Gaming - Page 40

Ubisoft's long-rumored Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag remake now has a release date, and it's arriving sooner than expected, as Tom Henderson from Insider Gaming has learned when Ubisoft is planning on launching the highly anticipated title.

According to a new report from Insider Gaming, Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced is set to launch on July 9, 2026, marking the return of Edward Kenway's pirate adventure with a fully reworked experience. The report also reveals that Ubisoft had originally planned to announce the game on April 16, but has since delayed the reveal until next week. Despite the delay, media and content creators have already been given a behind-closed-doors look at the project through a roughly 30-minute presentation.

While full details are still under wraps, early impressions suggest this is far more than a simple remaster. The game has reportedly been "completely reworked," featuring new content and updates across the board. One key detail confirmed during the presentation is that Black Flag Resynced will not follow the RPG direction seen in more recent entries, such as Assassin's Creed Valhalla or Shadows.

Battlefield Studios has finally unveiled its 2026 roadmap for Battlefield 6, and it's a major push to win players back amid a declining concurrent player base.

After a hugely successful launch in 2025 that saw Battlefield 6 become the year's best-selling game, interest dropped sharply heading into 2026, with players frustrated by a lack of maps, features, and meaningful updates. Now, Battlefield Studios has outlined what's coming next, revealing a full year of seasonal content updates, returning fan-favorite maps, and long-requested features to breathe life back into the title.

Season 3 kicks things off in May with two reimagined classics: Battlefield 4's Golmud Railway, now "Railway to Golmud"-and Battlefield 3's Grand Bazaar, reworked as "Cairo Bazaar." Railway to Golmud is set to be the largest map in the game, designed to showcase Battlefield's signature large-scale warfare.

Metro 2039 has officially been unveiled, and it's shaping up to be the darkest, most personal entry the series has ever seen. Previous reports stated Metro 2039 is being shaped by the Ukraine war, and now that more details have emerged, we can see that sentiment has been doubled down on by the studio behind the title, 4A Games.

Revealed during an Xbox First Look presentation, the next mainline entry from 4A Games brings the franchise back to its roots in the Moscow Metro after the broader scope of Metro Exodus. This time, players step into the role of a new protagonist, "The Stranger," the first fully voiced lead in the series. Set in a Metro now controlled by a fascist regime, the story leans heavily into psychological horror and trauma, with the reveal trailer showcasing fragmented nightmares and a grim return to the underground tunnels.

Beyond its narrative shift, Metro 2039 is doubling down on the immersive gameplay the series is known for. Early footage shows a mix of exploration and blood-pumping combat, including run-ins with various iconic enemies. Weapons appear just as unreliable as ever, with misfires and maintenance playing a role in survival, while the game continues its signature approach of a minimal UI, forcing players to rely on in-world objects and items, such as watches and the environment.

25 years after the first Xbox console released, Microsoft might be poised to invest more manpower and financial backing into the gaming brand than it ever has before.

Xbox's new CEO Asha Sharma might have big plans for the flagging games division. The fresh-faced CEO began her tenure by reigniting hype around Xbox, revealing the ambitious Project Helix console-PC hybrid, scrapping the unpopular "this is an Xbox" marketing campaign, and making changes driven by fan feedback.

In a newly-leaked memo acquired by The Verge, Sharma seems to indicate that Microsoft is ready to "deeply invest" into Xbox beyond the current status quo. This could manifest in a more unified framework for developers and gamers alike, offering better access to content and potentially even facilitating faster product releases.

Sony's first-party PlayStation teams are said to be chasing the extraction shooter genre, with Bungie's latest Marathon entering the arena...and it may not be the only new live game that does so.

As it did with Fortnite battle royale, Sony Interactive Entertainment undoubtedly sees the wild success of the extraction shooter market. Arc Raiders has become a highly profitable mega-hit, capturing hundreds of thousands of users on Steam alone during its peak. Bungie jumped head-first into extraction shooters with Marathon, yet that game hasn't exactly taken off the same way that Embark's sci-fi game did.

