Gaming

It's increasingly looking likely that Xbox Cloud Gaming, which is currently the cloud streaming portion of Microsoft's Game Pass service, will be getting an ad-supported tier sometime this year. This has been rumored for a while; however, the release appears imminent, as players are already seeing evidence of it while using the service.

As spotted by Windows Central and The Verge's Tom Warren, the Xbox Cloud Gaming launcher now displays the text "1 hour of ad-supported playtime per session," which references an ad-supported tier that doesn't exist. The message is an error; it's being reported that this ad-supported tier will be a session-based option for non-Game Pass subscribers who have purchased digital Xbox games that are available in the Xbox Cloud Gaming library.

This new feature is expected sometime later this year and is seen as a potential solution to the growing uncertainty surrounding gaming hardware amid the current DRAM crisis. Xbox Cloud Gaming and NVIDIA's GeForce NOW streaming services let players jump into hundreds of games, including the latest titles, without dedicated PC or console hardware.

Rockstar Games is on the final stretch of development for Grand Theft Auto 6, and despite its delays, the subject of Grand Theft Auto 7 has already popped up.

In a recent interview with Esports Bets, former Rockstar Games and Grand Theft Auto 5 animator Mike York said that it's typical of major gaming companies to have two games being developed simultaneously, and suggested that Rockstar might have already begun developing either Grand Theft Auto 7 or Red Dead Redemption 3.

York went on to explain that once a project is nearing completion gaming companies begin the leg work for their next project, with the former animator going on to say, "That's probably what is happening now at Rockstar; GTA VI is nearing the end of its production, so I would be shocked if they hadn't already started working on RDR3."

Valve has updated its guidelines for developers publishing on the popular PC platform, specifically addressing AI disclosure and requiring developers to notify gamers if AI was used throughout development.

The changes were spotted by Simon Carless, the founder of GameDiscoverCo, which he outlined in a new report. According to Valve, developers aren't required to publish an AI disclaimer if AI-powered tools were used to help create the game. This is specifically in relation to code-aiding software. However, when it comes to generative AI, Valve requires developers to provide a disclaimer if generative AI was used to generate content for the game.

This requirement also covers any marketing material for the game and the Steam landing page for the title. Additionally, Valve requires developers to add a disclaimer if the title has "AI content generated during gameplay," which covers "images, audio, text, and other content." Ultimately, it will be up to the players to determine if AI content disclaimers are warranted or not, especially considering the ubiquitous nature of AI-powered tools assisting all kinds of software engineers, not just game developers.

Nintendo and Sony are currently working on a live-action The Legend of Zelda movie that is slated to launch on March 26, 2027, and now we have learned that after its theatrical run, it will make its way over to Netflix.

The movie is being directed by Wes Ball and will star Bo Bragason as Princess Zelda and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth as Link. The decision to make a Legend of Zelda movie comes after the billion-dollar success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and at the end of last year, Nintendo released the first screenshots for the upcoming project, confirming the two aforementioned actors.

In a recent press release, Netflix confirmed that it will have the exclusive streaming rights to The Legend of Zelda Movie following its theatrical run. The screenshots that were released in November last year showcased both Link and Zelda in what appears to be the Hyrule fields.

CD Projekt Red gained its renown following the incredible release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in 2016, with the game going on to sell millions of copies around the world, spawn a Netflix TV show, and put CD Projekt Red on the map as one of the best development studios working today.

The monumental success of The Witcher 3 made fans fall in love with the world, and after completing the third installment in the franchise, many have gone back to play the second and first games. Now, CD Projekt Red's CEO Michal Nowakowski has revealed the sales figures for the entire Witcher franchise in a list of the most popular Polish video games.

Unsurprisingly, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has taken first place at 60 million units sold, followed by Cyberpunk 2077 at 35 million and Dying Light at 20 million. As for the first and second Witcher games, the Witcher 2 has sold 15 million units, and the first Witcher game has sold 10 million. According to Nowakowski, both the first and second Witcher games are still selling.

