Not too long ago, 2K Games announced that it was suspending the development of Borderlands 4 on the Nintendo Switch 2, stating that the focus would be "delivering quality post-launch content for players on the ongoing improvements to optimize the game." Now, Take-Two CEO, Strauss Zelnick, has commented on the launch delay in an interview with Game File's Stephen Tolito, explaining that the Switch 2 just isn't the target platform for Borderlands 4. The executive explained that Sony's PlayStation 5 and the Xbox are the primary consoles for Borderlands 4, and that, although Take-Two wants to meet players on the consoles they're playing on, the studio wants to "make sure that we've addressed Borderlands 4 from a consumer's point of view before we bring it to more platforms."

Zelnick maintains that running Borderlands 4 is still "doable" on the Nintendo Switch 2, although Nintendo gamers may be in for a significant wait if the game's performance on the Steam Deck and other, more powerful, gaming handhelds is anything to go by. It should be noted that a recent update to Borderlands 4 claimed to deliver a 20% performance improvement at high resolutions and up to 40% improvements at 1080p on the minimum PC spec.

Since FBC: Firebreak launched in June 2025, it has not managed to top even 2,000 concurrent players on Steam, according to SteamDB, with low player counts ultimately resulting in Remedy putting active development for the co-op shooter on ice in March 2026. In Remedy Entertainment's Q1 2026 earnings report, however, the game studio announced that it would not actually be sunsetting the game itself. Instead, Remedy will "remain live and playable" on PC and all platforms it launched on, and it will remain playable via PlayStation Plus, and Xbox Game Pass. Remedy says that "upkeeping the infrastructure will not incur significant costs" for the studio.

The game studio also reinforced that Control Resonant is still on-track for a 2026 launch, and that it expects 2026 to be a pivotal year, with the studio likely expecting strong launch figures for Resonant, given how popular the first Control game was. The studio didn't share exact numbers, but noted that Control continued to show strong sales figures in early 2026. The studio also confirmed that it is in the proof-of-concept phase of an as-yet unnamed new project and in full production on remakes of Max Payne 1 and 2.

ATK has become known for its impressive budget gaming peripherals that provide gamers with an alternative to flagship gaming mice and keyboards without having to empty their wallets. The brand's latest launch is the ATK Dragonfly A9 Mini, which, the brand claims, will be a world-first exclusive launch of the PixArt PAW 3955 Master sensor, which will be a custom version of the existing PAW 3955 sensor. The mouse itself looks to be a pretty close match to the compact shape of the Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2C, and it will likely weigh the same as or a little less than Logitech's design, which comes in at 51 g.

As for exact internal specifications, not much has been revealed, but it would make sense for ATK to use a Nordic 52-series MCU and either tuned Omron optical or Huano mechanical switches. Regardless of MCU, the ATK Dragonfly A9 Mini will likely feature 8 kHz polling and ATK's typical "Ice-Feel" coating. The skates deviate from Logitech's design, with two large flat skates at the front and back as well as the typical ring around the sensor. Pricing and availability have not yet been announced, but it will likely cost around the same $59.98-74.98 range as the regular Dragonfly A9 series.

The LVFS (Linux Vendor Firmware Service) is a firmware update project that's been gaining traction in recent years, especially with distributions like Bazzite and SteamOS serving as simplified operating systems for devices like gaming handhelds, and manufacturers like Framework and System76 releasing Linux-first hardware. While Dell and Lenovo have previously allowed firmware updating for a number of their devices, it was just announced by Richard Hughes, a Gnome developer and maintainer, that both Dell and Lenovo have recently become premier sponsors of LVFS, meaning they each donate in excess of $100,000 annually to keep the project sustainable and fund development.

Becoming a premium sponsor of the LVFS also means that Dell and Lenovo will be able to implement several custom features, allow for 1,500 monthly uploads and 10,000,000 monthly downloads, and more closely collaborate with the LVFS developers. The LVFS previously announced a sustainability plan, which sought to secure $400,000 in additional annual donations to fund development and a $30,000 annual budget for hosting costs.

It seems as though a recent patch to Pragmata on the PS5 Pro has increased the game's render resolution, although Capcom has yet to actually announce the change. According to recent tests by Digital Foundry and Brazil Pixel on YouTube, Pragmata's Patch 1.21 has increased the internal render resolution from 864p to 1080p. Notably, this is now the same resolution as the game uses on the base model PS5, which produced a cleaner image in some cases before the update, because it used a native render resolution of 1080p from the outset. Pragmata will still use Enhanced PSSR to upscale the image, whereas the base console uses FSR, and in Digital Foundry's testing, the image produced in Patch 1.21 is much cleaner, with little to no impact on the final frame rate.

In the world of Hall effect and TMR gaming keyboards, tactile switches are somewhat of a rarity, largely because the tactile bump somewhat defeats the object of having an adjustable actuation point. Despite this, Keychron has just announced not one, but two tactile magnetic switches for its Ultra-Fast Lime Magnetic Switch line-up: the Banana and Silent Banana switches. There is also a new Silent Red linear switch joining the two Banana variants and the original Lime linear switch. The new switches are available on Keychron's online store for $29.99 for a pack of 110 switches, which is very much on the affordable side of the spectrum, especially compared to the Gateron Magnetic Jade Emerald Heavy Tactile switch, which comes in at $59.50 for 70 switches or $76.50 for 90.

All three new switches share similar characteristics, with 3.5 mm of total travel, pre-lubed construction, N-pole magnet configurations for compatibility with most HE keyboards, like Wooting and Keychron's own HE 8K series, and 30 gf starting actuation force—the Silent Red and Lime bottom out at 55 gf, while the Banana variants both bottom out at 50 gf. Curiously, the Silent Red switch uses silicone buffers in side rails to silence the bottom-out, while the Silent Banana tactile switch features a silencing circlip to dampen the bottom out. This was likely a consideration to prioritize the switch's bottom-out feel, but it may result in a switch that is not completely silent, but rather with a damped bottom-out sound.

