When it was reported that Xbox Game Studios was planning on restructuring in the face of plummeting revenue, which would predictably lead to mass layoffs and studio closures, it seemed as though a handful of studios were at risk of closure. Now, according to an insider source speaking to The Verge, that number has jumped to at least five game studios, including Arkane Studios, the game studio behind Dishonored and the upcoming Marvel's Blade. Allegedly, even before the rumored studio closures and layoffs, Xbox was unhappy with how slowly Blade was being developed and was weighing its options for the future of the game and its studio.

Microsoft is supposedly using up the time leading up to the planned layoff announcement to seek potential buyers for certain studios, including Arkane Studios, although sources say that Marvel's Blade, currently in development at Arkane, would be cancelled with the studio's closure. As many as 1,000 workers will potentially lose their jobs in the upcoming wave of layoffs at Microsoft's Xbox Gaming. Currently, it seems as though the layoffs will take place on July 6, but Microsoft has yet to confirm anything regarding the layoffs.

It was revealed in early 2026 that Rockstar workers had formed the Rockstar Game Workers Union (RSGWU) in collaboration with the IWGB (Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain) Game Workers. Now, the RSGWU has officially announced that it is seeking union recognition at Rockstar ahead of the launch of Grand Theft Auto VI, which is widely accepted as the most anticipated video game of all time. The unionization efforts follow allegations of union busting and alleged unfair dismissals in 2025, which saw the firing of 31 Rockstar workers. Take-Two, Rockstar's parent company, says the affected employees were fired as a result of breaching confidentiality by sharing information about GTA VI in a public forum.

According to the IWGB, all of the workers dismissed in 2025 were in talks to join the union, and that is the true reason behind the firing. Alex Marshall, president of the IWGB, argues that "GTA VI has reportedly already generated more than $3 billion in pre-order sales. Rockstar bosses can easily afford to sit around the table with the people whose hard work created these games, and give them a meaningful voice in their workplace." There has been no shortage of layoffs in the gaming space recently, with Sony's Bungie recently confirming that it would be laying off almost all the staff who worked on Destiny 2 and part of the Marathon team. Xbox Game Studios is allegedly planning a substantial round of layoffs in its in-house game studios, Ubisoft workers are striking in response to layoffs, and the fall of games like Highguard, and the ensuing layoffs, have been well documented as well. It may be the RSGWU's fears that Rockstar will conduct all-too-common post-launch layoffs after Grand Theft Auto VI launches, since the gaming industry is currently in a volatile state, and Rockstar is reported to have spent as much as $3 billion on salaries for GTA VI alone.

Following the recent disappointing deliberation by the European Commission on the Stop Destroying Videogames citizens' initiative, the Protect Our Games Act (AB 1921) was a California bill, proposed by Assemblyman Chris Ward, that would force game developers and publishers to make paid video games playable even after they were shut down. Despite things looking positive, with the bill passing the California State Assembly with a 43-16 victory, it has stalled in the second-last phase with a State Senate Committee vote, which saw four members vote yes, three vote no, and three other members abstain. As explained by a Stop Killing Games volunteer, a bill needs a majority "yes" vote in the State Senate in order to pass, which means it only needed three additional votes in the Senate Committee. If it had passed, a final draft would have been created by House and State members and submitted for approval.

In a Reddit post, the Stop Killing Games volunteer also highlighted the movement's determination, stating that the organization had gotten as far as it had with "a U.S. budget of zero dollars. No paid staff in California. No war chest. No in-person lobbying operation," and on a compressed timeline. The SKG movement also had to argue its position against the well-funded ESA (Entertainment Software Association) lobby, who presented a number of alarmist arguments against the bill. Some of the arguments included claims that Minecraft and Call of Duty community servers were "illegal, and they are not in any way affiliated with Microsoft. Microsoft, for Minecraft, has gotten a lot of criticism because of those community servers not employing the same safety standards that Microsoft does on their Minecraft servers." despite Microsoft providing the very instructions and resources required to host those community servers.

With the launch of Grand Theft Auto VI rapidly approaching, rumors surrounding the game's launch have been circulating, with some of those predicting that the game's launch will result in a console hardware shortage, more recently, however, Digital Foundry predicted that the new GTA game may not be able to run on current-gen console hardware—not even the PS5 Pro. Detail levels are slated to be even higher when the game eventually launches on PC, although gamers will be able to rely on more advanced upscaling tech to improve frame rates on PC.

According to the publication, who based its comments on the level of detail present in the GTA VI trailers and media released so far, it seems as though GTA VI won't feature the previously rumored 60 FPS mode, although the PS5 Pro may be able to push frame rates to 40 FPS. The publication predicts that complex simulations in GTA VI may be too CPU-intensive for current-gen consoles, especially since the PS5 Pro is only just slightly faster than the base PS5 in that department, and Microsoft's best offering, the Xbox Series X, offers more or less the same CPU design. This rumor comes after Rockstar claimed that the second GTA VI trailer was captured entirely on PS5 base hardware. Additionally, both GTA 4 and GTA 5 released on console locked to 30 FPS, with 60 FPS only coming at a later date with next-gen console launches—which, in this case would be the Xbox Helix and PlayStation 6, which are slated to arrive between 2027 and 2028.

In April 2026, Natalie Vock, a software engineer famous for contributions to Valve's Linux gaming stack, published a series of patches to improve VRAM usage on Linux, largely directed at devices with dGPUs with limited VRAM, and now that patch has seemingly also been adopted by Valve itself in the latest SteamOS Beta update 3.8.20. The update notes denote this as "Greatly improved VRAM management, improving performance and stability in cases where VRAM is limited," which should help improve performance for Valve's Steam Machine at higher resolutions. Of course, this update should also improve performance for DIY Steam Machines and other dGPU gaming machines running Valve's SteamOS. It should be noted that there may be little to no performance improvements for iGPUs, since they share system memory and VRAM already, and overflowing to system memory was what was causing performance issues.

In Vock's testing and subsequent testing of an implementation of the dmemcg-booster and the patches on CachyOS, performance on low-VRAM GPUs was nearly doubled in some cases, making games that were previously unplayable just barely smooth enough to play on the aging hardware. The SteamOS 3.8.20 Beta update also updates the Mesa graphics driver to a new major release, specifically Mesa version 26.1.2, which adds support for a number of ray tracing features and improves support for new Intel GPU hardware and stability for both frame rates and shader compilation under OpenGL and Vulkan. It also includes fixes for bugs with the Legion Go S SD card reader, issues with streaming in desktop mode, and graphics driver issues preventing Sniper Elite 5 from rendering correctly.

It was recently revealed that Microsoft is planning a massive round of layoffs at its Xbox Gaming division, with several studios allegedly already on the brink of closure shortly after the news of layoffs broke. Now, according to Wccftech, who attended a virtual press conference by the Communications Workers of America (CWA), over 3,500 unionized Xbox employees are preparing to fight back against the rumored layoffs. Right off the bat, Frank Arce, vice president of CWA District 9, kicked things off by declaring that workers at Xbox, unionized or not, "will not be treated as disposable," with developers and former developers from ZeniMax Online, Activision-Blizzard, and Arkane Austin contributing their experiences and hardships in the gaming industry, with everyone in agreement that Xbox employees needed protections against layoffs, including advanced notice, hiring freezes to allow former employees an opportunity of internal transfers, and strong severance packages where layoffs are necessary.

