One of the often-touted benefits of console gaming is how physical media enables access to games, even when there is no internet connection for the DRM to verify the game's license. Now, it seems as though the Sony's PS5 will start locking players out of digital-only games if the console has been unable to connect to PSN servers within the last 30 days. This is according to testing done by Hikikomori Media, who found the issue with Wild Arms 4 and Vampire Crawlers, both of which were purchased as digital-only titles in April 2026.

The content creator simulated an offline PS5 by disconnecting it from the internet, resetting the internal clock by removing the CMOS battery, and then booting up the PS5 without an internet connection. Effectively, he tricked the PS5 into thinking that it had been offline for an extended period of time. The end result is that both Wild Arms 4 and Vampire Crawlers were unable to launch after the reboot. It's notable that games purchased before March 2026 would still launch without a hitch. Based on this testing and further testing with a PS4, which revealed a timer showing how long it had been since the console could call home, it seems as though games purchased after March 2026 will need to connect to PSN servers at least once every 30 days in order to be playable.

Valve confirmed not too long ago that it had delayed announcing the pricing of the Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and Steam Controller because of the ongoing DRAM shortage and price volatility crisis that has plagued the PC hardware industry in recent months. Eventually, the gaming giant caved and announced the Steam Controller ahead of the rest of the hardware that was meant to ship alongside it, and in a recent interview with Polygon, Valve confirmed what we all suspected: The Steam Machine and Steam Frame are still being held back by the DRAM crisis. As Valve hardware engineer, Steve Cardinali, explained about the early launch of the controller: "This doesn't have RAM in it, and it's not as complicated to start getting out the door for us. We're ready for it. We wanted to build up quantity so that we could try to address everybody who wants one at launch, but it's possible that the demand for it far exceeds our expectations."

He goes on to explain that there was never a hard-and-fast rule that the Controller, Frame, and Machine had to launch together, although he confirmed that Valve would not launch the Machine ahead of the Controller. It's safe to assume, then, that the Steam Machine and Steam Frame were originally meant to launch around May as well—Cardinali says that the Controller and Machine are "a pair made in heaven," so it only makes sense to try to launch them around the same time, even if "there's no point in holding it back while we work through the other stuff." According to VR industry insider, Brad Lynch on X, the Steam Machine is more severely affected by the memory supply issues than the Steam Frame, since it relies on on-package RAM and on mobile RAM, which doesn't appear to be as severely impacted by the shortages. Reading between the lines, it seems entirely possible that the Steam Frame may launch ahead of the Steam Machine as long as RAM prices remain elevated and unstable.

Keychron has been steadily updating its mechanical keyboard line-up with ZMK firmware and its new Silk POM mechanical switches. One of the more recent updates is the Keychron P6 Ultra, which features a full-size layout, 8 kHz polling, and an understated design with a neat party trick. The hallmark feature of the P6 Ultra is its quick-disassembly ball-catch closure mechanism, which allows for toolless disassembly of the aluminium case. This is becoming more common in mechanical keyboards, because it allows you to more easily get at the internals for modifications, although it does introduce a drawback in that it makes the front height slightly taller—the P2 Ultra measures in at 22.25 mm as a result. Aside from the quick-release closure, the P6 Ultra also features a programmable knob, and the entire keyboard is customizable and programmable in Keychron Launcher, the brand's VIA-like web driver.

The P6 Ultra is available on Keychron's online store for $199.99 and on Amazon for $179.99, and it can be purchased with the Silk POM Red (linear), Brown (tactile), and Banana (early-bump tactile) switches. It is only available in black, and it comes with black Cherry profile double-shot PBT keycaps with gray and orange accent keys. Keychron says the 4,000 mAh battery in the P6 Ultra is capable of keeping it going for 660 hours on a single charge, at least without the backlighting disabled. With the backlighting on its lowest brightness, that drops to 200 hours per Keychron. It features both 2.4 GHz and Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity for convenience and broad compatibility. Unlike many of Keychron's other mechanical keyboards, this seems to be based on a design similar to that of the Lemokey P2 HE, which also features the same silicone bean gasket mount and quick-disassembly feature.

With Valve today officially announcing pricing and availability for the Steam Controller, it was only a matter of time before people started asking questions about the Steam Machine and even the Steam Deck 2. Fortunately, in a recent comment to IGN, Valve developer, Pierre-Loup Griffais, has addressed the latter right off the bat. Griffais commented that the Steam Deck 2 is actively being worked on at Valve, although neither he nor the gaming giant can divulge any more concrete information about the upcoming gaming handheld, let alone a potential release window. He does note that the Steam Deck 2 will be a culmination of the lesson Valve learned during the development of its previous hardware projects.

Given prior comments that the Steam Deck 2 would need to be a sizeable performance leap over the current Steam Deck, it would not be surprising to see Valve wait until something like RDNA 4 or 5 reaches sufficient efficiency, performance, and pricing figures to be stuffed into a handheld APU without severely impacting the battery life. At that point, the Steam Deck 2 may have more serious competition to contend with, specifically from the likes of Sony. It has recently been rumored that the Steam Deck 2 would not use a semi-custom AMD APU but would launch in 2028 like the original Steam Deck, instead being powered by an off-the-shelf unit—a move that may offer Valve more flexibility to react to different market conditions and new mid-cycle CPU refreshes.

To call Noctua popular in PC building enthusiast circles would be an understatement, but the company may have just scored even more points among its fans by publishing free 3D models of all its fans. According to the post on X announcing the 3D models, Noctua intends for makers, designers, and engineers to use these models for "mechanical design, renderings, or animations," and the actual license on the Noctua page states that the models "may not be used, in whole or in part, for the manufacture, reproduction, or commercialization of the products they represent or any substantially similar products." At the time of writing, a number of fans are not available on the 3D downloads site, but a substantial number are available as STEP files, which makes them almost universally compatible with CAD software.

Aside from using the models themselves as visual references, the CAD files should make it significantly easier for case designers to accurately design mounting points and plan cooling routes using Noctua fans. From poking around in the CAD models, it's notable that Noctua has published the products with separate bodies, which is useful if you want to, for instance, print a missing rubber corner for noise damping. Noctua notes that certain geometry, like the fan blade curvature, has been adjusted to protect the company's IP and to avoid users doing airflow simulation with the 3D models. Publishing 3D models for end-user use is becoming more and more popular, with companies like Keychron and ZSA doing the same for their keyboards. Cooler Master also famously has several case series for which it has released 3D models for users to design and print their own accessories.

