Gaming - Page 24

We had the chance to spend considerable time with Acer's new flagship Predator Atlas 8 gaming handheld, powered by the new Intel Arc G3 Extreme processor, at Computex 2026 today. What makes this a notable release among the growing pack of PC gaming handhelds in recent years is that its integrated Intel Arc B390 graphics are easily the most powerful GPU for portable gaming we've seen to date, bolstered by Intel XeSS 3 AI-powered upscaling.

Aside from the internal hardware, the first thing you notice about the Predator Atlas 8 is its comfortable form factor and large 8-inch WUXGA (1920 x 1200-pixel) display. The IPS display, which supports VRR while sporting a 120 Hz refresh rate, 500-nit brightness, and 100% sRGB color coverage, is not only vibrant but also delivers exceptional motion clarity for a handheld. This is something that we noticed pretty quickly because our extended hands-on time with the handheld was mostly spent playing the fantastic Forza Horizon 6 from Playground Games and Xbox.

The beefy Intel Arc G3 Extreme variant we tested (there's also an Intel Arc G3 non-Extreme version coming with integrated Intel Arc B370 graphics) felt premium and comfortable to hold, with high-quality thumbsticks and face buttons that have the responsive, clicky feel of premium controllers. This applies to the triggers, too, which are adjustable. As impressive as the Predator Atlas 8's specs and build quality are, it's all in service of playing games, and as far as impressive debuts go, you can't get much better than the brilliant Forza Horizon 6.

CD Projekt originally planned to release The Witcher 3's new Songs of the Past expansion this year to help boost sales and reach an ambitious three-year reward incentive program for the company. The new surprise Witcher 3 expansion will instead release in 2027, meaning the game is launching outside of the incentive target timeline, so Songs of the Past won't actually move the needle here.

Without a major expansion release for 2026, Investors and analysts are curious whether or not the studio can meet its high $551 million net profit goal. CD Projekt management now says that there are a total of three projects that are being capitalized--two gaming-related, and one non-gaming--and that there's still new content coming in the year.

"There are two unannounced gaming projects and one non-gaming project," CD Projekt co-CEO Michal Nowakowski said during the call.

CD Projekt Red is gearing up for a busy second half of the decade, as the company plans to roll out major projects one after another. The studio just announced a new Witcher 3 expansion, titled "Songs of the Past," targeting a 2027 release. Shortly after the announcement, CD Projekt Red held its earnings call, during which it shed more light on the development and release cycle of The Witcher 4.

As we have previously covered, CD Projekt Red is working concurrently on multiple projects, the most important of them being The Witcher 4. The company has previously confirmed that The Witcher 4 will kick off a new trilogy of Triple-A games, with Ciri as the protagonist. During the earnings call, CDPR joint CEO Michał Nowakowski was asked about the potential for expansions for the new Witcher saga.

The CDPR exec shed light on the ambitious plans that the company already has in motion regarding The Witcher saga. He specifically stated that they plan to release "three Witcher games within a six-year period." Therefore, Nowakowski thinks it would be difficult to add proper expansions to The Witcher 4, especially if you consider the size and scale of the likes of "Blood and Wine."

Xbox today announced a sequel to the wildly popular Minecraft movie at this year's Minecraft Live event, complete with new stars and a 2027 launch.

Microsoft is set to unleash havoc on theaters next year with A Minecraft Movie Squared, set for a release on July 23, 2027. Jack Black will reprise his role as Steve, with other first-movie stars Jason Momoa and Danielle Brooks also returning as Garrett and Dawn, respectively.

New stars are joining the cast of the Minecraft movie sequel, and it's been confirmed that Spider-Man's Kirsten Dunst will play Alex, the game's female analogue to Steve. Comedian and star of the What We Do in the Shadows TV show Matt Berry will return to play an unannounced part.

A new 3D Shovel Knight game could be the next project in line for Yacht Club Games, assuming Mina The Hollower does well enough sales-wise.

