Since the new Xbox CEO, Asha Sharma, became the public face of Xbox Gaming, she has spearheaded a number of significant changes to the company, many of which are directly linked to Xbox Game Pass. The new philosophy at Xbox appears to be to get as many players back onto the platform as possible, whether that be through the new Game Pass "Starter Edition" bundled with Discord Nitro for $9.99 monthly or by decreasing the price of full-fat Game Pass. Now, a new leak from sources who spoke to Windows Central indicating that more changes are coming to Game Pass, specifically a new set of subscription tiers and a potential disc-to-digital program called Positron.

According to the insider sources, the new Game Pass subscription tier set, referred to as Saluki, will be a set of Game Pass tiers specifically designed for the Chinese market, where platforms like Steam have seen massive growth in recent years. With the new Game Pass tiers, Microsoft would be strengthening an already strong foothold in the country, although not much is known about the new Chinese Game Pass tiers other than that. The other leaked info suggests that Microsoft may be planning to launch a disc-to-digital entitlement program that currently goes by Positron internally. The idea is that this would allow gamers to convert their disc games to digital, and while not much is known about this, either, the expectation is that next-gen consoles will not have disc drives, so a way to move those physical game copies into a digital-only console makes sense—especially with how much of the Xbox player base relies on backwards compatibility for older games.

With the launch of the Steam Controller now firmly behind us and shipping slowly getting some momentum, gamers have started speculating about the two remaining products in Valve's 2026 hardware line-up: the Steam Machine and Steam Frame. Now, an update to Valve's Proton 11 Beta 3 indicates that Valve has updated FEX, the Arm64-x86 emulator to run traditional x86 games on the Frame's Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile SoC. The update brings Proton up to FEX-2605, which includes performance improvements for 32- and 64-bit games, improved stability with controllers, and support for newer Qualcomm chipsets.

In addition to the Proton updates, the Steam Frame also now appears on Qualcomm's XR/VR/AR Finder page, where it lists the device's SoC and said that it features "advanced CPU and GPU performance, AI acceleration, and fast connectivity," so there's nothing really of substance there in terms of specifications. It is notable, though, that the Steam Frame is making more and more appearances in the news cycle, thanks to these sorts of updates and the most recent updates to the Steam Store's hardware page. These, along with recent signs that Valve is stocking up US warehouses with both Steam Machine and Frame hardware may be signs that Valve will stick to its original "first half of 2026" launch promises with an imminent launch for the Steam Frame.

Assassin's Creed Hexe has shown up a number of times in the news recently—and not always for positive reasons—but the latest leak out of Ubisoft leaker Rogue (via u/ZamnBoii on Reddit), have revealed that Ezio, from Assassin's Creed II, Brotherhood, and Revelations, may be making a comeback in the new game as the protagonist's aging mentor figure. Reportedly, there are dialogue lines between Ezio and the main character, Anika, suggesting he teaches her the basics of the Brotherhood, with one line by Ezio reading "Come. Leap with me. One last time for an old man."

A handful of gameplay details accompanied the character leak, including the ability to scale trees and jump from tree to tree using branches. The majority of the game is slated to take place in Würzburg, and NPCs will apparently be more vigilant, reporting "minor suspicious activity" immediately and intervening in some instances. This, along with what we already know about the involvement of witchcraft in the game's story, suggests that the game will take place during the Würzburg witch trials during the 1620s and continued for six years until 1631. The protagonist herself is claimed to be a descendant of Ezio's sister, Claudia Auditore, but the story of Hexe seems to take place over 160 years after Ezio's debut in the franchise, so it Ezio's return is expected to be in the form of a flashback or a ghost materialized by an Isu artifact.

News recently broke that Subnautica 2 had leaked, seemingly via a reviewer, hot on the heels of a similar situation with Forza Horizon 6 and Resident Evil Requiem before that, and gamers who don't shy away from sailing the high seas very quickly hopped into Subnautica 2 ahead of the game's official Early Access launch. Now, Unknown Worlds, the studio behind Subnautica 2, has responded to reports of the leaked build of the game, confirming in a statement to IGN that the leak had occurred and giving players a warning about the content of the leak on top of that. Effectively, Unknown Worlds warns that the leaked build is an incomplete version of the game that is launching on May 14, and not representative of the final gameplay. Additionally, in order to access the full game and some of the cornerstone features of Subnautica 2, like multiplayer, players will need to go through official channels—unless, of course, game repackers manage to publish other cracked versions of the game post-launch. The official response from Unknown Worlds follows.