CCP Games, the developer of EVE Online, just announced that it has been bought out by its board of directors, meaning it will no longer operate as a subsidiary of Pearl Abyss. As the announcement highlights, the studio is "returning to a model similar to how the company operated before 2018, and one designed to support strategic decision-making for persistent live games and long-running virtual worlds." The company was sold by Pearl Abyss for $120 million, and the transaction was executed using both cash and non-cash assets. Following the sale, CCP Games will also rebrand to Fenris Creations, and it has also forged a new partnership with Google DeepMind, who owns a minority stake in the company.

Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, CEO of Fenris Creations, says that "EVE Online exists today because of pioneering thinking, patience, and trust between developers and players," and that the DeepMind partnership will "enable us to carry that legacy forward—continuously evolving a living universe and actively exploring what it can become, with forever in mind." The collaboration with DeepMind will also see Google's AI project develop an offline version of EVE Online running in a local server in order to "test and evaluate models in a controlled setting" and "explore new gameplay experiences enabled by these technologies." It remains to be seen how the studio and EVE Online will change with the new strategy and alongside the DeepMind partnership, but there don't seem to be any real structural changes at the time of writing.

With a little over a month left before the launch of Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced, Ubisoft has given us a look at what to expect from the latest entry into the long-running game franchise, specifically the overhauled combat, parkour, and stealth. The game studio showed off a long list of features and updates to the game, but the gist of it is that Ubisoft has invested time making the combat more reactive and challenging, the parkour more responsive and fluid, and the stealth gameplay more engaging and intuitive.

Possibly the most important and exciting new mechanic coming to Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced is a combat rework that makes enemy NPCs more interesting to face off against. According to Ubisoft, the combat in Black Flag Resynced will be "more demanding," thanks to what it calls Adaptive Enemies, which will spot attack patterns and adapt to them over the course of a combat encounter. "For example, wait around too much for a Parry, and enemies will react by performing Unstoppable Attacks that cannot be parried. Abuse a Kick too much, and enemies will quickly dodge them. The trick is to alternate between offense and defense. Varying your combos helps. Rotate between Kicks, Sweeps, Rope Darts, Pistols and Heavy Strikes at the end of your attack combos to confuse enemies." Enemies will also come with different archetypes, each of which have their own strengths and weaknesses, like the soldiers, who prefer to work in pairs and coordinate attacks, or the Brute, Captain, and Demolitionist, which will require players to break their guard before going in for a takedown.

In a recent post on X, Xbox CEO, Asha Sharma, announced that Copilot on console will officially exit active development, while Copilot on mobile will also be wound down. Copilot for Gaming was previously announced in March 2025, with the feature first making its way to mobile and later announcements predicting that Copilot would be coming to Xbox Series consoles sometime in 2026. Copilot was slated to land on Xbox consoles in the form of an AI that effectively watches you game by taking screenshots and monitoring inputs and then providing suggestions and recommendations based on that data. Judging by the wording in the announcement, this appears to be another move by Xbox Gaming CEO, Asha Sharma, to earn back the trust of gamers in what she calls "a return to Xbox." It's unclear what this means for the rest of the Xbox Gaming software suite, especially when it comes to devices like the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally and its Xbox Game Bar, but it seems likely at this point that those integrations may also eventually be removed.

The full post by Sharma reads:

Xbox needs to move faster, deepen our connection with the community, and address friction for both players and developers.
Today, we promoted leaders who helped build Xbox, while also bringing in new voices to help push us forward. This balance is important as we get the business back on track.
As part of this shift, you'll see us begin to retire features that don't align with where we're headed. We will begin winding down Copilot on mobile and will stop development of Copilot on console.

Logitech's HITS (haptic inductive trigger system), introduced with the G Pro X2 Superstrike gaming mouse in late 2025, made serious waves in enthusiast gaming mouse spaces, but, as is the case with many of Logitech's innovations, the mouse the tech came with was imperfect and commanded a premium price. Now, it seems as though at least two Chinese peripheral makers are lining up to challenge at least some of Logitech's capabilities with their own magnetic switch tech. First, and the one we know the least about, is Keychron, surprisingly enough who is apparently preparing a micro switch called the MagOpt. The MagOpt switch was teased by Keychron on the brand's own YouTube channel, where it showed off a switch design that looks to use a hybrid optical and magnetic sensing mechanism combined with a traditional click leaf. It seems as though Keychron's MagOpt switch will attempt to mimic some of the functionality of the HITS system—like rapid trigger, adjustable actuation, and better longevity—but without a lot of the adjustability enabled by the haptic feedback of Logitech's HITS system.

The other incoming contender is Snaptiq, a product by a Russian streamer (shared by @goonerfps on X), and this system appears to have much more feature parity with Logitech HITS. The sensors in Snaptiq are analogue, like those found in Logitech's implementation, but these use magnets and either Hall effect or TMR sensor in place of Logitech's inductive switches. More importantly, Snaptiq will also mimic the tactile feedback with vibration motors, similar to HITS. How this pans out remains to be seen, but Lunacy claims that it will be able to detect movement as fine as 1 micron (0.001 mm) and that the mouse clicks themselves will be completely silent. Lunatic's Snaptiq is slated to launch by the end of 2026, although it is unlikely to launch in Western markets. However, this and Keychron's implementation may be the start of a wave of Chinese brands adopting similar tech to Logitech HITS.