The union will wait until Microsoft announces the Xbox layoffs before calling Microsoft to the negotiations table—although there have apparently already been hushed internal discussions about the future of the aforementioned studios facing closure. Members who spoke at the meeting were adamant that Xbox workers needed certainty, with Blizzard editor, Alison Veneto, saying that "Everyone at Xbox deserves long-term certainty on where they stand should layoffs happen," and others emphasizing the importance of knowing that, in the event that layoffs are necessary, every other avenue has already been exhausted. CWA higher-ups spoke on the discrepancy between Microsoft's announced intentions and its actions, such as lamenting recent AI-inflicted RAM price hikes when announcing the Xbox Series X|S price increases while simultaneously pouring money into AI investment.

It seems as though the recent Xbox restructuring that will seemingly lead to a round of layoffs and even studio closures may have some repercussions in store for both gamers and game studios on Xbox Game Pass. According to Fernando Rizo, former CEO of Modern Wolf, and Shams Jordani, CEO of Arrowhead, the studio behind Helldivers, in a recent episode of The Business of Video Games podcast, Xbox has suspended all Xbox Game Pass deals with third-party game studios. Rizo says that he "had some nice dinners with industry colleagues" at a recent trade show in Italy, who told him that "loads of people who were in the frame for Game Pass deals - i.e., you know, nothing was inked yet, but the deals were in advanced discussions - everybody got the rug pulled out from under them." He continues, later saying that "I think they're figuring it out. That's my read anyway," and that "it seems like Game Pass deals—like, we just did one at Caboodle earlier in the year—and I get the feeling that it might have been one of the last ones [anyone] did."

Curiously, there were recent rumors floating around about an upcoming Game Pass tier that would feature only in-house Xbox Studios games. The new Xbox CEO, Asha Sharma, has also indicated on numerous occasions that she sees Game Pass as a way to grow the Xbox player base, specifically with a focus on more price-sensitive markets, which seems to suggest that this might be a temporary pause ahead of contractual negotiations or a potential Game Pass reshuffle that could result in other long-term consequences. One such recent change to Game Pass was the exclusion of day-one access to Call of Duty games from the subscription service, although that came with a substantial price drop for both PC Game Pass Ultimate and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. One possibility is that this may be a first step towards the rumored unification of PC Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass.

With the Steam Controller and the Steam Machine now officially launched and presumably making their way into the hands of consumers, the only new hardware product left for Valve to launch is the Steam Frame. Now, it seems as though the launch date for the new VR headset may be approaching, with Valve's Portal 2 getting a new update on June 29 that includes Steam Frame compatibility information. The official Steam Frame rating for Portal 2 is "Playable," with the game missing out on Frame Verified status due to not rendering in the Frame's native resolution. Curiously, Half-Life: Alyx, Valve's VR-only Half-Life game, has not yet received a similar compatibility update at the time of writing.

The Frame Verified rating has not yet been added to Steam's storefront, with compatibility information listed on SteamDB, but a June 29 update also fixed an issue with Portal 2 launching on Linux, suggesting Valve is putting in active development work to get its games and verification system ready for the official launch of the Frame hardware. According to the recently published Steam Frame Verified specifications, games need to be fully playable on the Frame controllers and reach at least 90 FPS for standalone VR titles and 30 FPS for standalone 2D titles at 1280 × 720 p, and it must have a legible UI at the default resolution of the Frame.

Rumors of sky-high next-gen consoles have been floating around for about as long as the next-gen consoles have been confirmed as in development, but it seems as though Sony CEO, Hideaki Nishino has all but confirmed $900+ pricing for the PS6 in a recent Q&A session following an official Gaming & Network Services meeting. When asked about the sales strategy for the upcoming console generation, which would be the PS6, Nishino replied that, despite recent price increases on PlayStation hardware, "sales are proceeding as planned, and we do not believe that this has led to a decline in customer demand. As a principle, we do not intend to sell hardware at significant losses. At the same time, we are carefully monitoring the market and continuing to evaluate our approach." This suggests that the PS6, and its upcoming portable companion, will likely be priced as low as possible without eating into Sony's bottom line. Instead of chasing a specific price point and using subsidized pricing to reach the lower price, Sony appears to be pricing the PS6 according to what will be competitive and accepted by the consumers at launch.

He went on to say that "it is important for us to make every effort to ensure that customers fully understand the value we provide in relation to pricing," and explaining that "the value of [PlayStation hardware] lies in the experience, not the hardware itself. As a dedicated gaming device, it provides seamless, immediate access to content—unlike general-purpose devices, which involve multiple layers before gameplay." Taken together, especially given the recent news about the return of PlayStation exclusives, the launch pricing of the Steam Machine, and the recent price increases and expected price of the Xbox Helix at Microsoft, it seems as though $1,000 as a starting price for the PS6 is becoming more and more likely. Micron recently announced that, while it has projects in place to try and meet demand for DRAM, it does not see the DRAM crisis ending or significantly easing before 2028. An increased BOM cost for consoles with an increased subsidy from Sony may also accelerate the increase of game prices, since consoles are usually sold as loss-leaders, at least initially, with profits being recouped via games sold for the platform.

Mere after the reveal of the Valve Steam Machine, accessory maker Dbrand announced that it was releasing the "Companion Cube," a Steam Machine accessory that was modelled after the Portal weighted companion cube storage box. Following massive interest in the Companion Cube in the week since its announcement, Dbrand announced that it has been forced by Valve to pull the product from its website and social media pages, despite Dbrand's efforts to retroactively seek licensing rights from Valve in response to the takedown notice. Dbrand has complied and wiped the Companion Cube from its online presence, redirecting the product page link to a Reddit post explaining the situation, but fortunately the original product page had been archived before the Companion Cube's untimely demise. Dbrand will also be issuing refunds to anyone who purchased the Companion Cube.

Dbrand explained in the post on r/Dbrand on Reddit that it was contacted by Valve's legal team and informed that the Companion Cube was Valve's intellectual property and that the accessory maker did not have license to use the IP in such a capacity. According to Dbrand, the Companion Cube was the culmination of seven months and over a thousand hours of engineering work that resulted in four sets of injection molds being produced. The Companion Cube was reportedly Dbrand's second-fastest-selling product to date behind the Switch 2 Killswitch, and fans of the design have expressed both disappointment in Dbrand for not approaching Valve and licensing the product correctly and understanding that Valve may not want its brand attached to a product whose engineering and thermal qualities cannot necessarily be verified.

Following report surfaced that Riot's Vanguard anti-cheat was apparently soft-bricking certain hardware often used for cheating, Riot has updated Vanguard with a new on-demand mode that allows users to disable the anti-cheat mode from launching on boot. According to a blog post about the update, on-demand mode will only launch Vanguard when it's needed by a game like League of Legends or Valorant. This should theoretically allow for faster boot times and slightly reduced system resource usage on Windows PCs with Vanguard installed. However, Vanguard on-demand mode is only possible in cases wherein player hardware meets a set of security standards that Riot calls a Vanguard Pre-Check.

The Pre-Check, and thus Vanguard On-Demand mode, requires that players are running Windows 11 version 25H2 or newer and enable Secure Boot, TPM 2.0. IOMMU, VBS, and Hypervisor-Protected Code Integrity. All of these security measures basically allow Riot to ensure that no kernel-level cheats have been enabled between when the system booted and when Vanguard was launched. Riot says that around 35% of Vanguard user systems are already in a "secured-core state," meaning they meet all the requirements and will be able to enable On-Demand mode with the next Vanguard update, however, those who have one or more of the aforementioned UEFI settings disabled will have to go through the Pre-Check before being able to enable On-Demand.