We've identified that unofficial builds of Subnautica 2 are currently circulating online. These builds are incomplete development versions and do not reflect the content or gameplay experience being prepared for the official release. Files distributed through unofficial channels cannot be verified for safety or stability, and certain features or content may not function as intended. The complete Subnautica 2 Early Access experience, including multiplayer support, as well as all future patches and updates, will be delivered exclusively through official builds on our partner platforms.

Despite recent leaks of both Subnautica 2 and Forza Horizon 6, little has been said online about either game running on a Valve Steam Deck, even though Forza's Playground Games promised Steam Deck and ASUS ROG handheld compatibility when it revealed the minimum hardware requirements for the game. Now, on the eve of Subnautica 2's May 14 Early Access launch and the review embargo date for Forza Horizon 6, both games have been officially Steam Deck verified by Valve. While there are still questions about the performance of both games, it's yet another sign that two popular games from sizeable studios are being optimized for Valve's hardware—a positive indicator for the Steam Machine's playable library, too.

This means that both games have been tested for performance, UI scaling on the small, low-resolution display of the Steam Deck, and compatibility with both the Deck's controller and the Proton compatibility layer that SteamOS uses to run Windows games on Linux. It's unclear what sort of performance or resolution we can expect from either game on the Steam Deck, but Subnautica 2 officially calls for a minimum of an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 or AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT and an AMD Ryzen 5 2600 or Intel Core i5-8400 CPU—those minimum specs will only grant you 30 FPS at 1080p and low quality, however, so Steam Deck gamers will seemingly be relying on tech like FSR to get reasonable frame rates. The same questions surround the handheld frame rates of Forza Horizon 6, since the published minimum hardware specifications make no mention of what quality and frame rates will be possible on the Steam Deck or ASUS ROG consoles.

When Saros launched in late April, it was very positively received, with both reviewers and players raving about the game's combat, movement, replayability, and engaging meta progression mechanics. Despite the strong showing in reviews, however, it seems as though the roguelike hasn't sold quite the numbers that Sony and Housemarque might have expected. Estimates by Alinea Analytics put sales figures for Saros at around 300,000 units and $22 million in revenue, underperforming its predecessor, Returnal—although that game launched at a different time, when PS5 games were more sparse.

In a way, it's almost to be expected that a third-person bullet hell roguelike might not sell with the same fervor as something like the recent Crimson Desert, which racked up over 5 million sales in its first month, or Resident Evil Requiem, which sold over 6 million copies in just over two weeks; Saros is in a much more niche genre than even the single-player horror of Resident Evil, it's a less well-established franchise, and it carries a premium $70 price tag. That said, the data also suggests that, even two weeks after launch, Saros still has a daily active player count over 100,000, echoing the strong replayability characteristics pointed out in early reviews. It's also worth noting that Saros may launch on PC at a later date, which would likely see a fresh wave of sales for the game. Alinea estimates that as much as $13 million of Returnal's revenue was earned on Steam, even though it launched on PC two years after the PS5 launch.

ASUS's latest NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPU has just launched into its creator- and aesthetics-focused ProArt series as the ProArt RTX 5090 OC Edition, which ASUS says is designed for small form factor systems. The ASUS ProArt GeForce RTX 5090 OC Edition features the typical, clean, black and gold design with a 2.5-slot shroud and dual-fan design, and it features a "wood patterned laminate trim" along the curved edge facing the exterior of the PC case. The GPU is cooled by a vapor chamber with two heat sinks for flow-through cooling with hot air exhausting via vents in both the side and back of the GPU. The GPU itself is based on the NVIDIA Founder's Edition PCB, meaning uses the same angled 12V-2x6 power connector as NVIDIA's design and complies with the GeForce SFF-Ready specification. US pricing has not yet been revealed, but Geizhals has the ProArt RTX 5090 OC Edition listed at €3,505.89 ($4,115.21 converted).

ASUS claims that the cooler's design improves cooling efficiency by 11% and reduces the overall size of the card by as much as 27% compared to similar cards without the double flow-through design. It is also cooled by liquid metal, and the PCB is protected by a conformal coating, which helps in the event of leaking liquid metal and protects against high humidity environments. According to the GPU's spec sheet, the ProArt RTX 5090 OC Edition features a single HDMI 2.1b port, dual DisplayPort 2.1b ports, and a USB Type-C port, for a total of four displays. The GPU itself is clocked at 2482 MHz, with an OC Mode that boosts that to 2512 MHz. There's also a hardware switch on the GPU shroud that switches between Performance and Quiet modes—both modes feature the same power and frequency targets, but Quiet mode has a less aggressive fan curve, to keep noise down. Obviously, it is also compatible with ASUS GPU Tweak III, which allows users to tweak their own fan curves, power targets, and frequency in a GUI.