When NVIDIA first revealed DLSS 5 and its neural rendering, a lot of the online backlash that was leveled at the feature centered around Capcom's Resident Evil character, Grace, and how DLSS 5 changed her facial features. Now, in a recent interview with Eurogamer, Koshi Nakanishi and Masato Kumzawa, the game's director and producer, have responded to the DLSS 5 outrage and to the game's overall reception at and since launch. Addressing the DLSS 5 debacle, Kumzawa took the backlash as a positive indication, commenting that "the fact a lot of players commented they really liked the original design of Grace and didn't want to see it changed was a positive—it meant we got the design right," and that it was an indication that "Grace quickly established herself as a fan favorite." The Nakanishi and Kumzawa did not comment on previous allegations that Capcom had not involved game developers or even inform them of the potential changes to the character designs ahead of time.

[Editor's note: Our in-depth review of Resident Evil Requiem can be found here]

Just 16 days after Resident Evil Requiem launched, it had already sold over 6 million units, making it the fastest-selling Resident Evil game to date. Commenting on the overall success of the game, the pair said that "we were very happy to see the reaction of players around the world after the game launched. In particular, because we were very tight-lipped in order to maintain the surprise for players, especially about what happens after the return to Raccoon City. So, watching people's clips and online reactions, we felt not only pleased that they were enjoying it, but relieved our strategy was right to try and save that for them." Notably, the Resident Evil developer publicly asked gamers not to spoil surprises about the game when the game's plot was leaked online shortly before the official launch.

With the official launch of Forza Horizon 6 around the corner, Microsoft and Playground Games have just divulged a little more information about the upcoming driving sim, specifically its world, car line-up, and official console performance modes and expected frame rates. Firstly, and perhaps most importantly Forza Horizon 6 will feature two distinct performance modes on the Xbox Series X and S consoles. Performance Mode will allow the game to run at 60 FPS on both consoles, at 4K resolution with dynamic upscaling on the Series X and 1080p with dynamic scaling on the Series S. Quality Mode, on the other hand, will target 30 FPS on both Xbox variants, at 4K native resolution with "increased visual fidelity" on the Series X and 1440p with dynamic scaling to maintain the target frame rate. Horizon 6 will also feature a number of accessibility features, including AutoDrive, Proximity Radar, High Contrast mode, colorblind filters, and ASL and BSL interpreters for cut-scenes. There is also an option to modify the game speed in offline mode, which should make the game more accessible to kids and those with limited mobility and reflexes, especially when used in conjunction with difficulty settings.

The announcement revealed that gamers can start preloading Forza Horizon 6 on both PC and Xbox already, from the library page for preorderers and Game Pass subscribers, from the Microsoft Store, or using the Xbox app for smartphones if you're planning on buying a physical edition. Microsoft will also be giving Forza veterans login rewards in the form of free special car unlocks that will appear in players' garages after they complete the introductory mission. These cars depend on the game players previously played: 2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray for Forza Motorsport; 2021 Mercedes-AMD ONE for Forza Horizon 5; 2016 Aston Martin Vulcan for Forza Horizon 4; 2016 Lamborghini Centenario LP 770-4 for Forza Horizon 3; 2014 Lamborghini Huracán LP-610-4 for Forza Horizon 2; and 2013 Dodge SRT Viper GTS for Forza Horizon.

Even though it looks as though Valve may be preparing for some upcoming large-scale hardware shipments, and it has officially launched the Steam Controller that was slated to launch with the Steam Machine, the gaming giant has yet to even announce a price for the Steam Machine. While we know from a previous statement that this is due to the ongoing RAM shortage, Valve's Steve Cardinali and Lawrence Yang have just addressed the Steam Machine's launch again in a recent interview with PC Gamer. Yang explains that "I mean, obviously we're bummed that this is the state of things. At the very least we're not the only ones in this boat. Like, everyone's kind of figuring out how to overcome these obstacles and challenges—RAM shortages, memory shortages, price hikes, everything."

Despite this somewhat pessimistic outlook, Yang also says that Valve is still aiming for competitive pricing on the Steam Machine: "You know, it's unavoidable that it will impact basically anything we make that has any of those parts in them. So we're doing our best to make sure that we can make the product and have it still available at as good and competitive a price as we can." It also seems as though Valve didn't expect the memory price hikes and shortages to be quite so steep and severe, as Cardinali explains that "you're, like, right there, and then you have this whole challenge thrown at you last minute. It's frustrating. But yeah, we're working our hardest to get resolution there." Yang also commented that, even though it was expected that all three hardware products would launch around the same time, Valve knew that the Controller might launch ahead of the Frame and Machine, stating that "we knew that there was some chance that schedules would move, and we would just ship them when they were ready," and he again confirms that Valve was not prepared to launch the Steam Machine without launching the controller first or at the same time.

Brad Lynch, the same VR industry insider who revealed that Valve was preparing for the Steam Controller launch just two weeks before the controller actually launched, has just revealed in a post on X that Valve may be preparing to launch the Steam Machine in the coming weeks. Like last time with the Steam Controller, it seems as though Valve has been receiving "a ton of 'Game Consoles'" in the US in recent weeks, according to recent shipping manifests. According to Lynch, Valve is stocking its US distribution warehouses, indicating that it is preparing whatever it is importing for an imminent batch of orders.

Admittedly, the shipping manifests simply list the imported hardware as "Game Consoles," so it could also be referring to something like the Steam Deck. However, there are no upcoming large-scale shopping, holidays, or regular discount periods, like Black Friday, that Valve would need to increase Steam Deck supply in order to prepare for. It's also entirely possible that this is around the time Valve had originally planned to ship the Steam Machine, and it is simply following the plan to make logistics and storage cheaper by keeping the hardware in its own warehouses where it already pays for space.

