Steam Controller Release Date Imminent as Valve Uploads Unboxing Video
Valve appears poised to ship the long‑awaited Steam Controller within days, after an unboxing video surfaced in the Steam client backend under the tag “steam_controller_unboxing_2026.” Shipping manifests recently filed list a sizable inventory of the device as a “wireless PC controller,” suggesting a dedicated launch rather than a bundle with the Steam Machine. The controller retains the advanced specs announced last year, including haptic touchpads, drift‑proof TMR joysticks, programmable rear paddles, gyroscopic motion controls and up to 35 hours of battery life. Valve’s move signals a renewed focus on hardware to keep its ecosystem vibrant.
Browser Gaming Is Heading Toward $3 Billion. Here Is Why It Is Being Taken Seriously
New research from Kantar, commissioned by Google, projects the global HTML5 browser‑gaming market to grow from about $1 billion in 2021 to over $3 billion by 2028. The surge is fueled by frictionless, no‑download access, improved mobile browsers, and a player base...
April 2026 GameDev Assets Giveaways #2
Epic Games is running its bi‑monthly Fab marketplace giveaway, offering three Unreal Engine assets—Modern Bridges, Deep Water Station, and a Bodycam VHS Effect—from April 21 to May 5, with permanent ownership after “purchase.” The giveaway highlights the growing trend of free, high‑quality...
Games and Numbers (April 7 - April 21, 2026)
Between April 7 and April 21, 2026, several high‑profile game launches posted impressive sales milestones. Hazelight Studios’ trio of titles topped 50 million copies, while Mortal Kombat 1 crossed 8 million and Crimson Desert sold 5 million in just 27 days, half on Steam. Capcom’s Pragmata moved...
FPGA Developer Claims Plaion's NeoGeo AES+ Is Effectively a “Bait and Switch”
Plaion announced the Neo Geo AES+, slated for a November 13 2026 launch, as a 1:1 hardware replica built on newly engineered ASIC chips rather than emulation or FPGA technology. The company highlighted collaboration with retro‑hardware experts Jotego and Furrtek in designing the...
Can You Find Any Location in Zelda’s Hyrule From a Single Screenshot?
A recent Boing Boing guest post explores using a single Breath of the Wild screenshot to pinpoint a location in Hyrule, echoing the popular Geoguessr challenge that asks players to identify real‑world spots from images. The author attempts the puzzle,...
Black Flag Resynced Is Skipping the RPG Format
Ubisoft confirmed that Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag: Resynced will launch later this year as a remake that strips away the RPG mechanics introduced in recent entries. The new version returns to the series’ original focus on open‑sea exploration and sword‑play,...
Now You Can Run Steam Games in Linux on some Handhelds that Ship with Android
Valve released Proton 11 beta 1, merging its Proton compatibility layer with the FEX emulator to run x86 Windows games on ARM‑based Linux devices. The open‑source ROCKNIX OS has added native Steam support for Android handhelds that use Qualcomm Snapdragon chips, allowing users...
Designer Notes #93: Charles Cecil – Part 1
Veteran game designer Charles Cecil, co‑founder of Revolution Software and creator of the Broken Sword series, sits down with Soren Johnson for a deep‑dive interview. The conversation touches on off‑beat tax avoidance tactics from the 1990s, a notorious fax incident...
Gaussian Splats in Godot
The open‑source GDGS add‑on brings 3D Gaussian Splatting to Godot 4.4+, allowing developers to import and render scenes built from large sets of 3D Gaussians. Unlike traditional triangle‑mesh pipelines, GDGS reconstructs captured environments with near‑photoreal quality and supports hybrid compositing with...
Valve's New Proton 11 ARM Beta Gets Hollow Knight: Silksong Running Past 100 FPS on the Ayn Odin 2 Portal
Valve has released the first Proton 11 beta with built‑in ARM64 support and the FEX‑2604 translation layer, enabling Windows games to run on ARM‑based Linux devices. Using the Rocknix Linux distribution, YouTuber ETA Prime demonstrated Hollow Knight: Silksong exceeding 100 FPS on...
