Earlier in 2026, it was announced that Arc Raiders would be getting Denuvo anti-cheat systems in order to curb an influx of cheaters in the game, and, according to a recent blog post, Embark is again expanding its anti-cheat efforts in an October 8 update. The developer update post starts of by acknowledging the outcry for additional measures to prevent cheating.

Embark says that, in addition to Denuvo kernel-level anti-cheat and Anybrain detection solutions, it has also been adding in-house cheat detection models that use machine learning to detect cheats. It has also been testing Elytra anti-cheat detection in The Finals, which it plans to implement into Arc Raiders in the long term. In addition to the new cheat detection methods being implemented, Embark Studios has updated its anti-cheat policy so that any first-time cheaters are perma-banned from the game.

Microsoft has reportedly signed a deal that makes Xbox Cloud Gaming the only cloud service allowed to stream Grand Theft Auto 6 at launch, according to The Verge's Tom Warren, citing sources familiar with Microsoft's plans. The claim follows an internal town hall this week where Xbox CEO Asha Sharma apparently told staff that the company has something planned around GTA 6 that "no other platform holder is doing." Sharma doesn't seem to have described the deal herself, and neither Microsoft nor Rockstar has confirmed it officially yet. It's also unclear how long the exclusivity lasts, or whether streaming will require buying the game.

If it pans out, the deal would matter most to PC players. GTA 6 is set to release on November 19 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, and Rockstar hasn't announced a PC version. Xbox Cloud Gaming works on PCs, so it could be the only official way to play there at launch without owning a console. Rival services such as NVIDIA GeForce NOW and Sony's PlayStation Plus cloud streaming would presumably have to wait, though the report doesn't name them directly. Meanwhile, Microsoft is introducing monthly caps on cloud play in November, with Game Pass Ultimate limited to 15 hours, Premium to 10, and Essential to just 5. Extra hours can be bought, and a pay-as-you-go option for non-subscribers is expected the same month. Anyone hoping to finish GTA 6 over the cloud would probably burn through those hours fairly quickly.

SteelSeries, the original esports brand that fuses gaming and culture, and KontrolFreek, the creator of Performance Gaming Gear, are back with a new collection of gaming gear for Fortnite fans. In a deal facilitated by Epic Games' licensing agency IMG Licensing, today we are announcing a new gaming peripheral collection designed to bring the iconic game to players' real-world gaming battle stations.

Spanning a multitude of gaming gear categories—including headsets, earbuds, mice, mousepads, PBT keycaps, Performance Thumbsticks, Thumb Grips, and more—the collection gives fans new ways to represent Fortnite both in-game and in real life (IRL), while bringing fan favorites like Peely, Guff, Fishstick, Supply Llama, and Water Sprites to the real world. Every physical product purchase will also include an in-game item as listed below, extending the experience beyond the gaming station and into the game. There's also a custom SteelSeries game in Fortnite (Island Code 9448-1956-0547) where players can check out items from the new Fortnite collection in-game.

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) today announced that the ROG Rapture GT-BN98 quad-band WiFi 8 gaming router is now shipping, delivering ultra-high reliability and next-generation performance for demanding network environments. In today's multi-device environments driven by gaming, streaming, and smart home usage, users need more than peak speed. They need stable, predictable, and efficient connectivity. The GT-BN98 delivers this through WiFi 8 technology, intelligent bandwidth optimization, and enhanced network visibility, ensuring consistent performance even under heavy loads.

WiFi 8 Ultra-High Reliability
The ROG Rapture GT-BN98 delivers up to 25,000 Mbps of bandwidth and features advanced technologies such as new MCS rates, UEQM, and NPCA for improved throughput and coverage. Unlike previous WiFi generations focused on peak speed, WiFi 8 prioritizes ultra-high reliability by improving performance consistency across varying signal conditions. It reduces sudden speed drops and enhances stability in real-world environments, especially in multi-device and long-range scenarios. Users experience smoother and more stable connections across the entire home, with less performance fluctuation over distance. Whether gaming, streaming, or using IoT devices, connections remain consistent and reliable.