A new looter shooter set in an alternate timeline Wild West, titled "Far Far West," launched on Steam in Early Access, and, but a day after launch, the game has rocketed to second place in Steam's Top Sellers chart, which measures game performance based on revenue earned. That is in spite of its $19.99 launch pricing and 10% launch discount—or maybe it's because of the fairly aggressive pricing. According to SteamDB, the game has peaked at 30,288 concurrent players the day after it launched, which is solid performance for a mid-week launch of a new indie IP from a small studio. Far Far West also seems to sit well with gamers, with an Overwhelmingly Positive 98% review rating on Steam.

The game mixes traditional Western aesthetics and co-op looter shooter mechanics with fantasy elements, like magic and monsters. The game sees players, in teams of up to four, take on bounties to hunt down dangerous foes in the Far Far West. The game offers in-depth customization of weapons, spells, and abilities, and the developer's Early Access roadmap promises a healthy helping of new content in the coming months. The plans include new spells, weapons, melee weapons, in-game events, new objectives, improved replayability, and weekly challenges, among others.

With retail leaks revealing a new MSI Claw handheld slated to arrive soon with Intel's Arc G3 Extreme dedicated handheld CPU onboard, it's no surprise to see the CPU, and its Arc B380 iGPU, appear in early benchmarks. According to a recent PassMark run, the Intel Arc G3 Extreme will put up impressive numbers in terms of both CPU and GPU performance, with multicore CPU tests resulting in 29,622 points and single-core tests coming in at 4,288 points.

In comparison, the AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme that has become ubiquitous in the handheld gaming space, manages 23,649 in multicore CPU testing and 3,964 points in single-core tests—just over 20% slower than Intel's upcoming chip. To be fair, the TDP of the 14-core Intel chip during the test is unknown, and performance at lower power has been one of Intel's weaknesses when it comes to gaming handhelds. GPU tests have not yet been recorded by PassMark, but the Arc B380 is slated to be built on the same 12-core Xe3 silicon with a minor 200 MHz decrease in GPU clock, so performance is expected to be quite similar to the Arc B390, which we tested to be significantly faster than AMD's Radeon 890M.

Microsoft has officially announced a Spring 2026 Game Dev Update event scheduled for May 7 at 18:00 UTC. This is a new event by Microsoft—likely part of its new initiative to make Xbox more welcoming to developers, as promised by CEO Asha Sharma recently—and the company will show off a host of updates to projects like DirectX, DirectStorage, Xbox developer tools, and the future of the Xbox Marketplace. Most importantly for consumers, though, Xbox will give us our next look at the upcoming Xbox Helix game console, slated to launch somewhere around late 2027 to 2028.

The Xbox Helix update will cover "details shared at GDC, offering a closer look at Project Helix and what it represents for the future of Xbox," so we may find out more about how Microsoft plans to integrate the more PC-centric features of the Xbox Helix. It seems unlikely that we'll hear anything material about pricing or exact hardware or performance at the event though. Further, Xbox may provide more details about how it plans to handle things like Xbox exclusives in future console generations. The event will be streamed on the Microsoft Game Dev YouTube channel.

Microsoft has so far been mum on the prospect of new Surface hardware featuring Intel's Panther Lake CPUs, although leakers have started reporting that that's exactly what is on the horizon, mere weeks ahead of the supposed launch date. Now, we have two Geekbench listings backing up those early leak and revealing two versions of an upcoming Microsoft Surface Pro 12 and a new Surface Laptop 8 (via Notebookcheck). The two Surface Pro 12 variants, which will be thin-and-light convertible devices, be available with both the Intel Core Ultra 5 325 and Core Ultra 5 335 CPUs, which are both eight-core chips with a small 100 MHz difference in clock speed. It also looks as though the Pro 12 will be available with up to 32 GB of memory.

According to the leaks, the new Surface Laptop 8 will follow the standard 13-inch laptop form factor we've come to expect from Microsoft and come with both the Intel Core Ultra X7 368H, with Intel's Arc B390 iGPU, and the Core Ultra 7 366H CPU, which features the much less powerful four-core iGPU. The now-removed Geekbench listing lists a single-core score of 2,833 points and a multicore score of 16,368 points, and the new Laptop 8 will feature 32 GB of LPDDR5-8532 memory. The same spec options are expected for the 15-inch version of the 8th-gen Surface Laptop 13. An exact release date has not yet been declared, but a mid-May launch seems likely, according to WinFuture.

Microsoft has just announced a new set of features coming to the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally handheld gaming PCs, addressing game quality, docked mode quality-of-life, Game Bar improvements, and more. The most notable improvement coming to the ROG Xbox Ally is Auto Super Resolution, or Auto SR, which is now in Preview in the Xbox Game Bar. Auto SR, as the name suggests, is a similar to AMD and NVIDIA's FSR and DLSS, allowing game upscaling to increase frame rates without losing image quality. On the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X, Auto SR is only available in docked mode for now, where it will automatically upscale the game's image to deliver a sharper image, fit for a bigger screen, when docked to something like a TV. This should effectively make for a smoother transition between gaming on the TV and in handheld mode, since you won't have to change resolution or upscaling settings when plugging the ROG Xbox Ally in. Microsoft has an in-depth blog explaining Auto SR in more detail.

[Editor's note: Our in-depth review of the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X is now live]

Aside from Auto SR, the ROG Xbox Ally also gets the gamepad cursor we previously covered, streamlined controller pairing for docked play, a display widget in Game Bar, where you can quickly adjust display settings, and a handful of automatic enhancements for smart TVs. For starters, when players connect to an external display or TV, the ROG Xbox Ally will now turn off the built-in screen and default to the TV for output. If the connected TV happens to be a smart TV from Samsung, LG, or Vizio, the ROG Xbox Ally will automatically enable certain features on the TV, like Auto Low Latency Mode, Auto Game Mode, or Game/PC Mode. The library consolidation features we previously covered have also officially been added to the Xbox PC App, allowing you to use the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally in handheld mode exclusively if you would like to.

