GOG has long since confirmed that it was working on a Galaxy game launcher for Linux, but it has officially just previewed the updated GOG Galaxy launcher in a new announcement on X. According to the post, not only has GOG Galaxy received a proper Linux version for the first time ever, the macOS and Windows versions have also been updated with a new UI, faster loading, and new library management tools. The new launcher has yet to be made available to the public, even in testing, but the announcement video showed off the new game launcher's UI and announced a 2027 launch window.

GOG.com on XGOG GALAXY is officially heading to Linux. At the same time, we've reworked the client on Windows and Mac to be simpler, run faster, and give you cleaner ways to view your library. Most importantly, our core promise stays untouched: GOG GALAXY is entirely optional. Your games are yours to download and keep through offline installers, exactly as they've always been.

F-Stop, the Portal prequel Valve canceled in 2007, is now playable after the community stitched it together from several leaks. Most of its assets were already sitting in the gigantic 12 TB Steam2 archive that leaked in August, but that dump didn't include the game's source code or its mapsrc data, Valve's folder for map source files. Those two missing pieces showed up on the Valve Cut Content project's Discord server over the past few days, where the team verified the map files before everything was merged into one build. It isn't fully complete, as some textures and dialogue are still missing, but YouTube playthroughs suggest it's largely stable, and the campaign wraps up in under an hour. Getting a copy yourself is another matter, since the Discord server apparently went invite-only after all the attention.

F-Stop came out of what Gabe Newell later called the Directed Design Experiments, a three-month stretch where Valve split into five teams, each building its own prototype. Its central idea is an Aperture Science camera that photographs an object so you can place it elsewhere to solve puzzles, a concept the 2023 game Viewfinder later explored. Valve staff apparently liked it, but playtesters were less impressed. It was shelved, and some of its dialogue, characters, and mechanics were reworked into Portal 2. The playthroughs show an early Cave Johnson talking to the player (without J.K. Simmons' voice), along with personality cores acting as puzzle companions. Valve hasn't commented on this project, and there's no indication of an official release.

Microsoft recently restored the ability for Windows users to move the Taskbar to any screen edge, nearly five years after Windows 11 launched. The Windows 11 implementation, however, is not the same as it was in Windows 10, where users could click and drag to move the Taskbar and lock it in place when they were happy with its position. Instead, Windows 11 makes users go into the settings app to change the Taskbar position, and now, in response to a news story about a third-party utility that allows Taskbar dragging, Windows Vice President of Design, Diego Baca, explains that this is indeed a feature, not a bug, and that the drag-and-drop repositioning often caused accidental movements.

Diego Baca, Windows Vice President of Design at MicrosoftFrom our research, dragging the Taskbar to reposition it can lead to accidental movements, which is one of the reasons "Lock the Taskbar" existed in previous versions of Windows. We also found that changing the Taskbar position isn't something people do frequently.

We felt that providing a discoverable setting, just one right-click away, was a more intentional and predictable experience. It's a deliberate design decision, not a missing capability.

Pulsar seems to be on a bit of a run in 2026, having already shown off a new X5 ergo gaming mouse and launched a new X2F CrazyLight fingertip mouse, but its latest announcement isn't an actual product launch, but rather a peek at what's to come for the brand. According to a new mini-documentary Pulsar published on its YouTube channel, it is working on a gaming mouse platform that would allow for dual sensors.

In the mini-doc, Pulsar explains that "innovation at the mechanical level has reached a realm where humans can no longer keep up," likely referring to the ever-increasing DPI and polling rate increases that we have seen gaming mouse companies brag about. As such, it is developing the dual-sensor system to allow users to better tailor their mouse inputs to their individual needs and movement patterns. The system basically combines sensor data from both sensors and calculates movement based on a pre-determined offset that can be set in software by a user. This theoretically allows the sensor to be placed anywhere on the bottom of the mouse.

It seems as though the mouse modding scene has been on a winning streak lately, with brands like Keychron publishing a catalogue of free 3D models of its mouse shells, and projects like Openmouse providing brand-agnostic, open-source mouse customization and remapping. The latest eye-catching project comes from a small 3D printing outfit called Unskilled Design, who recently introduced Mausstudio. Mausstudio is a work-in-progress custom mouse design tool that helps users design custom mouse shells for 3D printing.

As described in a recent demo on X, Mausstudio allows users to import an STL of an existing mouse PCB, define the positions of core features, like screw holes, switches, the scroll wheel, and sensor position, and then generate a shell around it using custom parameters. Currently, it supports custom dimensions for the basics, like width, length, and height, as well as more niche customizations, like left-handed side button placements, base structure (lightweight or solid), hump position, honeycomb cutouts for lightweight shells, and battery positioning.

