microsoft also raise the price of the Switch 2 and Xbox consoles.

Today, Sony announced that it would be raising prices of its PlayStation 5 consoles across the globe, with the base digital model at $600 and the Pro now at an eye-watering $900, making it the most expensive console currently available. The increases may not end there, though, and analysts are discussing the possibility of other competing systems also getting hikes.

In a recent interview with Eurogamer, Ampere's Piers Harding-Rolls explains the current situation, saying that the price hikes are a result of supply chain disruptions and a bid to combat inflation.

Dispatch arrived on PS5 and PC last year to a strong reception, with players quickly falling for its superhero workplace comedy and, of course, Invisigal. However, when it was ported to Nintendo Switch 2 in January 2026, it came with heavy censorship. That sparked a blame game between the studio, AdHoc, and Nintendo. Still, the Switch version remains noticeably tamer than the other ports.

So when AdHoc announced during last night's Xbox Partner Preview showcase that Dispatch is heading to Microsoft's Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, and Xbox Cloud, players had one question amid all the excitement: Will it be censored like the Switch 2 version?

"The Xbox version of Dispatch will be the same full release as the original PC and PlayStation versions," the studio wrote on social media. Some already expected as much, since Xbox and PS5 ports rarely stray far apart, but the clarification was appreciated by fans regardless. It's a small thing, but after the Switch 2 situation, players weren't taking any chances.

A lucky Walmart shopper secured an RTX 5060 Ti for just $80 and shared the details on Reddit, thanks to VideoCardz. After taxes, the total comes to almost $86, which still seems like an impossible figure given the card's current retail price. The GPU was marked down from its original retail price of $349 to just $80 for an insane 77% drop in price.

While clearance sales are not rare, finding a current-generation GPU for just 23% of its retail price is an extreme outlier that has caught the attention of the PC hardware community. The specific model in question is the MSI Ventus 2x, which currently retails between $349 and $419, depending on the store at the time of writing.

While the 8GB variant of the RTX 5060 Ti has faced its fair share of criticism for its limited framebuffer in 2026, a deal this aggressive is hard to ignore. For the Redditor in question, the jump is particularly significant; they are upgrading from the Pascal-based GTX 1060 6GB. For the price of a modern AAA title, this user is gaining roughly 3x more performance and a significantly more efficient architecture. This jump also unlocks new features like DLSS, Frame Generation, and Ray Tracing.

In a shareholders meeting, Pearl Abyss CEO Heo Jin-young tells investors that the company will prioritize more game sales over additional things like mod support and/or post-launch DLC.

Pearl Abyss's first-ever singleplayer game is a big success. Crimson Desert has reached multiple high-profile sales milestones, first selling 2 million copies in its first day, then hitting 3 million copies in five days. As for the latest sales, the company's CEO says Crimson Desert is nearing 5 million sales.

As per South Korean news site Inven, the news was revealed during the Pearl Abyss's 17th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, where Heo Jin-young also answered multiple questions from investors. Two of these inquiries were focused on what happens next with Crimson Desert, asking about potential mod support to enable users to create and share custom additions to the game, as well as potential official expansions and DLC from Pearl Abyss.

Everything seems to be going up in price nowadays. Even if we ignore the massive oil barrel-shaped elephant in the room, 2026 is just not a good year to be a tech enthusiast. There is a massive DRAM shortage that is expected to last into the 2030s, AMD and Intel have increased the prices of their CPUs, and even Sony has jacked up the price of its PlayStation 5 consoles. Entertainment giant Netflix wants a piece of that action, too.

According to an updated "Plans and Pricing" page, Netflix is raising prices across all subscription tiers in the U.S, with no exceptions. This price hike follows Netflix's last price increase in January 2025. If you had just made peace with paying the additional $1 (or more), you'd better gear up for another price increase coming soon.

The new pricing structure sees the ad-supported Standard tier go from $7.99/month to $8.99/month, while the Standard ad-free tier goes from $17.99/month to $19.99/month. Even Premium tier users are not exempt from this price increase, as they will pay an extra $2, bringing the price to $26.99 per month.

Google has developed three AI compression algorithms designed to reduce the memory footprint of large language models without sacrificing performance and quality. Published on Google Research, the tech is described as a way to shrink AI's working memory, known as the "KV cache", by using a form of vector quantization.

The company plans to present its findings at the ICLR 2026 conference next month, along with the three algorithms making this possible, namely TurboQuant, PolarQuant, and Quantized Johnson-Lindenstrauss.

TurboQuant would allow AI to remember more information while taking up less space and maintaining accuracy. There is a lot more detail in the Google Research article on how the compression technology works, but the results are what's exciting.

BREAKING: Nintendo has a big nostalgia bomb waiting to go off later this year, as reports have surfaced of a fully-fledged remake of Ocarina of Time coming to the Switch 2.

Nintendo's iconic The Legend of Zelda franchise turns 40 this year, and to celebrate, the company is planning something huge. Sources tell both NateTheHate and VGC that Nintendo will release a new Ocarina of Time remake for the Switch 2 later in the year.

"There is another anniversary this year, and it's the anniversary of The Legend of Zelda... what I can share with you today is that in the second half of 2026, approaching the holidays, we are going to receive an Ocarina of Time remake for Switch 2," Nate said in a recent podcast.

Crimson Desert has had a strong debut, selling 3 million copies in just 5 days. The game has been a big hit among players, with its Steam rating now sitting at "Very Positive" with over 28,000 reviews. The title is currently available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, with support for Intel Arc GPU owners and MSI Claw handhelds rolling out following recent criticism. This leaves Nintendo Switch 2 gamers on the sidelines. That might not be the case forever.

