Given Fortnite's recent slew of collaborations, it should not be surprising to learn that Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Epic Games, is betting on interconnected game universes and cosmetics economies. In a recent interview with IGN, Sweeney commented on the current state of the gaming industry, stating that "the only way that we can hope for new games coming into the market to be able to succeed when there's so much Metcalfe's Law at play and so many captive audiences in the really big games...it's got to be that those games get momentum by connecting to the economies in other games." What the executive is effectively suggesting is that gamers should be introduced to new games via in-game cosmetics or other items that can be used in other games.

It's also no surprise to hear the CEO espousing the idea that interconnected game economies and transferrable in-game items are the future, since expanded support for smart assets and interoperability between games is one of the headline features of the upcoming Unreal Engine 6. Sweeney goes on to talk about the benefits of social ecosystems and multiplatform games for their developers, stating that "I think every platform would have a lot more engagement, and every game acting through the system would have a lot more engagement if we connected things, literally. Not just Epic, but name all of the top game developers, I think Xbox, Epic, Roblox, Riot, Tencent, EA, all the different studios within Microsoft - we'd all be better off if we connected our stuff." Ironically, his commentary comes at a time when both Xbox and PlayStation are returning to more closed-off ecosystems, with a return to the console exclusive era in full swing.

Following the recent release of FSR 4 support on RDNA 3 GPUs, Valve engineer, Pierre-Loup Griffais, has announced in a post on Bluesky that the same support has officially been added to Linux via Steam's Proton compatibility layer. Support for FSR 4 on RDNA 3 comes by way of the latest version of Proton Experimental, so it's by no means a stable implementation just yet, but the engineer specifically calls out SteamOS and the Steam Machine as the target system for the new upscaler support, suggesting that Valve will invest development resources into getting the support into a more complete state ahead of the full roll-out of the Steam Machine.

Curiously, the post also specifically calls out devices with RDNA 3 discrete GPUs and the Steam Machine, suggesting that support for Radeon iGPUs, like the 780M and 890M that largely dominate the gaming handheld space has not yet been implemented. It's possible that Valve developers, who often contribute to Linux graphics drivers and gaming optimizations, may implement support for the gaming handhelds. There are also reports that manually adding support for FSR 4 on RDNA 3-based iGPU systems—via tools like OptiScaler, for example—results in a working implementation of the upscaler.

When TechPowerUp spoke to AMD's Chief Software Officer and Senior Director of Software earlier in June, the executives made bold claims about the quality of its new FSR 4.1 implementation coming to older RDNA 3 GPUs, stating that, despite underlying technical differences, the actual output would have the same quality as it does on RDNA 4 GPUs. There was, however, little discussion about a potential performance hit from the upscaling tech, although it seems as though that discussion may not have been necessary at all, according to testing that has shown up on r/radeon on Reddit.

Based on the testing by the redditor, who tested AMD's FSR 4.1 in Cyberpunk 2077 on an AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX at 3840 × 2160p resolution, high settings, and with Ray Tracing on and Ray-Traced Lighting set to Ultra, the performance improvements can be as high as 100% compared to testing conducted without the tech enabled. In benchmark screenshots shared by the redditor, the RDNA 3 GPU managed to get a 49.82 FPS average (43.46 minimum and 60.51 maximum) with FSR 4 set to Balanced and 60.81 FPS average (52.94 minimum and 73.03 minimum) with FSR 4 set to Performance. While there are no results posted, the tester claims in a follow-up comment that performance went "from 24~FPS at native to 50~FPS with FSR 4 Balanced and 61~FPS with FSR 4 Performance." These tests were conducted on a Windows 11 Pro installation with an AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X CPU and 128 GB of RAM, which is an unconventional setup for gaming, and it may ultimately mean that gaming performance could be higher with a more gaming-focused PC build. As the updated FSR version rolls out to older hardware, we will likely see more tests on other hardware tease out the true performance and image quality benefits, but a ~100% performance uplift is promising, especially for gaming handhelds on Radeon 780M iGPUs, for example.

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) announced today that the 2026 ROG Strix SCAR 18 is now available for purchase from ASUS and partner retailers. Built for gamers, creators, developers, and power users, the refreshed flagship pairs an Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus processor with up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop GPU, delivering up to 320 W of sustained maximum total system power for demanding gaming, creative, and AI workloads.

The Strix SCAR 18 also features a ROG Nebula HDR Display with the world's first 18-inch 4K 240 Hz mini-LED laptop panel, bringing sharp detail, high refresh rates, and vivid HDR to a desktop-replacement form factor. Tool-less access, ROG Q-Latch SSD bays, and signature Aura RGB lighting round our flagship design that's built for performance today and upgrades tomorrow.

Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU) today announced results for its third quarter of fiscal 2026, which ended May 28, 2026.

Fiscal Q3 2026 highlights

• Revenue of $41.46 billion versus $23.86 billion for the prior quarter and $9.30 billion for the same period last year
• GAAP net income of $28.24 billion, or $24.67 per diluted share
• Non-GAAP net income of $28.86 billion, or $25.11 per diluted share
• Operating cash flow of $25.39 billion versus $11.90 billion for the prior quarter and $4.61 billion for the same period last year

Memories in Orbit (MIO) launched in January 2026 to a relatively positive critical reception, but it seems as though its commercial success has not met expectations. According to a recent report by French news outlet, Le Figaro, Douze Dixièmes will be closing down following a buyout deal by Douze Dixièmes co-founders that would allow them to regain control of the company from Focus Entertainment and close things out on their terms.

While Memories in Orbit received high praise at launch, at its height, it failed to even break 3,000 concurrent players on Steam, according to SteamDB. At the time of writing, the game has a 24-hour peak concurrent player count of 201 players, and ownership estimates put the $19.99 indie Metroidvania's sales at around 67,000-112,500 units, which was seemingly not even enough to sustain the small team of around 10 people at Douze Dixièmes and support the game's future development. Douze Dixièmes has not yet publicly acknowledged the closure.

As was the case with the Steam Deck, Valve is selling the Steam Machine via Komodo Station, an Asian reseller that serves much of South-East Asia, and as a result, it skips the reservation and lottery system that is currently in place on Valve's own Steam Store. While this doesn't combat issues like scalping and shortages as well as Steam's in-house system, it provides a much more realistic indication of current stock levels. According to Komodo Store, however, all versions of the Valve Steam Machine have officially sold out less than 48 hours after the new hardware launched.

In Japan, the Steam Machine starts at $1,175 for the 512 GB model and goes up from there to ~$1,638 for the 2 TB model with two Steam Controllers and two additional faceplates. It remains to be seen how well the console will sell in the west when it officially starts shipping on June 25, however, since the price is quite high, especially compared to consoles like the PS5 Pro and similar small-form-factor PCs. As far as sentiment goes, there appears to be a divide forming in online spaces, like r/steammachine on Reddit, where some are saying the convenience of not having to set up any hardware is worth the price trade-off. The Steam Machine was seemingly meant to cost around 30% less initially, but it's unclear if or when it will come down to that price, which will only be possible if the RAM crisis comes to an end and hardware prices ease.

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) today announced at its Investor Day, new data center solutions, including the Qualcomm Dragonfly C1000 CPU, Qualcomm High Bandwidth Compute (HBC), Qualcomm Dragonfly AI300 inference accelerator, and connectivity products, together with custom silicon solutions, all engineered to maximize performance per watt and token throughput at lower total cost of ownership. The new platforms highlight Qualcomm Technologies' growing role in building full‑stack data center infrastructure optimized for AI, spanning agentic and data‑center‑class CPUs, AI inference accelerators, high‑performance connectivity, and at scale custom silicon solutions. The Qualcomm Dragonfly AI300 joins the previously announced Qualcomm Dragonfly AI200 and AI250 in its data center solutions portfolio with an annual cadence AI accelerator roadmap.

"Agentic AI is driving a significant increase in demand for AI inference in the data center. As these become the dominant workloads, infrastructure has to deliver much higher performance at lower power and cost," said Cristiano Amon, President and CEO, Qualcomm Incorporated. "That plays directly to Qualcomm's strengths, and we're well positioned for this shift. With Qualcomm Dragonfly, we're bringing our high-performance, low-power computing into the data center, with multi-year, multi-generation agreements with leading customers."

Following the official announcement of the Intel Arc Pro B65 alongside the B70, earlier this year, the ASRock Intel Arc Pro B65 has silently launched in US retail markets, giving us an indication of pricing for Intel's workstation-grade Arc Battlemage GPUs. The ASRock Intel Arc Pro B65 is available on Newegg for a price of $909.99, making it just $100 cheaper than Intel's reference design Arc Pro B70 and only $90 cheaper than the $999.99 ASRock Intel Arc Pro B70, despite the B65 having 37.5% fewer Xe cores than its B70 counterpart.

The B65 is also a whopping $250 more expensive than the ASRock Arc Pro B60, which shares the same core configuration as the B65 but with less VRAM. The Arc Pro B65 features 20 Xe cores and 32 GB of VRAM, while the Arc Pro B70 has 32 Xe cores and 32 GB of VRAM, and the Arc Pro B60 has 20 Xe cores paired with 20 GB of VRAM. Given the current hardware shortage situation, especially with regard to DRAM, it's not surprising to see the biggest price differentiator between the various versions of the Arc Pro B-series GPUs is VRAM, although it's unclear if prices will come down if and when the DRAM crisis cools.

