GTA 6 is now the most pre-ordered game ever on both the PlayStation Store and the Microsoft Store, according to Sony and Microsoft. Sony announced the record in a PlayStation Blog post that opened PS5 pre-loading nine days before the November 19 launch, pointing to "unprecedented demand" for the early start. Xbox then called it "the most pre-ordered title of all time on the Microsoft Store" while confirming that GTA 6 will stream to Xbox One through Cloud Gaming. Neither company shared actual numbers, however.

Sensor Tower's tracker fills some of that gap. As of November 10, the firm estimates 9.69 million pre-orders worth about $942 million net of returns, up from 7.71 million a week earlier and 6.45 million in late October. PlayStation holds roughly 75% of that with 7.23 million copies and $703 million, while Xbox sits at 2.46 million copies and $239 million. That averages out to around $97 per copy, which fits with most buyers going for the $100 Ultimate Edition. If accurate, GTA 6 has passed the 8 million pre-orders CD Projekt reported for Cyberpunk 2077 in 2020. The comparison isn't quite like-for-like, though, since Cyberpunk also launched on PC and likely counted physical copies, while Sensor Tower seems to track digital console orders only.

PlayStation Game Size, the X account that pulls data from the PlayStation Store backend, has found three multiplayer-related entries tied to GTA 6 on PS5: "joinSession," "launchActivity," and "launchMultiplayerActivity." The account posted them on November 9, shortly before pre-loads started unlocking, and later shared a screenshot of the PS5 download queue where "Story" shows up as its own component. That has fans guessing that GTA 6's online mode could arrive as a separate install down the line. The same account pegged the download at 210 GB before Rockstar confirmed up to 212 GB, so its backend data has a decent track record.

Of course, these entries don't mean there's a playable online mode hiding in the files. They seem to be standard PS5 system hooks that let the console's UI jump players straight into an activity or a friend's session, and there's no sign of actual multiplayer content in what has been shared so far. Rockstar still describes GTA 6 as a single-player experience and hasn't announced its online mode at all. That said, a follow-up seems to be on the way. Twitch CEO Dan Clancy said earlier this year that he expects GTA 6's multiplayer to launch in 2027, after talking with Rockstar about its plans. Take-Two has also said the current GTA Online will keep getting support after GTA 6 releases.

Nintendo isn't considering another price increase for the Switch 2, at least for now. Speaking at the company's financial results briefing on November 5, president Shuntaro Furukawa said there hasn't been any major change in the memory situation and that Nintendo is still able to secure "sufficient quantities," according to Reuters. That's welcome news for anyone still on the fence, since the console has already gone up once this year. Nintendo announced a $50 price hike back in May, which took the US price from $449.99 to $499.99 on September 1, while the Japanese model went from ¥49,980 to ¥59,980 and the European My Nintendo Store price climbed from €469.99 to €499.99.

The comments seem to arrive as Switch 2 hardware sales are slowing down. Nintendo shipped 2.67 million units between July and September, down 41% from a year earlier, though the console has now reached 26.35 million units overall and is still ahead of where the original Switch was at the same point. Nintendo has kept its forecast of 16.5 million Switch 2 units for the fiscal year ending March 2027. Of course, "not considering" isn't the same as a promise, so it's best not to treat this as a price freeze. Sony said much the same thing this week, noting that it has already agreed on memory volumes with suppliers for its next fiscal year. Elsewhere, hardware keeps getting pricier, with NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 50-series reportedly set for price hikes of up to $500, but at least Nintendo is staying put for now.

Rockstar has moved GTA 6's pre-load up by two days. According to an updated Newswire post and support page, digital pre-orders can now start downloading on November 10, instead of the November 12 date announced back in June. The exact timing depends on the console. On PlayStation 5, the pre-load unlocks at midnight local time in the user's respective time zone. Xbox Series X|S gets a single global unlock at 12 a.m. GMT, which works out to 7 PM ET or 4 PM PT on November 9 for players in North America, while the full launch is still set for November 19.

