Gaming - Page 128

2001's Halo Combat Evolved is reportedly getting a remake, but it may not have any sort of multiplayer mode.

A bit ago, 343 Industries rebranded as Halo Studios, shut down the Slipspace Engine project, and confirmed multiple new Halo games were in development. Then just a few weeks ago, the developers strongly teased that one of these new games would be revealed at this year's Halo World Championships in October.

Rumor has it that one of these games is actually a Halo CE remake. Next year, Xbox turns 25, and Microsoft may be celebrating in a big way with a new game in the classic series. There's just one potential drawback: the Halo CE remake might not have multiplayer.

As costs continue to rise, Nintendo announces that it is officially discontinuing its Game Vouchers program in early 2026.

Nintendo is shutting down its Game Vouchers savings program on January 30, 2026, the company has announced. The move comes shortly after Nintendo kicked off a new $80 price point for Switch 2 games, leading the rest of the industry to follow suit and charge $80 for new games.

The reality is that Nintendo loses money on the Game Vouchers program, at least insofar as game sales revenues. Switch Online is required to even buy the Game Vouchers, but users can save around $20, paying a total of $100 for two Switch games rather than $120. Nintendo is already selling the Switch 2 at a lower profit margin than its predecessor, and the company has also said that global tariffs will drop its profits by tens of billions of yen.

UPDATE: The Microsoft employee in question has clarified that the sales figure is not official, and was based around Alinea Analytics estimates.

"I unfortunately don't actually have any internal sales figures lol. I simply picked that number from this analytics post earlier this month."

Forza Horizon 5 reportedly sold 2 million copies on PS5 in its first month, according to a now-edited LinkedIn page of a Forza developer.

Portable console gaming has exploded since the release of the Nintendo Switch, with Nintendo's console spawning a whole new market of portable gaming consoles that Microsoft doesn't want to miss the boat on.

With Valve releasing the Steam Deck in 2022 and getting a more than positive reception from that product, Microsoft is scrambling to enter the portable handheld market with its own consoles. However, they won't be consoles, nor made exclusively by Microsoft's gaming brand, Xbox. Instead, the devices will be handheld PCs made by ASUS with Xbox branding.

Microsoft needs to hurry up and get competitive in the portable gaming market or else it will lose to the expanding SteamOS platform, and to be competitive it needs to get the portable version of Windows 11 in as many hands as possible.

There have been rumors circulating for a while now that Rockstar was planning to re-release its western opus, Red Dead Redemption 2, for current-gen platforms like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles. It looks like it might be on the cards very soon, as someone spotted an interesting note over on the support page for Red Dead Online.

As seen on Reddit (via GamingBible), Rockstar added an "online migration" option to its list of potential issues for gamers, which is something that was added to its GTA Online support page for the release of Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced. Once spotted, the option was removed from the site, suggesting that Rockstar accidentally leaked that it's preparing to release Red Dead Redemption 2 Enhanced for consoles.

Outside of the still impressive PC version of the game, console gamers are limited to the PS4 and Xbox One versions of Red Dead Redemption 2. With the enhanced visuals of the PC version and an improved 60 FPS mode, there's a definite case for Rockstar updating its open-world western for consoles. This could also pave the way for the game to make its debut on the Nintendo Switch 2.

Running Game Pass isn't cheap, and Microsoft pays up to $50 million to license games content for the subscription service.

Xbox Game Pass has been in the headlines lately, with lots of speculation swirling around the service's profitability. While Microsoft has said repeatedly that Game Pass is profitable, and we've been able to ascertain Game Pass revenues, no one has been able to figure out actual profits due to uncertain operational costs. Now we have a better idea of how much money it costs to operate and maintain a service like Game Pass.

According to ex-Xbox business manager Iain MacIntyre, who had actually discovered Vampire Survivors and had been laid off as part of Microsoft's 9,000-employee layoff spree, Microsoft will pay anywhere from $50,000 to $50 million in game licensing deals to secure content for Game Pass.

Capcom tells investors that the Mega Man franchise plays a key role for the company--could a new release be on the way?

In a recent meeting with shareholders, Capcom executive management was asked point blank about Mega Man and what's next for the franchise. It's been 7 years since the last mainline Mega Man game with 2018's Mega Man 11, and fans (who also happen to be shareholders) want to know if new games are on the way.

While Capcom didn't confirm a new Mega Man game, the company did reiterate its overall stance on the 38-year-old franchise. Mega Man is important, Capcom says, echoing previous statements about wanting to take "great care" in making new Mega Man games. The numbers reinforce Capcom's assertions: Mega Man is the company's fourth best-selling video game franchise of all time with 43 million unit sales.

Players flock to Battlefront 2 to continue the Star Wars celebration following a number of well-timed crossovers and events.

Last month, we reported that Battlefront 2's playerbase skyrocketed by over 1000% on Steam. According to Circana analyst Mat Piscatella, the jump in players was accompanied by a salvo of game sales that caused Battlefront 2 to break into the top 20 best-selling video games of May 2025.