OpenAI today unveiled Jalapeño, its in-house, purpose-built LLM inference accelerator chip, developed in collaboration with Broadcom. The chip has fixed-function and programmable compute hardware to accelerate inferencing of OpenAI LLM stack that powers ChatGPT, Codex, the OpenAI API, and the company's future agentic AI products. It is conceptually similar to Google's TPU, except designed for the OpenAI stack; and while TPU is used for both training and inferencing, Jalapeño appears to be limited to inferencing. The training is probably still done with GPUs.

The company said that in partnership with Broadcom, the chip was designed and reached manufacturing tape-out in just nine months, making it the fastest ASIC development cycle among advanced semiconductors. Jalapeño is part of a compute platform that will span multiple generations of these chips. The platform is being designed for initial deployment toward the end of 2026. There are no technical details about the chip itself, except that it's a contemporary multi-chip module with an interposer, a large and centrally-located logic tile, flanked by eight HBM3E stacks.

Rockstar Games, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), is excited to announce that pre-orders for Grand Theft Auto VI will begin on June 25, 2026, at midnight local time.

Launching November 19, 2026, for the PlayStation 5 computer entertainment systems and Xbox Series X|S games and entertainment systems for $79.99, Grand Theft Auto VI features a single-player experience set in the biggest, most immersive evolution of the series yet.

Global leader in storage and embedded solutions, Transcend Information, Inc. (Transcend), today announced its new generation of industrial SSD and memory card solutions powered by advanced 218-layer 3D NAND flash technology. Featuring optimized architecture and increased storage density, the new product lineup unlocks the full potential of next-generation flash memory performance to address the growing demands of AIoT edge computing and smart manufacturing. Designed for data-intensive environments, these solutions empower a wide range of applications across industrial automation, data centers, and intelligent surveillance systems.

High-Performance SSDs for AI and Data-Intensive Workloads
Transcend's latest family of 218-layer SSDs is engineered to meet the stringent requirements of AI-driven applications. Leading the lineup is the flagship MTE740A, featuring a high-speed PCIe Gen 5 x4 interface and NVMe 2.0 compliance. Delivering sequential read speeds of up to 14,000 MB/s and random read performance of up to 2.1 million IOPS, the MTE740A enables rapid processing of massive AI datasets and real-time analytics. To address a broad range of embedded computing needs, Transcend also introduces the MTE770A PCIe Gen 4 x4 M.2 2280 SSD, the compact MTE490A PCIe Gen 4 x4 M.2 2242 SSD for space-constrained embedded systems, and the SATA III-based 2.5-inch SSD490K.

In late Q1, ASUS implemented a 30% price increase for PCs in Taiwan, with the rest of the world following closely. ASUS Joint Technology Systems Division General Manager Yi-Hsiang Liao announced this planned 30% price hike across the company's entire product line, explaining that the extremely high costs of DRAM and SSD storage, combined with a shortage of CPUs, were driving this increase. However, today we are facing another increase, but a much milder one. According to Money UDN, ASUS now expects single-digit PC price increases for Q3, which is a much better situation for the PC market than the continuously rising prices. While these price increases hurt consumers, they also impact PC makers' sales, meaning that signs of stabilizing prices present a good opportunity for the PC market to rebound in the coming months.

As PC price increases are now expected to be in the single digits compared to Q1, we can conclude that component pricing has exhausted its room for further increases from the mid-double digits seen since Q4 of 2025. We can hope to see this trend evolve into price stagnation in the coming quarters, as well as possible contractions down the line. Main cost drivers, including NAND Flash, DRAM, and CPUs, have made any price cuts impossible for the time being. However, there is hope that the supply chain will stabilize next year. DIY PC enthusiasts might see better availability in the coming quarters as major PC OEMs work with the supply chain to gain access to more DRAM and NAND Flash, but as of now, this remains a distant hope.

Halo Studios put out the system requirements lists for the upcoming AAA FPS RPG, Halo: Campaign Evolved. The game is releasing on July 28, 2026, with pre-orders open now. There are four system requirements lists put out by the studio, "Low (minimum)", "Medium," "High (recommended)," and "Ultra." The minimum experience is 1080p @ 60 FPS. This requires either an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 or Intel Core i7-10700K processor; an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER, AMD Radeon RX 6600, or Intel Arc B580 graphics card; at least 16 GB of RAM, and at least 8 GB of video memory.