German utility SWK Energie, the municipal power company of Krefeld, is selling an electricity plan aimed squarely at gamers. It's called meinGAMING, and the pitch is simple enough: a higher fixed monthly fee in exchange for a lower price per kilowatt-hour. SWK says the plan starts to make sense at around 2,500 kWh per year, which is where the calculator's "Casual Gamer" preset sits. The "Pro Gamer" and "Gaming Haushalt" presets default to 3,500 kWh and 5,000 kWh. Of course, the wall socket doesn't know what's plugged into it. The same plan works just as well for a household with a heat pump or an electric car, so the gaming part appears to be branding more than anything else.

Pricing depends on the postcode. One example for postcode 51381 listed 25.01 cents per kWh and a €23.67 monthly base fee, along with a €100 new customer bonus and a price guarantee of up to 24 months. Apparently, that per-kWh rate was raised after a rush of sign-ups. A gaming PC alone probably won't get most people to 2,500 kWh, though. An RTX 5090 at its full 575 W for 30 hours a week works out to roughly 900 kWh a year. SWK also says the power is 100% renewable, backed by certificates of origin from European hydroelectric plants. Readers in Germany are advised to compare the plan against regular tariffs for their own postcode before switching.

In early 2026, Valve started giving developers more information about the systems playing their games, starting with optional frame rate reporting for games on the Steam Deck and system specifications in user reviews. It now seems to be expanding that program, according to a new blog post on the Steamworks developer news blog. The update expands Steam Deck frame rate data to show player experience.

With the new data, developers who publish on Steam will be able to access frame rate data as a distribution, effectively showing developers what percentage of the game runs at certain frame rates. Valve says that it is starting with the Steam Deck as a known system configuration, which makes the data easier to interpret and gives Steam a basis to start iterating on the sort of data it collects about game performance. The data itself will be anonymized averages and distribution, in conjunction with the previously available Steam Verified feedback.

Welcome to the first full week of October and boy do we have a packed week full of new releases and we have two major releases this week, with one being a prequel in a popular Xbox franchise and one being a sequel MMORPG. As for this week's other releases, we start the week with some racing in the Star Wars universe, followed by a game based on a famous horror movie. Continuing on the horror theme we got a 2.5D survival horror metroidvania and we end the week with a seemingly peaceful drive in the countryside valleys. Don't forget to check out this week's other releases as well.

Gears of War: E-Day / This week's first major release / Tuesday 6 October
Experience the horror and brutality of Emergence Day. Fourteen years before the original Gears of War, join Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago in a gripping origin-story campaign as the Locust Horde first erupt from below, igniting a desperate fight for survival. Rally your squad and fight on in multiplayer with a reimagination of Gears' iconic PvE mode, Horde Siege, or go head-to-head with a refined Versus PvP. Steam link

Marvel's Wolverine is now touching 20 FPS on the KytyPS5 emulator, only days after it first booted to its main menu at around 2 FPS. X user @MizoChris shared a 10-second clip of Logan clawing around at roughly that frame rate, and the numbers match a longer test by YouTuber Unreal Gaming PC on a Ryzen 7 9800X3D and RTX 4080. That run apparently used Senaxx's September 30 build of the emulator, and it ate up nearly all of the card's 16 GB of VRAM. The 20 FPS figure, however, is a peak. Most gameplay reportedly sits closer to 6 to 9 FPS, but occasionally spikes to 15-20 FPS, especially during scenes with less action. The important bit here is the speed at which the game is progressing toward playability. Apparently, the game was peaking at 3 to 7 FPS just a day earlier, though the earlier tests ran on different PCs, so I wouldn't compare them directly.

