Gaming - Page 140

Rockstar is reportedly working on a pretty big feature for Grand Theft Auto 6, which would allow music artists to upload their music directly into GTA 6.

Grammy-winning music producer Jermaine Dupri revealed during a chat in the New Rory and Mal show that artists would be able to upload their music directly into an unspecified GTA title... we shouldn't expect this to be GTA V as the release of Rockstar's next-gen GTA 6 is cooking in the ovens of the developer for 2026.

Dupri said that rapper Drake would have his own radio station in the game, and that the rapper himself could upload music to the game that's not available anywhere else... meaning GTA 6 could turn into a music streaming giant of the likes of Spotify, especially if said music isn't available anywhere else (like YouTube Music, Tidal, etc).

The Nintendo Switch 2 has become the fastest-selling console in history, and with the latest piece of Nintendo hardware now in the hands of millions of owners, some have noticed the company has failed to fix one of the more infamous problems with the original Switch.

Despite the numerous problems with the original Switch, the handheld device sold incredibly well and forged what is now an extremely lucrative and evolving handheld market. One of the bigger problems of the previous console, and something widely reported on, was stick drift.

This issue resurfaced when the Switch 2 hardware was first detailed by Nintendo, with officials confirming they didn't adopt Hall Effect sticks for the Joy-Con 2 joysticks, which are significantly better at reducing the likelihood of stick drift occurring. We are now seeing the first reports of stick drift on the new Joy-Cons.

Microsoft has been pushing its first-party games onto PlayStation for quite some time, but this might be an industry first for the green team - PlayStation is exclusively getting physical discs of Xbox games, while the Xbox physical versions come with a digital game code.

The three Xbox games now under the spotlight are Ninja Gaiden 4, The Outer Worlds 2, and Gears of War: Reloaded. Per Amazon listings, which are currently still live at the time of writing, Ninja Gaiden 4 Deluxe Edition is available to pre-order on PlayStation 5 for $89.99 and it comes with a physical disc, while the same Deluxe Edition on Xbox comes with a "Digital Game Code" that owners redeem to begin the download of the game. The same thing has been spotted for The Outer Worlds 2, as seen in the image below.

To add even more fuel to the fire, it appears Gears of War: Reloaded won't even be getting an Xbox physical release; it will just be a digital download from the Microsoft Store / Game Pass. However, there will be a physical version of Gears of War: Reloaded for PlayStation 5 owners.

Sony corporate signals that PlayStation Plus subscription price hikes could be on the horizon as the company adds more value, features, and content to the service.

While Sony has yet to raise the price of the PlayStation 5 console in the United States, the PlayStation Plus service is a different story. Sony has raised PS Plus prices twice now, once globally in 2023, and then a second time this year in select regions (US remains unaffected).

Yet gamers are still subscribing to the more expensive tiers. Sony's data shows that 38% of total PlayStation Plus users are subscribed to the Extra ($135/year) and Premium ($160/year) plans. This does mean, of course, that the vast majority (62%) of users are opting for the cheaper PS Plus Essential plan ($80/year). It's also worth mentioning that Sony discounts these plans to drive up adoption, especially during the State of Play sale where PS Plus Premium dropped to $107/year.

Microsoft only recently unveiled its new PC handheld device made in partnership with ASUS, and now retailers have leaked when that device is scheduled to release and how much it will cost.

The information comes from eXtas1s, a known gaming-industry leaker who stated that he has spoken to two European retailers about the new Xbox ROG Ally. Both said pre-orders are scheduled to begin in August, with the official launch scheduled for October 2026. The two new consoles, the Xbox ROG Ally and Ally X, are two new PC-based gaming handhelds featuring 7-inch 1080p 120Hz displays and dedicated Xbox buttons. The Ally X boasts 24GB of RAM, surpassing the Series X.

These two new consoles represent Microsoft's new push into the future generations of its Xbox brand, and how Xbox won't just mean the traditional hardware console, but now any console that is capable of playing Xbox games. However, Microsoft has a long road ahead of it when it comes to making these devices attractive to consumers, as currently, Windows 11 gaming performance on handheld devices is lagging behind competing platforms such as SteamOS.

Sony has no plans to kill the PlayStation 4 just yet--in fact, the platform is still a major contributor to the brand and is serving as a stable bedrock of earnings.

Nearly 12 years after release and the PlayStation 4 is still going strong. Sony today revealed how the last-gen PS4 is helping mitigate risk for the games division, and underlined that PS4 support isn't going anywhere any time soon.

