Darmoshark has announced a new wireless gaming mouse designed specifically for users with big hands, with the mouse making its debut in a post on Bilibili. The Darmoshark M9 has a similar shape to the ever-popular Razer Viper V3 Pro, but it measures in at 136.5 × 68.1 × 43.5 mm, compared to the Viper V3 Pro's 127.1 × 63.9 × 39.9 mm. A few millimeters' difference may not seem like much, but it's a bigger difference across the board than the difference between the original Razer Viper Ultimate (126.8 × 57.6 × 37.8 mm) and the Viper Mini (118.3 mm × 53.5 × 38.3 mm), and the shape being what it is, it should provide a decent experience for users who would otherwise feel cramped on a standard-size gaming mouse. Darmoshark makes no hard claims, but it says that it "may well be the largest mouse to date."

[Editor's note: Our in-depth review of the Razer Viper V3 Pro is live]

The Darmoshark M9 doesn't skimp on the specs, either, featuring a PixArt PAW 3950 sensor, a Nordic 54L15 MCU, Omron Optical switches, and a 500 mAh battery, all at a claimed weight of 59 g—only 5 g heavier than the Viper V3 Pro and roughly the same weight as the Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2. This hardware means it will have 8 kHz polling as well as features like a 20 FPS mode and adjustable lift-off. Like the aforementioned mice, it has a solid shell and two programmable side buttons. It seems as though the increased shell size has made it necessary to move the hump slightly to the back for more palm support without affecting click height too much, and the scroll wheel has a rubberized coating. The mouse is already available in China for RMB 400, which converts to roughly $58, although it's likely the price will increase if and when it eventually gets a global release.

Wardogs is a new massively multiplayer tactical FPS that has been in development at Bulkhead for a number of years. It puts players in all-out warfare in a massive 256 km² map with 99 other players split into three teams. On February 5, 2026, the game studio released a new gameplay trailer and a Steam Store page for the upcoming FPS, revealing some previously unknown details about the upcoming shooter. One of the major reveals is that Wardogs will use Easy Anti-Cheat, which may spell bad news for Linux gamers. EAC does have a Linux mode that developers can enable, and Team17, the publisher behind the game, is known for being Linux-friendly, but there is currently no guarantee that Wardogs will be playable on devices like the Valve Steam Deck, the upcoming Steam Machine, or any other Linux system out there. Minimum hardware requirements are fairly low, calling for an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 or AMD Radeon RX 590, 16 GB of RAM, and either an Intel Core i5 8600 or AMD Ryzen 5 3500, meaning it will likely be reasonably playable on a iGPU if playing at lower resolution and quality settings.

Aside from the confirmation of EAC, the Wardogs Steam page denies that the game is a battle royale or an extraction shooter, instead emphasizing that it's a "new tactical take on the all-out-warfare FPS genre that rewards decision-making, communication, and teamwork," all within a modern militaristic setting and a fully player-driven sandbox with destructible environments and building mechanics. The game will feature realistic graphics, vehicular combat, and it will give players the freedom to approach the game as they see fit. The upgrade system depends on purchasing gear, weapons, and vehicles from a store, and each player starts with $10,000, but earnings persist from match to match. The game format itself revolves around controlling a 4 km² zone located randomly on the map—the more players a team has in the control zone, the more points they rack up. Wardogs is slated to launch in 2026, but the game studio will conduct limited playtests ahead of launch.

When Valve announced the Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and updated Steam Controller late in 2025, it did not reveal pricing, but the gaming giant said that the hardware would launch in early 2026. That launch window is still on the cards, but according to a recent announcement by Valve, it is still unable to announce pricing or specific launch dates for any of the hardware. As the announcement explains, "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)."

The Steam hardware is hardly the only hardware launch said to be affected by the current memory crisis, with even laptops and potentially the upcoming console generation rumored to see delays as a result of the RAM shortage caused by the AI boom. For Valve's part, the company promises that the actual release dates have not been affected, but it just needs to find a concrete launch price that makes sense. That could mean that the Steam Machine will launch at higher prices than the $700-800 initially predicted by many. Valve has previously said that the Steam Machine would be priced more like a PC than a console, meaning the prospective price increase will still likely be in line with what you'd expect from a similarly equipped PC. Valve also demystified some other aspects of the upcoming Steam hardware, confirming once again that the Steam Machine is able to reach 4K 60 FPS with FSR enabled, although the team admits that some games may need to be upscaled from 1080p with VRR enabled in order to guarantee a smooth gameplay experience. Valve also confirmed that it plans to make CAD files and specs available for the Steam Machine's faceplate so that gamers and third-party manufacturers can build accessories for the PC. Both the SSD and memory will also be upgradeable and easily accessible.

News recently broke that Borderlands 4 may not ever launch on the Nintendo Switch 2, but, as 2K recently announced via the official Borderlands account on X, the looter shooter is officially verified for the Steam Deck. While Borderlands 4 has been playable on the Steam Deck basically since launch, the numerous performance issues it exhibits led us to recommend against playing it on Valve's handheld in our in-depth handheld performance review. There were signs that Gearbox was preparing Borderlands 4 for Steam Deck Verified status, specifically the updated menu screens that came to the game around a month ahead of the announcement.

Importantly, Valve's requirements for Steam Deck verification include functional controller input, seamless compatibility with the Steam Deck hardware and software with no compatibility warnings, support for the default Steam Deck Display resolutions, with good default settings, and full support for Proton. Notably, performance doesn't really enter into the equation, and that has become the main focus of many online users, who pointed out on sites like X and Reddit pointing out that the game still doesn't run well on the Steam Deck, even after numerous performance patches nearly six months after the initial launch. Most users who have tested the game say that they still struggle to maintain a solid 30 FPS in the looter shooter on the Steam Deck's iGPU.