KytyPS5 has done this before. Last month, it took Demon's Souls Remake from 1 to 2 FPS to 30 FPS in a matter of days, and it also got the PS5 version of GTA 5 running at up to 60 FPS. Wolverine only launched on September 15, which makes its progress even more surprising. The game being a Sony PlayStation exclusive also matters, since Sony has stepped away from PC ports for the foreseeable future. Of course, this doesn't mean GTA 6 will be coming to PC through emulation any time soon. Wolverine is still far from playable, and other KytyPS5 games still deal with crashes and performance issues. It's an impressive technical feat regardless, and PS5 emulation seems to be moving much faster than most people, maybe even Sony, expected.

NACON, a leading video game publisher and designer of premium gaming accessories, is pleased to announce the upcoming release of the Revolution 5 Unlimited (R5U), its new premium controller that is officially licensed for PS5 consoles. Building on the success of its Revolution range among competitive and professional players since 2016, the brand is reaching a new technological milestone today by unveiling its most advanced accessory yet for PlayStation 5 consoles and PC.

The Revolution 5 Unlimited is the culmination of years of research and continuous feedback from the esports community and the most demanding competitive players. This new high-end asymmetric controller, officially licensed for PlayStation 5 consoles, includes major hardware innovations.

It seems as though Naughty Dog is looking to revive the Uncharted franchise after a decade of dormancy, according to a new rumor shared by MP1st. The report, which cites insider sources, claims that Naughty Dog is working on a new entry into the Uncharted franchise, explicitly not a remake, although not much else is known about the project's contents at the moment. It is alleged that the new Uncharted game will be Naughty Dog's next big release after Intergalactic: Heretic Prophet, whose development was reportedly resulting in crunch at the studio recently. Given Sony's recent pivot to exclusives, it also seems likely that whatever the next Uncharted game turns out to be, it won't be coming to PC anytime soon.

Of the few details shared, it was alleged that the new Uncharted game will feature Nathan Drake in some capacity, whether than be as a cameo—which is supposedly how Ubisoft will bring Ezio into Assassin's Creeed Hexe—or as a side-character of some sort is unclear. Another supposed confirmation is that Uncharted veteran, Shaun Escayag, who previously served as Creative Director on Uncharted: The Lost Legacy and Director on The Last of Us: Part I, will be returning to direct the upcoming Uncharted game. Given the aforementioned release schedule, it seems as though the next Uncharted game is still in the early stages of development, and with the video game industry in flux—see: Sony's recent cancellation of Kojima Productions's Physint—things may still change drastically before we hear anything from Sony or Naughty Dog directly.

It seems as though the future of Resident Evil remakes is in flux, with it initially being reported that Resident Evil 5 and 6 would not be getting remakes following the expected Code Veronica and Resident Evil 1 remakes. However, comments by Jun Takeuchi, a franchise veteran who has served as executive director, producer, or artist on several Resident Evil games, alluded to Resident Evil remakes that stretch all the way until the modern numbered games.

The comments, out of the recently launched Biohazard 30th Special Mook (via RENews on X), say that Capcom has been developing Resident Evil in two tracks: the numbered titles allow players to experience the ongoing story of the series, while the remake series allows them to experience the past. Someday, the remake series will catch up with the era of the numbered titles, and we are already thinking about what we will do when that happens. It may be the case that there were previously no plans for those remakes but that recent successes with older franchises and remakes have led Capcom to change its mind and commit to more Resident Evil remakes, as was alluded to in a recent press release.

When Pearl Abyss first announced Crimson Desert's Charting the Unknown DLC in early September, it said that the DLC would launch on October 15 for PC, Xbox, and PS5. However, the studio has had to push back the game's DLC launch, citing concerns about stability and polish as the primary factor. The delay officially pushes the launch back to October 29, per the official announcement on the game's X account.

Pearl AbyssWe are hard at work on Crimson Desert: Enhanced Charting the Unknown to bring you new adventures to Pywel. However, we have determined that we need additional time to deliver a more polished and stable gameplay experience.
Therefore, we have decided to move the DLC's release by 2 weeks to October 29 GMT/PT.

