Yesterday, a major leak outed AMD's alleged forthcoming refresh of "Strix Halo" silicon. According to VideoCardz's anonymous industry contacts, Team Red's codename for this new mobile processor family is "Gorgon Halo." A specific "Ryzen AI Max+ 495" SKU was brought up as an example; highlighted as a potential range-topper and successor to the current-gen Ryzen AI Max+ 395 model. Almost a day later, an HKEPC report has listed the aforementioned top ""Gorgon Halo" option, and four other options. The Hong Kong-based publication understands that the five identified "Ryzen AI MAX 400" products will utilize familiar architectures: Zen 5 for CPU cores, RDNA 3.5 for integrated graphics solutions (Radeon 8060S or 8050S), and XDNA 2 for the NPU aspect.

Naturally, these technologies form the basis of readily available "Strix Halo" APUs. HKEPC claims that the freshly-leaked "half-generation upgrade" will be the result of "enhanced chip quality." Elaborating further they propose that "Gorgon Halo" models will maintain the same TDPs as preceding equivalents, but with clock speeds increased—most notably improving multicore performance. A close-up shot of a possible engineering sample provides the "100-000002127" serial code. This OPN seems to refer to "Gorgon Halo's" least potent member—Ryzen AI Max 485. The HKEPC article anticipates a launch happening around October of this year.

To all adventurers: The upcoming demo for The Eternal Life of Goldman will go live on February 19 and will be available throughout Steam Next Fest, which runs from February 23 to March 2! In this breathtaking platformer adventure, explore a vast hand-drawn Archipelago, inspired by ancient fables and depicted in classic frame-by-frame animation, and defeat a mysterious Deity.

Players will be able to experience an early playable version of The Eternal Life of Goldman starting ahead of Steam Next Fest, with the demo remaining live during the entire festival. The demo will also stay available for a limited time beyond the end of Steam Next Fest before being taken offline at a later date.

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Tripwire Presents, the publishing division of Tripwire Interactive, and developer Arctic Hazard announced that they have delayed the release of their upcoming Viking-era turn-based tactical game set in dark age Norway, NORSE: Oath of Blood. The title will now launch on Windows PC via Steam, GOG and the Epic Games Store on Feb. 17, while the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S versions will launch this Spring. The development team is taking additional time to ensure that players first embarking on Gunnar's quest for vengeance have the best Viking tactics experience possible. More details can be found on NORSE: Oath of Blood's X or Bluesky pages.

Step into the rugged, untamed beauty of dark age Norway in NORSE: Oath of Blood, a turn-based tactics game that plunges players into the heart of the Viking Age. Embark on an epic quest for vengeance as Gunnar, a young warrior whose destiny is forged in blood and betrayal. After the treacherous Steinarr Far-Spear murders his father, Jarl Gripr, and usurps his high seat, Gunnar's path is clear: rebuild, ally, and rise to reclaim honor and justice.

ASUS today announced ASUS ExpertBook B3 G2, a configurable Copilot+ PC designed for business, available in 14-inch and 16-inch models and featuring a durable, lightweight design starting from just 1.41 kg, a 180° lay-flat hinge, advanced AI capabilities, enterprise-grade security, and seamless collaboration.

With up to an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX processor with integrated GPU and NPU acceleration power, ExpertBook B3 G2's advanced AI features—including ASUS MyExpert, Copilot, and noise-canceling technology—to enhance business productivity. The lightweight, easily-maintained design offers extensive I/O options and support for high-speed Wi-Fi 7 connectivity. Security is strengthened by ASUS ExpertGuardian, delivering NIST SP 800-193 compliance, dual ROM BIOS recovery, and TPM 2.0 protection for robust data resilience.

As the audio landscape continues to be enriched by a wave of standout innovations, QCY, a leading brand driven by continuous audio innovation, proudly unveils its Hybrid Noise Cancelling Wireless Earbuds—MeloBuds N20. Combining exceptional sound performance, powerful hybrid noise cancellation, and up to 40 hours of immersive listening, the MeloBuds N20 is designed to surprise and delight, elevating commutes and everyday moments into experiences that are smarter, more comfortable, and blissfully quiet.

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At the heart of the sound experience is a 13 mm dynamic driver, precisely engineered to deliver rich, full-bodied audio with remarkable depth and clarity. From resonant lows to finely detailed mids and highs, every note is reproduced with balance and power, bringing music to life with natural warmth and immersive presence. Whether you are listening to music, podcasts, or calls, the expansive driver ensures a more expressive and engaging soundstage, transforming everyday listening into a truly refined audio experience.

TrendForce's latest research indicates that AI innovation is causing a fundamental shift in the memory market. As data access volumes continue to grow, AI systems depend more on high-bandwidth, high-capacity, low-latency DRAM to handle large-scale model parameters, long-sequence inference, and multi-task parallel processing. Additionally, NAND Flash has become essential for fast data transfer, making memory a key component in AI infrastructure and a strategic focus for CSPs.

Memory prices have continuously increased due to limited capacity and rising demand for allocations, pushing industry revenue to new record levels. TrendForce projects the memory market to be worth $551.6 billion in 2026 and to surge to a peak of $842.7 billion in 2027, reflecting a 53% YoY growth.

Intel is preparing to launch its Core Ultra Series 4 "Nova Lake" processor generation toward the end of 2026, CEO Lip-Bu Tan confirmed. This processor generation would span various form-factors, including importantly, desktop. Intel is building its next-generation "Nova Lake-S" desktop processor around the new Socket LGA1954 platform that replaces the current LGA1851. The company is planning to release Core Ultra Series 3 "Arrow Lake Refresh" for LGA1851 in the run-up to "Nova Lake-S" by yearend.

With "Nova Lake," Intel is expected to make fundamental changes to its processor design to help the company claw back performance leadership over AMD in the desktop segment. These changes include a doubling in CPU core counts going up to 16P+32E, a new iGPU based on the Xe3 "Celestial" graphics architecture, a new NPU that meets Copilot+ requirements, and the introduction of special SKUs with BLLC (big last-level cache), Intel's answer to AMD's 3D V-Cache. Intel will update the CPU complex with new "Coyote Cove" P-cores, and "Arctic Wolf" E-cores, both of which are expected to improve IPC over the current "Lion Cove" and "Skymont" combo. "Coyote Cove" does not feature HyperThreading, something the Intel CEO wants to see restored on the company's P-cores, but "Nova Lake" will make up for it with a numerical increase in P-core counts.

According to Roman "der8auer" Hartung and HardwareLuxx, NVIDIA has effectively ended its Open Price Program (OPP). This program was intended to help NVIDIA's add-in card partners sell GPUs at NVIDIA-suggested MSRPs. The program reportedly ended a few days ago, which means the pricing of GPUs from NVIDIA's AIC partners will now fluctuate beyond MSRP. NVIDIA supplies its GPU dies and GDDR7 memory as a DIY kit to AIC partners, who purchase these kits at predetermined prices. They then install the GPU and memory on their customized PCBs to create third-party GPU designs. However, due to the scarcity of memory, GDDR7 prices have been rising significantly, and NVIDIA is passing these cost increases onto its AIC partners.

