Gaming - Page 33

Sony PlayStation gamers could soon get their money back after a judge approved a preliminary settlement in a class-action lawsuit targeting the PlayStation Digital Store.

The case, which accuses Sony of deceptive practices around digital game purchases, could result in refunds for thousands of users who bought titles through the platform.

The press release states that Sony failed to disclose refund policies and content ownership for digital purchases clearly. While the full terms are still being finalized, the judge's approval signals that affected users may be eligible for reimbursement. No official figures have been released on how much or how many gamers could be impacted.

LEGO is bringing retro gaming into the real world with its brand-new, officially licensed Sega Genesis set, and if you are thinking it's going to be another Millennium Falcon-priced set, you are wrong. It's actually quite cheap.

The set, which mirrors the iconic 16-bit console, is set to arrive in just a few weeks and has undoubtedly already sparked excitement among collectors and nostalgia-hungry gamers. LEGO's announcement comes after the company expanded into the retro gaming space with its Nintendo Entertainment System set in 2020 and the LEGO Nintendo Game Boy in 2025.

The new Sega Genesis set, which will include a fully functional LEGO console with a working LED light and a removable cartridge, is priced at just $39.99. That's a fraction of the price of the Nintendo version, making it one of the most affordable retro-themed LEGO sets to date.

Take-Two has officially shut down speculation about product placement in Grand Theft Auto 6. In a recent statement, CEO Strauss Zelnick confirmed that the company has no plans to include branded content or in-game ads in the upcoming title. This comes as a relief to long-time fans who've grown wary of the creeping commercialization in open-world experiences.

Given the incredible anticipation for Grand Theft Auto 6, many gamers believed Rockstar and Take-Two would use the hype to squeeze as much money as possible out of GTA 6, including in-game advertising partnerships that let brands place marketing within the GTA 6 world. However, it appears that won't be the case as Zelnick emphasized that GTA 6 will remain true to the series' creative roots, "We're not looking to monetize the game world in that way," he said.

The absence of product placement also speaks to Take-Two's broader strategy of maintaining high creative control across its flagship titles, particularly at Rockstar, and especially as it faces growing pressure to balance profitability with player satisfaction. With GTA 6's launch slowly marching toward us, and seemingly no delay on the horizon, GTA 6 fans can at least, for the time being, rest easy knowing the game won't launch with in-game ads.

When Valve first announced the Steam Machine late last year, with the device's graphics capabilities powered by a custom RDNA 3 GPU, many noticed that the HDMI specs topped out at HDMI 2.0. The reason for this comes down to the HDMI Forum and the closed, licensing-based nature of the display technology, with both AMD and Valve trying to convince the HDMI Forum leadership to allow open-source HDMI support on Linux.

This has been an ongoing issue or limitation for years. With the Steam Machine launch reportedly closer than ever, we've now got our first confirmation or evidence that HDMI 2.1 support is coming to Linux and, by extension, SteamOS. If you're wondering why this is a big deal, well, HDMI 2.1's increased bandwidth paves the way for 4K 120Hz gaming, which would be possible when playing less demanding and older titles on the Steam Machine.

This news arrives via the Linux gurus over at Phoronix, who noticed that the latest AMDGPU driver release for the operating system added HDMI FRL support. HDMI Fixed Rate Link is exclusive to HDMI 2.1, and it's the technology that enables higher bandwidth over the HDMI port to support higher resolutions, color spaces, and refresh rates.

Some of the coolest hardware mods have always existed in the retro gaming space, and the Kawaii is certainly up there. What you've got here is a compact, keychain-sized Nintendo GameCube that features actual Nintendo silicon. Created by Bitbuilt modders @YveltalGriffin, @Wesk, and @Ding, it's made possible thanks to the OMEGA trim of the original Nintendo Wii motherboard.

As the Wii was backward compatible with GameCube titles, the Kawaii is a GameCube in the form of a stylish CNC-machined aluminum chassis with laser-etchings measuring 60 x 60 x 15.8mm. Now, the Kawaii is paired with a magnetic dock that includes four GameCube controller ports and video out, and the CPU inside the passively cooled chassis is undervolted to keep temperatures in check.