Despite the success of the first game in the series, Overwatch 2 has had a rough time of it, with reviews on Steam rating the game "Mostly Negative," with 34% of its reviews being of a positive nature. It seems as though Blizzard is trying to change this. In one of the multiple developer-led showcases scheduled for early February, Blizzard announced that Overwatch 2 is becoming just "Overwatch," and, more importantly, receiving a number of changes that aim to make gameplay more dynamic and attract more players to the game. The change also marks a number of changes to Overwatch's structure, which will see the game feature an annual story in a system that will officially go into effect with the new Season 1 on February 10. The story will be told across six seasons throughout the year, after which a new story will kick off with a new Season 1 in the following year. The first season in the revamp is called "Reign of Talon," and the plot kicked off with an animated cinematic at the start of the Overwatch spotlight on YouTube, but the rest will be told through various in-game events, animated hero trailers, short stories, and comics released throughout the year.

Blizzard also announced 10 new characters and an all-new class system. The first five characters will launch on February with the start of Season 1, and the rest of the line-up will follow throughout the year. It seems as though the heroes released throughout the year will all somehow be related to the plot being told in that particular year and also enter the game when each respective season launches. The five heroes coming in Season 1 include Domina, a new tank, Emre, a damage hero, Mizuki, a new support, Anran, another damage who will be available to trial from February 5-10, and Jetpack Cat, a stray cat serving aerial support that will be able to move allies around the battlefield from the air. The new update also sees Overwatch's class system get an overhaul, with the main tank, damage, and support roles now divided into three or four subclasses each—initiator, bruiser, and stalwart fall under the tank class; specialist, flanker, recon, and sharpshooter fall under damage, and medic, tactician, and survivor fall under support. Each role also comes with its own set of buffs and perks to consider. Blizzard also revealed that it would be reworking some classic Overwatch heroes later in 2026, although it did not reveal which heroes would be getting reworked.

Despite previously taking a very pro-generative AI stance, advocating for AI protagonists in games, Take-Two Interactive's CEO, Strauss Zelnick, recently commented in an interview with Gameindustry.biz that generative AI was not used in the development of Grand Theft Auto VI. The CEO is quoted as saying "Specifically with regards to GTA 6, Generative AI has zero part in what Rockstar Games is building. Their worlds are handcrafted. That's what differentiates them. They're built from the ground up, building by building, street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood. They're not procedurally generated, they shouldn't be. That's what makes great entertainment." He also clarifies that he doesn't think that AI can or will be able to build "great entertainment properties" by themselves, suggesting that Take-Two might think twice about putting AI assets into its games.

He does also mention, however, that he is enthusiastic about AI, and that Take-Two's "products have always been built with machine learning and artificial intelligence," and that "right now we have hundreds of pilots and implementations across our company and within our studios. And we're already seeing instances where generative AI tools are driving costs and time efficiencies." Notably, this isn't the first time we've seen similar rhetoric or AI applied similarly in game studios, despite game workers generally opposing the idea of generative AI in gaming. Embark, the studio behind Arc Raiders, used generative AI to speed up the work on voice acting, while Ubisoft is exploring AI-generated teammates, and EA has announced a pivot to generative AI tools across multiple applications.

Borderlands 4 can't seem to escape its reputation for poor performance and demanding hardware requirements. Although the game was meant to launch on the relatively low-power Nintendo Switch 2 shortly after it launched on PC and console, the handheld port of the game was delayed, with the development team declaring that it needed more time to "deliver the best game possible" for fans of the series. Now, as of February 3, the development of Borderlands 4 for the Switch 2 has officially been put on hold. This is according to a new announcement by 2K Interactive in a recent earnings call. The gaming giant instead says that it wants to focus on optimizing Borderlands 4 for the devices on which it is already available. It's unclear whether the development will be picked up again at a later stage or if the port is effectively cancelled.

The full statement by 2K reads: "We made the difficult decision to pause development on that SKU. Our focus continues to be delivering quality post-launch content for players on the ongoing improvements to optimize the game. We're continuing to collaborate closely with our friends at Nintendo. We have PGA Tour 2K25 coming out and WWE 2K26, and we're incredibly excited about bringing more of our titles to that platform in the future." No official explanation was provided for the halt in development, but speculation has gone two ways. While some think 2K put the Switch 2 port on hold over performance concerns—Gearbox's Randy Pitchford previously promised that the game would run at 30 FPS "with some dips" on the Switch 2, which didn't give gamers much hope for performance—while others suspect that sales numbers simply didn't justify the increased development costs for the Switch 2. The fact that the Switch 2 version had already been indefinitely delayed lends credence to the theory that performance concerns and optimization difficulties could have had something to do with the cancellation.

ATK Gear showed off its latest Ghost gaming mouse at CES earlier this year, but the brand is apparently stepping into the less gamer-focussed peripheral scene as well with the new Yogo 75 low-profile mechanical keyboard. The Yogo 75 is, as the name suggests, a 75% mechanical keyboard, but it uses a new all-POM low-profile switch designed in collaboration with Kailh and features some unique design touches, making it a competitive option at its expected $100-130 price point, depending on sales and the specific model. ATK is currently wrapping up the Kickstarter campaign for the Yogo 75, and the keyboard will soon become available on the ATK Gear online store. It will be available with both silent linear and regular linear switches and in black, silver, or yellow (which looks more like a creamy color).