Cyberpunk 2 has already been confirmed as being in development by CD Projekt Red, but not all that much has been revealed about the game aside from its massive budget and a potential 2030 launch date. Now, a new job posting by CD Projekt Red, as spotted by CheatHappens, has potentially confirmed recent rumors that multiplayer support is being worked on for Cyberpunk 2. This comes after Cyberpunk 2077 was originally meant to have multiplayer support, but that was cancelled ahead of release.

The job listing is for a lead quest programmer "to join the team working on Cyberpunk 2" and specifically mentions "understanding of multiplayer network architecture and client-server synchronization for game state/quests" in the "nice to have" section. This suggests that, while multiplayer is almost certainly on the cards for Cyberpunk 2, the game will still likely be built with the single-player, narrative-driven gameplay first and foremost—perhaps something similar to the older Borderlands games, whose campaigns can be played in multiplayer or single-player, all within the same playthrough.

Intel Corporation today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Classiq, a leading provider of quantum computing software. The combination of Classiq's synthesis platform with Intel's spin-qubit manufacturing and existing software would create a user-friendly full-stack quantum computing platform, enabling the promising technology to mature into a mainstream computing business.

More than forty years ago, the invention of Electronic Design Automation (EDA) and Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software transformed silicon chip design and classical computing by providing a common software platform that could abstract the ability to design chips from the complexity of the underlying hardware. Classiq plays a similar role in quantum computing, providing a unifying software platform that is agnostic to the underlying qubit modality and hardware. Providing this high-level abstraction enables quantum computing to scale beyond custom hand-crafted circuits and applications to become a mainstream computing platform.

The next-generation Xbox Elite Series 3 controller has been revealed by none other than Microsoft. Within the Design Lab service, where gamers can customize their Xbox controllers and order them directly, Microsoft recorded a controller named "Edessa," which is linked to an accessory or customization product called "Beatrice." Today, we learn that Microsoft is preparing a more customizable controller than the current Elite Series 2. Thumbstick options reportedly include Hall effect modules with standard, loose, and tight tensions, along with a TMR-based option. This could allow users to choose both the sensing technology and the feel of the sticks. There is also a low-friction "silent" stick option, available in standard and longer neck designs.

Haptic feedback may also receive an upgrade. One listed motor configuration combines impulse trigger motors with voice-coil haptics, potentially delivering more advanced feedback than the existing Elite controller. Another feature mentioned is an "Audio Scroll Wheel," which seems to indicate a dedicated physical dial for controlling audio. Faceplates include metal finishes, predefined designs, multiple colors, and engraving options. Paddle configurations are similarly extensive, covering standard, classic, and doublewide shapes, with different lengths and layouts, including a Butterfly arrangement or no upper paddles. Several D-pad designs are also listed, with separate cosmetic and performance variants. The Beatrice platform alone reportedly contains 27 topper and paddle combinations.

Rapidus Corporation today announced that it will establish the Rapidus Collaborative Open Rapid Ecosystem (CORE), a global ecosystem framework to support the development and mass production of cutting-edge semiconductors.

Today, semiconductor development requires more than just manufacturing technology; it is essential to integrate the entire semiconductor value chain—including research institutions, EDA, IP, design and manufacturing—to provide customers with a development and production infrastructure they can rely on. Further, amid a global shortage of cutting-edge semiconductor talent, it is crucial to build a design ecosystem that enables customers to begin development at an early stage by collaborating with design-related companies.

Almost a year ago, to the day, Valve revealed a new Steam Store UI, which cleaned up much of the storefront's UI and presented an overall more cohesive design that is better suited to the variety of PCs, handhelds, and consoles that Valve now caters to. It appears as though Valve's next upcoming update to the Steam Store UI is more subtle, but may have a more meaningful impact on game discovery, for both developers and gamers, alike. This update also comes shortly after Valve overhauled the Steam handheld and Big Picture mode with the optional Big Art mode.

According to a new post in Steamworks news—Valve's developer news feed—Steam will soon lose the curated Discounts & Events section that appears at the top of users' Steam Store Home pages, which currently shows deal and event placements scheduled by developers or directly by Steam. In its place, Valve will introduce "something more dynamic and personalized for each customer," which Valve says will give more sale and game events a chance at being featured on the Store homepage and throughout Steam. Valve says that, in previous tests of this new methodology, it has been able to show games to 10 times more Steam users than using the old model.

