Gaming - Page 63

Earlier today, Valve confirmed that the planned early 2026 launch of its new Steam Machine has been upended by ongoing "memory and storage shortages" and "growing prices of these critical components." It went so far as to say it's not yet sure of an exact shipping date or pricing, but it's still targeting a first-half of 2026 launch.

As part of the same community post, Valve also included answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about its upcoming hardware releases, including the Steam Frame and the Steam Machine. For the Steam Machine, which will be powered by a desktop-class custom AMD RDNA 3 GPU with 28 Compute Units and 8GB of VRAM, many are wondering how this relatively low-power GPU will handle some of the most demanding PC games at 4K 60 FPS.

Especially when the GPU's closest desktop equivalent is the Radeon RX 7600, a card best suited to 1080p gaming. Well, the answer to that is upscaling, which Valve confirmed when it announced the Steam Machine late last year. However, the latest FAQ confirms that to hit 4K 60 FPS, you might need to use an aggressive FSR setting (upscaling from 1080p), and even then, you'll need VRR to maintain smooth performance when frame rates drop below 60 FPS.

Borderlands 4 was one of the more notable game releases last year, a new entry in one of the most popular PC gaming franchises, and it was generally well-received by critics and fans alike. That said, both the PC and console versions of the game were plagued by performance issues at launch, with developer Gearbox infamously telling PC gamers at the time to enable DLSS and Frame Generation if they were experiencing low frame rates.

Running on Unreal Engine 5, it was the latest high-profile release to demand pretty high-end gear just to play at 60+ FPS at a high resolution with high detail settings, like say, a GeForce RTX 5080. In the months following the game's launch, several updates aimed to improve performance, with the most recent arriving in December.

Amid issues with the game's performance, the Nintendo Switch 2 version was delayed indefinitely, and pre-orders were cancelled and refunds issued. Fast forward to 2026, and the publisher Take-Two Interactive has announced that development on the Switch 2 port has been "paused" as it focuses on "ongoing improvements to optimize the game."

Blizzard has just announced that Overwatch 2 is being renamed to a simpler Overwatch, after the headaches and troubles caused over the last four years.

Overwatch 2 still hasn't received its promised PvE mode that was one of the original pillars of making the "sequel" and then killing off the original Overwatch, with Blizzard using its recent Overwatch Spotlight on February 4 to announce the reenergized "Overwatch" without the "2".

Blizzard said: "Overwatch is a living universe that keeps growing, keeps surprising, and keeps bringing players together from around the world. This team is focused on continually delivering these great experiences for years to come. And with that, we realized, Overwatch is a game that transcends any single number. So moving forward, we're dropping the '2,' and continuing simply as Overwatch".

Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick expects that Rockstar Games will support the current iteration of GTA Online even after GTA 6 releases in November.

In the latest earnings call for Take-Two's Holiday 2025 results, company CEO Strauss Zelnick was asked specifically what will happen to the version of GTA Online that's attached to GTA V once Rockstar launches GTA VI. Zelnick's response may give indications on Rockstar's plans, or confirm a unique situation of parallel live service content development at the studio.

In the webcast, Zelnick says that he fully expects Rockstar will continue to support GTA Online--that's the current iteration and the current version that's accessed via GTA V--after the release of GTA VI.

Market disruptions have delayed Valve's plans to reveal specifics on its new hardware, leading to an update without the most important info.

Valve has confirmed that it is not yet ready to reveal pricing or a release date for its new Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and Steam Controller hardware trio. The company released a new update that delivered the bad news to players, explaining that unforeseen market shifts like the ongoing global RAM shortage has interrupted Valve's plans.

"When we announced these products in November, we planned on being able to share specific pricing and launch dates by now. But the memory and storage shortages you've likely heard about across the industry have rapidly increased since then. The limited availability and growing prices of these critical components mean we must revisit our exact shipping schedule and pricing (especially around Steam Machine and Steam Frame)," reads the update.

Take-Two's latest results give an updated figure on Rockstar's best-selling franchise, including quarterly performance revenues that contribute to our cumulative tally.

For years now, I've been cataloging how much money that the GTA series has made, using the GTA V's seismic launch as a starting point, Based on the data provided by Take-Two, the Grand Theft Auto franchise has made at least $10.381 billion in net revenue since the launch of Grand Theft Auto V in September 2013.

On a quarterly basis, the GTA franchise did incredibly well throughout the Holiday 2025 period, earning $223.79 million, up 25% year-over-year and 30% quarter-over-quarter. The earnings were likely boosted by heavier GTA Online engagement thanks to Rockstar's successful Safehouse in the Hills GTA Online expansion, as well as the Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus freebies (GTA V still went on to ship 5 million copies digitally and physically through the quarter despite showing up on these services for free).