GPD has officially announced its Box mini PC and its G-series eGPUs, which both now feature faster external PCIe interfaces for gaming and AI use cases. The GPD Box itself is a fairly standard Panther Lake mini PC, although not too much has been revealed about the Box aside from its new eGPU interface. The GPD Box swaps out the traditional USB4 or Thunderbolt 5 port with an MCIO 8i (Mini Cool Edge IO) port, which is capable of full PCIe 5.0 ×8 bandwidth. MCIO 8i aside, the Box looks to have a healthy assortment of ports, with dual USB Type-A and Type-C ports, alongside a 3.5 mm audio jack on the front and two USB Type-A ports, DP and HDMI for display, and dual Ethernet ports on the back of the mini PC. That MCIO ×8 port is theoretically capable of bidirectional bandwidth of up to 512 Gbps, although there are legitimate concerns about rated insertion cycles and wear on the ports, given that MCIO was initially designed for server applications, where hardware would be plugged and unplugged far less frequently than in consumer applications. It should also be noted that it is limited to PCIe ×8, even on PCIe Gen 5, meaning it will be limited to 256 Gbps bidirectional bandwidth on PCIe Gen 5.

The GPD G2 itself is the eGPU enclosure launching alongside the Box mini PC, and it is capable of connecting either over USB4 v2.0 or MCIO 8i, making it useful for more than just the GPD mini PC. GPD claims that the G2 can run an NVIDIA RTX 4090 with only 2% performance loss, which is a level of throughput that neither Thunderbolt 5 nor OCuLink can achieve. The G2 eGPU dock itself has dual USB Type-A ports for peripherals and a USB4 port with 100 W PD charging, and there's a built-in PCIe SSD expansion slot in the eGPU dock for extra storage. The G2 also has its own on-board PSU that connects to the GPU with an externally routed 12v-2×6 cable—GPD has not yet revealed the output of that unit, but presumably, it will at least be enough to power an RTX 4090 if that's what the company is staking its performance claim on. Availability and pricing have not yet been announced, but the Weibo announcement post lists 2026 as the release date, so we will likely find out more, including more specifications, later this year.

The Orbital Pathfinder is one of the more unique gaming mice out there, owing to its modular, highly configurable design and high-performance internals. Now, more than a year after the mouse first launched, Orbital has announced an updated version of the Pathfinder with refreshed internals, additional modularity and shapes, and an updated scroll wheel in a new special edition clear shell. The new Pathfinder: Ghost also gets a lower starting price, retailing for $149 instead of $189 for the base mouse and exploration kit, with a $29 expansion kit, starting on April 30—however, it will be a made-to-order one-time production run. The brand has also confirmed that the expansion set will be available separately for the black version, suggesting that the improvements will be brought forward into the mainline Pathfinder base kit as well.

[Editor's note: Our in-depth review of the Orbital Pathfinder is now live]

The new Pathfinder operates on the same modular philosophy as the original version but with new materials and additional options. Orbital has introduced four new shapes—the interchangeable attachments that allow you to change the shape of the Pathfinder—thereby expanding the number of configurations to over 5,000. The brand has also updated the PCB, which now supports modular switches and is based on the Nordic nRF54L15 MCU, and the mag-alloy scroll wheel has also been redesigned, although it's unclear what exactly the changes there are. To celebrate the launch, Orbital has also created a Special Edition version of the Pathfinder that's made from a "clear plastic alloy," likely composed of some mixture of polycarbonate.

Fedora 44 was meant to be launched today, April 14, 2026, but a gander at the Fedora developer mailing list reveals that the workstation Linux distribution will be delayed to April 21 at the earliest. Adam Williamson, the Fedora QA developer who made the announcement clarified in the email that the reason for the delay is a long list of outstanding blockers—bugs or broken features that are big enough to break the experience or prevent the launch of the OS—that nobody is willing to waive. These bugs include issues with KDE's plasma-setup network setup, the NVIDIA Mesa driver setup, KDE keyboard layout selection, the systemd-oomd.service, and Grub breaking booting to Windows systems with BitLocker enabled.

On the one hand, this means that gamers and workstation users on Fedora, and all of its various iterations, like Bazzite, Nobara, and Rocky Linux, will have to wait a longer for the new version, along with all of its bug fixes, the new kernel version 6.19, and promised new features. On the other hand, the delay will give the project's developers extra time to iron out those experience-breaking bugs and deliver a working operating system. Some of the highlights of Fedora 44 are a move to Gnome 50 and KDE Plasma 6.6, a streamlined install process, finalizing the move to Plasma Login Manager on KDE spins, and adding support for Budgie 10.10.

Update Apr 27th: It has been officially confirmed during a go/no-go meeting that Fedora 44 will launch on April 28, and users can already download RC-1.7 for testing.

The last time Assassin's Creed Hexe made news, it was revealed that the combat had been scaled back significantly—after nearly four years in development, at that. Now, an Insider Gaming report, citing internal sources, claims that Ubisoft has removed as many as 50 developers from the project. The developers who have been removed from Hexe have supposedly been assigned to what is known internally as the "Interproject team," where they have up to three months to find a new project to work on or potentially be laid off. It's currently unknown whether this will have an impact on the eventual state of the game, but the move appears to be just the latest in Ubisoft's efforts to cut costs, although less forcefully than previously.

It seems as though the development of Assassin's Creed Hexe may not be going as smoothly as Ubisoft would like, which may be problematic given the expected 2027 launch date. It may also be Ubisoft taking a cautious approach, which would echo what has been reported about the future of Assassin's Creed remake projects. The rumor of a smaller dev team on Hexe comes shortly after Ubisoft officially confirmed that Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced would launch in July of 2026, and leaks revealed that an Assassin's Creed 1 remake is likely also in the works. It was also revealed that the as-yet unannounced cozy life sim, Alterra, was cancelled in a recent cost-cutting measure, which is what the Hexe downsizing seems to be as well.

With Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced now officially confirmed and virtually around the corner, a new leak from @xjØnathan on X, Ubisoft is also working on a remake of Assassin's Creed 1. The leak allegedly stems from someone within Ubisoft, although not much else is known about the AC1 remake. The Black Flag remake was a collaborative effort between Ubisoft Singapore, Barcelona, Bordeaux, Belgrade, Chengdu, India, Kyiv, Montpellier, Philippines, Quebec, and Shanghai.

This recent leak corroborates a recent rumor that Ubisoft already had at least one Assassin's Creed remake in the works, however, future remakes will hinge on the success of Black Flag Resynced. It remains to be seen what approach Ubisoft takes with the Assassin's Creed 1 remake, but, given the way the gaming giant has handled Black Flag Resynced when it comes to features like DLC and multiplayer gameplay, or the absence of those features, it's safe to assume Ubisoft will be taking the same cautious approach with the Assassin's Creed 1 remake. There seems to be a decent amount of interest in Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced, which has garnered nearly 30,000 followers on Steam since its announcement just two days before the most recent leak.

