Gaming

As far as game development and gaming are concerned, AI is well and truly here. From AI tools like DLSS and FSR used to enhance image quality and performance, to generative AI used to speed up development, ideation, art, design, and coding. Now, when it comes to the world of fake AI videos that take popular things to generate interest (or clicks), the term "AI slop" is used as a catch-all for everything.

And even though the consensus is that generative AI being used liberally for any form of entertainment, be it movies, music, or games, is bad, here's an interesting one. YouTube creator Aillusory has posted a new video titled 'The Witcher 3, but it's AI slop - Reimagined by AI.' The goal here was to capture cinematic and gameplay footage from CD Projekt Red's The Witcher 3 and then use AI to remaster and "reimagine" the game with new photorealistic visuals.

And here's the thing: aside from the odd-looking (read, AI-looking) character and facial animations, the results are pretty impressive. Especially when it comes to the lighting and environment detail, with several of the game's iconic locations taking on a definite 'photorealistic' quality.

GOG has introduced Patrons, a new $5 monthly subscription that helps fund games preservation.

CD Projekt Group's GOG storefront has announced its own Patreon-like support system that allows gamers to directly contribute to helping permanently secure classic PC games. GOG Patrons is a subscription where users pay $5 a month to help boost the budget to preserve more old-school digital games.

So...why charge money? Doesn't CD Projekt already make a ton of money? While the publisher does make hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue a year, GOG is an ancillary, loss-leading part of the business. GOG, which stands for Good Old Games, will buy the rights to original versions of legacy PC games to resell on their storefront.

Nintendo's shares have dropped 10% from December's trading high as the company once again faces the dreaded combination of component shortages and rising costs.

Nintendo's aspirations for the Switch 2 could be stymied throughout 2026, leading to hardware production disruptions and potentially even price hikes for consumers.

New reports from Bloomberg indicate that Nintendo is now paying more money to secure parts for its Switch 2 system. Data from TrendForce suggests that Nintendo is now paying 41% more for the memory chips used in the handheld-console; the Switch 2 uses 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM, split evenly across 2x 6GB modules from Micron.

Season 2 of the Fallout TV show premieres tomorrow, and Bethesda is ready to capitalize on the series with a bunch of paid digital products and updates in its slew of Fallout games.

Xbox is being pressured by Microsoft to deliver 30% margins, and ZeniMax, while a limited integration company, is still technically part of the overall Xbox brand. Bethesda has some of the most enduring games franchises, and Fallout in particular has been cracked open in the hopes of exploiting the new Fallout TV show.

Bethesda has readied a multitude of Fallout games, content, and buyable products in the hopes of capitalizing off of Fallout season 2's momentum; Fallout 76 got the Burning Springs update, there's a new Fallout 4 re-release being sold for $60, and even a $155 anniversary bundle for a 15-year-old game. Now the studio is adding a paid $10 season pass into Fallout Shelter with a New Vegas-themed update.

You want a PC game that's 100% been created by AI? No, neither do I, but we've got one, and it's a bullet hell roguelite called Codex Mortis.

PC Gamer picked up on the game, which is still under development, but it's on Steam and there's a demo of Codex Mortis available if you dare to try it.

In a press release, the developer (Crunchfest) states: "Crunchfest today released the playable demo for Codex Mortis, a necromantic survival bullet hell that makes gaming history as the first 100% AI-generated playable game. Plan your build, combine spells into synergies, and watch the battlefield erupt in beautiful chaos. The demo is available now on Steam for solo or local co-op play."

Recently, Microsoft posted a rather lengthy blog post covering all the advances in PC gaming on Windows devices this year, while providing some information on what's in store for the future. With Windows 11 widely regarded as a bottleneck standing in the way of optimized performance, the good news is that one of the key things it's focusing on is fixing that with improved "background workload management, power and scheduling improvements, graphics stack optimizations," and more.

Now, one of the reasons Microsoft is actively looking to improve Windows 11 as a platform for PC gaming with more urgency than we've seen in recent years comes down to the company's push into the portable PC gaming handheld space with the ROG Xbox Ally and the rumors that the next-gen Xbox console is set to be a PC-hybrid device. This is why the Xbox Full Screen Experience is now available for everyone to try out. Xbox is slowly becoming a part of Windows.

And early next year, the company is set to release a new OS-level feature designed to benefit handhelds like the ROG Xbox Ally X. It's called Auto SR, and it's an AI-powered upscaling solution that is very different from DLSS or even FSR.

Microsoft wants Xbox to make more profit, and the Xbox games division is pulling out all the stops to make that happen. But there's one thing they may not do for a while: raise game prices to $80.

