Owlcat's rather unusual tradition of holding Closed Beta tests for its single player roleplaying games continues with The Expanse: Osiris Reborn. Starting today, customers who have purchased the Miller's Pack (at €79.99) or the Collector's Edition (at €289) from the official website will be able to get a taste of the game via the Closed Beta, available across all platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S and X. Owlcat kindly provided Wccftech with advanced access to the Closed Beta build, giving me the chance to preview this highly anticipated action RPG. The section of the game included in the […]

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In the latest episode of the Broken Silicon podcast, leaker Moore's Law Is Dead claimed that the next Xbox console, codenamed Project Helix, could be as disruptive as Apple's new MacBook Neo due to its sheer value, which MLID likened to a two or even three-thousand-dollar gaming PC: Project Helix is basically a high-end PC, even using the same silicon as AMD's 70 or maybe 80 class RDNA5 GPU is. It isn't an ultra level of PC hardware, but still far more power than consoles usually have. It will have the biggest APU in console history. I think over 400 […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/xbox-project-helix-3000-gaming-pc-value/

Over the past year or so, several game developers have started sharing thoughts on the potential benefits and downsides of using AI in game development. As with all things AI, the conversation is quite polarized at the moment: some have already embraced it, while others have sworn not to touch it with a tentpole, mainly for ethical reasons. Veteran industry executive Jack Buser sits firmly in the first camp. Buser, who worked at Dolby, then at Sony on PlayStation Home and PlayStation NOW, and finally at Google on Stadia first and as Google Cloud's Global Director for Games now, believes […]

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About midway through the review period for Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred, Blizzard organized a roundtable Q&A with a few key developers from the team: Game Director Zaven Haroutunian, Production Director Barry Morales, Lead System Designer Colin Finer, and Senior Composer Ted Reedy. The team answered questions on various topics, from the narrative and setting to world design and the music score, new gameplay systems like War Plans and the Horadric Cube, and an overall assessment of the game's state ahead of its second expansion's upcoming launch. You can find the full transcript below. As a reminder, Diablo IV: Lord […]

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Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred lands almost three years after the launch of the base game. As you may recall, Blizzard initially committed to annual expansions, which they almost accomplished with the first one, Vessel of Hatred, launched sixteen months after Diablo IV. However, it later became clear that delivering high-quality expansions on an annual basis was impossible, especially as the developers were also busy with making seasonal content. Thus, Lord of Hatred launches a year and a half after the previous expansion, which seems to be the sweet spot in terms of development time. Ultimately, though, what matters is […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/review/diablo-iv-lord-of-hatred/

Today, NC America confirmed that the MMORPG AION 2 will launch later this year globally, following its original debut in South Korea on November 19, 2025. That version was made for mobile and accessible on PC only via NC's own Purple launcher. However, the global version has been built specifically for PC, according to the new press release, and it will also be distributed via Steam. In fact, you can already wishlist the game on Valve's store. The global servers will be hosted locally in North America, South America, Europe, and Japan, providing a latency-conscious gameplay experience for many users. […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/aion-2-global-steam-2026-pc/

Earlier this month, The Ankler published a report in which they mentioned that the Mass Effect TV series in development at Amazon Prime Video would have to be partially rewritten to accommodate "non-gaming audiences", as mandated by Amazon's new Head of Global TV, Peter Friedlander. The report added that Friedlander, who took over as Head of TV in October 2025, has apparently been taking an active role in approving script decisions across multiple Amazon Prime projects, with several being delayed as a result. Needless to say, this wasn't exactly thrilling news for fans of BioWare's beloved sci-fi gaming franchise. At […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/mass-effect-tv-writer-pushes-back-ankler-rewrite-non-gamers/

Last month, we shared some gorgeous screenshots from the in-development Dark Souls 2 path tracing mod "Lighting Engine". Now, modder Ganaboy has released a beta version that can be downloaded by anyone through the DSLighting Engine Discord channel. This build of the Lighting Engine adds path tracing and also removes almost all of the game's default 'fake lights'. The author recommends playing with as little player light as possible; the torch and light mechanics are crucial in the early game, and timers should be preserved as much as possible when not needed. There is minimal post-processing because the path tracing […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/dark-souls-2-path-tracing-mod-public-beta/