The modders note that the design "prioritizes aesthetics over practicality," which is reinforced by a deep dive video on the Kawaii by YouTube channel Macho Nacho Productions. In the video, we learn that the Kawaii gets "very warm" when gaming, so a portable desk fan and airflow are recommended.

EA is back in the headlines for monetization practices, and this time gamers have noticed an interesting new trend that could arm the company with even more high-level data.

A new video from YouTuber DannyonPC shows that EA is currently taking pre-orders for Battlefield 6's new season 3 battle pass. Users have noticed pop-ups while playing in-game that advertise both battle pass purchase options--the standard $10 version, or the $25 Battlefield Pro. EA is offering pre-order bonuses for gamers who buy now, including weapons and packs.

EA has discussed season 3 at length, confirming a May 12 start date and the inclusion of Battlefield 6's largest map to date--Railway to Golmud, a reimagining of the BF4 classic--and ranked battle royale.

World of Warcraft players are sending a clear message to Blizzard by protesting the prices of the new housing store, which has a bundle for $75, which is just $2 more than it costs to subscribe to the game for half a year.

WoW's new player housing economy has become controversial, which seemed inevitable, given that it's built on the game's second-ever virtual currency. While the game's community is usually contentious, gamers seem unified in their feelings about the new $75 Cozy Treehouse Retreat Bundle that's being sold on the Battle.net store.

The more expensive retreat bundle includes a ton of different cosmetic options wrapped up in one package, and it saves users on average $0.50 versus buying everything separately. Fans aren't entirely happy about the presentation, positioning, and general pricing of the new player housing content, which was a big selling point of World of Warcraft's latest Midnight expansion.

Rockstar Games has been steadily building a user-generated content framework for Grand Theft Auto, including investing and supporting its active GTA Online community with practical delivery and commerce systems.

Rather than trying to tackle everything themselves, Rockstar actually bought modding group Cfx.re, the team that hosts special standalone online versions of GTA V and RDR Online, which are respectively known as FiveM and RedM. Rockstar then established a dedicated storefront, the Cfx Marketplace, that sells digital content and items for these separate, standalone and user-monetized online versions.

That got us thinking: Will GTA 6 operate in the same way, with an official online mode operating separately but in tandem with a custom version (SixM)? Or will Rockstar try to combine the two, offering UGC within the official version?

Microsoft is hiring a new financial expert to help lead transformational change at Xbox and keep a close eye on game budgets and sensitive profit margins.

Xbox is being primed for its next phase shift. The platform will evolve with Project Helix, a hybrid system that plays both PC and console games, as well as expansion into cloud-native games and off-console content. These ambitions won't come cheap, and the latest Game Pass price drop means Microsoft might have to get more creative to squeeze out extra revenue--especially at a time when Xbox earnings continue to drop every quarter.

That's why Microsoft is now hiring more bean counters to help keep Xbox's spending under control. Games are more expensive to make now than they've ever been, and it's also a very bad time to plan a next-gen console launch, what with the RAM and storage scarcity driving up prices to eye-wateringly high levels. Microsoft is currently hiring a senior finance lead to help identify solutions to these problems while making sure Xbox stays a profitable, growing business.

MindsEye's post-launch saga is taking an even stranger turn, with the studio now doubling down on sabotage claims while turning the controversy into in-game content.

Build A Rocket Boy has continued to insist that MindsEye's troubled launch was not purely the result of internal issues, claiming it has identified individuals behind a coordinated campaign to sabotage the game's launch.

The studio alleges more than €1 million was spent on efforts to damage the game's reputation and squander its launch, and that the accusations range from paid influencers to internal interference. Studio leadership recently said it has enough evidence to pursue legal action.

Windrose continues its rapid rise, with the breakout pirate survival game now surpassing 1.5 million copies sold, cementing one of the strongest early access video game launches of 2026.