The ATK Yogo 75 has an all-aluminium chassis with a silicone gasket mount, while the Pro version has a built-in pixel display with a frosted cover, and a rotary encoder, and both models feature the retro-future aesthetic that's going around at the moment. Much like the Wooting 80HE (review here), the Yogo 75 has detachable feet for typing angle adjustment, although they are magnetic on the Yogo, where they are simply press-fit on the Wooting. The Yogo 75 will be available with two switch options, and it will have universal-height dye-sublimated PBT keycaps that look like they have the same profile as the keycaps from the similar Iqunix Magi and MQ series keyboards. In terms of connectivity, the standard tri-mode affair—Bluetooth, 2.4 GHz, and USB-C connectivity. ATK has put a 5,000 mAh battery into the Yogo 75, and the brand says that it will be able to run for as long as 2,500 hours on a single charge. This is likely tested without the north-facing RGB backlighting enabled.

Recently, GOG, the game storefront and distribution platform, took some heat over the inclusion of AI-generated art in promotional imagery for a New Year sale. It received so much backlash online that an employee in the marketing department took to the GOG forum to respond the same day news broke, however, now, GOG has issued an official response in its Discord server for GOG Patrons (courtesy of Kotaku).

In the lengthy response, the GOG representative explains that the art was indeed AI generated, although this had been confirmed previously, but they explain that the banner was a WIP (work in progress) asset and was never meant to be shared. GOG also says that it "failed on at least two levels: Quality-control of the asset that landed on the front page, and then reacting quickly enough when we noticed the error." The rep goes on to acknowledge its community's disappointment in the use of AI, but says that GOG is a very small team that has been testing different technologies and tools that allow the team to do more with fewer hands. The full statement is available below, but it essentially seems as though GOG is incorporating generative AI into its workflows, despite the negative backlash, internally, externally, and even from the gaming industry at large.

Acemagic's latest entry into its retro mini PC line, the Retro X3, is apparently powered by AMD's Ryzen 7 H 255, and it offers a slightly toned-down look compared to the Gorgon Point and Panther Lake devices we previewed at CES earlier this year. The Retro X3 has officially launched in China, and is available for pre-order at a price of RMB 1,899 without RAM or storage. This translates to around $273, although it will likely be slightly more expensive when it launches globally. The Retro X3 will be available with and AMD Ryzen 7 H 255, which is an eight-core CPU with AMD's Zen 4 Architecture and an AMD Radeon 780M iGPU, meaning the mini PC should offer similar low-end gaming performance to the APU in the ASUS ROG Ally or Lenovo Legion Go.

It features modular RAM, with support for up to 128 GB of DDR5-5600 RAM and up to 4 TB of NVMe storage via a 2280 M.2 slot. As with the other retro PCs by Acemagic, it features a beige plastic enclosure with a big red power button and plenty of ports. On the front alone, there are two USB 3.2 ports, along with a 3.5 mm audio jack and a USB4 Type-C port, while the back features an HDMI 2.1 port and a DisplayPort 2.0 port alongside 2.5G LAN and four USB 3.2 ports. It also packs Bluetooth 5.2, Wi-Fi 6 for wireless connectivity and peripherals. The air cooling system draws in cool air from the top of the chassis and exhausts heat through vents on the sides and rear of the mini PC, and the whole package measures in at just 128.2 × 128.2 × 44 mm.

It was previously revealed in leaks that the Apple M5 Pro and M5 Max-powered MacBook Pros are expected to launch sometime in the first half of 2026, but a new rumor from Fixed Focus Digital on Weibo has revealed that the M5 Max and Pro SoCs themselves may launch as early as March 2026. Apple generally announces new SoCs alongside at least one new product that will sport the new SoC, so either we will see new MacBooks launch alongside those chips or Apple will launch something like an M5 Max Mac Studio at the same time.

The leaker also claims that Apple will be using TSMC's advanced SoIC (System on Integrated Chip) packaging to bring down production costs for the SoC slightly. Supposedly this is one way that Apple will fight the high DRAM costs after it allegedly slipped from TSMC's priority customer list. The slip from the priority list was supposedly accompanied by a significant production price increase for Apple, and it is thought that the AI boom is to blame for that price increase.

Xiaomi has officially released the G Pro 27Qi (2026) gaming monitor for the global market. The G Pro 27Qi is a 16:9, 1440p e-sports gaming monitor with AMD FreeSync support and a 180 Hz refresh rate. The G Pro 27Qi features an IPS panel with a mini LED backlight. According to Xiaomi, the G Pro 27Qi is capable of 2000 nits peak brightness and a 1000:1 contrast ratio. It has 1152 local dimming zones, sports a VESA DisplayHDR 1000 certification, and it uses a custom engine for scene recognition, and the local dimming features three levels and can be disabled if you like. The display is currently available from Xiaomi's global online store for AUD475 (around USD330), although it looks like the price may go up to AUD699 at some point. It currently does not seem to be listed on the US storefront, with the G Pro 27i coming closest, although with half the peak brightness.

Xiaomi also claims a 1 ms GTG pixel response time as well as 100% coverage of the sRGB color gamut, and 99% coverage of the Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 color gamuts. The display includes a calibration report, and Xiaomi says each display is calibrated to have delta-E values below 1, which makes it adequate for certain creative tasks alongside gaming. Physically, the G Pro 27Qi features a height-, tilt-, and swivel-adjustable stand with a portrait mode as well. It has a bit of that gaming design language on the back, with an RGB ring on the back panel, although overall the stand doesn't look too garish. For input, it features dual HDMI 2.0 ports and dual DisplayPort 1.4 ports as well as a 3.5 mm audio combo jack. It also has a built-in flip-out headphone holder in the top right corner, which is a nice touch.

Xbox made waves not too long ago with the hyper-customizable Adaptive Controller that features remappable physical buttons, 19 3.5 mm jacks for additional accessories, and switchable profiles for different games and use cases. With its latest patent, Sony looks to at least be considering going in a different direction with its adaptive controller design. A new patent, spotted by Insider Gaming, details a controller design with virtually no physical inputs, where players can configure their own layouts—no more arguments about offset vs in-line thumb sticks—and the layouts could potentially adapt to the user's needs.

