Gaming - Page 34

Subnautica 2 has finally resurfaced with a firm early access date and a cinematic trailer, marking the end of a long silence that has only amplified anticipation for the sequel.

Developer Unknown Worlds Entertainment confirmed that Subnautica 2 will launch into early access on May 14, 2026, alongside a new cinematic trailer offering a fresh look at its alien ocean world. The sequel builds on the original survival formula with a new setting, expanded systems, and, for the first time in the series, multiplayer support.

Subnautica 2 has been part of an ongoing development story that includes delays from its original 2025 window and a highly publicized legal dispute involving publisher Krafton.

It's an end of an era: The video games industry's financial onslaught has led to the dismantling of another team, this time Spiders, a studio responsible for multiple mid-range AA games.

After nearly two decades, Spiders Studios is shutting down. The French game developer, a subsidiary of entertainment company Nacon, is being liquidated due to the financial troubles of its parent. Nacon attempted to find a new buyer for Spiders last month, but the deadline came and went without a prospective offer.

Now the studio has shared the bad news on Twitter, saying that Spiders is effectively no more. The Paris-based team that worked on games like Bound By Flame, Steelrising, and two Greedfall games--all set in the proprietary Silk engine--has closed shop.

Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced lets you ditch the HUD entirely, hiding health bars and ammo counters. By baking critical combat cues into enemy behavior, such as pirates losing their hats when defense breaks, Ubisoft has opened up Resynced for a mechanic-focused combat experience.

The overhaul, confirmed via a Reddit post by Ubisoft and IGN, reframes Black Flag as a stealth-action title rather than an RPG. Enemies now signal vulnerabilities through posture shifts, weapon swaps, and, yes, missing headgear. This mirrors some modern design trends prioritizing immersion over cluttered interfaces, though average players may shake their head at losing traditional informative metrics.

The move reflects a broader industry push toward "invisible" UI, seen in titles like The Last of Us Part II and Death Stranding. For Black Flag, it's an interesting bet: players must read animations to survive, deepening engagement but raising the skill ceiling. Ubisoft's confidence in this approach underscores the acknowledgment that some players like the game's raw mechanics, and having this feature now opens the gameplay up to these limit-testing players.

Apple's upcoming A20 chip, set to power the base iPhone 18, is reportedly skipping TSMC's advanced WMCM (Wafer-Level Chiplet Multi-Chip) packaging technology due to persistent DRAM shortages.

This shift underscores how supply chain constraints stemming from AI companies' supply squeezes are forcing even industry leaders like Apple to scale back ambitious hardware plans. Previously, the A20 was expected to transition from TSMC's InFO (Integrated Fan-Out) packaging to WMCM, a modular approach enabling flexible CPU/GPU core configurations.

WMCM allows chiplets, smaller, specialized components to be combined in varying ratios, optimizing performance and power efficiency for different device tiers. For example, high-end iPhone models could feature more GPU cores, while budget variants prioritize CPU efficiency. However, reports from WCCFTech, citing an X post from tipster Jukun, suggest Apple will retain InFO for the A20 to mitigate risks tied to DRAM scarcity, which has disrupted global electronics manufacturing.

Grand Theft Auto VI could become the first game in years that has players calling in sick on launch day, and it might also be the one that finally pushes AAA pricing past its current limits.

Take Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has recently expressed confidence in the game's reported November 19 release window, while also addressing the company's pricing and value approach. Although no official price was confirmed during the interview, Zelnick's comments about delivering more value than the price paid have reignited speculation that GTA VI could launch at a price above the standard $70.

This fits into a broader pattern that has been building for months, with rumors pointing to GTA 6 being the first game to hit the $100 price point. However, past comments from Zelnick have alluded to the contrary, as the Take-Two CEO referred to the $70/$80 price tag when describing AAA games, which GTA 6 absolutely will be.

Elon Musk has taken the stand in the escalating legal battle surrounding OpenAI, accusing the company of straying from its original mission and effectively "looting a charity."

Testifying in court, Musk kept to his long-standing argument that OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit focused on benefiting humanity, but, as it grew and he left as one of the founders, it has since shifted toward a profit-driven model that prioritizes commercial success. His comments come as part of a broader legal dispute tied to his AI company xAI, which has already filed lawsuits alleging anti-competitive behavior and misuse of trade secrets involving OpenAI and its partners.

