Gaming - Page 53

Back in September, sources told Bloomberg that Nintendo was phasing out all Switch 2 ROM cartridges except for the expensive 64GB flash models. Now reports indicate that Nintendo has changed its mind and will start selling lower- and middle-tier capacity carts.

Nintendo will reportedly produce lower-capacity Switch 2 game cartridges for developers. Sources have told Nintendeal that Switch 2 ROM carts less than 64GB in size are being manufactured, but there are some downsides that may deter game devs: The carts will still be expensive, because they're made out of similar flash memory, and they'll also be a bit slower than the 64GB models.

"I can confirm that smaller capacity Switch 2 game cards are in production but due to chip shortages it will take time before we see widespread availability. Despite the smaller capacity, these cards will still be expensive due to rising cost of materials. Game-Key Cards are not going away," Nintendeal said on Twitter.

20th Century Fox has apparently greenlit another game set in the Alien franchise, and the devs of Deus Ex and Tomb Raider could be working on it.

Two Alien games could be in development, and both of them are said to be horror games. New reports from Insider Gaming indicate that a new unannounced Alien project has re-entered development.

The game is described as a singleplayer arcade-like experience with horror survival elements, and gameplay is said to emphasize tactical stealth and puzzle-solving. It's not all passive, though--gamers will get to take on enemies with direct combat as well as platforming elements.

Hogwarts Legacy is one of the fastest-selling video games of all time with 40 million copies sold in less than three years.

WB Games today announced that Hogwarts Legacy has sold 40 million copies across consoles and PC, making it one of the best- and fastest-selling single titles in modern gaming history.

So how does Hogwarts stack up against other games? The single Harry Potter title has actually outsold some entire video game franchises that have been on the market for decades, including the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series, Kingdom Hearts, Devil May Cry, and even Sony's Horizon franchise.

Circana's latest games industry report reveals that Electronic Arts currently has 6 out of the 20 top best-selling games in the United States.

EA is enjoying success in the US, where it has captured a top position as the best-selling publisher for the year in terms of dollar sales. According to new data from analyst firm Circana, not only does Battlefield 6 reign as the top-selling game of the year, but EA titles represent nearly one-third of the best-selling games of 2025 in the US.

A quick comparison shows that EA made up 6 out of the 20 best-sellers of the year so far, which runs from January to the end of November. Microsoft/Xbox follow up in second place with 5 titles on the list, and both Take-Two Interactive and Sony Interactive Entertainment/PlayStation have three titles each.

The recent reports of an incoming Xbox PC hybrid system may be affecting current-gen Xbox console sales, at least in the United States.

Things aren't looking great for the games industry. On the heels of significant cutbacks, layoffs, and project cancellations, the US games market just had its worst November console sales in the last 20 years. Typically, this month sparks hardware adoption as the Big 3 will discount their respective machines--but economic pressures have changed buying habits of consumers.

As a result, people simply purchased fewer consoles during November 2025 than previous years. The Xbox Series duo was hit particularly hard, with US-based analyst firm Circana noting that Xbox console sales were down -70% year-over-year. This tidbit needs a bit of context.

The Fallout TV show takes place in the same world and timeline as the games, making it fully canon. This will also be the case for future games, including Fallout 5.

Fallout is everywhere right now with Amazon Prime's second season having just premiered, and Bethesda makes an interesting confirmation that locks the studio as multimedia stewards: The Fallout TV show will affect future Fallout games--and vice-versa.

In a recent interview with the BBC, Bethesda's head honcho Todd Howard confirms that the show will influence new games in the series: "In short, yes. Fallout 5 will be existing in a world where the stories and events of the show happened or are happening. We are taking that into account," Howard said.

Bethesda announced The Elder Scrolls 6 seven years ago, and the studio says that it's prepared to spend as much time as it takes on development in order to make the new RPG adventure as good as it possibly can be.

Following Starfield's release in 2023, Bethesda Game Studios is now full steam ahead on The Elder Scrolls 6...but it still could be a while before we actually get to jump into the game world (it's Hammerfell or High Rock, depending on who you ask).

In a new interview with Game Informer, key Bethesda devs give updates on TESVI's development, with Todd Howard himself saying that project overlap and the studio's desire to have a strong creative foundational base of pre-production content and ideas are core reasons on why the game has taken so long to make.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 has lost to Electronic Arts' Battlefield 6 for the best-selling game of 2026, with recent data from Circana indicating the latest Battlefield entry continues to top the charts.

The data was released by Mat Piscatella, the Senior Director & Video Game Industry Thought Leader at Circana, who published the above chart on BlueSky, showcasing that Battlefield 6 has maintained its top position on the most-sold chart since it debuted in October this year. The chart states the reporting period is between 1/5/2025 and 11/29/2025, and Battlefield 6 is sitting at the number one spot, followed by NBA 2K26 and then Monster Hunter: Wilds.