New Humble Bundle Deal Undercuts All-Time Low Prices of 15 Steam Deck Games
Humble Bundle introduced the "15 for 15" April 2026 promotion, bundling 15 Steam Deck‑compatible indie games for a flat $15 fee. The titles’ combined all‑time‑low price on Steam is $67.64, while their retail value exceeds $240, delivering a discount of more than...
The Death of the Console War: Why Project Helix Is Both a PC and an Xbox
Microsoft unveiled Project Helix, a hybrid gaming platform that fuses Xbox console and PC experiences into a single ecosystem. Slated for a late‑2027 release at a premium $1,000 price, the system runs on a custom AMD "Xbox Magnus" SoC featuring...
Valve’s 2026 Steam Machine Is Almost Here
Valve announced that its 2026 hardware lineup, including a new Steam Machine, will ship in the first half of 2026. The devices leverage AI‑optimized RAM technology to deliver higher performance at competitive prices. Steam OS 3.8 brings desktop‑mode enhancements and...
FalleN’s Retirement From Counter-Strike 2 Is Actually Good for the Esports Scene
Veteran Brazilian IGL Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo announced his retirement from Counter‑Strike 2 competition, effective at the end of 2026, during a live IEM Rio ceremony. The 20‑year veteran, who rose from Counter‑Strike 1.6 to CS:GO and now CS2, has guided FURIA to...
Pokémon Champions: How to Unlock Shiny Pokémon
Pokémon Champions introduces shiny Pokémon through two exclusive channels: the Roster Ranch recruitment system and transfers from Pokémon HOME. In the Recruit menu, a sparkling silhouette signals a shiny in the generated lineup, allowing players to preview and decide on its...
Handheld Game Console Maker AYN Responds to RAMageddon with Price Hike, Storage Downgrade
Handheld maker AYN announced a two‑pronged response to soaring RAM and storage costs. The premium AYN Thor configuration, previously $449, now costs $549, while a new 16 GB/512 GB Thor model is priced at $469. Simultaneously, all Odin 3 units and every Thor...
Finally, a Game Where You Fight a Many-Legged Fish Train
The upcoming indie title Hieronymus, inspired by Dutch surrealist Hieronymus Bosch, centers its gameplay around battling a many‑legged fish train. The developers argue that the game’s entire experience is carried by its striking art direction, echoing past titles like Bungie’s...
How to Recreate Valve’s Delayed Steam Machine at Home Today
Valve’s Steam Machine remains indefinitely delayed, prompting gamers to build DIY equivalents. Guides outline three hardware tiers—mini PCs for 1080p, small‑form‑factor PCs with mobile GPUs for 1440p, and boutique builds with desktop GPUs for 4K. Installing Linux‑based operating systems such...
Newzoo: Top Roblox Games in 2025
Roblox outpaced the broader gaming market in 2025, posting a 36% year‑over‑year revenue increase to $4.9 billion and a 55% jump in total bookings to $6.8 billion. Users logged 123.8 billion hours in games, with daily active users rising to 126.5 million. New titles...
Serie A Unveils EA Sports FC Team of the Season
Serie A is the first league to launch the Team of the Season (TOTS) for EA Sports FC 26, unveiling a 11‑player roster at 6 pm BST on Friday. AC Milan’s Luka Modrić leads the pack with a 97 rating, while Inter’s Lautaro Martínez earns a 95 rating...
Freecash Was More Like Scamcash
Freecash, a rewards app marketed on TikTok as a way to earn money by scrolling, surged to the No. 2 spot in the U.S. App Store before Apple removed it following TechCrunch’s investigation. In reality, the app redirects users to mobile...
Proton 11.0 Beta Released With More Games Playable On Steam Play
Valve and CodeWeavers have launched Proton 11.0 Beta 1, the first beta milestone for Steam Play’s compatibility layer, now built on upstream Wine 11.0. The update unlocks native Linux support for dozens of titles that previously required the experimental branch, including classics like Resident...
How Virtual Gaming Has Become a Pillar of Modern Entertainment Culture
Virtual gaming has moved from a niche hobby to a core pillar of modern entertainment, sharing space with streaming, social media, and live sports. The sector’s growth is fueled by instant‑play convenience, sleek user‑interface design, and mobile‑first accessibility that fit...
