Gaming - Page 205

Valve is launching a Steam Deck OLED: White Edition PC gaming handheld that will be available in limited quantities beginning November 18 at 3:00 pm Pacific Standard Time. This will be a custom version of the 1TB model, priced at $679 USD, with a white and grey color scheme that extends to the all-new white carry case.

With white-colored peripherals becoming increasingly popular, this custom Steam Deck OLED will undoubtedly sell out quickly. Valve is allocating stock to every region where the Steam Deck is officially available - including Australia, which just got it in November 2024 - to give everyone a fair chance of picking it up.

Gamers in the US, CA, UK, EU, and the AU region can order one - and that's one literally, as Valve is restricting Steam Deck OLED: White Edition purchases to one per customer/Steam user.

Myths and prophecies about the moon stretch way back into the annals of history, but in the digital age, it's now being used for predictions relating to Grand Theft Auto 6.

The game has obviously hit the headlines in a big way with news that Take-Two Interactive has finally confirmed a fall 2025 release, but fresh speculation has fired up over some promotional material for GTA Online.

Eurogamer reports that all the fuss is around an image (see the top of this article) showing a character leaning on a car, in front of a factory, with the moon at the top-left of the pic. The moon is shown as waning gibbous, and the phase depicted corresponds to how the earth's satellite will look on November 22 in the real world.

Ahead of publisher Take-Two Interactive's earnings call, company CEO Strauss Zelnick sat down for an interview with IGN, where he revealed the Borderlands Movie's box office flop translated into more sales of the games.

Zelnick said to the publication that it's obvious the Borderlands Movie didn't perform as intended, but the marketing for the movie, whether it be bad or not, translated into more sales for the catalog of Borderlands content. According to Zelnick, and, at least from the perspective of Take-Two Interactive, "I don't think it hurt at all, if anything I think it may have helped a little bit." Additionally, the Take-Two Interactive CEO said the failure of the movie highlights something the company has mentioned previously: the difficulty of bringing its intellectual property over to another medium.

More specifically, the Take-Two Interactive CEO said back in August to IGN that there is difficulty in correctly bringing gaming IP over to other mediums, and while there is very little risk economically (from Take-Two's perspective) when agreeing to license some IP to a movie, the result of the Borderlands Movie highlights this difficulty Zelnick has warned about.

Sony has taken to its official PlayStation YouTube channel to share a quick launch trailer for the PlayStation 5 Pro, the company's latest console, which Sony's CFO has confirmed is currently beating the PS4 Pro when it comes to sales during the same period.

Sony's latest fiscal financial report outlined many of the company's successes throughout the current financial year and offered a brief insight into the sales performance of the recently released PlayStation 5 Pro. The mid-gen refresh of the PlayStation 5 was released last week, and according to Sony's President, COO, and CFO, Hiroki Totoki, Sony isn't too bothered by the heavy criticism surrounding the price tag of the new console, as the company is aiming the PS5 Pro at its "core customers," which translates to enthusiast-level gamers that want the absolute best Sony can offer.

Additionally, Hiroki spoke on the number of sales the PS5 Pro has achieved since it launched, and surprisingly, especially considering the recent criticism surrounding the console, anecdotally reflected by the Like/Dislike ratio on the PS5 Pro launch video (7.1K likes to 9.7K dislikes, the PS5 Pro is selling better than the PS4 Pro did during the same period. Hiroki said, "I'm under the impression that the product is performing slightly stronger than the pre-orders of the PS4 Pro during the same period, so I don't think it is adversely affecting the product's sales plan."

Nintendo has outlined in its recent earnings report when it will be unveiling the successor to the Nintendo Switch, and how the Nintendo Account will be a big part of the next-generation console.

Nintendo recently published its second-quarter financial results for the fiscal year ending March 2025, and within that financial report, the company briefly touched on the successor to the immensely popular Nintendo Switch. Nintendo writes that it will be making the announcement for its next-generation console "during this fiscal year," which runs until April 2025. This technically isn't a new piece of information, as the company previously stated that it would be finishing off this financial year with the current Nintendo Switch.