During its annual corporate business strategy briefing, Sony asserted that the current PlayStation ecosystem is multi-generational and that PS4 users are still "active and spending" across the network. Company finance SVP Lynn Azar makes an interesting pointing regarding how Sony's virtuous cycle was key for continued growth, and how much the PS5's gen 9 is affected by the successful framework of its predecessor.

Sony's latest 2025 corporate business strategy briefing gives an update on PlayStation segment metrics.

The PlayStation 5 ecosystem is the most profitable console generation of all time for Sony, the company has re-confirmed with today's corporate update. The PS5 has generated over $136 billion in the last five fiscal years, and for comparison, it took the PS4 seven fiscal years to achieve just $107 billion in sales.

On a profit level, Sony discloses that the PS5 generation has made $13 billion in operating profit. With $13 billion in operating profit on $136 billion in sales, this indicates that Sony's 9th console generation has a profit margin of ~9.5%. Nintendo similarly sells its Switch and Switch 2 hardware at a profit, but conversely, Microsoft is known for selling its Xbox consoles at a loss.

Sony confirms its working on a next-generation PlayStation console as the company says most players still aren't interested in depending solely on the cloud.

PlayStation consoles are the top revenue-generating video games hardware on the market, so it's no surprise Sony would want to keep the ball rolling with continued system launches. Even in the era of cloud gaming and supercharged network throughput, Sony isn't ready to stop making consoles just yet and rely solely on its decade-old cloud efforts.

In a recent fireside chat taped during Sony's 2025 corporate business strategy meeting, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Hideaki Nishino shared the company's view on PlayStation consoles while also teasing the next-gen PS6 in the process.

UL has just announced that its 3DMark benchmark suite now runs on macOS, and while it was already available on iOS, the company saw that many users were running 3DMark on macOS... marking today's big announcement.

3DMark now has a full native macOS version that removes any and all potential bottlenecks, something UL says that was especially noticeable on more powerful Macs, as the iOS version has maximum frame rate limitations that are tied to the display's refresh rate.

UL explains: "Since we launched 3DMark Steel Nomad Light, we found that 1/6 of all iOS app submissions were from macOS devices. Running an iOS application on a macOS device can negatively affect scores on some benchmarks, especially when run on some more powerful Macs, as iOS application maximum frame rates are limited to the system's display refresh rate".

Steam for Mac has entirely relied on Rosetta 2 to work on Apple Silicon, which is an emulator designed to allow software designed for Intel-based Macs to run on Apple Silicon.

When emulating from one system architecture to the next, there is a cost to performance, and in the case of Rosetta 2 and Steam, there was a significant hit when compared to Steam native. However, Apple is planning on sunsetting Rosetta 2 with macOS 28 as the era of Intel-based Mac software support comes to an end.

macOS 26 will be the last release for Intel-based Macs, meaning software designed for Intel-based Macs will need to become native on Apple Silicon to continue to receive top-of-the-line compatibility and optimizations with macOS.

Sony's first-party Bend, Oregon studio is letting go of more workers shortly after Sony axed an online game project that the team had been developing.

Days Gone developers at Sony Bend are being laid off, new reports from Bloomberg's Jason Schreier indicate. The Oregon-based studio will lay off 30% of its staff, or about 40 people in total.

Specific details about the layoffs weren't shared by the company, but Sony has cited rising costs as a major reason for cross-segment layoffs across its divisions, especially in interactive entertainment, where costs can be particularly high.

Microsoft has reportedly cancelled its plans for a native Xbox handheld device, sources tell The Verge.

Microsoft recently made history with the first Xbox-Windows handheld duo, the Xbox Ally and Ally X, made in conjunction with third-party OEM partner ASUS. Microsoft has said its goal was to bring a console-like experience to Windows using the handheld's Xbox controller-like inputs and design.

Now as the company reveals this new higher-end handheld PC duo there are reports that Microsoft has scrapped its plans for an Xbox handheld that could potentially natively play console games. Sources tell The Verge's Tom Warren that the device has basically been cancelled.

The Nintendo Switch 2's upgraded performance profile is closer to the Gen 9 Xbox Series S console than it is to Sony's last-gen PlayStation 4, one developer says.

Compared to its 2017 predecessor, the newly-released Switch 2 is a powerhouse of handheld performance, complete with an upgraded chip that enables 4K gaming. The real secret sauce of the Switch 2 is its built-in upscaling tech which allows devs to take lots of visual shortcuts and squeeze out more frames.

The Switch 2's mid-generational overlap makes it somewhat uneven to compare with predecessor consoles, but as far as capability goes, one developer has likened the Switch 2 more to an Xbox Series S, a console that targets 1440p 60FPS performance. The Switch 2 actually has more onboard RAM than the Series S (12GB versus 10GB) and nearly as many TFLOPs as the Series S.

