Gaming - Page 97

Middle-earth Enterprises is working on a new game that aims to do for Lord of the Rings what Hogwarts Legacy did for Harry Potter.

A new Lord of the Rings video game is in development at the transforming Embracer Group, sources tell Insider Gaming. The production is said to be a third-person action game, but official details are light on whether or not RPG elements will be involved.

Stakeholders have big plans for the project, and hope that it can rival Hogwarts Legacy. This game may be separate from the Lord of the Rings MMO in development at Amazon Games.

Microsoft's Xbox Series S is a capable machine when it comes to processing, but more developers are saying the memory is a problem.

The Xbox Series S has been controversial right at launch; what appeared to be a low-cost entry point to Xbox was discovered to be a significantly weaker console that's a lot less powerful and a lot slower than the Xbox Series X. Cross-platform parity meant devs had to scale their games to work on both systems despite the discrepancy.

Interestingly enough, it's not really the processing power that developers are having the most trouble with. The Series S only has 10GB of unified GDDR6 RAM, meaning both the GPU and system pull from the same memory--there's no dedicated video RAM separated out. That's nearly 40% less than the Series X's 16GB of RAM. It's not just the capacity, though, but the speed of the memory itself. The Series S' system memory is much slower than the Series X, with the Series S RAM reaching 224GB/sec max speeds compared to the Series X's maximum of 560GB/sec.

Daniel Houser, the founder and creative lead of Rockstar Games, has confirmed that Grand Theft Auto 6 is the first GTA game he wasn't involved in writing.

In a recent interview with IGN, Houser confirmed that he has no involvement in GTA 6, but he is certain the game is going to be exciting and great. For those unfamiliar with Houser, the co-founder of Rockstar Games was a lead writer on every GTA game since GTA: London 1969, and also wrote both Red Dead Redemption games, along with other Rockstar titles such as Bully and Max Payne 3.

Houser departed from Rockstar in 2020, but past rumors indicated he oversaw the development of multiple GTA 6 story drafts, which were later discarded.

Electronic Arts has been acquired by a consortium of private equity firms and Saudi Arabia's PIF for $55 billion.

One of gaming's biggest publishers will soon be privately owned. Today, EA announced an agreement to sell to a trio of investors in a massive all-cash transaction valued at $55 billion.

The group, which offered $210 per share, consists of Saudi Arabia's PIF sovereign wealth fund, Silver Lake, and Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners. EA's board of directors approved the deal, and the acquisition is expected to close in Q1 FY27 (April 2026) pending shareholder approval.

Steam's latest beta test adds Secure Boot and TPM 2.0 detection, allowing gamers to easily check and see if PCs support the new security mandates.

The Steam client will soon get a new feature that helps gamers prep their PCs for modern games. New titles like Battlefield 6 and Black Ops 7 both require hardware-based security features to be enabled, including TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot. Gamers may have to go through BIOS settings to tick on the settings, and in some cases, may have to buy new systems altogether.

This can be a headache for the common gamer. To help ease the frustration of the process, Valve is baking in native detection tools into Steam that will check and see if these protocols are turned on and show the results in a handy, easy-to-read info pane.

EA has released a live-action trailer for Battlefield 6 ahead of the scheduled launch next month, and the trailer features celebrities such as Zac Efron, Paddy Pimblett, Morgan Wallen, and Jimmy Butler.

Ahead of the scheduled launch for Battlefield 6 on October 10, EA has released a live-action trailer to continue the hype train moving along, leading up to launch. The trailer opens with a full squad stepping out of a vehicle, showing the Assault class as actor Zac Efron, NBA superstar Jimmy Butler as an Engineer, artist Morgan Wallen as Support, and UFC superstar Paddy Pimblett as Recon.

The squad is then abruptly interrupted by a missile, killing them all, which was quickly followed up by a soldier asking, "Who was that?" and then another answers, "Doesn't matter, let's move."

Hades II is the current indie hit on the market, where it looks to become a top-seller on both PC and Nintendo Switch.

Supergiant's roguelike sequel is showing signs of being a big success. The game launched to critical acclaim and high playercounts on PC and Switch, where Hades II is attracting over a hundred thousand players on Steam alone. In its first 24 hours, Hades II had 103,890 players on Steam, and high playercounts are telltale signs of popular game launches.

Hades II likewise did well on Nintendo platforms. The game is currently the #1 best-seller on the Nintendo eShop's digital-only games list, dethroning Hollow Knight Silksong which had previously topped the list. At the time of writing, Hades II Switch 2 edition is #1, and the base Switch version is #2, with the first Hades game rounding out the list at #3. For the time being, Supergiant Games' underworld franchise is dominating the eShop's digital sales charts.