In the fourth position is Borderlands 4, followed by EA Sports College Football 26, Madden NFL 26, and then finally in seventh position, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. Notably, Black Ops 7 has only been available to purchase since November 14, meaning Battlefield 6 has had more than a month more time to be sold than Black Ops 7. However, given the current climate and market sentiment surrounding Black Ops 7, it wouldn't be surprising if the title only crept up a few spots on the chart before the end of the year.

Steam Machine took the internet by storm when Valve surprised and announced it alongside the new Steam Controller, Steam Frame, and now the startup for the upcoming PC/console hybrid has emerged online.

In a recent post by Brad Lynch to his personal X account, the XR project manager for EOZ VR wrote, "Steam Machine's Startup Video," and in a separate post said the video is official and not a mockup as it was datamined from Steam.

When asked why there was no audio, Lynch wrote that he guesses the video wasn't finished yet. Since this video isn't directly from Valve, or has received multiple verifications from individuals who have seen Valve's upcoming PC/console hybrid boot up, we should still take it with a grain of salt.

Financial documents spotted by an X user have revealed that Dambuster Studios is currently working on Dead Island 3, and when it expects it will be released.

According to the documents, the title is currently in "early production," which includes its design, character design, world design, and narrative. As for when it's expected to release, the financial documents state the studio expects to have everything wrapped up by Q1/2 2028, which, if everything stays on track, will mean Dead Island 3 will release five years after the last title in the franchise.

The documents state that Dambuster's primary focus is currently Dead Island 3, and that all developers are assigned to the project. Additionally, once the Luna and Mac versions of Dead Island 2 are complete, the Dambuster QA team will be moving to Dead Island 3 to begin testing. Other than that, there isn't much more information about Dead Island 3 within the documents, but this information does come after Dead Island 3 was teased earlier this year via a Steam post.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7's Season 01 has kicked off, and it's being described as the biggest Black Ops season ever. And it's not hard to see why, as it includes nine maps, including remasters like Nuketown 2025, Standoff, and Meltdown, as well as newcomers like Fate and Utopia. Season 01 also introduces a slew of new game modes, new Zombies maps and modes, as well as Warzone's Black Ops 7 integration that introduces the New Haven's Hollow map.

And with AMD lifting the lid last week on its AMD FSR overhaul that formally introduces the company's new FSR 'Redstone' technologies for RDNA 4 owners, Black Ops 7 Season 01 also brings three out of four of these new AI-powered bits of tech to the game. This means Radeon RX 9000 Series owners can now enable AI or machine learning-powered upscaling, frame generation, and ray regeneration in the game.

FSR Upscaling (ML), formerly known as FSR 4, is AMD's latest and greatest version of its Super Resolution technology, delivering crisp, detailed visuals at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K. Exclusive to RDNA 4 GPUs, such as the Radeon RX 9070 XT, it finally offers a viable alternative to NVIDIA DLSS as FSR Upscaling (ML) presents a dramatic improvement to image quality when compared to FSR 3.

Steam Replay 2025 is here, which is Valve's annual wrap-up, so you can get a detailed breakdown on all of the games you've played this year. All you need to do is head to the Steam Replay 2025 page, and you'll be presented with a personalized breakdown of your 2025 PC gaming habits alongside how your stats compare to the rest of the community and a very cool calendar view of your 2025 PC gaming journey.

From the number of games played through to the achievements you've unlocked, you'll also get some interesting insights. For example, according to the Steam Replay 2025, PC gamers spend, on average, 40% of their playtime playing games released 8 or more years ago. Which, surprisingly, makes sense when you realize that popular titles like DOTA 2 and PUBG: Battlegrounds fall into this category.

And when you add in that 44% of all Steam users' playtime was spent playing games that were 1 - 7 years old in 2025, that only leaves 14% of all playtime on Steam spent playing new PC games released in 2025.

As far as game development and gaming are concerned, AI is well and truly here. From AI tools like DLSS and FSR used to enhance image quality and performance, to generative AI used to speed up development, ideation, art, design, and coding. Now, when it comes to the world of fake AI videos that take popular things to generate interest (or clicks), the term "AI slop" is used as a catch-all for everything.

And even though the consensus is that generative AI being used liberally for any form of entertainment, be it movies, music, or games, is bad, here's an interesting one. YouTube creator Aillusory has posted a new video titled 'The Witcher 3, but it's AI slop - Reimagined by AI.' The goal here was to capture cinematic and gameplay footage from CD Projekt Red's The Witcher 3 and then use AI to remaster and "reimagine" the game with new photorealistic visuals.

And here's the thing: aside from the odd-looking (read, AI-looking) character and facial animations, the results are pretty impressive. Especially when it comes to the lighting and environment detail, with several of the game's iconic locations taking on a definite 'photorealistic' quality.

GOG has introduced Patrons, a new $5 monthly subscription that helps fund games preservation.