The upcoming Sony PlayStation 6 is slated to launch sometime in 2028, and with recent reports claiming that the ongoing RAM crisis likely won't end or ease up much before then, concerns are mounting about the price of next-gen gaming consoles. Those concerns are seemingly justified, with ubiquitous hardware leaker, KeplerL2, indicating that the PS6's bill of materials cost has increased by as much as $200 since they predicted the cost at $760. This puts the BOM cost of the PS6 at around $960, if the leaker is to be believed, and current speculation suggests that the console may be priced at around $850-899 when it reaches the end consumer.

Somewhat alarmingly, this price prediction is only for the base model Digital Edition, and Sony seems to not want to ditch the Disc Edition entirely—although it may be approaching disc media differently with the PS6—so gamers who want a disc drive may need to pay as much as $950 for the PS6. Recently, following Sony's April price hikes that resulted in a $649.99 PS5 Disc Edition, Microsoft increased the price of the Xbox Series consoles across the board by $100-150, pushing current-gen consoles to their highest prices so far. The Valve Steam Machine also recently launched at a painfully high price as a result of the RAM crisis.

Following the launch and overwhelming success of Resident Evil: Requiem, it was revealed that Capcom may be planning to launch a remake of Resident Evil 1 after it releases a Resident Evil Code Veronica remake sometime in 2027. This has obviously led to fans asking questions about what other potential Resident Evil games might receive the modernization treatment. According to notable Resident Evil leaker, Dusk Golem on the ResetEra forums, Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6 remakes are not on the cards.

The leak comes in response to another rumor that claims Capcom will remake the entire Resident Evil franchise, eventually culminating in the current status quo as of Resident Evil Requiem—and seemingly retconning certain aspects of the franchise in the process—as part of some overarching plan. According to Dusk Golem, this is not the case, and Capcom currently has no plans to remake Resident Evil 5 and 6, although the leaker does not rule out the possibility of eventual remakes for the games if Capcom decides to one day acknowledge fan demand for those remakes, with an eventual remake all the more likely if Resident Evil 1 and Code Veronica perform well commercially. It bears pointing out that Resident Evil 4, the most recent RE remake, originally launched in 2005, while Resident Evil 5 and 6 launched in 2009 and 2012, respectively, so it makes sense that they wouldn't necessarily be high on the list of priorities for Capcom to remake just yet. Most recently,

Ubisoft has been undergoing a controversial restructuring, having previously laid off hundreds of staff across multiple studios. In the latest round of layoffs, announced earlier in June, the gaming giant laid off 51 employees—28% of its staff at the location—at its Barcelona studio, resulting in the announcement of a strike at the branch. According to Insider Gaming, employees at Ubisoft Barcelona will strike every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon between June 30 and July 16.

The striking workers are demanding: a continuity mandate and binding negotiations that would ensure the positions of the 51 affected staff; protections against future dismissals for a minimum of five years; compliance with internal promotions procedures that had not been adhered to; an unconditional return to work from home agreement that would allow 60% monthly remote work; and a career development pact that would see the salary improvement plans and social benefits packages reviewed. Previously, the French Video Game Workers' Union also responded to a round of layoffs at Ubisoft with a two-week strike that had similar demands.

QwertyKeys, the budget brand of Owlab, has just revealed the new QK100 Mk2 wireless mechanical keyboard, which is slated to become available on July 24, 2026, for an MSRP of $219 from the QwertyKeys online store. The QK100 Mk2 is a pre-built keyboard with an aluminium case, tri-mode connectivity, and an 1800 layout that allows for a more compact footprint without sacrificing the num pad or full-size zero key on the bottom of the num pad. There are a handful of unique upgrades to the QK100 Mk2 and more than a few features that set it apart from other mechanical keyboards. For starters, the QK100 Mk2 features a small LCD between the num pad and the main alpha deck, which can be used to show the time and useful information, like the keyboard's battery level, or simply as a tool for fun and customization, with its cutesy cat-themed animations and an "Animal Grocery" typing game built into the display. Above the num pad, there is also an LED strip that reacts to ambient noise and a touch-sensitive strip that can be used to adjust system volume of the connected PC. Next to the escape key, the QK100 Mk2 also has a retro-styled button that is programmed to toggle the keyboard's per-key RGB backlighting.

The QK100 Mk2 supports both Bluetooth and 2.4 GHz for wireless connectivity, with physical switches on the back to select both connection mode and OS layout, and it charges and connects via USB Type-C. Wireless connectivity is supported by an 8,000 mAh battery that QwertyKeys claims will allow the keyboard to deliver upwards of 800 hours of use on a charge with backlighting and displays disabled, up to 100 hours with just the display enabled, and up to 40 hours with all the backlighting and display features enabled. The keyboard features a polypropylene plate, which should give it a softer bottom-out with a slightly damped sound signature. It uses Neo Oat switches, which are linear switches with a 36 gf start force and 45 gf bottom-out force, 3.6 mm of total travel, and nylon top and bottom housings. The QK100 Mk2 will be available in four colors: Radiant Silver, Black Knight, Aquamarine Blue, and Strawberry Pink, and all of the colors will come with matching ABS keycaps in the familiar Cherry profile.

It's no secret that the DRAM crisis is predicted to go on for a while, with everyone from Korean news outlets to, more recently, OEMs like Lenovo, predicting that massive price hikes are slated to be the norm in PC hardware for the foreseeable future, thanks to AI data center demand. Following the recent Micron Q3 financial report, in which the DRAM maker revealed record results for the quarter, Micron's CEO, Sanjay Mehrotra, commented on the current DRAM situation, stating to investors that "Our customers are recognizing that supply shortages in memory and storage will take considerable time to improve."

He continued, saying that "Even as we expect industry supply to improve gradually in 2028, we currently do not have a line of sight as to when memory supply will be able to catch up with increasing demand." Earlier in 2027, Micron announced a number of new initiatives to increase DRAM supply to meet current demand, including a new megafab in New York, which it expects to complete by early 2029, and intentions to buy a fab from PSMC in a $1.8 billion deal that would see meaningful DRAM output by late 2027. While the shortage is expected to ease somewhat, it's entirely likely that prices will remain elevated for a while to come, which will likely affect the upcoming Xbox Helix console, PS6 and PS6 Portable, and the already announced Steam Machine—which Valve expects will continue to be overpriced—for a while.

Following a brief reservation period, prospective buyers of the Valve Steam Machine started reporting on June 26 that they had begun to receive reservation confirmation emails for the new hybrid console. However, on the same day, and almost predictably, apparent scalpers listed Steam Machine units on sites like eBay, with prices for the 512 GB version of the console without the Steam Controller starting at a whopping $1,700, which is a 61% increase over the already high launch price. One particular eBay listing for the Steam Machine has a 512 GB version of the console with a Steam Controller listed at $3,200—a 160% premium over the retail price, likely an attempt to capitalize on the added scarcity of the Steam Controller.

Given recent conversations about the value of the Steam Machine and Valve's own admission that the $1,049.99 launch pricing is significantly higher than it should have been, it goes without saying that a 70%+ increase over that launch price is bad value. It seems unlikely that anyone would pay that much for the Steam Machine, which offers mid-range PC performance at best, but scalpers previously also attempted, and apparently succeeded, to sell the Steam Deck in the same fashion for highly inflated prices, likely banking on the hype of the gaming handheld. The combination of limited supply and Valve's lottery system for the Steam Machine almost seems to encourage scalping, since it results in scarcity. Despite the price, the Machine also already sold out in Japan within 48 hours of launch. While Valve has provided an estimated June 29 shipping date, but there's no telling when the second batch of production units will start shipping.

