Gaming News

Splitgate developer 1047 Games has reacted to the online commentary regarding the recent re-launch of the shooter Splitgate: Arena Reloaded. The game arrived in mid-December 2025 and hasn't gotten close to the Steam numbers that Splitgate 2 or Splitgate 1 reached, prompting online commenters to wonder if the game will be able to stay online. The developer said in a statement, "Steam charts don't measure fun," adding that Steam player numbers only show "one number, on one platform, at one...
Balatro and Hollow Knight: Silksong "shouldn't exist," according to industry analyst Joost van Dreunen. He elaborated that, "They don't make rational sense financially, and yet somehow they are deeply loved." Their commercial viability is an undeniable fact. However, the scale of their success baffles industry conventional wisdom. Van Drunen is professor at the NYU Stern School of Business and a strategic advisor for the community development agency ELO. In an interview with...
Season 1 Reloaded arrives in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and Warzone this week, and Activision has already revealed many details for this midseason update. Season 1 Reloaded includes more weapons to unlock, additional maps for multiplayer, and a crossover with the Fallout TV show. Call of Duty Season 1 Reloaded start times The Season 1 Reloaded update arrives to Black Ops 7 and Warzone on January 8. Call of Duty's updates usually go live at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET / 5 PM BST across all platforms...
Dungeons & Dragons is one of the main throughlines in the Netflix sci-fi hit Stranger Things, but the show's finale found inspiration from the acclaimed D&D game Baldur's Gate 3, according to one of the show's creators. Spoilers for the Stranger Things finale follow. Stranger Things co-creator Matt Duffer mentioned to Variety that he was playing the Larian Studios-developed title while working on the final season. Duffer implied that the climactic showdown with Vecna and the Mind Flayer...
Mistborn fans may be able to take to the virtual streets of Luthadel eventually, but not for a while. As part of the yearly "State of the Sanderson" blog post, author Brandon Sanderson shared that he has been in conversations with multiple AAA developers about a potential Mistborn project. If the project does come to fruition, it will be years away. Sanderson seems to be optimistic about the project's chances. He wrote, "I feel I’m finally getting established enough that we can make a...
Animal Crossing: New Horizons made a huge impact on the world of cozy gaming back in 2020, and it's about to make a big resurgence. With the game now available on both the original Switch and the Switch 2 (with an even more upgraded Switch 2 Edition landing January 15), Nintendo's flagship cozy game is back. Whether you've been playing consistently since launch, or want to dive back in and see what your villagers have been up to over the past few years, you may be looking to make your grand...
It's a new year, and that means more free games for Amazon Prime members. Amazon has now announced the 10 games that subscribers can grab on PC and 13 via the cloud for a total of 23 freebies. One of the biggest free games for January is EA's Madden NFL 26, which is the newest entry in the professional football series. It's coming to Luna for cloud streaming on January 10 just in time for the start of the NFL Playoffs, which begin with Wild Card matchups the same day. This is also the day...
If you're working your way through Stella Montis, Arc Raiders' first post-launch map, you may have the Snap and Salvage quest. This multi-step quest requires you to find multiple spots of interaction, as well as recover some specific pieces of loot. It can take some time to figure all of this out on your own, so we've put together a step-by-step process to get you through it. Note that each part of this quest can be completed across multiple runs, so there's no need to wrap it all up in a...
Unbeatable introduces itself with a simple, yet punchy premise: we find a group of teens in a band, on the run from and getting into fights with the local authority. The twist? Instead of playing out as a traditional story-driven game, the beating drum of the experience is structured around rhythm-based gameplay. Sequences such as dreams and combat encounters are all guided by Unbeatable's take on the classic Guitar Hero notes-on-a-fretboard style gameplay, in which prompts tell you which...
Prolific video game voice actor Troy Baker said he believes the generative AI revolution is a "good thing," in that it will push people to seek out "authentic" experiences made by artists as opposed to AI "gruel." In an interview with The Game Business, Baker said there is no doubt "AI can make content way better than humans" and can "crank it out no problem." It is important to remember, however, that what AI makes is merely content, not art, Baker said. "AI can create content but it...