The prospective controller's main objective would be to replace physical buttons with touch surfaces and optical sensors, which would be able to sense when the player interacts with the controller, but also when the player's hand, thumb, or finger approaches the controller. The controller would use user-defined profiles dictating the layout of the face buttons, D-Pad, and even virtual analog sticks—there is even mention of automatic user identity detection to access those profiles. Sony also explains that you could combine multiple control schemes on the same side of the controller and even adjust the size of each of the button groups to better suit different hand sizes, shapes, and levels of dexterity. Owing to the touch-sensitive control surfaces, the controller would also be able to recognize gestures like swipes, pinches, and slides. It's unclear whether this controller design will make it into a future PlayStation controller design, although given many gamers' aversion to non-tactile inputs in video games, interest is likely to be low aside from the obvious accessibility benefits.

The Finalmouse Centerpiece is a 65% Hall effect keyboard with transparent keycaps and a display under those keycaps, and it captured the imagination of many a gamer and keyboard nerd when it was first announced back in 2022. Since then, the keyboard has been affected by multiple delays, and even since production has been underway, there have been plenty of complaints about the speed at which the company can get out pre-orders. Those same complaints have just been met with a response that effectively calls customers impatient and appears to dismiss their concerns.

In a recent Discord message, shared by @Cager_CA on X, Finalmouse effectively confirms that production of the Centerpiece keyboard is slow, telling buyers who have expresses concerns over the pace of delivery that Finalmouse "was not founded to chase calendars, appease impatience, or shave meaning from creation in order to meet an arbitrary date," explaining further down that "each unit is completed and shipped only when it meets the standard we set—not the standard demanded by noise, deadlines, or convenience." He also goes on to say that there will likely be further delays thanks to the imminent Chinese New Year celebrations, which routinely result in production line shutdowns across large swathes of the Chinese production industry as workers head home to celebrate the festivities. This response was largely met with skepticism, with many calling out the focus on quality and craftsmanship, alleging that Finalmouse has a reputation for delivering gaming mice with poor QC.

Apex Legends is currently free to play on all major gaming platforms, but that will apparently change later this year. EA and Respawn Entertainment just announced that Apex Legends will officially end support for the Nintendo Switch 1 on August 4, 2026. The announcement goes on to clarify that Season 29 will be the final update for the aging handheld gaming platform. All features, including premium currency purchasing and spending will be available until the Switch 1 servers shut down on August 4.

EA says that any progress, in-game items, and premium currency balances will continue to be tied to individual player accounts, and those same accounts will be accessible via the Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game. Apex Legends will also continue to receive the same content updates as the rest of the game's platforms until the servers are taken offline. Players can also transfer all of their game progress—except for premium currency—to another platform via the Cross Progression hub. Apex Legends has been playable on the Nintendo Switch since March 2021, and it has been available on the Switch 2 since August 2025.

Highguard launched less than a week ago, with the PvP raid shooter rapidly earning itself a reputation for its underwhelming gameplay that was riddled with pacing issues and more than a few performance issues. One of the biggest complaints about Highguard's gameplay was that the 3v3 gameplay format combined with the looting mechanics and the vast map meant that gameplay felt stagnant. Fast-forward to the end of the launch week, and the developer, Wildlight Entertainment, has announced an update that it hopes will assuage complaints from those who prefer a more action-packed game.

The new 5v5 queue is still an experimental playlist, and it will be available for testing for the weekend following the update. Players will have four additional lives in 5v5 mode, and respawn times are slightly longer. It will not replace the 3v3 playlist, and the developer notes that the game's performance will likely take a hit in 5v5 mode. On the topic of performance, the patch also adds optimizations to animation performance, projectiles, draw submission times, and more for both console and PC. Overall framerate should be improved across the board to varying degrees depending on the system hardware. In addition to the new mode, the aforementioned performance tweaks, a motion blur toggle for PC and console, and an anisotropic materials toggle for consoles, there is also a new base construct for players to take advantage of. The Soul Well, a mysterious, "dark relic from a lost age," is an ancient temple with two generators, a rear keep, an underground fortress, and a tall central altar for a better vantage point to defend all of it from enemies. Soul Well will be added to all gameplay rotations as of the January 30 update. A short gameplay overview for the Soul Well follows.

Even though the 12vHPWR connector problem was ostensibly somewhat corrected by the introduction of the 12v-2x6 revision to the standard, meltdowns of both connectors have continued, with the latest documented case coming by way of an X post by streamer @jessickyeah. The GPU in question was an MSI NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Gaming Trio, and in the video, you can see the top-most right wire in the GPU power cable smoking and bubbling. The meltdown happened mid-game, and the excess heat generated by the unbalanced load seems to begin affecting the connector on the GPU as well. The outcome of the event was never made public, but it's safe to assume the GPU would have eventually been taken out of commission if the PC had not been turned off.

Judging by previous posts on the streamer's account, the RTX 4090 seems to have been in use since at least March 2025, confirming once again that just because a card-cable combo have been working just fine for extended periods, that doesn't mean that a meltdown isn't possible. Currently, NVIDIA's recommendation to avoid potential issues is to avoid third-party extension cables and ensure that GPU power cables are properly seated. Some cable, GPU, and PSU brands have started addressing the issues with the connector by adding indicators to ensure proper cable insertion or by actively monitoring the cable itself for abnormal power balance.

Ahead of the game's official launch,it was revealed that Borderlands 4 would go live without a built-in photo mode, with the game's creative director promising that the feature would ship "in an update after the game launches." Now, nearly five months after the game's original launch, Gearbox has finally delivered on that promise, along with a slew of new content in what is being called the game's first major update. The photo mode feature allows players to reposition the camera, change the FoV and DoF, and add a variety of visual filters before taking their snapshot. Additionally, players can make tweaks to the scene itself, like changing the time of day, adding or removing player characters, summons, and NPCs, and a toggling damage numbers on or off to taste.

