Gaming - Page 94

Although it regularly branches out into other forms of entertainment and cross-promotion, Nintendo is still best known for the games it creates and its custom gaming hardware, such as the Nintendo Switch. And with that, Nintendo's latest surprise drop on its YouTube channel isn't a trailer or deep dive into an upcoming release. Instead, it's an animated short film called 'Close to You' that is reminiscent of classic shorts from Disney's Pixar Animation Studios.

As soon as it appeared online, the reactions to the short film have been one of general confusion from Nintendo fans, as there's no clear indication if Close to You is related to an upcoming game release or even the Super Mario Galaxy Movie. Outside of music that fans say is reminiscent of the Pikmin franchise, and the appearance of what looks to be a red-colored Pikmin in the background of one shot, the animated short film looks to be a standalone thing.

In short, a mother and a small baby or toddler are playing in a room before a knock on the front door interrupts them, leaving the baby alone while the mother goes off to answer the door. From there, the baby's rattler and pacifier begin to move on their own, floating in the air.

It's official: The OG survivors-like is getting online co-op support for up to four players for maximum carnage.

Ultra-addictive bullet hell indie Vampire Survivors is getting a big update soon, and with it comes online co-op action. Poncle has confirmed that up to 4 players can play online with one another, giving much more player freedom--right now, Vampire Survivors only supports 2-player local co-op.

The developers plan to roll out online co-op alongside four other features/updates/enhancements included in Vampire Survivors' title v1.14 update. It's also possible that a new playable character is revealed. No exact release date has been revealed for v1.14 and the devs just give an "Autumn" window for the content.

The pricing for Bungie's new extraction shooter Marathon has reportedly leaked, and it happened right before another closed technical playtest for the game.

Marathon's monetization structure has apparently been leaked ahead of schedule. New reports from Destiny datamine collective Deakstiny indicate that Marathon's pricing scheme will apparently follow Helldivers 2, with Sony opting for a $40 baseline price for the game.

Bungie will offer a deluxe edition of Marathon for $60, the report says, and there will be two versions of the season pass: the base $10 version and a $30 deluxe version that comes packed with in-game currency. It's also been revealed that the season pass is 100% cosmetic only. Marathon has pre-order bonuses that will unlock various things in Destiny, including a ship, ghost, and sparrow vehicle, as well as in-game cosmetics for Marathon.

Executives within EA including Glu Mobile CEO Nick Earl believe the $55 billion leveraged buyout is great for creative freedom.

While financial analysts call EA's new $55 billion privatization deal a "head scratcher," some within EA believe the mega-acquisition is great news for the company's commercial and creative autonomy. New remarks from Glu Mobile's CEO highlight a positive outlook for the deal, with company boss Nick Earl saying that EA will no longer be on the hook to deliver consistent growth every quarter (instead, EA will now be on the hook for $20 billion in debt apparently funded via a "risky" loan). EA purchased Glu Mobile in 2021 for $2.1 billion.

In a recent interview with CBS News, Glu Mobile CEO Nick Earl gave some positives of the buyout and says he believes it's a "win" for creatives and gamers. "Being private just takes a lot of pressure off the company," he said.

Microsoft has rearranged the value of Game Pass through a new, very unpopular price hike, eliminating key features in the process.

Microsoft has now confirmed that it has removed the 10% discount for all DLC content from its Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription tier, including the ultra-lucrative billion-dollar Call of Duty Points premium currency. Full video games are still discounted by up to 20%.

In its place, Microsoft is instead making users do a little work to get a discount. The Xbox Rewards scheme has been revamped to give Ultimate subscribers more bang for their buck, but this does require active participation--and an active subscription--in order to maximize your returns. Essentially, Microsoft has game-ified its rewards program, likely due to massive participation from Xbox console users.

Xbox Game Pass isn't increasing in price for everyone, and Microsoft officially confirms that some countries will still retain the original cheaper price for Ultimate.

Last night, Game Pass subscribers across the globe received strange emails: Apparently, their Game Pass subscriptions had been grandfathered at the original rate and wouldn't be affected by the recent controversial Game Pass price hike. As long as the users kept recurring billing on, the emails said, their Game Pass Ultimate subscriptions would stay at the current rate and not increase to the new rate.

Now, Microsoft has officially confirmed these emails are genuine.

