Gaming

DLSS 5 has been announced, and NVIDIA has confirmed it's on track for a Fall 2026 release. With NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang describing it as a "GPT moment for graphics," it takes in-game data to leverage neural rendering, delivering dramatic improvements in lighting, visual fidelity, and both character and environment detail in real-time.

"Bridging the divide between rendering and reality, DLSS 5 empowers game developers to deliver a new level of photoreal computer graphics previously only achieved in Hollywood visual effects," NVIDIA writes in the announcement. DLSS 5 utilizes a powerful new AI model trained on game objects and graphics, then adds per-pixel effects like realistic path-traced lighting, materials, detailed hair, and 'subsurface scattering on skin' to add an impressive amount of detail.

Developers also have control over the intensity, color grading, and other elements of DLSS 5 to ensure that the art direction, aesthetics, and visual detail are consistent with the game's artistic intent. That said, the announcement has been controversial, with online backlash claiming that some of the results look like AI-generated photo filters and video effects. Either way, it's hard to deny the staggering difference DLSS 5 can make, and with that, here's the list of the first 16 games getting DLSS 5 support.

NVIDIA's surprise DLSS 5 announcement at GTC 2026 has been controversial, with several comments from the wider gaming community and media comparing it to an Instagram-like AI filter that beautifies character models. This reaction mostly stems from one key example showcasing the character Grace in Capcom's Resident Evil Requiem, where there's the impression that DLSS 5 is not only changing the character's look but also adding additional details like makeup.

At its core, DLSS 5 is a game-changer and the first look at the future of in-game visuals, aiming to deliver lifelike, photorealistic lighting. DLSS 5 is powered by a new, powerful AI model (the demos we see are running on two GeForce RTX 5090s) that takes game data, models, geometry, textures, lighting, and more to render a photorealistic frame.

And like other DLSS technologies that use game and frame data, this will apparently ensure that the result is consistent from frame to frame and across different play sessions. In addition, developers have control over the intensity of the effect, color grading, and masking (i.e., choosing which elements in a scene not to apply DLSS 5 to), with NVIDIA confirming that the Resident Evil Requiem footage shown was tuned and approved by Capcom.

"Twenty-five years after NVIDIA invented the programmable shader, we are reinventing computer graphics once again," said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA at GTC. "DLSS 5 is the GPT moment for graphics, blending hand-crafted rendering with generative AI to deliver a dramatic leap in visual realism while preserving the control artists need for creative expression."

NVIDIA's surprise DLSS 5 announcement this week has garnered a wide range of responses from the wider gaming community and media, and it's not hard to see why. The announcement video above, presenting DLSS 5 Off and DLSS 5 On examples in games like Resident Evil Requiem, Hogwarts Legacy, EA SPORTS FC, and Starfield, is jaw-dropping for the difference it makes in lighting, realism, and even detail. Mind-blowing even.

As NVIDIA briefly summarizes, DLSS 5 is a "real-time neural rendering model that infuses pixels with photoreal lighting and materials," taking a game's color and motion vectors as input. From there, developers have access to detailed controls over DLSS 5's intensity, color grading, masking, and more, to "maintain each game's unique aesthetic." As impressively game-changing as it is, and even though DLSS 5 doesn't change things like character models and animation, some of the results can look a little jarring in that Uncanny Valley sort of way.

WB Games Montreal has been hit with layoffs as its parent company prepares to merge with Paramount.

WB Games' Montreal-based studio has made a few layoffs across various fields, affecting devs that have been with the studio for years--including one that has 18 years with the group.

Over on LinkedIn, at least three developers have revealed that they have been let go from positions at WB Games Montreal. This follows a swath of layoffs conducted 8 months or so ago, which seems to be the results of WB management's earlier decisions to scale back its gaming ambitions and focus on four key franchises--Harry Potter, Mortal Kombat, DC, and Game of Thrones. This strategy was led by the prospect of cost savings and reducing spending on higher-risk projects.

Marathon is out, and pulling respectable concurrent numbers on Steam while holding meaningful positions on platform sales charts...but the same can't be said about Destiny 2.

Forbes' Paul Tassi has noticed a trend with Destiny 2's numbers: Bungie's nearly 10-year-old live shooter has lost a lot of its players. How much is a lot? About 90% since the last expansion, Edge of Fate, which was deemed as one of the game's all-time worst updates.