Airship Syndicate, the indie game studio behind Wayfinder, Darksiders: Genesis, and Battlechasers, has officially announced its next project, a sci-fi game called Dust: Origins (stylized as "DUST: Origins"), with a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to fund the game slated to start on July 28. Not much has been revealed about the upcoming game aside from a brief teaser and the tidbits on the game's Kickstarter page. The game is set on an orbital prison station in a state of disrepair, and players will take the role of a character recently freed from cryo-prison and have to "fight their way through a murderer's row of violent criminals and horrifying monsters before the station tears itself apart."

The game is touted as a "handcrafted sci-fi action game," while the catchphrase "there are no saints—only survivors," teases that choices matter and suggests that there will be a morality system that will affect how players experience the game's story. Some of the other hints of the game's content on the Kickstarter page include that it will be a "dark and immersive isometric action title." Its visuals and atmosphere appear to be largely inspired by Dead Space, which means we're likely to see some horror elements and claustrophobic fights. The official Dust: Origins teaser follows.

Valve's Steam Machine, originally meant to be a somewhat affordable SFF console-PC hybrid, officially went on sale in mid-June at a rather alarming starting price of $1,049, as a result of the ongoing DRAM and storage crisis. One question that has repeatedly come up is how the value proposition of the Steam Machine would change if the price were to drop. In a recent interview with Digital Foundry, Valve has explained its stance on the Steam Machine pricing and its expectations for the future of the PC gaming hardware market.

Valve engineers, Yazan Aldehayyat and Pierre-Loup Griffais explained that "there's no point for us to keep hardware at a higher price. It's meant to be an enabler of a stronger connection between people and their games," going on to comment that "the cheaper, the better," however, as Aldehayyat says, "it's hard for us to predict the future, but we're not optimistic it's going to happen soon," adding that "other people in the industry have said as much." Aldehayyat is referring to ongoing and future DRAM price hikes, which Microsoft recently predicted would continue to rise when it announced the upcoming August Xbox price increases.

Despite recently updating the Steam Machine's product page to more accurately reflect the SteamOS-powered gaming PC's actual 4K performance, Valve has been working behind the scenes for a long time to enable HDMI 2.1 support on Linux in order to have full-featured, high-framerate 4K support over HDMI. In a recent statement to Digital Foundry, Valve engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais has confirmed that its work with AMD to implement HDMI 2.1 with FRL support has been completed, and although full support for HDMI 2.1 has not yet been implemented for the Steam Deck, it will be added in a future update, which will also add support for 4K 240 Hz with DSC over HDMI. The current driver setup already has support for important features, like variable refresh rate over HDMI.

We've worked a ton with various partners in AMD, who has done a ton of work to try and drive resolution there, and we think that's fully resolved. The current software stack we have on Steam Machine has HDMI 2.1 VRR enabled, not only on FreeSync displays but also on HDMI Forum VRR ones. This is a very important part of the performance puzzle, along with the FSR 4 boosts to come.

When news broke about PlayStation's return to console exclusives, it was accompanied by a caveat that live service multiplayer games would continue to launch on multiple platforms, with Sony's Hedeaki Nishino stating that games would release on platforms that would enhance the gameplay experience. The executive has since conducted another interview with Famitsu, in which he both doubles down on this commitment and expands on Sony's plans for live service games. Despite the recent Destiny 2 debacle—which has resulted in layoffs of around 300 employees at Bungie—and lukewarm Marathon launch, Nishino says he believes that live service games attract users on a global level, and Sony will "continue to revitalize the market through first-party and third-party content." He continued, saying that PlayStation is looking to experiment within the live-service genre in the medium to long-term, and that the genre is still new and growing.

Nishino also spoke on the future of the gaming console, saying that Sony still sees a future in the console as a gaming format, and that you will continue to need a console to play some games. However, he mentioned that console hardware would need to adapt to the gamer's lifestyle, teasing that Sony is moving out of the living room, with future speakers and monitors planned for other use cases. He then went on to mention the PlayStation Portal as one of the ways Sony has attempted to address the changing lifestyle demands of a gamer, and said that he would like to continue to push that frontier to better match diversifying lifestyles. We've known for a while that Sony has been planning to launch a standalone PS6 Portable, with recent rumors claiming that the gaming handheld would launch with as much as 24 GB of GDDR7 VRAM as shared system and graphics memory.

It's long been predicted that the launch of GTA VI would have an outsized effect on the gaming industry, with the list of game developers moving launch dates to avoid coinciding with the massive launch seemingly growing daily. Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of Take-Two Interactive, and Corsair previously commented that GTA VI would boost console and PC sales when the game launched on the respective platforms. Now, according to a report by The Game Business, this sentiment is being echoed by retailers in the gaming industry. Although the news outlet does not mention the retailer by name for the sake of protecting the source, it reports that a senior games buyer commented that "We've been informed that because of the ongoing issues around hardware component availability, we won't be getting the units we want ahead of GTA. Demand will likely outstrip supply during the year-end period."

The crux of the issue seems to come down to the same ongoing component supply chain and pricing issues that recently resulted in a substantial price increase for both Xbox and PS5 consoles—the Xbox price increase is slated to go into effect three months before GTA VI launches. Console makers offer mixed reports, with Sony's CEO Hiroki Totoki telling investors in May that supply for the 2026 calendar year had already been secured. However, Xbox has been more transparent about the fact that demand for Xbox consoles "definitively" exceeds supply, despite the fact that production and logistics are at capacity making and distributing the consoles. GTA VI has already been listed for pre-order at a starting price of $79.99, and it seems as though Take-Two will stick to the announced November 19 launch date despite a number of prior launch delays.

AMD recently released FSR 4.1 for its RDNA 3 GPUs, which demonstrated a handy performance increase over native rendering on RDNA 3, but a recent comparison by German outlet, ComputerBase, has revealed that there are noticeable performance regressions when comparing FSR 4.1 to FSR 3.1 on RDNA 3 GPUs. The publication tested FSR 4.1 and FSR 3.1 on the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, RX 7800 XT, and RX 7600, and FSR 4.1 on the Radeon RX 9070 XT. In geometric mean results of nine tested games, the 9070 XT scores an identical frame rate to the RX 7900 XTX in 4K native resolution, but the RDNA 3 flagship scores 52.6 FPS when using FSR 4.1 Quality settings, compared to 56.5 FPS on the 9070 XT—a 7% performance penalty. Looking at FSR 4.1 Performance, the gap grows, with the 7900 XTX serving 65.2 FPS in the test, while the 9070 XT scores 71.9 FPS, making the 7900 XTX 9% slower than the 9070 XT at FSR 4.1 compute.

The comparison between FSR 4.1 and FSR 3.1 on RDNA 3 is where it becomes even more interesting, with the geometric mean reflecting an 11% performance penalty for FSR 4.1 in Quality mode and a 14.5% regression in Performance mode. AMD previously explained in an interview with TechPowerUp that there were notable differences between the implementation of FSR 4.1 on RDNA 4 and RDNA 3, specifically that the older hardware uses 8-bit integer (INT8) data, while the RDNA 4 implementation uses the built-in FP8 support in the 2nd-generation AI accelerators in RDNA 4 GPUs. Despite this, AMD claims that it aimed for quality parity across different RDNA generations, which may partially explain the bigger performance penalty on RDNA 3 GPUs. FSR 4.1 support has yet to make it to RDNA 2 GPUs, with official support for the RX 6000-series graphics cards planned for early 2027, so we have yet to see what sort of performance penalty will be incurred there, however, AMD also commented that supporting that older hardware is even more complex, since there are no dedicated AI accelerators. This means RX 6000 GPUs will need to rely on Stream Processors to compute FSR 4.1 upscaling.