Not long after Subnautica 2 studio, Unknown Worlds, ditched Krafton as its publisher, the development outfit has officially announced the Early Access release date for Subnautica 2. According to a new Early Access release cinematic trailer, Subnautica will officially launch on May 14, 2026 in Early Access on Steam and Epic Games and in Preview on the Xbox Game Store, and pricing is set at $29.99 during the Early Access period, with regional pricing applicable, too.

The release date trailer also gives us a glimpse at some of the alien life that players will encounter in Subnautica 2, including giant carnivorous clams and airborne molluscs that hang in the air somewhat eerily. The announcement follows a long legal battle after Krafton attempted to wrest control of Unknown Worlds away from its CEO and founders, seemingly as part of a bid to avoid paying the studio a bonus for hitting its target launch date. So far, this legal battle has culminated in Unknown Worlds's CEO, Ted Gill, being reinstated and taking over the Subnautica 2 announcement. The Subnautica 2 Early Access Release date trailer follows.

PMM, the mouse mod company, has announced the latest iteration of its Razer Viper V3 Pro mod, which replaces the shell of the Viper V3 Pro with a 3D printed, carbon fiber-reinforced nylon shell in order to bring the weight down. Like the original Zen mod, Zen 2.0 brings the weight down to as little as 33 g if you opt for the wireless version, but with the pre-built version of the Zen 2.0, the mod is also available with three different lightweight batteries, offering wireless connectivity for an additional 3-5 g. The PMM Zen 2.0 mod itself—that is to say, just the 3D printed shell with PTFE skates, grip tape, tools, a 150 mAh battery, and two carbon fiber reinforcement rods—comes in at $132, while the pre-built version starts at $317. The pricing obviously makes this something that appeals almost exclusively to enthusiasts and highly dedicated esports gamers.

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

The Zen 2.0 mod kit replaces the original Zen on the PMM store, and PMM claims to have addressed many of the shortcomings of the original Zen with the new version, including click quality, sturdiness, and platforms for the mouse skates. Zen 2 is also only available with the smooth, grippy UltraGrip 3.0 coating and with either solid sides and holes in the rest of the body or as an entirely solid shell, which again increases the weight by 2 g. This means that if you want a solid shell with a 150 mAh for wireless connectivity, you're looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of 38 g total weight, which is still an improvement over the Razer Viper V3 Pro's original 60 g weight.

Remedy Entertainment revealed Control Resonant near the end of 2025, later revealing that the sequel to the atmospheric, sci-fi, third-person action-adventure shooter would launch around Q2 2026. Now, presumably in the lead-up to the official launch of Resonant, Remedy has shown off some of what's to come in the game's New Game Plus gameplay. According to the PlayStation Blog post, Remedy will rely on more than just more power and increased damage counters for the New Game Plus gameplay, instead giving players more control over their builds in order to face off against more challenging enemies.

Instead, in Control Resonant, when players have finished the game and start a new playthrough in the same save, the game changes how the player and enemies interact, but players keep many of the upgrades they've earned—Aberrant upgrades, health improvements, supernatural abilities, talents, and artifacts will all still be there. "One of the goals for New Game Plus is to give players more room to experiment with builds that weren't possible during the first playthrough, as you cannot unlock everything in your arsenal in one go," Remedy explains. For starters, the player character has an extra artifact slot that allows for both increased damage output and more build diversity, and players will be able to equip more than one combat ability from the same boss for new synergies. The game also unlocks more artifacts and crafting options, making it easier to adapt builds to different scenarios and tougher enemies.

After rumors swirled, Spiders, the French game studio known for making GreedFall and its successor, GreedFall: The Dying World, has officially announced that it will close down under liquidation. The studio made the announcement in a recent post to Bluesky, confirming that the company will "cease our functions immediately," and that Nacon, the studio's former parent company, would be responsible for any future support inquiries for Spiders's games. Spiders also confirmed that Nacon would be releasing the final planned Peren's Black Mass DLC for GreedFall: The Dying World on May 14, but there will likely be no other development or content added to GreedFall: The Dying World after that. The full announcement by Spiders reads:

Hello everyone,
First off, we apologise for the silence over the past month - it's been a while.
We're going to cut straight to the chase so you're not left wondering: After a long period without clear answers, we have received confirmation that Spiders is being liquidated.

What does it mean? This means the company as a whole no longer exists. We'll cease our functions immediately. The planned DLC will release via Nacon, and then-- well, that's it.

We're sorry that it's come to this and would like to thank each and every one of you for your support over the years. If you have any questions or run into issues with your games, please contact Nacon directly as we'll no longer be able to reply.

One of the biggest pain points of the Nintendo Switch 2 is that it still uses the drift-prone conventional analogue joysticks in the Joy-Cons. Now, GuliKit has revealed that it is working on a set of replacement joysticks for the Nintendo Switch 2 Joy-Cons, utilizing TMR (tunnel magnetoresistance) tech instead of traditional potentiometers. GuliKit already makes joystick upgrades for the likes of the PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series, and Switch Pro controllers, as well as for the original Switch Joy-Cons. The benefits of TMR include reduced wear, resistance to drift, and improved sensing accuracy. Pricing and a launch date for the upgrade kit have not yet been revealed, but GuliKit says that the upgrade kit is "coming soon."

Like the old Joy-Con upgrade kits, you will need to disassemble the Switch 2's Joy-Cons to install the upgraded TMR sticks. Fortunately, it will be a drop-in kit, meaning it will not require any soldering or specific tools other than what is necessary to tear down the Joy-Cons. Judging by the iFixit teardown of the Switch 2 Joy-Cons, you will need at least an opening pick and an electronics screwdriver set to open and install the GuliKit upgrade kit.