Take-Two Interactive's new Q3'26 results give an update on franchise sales, and Grand Theft Auto V continues its trend of shipping 5 million copies per quarter throughout the period.

Grand Theft Auto V has made history as one of the most-enduring games of all time, spanning multiple console generations and raking in billions of dollars along the way. Take-Two's latest Holiday 2025 results show that the 12-year-old game has now shipped 225 million copies across the globe, up +5 million from last quarter. Typically, GTA V somehow has been able to ship 5 million copies per quarter for multiple periods in a row throughout its lifetime.

This also means that Rockstar's genre-defining franchise has now sold over 465 million copies, including both mainline numbered releases, spin-offs, and sales of the new GTA remaster trilogy.

The CEO of Take-Two has clarified that Grand Theft Auto 6 won't use generative AI for any of its development.

Chief executive Strauss Zelnick was talking a lot about AI in an interview with Gamesindustry.biz (via Eurogamer), where he enthused about Take-Two being a 'leader in the space'.

However, in case anyone is immediately going to leap to conclusions about AI poking its nose into the code, or design, of GTA 6, Zelnick makes it clear that this certainly isn't the case.

Valve is gearing up to release its new Steam Machine in the weeks and months ahead, with rumors swirling that Half-Life 3 will be a launch title, and now AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su has said Valve is "on-track" to start shipping its Steam Machines "early this year".

During the February 3 earnings call, AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su said: "From a product standpoint, Valve is on-track to begin shipping its AMD-powered Steam Machine early this year, and development of Microsoft's next-gen Xbox featuring an AMD semi-custom SoC is progressing well to support a launch in 2027".

It looks like the new AMD chips for Valve's new Steam Machine are coming out the semiconductor ovens at TSMC, and ready to become yet another platform that AMD is providing chips for. Valve has promised its new Steam Machine would be launching in early 2026, and we're right in the middle of that now.

Rockstar Games made history by introducing a paid user-generated economy into FiveM, the online roleplay mod, showing a phase shift in how players can engage with content in a highly specific way. This is the way of the future, as Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick believes UGC is another avenue to explore.

With Rockstar Games essentially opening an official paid mod storefront for FiveM, aka the cfx.re marketplace, it seems clear that more UGC could be on the way at Take-Two.

That certainly seems to be the case, as Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick says that there is "more opportunity to come" from user-generated content in the future. How this will take shape remains to be seen, but reports indicate GTA 6 could have some sort of built-in UGC storefront similar to Roblox.

Xbox recorded a mysterious write-down in its holiday earnings quarter, and it could be related to games missing expectations.

As part of Microsoft's latest Q2 results, company CFO Amy Hood confirmed that the Xbox games division recorded an impairment charge. At the time, we speculated that the charge may have been related to the games that Microsoft had released during the holiday quarter.

Companies typically record these kinds of charges as a way to adjust the value of software; if the game is selling badly, the company usually sees this as a sign it will be worth less than they previously thought. The game is then written-down--sometimes even written off--and it affects earnings as a result.

UPDATE: GTA 6 will not launch on a disc, and will instead ship as a code in a box, Rockstar has confirmed. In the article below, I had assumed Zelnick's references to a physical product for GTA 6 would be a physical disc SKU as per the group's typical releases. That is not the case, and GTA 6 will not be available on disc at launch.

Based on Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick's latest comments, Grand Theft Auto 6 is expected to launch on both physical discs and as a digital download when it releases in November.

Take-Two's CEO Strauss Zelnick has denied recent claims of a digital-only release for GTA 6, telling Variety: "That's not the plan." This indicates that Rockstar Games will indeed have a physical release for GTA 6, which is good news for retailers, because this game has become one of the most anticipated releases in entertainment history.

Nintendo's latest Q3'26 results have unlocked big sales milestones for both hardware and software.

Gaming's biggest companies are starting to report their holiday results, and for Nintendo, sales were good. Over the Holiday 2025 period, the company made new sales records as the Switch lineup officially beat the DS and became the best-selling Nintendo video games hardware of all time.

