In the weeks leading up to Gamescom 2023 all sorts of Nintendo-related rumors started to spew forth—the boldest being a public unveiling of their much anticipated Switch successor during the conference segment. This did not transpire—of course—with Nintendo choosing to showcase existing games and hardware on the trade fair floor in Germany. Post-event murmurs proposed another highly unlikely circumstance—claims posted to social media and on forums pointed to a top secret demo session of "Switch 2" hardware occurring "behind closed doors" at Gamescom, with an elite set of development teams in attendance. These rumblings were largely dismissed due to unsubstantiated information coming from less than reliable sources.

Eurogamer and Video Games Chronicles (VGC) reached out to their cadre of industry insiders to find out more—newly published articles seem to align with recent leaks. The former understands that: "Developer presentations for Switch 2 took place behind closed doors, with partners shown tech demos of how well the system is designed to run. One Switch 2 demo is a souped up version of Switch launch title Zelda: Breath of the Wild, designed to hit the Switch 2's beefier target specs. (To be clear, though - this is just a tech demo. There's no suggestion the game will be re-released." An insider familiar with the games industry in Spain alleged, a few months ago, that Switch 2 development kits had been delivered to a notable local development partner.

During the Gamescom fair, Thrustmaster was pleased to unveil its unique new racing wheel mounting system, including a rotary spinner knob - a perfect complement for all heavy vehicle driving simulators. The SimTask Steering Kit allows gamers to set up their racing wheel in a flat-mounted position, delivering an immersive experience when driving farm machinery or heavy vehicles. The mount allows users to customize the steering wheel's angle and height, offering a number of diverse driving configurations similar to real life.

In addition, the rotary spinner knob provides a major agility boost, enabling gamers to operate the steering wheel with one hand. The SimTask Steering Kit is compatible with Thrustmaster T128 and T248 racing wheels. SimTask is Thrustmaster's new range of products, specially designed to deliver an enhanced experience of driving simulation with heavy vehicles and farm machinery.

Each week, we bring you news of the latest DLSS and ray tracing integrations in games and apps. Last week, we unveiled NVIDIA DLSS 3.5, which will make your games even more beautiful, immersive and realistic with the introduction of Ray Reconstruction, a new AI-powered technique that further improves the quality of ray tracing. Alan Wake 2, Cyberpunk 2077, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, Portal with RTX, Chaos Vantage, D5 Render, and NVIDIA Omniverse will all launch with or be updated to DLSS 3.5 this fall. Additionally, we announced that NVIDIA DLSS 3's AI-powered performance multiplication is coming to this fall's biggest games, including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, PAYDAY 3, and Fortnite.

This week, we're celebrating the release of Fort Solis with DLSS 3, and announcing that Delta Force: Hawk Ops and Project Mugen will launch with DLSS 3. Also, Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle, F1 Manager 2023, and SPRAWL are available now with DLSS 2. And there are new trailers from DLSS 3 titles, including Black Myth: Wukong, The First Descendant and Warhaven to watch.

Lexar, a leading global brand of flash memory solutions, joined Gamescom 2023 for the first time. Lexar also unveiled some of the new products that are estimated to be launched in Q4 2023 for the first time at the show. Designed for PC enthusiasts to accelerate their workflow, the new portfolio includes internal SSDs, DRAM.

The performance of Lexar ARES RGB DDR5 Desktop Memory reaches a new height of 8000MT/s and 8400MT/s, allowing hardcore gamers and PC enthusiasts to experience superior performance with next-gen DDR5. And, in addition to the performance, this memory also features Lexar RGB Sync so gamers can customize the RGB LED to their own style, and its sleek premium aluminium heat spreader keeps the system cool. It is built with on-die ECC, which leverages real-time data error correction for increased data stability and reliability. With on-board Power Management IC (PMIC), it provides better power control and power delivery.

Scott Herkelman, senior vice president and general manager of AMD's Graphics Business Unit made a slightly unexpected announcement during an IGN live streamed discussion at Gamescom 2023. Following the official unveiling of Radeon RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT GPUs on Friday, Herkelman sat down for a brief interview regarding the future of Team Red's RDNA 3 generation—he was asked whether there were any additional Radeon RX 7000-series models on the horizon. In response he stated: "Well, the RDNA3 portfolio is now complete. Of all products that we have planned to launch, that is, this is the last few products that we will launch. We may have some different versions, but they are not a new ASIC…It's been a journey, it's been about a year since we launched the very first RDNA 3 and now we are a year later finishing up the series. We should be done, we are done and we are excited. And now I think we have a broad spectrum covered for people who want RDNA 3 up and down the price tag."

