Latest News - Page 61

MindsEye's post-launch saga is taking an even stranger turn, with the studio now doubling down on sabotage claims while turning the controversy into in-game content.

Build A Rocket Boy has continued to insist that MindsEye's troubled launch was not purely the result of internal issues, claiming it has identified individuals behind a coordinated campaign to sabotage the game's launch.

The studio alleges more than €1 million was spent on efforts to damage the game's reputation and squander its launch, and that the accusations range from paid influencers to internal interference. Studio leadership recently said it has enough evidence to pursue legal action.

Huawei is pushing the boundaries of what a car can do with a new vehicle that can project movies directly from its headlights, turning everyday parking into a potential cinema experience. Waiting in the car for someone? No worries, just start playing videos with your headlights.

The system integrates projection technology into the car's lighting hardware, enabling video content to be displayed on walls or other external surfaces. It is part of Huawei's broader push into smart mobility, where vehicles are no longer just about transportation but also serve as a mobile entertainment hub.

As automakers explore autonomous driving and longer in-car dwell time, the focus is increasingly shifting toward entertainment and lifestyle features, as passengers who experience autonomous driving will need features they can interact with during the commute.

Intel is suddenly back in the spotlight after delivering its strongest monthly performance in years, signaling a potential shift in the long-running narrative dominated by rivals like NVIDIA and TSMC.

The company posted its best stock surge in over a decade, driven by renewed investor confidence in its turnaround strategy and aggressive push into AI and advanced chip manufacturing. After years of falling behind in process technology and losing market share, Intel is now being viewed through a different lens, with its long-term roadmap starting to gain traction.

This momentum ties directly into broader industry shifts. AI demand is exploding, and while NVIDIA still dominates the GPU market, Intel is positioning itself across both compute and foundry services. Its push into domestic manufacturing and partnerships with governments and enterprise clients is also helping reshape sentiment.

Windrose continues its rapid rise, with the breakout pirate survival game now surpassing 1.5 million copies sold, cementing one of the strongest early access video game launches of 2026.

The Kraken Express title has steadily built momentum since launch, following an explosive debut that saw it hit 1 million copies in under a week and reach more than 200,000 concurrent players on Steam. The SteamDB charts are also painting quite a healthy story, as the title peaked at 222,000 players, and is approximately averaging more than 100,000 concurrently since it entered early access on April 14. This latest milestone reinforces just how quickly Windrose has gone from a promising indie to a major player in the survival crafting space.

Windrose did not just spike at launch; it sustained growth, driven by strong word of mouth, a successful Steam Next Fest demo, and a co-op-focused PvE experience that stands out in a genre often dominated by PvP. Earlier reports highlighted over 1.5 million wishlists before release, indicating that quite a bit of groundwork had already been laid for this kind of breakout success.

With several credible leaks and rumors pointing to a big Computex 2026 reveal for Intel's new PC gaming handheld processor, called the Arc G3 Extreme, we're now starting to see actual evidence of the device out in the wild. The first one arrives via PassMark, which offers CPU performance of the Intel Arc G3 Extreme processor.

The listing confirms the leaked CPU specs, including a Panther-Lake 14-core design with 2 P-cores, 8 E-cores, and 4 LP (low-power) cores. As the listing doesn't include information on the 12-core integrated Xe3 GPU and focuses purely on CPU performance, we now know that the Intel Arc G3 Extreme processor is notably more powerful than the AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme found in the ROG Xbox Ally X and other Windows-based PC gaming handhelds.

The single-thread score of 4288 for the Arc G3 Extreme is roughly 8% higher than the Ryzen Z2 Extreme's score of 3964. In addition, the full multi-threaded score of 29622 for the Arc G3 Extreme is about 25% higher than the Ryzen Z2 Extreme's 23649. Having more cores and threads helps, and these results indicate better overall gaming performance, as CPU performance plays a role when playing at lower resolutions like 1080p.