The Kraken Express title has steadily built momentum since launch, following an explosive debut that saw it hit 1 million copies in under a week and reach more than 200,000 concurrent players on Steam. The SteamDB charts are also painting quite a healthy story, as the title peaked at 222,000 players, and is approximately averaging more than 100,000 concurrently since it entered early access on April 14. This latest milestone reinforces just how quickly Windrose has gone from a promising indie to a major player in the survival crafting space.

Windrose did not just spike at launch; it sustained growth, driven by strong word of mouth, a successful Steam Next Fest demo, and a co-op-focused PvE experience that stands out in a genre often dominated by PvP. Earlier reports highlighted over 1.5 million wishlists before release, indicating that quite a bit of groundwork had already been laid for this kind of breakout success.

With several credible leaks and rumors pointing to a big Computex 2026 reveal for Intel's new PC gaming handheld processor, called the Arc G3 Extreme, we're now starting to see actual evidence of the device out in the wild. The first one arrives via PassMark, which offers CPU performance of the Intel Arc G3 Extreme processor.

The listing confirms the leaked CPU specs, including a Panther-Lake 14-core design with 2 P-cores, 8 E-cores, and 4 LP (low-power) cores. As the listing doesn't include information on the 12-core integrated Xe3 GPU and focuses purely on CPU performance, we now know that the Intel Arc G3 Extreme processor is notably more powerful than the AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme found in the ROG Xbox Ally X and other Windows-based PC gaming handhelds.

The single-thread score of 4288 for the Arc G3 Extreme is roughly 8% higher than the Ryzen Z2 Extreme's score of 3964. In addition, the full multi-threaded score of 29622 for the Arc G3 Extreme is about 25% higher than the Ryzen Z2 Extreme's 23649. Having more cores and threads helps, and these results indicate better overall gaming performance, as CPU performance plays a role when playing at lower resolutions like 1080p.

It's no secret that Valve's Steam Machine hasn't launched yet because of the current memory and storage crisis affecting the consumer technology market. With prices doubling and tripling and availability becoming scarce, the discourse surrounding an affordable entry-level 'gaming console' PC from Valve has shifted from anticipation to questions about price and availability.

For those gamers out there excited about the idea of a more powerful Steam Deck that connects to your TV as a SteamOS-powered gaming console, there is some great news. According to Brad Lynch, a well-known leaker of all things Valve, the company has been receiving "a ton" of shipments at its various US-based warehouses, with all of them marked as "Game Consoles."

Although there's no specific mention of the Steam Machine, odds are this is exactly what's being received. And as a "ton" implies a lot of stock, potentially in the tens or even hundreds of thousands, there's a good chance this means Valve is set to announce and launch the highly anticipated Steam Machine very soon.

You'll never guess what game inspired The Elder Scrolls Online--it's a real shocker, but Blizzard's mega-hit MMORPG was the blueprint that Bethesda followed.

Bethesda was actually the one who came up with the idea to adapt The Elder Scrolls into an online game. In a new interview with games publication 80.lv, former ZeniMax Online Studios founder and lead Matt Firor says that ESO was originally created as a direct answer to World of Warcraft's success.

They didn't need any convincing! Seriously, they recruited me to found ZOS and build Elder Scrolls Online, and were very upfront about it from the first interview. They saw the success of WoW and wanted to turn their own fantasy single player IP into a massively multiplayer experience," Firor said.

Icelandic video game studio CCP Games has secured its independence from South Korean MMORPG giant Pearl Abyss for significantly less than what was paid for the group years ago.

CCP Games CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson has re-acquired private ownership over the studio. As per reports from The Chosun Daily, Pétursson paid 177.132 Billion Won (roughly $120 million) for CCP Games, nearly half of what the South Korean firm paid nearly a decade ago. Back in 2018, Pearl Abyss acquired CCP Games for an upfront buyout price of $225 million, with the potential of an extra $200 million in bonus payouts.