Activision is doing what it can to soak up as much of the hype as it possibly can for the release of Battlefield 6, as the publisher has just announced an extension for the Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 multiplayer beta.

Battlefield 6 is scheduled to launch on October 11, and in an effort to draw as many players as it possibly can away from its direct competitor, Activision and Call of Duty Black Ops 7 developer, Treyarch, have announced an extension for the Black Ops 7 open beta. The new date for the end is now October 9, making it just two days away from the release of Battlefield 6.

In addition to the announcement for the extension of the open beta, Treyarch has said there will also be an extension on XP and Weapon XP, specifically 2XP and 2X Weapon XP. The extension on the double XP will enable players to reach higher levels, which will unlock more weapons and attachments for them to hopefully enjoy. The strategy here is that if players unlock more weapons and attachments, they will find something they like and hopefully pre-order Black Ops 7, perhaps even over buying Battlefield 6 - quite smart by Activision/Treyarch.

There are only a few days until the release of Battlefield 6, and EA, along with developer Battlefield Studios, has recognized the outcry from fans for the inclusion of naval warfare by saying they have been heard, and that there is much to look forward to following the launch of the title on October 11.

The confirmation was revealed in the latest Community Update blog post on the Battlefield website, where the developers outlined what they learned from the numerous invite-only playtests and the extremely successful open beta weekend. Furthermore, the Community Update confirmed the changes made to Battlefield 6 following what was learned during the open beta, and that a day-one update will be implemented for the title upon release, incorporating these changes.

However, near the bottom of the post Battlefield Studios discusses what players can expect following the official launch of Battlefield 6, writing, "There is much more to look forward to beyond our Seasons as our team continues reviewing Battlefield Labs data, player feedback, and ideating on completely new ideas for the future, starting with an exciting new Battlefield take on Battle Royale."

In a recent interview with Gaijin Entertainment, the studio's lead programmer revealed the PS5 Pro is "technically" capable of path tracing, the rendering algorithm that produces the most realistic lighting accuracy.

For those who don't know, there is quite a big difference between normal ray tracing and path tracing, while sounding similar the technologies produce vastly different results, and require different levels of rendering hardware. Ray tracing only traces rays of light for specific effects, such as reflection, refraction, or shadows, while path tracing traces hundreds of thousands of rays per pixel that bounce randomly around a scene. Ultimately, path tracing produces much higher quality lighting in-game, but is costly in terms of GPU horsepower.

Currently, path tracing is exclusive to PC gaming, as the feature can only be used by high-end GPUs that have the rendering power, e.g NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080/5090. The exclusivity of path tracing to PC is purely based on the performance requirement, meaning consoles are technically capable of using the rendering technique, but currently the performance hit would be so severe it wouldn't be worth enabling it.

In fresh rumors dancing on top of the recent "debunked" rumors that "hardware production has ceased" on Xbox consoles, new rumors suggest Microsoft's dedicated Xbox gaming handheld was cancelled because AMD needed a minimum of 10 million units in its contract... and Microsoft knew that was impossible.

Leaker "Kepler_L2" revealed the rumors, with Microsoft's almost professional defense systems -- Windows Central -- coming out and reporting that claims from Kepler "isn't even slightly true". AMD needing 10 million units at a minimum makes sense, in order to take up any important fab space and time at TSMC, but I think we all know it would be an impossible feat for Microsoft to sell 10 million Xbox gaming handhelds.

Kepler reported that AMD needed the commitment to justify their R&D, adding: "AFAIK the handheld was cancelled because AMD wanted a commitment of 10m+ units to justify making a dedicated SoC, but with Steam Deck only selling ~5 million units and ASUS ROG/Lenovo Legion only selling 1-2 million MS didn't want to take the risk".

Digital Foundry has posted a deep dive into how DLSS works on the Nintendo Switch 2, and the results are surprising. According to the analysis, which examines several games that utilize DLSS on the console (including Cyberpunk 2077, Street Fighter 6, Hogwarts Legacy, and Star Wars Outlaws), Nintendo Switch 2 game developers have the option of using one of two DLSS versions.

The first version, which upscales a 720p or lower resolution to 1080p, is similar to DLSS on PC, utilizing the CNN model found in DLSS 3, rather than the newer Transformer model introduced in DLSS 4. Even when taking a native 1080p image, this version of DLSS can be used to improve aliasing and other artifacts, with the output matching the DLSS image quality you can find on PC.