May is a big month for Star Wars fans, with annual celebrations planned throughout. This year, Epic and Disney teamed up with a huge Fortnite Galactic Battle event, which undoubtedly primed players for more Star Wars multiplayer action. The Revenge of the Sith 20th anniversary film release also sparked interest, as the shooter spans multiple movies across the prequels and sequels.

The Stop Killing Games movement continues to gain momentum and is now being supported by a vice president in the European Union.

EU vice president Nicolae Ștefănuță has given a pro-consumer stance when it comes to video game sales and ownership. In a recent Instagram post, Ștefănuță openly broadcasted his support for the movement and committed to helping in any way he can. At the time of writing, the EU petition has over 1.3 million signatures.

"I stand with the people who started this citizen initiative. I signed and will continue to help them. A game, once sold, belongs to the customer, not the company," the Romanian EU vice president said in the post.

The new Subnautica 2 leaks are authentic, Krafton has confirmed, revealing key insight into how the publisher assesses internal games projects.

New developments have surfaced in the ongoing dispute between Krafton and Subnautica 2's leadership dev team. The controversy has evolved with back-and-forth claims, with Krafton alleging that the devs weren't focused enough, and the ousted Unknown Worlds creators even filing a lawsuit. Krafton, for its part, has issued multiple statements and explanations on what's going on, and even went so far as to confirm that a leaked document is real.

The leak shows an internal review of Subnautica 2's development. The sheet shows that as time went by, core features and content were cut out of Subnautica 2's early access version. Big parts of the game like extra modes were nixed, and 6 hours of narrative content was cut. This is not unusual for the industry--big swaths of content are cut all the time--however there's criticism that Krafton may have been unclear with what it wanted with Subnautica 2.

Krafton has released a detailed statement that responds to the recent Subnautica 2 controversy.

The Subnautica situation appears to be heating up. Krafton recently fired three key members of Subnautica 2's dev team, including studio co-founder Max McGuire. Things accelerated when it was revealed that Krafton may have had to pay a $250 million bonus payout to Unknown Worlds if revenue targets were met, but that's unlikely now that Subnautica 2 has been delayed into 2026. Krafton caught a lot of flak for the decision, and the former developers are actually suing Krafton because of what happened.

Now Krafton has issued a response to explain their side of the story. The publisher alleges that the former developers essentially weren't completely on board with Subnautica 2, and that early access was delayed because the game simply didn't yet have enough meat on its bones to substantiate a release.

Unknown Worlds developers are suing Krafton over the recent Subnautica 2 controversy, former game director Charlie Cleveland announced on Twitter.

Recently, Krafton, the South Korean games company that owns PUBG, shocked the industry by ousting Subnautica 2's leadership team. Unknown Worlds CEO Ted Gill, studio co-founder Max McGuire, and Subnautica 2 game director Charlie Cleveland were let go by Krafton, replaced by Steve Papoutsis from sister studio Striking Distance.

The decision sparked major controversy in the Subnautica community, and both Krafton and Unknown Worlds are dealing with the fallout. It's now been revealed that the former Subnautica devs have banded together to collectively sue Krafton, Inc., but the exact details of the legal complaint remain unclear.

Sony's next-generation PlayStation 6 console should be twice as fast as the beefed-up PS5 Pro, and should have performance close to, or more, than the RTX 4090.

Tom from Moore's Law is Dead talked about the new PlayStation 6 performance estimates in his latest video, where he was asked a question from a viewer about the performance of the PS6, and where he thinks it'll end up. This lines up with everything we've heard so far, with AMD deploying its new UDNA GPU architecture that'll power the PS6, as well as a much higher-end Zen 5 CPU (PS5 + PS5 Pro use the Zen 2 architecture).

We should expect to have 4K 120FPS and even 8K 60FPS gaming on the PS6, with 8K 60FPS gaming being made possible through PSSR upscaling technology, and the much more powerful UDNA architecture from AMD. The new PlayStation 6 is rumored to be 20% faster in rasterization, and 2x faster in both RT (ray tracing) and AI according to rumors from leaker KeplerL2 just last month.

It looks like we can expect an open beta of Battlefield 6 in the near future, as news of the open beta has been revealed in a recent data mining expedition.

Insider Gaming reports that "something major is brewing" for Battlefield 6, with mentions of an "open beta" being discovered in a new data mine. The information emerged from the 1BF Telegram Group, which is known for its data mining operations related to Battlefield Labs.

The group found the phrase "Battlefield 6 Open Beta" had been added to the latest client update to BF Labs, with new further information provided, leading gamers to believe that a huge open beta for Battlefield 6 is being planned.

Billion-dollar video game maven Krafton has delayed Subnautica 2's release right before a $250 million payout bonus was to be issued, leading to controversy and industry-wide rifts.

Krafton recently made a radical decision that made headlines. The publisher ousted Subnautica 2's executive leadership team, pushing three key people out of the Unknown Worlds team, including studio co-founder Max McGuire. Krafton appointed a new CEO of Unknown Worlds to ensure the studio delivered timely build updates for an eventual release.