MSI's Claw line-up of gaming handhelds has gone from being overpriced and underperforming in the original Intel-powered Claw 8 A1M to being widely regarded as solid performers in both the new AMD- and Intel-powered variants. Now, however, an Italian retail listing on Ollo Store has tipped an updated version of the Intel-powered Claw handheld, this time appearing as the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ for a price of €1,599, which is €300 more than the current-gen Claw 8 AI+ A2VM with the same memory and storage specs on the same site.

[Editor's note: Our in-depth review of the MSI Claw 8 AI+ A2VM can be found here]

The new Claw 8 EX AI+ will feature Intel's new Arc G3 Extreme CPU, which has been reported to be a 14-core (2× P-Core, 8× E-Core, 4× LPE-Core) CPU. The G3 Extreme's graphics will rely on the Intel Arc B380 iGPU, which is slated to have 12 Xe3 cores at 2.3 GHz. The only real difference between the B390 and the B380 is the GPU core clocks, which are 200 MHz lower on the B380, so performance shouldn't be too far off what we've seen on the flagship Intel Core Ultra X9 388H in our recent Intel Panther Lake review. The rest of the Claw 8 EX AI+ looks to be pretty standard fare for MSI's gaming handhelds these days, with 32 GB of RAM, an 8-inch, 16:10 IPS display with 500 nits of brightness and 100% sRGB coverage, an 80 WHr battery, Wi-Fi 7, and an included carrying case.

Following a rather successful launch in mid-April, the development studio behind Windrose, the co-op pirate survival game, has announced an early roadmap to give players some sense of what to expect from the game in the next few months. The first order of business, and likely the most important for most players, is the announcement that Kraken Express will be focusing on improving the experience and delivering quality of life updates for the foreseeable future. Specifically, the developer has an update planned for sometime in early May that will improve connectivity issues, reduce CPU usage on idle clients and servers, address SSD load during gameplay, and improve performance and stability. The update will also introduce over 40 new building pieces and over 50 other fixes and quality of life changes.

In addition to the announcement of the bug fixes and minor changes, Kraken Express also revealed that it will start actively working on the game's first major content update as soon as the aforementioned fixes have shipped, but it also asked the community for patience because it will take "at least six months to deliver" the new content update. The upcoming update will introduce the game's first additional biome, called Ashlands, which will likely feature new enemies and crafting opportunities, but other than that, not much is known about the new content planned. Regarding the update, the developer says that "Our philosophy now is to enrich the current gameplay systems, instead of only adding new biomes with the respective content, so even before we have the full details, it's safe to say the game will not just grow in size - it will also evolve." Kraken Express was also careful to reiterate on the game's official Discord server that it does not plan to do wipes at any point in time, so no progress will be lost with the introduction of major content updates, like Ashlands.

The Linux community's response to the advent of LLMs and generative AI has been very mixed, but Ubuntu has more or less made its stance clear in a recent project discussion thread about the future of AI in Ubuntu. The gist of it is that, starting with Ubuntu 26.10 Stonking Stingray in October 2026—the next major release after 26.04—Ubuntu will start to get new AI features scattered throughout the operating system. The project's technical lead, Jon Seager, states that in 2026, Ubuntu has started encouraging its developers to use AI internally, incentivizing engineers to "go deep" and effectively figure out what works and what doesn't by measuring output. As internal adoption increases, Canonical will be integrating AI into the OS, but he notes that "responsibility and transparency are at the core of our approach."

This approach means that, instead of stuffing ChatGPT into every nook and cranny of Ubuntu, Canonical will prioritize open source models and offline, local inference wherever possible. Canonical will also pay special attention to the terms of the model, as opposed to simply considering whether the weights are open. The AI implementations will come in the form of what Seager describes as implicit and explicit features—implicit being features that integrate directly into the OS and enhance its standard operation, like speech-to-text and OCR, while explicit features are AI-centric features, like agentic and AI-automated workflows. "Implicit AI features will improve what Ubuntu already does; explicit AI will be introduced as new features." The full statement on how Canonical will implement AI in Ubuntu follows.

Thick as Thieves, an upcoming stealth co-op game from Deus Ex creator, Warren Spector, has been out in the open for a while now, with a release date set for May 20, and it was revealed long ago that it would be a stealth PvE co-op experience, but OtherSide Entertainment and Megabit Publishing, the studios behind the game, have just divulged more information about the game. First off, the price has been set at a very inoffensive $4.99/£4.99/€4.99, although it's likely that there will be regional pricing at play in other markets. Secondly, a gameplay walkthrough has been published to Megabit Publishing's YouTube channel, giving players a fairly in-depth look at the stealth, traversal, and progression mechanics, among others. Thick as Thieves is designed to be played as a single-player game or in a team of two players, and the game is set in an alternate history version of the early 20th century that features everything from magic and early technological innovation to eldritch horrors. The game will launch on Steam on May 20, 2026.

Thick as Thieves will drop players into Kilcairn as a stranger just joining the thieves' guild and looking to make a name for themselves. There are two playable characters, each with their own specific abilities, strengths, and weaknesses, although only one will be available to players with the other hidden behind an in-game unlock. The core gameplay, as you may have already guessed, revolves around players taking on and completing heists in the town of Kilcairn. In order to complete these heists, players will need to sneak through highly patrolled areas, solve environmental puzzles, and pick locks to gain access to forbidden areas. The gameplay walkthrough showed off a number of interesting mechanics, like the dynamic stealth and detection systems that force players to think on their feet and avoid making too much noise, and the various ways players can manipulate their surroundings and enemy NPCs to misdirect and trick them in order to get past—including distracting guards and shrouding the room in darkness by turning off lights, or using gear to lure the guards away entirely. The gameplay is designed to be highly replayable, with each heist offering players different choices and routes to explore. The Thick as Thieves gameplay walkthrough follows.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've seen the numerous issues Windows users have faced, from poor performance to experience-breaking bugs and updates, and AI oversaturation in the OS. While Microsoft has previously announced that it intends to address many of these complaints levelled by Windows users, a new report out of Windows Central purports to have insider information about what the publication calls "Windows K2." K2 isn't a specific version of Windows or a new update that's on the horizon; instead, it's a new initiative within Microsoft that fundamentally changes how the software giant develops Windows and its features.