SteamDB's sales charts for the lifetime of the game also revealed some other disappointing news: Destiny 2 is apparently at its lowest point, player-wise, on Steam. The game currently has less than 8,000 users on Steam, and according to the SteamDB, March 2026 represents the lowest point of all time for Destiny 2's player base.

Google's new Genie 3 AI won't be replacing actual game devs any time soon--the technology is still quite limited.

Google's DeepMind team attended GDC 2026 to talk about its experimental (and somewhat controversial) new Genie 3 model. The venue is an interesting choice for Google, especially since generative AI is typically frowned upon in the industry as AI has been seen as a major disruptor that's impacted jobs. Yet the discussion does add critical context to Genie 3, and should assuage investors who see Google's gen AI as a big shake-up for the industry (Google's previous technology, Stadia, was also supposed to shake up gaming...and when it didn't, Google pulled the plug rather quickly).

The reality is that Genie 3's worlds lose their coherence only after a few minutes of play, with glitches and issues quickly popping up. As per GameFile's Stephen Totilo, who attended Google DeepMind's GDC 2026 talk, the Genie 3 game experiences are smooth for the first minute, but essentially fall apart after that.

Analyst firm Newzoo makes notes of new trends among PC gamers, including the skew towards cheaper games at $30 and below.

2025 was an interesting year for gaming that saw many breakout hits, including Clair Obscur, Battlefield 6, and indie sensations like Schedule I and Hollow Knight Silksong. When it comes to PC gaming, though, analyst firm Newzoo finds that users on the industry's most open platform will purchase more copies of cheaper ~$30 games--for a number of reasons.

"Sub-$30 titles are capturing a larger share of PC spending," Newzoo says in its latest games industry report.

Wedbush Securities has confidence that Nintendo's latest hit game is popular enough to convince consumers to buy into the Switch 2 ecosystem.

Nintendo's latest holiday quarter didn't entirely impress in regard to Switch 2 unit sales, but that trend appears to have changed thanks to must-have exclusive software. The latest gaming craze is Pokopia, a new Pokemon spin-off multiplayer builder that has sold 2.2 million copies in just 4 days. The game's success alerted Wall Street, and Nintendo has tacked on an extra $14 billion to its market cap since Pokopia's release.

Thanks to the game's breakout results, and the ongoing buzz and engagement across social media, institutions like Wedbush are taking note of Pokopia's performance. The firm believes that the game could end up being a system-seller for the Switch 2--which certainly appears to be the case as reports of Switch 2 console scarcity are spreading across Twitter and Reddit.

Mega Crit's new CRPG (card RPG) Slay the Spire 2 is a mega success with multi-million sales in its first week--and it's still in early access.

Slay the Spire 2 is gaming's latest craze, and the indie has already sold over 3 million copies in 7 days. The roguelite deckbuilder has attracted millions of players despite it only currently being offered on PC via Steam, so those sales don't even include console users--this shows the game is deeply embedded on PC.

The most important thing to remember is that this is just the start of Slay the Spire 2's story. The game is still in early access and will evolve over time with direct player feedback. The game also amassed more than 570,000 concurrent players on Steam, and in the last 24 hours, the game had over 550K players.

The dispute between Nintendo and the US government involves the tariffs imposed by the Trump Administration, specifically Section 301 of the Trade Act, which raised the cost of thousands of products heading to China, such as video game consoles, accessories, and general electronics.

As you can probably imagine, the newly implemented tariffs raised the cost of hardware entering China and the cost of goods, such as Nintendo products, headed for the United States. Notably, Nintendo isn't the first company to file lawsuits against the US government for the tariffs implemented during the Trump administration. Specifically, Nintendo, along with hundreds of other companies, is suing the US in the Court of International Trade.

So, why was the case automatically paused by the trade court? According to reports, the trade court had already been dealing with many identical tariff lawsuits, with the judge ruling that pending tariff cases would wait until the Supreme Court of the United States ruled on the legality of tariffs, as that decision would trickle down to the trade court's cases.

Microsoft recently unveiled Project Helix, the company's next-generation Xbox console, and said it would be the most powerful console of the generation.

However, according to the tech experts at Digital Foundry, one of the leading sources on information on all things gaming and tech-related, the difference between Project Helix and the PS6 is "not that meaningful". Digital Foundry provided this information in the latest episode of the Digital Foundry Podcast, where they evaluated the leaked specifications of both consoles.