Back in January, we checked out the ASUS Zenbook Duo at the ASUS booth at CES 2026, where ASUS confirmed that the new dual-screen productivity laptop would feature Intel's Panther Lake CPUs, a new Ceraluminum coating, and redesigned hinges that bring the device's top and bottom displays closer together. Now, following the launch of the ASUS Zephyrus Duo, ASUS has officially launched the Zenbook Duo 2026 with two distinct models available for purchase at the time of writing. The biggest difference between the Zenbook Duo US8407AA-DS99T and the UX8407AA-PSXT is that the former uses the less powerful Intel Core Ultra 9 386H CPU, while the latter comes with the Core Ultra X9 388H. The two CPUs share similar CPU performance, but the 388H gains a significant lead when it comes to iGPU performance, thanks to the inclusion of the Intel Arc B390 iGPU compared to the more standard Xe3 graphics in the 386H.

Editors note: our in depth review is now available.

Both models share the same dual touch-enabled, 14-inch, 2880×1800p, 16:10, 144 Hz OLED displays with 1,000 nits HDR brightness and 500 nits of SDR brightness. Similarly, both laptops come with 32 GB of LPDDR5X memory and a 1 TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD by default. While ASUS positions the Zenbook as a sort of catch-all laptop capable of doing everything from creative work to general productivity, and even a little gaming, the ports tell somewhat of a different story. Both have a single USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, dual Thunderbolt 4 ports with both USB Power Delivery and support for external displays, a single HDMI 2.1 FRL port, and a 3.5 mm audio combo jack. The Zenbook Duo comes with the ASUS Pen 3.0 with wireless charging as well as a Zenbook laptop sleeve, and the bottom display has a detachable wireless keyboard. The Zenbook Duo is available directly from the ASUS store, with the Core Ultra 9 386H variant starting at $2,499.99 and the Core Ultra X9 version starting at $2,699.99. The Core Ultra 9 version is expected to start shipping on May 11, while the Core X9 version will only be available in "late Q2."

Digital Extremes has long teased an upcoming update for mid-2026, and the game studio has finally put a name on the update and given gamers an idea of what to expect when it rolls out in June. The details about the upcoming update are still scant, but Digital Extremes did reveal that the Jade Shadows: Constellations quest would be a follow-up to the Jade Shadows quest that saw players delve into the backstory and relationships that motivate the enigmatic Stalker. Jade Shadows: Constellations will see players return to Stalker's lair, although this time, the action seems to center on Stalker's children, Orion and Sirius. Digital Extremes released an animated short for Jade Shadows: Constellations, showing off Orion and Sirius battling it out on a desolate world, with the Protoframes of Garuda and Ash, Vena and Ryoku, respectively, also making an appearance in the trailer. By the way Digital Extremes is framing the introduction, it seems as though players will be offered a choice of which of Stalker's children to side with during the quest.

The update will also introduce two new Railjack missions in the Uranus Proxima sector, and both of these Railjack missions will be tied to Vena and Ryoku. Nidus, a stalwart Warframe tied to the game's Infected faction lore, will also receive a minor rework in Jade Shadows: Constellations, in which he will get increased health and an overall buff to his abilities. Finally, DE also confirmed that, starting on May 4, Operation: Belly of the Beast will be returning until June 1, giving players a chance to access new and returning rewards. More details about Belly of the Beast are available here, but players wishing to participate—at least those who have completed The New War quest—will be able to play through two operation missions on Uranus, one of which will be in the new Brutus node and feature classic Ascension-style defense mission types, but with special Jade Light Eximus units spawning in for an extra challenge. The animated Jade Shadows: Constellations trailer follows.

Xbox executives, Asha Sharma and Matt Booty, recently publicly released an internal memo in which they detailed the upcoming changes to the Xbox Games strategy, revealing that Microsoft would be reevaluating its approach to Xbox exclusive games and further addressing the viability and value proposition of Game Pass. The memo also addressed the future of Xbox hardware, stating that Project Helix would lead in performance and that the short-term goal was to work on the shortcomings of the Xbox Series X|S consoles to make them more attractive for gamers. Sharma and Booty also recently spoke to The Game File in an interview and divulged more of what those plans meant for the future of Xbox.

Addressing Game Pass first, Sharma said that the recent price cut applied to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass were the first steps toward attracting more players who will stick around long-term. The CEO went on to say that the executives have been rethinking the Game Pass approach, commenting that, aside from making it more affordable, they are evaluating how value looks in the context of the modern gaming landscape and the rapidly changing world. Matt Booty, Chief Content Officer, commented that Microsoft would be working on the games coming out of Xbox Game Studios, so that it could deliver a predictable cadence with a robust roadmap, and that it would "aim for quality."

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 made waves when it launched in early 2025, going on to earn numerous Game of the Year awards later on in the year. Now, in a recent announcement, Sandfall Interactive has officially announced that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has sold over 8 million copies since it launched, which is an impressive milestone for a relatively small indie studio, especially for a genre that generally appeals to a smaller subset of the overall gaming audience.

This is yet another indication of the comeback of original single-player games that has been ongoing in the last few years, with other single-player games, like Crimson Desert and Pragmata also hitting it big in the first half of 2026. Sandfall Interactive has also announced a new update for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 that adds fun new cosmetics in celebration of the milestone and of the game's one-year anniversary.

More often than not, finding a pre-built mechanical keyboard with any layout other than US ANSI can be challenging—broad layout support is one of the reasons Keychron became popular in the first place—and finding a true 100% mechanical keyboard in ISO or JIS layouts can be even more challenging, given the keyboard market's tendency to prefer more compact designs, like the Wooting 60HE v2. Fortunately, NuPhy has just updated its somewhat affordable Node100 and Node75 wireless mechanical keyboards with support for both ISO and JIS.

The ISO versions include UK, DE, and FR layouts, with JIS only supporting Japanese, although the keycaps are still in the regular Latin alphabet. Interestingly, the JIS layout features a fully split space bar with 2.25 U and 2.75 U keycaps, likely in order to fit the denser bottom row of the JIS layout more than anything. The ISO and JIS layouts are also available in both the full-height and low-profile versions of the Node keyboards. At the time of writing, ISO and JIS are only available in Lunar White and Ink Grey colorways. ISO and JIS layouts also come at a $10 premium over the ANSI versions for both the Node75 and Node100, with both the high- and low-profile Node75 starting at $99.95 in ANSI but $109.95 in ISO. Likewise, the Node100 starts at $109.95 in ANSI-US but $119.95 in ISO and JIS.

