Gaming - Page 73

Naughty Dog's next big-budget PlayStation game is planned for a mid-2027 release on PS5, sources tell Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, with the team now working longer hours to finish a playable demo of the project.

After making multiple Last of Us games back-to-back, Sony's premier first-party art house Naughty Dog is back with a fresh new game. It's called Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, and it's set in a new IP set thousands of years into the future, with leaks suggesting Dark Souls-level challenges with God of War combat.

Earlier reports said that Intergalactic wouldn't launch in 2026, and now the latest from Bloomberg says that Naughty Dog wants to have the game out by the middle of 2027. Sources also paint a hectic picture of work life at Naughty Dog's Intergalactic team, with the studio reportedly pushing overtime onto employees and an increase to 5-day office work weeks.

Sony's copyright lawsuit against Tencent has ended, and both parties have agreed to settle for an undisclosed sum.

Back in July, Sony sued Tencent in a copyright lawsuit, alleging that the Chinese games-maker created a product that was too close to Sony's Horizon franchise to be a coincidence. Tencent's so-called 'Horizon clone' had been titled Light of Motiram, and Sony's original 48-page legal complaint laid out side-by-side comparisons that showed stark similarities between the two games.

Now it's been revealed that the case has been dismissed. Sony and Tencent have reached a "confidential settlement," the court filing says, and the Light of Motiram game is no longer available on Steam or the Epic Games Store.

New reports from Windows Central reiterate Microsoft's plans to release Starfield on non-Xbox platforms.

Months ago, there were rumblings that Bethesda is preparing to launch Starfield on Switch 2 and PS5. Now we have a possible release window for the RPG: sources tell Windows Central that the new Starfield port could launch sometime in the first six months of 2026.

That's a pretty wide timeline, but it's also worth mentioning that next year will be one of the biggest moments in Microsoft history: Xbox turns 25, and Bethesda also celebrates its 40th anniversary. The studio will want to capitalize on this momentous occasion, so a cross-platform release of Starfield in 2026 makes sense, and this also leaves the game plenty of clearance from the sales crater that GTA 6 will cause.

Legendary creative Hideo Kojima has an unsurprising take on AI: The dev doesn't want to use it to create any kind of visual art, and thinks the technology could be used for things like enemy responsivity in games.

Following record spending highs during COVID-19, the games industry has now simultaneously contracted while raising prices. Every publisher and developer is feeling the financial pressures, with many shedding workers en masse in an effort to improve margins and assuage shareholder fears. Everyone is looking for ways to save money and reduce labor costs; enter generative AI, new tech that could potentially even replace game developers.

AI has proven to be significantly controversial, and rightly so, because video games are a full conjunction of all creative arts--static art, animation & motion capture, audio. The industry's workforce is one of creativity and developers are pushing back against AI, however teams have embraced the tech in a bid not to be left behind. This kind of motivation seems to be the main driver of AI's global adoption; no one wants to miss out on the Next Big Thing.

The Game Awards has revealed the 2025 show is by far the biggest Game Awards ever conducted, with the social media account for the award show stating it had 171 million global livestreams.

The stat was revealed on the official X account for The Game Awards where the organization wrote that viewership for the award show was up 11% year-over-year, with more than 171 million global livestreams. Additionally, conversations about The Game Awards on X were up 12% year-over-year, and there were 23,000 co-streams of the event on Twitch & YouTube, marking a 50% increase year-over-year.

Furthermore, the 171 million viewership figure doesn't include the views the award show obtained through Amazon Prime Video. To put that level of viewership into context, the last Super Bowl held on February 9, 2025 pulled 127.7 million viewers, and peaked at 133.5 million during the halftime show.

There are only a few games that gamers cannot wait to get their hands on. The first is Grand Theft Auto 6, which might be the most anticipated game of all time, and the one that follows closely behind that is Elder Scrolls 6, the sequel to Skyrim.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was released in 2011, and since then, we have only received a brief teaser trailer for the sequel to the acclaimed title, which was released in 2018. Following that teaser, we have only heard brief mentions of Elder Scrolls 6 from Bethesda's Todd Howard, who has said the title is the studio's focus and that it will take as long as it needs to meet fan expectations.

However, Kiwi Talkz, an interviewer known particularly for Bethesda and Valve interviews with developers and industry members, recently wrote on X that he expects we won't see Elder Scrolls 6 until at least 2028, with the more likely release window being sometime in 2029. According to Kiwi Talkz, Bethesda isn't giving a rough date as it will "do more harm than good," especially after the studio announced the game "too early".

If you've been tracking PC hardware prices, you've probably noticed that high-capacity DDR5 memory kits now cost more than a PlayStation 5. And with the DRAM crisis affecting any piece of hardware with memory, alongside rising storage costs, several analysts and companies are predicting that the situation will only get worse throughout 2026, potentially leading to historic consumer shortages.

Yes, even though the insatiable demand from data centers and AI is leading memory makers to focus on expensive, cutting-edge HBM with high margins, they're still unable to keep up. Micron, which recently shuttered its consumer-facing Crucial brand to focus on high-bandwidth memory for AI, recently noted in its latest earnings report that supply will remain "substantially short of the demand" for the "foreseeable future."

What does this mean for gaming, specifically high-profile AAA-style experiences with a focus on immersive and detailed visuals? Well, a fundamental shift in how game developers will approach making games for the "foreseeable future." And with that, game developers will be forced to optimize performance for systems with limited RAM and VRAM.

2026 will be a huge year for Microsoft with some big gaming anniversaries: Xbox turns 20, Bethesda turns 40, and Blizzard turns 35.

Blizzard Entertainment will celebrate its 35th anniversary next year (it will also mark the third year that the games publisher has been a part of Xbox). The division has some pretty big plans set for 2026, including World of Warcraft's anticipated Midnight expansion, as well as a new playable hero with Diablo IV's upcoming Lord of Hatred expansion.

Blizzard president Joanna Faries tells Variety that the group is aiming for 2026 to be their biggest yet--on a revenue basis, this is unlikely to happen, as Blizzard's earnings hit their highest point of all time in 2016 with $2.4 billion in revenue.

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.