Following the recent reveal of the Epomaker HE75 V2, the budget peripherals maker has now revealed the updated Epomaker x Aula F1080 Pro V2 wireless mechanical keyboard. The updated keyboard has yet to launch on Epomaker's website, but in a recent livestream, Epomaker showed off some of the features of the new full-size mechanical keyboard. As with the previous F108 Pro, the F108 Pro V2 features a plastic gasket-mount case that's held together with clips, making it a bit more of a challenge for modders but likely reducing the BOM cost and final price of the keyboard itself. An exact launch date has not yet been announced, nor has pricing, but if it's priced at all like the existing F108 Pro, it will cost around $100. The livestream showed off a number of colors, including a pastel pink, a retro-themed beige with brown and black accents, and a version with a black case with smokey translucent keycaps.

In preparation for the release of the upcoming release of KDE 6.7, KDE 6.6.5 has officially launched, bringing with it some fixes for performance regressions introduced with the recent NVIDIA driver 595 update. Release 6.6.5 isn't a massive release for KDE, instead an update focused entirely on bug fixes, with the full list available in the official changelog. However, some of the biggest updates include improved color handling on NVIDIA GPUs and the removal of the CI/DCI external display option when users have HDR enabled—HDR, by definition, should be in control of brightness in order to function properly.

Another bug that was squashed with KDE 6.6.5 is a bug relating to the latest NVIDIA 595 driver, which appeared to be affecting users on Wayland and KWin across multiple distributions, with the Bugzilla thread on the matter featuring comments from users on both CachyOS and Fedora. The issue seemed to be related to multi-GPU setups, and such issues are not expected to happen on KDE 6.7, because the multi-GPU copy code has been rewritten to use Vulkan instead of OpenGL. Another issue that could be bothersome was that Spectacle, the KDE screenshot utility, would not properly copy screen captures. To correct this, the KDE developers changed the utility to stay open for a brief moment after taking a screenshot, allowing the system to correctly copy the image to the clipboard. Plasma 6.7 is slated to launch on June 16, 2026, and it is expected to be a much more substantial launch, with a new Union style engine based on CSS, the reintroduction of the famous Air and Oxygen themes, and improved session restore under Wayland.

Neowiz, the game studio behind the 2023 standout, Lies of P, has officially confirmed in its Q1 2026 earnings report that the sequel to Lies of P is officially in full-scale development, although likely in the very early stages of the process, since parts of the report still list the game as being in "vertical slice," which is a stage of development in which the studio makes a small part of the game to develop a feel for what the rest of the game will feel like. A new job listing on the Neowiz website also sees the game studio hiring a developer to work in an art team at Round8 where they will "leverage generative AI technology to maximize the efficiency of the art production process and innovate the visual quality of games."

The report also reveals that there are two unannounced IPs in the prototype phase—one souls-like RPG, Project Windi, and another narrative-based RPG, Project Windi—both of which are slated to launch for both console and PC. The upcoming puzzle-platformer, Goodbye Seoul: Itaewon, a game published by Neowiz but developed by Jino Games, is slated for a PC release in the second half of 2026. Part of Neowiz's strategy going forward is to use new IPs to diversify into different genres, with the studio specifically mentioning action, social sim, and mystery.

After 2026 saw the launch of several strong single-player games—Pragmata, Resident Evil Requiem, Crimson Desert, and Far Far West showing strong performance in terms of sales, Sega has just released its financial results for the year ending on March 31 (FY 2026), and it's not looking good for the gaming giant's live-service games. According to the results, Sonic Rumble Party showed poor performance, and there was a delay in some as-yet unannounced games. Most notably, Sega has officially cancelled its mystery "Super Game," citing no additional costs with associated with the game's cancellation. What exactly this super game was is unclear, but it was announced as far back as 2021 as a collaboration with Microsoft and would see Sega build a game using Microsoft Azure.

Sega had reportedly budgeted as much as $882 million for the development of the aforementioned "Super Game," and it was expected to bring in over ¥100 billion ($634.5 million converted). Following the game's cancellation, Sega says it will "review the positioning of the pillars for medium- to long-term growth" by lowering the priority of some free-to-play games. By lowering the GaaS development priority, it will be able to transfer over 100 personnel to its "Full Game" development team, meaning it will focus on more traditional game models, such as single-player narrative experiences for the upcoming year. Sega expects to increase Full Game sales going forward, although it still expects to see losses widen in the next year as a result of increased up-front investment in game development.