Photo mode isn't all that landed in the January 29 update, including a number of fixes to make quest and challenges track accurately and communicate progress more clearly. The major update also ushered in a sizeable rework to Harlowe's Zero-Point action skill and increased dedicated drop levels for Ultimate Vault Hunter mode. The changes made to Harlowe's Zero-Point action skill are in the name of making it "feel more satisfying and better balanced relative to Harlowe's other trees," and the change amounts to the base skill getting the benefits of the previous inertia augment and increasing the slam damage, status effect chance, and status effect damage from the Inertia augment. Amon and Vex also received small tweaks to make them deal slightly more damage in certain situations and behave more predictably overall.

In light of the at-the-time recent success of the Steam Deck, Sony's PlayStation Portal handheld remote game streaming device seemed less than inspiring to much of the gaming community. However, it seems to have been successful enough that Sony is planning a refreshed version of the gaming handheld. According to notable industry insider and frequent leaker, KeplerL2 on the NeoGAF forum, the updated version of the Sony PlayStation Portal will launch at some point in 2026, and the leaker later clarifies that the new handheld will feature an OLED display, instead of the LCD screen found on the current version.

The leaker also had some insights about the upcoming standalone PlayStation 6 Portable handheld that will ostensibly compete with the likes of the Valve Steam Deck and ASUS ROG Xbox Ally, with a comment in the thread indicating that the standalone gaming handheld will be powered by AMD's upcoming RDNA 5 GPU architecture, as opposed to RDNA 4 from the current RX 9000 GPUs and RDNA 3.5 found in Strix Halo and other iGPUs. Additionally, the leak also verifies previous information that indicated the portable game console would have fewer than 40 CUs, with claims pointing to as few as 16 CUs for the upcoming handheld.

Windows 11 may not be the most beloved version of Microsoft's OS to date, but Microsoft's PowerToys is a favorite UI tweaking tool among power users, and for good reason. The latest feature to debut in PowerToys is a docked top bar—called the Command Palette Dock—which is part of the Command Palette feature set. The Command Palette Dock is an optional, configurable dock that can be pinned to any screen edge and be used to display a number of extensions and widgets. In the feature announcement on GitHub, the PowerToys team shows off features like a system monitor, file browser, and a clipboard history—all of the existing PowerToys Command Palette extensions should work in the Command Palette Dock, according to Microsoft. The dock functions similarly to that of the Windows Task Bar, in the sense that it shows a small shortcut icon, with more information available via a pop-up when clicked.

The Command Palette Dock is part of the previously introduced Command Palette, which is effectively Windows's version of KDE's Krunner or macOS Spotlight, and the Command Palette Dock is, likewise, a feature on many Linux distributions and on Apple's macOS. It's also unclear if the PowerToys Dock will become quite as customizable as the docks in KDE, which allows you to add secondary docks to different screen edges and change the icons and display styles of each of the extensions in the dock. PowerToys has previously played host to features that eventually made it to Windows 11, like the updated window tiling UI, for example. It's thus entirely possible that some version of the top bar and command palette may become part of Windows itself in the not-too-distant future. As for now, though, the feature is still in the testing and hasn't even been added to PowerToys yet. It will likely be launched soon after feedback is gathered by development build testers.

GOG recently announced its New Year sale, and fans immediately noticed something was off about the site banner advertising the event, with Liam Dawe from GamingOnLinux taking to Reddit to question whether or not the banner was AI-generated. The post generated a range of responses, mostly ranging from outrage to apathy, but a handful of redditors also pointed out that this wasn't the first time GOG used AI art in its marketing images, and that it had recently specifically mentioned proficiency with AI tools in a recent job listing for a developer to work on the Linux version of GOG Galaxy.

The topic of the AI-generated banner was also brought up on the GOG forum, where a GOG employee, who is involved in graphic design in the marketing department, commented at length on the post. The artist confirmed that the artwork is completely AI generated, although they deny that it was their work and decline to comment further on the company's internal AI use. However, they do expand on their personal opposition to AI at length, lamenting how ubiquitous it has become and how, around five years ago, "everything you'd see was something someone had spent time on...so it was worth being looked at," while this is not the case anymore. The full comment speaks to what appears to be an internal divide on the use of AI art, and this is a divide we observed in a recent State of the Gaming Industry survey as well, where many game industry workers admitted to using AI but most still thought it was harmful to gaming.

Intel's Core Ultra 356H is an upcoming 16-core (4 P-cores, 12 E-cores) mobile Panther Lake CPU. Although official review embargoes for the rest of Intel's Panther Lake CPUs are said to be right around the corner, supposed performance benchmarks for Intel's latest have already started to leak, with Cinebench R23 and 3DMark Steel Nomad Light results coming by way of @realVictor_M on X. The results indicate strong multicore performance but stagnant single-core scores compared to Intel's last-generation chips. The iGPU is also notably slower, since the Arc 140V iGPU in the outgoing Core Ultra 7 255H has significantly more cores than the new Intel Graphics 4 Xe3 iGPU in the Panther Lake chip.

According to the leaker, whose results are so far unverified, the Core Ultra 7 356H scored 2013 points in the Cinebench R23 single-core benchmark and 20,721 points in the Cinebench R23 multicore test. For reference, this is slightly ahead of the outgoing Core Ultra 7 255H, which features two more P-cores and two fewer E-cores and averages around 18,679 points in the Cinebench R23 multicore benchmark. Single-core scores, for their part, are about dead even, with the 255H averaging around 2060 points in the R23 single-core benchmark. In the 3DMark Steel Nomad Light test, the Panther Lake iGPU scored 2,110 points. By comparison, its predecessor's average score in the same benchmark ranges between 3,279 and 3,532 points, depending on whether the benchmark is running in DX12 or Vulkan mode. The upcoming laptop CPUs will have to contend with AMD's new Ryzen AI 400 APUs, which have already started showing up in laptops and have shown to perform admirably in comparison with current-gen Intel CPUs.

