A roughly 192 GB archive of Rockstar Games data has surfaced online, as reported by Insider Gaming. Contrary to how it may appear at first, this doesn't seem to be a new breach. Insider Gaming says the files come from the 2022 hack that put around 90 unreleased GTA 6 clips online, and that the data apparently stayed with a small group of people until recently, when it started spreading more widely. Due to the sheer size of the archive, the community is still digging through the files. However, clips and screenshots are already starting to spread on social media.

Most of what has been found so far is cut GTA 5 content. On X, GTA modder TJGM shared a video of a file that appears to hold zone data for a canceled Liberty City expansion. Loaded into the CodeWalker map editor, it shows an outline that looks larger than Liberty City from GTA 4. Separately, user @affmalyt found assets from the canceled Agent Trevor single-player DLC, including a spaceship location and some mission names. There is also cut dialogue, such as an alternate Trevor ending and lines between Brucie and Franklin.

G-Wolves, maker of the Fenrir—which helped popularize the idea of the ultra-light fingertip gaming mouse—has officially announced that pre-orders for its next ultra-light gaming mouse, the Lupine II, will start on September 18. The actual shape of the mouse is still unknown, beyond a top-down silhouette image that confirms a right-handed asymmetrical shape designed for a fingertip grip—seemingly a revision of the Fenrir Asym pictured below, with a top that slopes down to the right—but the Lupine II will officially start selling at $109 for Early Bird pre-orders, $134 for the next round of pre-orders, and $159.

Despite the general mystery surrounding the shape, there is some information available about the Lupine II. For starters, it seems as though it will be available in only black and gray colorways at the time of writing. The spec sheet also confirms that the Lupine II will measure in at 65.38 × 30.27 × 59.95 mm (L × H × W). The promotional imagery on the pre-order page also confirms that the Lupine II will be based on the new PixArt PAW 3955 sensor and a Nordic 54L sensor, and that the mouse will weigh in at 22.7 g, which is less than half of the weight of a lot of full-sized mice that are already considered lightweight.

At the Tokyo Game Show, Pulsar has shown off the X5, a new lightweight ergonomic gaming mouse that appears to be designed for gamers with large hands that still want something reasonably lightweight and usable as a daily driver in addition to fast-paced gaming use cases. The mouse shell itself features a right-hand-biased ergonomic mouse with a large thumb shelf and a mid-hump design that's slightly more aggressive than something like the Keychron M7 8K but not quite as aggressive as the Logitech MX Master 4.

Thanks to hands-on photos shared by @jakeufps on X, the Pulsar X5 will weigh around 62 g. He also confirmed that the mouse is on the large side, which has been corroborated by other influencers and journalists at the event, and that the X5 will have an open bottom design in order to reduce weight. The sides and top will still be solid, and the X5 will also feature an extra side-mounted thumb button in addition to the two standard back and forward buttons usually mounted on the side.

Razer, the leading global lifestyle brand for gamers, today announced the Razer Tartarus V2 Pro, the next evolution of its Tartarus gaming keypad line. Built to carry forward the accuracy and speed players expect from the Tartarus name, the Tartarus V2 Pro brings Razer's flagship switch technology and true 8000 Hz HyperPolling into a dedicated keypad for the first time, alongside a wrist rest designed to move with the player rather than around them.

Equipped with 31 programmable controls, a full-sized anti-drift thumbstick, and a fully-adjustable ergonomic wrist rest, the Tartarus V2 Pro is designed to give competitive MMO and FPS players alike near-infinite customization without sacrificing comfort over long sessions.

It's no secret that Heart Machine has had a rough time of it of late, with the indie studio behind the massively popular Hyper Light Drifter laying off a significant number of its staff ahead of the release of Possessor(s) and effectively cancelling the development of Hyper Light Breaker less than a year after the game launched on Steam. Now, it seems as though Heart Machine is on the brink, with a recent statement from the studio's CEO, Alx Preston, confirming the news on LinkedIn.

In the statement, the CEO and founder of Heart Machine confirms that it has had to lay off "nearly everyone" at the studio, after a publisher it was working with on an upcoming game "decided to no longer move forward with it," effectively leaving the studio without funding and without any immediate prospects for funding. He explains that he is "not sure yet" what is next for Heart Machine or how the studio will survive, effectively suggesting that Heart Machine is expected to shut down in the coming weeks or months unless something changes regarding its financials. The full statement from Preston follows.

As covered in TechPowerUp's most recent This Week in Gaming, Pawprint Studios has officially released Aniimo, a new, free-to-play open-world creature collector RPG—the latest creature collector in a wave started by the wildly popular Palworld, and it seems as though the game's reception is somewhat mixed.