We know many of you have been looking forward to returning to the game, and we sincerely apologize for the longer wait. We will use the additional time to further refine the content and do our utmost to deliver the best experience we can.

Minisforum launched an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070-powered AtomMan G7 Pro mini PC in January 2026, and the brand has just announced the latest iteration in the AtomMan line-up, the AtomMan G1 Pro-89A6, which is now available with the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT GPU with 16 GB of VRAM. The G1 Pro-89A6 is built on AMD's Ryzen 9 8945HX, a mobile CPU with 16 cores and 32 threads and a maximum boost clock of 5.4 GHz. Pricing on the RX 9060 XT mini PC starts at $1,759 during the launch promotion, with the MSRP jumping to $2,199 after that ends. The only configuration available has 32 GB of DDR5-5200 memory, which is upgradeable via SODIMM slots, and a 1 TB M.2 PCIe SSD.

The chassis of the new AtomMan G1 Pro-89A6 measures in at just 3.8 L, which is made all the more impressive by the 140 W TGP of its dGPU and its built-in 350 W PSU—which means no external power brick cluttering up whatever space the mini PC ends up in. The CPU and GPU are cooled by what appear to be two separate cooling solutions, with five copper heat pipes between them and each with its own exhaust vents. The CPU is cooled by a single-fan blower-style cooler, and the GPU is cooled by a triple-fan setup. The PSU also has its own compartmentalized cooling system. Although Minisforum hasn't specified what fans it's using, it claims to be using silent fans that spin at up to 3,600 RPM.

Minecraft Dungeons 2 recently launched on Steam to a decent-but-not-stellar 32,556 peak concurrent players, but not without its fair share of complaints. Both Windows and Linux users alike seem to be experiencing issues launching the Steam version of the game, with SteamOS and Linux users being entirely unable to launch the game under Valve's Proton translation layer. Fortunately, there is light at the end of the tunnel, as Microsoft has officially confirmed in a Minecraft forum post that it is working on Steam Deck support, which consequentially means SteamOS and general Linux support via Valve's Proton.

In the meantime, several community members have posted community solutions in Minecraft Dungeons 2 Steam reviews. As one user explains it after some experimentation, there appear to be missing dependencies related to the Microsoft Store API that prevent Minecraft Dungeons 2 from launching via Proton. The current community fix is documented on a GitHub repo and involves setting a launch option in Steam and running a script to install dependencies and copy DLL files into the correct location. As the creator describes it, the workaround creates "A local stand-in for Microsoft Gaming Services so Minecraft Dungeons 2 can start under Proton."

Today, Shure announced the launch of the MV6 USB Gaming Microphone Gen 2, including a new white variant, the latest evolution of its digital MOTIV microphone portfolio. Following the success of the original MV6, the MV6 Gen 2 incorporates feedback from gamers, streamers, and creators to deliver a more customizable audio experience while maintaining an accessible price point.

Engineered specifically for PC gaming, streaming and content creation, the MV6 Gen 2 brings Shure's professional broadcast technology to more creators, including those purchasing their first dedicated microphone and looking to elevate their sound beyond a headset.

Deadlock, Valve's MOBA that has been in beta testing for nearly two years, has just received another major update, building on its previous UI refinements and adding six more heroes into the mix, to boot. The update is called City Never Sleeps, and Deadlock's development team says that many of the new features and updates in this latest update have been in the works in parallel for several months.

The new heroes are Nurse Harrow, Rat King, Solomon, Deadman Danny, Baba, and Violet, although not much else has been revealed about them other than their tags. As with previous hero drops, the new heroes can be voted on from within the game, but there is a now a double hero vote for your first win of the day, and voting takes place in the pre-game lobby, where you can argue about who to vote for with your teammates.

Since its launch in late 2025, Arc Raiders has been a commanding presence in the extraction shooter genre, at one point peaking at over 480,000 concurrent players. Embark has earned its player count partially by listening to its community's needs and by issuing frequent updates to fix issues, introduce fresh gameplay mechanics, and update content—until a recent change to the development cycle that will see less frequent updates. In a recent interview with Game Developer, Arc Raiders executive producer, Aleksander Grøndal, expanded on the studio's justification for the change in update frequency and how the game's dev team now approaches updates.