Despite Digital Foundry's comments, renowned leaker Kepler_L2, a renowned leaker in the GPU space, wrote, the difference between the PS6, and Project Helix, will be bigger than the difference between the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. "For Magnus (Project Helix APU) it's ~25% higher TFlops/Tex rate, ~33% higher Front-end BW, Geom rate, Pixel rate plus 140% more LLC and 20% more memory bandwidth," the leaker wrote."

Developers have been on a quest to get the original DOOM game to run on as many devices as it possibly can, including devices you wouldn't even consider if you were asked to guess, such as an pregnancy test, earbuds, keyboard keycaps, and even human brain cells.

Developers who have gotten the original DOOM to run on as many devices as possible have made it a somewhat community-accepted benchmark for testing device capabilities, and now one developer has managed to get it to work on Elgato's Stream Deck+ XL. The Stream Deck+ XL is the latest addition to the growing line of Elgato Stream Decks, and Brent Schooley has revealed in a series of X posts that with a little bit of tweaking of performance, he was able to get Codex to create code that made DOOM playable.

Codex is an AI system developed by OpenAI to write and understand computer code from natural-language prompts. The system can generate code in multiple languages, including Python, C, and JavaScript. Additionally, it can modify existing programs, fix bugs, and build new software features. Schooley wrote on X that each dial can perform movement/action inputs if the user doesn't have a controller, which Schooley demonstrates is compatible in the above video.

Fans of The Lord of the Rings games have been shouting from the top of the Misty Mountains for many years about remakes, re-releases, or even remasters, especially with iconic titles such as The Lord of the Rings War in The North, or the slew of EA produced titles based on the Peter Jackson movies, and, of course, the iconic Battle for Middle-Earth titles.

However, none have been announced or released, with the last LOTR title being The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, and, well, we all know how that one played out. It's safe to say LOTR fans have been in a drought for a new good game based on the beloved world that Tolkien created, but maybe that is just around the corner, as a Reddit user noticed a new listing in the SteamDB database. The user wrote they "accidentally spotted" the listing "Slinky", which is in the "EULAS" section under "name" - The Lord of the Rings: War in the North.

It's possible the SteamDB listing "Slinky" is a codeword for the re-release of this title on Steam, as it was removed from the platform in 2018 along with every other relevant digital storefront, such as Xbox Marketplace and the PlayStation Store. The only way to play it is via a physical disc or an illegal download. It was removed from digital marketplaces over licensing issues with the Tolkien Estate.

A new report has revealed that Xbox is preparing to launch its Gaming Copilot AI on "current-generation consoles," citing a statement by Sonali Yadav, Xbox's product manager for gaming AI, at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2026.

Microsoft's Gaming Copilot AI assistant has been available in a beta version on PC and the ROG Ally since it was released last year. It is officially on its way to Xbox consoles, according to Yadav, who announced the news on a panel at GDC 2026. Presumably, Yadav is talking about the Xbox Series X|S, as those are the "current generation" of Xbox consoles.

For those who don't know exactly what Microsoft's Gaming Copilot AI is, it's essentially an AI "sidekick" that provides real-time help, tips, and recommendations while the player is in-game. If you ask Microsoft, it describes Gaming Copilot AI as a personalized gaming companion that assists players in real time with gameplay, game discovery, and account management. An example of a player prompting the AI sidekick would be, "How do I beat this boss?"

Nintendo's new Pokemon spin-off game is a surprise mega-hit, selling over 2 million copies in less than a week. Investors have taken notice, and Nintendo's shares have surged enough to add billions of dollars to the company's market cap.

Nintendo's latest Pokemon game isn't a traditional release, but that didn't stop it from selling millions of copies. Pokopia is a big success for Nintendo, moving 2.2 million copies in just 4 days and sparking tons of new buzz around the Switch 2.

The game's unexpected sales results, coupled with the ongoing acclaim among fans, have caused Nintendo's share prices to surge, with Bloomberg noting that Nintendo has added $14 billion to the game-maker's market capitalization.