Ergohaven has announced the K:04, a new split ergonomic mechanical keyboard featuring an adaptable modular design that allows users to add navigation modules to expand the keyboard's functionality beyond just typing. The K:04 is designed around ergonomics, with a 58-key layout split between two separate halves that communicate wirelessly using Bluetooth LE. The 58-key layout roughly mimics a 60% keyboard by keeping the number row and eliminating dedicated navigation keys—those are placed on secondary layers, which can be accessed with a key in the thumb cluster. Each half has three or four thumb keys, depending on how far you want to reach under your palm with your thumb. It also features a columnar stagger, which means the keys are offset vertically in order to better align them to the curvature of your fingertips when your hands are at rest and prevent straining to reach keys. The K:04 is available from the Ergohaven online shop in several different configurations, with the base keyboard without switches or keycaps coming in at $180. Adding switches and low-profile blank keycaps brings it up to $240, while adding labelled low-profile Space Encounters keycaps or sculpted keycaps brings the price up to $265 or $280, respectively.

The headline feature of the K:04 is its interchangeable input modules, which allow users to expand functionality by adding a rotary encoder, a touchpad, or a track ball to the inside edge of either half of the keyboard. The keyboard's layout and the functionality of each module are configurable in Ergohaven's open-source Entropy customization software, based on Vial, and the configured functionality of each module will remain on the keyboard's controller if the module is removed and re-enabled whenever the module is reinserted. The keyboard itself is also highly configurable, with the design being based around the Gateron LP 3.0 switch standard but also supporting full-height MX switches with an additional switch plate. Each module also adds additional cost to the keyboard, starting with the rotary encoder at $35, the touchpad at $55, and the 32 mm trackball at $65.

Epic Games CEO, Tim Sweeney, has a reputation for his hot takes on the gaming industry, and he has previously been vocal about both the perceived benefits of AI in gaming and his criticisms of its detractors. Now, the executive has expanded on his prior comments about Valve's mandatory generative AI disclosure, which he previously said "makes no sense for game stores," in a new interview with PC Gamer. These comments follow the recent announcement that Unreal Engine 5.8 and Unreal Engine 6 will add more generative AI features to the game engine. Addressing the question of AI art and how it may be more of a PR problem, Tim Sweeney said that "it's just a question of adaptation of tools, because there's nothing like a prompt-to-game solution on the horizon that anybody expects will work," going on to explain that artists at Epic Games are already using generative AI to "reduce the drudge work," referring to some of the more tedious parts of the 3D modelling and texturing process.

He goes on to advocate for using AI, stating that "it's impossible to reconcile the idea that developers shouldn't use productivity-improving tools with the state of the industry." He goes on to explain that how you go about creating an in-game asset isn't important, and that "you might spend a million dollars modeling a flower pot to get the most detailed flower pot creatable by humanity, but you could also scan a flower pot with a very high resolution camera," and that "the value is not in creating a perfect flower pot...the real value is in building the scene and building the game and building the narrative." Ultimately, his argument is that AI makes it cheaper to make games and in-game assets, but he argues that "it's unfortunate that so many developers are put into this position. If you want to launch a game and get it as widely publicized as possible, you've got to put it on Steam...then you have to get this Scarlet Letter of AI attached to your product, and now there is a hater community trying to kill the game." He calls Valve's AI disclosure "irresponsible" and says that it makes it "much, much, much harder for a game developer to have a chance of success."

Wildgate, the sci-fi PvPvE shooter, launched on Steam in July 2025, and less than a year after its launch, Dreamhaven and Moonshot Games have revealed that Wildgate will be getting its last content update in July. After that update, patch 1.5.4, which will deliver a host of new content, the game will enter maintenance mode. This means that the game will still receive updates, including "bug fixes, balance updates, and small events, activations or rewards that generally repurpose existing content," but the studio says it "has not found a large enough audience to sustain ongoing development. Wildgate will still remain playable and purchasable on all platforms where it is available, and the developer says that "we plan on participating in as many sales and discounts as we can."

Patch 1.5.4 introduces a revamped game mode selection screen that's more informative, new player-controlled options for custom games, a one-year anniversary celebration, and bug and balance fixes. Looking forward, Wildgate's development team at Moonshot Games will focus on new projects which will be announced in the future, the player support team and community management efforts will be reduced but not completely shut down, and the official Wildgate Discord server will be handed over to the community. At its height, around the game's launch, Wildgate peaked at 7,799 concurrent players on Steam, with player counts dropping to around 25-150 peak concurrent daily players around the beginning of 2026. It's currently unclear how long Wildgate will remain playable, since its multiplayer features are dependent on online services that cost money to run.

Enshrouded, the open-world survival and base-building game by Keen Games, released to Early Access on Steam in January 2024, and now, more than two years after the Early Access release, Keen Games has announced its full 1.0 launch date. As per the announcement on Steam, Enshrouded 1.0 will launch on October 15, 2026 for both PC via Steam and on Sony's PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 5 Pro. At its height, Enshrouded managed to attract as many as 160,405 concurrent players on Steam, and the expansion to PS5 is expected to grow its player count. The developer has yet to announce a firm launch date for an Xbox version, but has confirmed that an Xbox launch is planned for spring 2027.

The developer has not yet made any grand promises of content for the official 1.0 release date, but the announcement is accompanied by a release date trailer that hints at some of the updates, and the developer has promised news about "improvements, optimization, QoL changes," and new content ahead of the October launch. Some eagle-eyed users on the r/Enshrouded subreddit have noted that there appears to be a new floating island biome and improvements to the overall lighting and aesthetics. The full announcement and the release date announcement teaser follow.

Valve's Steam Machine has earned more than its fair share of skeptics, thanks to performance claims and more recently its unfortunate pricing. More recently, though, Valve has seemingly taken some of this criticism to heart and silently changed some of those performance claims on the Steam Machine product page. Where the performance claims on the product page once read "4K gaming at 60 FPS with FSR," they now say "Up to 4K gaming with FSR 4.1," removing any mention of FPS and softening the claim with the classic "up to."

As shown in a number of performance reviews, the Steam Machine sometimes struggles to hit 60 FPS at 1080p in certain games when using maximum or ultra graphics quality, and 1080p would be upscaled to 4K when using FSR 4 in Performance mode. It makes sense that Valve wouldn't want to misrepresent the performance of the Steam Machine in order to avoid litigation, but many fans are drawing comparisons between the 4K/60 FPS claims and Sony's 8K marketing for the PS5. It's also worth noting that this change seems to have been made on June 25, which is the same day that Valve cut off reservations for Steam Machine pre-orders.

Shortly after news broke about the end of Destiny 2's active development, it was revealed that Bungie would likely be conducting mass layoffs of Destiny 2 staff, with no sequel to the massive looter shooter on the cards. Sony has now confirmed in a blog post that the rumored Bungie layoffs are both true and somewhat more widespread than initially expected. It's currently unclear how many staff members will be losing their jobs at Bungie, but it was previously revealed that some of the team that had been working on Destiny 2 before it was shut down were moved to the development of Marathon.