Where it gets interesting, and a little strange, is that the Switch 2 also features a custom lightweight DLSS version, which we'll call DLSS Light for upscaling to 1440p and 4K when the console is in docked mode. Although static shots and objects using DLSS Light look 1440p or 4K on the Switch 2, which is impressive when you factor that it's upscaling from 720p or 648p, it's a different story when there are objects in motion.

Over the years, Nintendo has shown no interest in bringing its games to other platforms. The company is also not a fan of the emulation scene and has gone to great lengths to shut down emulator projects, as well as sue those who host or store ROMs or illegal copies of their games. It's even taken action against those who modify or tamper with Nintendo hardware to create, for example, a 'jailbroken' Nintendo Switch.

Nintendo doesn't even like fan edits, community projects, or anything that utilizes their IP. That said, Nintendo of America's (NOA) latest copyright infringement lawsuit feels a little different. The defendant is 'Archbox,' a moderator and main Switch Pirate of the r/SwitchPirates subreddit. According to a new report and filing (via Nintendo Everything), the company is seeking $4.5 million in damages because the defendant ignored a legal cease-and-desist order and then failed to appear in court.

Based on the filing, it appears that Archbox, whose real name is James Williams, was profiting from jailbroken Switch consoles. Apparently, he offered pro-level subscriptions via donation for an online storefront that would allow users to download and install pirated copies of Nintendo Switch games directly to their jailbroken consoles. The tools and steps required to create a jailbroken Switch were also distributed.

Alongside Battlefield 6, another big-budget multiplayer shooter with a AAA cinematic campaign set to release soon is the latest installment in the annual Call of Duty franchise from Activision and Xbox. With a Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 multiplayer beta kicking off (check out our performance deep dive from the Early Access beta here), a Redditor noticed something a little strange with how the game's chat censorship was behaving.

Usually, the chat censors words to keep the flow of in-game chatter and communication free from obscene language. However, Redditor 'RedRoses711' posted a video showcasing how the game censored the phrase 'Arc Raiders', a highly anticipated multiplayer extraction shooter set for release on October 30. Apparently, the game would only censor the title when 'Arc' and 'Raiders' were combined, but not when the individual words were used.

Activision, which supplied a statement to PC Gamer, said that "Arc Raiders" being blocked from chat was the result of a "text filter error" and that it would be fixed soon. Now, this might be the case, but it is strange that the title of another highly anticipated competitive shooter, which is also due out soon, was accidentally getting blocked due to an error.

The physical retail version of Battlefield 6 for the PlayStation 5 will include the FULL game on the disk, meaning PS5 gamers won't need to download anything additional when they pop the disk in their console.

The news was confirmed on the official Battlefield 6 subreddit, where retail copies of the game are already in the hands of PlayStation 5 gamers, ready to be played without any additional downloads. The multiplayer servers are reportedly live, so PS5 gamers are able to get in early and experience the world of Battlefield 6 without any limitations.

This is a huge change for the gaming industry, as we've seen launch after launch of game after game, where gamers have already paid a tidy sum for their new game of choice, only to discover they need to download either large chunks of the game off the internet, or in some cases, the entire game.

Ubisoft has officially unveiled a new DLC for Assassin's Creed Mirage in a recent livestream on the Ubisoft YouTube channel.

The new DLC titled "Valley of Memory" was unveiled as part of Ubisoft's anniversary livestream, and it will take players to 9th-century Baghdad, where they will step into the shoes of Basim Ibn Ishaq, who is looking to learn more about his past and long-lost father. Players will resume Basim's story with brand new content and a new map, and judging by the trailer, it appears the DLC's contents will be quite extensive.

Valley of Memory's new story chapter will take place before the final story beats of the base game, and the DLC will also introduce some new additions to the parkour system, along with the ability to replay base game missions with new rewards and new difficulty modes.

EA has confirmed there will be a day-one patch for Battlefield 6 when it launches on October 10, with developer Battlefield Labs writing in a new Community Update that Battlefield 6 is the most tested and iterated Battlefield game in the history of the franchise, and since the open beta, some changes have been made.

