Gaming

Dbrand opened up preorders on Monday, shortly ahead of the actual announcement of the Steam Machine’s price and release date. But the cube appears to have vanished from the company’s website, and the YouTube teaser has been made private, as noted on Reddit.

At Aftermath, Chris Person (who else?) explains how to hack together a bootleg Steam Machine using a cheap castoff cryptomining GPU. It’s a high-effort, low-cost build made possible by 3D printing, open platforms, and a host of enthusiasts working together. And the power of Linux, of course.

Mikhail Klimentov interviewed Schreier about the channel, where Schreier sits in a room and explains things about video games. “A rule that I set for myself is that I will not do any video that takes me more than 30 minutes to do in any way,” says Schreier.

“PlayStation hardware unit sales fell to their lowest May total since May 2000, while Xbox hardware unit sales were the lowest ever recorded for a May month,” says Circana analyst Mat Piscatella.

It features the same 3.5-inch, 960 x 640 display as the original, but Ayaneo’s new Android 13-based Pocket Micro 2 includes a faster Snapdragon 865 CPU paired with an Adreno 650 GPU, recessed TMR thumbsticks with glowing LED bases, and improved tiered shoulder buttons. It’s now available for preorder starting at $239.

To celebrate Pokémon Unite’s fifth anniversary, The Pokémon Company is releasing a live-action short drama inspired by the game, which isn’t all that wild given that the franchise’s mainline anime just took a detour to Aeos Island.

A post on Resetera points out that now, instead of claiming that the Steam Machine is capable of “4K gaming at 60 FPS with FSR,” Valve’s website says that the PC offers “Up to 4k gaming with FSR 4.1.”

They were up 3 percent year-over-year from May 2025 to May 2026, according to data shared by Circana analyst Mat Piscatella. Even so, he says that the “overwhelming majority of volume is done digitally now.”

It’s been a bad day for tech and gaming, but you wouldn’t know it from Nintendo — which often goes its own way. At least Star Fox seems good.

If you’re a fan of rugged wearables and pocket monsters you’ll want to mark July 1st in your calendar as the day you can preorder Casio’s new Pokémon-themed G-Shock GA-110 watch through a lottery system on the company’s Japanese online store. It’s priced at ¥33,000, or around $204, and expected to release on July 17th.

After Valve confirmed its Steam Machines all use one 16GB RAM stick, not two 8GB ones, a helpful commenter has explained why.

Nice way to get around having to just sit and wait for an update to download. Microsoft is testing the feature for Xbox Insiders.

In an interview with Gamers Nexus, Valve had said that the PCs would ship with either one 16GB stick of RAM or two 8GB sticks of RAM. “We misspoke here - all units will actually have one 16GB stick of RAM,” the company says in a follow-up statement to the channel. “It’s possible that this might change in future builds, but the units that customers are currently signing up for will all come with one 16GB stick of RAM.”

“I think it’s a little bit less important to have a fixed performance target for 5 years or something for a product like [the Steam Machine],” Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais tells PC Gamer. “I don’t think we’re thinking about it with quite as long of a time frame as something like a Steam Deck.” Though it doesn’t sound like there are any near-term plans for a refresh of some kind.

Following 2021’s GB Operator and the SN Operator that launched last year, Epilogue is teasing a third version of its USB cartridge slot that will now let you play and archive original N64 cartridges on computers or handhelds like Valve’s Steam Deck. According to a teaser video on X, the 64 Operator will launch sometime this year.

Sure, you’ll be able to order a physical edition of the game when preorders open tonight, but Rockstar says the box contains a download code anyway. If you’re buying GTA VI, don’t expect to be able to sell it when you’re done.

When is a gadget simultaneously good value and overpriced?

Unfortunately, it’s not Spinball-themed, but it looks fun all the same.

Virtuix announced a new version of its Omni One treadmill that now supports the Meta Quest 2 and Quest 3 headsets directly as part of the Made for Meta program. For $2,595 you can physically run, walk, jump, and crouch to navigate VR games using the Omni One for Quest without crashing around your living room.

Thirty years ago today the N64 was released in Japan. To help mark the occasion, 8BitDo has announced new clear blue versions of its Ultimate 2 Wireless controller and Retro 87 Keyboard. The $59.99 controller is available today, while preorders are now open for the $99.99 keyboard, which won’t ship until August 14th.

Courtroom Chaos — Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger follows the Snoop Dogg-themed courtroom game that launched last year on Luna, and they’re both part of Amazon’s new plan for games.