While Aniimo has seen over 127,000 peak concurrent players in its first 12 hours since launch on Steam, peaking at 127,914, according to SteamDB, and dipping slightly to 124,466 at the time of writing, players have seemingly not had a universally positive experience, with the game earning a Mixed review rating on Steam from just 58% of its 1,648 reviews being positive.

Gaming laptop GPUs are generally power limited, which often results in significant performance losses compared to their desktop contemporaries, especially for higher-powered GPUs. However, a new mod called NvpwrControl aims to increase performance of NVIDIA's latest RTX 50-series gaming laptops by increasing their power targets using baked-in power policies not available to consumers.

The developer, who found the workaround by reverse-engineering NVIDIA's power management path, says that the mod supports the RTX 5070 Ti, 5080, and 5090 GPUs, with 140 W TGP 5070 Ti GPUs getting power targets all the way to 180 W. The 5070 Ti is the GPU with the most robust support so far, with the developer explicitly stating that RTX 5080 and 5090 support is experimental. Purportedly, the RTX 5080 and 5090 should be able to reach as high as 225 W with NvpwrControl, although that doesn't come without risks and caveats.

According to hardware leaker Kepler_L2, known for accurate hardware predictions, the next generation of gaming GPUs might be skipped next year, with a full-stack refresh expected in 2028. Reportedly, NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 60-Series "Rubin" and AMD's RDNA 5-based Radeon RX 10000 series will only be available in 2028, with some select RDNA 5 GPUs from AMD being made available throughout 2027. The specific model is yet to be determined, but it reportedly carries the codename "AT2." Perhaps AMD will roll out this GPU as either a new flagship design and launch the remainder of the stack later on, or simply as a mid-range or low-end SKU to kickstart the RDNA 5 launch. Thus, we still need to wait and gather more information before making conclusions, so treat this only as a rumor for now.

For example, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50-Series SUPER refresh had been planned before, but the recent DRAM scarcity has turned the launch into speculation, with some believing it is entirely canceled, while others believe it will be a stopgap solution before RTX 60 "Rubin" arrives. For AMD, we hope to see RDNA 5 finally compete in the flagship SKU sector again and see more powerful designs from the start.

It seems as though Iqunix is finally getting serious about its Hall effect gaming keyboards, with firmware updates becoming more frequent for keyboards like the EV63. The latest firmware update for the EV63 HE keyboard adds controller emulation, a feature that has otherwise only been available from a handful of HE keyboard makers, including Wooting, GravaStar, and Keychron.

Controller emulation is called Gamepad Mode in the Iqunix EV63 HyperCore software, and it allows users to assign controller bindings to keyboard keys, which is particularly useful in games that allow for walking or driving at different speeds depending on how far a joystick is moved or how deep an analogue trigger is depressed.

PS5 emulator KytyPS5 has added another PlayStation 5 exclusive to its compatibility list, with Astro's Playroom now booting into gameplay. YouTuber Unreal Gaming shared footage of the pack-in platformer running on a Ryzen 7 9800X3D and RTX 4080, the same rig used in KytyPS5's earlier tests. Astro's Playroom ships pre-installed on every PS5 and serves as an interactive intro to the DualSense controller, so getting it running is a solid emulation milestone, even if performance is still lagging. Apparently the game drops below 30 FPS fairly often, though the clip shows no crashes, which puts it slightly ahead of some other recent KytyPS5 tests.

The emulator has previously gotten the PS5 build of GTA 5 running at up to 60 FPS, and separately showed rapid progress with Demon's Souls Remake. Both titles, however, along with Astro Bot, have their own performance and crashing issues. Given that PS5 emulation is still in its early days, performance across these titles will probably keep climbing. Hardware demands remain steep either way. A Ryzen 7 9800X3D has become something of a baseline for these PS5 emulation runs, given how CPU-bound the process is. Still, the pace with which these updates are coming out suggests development isn't slowing down.

Mchose, the maker of affordable gaming peripherals, has officially released the A7 V3-series gaming mice as the latest in its line-up of wireless gaming mice that mimic the Logitech G Pro X shape. The A7 V3 mice are available on the Mchose site in three variants: the A7 V3 Pro, coming in at $59, the V3 Pro+ at $69, and the V3 Pro Ultra+ for $79. All three versions also carry a 10% launch discount.