Despite launching in 2013, GTA 5 remains one of the most played games on PC, particularly its online component. For competitive players who take GTA Online seriously, high framerates aren't just nice to have. They're essential for responsive gunplay, smooth driving, and maintaining advantage in PvP encounters. Many serious players maintain multiple GTA accounts to test different optimization configurations and hardware setups without disrupting their main progression. The good news? You don't need a flagship GPU to hit 144 FPS. With proper optimization, mid-range hardware can deliver the performance serious players demand.

GTA 5 scales remarkably well across hardware generations. The game was designed during the Xbox 360 era, but has received continuous updates, optimizing it for modern systems. This means a balanced approach to settings yields better results than simply cranking everything to ultra.

The engine is more CPU-dependent than most modern titles, particularly in GTA Online, where player count, traffic density, and network synchronization tax your processor heavily. A Ryzen 5 5600 or Intel i5-12400 paired with an RTX 3060 or RX 6600 XT represents the sweet spot for 1080p 144 FPS gaming without breaking the bank.

Epic Games management reiterates that the V-Buck price increase is a result of Fortnite's rising costs, and assures fans that big investments are being made into new content updates and cosmetic bundles.

Epic is raising the prices of Fortnite's V-Bucks digital currency, effectively reducing the conversion rates for real-world money. As a result, gamers will soon pay the same amount of money to receive fewer V-Bucks (aka shrinkflation). Predictably, this move hasn't been popular, especially with key context points like the fact that Fortnite has made over $20 billion in revenue since 2017--which is more than some companies have made with decades' old franchises.

At GDC 2026, The Verge caught up with two Epic executives to ask about the price hike. The first, a director centered around Fortnite's growth named Andrew Balta, said that the decision was purely cost-oriented.

One of the creators of the iconic, cult-classic title, The Simpsons' Hit & Run, has said in an interview with People.com, never rule out the possibility of a remake, because "we know people love it".

The Simpsons Hit & Run was released in 2003, and once it was in gamers' hands, it quickly became a classic on the platforms it was released on: PS2, Xbox, GameCube, and PC. For those who didn't play it or are too young to have enjoyed it, it was essentially a G-rated version of Grand Theft Auto 3, set in Springfield, and players could explore the town and its people, meeting various Simpsons characters.

It was a semi-open map featuring many locations from the TV show, including the Nuclear Power Plant, Kwik-E-Mart, Moe's Tavern, and Evergreen Terrace. There were also numerous missions, such as delivering items under a time limit, chasing characters, escaping the police, and destroying objects. It was truly a blast for its time, especially if you were a Simpsons fan, and now The Simpsons Hit & Run writer, Matt Selman, has said in an interview, "never say never" at the idea of the title being revived.

The hope that the rumored Witcher 3 DLC is true has taken a bit of a hit after CD Projekt Red confirmed it has no "secret new DLC" for Cyberpunk 2077.

The rumors about a new Witcher 3 DLC have been swirling for quite some time, and CD Projekt Red hasn't responded to any of them, only leading to more speculation. The current rumors indicate the DLC will take players to an expansion of a region they are already familiar with, Velen, and that the new DLC aims to bridge the story gap between The Witcher 3 and the upcoming Witcher 4.

Industry insider NateTheHate wrote that the rumored DLC does exist, and a former Gry-Online journalist who reportedly has connections within the Polish gaming industry said during a livestream in February that the DLC exists, and the region is Velen, and not the Zerrikania region, which was previously rumored.

In a recent lengthy interview with podcaster Lex Fridman, former Blizzard developer Jeff Kaplan discussed his breaking point at the company, and how he was expected to make a specific amount of money with Overwatch or else 1,000 employees would be let go.

Kaplan was once one of the most recognizable faces of Blizzard Entertainment, originally hired as a World of Warcraft quest designer after sharing analytical posts about MMO design. Kaplan is now credited with shaping many of World of Warcraft's iconic original quests and its progression systems. Kaplan rose to become the game director for Blizzard's new MMO Titan, which was internally cancelled in 2013, and was instead tasked with creating a new title based on some of Titan's ideas. That game became Overwatch.

Overwatch launched in 2016 and won Game of the Year at the Game Awards in 2016. The title attracted tens of millions of players globally, and Kaplan was at the forefront, engaging with the community through developer updates and on social media. However, in 2021, Kaplan unexpectedly left Blizzard after nearly two decades at the company, and since Blizzard didn't provide an explanation for his departure, the reason remained a matter of speculation.