His announcement seemingly confirms that Team Red is satisfied enough to conclude RDNA 3 post the September 6 launch of their Navi 32-based Radeon RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT cards, with a grand total of a mere six desktop-oriented SKUs—Herkelman perhaps forgot to mention possible mobile variants. This is slightly odd given that non-XT Radeon RX 7800 and 7700 GPUs have cropped up via leaks in the recent past, and speculation has also pointed to a true entry-level RX 7500 model being in the works. Herkelman hinted that refreshed variants could be released down the road, perhaps akin to the mid-gen update of existing RDNA 2 ASICs (e.g RX 6700 XT -> RX 6750 XT). AMD may rely on its previous generation Radeon technology to fill in the gaps not occupied by RDNA 3—it is believed that an RX 6750 GRE graphics card (RX 6700 non-XT variant) is in the pipeline.

AMD and Ubisoft have officially announced the PC features players will be able to enjoy in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. A trailer that debuted at Gamescom showed off exactly what you can expect; check out the details below.

Ray Tracing and Extended Graphic Settings
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora will include ray traced reflections and shadows for more immersive environmental exploration, and extended graphic settings that allow for granular tweaks to a multitude of visuals such as environment reflection quality, and distant shadows.

AMD today at Gamescom unveiled the Radeon RX 7800 XT and Radeon RX 7700 XT performance-segment graphics cards. Designed for maxed out gaming at 1440p with ray tracing, the two are designed to square off against NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4070 series, offering competitive performance and pricing. The two are based on AMD's latest RDNA3 graphics architecture, and use the 5 nm foundry process where it matters. Both cards claim to offer not just superior performance to the specific NVIDIA RTX 40-series SKUs they're designed to compete with, but also better future-proofing, with more video memory on offer.

At the heart of the two is the new "Navi 32" GPU, AMD's second largest chip from this generation. It is a chiplet GPU, just like the "Navi 31" that powers the RX 7900 series, albeit slightly scaled down. The graphics compute die (GCD), the die with the main graphics rendering and compute machinery, is built on the 5 nm EUV foundry node. It is flanked by four memory cache dies (MCDs), each built on the 6 nm foundry node. These are the same MCDs found in the "Navi 31," but four in number instead of six, which gives the "Navi 32" a 256-bit wide GDDR6 memory interface.

As part of NVIDIA and Microsoft's collaboration to bring more choice to gamers, new Microsoft Store integration has been added to GeForce NOW that lets gamers stream select titles from the Xbox PC Game Pass catalog on GeForce NOW, starting today. With the Microsoft Store integration, members will see a brand-new Xbox button on supported PC games and can seamlessly launch these titles across their devices, provided they either purchased the standalone games through the Microsoft Store or have an active Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass subscription.

Hot off our recent Gamescom announcement, four blockbuster titles are coming to GeForce NOW this fall: Alan Wake 2, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty expansion, Party Animals and PAYDAY 3. Plus, head to the cloud and stream the 25 new titles joining the cloud this week, including DOOM 2016 from Bethesda.

August 26 could be the day AMD's Radeon add-in board (AIB) partners announce their custom-design Radeon RX 7800 series and RX 7700 series graphics cards. Gamescom 2023 is underway, and the expo's booth for ASRock has three curious-looking placeholders in the wall with the graphics cards. The placeholders refer to new RDNA3 graphics cards coming in on August 26. ASRock makes AMD Radeon and Intel Arc custom-design graphics cards.

AMD is expected to announce its new performance-segment GPUs a day earlier on August 25, as part of an exclusive Radeon RX event headed by Scott Herkelman and Frank Azor. This is widely expected to see announcements for the desktop RX 7800 series and RX 7700 series; but it wouldn't surprise us if there are some announcements about high-end RX 7000-series mobile GPUs based on the same compacted "Navi 31" ASIC that powers the desktop RX 7900 GRE.

Developer Shiro Games and publisher Funcom are proud to reveal that Dune: Spice Wars, the first game set in the Dune universe in two decades, will release out of Early Access in September. In just over one year of Early Access, Shiro Games has released five major updates, massively expanding the game. Get a taste of precious spice in the brand-new Dune: Spice Wars Gamescom trailer.