The Community Update reveals that with more than 30 Battlefield Labs sessions successfully completed, and a total of 92,351,578 hours played during the Open Beta for the title, vital data has been gathered that has made Battlefield 6 the most tested and iterated Battlefield game in the history of the franchise, and at the heart of the title, remains the players. The Community Update explains all of the changes that will be made to the game within the update, such as the inclusion of playlists for different game modes.

Other changes include movement "feeling more responsive" as changes have been made to "pacing," along with issues fixed in order to keep gameplay smooth. Gunplay has been altered as well, with the developers writing that recoil has been rebalanced on automatic weapons to make long-range gunplay more characteristic, and to reward tap firing and burst control. Other changes include audio being cleaned up so pings are easier to hear, weapons and vehicles sound sharper, and improvements have been made to the netcode, which has reduced desync and made time-to-death feel fairer.

Discord has confirmed in a recent press release that one of the company's third-party customer service providers was breached by an unauthorized party, which gained access to information about users.

The press release states that one of Discord's third-party customer service providers was breached by an "unauthorized party," and that this party accessed information on users, such as conversations they have had with Customer Support or Trust & Safety agents. Discord writes that it immediately revoked the customer support provider's access to its ticketing system as the company continues its investigation into the situation.

Discord states this unauthorized party only gained access to the third-party customer service provider, and not Discord itself. Furthermore, Discord states the impact of the breach is only a "limited number of users," and once the breach was detected, it severed the third-party's connection to its ticketing system, began working with a leading computer forensics firm to support its investigation, and engaged with law enforcement.

The release of Battlefield 6 is right around the corner, and it seems at least one lucky player has received their copy of the game early.

In a recent Reddit post, user grecea_vlad shared an image of a physical copy of Battlefield 6 for the PlayStation 5, and according to the poster the copy actually works as well, meaning they are able to jump into the servers right now. The question is, who are they playing against if the servers are available? Perhaps reviewers and the media have gotten an early access key from EA? I can neither confirm nor deny that is taking place right now...

While it might be difficult to find a multiplayer game, the owners of the rogue copy of Battlefield 6 can at least begin playing the campaign. Battlefield 6 is one of the most anticipated games of 2025, and if the multiplayer beta numbers are anything to judge it by, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is going to have its work cut out for it as the release for Battlefield is ahead of the next Black Ops game, and hype for Battlefield 6 seems to be eclipsing that of Black Ops 7. EA has scheduled the release of Battlefield 6 for October 11, 2025, check out the official Steam Store listing here.

A new game has taken a place in Steam's top 20 currently most-played games list, as it has attracted more than 100,000 players who want to face endless waves of enemies and grow absurdly powerful.

The game is called Megabonk, and according to SteamDB, the title has reached an all-time peak player count of 117,336, putting it right behind Stardew Valley in the 24-hour peak category. Megabonk was released on September 19 by developer and publisher Vedinad, which is seemingly Danidev just spelled backwards. It appears Danidev is a solo developer and has been working on this game for about a year, with the developer explaining in a YouTube video posted in February 2025 that he had been working on Megabonk for "4 months so far."

Notably, Vedinad said he was inspired to create Megabonk by enjoying Vampire Survivor, a title similar to Megabonk, but 2D. After playing Vampire Survivors, Vedinad decided to try to create a similar game, but in 3D, with more focus on movement. The developer said Megabonk evolved past adding more movement and eventually became a mix between Vampire Survivor, Risk of Rain, DmD, Halls of Torment, and other roguelikes he enjoys.

Microsoft set the internet ablaze last week when it announced it was raising the price of Xbox Game Pass by 50%, resulting in many subscribers abandoning the Ultimate tier to move down one.

Lina Khan, the former chair of the Federal Trade Commission, has commented on the recent price hike, saying Microsoft's decision to increase prices is part of its dominance as a company, and that it's simply become "too-big-to-care" about any consequences from its customers since it has so many. Notably, Khan was the chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at the time of Microsoft's $67 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which the FTC opposed by claiming it would "harm competition in multiple dynamic fast-growing gaming markets".

Khan gave her statements in an X post where she responded to a post outlining the rising cost of Game Pass Ultimate since it was released. The original poster cites Microsoft stating in 2023 that subscription prices would not increase as a result of the Activision Blizzard acquisition. However, the FTC's challenge to prevent the merger was rejected by Judge Scott Corley.