The A7 V3 series all feature the same ABS shell, Super Glide 2.0 coating, and roughly 59 g weight, and they measure in at 39.8 × 63.2 × 128.8 mm. The V3 Pro and Pro+ both have the older PixArt PAW 3950 TI sensor, while the V3 Ultra+ has the new PixArt PAW 3955 TI sensor, which has a slightly higher DPI and slightly better sensitivity and acceleration specs. The only difference between the V3 Pro and Pro+ is that the Pro+ comes with a magnetic wireless charging dock in addition to the 8 kHz nano receiver.

It's no secret that Marathon has had a rough start to life, with the game launching to reasonably positive reviews, but still going on to suffer from dwindling player counts mere months after launch. Following that, Bungie released the seasonal Vault Breaker mode that changed the game's structure to be significantly more PvE-focused and subsequently revealed that a different, permanent PvE mode would be coming to Marathon later in 2026, after the Vault Breaker game mode showed promise. Now, Bungie has confirmed that the new PvE update, now confirmed to be named Symbiosis, has been delayed to December 8, after the new PvE mode was promised to be landing in autumn 2026.

Symbiosis will be the first major step in Marathon's next chapter, launching on December 8th.
The update will introduce Marathon's first permanent PvE experience, providing a new way to explore, progress, and engage with the world beyond traditional PvPvE extraction gameplay. Symbiosis is an important milestone for Marathon and the beginning of a broader evolution through March and beyond, shaped by what we learn from players along the way.
Symbiosis will also include a refreshed Perimeter experience, a new social space with a firing range, a new Runner shell, an experimental PvP Team Deathmatch mode, and the first of several improvements to the new-player experience.

As gaming continues to evolve, players are looking for more immersive and responsive visual experiences, with growing expectations for smooth gameplay, higher
resolution, and greater visual immersion. XPG, the gaming brand of ADATA Technology, continues to expand its gaming monitor lineup with four models across the RIFT and APERTURE series, offering players a new way to experience the gaming world through immersive displays. Featuring a range of specifications, including a 34-inch 21:9 ultrawide curved display, QHD resolution, and high refresh rates, the new lineup provides versatile options for different gaming needs. This expansion also
extends XPG's existing portfolio of memory, SSDs, PC components, and gaming peripherals into the display segment, further embodying the "GAME TO THE XTREME" brand spirit and building a more complete gaming ecosystem.

XPG Expands Its Gaming Monitor Lineup to Strengthen Its Gaming Product Portfolio
XPG continues to expand its gaming monitor lineup with four models: RIFT R34WXC, RIFT R24F4, APERTURE A27Q1, and APERTURE A27F4. Covering a range of features from immersive ultrawide curved displays and high resolutions to high refresh rates, the lineup offers a variety of sizes and specifications to meet different gaming needs. All four models feature 1 ms MPRT response time and support Adaptive Sync technology to reduce screen tearing, delivering smooth and responsive visuals across different game genres and usage scenarios.

AMD's new Ryzen 5 5500F is turning out to be more than just a rebadge of the standard Ryzen 5 5500 in gaming. New benchmarks from YouTuber RandomGaminginHD show the $99 chip pulling ahead of its non-F sibling by up to 16% in CPU-bound titles, even though both processors share the same core count and land at roughly the same price. Do note that the testing is done by a mostly unknown third-party reviewer, and we don't have solid data track to back the claim, but for now it remains as a reference for future independent reviews from traditional sources.

The testing paired both chips with an RX 9060 XT 16 GB graphics card and ran through seven games at 1080p. Battlefield 6 showed the biggest gap at 16% in favor of the new 5500F, followed by Cyberpunk 2077 at 11%, GTA V: Enhanced at 9%, and Counter-Strike 2 at 8%. Titles that leaned more on the GPU, like Crimson Desert and Red Dead Redemption 2, saw that gap shrink to single digits or vanish once the RX 9060 XT became the bottleneck instead of the CPU. Of course, these are early numbers from one single test system. The reviewer also does not have a perfect track record when it comes to quality of testing, so it's important to wait for further testing to form a concrete verdict either way.

WLMouse has officially revealed its Beast X2 wireless gaming mouse, which was designed in collaboration with notable League of Legends Invictus e-sports team member, TheShy. The new Beast X2 will come in a number of different sizes and four color variations, ranging from 41 g to 48 g, depending on the size of the mouse. Judging by the weight figures cited in the teaser, it does not seem as though the Beast X2 will have the same side design variations that were present in the first generation, instead only offering solid side walls with a perforated top. The Beast X2 series will only officially launch on October 8, and pricing has not yet been announced, but WLMouse has shared a list of internal upgrades and specs to expect from the update.

