Gaming

Diablo 4's second major expansion, Lord of Hatred, is out April 28, and it's a big one. With two new classes (Paladin and Warlock), a brand-new zone, expanded endgame, level-cap increase, revamped and expanded skill trees, in-depth crafting, and more, it's shaping up to be the most transformative and meaningful post-launch update to the game so far, and it's right around the corner.

However, the current version of the game is set to include one final mini-season, the Season of Slaughter, which kicks off next week on March 11. And it's one where you can clearly see the team at Blizzard having a bit of fun before Lord of Hatred starts a new chapter for the game, with one of the highlights being that it includes a new mechanic that lets players transform into the iconic Butcher to slay demons.

When transformed into The Butcher, a demonic boss that made its first appearance in the very first Diablo game, you'll have a new set of skills and abilities: Carve, Culling, Molten Slam, Hail of Hooks, Hell Charge, and Furnace Blast. For anyone who has faced The Butcher in Diablo 4, Diablo 3, or even the original, these are all self-explanatory.

NVIDIA's GeForce NOW cloud gaming library continues to grow with 15 more titles headed to the service in March, leading up to the highly anticipated release of Pearl Abyss' Crimson Desert. The new open-world action-adventure has been garnering a lot of attention this year, and it's joined by a very different kind of action game on March 12 with the release of John Carpenter's Toxic Commando.

NVIDIA confirms that Toxic Commando will arrive 'GeForce RTX 5080-ready,' meaning that it'll be available to play for premium subscribers on the latest RTX Blackwell pods with full DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation support. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Crimson Desert will be 'GeForce RTX 5080-ready' on day-one, but it will still benefit from DLSS 4 technologies running on current RTX 4080 pods.

With eight new additions to the library this week and seven more titles announced as headed to GeForce NOW for the rest of March, here's the full breakdown of what's coming.

Microsoft's incoming next-gen Xbox is codenamed Project Helix, and will play both Xbox and PC games, Xbox's new CEO Asha Sharma has officially confirmed.

The new Xbox hardware will indeed play both PC and console games, as per reports. Specifics are unclear outside of this confirmation, however fans now have a better understanding on what to expect from Xbox in the future.

"Great start to the morning with Team Xbox, where we talked about our commitment to the return of Xbox including Project Helix, the code name for our next generation console. Project Helix will lead in performance and play your Xbox and PC games. Looking forward to chatting about this more with partners and studios at my first GDC next week!"

One of the co-founders of Infinity Ward and creators of Call of Duty has said Activision put "very awkward pressure" on the studio to make a Call of Duty game about Iran attacking Israel.

After the official X account for the White House included a Call of Duty clip in a promotional video that included footage of real-world military bombings, which included killstreak points similar to those seen in Call of Duty, Chance Glasco, one of the creators of the Call of Duty franchise responded in an X post, saying, "This doesn't surprise me. I remember after Activision took over post-Respawn formation there was a very awkward pressure from Activision for us to make the next CoD about Iran attacking Israel."

"Luckily the vast majority of our devs were disgusted by the idea and it got shot down." In another post Glasco wrote, "A lot of us devs were appalled because it felt like political propaganda being pushed by Activision." Additionally, Glasco explained that his main gripe is the government using video games as a way to sway public opinion, and that throughout his time at Infinity Ward helping design the story choices none of the decisions made were motivated by the desire to create propaganda about real-world conflicts.

ASUS ROG, or Republic of Gamers, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, during which the brand has become synonymous with high-end PC gaming and performance hardware. With ROG gaming laptops, displays, graphics cards, motherboards, cases, and even peripherals like keyboards, mice, and headsets, if there's a piece of PC gaming gear, odds are there's an ASUS ROG product right there.

Over the years, we've reviewed a large range of ROG gear, and for me personally, that's included a number of graphics cards and peripherals. And for the most part, it's now gotten to the point where you can expect a certain level of quality when picking up something with the Republic of Gamers name. Whether that's build quality, thermal performance, or delivering a premium keyboard experience unlike any other.

To celebrate the milestone, ASUS is currently running an ROG Mega Fan Contest, asking fans to share their favorite ROG moments by submitting Dare-to-ROG videos and stories. With over $20,000 USD in prizes, the Top 2 Winners will win a "once-in-a-lifetime experience."