According to the blog post, the Bungie layoffs will affect "a significant number of employees, including most of the Destiny team and some Marathon team members," and there are also some layoffs happening in the Sony Interactive Entertainment teams that support Bungie's operations. The fact that Marathon developers will also be laid off more or less confirms that the new extraction shooter has not performed nearly as well as Sony and Bungie might have hoped, and this may explain Bungie's seemingly frantic changes and updates to Marathon in response to player feedback. Sony says that the layoffs come after it "reviewed the studio's long-term direction, development priorities, resource needs, and role within our broader portfolio strategy," and that it explored other avenues and alternatives before pursuing layoffs.

Microsoft has already increased the prices of its Xbox Series X|S consoles once in response to the ongoing hardware shortages and prices. On June 25, Microsoft announced that the Xbox console family will receive another round of price increases on August 1, 2026. As of the beginning of August, all 512 GB variants of the Xbox Series consoles will be $100 more expensive than current pricing, and 1 TB Xbox consoles will cost an extra $150 over current pricing. Microsoft will also discontinue the 2 TB Xbox SKUs, likely because pricing simply does not make sense anymore. Microsoft blames the ongoing DRAM crisis for the increases, stating that "console storage and memory prices have increased by more than 2.5x, and we expect another doubling by the fall of 2027."

As a result of the price increases, the Xbox Series X|S pricing now plays out as follows: 512 GB Series S: $499.99; 1 TB Series S: $599.99; 512 GB Series X Digital: $749.99; 1 TB Xbox Series X $799.99. For comparison, following the recent price increases at Sony, the PS5 costs $649.99, while the PS5 Digital Edition costs $599.99, and the PS5 Pro costs $899.99. The announcement comes weeks before the close of the 2025 financial year at Xbox, with the price increase taking effect almost immediately after the Xbox fiscal year reports are slated to be published. Following the recent PS5 price increases, Sony saw PS5 sales break 2026 records as a result of a buying rush to get in before the price increases. Recent reports also highlighted that significant layoffs are planned at Xbox Game Studios thanks to overall declines in revenue at Xbox.

With launch pricing putting a damper on the hype for Valve's Steam Machine, it's no surprise that gamers are looking to more affordable or better value alternatives to the Steam Machine. One French PC vendor, LDLC, has officially announced its pre-built answer to the Steam Machine in the new "PC Box" pre-built PC. Somewhat comically, the PC was previously being referred to as the "Stim Machine" but has seemingly been rebranded as the PC Box in the meantime. The LDLC PC Box appears to be almost perfectly optimized to edge out the Steam Machine in performance, even if pricing is somewhat higher in the pre-built configuration.

The PC Box is available from LDLC as a pre-built PC for €1039.99 or as a DIY kit you can assemble yourself for €999.99, and its basic specs include an AMD Ryzen 5 8400F, 16 GB of dual-channel DDR5 memory, an AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 8 GB, a 512 GB SSD, and a 350 W 80+ Bronze certified PSU, all built into a small form-factor SilverStone Sugo SG13B case. The most noticeable performance difference between the Steam Machine and the PC Box is that the latter has a significantly more powerful and modern GPU, which should deliver around 70% better GPU performance in many cases, based on currently available data on the Steam Machine hardware. One obvious drawback to the more powerful hardware is that, even though it is a Mini ITX case, the SilverStone Sugo SG13 is larger than the Steam Machine, at 222 (W) x 181 (H) x 285 mm), compared to the Machine's 152 × 162.4 × 156 mm.

As is the case with just about every Grand Theft Auto game since the series debuted, GTA VI is banned in a number of countries. Even ahead of the launch, this has been more or less confirmed by a FAQ section on the PlayStation Store product page for GTA VI, where Sony lists the eligibility requirements for the free month of GTA+. The listed countries are Bahrain, China, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, the Russian Federation, and Taiwan. That's not to say that players in those countries will be entirely unable to play GTA VI, but it will likely be impossible to buy a physical copy of the game in those regions.

Those interested in playing GTA VI in countries where it is banned will need to import a physical copy or purchase a digital copy from an account registered in another country, where GTA VI is not banned. As recently as 2019, the GTA Online Diamond Casino was banned in a long list of countries thanks to anti-gambling laws. The reason for the GTA VI bans are currently unknown, but GTA games normally have any manner of explicit or restricted content that could trigger a ban in countries with more restrictive laws against themes like violence, gambling, alcohol, or sexual content.

It was recently leaked that Microsoft has "significant" layoffs planned for sometime in July as a result of declining revenue and a shift in the company's gaming strategy. Now, however, a number of former Xbox employees have warned current staff of the potential for retaliation in the upcoming wave of layoffs, according to a recent report by Game Developer. This isn't the first time allegations of unfair treatment have surfaced following layoffs or firings at Xbox, with former Halo Studios art director, Glenn Israel, accusing the gaming giant of harassment and retaliation. Four former Xbox staff members spoke to media, alleging that they were victims of retaliation when they stood up against alleged toxic behavior and were subsequently laid off in a wave of layoffs.

One former employee at an Xbox subsidiary says that they were laid off after they served as a witness in an investigation of a case of verbal abuse by an executive. Following the HR investigation, the executive sought to identify the former staff member during a round of layoffs. Another staff member reported being placed on a performance improvement plan in retaliation for "disrespecting" them, with a threat to accept the PIP or leave the company voluntarily. Another former Xbox employee alleges that an executive at a subsidiary studio retaliated against an employee after she filed an ADA accommodation request for a disability. According to the report, Xbox has not yet responded to these allegations, but Israel, who has spoken publicly about his alleged mistreatment at Xbox, has advised current Xbox staff members who have previously filed reports against higher-ups to record and document evidence and communications and proactively inform HR representatives that redundancy could be considered retaliatory, given the circumstances.

Given Fortnite's recent slew of collaborations, it should not be surprising to learn that Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Epic Games, is betting on interconnected game universes and cosmetics economies. In a recent interview with IGN, Sweeney commented on the current state of the gaming industry, stating that "the only way that we can hope for new games coming into the market to be able to succeed when there's so much Metcalfe's Law at play and so many captive audiences in the really big games...it's got to be that those games get momentum by connecting to the economies in other games." What the executive is effectively suggesting is that gamers should be introduced to new games via in-game cosmetics or other items that can be used in other games.

It's also no surprise to hear the CEO espousing the idea that interconnected game economies and transferrable in-game items are the future, since expanded support for smart assets and interoperability between games is one of the headline features of the upcoming Unreal Engine 6. Sweeney goes on to talk about the benefits of social ecosystems and multiplatform games for their developers, stating that "I think every platform would have a lot more engagement, and every game acting through the system would have a lot more engagement if we connected things, literally. Not just Epic, but name all of the top game developers, I think Xbox, Epic, Roblox, Riot, Tencent, EA, all the different studios within Microsoft - we'd all be better off if we connected our stuff." Ironically, his commentary comes at a time when both Xbox and PlayStation are returning to more closed-off ecosystems, with a return to the console exclusive era in full swing.

Following the recent release of FSR 4 support on RDNA 3 GPUs, Valve engineer, Pierre-Loup Griffais, has announced in a post on Bluesky that the same support has officially been added to Linux via Steam's Proton compatibility layer. Support for FSR 4 on RDNA 3 comes by way of the latest version of Proton Experimental, so it's by no means a stable implementation just yet, but the engineer specifically calls out SteamOS and the Steam Machine as the target system for the new upscaler support, suggesting that Valve will invest development resources into getting the support into a more complete state ahead of the full roll-out of the Steam Machine.