Now there are reports that another one of Sony's upcoming live games will have extraction shooter elements, likely in a bid to experiment to see what works. Sources tell Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson that first-party live shooter Fairgames will have a mode called Cargo Heist, which is a take on extraction shooters.

Original Bungie concept artist Eddie Smith shares his thoughts on the new Halo Campaign Evolved, saying that the game could look much more photorealistic than it does.

Halo Campaign Evolved is set to launch sometime this summer, capping 25 years of the iconic franchise with the series' first-ever release on PlayStation. A lot has changed over the years, and hype for Halo has died down as big competitors establish sometimes-fleeting footholds in gaming. But grizzled franchise veterans still find some old magic in Campaign Evolved trailer, stirring the bones of once-mighty shooter series.

With Microsoft's business model being somewhat contentious, it's always interesting to hear what the OG Bungie forerunners think about Halo, especially with the new remake. One old-school Halo dev, concept artist Eddie Smith, tells Halo community pro Mint Blitz that he essentially expected more from the Campaign Evolved trailer.

Meta announced that it will soon increase prices for the Quest 3 and Quest 3S headsets, including new and refurbished units. With this, the VR company joins a growing list of products getting pricier due to the global memory shortage, which has already swept up game consoles, handhelds, laptops, and basically any device that uses RAM.

Starting April 19th, US-based consumers will see both Quest 3S variants (128 GB and 256 GB) increase by $50, while the 512GB Quest 3 flagship will jump by $100. Here is what they will cost after the increase:

Meta cites the ongoing memory crisis as the main factor, saying in its blog post, "The global surge in the price of critical components-specifically memory chips-is impacting almost every category of consumer electronics, including VR. To keep delivering the quality of hardware, software, and support you expect from the Quest platform, we need to adjust our pricing."

Sony's next State of Play might be closer than expected, as a new leak has pointed to a specific date that is just around the corner.

According to a post from Detective Seeds, a known gaming industry insider, Sony is rumored to be hosting its next State of Play event on May 15, potentially setting up a major PlayStation showcase in just a few weeks. While Sony has yet to officially confirm the presentation, the timing lines up with previous reports and ongoing industry chatter pointing to a mid-May broadcast. If accurate, this would mark Sony's next big opportunity to outline what's coming next for PS5.

The rumored timing also connects with several recent developments across Sony's lineup. Insomniac has already teased that more Wolverine news is coming soon, and a State of Play would be the perfect venue for a gameplay reveal ahead of launch. There's also growing momentum around a God of War spinoff centered on Faye, following recent leaks detailing a new narrative direction.

Ubisoft might be getting ready to reveal its long-rumored Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag remake, and a sudden launcher listing may have just jumped the gun.

A now-removed listing for Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced briefly appeared on Ubisoft's launcher, giving fans their clearest look yet at the project. The listing, quickly captured and shared online, included promotional art featuring Edward Kenway in a brand-new black and gold outfit, alongside a description teasing players to "(Re)play this classic swashbuckling adventure on Day 1 with Ubisoft+ Premium."

While Ubisoft has yet to officially confirm the title, the appearance and rapid removal of the listing strongly suggest a reveal is imminent. The timing also lines up with earlier reporting from Insider Gaming, which claimed Ubisoft had been targeting a mid-April announcement, with April 16 specifically mentioned. That date has come and gone without an official reveal, but this sudden leak may indicate plans have simply shifted rather than been scrapped.

A new PlayStation 6 leak is pointing to one of Sony's most consumer-friendly moves yet, and it could redefine how the next-gen ecosystem works.

According to a leak shared by Moore's Law Is Dead, both the PlayStation 6 and its rumored handheld companion will support full backward compatibility with PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 titles. The information reportedly comes from an internal AMD presentation slide outlining Sony's next-gen plans built on the RDNA 5 architecture.

If accurate, this would give players access to a massive library of existing games at launch, something that has increasingly become a key expectation for modern consoles. Digging into the details, the leak highlights several technical pillars behind the PS6 platform. These include AI-driven upscaling features like Super Resolution, improved ray tracing with backward compatibility for PS5 titles, and dedicated engineering workstreams focused on ensuring seamless compatibility across generations.