As per to HardwareLuxx, the OPP program helped NVIDIA's AICs maintain MSRPs for their custom GPUs. Participation in the OPP program allowed manufacturers to list their GPUs at MSRPs, making them more appealing to consumers due to their perceived value. However, with the end of the OPP program, prices are expected to rise significantly since NVIDIA will no longer "subsidize" these listings. This change is likely influenced by the strained supply chain in the memory segment, where manufacturers are running low on available memory, leading to increased lead times and higher costs. Fortunately, NVIDIA continues to provide GDDR7 memory with its GPUs, so AIC partners don't need to source it independently.

TechPowerUp partnered with Chieftec in December 2025 to bring our readers from the European Union a chance to bag one of six pieces of Chieftec hardware spanning the company's cases, power supplies, and liquid CPU cooling lineup. Up for grabs were a Chieftec The Cube cube-shaped microATX case; a spacious Chieftec Hunter 3 EATX tower case; a Chieftec Apex Lumo ATX mid-tower case, a Chieftec Stealth 1000 W ATX 3.1 modular power supply; a Chieftec Iceberg 360 RGB AIO CLC, and a Chieftec Iceberg White 360 AIO CLC. We have picked the winners, and without further ado, here they are!

• Makarios from Greece, wins a Chieftec The Cube CI-03B-OP case
• Torbjörn from Sweden, wins a Hunter 3 GS-03B-OP case
• Péter from Hungary, wins an Apex Lumo GA-01B-L-OP case
• Roman from Austria, wins a Stealth 1000W SPX-1000-FC power supply
• Tomáš from Czechia, wins an Iceberg 360 RGB CLC-360-RGB CPU cooler
• Jānis from Latvia, wins an Iceberg White 360 CLC-360-RGB-W

Huge congratulations to our winners! TechPowerUp and Chieftec will return with more such interesting Giveaways!

Intel's concluded its Q4 and full-year 2025 earnings call, revealing interesting things about its foundry operations and node selection. When talking about the upcoming 14A node, Intel confirmed that the node is on track for 2027, with yields that are in good shape. However, the bulk of the 14A external capacity Intel will dedicate depends on customers willing to sign manufacturing contracts first, before Intel spends insane amount of funds required to expand manufacturing capacity. Intel CEO Lib-Bu Tan noted "Engagements with potential external customers on Intel 14A are active. We believe customers will begin to make firm supplier decisions starting in the second half of this year and extending into the first half of 2027. We also have the opportunity to provide strong differentiation in advanced packaging, particularly with EMIB and EMIB-T."

Intel CFO David Zinsner has stated "On 14A, Lip-Bu has been very direct with us on all of this. He does not want to spend on capacity on 14A, only spend on the kind of TD spend or R&D spend associated with 14A, even in the fab until we have customers secured. We've talked about the likelihood is our customers on 14A, their window to secure, or for us to secure them will be in the back half of this year and in the first half of next year. And so once visibility improves there, we'll start to unlock the spend on 14A. I can just add a little bit more. I think on the yield improvement, we see 7%, 8% yield improvement per month." Intel has previously mentioned that while there will be a base capacity for internal use, any future expansion for third-party services will depend on customers' willingness to invest capital with Intel Foundry.

Yesterday, after the equity market closed, Intel announced its Q4 and full-year 2025 earnings, along with weaker-than-expected guidance for Q1 2026. As a result, Intel's stock is anticipated to open 11% lower today. During the Q4 earnings call, Intel's CFO, David Zinsner, explained the reasons behind the reduced outlook, despite the increasing demand for Intel products. The situation arose due to hyperscalers demanding more units. Intel's discussions with these customers indicated a preference for high core count solutions rather than increased unit shipments. Consequently, Intel adjusted its inventory and internal wafer supply to maintain reasonable stock levels while consistently shipping new units. However, hyperscalers have since been ordering larger quantities, leading to a temporary shortage of Xeon processors for the Data Center and AI (DCAI) group. To address this, Intel plans to redirect some resources from the Client Computing Group (CCG) to support Xeon CPU production.

Intel CFO David ZinsnerBoth (DCAI and CCG) will be down as a function of supply. Obviously, we're shifting as much as we can over to data center to meet the high demand, but we can't completely vacate the client market. So we're trying to support both as best we can and obviously work our way out of this supply issue. I do believe that the first quarter is the trough. We will improve supply in the second quarter. Part of the challenge is that in the third and fourth quarter of 2025, we lived off of supply, but we also had a reasonable chunk of finished goods inventory to also work through. Unfortunately, that is now down to kind of 40% of what it was at peak levels.

Deadlock has been in invite-only early beta testing for over a year now, with previous updates introducing a steady trickle of new content alongside substantial stability fixes, UI polish, and quality-of-life changes. The latest update to the free-to-play MOBA-meets-hero shooter, however, introduces a whack of new content, including a new game mode, six new heroes, and new enemies to hunt down. Along with the new in-game content, Deadlock's ongoing UI overhaul, map updates, and quality-of-life options also receive a number of helpful additions. The UI now looks a lot more cohesive throughout, thanks to changes to the chat UI, the introduction of several interactive elements, including new damage indicators and numbers, a custom Steam recording timeline, objective health bars, and a completely reworked settings menu with a bunch of new options, including reticle control. The Patrons—NPC objectives players have to defend or defeat—have also been reworked and reintroduced as the Hidden King and the Archmother.

The biggest news in the latest update is by far the new game mode. Street Brawl is a fast-paced game mode that puts players in smaller 4v4 match-up in a best-of-five format. Players vie for control of the city, and each of the rounds only takes "a couple of minutes." Shopping during Street Brawl has been stripped back, with players able to add three items from a random pool to their inventory each round. There is also no farming, as player resources are reset each round. Valve has also revealed six new heroes, which will be released at the usual two-per-week rate. Aside from the teaser images posted on the mini site, also available below, not much has been revealed other than the heroes' names and their appearances. Judging by the available information, the new heroes consist of everything from melee brawlers and weapons experts to mages, a summoner, and even a support character.

We already saw some nifty announcements come out of the latest Xbox Developer_Direct, including a deep dive into Fable's open world and writing, but the event also gave us a look at Beast of Reincarnation, which is an upcoming Souls-like RPG in development at Game Freak and being published by Fictions. The game will be Game Freak's first AAA game other than the Pokémon series, and it is being developed in Unreal Engine 5. According to the announcement and gameplay overview video, Beast of Reincarnation is slated to launch in "summer 2026," suggesting a launch date sometime between June and August.