Curiously, the post also specifically calls out devices with RDNA 3 discrete GPUs and the Steam Machine, suggesting that support for Radeon iGPUs, like the 780M and 890M that largely dominate the gaming handheld space has not yet been implemented. It's possible that Valve developers, who often contribute to Linux graphics drivers and gaming optimizations, may implement support for the gaming handhelds. There are also reports that manually adding support for FSR 4 on RDNA 3-based iGPU systems—via tools like OptiScaler, for example—results in a working implementation of the upscaler.

When TechPowerUp spoke to AMD's Chief Software Officer and Senior Director of Software earlier in June, the executives made bold claims about the quality of its new FSR 4.1 implementation coming to older RDNA 3 GPUs, stating that, despite underlying technical differences, the actual output would have the same quality as it does on RDNA 4 GPUs. There was, however, little discussion about a potential performance hit from the upscaling tech, although it seems as though that discussion may not have been necessary at all, according to testing that has shown up on r/radeon on Reddit.

Based on the testing by the redditor, who tested AMD's FSR 4.1 in Cyberpunk 2077 on an AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX at 3840 × 2160p resolution, high settings, and with Ray Tracing on and Ray-Traced Lighting set to Ultra, the performance improvements can be as high as 100% compared to testing conducted without the tech enabled. In benchmark screenshots shared by the redditor, the RDNA 3 GPU managed to get a 49.82 FPS average (43.46 minimum and 60.51 maximum) with FSR 4 set to Balanced and 60.81 FPS average (52.94 minimum and 73.03 minimum) with FSR 4 set to Performance. While there are no results posted, the tester claims in a follow-up comment that performance went "from 24~FPS at native to 50~FPS with FSR 4 Balanced and 61~FPS with FSR 4 Performance." These tests were conducted on a Windows 11 Pro installation with an AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X CPU and 128 GB of RAM, which is an unconventional setup for gaming, and it may ultimately mean that gaming performance could be higher with a more gaming-focused PC build. As the updated FSR version rolls out to older hardware, we will likely see more tests on other hardware tease out the true performance and image quality benefits, but a ~100% performance uplift is promising, especially for gaming handhelds on Radeon 780M iGPUs, for example.

Memories in Orbit (MIO) launched in January 2026 to a relatively positive critical reception, but it seems as though its commercial success has not met expectations. According to a recent report by French news outlet, Le Figaro, Douze Dixièmes will be closing down following a buyout deal by Douze Dixièmes co-founders that would allow them to regain control of the company from Focus Entertainment and close things out on their terms.

While Memories in Orbit received high praise at launch, at its height, it failed to even break 3,000 concurrent players on Steam, according to SteamDB. At the time of writing, the game has a 24-hour peak concurrent player count of 201 players, and ownership estimates put the $19.99 indie Metroidvania's sales at around 67,000-112,500 units, which was seemingly not even enough to sustain the small team of around 10 people at Douze Dixièmes and support the game's future development. Douze Dixièmes has not yet publicly acknowledged the closure.

As was the case with the Steam Deck, Valve is selling the Steam Machine via Komodo Station, an Asian reseller that serves much of South-East Asia, and as a result, it skips the reservation and lottery system that is currently in place on Valve's own Steam Store. While this doesn't combat issues like scalping and shortages as well as Steam's in-house system, it provides a much more realistic indication of current stock levels. According to Komodo Store, however, all versions of the Valve Steam Machine have officially sold out less than 48 hours after the new hardware launched.

In Japan, the Steam Machine starts at $1,175 for the 512 GB model and goes up from there to ~$1,638 for the 2 TB model with two Steam Controllers and two additional faceplates. It remains to be seen how well the console will sell in the west when it officially starts shipping on June 25, however, since the price is quite high, especially compared to consoles like the PS5 Pro and similar small-form-factor PCs. As far as sentiment goes, there appears to be a divide forming in online spaces, like r/steammachine on Reddit, where some are saying the convenience of not having to set up any hardware is worth the price trade-off. The Steam Machine was seemingly meant to cost around 30% less initially, but it's unclear if or when it will come down to that price, which will only be possible if the RAM crisis comes to an end and hardware prices ease.

Following the official announcement of the Intel Arc Pro B65 alongside the B70, earlier this year, the ASRock Intel Arc Pro B65 has silently launched in US retail markets, giving us an indication of pricing for Intel's workstation-grade Arc Battlemage GPUs. The ASRock Intel Arc Pro B65 is available on Newegg for a price of $909.99, making it just $100 cheaper than Intel's reference design Arc Pro B70 and only $90 cheaper than the $999.99 ASRock Intel Arc Pro B70, despite the B65 having 37.5% fewer Xe cores than its B70 counterpart.

The B65 is also a whopping $250 more expensive than the ASRock Arc Pro B60, which shares the same core configuration as the B65 but with less VRAM. The Arc Pro B65 features 20 Xe cores and 32 GB of VRAM, while the Arc Pro B70 has 32 Xe cores and 32 GB of VRAM, and the Arc Pro B60 has 20 Xe cores paired with 20 GB of VRAM. Given the current hardware shortage situation, especially with regard to DRAM, it's not surprising to see the biggest price differentiator between the various versions of the Arc Pro B-series GPUs is VRAM, although it's unclear if prices will come down if and when the DRAM crisis cools.

In October 2025, we reported on insider commentary by EA developers who claimed that AI tools had hampered productivity, despite the company having all but mandated the tech for over a year at that point. A survey conducted by Skillsearch in April found that developers thought AI hurt creativity in games. Now, speaking at a recent Game Business Live event, EA's president of enterprise development, Laura Miele, touched on AI tools and their impact on the output at EA, seemingly rebutting the aforementioned claims by developers working at the gaming giant. EA has been using AI for everything from coding to concept art, and even managerial work.

When addressing a question about whether AI tools could lead to shorter game development timelines, Miele said that "perhaps in some parts they will," going on to express that she is excited about the tech, given what she has seen of it. She explains that she's "always wanted to help our studio developers remove friction," and "wanted to be a hero to them." According to her, AI tools have removed "friction from our pipelines and our tools and our workflows," and led to quicker prototyping, "faster creativity, and shorter, faster conversations around creativity and coming to alignment." She attributes this accelerated workflow to a removal of "tedium" from the jobs of artists and developers.

Lords of the Fallen 2 (stylized as Lords of the Fallen II) is an upcoming indie dark fantasy RPG with Souls-like combat that was originally slated to launch in fall 2026. According to a new update by CI Games founder, Marek Tyminski on X, Lords of the Fallen II has been moved to Q1 2027. There is still no fixed launch date, however, and Tyminski has provided some insights as to why the launch window was moved, and, surprisingly, it isn't entirely because of GTA VI, although that is certainly part of the reason for the change.

According to the executive, the delay "strategically positions Lords of the Fallen II outside of a highly competitive holiday period," allowing the game to avoid a number of highly anticipated launches coming towards the end of 2026—not the least of which is Grand Theft Auto VI, whose launch has already resulted in countless game launches being moved in order to not be overshadowed by Rockstar's latest outing. Tyminski adds, however, that the development team will use the additional months before launch in order to "further refine and strengthen the overall experience." Supposedly, this will allow the studio to add more polish to the experience and deliver a "worthy successor to the Lords of the Fallen franchise."