Dune: Spice Wars lets you lead one of the Great Houses of the Imperium to dominate Arrakis and the flow of spice. Through intrigue, warfare, economy, and spycraft, you will rule the deserts or be buried in them.

HyperX, the gaming peripherals team at HP Inc. and brand leader in gaming and esports, today announced the release of the Cloud III Wireless Gaming Headset. Cloud III wireless delivers the ultimate in comfort and sound with up to 120 hours battery life, offering a captivating wireless gaming experience. With legendary comfort, immersive audio with re-engineered 53 mm angled drivers, and a lifetime activation of DTS Headphone:X via NGENUITY software for accurate 3D audio, Cloud III wireless is ready for gaming, wireless entertainment, untethered chat for fun or work.

The HyperX Cloud III Wireless incorporates new features and a striking new design, delivering an exceptional audio experience to gamers. Evolving from the legendary Cloud headset, known for its comfort, sound quality, and durability, the Cloud III Wireless raises the bar for gaming audio.

Blizzard has officially announced the second season for Diablo IV, called Season of Blood. The Season of Blood will launch on October 17 and bring several updates, including a new questline, five additional endgame bosses, as well as some comunity-requested quality-of-life updates.

The announcement came at the Gamescom Opening Night Live, together with the new announce trailer, showing some of the updates. The trailer also introduces Erys, a vampire hunter that will be voiced by Gemma Chan.

be quiet!, the German manufacturer for premium PC components, is unveiling two brand-new high-end air coolers at the gamescom expo in Cologne, Germany, from August 23rd to 27th. Dark Rock Pro 5 follows in the footsteps of the extremely successful and award-winning Dark Rock Pro 4, offering immense cooling performance at low noise levels on all popular consumer platforms, while Dark Rock Elite is aimed at users that require the highest performance and airflow, integrating ARGB lighting and a unique front fan rail system for an elite experience.

Raising the bar for air cooling even further
Improving upon the high performance benchmark set by Dark Rock Pro 4 was not easy, but be quiet! managed to raise the bar even further with Dark Rock Pro 5. By leveraging the performance of Silent Wings and adding an integrated speed switch to prioritize cooling or silence have resulted in an air cooler that loves multithreaded tasks, whether it's high-end gaming or a workstation setup. Still want more? With its unprecedented cooling abilities, Dark Rock Elite is the perfect fit for gaming enthusiasts who want to achieve the best possible CPU performance and airflow, while not missing out on great ARGB lighting. Not only does the Elite offer Silent Wings fans and an integrated speed switch, it also uses an innovative rail system for the front fan to guarantee compatibility with most memory modules and motherboards. Dark Rock Pro 5 and Dark Rock Elite will be officially launched late October.

CORSAIR, a world leader in high-performance gear and systems for gamers, content creators, and PC enthusiasts, today unveiled the CORSAIR Platform:6, a highly versatile modular desk for gamers, content creators, and working professionals. With decades of experience in creating the high-performance desktop and streaming gear that their customers use on their desks every day, CORSAIR and its subsidiary Elgato are uniquely positioned to understand and provide exactly what those customers need in a gaming and work space. Combining premium materials, a high degree of customization, and a multitude of quality-of-life features such as adjustable height and plentiful cable management, the Platform:6 sets the highest standard for an expandable, feature-rich computer desk.

The Platform:6 supports today's many diverse lifestyles, from the hardcore PC gamer to the remote worker in need of an organized workspace in the home. A six-foot wide surface area, which can be expanded even further, provides ample space for high-end PCs, full streaming setups, and an array of accessories. With multiple configurations offering a wide selection of features such as motorized adjustable height, choice of surface material, and an expandable rail system, customers will be able to design the perfect Platform:6 using CORSAIR's online configurator to fit their needs and their space, or choose from several predefined bundles for the best value.

CD PROJEKT RED showcased the "New Ways to Play" trailer at this year's Gamescom Opening Night Live, presenting the new features coming to Cyberpunk 2077 with the Phantom Liberty expansion and free Update 2.0. CD PROJEKT RED's Gameplay Designer Yuliia Pryimak joined Geoff Keighley onstage to discuss the premiere of the "New Ways to Play" trailer, which included a compilation of new gameplay features arriving as part of the upcoming Phantom Liberty expansion and as part of the free Update 2.0.