This year marks the 15th anniversary of Fallout: New Vegas, the beloved spin-off that was developed by Obsidian Entertainment. Bethesda hasn't entrusted the franchise to many other developers, and according to studio boss Todd Howard, Obsidian was the only choice to take on New Vegas. "They were the only choice," Howard told Game Informer (via GamesRadar). "They had done something similar with [Star Wars] Knights of the Old Republic 2, and we knew them really well. We knew we were going...
Highlighting an ongoing trend, the most popular games on PlayStation and Xbox are multiplayer, online, live-service titles that aren't necessarily "new," at least not in the traditional sense. Circana's Mat Piscatella revealed that 2025's top five most-played games for PlayStation and Xbox in the US were the same as 2024's, and in the case of PS5, the ranking was exactly the same. On PS5, the top five most-played games in the US were Fortnite, Call of Duty, GTA V, Roblox, and Minecraft...
A lot of interesting technology has been revealed at the Consumer Electronics Show 2026 this week, but one of the strangest might be Razer's Project Ava, an AI-powered desktop companion. Razer envisions the device as a "dynamic personality" that can interact with its owners as a 3D hologram, and it'll have several animated personalities to choose from, including one based on the prominent League of Legends esports player, Faker. Razer claims that Ava uses human-like vision and audio-sensing...
South Park is following in the tradition of The Simpsons yet again. Just a few months after the Simpsons-themed mini season in Fortnite, Epic Games is teasing the arrival of Comedy Central's South Park and its lineup of foul-mouthed kids. The initial teaser image was shared by the official Fortnite social media accounts, and it doesn't confirm anything except a vague warning--"Chaos, loading..."--and a date, January 9, when all will be revealed. Previous leaks have suggested that the...
CES 2026 has officially begun, and Razer is using this year's showcase to reveal a slew of AI-powered gadgets. One of the most intriguing debuts is Project Motoko, an AI headset powered by Snapdragon. Equipped with a pair of cameras near each earcup, it's capable of analyzing your surroundings and giving you audio feedback on what it sees. Razer says Project Motoko can provide all sorts of feedback to users. For example, it can be used while gaming to get feedback about a boss fight...
Following the game's delay to May 2026, IO Interactive has announced the PC requirements for the upcoming James Bond game, 007: First Light. IO also mentioned that it worked "in close collaboration" with Nvidia for the game. 007 First Light uses DLSS 4 with multi-frame generation, which the developer says allows for an "even deeper sense of immersion and improved performance." The minimum specs are relatively low-end and don't call for an SSD; this is targeting 1080p/30fps. The recommended...
Neurable and HyperX are teaming up to develop a gaming headset designed to help you play better. How will it do this? With an "industry-first neurotechnology-powered" headset that can potentially improve focus and accuracy in competitive games. It's also designed to use "non-invasive" neurotechnology, so you don't have to worry about getting a few cybernetic upgrades to be compatible with the device. HyperX and Neurable's headset concept Gallery Neurable and HyperX claim that...
Lies of P publisher Neowiz describes itself as a "forward-thinking technology company," and its co-CEO says that means the company is exploring how all manner of technology-based solutions can help the company's business in the future, including AI. Sean Kim told Game Informer that Korea, where Neowiz is based, is understood to be one of the countries where ChatGPT is "used most actively." He added, "It's hard to find a game company here today that isn’t using AI in some way. At the very...
Square Enix has announced that a demo for Dragon Quest VII Reimagined will become available tomorrow, January 7. On top of that, your save data can be transferred to the full game when it launches next month, meaning your lengthy adventure can start early for the RPG remake. It's unknown how much content is in the Dragon Quest VII Reimagined demo to check out. However, Square Enix is promising on X that players will receive Maribel's Day Off Dress as a reward in the full game. This is the...
Sony has filed a patent document that could potentially allow AI to take over your game for you if you're struggling with it. The documents suggest that this "ghost assistance" can be activated at any time to either guide a player through progression or assume direct control of gameplay. As revealed in the patent documents first filed in September 2024 (via VGC), the AI assistance system could potentially play through a section of a game that a player is struggling with, completing it for...