Yacht Club Games just released their latest title, Mina The Hollower, a top-down indie with a distinct retro look and feel. Mina hearkens back to the classic days of gaming, combining sentiments and visuals from games like Link's Awakening on Game Boy and even Gremlins 2 on NES. The result is a nostalgic mash-up that innovates and evolves the formula, complete with boss battles and loot.

Now that their mouse precision-platformer is out, the indie studio is turning their attention on new things. One of these projects is a mysterious Shovel Knight game set in 3D. Sean Velasco, the head of Yacht Club, tells Bloomberg's Jason Schreier that this 3D game is more than halfway complete and could be showable soon.

Something very interesting is happening in Forza Horizon 6 right now. The game has only been out for a couple of weeks at this point, and we have a boogeyman situation on our hands. A mysterious Drivatar by the name of Bowie Knife99 has been wreaking havoc across the map, disrupting the races of many players and generally acting as an agent of chaos.

So basically, this infamous gamertag gained notoriety when a series of tweets (or X posts) went viral, showing random players being forced off the road, hit from the side, or even ambushed from above by a Drivatar named Bowie Knife99. Gamers all across the platform started sharing their encounters with the infamous Drivatar, and they all had something in common: Bowie Knife99 being an absolute menace to society.

If you're not familiar with Forza Horizon's "Drivatars", they are AI-controlled opponents that are essentially copies of real players. These automated foes mimic the driving style and habits of the real-life players that they are named after. One can only imagine that the real Bowie Knife99 would be both extremely skilled and supremely mischievous.

Microsoft's plan has tentatively worked, for now: Game Pass numbers have improved since the recent price discount.

Back in 2025, Microsoft raised the price of Xbox consoles and its Game Pass Ultimate service. This move hurt the brand, deflecting gamers during the critical holiday season and leading to the worst-ever hardware revenues of the entire Xbox Series generation. Game Pass subscribers also fled from the service, opting not to renew.

While we don't know the exact impact--how many subscribers canceled, for instance--Xbox CEO Asha Sharma acknowledged the problem by fixing it with a substantial price decrease. Game Pass dropped from $29.99 to $22.99, and in exchange, players gave up day one Call of Duty launches (Modern Warfare 4 will be the first post-acquisition COD not released onto the service).

The "rising memory and storage costs" that companies keep citing as the reason for price hikes have pushed some of our favorite gaming handhelds, like the Lenovo Legion Go S and Steam Deck, to nearly 50% more than they were a year ago. In times like this, Acer is making an interesting proposition with a streaming-first handheld built specifically for PC gaming.

Meet the Acer Nitro Blaze Link, a new handheld device for local PC game streaming. While the device runs Linux with Sunshine and Moonlight software, it is not a Steam Deck or anything like it. Acer is billing it as a streaming-first device, akin to Sony's PlayStation Portal but built with PC gaming in mind rather than console streaming.

The idea is not entirely new. Logitech launched a similar device a few years ago with the G Cloud, a $350 Android handheld with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. The Nitro Blaze Link takes the same approach, rendering games on a separate gaming PC and streaming them to the handheld over a local network, and the specifications make that use case immediately obvious.

Xbox has delayed its big Fable reboot outside of 2026, and the game will now release on PS5, Xbox, and PC in February 2027 instead.

With this year being quite crowded, and perhaps wanting to avoid the gigantic looming shadow of GTA 6's impending November release, Xbox has made the decision to push back the new Fable RPG a few months. Originally announced in 2020, Microsoft has settled on a finalized February 2027 window for the game on all platforms.

"In order to plan our game launches through the holidays, in a way that works best for players, we're moving Fable to February 2027 so it can have the dedicated moment it deserves," Xbox wrote on Twitter.

Legendary Japanese game developer Hideki Kamiya recently let gamers in on an interesting story on Devil May Cry's development, and how it was originally envisioned as a sequel to Capcom's mega-hit horror series.

Hideki Kamiya is a well-known figure in gaming, and was originally most praised for directing the original Resident Evil 2 on the first PlayStation console. After RE2's success, Capcom wanted another game, and Kamiya was once again conscripted to come up with ideas for a fresh project for the PlayStation 2.