According to inside sources, Windows K2 is based on three core tenets: performance, craft, and reliability, and it will effectively serve as a reboot for the user experience and the development standard operating procedures. Going forward, Microsoft will be using Insider feedback, user telemetry analytics, and customer focus groups to ensure that Windows 11 is performant, thoughtfully designed, and stable. The biggest shift, however, is away from a focus on agility, which used to be a top priority for Windows development, to an emphasis on quality. Effectively, this means users may see fewer updates and fewer features in those updates, but also fewer bugs. One of the other main driving forces behind K2 is chasing the performance of SteamOS, and the K2 team believes that "foundational changes" that are being made to Windows in the coming months will be able to put Windows on par with SteamOS within the next year or two. File explorer is another major focal point where Windows K2 seeks to improve navigation, search, and file processing performance.

Microsoft PowerToys is an oft-recommended utility that makes Windows 11 much more user-friendly by adding new features and UI tweaks to Microsoft's desktop OS. In an update not too long ago, PowerToys got a nifty dock, and before that a Command Palette, just like KDE's Krunner and macOS's Spotlight. Now, in an April update, version 0.99, Power Toys is getting a handful of new features that make Windows a little more like Linux and macOS. The first notable feature is Grab and Move, which allows you to hold Alt and left click to grab and move a window without having to aim for the border. Holding Alt and right click lets you resize a window from the nearest edge. If you're not familiar with Linux, this is exactly how most Linux desktop environments, like KDE Plasma and Gnome, work, except they generally use the System or Windows key as a modifier.

The other new addition to PowerToys 0.99 is Power Display, which allows you to change external display settings, like the source, power state, brightness, and contrast, from a taskbar fly-out menu. Users can also create specific display profiles that can be displayed and selected from the task bar menu. There are also minor changes to the keyboard layout editor, which now has support for selecting keys that are not physically available on your keyboard when setting up shortcuts and chords. The Command Palette also now features a compact dock option for those with limited screen space, and it has received several new features, including persistent calculator history and options for how applets pin to the dock and how the dock interacts with windows—you can choose to keep the dock above all windows, and there is a new dialogue to choose where apps pin to the dock.

Not long after EA announced that it was being acquired by a group of private investors, the company's new management announced an AI pivot that would see the company cut operating costs significantly. As it turned out, though, workers at EA would later reveal that the company had been pushing AI hard internally long before the takeover, and that the AI push was causing more harm than good and ultimately costing them time. Now, EA CEO, Andrew Wilson, has pushed back on this notion during a recent talk at the Iicon gaming event in Las Vegas.

According to Wilson, "almost all, like 85%, of our quality assurance is done with some kind of machine learning or AI-driven algorithm." However, he also adds that EA's QA hiring is at an all-time high. His argument is that AI has been "almost entirely augmentation," and not a replacement for human workers. According to the CEO, AI is doing mundane checks, like "turn the box on, turn the box off, boot it up, shut it down, does it crash, all these things." Despite these claims, there is evidence of AI-generated assets in Battlefield, and the company has partnered with Stability AI to work on generative AI tools.

Following the official release of Fedora 44, Bazzite's lead developer Kyle Gospodnetich has announced the release of Bazzite 44, the atomic gaming-focused distribution based on Fedora, which brings Gnome 50 and KDE Plasma 6.6, as well as many of the same improvements as the workstation OS. However, there are some notable differences for the atomic distribution—namely, the Linux kernel is still on version 6.19.x. Other notable changes and updates to Bazzite 44 include an update to the KDE Plasma Login Manager for KDE versions, a new version of the Bazaar app store, improved image security for ISOs, built-in support for Elgato 4K capture cards, and the removal of QEMU and ROCM, Bazzite 44 also includes the latest ASUS Linux patches for ASUSCtl, which provides access to LED customization, fan control, and various BIOS, boot, and power settings.

While the desktop images of Bazzite 44 are already available, the handheld versions have been delayed, with the developer stating that "we are slow-rolling this update due to the nature and amount of changes present in it to ensure that the vast majority of our existing users have a good experience." He also indicates that there will be more news about Bazzite 44's handheld images "in the coming weeks," so it seems like the delay will be more than just a few days. While this may be somewhat disappointing to hear, it also means that the developers will have more time to test and validate Bazzite 44 ahead of release, hopefully delivering a more stable OS as a result. Bazzite's development team has also promised to ship the new VRAM management patch that recently made a buzz in the Linux gaming world when it releases kernel version 7.

Epomaker's voyage into the world of Hall effect keyboards has been ongoing for a little over two years, now, and, while the peripheral maker oft manages to hit a reasonable price point, the results can be a little mixed. Now, it has shown off a revised version of the HE75 Mag that launched in 2025, bringing some new enthusiast-grade design touches to the affordable Hall effect gaming keyboard. The HE75 V2 has not yet officially launched, but Epomaker has shown it off in a recent livestream on YouTube and published the product page with all the specifications ahead of the official launch. From that product page, we can see that the HE75 V2 has an ABS plastic case with a gasket mount and an FR4 plate. Curiously, neither the PCB nor the FR4 plate have flex cuts, which is generally valued by the enthusiast community, since it prioritizes sound. Pricing has not yet been divulged, but if it is anywhere close to the original HE75 Mag, it should come in at around $100.