CD Projekt Group's GOG storefront has announced its own Patreon-like support system that allows gamers to directly contribute to helping permanently secure classic PC games. GOG Patrons is a subscription where users pay $5 a month to help boost the budget to preserve more old-school digital games.

So...why charge money? Doesn't CD Projekt already make a ton of money? While the publisher does make hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue a year, GOG is an ancillary, loss-leading part of the business. GOG, which stands for Good Old Games, will buy the rights to original versions of legacy PC games to resell on their storefront.

Nintendo's shares have dropped 10% from December's trading high as the company once again faces the dreaded combination of component shortages and rising costs.

Nintendo's aspirations for the Switch 2 could be stymied throughout 2026, leading to hardware production disruptions and potentially even price hikes for consumers.

New reports from Bloomberg indicate that Nintendo is now paying more money to secure parts for its Switch 2 system. Data from TrendForce suggests that Nintendo is now paying 41% more for the memory chips used in the handheld-console; the Switch 2 uses 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM, split evenly across 2x 6GB modules from Micron.

Season 2 of the Fallout TV show premieres tomorrow, and Bethesda is ready to capitalize on the series with a bunch of paid digital products and updates in its slew of Fallout games.

Xbox is being pressured by Microsoft to deliver 30% margins, and ZeniMax, while a limited integration company, is still technically part of the overall Xbox brand. Bethesda has some of the most enduring games franchises, and Fallout in particular has been cracked open in the hopes of exploiting the new Fallout TV show.

Bethesda has readied a multitude of Fallout games, content, and buyable products in the hopes of capitalizing off of Fallout season 2's momentum; Fallout 76 got the Burning Springs update, there's a new Fallout 4 re-release being sold for $60, and even a $155 anniversary bundle for a 15-year-old game. Now the studio is adding a paid $10 season pass into Fallout Shelter with a New Vegas-themed update.

You want a PC game that's 100% been created by AI? No, neither do I, but we've got one, and it's a bullet hell roguelite called Codex Mortis.

PC Gamer picked up on the game, which is still under development, but it's on Steam and there's a demo of Codex Mortis available if you dare to try it.

In a press release, the developer (Crunchfest) states: "Crunchfest today released the playable demo for Codex Mortis, a necromantic survival bullet hell that makes gaming history as the first 100% AI-generated playable game. Plan your build, combine spells into synergies, and watch the battlefield erupt in beautiful chaos. The demo is available now on Steam for solo or local co-op play."

Recently, Microsoft posted a rather lengthy blog post covering all the advances in PC gaming on Windows devices this year, while providing some information on what's in store for the future. With Windows 11 widely regarded as a bottleneck standing in the way of optimized performance, the good news is that one of the key things it's focusing on is fixing that with improved "background workload management, power and scheduling improvements, graphics stack optimizations," and more.

Now, one of the reasons Microsoft is actively looking to improve Windows 11 as a platform for PC gaming with more urgency than we've seen in recent years comes down to the company's push into the portable PC gaming handheld space with the ROG Xbox Ally and the rumors that the next-gen Xbox console is set to be a PC-hybrid device. This is why the Xbox Full Screen Experience is now available for everyone to try out. Xbox is slowly becoming a part of Windows.

And early next year, the company is set to release a new OS-level feature designed to benefit handhelds like the ROG Xbox Ally X. It's called Auto SR, and it's an AI-powered upscaling solution that is very different from DLSS or even FSR.

Microsoft wants Xbox to make more profit, and the Xbox games division is pulling out all the stops to make that happen. But there's one thing they may not do for a while: raise game prices to $80.

In June, Microsoft made one of the most unpopular announcements in recent memory: new first-party Xbox games would now cost $80, starting first with Obsidian's The Outer Worlds 2. The decision was lambasted and Microsoft changed its mind, dropping The Outer Worlds 2 back to $70 and implying that all future first-party games would retain this price. It's interesting to note that Nintendo actually was the first to charge the $80 baseline for new AAA games with Mario Kart World's launch on the Switch 2.

In a recent interview with Variety, Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty was asked directly about $80 games, and while he responded that Xbox "does not have any pricing updates," he did seem to indicate that it might be a while before Microsoft tries to raise baseline software prices again.

Xbox game studios boss Matt Booty discusses EA's $55 billion leveraged buyout, saying that the high share price represents both the existing and future value of the publisher's billion-dollar IPs.

Electronic Arts is going private in a $55 billion leveraged buyout financed principally by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, with contributions from investment firms Silver Lake and Affinity Partners. The deal, which would see EA go private, would also involve billion-dollar entertainment properties like the FC franchise, Madden NFL and college football, Battlefield, and even Apex Legends.

EA is among the last major AAA independent publishers on the market and the publisher's peers have taken notice, especially Xbox, whose own success scales with that of third-party groups like EA. In a recent interview with Variety, Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty shared a prognosticating take on the EA deal, saying that the $55 billion valuation isn't just about what Electronic Arts has produced in the past--it's also an attempt at placing a value on what's on the horizon.