The PC version of PRAGMATA delivers very solid performance and excellent visuals, as outlined in our review and detailed performance analysis. However, there are still a few things that advanced users may want to tweak. How to Tweak FoV in PRAGMATA For instance, the game only has three Camera Distance options: Near, Standard, and Far. Those who would like to tweak the Field of View (FoV) even further must download the latest nightly release of Praydog's REFramework, which unlocks new settings in games powered by the RE Engine like PRAGMATA. Follow the instructions below: Optimize Your HDR Experience in PRAGMATA […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/how-to/pragmata-pc-tweak-guide-hdr-fov/

This morning, Japanese developer and publisher CAPCOM announced that its brand-new sci-fi intellectual property, PRAGMATA, is off to a great start, having sold more than 1 million units in its first 2 days on the market. In the press release, CAPCOM noted that the IP (which has been in development for a long time) was crafted by a team of younger developers who successfully created an innovative gameplay experience by fusing action gameplay with puzzle elements (the real-time hacking mini-game). To offset the lack of a pre-existing fanbase or brand recognition, CAPCOM implemented a series of marketing initiatives that paid […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/capcom-pragmata-1-million-copies-48-hours/

Remember Fortnite's AI-powered Darth Vader that led SAG-AFTRA to file an unfair labor practice charge against Epic Games? Well, the studio has now revealed the latest evolution of the technology. Originally described as a "Persona device", the tech is now simply called "conversations", but the core remains the same: Fortnite developers can use conversations to create AI-powered characters with personalities and voices that can talk, react, respond to player actions, and even influence gameplay. Released with Fortnite's v40.20 update (launched on April 16), it is available in the Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) and allows island creators to build AI-powered […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/fortnite-uefn-ai-npc-conversations-gemini-elevenlabs/

Insider Gaming's founder and chief leaker, Tom Henderson, briefly discussed the state of Ubisoft's upcoming lineup during yesterday's Insider Gaming Weekly podcast. After reiterating that the Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag Resynced remake is the next big game on the release schedule, he added that the new Ghost Recon title will follow in the pipeline. It's been a long time since Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, which launched in October 2019 to a mixed reception and underwhelming sales. Ubisoft tried to right the ship with the launch of Immersive mode and the return of the series' trademark AI squadmates, but […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/ubisoft-splinter-cell-delayed-far-cry-ghost-recon-tom-henderson/

The official X account of Phantom Blade Zero has posted a brief video interview with S-GAME founder and creative director Soulframe Liang, in which the developer seemed to outline an Honor system not unlike the one in Rockstar's masterpiece, Red Dead Redemption 2. In that game, most player actions, such as helping strangers or killing innocents, affected a full-fledged morality mechanic that influenced NPC behavior, shop prices, loot quality, and even the story's ending. Fans understandably started to get excited about this. Very few games since RDR 2 have attempted something like that. However, Phantom Blade Zero's X account quickly clarified that there is no […]

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Cliff Bleszinski, the American game designer known primarily for his work on the Gears and Unreal franchises at Epic, shared his positive outlook on the upcoming prequel, Gears of War: E-Day. In a video interview with The Expansion Pass, the game developer highlights that The Coalition has made the right choice in focusing on making the Locust scary again, rather than presenting enemies like the DeeBees robots. Bleszinski added that he has high hopes for this game, which looks like a return to the original trilogy's dark tone that was a bit lost in Gears 4 and 5, and he […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/gears-of-war-e-day-bleszinski-righting-ship-robots/

Slightly over one month before the Forza Horizon 6 launch date of May 19, Playground Games and Microsoft are likely already happy with the pre-sales of the next open world racing game. According to Alinea Analytics estimates, Forza Horizon 6 has already sold more than 500K (511K to be exact) on Steam alone, generating over $28 million in gross revenue. That's already enough to make it the franchise's best-selling game pre-launch, and there's every indication this trend will continue in the lead-up to May 19 and beyond. The game is in the wishlists of more than 3.3 million users, for […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/forza-horizon-6-sell-2-million-steam-24-hours/

The debate over the use of generative AI tools for game development has raged across the industry for well over a year, and it doesn't seem to be letting up any time soon. As with anything related to AI, opinions are often polarized between those who want to take advantage of the new technology to improve games or simply to speed up the ever-growing development times, and others who are revolted at the mere idea of using it for any creative endeavor. In my most recent interview, Mitchell Patterson, CEO of backend developer Wolfjaw Studios, stressed that AI won't magically […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/wolfjaw-ceo-ai-game-development-good-developers/