Canonical has today released Ubuntu 26.04 LTS as the company's latest update to the mainstream Linux distro. As we reported previously, Canonical has upgraded the minimum system requirements to 6 GB of RAM, but that change comes alongside a number of upgrades to the distro itself, some of which will be immediately noticeable, while others will silently improve the user experience in the background. Ubuntu users can download Ubuntu 26.04 directly from Canonical, or users of previous Ubuntu versions can simply run "do-release-upgrade -p" in their terminal.

The biggest user-facing change is the move to Gnome 50, which now mandates Wayland and has improved, non-experimental support for both VRR and fractional scaling. Gnome 50 also implements a new feature that allows the cursor to render at the monitor's full refresh rate, even if the foreground app is running at a lower frame rate. The Gnome 50 update also sees the Yaru theme get some nifty visual tweaks that bring it closer to the standard Gnome theme and a new icon pack. Resolute Raccoon also moves Ubuntu up to the Linux kernel 7.0, adding better memory management, removing the "experimental" tag from Rust, and updating various drivers and services, like ZFS, and adding security features, like TPM-backed full-disk encryption. Ubuntu 26.04 is also the first Ubuntu version to ship NVIDIA CUDA out of the box, and AMD's ROCm platform is available in the Ubuntu repos for those looking to run local AI.

There's been a lot of talk lately about the state of platform exclusives in the video game console industry, from controversial rumors about Sony potentially leaving behind much of its PC port business to Microsoft's recent announcement that it would be "reevaluating" platform exclusives as part of its new strategy for Xbox Gaming. All of this aside, however, it seems as though there is a degree of success to be had from casting a wider net when it comes to hardware support.

According to an update on the Virtuos Games website—a game studio that helped Playground Games bring Forza Horizon 5 to the PS5—Forza Horizon 5 has sold more than 5 million copies on Sony's console alone. This nearly matches some of the estimated sales figures for the game's Steam release, which sits anywhere between 7.24 million and 8.36 million, depending on which analytics figures you're referencing. This is despite Forza Horizon 5 only releasing on PlayStation 5 in 2025, nearly four years after the original PC and Xbox launch. This sort of timed exclusivity is very similar to the model that Sony has been following with many of its games and largely one that Microsoft has been moving away from, and will possibly return to in the future. As it stands, Forza Horizon 6 is launching on May 19, with a PS5 release date promised for later in 2026.

Hot on the heels of a sizeable update to how Wooting keyboards handle on-board keyboard profile switching, Wooting has announced a new round of cases to add some custom flair to its 60HE v2 HE keyboard. The new silicone Wooting 60HE v2 cases are slightly translucent, and come in aquamarine or white colorways. Wooting also says that the translucent nature of the silicone case allows the keyboard's RGB to shine through the case, sort of like a pudding keycap.

Wooting designed the silicone case for the 60HE v2, but it is also compatible with the friction fit mounting system of the original Wooting 60HE+. It is meant to serve as a lighter, easy to install alternative to the original aluminium case that comes with the 60HE v2. The silicone case, which has a 70 A hardness rating—making it about as stiff as the rubber on the outsole of a shoe—measures just 19.3 mm tall at its tallest and has a 4° typing angle. Currently, it retails for $39.99, making it the cheapest aftermarket case Wooting sells aside from the brass UwU case. If you build out a Wooting 60HE v2 module with a silicone case and the cheapest options available, the case is discounted to $19.99, bringing the build down to $179.99, making it just $5 more than the original Wooting 60HE+ at the time of the 60HE v2's launch.

Since Asha Sharma took over as CEO of Xbox Gaming, she seems to be trying to tackle a number of complaints regularly levelled at Microsoft's gaming division. The most recent material change to be announced to Microsoft's gaming stack is a price cut for Xbox and PC Game Pass. More recently, however, Sharma and Matt Booty, the new Chief Content Officer at Xbox Gaming, published an internal memo detailing a strategy shift, which could result in significant changes to how gamers interact with Microsoft's gaming IPs and divisions.

The full memo is available after the break, but the gist of it appears to be that Microsoft wants to strengthen Xbox Gaming's position as a hardware supplier and build the Xbox ecosystem, starting with Gen 9 (Xbox Series X|S consoles), make Game Pass more sustainable, increase the viability of cloud gaming, and address game discoverability, discoverability, and social features, including live service gaming and UGC games. Sharma and Booty say that they want to make Xbox "the best place for developers and creators to build and grow," and they specifically mention that Xbox will "reevaluate our approach to exclusivity, windowing, and AI, and share more as we learn and decide." The memorandum also mentions making Xbox "affordable, personal, and open," with "flexible" pricing to lower the barrier to entry.

It was recently rumored that Gears of War: E-Day would be shown off at a June Xbox Summer Games showcase in 2026, and we have already seen drips and drabs of information about the upcoming game's plot, setting, and characters. Now, according to a purported leak by GhostOfHope on X, Microsoft is planning to launch Gears of War: E-Day sometime in September 2026. GhostOfHope is a known leaker, generally focusing on games like Call of Duty, lending some credence to the rumor. It should be noted that, while E-Day has an official Steam Store page, and Xbox Game Studios has previously acknowledged the game's existence, neither Microsoft nor Xbox Game Studios has actually commented on the release date or a release window. That said, it would not be surprising to see a September launch, since it has been said to be releasing in 2026, and September is usually a busy time for video game launches, since it's right before the holiday season.

Since the launch of the Steam Deck, Valve has been steadily updating SteamOS with new features in order to improve the gaming experience on its gaming handheld, all the while working with developers and providing them with tools to make it easier to support the Steam Deck. The latest beta update to the Steamworks dashboard for partners—developers and publishers—comes in the form of frame rate reporting for SteamOS users. With the new feature, game developers whose games have received Steam Deck Verified status will be able to access data gathered from Steam Deck users who opted into frame rate reporting.

Currently, the feature will provide game developers with a graph of average frame rate data for the 30 days, but Valve says that it will later add additional information about frame rate fluctuations, giving developers even more information to use to optimize the game. Valve says that it has added frame rate reporting to the Steamworks platform in order to help developers address user feedback from gamers who disagree with Steam Deck Verified ratings, stating that this data "can be valuable for developers to better understand the experiences of customers who disagree, especially in the context of a specific title or update." In the future, it will also expand this frame rate data to include games rated as "Steam Deck Playable," and it will add frame rate variance to the graph to indicate frame rate stability. Valve also provides developers with other Deck Verified data gathered by surveying users who have spent more than 10 minutes in a game. Presumably, features like these will eventually be available for the upcoming Steam Machine and Steam Frame, too.