However, what wasn't known was Nintendo's emphasis on the Nintendo Account and how that will be a big part of the next-generation console. The company writes in its financial report that it believes the Nintendo Account is "important for Nintendo's future" and that it will "carry over the good relationship that we have built with the over 100 million annual playing users on Nintendo Switch to its successor." This statement confirms that Nintendo Switch Online will be a service linked directly to a user's Nintendo Account and will be available on the Nintendo Switch successor.

Nintendo has recently released its earnings report where it revealed how many Pokemon game copies have sold on the Nintendo Switch throughout its lifespan.

The Nintendo Switch was released in 2017 and has become one of Nintendo's most successful consoles ever, selling more than 140 million units and becoming Nintendo's second best-selling console ever, right behind the Nintendo DS at 154 million units. According to Nintendo's recent financial results, the Pokemon franchise unit sales just on the Nintendo Switch have reached 99 million, which is an aggregated figure of all Pokemon game unit sales on the Nintendo Switch up until September 30.

For those wondering, the Nintendo Switch has seen a slew of Pokemon game releases, such as Pokken Tournament, Pokemon Quest, Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu/Let's Go Eevee, Pokemon Sword and Shield, Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, and Pokemon Legends: Arceus. Nintendo is slated to release one more Pokemon game on the Nintendo Switch before it presumably moves to its next-generation platform. That last Pokemon game is called "Pokemon Z-A," and content from it was recently leaked when Game Freak was infiltrated.

Researchers have injected an artificial intelligence program into an instance of Minecraft and left it to its own devices. The AI is now teaching itself how to survive.

The AI was developed by the company SingularityNET and the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (ASI Alliance). The AI has been named Autonomous Intelligent Reinforcement Inferred Symbolism, or AIRIS for short. According to reports the AI essentially started from nothing within Minecraft and over time slowly taught itself how to play using nothing but the game's feedback loop.

The researchers explained how the AI is able to play Minecraft. The AI is given two types of environmental inputs and a list of actions it can perform. The first input is a 5 x 5 x 5 3D grid that blocks names that surround the AI agent. The researchers say this is how the AI is able to "see" the world around it. The second input is the current coordinates of the AI agent. The list of actions the AI has available to it is movement-based, which it can perform in one of eight directions - the four directions (forward, back, left, and right) and then diagonally for a total of 16 "actions".

On the heels of Dragon Age: The Veilguard being unlikely to receive its own DLC, we have now learned that the original Dragon Ages aren't likely to be getting remasters.

The classic Dragon Age titles such as Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2 were built on outdated BioWare engines that was a custom version of the Eclipse engine. Reports indicate the Eclipse engine was upgraded version of the engine used to build other titles such as Knights of the Old Republic, and due to restriants with that engine its unlikely the old Dragon Age games will receive remasters.

The news was confirmed by Creative Director John Epler, who said in a recent interview with Rolling Stone that there are only "20 people left at BioWare who's actually used Eclipse," and due to the technological restraints of the engine, along with the lack of expertise on how to use it, it's unlikely Origins and Dragon Age 2 will ever receive remasters. However, Epler doesn't want to rule out the possibility altogether.

The AYANEO 3 is AYANEO's new flagship PC gaming handheld. It will be available in multiple display and APU variants, with a high refresh-rate 7-inch LCD or 7-inch OLED display and either the AMD Ryzen 7 8840U or the powerful AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor.

The AI 9 HX 370, or Strix Point APU, includes the latest RDNA 3.5 graphics with the Radeon 890M integrated GPU, so this variant is set to become one of the most powerful portable gaming handhelds on the market. The AI 9 HX 370 also features AI hardware, and with the AYANEO 3 set to be a Windows-based gaming handheld, owners with this APU will have access to a range of Copilot+ features.

Outside of the display and chip stuff, the AYANEO 3's physical design is incredibly stylish. It features a new ergonomic back button design and a trigger lock feature typically seen in pro controllers. It is available in black or white and has new front-facing speakers for 'immersive audio,' with more features and customization options still to be announced.

After bringing several first-party PlayStation games to PC, Sony's decision to add a PlayStation Network login requirement to its releases this year has not been popular with PC gamers. Even single-player titles like God of War Ragnarol and the recent Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered require PC players to link and sign in to the PlayStation Network or PSN.