A famous musician has seemingly accidentally leaked some information about how music and radio stations will work in Grand Theft Auto 6.

That artist is Jermaine Dupri, an American rapper and Grammy Award-winning producer, who appeared on the New Rory & Mal Podcast, where they got onto the topic of adopting music and the creation of music in a world that is becoming more and more virtual. Dupri explained that from his perspective, making music for the virtual world can even be exclusive, and fans of an artist would have to enter the virtual space to listen to that music. Dupri provided an example with Drake and Grand Theft Auto 6.

Dupri didn't elaborate further on the Drake and GTA 6 collaboration. Notably, neither Rockstar nor Drake has confirmed if there will be a Drake-dedicated radio station. Still, if what Dupri is saying is true, it means GTA 6 will have radio stations dedicated to specific artists, as I can't imagine Drake will be the only artist with his own radio station.

One of the biggest hurdles portable console makers attempt to overcome when designing a handheld device is balancing battery with performance, as it's all well and good if the device is super powerful, but it would be useless if you can only game on it for 30 minutes.

So, a balancing act is required between how much of the hardware capabilities are used, and how much in-game performance they can achieve for a specific amount of electricity. The end result is the average amount of battery life for the handheld console.

Nintendo states Switch 2 owners should get anywhere between 2 and 6 hours of playtime from the 5,220mAh battery, but, unfortunately, some owners of the new console are reporting their playtimes are more often than not landing on the lower end of that scale.

The first Silent Hill game from 1999 is getting an official remake, Konami today announced.

After many years of static, Konami is now going all-in on the Silent Hill franchise. Following the huge success of 2024's Silent Hill 2 remake, which sold over 2 million copies worldwide, the series is returning with yet another modern upgrade.

This time around the first Silent Hill will get the reboot treatment, and the Polish horror mavens at Bloober Team are returning to craft the experience.

The Outer Worlds 2 is the first Xbox game to receive the new $80 price tag, sparking backlash from many gamers upset about the decision to increase Xbox game prices. The director of the game has now responded to those complaints.

In a recent interview with GamesRadar, Brandon Adler, the director of The Outer Worlds 2 development studio, Obsidian, explained that it isn't up to Obsidian Entertainment to determine how much they sell their game for, as they are just the development studio. That decision is made by the publisher, which in this case is Xbox Game Studios. Adler said that any complaints about the price of The Outer Worlds 2 should be aimed at Xbox, not Obsidian.

Microsoft previously announced it would begin charging $80 for games in 2025, citing the current economic climate, rising development costs, inflation, and the value their games offer. Notably, Nintendo was the first to begin charging $80 for its games, with Mario Kart World being the first title with the new price tag. Shortly after Nintendo's announcement of the new price, Xbox announced its price hike, which was accompanied by a price increase for Xbox consoles.

Microsoft's gaming business is apparently doing very well behind the scenes as Xbox CEO Phil Spencer gives a quick update on the state of the cross-platform media segment.

All signs point to Xbox gaming being on the rise. Xbox earnings hit a record-breaking $5.72 billion last quarter, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recognized that Xbox games took over the PS Store once again, and reports suggest Xbox Game Pass subscribers have broken 35 million.

While we don't know what Xbox's bottom line actually is--we don't get operating profit info for Microsoft's games segment--it sounds like the $68.7 billion Activision merger has done well for the company.

The developer behind MindsEye, the recently released title from former Rockstar veteran Leslie Benzies, has responded to the performance and stability complaints with a remediation plan.

Benzies' new studio, Build a Rocket Boy, has issued a statement regarding MindsEye's performance problems. These problems have gotten so bad that PlayStation has decided to issue refunds for the title to those who request them. Sony famously removed Cyberpunk 2077 from the PlayStation Store in 2020 due to performance problems, staining the game's brand even to this day.

It was quite some time and many optimization updates before CD Projekt Red earned back its good graces with gamers. One may argue that the reputation was reestablished after the release of Cyberpunk 2077's DLC Phantom Liberty.

PlayStation support has started to refund purchases of MindsEye due to performance issues.

MindsEye, the newest game from former Grand Theft Auto lead developer Leslie Benzies, is making the headlines for the wrong reasons. The game is so plagued with various issues like visual bugs and general instability on PS5 that Sony is offering refunds to gamers.

For its part, PlayStation Support says that it Sony is "aware of this game's optimization and are investigating the situation," and it's possible we could see MindsEye delisted from the PlayStation Store for a period of time. Back in 2020, Sony removed Cyberpunk 2077 from the PlayStation Store due to performance issues, a move that dealt a significant blow to CD Projekt RED's goodwill with fans and overall sales revenue.