Forza Horizon 6 is indeed coming to PlayStation 5, but not at launch, proving Microsoft still believes in a measure of exclusivity...even if it's temporary.

Years ago during the start of the PS4 generation, I remember writing an article discussing how timed exclusivity was the hottest new trend. Not much has changed since then, and publishers still make these deals. What has changed, though, is Microsoft's radical shift to break platform exclusivity and bring Xbox games to PlayStation. This prompts Microsoft to utilize temporary advantages like timed exclusives.

We're seeing this play out with Forza Horizon 6, which is timed exclusive to Xbox and PC. The racing sim won't come to PlayStation 5 at launch, but instead sometime post-release. This hasn't been the case for all cross-platform games, as Gears of War Reloaded launched day one on PS5. That was a remaster, though, and Forza Horizon 6 is a sequel release in Xbox's highly lucrative tentpole franchise.

New reports indicate that Halo Studios is working on a persistent, always-online Halo game...and Microsoft's business practices fuel speculation that the new game could also launch on PlayStation consoles.

Microsoft's dedicated Halo team is working on two projects right now. While they haven't been announced, rumors say that one of them is a Halo Combat Evolved remake on Unreal Engine 5, and the other is an online game. It's possible that the latter project is a cross-platform game that releases on PC and consoles, including Sony's PlayStation 5.

It's worth noting that the following is speculation based on rumor, but the guesswork is based on Microsoft's current business trends. Sources tell reliable leaker Rebs Gamingthat a "live service, long-term updating multiplayer game" is in the works at Halo Studios. Given Halo Infinite's success, this new multiplayer might also be free-to-play to maximize player reach.

The new Halo CE remake will reportedly take combat evolved literally by making substantial changes to gameplay.

New rumors have surfaced about the upcoming Halo Combat Evolved remake, and it sounds like Halo Studios is retooling the OG shooter for action-oriented play. The latest reports from Rebs Gaming indicate that Halo CER may have sprint built into the game--a move that will fundamentally change the flow of campaign and multiplayer battles.

The information comes from sources who were briefed on the Halo project, who say that the current testing build of Halo CER has a sprint feature. Details on how the mechanic will work were not discussed and we have to wonder how the new animations will affect sight tracking with scoped weapons, especially the game's iconic M6D Magnum pistol or the lethal sniper rifle.

ASUS ROG and Xbox have officially unveiled the ROG Ally and Ally X, which were sold out worldwide on the Xbox Store within 24 hours.

The release date for the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X is October 16, 2025, and their release marks Xbox's first foray into the extremely competitive handheld market. The release is possibly taking place at midnight worldwide on October 16, as Insider Gaming reports. Since the ROG Ally and Ally X are consoles, they need to be picked up physically or shipped to the buyer's door.

Given how console launches have been in the past, and the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2, Insider Gaming suspects retailers such as Best Buy and Walmart will be hosting midnight launch events. While this isn't officially confirmed, it does make the most sense for the launch of the ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X, and if true, the below launch times will be correct globally.

OneXPlayer has just teased its new OneXfly Apex gaming handheld, the company's first debut of an AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 "Strix Halo" APU-powered gaming handheld. Check it out:

The new OneXPlayer OneXfly Apex gaming handheld sports the flagship Strix Halo APU which features 16 cores and 32 threads of Zen 5 processing power, an 8-inch 120Hz display (no word on resolution or panel type just yet), adjustable triggers, up to 120W of power with silent liquid cooling, and more.

AMD's flagship Ryzen AI Max+ 395 "Strix Halo" APU ships with 16C/32T of Zen 5 CPU goodness, a beefy RDNA 3.5-powered Radeon 8060S integrated GPU with 40 Compute Units, and support for up to 128GB of RAM.

Helldivers 2 could have had a very different effect on Sony's business as a free-to-play game.

In a recent Discord post, Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani revealed some interesting details about Helldivers 2's development. The game was originally set to be a PS5 launch title (it ended up shipping four years later). Helldivers 2 was also a free-to-play title at one point, Jorjani says, before it switched back to a paid product. This offers a glimpse into a very different PlayStation live service model.

"[Helldivers II] started as a AA game, grew in scope, then pivoted to a launch title for PS5, then pivoted to F2P, then back to premium," the studio lead said in a post addressing the game's performance issues.

Electronic Arts could soon be taken over by a consortium of private equity firms.

EA could soon be taken private in a deal worth $50 billion, sources tell The Wall Street Journal, with investors on the deal including Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, firm Silver Lake, and Jared Kushner's investment group Affinity Partners. The popular video games publisher is currently trading at $193 a share with a market capitalization of $48 billion.

Electronic Arts is among the leading video game companies on the planet, with a plethora of best-selling franchises. The EA Sports label is among the best-earning entertainment properties with consistent billion-dollar annual revenues, helping EA make a record-breaking $7.4 billion in fiscal year 2025.