The testimony adds fuel to an ongoing and heated conflict between Musk and OpenAI leadership, specifically CEO Sam Altman. Musk has repeatedly criticized the company's transformation into a capped-profit structure and its deep ties with major tech players like Microsoft, using both as examples of how OpenAI has strayed from its original mission statement.

Earlier this year, we reported on a blind test conducted by ComputerBase, which included over 1,000 participants. The purpose was simple: to find out what gamers preferred in terms of image quality. NVIDIA's brand-new DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution was pitted against AMD's FSR 4 and native rendering. The fact that DLSS beat FSR was unsurprising, but the most notable result was DLSS beating native rendering.

DLSS 4.5, which uses a second-generation, powerful transformer model, is a game-changer for image quality. It restores detail missing in previous iterations while also delivering better-than-native detail compared to standard anti-aliasing solutions like TAA. Cut to April 2026, and ComputerBase is back with another blind test and a new batch of games.

This time around, NVIDIA's DLSS 4.5 is pitted against AMD's updated FSR 4.1 and FSR 4.0. And even though DLSS 4.5 wins overall, in that gamers prefer its image quality over the competition, FSR 4.1 was preferred over DLSS in one out of the seven games in the experiment.

Xbox's hardware revenues are down to their lowest point in the Xbox Series generation, and Microsoft's latest results actually represent the second quarter in a row that this has occurred.

In a not so surprising development, the latest price hike is continuing to impact Xbox console sales. Consumers may be shying away from Microsoft's gen 9 console duo as Xbox hardware earnings recently delivered their lowest results throughout the Xbox Series lifetime.

Based on numbers from Xbox expert and Install Base admin John Welfare, Xbox made around $221 million in quarterly revenues, down more than -30% year-over-year. "Xbox hardware revenue decreased 33% driven by lower volume of consoles sold," Microsoft's latest 10Q report said.

Newly-discovered DRM on the PlayStation Store has triggered controversy among Sony faithful, and now the company has finally issued a statement on the matter.

After days of diligent research, gamers and media enthusiasts put together evidence of DRM on the PlayStation Store that could lock players out of a digital purchase if they stayed offline for too long. The reports grew, with indications that the license timer was a way to thwart fraudulent refunds.

Sony has now made a statement, confirming that online checks are required to access games...but these verifications only have to be made one time.

Countdown begins for the highly-awaited "The Blood of Dawnwalker", which finally has a release date. The new game from Rebel Wolves and Bandai Namco will launch on September 3rd, 2026. Rebel Wolves recently revealed a new story trailer, the release date, and the full system requirements for the game in a "Road to Launch" stream.

The Blood of Dawnwalker is a single-player, open-world, action RPG game developed by Rebel Wolves, a studio that was co-founded by Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, the director of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Not only that, but the studio also has several developers who worked previously with CD Projekt Red on Cyberpunk 2077. It is easy to see why The Blood of Dawnwalker is highly anticipated in the gaming community.

We already know that the game will be set in a medieval Eastern European setting, much like The Witcher 3. The player will take on the role of a half-man, half-vampire named Coen. The narrative will revolve around Coen's struggle to save his loved ones by using his dynamic vampire powers. It has been reported that the game will deliver a "narrative sandbox," loaded with choices that will impact both the story and the world itself. If this sounds familiar, that is exactly why players fell in love with The Witcher 3 in the first place.

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has once again reinforced Grand Theft Auto VI's tightly controlled marketing strategy, now teasing that the next phase will begin "soon," sparking immediate conversation about Trailer 3.

During a recent interview with Variety, cited in a report from Game File, Zelnick declined to lock in a specific date for when GTA VI marketing would ramp up, simply stating it would begin "soon." The vague wording is classic Take-Two, aligning with the company's long-standing approach of avoiding extended marketing cycles in favor of shorter, high-impact campaigns closer to launch. In Take-Two and Rockstar fashion, silence with very little to go on is typically the course of action.

Moreover, it fits perfectly with what we have seen from Rockstar so far. After the record-breaking Trailer 1 drop in December 2023, the studio has gone completely quiet, despite massive global anticipation. A recent viral post from GameRoll highlights this silence, suggesting that Rockstar is intentionally holding back before unleashing a concentrated wave of trailers, gameplay reveals, and previews.