JSAUX GAMING today announced that its new E-Ink Faceplate and Pixel Matrix Faceplate for Steam Machine are now available, giving Steam Machine owners a new third-party option for customizing their system. Designed as magnetic replacement faceplates, the two panels give Steam Machine owners a simple way to make the system their own.

Winnie Chen, Marketing Communications Manager at JSAUX GAMING"We designed these faceplates to do more than change the look of Steam Machine. They give the front of the system a new role—part personal design statement, part information display."

Google's collective effort to introduce a new generation of Gemini-powered laptops, called "Googlebook," has officially launched today. Now available on the Google storefront, Googlebooks are being produced by some of the biggest laptop OEMs, including ASUS, Acer, Dell, HP, and Lenovo. Starting with ASUS, the company has prepared a 14-inch Googlebook 14, powered by the Intel "Panther Lake" Core Ultra Series 3, with 16 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD. Acer offers a similarly named Googlebook 14 with comparable specifications, while Lenovo uses the same base but delivers a 15-inch screen. Dell and HP provide Googlebooks in a 14-inch body, powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite processors, with 16 GB of memory and 512 GB of storage. Pricing ranges from $899 to $1,299, depending on the manufacturer and specifications.

Generally, Googlebooks follow a consistent philosophy across all models, featuring premium materials like aluminium, magnesium, and carbon fiber instead of traditional plastic. The screens on these models are also higher resolution. A key feature of these laptops is the integration of Android applications and Glowbar, along with Gemini intelligence throughout the operating system experience. Powered by Googlebook OS, the operating system is essentially a desktop version of Android that runs Android applications through the Google Play Store. The OS can run a Linux terminal, and since Android is a heavily modified version of Linux, Linux applications are also supported.

Modders at the Brazilian YouTube channel TecLab have an RTX 5090 running on three standard 8-pin PCIe connectors instead of the 16-pin design that keeps melting on high-end NVIDIA cards. The team stripped a Galax GeForce RTX 5090D HOF OC LAB XOC down to the bare PCB, removed both native 16-pin inputs, and soldered three 8-pin connectors straight to the power regulators. Sense pins were rewired so the card would still request full power, with liquid cooling keeping temperatures in check.

During a livestream, the modders ramped the card from 400 W to 900 W across the three cables, pulling over 120 A while holding a 3,400 MHz clock. Two connectors still delivered 66 A at 3,200 MHz, and even a single 8-pin managed 65 A at 3,100 MHz. The mod stayed entirely at the hardware level, with no BIOS or software tweaks involved. Throughout the test, the modified RTX 5090 stayed within its power and thermal limits, and passed all tests with flying colors.

At IFA 2026, Packard Bell, under the Acer Group, marks its 100th anniversary with a full relaunch: a new visual identity, a "Tech it easy" philosophy, and a new collection of products, led by the 14.5-inch DotBook laptop, arriving in European retail starting from Q4 2026.

Founded in 1926 in Los Angeles, Packard Bell first made consumer radios accessible to a wider audience, then helped democratize color television and, decades later, personal computers. Across every era, the brand built its reputation on the same principle: bringing useful technology to the many, not the few.

NVIDIA has reportedly revived its "Rubin CPX" AI accelerator project, which had previously been put on hold. Today, well-known supply chain analyst Ming Chi Kuo reported that NVIDIA is reintroducing the "Rubin CPX," now featuring HBM4 memory instead of the previously planned GDDR7. Late last year, NVIDIA announced its plans to develop a specialized accelerator derived from the "Rubin" GPU family, designed for large-scale agentic AI workloads. After the announcement, the project was reportedly paused, but NVIDIA has now redesigned the memory architecture. Previously, the "Rubin CPX" was slated to have 128 GB of GDDR7 memory, but it will now include 168 GB of HBM4 memory. This GPU SKU is housed in a separate rack with configurations ranging from 64 to 256 standalone CPX GPUs per rack.

This GPU is dedicated to prefill workloads, powering racks that manage input context for LLMs and KV cache processing. Essentially, NVIDIA is separating prefill from decode tasks, with CPX GPUs handling prefill and regular "Rubin" GPUs managing decode. A rack tray with eight CPX GPUs can handle 1.34 TB of long-context prefill and the associated KV cache, all utilizing HBM4 memory for faster processing and increased bandwidth. Since the previous design did not require HBM4 integration, NVIDIA has redesigned the package, likely using TSMC's CoWoS-S or CoWoS-L for packaging.