The Vampire Survivors "turboturn" spinoff, Vampire Crawlers, has officially launched on Steam in Early Access, serving as yet another reminder that what seems to really matter in gaming is fun factor. Despite the bizarre combination of turn-based deck-builder, dungeon crawler, and roguelite, Vampire Crawlers has peaked at 40,802 players within 48 hours of launch, according to SteamDB. It has also managed to hit fifth place in Steam's top sellers chart and shore up nigh-universal praise, with an "Overwhelmingly Positive" 98% positive review rating on Steam. Even in the first 48 hours, Vampire Crawlers has already come close to the 77,061 peak concurrent player count of Vampire Survivors. It should also be noted that these numbers are for Steam alone, and Vampire Crawlers also released on Nintendo Switch 2, PS5, and Xbox Series.

The Steam reviews praise the game for its addictive, original mix of gameplay mechanics and satisfying gameplay loop, but a number of reviews also commend it for how well it keeps gameplay feeling fresh with new mechanics and interesting encounters. One minor complaint that pops up in a few reviews is the overall length, at just 15-20 hours, according to a few reviews, given the long legs that Vampire Survivors has had, it would not be surprising to see plenty of additional content come to Vampire Crawlers in the coming months and years. The Vampire Crawlers launch trailer follows.

It was recently rumored that PlayStation would be moving away from publishing PC ports of its mainline first-party single-player games, which came with the implication that Sony would not port the upcoming Marvel's Wolverine game to PC. Speaking at a recent ALT Games Festival event in Australia, Shuhei Yoshida, Sony's former president of Sony Interactive Entertainment, commented on the PlayStation exclusive situation and how PC ports impact Sony's gaming portfolio and financials in his view. Yoshida is of the opinion that PC ports are largely a positive move for Sony, and that they don't meaningfully detract from console hardware sales or game sales on consoles.

Instead, Yoshida says that Sony's PC ports could help recoup some of the initial game design and development costs—presumably because games usually get a bump in sales when they launch on other platforms, and because developing a new game is far more costly than porting an existing game to a new platform. The latter is especially true with modern hardware, which all share similar x86 platform specifications, with the exception of systems like the Nintendo Switch 2 and Valve's upcoming Steam Frame. He also goes on to say that he is "not seeing any proof of them (Sony) changing their strategy this generation, but if they are changing, it's going to be interesting how they are able to maintain the investment on big budget games." On the topic of AAA game budgets, Yoshida comments that the ever-increasing budgets in the AAA industry don't seem sustainable. The full interview with Shuhei Yoshida on YouTube follows.

Wooting is one of the rare keyboard manufacturers that meets gamers in the middle, providing gamers with both a web app and an installable program to customize their gaming keyboards. Now, the keyboard maker has announced App Linking, which enables per-app profiles in a new beta version of Wootility. Now, Wooting users who have the Wootility Background Service enabled can switch keyboard profiles on the fly, depending on which window is in focus in their operating system. It supports up to eight linked apps per profile on the keyboard, and the 80HE and 60HE V2 can support up to four on-board profiles. The update also refines the RGB sleep timer control UI and allows editing profiles directly from the icon tray.

Wooting's profiles control everything from actuation points, features like RT, SOCD, and analogue input, to key mapping and RGB lighting. This means you could set up a Wooting 80HE or 60HE to act like a macro pad while something like a video editor or CAD suite is focussed, a regular office keyboard with a lower polling rate and reasonable actuation point when word processors or web browsers are open, and a high-performance gaming keyboard with 8 kHz polling, RT, and a 0.1 mm actuation point when in games. One caveat with this background service functionality is that it currently does not work with Wayland on Linux, since that display server, since apps are generally isolated under Wayland, and support for features like this is spotty at best on Wayland. The Wooting support team is engaging with the community about Wayland support on Linux, and it seems as though the development team will look into supporting certain desktop environments, like KDE.

Recent rumors revealed that Microsoft may be ditching APU customization for Xbox Project Helix, its upcoming PC-console hybrid that is expected to launch around the $1,000 mark, opting instead for an off-the-shelf AMD APU that will seemingly be available to other manufacturers as well. Now, per a new rumor by ubiquitous leaker Moore's Law Is Dead on the Broken Silicon podcast, it seems as though that high price may come with a significant performance boost.

Moore's Law Is DeadWhat's even more of a cause for optimism, though, is how much better PS6 and Helix will be. Helix is basically a high-end PC, even using the same silicon as AMD's 70-class or maybe 80-class RDNA 5 GPUs. It isn't an ultra-level of PC hardware, but still far more powerful than consoles usually have. It will have the biggest APU in console history... Yes it will be expensive, but guys, if it's even $1,200, it's like a $2-3,000 gaming PC. That's disruptive.

It has long been predicted that 2026 would be a year for expensive PC hardware launches, especially on the gaming and enthusiast side of things, and that is turning out to be true for ASUS's latest gaming laptops in the ROG Zephyrus line-up. As per a recent announcement by ASUS Taiwan, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo, Zephyrus G14, and Zephyrus G16 have officially been made available for pre-order in the East Asian nation. All three laptops feature color-accurate, high-resolution OLED displays, lightweight aluminium chassis, Intel Core Ultra 9 386H CPU, and NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 50-series graphics, making them powerhouses for both gaming and creative workflows. As we shared in our coverage of CES 2026, however, it seems as though there are more SKUs coming later down the line with different GPU configurations.

The ASUS Zephyrus Duo, largely the flagship device of the three launching today, packs an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop GPU with 24 GB of GDDR7 alongside that 16-core Intel Core Ultra 9 CPU and up to 64 GB of LPDDR5X. Despite the dual 16-inch, 120 Hz, 1,100-nit, 3K OLED displays—which incidentally have 100% DCI-P3 Wide color gamut coverage, Pantone validation, and stylus support—and dual USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, a 3.5 mm audio combo jack, a full-size HDMI 2.1 port, a full size UHS-II SD card reader, and dual Thunderbolt 4 ports, the laptop measures in at a reasonable 24.9 mm thick at its thickest and weighs in at 2.82 kg. In Taiwan, the Zephyrus Duo will retail for NT$269,999 or $8,570.31.

Polish game studio, 11 Bit Studios, has just released its 2025 earnings and revenue report, indicating a rather positive year for the company, which earned 21.9 million PLN ($6.05 million) in profit, which it attributes to the sales of Frostpunk 2 (880,000 copies) and The Alters (545,000 copies). More excitingly, the studio announced that it will be focusing on a new strategy between 2027 and 2031, which includes a "reimagining" of This War of Mine and a new game set in the Frostpunk universe, which the studio says is its most valuable franchise.