“Smoothie Built the Work Ethic. Andy Is Using It”: What It Takes to Build a Career After Esports
Esports salaries and team budgets are shrinking, leaving retired players with fewer traditional post‑gaming options. Former pros like analyst Alberto “Crumbz” Rengifo and former League of Legends star Andy “Smoothie” Ta are pivoting to corporate sales and luxury real estate,...
$350 Perfect Budget Gaming PC : Easily Handles Modern 1080P Gaming
A guide from ETA Prime shows how to build a 1080p gaming PC for about $350 using a Lenovo IdeaCentre 5 as the base and adding an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050. The pre‑configured desktop ships with an Intel Core i5‑10400, 8 GB DDR4...
Hyper Car Tuning Guide
Arnout announces a hypercar tuning guide aimed at sim racers seeking to master high‑downforce vehicles. After spending months dissecting real‑world data and tweaking nine hypercars in Live for Speed’s LM2, he built a systematic setup approach that promises to cut...
A YouTuber Is Producing the Bloodborne Movie Fans Have Wanted for a Decade
A prominent YouTuber has announced a fan‑made Bloodborne movie, a project the community has been yearning for over a decade. The filmmaker is using a mix of practical effects and CGI to recreate the game’s gothic aesthetic, and the production...
Starfield’s New Expansion Isn’t Likely to Change Your Mind on the Game
Bethesda released the "New Horizons" expansion for Starfield, adding roughly ten new planets and side quests. The DLC arrives bundled with the Premium Edition, offering it at no extra cost to early purchasers. While the content expands the game's universe,...
How Are Crypto Games Doing in 2026?
The crypto‑gaming boom that surged in 2022‑23 has largely collapsed by 2026, with total market revenue estimated at roughly $200 million—down more than 70% from its peak. Regulatory crackdowns on unregistered securities and the fallout from high‑profile token failures have driven...
Pokémon Champions: All Rewards in Season 1 Battle Pass
Pokémon Champions launched its Season 1 Battle Pass, rewarding players for earning Season Points in ranked PvP matches. The Pass is split into free and Premium tracks, with the free tier offering items like Mega Stones and training tickets, while the...
Richard Moss’s 2010 Interview With John Calhoun on the Origins of Glider
John Calhoun’s Glider began as a paper‑airplane experiment on a VIC‑20 and evolved into a beloved Mac shareware title through iterative physics‑based design. After prototyping in MacPaint on his first Mac Plus, he added obstacles and power‑ups one by one, creating...
Pragmata Review Roundup: 'Nostalgia Wrapped in a Shiny New Spacesuit'
Capcom’s long‑awaited new IP, Pragmata, launched on April 17, 2026 across PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC, quickly earning an 86 Metacritic score from 88 critic reviews. Reviewers highlighted the game’s clever level design, satisfying combat, and a...
Phaser 4 Released
Phaser, the open‑source JavaScript/TypeScript 2D game engine, launched Phaser 4 on April 14, 2026. The update features a ground‑up rewrite of the WebGL renderer, shifting from a pipeline to a node‑based architecture. New GPU‑accelerated layers let developers draw millions of sprites or massive...
The Rippling Effects of 7.41
The provided request references an article titled “The Rippling Effects of 741” by VezirOdSemberije, published six hours ago, but no article body was supplied. Without the article content, no specific news, metrics, or developments can be extracted.
Playable Ads Trends in Mobile Games & Apps - March 2026
In March 2026, playable ads moved firmly beyond gaming, with six of AppLovin's top‑10 creatives originating from non‑gaming categories. The shift reflects broader adoption of interactive ad formats across finance, health, and e‑commerce apps. Marketers highlighted two primary use cases—product...
Godot 4.7 Dev3 and Dev4 Released
Godot released its 4.7 Dev3 and Dev4 snapshots on April 13, 2026, adding a suite of UI, 3D editing, and platform enhancements. Dev3 introduces transform offset for Control nodes, a PopupMenu search bar, vertex snapping, class‑name scene view, a MeshLibrary...