Now it's been revealed that Subnautica 2's early access period has been delayed to 2026. The timing is suspect, with new reports from Bloomberg indicating that Krafton delayed the game just months before the company would have paid a $250 million bonus to developers. When Krafton bought Unknown Worlds in 2021, a clause in the acquisition contract outlined a bonus payout structure if certain milestones were hit throughout 2025--e.g. if the team could make X amount of revenue by the end of 2025, they'd get a substantial $250 million payout.

PlayStation has just wrapped up its 20-minute gameplay deep dive into the spiritual successor to Ghost of Tsushima. Sucker Punch, the developer of the title, has shared a thorough look at Ghost of Yōtei, revealing what players can expect when the game releases in October this year.

Ghost of Yōtei will feature a brand new protagonist called Atsu, who is described by Sucker Punch as a "wrathful ghost bent on revenge". Sucker Punch goes on to say that Atsu "doesn't care if she lives or dies" so long as she can take revenge on the Yōtei Six, a gang of ruthless individuals that slaughtered her family when she was younger. Players will be stepping into the shoes of Atsu 16 years after the death of her family as she embarks on a journey to take out each of the members of the Yōtei Six.

Within the first 3 minutes of the gameplay deep dive, we are given the above premise, which is extremely similar to the premise in Assassin's Creed: Shadows. Here's how they are similar. In Assassin's Creed: Shadows, players can play as Naoe, the daughter of Fujibayashi Nagato, the leader of the Iga clan.

Dell has taken to its social media account for Alienware to unveil two new gaming monitor offerings, one is a fast-paced IPS display, and the other is QD-OLED. Both are targeting competitive and cinematic gamers alike.

Dell's gaming brand "Alienware" has unveiled the AW2525HM and AW2725D priced at $250 and $550, respectively. Starting off with the AW2525HM, Alienware has equipped this 25-inch display with a Fast IPS panel that provides a 1ms GtG / 0.5ms GtG response time, a 320Hz refresh rate, and a maximum resolution of 1920 x 1080. The AW2525HM has a 99% sRGB color gamut, a native contrast ratio of 1,000:1, and a maximum brightness of 400 nits. As for connectivity, the AW2525HM sports 2x HDMI 2.1 ports, 1x DisplayPort 1.

Additionally, the AW2525HM has 1x USB 5Gbps Type-B upstream port, 1x USB 5Gbps Type-A downstream port, 1x USB 5Gbps Type-A downstream port with BC1.2 power charging. Moving to the AW2725D, this 27-inch QD-OLED model is more than double the price of the AW2525HM, but is aimed at gamers looking for a more premium experience. The AW2725D features Quantum Dot OLED panel technology, which provides a super-low response time of 0.03ms GtG. The AW2725D has an increased resolution of 2560 x 1440p, but a slower refresh rate of 280Hz.

When the Nintendo Switch 2 launched, an incident occurred in which a GameStop employee stapled some customer receipts to the Switch 2 boxes. A seemingly normal task for a retail store, but unfortunately, without a protection layer between the cardboard and the Switch 2 display, this GameStop stapler ended up puncturing holes into displays, affecting multiple customers.

With the issue being reported on Reddit, the story spread rapidly, and the problems were quickly resolved for those affected. As part of a new GameStop Staplegate Charity Auction, with the funds raised going to Children's Miracle Network Hospitals, the infamous GameStop stapler, the first "stapled Nintendo Switch 2" console, the box, and even the staple (which has been "carefully extracted and preserved") are up for grabs.

As of writing, the current bid is just over $217,000 for this rare collector's item, which comes with a certificate of authenticity. It's a lot of money to pay for a Switch 2 console and a stapler, but the money is going to a good cause.

A clutch of new games is now available for free on PlayStation Plus, headed up by Cyberpunk 2077 - and coupled with an offer on the expansion for the open world RPG.

This is all part of the ongoing celebration of the PlayStation Plus 15th anniversary, so if you've never played Cyberpunk 2077, now's your chance if you're a subscriber (and it's a game well worth experiencing, trust us).

There's also an offer for Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty which PlayStation Plus members can now bag for a 30% discount, should they be craving more. That discount is in play until July 23.

An individual claiming to have worked on early builds of the upcoming Naughty Dog game "Intergalactic" has said the new game is like The Last of Us Part II meets Dark Souls in terms of the open world, but has combat similar to God of War 2018.

The individual took to 4Chan to drop the information, meaning take the following information with a healthy amount of skepticism as it isn't coming from a reputable source. The leaker says they tested Intergalactic on PS5 Pro dev kits, and that players should think about the open-world as a "nest sandbox," with big areas with layers of traversal, not the open-world experience found in Ubisoft games. The leaker adds there will be planetside traversal, which includes a mix of gliders, parkour, and "faith anchors," which the protagonist can link to and unlock fast travel checkpoints.

The leaker goes on to mention the combat, saying it feels "very good" and has "satisfying feedback". Adding players will be comboing enemies through stringing together basic attacks, jumps, and dashes. There is also the inclusion of a weak point mechanic, with the leaker saying the protagonist can use the pistol seen in the trailer to target weak points, "some of which can be seen while the enemy attacks." Additionally, players will be able to "break limbs to handicap enemies and use special tools to inflict unique status" effect damage.