Fresh allegations surrounding Halo Studios are painting a troubling picture behind the scenes, with former developers now speaking out in greater detail.

Following initial claims from former art director Glenn Israel, who recently departed the studio after more than 17 years working across the Halo franchise, a new investigative report has expanded on those concerns. Israel previously described issues including favoritism and questionable internal practices, while Microsoft responded only briefly, stating it does not publicly comment on individual employee matters. Now, additional reporting and corroboration from other former staff are adding weight to those claims.

One of the key issues highlighted in the Rebs Gaming report, linked above, is alleged cronyism in hiring. Israel claims that between June 2024 and June 2025, only three art leadership roles were posted externally, and all three were filled by former associates of leadership, with a potential fourth following the same pattern.

New estimates from Alinea Analytics put Starfield's total gross sales revenues at around $300 million on all platforms, including the first week on PS5 sales. Bethesda's most successful game of all time, Skyrim, managed to make double that in its first month.

Starfield launched right into Xbox Game Pass, so it's not a surprise that the game sold many fewer copies than previous Bethesda RPGs. Microsoft's subscription can impact full product sales as consumers can pay $30 once--or even twice--and still pay less than a full-priced game, an effect referred to as "cannibalization" in the industry. The effect was widely discussed in the 2023 FTC v Microsoft trial, and the UK's competitions authority also found that Game Pass is expected to reduce game sales by specific percentages.

While specifics remain unclear, some analysts have attempted to estimate Starfield's revenue, with Alinea Analytics reporting that the game could have made around $300 million in sales on Xbox, PS5, and PC. That's...not an earth-shattering figure, especially for Bethesda, who is used to selling tens of millions of copies of its games. A quick comparison shows that Skyrim made double that of Starfield in just 30 days, compared to Starfield's ~2.5 years.

PVE pirate survival game Windrose has beckoned to players, calling tens of thousands of PC gamers to the high seas--and pushing the game to the top spot on Steam's best-sellers charts.

In an age where AAA games are sinking left and right, Windrose looks to be the next indie early access hit to help the games industry stay afloat. The 18th century pirate sim goes right up against the likes of Ubisoft's Skull & Bones, offering exploration, ship-to-ship naval combat, co-op, MMO-style resource gathering, and direct third-person land combat complete with dodges and rolls.

So far the game is doing incredibly well in early access, where it has taken Steam's top #1 best-seller spot, beating out Valve's seemingly-immortal Counter-Strike 2. At the time of writing, Windrose has accumulated 97,981 concurrent players in 24 hours. The dev team behind the game says that over 500K people actually played the game in the last 48 hours. The demand for these kinds of games is clearly here, as expressed with long-running live games like Rare's Sea of Thieves.

Grok, the AI app from Elon Musk's xAI, reportedly came dangerously close to being pulled from Apple's App Store over a growing deepfake controversy.

According to a new report, Apple warned xAI earlier this year that Grok could be removed entirely if it failed to address the spread of sexualized AI-generated images circulating on X. The warning came amid mounting pressure from US lawmakers, who had raised concerns about Grok's ability to generate explicit, non-consensual deepfakes of real people. Apple confirmed in a letter to senators that it had rejected earlier versions of the app, forcing xAI to make changes before it would allow updates to go live.

The situation, however, appears far from resolved. A recent investigation has found that despite xAI implementing safeguards, such as prompt filters, monitoring systems, and model updates, problematic content is still being generated and shared online. That includes AI-generated images depicting real individuals in revealing or suggestive scenarios.

Just days after Bethesda's massive sci-fi RPG landed on PlayStation 5, a new rating has surfaced that's reigniting speculation around a potential Switch 2 port.

The listing, spotted on Taiwan's Entertainment Software Rating Information database, includes Starfield alongside its existing Xbox Series X|S, PC, and PS5 versions, but notably adds Nintendo Switch 2 to the mix. While the rating curiously lists April 15, 2026 as a release date, this appears to be an error, as the PS5 version shares the same date despite already being available.