Beast of Reincarnation is a Souls-like RPG set in a futuristic post-apocalyptic Japan that follows the story of an exiled woman, Emma, and her wolf companion, Koo, as they try to survive and find their place as outcasts in a blight-stricken ruins of human civilization. It is an exclusively single-player experience, and Game Freak says it will be built around "demanding, technical combat," that sees players use both Emma's fast-paced swordplay and Koo's abilities that players can call on in order to fend off monstrous beasts and robotic foes. Game Freak also showed off some of the traversal and the synergy between traversal and Emma's powers, which are rooted in her ability to absorb the blight and lock it away inside her body, also teasing a close relationship between the protagonist and the natural world. Beast of Reincarnation will launch simultaneously on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam. The game already has a Steam page where you can wishlist it, but pre-orders are not yet available, and there is no other information to be gleaned from it than has already been revealed in the Developer_Direct.

Intel revealed the Panther Lake Core Ultra Series 3 mobile CPUs headed up by the Core Ultra X9 388H, at CES 2026 earlier this year. Intel promised that the flagship CPU would deliver up to 60% better multi-thread performance than the predecessor. While laptops with the Core Series 3 CPUs are only slated to arrive on January 27, some early benchmarks have appeared online ahead of the official launch date, courtesy of x86 is dead&back on X. According to the PassMark benchmark results, the Core Ultra X9 388H scored 37,904 points in the multi-thread benchmark and 4,451 points in the single-thread benchmark. This is a good 10% faster than the Core Ultra 9 285H (34,436 points) it is replacing and a solid 29% faster than the aging Core Ultra 9 185H in the multicore benchmarks. When it comes to single-core benchmarks, the Core Ultra X9 388H is basically only on-par with the 285H, but around 20% faster than the Core Ultra 9 185H.

It is, however, worth noting that these numbers are based on the average between two benchmarking runs, which varied greatly. During one benchmarking session, the Core Ultra X9 388H scored a whopping 40,523 points, although the hardware configurations don't seem to have changed from run to run. The test laptop, memory, and CPU clocks all appear to be the same, suggesting that environmental differences or software configuration may be to blame. The high score was actually the second one registered, so while these early benchmarks should still be taken with a pinch of salt, the numbers indicate that the new Intel Panther Lake CPUs might be impressive performers. For reference, the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX Pro 470 scored 36,591 points in the PassMark multicore tests and 4,216 points in the single-score tests. The iGPU in the X9 388H was also previously benchmarked in Cyberpunk 2077, effectively doubling the performance of AMD's Strix Halo Radeon 890M iGPU. These latest results show reasonable performance gains, although we have yet to see the mid-range Panther Lake CPUs, which showed middling results in early benchmarks in late 2025.

Intel Corporation today reported fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 financial results. "Our conviction in the essential role of CPUs in the AI era continues to grow," said Lip-Bu Tan, Intel CEO. "We delivered a solid finish to the year and made progress on our journey to build a new Intel. The introduction of our first products on Intel 18A - the most advanced process technology developed and manufactured in the United States - marks an important milestone, and we're working aggressively to grow supply to meet strong customer demand. Our priorities are clear: sharpen execution, reinvigorate engineering excellence, and fully capitalize on the vast opportunity AI presents across all of our businesses."

"We exceeded Q4 expectations across revenue, gross margin, and EPS even as we navigated industry-wide supply shortages," said David Zinsner, Intel CFO. "We expect our available supply to be at its lowest level in Q1 before improving in Q2 and beyond. Demand fundamentals across our core markets remain healthy as the rapid adoption of AI reinforces the importance of the x86 ecosystem as the world's most widely deployed high-performance compute architecture."

Samsung's recently announced Exynos 2600 features an updated Xclipse 960 GPU designed in partnership with AMD, and Samsung claims it will deliver up to twice the GPU performance of the outgoing Xclipse 950 found in the Exynos 2500. Now, benchmarks are finally starting to appear online, revealing surprisingly solid GPU performance. In the limited early testing, it has been found to even keep up with some Arm-powered Windows devices.

In the Geekbench 6 OpenCL test, the Xclipse 960 GPU scored 24,964 points, officially making it the fastest OpenCL result on the Geekbench Browser's Android benchmark list, beating out the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 in the Honor Magic8 Pro by over 1,000 points (23,634). Even compared to full-fat Windows-on-Arm laptops, the Xclipse 960 performs quite well, outpacing the Snapdragon X Elite's Adreno X1-85 GPU in the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x 14 by a decent margin—it scored 20,771 in the same OpenCL test. For a more direct comparison, the Xclipse 950 that preceded the 960 managed 18,509 points in the same OpenCL benchmark.

Today at Developer_Direct, we got our first in-depth look at Fable, the open world, action-RPG "new beginning" for a truly legendary Xbox series—and learned that it will arrive this Autumn. From a specially created new team at Playground Games (Forza Horizon), this huge, ambitious, hilarious game aims to bring what you love about Fable, and provide a fresh perspective on this legendary franchise.

During Developer_Direct, we learned how the story begins, saw combat in action, had character customization confirmed, discovered how Fable's classic morality system is being reintroduced in a whole new way, found out about the game's Living Population of unique NPCs, and so, so much more. But there are always more questions to be answered, which is why I tracked down Fable's GM and Game Director, Ralph Fulton to dig deeper into some of the big topics we just learned about.

Molding a game into shape is a lot like bringing a piece of pottery to life from a chunk of clay. You must be nimble enough to maintain its shape all the way through to the firing process to keep your vision intact, which requires a tremendous amount of patience where a misstep can have it all fall apart—but with enough persistence, creativity, and elbow grease, beautiful art can come out of the fire. Now, Kiln has arrived to complement my metaphor with its unique blend of pottery creation and multiplayer party brawling, wrapped in Double Fine's singular magic. Revealed during the latest Developer_Direct, where we got to meet the team behind this upcoming game, you play as a little spirit tasked with creating and inhabiting pots of all sizes and shapes, before jumping into team-based multiplayer battle arenas against your fellow players' own clay creations.

Creating your own pot isn't just a pleasant side activity—you're quite literally handcrafting your pot from scratch, with your choices directly influencing how your character plays in the game. In talking with Project Lead Derek Brand, it's these custom pottery creations that help bring the unique elements of Kiln to life. The team worked incredibly hard to balance the feeling of doing it yourself with an accessibility that allows you to jump into the game feeling as though you've made the right pot for the right job."Making pots in real life is really difficult," explains Brand. "It takes a lot of practice, and you can get good at it over time, but it is not an easy thing to just jump into. We wanted to make the pot-making super easy and accessible—it's just a button and a control stick - and you can make any kind of shape you wanted. We wanted people to immediately feel like they're masters at this craft."

Greetings, Flameborn! This is a pretty massive blog post so strap all the way in, or just scroll and find a headline you wanna read: it's all good stuff. Better yet: don't wanna read any of that? Just check out this short video where our Community Lead CoolUsernameBro (that's me! I write these blog posts! Hi!) and our Creative Director Antony go over the announcements! Just click the video below, you know you want to. Or keep reading, we wrote it for you, after all...