It's no secret that Valve's Steam Machine hasn't launched yet because of the current memory and storage crisis affecting the consumer technology market. With prices doubling and tripling and availability becoming scarce, the discourse surrounding an affordable entry-level 'gaming console' PC from Valve has shifted from anticipation to questions about price and availability.

For those gamers out there excited about the idea of a more powerful Steam Deck that connects to your TV as a SteamOS-powered gaming console, there is some great news. According to Brad Lynch, a well-known leaker of all things Valve, the company has been receiving "a ton" of shipments at its various US-based warehouses, with all of them marked as "Game Consoles."

Although there's no specific mention of the Steam Machine, odds are this is exactly what's being received. And as a "ton" implies a lot of stock, potentially in the tens or even hundreds of thousands, there's a good chance this means Valve is set to announce and launch the highly anticipated Steam Machine very soon.

Lian Li has launched an impressive new compact mATX case with the VECTOR V150 INF. Not only in terms of its hardware support and cooling design, but also its physical look, which includes a tempered glass infinity-mirror front panel with two large pre-installed 140mm ARGB PWM fans. Lian Li's integration of fans into tempered-glass front panels sets its case lineup apart from the pack by enabling direct airflow intake while delivering a unique, stylish look.

Of course, the new Lian Li VECTOR V150 INF is all about cooling, with an additional pre-installed 120mm ARGB PWM fan at the rear joining the two on the front panel. Even though it's an mATX case that supports Micro-ATX and Mini-ITX motherboards, including back-connect m-ATX motherboards, the VECTOR V150 INF is designed for modern high-performance hardware. This includes enough space to install a 360mm radiator and up to 10 fans, which is impressive for a case this size.

The three included fans also feature infinity-mirror hubs and can sync lighting and speed with the motherboard. There's also the option to go full wireless with Lian Li's innovative L-Wireless controller, for cable-free lighting and fan control.

You'll never guess what game inspired The Elder Scrolls Online--it's a real shocker, but Blizzard's mega-hit MMORPG was the blueprint that Bethesda followed.

Bethesda was actually the one who came up with the idea to adapt The Elder Scrolls into an online game. In a new interview with games publication 80.lv, former ZeniMax Online Studios founder and lead Matt Firor says that ESO was originally created as a direct answer to World of Warcraft's success.

They didn't need any convincing! Seriously, they recruited me to found ZOS and build Elder Scrolls Online, and were very upfront about it from the first interview. They saw the success of WoW and wanted to turn their own fantasy single player IP into a massively multiplayer experience," Firor said.

Icelandic video game studio CCP Games has secured its independence from South Korean MMORPG giant Pearl Abyss for significantly less than what was paid for the group years ago.

CCP Games CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson has re-acquired private ownership over the studio. As per reports from The Chosun Daily, Pétursson paid 177.132 Billion Won (roughly $120 million) for CCP Games, nearly half of what the South Korean firm paid nearly a decade ago. Back in 2018, Pearl Abyss acquired CCP Games for an upfront buyout price of $225 million, with the potential of an extra $200 million in bonus payouts.

Now 8 years later, CCP Games has secured its independence for nearly half of the price that Pearl Abyss had originally paid. The group created Eve Online, one of the most popular MMORPGs on the market and a game that caters to a very niche audience.

Xbox's new CEO Asha Sharma appears to say that the games segment has better profit margins than before, or at the very least there's been progress made in that regard.

While Microsoft reports another consecutive quarter of a drop in gaming earnings, this time a -$380 million year-over-year dip in total gaming revenues, it appears that Xbox has become more profitable. Division CEO Asha Sharma indicates that Xbox now has its operating margins under better control, and this could support recent reports that Microsoft's board and CFO have eased pressures on Xbox to deliver strict quarterly margin targets.

"While we have made progress expanding the business and our margins, player and revenue growth has not yet met our ambition. We know we have work to do to earn every player today and into the future," Sharma said on Twitter, the same day Microsoft announced its Q3'FY26 results.