According to Kamiya, who tells his story in a blog post on his dev studio Clovers' website, the popular Devil May Cry series was born out of his explorations for this Resident Evil game.

007 First Light launched a few days ago with a newly improved Glacier engine that comes with a number of graphical enhancements over the Hitman games, including software-based ray tracing that's enabled even at the game's low settings. YouTuber RandomGaminginHD tested the GTX 1650 4GB in the game and discovered the entry-level 16 series card can technically play the game at a playable frame rate despite being under the game's minimum GPU requirements.

The YouTuber tested the GPU at 1080p resolution using low settings. Running the game at native resolution proved to be overwhelming for the card, with frame rates running well under 30. However, using FSR upscaling catapulted frame rates above 30 FPS, with the GTX 1650 achieving around 35-40 FPS using FSR balanced mode. Performance mode failed to boost frame rates consistently above 40 FPS, but the YouTuber noted that FSR performance mode provided a more consistent experience.

The results are impressive considering the GTX 1650 falls short of the game's hardware requirements. IO Interactive states the minimum required GPU to run the game is the GTX 1660 or RX 5700, targeting 30 FPS at low settings using 1080p. As a reminder, the GTX 1650 is a significantly weaker card, featuring nearly 60% fewer cores, and a much narrower memory bus with just 4GB of GDDR5.

The Witcher series has sold over 90 million copies worldwide, CD Projekt has announced in its latest Q1 report.

CD Projekt's Q1 2026 results show consistent earnings with strong 56% profit margins, driven by a multitude of game sales across its two major brands: Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher.

The devs confirmed that The Witcher 3 has now sold 65 million copies, up 5 million from the figure disclosed in the FY25 results. At the time, CD Projekt also attached a 85 million figure to the entire series, so the Q1 results would seem to also bump that franchise total by 5 million up to 90 million.

Acer is introducing a new PC gaming handheld at Computex 2026, sporting a large 8-inch WUXGA (16:10 resolution, 1920 x 1200 pixels) display with 500-nit peak brightness and VRR support for smooth visuals. However, that's not the big thing here, as the new Predator Atlas 8 handheld from Acer is powered by the Intel Arc G3 Extreme processor, which features integrated Intel Arc B390 graphics.

Utilizing the latest Arc Graphics architecture with 12 Xe3 Cores built on the 3nm Intel 18A process node, codename Panther Lake, this integrated GPU recently debuted in laptops, where its competitive performance, real-time ray tracing, and AI-powered XeSS Super Resolution and Frame Generation technologies deliver smooth 60-100 FPS in games like Cyberpunk 2077 and the new Forza Horizon 6. Based on several reviews, it's comparable to a discrete GeForce RTX 4050 laptop GPU, making it an impressive addition to the handheld scene and the new Predator Atlas 8.

In addition to gaming performance, the Predator Atlas 8 and Intel Arc G-Series Processors are also optimized for efficiency. When it comes to the Predator Atlas 8, the up to 80 Wh battery works alongside Intel Endurance gaming to balance frame rate and power draw for longer sessions when you're not plugged in.

Former Rockstar employees have yet to match the success of Grand Theft Auto, according to Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick.

The Take-Two CEO noted that many developers, including those with Rockstar backgrounds, have tried and failed to create a hit on par with GTA or other major Take-Two titles. Zelnick emphasized that technology alone won't disrupt Rockstar's dominance. Instead, he believes it will take "extraordinarily creative individuals" to challenge the company's legacy.

He also confirmed GTA 6 will launch in November 2026, following a 13-year gap since GTA 5. Meanwhile, GTA 5 remains a commercial powerhouse, selling 5 million units each quarter, while GTA Online continues to receive regular updates and rakes in millions of dollars per week for Rockstar and Take-Two.

The new James Bond 007 First Light game is one of 2026's big AAA hits with 1.5 million copies sold in its first day of availability.