In June, Microsoft made one of the most unpopular announcements in recent memory: new first-party Xbox games would now cost $80, starting first with Obsidian's The Outer Worlds 2. The decision was lambasted and Microsoft changed its mind, dropping The Outer Worlds 2 back to $70 and implying that all future first-party games would retain this price. It's interesting to note that Nintendo actually was the first to charge the $80 baseline for new AAA games with Mario Kart World's launch on the Switch 2.

In a recent interview with Variety, Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty was asked directly about $80 games, and while he responded that Xbox "does not have any pricing updates," he did seem to indicate that it might be a while before Microsoft tries to raise baseline software prices again.

Xbox game studios boss Matt Booty discusses EA's $55 billion leveraged buyout, saying that the high share price represents both the existing and future value of the publisher's billion-dollar IPs.

Electronic Arts is going private in a $55 billion leveraged buyout financed principally by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, with contributions from investment firms Silver Lake and Affinity Partners. The deal, which would see EA go private, would also involve billion-dollar entertainment properties like the FC franchise, Madden NFL and college football, Battlefield, and even Apex Legends.

EA is among the last major AAA independent publishers on the market and the publisher's peers have taken notice, especially Xbox, whose own success scales with that of third-party groups like EA. In a recent interview with Variety, Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty shared a prognosticating take on the EA deal, saying that the $55 billion valuation isn't just about what Electronic Arts has produced in the past--it's also an attempt at placing a value on what's on the horizon.

Sony is helping fund and publish 4:Loop, a new live service four-player co-op shooter from Mike Booth, the creator of Left 4 Dead.

PlayStation's live service plans are starting to better take shape as SIE reveals its latest investment project. The game is called 4:Loop, and it's an online shooter where four players team up and blast enemies. 4:Loop has a time loop roguelike element where players will die and try again, accumulating gear and trying out new combinations of playstyles along the way.

According to Mike Booth, the game director leading the project at Bad Robot Games, the core idea is to give players the chance to persistently find advantages and exploit the game as much as possible.

Fate of the Old Republic might be early in development, but the RPG should be out before the turn of the decade--at least that's the plan.

KOTOR is getting a spiritual successor called Fate of the Old Republic, or FOTOR for short. The game was announced at The Game Awards, with original BioWare dev and KOTOR director Casey Hudson leading the new Star Wars title. Not much is known about the project, but given the fact that Arcanaut is relatively new and that development recently started, it's possible that FOTOR is multiple years away. How long until it's out? Hudson says it'll launch sometime before 2030.

"Don't worry about the "not till 2030" rumors. Game will be out before then. I'm not getting any younger!" Hudson said on Twitter, indirectly responding to a post from Bloomberg's Jason Schreier on Bluesky.

Leon Kennedy is not only in Capcom's new Resident Evil game, but he's one of the main playable protagonists, and he brings thrilling action to offset the terrifying horror of Grace's segments.

At The Game Awards 2025, Capcom confirmed the rumors are true: Leon plays a major part in Resident Evil 9 Requiem. The news comes months after the developer had said Leon wouldn't be in the game, but now Capcom says that a dual-character structure was decided when full production started.

In a recent interview with Japanese games publication Automaton, Resident Evil 9 Requiem game director Koshi Nakanishi says that the interactive gameplay sequences are basically evenly divided between Grace Ashcroft and Leon Kennedy, with each perspective offering a very different experience for players.

Half-Life 3 is reportedly a Steam Machine launch title, with Valve aiming for a spring 2026 release according to the latest reports.

Valve unleashing its new Steam gaming hardware and having the mythical Half-Life 3 as a launch title is something I've said for a while now, even penning a piece that was titled "Valve's new Steam gaming hardware could see Half-Life 3 as a system seller" and that it would beat Rockstar to the punch from launching Grand Theft Auto 6 (hopefully) in 2026.

In a new episode of the Insider Gaming Weekly podcast, journalist Mike Straw gave us an update on Half-Life 3, saying that his sources teased Valve is holding the announcement back because of the current RAM pricing debacle, as it would affect the release of the Steam Machine.

Larian offers more details about its newly announced Divinity roleplaying game, with the studio saying that they want to make Divinity their career-defining magnum opus.

Last night, Larian made a not-so-surprising announcement: A new Divinity game is in the works, and it's going to be a gigantic RPG. The developers say that the macabre new Divinity project is their most ambitious game ever and aims to be even bigger than Baldur's Gate 3, which is one of the most popular and best-selling roleplaying games in recent memory.

In a new press release, Larian founder Swen Vincke and Divinity game director says that this new game will represent everything that the studio has done before, and is the culmination of over a decade of work ultimately aimed at preserving the studio's independence.

The Doom developers at id Software have voted to unionize under the Communication Workers of America in the attempt to gain more bargaining power in the volatile video games industry.