Of course, Frostpunk 1866 has already been announced for a 2027 release, and that is mentioned separately from the other Frostpunk project, which 11 Bit Studios says will be in a completely different genre to the usual city builder franchise. Nothing else appears to have been published about the other upcoming games or the This Was of Mine remake, but it could easily be the same or a similar story from a different perspective or a straight remake of the side-scrolling POV game. 11 Bit also confirmed that it was working on at least two new IPs, and that it would see an "increase in the regularity of releases," and it made references to both its development and publishing divisions, suggesting that we will see more indie games, like Death Howl, Creatures of Ava, The Thaumaturge, and The Invincible.

Alterra, a cozy game inspired by Animal Crossing and Minecraft in development at Ubisoft, has officially been cancelled, according to a recent Insider Gaming report. The news broke by way of insiders at Ubisoft, who claim that the news was broken to them on the morning of April 21, after which the team working on the game was sent home. Following the news of the cancellation, IGN published a statement by an Ubisoft representative, who said that "As part of our portfolio management approach and evolving creative house-led model, we continuously assess projects at every stage of development to ensure alignment with our strategic priorities, quality ambitions, and long-term market potential," continuing to explain that "projects that no longer meet these expectations may be discontinued."

It should also be noted that there have been no layoffs as a result of the cancellation of Alterra, and the team working on the cozy game will simply be made available to other development projects. The comments by the Ubisoft representative suggest that the company doesn't think the game would have been successful in the current gaming climate, and they echo recent rumors about Ubisoft carefully assessing the value of future Assassin's Creed game ports with the upcoming Black Flag Resynced launch. This move is only the latest in a series of decisions at Ubisoft aimed at cutting costs and making the company more efficient, and it follows a March round of layoffs that saw 105 people lose their jobs.

We've known for a while now that the upcoming Xbox Project Helix game console will be a hybrid game console, able to play both PC and Xbox games, but recently news broke that the Xbox Helix would be using an off-the-shelf AMD APU, followed by a leak from KeplerL2 on the NeoGAF forums that it would be a third-party console. The latter rumor claimed that the Xbox Helix would not be available directly to consumers from Microsoft itself, instead adopting something of a Steam Machine model—the original Steam Machine, not the 2026 reboot—and making the hardware design available to hardware partners similarly to how AMD and NVIDIA sell their GPUs to board partners who package them in their own way.

Xbox Vice President, Jason Ronald, chimed in with a response on X, saying simply that "Project Helix will be available as a 1st party Xbox console," and nothing more. While this somewhat debunks the rumor started by KeplerL2, it also leaves the door open to the possibility of third-party Helix consoles. This idea somewhat holds water, given the context of the previous rumor about the off-the-shelf APU. If Microsoft did not license the Xbox Helix design, and brands could simply buy the APU directly from AMD to make their own hardware platforms, similarly to what's been happening with other Radeon 780M-powered APUs that have been popping up in Windows gaming handheld devices since the Ryzen Z1 Extreme handhelds launched.

Alongside the Framework 13 Pro that was just announced, Framework also released the OCuLink Dev Kit, which is a new modular adaptor that replaces the Framework Laptop 16's Graphics Module with an external OCuLink port, allowing you to connect high-performance peripherals and hardware across a PCIe 5.0×8 interface and offering a theoretical maximum bandwidth of 128 GT/s. Framework suggests that users could use the OCuLink port to build out their Framework Laptop 16 as a lightweight on-the-go laptop, removing the dGPU and using that in an eGPU setup while docked at a desk and relying on the iGPU in the laptop for work away from the desk.

The Framework OCuLink Dev Kit includes the hardware that goes into the laptop itself, an OCuLink Expansion Bay adaptor, as well as the external bits, including a Graphics Module OCuLink Dock, for mounting your Framework Graphics Module externally, a PCIe OCuLink Dock with a full-size PCIe slot for hardware like GPUs, networking cards, capture cards, and whatever else goes into a PCIe slot; and an OCuLink 8i cable to connect the dock to the laptop itself. In order to use the external graphics module, you'll need to supply your own desktop PSU, since Framework does not include one in the package, and it should also be noted that the OCuLink port does not support the same charging capabilities as USB4 or Thunderbolt, so you'll still need to run at least two cables when using the Dev Kit.

Xbox CEO, Asha Sharma was recently quoted in a leaked internal memo stating that Game Pass was too expensive and that it didn't provide adequate value to its consumers, and it seems as though she has now followed through on the implied promise in that internal memo. As announced on Xbox Wire, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass are both receiving price cuts, with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate coming down from $29.99 to $22.99/month and PC Game Pass dropping from $16.49 to $13.99.

At the same time, though, starting in 2026, Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass users will lose launch-day access to Call of Duty games. Starting with the next Call of Duty game, Game Pass players will need to wait "about a year" for Call of Duty to hit Game Pass. Fortunately, current Call of Duty games will remain playable on both PC Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and other major releases will still hit Game Pass on launch day. It was previously reported that Microsoft lost $300 million in Call of Duty sales by including the popular shooter series in Game Pass, despite Game Pass being an overall profitable endeavor.

It was recently confirmed that Ubisoft would soon be officially revealing Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced, a remake of one of the more well-regarded Assassin's Creed games. A new leak out of Insider Gaming, confirmed that, although Black Flag Resynced promised new characters and content, Ubisoft would not be introducing multiplayer or DLC, neither fresh nor original, to Black Flag Resynced, regardless of how successful the game turns out to be.

The leak also purports that Ubisoft has at least one more Assassin's Creed remake in the works, although it seems as though Ubisoft is taking an overly cautious approach to the commercial performance of its remakes. Source have claimed that future remakes would hinge on the success of Black Flag and the upcoming second Assassin's Creed remake project. While it's unknown which Assassin's Creed game will follow Black Flag down the remake path, it seems as though Black Flag itself will do reasonably well, given the game's reputation and the hype surrounding the launch.

Nintendo seems to be revisiting Splatoon, the traditionally multiplayer game for the Switch and Wii U, with Splatoon Raiders, a new single-player action shooter. Splatoon Raiders will officially be available on July 23 for the Nintendo Switch 2 from Nintendo for $49.99 for the digital version and $59.99 for the physical version, and it is currently available for pre-order. The Splatoon Raiders launch date announcement comes with a launch date trailer that reveals some of the gameplay.

Based on the gameplay trailer and the game description, Splatoon Raiders will see players take up residence as a mechanic aboard a floating raft alongside the musical trio Deep Cut—making their return from Splatoon 3—where they will have to survive by exploring and raiding nearby islands, facing off against en enemy known as Salmonids in outlandish combat encounters. Splatoon Raiders will also allow players to customize the raft they call home and seems to offer comprehensive weapons and loadout customization options for players to experiment with. The game's graphics, however, follow the same cartoonish aesthetic as prior Splatoon games, but Nintendo hasn't provided any information about expected frame rates or image quality just yet. The Splatoon Raiders trailer follows.