Flashing alternative vBIOS versions onto GPUs is a common practice used by modders to increase power limits on GPUs, and it has only become more common since NVIDIA started clamping down on overclocking options available to users via software tools. The recently announced ASUS ROG Matrix Platinum has become an attractive source for one such high-wattage vBIOS, although it has proven difficult to get the aforementioned vBIOS onto certain cards. One user on the HardwareLuxx forum, however, has managed to get the 800 W vBIOS from the Matrix Platinum GPU onto an ASUS ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5090 (read our review of the latter here), although the mod only seems to be necessary on the black version of the card.

It turns out that in order to flash the Matrix vBIOS onto the black Astral 5090 required physical modifications to the GPU PCB itself—this is due to the rear-mounted fan being wired with the front middle fan on that particular version of the card, as opposed to on a separate header as it is on the white version. The modification in question involves swapping a pull-down resistor in the serial in signal line of the EEPROM to a pull-up resistor. Obviously, this mod alone requires more than a little bit of soldering experience, but there's also the question of cooling. The stock version of the ROG Astral is designed with a 600 W power limit, and the Matrix vBIOS lifts that to 800 W, so realistically, any overclocking attempts made with the modded card requires an aftermarket cooling solution to handle the increased power and corresponding heat.

The 2026 State of the Game Industry survey report, conducted by the GDC Festival of Gaming, has revealed a number of interesting insights in to the current state of the game development landscape. The report showed that US game industry workers have a strong inclination towards unionization, with 82% of workers surveyed supporting unionization, while 13% were unsure, and only 5% opposed the idea. Up-and-coming talent, specifically those aged 18-24, were overwhelmingly in support of unionization, with zero respondents opposing the idea. This report comes shortly after unions representing Ubisoft workers in France called for a massive three-day international strike after the studio's ill-received cost-cutting measures and recent game cancellations.

On the topic of Generative AI, game workers were somewhat divided. 36% of industry workers reported using generative AI in their daily work, although it was far more common amongst those working at publishing companies (58%) than workers at development studios (30%). Despite moderate use of generative AI tools across various disciplines and workloads, like research and brainstorming (81%), email and code assistance (47%), and prototyping (35%), most professionals in the gaming industry think that generative AI is having a negative impact on the industry. 64% of visual and technical artists, 63% of game and narrative designers, and 59% of programmers think share their negative outlooks on the impact of generative AI on the industry, while only 7% of surveyed workers generative AI is having a positive impact on gaming.

Maingear has officially announced its latest retro-themed pre-built desktop PCs, the Retro98. The new pre-built desktops are built in SilverStone FLP02 chassis, replete with a functional turbo button—for setting PWM-controlled fans to max speed—and a big red power toggle switch, and they can be had with either a 360 mm AIO or open-loop liquid cooling designed in collaboration with Alphacool. The entire build looks rather authentic, with classic ketchup and mustard cables and classic 5.25" drive bay covers for the HDD bays tying the look together. The open-loop version is called the Retro98α, and the version that features AIO cooling is just the Retro98. Both versions of the Retro98 are limited edition, though, with only six units of the Retro98α and 32 units of the Retro98 available—by the looks of it, each specific SKU is limited to these quantities, not the series as a whole. Prices start at $2,499 for the Retro98, with the Retro98α topping out at $9,799.

Internally, the Retro98 series starts with the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K paired with 32 GB DDR5-6400 RAM, a 2 TB NVMe Gen 5 SSD, and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070, with the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D and RTX 5080 available from $3,499. Stepping up again to $4,999 gets you an RTX 5090, a Ryzen 7 9850X3D, and the $9,799 Retro98α coming equipped with an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D, 64 GB of RAM, a 4 TB SSD, and an RTX 5090. All versions of the Retro98 also come with onboard Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, and the cooling configuration consists of dual 120 mm front intakes, a single 120 mm rear exhaust, and three top-mounted 120 mm exhaust fans for the radiator. The Intel variant ships with an MSI Z890 Gaming Plus WiFi motherboard, while the AMD versions are all built around the MSI X870E Gaming Plus WiFi, and they all come with appropriately sized 80+ Gold-rated PSUs ranging from 650 W to 1600 W.

Darkhaven is a new, upcoming dark fantasy ARPG developed by gaming veterans who previously worked on genre legends, such as Diablo and Torchlight. The game was officially announced on January 29, 2026, with a launch trailer that gave us a glimpse of what to expect from the new game. The main draw of Darkhaven is that it takes place in procedurally generated, fully destructible dynamic environments. The developer also promises dynamic exploration and a high degree of freedom in that exploration. As with classic ARPGs, it features an isometric view, and interactions are highly dependent on mouse clicks. There will also be online co-op and PvP game modes, and the trailer makes mention of "massive events that threaten your entire world," suggesting that the game borrows elements from the MORPG genre. Darkhaven's main premise is that you, and perhaps your party, must step up to save a "dying world" being preyed upon by malevolent forces, facing off against all manner of monsters and otherworldly horrors. The studio also touts its combat as being tactical, and its movement as "truly open," granting users the freedom to fly, swim, climb, and jump to get around, through, and over obstacles and even enhance combat.

Darkhaven is "coming soon" to Steam via Early Access, although an exact launch date is unclear, and it will seemingly be at least partially funded by a Kickstarter campaign. The developer and publisher, Moon Beast Productions, specifically calls itself an ARPG developer, so it seems as though the Darkhaven will be the newly formed studio's main focus for the time being. The studio was started by ex-Blizzard talent, Erich Schaefer, Philip Shenk, and Peter Hu, who worked, in various capacities, on Diablo 1 and 2, and it features artists, designers, and devs who worked on the likes of Diablo 4, Marvel Heroes Online, Torchlight 1 and 3, and Nox.