At Gamescom 2026 in Cologne, Germany, Sandisk showcased its lineup of officially licensed Pokémon storage products with two new drives celebrating the franchise's 30th anniversary. This includes the Sandisk Pokémon USB-C Flash Drive Mew Edition and the Sandisk Pokémon Portable SSD Mewtwo Edition. Designed around two of the most recognizable Pokémon characters, these new storage devices combine tactile 2D representations of their respective Pokémon, turning what would otherwise be ordinary storage hardware into collectibles that still serve a useful purpose. The Mew Edition offers up to 128 GB of storage through a USB-C interface. It is designed for supported smartphones, tablets, and computers, making it suitable for transferring photos, videos, game captures, and other everyday files without requiring a bulky external drive.

For users dealing with larger files, the Mewtwo Edition offers more. The Sandisk Pokémon Portable SSD is rated for read speeds of up to 1,000 MB/s, making it up to five times faster than traditional portable hard drives. It provides a more suitable solution for large photo libraries, video footage, and creative projects. Sandisk also equips the drive with protection against drops of up to two meters, adding some welcome durability to its portable design. The Mewtwo Edition will be offered in 500 GB and 1 TB capacities, while the Mew USB-C Flash Drive tops out at 128 GB. Both products are available starting today, giving Pokémon fans another way to combine their interest in the franchise with storage solutions they will actually use.

After its launch at Computex earlier this year, Xeron has made an appearance at Gamescom 2026, launching a line-up of reasonably priced, flashy, ARGB AIO coolers for DIY PC builds. Also at Gamescom, the new hardware outfit showed off its line-up of C Lab cases, this time displaying builds in both the white and black models.

The Xeron C Lab cases are full ATX mid-tower cases that have support for up to 405 mm long GPUs and 280 mm or 360 mm CPU AIO coolers in the top position. The C Lab case uses modular curved sheet metal components to suspend the motherboard compartment for a unique look, with exposed brass screws and replaceable materials and color options for each individual panel, and separate cooling compartments that allow the PSU, GPU, and CPU cooling access to their own fresh air supply. The PSU is hidden in its own compartment behind the motherboard tray and has access to its own ventilation.

Socionext Inc., a global leader in custom system-on-chip (SoC) design and advanced semiconductor solutions, announced that it will leverage Intel 18A-P process technology in the development of custom SoCs that meet the emerging needs of datacenter, edge, and high-performance computing customers. The first development is a high-performance compute chiplet.

By combining its ASIC expertise with Intel Foundry's advanced process and packaging roadmap, Socionext will enable customers to create differentiated SoC solutions optimized for application-specific workloads. "Intel 18A-P represents an important step in advanced process technology, combining innovations in transistor architecture and power delivery," said Rajinder Cheema, CTO and Executive Vice President at Socionext. "By developing SoC capabilities on this process, Socionext is enabling our customers to address the evolving performance and power requirements of AI, HPC, and advanced datacenter applications."

XPPen, a global leader in digital art innovation, today unveiled the Artist Ultra 14, an Ultra Clear True Color Portable Drawing Display featuring a 2.8K OLED display, studio-grade color performance, the advanced X-Touch solution, and an ultraslim design. Marking XPPen's 21st anniversary, the Artist Ultra 14 combines flagship-level performance with exceptional portability, empowering creators to bring professional creativity wherever inspiration strikes.

"Creative workflows are becoming increasingly flexible, and creators today need tools that can adapt to the way they work," said Brian Huang, Marketing Director at XPPen. "The Artist Ultra 14 is designed for professional creators seeking greater mobility without compromising visual quality or creative performance. It gives artists the freedom to create across different environments, expanding the possibilities of professional digital art."

Gears of War: E-Day is slated to launch on October 6, 2026, and ahead of the game's launch, Microsoft has officially revealed the special edition Gears of War: E-Day wireless Xbox controller. The controller is available for pre-order at a price of $89.99—a $25 premium over the standard Xbox wireless controller.

As with other special edition Xbox controllers, the internals are identical to the standard wireless Xbox controller, but it features a complete visual overhaul based on the game's aesthetic and theme. The customized controller design features a translucent d-pad topper and X button as well as a red right joystick and translucent red triggers. The controller's grips also have a textured "leather-like" grip on the back and sides.

In the last year or so, we have covered at least two game industry worker surveys—one from the GDC and the other from Skillsearch—that found that generative AI remains a divisive topic within the industry. A more recent Gamescom Dev Speaker Survey has echoed previous findings, although there is a lot of agreement that AI is changing the game development landscape at some level, regardless of how popular or unpopular it has become.