More of Microsoft's video game developers are unionizing, this time with id Software in Texas. According to a new press release from the CWA union organization, 165 of id Software's Texas-based employees seek union representation.

The id Software teams join other wall-to-wall unions at other Microsoft-owned game divisions like Blizzard, whose various teams working on Overwatch, Diablo, World of Warcraft, and Hearthstone have all voted to unionize in an attempt to secure better protections against layoffs, crunch work, and generative artificial intelligence--technology that Microsoft has significantly advanced with its MUSE generator.

The Paladin is now available in Diablo 4, but you have to pre-order the $40 Lord of Hatred expansion in order to play the class. Blizzard showcases some of the abilities that gamers can use to unleash holy fury on demons throughout Sanctuary.

Last night at The Game Awards, Blizzard revealed some sizzling news: A new Mephisto-themed Diablo 4 expansion called Lord of Hatred is coming in April 2026, and it'll bring two new playable classes. One of them, the Paladin, is available now. The other class is a secret that will be available when Lord of Hatred releases, but it's believed to be some sort of take on Diablo 2's classic Amazon class.

Now Blizzard has released a quick clip showing off the powers and combat abilities that the Paladin offers, including the new Oath System that lets players choose from four lines of play style: Zealot, Juggernaut, Judicator, and Arbiter. Fans who have played both Diablo 2 and Diablo 3 will see parallels between the Crusader and Paladin classes, including the classic Blessed Hammer ability.

Housemarque delays its stylish new sci-fi bullet hell game by a month to give the project some extra polish.

Sony's new first-party PlayStation game Saros will now release on April 30, 2026, about a month after its original intended launch. This puts Saros' release in Sony's FY26 timeline--had it released in March, it would technically be in Sony's FY25 period, and these product release timings can materially impact a division's earnings reports.

Housemarque says that Saros was delayed so the team can ensure the game "exceeds our vision." Based on the recent trailers, the studio is aiming to deliver a high pedigree of action survival mixed with otherworldly alien battles tinged with the warm, glowing amber light of a dying sun, perhaps one from a Beksinski painting.

BioWare's original Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) duology are apparently the most popular Star Wars games, which is probably why remakes had been greenlit for both games at one point in time. And it also explains a big new announcement at last night's Game Awards.

Last night, Lucasfilm Games made a surprise announcement: A spiritual successor to the fan-favorite Knights of the Old Republic series is in the works. It's called Fate of the Old Republic, or FOTOR for short, and it's being led by original KOTOR game director Casey Hudson. There's a very deliberate attempt to capture KOTOR's lightning on a bottle once again.

The emphasis on KOTOR is a business decision based on popularity. According to Aspyr co-CEO Michael Rogers, the Knights of the Old Republic games are the most popular Star Wars titles that have been released. Rogers made this statement in a declaration in the now-resolved false advertising lawsuit against Aspyr--the studio had previously been sued because their KOTOR re-release didn't ship with the DLC that it had been advertised with.

Hogwarts Legacy can be grabbed for the grand total of absolutely nothing, as Epic Games kicks off its high-profile freebies for the holiday season this year.

The open-world action RPG was revealed as the new free game by Epic at The Game Awards, and it attracted quite some attention.

Indeed, as Windows Central reports, when Hogwarts Legacy went free on the Epic Games Store, it was problematic trying to actually grab a copy, with the game showing as unavailable for some.

One of the many highlights of The Game Awards 2025 was LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, which received a new trailer showcasing exciting aspects of the upcoming title and its scheduled release date.

LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is scheduled to release on May 29, 2026, and when it gets into the hands of the public, it will be the first LEGO Batman game to release since 2014's LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham. The new trailer showcases more of Batman moving through Gotham City and the many iconic characters he will encounter, such as Catwoman, Robin, Batgirl, and Nightwing.

Additionally, we see some of the special abilities these characters will have, such as Catwoman calling a black cat to take out an enemy, Robin using up-close-and-personal zip lining, and Batgirl hacking a door. Many foes are shown off as well, along with numerous Batmobiles from Batman franchises, such as Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. Combat has even been inspired by Rocksteady's Arkham series as Batman and his compadres engage in a class beat 'em up-style flurries.

Amazon Game Studios and Crystal Dynamics have announced two new Tomb Raider games, and both are coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.

The Game Awards 2025 has closed out and during the presentation we got to see what Crystal Dynamics and Amazon Game Studios have been cooking up behind closed doors. Introducing Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, a new reimagining of the 1996 genre-defining title that will take players to exotic locations lost to time, such as the jungles of Peru, ancient ruins of Greece, the deserts of Egypt, and a mysterious Mediterranean island.

Players will hunt down the scattered pieces of the Scion, an artifact described as having immeasurable power. While doing this, Lara will face off against lethal predators, solve deadly contraptions, and overcome treacherous landscapes.