Games Archive

After first teasing their designs last November, the $99.99 E Ink and $89.99 Pixel Matrix magnetic faceplates are now available for preorder from Jsaux’s online store. The Verge’s Sean Hollister got some hands-on time with both displays and while the colorful pixelated faceplate needs a constant USB-C connection to the console, the E Ink is wireless with Bluetooth and a battery.

State of Decay 3 developer Undead Labs is now an independent employee-owned studio. It’s the third studio to successfully separate from Xbox, after Double Fine and Compulsion Games did the same recently. “Development of State of Decay 3 remains actively underway at Undead Labs,” says the team. The game is still planned to release in 2027 on Xbox (and Game Pass), PC, and PlayStation.

Nvidia is releasing a new Game Ready driver today, in preparation for the release of AION 2, Control Resonant, Gears of War: E-Day, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Remastered. The driver includes optimizations for all four games, as well as enabling DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction in Control Resonant.

Microsoft is due to announce another round of Xbox layoffs today, according to sources familiar with the company’s plans. The cuts will reportedly be part of a larger restructuring, with The Information reporting that Microsoft plans to “consolidate several of its game studios.” Today’s layoffs will reportedly affect hundreds of employees, and are part of the 3,200 Xbox layoffs that Microsoft is planning by the end of June 2027.

A system for “contextually aware” ads described in the patent application could pause gameplay “at the operating system level” to show an ad when certain in-game events or triggers happen. For instance, players might get an ad break after a boss fight or when their avatar “is determined to be in a safe location, such as the user’s team base.”

I didn’t just review Valve’s Steam Frame last week — I spent a whole lot of time talking about the headset with fellow reviewers. I interviewed CNET’s Scott Stein about his review on The Vergecast, then Aftermath’s Chris Person turned the tables on me for Aftermath Hours, too!

Microsoft’s DLSS competitor isn’t just for Qualcomm laptops and Xbox Ally X anymore — the MSI Claw EX handheld and anything else Intel Core Ultra Series 3 should now qualify. Microsoft claims it’s enough to play at ultra instead of high, among other examples, and I see the hard-to-find Claw EX is now back in stock at B&H, MSI, and ExcaliberPC.

It says mods aren’t allowed to “expand or modify” official storylines, plots, missions, or characters. The updated policy also bans crossover mods that combine content from one Rockstar game into another, like maps or characters from previous GTA games, and limits multiplayer mods to Rockstar’s official Creator Platform.