Bandai Namco has taken to its social media channels to tease an upcoming announcement for a new RPG title it will be publishing, and right now everything remains quite a mystery.

The publisher shared a few screenshots and a link to an upcoming premiere where it will be showcasing the title. The YouTube premiere is scheduled to take place on March 5, 2026 at 15:00 PST / 18:00 EST / March 6, 2025 00:00 CET. The YouTube premiere contains a very short teaser that shows a luscious forest landscape that then cuts to an individual walking with a sword and shield. However, we don't see the face of the individual, as the shot is from their back.

There are more clues in the description of social media posts, and the description of the YouTube video. Bandai Namco writes, "A serenity soon to be disturbed." In the X post the publisher writes, "What lies beyond the canyon and hidden within this cave? Only you can find out..."

Third time's the charm? Well, that might be the case for those looking to play Resident Evil Requiem on PC with a modern GeForce RTX graphics card. The good news here is that the latest fix doesn't require users to do anything other than potentially reboot their system for the over-the-air (OTA) fix to be applied. The issue? Some gamers with GeForce RTX cards, mostly from the RTX 40 Series, have reported performance issues in the game after installing the latest GeForce Game Ready Driver.

NVIDIA's GeForce Game Ready Driver 595.71 WHQL, released earlier this week, was intended to deliver day-one-optimized support for Resident Evil Requiem. This driver release, which replaced the original version pulled for causing an unintended bug that could cause a GPU's fans to stop spinning, is the second attempt to deliver a Game Ready Driver for Capcom's latest Resident Evil.

However, since its release, we've seen several reports of slower in-game performance compared to running the game on older GeForce Game Ready Drivers. Earlier today, NVIDIA's Sean Pelletier took to social media to confirm that his team had pushed an 'OTA profile update' for the GeForce Game Ready Driver 595.71, which resolved the issue.

Following the failure of MindsEye, the executives at the studio behind the project began blaming the collapse of the title on corporate sabotage, and now the CEO of the developer has said they have "overwhelming evidence" to prove it.

The developer of MindsEye, Build a Rocket Boy, faced immediate layoffs after the launch of the title was met with heavy criticism from players, who cited numerous gameplay-related bugs, graphical glitches, and a general sense of an unfinished product. Shortly after the launch, Build a Rocket Boy employees took to social media to say they are facing redundancy as the studio is going to be hit with sweeping layoffs.

Amidst the fallout of MindsEye, founder of the studio Leslie Benzies said the title's poor reception was "uncalled for" and alleged that "external and internal forces" influenced the launch. Additionally, Benzies said an investigation would be launched into locating the "saboteurs" within the company, and now according to Build a Rocket Boy CEO Mark Gerhard, that investigation has yielded enough evidence that legal action is being pursued.

More than half of Capcom's 9-month game sales were made on PC, and the publisher reiterates its annual target of 54 million game sales for the entire fiscal year.

Capcom is one of the most interesting video game companies that has successfully made a digital-first transition. The company now makes 94% of its earnings from digital across PC and console. Digital is a potent gateway because it allows Capcom to make strategic discounts on its back catalog games, with titles dropping below the $20 mark (and sometimes lower). As a result, Capcom has been able to consistently rack up tens of millions of game sales per year.

This trend is continuing into FY25, where Capcom has now made most of its digital game sales on PC. The latest earnings results reveal that over the first 9 months of FY25, PC sales account for 55% of total game purchases throughout the period, and a whopping 58% of digital game sales.

Mobile titan Supercell reveals key details about its agreements with Tencent as the United States probes the Chinese company's dealings in the video game industry.

The US is taking aim at Chinese entertainment giant Tencent, and is seeking specific details on the myriad of minority and majority stakes in the gaming market. The pretext for the scrutiny is national security, as was the case with ByteDance's ownership of TikTok (which has since been spun out as a joint venture).

As we've covered multiple times on TweakTown, Tencent is one of the biggest video game groups in the world, having achieved this feat through a multitude of carefully-curated investments. Tencent has varying stakes and ownerships in some of gaming's largest players, including Epic Games (28%)--whose game is routinely in the top 5 best-earning video games on an annual basis for multiple years running--as well as Clash of Clans creator Supercell (majority ownership), and Riot Games (full ownership).

Ubisoft has a bunch of new Assassin's Creed games in the works, including announced games like Hexe and Invictus, as well as multiple unannounced projects that are deeper in the pipeline.