The Toei Company, the Japanese media giant behind some of the most popular anime around, like One Piece, the Dragon Ball franchise, and Sailor Moon, has officially announced "Toei Games" as a new video game company entering the scene. At the time of writing, it's unclear what part of the game production pipeline Toei Games will be responsible for, but it's not the first time that The Toei Company will be involved in game development in some capacity. Currently, Toei licenses many of its IPs to other game development and publishing companies, like Bandai Namco, who publishes many of the Dragon Ball games. Toei was briefly involved in the gaming industry in the 1990s, but seems to have lost interest in 1998 with Chameleon Twist 2. Based on the blurb on the Toei Games website, it seems as though Toei Games will work with other developers or studios in some capacity, suggesting a publishing role rather than a development role.

Toei GamesEven as times and media evolve, our DNA remains unchanged.
Our unwavering desire: "deliver beloved stories to the world."
Having continuously created countless stories, Toei will now deliver them through games.

Toei Games will be an accomplice.
One who believes more than anyone in the unique, profound passion of creators who love and strive to create games.
Their driving force: "I love this," "I want to make this."
We want to deliver that to the world.

It seems as though 2026 will be the year of age verification for online communication platforms. Following the prior news about Discord starting to require age verification for all accounts—a move that the company later walked back after backlash—it has now been revealed that Sony will soon start to mandate age verification for PSN online communication features. This is according to a report by Push Square, which shared a screenshot of an age verification prompt from the PlayStation Store.

The screenshot shows a QR code that redirects users to start an age verification process on their smartphones, which would prompt users to provide a copy of their ID, perform a facial scan, or receive a text message on their mobile phone that uses information stored by the mobile network provider to ascertain their age. Sony has more details about the age verification options on a FAQ page. At the time of writing, age verification seems to be limited to the UK and Ireland, but this seems to be a move to comply with recent age verification requirements, and there are currently age verification laws being implemented or talked about everywhere from the US to the EU, and Australia, and all of those laws restrict teens and children from accessing similarly risky or potentially harmful content online, meaning similar processes may be implemented across the board.

Natalie Vock, a well-known Valve contractor and Linux graphics driver developer, recently debuted a new patch that enabled better VRAM management on Linux for GPUs with low VRAM. When we originally covered the set of kernel patches, we noted that it could cut VRAM usage in half in some applications, potentially making certain aging graphics hardware viable for gaming where it may not have been before the patches. Aside from some early tests by Vock herself, not much other data was available at the time to draw any conclusions about the potential performance improvements. Now, thanks to NJ Tech on YouTube, we have some idea of how the patch could improve performance on a GPU like the AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT, which has a mere 4 GB of VRAM. The YouTuber tested the GPU across nine games, including some heavy hitters, like Crimson Desert, Hogwarts Legacy, and Cyberpunk 2077 in CachyOS, which was the first Linux distribution to package and release Vock's kernel patches in what it calls GPU Booster. In the current GPU market, it would be nice to have a silver bullet to make low VRAM GPUs viable, but the results are far more varied than that, with some games seeing no improvement and others seeing up to 100% increases in FPS.

In Alan Wake II, VRAM use is actually increased, but there's a more than 2× increase in FPS, going from 14 FPS to a very playable 42 FPS average. In Resident Evil: Requiem, VRAM use is identical, but there's a 16% FPS increase, and in Silent Hill f, the story is similar, with identical VRAM utilization but marginal performance increases. Crimson Desert saw a decrease in VRAM usage, but there was no measurable performance increase as a result, as was the case with Hogwarts Legacy and Cyberpunk 2077, both of which saw reduced VRAM usage but an increase of 1 FPS average in the former and identical performance in the latter. The Last of Us Part 2 actually saw a 1 FPS drop in both average and 1% low FPS, but it seems as though there was just too much graphics memory pressure for Vock's VRAM patches to mitigate the issue. Death Stranding 2 and Marvel's Spider-Man 2 also saw little to no improvement despite reduced VRAM utilization in the former. The full video by NJ Tech follows.

When Microsoft announced the next-gen Xbox Project Helix, it confirmed what had been long rumored—that Helix would be a console-PC hybrid, just like Valve's upcoming Steam Machine, able to play both PC and Xbox games. Although it has not yet been confirmed what shape this hybrid experience will take, a recent leak from insider KeplerL2 on the NeoGAF forums has potentially revealed some information about what to expect from Project Helix. While it was previously rumored that the upcoming Xbox hardware would be more powerful than the Canis and Orion APUs Sony is working on for the PS6 series, it now seems as Xbox's Project Helix console APU will feature no customization at all, making it basically a bog-standard PC, albeit a decently powerful one, at that.

This would effectively end the era of console performance back-and-forth that Sony and Xbox have been engaged in since what feels like the dawn of time. It also has a few implications for upcoming scaling methods. For starters, and this is more or less confirmed by KeplerL2, it means that tech like the upcoming FSR Diamond upscaling tech will be cross-platform, perhaps with small tweaks or different presets on a per-platform basis. It also means that the recent rumor that Microsoft was looking to return to platform-exclusive games would culminate in PC and Xbox exclusives, rather than simply Xbox exclusives, if that rumor turns out to be true. It seems as though Helix will still feature RDNA 5 graphics and Zen 6/6c CPU cores, but it will likely be similar to the situation we've seen with the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme and Ryzen Z2 used by most Windows gaming handhelds in 2026.

Lenovo's Legion Go 2 recently received a stark price increase, bumping up the already expensive Windows gaming handheld from $1,349.99 to $1,999.99. Now, it seems as though the RAMpocalypse-era price increases have come for the Legion Go S, Lenovo's ostensibly budget-oriented gaming handheld models that launched at $899.99 for the Z1 Extreme version with 32 GB of RAM and $649.99 for the Z2 Go model with 16 GB of RAM. Following the price increases, the Lenovo Legion Go S, powered by AMD's Ryzen Z1 Extreme APU, 32 GB of RAM, and a 1 TB SSD, now comes in at a whopping $1,579.99 with SteamOS and $1,679.99 with Windows—although the Windows version is "discounted" to $1,049.99 currently.

Meanwhile, the Legion Go S with the Ryzen Z2 Go, 16 GB of RAM, and a 512 GB SSD is priced at $989.99. Those are the current Best Buy prices. On the Lenovo US online store, the Legion Go S with SteamOS and AMD's Z2 Go APU is listed at $1,049.99. The Legion Go S with the Z2 Go was already a tough sell, especially compared to the original Legion Go, which feature a more powerful CPU and iGPU and cost about the same used and only a little more new, at least if you could find it new. With the price increases, devices like the ASUS ROG Ally X at $899.99 are looking all the more enticing.