As the name suggests, the HE75 V2 follows a 75% layout, keeping both the num row and F row, although it makes use of a reduced, three-key navigation column on the far right edge, making it a solid, if somewhat compromised, all-round option. There is also modular programmable volume knob that can be removed and replaced with two key switches, much like on the original HE75 Mag. Unlike the original, the HE75 V2 comes in either an all-white or all-black aesthetic, both with color-matched translucent PC keycaps—smokey on the black version and frosted on the white keyboard. The translucent keycaps obviously allow a lot of RGB shine-through, and Epomaker has accented that with edge lighting that shines through a faceted diffuser seemingly meant to look like crystals. If the Epomaker livestream is any indication, the HE75 V2 and its Creamy Jade Magnetic switches will have a poppy sound signature typical of an FR4 plate and POM switches. The HE75 V2 will feature tri-mode connectivity, with Bluetooth, 2.4 GHz, and USB-C, and 8 kHz polling over 2.4 GHz and wired connections.

News recently broke about a new DRM system Sony had seemingly silently implemented in the PS5 that would make buyers of digital games go online every 30 days to validate a license or potentially be locked out of their games until they could access an internet connection. Now, according to some research done by andshrew on the ResetEra forums, it seems as though it's not quite as simple as that. As it turns out, going online to validate the DRM license may only be a requirement for the first 14 days as an attempt to avoid users buying a game and then refunding the game and playing it anyway in offline mode using some exploit—at least that is the current speculative explanation, since Sony is yet to address this debacle publicly.

The explanation in the ResetEra forum post details the full methodology, but essentially, what the user found by comparing two copies of the same game purchased on two separate PSN accounts, once before the new requirement and once after, is that Sony is now issuing a 30-day license for the first 14 days and swapping that license out for a perpetual license after the refund period has lapsed. This would mean that, after Sony's DRM server has been able to validate the license once after the 14-day refund period is over, there will be no restrictions on offline play, as is usually the case with console games. This somewhat resolves some of the issues that have been brought up surrounding this DRM feature, but it still may present issues for those who are not able to connect to the internet more than 14 days after purchasing a game—this is especially true, since there is no clearly visible notice about this DRM feature on Sony's site at the time of writing.

Hot on the heels of the news of Sony's new DRM that earned significant community backlash, Andy Nguyen, the developer who previously showed off running a full Linux installation on a PlayStation 5, has officially published their methodology and necessary steps to get the open-source operating system running on Sony's console. The hack requires a PS5 disc version running firmware version 3.00, 3.10, 3.20, 3.21, and 4.00, 4.02, 4.03, 4.50, 4.51, and there is only support for the M.2 drive in the 4.XX versions at the time of writing. There are supposedly ways to downgrade the PS5 firmware to one of the versions that still supports the hack, but those may not always work reliably. If you've followed the jailbreak steps, injected the payload and rebooted back into Linux, you should be greeted by a full Ubuntu 26.04 Resolute Raccoon installation, replete with the Linux kernel 7.

Interestingly, the PS5 Linux installation is quite full-featured, replete with custom VRAM allocation, fan control, and a boost mode toggling—all from within the terminal or a text file, of course. There are some caveats, and driver development is still ongoing—wireless networking, for example, may require you to manually restart the WLAN adaptor to work. The Sony DualSense controllers also don't currently work via the built-in dongle, although they do with an external dongle. The output refresh rate is also limited to 60 Hz across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K resolutions, although 120 Hz may be added later. The biggest limitation, however, is that it is a soft mod, meaning that if you restart the PS5 while in the Linux desktop, it will not boot back into the environment unless you apply the same jailbreak again. The upside of that is that the PlayStation 5's base OS isn't affected by the Linux installation, so if you want to go back to using it as a regular PS5, you can just reboot.

Since the launch of the Steam Deck, Valve has poured a lot of effort into not only developing SteamOS but also making the Steam Store and client more user-friendly on handheld devices. Valve's latest Steam Deck Client update builds on this, introducing a number of small changes that make the Steam Deck all the more useful as a console-like gaming experience. Some of the highlights in this latest update include a new optional "Switch to Desktop" button on the login screen—a change that should make the Steam Deck that much easier to user as a docked workstation when necessary. The update also adds a wireless gamepad battery indicator and a low battery level toast notification.

In addition to the aforementioned new UI features, the Steam quick access menu now also houses Steam chat, making in-game socials easier, and there is now a new quick chat feature in Steam Deck and Big Picture mode. Users can access user-configurable quick chats by holding down the view button and selecting the appropriate response. The Steam Deck also now supports Remote Downloads management, allowing you to manage, for example, the downloads on your gaming desktop from the comfort of a couch across the room or the discomfort of an airport across the country. The update also includes a number of bug fixes and UI changes to features like the Steam Input controller customization settings, which can all be viewed in the full update changelog.

Capcom has been fairly open about the fact that there is a Resident Evil Requiem DLC coming at some point this year, but an exact launch date was unclear. Now, according to a hint from the game's director, Koshi Nakanishi, and producer, Masato Kumazawa, in an interview with Denfaminico Gamer, that DLC is still under development. The pair did not outright confirm the release date, but they confirmed that there is a combat-based mini-game DLC coming in May, following up that statement by suggesting that players interested in playing the mini-game DLC complete the game's main quest during Japan's Golden Week holidays.

"So, if you're planning to play it, clearing the main story during Golden Week would be just right for you to be able to play it," said Kumazawa. Golden Week is one of Japan's largest holiday periods and runs between April 29 and May 6, so the implication here is that the Resident Evil mini-game DLC will launch sometime shortly after May 6. The comment to Denfaminico also confirms that the mini-game will only be accessible once players have completed the main quest in the Resident Evil Requiem base game.