One of the main criticisms surrounding this decision is that the PlayStation Network isn't available in fewer countries than Valve's Steam, so forcing a PSN sign-in has effectively prevented some gamers from playing PlayStation games on PC. According to Sony's president, COO, and CFO, Hiroki Totoki, the PlayStation Network account requirement is about keeping gamers safe.

In a recent investor call, Sony's president acknowledged that the decision to force PC gamers into the PlayStation Network would "invite pushback," but it had to be done for safety.

STALKER 2 has officially gone gold, with developer GSC Game World proudly announcing the news on X. The term 'gone gold' is more old school from the 90s and 2000s where the developer finishes the master copy of the game, and it gets sent off for the mass production of physical discs.

It has been over 17 years since the release of the original STALKER back in 2007, with the last entry in the franchise being STALKER: Call of Pripyat in 2009. GSC Game World's first proper attempt at developing STALKER 2 started immediately, with the game announced in August 2010 for a tentative release in 2012... well, 12 years later, STALKER 2 has gone gold.

The Ukranian developer was dissolved in December 2011, which saw STALKER 2 cancelled. However, Evgeniy Grygorovych, the brother of GSC Game World's original founder Sergiy Grygorovych, resurrected the studio from the dead in late 2014. STALKER 2 was announced in May 2018, with a release window of 2021... and 3 years later, STALKER 2 has gone gold.

NVIDIA has made some big changes to GeForce Now and the middle plan most gamers will be using - and while there are upgrades here, a choice to limit playing time has caused a storm of controversy.

Team Green has changed the Priority subscription - which is the middle ground between the premium Ultimate subscription, and the Free tier - to rename it as the Performance plan to reflect that it now supports up to 1440p resolution. Previously, these members were streaming at 1080p, and also ultra-wide is now supported, too.

On top of this, those using the new Performance membership will be able to save in-game graphics settings in the cloud, so those options will be applied permanently to avoid messing about and having to change them all the time.

As part of its latest Quarterly Earnings report for Q2 2025, Take-Two Interactive has confirmed that the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI will launch in Fall 2025. This means the game will debut on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles between September, October, and November 2025.

With the GTA franchise now selling over 435 million units, with 205 million of that attributed to Gran Theft Auto V, there's no doubt that GTA 6 is easily one of the most anticipated games of all time. Based on the hype, it is simply a question of 'how big will it be,' especially when you factor in that the PC version probably won't arrive until late 2026 at the earliest.

Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO of Take-Two Interactive, confirmed the release window and stated that Borderlands 4 and Mafia: The Old Country will be out before March 2026. There's also a bit of a BioShock tease with the franchise highlighted as one of 2K's "industry-leading" IPs.

A new patent (spotted by Tech4Gamers) from Sony outlines a new controller design with a dedicated button that will allow PlayStation gamers to 'rewind' gameplay. The patent explains that PlayStation gamers who press the button will be presented with a gameplay timeline, which they can scroll, bookmark, relive, and share.

Sony notes that it could be used as an information tool for gamers who want to relisten to conversations in an RPG again for hints or figure out where that place was where they found an item or discovered something new. Where it gets wild is that the rewind feature could even let you replay and relive your favorite moments, boss battles, and encounters.

As a new patent, the wording is very clinical and matter-of-fact, with Sony confirming that "accessing recent gameplay while the player is playing a video game is difficult" and technically challenging. So, the assumption is that this tech will probably find its way into the PlayStation 6 and the next iteration of the DualSense controller.

Have you seen the new Unreal Engine 5-powered game Empire of the Ants from Microids and developer Tower Five? It's a real-time 'strategic' experience that takes place at the microscopic level with some truly stunning ant-sized wildlife visuals. Today, it's out for PC via Steam, GOG, and the Epic Games Store, with support for DLSS 3 Frame Generation, Super Resolution, and Reflex.

Another game out this week is Frontier Developments' Planet Coaster 2, the sequel to the popular theme park sim that lets you build and customize roller coasters while setting prices for things like corn dogs and giant cups of soda. It's another new PC game with DLSS 3 Frame Generation, Super Resolution, and Reflex support - with the addition of DLAA, the AI-based anti-aliasing mode for boosting image quality.

Although the game has received positive reviews from the press, the feedback from the PC community is mixed. Some claim that the UI and other elements like park density have been simplified or cut back due to the game launching simultaneously on consoles. If you're interested in picking it up, it's worth keeping that in mind.