As Capcom's first original IP to launch in over a decade, Pragmata has had a rather successful launch, garnering very respectable sales and user reviews. Now, Capcom has announced in a press release that the new sci-fi adventure has surpassed 1 million copies sold in as little as two days. While it remains to be seen whether Pragmata manages to match the meteoric success of Resident Evil Requiem, which sold 5 million units in six days, Pragmata has thus far seemingly been a successful endeavor—something increasingly rare in the modern age of successive remakes and sequels.

The TechPowerUp Pragmata in-depth performance review is live, with performance benchmarks for over 30 GPUs, as is the handheld performance review.

Despite the impressive sales, Pragmata's Steam peak concurrent player count still sits at 68,687, which is only marginally higher than it was on launch day. Pragmata also has yet to launch on the Nintendo Switch 2 in Japan and certain parts of Asia, so it would not be surprising to see those sales figures get a small bump around that launch date, too. It should also be noted that player counts are hardly as accurate an indicator of commercial success for a single-player game as they are for live-service games.

Windrose, the viral co-op, PvE, survival pirate game, launched on April 14 to a rather positive reception, garnering an 89% positive review rating on Steam and peaking at just under 70,000 concurrent Steam players on launch day. The rest of the launch week, however, seems to have been a smashing success, even by comparison to the launch day. At the time of writing, Windrose has managed to attract a peak concurrent player count of 222,134, according to SteamDB, thanks to a surge in players on the weekend following the game's launch.

Further, according to a recent announcement by the developer on the game's official Discord server and Steam, Windrose has surpassed 1 million sales. The developer also notes that the team is currently working on updates and fixes for the game, and is taking community feedback seriously during the Early Access period. It has already confirmed that the game will be receiving new biomes in an upcoming updater, as well as new plot points. Although a full update roadmap has not yet been released, the developer plans to showcase upcoming content in an upcoming update.

Ubisoft just confirmed a recent rumor that it would host a reveal event for Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced before the end of April in a tongue-in-cheek post on X. The post, which contains a video with the opening quote "Gaming's worst-kept secret," confirms that the Assassin's Creed: Black Flag remake will be officially revealed on April 23 during a worldwide reveal showcase on the Ubisoft YouTube channel. The event will start at 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST, 9:00 PDT).

This is around the time that previous leaks predicted the game would be announced, lending credence to the predicted early July release date. It was previously rumored that Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced would be revealed as early as April 16, but that launch date was seemingly pushed back, as were many things during the recent Ubisoft reshuffle.

Microsoft has just announced a new ID@Xbox showcase for April 23, 2026, where it will show off a number of new indie games coming to Xbox in the near future. The event starts on April 23 at 5 PM GMT (10 AM PT, 1 PM ET), and it will be presented live on the IGN YouTube channel, as well on Twitch, X, and on IGN's various sister sites. The announcement was confirmed by IGN, who is again partnering with Xbox for the event.

The confirmed ID@Xbox Showcase line-up includes Aphelion, Mistfall Hunter, Solo Leveling Arise Overdrive, and There Are No Ghosts at the Grand, among others. Previous years' ID@Xbox events saw showcases from some of the more interesting indie games from recent years, including Mouse: P.I. For Hire, Invincible VS, Hollow Knight Silksong. This year may also feature release date announcements for games that were previously shown off at other ID@Xbox events, like Awaysis, Darkwood 2, Don't Fret, and Ungodly.

With the launch of Forza Horizon 6 around the corner, it's about time that Xbox Games announce the official Xbox accessories to go along with the latest installment in the racing sim franchise. The official Forza Horizon 6 accessory bundle consists of a limited edition wireless Xbox controller and a limited edition wireless headset. From a hardware perspective, both seem identical to their non-limited edition versions, but the Forza Horizon 6 versions have some unique aesthetic touches.

Both the Forza Horizon 6 controller and the headset feature striking neon blue, pink, and yellow accents. Where the controller has metallic silver accents and opaque plastic components, the controller brings back the transparent tech look and features a printed racetrack design across the front of the controller's face. Like other Xbox Wireless Controllers and headsets, the limited edition Forza Horizon 6 versions are compatible with Android, iOS, Windows PCs, and Xbox Series and Xbox One consoles. The limited edition Forza Horizon 6 Xbox controller is available for $89.99 from the Microsoft Store, while the wireless headset is $134.99 on the Microsoft Store.

On April 17, Iron Galaxy Studios published a LinkedIn post announcing its second round of layoffs in as many years. The number of workers being laid off was not specified, but the studio explains that the layoffs are necessary in order to adapt to the ongoing market conditions in the video game industry. The announcement also notes that, since 2020, the industry has changed—the way people play games and what publishers look for in games to fund—and instead of waiting for things to go back to normal, the studio has had to adjust its expectations and accept the current market as the new normal going forward.

In the post, the studio notes that "as Iron Galaxy adapts, we must make painful decisions about what we can be as a company. It's impossible for us to sustain the team size that we've carried this past year." This lack of sustainability is in spite of a round of layoffs in 2025 that saw 66 workers lose their jobs. Iron Galaxy isn't the biggest game studio in the world, but it has some heavyweight credits under its belt, including working on the Windows port for Batman: Arkham Origins and Batman: Arkham Knight, before Rocksteady took over development of the latter due to a buggy launch. The studio also worked on Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4, which launched in July 2025. The studio also worked on a number of Nintendo Switch ports, including Overwatch, Dauntless, Apex Legends, and Metroid Prime Remastered.The full announcement reads:

We recently reported on Microsoft renaming the Xbox Full-Screen Experience to Xbox mode and subsequently updating the gaming UI with new display options for gaming handhelds. Most recently, though, Microsoft has announced that it will be bringing that console-like UI to more devices. Many of these devices mentioned by Microsoft in the most recent update notes are powered by the same APUs and iGPUs as most gaming handhelds, where Xbox mode has been most prevalent until now, so it makes sense to keep it rolling on similarly capable devices, too.

According to a new Windows Insider update in the Canary channel (build 29570.1000), Windows Xbox mode is now available "on Windows 11 PCs, including laptops, desktops, and tablets." Gamers looking to take advantage of Xbox mode on their Windows 11 systems can access it via the Xbox app, Game Bar settings, or by pressing Win + F11. This isn't the first time we're seeing Microsoft doing something like this. Before it started testing Xbox mode on gaming handhelds, it had rolled out the Full-Screen Experience to other form factors as early as November 2025. It's unclear when this feature will reach the mainline Windows version, but it will likely not take too long, given Microsoft is feeling the pressure from the Linux-based SteamOS and the many similar desktop environments that have spun up in its wake.