The next entry in 4A Games' Metro franchise, Metro 2039, was fully unveiled today by the development team during a dedicated streaming event. It will be released this Winter on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC (Steam, Epic Games Store, and Xbox app). First and foremost, it won't be an open world game, unlike Metro Exodus, which featured semi-open world environments. 4A Games is returning to a handcrafted experience that focuses mainly on Moscow's tunnels. Another significant change is that Artyom, the protagonist of the first three games, has been replaced by the so-called Stranger. This is perhaps not so surprising to those […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/metro-2039-announced-new-protagonist-moscow-tunnels-winter/

Today, Battlefield Studios unveiled the 2026 Battlefield 6 roadmap. Season 3 will begin next month, with two classic maps returning after being reimagined: Season 3 also sees the debut of BR Solos — Battle Royale Solo as an official mode, as well as BR Ranked Play & Leaderboards, launching first in Battle Royale Quads in REDSEC. Battlefield Studios plans to expand the Ranked Play experience to Battlefield 6 multiplayer in future seasons. Season 4 will launch in July, introducing the previously teased Naval Warfare to Battlefield 6. The two new maps are: Naval-specific features include aircraft carriers with operational flight […]

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We've already gotten a glimpse of Fable's cinematics in the trailers released during development, especially when British actor Richard Ayoade was first introduced as being part of the game. The cinematics looked extremely well crafted, and now there's a solid explanation for that. Speaking on the latest Official Xbox Podcast, Xbox's Chief Content Officer Matt Booty has revealed that the Blizzard Cinematics team is helping out with that specific aspect of the Fable reboot. This is just one of several collaborations that have emerged between Microsoft's many internal development teams. We've really seen a lot, once we build those connections, […]

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According to a new leak shared by YouTuber Moore's Law Is Dead, the PlayStation 6 and PS6 handheld will be backward compatible across both of Sony's previous generations (the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5), providing access to a library of thousands of games from the consoles' launches. The leak comes from an old internal AMD presentation's slide that explicitly mentions backward compatibility, as well as other notable workstream items: That's undoubtedly great news, though perhaps not entirely surprising. The usage of AMD's RDNA 5 architecture already suggested potential backward compatibility. Indeed, during the stream, MLID stressed that the PS6 handheld […]

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Following the recent debut of PRAGMATA and Resident Evil Requiem, the first two RE Engine games to support path tracing, CAPCOM's GDC 2026 presentation titled 'Real-Time Path Tracing in RE ENGINE for Resident Evil Requiem and PRAGMATA' is well worth exploring. The presentation is available on the NVIDIA Game Developer YouTube channel, and that's no coincidence: NVIDIA helped a great deal with the addition of path tracing to CAPCOM's engine. Indeed, the two speakers were Hitoshi Mishima from CAPCOM's RE Engine team, who covered the architectural and artistic implementation, and Calvin Shu, a NVIDIA GeForce developer technology engineer who covered […]

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In a roundtable interview attended by Gamesradar, Bethesda Game Studios' Todd Howard defended the developer's latest titles, Starfield and Fallout 76. When one of the interviewers pointed out that they were more divisive among gamers than all-time classics like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Howard suggested that even the early stages of now-acclaimed franchises like Elder Scrolls and Fallout were a bit divisive, until the franchises found their groove and a dedicated audience. The game designer also noted that both Starfield and Fallout 76, the studio's first sci-fi game and first multiplayer game, have eventually found their niches. If you […]

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Very early this year, The Blood of the Dawnwalker developer Rebel Wolves confirmed that their debut dark fantasy action RPG would release in 2026. Now, after a few months of silence, the CEO, Game Director, and Co-Founder Konrad Tomaszkiewicz has been interviewed on The Game Business Show, revealing that he is comfortable with the widespread comparisons to The Witcher games, especially after the successful focus tests. He also shared that the console versions are already shaping well, and he personally finished the whole game on a PlayStation 5. I'm really comfortable. I feel really confident about our game; we're already […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/blood-of-the-dawnwalker-witcher-4-comparisons-rebel-wolves/