As promised a month ago, Microsoft's so-called "Xbox Mode" is now rolling out on more Windows 11 PCs, potentially giving users a look at what's on the horizon with the next-gen Project Helix system.

The final form of the Xbox brand is almost here. Project Helix represents a plan that's been more than a decade in the making; unifying Windows and Xbox consoles is something that happened first during the Xbox One era, and now Microsoft is pushing things to a new level with Project Helix, a device that can play both Windows PC and Xbox console games.

To ease into this convergence, Microsoft released the Xbox Full Screen Experience (FSE), which was basically a dedicated, console-like UI made specifically for gaming on Windows. The FSE, which was first launched on the Xbox Ally handhelds, is now called Xbox Mode and is coming to all Windows 11 devices.

Capcom and Sony have released a first-look teaser trailer for Zach Cregger's new Resident Evil movie, delivering what looks to be a mix of grisly madcap chaos with distinct body horror. Now the director shares how his earliest experiences with Resident Evil games helped shape his vision for the film.

The new Resident Evil film premieres exclusively in theaters on September 18, 2026, bringing a very return-to-roots horror take on the series' transmedia depictions. The new trailer is thrilling, with well-paced action shots and some shocking scenes reminiscent of a Raimi film.

On the heels of the new footage, Resident Evil movie director Zach Cregger has been touring in a press junket, and recently shared how the early iconic games from Capcom locked in the major themes for the adaptation.

We are about to get a closer look at Xbox's next-generation console, with a new reveal for Project Helix reportedly set for May as Microsoft continues to reshape what an Xbox actually is.

In its Spring 2026 Xbox Game Dev Update, Microsoft doubled down on its long term vision for Project Helix, highlighting a unified ecosystem where console and PC development are effectively merged. The next generation system is designed to run both Xbox and PC games natively, with developers building once for multiple platforms instead of maintaining separate versions.

This direction aligns directly with what we have already seen from Project Helix in recent months. Microsoft has consistently positioned the hardware as a hybrid console PC system, built in partnership with AMD and powered by next generation rendering technologies.

Samsung Electronics has just disclosed its Q1 2026 earnings, breaking all kinds of records and shattering estimates set by industry analysts. Amid the global semiconductor shortage and the relentless AI boom, Samsung reported an 8x year-over-year profit increase in the first quarter of 2026.

Per the earnings call, Samsung Electronics reported quarterly sales of 133.9 trillion Korean won ($89.96 billion), a 50.2% year-over-year increase from the 79.14 trillion Korean won it brought in last year. It is also higher than the 132.69 trillion won estimate from LSEG SmartEstimate, which is weighted toward more accurate analysts.

The quarterly profit saw a massive boom, going from 6.69 trillion won in Q1 2025 to 57.23 trillion won (or $38.54 billion) in Q1 2026. That is a staggering 755% year-over-year profit jump, and it is also (again) higher than analysts' estimate of 38.23 trillion won. Semiconductor (DS segment) sales rose 225% year-over-year, and semiconductor operating profit grew 48x, from 1.1 trillion won in Q1 2025 to 53.7 trillion won ($36.18 billion) in Q1 2026.

Japanese games company Koei Tecmo has enjoyed record-breaking success throughout FY25, leading to all-time net profits, strong operating income, and higher-than-ever game sales.

Koei Tecmo's full-year FY25 results show record-breaking game unit sales for the period, leading to new milestones for net profit and a high standing for operating profit earnings. The company released multiple new titles throughout FY25, leading to 14.1 million game sales throughout the timeline. That's a +84% year-over-year increase in total game unit sales.

The high volume sales were driven principally by huge hits like Pokopia, which was confirmed to have sold 2.2 million copies in just 4 days and was eyed as a potential system-seller by Wedbush Securities. The group also saw strong sales of first-party hit NiOh 3, which sold 1 million copies in 14 days.