More game developers are explaining why they don't ship full games on Switch 2 cartridges and exposing a potential weak spot in Nintendo's new platform.

The Switch 2 is a big upgrade over the first console, but the game cartridges can apparently be a limitation. This is a major factor in why there are so many games shipping on Game-key Cards on the Switch 2, and we've heard two developers mention the limited performance of the cartridges. The main issue is that the game cartridges just aren't as fast as internal storage; the Switch 2 has built-in Kioxia flash storage capable of hitting 2.1 GB/sec speeds...but each individual Switch 2 game cartridge doesn't have that kind of performance. Essentially what it comes down to is that games that are installed to an SSD can be loaded faster than games that are stuck on an external cartridge.

Now another developer has spoken out about the speeds on the Switch 2 Game Cards. This time Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth game director Naoki Hamaguchi adds more context on why Square Enix games are shipping on the Switch 2's token digital authenticators rather than as full game ROMs.

It was only recently that EA and Battlefield Studios revealed the campaign trailer for Battlefield 6, along with a number of details regarding Dagger 13, the team of Marines that players will step into throughout the missions.

However, more details have emerged online, and some of them answer the most burning questions about the new mode, such as the total length and how many missions players will be able to enjoy. According to BFBulletin on X, the Battlefield 6 campaign will be approximately 4 to 6 hours long and feature nine missions. Each of the missions has been listed below, and the leak includes their names, giving hints at what they will involve.

Furthermore, one of the early missions drops players in Northern Africa, where they will be battling the forces of Pax Armata under the shadows of the pyramids of Giza. Additionally, Dagger 13 will be moving through Brooklyn's streets that have been ravaged by war, and then to Gibraltar to reclaim the Rock, a very strategic location for the ongoing war. As for the missions themselves, reports indicate each mission is quite large in scope, enabling players to explore large open spaces and select which target they want to tackle first.

Gaming industry insider Billbil-kun has penned a new piece in the Dealabs magazine, claiming that a new PS5 Pro will be released later this month under the product designation "CFI-7121".

According to the publication, the new PS5 Pro is set to arrive in Europe from September 30, 2025, and it's suggested that the model will retain its same design aesthetics as the original PS5 Pro. Notably, billbil-kun leaked that Sony was going to release a cutdown version of the PS5 Slim that was a downgrade compared to its predecessor, and that turned out to be true. Sony quietly released this new console, and it notably featured cheaper components and had a smaller SSD, totalling just 825GB, compared to the 1TB on the previous model.

As for the new PS5 Pro, billbil-kun reports there is nothing to suggest this new console will get the same cutdown treatment as the Slim, which means we can expect it to feature the same 2TB storage capacity. Notably, Billbil-kun states this new model will feature some improvements, but as to what those improvements are, currently, that isn't known. Furthermore, Billbil-kun writes that there is no word on when this new console will be released in the Americas.

Witcher 3's mod support on consoles won't arrive in 2025 as planned, and has now been delayed to an unspecified 2026 window.

One of the best RPG games ever made celebrated its 10th anniversary this year, but one major part of the anniversary has been pushed back. CD Projekt RED has confirmed that it won't have Witcher 3's anticipated mod support update ready for 2025 after all. Mods are coming to Witcher 3's console versions in 2026 instead.

"We originally planned to introduce cross-platform mod support for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S later this year, but the rollout is now shifting to 2026. We apologize for the delay and will share more details as we get closer to the release. Thank you for your patience!"

The new Halloween game will stay true to the films and make Michael Myers an unkillable, walking shadow of death.

Illfonic showed off the first gameplay for its new Halloween slasher sim, revealing what the game will look and play like when it ships next fall. The visuals are striking, with sharp contrasts and tones, and Michael is larger-than-life on the screen as he roams Haddonfield.

Gameplay-wise, Michael Myers will use the classic butcher knife and other makeshift kill utensils, but he also has a special Shape Jump ability that lets players go invisible for a period of time. It might be Illfonic's take of The Shape's curse storyline. Exact specifics on how this work remain unknown, but it was confirmed that Michael is unkillable in the game (players can lose if the time runs out).

After a decade with the Mario maker, Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser is retiring from the company.

The charmingly-named and even more charmingly-mannered Doug Bowser has announced that he will be leaving Nintendo at the end of 2025. Nintendo of America's EVP of revenue and marketing Devon Pritchard will take over for Bowser as NoA's new president.

Bowser helped lead Nintendo's critical US-based operations through its most profitable console generation--the Switch--when he took over as Nintendo of America president in 2019, and also navigated the company's Western division through turbulent, tariff-ridden waters with the Switch 2's launch. Bowser ends his send-off with an indication that he may not be leaving the games industry.