Ubisoft has ruffled more than a few feathers in the last week, thanks to recent news that it would be cancelling a swathe of games, postponing a handful of other games, mandating a return to office for its workers, and potentially laying off about 200 of its employees at its headquarters in Paris, France. In response to the aforementioned cost-cutting measures, widespread organizational changes, and potential layoffs, unionized Ubisoft staff members are apparently planning a walk-out in protest.

According to a post on Bluesky by the French Syndicat des Travailleureuses du Jeu Vidéo (Video Game Workers' Union), workers were informed of these changes at the same time as the press and the world at large, and the union alleges that the gaming giant did not discuss any of these plans with workers at mandatory union consultations mere days earlier. As a result, the five unions representing workers at Ubisoft—CFE-CGC, CGT, Printemps Écologique, Solidaires Informatique, and STJV—are jointly calling for a "massive international strike" on 10, 11, and 12 February, 2026. In the statement, the organizations reject what they call the "anti-remote-work obsession," cost-cutting plans that negatively affect employees, top-down decision-making, and "coercive control" over staff working conditions. They also call on management to take responsibility for the decisions that have led them to this point and for sincerity about their failings. In the statement, the union leaders reveal that they have been in talks with Ubisoft for over a year about remote work, and some agreements that have been in place since September 2025 have been broken by the recent announcements.

The Ninjutso Sora V2 is one of the lightest full-size solid-shell wireless gaming mice on the market, coming in at just 39 g, and despite the V2 only just recently having received an updated 8K update, Ninjutso is already teasing a Sora V3 for early February. This is according to a new post on the brand's X page. Not much else has been revealed about the mouse, but we can infer some likely specs and changes based on the available information. Based on the recent update to the Sora V2, we can at least expect the Sora V3 to weigh no more than 39 g and feature 8 kHz polling, at least a PixArt 3395 sensor, if not the 3950, and Omron Optical switches for the main clicks.

Along with an early sneak peek at the mouse's design, Ninjutso commented "Best claw grip mouse of 2026?" This suggests that the Sora V3 will have some minor changes to the shell, even though the shell looks nearly identical to the V2 in the teaser image. When Ninjutso announced the Sora V2, one of the major changes was that the V2 mouse was shorter than its predecessor and had a somewhat taller hump. Judging from the image of the V3, it appears as though Ninjutso is leaning into this design trend once more, because the hump looks to have grown somewhat again. It also appears as though the front edge of the mouse, along with the left and right click buttons, has been lowered slightly compared to the V2. The side buttons on the Sora V3 also look slightly more pronounced than those of the V2, which would make them easier to find and trigger in tense gaming sessions.

Embark just shipped the Arc Raiders January Update 1.13.0, aka the Headwinds update, announcing several sizeable additions to the extraction shooter, including a "Solo vs Squads" matchmaking queue, seven new quests, a new bird infestation map condition, squad invites, open squads, and a whole whack of tweaks to characters and enemies. However, likely one of the most impactful changes to arrive in the January update, especially over the long term, is the new cheating system, which was almost snuck into the end of the update notes. As of January 2026, a progressive three-strike system is "in the process of being implemented."

The update notes explain that cheaters will get progressively more severe punishments every time they are caught cheating, starting with a 30-day ban on the first instance. The next time they are caught cheating, they will face a 60-day ban, then earning a permanent account ban on the third strike. There have been calls for stricter anti-cheat enforcement in Arc Raiders, but there are just as many complaints about false-positives, wherein the game's anti-cheat system is banning players despite them claiming to not have participated in cheating.

Epomaker is no stranger to carbon fiber gaming mice, having previously launched the CarbonX gaming mouse, which used a lattice frame shell to reduce weight. The latest carbon fiber mouse from Epomaker is the Carbonis, and although it hasn't been fully revealed just yet, Epomaker has made early bird reservations available, charging prospective buyers a $1 non-refundable fee in exchange for a reservation and $15 discount when the mouse eventually launches later in January. No pricing is available just yet, but if it falls under around $70-80, it might be a competitive affordable alternative to flagship gaming mice, depending on the execution.

What we do know from the existing product page for the Carbonis mouse is that it will have a solid carbon fiber shell, and it will be a right-handed ergo shape, somewhat reminiscent of the Razer DeathAdder V4 Pro we reviewed prior. It will also be powered by the PixArt PAW 3950 sensor and the Nordic N54L MCU, and it will have an 8 kHz polling rate. It will also feature an online driver, instead of a Windows-only driver that needs to be installed. It will also have a small LCD on the top, likely used to display polling rate, battery level, and DPI settings, similarly to the Chilkey Glacier L W. Weight figures have not yet been announced, but it would be surprising to see a "lightweight" carbon fiber mouse launch at much over 60 g at most. The Carbonis will be available in a purple gradient colorway and a black colorway with the raw forged carbon fiber pattern visible on the surface. Both colorways have a gold scroll wheel, and no switches or encoder specs have been revealed.

Cooler Master recently showed off a host of fancy AIO liquid coolers at CES 2026, but more recently, at a recent event in Huizhou, China, Cooler Master debuted a new square 360 mm AIO radiator that appears to be designed specifically for oversized workstation builds. In the slides, shared by IT Home and VideoCardz, Cooler Master claims that the square AIO is capable of dissipating up to 2000 W of heat, suggesting that the cooler is destined for servers and high-core-count CPUs.