Enshrouded is two years old!
How time flies. Where were you two years ago? I can tell you us at Keen were very, very nervous, about to push the "Release" button, hoping for the best. And then a torrent of players poured in, and the rest is gaming history. To celebrate, we are introducing some new Twitch Drops, which those of you who prefer will be able to find in-game (speak with the huntress!). We think you'll love the set! We've tried many different things when it comes to vanity outfits, and we hope you enjoy the variety.

Forza Horizon 6 arrives later this year, and today's Developer_Direct took us to Playground Games for an in-depth look at how this game has been brought to life. We of course, had to know even more, so I sat down with Design Director, Torben Ellert to learn about this gorgeous recreation of Japan, all of the brand-new additions coming with this mainline instalment, and exactly how Forza Horizon 6 aims to grant players the ultimate freedom of exploration.

The Start
You start Forza Horizon 6 not as a professional driver, but as a tourist, with a dream to one day attend the Horizon Festival in Japan. It's a slightly different approach compared with previous Horizon games; in Horizon 4, you're rising through the ranks in the UK, and in Horizon 5's Mexico, you're at the apex of the career you built in the epilogue of the previous game. Horizon 6 almost feels like a fresh start, and one designed to appeal not just to car enthusiasts, but anyone with a big goal.

Hasbro is best known for manufacturing decades worth of toys, but the North American multinational corporation also deals in electronic entertainment. As rights holder of the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D)—via its Wizards of the Coast subsidiary—Hasbro has enjoyed monumental success with a particular video game development partner. In 2023, Larian Studios released the full version of Baldur's Gate 3 (BG3) to widespread critical acclaim, quickly followed by impressive sales figures. Since then, the Belgian outfit has moved away from making licensed D&D content. In a curious turn of events, CRPG fans playing on Nintendo platforms have restarted chatter about BG3 potentially heading to current-gen hybrid hardware. Late last month, Doug Bowser retired from his President + COO positions chez Nintendo of America.

In a surprise move, the long-time computer game industry exec has just joined the Board of Directors at Hasbro. Earlier this week, Rich Stoddart (chairman) welcomed two new members: "we are delighted to have Doug (Bowser) and Carla (Vernón) join our seasoned and dynamic (Board)...Doug and Carla bring extensive leadership experience across consumer brands and franchise management. Their expertise and guidance will be invaluable as Hasbro continues to execute its long-term innovation and growth strategy." Before his ten-year-long spell at Nintendo's Seattle, WA area-based HQ, Bowser worked as VP of global demand planning at Electronic Arts. Half-jokingly, the computer gaming community believes that the former NoA boss could hold enough weight to convince Swen Vincke & Co. to port Baldur's Gate 3 over to Switch 2. After all, Larian managed to get a slightly diluted version of Divinity: Original Sin II to run on the original Switch console. A Switch 2 Edition launched last month; better hardware enabled higher resolutions and frame rates.

Everyone is aware of the massive memory shortage the industry is currently experiencing, yet prices are reportedly still rising. According to an anonymous Samsung memory distributor, an immediate price hike of 80% has been applied. Later, an employee from the Device Solutions Campus in Giheung, located south of Seoul, confirmed this information. However, we still lack official confirmation from other third-party sources. If the 80% hike is accurate, it will likely apply to the latest batch of contract prices Samsung has imposed on its distributors. As new contract negotiations occur every quarter, it seems the 80% price increase is applied for Q1, given that the effect is noted as immediate.

The scope of this adjustment includes all Samsung memory products, which encompass a diverse range of offerings such as DDR, HBM, LPDDR, and GDDR solutions. These products are used in mobile devices, desktops, embedded systems, graphics cards, AI accelerators, and more. However, since some memory products are supplied directly to Samsung's customers without distributors, it is likely that only certain types of these products will experience a significant price increase, if the reports are accurate. We still have a few weeks left before the trickle-down economics of the supply chain start to manifest, so we will know for sure if these rumors are true.

Update 18:36 UTC: : According to UDN, Samsung has denied these price hikes, claiming that the company has not issued a comprehensive price increase across its memory products.

The wait is over, pilots. Flight control support—one of the most community-requested features for GeForce NOW—is live starting today, following its announcement at CES earlier this month. Virtual captains can now bring dedicated flight gear into the cloud and feel every roll, yaw and throttle change with even more precision, starting with the Thrustmaster T.Flight HOTAS One.

Remember to enter the giveaway for a chance to score a T.Flight Hotas One MSFS Edition and one month of a GeForce NOW Ultimate membership—follow Thrustmaster and GeForce NOW, and repost the giveaway post to enter before Saturday, Jan. 24. Also on the horizon, Delta Force from Team Jade (TiMi Studio Group) is coming soon to GeForce NOW, adding another big-name title to the cloud lineup. Get ready for all the action by streaming the four new games in this cloud this week.

Since launching last year, AMD Ryzen AI MAX "Strix Halo" mobile processors have dominated across high-end laptop and mini desktop PC market segments, and have even branched out to deployments in handheld gaming PCs. With the advent of Intel's new answers—most notably the "Panther Lake-H" generation's flagship APU—allegedly, Team Red's engineering department is in the middle of developing a refreshed line; identified as the "Ryzen AI MAX 400" series. In an exclusive report, VideoCardz has disclosed early details regarding a speculative "Gorgon Halo" product family—their article envisions a specific "Ryzen AI Max+ 495" SKU.

This prediction could materialize into reality later in the year, as the natural successor to AMD's current-gen range-topper: Ryzen AI Max+ 395. "Gorgon Point" (aka Ryzen AI 400) seems to be heading to retail, perhaps as soon as the current week. Also, this mild refinement of "Strix Point" could transfer over to the desktop AM5 platform within the first half of 2026. Looking further forward, VideoCardz believes that AMD will start to introduce newer "Gorgon Halo" products, in a period post-completion of the full Ryzen AI Max 300 line up. Two new "Strix Halo" additions were unveiled at CES 2026—Ryzen AI Max+ 392 and Ryzen AI Max+ 388. According to VideoCardz's anonymous industry contacts, Team Red has already initiated a "Gorgon Halo" engineering sample distribution phase. Inevitably, the PC hardware community will ponder the prospect of truly next-gen "Medusa Halo(?)" APUs arriving in the distant future—leveraging "Zen 6" and (wishfully) "RDNA 5/UDNA" architectures.

Despite launching in what must be one of the worst years for gaming, at least in recent memory, the Nintendo Switch 2 still managed to outsell its predecessor in the US market by nearly double during the same time period. According to Mat Piscatella from research firm, Circana, the Nintendo Switch 2 has sold 4.4 million units in the US in its first seven months on the market. This makes the Nintendo Switch 2 the fastest-selling video game console hardware platform, according to the analyst, beating out the likes of the Sony PlayStation 4 by 35% during the same relative time period.

