Video games
fromKotaku
22 hours agoPlayStation 6 Leaks Point To Sony Paving The Way for A Handheld
Sony is reportedly developing a PS6 handheld to compete with Nintendo Switch 2, focusing on Power Saver Mode and backward compatibility.
"At a time when most things are getting more expensive, Howdy is designed to make premium, ad-free streaming more affordable and accessible for all viewers," said Gil Fuchsberg, President of Subscriptions, Partnerships and Corporate Development at Roku.
The TMR, or Tunnel Magnetoresistance, thumbsticks are arguably the ATOM+'s most significant selling point. Unlike traditional analog sticks that use physical contact points that wear down with use, TMR technology relies on magnetic sensors to read input, which means accuracy doesn't degrade over time.
Previously, users only saw a generic "Learn More" button beneath an ad for a movie or show. You couldn't tell whether the content was free or carried a price tag. Now, Amazon introduced more buttons to make things less ambiguous. They launched buttons titled "Watch Free," "Watch Now," or "Watch Live" that are supposed to improve transparency.
The console wars died down not because any side won, but because it became irrelevant. Major games, seeking to make their gigantic budgets back, went platform agnostic. Where once companies had splurged on making consumers identify with specific console platforms, suddenly where you play games had become a much less defining factor.
Anyone booting up Netflix on an old PlayStation 3 today ran into a depressing warning. The steaming app, which has been around for about 15 years now, is shutting down next month. RIP. On February 3, a Reddit user posted a photo of a TV displaying the following message: Unfortunately, Netflix will no longer be available on this device after March 2, 2026. Visit Netflix.com/compatibledevices to see a list of supported devices. (R40)
This week, fancy mouse manufacturer Razer showed off an "improved" version of its Project Ava at the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show. Ava is an AI-powered assistant designed to analyze game footage and offer real-time advice while you play, and while the project isn't new, its latest iteration is a freestanding peripheral that displays a cat-eared anime girl trapped in a glass tube who just kind of stands there while Ava robotically delivers advice.
Razer is announcing a new Wolverine V3 BT controller at CES 2026 that's designed for TVs. It's the world's first gamepad to use ultra-low latency Bluetooth, allowing it a sub-3ms response time, and the first accessory to launch under LG's "Designed for LG Gaming Portal" program. But since it's been developed in collaboration with LG, the Wolverine V3 BT can only achieve that ultra-low latency when used with compatible LG TVs running webOS 25.
The upgraded PSSR has allowed us to elevate our expressiveness by successfully processing these details and textural particularities, which are traditionally difficult to upscale because of their intricacy. We hope you will experience this unprecedented level of horror and visual fidelity, and the new gameplay feel it delivers.
Most TVs hide surprisingly handy USB ports on the back. Plugging into them can unlock extra features and convenience. They can even help breathe new life into an older TV. After the initial setup, most people rarely engage directly with their smart TV. With wireless connectivity, phone apps, and remote controls, there's little need to. Tucked next to the essential HDMI ports, a USB 2.0 port -- likely sitting unnoticed on the back or side panel -- offers more potential than you might expect.
The higher bitrate streaming option will let subscribers with an Xbox Series X or S, Xbox One X or Xbox One play their games at a higher resolution, provided the game and their display supports it. Microsoft previously only offered 1440p streams on select Fire TVs, LG TVs, Samsung TVs, web browsers and the Xbox PC app.
At launch, Synapse Web will only support the Razer Huntsman V3 Pro keyboards, though Razer says more devices will be added down the line. Using any Chromium-based browser, users can make quick changes to key settings, apply Chroma RGB quick effects and manage on-board profiles. These profiles can then be viewed, edited and saved directly to the keyboard's device memory, so the configuration stays consistent when moving between PCs.
Retail tracking firm Circana shared the top five most-played PlayStation games in the U.S. in 2026. The list is the same as it was last year, with Fortnite at the top. And looking back at 2023 and 2022, you'll notice that the most popular titles haven't changed much at all, either. That's bad news for developers trying to release new multiplayer games and fans hoping for more innovation.
Whenever my kids get stuck playing a game, they run around the house yelling for me to help them. Doesn't matter where I am or what I'm doing. Making dinner, taking out the trash, going to the bathroom, nowhere is safe. I patiently try to explain to them that back in my day, there was no grownup to help me beat Snake Man in Mega Man 3 or find Excalibur in Final Fantasy IV.
Thousands of games are released every year, with numbers increasing recently thanks to an explosion of indie games across all platforms. That means there's more opportunity than ever to find something new and unexpected among the latest releases, but for a lot of players, the comfort of a few familiar games wins out. Newly released statistics show that, at least on consoles, the biggest games of 2025 were exactly the same as 2024's top titles. Do those figures point to an industry in crisis.
But right now, of all times, feels one of the worst possible moments to reveal Hunters Gathering to a world wide web primed to make a Kombucha Girl face at everything it's doing. The last two years have been littered with the corpses of failed, cancelled, or still dying live service games. A lot of players are, understandably, tired of these things and unsure of whether they should even invest any time into caring, as so many seem to flop or shut down.
Sony has filed a patent document that could potentially allow AI to take over your game for you if you're struggling with it. The documents suggest that this "ghost assistance" can be activated at any time to either guide a player through progression or assume direct control of gameplay. As revealed in the patent documents first filed in September 2024 (via VGC), the AI assistance system could potentially play through a section of a game that a player is struggling with, completing it for them.
There has been a demo renaissance in the last few years, and we couldn't be happier. Demos have been a part of video game history for a long time, but whether or not they've been good for sales has been up in the air for quite some time. Fortunately, in the last couple weeks we've gotten a Dragon Quest 7: Reimagined and Final Fantasy 7 demo for Switch 2.