On the software front, Nintendo likewise broke new ground by announcing it has sold over 1.5 billion games cumulatively on the Switch family of consoles. Based on the data, Nintendo has now sold over 6 billion games across all of its systems, from the earliest NES and Famicom days to the modern Switch 2 era. To be more exact, Nintendo has sold around 6.095 billion games both digitally and physically over the multiple decades that it's been in the interactive entertainment business. Quick math shows that roughly 24.6% of Nintendo's total game sales were made on the Switch platform. That share bumps to 25% if we combine sales made on both the Switch (1,500.16 million) and the Switch 2 (37.93 million).

Nintendo's legacy goes full circle as the Switch becomes the company's best-selling system of all time.

It's official: Nintendo's latest Q3'26 results have made history, confirming that the Switch has outsold the legendary DS to become the best-selling Nintendo video game hardware of all time. The Switch has now sold 155.57 million units, finally breaking the DS' decades-running streak of 154.02 million sales.

The new milestone is a big one for Nintendo, as the Switch line represents the unification of two of the company's most lucrative platforms--handhelds and consoles. Based on our findings, the Switch has generated over $100 billion in revenue for Nintendo across its 8-year lifespan, including both the Switch 1 and Switch 2 generations.

Nintendo scores big over the holidays with net sales exceeding $5.1 billion--middling results for the period.

Nintendo's latest Q3'26 earnings deliver somewhat middle-ground holiday results. Throughout the Holiday 2025 period, Nintendo generated over $5.147 billion in net sales, which ranks as the 5th highest holiday net sales since the Switch's debut.

Operating profit was hit by rising costs--SG&A, development, and production costs--leading to $991 million operating profit and a 19.2% margin.

The Nintendo Switch 2 has already beaten the Wii U's lifetime sales with over 17 million shipments worldwide.

Nintendo's latest Q3'26 results are out, revealing critical sales figures for the Switch 2's first holiday period on the market. According to the earnings, Nintendo sold 7.01 million Switch 2 consoles during Holiday 2025, which is just a little less than the 7.24 million that the Switch 1 sold during its first three-month holiday quarter.

Altogether, the Switch 2 is now at 17.37 million, beating out Nintendo's beleaguered, the Wii U, which is frozen in place as Nintendo's worst-selling console at 13.56 million units.

Capcom has released a grim and rather emotional live action trailer for Resident Evil 9, highlighting how the game will also tell a story full of intrigue and evil.

Resident Evil 9 releases in just a few weeks, and Capcom has prepped a surprising new 4-minute live action short film that sets the tone and story for the new game. The footage shows the fall of Raccoon City during the outbreak, and how society completely fell apart, leading to the disastrous thermobaric bomb strike that leveled the city.

The footage ends with a zombie character that we might actually end up seeing in Resident Evil 9 Requiem, along with the heartbreaking photograph amid the post-apocalyptic ruins of Raccoon City.

GOG was caught using AI in a recent banner image, and now the company comes clean and admits that the promos were made with AI, but it wasn't meant to be published.

Typically, gamers have a positive outlook on GOG, a store that sells classic PC games that have either disappeared or are very hard to find. That's not the case with a recent controversy, and GOG was caught using artificial intelligence in some of the art used for its New Year Sale promo.

GOG has since clarified exactly what happened to the subscribers of its new GOG Patrons program. In a private Discord, a GOG representative confirmed that the New Year Sale art was created using AI, but it wasn't meant to be pushed live as part of the sale, nor was it meant to be published at all.

Bandai Namco reveals the new changes and characters that are coming to Tekken 8's new season 3 content.

Tekken 8's controversial season 2 is behind us, and it looks like Bandai Namco took the feedback to heart because season 3 is going "back to basics." Season 3 starts in March 2026 with a number of balance patches and tweaks. The devs are also wiping and resetting ranked match standings.

The season 3 pass will have four paid characters--three of which were revealed: Kunimitsu in late spring, Bob in the summer, and Roger Jr. in autumn. There's also a mystery character coming in the winter. Gamers can pre-order the season pass on all platforms on February 9, and receive a special cosmetic pack upgrade as well as 120 hours of early access when season 3 content is released.

Will Bethesda ever remake Morrowind, one of the weirdest RPGs of all time? Probably not--at least that's what Skyrim's lead designer thinks.

Bruce Nesmith has had a shaping hand in Bethesda's landmark games, having served as quest designer on Oblivion and lead designer on Skyrim, the best-selling roleplaying game of all time. After everything he's done at Bethesda, he thinks that Morrowind is a product of the past that wouldn't translate well to modern audiences (the diabolically frustrating dice-roll combat says hello).

In a recent PR interview, Nesmith shared his view on a Morrowind remake--assuming it's even possible and Bethesda hasn't lost the original source code. Nesmith thinks that the game is so old that new-age players would cringe in response.