Piscatella also shared some insights into the overall state of the video game market towards the end of 2025. In December 2025, total hardware spending increased by 6%, while actual unit sales fell by 8%, meaning that, on average, people spent more, but fewer people bought hardware over the last festive season. The Nintendo Switch 2 sold both the most units of any hardware platform in December and raked in the highest dollar amount. This is likely somewhat attributed to its more recent launch compared to the other console alternatives, which have been available since 2020. Spending on video game accessories was down across the board in December, with spending coming in at $625 million, which is a 7% decline compared to the same time in 2025.

From skilled trades to startups, AI's rapid expansion is the beginning of the next massive computing platform shift, and for the world's workforce, a move from tasks to purpose. At a packed mainstage session at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang described artificial intelligence as the foundation of what he called "the largest infrastructure buildout in human history," driving job creation across the global economy.

Speaking with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, Huang framed AI not as a single technology but as a "a five-layer cake," spanning energy, chips and computing infrastructure, cloud data centers, AI models and, ultimately, the application layer. Because every layer of AI's five-layer stack must be built and operated, Huang said the platform shift is creating jobs across the economy—from energy and construction to advanced manufacturing, cloud operations and application development.

The ROCm 7.2.0 feature set was reportedly unveiled and detailed by AMD staffers during CES 2026. Two weeks later, this updated version of Team Red's open-source software platform has become available to the public. When perusing fresh patch notes, Phoronix's Michael Larabel noticed that official support of two new-ish RDNA 4 graphics card products had been added. Documentation listed the consumer-grade Radeon RX 9060 XT LP 16 GB model, and workstation-class Radeon AI PRO 9600D 32 GB design. AMD's Navi 44 GPU-based "low-power" card design—likely aimed at SFF PC enthusiasts—is the more mysterious item out of the ROCm 7.2-supported duo. An oddly under-the-rader introduction occurred mid-way through December.

Weeks later, the TechPowerUp ground team examined a Vastarmor-made low profile prototype at the Minisforum booth in Las Vegas. Online speculation points to a possible region exclusive release—Team Red and involved AIBs could be preparing Radeon RX 9060 XT LP cards for the Chinese PC hardware market. Similarly, AMD's Radeon AI PRO R9600D model was unveiled last month, in passively-cooled reference design form. Days later, the usual set of board partners started to showcase their own interpretations of Team Red's Navi 48 XLW GPU-based workstation and server solution. The inclusion of both models in the latest ROCm update could hint at near future product launches.

ENDORFY kicks off the year with a strong launch of the Atlas Electric series. The brand unveils its new electric desks in classic black and white, alongside Light Wood and Dark Wood variants with a refined wooden finish. Available in S and L sizes, they create an aesthetic and ergonomic workspace for both productivity and entertainment appealing to users seeking the right balance between style and everyday comfort.

Designed for those long days and nights at the PC, each desk is equipped with an electric height adjustment system featuring memory presets, enabling smooth transitions between sitting and standing positions. This solution helps reduce strain on the spine and allows users to stay in control of their workspace without disrupting their daily rhythm - whether the desk is used for work, study, or leisure.

Starting the new year, we have some new updates to help expand and improve how you play Xbox games. This includes adding the Xbox PC app to Arm-based Windows 11 PCs, rolling out a highly demanded Game Save Sync Indicator to PC and handheld devices so you can more easily track your gaming status on multiple devices, and partnering to include cloud gaming on Hisense and V homeOS-powered Smart TVs so you can stream and play your favorite Game Pass titles directly from your TV. Read more about these including new game additions, below.

Xbox PC App Experience Expands to Arm-based Windows 11 PCs
We're excited to share that the Xbox PC app experience is expanding support to Arm-based Windows 11 PCs. Now you can download titles from the Xbox PC app catalog to unlock more games to play locally on Arm-based Windows 11 PCs. This includes all the titles offered through your Xbox Game Pass subscription. More devices. More flexibility. Same great Xbox experience—wherever you play. Learn more about this new addition here.

At NEPCON Japan 2026, Intel showcased its latest glass substrate technology designed to power the next generation of advanced AI and HPC accelerators. According to SemiVision Taiwan, which shared one of the slides, Intel has developed a new high-performance core glass substrate measuring 78x77 mm for the entire package. This substrate can accommodate approximately twice the reticle size with silicon, equating to about 1,716 mm² (2x858 mm²) of silicon area for logic and memory. It is the first 10-2-10-thick glass core substrate featuring Intel's EMIB multi-chip module technology. This configuration includes 10 redistribution layer (RDL) build-up layers on the top of the substrate, which are used to redistribute signals from the die. These layers handle fine pitch routing, with Intel dedicating as many as 10 layers for this purpose.

The core of the glass substrate consists of two layers and is made of 800 μm (or 0.8 mm) class material, which may include embedded metal layers for through-glass-vias (TGVs) or power/ground planes. The final "10" number denotes the number of build-up layers on the bottom (or back) side, mirroring the top for symmetric routing to connect to the motherboard/PCB. This layer also serves to "declutter" the sea of wires that the silicon die exposes, but makes it much more approachable to a standard motherboard/PCB that the chip mounts on. Intel's 10-2-10 glass core substrate is also equipped with some of the finest bump pitches in the market, with 45 μm (only 0.045 mm) bump pitch. Finally, Intel embeds two EMIB bridges for multi-chip-module packaging so you can manufacture several smaller dies and interconnect them via EMIB bridge, present on the glass core.

AMD has just announced that the much-anticipated Ryzen 7 9850X3D desktop gaming CPU will launch on January 29, with a suggested retail price of $499. This newcomer will sit just above its 8-core sibling in Team Red's current-gen 3D V-Cache-augmented line up; the extremely popular Ryzen 7 9800X3D model. Almost an hour ago, David McAfee—AMD's VP and GM of client channel business—declared that: "the world's most advanced gaming processor just got faster. Built for gamers who demand smooth, relentless performance when it matters most." Anticipation has been building up since the company officially introduced its freshest Zen 5 "Granite Ridge" model at CES 2026, although pre-2026 rumors contributed to a gradual accumulation of hype.

A mid-December retail leak signalled a possible $550+ price point; about $70 dearer than the Ryzen 7 9800X3D's launch MSRP of $480. Earlier today, VideoCardz highlighted a myriad of newer listings—comprised of retail box and OEM/tray units—that provided a potential scattershot preview of things to come across global markets. The most reasonable cost of ownership being $502—apparently advertised by an unnamed US-based e-tailer. This morning, web sleuths happened upon Micro Center and JD.com product entries that mentioned a January 28 launch. Hopefully, AMD and its distributors have prepared enough release day stock. Looking back at the predecessor's launch period conditions, retail outlets struggled to adhere to the suggested price level, scalpers got involved, and customers were not encouraged by a lack of inventory. With the Ryzen 7 9850X3D SKU demanding a very reasonable +$19 premium over the 9800X3D (if MSRP still applies across market territories), AMD's newer and speedier offering could fly off shelves.