The trailer unveiled new exclusive features coming to the spy-thriller expansion Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, including the Relic skill tree. The new skill tree offers a wide range of powerful abilities that allow players to master new playstyles and create unique, meaningful builds. Phantom Liberty also introduces a densely packed new location, Dogtown, with endless dynamic events and missions, action-packed gigs, new clothing items, weapons, cyberware, and more to explore.

To celebrate our presence here at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, today we revealed that the local and world-famous Nürburgring GP circuit will be available in Forza Motorsport at launch on October 10. What's more, as part of our plan to regularly bring new content to the game after release, we are also happy to confirm the iconic 12.9-mile (20.83 km) Nordschleife will be coming in Spring 2024.

Both tracks have been completely rebuilt for the Xbox Series X|S and PC. Nürburgring GP is the latest addition to the 20 tracks featured in Forza Motorsport on day one - with more announcements remaining, check out the list of tracks we've announced to date. In addition to our track lineup, Forza Motorsport starts with over 500 cars, and this list will continue to expand beyond launch. Check out the cars we have announced so far and stay tuned for future car reveals as we get closer to release day.

NVIDIA in its Gamescom 2023 presentation began with announcing updates to the GeForce NOW game-streaming platform. Its Ultimate performance tier, which gives you performance and quality comparable to a gaming PC powered by an RTX 4080 graphics card, is now deployed throughout Europe and North America, with as many as 15 RTX 4080 SuperPod locations. Gamers in these locations will be able to opt for the company's highest tier of game streaming. An RTX 4080 SuperPod is a data-center of game streaming servers can provide each client (gamer) with performance rivaling an RTX 4080-powered machine.

GeForce NOW Ultimate lets you play and stream at 4K or Ultrawide resolution at 120 frames per second, or play at up to 240 FPS with DLSS 3 and reflex. NVIDIA has optimized over 40 AAA games for GeForce NOW Ultimate, and plans to add four new games titles to the mix, including Alan Wake 2, Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty, Payday 3, and Party Animals. Next up, NVIDIA introduced Xbox PC Game Pass support on GeForce NOW. If you have an Xbox PC Game Pass subscription, you can play any of the games available to you on the GeForce NOW platform from that subscription, without having to pay for the title on GeForce NOW. NVIDIA says that the first Xbox PC Game Pass titles should begin streaming from August 24, 2023.

Imagine you're in a vast RPG fill with hundreds, if not thousands, of interactive NPCs (non-playable characters). All current RPGs conduct your interactions with them over a bunch of pre-defined statement selections, where you choose among a bunch of text-based options on the screen, which elicits a certain response from the NPC. This feels very unnatural and railroaded, but NVIDIA plans to change this. With ACE (character engine) and NeMo SteerLM (a natural language model), NVIDIA wants to make voice based interactions with NPCs possible. This is a very necessary stepping stone toward the near-future, where NPCs will be backed by large GPTs letting you have lengthy conversations with them.

The way this works is, the player gives an NPC a natural language voice input. A speech-to-text engine and LLM process the voice input, and generate a natural language response. Omniverse Audio2Face is leveraged to create the NPC's response in real time. Announcing this Gamescom, NVIDIA's new NeMo SteerLLM adds life to the part of ACE that processes the natural voice input, and based on the kind of personality traits the game developer gives an NPC, generates responses with varying degree of creativity, humor, and toxicity among other attributes.

NVIDIA provided a quick update in its Gamescom 2023 presentation on several upcoming AAA games. Before that, NVIDIA provided a brief overview on how the RTX ecosystem is shaping up. There are now over 450 games and apps accelerated by RTX today. On games that support RTX ray tracing and DLSS, NVIDIA measured that 79% of the gamers turn DLSS on, and 83% of them turn RT on. DLSS is a sought-after feature in the PC gaming space, as it unlocks higher levels of performance than what a given tier of gaming hardware is capable of.

On to the specific announcements, and NVIDIA revealed that the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III will come with support for DLSS 3 Frame Generation, and NVIDIA Reflex. Payday 3 is another hotly anticipated title, and it gets both DLSS 3 and Reflex support, when it launches this September. Another major announcement is that Fortnite gets DLSS 3 Frame Generation support. This should prove particularly useful for those on mid-range RTX 40-series GPUs such as the RTX 4060, as it would allow them upgrade headroom for higher resolution monitors, or room for more eye-candy as Epic Games adds them with future updates.