Just 48 hours before the game's official launch, Subnautica 2 has seemingly leaked, with game repackers sharing their pirated versions of the game across sites like r/PiratedGames on Reddit. This leak follows the leak of Forza Horizon 6, which seemingly leaked via a game reviewer or influencer with pre-launch access to the game. This time, the developer, Unknown Worlds, has yet to comment on the apparent leak of Subnautica 2, but those who have played the leaked version of the game have posted screenshots and clips, which have now been archived in r/GamingLeaksAndRumours. It should also be noted that the original page hosting the leaked game files on GameDrive has already been taken down.

In the Reddit post archiving the game content, the poster claims that the leaker obtained a game code via game reviewers, so it seems as though one or more reviewers have been breaking NDAs in order to leak copies of the game in the open. A similar situation happened ahead of the recent launch of Capcom's Resident Evil Requiem. Following these leaks, there have been concerns that game developers and publishers could stop seeding game codes to reviewers ahead of launch, which would potentially result in less informed gamers who have no clear indication of quality before spending their hard-earned dollars on games. Unlike Forza Horizon 6, Unknown Worlds has already started allowing paying players to preload Subnautica 2 ahead of its May 14 launch.

Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic has been out in the open now, with the game's director, Casey Hudson, formerly of BioWare, promising a pre-2030 launch in late 2025. Now, in a recent statement to Bloomberg about the upcoming game and a recent investment by NetEase veteran, Simon Zhu, Hudson has commented on the both the development process and scope of Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic. Critically, Hudson says that "bigger isn't necessarily better," and explains his aversion to drawn-out games, saying that "if I'm excited about a game, and then I find out it's 200 hours long, even if I have no ambition to actually finish it, I wonder, if I put 20 hours in, will I even be out of act one?"

Hudson added that there will be ways to extend your fun in Fate of the Old Republic via replayability and alternative storylines that can be explored in subsequent play-throughs. He also commented on the development process, stating that "making games that take five or seven years—none of us want to do that," reiterating his previous commitment to a pre-2030 release for Fate of the Old Republic. On the topic of generative AI, Hudson had harsh words, calling the tech "creatively soulless," and rejecting its use in the game design and development process. The new Star Wars game will be receiving funding from Simon Zhu's newly announced holding company, GreaterThan Group, which was officially announced on May 12, 2026, and has a $40 million bank balance with another $60 million in funding commitments from "gaming and tech entrepreneurs."

Dead Space is arguably one of the most iconic and recognizable franchises in gaming, even if it has been 13 years since the last instalment in the sci-fi space horror shooter series. Now, in a recent interview with FRVR, Dead Space writer and producer, Chuck Beaver, has explained why the chances of Dead Space 4 happening are vanishingly thin in the current gaming landscape. Unfortunately for fans of the genre, it seems as though a combination of factors is at play, but the majority of the blame appears to lie on poor sales figures, especially compared to the modern video game industry's expectations.

Beaver explains that a game with the production value of Dead Space—a AAA horror with high production value—would need to sell incredibly well in order to cover the development costs: "Horror games have a bit of a ceiling, you know, and I think the number back in Frank Gibeau's day was 5 million units to keep going on Dead Space. I think the number is like 15 million units now, given the cost of things." Meanwhile, when Resident Evil: Requiem recently crossed 6 million sales in just over two weeks, it became the fastest-selling Resident Evil game to date. He goes on to comment that "companies now are looking for the next Fortnite. They need something that is a perennial moneymaker…something like a single-player package game with no live-service offering that's like it's just a dinosaur fossil of a business model."

Since the January 2024 Early Access release of Palworld, Pocketpair, the developer and publisher behind the open-world creature collector, has been growing its Pal-flavored empire, announcing a life sim, Palworld: Palfarm, Palworld Mobile, a Palworld TCG, and even a dating sim, "Pal♡world! More Than Just Pals." Now, according to recent trademark filings at the US PTO, it looks as though Pocketpair is planning to release something called "Palworld Online," although there's not all that much in the trademark filing to go by otherwise. The trademark is filed under IC9, covering digital and physical goods with specific mention of game cartridges and downloadable media; IC41, likely to cover online gaming services and related musical IP; and IC42, which covers, among other things, design and development of computer hardware and software.

Since Palworld already has online gameplay as central to the experience, and the studio is already involved in a handful of other genres within the same IP, online speculation about the trademark is leaning in two directions: a gacha game or a more traditional MMO experience. While either seems equally likely at this point, the recent trend for game studios to lean into gacha mechanics as a money-making mechanism has fans of Palworld concerned about the future of the franchise. It should also be mentioned that the trademark application also includes specific mention of "artificial intelligence as a service" and "services featuring software using artificial intelligence (AI) for developing computer games," which could simply mean traditional AI, as in the kind that powers player interactions with in-game enemies, but the inclusion of the acronym AIAAS suggests that there will be some sort of AI integration in whatever Palworld Online becomes.