Rockstar has been cooking when it comes to mission design in Grand Theft Auto 6, with recent leaks teasing next-gen NPC behavior, with mission designs being tweaked to provide gamers with more freedom than ever before in GTA 6 when it drops in 2025.

In the most recent episode GTVIoclock on YouTube, the team chatted with a former game designer at Rockstar Games, who said that GTA 6 will see Rockstar once again raising the bar with realism and NPC behavior. The ex-Rockstar developer also discussed GTA 6's new mission design, saying that it will be what makes the game good, and that players will have more freedom than ever before.

GTA 6 is reportedly in the bug-fixing phase of development, and with nearly a year passing since the massive GTA 6 official announcement trailer, here's hoping that we get a deeper look at the game (its mechanics, freedom, NPC behavior, graphics, and more) in the weeks leading into Christmas.

Sony's PlayStation 5 Pro is out today, and the developer of No Man's Sky has praised the new console in no uncertain terms, while observing how good the game looks in the new 8K @ 30FPS mode in the PS5 Pro enhanced version (an alternative to a 4K @ 60FPS option).

Yes, thanks to a new (free) upgrade that's just arrived for the game, those with an 8K display can enjoy what promises to be a relatively smooth 8K experience given the amount of pixels and detail on offer here, thanks to PSSR upscaling, naturally.

Wccftech reports that Hello Games called the PS5 Pro an "incredible feat of engineering" and singled out PSSR as a definite highlight here, as part of a press release about the cross-save update for No Man's Sky that also covered the PlayStation 5 Pro patch.

It's official: Nintendo has confirmed that the Nintendo Switch successor, the Nintendo Switch 2, will be backwards compatible. This means it will be able to play all current and existing Switch games, including digital purchases.

Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa took to social media to make the announcement. He also confirmed that Nintendo Switch Online, the company's online service that includes access to classic games from retro Nintendo hardware, will be available on day one.

"At today's Corporate Management Policy Briefing, we announced that Nintendo Switch software will also be playable on the successor to Nintendo Switch," Shuntaro Furukawa wrote. "Nintendo Switch Online will be available on the successor to Nintendo Switch as well."

Blizzard is hosting a special Warcraft Anniversary Direct next week on November 13 (10:00 am PT, 1:00 pm ET) to celebrate the franchise's 30th anniversary. The broadcast will be streamed live on Twitch, YouTube, and TikTok and will feature several Warcraft developers "reflecting on the last 30 years" of the iconic franchise and a look at what's in store for the future.

Per Blizzard's announcement, the focus will be on current games - World of Warcraft, Classic, Hearthstone, and Warcraft Rumble. However, a new data leak from Blizzard's internal servers has revealed that the studio is currently testing 'Warcraft II: Remastered Internal Alpha.' With employees playing the game, the odds are that it will be announced and possibly released during next week's Warcraft Anniversary stream.

Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and its expansion Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal were released for MS-DOS in 1995 and 1996, respectively. Both games presented the finest real-time strategy (RTS) gameplay of the early PC gaming era.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has sat down for an interview on "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast, where he discussed, among other topics, how he was a top Diablo IV player.

At the beginning of the podcast, Joe Rogan and Elon Musk discuss the benefits of playing video games, which Musk attributes to the difficulty of the game he playing. Musk says that when he's playing a difficult video game, it takes 100% of his focus, and by performing an activity that forces him to consume 100% of his focus, he is able to alleviate other stresses in his life. Rogan compares the experience to bowhunting and the many moving parts of the bow and how it requires all of his focus to perform the action correctly, and through this intense focus comes a sense of mental clarity.

During this conversation, Musk mentions that he is one of the world's best Diablo IV players and points to the leaderboard rankings, which states his name in position 20 for the fastest precise time of The Pit. For those that don't know, The Pit is end-game level content in Diablo IV that puts players up against some of the toughest hoardes of monsters in the game. The goal is to beat The Pit and reap the rewards in the form of gear upgrades. Completing a Pit run in the fastest time possible is an indication of Diablo IV competency, and Elon Musk's time of 2 minutes and 45 seconds is currently the 20th-best time in the world, according to Helltides.com.