A new report claims the upcoming God of War TV show has secured another actor to play Thor's wife, Sif/Phoebe.

The upcoming TV show based on the popular game franchise from Sony and Santa Monica Studios, "God of War," recently confirmed Sons of Anarchy's Ryan Hurst as the actor who will play Kratos, and now a new report from Deadline has claimed Teresa Palmer will step into the shoes of Sif. Notably, Amazon has declined to comment on the rumor.

Palmer is known for her work in the movies The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Lights Out, Warm Bodies, and The Fall Guy. As for the other characters, a report from last month claimed Max Parker from Boots was in discussions to play Baldur, and Olafur Darri Olafsson from Severance is slated to play Thor. These reports have fans speculating as to what game the God of War TV show will be recreating, as Thor and his wife are only in God of War: Ragnarok.

The PlayStation 5 released right in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic on November 12, 2020, making it quite difficult to get consoles into the hands of hungry gamers. Since then, Sony has released many first-party titles, but perhaps not as many as you would expect, especially compared to the esteemed PlayStation 2.

A trending X post has highlighted there have only been sixteen true PS5-exclusive titles, and that the PS2 had more than 500. With the lifecycle of the PS5 coming to an end, and the PS6 being on the horizon, the difference between the PS5 and PS2 when it comes to exclusive games highlights the shift in the gaming market for multiplatform releases. It should be noted the PS5 has more than 1,000 native titles, and thousands of PS4 games through backwards compatibility, but only a limited number of them are available exclusively on PS5.

The statement "sixteen true PS5-exclusive titles" does come with some caveats, such as many exclusivity periods expiring and the title being ported over to PC. Spider-Man 2 and God of War Ragnarök are two examples of that caveat, and therefore they have been excluded from the "true exclusive" list. Games such as Astro Bot and Astro's Playroom are counted as true exclusives as they are currently only available on PS5.

Microsoft says that Black Ops 6 was the "biggest Call of Duty release ever," but that success apparently has not been replicated for Black Ops 7.

While Microsoft has yet to confirm specifics (it probably won't), multiple reports indicate that Call of Duty is on a downslide. The $35 billion franchise was once a prestige brand that sold tens of millions of games per year and generated billions from microtransactions. That's all changed now that Microsoft is in control. Call of Duty games launch into Game Pass, which could negatively impact sales.

That's apparently what's happening, at least according to former Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, who is currently involved in a class action lawsuit surrounding the Microsoft-Activision merger (Sjunde Ap-Fonden v. Activision Blizzard et al. Case No. 2022-1001-KSJM). According to Game File, a new document filed by Kotick and his legal team asserts that Call of Duty sales are down by 60% in 2025.

If the latest PlayStation download results are anything to go by, Electronic Arts could be set to deliver a record-breaking year for game sales.

EA was on a roll in 2025, at least on PlayStation. The publisher delivered multiple hits with both Madden and College Football hitting the sales charts running, as well as DICE's big comeback with Battlefield 6, which managed to sell 7 million copies in just 3 days time (up to an estimated 20 million).

Sony's annual list of top PlayStation Store game downloads adds even more evidence of EA's outperformance. According to the results, EA had 5 games on the top 20 most-downloaded PS5 games of 2025, tying with Microsoft, who also had 5 games on the list. Yet it's not just the quantity, but the positioning that matters here: in the US, EA had 3 out of the top 5 most-downloaded games on the PS Store. Microsoft, however, had no games in the top 5, and only 2 games in the top 10.

Call of Duty has not appeared in the PlayStation Store's top 5 downloads of the year, breaking a long-running franchise streak going back at least 10 years.

More evidence of Black Ops 7 potentially missing the mark has surfaced, this time indirectly from Microsoft's symbiotic rival. Sony recently published the top 20 most-downloaded games on PlayStation platforms, revealing what could be disappointing results for Activision. For the first time in 10 years, Call of Duty has been knocked out of the PlayStation Store's top 5 most-downloaded games.