The team is super tired. We're putting out content as fast as we can, but it's not enough, and perhaps it wasn't necessarily interesting enough as well. I'm proud of what we achieved during the first four months of this year, but at the same time, I think we have to be honest at looking at some of the impacts of that.

ATK has officially launched the Blazing Sky Phantom, a new wireless, carbon fiber composite gaming mouse that is promises a lightweight shell, flagship internals, and a reasonable price—at least compared to big gaming brands, like Razer and Logitech. ATK claims that the Blazing Sky Phantom weighs in at 44 g, although it has had to use honeycomb cutouts on the back of the shell in order to achieve this weight. The Blazing Sky Phantom is available on ATK's website for $99.98 during its pre-order period, after which it will increase to $119.98. Unlike most other carbon fiber mice, the Phantom is available in four different colors: Eon (Black) Prime (White), Verge (Blue), and Dune (Sand).

The mouse shape is the typical symmetrical shape reminiscent of something like a Razer Viper V4 Pro, but with a few notable changes. For starters, the ATK is notably smaller, measuring in at 119.7 × 62.5 × 37.3 mm, compared to the V4 Pro's 127.1 × 63.9 × 39.9 mm, and potentially making it a better fit for a variety of grip types. It also has an updated Nano coating, which is meant to give gamers better grip during tense moments. The side buttons on the ATK Blazing Sky Phantom also appear to be located further forward compared to the Razer. Internally, the ATK Blazing Sky Phantom features the new PixArt PAW 3955 Master sensor combined with a Nordic 54LM20 MCU, giving it an 8 kHz polling rate in both wired and 2.4 GHz modes and a peak sensitivity of 50,000 DPI. The brand claims that the mouse has a 0.174 ms of latency, although it's never specified whether this is motion latency or click latency.

With the culmination of the brand's 25th anniversary, SteelSeries, the global leader in premium gaming and esports peripherals, today unveils a new generation of two of its most iconic mouse franchises: the Sensei Pro and Rival Pro Series.

While 8K is all the rage, gamers can't necessarily take full advantage of 8K polling consistently because there is significant congestion on the 2.4 GHz highway, and 8K polling itself is power-hungry. Similar to the 5G mobile network wars, different brands claim to have the fastest network and best coverage, but with different metrics and implementations, making it hard to understand. The truth is, 8K polling is only as fast as the signal behind it, and the 2.4 GHz band that nearly every wireless mouse relies on is congested with headsets, keyboards, phones, and every other device in the area, all fighting for the same spectrum. Ultimately, it all comes down to performance.

Control Resonant launched on September 24 to a rather positive reception, and less than a week after launch, Remedy, the studio behind the game, is promising an October update that makes sizeable changes to gameplay, including adding what it calls "New Game++" mode, which is likely the most interesting part of the blog detailing the upcoming update.

At the time of writing, Control Resonant has a New Game+ mode, which allows players to play through the story once more before needing to start a new savegame. With New Game++, Remedy will allow players to "start NG+ run after NG+ run, without needing to erase all your progress," and thoroughly explore the world and lore. New Game++ is slated to land in Control Resonant sometime in October, although no specific launch date has been announced yet.

In recent weeks, likely much to the dismay of PlayStation's publishing division, there have been a number of PlayStation 5 games, including exclusives, that have become playable on PC via emulation or game porting projects, like AnyPS5. The latest game to come to PC—at least partially—is Marvel's Wolverine, a recent high-profile PlayStation 5 exclusive, and one of the first major single-player games to come out of Sony since the recent policy change on exclusives.