GIGABYTE, the world's leading computer brand, is excited to announce its gaming sub-brand AORUS' presence at Gamescom 2023 in Cologne, Germany. Under the exciting theme of AORUSVERSE, AORUS is set to showcase its latest cutting-edge technology, including state-of-the-art motherboards, powerful gaming and creator laptops, PC systems, and stunning 4K gaming monitors. Attendees can expect an immersive journey into the vast gaming world of AORUSVERSE.

As a true gaming heaven, the AORUS booth will be brimming with the latest gaming hardware for enthusiasts to explore. The centerpiece of the exhibit will be the highly-anticipated Z790 X series motherboards, with the enthusiast-grade Z790 MASTER X leading the way to power Intel's next-generation processor. Additionally, AORUS will proudly unveil the Red Dot Design Award 2023 award-winning M6 wireless gaming mouse, allowing attendees to get a hands-on experience with this exceptional peripheral.

Samsung Electronics, a global leader in the visual display industry, today announced the launch of the world's first gaming title featuring the High Dynamic Range (HDR) 10+ GAMING standard created by HDR10+ Technologies LLC. The new title, "The First Descendant" was developed by NEXON and will be unveiled at Gamescom 2023.

"We're thrilled to join forces with NEXON, a true pioneer in video games, to introduce the world's first HDR10+ GAMING title, The First Descendant," said Seokwoo Jason Yong, Executive Vice President of the Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics. "This is a gaming milestone that goes beyond mere technological advancement; it represents Samsung's continued commitment to enhance the gaming experience as technology evolves."

Following last October's partnership announcement with BMW Group, AirConsole will now be showcasing their casual gaming platform in a vehicle. AirConsole and the BMW Group have announced a joint appearance for the forthcoming Gamescom Event in Cologne, set for August 23-27.

Both companies invite participants to the AirConsole booth where the in-car gaming system can be experienced firsthand inside the new BMW i5. Attendees have the unique opportunity to sit in the i5 and test out the games, engaging in an innovative multiplayer gaming environment. "10 months after expressing our ambitions to become a standard for casual gaming in the automotive world, the AirConsole team is extremely proud to showcase our new in-car gaming product with the BMW Group." remarked Anthony Cliquot, CEO of AirConsole. "With the BMW Group we are looking forward to taking you for an in-car experience you won't forget."

Xbox is coming to Gamescom 2023 in full force, showing 30 titles in three blocks. Starfield, Forza Motorsport, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Ara: History Untold, PayDay 3, Mortal Kombat 1, are just some of the titles that will be at the Xbox Gamescom booth.

Running from August 23rd to August 27th, Gamescom 2023 will definitely have some pretty big names from the game industry, and its Opening Night Live will be live on August 22nd, hosted and produced by Geoff Keighley.

The host and producer, Geoff Keighley, has confirmed that Opening Night Live will be returning this August. Opening Night Live is the pre-show presentation or an opening show for Gamescom, held in Cologne, Germany.

The announcement comes as a welcomed news after E3 2023 cancellation and it appears that Gamescom 2023 will carry on the torch, as the last year show was the first in-person event since 2019. Opening Night Live last year was a big event, going for over two hours and featured more than 35 games. Geoff Keighley briefly tweeted that the show returns live on Tuesday, August 22nd and that he is "excited to be back in Cologne with the fans and industry, streaming video game news directly to you".

Following the game's reveal at Gamescom 2022, Funcom is now excited to show off the first pre-alpha footage of Dune: Awakening, their ambitious Open World Survival MMO. Inspired by the sci-fi masterpiece DUNE written by Frank Herbert and Legendary Entertainment's award-winning, blockbuster film from Denis Villeneuve, Dune: Awakening is built with both Dune and Survival fans in mind by the veteran developers at Funcom. Witness the vastness of Arrakis in today's brand-new teaser trailer.

ncom has innovated in the Massively Multiplayer and Survival genres for over two decades, most recently with Conan Exiles. Dune: Awakening builds upon this strong foundation, weaving together Open World Survival and MMO aspects into a Dune tapestry that brings Frank Herbert's epic universe to life in a completely unique way. With this gameplay teaser, Funcom has also updated the Dune: Awakening website, giving a panoramic view of the player experience.
In Dune: Awakening you strive to survive the countless dangers of Arrakis alongside thousands of other players. Explore your role and identity while experiencing an epic personal journey, from searching for water and building shelters against storms to controlling the flow of spice in the top echelons of the planet.