The list shows that Call of Duty Black Ops 7 was #7 on the top PS Store downloads list both in North America and Europe. Based on the lists that Sony publishes every year on the PS Blog, the Call of Duty franchise has shown up in the top 5 downloads every year since 2015, with the exception of last year. In 2025, Battlefield 6 was #2 on the US download charts, handily beating Black Ops 7, whereas Europe gravitated towards Forza Horizon 5 and EA Sports FC25.

Another high-profile creative has left Ubisoft as the company faces financial and logistical challenges.

Ubisoft isn't in the best place right now. The publisher was just hit with a massive hack on Rainbow Six Siege, its prestige microtransaction revenue driver, and the company is also restructuring its business as part of a big deal with Tencent. Now Ubisoft has taken yet another blow, this time to its creative teams.

Today, Ubisoft revealed that Julian Gerighty is leaving the group after 15 years. "We want to share that Julian Gerighty, executive producer on the Tom Clancy's The Division franchise, is heading off to a new adventure at Battlefield Studios. While we'll miss him, his mark will live on at Massive and we'll continue to bring the world he's been part of creative to our players for years to come," Ubisoft wrote in an announcement.

Although its release is still a few months out, IO Interactive's 007 First Light was showcased at CES 2026 as part of NVIDIA's GeForce RTX announcements, and we got our first look at the game's PC system requirements. Where, in addition to 1080p 60 FPS being listed under the 'Recommended' header, the VRAM and RAM requirements left many confused.

In a follow-up post on social media, the developers have updated and amended the PC system requirements. "We are providing today an update to the PC system requirements for 007 First Light after the community flagged some inconsistencies in an earlier version of the listing," the post reads, "The earlier mistake was due to an internal miscommunication leading to an older version of the specs to be shared."

And with that, the big difference here is that the overall system memory requirement has been lowered from 32GB to 16GB, with the VRAM requirements for the 'Minimum' and 'Recommended' specs also dropping to 6GB and 8GB, respectively.

After deliberating with several companies, Apple has selected Google to provide the new "brain" for Apple's next-generation Siri slated to be released sometime in 2026.

Apple is incredibly far behind its competition when it comes to providing useful AI-powered software features across its range of products, with the company even failing to fulfill its promise to release a next-generation Siri capable of integrating throughout all of Apple's native applications. Apple even quietly removed an advertisement for the upgraded Siri that featured Game of Thrones and The Last of Us star Bella Ramsey.

Why is Apple so far behind in producing a competitive in-house AI model? Several technical difficulties, combined with the product not meeting Apple's exceptionally high standards for uniformity across its range of other products and services, are contributing factors. Apple has recognized that it's significantly behind the competition, such as Google's Gemini, OpenAI's ChatGPT, and Anthropic, and in June 2024 the company announced it was integrating ChatGPT for any prompts that couldn't be completed by Apple's on-device AI model.

Over on social media, an account named XBOX INFINITE posted an alleged screenshot from Forza Horizon 5 that includes pre-order details for Forza Horizon 6, ahead of its big Xbox Developer Direct presentation next week. Apparently, the pop-up appeared in-game, and the pre-order information included the game's release date.

Sources close to gaming publication VGC and tech outlet The Verge have apparently confirmed the release date or release window for the game as seen here as accurate, even though this appears to be the only recorded instance of a Forza Horizon 5 player being shown this Forza Horizon 6 pre-order pop-up. The release date is May 19, 2026, with Early Access available on May 15 for Premium Edition buyers.

This date applies to the Xbox Series X|S and PC versions of the game, as Microsoft has previously confirmed that the PS5 version will arrive at a later date. Forza Horizon 6 is the highly anticipated new open-world racing game from Xbox and Playground Games, with this latest installment shifting the racing action to Japan.

The current DRAM crisis is affecting all aspects of the PC industry, and right now, the rising cost of components like DDR5 memory is making the prospect of building a new rig or upgrading out of the question for many. And with GPU prices expected to rise in the coming months, there's a sense that PC gamers are going to have to make do with what they've got or can pick up for a reasonable price.