A brief screen recording of Wolverine booting was shared by Jose Coixao on X, showing the game starting up in KyTyPS5 on Linux. While the game boots and registers inputs—with even the settings menu being navigable—it seems to crash as soon as the modder tries to launch the game itself. While Wolverine is only just barely bootable now, it is still early days, and the community seems to be dedicating significant resources to porting games to PC, whether via repackaging, like AnyPS5, or emulation, like KyTyPS5, so it may be completely playable before long.

Seemingly in light of the recent PC hardware crisis, which has affected PC OEMs big and small alike, Colorful has just revived the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 for its latest Panda laptop design. The latest revision of the Colorful Panda P15E features the typical 15-inch form factor and chassis from the RTX 5050 version the brand previously sold, but it carries a significant downgrade in internals.

The new CPU in the Panda P15E is the Intel Core i5-13420H, an 8-core, 12-thread part with 4 P-Cores and 4 E-Cores and an Intel Iris Xe 80EU iGPU, while the dGPU featured in the new laptop is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050. As a result of the older platform, the laptop also resorts to 16 GB of DDR4-3200 memory and a 512 GB M.2 SSD. The display is a 144 Hz IPS unit that measures in at 15.6 inches. At the time of writing, it does not appear as though there is an international version of the RTX 3050 version of the laptop, but it is available on JD.com for RMB 6,299, which converts to roughly $938.70.

Pulsar has officially launched its latest fingertip grip gaming mouse, the X2F CrazyLight, effectively shaving off a whole extra 9 g—or 24%—from the original X2F design, and updating the mouse's internals in the process. The new X2F CrazyLight features Pulsar's X2-S gaming sensor, which promises accurate tracking at up to 42,000 DPI, 800 IPS speeds, and 70 G of acceleration. It also has a 20K lock mode, which locks the mouse's frame rate, for faster response times, at the cost of battery life.

The mouse itself is capable of 8 kHz polling rate, and it has a symmetrical, fingertip shape measuring in at 87.5 × 31.1 × 31.6 mm. It uses Pulsar Optical Switches, rated for 100 million clicks, and a TTC Gold encoder on the scroll wheel, which Pulsar claims has a more durable, dust-resistant design. The shell is made from a blend of ABS and nylon, and it includes both dot skates and full-cover feet for adjustable levels of control. The mouse can be reprogrammed and customized in Pulsar's downloadable driver or with the Bibimbap web driver for a software-free experience.

The situation at Xbox and Halo Studios has been in the news a lot recently, starting with an announcement by the former that it would be gutting Halo Studios and putting Activision in charge of the next Halo game, with a "small team" at Halo Studios assisting Activision with development of the next Halo. It was later revealed that the small team left at Halo Studios was just 20 employees, and that Activision would be rebooting the Halo franchise with little to no semblance of the franchise's original history slated to be in the next game.

Now, thanks to a report by The Verge, it seems as though we have the justification for Activision starting from scratch on the new Halo game. According to the report, the next Halo being developed under Halo Studios was years away from shipping. Reports from ubiquitous leakers in the Halo scene report that several internal projects have been cancelled at the studio, including Halo 2 and three remakes and Halo 7. Despite the fact that Halo 7 appears to have been in-development already, Activision has decided to start from scratch, assembling a specialized team that will be in-charge of the next Halo game. However, by it also appears as though the earliest we can expect a new Halo game is 2030.

Resident Evil Requiem topped 6 million sales within two weeks of its initial launch, so it's no secret that it's been a hit for Capcom, and it has, by Capcom's own account, broken sales records for the series in the process. It's no surprise, then, that Alinea Analytics is reporting that the game has sold an estimated 8.5 million copies across PlayStation 5, PC, and Xbox Series consoles.

Surprisingly, the analytics firm estimates that as much as 48.1% of the game's sales have been on PlayStation 5, while Steam accounts for 43.4% of sales, and Xbox Series X|S only accounts for 8.6%. Low Xbox series sales aside, it seems as though Resident Evil fans are still keen on physical media, with as many as 30.8% of PlayStation 5's Requiem sales coming from physical media sales. The report also claims that Resident Evil Requiem has surpassed $500 million in total revenue for its platforms combined.