The bigger story here is what the rating suggests behind the scenes. Rumors of a Switch 2 version have been circulating for months, though development hasn't sounded smooth. Industry insiders have previously claimed the port has faced delays, with some even suggesting it could be canceled entirely. Others maintain it's still in development, albeit with challenges.

Insomniac Games is teasing that a fresh look at Wolverine is right around the corner, and with launch looming later this year, the timing couldn't be more interesting.

With less than six months until its planned September release on PlayStation 5, Insomniac has reassured fans that more news on Wolverine is coming "later this Spring." The studio took to social media to remind players to wishlist the title, pairing the message with a short but notable tease that suggests a new reveal isn't far off. Given how quiet things have been since its initial announcement, this latest update is enough to ramp up anticipation again.

What that reveal actually looks like remains unclear, but expectations are starting to solidify. Insomniac has previously indicated it wants to showcase more gameplay before opening up pre-orders, which strongly hints that the next update could be our first substantial look at how Wolverine plays. Whether that arrives as a standalone deep dive or as part of a broader PlayStation showcase is still up in the air. There were rumors of a State of Play presentation circulating for mid-April, but Sony has yet to confirm anything official.

Starfield's debut sales on PlayStation 5 may be on the lower end, with the game selling an estimated 140K copies in its first week of sale.

On the heels of reports that Microsoft may be re-thinking its exclusivity strategy, new reports indicate that Bethesda's latest RPG may not be performing exceptionally well, sales-wise, on the PlayStation 5. The game faced steep competition at launch due to a well-timed sale on the PS Store, which saw multiple high-profile sports games discounted below $15, as well as a $40 Call of Duty Black Ops 7.

New estimates from Alinea Analytics put Starfield's debut sales into perspective. The firm says that Starfield may have sold a smaller 140K copies in its first week, which is far from the breakout sales of a big game like, say, Crimson Desert (3 million sales in 5 days) and Slay the Spire 2 (also 3 million in 7 days).

Crimson Desert has retained its multimillion sales throughout its first month as Pearl Abyss continues releasing new updates based on fan feedback.

South Korean developer Pearl Abyss is celebrating a month of strong sales for its first-ever singleplayer game, Crimson Desert. The company announced that the game has now sold over 5 million copies in less than a month on the market, solidifying it as one of the best-selling games of the year.

"Crimson Desert has sold through over 5 million copies worldwide! Thank you to every Greymane who has joined us on this journey, experienced the world of Pywel, and supported the game. Reaching this milestone would not have been possible without your support and we are truly grateful."

US consumers are buying PlayStation 5 consoles en masse to avoid an upcoming price hike, driving up sales to the highest point of the year.

Sony is about to raise prices of its PlayStation consoles by as much as 20%, leading to the PS5 Pro MSRP skyrocketing to $900. This kind of impending sticker shock has pushed consumers to purchase PS5 consoles now rather than later in a bid to get ahead of the substantial jump in the initial cost of entry to Sony's gaming ecosystem.

According to Circana senior director Mat Piscatella, Sony has inadvertently pushed console sales to the highest point of the year with their cost adjustment announcement.

A new physical edition of Red Dead Redemption appears to be on the way for PlayStation 5, giving fans yet another opportunity to add Rockstar's iconic Western to their collection, while also subtly reminding players just how quiet things have been around Red Dead Redemption 2.

According to listings spotted online, a PS5 physical disc version of Red Dead Redemption Remastered is set to launch on May 7. The listing, which first appeared on retailer Wakkap (via Portal Viciados), shows the game priced at €32.90, which is roughly just under $40 USD. While the listing has yet to be widely replicated across other major retailers at the time of writing, its presence suggests an official announcement could be imminent unless this turns out to be an error.

This physical release follows Rockstar's 2025 update that delivered a free upgrade for existing owners, bringing improved visuals and performance enhancements to modern hardware. While that update was well received, it notably skipped a dedicated PS5 disc release, seemingly until now.