Yesterday, we reported on a rumor that NVIDIA would focus on delivering more 8GB GPUs, such as the GeForce RTX 5060 and RTX 5060 Ti, to the market this year. The big concern here is that 8GB will remain a bottleneck for gaming with higher graphics settings; however, the arrival of RTX Neural Texture Compression could be the relief the VRAM-constrained PC gaming market needs.

Part of NVIDIA's RTX Neural Shaders SDK for developers, the RTX Neural Texture Compression SDK leverages AI to "significantly" compress textures while maintaining image quality. And the latest 0.9 update from NVIDIA has sped up encoding by a factor of 6X, while reducing latency and saving up to 7X the memory footprint allocated for high-resolution textures.

Announced at CES 2026 and immediately made available as part of a Beta branch of the NVIDIA App, DLSS 4.5 has quickly exited its preview phase and is now available for all GeForce RTX gamers with the latest NVIDIA App update. DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution includes a second-generation Transformer model, five times as powerful as DLSS 4, that delivers notable improvements to lighting, motion clarity, and image detail.

NVIDIA notes that the app's DLSS Override mode has been updated with a new 'Recommended' setting that overrides Preset M with DLSS 4.5 Performance mode, and Preset L changes to DLSS Ultra Performance mode for 4K gaming. Due to the performance hit from using the newer, more complex model, NVIDIA notes that both the older and newer Transformer models are supported in both Quality and Balanced modes.

Although available for GeForce RTX 20 and RTX 30 Series graphics cards, DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution has "a heavier performance impact for these GPUs" due to the lack of native FP8 support. Although it's great to see this level of detail and control over which DLSS models to use for Super Resolution, there is a sense that the complexity will mean users will need to experiment to find the right balance between image quality and performance.

PS5 Pro owners, set your phasers to stun - as in a renewed and hopefully stunning level of image quality - because the next-gen version of PSSR is set to land in the next couple of months according to a new rumor.

As Wccftech spotted, the latest chatter on the subject of PSSR2 comes from Gust_FAN on X, who posted to say that the "update will be available between January and March".

In other words, Q1 2026, and this marries with what we've previously heard from another source, YouTuber Moore's Law is Dead. Gust_FAN is a Japanese insider and a generally reliable source with something of a track record, as Wccftech points out, and the same holds true for Moore's Law is Dead (at least in my book, although not everyone agrees on Reddit, ahem).

Rockstar Games may be testing a 32-player mode for GTA 6's online component, new court documents reveal.

The first details of GTA 6's online mode may have been inadvertently revealed as part of an ongoing court case. Rockstar North recently fired multiple employees for allegedly divulging information in a Discord chat room. The employees brought the matter before the courts, and it appears some of what was said by the fired employees has been revealed.

According to the court documents, which were viewed by People Make Games, one fired Rockstar employee had mentioned doing a playtest session of 32 players in the Discord. channel. The developer said: "Absolutely no idea, they mentioned the large session we did today 'being difficult to do' but that was 32 players, not sure how that was difficult."

The president of Nintendo, Shuntaro Furukawa, has been questioned on the RAM pricing crisis and how that might affect the Switch 2 - and the swift answer is it won't, at least for the time being.

Furukawa was interviewed by Kyoto Shimbun, a daily newspaper in Japan (Kyoto, as you might guess) on a range of topics related to Nintendo, in a paywalled article translated by VGC (as flagged by TechRadar).

The Nintendo president was asked about the challenges posed by the lower profit margin on the Switch 2 compared to its predecessor, and noted that these things depend on "component procurement conditions" as well as the impact of global currency fluctuations and tariffs.

Call of Duty could be available on the Nintendo Switch 2 sooner than gamers had hoped, and it might debut on the handheld imminently based on a fresh rumor.

We know that Call of Duty is inbound for the portable, the main question is the timeframe, and apparently it's closer to hand than expected based on some fresh revelations courtesy of data mining.

As Eurogamer reports, Reality posted on X (see above) to say that the game is imminent for the Switch 2, and should be part of the next round of Nintendo announcements.