Stellar Blade was a highly popular game when it launched, and even though it took over a year to make it from PS5 to PC, it managed to reach an all-time peak concurrent player count of 192,078 players on Steam alone. With Stellar Blade 2 now out in the open and well on its way to an expected 2027-2028 expected launch window, the game's developer, ShiftUp, has officially addressed its launch strategy for the sequel in its Q1 2026 earnings report. There are two major upcoming changes to the publishing strategy for Stellar Blade 2.

Specifically, ShiftUp has confirmed that it will likely be self-publishing Stellar Blade 2, and the Korean game studio is also suggesting that it will shift to a multiplatform launch, instead of the previous timed PS5 exclusive, with the goal of reaching "a broad global audience from day one." It was revealed in previous hints from the game studio that it would be catering much of the Stellar Blade 2 experience to Chinese players, going so far as to use locations in real-world China for the game's setting. This shift to a cross-platform launch could be part of the same strategy that motivated the studio's push into China. It's not yet clear exactly which platforms will be on the Stellar Blade 2 launch roster, but it's almost guaranteed that the game will launch on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series consoles. The full quote from ShiftUp regarding the launch plans follows.

It was recently revealed that Forza Horizon 6 game files have made their way online ahead of the game's official release, with SteamDB reporting early on May 11 that the game's "file list appeared on SteamDB because someone (could be someone else) uses our token dumper" to upload the information. SteamDB postulates that it was a "reviewer or similar" who leaked the game. Playground Games, the developer behind the Forza Horizon series has quickly responded to the game leak, addressing the community directly with consequences for anyone caught with the leaked files and denying any involvement in the leak, which was previously thought to have been as a result of a glitch in the Steam preloading system. According to Playground, the Forza Horizon 6 build leak "is not the result of a preload issue," echoing SteamDB's statement on the matter. Meanwhile, PC players who paid full price for the game, $69.99 or up to $119.99 for the Deluxe Edition, are still unable to preload the game ahead of its official May 19 launch, according to discussions on Steam forums.

However, unlike the rather calm response issued by Capcom when Resident Evil: Requiem's narrative leaked ahead of launch, Playground Games is also "taking strict enforcement action" against anyone accessing the build. The action in question will be franchise-wide and hardware bans, meaning there is a risk associated with playing the pre-release leaked version of the game. These threats have not seemed to deter some, with some players going so far as to post their game reviews based on the build on sites like Reddit. Repackers have also already been hard at work posting their repackaged versions of the leaked game to forums like r/CrackWatch. There may also be workarounds for hardware bans, but many in the aforementioned Reddit post have mentioned that they will simply play the game offline to avoid the hardware bans. Testing for TechPowerUp's in-depth performance review of Forza Horizon 6 has been running since last week and the article will go live on May 14 when the review embargo ends.

It was recently leaked that Xbox Game Pass would likely become part of bundle deals with the likes of Netflix and potentially other partners, and, as per a recent announcement by both Discord and Microsoft, one of those partners is Discord. The occasionally controversial gaming-first communications platform will now include Game Pass with its paid Nitro subscription service. The Xbox Game Pass subscription included with Nitro is a slightly cut-back version of Xbox's service—Discord calls it a "starter edition"—and it offers "50+ PC and console games." Game Pass is also only included on the full-fat $9.99 version of Nitro, not Nitro Basic, although that's likely still a deal for some PC gamers, depending on taste.

The Nitro plan included with Game Pass has more severe limitations, though, the most notable of which is the lack of online multiplayer on consoles and a 10-hour monthly limit on cloud game streaming. Game Pass will also be directly integrated into the "Now Playing" statuses on Discord. Nitro subscribers will be able to launch Game Pass games directly from Discord—likely by first launching the Xbox app—if they see a game their friend is playing and want to join in. Discord Nitro users will also now have access to discounts of up to 30% on Logitech G, SteelSeries, and KontrolFreak products as of the new Nitro update, which is rolling out to Nitro users in waves "over the coming weeks."

It seems as though Valve is working on making the launch of the Steam Machine and Frame go down more smoothly than the Controller, according to a new Steam update that has been spotted by a Reddit user, u/pepeizq on r/SteamMachine, Valve will start the Steam Machine with a 512 GB base model and top it off with a 2 TB model. There are four total Steam Machine SKUs (referred to as 1629460, 1629458, 1629446 and 1629447 in the code), so there are likely other configurations between the 512 GB version and the 2 TB version—likely controller bundles and perhaps a barebones model for those with a pile of SSDs in a desk drawer somewhere. Additionally, in order to avoid the early supply and scalping issues faced by Valve's Steam Controller, the Steam Machine will launch with a reservation system right out the gate. Similarly, the Steam Frame will likely ship with 256 GB or 1 TB of storage.