Ubisoft's next mainline Assassin's Creed game, codenamed "Hexe," has been in the news cycle lately. It has been a bit of a tumultuous time for the game's development team, as it has now lost two directors in as many months. Creative director Clint Hocking left the team in February, and more recently, game director Benoit Richer also left the Hexe project to co-found an indie studio.

It seems like the ship is not out of troubled waters yet, as we have more bad news to report from the Hexe development circle. According to a report by Insider Gaming (citing leaker @xj0nathan), the game's new creative director, Jean Guesdon, has removed 50 developers from the Assassin's Creed Hexe team. These developers are reported to have been moved to Ubisoft's Interproject team, which hosts Ubisoft workers when they have no projects assigned to them.

This change can significantly impact the game's development cycle and the eventual launch date. Assassin's Creed Hexe was reportedly initially slated for a 2026 launch, but recent events and the lack of information about the game give us no confidence that Ubisoft will be able to hit that target. It seems increasingly clear that the game's launch will be pushed deep into 2027, if not later, which will throw off Ubisoft's announced roadmap.

It almost seems like all the problems in the PC hardware space nowadays are somehow linked to the global DRAM shortage. Every other day, another component becomes more expensive due to the crippling supply-demand mismatch in both DRAM and CPU chips. The AI boom and its resulting global memory crisis seem to have taken another victim, this time being Valve's Steam Machine.

Valve officially announced the Steam Controller earlier this week, with a $99 price tag and a May 4th launch date. However, the keen-eyed among you might have remembered the earlier rumors that Valve was supposedly preparing the Steam Controller to launch alongside the Steam Machine, and the Steam Frame for that matter. After all, a controller being paired with a gaming machine makes perfect sense, right? So why the staggered launch?

Turns out, all roads lead to our old buddy, the DRAM shortage. In a recent interview with Polygon, Valve hardware engineer Steve Cardinali confirmed that the Steam Machine and Steam Frame are being held back by the ongoing memory crisis, and that the controller was ready to be shipped since it doesn't have any RAM in it.

Earlier this month, Xbox and Activision announced that the live-action Call of Duty movie was on track to hit theaters on June 30, 2028. The film adaptation of one of the most popular gaming franchises of all time is being developed in partnership with Paramount, with acclaimed writer Taylor Sheridan (Sicario, Yellowstone) penning the script alongside director Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights, Lone Survivor).

Although we don't know much about the movie beyond the above, it seems it's already sparked its first bit of controversy courtesy of an old interview. Back in 2013, Call of Duty's Peter Berg sat down with Esquire and shared some very unflattering words about video games, specifically shooters like Call of Duty.

"Pathetic," Peter Berg responds when asked about his thoughts on video games. "Keyboard courage. Can't stand it. The only people that I give a Call of Duty get-out-of-jail-free card to is the military. They're out there serving and they're bored and they want to entertain themselves? Okay, maybe. Kids? Uh-uh."

With Valve launching its new Steam Controller, its first hardware release for 2026, many are naturally wondering about the status of the upcoming Steam Machine and the inevitable Steam Deck 2 gaming handheld. As part of the new controller's debut, IGN sat down with Valve programmer Pierre-Loup Griffais to ask about the current status of the handheld sequel.

"We're hard at work on it," Griffais replied, confirming that the company is still very much all in on developing the highly anticipated Steam Deck 2. Although we didn't get any new information or details on hardware specs, a potential launch window, or any new features for the handheld, the good news is that Valve is treating its recent hardware push as a single ecosystem, where each device informs the others.

"If you look at our hardware projects over the years, you can draw a straight line from the original Steam Controller and Steam Machine to Steam Deck, to everything that we're announcing and shipping this year," Griffais adds. "We expect Steam Deck 2 will be a lot of the same, where a lot of what we're doing here will be learnings that build up to it."

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has been officially revealed, and fans are ecstatic about exploring the golden age of piracy again. We covered a report earlier this month that another Assassin's Creed remake was supposedly in the works, with rumors pointing towards an earlier installment in the series. A new leak suggests that Ubisoft may be going all the way back to Damascus for the next remake.

The leak comes from @xjØnathan on X (formerly Twitter), stating that an Assassin's Creed I remake is in the works. There is not much else to go on here, but the leaker claims that the original source is someone within Ubisoft. However, this lines up with the earlier report from Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson, who claimed that another Assassin's Creed remake (after Black Flag) was already in the works.