Rockstar also put a number on the file size for the first time, saying the pre-load will need "up to 212 GB of available space depending on your device." That's a touch above the 210 GB figure a dataminer pulled from the PlayStation Store backend last week, but it's safe to say it was an accurate leak. The "depending on your device" bit suggests the PS5 and Xbox builds won't be exactly the same size, though Rockstar didn't share a per-console breakdown. That does mean that on a launch PS5 with roughly 667 GB of usable storage, GTA 6 alone would eat close to a third of the drive.

Anyone hunting for fan-made PC ports of console games now has one place to look. RecompLauncher, from the developer behind RecompStore, a homebrew store for jailbroken PS5 consoles, is live as a catalog of community recompilations, listing a hefty 192 PC projects at the time of writing. Many of these are static recompilations, which turn a console game's code into a native PC program instead of emulating the original hardware. The list spans several Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox generations, with Zelda 64, God of War III, and Skate 3 among the familiar names, and it can be filtered by Windows, macOS, and Linux support. Not every entry is finished or downloadable yet, though. Apparently, the project started out as a PC expansion of RecompStore and picked up its current name after community feedback.

The launcher itself isn't out yet. Its download page marks it as coming soon to Windows, and promises to install recomps, pull updates from each developer's GitHub, and set games up from the user's own disc image or ROM. Titles available on both platforms can also be configured once on PC and then sent over to RecompStore on a PS5. No game files are included, and the site says every game needs a legally owned copy. Videocardz points out that Quiver Launcher already offers a downloadable app with install and update management, so RecompLauncher isn't the first to try this. We have seen a huge boom in native fan ports recently, including a Driveclub recomp and the original Uncharted trilogy, both of which also need the player's own game dump.

Microsoft has started selling Xbox Cloud Gaming time to people who don't pay for Game Pass. Starting today, Xbox Insiders without an active subscription can buy prepaid playtime and stream games on supported devices, with a broader rollout planned for November. There are three packs at what Microsoft calls introductory launch pricing: 10 hours for $3.99, 25 hours for $7.99, and 50 hours for $11.99. The packs are ad-free and come with shorter wait times, and the purchased hours don't expire until they are used up. Insiders can also keep using the free, ad-supported option Microsoft began testing in July. These pay-as-you-go plans arrive right before the monthly hour limits Microsoft announced in September kick in.

Starting in November, Game Pass Ultimate ($22.99) includes 15 hours of cloud gaming per month, Premium ($14.99) gets 10 hours, and Essential ($9.99) gets just five. Microsoft expects the caps to affect around 4% of subscribers, and said those who run out will be able to buy extra playtime through the Xbox Store. It seems likely these packs will double as top-ups for subscribers, though Microsoft hasn't confirmed that yet. On paper, $11.99 gets you more than three times the streaming hours Ultimate includes each month. Of course, Ultimate also comes with the Game Pass library, while the packs are meant for streaming eligible games you already own. More details on eligible games and market availability should follow in November. Since the current prices are labeled introductory, they could very well change later.

Sony has opened pre-orders for the God of War Laufey Collector Box on its UK PlayStation Store, priced at £129.99. Despite the name, the box does not include the game in any form, and the store page states plainly that God of War Laufey is sold separately. Buyers instead get a light-up resin statue of Faye, a 51-card Oracle Deck with custom illustrations on every card, and a mini artbook of concept art put together by the development team. Orders are capped at one per customer, and the listing carries a February 16, 2027 date, the same day the game launches on PlayStation 5.

The Faye-led spin-off was first tipped back in April, and Santa Monica Studio confirmed the February release at San Diego Comic-Con in July. The Standard Edition sells for $69.99 and the Digital Deluxe Edition for $79.99, and there is no word of a traditional collector's edition that bundles the game. That is quite a change from God of War Ragnarök, whose $199.99 Collector's Edition came with access to the game on both PS4 and PS5. Of course, Sony isn't alone here, since Rockstar's $399.99 Vice City Collection box for GTA 6 also leaves the game out. It looks like players who want both the statue and the game will have to buy them separately.