From the code in the update, it looks like the same reservation limitations will apply to the Steam Machine and Steam Frame, meaning users will only be able to reserve one item per account, and they must have an active, pre-existing Steam account in good standing in order to make a reservation. More interestingly, the code also makes reference to a "PSULessModel," which may refer to a Steam Frame model without an external PSU—for those who plan to charge the built-in 21.6 Wh battery with a regular USB-C PD charger or those who mostly plan to use the device tethered. It doesn't seem reasonable that Valve would sell a PSU-less Steam Machine, since that has a built-in PSU that is necessary to function.

It seems as though AMD's Radeon RX 9000-series GPU family may finally be getting a true entry-level variant. According to a recent report by VideoCardz citing a source inside one of AMD's AIB partners, AMD will soon announce the AMD Radeon RX 9050 with 8 GB of GDDR6 VRAM and a down-clocked version of AMD's Navi 44 GPU also used in the RX 9060. AMD has not yet revealed any details about the potential upcoming GPU, but there is a spec sheet divulging some of the details of the GPU, including a higher core count than the RX 9060. The card is expected to require a minimum 450 W PSU, suggesting reasonably low power draw, although likely not low enough to power off the PCIe slot alone.

The aforementioned spec sheet lists a Game clock of 1920 MHz and a Boost clock of up to 2600 MHz for the RX 9050, although, notably, the actual stream processor count is up from 1792 on the RX 9060 to 2048 on the 9050. It's entirely possible that we will see the GPU modding community come up with some way to hack a higher clock speed onto the 9050 via something like a 9060 XT vBIOS or some similar trick, but until then it's entirely likely that performance will be lower than the 9060, because the clock speeds are slower on the 9050—13% lower Boost clocks and 20% slower Game clocks. The reports also note that the specifications are preliminary, so it may be the case that some of the stream processors will be disabled to put the 9050 below the 9060. This non-finalized spec means we are also unlikely to see the Radeon RX 9050 launch anytime soon. The spec sheet also lists a PCIe 5 ×16 bus width and an HDMI 2.1b and dual DisplayPort 2.1a ports.

Ploopy, the makers of the DIY-friendly peripherals, like the Ploopy Adept trackball and the Ploopy Trackpad, has just released the Ploopy Bean, a standalone pointing device that mimics the functionality of something like the Lenovo TrackPoint that has become so popular with ThinkPad users. However, the Bean takes the pointing stick and dials it up to 11, giving users four programmable buttons around the pointing stick and allowing full customization via open-source QMK firmware. By default, the Ploopy Bean's keymap features left, middle, and right click as well as a drag scroll option and pre-configured QMK combos for forward and back buttons, making it equivalent to a standard six-button mouse.

Ploopy has opted for a magnetic Texas Instruments TMAG5273 magnetic sensor, which is theoretically capable of reading the position of the pointing stick 20,000 times a minute. The pointing stick also has a wider-than-average range of motion, allowing for up to 11 mm of movement in each axis. The switches in the Bean are Omron D2LS-21 "Subminiature" switches, which are rated for 20 million clicks—basically extra-small mouse switches with a clicky actuation. The Bean is compatible with VIA for easy customization, although more in-depth customization can be performed by editing the firmware directly (if you're comfortable coding), or with the QMK Configurator. While Ploopy does sell the Bean for CAD 69 (~$52 converted)—currently under pre-order—it has also published all of the necessary 3D models, electrical CAD files, firmware, and documentation necessary to make your own version or tweak the design. The version Ploopy sells is also 3D printed in

Pokémon Pokopia is widely known to have been a successful launch for Nintendo, with the life sim having recently climbed its way to the top of Metacritic's 2026 game rankings with an impressive 89 Metacritic score. Now, recent financial filings indicate that Pokopia has been more than simply a critical success, with the Japanese gaming giant having sold over 4 million copies of the game in the five weeks after its launch on March 31, 2026. By comparison, Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen had achieved roughly the same sales figures in six weeks, while Donkey Kong Bananza and Pokémon ZA have sold 4.52 million and 3.94 million units, respectively.

In less positive news, however, Nintendo has also revealed that the Nintendo Switch 2 will get a price increase on September 1, 2026, to $499 in the US and €499 in the EU, while Japanese customers can expect to pay ¥59,980, up from ¥49,980, as soon as May 25, 2025. Nintendo expects the Switch 2 to sell 16.5 million units in the 2027 financial year, down 16.9% from the FY 2026 projection of 19.86 million units. Between the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, Nintendo reported hardware sales of 23 million units for the same period. The Switch 2 price increase has been expected since January 2026, thanks to rising DRAM and BOM costs across the board.