As you'd likely expect from a flagship magnesium gaming mouse, the Beast X2 will have an updated PixArt PAW 3955 HS sensor, which is WLMouse's customized version of the PAW 3955, paired with a Nordic 54LM20 MCU. The main clicks will be Omron optical switches—so no analogue input tech here—and it will use a Raesha optical encoder, which should be more precise and durable than a regular mechanical encoder. It will be capable of 8 kHz polling over both the wired and wireless connections, and it will have the same Razer Viper V4 Pro-like profile as the Beast X first-gen.

After the announcement of the iPhone 18 series and the iPhone Duo, Apple is taking a step further by developing a new gaming accessory specifically for its phones and potentially other devices. According to the latest Power On newsletter from Bloomberg, Apple is in the process of creating game controllers, codenamed "T6502" and "T1057." These appeared in macOS 26.7 release candidate mentions and are reportedly dedicated to a handheld mobile experience first. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple is designing game controllers for its iPhones, featuring all the usual elements such as thumbsticks, home buttons, triggers, shoulder buttons, and many more control options to make mobile gaming easier on the iPhone.

For the rollout, Apple plans to do it through its "Beats" brand, also known as "Beats by Dre." Since Apple owns the brand, the company will use it to launch non-traditional products like these gaming controllers, which don't necessarily fit the Apple brand. Launching this product also makes sense considering that mobile SoCs found in modern phones are equivalent to laptop or handheld consoles in raw CPU and GPU power, so turning the phone into a gaming handheld is a natural solution. For example, macOS 26.7 RC revealed that the T1057 gaming controller has accelerometer and gyroscope support, while the T6502 gaming controller does not.

As we enter the middle of September, we kick off the week with an open world creature collector that doesn't appear to borrow too heavily from the famous Nintendo franchise, but some parallels can obviously be drawn. As for the rest of this week's release, we start with a different take on an RPG, where you're the guild master instead of the adventurer and we follow this up with an action horror FPS with PvP battles. If you'd rather be a DVD salesman/assassin, we got you covered this week and if that's not your beat, how about part of a JRPG or maybe you prefer an evolutionary resource management automation builder? Don't forget to check out the other new releases this week as well, but be warned that they're all early access games.

Aniimo / This week's major release / Wednesday 16 September
Aniimo is a free-to-play, next-gen creature-catching open-world RPG. Explore the vast continent of Idyll, Twine with unique Aniimo, unlock new abilities. Travel to a sky-floating metropolis, meet other Pathfinders, and battle in exciting competitions. Choose your Aniimo and begin your epic journey. Steam link

Glorious has apparently taken a break from making membrane and Hall effect gaming keyboards, recently releasing the GMMK Eternal, a new no-nonsense mechanical keyboard based on standard 5- and 3-pin MX-style switches and an easy-to-use, compact 1800 layout that includes a num pad. The Eternal is a wired keyboard that connects to the host system with a detachable USB Type-A-to-C cable, and it comes stock with GMMK Fox linear switches, which are rated to 50 million actuations and have a 50-60 gf actuation force.

The GMMK Eternal keyboard comes in at $99.99/€99.99 in the US and Europe and $119.99 in the Asia-Pacific market, although even at that price, it takes cues from the enthusiast keyboard market, with three layers of sound-damping materials—a silicone pad and two layers of PU foam—and hot-swap switches, for easy customization of both the keycaps and switches.

Following previous reports that Kojima Productions had split from PlayStation on the production and publication of Physint, with the studio eventually landing at Xbox for the upcoming stealth action game, new insider reports claim that there were behind-the-scenes issues that pushed PlayStation to cancel Physint.

According to notorious insider, Jason Schreier, at Bloomberg, insiders at PlayStation say that the game was behind schedule and projected to be over budget. Kojima Productions had allegedly already missed deadlines during the game's development. The journalist explains that another major factor was the commercial performance of Kojima's Death Stranding games, which apparently did not meet PlayStation's expectations. The report also confirmed that, as TechPowerUp theorized in our previous reporting on the Physint drama, there was no platform exclusivity guarantee for Sony.

HDMI 2.1 has long been a goalpost for many players in the Linux world, including Valve and AMD, who were both previously working on an open-source implementation of HDMI 2.1 drivers for the Linux kernel, despite roadblocks from the HDMI forum. Now, that appears to be a reality, with the Linux kernel mailing list citing patches that will likely be merged into the upstream kernel driver stack in Linux kernel 7.4

According to the merge request, HDMI 2.1 FRL will be landing in Linux with support for AMD FreeSync, VRR, and Auto Low-Latency Mode, all of which should be very useful for both desktop gamers and for couch gamers on machines like the Valve Steam Machine or its many SteamOS-touting alternatives. Linux kernel 7.4 is slated to land in October 2026, although an exact release date has yet to be determined. Valve also previously declared the work for HDMI 2.1 to be complete for the Steam Machine, although it seemingly has yet to implement the new driver in SteamOS, since the Steam Machine product page still cites HDMI 2.0.