The new James Bond prequel is off to a strong start as the game reaches platinum sales in just 24 hours, highlighting yet another successful launch for the year. IO Interactive has always wanted to make a James Bond game, and their passion and dedication shines through the high-quality, cinematic machismo chaos that First Light offers to players.

Based on player reception, the studio has adequately captured a modern day Bond's suave and deadly prowess in game form, mixing big death-defying sequences with explosions, thrilling car chases, gun battles, and more set amid major set pieces ranging from mountains to mansions.

Riot Games is making a bold shift in the support meta with Patch 26.11, prioritizing melee and engage supports over the ranged enchanter playstyle, which is currently dominating bot lane.

The changes aim to improve the variety of supports that can be played, widening the team comp variables, especially in competitive matches. Key adjustments include a nerf to ranged support effectiveness, a buff to Aftershock and Guardian for melee users, and a rework of Dream Maker to balance damage reduction mechanics.

Grubs have also been strengthened, helping melee supports roam more effectively. Summon Aery and Locket of the Iron Solari have also been changed, with the latter gaining a direct stat boost aimed at providing more agency to tanky support builds.

Ninth generation console prices are higher than they've ever been, yet Grand Theft Auto 6 is still expected to help elevate hardware sales throughout the holiday period.

GTA 6 is expected to be the biggest entertainment launch of all time. Analysts predict the game will sell tens of millions of copies on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, and now Take-Two management has commented on its views on GTA 6's wider industry-level effects.

In a recent interview between The Game Business and Take-Two execs CEO Strauss Zelnick, company CFO Lainie Goldstein quickly interjected with a simple but meaningful response on the topic of console price increases. "We do think GTA 6 will drive console sales," she said.

Activision has officially revealed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, marking the return of Infinity Ward's sub-series after a three-year hiatus. Players officially go boots on the ground again on October 23, 2026, when the game launches on PS5, Xbox Series X / S, PC, and for the first time in the franchise's history, Nintendo Switch 2.

The Switch 2 debut is the first solid proof of the 10-year Call of Duty agreement between Microsoft and Nintendo in 2023, which committed Microsoft to bringing CoD to Nintendo platforms. On the other end of the spectrum, PS4 and Xbox One are being left behind entirely, making MW4 the first current-gen-only Call of Duty of this console generation.

The official confirmation follows a trail of leaks that had been pointing this way for months. Gaming insider NateTheHate had already tipped it off with a simple "Yes" in response to a comment on r/GamingLeaksAndRumours suggesting MW4 would be the first CoD on Switch 2.

Infinity Ward today revealed Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4, confirming that the campaign centers around a North Korean invasion set in a linear storyline.

This year's Call of Duty has been revealed as Modern Warfare 4, and is set to launch this October on current-gen consoles--even the Nintendo Switch 2. Infinity Ward promises that MW4's campaign is a "return to form," and that it will be "darker and more dangerous than ever before."

MW4's campaign will take players all over the world with car chases through Paris, as well as missions in New York and even Mumbai. There's also reports that the campaign will be playable offline, unlike last year's Black Ops 7, which had a widely unpopular forced online campaign. Story-wise, it will feature Captain Price, Valeria, and Shadow Company, as well as Private Park's new team of South Korean soldiers.

The new PlayStation Days of Play sale discounts a bunch of products, including annual PS Plus subscriptions, giving gamers a prime opportunity to buy in.

New and lapsed subscribers can grab a full year of PlayStation Plus Premium for $108 in Sony's latest Days of Play sale, which is a lot more manageable than the original $159 per year. The annual event will likely spark a lot of sign-ups and re-subscriptions, especially for the Premium tier, which is priced so competitively against the Extra tier that users will only be spending an extra $7 for substantial benefits.

The discount also comes shortly after Sony raised the prices of all PlayStation Plus tiers in the United States and other regions. What's interesting about this move is that Sony only increased the prices of its 1-month and 3-month subscription tiers, leaving the 12-month options the same. It appears to be a move to push consumers towards the 12-month options in a bid for maximum engagement with the services--MAUs are important--as well as improved chances of recurring memberships through embedded investment.