Following the launch of the Intel Arc G3 series CPUs designed for next-gen gaming handhelds, OneXPlayer has officially revealed its first handheld gaming PC based on the new Arc G3 CPU. OneXPlayer has pitched the OneXPlayer 3 as a 3-in-1 productivity and gaming handheld, bundling the new handheld with a magnetic keyboard and detachable controllers, and allowing it to work as both a mini laptop, a standalone tablet, or a gaming tablet, like the Lenovo Legion Go. The OneXPlayer 3 and many of its core specs have been unveiled on Indiegogo. The OneXPlayer 3 will feature a built-in 85 Wh battery, an 8.8-inch, 144 Hz native landscape display with VRR and HDR support, and Hall-effect joysticks. The OneXPlayer 3 will also have a built-in kickstand and come with a controller connector with what seems to be a built-in trackpad for gaming when seated. Exact specs for the ports are also elusive, but the images on Indiegogo indicate that the OneXPlayer 3 will feature two USB Type-C ports and a single USB Type-A port along the top edge alongside a 3.5 mm audio jack.

Update Jun 23rd: OneXPlayer has officially revealed pricing for the OneXPlayer 3 gaming handheld. There will be two SKUs at launch, both with the Intel Arc G3 Extreme CPU and different RAM and storage configurations. At the time of writing, the 32 GB RAM and 1 TB storage variant costs HK$13,320 ($1,698.98) with an MSRP of HK$15,672 ($1,9998.99), while the version with 24 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD costs HK$11,752 ($1,498.98) with a HK$14,104 ($1,798.99) MSRP, and the handheld with 24 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD comes in at HK$10,968 ($1,398.98) with a HK$13,320 ($1,698.98) MSRP. All three versions will include a hard-shell carry case, a soft screen protector, and a OneXPlayer backpack with early bird orders. It should also be noted that the 32 GB RAM version has faster LPDDR5X-8533 memory, while the 24 GB version comes with LPDDR5X-7467 memory.

It seems as though, shortly after the launch of Marathon, Bungie realized that it would need to take player feedback seriously if it wanted the new extraction shooter to be successful and retain players. One bit of feedback that repeatedly came up was the need for more PvE-focused gameplay. Initially, Bungie addressed this by adding the C.A.R.R.I. Protocol, which encouraged players to work together. On June 23, however, Bungie announced a series of key dates relating to new content coming to Marathon in the coming months. There are a number of changes and updates coming, including the new Cradle Evolution System which introduces a new way to reset player accounts in exchange for specific benefits and cosmetics.

More importantly, Bungie is introducing Vault Breaker, a new PvE play style that allows players to work together instead of fighting against one another. Vault Breaker launches in a major mid-season update to Marathon on July 21 and will see players take on a series of challenging vaults. Players can enter the Cryo Archive—a notoriously difficult endgame map—to play Vault Breaker in a crew, duos, or solo, and each run through the vaults will see players get progressively stronger as they face off against more and more powerful enemies until they reach a "mysterious entity" in the last vault. Instead of the loot-focused extraction shooter gameplay loop of traditional Marathon runs, Vault Breaker sees players leave behind almost all of their loot when they exfiltrate, except for Vault Data, a new currency that can be found in the Cryo Archives. Vault Data will be used to purchase upgrades for both regular kit and the specialized Sponsored Kit that is required to enter the Cryo Archives. The full announcement details follow.

1047 Games, the developer behind Splitgate, recently announced that its upcoming Titanfall-inspired shooter, Empulse, would be launching in Early Access on Xbox, PS5, and Steam on June 24 at 9 AM PT (16:00 UTC). Less than a day ahead of that launch, however, 1047 Games announced on X that the new shooter would be delayed on PS5 due to the certification process, which is apparently taking longer than anticipated. At the time of writing, it is unclear when the new movement shooter will launch on Sony's console, but FragPunk was delayed for similar reasons and was released on console nearly two months after it launched on PC.

Despite the rousing success of its first shooter, Splitgate, 1047 Games has had a rough run of it with the aforementioned game's sequel, Splitgate: Arena Reloaded, but it's currently somewhat unclear how well Empulse will do at launch. While Empulse has managed to make it onto the wishlists of over 250,000 players across PlayStation, Steam, and Xbox platforms, SteamDB indicates that the demo peaked at just 4,316 players in a little over a month since it went live. A recent update from 1047 Games also indicates that the developer has been pouring a lot of resources into the game and plans to make significant changes based on community feedback.

It's no secret that large game studios are leaning into generative AI in search of greater productivity and efficiency, but there is a growing resentment in the gaming and game dev community towards games created with generative AI. In a recent analysis published on Game Oracle, data analyst, Ross Burton, presents evidence that the use of generative AI may be negatively affecting game sales significantly. The exact numbers are hard to pin down, since AI usage isn't accurately reported, and Steam does not publicly disclose sales figures, however, Burton analyzed game performance based on how many reviews a game received instead. He found that, on average, and after accounting for other factors (like luck and developer experience and skill), games that used AI—or at least those that disclosed their use of AI—received around 53% fewer reviews on Steam, indicating that they potentially sold as much as 53% fewer units.

What's more, of the games in the analysis, those with AI-generated content consistently received lower player ratings. The data indicates that for games with AI-generated content, the median review rating was 84.6% positive, while games that did not use AI had a median of 88.3% positive reviews. Digging further into it, the analyst found that AI had a stronger negative correlation when the games in question were made by large studios and publishers. Higher profile games also seemed to be more impacted by AI use than low-quality games, leading the analyst to call the effect a stigma, since the negative response appears to be linked to AI use. Anecdotally, this is also backed up by the backlash related to accusations and confirmations of AI use in games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Crimson Desert and The Alters.

It's no secret that Valve's Steam Machine is launching at possibly the worst moment for both PC and console gaming hardware, given the ongoing DRAM crisis, but Valve engineer, Pierre-Loup Griffais, has recently shed light on the pre-RAM crisis pricing of the Steam Machine, revealing that it was never going to be a cheap device. According Griffais in an interview with IGN, the price difference between the actual Steam Machine at launch and the price if it had launched without the influence of the DRAM crisis was "probably similar" to the price increase Valve was all but forced to apply to the Steam Deck in May. That means that the Steam Machine could have cost as little as $730-750, based on the 30% difference between the current entry-level Steam Deck pricing and its original MSRP.

This pricing would have put the Steam Machine within spitting distance of the Sony PlayStation 5 and below the $899.99 price of the PS5 Pro after the recent Sony price hikes. Given that the Steam Machine is a hybrid device and can easily serve as both a console and a desktop computer, it's easy to see how the original price would have been more palatable, even if more expensive than a base PS5. Part of the high pricing can no doubt be attributed to the Steam Machine's openness. Where consoles like the Xbox and PS5 are subsidized by game sales, there's nothing stopping anyone from installing Windows on it and leaving Valve's ecosystem, removing the incentive to subsidize hardware entirely—you wouldn't even need to remove SteamOS to play games outside of Steam on the Steam Machine.

So far, every time Valve has spoken about the possibility of a Steam Deck 2, it has said that it is waiting for a true generational leap in performance, and that that has not yet happened. Following the launch of the Steam Machine, Valve engineer, Pierre Loup-Griffais, commented on the Steam Deck 2 in an interview with IGN, revealing, seemingly for the first time, that things are moving in the right direction for the Steam Deck 2, even if they're not quite there yet. According to the developer, the current crop of mobile CPUs are beginning to show promise in terms of performance, but efficiency is now becoming a bigger problem.

"I'd say we're closer than we were the last time we talked. We're definitely getting there," said Griffais, going on to explain that "I would say that the new chips that are coming out are still in power envelopes that are not quite the right segment that you'd want for a true handheld experience." Going a little deeper into it, he said that "I think a lot of them are more low-end laptop chips or playing in that sort of form factor that are then repurposed for handhelds and maybe not leading to, I guess the trade-off that we would've chosen in terms of power and better life and that and all that."