When gaming platforms become competitive, one effective strategy to keep gamers engaged is by offering discounts. Valve not only plans to run discounts but aims to have Steam offer discounts for a total of 212 days throughout the year. The roadmap includes 29 separate events that combine major seasonal campaigns with specialized genre festivals. While the Summer Sale will dominate the period from late June to early July, most promotions are designed to target specific gaming communities. Valve has dedicated weeks to tower defense fans, medieval strategy players, and cooking game enthusiasts, along with three Next Fests that provide early access to upcoming releases. Several spotlight events focus on particularly niche interests, indicating that the company sees more value in catering to passionate niches than in offering broad discounts to the entire user base.

However, the timeline could change, and publishers will inevitably conduct additional sales outside of Valve's official schedule. Frequent promotions do not always guarantee the lowest prices, so players still need historical data from third-party trackers to identify truly significant discounts. The constant stream of sales complicates buying habits, as more opportunities to save can diminish the urgency that once characterized Steam sales. As online gaming platforms become more competitive, with Epic Games and GOG running major promotions, Steam aims to be the leading platform by offering deals for every type of gamer year-round.

Corvex, Inc., an AI cloud computing company specializing in GPU-accelerated infrastructure for AI workloads, today announced a long-term GPU lease agreement with an established AI-driven provider of high-performance battery technologies. The deployment, a dedicated cluster of NVIDIA H200 GPUs, will underpin the customer's core AI development and research initiatives, including proprietary algorithms. The customer selected Corvex for its superior overall value, confidential AI enablement to unlock market expansion, and hyperscaler-class operations as compared to alternative AI cloud infrastructure providers.

Corvex's architecture of GPU clusters will provide the customer with high price-performance by maximizing compute density while maintaining elasticity and allowing flexibility for burst capacity during peak demand periods. Corvex is also enabling the customer to extend its enterprise AI offerings into the most security-conscious environments through a secure, managed on-premise solution. By architecting next-generation on-premise GPU clusters with hardware-enforced encryption, remote attestation, and payload-free telemetry, Corvex's technology allows the customer to run sensitive model training and production inference workloads while meeting strict data-sovereignty, compliance, and IP-protection requirements, and to expand its market to enterprise customers that cannot be served by public cloud infrastructure.

Intel did not introduce its oft-leaked "Arrow Lake Refresh" desktop and laptop CPU ranges at CES 2026, despite plenty of pre-event activity suggesting a near future arrival at retail. Almost two weeks after the conclusion of new product promotional activities in Las Vegas, ASUS has just started to hype up its own "in advance" preparations for Team Blue's inevitable release of "ARL-S Refresh" desktop chips. A few hours ago, the Taiwanese hardware manufacturer's main social media account proudly declared: "ready for the future of Intel! ASUS W880, Z890, Q870, B860 & H810 motherboards are BIOS READY—rolling out in late January." Leaked "Core Ultra 200 Plus" nomenclature suggests that Intel has kept its slightly upgraded designs within the Core Ultra Series 2 generation. Previously, their refreshment of "Raptor Lake" was deemed worthy of becoming a new processor generation: 14th Gen Core.

Curiously, today's ASUS announcement labels the latest mid-gen refresh as next generation: "all set for Intel Arrow Lake Refresh! Upgrade smoothly. Next-gen power is coming!" Gaming CPU market segment trackers believe that the "Plus/+" designation will only turn up on three new SKUs: Core Ultra 9 290K Plus, Core Ultra 9 270K Plus, and Core Ultra 5 250K Plus. This seemingly sparse lineup is expected to keep Team Blue's LGA 1851 platform propped up for a little bit longer, until the successive and truly next-gen "Nova Lake-S" desktop family rolls up with its matching LGA 1954 socket. About a week ago, Golden Pig Upgrade predicted that Intel would launch Ultra 200 Plus desktop and laptop/notebook (HX) products within a March/April window. Coinciding with ASUS readying BIOS updates for 800-series motherboard later this month, Intel and its hardware partners will be unleashing Core Ultra 300 "Panther Lake-H" mobile processors.

The Sennheiser brand today announces the RS 275 TV Headphones bundle, a personal audio powerhouse built for enjoying movies, shows, and sports in undisturbed wireless bliss. With simple controls, versatile connection options, and on-demand customization, it puts world-class wireless entertainment at your fingertips.

Comprised of the ultralight HDR 275 TV Headphones and the compact, companion BTA1 digital transmitter, the RS 275 bundle promises heart-stopping full-range sound at a volume that is always perfect. Featuring Auracast transmission technology powered by the LC3 Bluetooth codec, the RS 275 system offers ultra-low latency synchronization of sound and picture and up to 50 meters of range. Every HDR 275 can also connect to other Auracast or Bluetooth Classic-enabled devices like tablets and smartphones for app-based streaming content when listening in the kitchen, bedroom, or even the classroom. With a plethora of audio inputs, intelligent multi-source switching and multipoint capability, the system complements any modern entertainment setup.

A USB flash drive is one of those small essentials you reach for from time to time to back up data or transfer files between your Raspberry Pi and substitute computers. For basics like these, it's tempting to reach for the cheapest thing on Amazon or whatever you find in your local supermarket, but you can easily end up with a device that has sluggish read and write speeds, fragile casing, or - worst of all - far less storage capacity than it claims. Better to go with something you can rely on: introducing the Raspberry Pi Flash Drive, a compact high-capacity USB 3.0 USB‑A device with fast data transfer and an all‑aluminium enclosure. It's available now at $30 for 128 GB, or $55 for 256 GB.

We've brought our usual exacting standards and attention to detail to our new accessory. It can sustain a write speed of 75 MB/s (128 GB variant) or 150 MB/s (256 GB variant), and our thorough testing has made sure it can handle the demands of real life when it comes to sudden disconnection and power failure. Its ergonomic all-aluminium enclosure is easy to grasp and almost impossible to break, although you'll manage it if, like jdb of this parish, you go at it with a blowtorch. It has an attachment hole so you can keep it on a keyring or similar. The Raspberry Pi logo is etched with classy understatement onto its upper surface.

AMD China and Micro Center have confirmed that the upcoming gaming CPU, the AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D, will launch on January 28. Previous rumors had suggested this launch date, and now Micro Center has confirmed it. On AMD China's JD storefront, the Ryzen 7 9850X3D is already listed with a preorder option, requiring an 80 Yuan deposit, although the final price has not been disclosed. This 8-core/16-thread processor is powered by the "Zen 5" microarchitecture, enhanced with 3D V-Cache technology, and offers a speed increase over the current 9800X3D. The chip has a base frequency of 4.70 GHz and a maximum boost frequency of 5.60 GHz. Some samples have even been seen running at a 5.75 GHz boost frequency, indicating that enthusiasts might achieve even higher frequencies under regular home conditions. Our late 2024 review crowned the Ryzen 7 9800X3D as the world's best gaming processor. However, we need to determine how much of a difference the extra 400 MHz out-of-the-box overclock will make in gaming tests so we can draw more conclusions. Until third-party reviews arrive, we will have to wait.