The "Medium" experience is 1440p @ 60 FPS, and this calls for either an AMD Ryzen 7 5700X or Intel Core i5-12600K processor; NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 or AMD Radeon RX 7600 graphics card; at least 16 GB of RAM, and at least 8 GB of video memory. Things move up a significant notch with the "High" tier, which corresponds with the game's "recommended system requirements" list, offering a 4K Ultra HD @ 60 FPS experience. This requires either an AMD Ryzen 7 7700 or Intel Core i7-12700K processor, either an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti or AMD Radeon RX 9070 graphics card, at least 32 GB of RAM, and at least 16 GB of video memory.

Thermalright today introduced the Assassin Classic-6 SE Black, a premium aluminium fin-stack air CPU cooler. The cooler is characterized by a very traditional design, with the aluminium fins lacking any black powder coating, instead being topped by a die-cast metal top-plate. The cooler features a heatpipe direct-touch base from which six 6 mm-thick, nickel-plated copper heatpipes pass through, conveying heat to the fin-stack, which is ventilated by a 120 mm fan.

The included fan, a Thermalright TL-NT12, features an acute-angled blade design, hydraulic bearings, and a rubberized fan frame. It takes in 4-pin PWM input, and turns at speeds of up to 1,850 RPM, pushing up to 84.5 CFM of airflow, at 2.38 mm H₂O static pressure, and a maximum noise output of 30.02 dBA. With its fan installed, the cooler measures 124 mm x 82 mm x 152 mm (WxDxH). The company didn't reveal weight. The company also didn't reveal pricing.

Creative today introduced the XF1 (model: MF1730), a set of 2.0 stereo desktop speakers that feature an in-built DAC that supports USB and Bluetooth inputs, besides 3.5 mm aux. The speakers feature 72 W of combined output, with a frequency range of 55 Hz to 40 kHz. The speaker set also features an expansion for a future subwoofer accessory, although each of the two pack 3-inch, FEA-optimized woofers. The Creative XF1 is Hi-Res Audio certified, its DACs support 24-bit / 96 kHz audio format. It features the latest Bluetooth 6.0 wireless interface with A2DP, AVRCP profiles, and support for SBC, AAC, and LDAC codecs. Available from 16th July, the Creative XF1 is priced at SGD $249 (USD $190).

BIOSTAR, a leading manufacturer of edge AI solutions, industrial motherboards, motherboards, graphics cards, and storage devices, today announces the EdgeComp MS-NAT5000, a compact edge AI computing system that integrates the NVIDIA Jetson Thor T5000 module to bring generative AI, visual intelligence, and real-time sensor processing directly to industrial and autonomous applications.

Built for system integrators, AI software developers, smart manufacturing solution providers, and advanced autonomous machine developers, the EdgeComp MS-NAT5000 is engineered to support the next stage of edge AI deployment, where AI systems must process data locally, make decisions with low latency, and turn intelligence into real-world action.

In October 2025, we reported on insider commentary by EA developers who claimed that AI tools had hampered productivity, despite the company having all but mandated the tech for over a year at that point. A survey conducted by Skillsearch in April found that developers thought AI hurt creativity in games. Now, speaking at a recent Game Business Live event, EA's president of enterprise development, Laura Miele, touched on AI tools and their impact on the output at EA, seemingly rebutting the aforementioned claims by developers working at the gaming giant. EA has been using AI for everything from coding to concept art, and even managerial work.

When addressing a question about whether AI tools could lead to shorter game development timelines, Miele said that "perhaps in some parts they will," going on to express that she is excited about the tech, given what she has seen of it. She explains that she's "always wanted to help our studio developers remove friction," and "wanted to be a hero to them." According to her, AI tools have removed "friction from our pipelines and our tools and our workflows," and led to quicker prototyping, "faster creativity, and shorter, faster conversations around creativity and coming to alignment." She attributes this accelerated workflow to a removal of "tedium" from the jobs of artists and developers.

Lords of the Fallen 2 (stylized as Lords of the Fallen II) is an upcoming indie dark fantasy RPG with Souls-like combat that was originally slated to launch in fall 2026. According to a new update by CI Games founder, Marek Tyminski on X, Lords of the Fallen II has been moved to Q1 2027. There is still no fixed launch date, however, and Tyminski has provided some insights as to why the launch window was moved, and, surprisingly, it isn't entirely because of GTA VI, although that is certainly part of the reason for the change.

According to the executive, the delay "strategically positions Lords of the Fallen II outside of a highly competitive holiday period," allowing the game to avoid a number of highly anticipated launches coming towards the end of 2026—not the least of which is Grand Theft Auto VI, whose launch has already resulted in countless game launches being moved in order to not be overshadowed by Rockstar's latest outing. Tyminski adds, however, that the development team will use the additional months before launch in order to "further refine and strengthen the overall experience." Supposedly, this will allow the studio to add more polish to the experience and deliver a "worthy successor to the Lords of the Fallen franchise."