Arc Raiders is one of only a handful of semi-competitive, shooters with a large player base that has a Platinum rating on ProtonDB, thanks to its Linux-friendly Easy Anti-Cheat implementation. In a recent blog post addressing the studio's plans to "ensure fair play," Arc Raiders developer, Embark Studios, confirmed that it is testing a new kernel-level anti-cheat solution that the studio expects "will sharpen both detection and precision throughout Speranza and the Rust Belt." The studio confirms that, in addition to the pre-existing kernel-level anti-cheat implementation, it relies heavily on machine learning tools and input telemetry data in order to catch cheaters. In spite of these existing efforts, Steam user reviews still complain bitterly about the presence of cheaters in Arc Raiders.

It should be noted that Embark has clearly considered Linux playability via Proton and similar tools, as well as its Steam Deck Verified status, until now. There's a fair bit of the anti-cheat blog post dedicated to accessibility and players on uncommon hardware and input devices, with the developer promising to continue letting players with unorthodox accessibility tools play the game. Additionally, when Embark first implemented kernel-level anti-cheat in The Finals, it promised to maintain support for Linux and the Steam Deck, so there's a fairly decent chance that Arc Raiders may remain playable on Linux devices. That said, in cases like that of Apex Legends, Respawn and EA have claimed that dropping Linux support resulted in a 33% decline in cheaters, giving rise to a notion in certain circles that Linux is a cheater's operating system.

Despite earlier rumors speculating about both the upcoming PlayStation 6's pricing and supposed launch date, it has come to light in a recent investor call that Sony has yet to actually decide on either of those aspects of the new console's launch. When asked about the progress of the next-gen console, Sony CEO, Hiroki Totoki, said that "Looking at the current circumstances, the memory price is also expected to be very high FY 2027, because there will still be a shortage of supply," going on to explain that "We have not yet decided on at what timing we will launch the new console or at what prices, so we would like to really observe and follow the situation."

Sony isn't the only console maker struggling with pricing. The Xbox Helix is expected to launch at a price of around $1,000 when it eventually hits the market, and, while the rumor mill has nothing to say about Nintendo's next console launch this early in the Switch 2's lifecycle, there has been talk of a potential price increase for the Nintendo Switch 2—an issue worsened by softening US sales. The PS5 itself also recently saw a sizeable price increase, and although Sony didn't provide a justification for the price increases outside of "the global economic landscape," the assumption has largely been that increasing DRAM prices have been to blame for the price increase.

It's no secret that Apple's $599 MacBook Neo has been a hit for general productivity workflows and as a Chromebook replacement, but in a recent financial results report, Tim Cook touched on just how unexpectedly high the Neo's demand was. The outgoing CEO on April 30 confirmed that Apple was supply-constrained on the MacBook Neo, explaining that "we under-called the level of enthusiasm that would be with it." In a recent report, industry analyst, Tim Culpan claimed that insider sources report that Apple has ordered a fresh production run on the A18 Pro SoC that powers the MacBook Neo from TSMC.

Crucially, getting TSMC to spin up a new production run of the A18 Pro may affect the pricing of the Neo, since its initial production run used rejected A18 Pro SoCs—with a defective GPU core—from the original iPhone 16 Pro smartphones, and a new run of SoCs would mean that Apple would be subject to the same memory supply constraints as the rest of the industry instead of using up old inventory that had already been paid for at a lower price. This news also comes after wild rumors of a potentially incoming MacBook Neo with an A19 Pro from the newer iPhone 17 Pro, replete with a potential 12 GB RAM upgrade. The fresh SoCs from TSMC, however, would allow Apple to reach its new 10 million unit production goal without changing anything about the hardware itself.

Right on schedule, as teased by Capcom in late April, the promised Resident Evil Requiem combat minigame DLC has officially arrived on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox series X|S. Leon Must Die Forever—whose name must be a reference to the flood of endless, bullet hell roguelites, like Death Must Die, that have recently popped up on Steam—features fast-paced combat, as players step into Leon's shoes once again to take on hordes of undead to clear stages and take on the final boss. The minigame takes on a distinctly roguelite structure, with both permadeath and player upgrades in the form of enhancer abilities that are unlocked as you progress.

As alluded to previously, the minigame will unlock once players complete the main story quest, and it will rely on a high degree of replayability. Players will be able to select from a number of difficulty modes, and players will have a time limit to clear the levels and make it through the boss encounter. The update and the accompanying minigame are both free, and the update also adds fixes to gameplay bugs and implements Adaptive Triggers, vibration feedback, and motion sensing for the DualSense Wireless controller on Steam.