According to data collected by Mercury Research and analyzed by Bernstein Research, Apple Silicon has made significant progress, achieving a laptop market share comparable to that of AMD, a long-time supplier in this sector. When Apple launched its first Arm-based custom M1 SoC, it transitioned away from Intel processors in favor of customized designs aimed at enhancing battery life and optimizing performance for macOS. This shift began in November 2020. Now, five years into the Apple Silicon ecosystem, the company has established a substantial laptop market share that rivals AMD.

According to these charts below, AMD's share in the laptop sector hovers just above 20%, at roughly 21-22%, with Apple slightly below the 20% mark, around 18-19%. This difference is fascinating as Apple has just entered year six of its custom silicon for MacBook laptops and Mac desktops, with no stopping in sight. Additionally, Intel's market share in the laptop sector has been steadily declining and now grabs the remaining 60%+ share, with fluctuations. For desktop segment, Apple also made an interesting market penetration as the company holds about 10% share in the sector which has typically been dominated by Intel and AMD. Any market share deducted from Intel is going directly to AMD in the desktop sector, as the charts show, meaning that the recent trend among consumers is again loud and clear that AMD is slowly becoming a more popular choice.

The AI industry's current demand for silicon, and its knock-on effects in the DIY PC market, has been thoroughly documented, with ensuing memory shortages resulting in reports of the RTX 5060 Ti and 5070 Ti being effectively canceled, and even the upcoming gaming console generation being put on ice until the market stabilizes. Now, according to prolific leaker, Moore's Law Is Dead, NVIDIA is planning to cut production of the GeForce RTX 5060, with the YouTuber citing sources that say the "5060 is done for the next six months," and that NVIDIA has "vastly overbooked AI sales," and needs to pause almost all RTX 50-series production in order to fulfill those orders.

Previous rumors about the RTX 5060 Ti and 5070 Ti production cuts claimed that only the 16 GB models would be severely restricted, with 8 GB models still being available throughout 2026. However, this time around, the 8 GB variants are allegedly being affected as well, although the RTX 5050, which uses older GDDR6 VRAM that isn't as supply-constrained, will be less affected. While cards with 8 GB will still be available, the supply will "trickle in" at low volume. Supposedly, gamers may feel some relief in Q4, 2026, although one source also noted that NVIDIA is planning a roughly 30% price increase across the board, with BOM kits seeing a price increase.

Valve has published a stable Steam Deck Client update on January 21 that merges many controller- and accessibility-related features that have shown up in prior beta updates, like the ability to filter your library by language and accessibility features. The official update notes do cite a number of bug fixes that mostly relate to edge cases, like the Format SD Card button occasionally not showing up or and a few quality-of-life features, like changing the public group chat setting so that users can't send other members private messages by default. However, the more interesting additions come by way of new controller and gyro input support. For starters, the Steam Deck now once again supports both the Nintendo Switch 2 wired controller, it now supports the Razer Raiju V3 Pro, and it no longer hangs periodically when connecting the Nacon PS4 Compact controller. The Steam Deck will also now update controller schemes immediately when a new controller is connected, instead of waiting until the first input from that controller.

There has been decent movement on the accessibility and controller configuration side, as well. Users can now more easily access the Analog Trigger Output option in the Trigger Mode select options. There is also now a toggle to enable or disable the "Smooth Fine Movements" filter in the controller calibration settings. Valve recommends using this option for controllers with older IMUs, where it has previously noted high resting signal noise. The Joystick Mode's Stick Response Curve settings also now have a Response Axis Style option, which allows users to select between Per Axis or Circular. The latter is the default unless the response curve is set to linear. There are also a handful of other small fixes, changes, and new options, which you can read about in the full update notes below. Given that many of the components that were updated are not exclusive to the Steam Deck, many Linux and even Windows desktop users will be able to take advantage of these changes as well.

Lenovo previously showed off the Magic Bay modular accessory system to add features like a 4K webcam with integrated speakers or a mini modular HUD to its ThinkBook laptops, although there hasn't been all that much news about those accessories since. Now, as reported by Videocardz, a Lenovo product manager has confirmed on Weibo that the Magic Bay accessory system will open up to third-party accessories in 2026. Supposedly, Lenovo will publish electronic and mechanical schematics and specifications for the proprietary connection system, which uses magnets and pogo pins to add accessories to Lenovo's ThinkBook series.

In addition to the news about third-party accessories, the Magic Bay system will also be coming to Lenovo's unannounced ThinkBook 14+ and ThinkBook 16+ laptops in 2026, with more ThinkBook models to gain the feature in the future. With a growing line-up of supported laptops and official third-party support, it seems reasonable to assume that the Lenovo Magic Bay's accessory ecosystem will grow in the coming years. It's unclear exactly when Lenovo will announce the new ThinkBook line-up, although last year's refresh landed around September, so as long as there are no dramatic shake-ups thanks to the current RAM crisis, September 2026 seems to be a likely launch window.

Razer recently refreshed its DeathAdder gaming mouse, launching the DeathAdder V4 Pro and leaving fans of the symmetrical Viper series wondering when they will get their dues. It seems as though the wait will be drawing to a close, with what looks like a camouflaged Razer Viper V4 Pro popping up at a recent VCT Americas Valorant tournament (spotted by Wasabi on X). The mouse was being used by Rose from BBL, and other than the fact that the shape looks about the same as the Viper V3 Pro, not much is known about the prospective Viper V4 Pro.

What is evident from the screenshots posted on X is that the Viper V4 Pro will use the redesigned dome receiver that was also present in the updated DeathAdder V4 Pro, suggesting that the underlying tech will get the same upgrades. This means that the Viper V4 Pro will likely feature the same Focus Pro 45K Optical Sensor Gen-2, 8K polling rate, and general technical capabilities as the DeathAdder V4 Pro. There will also likely be a slight weight reduction as there was with the DeathAdder—all but a necessity these days in order to compete with the flood of cheap, ultralight gaming mice from Chinese vendors. The sighting of the presumed Viper V4 Pro also sparked speculation about the possibility of a Viper V4 Pro Mini. No release date has yet been leaked or rumored, but it seems as though 2026 is a likely candidate.

Many retro gaming enthusiasts have been seeking a handheld that delivers an uncompromising 4:3 gaming experience. Ayaneo understands this dedication and passion, and responds with the same pursuit of perfection, creating a true "graduation-level" 4:3 retro handheld—the Ayaneo Pocket S Mini. This highly anticipated premium handheld is now officially unveiled.

Ayaneo focuses on crafting high-end, boutique gaming handhelds, adhering to the core philosophy of exceptional design, top-tier craftsmanship, and flagship-level performance. The goal is to deliver a purer, more extreme portable gaming experience for players worldwide. The birth of the Pocket S Mini is a concentrated expression of this philosophy in the world of retro handhelds.