GTA 6 Hackers Give Rockstar a Deadline to Pay for Stolen Data
Rockstar Games has been pressured by the ShinyHunters ransomware group to pay a ransom by April 14 2026 for data stolen in a third‑party breach. The attackers accessed authentication tokens through a compromised cloud‑cost monitoring tool, allowing them to infiltrate Rockstar’s Snowflake...
Razer Viper V4 Pro Best Settings: Click to Win with These Synapse Tweaks
The Shortcut’s guide details optimal Synapse Web tweaks for the Razer Viper V4 Pro, one of the lightest and fastest esports mice available. It walks readers through DPI, polling rate, and button mapping adjustments that can be made directly in...
This New Game Console Gets Your Whole Family Off the Couch
Startup Nex Playground has launched an AI‑driven gaming system that transforms any TV into an active, controller‑free console. Using a built‑in camera, the platform tracks players’ movements and offers motion‑based games designed for all ages. The device aims to get...
Latest SteamOS Update Completely Changes Steam Deck Download Management
Valve rolled out a major SteamOS beta that adds remote download management, FPS‑based game recommendations, and a performance patch for Death Stranding 2. Users can now start, pause, or reorder downloads on their Steam Deck from any device, even waking the handheld...
Are Xbox Exclusives Returning Under Asha Sharma?
Xbox’s new head, Asha Sharma, is signaling a possible return to a stronger exclusive‑first strategy after years of cross‑platform focus. Internal turmoil at Halo Studios, including management turnover and delays on Halo Campaign Evolved, highlights the difficulty of delivering marquee...
FGC Shocked at Capcom’s Low Prize Pools for Street Fighter 6 CPT Tournaments
Capcom’s Street Fighter 6 Pro Tour (CPT) offers a $1 million prize for the Capcom Cup, but the year‑long events only award $2,000 to the winner. Players and creators argue the low payouts force pros to self‑fund travel and make the...
D7VK 1.7 Brings More Improvements For Legacy Direct3D On Vulkan
The open‑source D7VK project released version 1.7, extending its support for legacy Direct3D 3, 5, 6, and 7 APIs on Vulkan. The update refines vertex transformation, clipping, and lighting handling, and adds workarounds that enable more classic Windows games to...
Xbox Project Helix Insiders Just Revealed the Radical New Dashboard
Microsoft’s Project Helix, a hybrid console‑PC system slated for a 2027 launch, is being tested with a new “Full Screen Experience” dashboard. The interface merges services such as Steam, Epic Games, Xbox Game Pass, GOG and Ubisoft into a controller‑first...
‘TRANSFORMERS Forged to Fight’ Is Shutting Down (Again) and Leaving Netflix Games
Netflix Games will remove the action‑RPG TRANSFORMERS Forged to Fight on May 8 2026, ending a three‑year licensing agreement that began when Kabam brought the title to the platform in May 2023. The game, originally launched in 2017 and briefly shut down in...
GTA 6 Probably Won’t Look as Good as the Trailers, Former Dev Admits
A former Rockstar environmental artist revealed that the Grand Theft Auto VI trailers are heavily polished, focusing only on the camera’s view, while the rest of the game world is still at an earlier development stage. He explained that assets outside...
Konami Hits 1bn Downloads of eFootball Game, Launches Suite of New Features
Konami announced that its eFootball title has surpassed one billion cumulative downloads worldwide, marking a major milestone for the free‑to‑play football franchise. To leverage the achievement, the company introduced a limited‑time Master League Sprint mode, daily login incentives and a manga...
Esports Has Changed, but Sexist Situations Won’t Go Away
Recent accounts from League of Legends players Ève “Colomblbl” Monvoisin and Maya “Caltys” Henckel reveal they were turned down for team spots solely because they are women. Their stories sparked a wave of community backlash, highlighting that gender‑based exclusion remains...
The Android Tablet That Runs Steam Games : Lenovo Legion Tab Gen 5
Lenovo’s Legion Tab Gen 5 brings a Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 processor and up to 24 GB of RAM to the Android tablet market, delivering performance that rivals many ultrabooks. The device ships with a desktop mode that mimics a PC interface, offering multi‑window support,...