ASRock is pushing aggressively into the gaming monitor market with a 400Hz QHD panel priced far below expectations, a move that could shake up the entire mid-tier display segment.

The company has unveiled two new Phantom Gaming monitors, the PG27QFW2A and PG32QFT, expanding its lineup with a focus on high refresh rates and competitive pricing. The standout is the 27-inch PG27QFW2A, featuring a 400Hz IPS panel at QHD resolution, 1ms response time, and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro support. At an estimated $300, it lands well below where most 400Hz displays typically sit, which is usually closer to the $600 range or higher.

That pricing is where ASRock has really made things interesting. ASRock is clearly positioning itself to undercut established players in the gaming monitor market, while simultaneously continuing its push into providing affordable gaming monitors that aren't as feature-rich as some competitors, but make up for it with a nice price tag.

Microsoft today announced its Q3FY26 earnings, showing a big decline in total Xbox revenues.

Xbox's FYQ3'26 results for the January - March 2026 period are in, and all-told, the games division is said to have made $5.34 billion in the three-month season, showing a sizable -$380 million decline in gross revenues from the year prior.

The drop represents a -5% in content & services (games, subscriptions, etc) to $5.12 billion, with Xbox console hardware dropping -33% to a meager $221 million, a new all-time record low for the Xbox Series generation. Management also notes that first-party games performed better during this time last year than they did this year; in Q3'FY25, Microsoft released Age of Mythology Retold, as well as Avowed on Xbox, and then re-released that same game a year later on PS5. Xbox's Q4'26 will also face tough comparables because of the meteoric launch of Forza Horizon 5 in April 2025, which affects the prior Q4'25 period. Microsoft hopes to counter that with multiple releases like two ports of South of Midnight, Double Fine's new multiplayer game Kiln, and Forza Horizon 6's launch in May.

Intel and AMD have partnered to standardize a new x86 ISA extension to supercharge AI performance. Under the x86 Ecosystem Advisory Group (EAG), AI Compute Extensions (ACE) are engineered to deliver a 16x increase in compute density over standard AVX10 instructions.

Traditional vectorized hardware (SIMD) and instructions, such as AVX, operate on one-dimensional data. Machine learning, powered by Matrix Multiplication and Accumulate (MMA), has created a demand for specialized hardware that runs in two dimensions. This need led to the rise of specialized Tensor Cores in GPUs, and now ACE brings that same logic to the x86 CPU.

ACE uses an outer-product algorithm and eight new 2D Tile Registers, each with 16x16 dimensions and 32-bit precision. Large AI datasets are split into sub-matrices, with the hardware consuming two 16x4 input matrices (at 8-bit precision) - the Blue and Yellow matrices. At each intersection on the 16x16 grid, the hardware computes an inner product between a 1x4 and a 4x1 vector.

Subnautica 2 has finally resurfaced with a firm early access date and a cinematic trailer, marking the end of a long silence that has only amplified anticipation for the sequel.

Developer Unknown Worlds Entertainment confirmed that Subnautica 2 will launch into early access on May 14, 2026, alongside a new cinematic trailer offering a fresh look at its alien ocean world. The sequel builds on the original survival formula with a new setting, expanded systems, and, for the first time in the series, multiplayer support.

Subnautica 2 has been part of an ongoing development story that includes delays from its original 2025 window and a highly publicized legal dispute involving publisher Krafton.

It's an end of an era: The video games industry's financial onslaught has led to the dismantling of another team, this time Spiders, a studio responsible for multiple mid-range AA games.

After nearly two decades, Spiders Studios is shutting down. The French game developer, a subsidiary of entertainment company Nacon, is being liquidated due to the financial troubles of its parent. Nacon attempted to find a new buyer for Spiders last month, but the deadline came and went without a prospective offer.

Now the studio has shared the bad news on Twitter, saying that Spiders is effectively no more. The Paris-based team that worked on games like Bound By Flame, Steelrising, and two Greedfall games--all set in the proprietary Silk engine--has closed shop.