This afternoon, a ZDNet South Korea news article has disclosed early details of another intriguing 2 nm project reportedly underway at Samsung Semiconductor. Specific customers are not mentioned by industry insiders, but the South Korean megacorporation's HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) development team could be tailoring custom logic dies for individual product requirements. There are rumors circulating about the computer memory R&D department selecting "foundry process nodes as advanced as 2 nm" for next-wave HBM designs. The ZDNet piece does not define whether engineers have opted into using the in-house foundry's SF2 or SF2P nodes.

Samsung's sixth-gen HBM product line (aka HBM4) is said to be based on a 4 nm process node, likely picked out from the SF4 family. According to an anonymous company insider: "Samsung Electronics is designing a custom logic die for HBM under the leadership of the custom SoC (system-on-chip) team newly established within the System LSI Business Division last year...We are building a portfolio ranging from 4 nm to 2 nm to respond to the needs of various customers." ZDNet adds that next-gen ultra-high-performance AI accelerators are expected to rely on the very best futuristic HBM modules. "Strong" AI enterprise industry demand is anticipated once 2 nm logic dies come into fruition, possibly post-2027, after the arrival of HBM4E (seventh gen).

Remastering Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water and Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse was just the beginning. When Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja began crafting a full remake of the survival horror classic Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly, the mission was clear: keep what made the PlayStation 2 original so popular, while elevating it for a modern audience. Directors Hidehiko Nakajima (action gameplay) and Makoto Shibata (story) took us through their journey of reconstructing Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly's haunting atmosphere, its new features, and some of the challenges they faced ahead of the game's March 12 launch on Sony PlayStation 5, PC/Steam, Nintendo Switch 2, and Xbox Series X|S.

What elements of the original game do you feel made it such a fan favorite?
Shibata: I think it was because it evolved what was introduced in the first Fatal Frame game while placing greater emphasis on the story. By creating an experience that was frightening yet compelling enough to make players want to see what comes next, I felt that many players were able to enjoy its beautiful yet terrifying world through to the end.

It seems as though Ubisoft isn't out of danger just yet, despite a massive round of layoffs last year and a new subsidiary with substantial Tencent investment. According to an announcement, the gaming giant has cancelled a slew of games and instituted a company-wide reshuffle as part of a revised three-year roadmap to accelerate cost reductions. One part of this restructuring involves the closure of "several" studios and a new return-to-office mandate that will see Ubisoft employees return to office five days a week. The employees will also receive an annual allotment of work-from-home days that can be used flexibly. It's unclear how many days each employee will be allotted. Part of the justification for the restructuring is to "return to exceptional levels of quality on the open-world adventure segment," and renew focus on Ubisoft's games-as-a-service business. This includes the closure of Ubisoft's Stockholm studio and the prior closure of its Halifax mobile studio and restructuring efforts in Abu Dabhi, RedLynx, and Massive. With these measures, Ubisoft is planning to save at least €200 million in fixed costs over the next two years. According to a source who spoke to Insider Gaming, Ubisoft is expected to lay off "hundreds" of employees as a result of the restructuring.

Ubisoft also announced that it will be discontinuing six games that it says "do not meet the new enhanced quality" that Ubisoft is aiming for. It has confirmed that the cancelled games include the much-anticipated Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake, an unannounced mobile game, and three new IPs, suggesting there was at least one more remake or sequel that was also cancelled. Ubisoft has also delayed the launch of seven games, one of which has been theorized to be the Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake that has repeatedly shown up in leaks. Ubisoft says it has four new IPs currently in development, including the recently acquired March of Giants. Part of the aforementioned restructuring, Ubisoft plans to split its different IPs up among five creative houses, which will each have "end-to-end responsibility" for the IPs in its portfolio, meaning they will be responsible for "the full creative and brand scope" and managing everything from development to marketing, branding, and publishing strategies. Likewise, each creative house will be responsible for the financial performance of their various projects, including profits and losses and cash generation.

Zotac has silently unveiled the new MAGNUS EAMAX395C mini PC that will be equipped with AMD's Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 processor and come in the same compact 2.65-liter form factor. As it was the case with previous Zotac mini PC systems, the MAGNUS EAMAX series will be available as a barebone or a fully equipped system, and in addition to the Ryzen AI MAX+ 395, it will also be available in two other SKUs, with Ryzen AI MAX 390 and the Ryzen AI MAX 385.

AMD showcased its Ryzen AI Halo mini PC at the CES show, and plenty of other manufacturers are using the same Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 APU in their systems, from mini PCs, laptops, to handhelds. Zotac has been known to make pretty good mini PCs, so we are sure that the ZBOX MAGNUS EAMAX395C will be the same. In terms of specifications, you are looking at an AMD Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 APU with Radeon 8060S integrated GPU and 128 GB of on-board LPDDR5X-8000 memory, which delivers up to 126 TOPS of AI performance.

In early 2026, PC case manufacturers continue to add "wood accents" onto existing products. TechPowerUp spotted multiple examples during time spent perusing company booths at the recent CES trade show, in Las Vegas. For obvious reasons, DeepCool did not get the chance to exhibit its latest wares at this highly important consumer event. Earlier today, ITHome stumbled upon the Chinese computer hardware manufacturer's own attempts at attracting the "wood effect" material crowd. New JD.com listings show Deepcool's "CH260 Wood Grain Edition" microATX cases hitting the native market.

A black option is available at 399 RMB (~$57.30 USD). A pale white alternative demands a small upcharge of +50 RMB (~$7.18 USD). Deepcool's CH-series debuted way back in the spring of 2024, with the well specced and reasonably priced CH160 model quickly gaining favor in ITX/SFF case format circles. A larger spin-off—CH260—launched later on in the year; suitably able to accommodate microATX motherboards. By then, DeepCool was a few months deep into being affected by US trade sanctions. Anyway, the CH260 arrived elsewhere in the world—finished in the usual standard black or white colorways. Over a year later, Chinese buyers get to enjoy first dibs with the local launch of Wood Grain variants. Promo material shows very little visual difference between non-wood and accented options.

ROG Ally gaming handhelds offer tons of ways to play your favorite games. But cloud streaming continues to up the ante, with Boosteroid boasting high-resolution, high-refresh cloud-streamed games optimized for your ultimate gaming handheld. Boosteroid, the world's biggest independent cloud gaming service, has optimized its infrastructure to better serve ROG Ally series handhelds. Boosteroid has partnered with ROG to make the most of the Ally's architecture for uniquely powerful gaming experiences, including up to 4K, 120 FPS cloud-streamed games.

"We have deepened our strategic cooperation with ASUS to ensure that our software utilizes the capabilities of the ROG Ally series to deliver a highly responsive and visually rich experience that sets a new standard for handheld cloud gaming," said Ivan Shaichenko, CEO of Boosteroid.