The esoteric use case is only matched by the radiator's bizarre fan configuration. Instead of the 3×3 configuration of 120 mm fans that you might expect given the 360 moniker, the concept AIO uses four 180 mm fans. This is likely at least in part because the edge mounting configuration was less intrusive than having supports for the fan mounts that would not make contact with the radiator's edges. Cooler Master also claims that the peculiar fan configuration reduces low-frequency noise by as much as 20%, although there's no information about the comparison configuration. The AIO was also presented in a Cosmos PC case, although whether this case was stock is unclear.

Geeek has officially launched pre-orders for the Exo 1, an open-air microATX PC case that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. The new case is effectively an acrylic motherboard tray attached to a baseplate with attachment points for auxiliary hardware, like PSUs and cooling. The Exo 1 is available in both black and white color options, and Geeek also sells an optional PCIe 4.0 riser cable, which will set you back an additional $20 over the $69.99 pre-order price for the case. Geeek plans to start shipping those pre-orders on February 12, 2026.

Like many open-air cases, there aren't that many limitations when it comes to compatible hardware. For starters, there is no side panel, which means no tower air cooler height limitations, although it is technically limited to 240 mm AIO radiators, and using the vertical GPU mounting does limit you to low-profile coolers, thanks to the motherboard's position. There are also no additional fan mounting points aside from those used by the AIO radiator. Geeek recommends GPUs no longer than 335 mm, and says that GPUs up to four slots are supported. The Exo 1, being a compact case, measures in at just 400 × 185 × 315 mm, and it supports ATX, SFX-L, and SFX PSUs.

Redragon is known for its budget gaming peripherals, and it has recently announced three more additions to the line-up, this time catering to both gamers and productivity users, with two num pad-toting mechanical keyboards and a wireless gaming mouse. Starting with the latter, the Ebony M998 STD is a tri-mode wireless gaming mouse with a mild ergonomic shape and powered by the PixArt PAW 3311 sensor, which means 24,000 DPI, up to 300 IPS speed, and 35 G acceleration tracking capabilities and 1 kHz polling. It weighs in at 61 g, and is powered by a 400 mAh battery. Redragon says it should last 34 hours on a single charge, but does not cite test conditions or connectivity mode, so your mileage may vary. Probably the most interesting part of the Ebony M998 STD is its magnetic charging dock, which charges the mouse with pogo pins, not wireless charging, and doubles as the 2.4 GHz receiver. While it's not using a flagship-tier sensor, it also does not command flagship prices, coming in at only $29.99 from Redragon directly. The mouse can also be customized on Windows with proprietary software, and it supports on-board macros and rebinding. Redragon also doesn't specify which switches are being used in the Ebony mouse.

If you're even remotely into gaming, you've heard of the Stop Killing Games movement, which aims to petition the EU government to create laws that legally prevent publishers from prematurely ending support for video games, or at least compel them to find a way to leave games in a playable state when official support ends. Moritz Katzner, a volunteer for the project, recently posted an update to the official subreddit for the EU petition confirming that over 1.2 million signatures of the roughly 1.45 million signatures registered have been verified, effectively meaning that the representatives of the Stop Killing Games movement will be able to meet with the EU Commission in order to potentially get laws drafted and passed in order to avoid the destruction of video games. The SKG team plans to release a video update closer to the meeting with the EU Commission explaining what the next steps are and what the strategy is.

Microsoft's Xbox has been on a rampage against exclusive game releases after gobbling up what feels like half the game studios in existence in recent years. Still, in a recent interview with GamesRadar, Xbox Game Studios head, Craig Duncan, has said that the gaming giant has been somewhat inconsistent when it comes to launching games for the Sony PlayStation 5. Duncan said that, going forward, "we're going to try and be more consistent with what we do," adding that Xbox Game Studios and its developers want the games they make to be played by as many players as possible: "If you're on the Fable team you just want as many people who love Fable to appreciate the great work the team's doing."

He goes on to explain, however, that each game and platform is different, and, ultimately, "wherever our games show up we want them to show up and be the nest that they can be for that platform," continuing that there may be situations where a team cannot take on the extra workload of launching a game simultaneously on Xbox, PC, and PlayStation 5. In situations like those, he says, it's sometimes better to port it later. He also drives home the point that some games have unique launch strategies, where they'll launch on PC before they even make it to Xbox's first-party console hardware, or vice versa. It's safe to say that Xbox will be sticking to its recent tirade against platform-exclusive games as far as possible. Meanwhile, Sony is reportedly investigating a "Cross-Buy" feature, which would allow gamers to add PlayStation games to their PC game library when they're purchased on console.

Ubisoft earlier this month announced the cancellation of a swathe of in-progress games, one of them being the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake, and although that game will likely never see the light of day as a complete product, pre-alpha workshop presentation snapshots from March 2024 have leaked online, giving fans of the series a glimpse at what might have been. The footage shows off the titular character in a number of environments, including in the middle of several parkour moves—a system that was meant to be getting a big update with the remake—and a handful of refreshed, expansive environments and character designs for both the prince and Farah. Objectively, some of the game assets look better than others, but this is to be expected from a 2024 version of the game, however, it's clear a lot of work has gone into modernizing the visuals, environments, and character designs.

Ubisoft said that the troubled Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was cancelled because it didn't meet the minimum standard of quality expected from executives after Ubisoft's recent overhaul, however, fans of the series seem to disagree. On X, where the test footage was posted, players are both commenting on how good the revised visuals look and lamenting the game's cancellation, with some appealing to Ubisoft to release the game, while others, doubting that Ubisoft will ever return to the franchise after the successive issues that plagued The Sands of Time Remake, are begging the studio to sell the IP to another studio. The Sands of Time was originally announced in 2020 and slated to release in 2021, but it was delayed and appeared to be dead until recently, when leaks claimed that the game was to launch in 2026. Following the cancellation of The Sands of Time Remake, it has also been confirmed that Ubisoft is looking to potentially lay off up to 200 employees at its Paris headquarters.