South Korean outlet Yonhap News Agency reports that during a shareholder's meeting, Pearl Abyss CEO Heo Jin Young talked in detail about its open-world action RPG. Among the topics covered, the CEO discussed the possibility of releasing the game on Nintendo's newest console. He stated that the team has started looking into this potential port, and R&D, which is Research and Development, has already begun.

It's official: The PlayStation 5 is getting a price hike around the globe, including the US.

On the heels of yesterday's report, Sony today announced that it will indeed be raising the prices of PlayStation hardware. The prices go into effect on April 2, 2026.

The company confirms an increase of $100 in the United States: the PS5 disc edition will now cost $650 (+30% over launch price), the PS5 digital is now at $600 (+50% increase over launch), and the PS5 Pro is now a whopping $900 (+27% over launch price).

Apple has pulled the plug on its long-running tower workstation line, discontinuing the Mac Pro. The tech giant confirmed to 9to5Mac that there are no plans for future Mac Pro hardware. The Mac Studio will now sit at the top of Apple's desktop lineup, powered by the M5 Ultra, which is due for release in the first half of this year.

Apple has since removed the Mac Pro from its website, with the buy page now redirecting users to Mac's homepage. For professional users, the Mac Studio is available in M4 Max and M3 Ultra configurations, offering up to a 32-core CPU, up to an 80-core GPU, Thunderbolt 5, and support for up to 512GB of unified memory.

The decision is not a surprise. The Mac Pro last received an update in June 2023, when Apple moved the system to M2 Ultra while keeping the aging 2019 chassis. Even then, it sat in an awkward spot. The Mac Studio, equipped with the same chip and offering similar performance, was available for $3,000 less.

The humble DIY PC builder just can't seem to catch a break, as more bad news is coming our way, this time from AMD. Earlier this week, we covered a report that said Intel planned to raise CPU prices by 10% by the end of this month. Now, it seems like the Red brand is also following the same pattern as its rival.

A new report from Nikkei Asia suggests that AMD plans a CPU price hike that will likely take effect from the end of March into the start of April. The report suggests that AMD could be looking at a price increase of "up to 15%" across its different CPU SKUs. The timing couldn't be worse for someone looking to buy a new desktop CPU, as Intel is planning to raise CPU prices at the same time.

Moreover, if the news wasn't already bad enough, we recently reported that the ASUS Joint Technology Systems Division General Manager, Yi-Hsiang Liao, announced that ASUS is also planning to raise PC prices by up to 30%. While this news is not surprising, it is still quite alarming for the average DIY PC builder who just wants to build a budget gaming PC.

The ongoing AI push has been nothing short of a nightmare for consumers. Everyone has felt the impact of DRAM and NAND shortages, with a 256GB DDR5 memory module now costing a staggering $5,700 in China. One would assume this is about as bad as it gets. But AI datacenters' appetite for resources is far from satisfied, as reports suggest CPUs are next in line.

PC and server manufacturers recently told Nikkei Asia they are unable to meet demand because Intel and AMD have stopped supplying enough processors. On top of that, server and OEM PC manufacturing could face delays and price hikes of up to 10% to 15%.

TrendForce also recently reported that Intel has already raised prices on certain entry-level and older generation notebook CPUs by more than 15%. The blue team is also reportedly planning a 10% price increase for its consumer CPUs, including the Intel Core Ultra, effective at the end of this month.

Developer Rogue Factor and publisher Nacon have yet to announce a Nintendo Switch 2 version of Hell is Us, but an ESRB rating has seemingly spoiled that announcement, as an official rating for a Switch 2 version of the title has been discovered.

Unfortunately, we don't have a release date for the Switch 2 version of the game, but given that ESRB ratings are assigned late in a game's development, it's possible we could hear about a Hell is Us Nintendo Switch 2 version during the next Nintendo Direct. For those who don't know, Hell is Us is a third-person action-adventure game built in Unreal Engine 5 that leans heavily into atmosphere, player-driven exploration, and a rejection of modern UI-heavy design.

Described as a title dedicated to "no handholding" gameplay, Hell is Us doesn't feature any minimaps, waypoint markers, or traditional quest tracking systems. Instead, players will be required to navigate and progress through the title using environmental clues, NPC dialogue, and raw memory. As you can probably imagine, this design choice of "no handholding" was immediately controversial upon release, with some players praising it for its sense of immersion and discovery, while others criticized it for the lack of guidance, which can lead to frustration.

Counter-Strike is one of the biggest first-person shooter games to exist, and with regular peaks of nearly 1.5 million concurrent players on Steam, it begs the question - how many of those players are actually human?

With any massively popular video game, you will almost inevitably discover a botting problem, but given that Counter-Strike has an extremely lucrative skin market attached to it, the botting situation is a far greater problem than other multiplayer titles. However, that problem may have been partially pruned as Counter-Strike 2 developer Ido Magal, the project lead on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Counter-Strike 2, has said that Valve has banned 970,000 bot accounts.

The banning of nearly 1 million bot accounts was a result of a "bunch of investigations that benefited from user reports". Looking at the CS2Stats website, we can see that Counter-Strike 2 VAC and game bans have skyrocketed as of the 26th of March. Currently, 17,000 bans have been issued, but CS2Stats only tracks official Valve matchmaking modes, such as competitive and premier, not casual matches such as Deathmatch or bot lobbies / farming servers.