Now that Ubisoft has restructured its business, the publisher is ready to highlight what's next for its prestige, billion-dollar Assassin's Creed brand. The publisher indicates that 2026 is shaping up to be a strong year for the franchise, with in-development games like the sinister, witch-themed Assassin's Creed Hexe progressing well.

Hexe, which was actually revealed years ago during a big franchise update, will be a "unique, darker, narrative-driven Assassin's Creed experience, set during a pivotal moment in history." It's unclear whether or not this game will launch in 2026, but it's implied that Ubisoft is targeting a release this year for Hexe.

Bungie highlights the post-release seasonal content model for its new extraction shooter Marathon, giving players an idea of what to expect when the game drops tomorrow on March 5.

Marathon will be here soon, and as the first new game since Sony's $3.7 billion acquisition of the developer, the $40 live shooter could be a make-or-break moment for the studio. Gamers are willing to bite, eager for more innovation in the extraction shooter space, and Bungie has outlined some of the ways that Marathon will set itself apart from games like Arc Raiders.

For one, Marathon will have forced seasonal wipes, meaning players can't keep the gear they've unlocked by playing. Paid and earned cosmetics will stay, though, as will player milestones. Contract progression will also remain intact so that gamers won't have to unlock the factions over again with each new season. The seasons in Marathon will be free and will last "about three months," Bungie says, so that's about 4 seasons per year if everything goes according to plan.

The Paramount-Warner Bros merger could interrupt WB Games, leading to project cancellations, studio closures, and other disruptions in the interactive entertainment unit.

Now that Netflix has backed out of the bidding war, Paramount has all but secured its purchase of Warner Bros studios and content business, pending regulatory approval. New reports indicate that Paramount could make substantial multi-billion dollar cuts to Warner Bros in a bid to improve profitability. The cuts could be spread across the entire company, including WB Games, leading to even more layoffs and turbulence for creatives.

In arecent interview with Bloomberg, Netflix's co-CEO Ted Sarandos says that Paramount could make up to $16 billion in cuts in order to navigate the high debt incurred from the merger buyout. While speculative, Sarandos' words do ring with some truth, as companies typically make big reorganizational efforts following a merger.

Sony will stop releasing its new first-party singleplayer games on PC, sources tell Bloomberg's Jason Schreier.

With Microsoft's rumored Xbox PC on the horizon, Sony is moving back towards exclusives. New reports indicate that Sony has changed its mind on releasing key first-party singleplayer games on Steam. Some current and all future singleplayer games will remain exclusive to PlayStation, including the already-released Ghost of Yotei and Housemarque's upcoming gaming Saros. Live service games will remain cross-platform.

Interestingly enough, this may not be a permanent shift away from PC. Sources say that Sony's plans are in flux and change often. While Sony has had success selling its games on PC, generating over $2.3 billion in sales from games sold on non-PlayStation platforms (including Xbox) since 2019, but this growth may not be fast or substantial enough to offset the potential impact risks to the PlayStation brand.

A renowned Call of Duty leaker "TheGhostOfHope," who had an extremely solid track record for leaking internal information about upcoming Call of Duty-related changes and additions has been legally silenced by Activision, and they said they will be complying with the demands.

Activision has sent a Cease and Desist letter to TheGhostOfHope and legally demanded they stop leaking and disseminating confidential information about Call of Duty and Activision. TheGhostOfHope revealed the news in a recent X post where he said he will still be sticking around to chat Call of Duty on X, and went on to thank everyone for the support over the past several years.

The official Call of Duty X account replied to comment suggesting that because TheGhostOfHope was sent a Cease and Desist letter does it then imply he was correct about the leaks, the official Call of Duty X account responded, "Nah. Even when leaks are wrong, they still hurt the people building the game and mess with player expectations." For those unaware, TheGhostOfHope's latest leaks were the 2026 Call of Duty game being called "Modern Warfare 4", and the campaign will be heavily set in both North and South Korea.

Current rumors point to Sony internally deciding to roll back the number of PC ports for PlayStation games, and now Mike Ybarra, the former President of Blizzard Entertainment, has shed more light on the rumors and provided a perspective on why Sony would make such a decision, if true.