Now 8 years later, CCP Games has secured its independence for nearly half of the price that Pearl Abyss had originally paid. The group created Eve Online, one of the most popular MMORPGs on the market and a game that caters to a very niche audience.

Xbox's new CEO Asha Sharma appears to say that the games segment has better profit margins than before, or at the very least there's been progress made in that regard.

While Microsoft reports another consecutive quarter of a drop in gaming earnings, this time a -$380 million year-over-year dip in total gaming revenues, it appears that Xbox has become more profitable. Division CEO Asha Sharma indicates that Xbox now has its operating margins under better control, and this could support recent reports that Microsoft's board and CFO have eased pressures on Xbox to deliver strict quarterly margin targets.

"While we have made progress expanding the business and our margins, player and revenue growth has not yet met our ambition. We know we have work to do to earn every player today and into the future," Sharma said on Twitter, the same day Microsoft announced its Q3'FY26 results.

As promised a month ago, Microsoft's so-called "Xbox Mode" is now rolling out on more Windows 11 PCs, potentially giving users a look at what's on the horizon with the next-gen Project Helix system.

The final form of the Xbox brand is almost here. Project Helix represents a plan that's been more than a decade in the making; unifying Windows and Xbox consoles is something that happened first during the Xbox One era, and now Microsoft is pushing things to a new level with Project Helix, a device that can play both Windows PC and Xbox console games.

To ease into this convergence, Microsoft released the Xbox Full Screen Experience (FSE), which was basically a dedicated, console-like UI made specifically for gaming on Windows. The FSE, which was first launched on the Xbox Ally handhelds, is now called Xbox Mode and is coming to all Windows 11 devices.

We are about to get a closer look at Xbox's next-generation console, with a new reveal for Project Helix reportedly set for May as Microsoft continues to reshape what an Xbox actually is.

In its Spring 2026 Xbox Game Dev Update, Microsoft doubled down on its long term vision for Project Helix, highlighting a unified ecosystem where console and PC development are effectively merged. The next generation system is designed to run both Xbox and PC games natively, with developers building once for multiple platforms instead of maintaining separate versions.

This direction aligns directly with what we have already seen from Project Helix in recent months. Microsoft has consistently positioned the hardware as a hybrid console PC system, built in partnership with AMD and powered by next generation rendering technologies.

Japanese games company Koei Tecmo has enjoyed record-breaking success throughout FY25, leading to all-time net profits, strong operating income, and higher-than-ever game sales.

Koei Tecmo's full-year FY25 results show record-breaking game unit sales for the period, leading to new milestones for net profit and a high standing for operating profit earnings. The company released multiple new titles throughout FY25, leading to 14.1 million game sales throughout the timeline. That's a +84% year-over-year increase in total game unit sales.

The high volume sales were driven principally by huge hits like Pokopia, which was confirmed to have sold 2.2 million copies in just 4 days and was eyed as a potential system-seller by Wedbush Securities. The group also saw strong sales of first-party hit NiOh 3, which sold 1 million copies in 14 days.

Microsoft today announced its Q3FY26 earnings, showing a big decline in total Xbox revenues.

Xbox's FYQ3'26 results for the January - March 2026 period are in, and all-told, the games division is said to have made $5.34 billion in the three-month season, showing a sizable -$380 million decline in gross revenues from the year prior.

The drop represents a -5% in content & services (games, subscriptions, etc) to $5.12 billion, with Xbox console hardware dropping -33% to a meager $221 million, a new all-time record low for the Xbox Series generation. Management also notes that first-party games performed better during this time last year than they did this year; in Q3'FY25, Microsoft released Age of Mythology Retold, as well as Avowed on Xbox, and then re-released that same game a year later on PS5. Xbox's Q4'26 will also face tough comparables because of the meteoric launch of Forza Horizon 5 in April 2025, which affects the prior Q4'25 period. Microsoft hopes to counter that with multiple releases like two ports of South of Midnight, Double Fine's new multiplayer game Kiln, and Forza Horizon 6's launch in May.