It seems as though video game industry layoffs are almost inevitable these days, for studios both large and small, and this is something that KO_OP, the small indie studio behind 3D puzzle game, GNOG, and the co-op space-faring cozy game, Young Suns, has had to face recently. The studio recently announced that it would be laying off 13 staff members, but instead of the sudden, sweeping layoffs that decimate studios and livelihoods alike, KO_OP says that it has conducted its layoffs "democratically." The layoffs will take place over the course of "the next few months."

In a recent statement published to the studio's official Bluesky account, KO_OP explains that it had to proceed with layoffs in order to survive as a studio, "rather than maximizing profits." It says that the layoffs were conducted democratically, with members appointing a group to plan for the possibility of layoffs, and ratified the decision made by the elected group. The layoffs also extend beyond regular employees to team leads and executives. The entire team at KO_OP was supposedly aware of the studio's financial situation and knew about the impending layoffs "well in advance." KO_OP is also still legally obligated to provide affected team members with their agreed profit share from Young Suns, which is currently exclusive to Xbox Game Pass.

The full statement from KO_OP follows.

Ubisoft has officially announced an alternative to Ubisoft Connect, its third-party launcher that has been known to cause stickiness with SteamOS, Linux, and other systems that require translation layers to function. Ubisoft Connect will not be going away completely, but, starting with Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, Ubisoft is testing Ubisoft Connect Services—a new Steam tool that enables cross-progression, cross-play, challenges and rewards, and player safety, independently of the Connect launcher.

The decision to move away from Ubisoft Connect as a hard requirement for game launching was likely spurred on by the increasing reliance on tools like Proton and Steam's new Arm and Android compatibility tools, FEX and Lepton. Ubisoft says that the testing version of Ubisoft Connect Services is "an initial step toward a smoother and more streamlined launch experience on Steam," and it promises to build on it and improve Ubisoft Connect Services as more players use it, eventually also rolling it out for more games.

Wallhack has been teasing its M-001 wireless gaming mouse for some time, but it hasn't revealed much of what to expect from the new peripheral when it launches. However, Wallhack has now officially announced the M-001's release date and pricing, and provided a full spec sheet for the new mouse. The official launch date is slated for September 21, and one of the most notable facts that was previously unknown is that the mouse will have a magnesium shell. Despite the cast metal shell, M-001 will still weigh in at a relatively lightweight 53 g.

The internals are also premium, with the M-001 relying on a PixArt PAW 3950 sensor and a Nordic NRF54L15 MCU. This means it will be capable of 8 kHz polling, up to 30,000 DPI, and a claimed 2 ms wireless latency. As previously confirmed, the M-001 will have swappable batteries, and it will ship with two batteries included. We now also know that the batteries will be 250 mAh, which is more or less in-line with what other mouse makers are offering on similar MCU and sensor combinations. The M-001 will measure in at 120 × 64 × 39 mm and feature a right-handed symmetrical shape similar to Logitech's G Pro line-up, but with more sculpted sides.

Valve has been tweaking and adjusting Steam's Big Picture and handheld client UI since the launch of the Steam Deck, and now, with the Steam Machine making its way to the hands of gamers, it seems as though the gaming giant is reevaluating its UI once again. This time, a new Steam beta has launched, featuring Big Art Mode, a new mode that more or less mimics the functionality of a third-party community-driven tool called DeckyLoader.

The new Big Art Mode can be optionally enabled, and it basically expands game thumbnails to a large vertical shelf at the bottom of the display, with the highlighted game's artwork scaled to fill in the background, instead of showing the customary grid with games in their shelves. This new Big Art Mode is also accompanied by several other new customization features, including new custom screensavers, and a new optional personal calendar on the Home screen.

Physint is an upcoming stealth action game by Kojima Productions and written by Hideo Kojima, originally slated to be published by PlayStation. It was originally announced at a 2024 PlayStation State of Play, but as of a recent announcement on the Kojima Productions site, Physint will now be published in partnership with Xbox.

As explained in a follow-up post by Hideo Kojima on X, PlayStation had decided to cancel Physint in mid-June 2026, although no reason was publicly disclosed for the cancellation. Following Sony pulling out of the project, Kojima Productions searched for a new publishing partner for three months, ultimately landing on Xbox, citing that the two companies "share a common vision for the future."