Ubisoft also gave us an update on the roadmap of Assassin's Creed early last month. Head of Content, Jean Guesdon, stated that multiple projects were currently in progress, including the mainline game codenamed Hexe, a PvP multiplayer experience known as Invictus, and a AAA mobile game currently known as Jade. These projects are all moving at different speeds; however, as we recently saw with Assassin's Creed Hexe losing two directors in two months.

Following recent price hikes in the US, UK, Europe, and Japan, Sony has now announced new pricing for the PS5, PS5 Pro, and PS Portal across Southeast Asian markets. The new prices will bring these regions in line with global console pricing and will take effect May 1st, covering the PS5, PS5 Digital Edition, PS5 Pro, and PlayStation Portal in selected markets.

The Southeast Asia update covers Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. The biggest price jump is seen in Indonesia, where the PlayStation Portal will now sell for IDR 5,199,000, up 44.5% from IDR 3,599,000.

For consoles, the largest confirmed increase is in the Philippines, where the standard PS5 moves from PHP 30,790 to PHP 40,032, a 30% increase. Vietnam follows with a 27.1% increase for the standard PS5, from VND 13,300,000 to VND 16,900,000.

Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred is the second major expansion for the game, and it's out later today with servers, new campaign content, and Season 13 set to kick off at 4:00 PM PDT, April 27. Ahead of the launch, we were able to go hands-on with the new campaign on a pre-release server, while also getting a first-hand feel for the new endgame and all of the big changes. As someone who has been playing since launch, it's safe to say that Lord of Hatred is a game-changer.

Not only in terms of presenting an engaging story that actually adds closure to all of the background Mephisto stuff from the main game, but also the cranking up of the stakes of the first Vessel of Hatred expansion, but in terms of where Diablo 4 might be headed next. Ultimately, the big stuff here plays off the new story campaign, which is set in the new region of Skovos, home to the Amazons.

This backdrop, inspired by Greek myth, introduces a new major city and hub called Temis. For Diablo 4 fans, it's the best locale and hub to date, offering quick access to all of the game's existing and new features. From the return of Kanai's Cube to Talismans, the Pitt, Undericty, and War Plans, there's a lot, so here's a quick breakdown of what's in store in Lord of Hatred.

It's no secret that Valve's Steam Machine went from being one of the most highly anticipated gaming hardware releases of early 2026 to being missing in action. The reason for this comes down to the ongoing memory crisis that has exponentially increased the prices of consumer memory and storage. Valve has officially confirmed this and stated that it still plans to ship both the Steam Machine and the Steam Frame headset in 2026.

According to a new report from Insider Gaming's Mike Straw, "Valve is getting closer to confirming everything" when it comes to the Steam Machine. Apparently, pricing is the big issue, with Valve actively debating whether it's willing to "take a loss" in the short term. This would mean Valve would lose money on every Steam Machine sold, with the idea being that it would recoup costs through users buying games on Steam.

Although we don't have a ballpark figure for any of the prices Valve is considering, a recent leak suggesting the Steam Controller will cost $100 makes it likely that the Steam Machine price will still be much higher than expected. Even if Valve is willing to take a loss or break even.

Recent rumors suggest Intel is rebranding its next-gen PC gaming handheld chips, with the Arc G3 and Arc G3 Extreme set to be formally unveiled at Computex 2026. Although these new Panther Lake chips haven't been officially announced, Robert Hallock, Intel VP and GM of its enthusiast channel, has seemingly inadvertently confirmed the 'Arc G3' branding.

The confirmation arrived via the German outlet PC Games Hardware, which posted its full interview with Robert Hallock. When asked about the Arc G3 Series launch and PC gaming handhelds, he responded with, "I actually don't work on Arc G3 all the time." So yeah, instead of a "no comment" like response, we got Robert Hallock simply stating that he's not deeply involved in the Arc G3 Series and that mobile technology and chips have a much longer marketing cycle than desktop processors.

Now, this could mean that the Intel Arc G3 Series is still a lot further out than expected and needs more development time for hardware and software to come together, that is, dedicated handhelds from Intel partners like MSI, which has support for mobile Arc Graphics with its Claw series. Still, per our previous reporting, we do have information on the specs for the upcoming Arc G3 Series.