The survey contained a number of questions about AI usage in games. When asked about which industry development would have the biggest impact in the following three years, AI-assisted development came back as the top response, with 47% of developers voting for that option. The current RAM crisis was a distant second, with only 28% of the votes. "Code and Production" came up as the area where developers saw the most value in generative AI, but 30% stated that they "would like to see as little AI involvement in game development as possible."

Bethesda recently directly addressed some community concerns following aggressive Xbox Game Studio layoffs that appear to be affecting as much as 25% of the studio's staff. In the announcement, Bethesda confirmed that its main focus was The Elder Scrolls VI, however, it seems as though one of the other projects it has been working on may be another game in The Elder Scrolls universe.

While it's not clear what exactly the studio is working on, it was revealed in the LinkedIn profile of a former Bethesda Associate Quest Designer, Griffin DeClaire, that Bethesda is working on an "unreleased Elder Scrolls" title. Since The Elder Scrolls VI has been public knowledge for over eight years, this suggests that there is an Elder Scrolls spin-off in development at Bethesda. It's also possible that DeClaire is just being overly cautious by avoiding naming The Elder Scrolls VI.

Cadence's AI-driven digital and custom reference flows, tools, and solutions are now certified on Intel 18A-P and Intel 14A technologies, based on the latest Intel Foundry process design kits (PDKs). Building on the companies' recent expansion of design IP optimized for Intel 18A and 18A-P and their multi-year Design Technology Co-Optimization (DTCO) agreement targeting Intel 14A, this new certification provides customers with a signoff-ready path to deploy advanced AI, high performance computing (HPC), and mobile SoCs on Intel Foundry's leading-edge nodes.

Cadence has worked closely with Intel Foundry to co-optimize tools, flows, and methodologies that fully leverage the innovations in Intel 18A, Intel 18A-P, and Intel 14A, including RibbonFET gate-all-around transistors and advanced backside power delivery technologies such as PowerVia and PowerDirect. By tightly coupling process capabilities with Cadence's agentic AI-driven EDA portfolio and high-performance design IP, customers can achieve industry-leading power, performance, and area (PPA) while reducing design risk and time to market.

The complexity of modern chip design continues to grow as engineering teams work to develop increasingly sophisticated CPUs, GPUs and AI systems. To help meet that challenge, NVIDIA is collaborating with industry leaders Cadence and Synopsys to optimize critical electronic design automation (EDA) applications for the NVIDIA Vera CPU. NVIDIA is now deploying Vera across EDA workflows used to develop its next generation of CPUs and GPUs, demonstrating how high-performance CPU architecture can help accelerate some of the industry's most demanding engineering workloads.

Accelerating Critical EDA Workloads
What's at stake is the pace of chip production. In turn, the tempo of industry technologies that stand to benefit from boosted EDA workloads, driving development momentum. Simulation, verification and implementation technologies play a central role in semiconductor development. Long before a chip reaches manufacturing, engineers spend years validating behavior, identifying corner cases and refining designs through thousands of iterations. While GPUs and AI have accelerated many aspects of chip design, several critical EDA workloads remain heavily dependent on CPU performance. Logic simulation, formal verification and portions of digital implementation often depend on fast individual cores, efficient memory systems and strong overall throughput. That makes CPU architecture an important factor in determining how quickly engineering teams can validate designs, explore alternatives and move products toward tapeout.

The OpenTools Open Printer is a new open-source hardware project that spawned in response to expensive, predatory designs from traditional printer manufacturers. The philosophy behind it is that it is a "repairable, compact, and robust printer designed to last," and according to an announcement and preview video by CrowdSupply, it seems as though the Open Printer will be launching on the crowdfunding platform soon. It uses off-the-shelf parts to make repairs easy, and it prints on paper up to A3 in size, but can also accommodate a paper roll that is as wide as an A3 sheet's short edge 297 mm.

The Open Printer will use refillable ink cartridges, and it will be able to print on a variety of paper formats, including paper rolls. It features no DRM and is built on open-source firmware, and the makers have published both the firmware source files and the electronic and mechanical design files under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license, meaning users are allowed to freely use and adapt the printer's design files as well as build projects based on it, as long as they share their projects under the same license and don't use the resources for commercial purposes. All parts that are not off-the-shelf will be able to be 3D printed, which again plays into the repairability aspect, since if something breaks, it is easy to replace.