When Valve launched the Steam Controller, the new gaming peripheral expectedly sold out within the first day of sales. Valve then promised stock was coming soon, stating that the demand for the controller was unexpected. Now, the gaming giant has confirmed that changes are coming to the Steam Controller ordering process in order to mitigate the high demand and limited supply. Starting on May 8 at 10:00 Pacific time (17:00 UTC), Valve will allow users to place a reservation for the Steam Controller on the usual store page, which will allow prospective buyers to reserve a spot in the queue. When the controller is back in stock, Valve will automatically place orders for reservation holders in the order they placed their reservations, and buyers will have 72 hours from the time they receive that order email to finalize their purchase through Steam.

Notably, Valve is restricting reservations to one controller per account, and those who have already purchased a Steam Controller will not be able to place reservations until further notice. It's also worth pointing out that Valve has added additional account conditions in order to prevent scalping. Steam accounts seeking to place a reservation will need to be in good standing and have made a purchase before April 27, 2026. Valve also confirmed that the US, Canada, the UK, EU, and Australia will be getting Steam Controller restocks next week—meaning May 11.

Keychron has been busy updating its mechanical keyboard line-up over the last few months switching to hyperefficient firmware and its updated Silk POM mechanical switches. Now, the Keychron Q11 gets the same treatment, with the Q11 Ultra being a much bigger improvement over the original Q11 than the other keyboards Keychron has recently updated. The reason for this is that Keychron's only split keyboard was the Q11, with no Max or Pro variants to add wireless connectivity into the mix. This time, though Keychron has gone one step further with the Q11 Ultra, not only eliminating the USB-C cable to the PC, but also making the two halves of the split keyboard communicate wirelessly as well. Keychron claims that the dual batteries in the Q11 Ultra are capable of delivering 300 hours on a single charge, and the keyboard connects via Bluetooth, 2.4 GHz, or via the USB-C cable on the left half. With 2.4 GHz and the wired connection, the polling rate can go as high as 8 kHz, even though that's hardly necessary for a mechanical switch. The Q11 Ultra is available for $239.99 from Keychron's online store.

The Q11 Ultra is a 75% split keyboard, meaning the keyboard splits in half for ergonomic purposes, although it still maintains the row staggered layout, so it should feel familiar for most users coming from a regular mechanical gaming keyboard. Despite the 75% layout, the Q11 Ultra has an additional five-key macro column on the left edge of the left side of the keyboard, and there are two programmable knobs—one on each half of the keyboard. The keyboard cases are constructed from CNC aluminium with an integrated top plate, and the keyboard uses double-shot PBT keycaps in Keychron's KSA profile. The Q11 Ultra is only available in black with blue accent keycaps, and it seems to miss out on the decorative bottom panel found on the likes of the Keychron Q1 Ultra. It comes with a choice of Keychron Silk POM Red (linear), Brown (tactile), and Banana (sharp tactile) switches, but the PCB is hot-swap compatible, so you can bring your own switches and keycaps if you don't like the stock experience. The Q11 Ultra has south-facing per-key RGB backlighting, which, along with the layout, is fully programmable in Keychron Launcher.

NuPhy's Berry profile is a low-profile keycap profile that mimics the popular Cherry profile that has become popular with mechanical keyboard enthusiasts and gamers alike, and NuPhy has just announced a new keycap set in its Berry keycap line-up. The new Berry profile Alchemical Manual keycap set is the seventh official Berry profile to launch out of NuPhy (the others being Beat Boy, Godzilla, Trackday, Obivion, BoW/WoB, and Peach Blossom), and it's by far the set with the most unorthodox design. The Alchemical Manuscripts Berry profile keycap set is available on the NuPhy online store for $59.95 for the whole 124-key set, which is compatible with keyboards anywhere from 60% to 100%. The set doesn't include an ISO enter key, however, so those outside the US may want to double-check compatibility.

The keycaps themselves are made from PBT with dye-sublimated legends, meaning that the legend and keycap texture should last a good long while, and the aesthetics of the set are based on a handwritten font style, "inspired by classical alchemy, occult symbols, and ancient manuscript diagrams," with an off-white color for the majority of the keycaps and earthy green, red, blue, orange, and brown accent and modifier keycaps. The set also includes a handful of alternative colors for certain keycaps as well as keycaps with rounded bottom corners for keyboards like the Node series. The keycaps are low-profile with an MX stem, so they will be compatible with both Gateron and Kailh Choc V2 low-profile switch standards, as long as the key spacing follows the MX standard and not Choc spacing.

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.