Ybarra pointed to the Steam Machine as a big reason Sony would pull back on PC releases, and to the recent fiasco at Microsoft as the "last nail in the coffin there". Why would these two factors result in fewer PlayStation PC ports? The Steam Machine will run SteamOS, which means it will have direct access to Steam's extensive library of games. Valve's catalogue of games is a significant threat to both Sony and Xbox, with Ybarra writing that Valve is being viewed as a "major new competitor" in the space.

Additionally, the former Blizzard President said Valve is likely to enter the living room and console markets with a Steam Machine, along with 3rd-party variants and different hardware configurations all running SteamOS. Valve currently has the largest gaming platform, with nearly 150 million monthly users, exceeding both Sony and Xbox, and is now entering the console market with a console likely to arrive in variants ranging from $500 to $5000.

A new report reveals that President Trump is currently deciding whether to allow Tencent to maintain its stakes in US-based video game companies ahead of his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The ban on Tencent in US gaming-related companies, along with Finnish gaming firms, is due to potential national security risks, as Tencent is directly connected to the Chinese government. According to a Reuters report, top officials have held internal meetings to investigate whether Tencent's investments in US-based companies pose a national security risk.

Notably, a meeting with several cabinet officials was scheduled for Tuesday but postponed due to scheduling issues. For those who don't know, Tencent currently holds stakes in several major game companies, including Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, and Riot, the creator of League of Legends. There is also its $8.6 billion stake in Supercell, the Finnish mobile game maker behind Clash of Clans.

The hope for Fallout New Vegas and Fallout 3 remakes in the same fashion as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion began when Iron Galaxy Studios shared an image of an internal presentation, and the slide open on a computer screen was the iconic Please Stand By loading image from Fallout.

The image also featured the caption, "Today's our February company meeting. It's time to catch up with what the company's been up to and what's coming up next for IG [Iron Galaxy]." That caption plus the image resulted in the Fallout community taking what seemed to be a big hint at something Fallout related happening at Iron Galaxy, and the leap to that being a remake was relatively easy to make considering Iron Galaxy assisted in the port of Skyrim to the Nintendo Switch, and the development of Fallout 76, and The Elder Scrolls Online.

However, Iron Galaxy isn't working on anything Fallout related, as the company has cleared up the speculation in a recent X post where the studio responded to an article saying Iron Galaxy was teasing something Fallout related being in the works, "Nope! There is nothing to see here. Sorry to disturb the volcanoes, but that was just a BTS look at our company meeting. We use that slide every month and has nothing to do with anything Fallout being worked on. As you can imagine, we love Fallout, too. Now pardon us as we retreat back into our vault."

Following the shutdown of Bluepoint Games, many fans felt the wind had been knocked out of the sails for a Bloodborne remake being in the works, which was then followed by a swift kick while we were down, as it was revealed Bluepoint pitched a Bloodborne remake to FromSoftware, but FromSoftware said no.

Previous reporting claimed that Sony even approved a remake of Bloodborne, but out of respect to the creator of the game, Hidetaka Miyazaki, and his wishes, they didn't approve of its creation. It was revealed that Miyazaki didn't want anyone else to touch Bloodborne as that game holds a special place in his heart, and that if a remake were to happen, it would be handled by him.

Despite Sony owning the rights to Bloodborne, and could have technically gone ahead with a remake without Miyazaki's involvement, Sony decided to shelve the idea until FromSoftware is ready. Now, Brandon Sheffield has posted on BlueSky with insider details, such as FromSoftware receiving more than 10 pitches for a Bloodborne remake, sequel, or spinoff, which were all rejected.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach from Kojima Productions and legendary game designer Hideo Kojima is finally making its way to PC on March 19. With support for uncapped frame rates, customizable graphics settings, 21:9 and 32:9 ultrawide resolutions, and more, GeForce RTX gamers will also benefit from DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation support to enhance performance and smoothness.

And when it comes to DLSS, NVIDIA has confirmed that on day one, GeForce RTX owners will be able to enable DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution via the override feature in the NVIDIA App. Announced and launched earlier this year, DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution introduces a second-generation advanced transformer model for AI-powered upscaling, delivering a notable, dramatic improvement in image quality.

DLSS 4.5 is a game-changer in its own right, as using the DLSS 4.5 'Performance' or 'Balanced' mode in 4K, which upscales from around 1080p, can often deliver a sharper and more detailed image than native rendering. This will be a part of the Death Stranding 2: On the Beach GeForce Game Ready Driver that is set to arrive ahead of the game's March 19 debut.