A new app called Overdrive is making the rounds on X, and apparently it is a free game store for jailbroken PS5 consoles. Insider Gaming reports that a clip was posted on October 11 by Edigax on X, showing an app that works like the PlayStation Store but offers games and DLC at no cost. The listings show download size and a review score instead of prices, with titles like Battlefield 6 and Forza Horizon 5 reportedly in the library. We don't know who made Overdrive, where the files come from, or whether it works as smoothly as the video suggests, so take this with a pinch of salt. Initial accounts have been mixed, with one Redditor describing the app as "very poorly made."

It isn't the only such app. Orbit Store, an open-source beta from developer saawant12, offers a similar storefront with 147 games linked from Archive.org, though its developer says Orbit doesn't host any files itself. Both arrive shortly after Relapse, a public jailbreak for PS5 and PS5 Pro consoles on firmware 7.00 through 13.60. The homebrew scene has been busy since, with PS2 discs now loading and Halo 2 reportedly hitting 30 FPS via an Xbox emulator. Sony has been actively pushing back against the jailbreak, releasing firmware 14.00 that sits outside Relapse's range, and the October 1 update (14.10) added more security fixes. With no official downgrade path, updating currently means losing the jailbreak.

Microsoft is putting a hard cap on Xbox Cloud Gaming for the first time, ending years of unlimited streaming for Game Pass subscribers. Starting in November, Game Pass Essential will include 5 hours of cloud streaming a month, Premium gets 10 hours, and Ultimate tops out at 15 hours. Once subscribers burn through their allotment, they'll need to pay for extra hours through the Xbox Store to keep going. Xbox says the change should only affect around 4% of subscribers, so casual streamers likely won't notice much. Heavy users are a different story, particularly anyone leaning on cloud streaming as their main way to play.

Xbox hasn't announced pricing for extra hours yet, saying more details will come before the change goes live. The company did admit outright that "the practical result is a higher cost" for some players. Contrary to how generous this might look on paper, Xbox's own ceiling is notably tighter than NVIDIA GeForce Now's 100-hour monthly cap on its top tier. Microsoft points to rising cloud infrastructure costs as the reason, though it's hard not to read this as part of the division's overall push toward profitability after a rough stretch of layoffs.

Sony has filed its response to a proposed class action lawsuit over how the PlayStation Store discloses its digital licensing terms. The company's stance is that no reasonable buyer expects to actually own a digital game. The suit, Heycock v. Sony Corporation of America, was filed on June 18 by four PlayStation owners in the Northern District of California. It alleges that Sony's checkout violates AB 2426, a California law requiring clear disclosure when a digital purchase only grants a license. Sony's August 21 response argues that "reasonable consumers would not be misled" into believing they own their games, since buyers agree to the Software Product License Agreement (SPLA) before purchase, which states plainly that "the software is licensed to you, not sold."

To support the point that digital ownership "is not plausible," Sony's lawyers cite two of the plaintiffs' own purchase histories: Jason Mendoza bought Resident Evil Requiem on February 14, 2026, and Edward Heycock bought the same digital copy for $69.99 just 11 days later. If ownership was genuinely transferred at purchase, Sony argues that Heycock's transaction couldn't have occurred, since Mendoza would already own it. Judge Vince Chhabria is set to hear both the arbitration motion and Sony's fallback dismissal argument on October 1 in San Francisco. Sony has confirmed it will stop producing physical PlayStation discs for new releases starting January 2028, leaving digital licenses as the only option for future titles.

Recent news reports indicate that Valve's Steam Frame may be "just around the corner," and it seems like Valve is hard at work testing games in preparation for the VR headset's official launch. The latest, and arguably one of the most high-profile, game to get the "Frame Verified" badge is Beat Saber, which was previously listed as unsupported on the Steam Frame.

The changes, first noted by GamingOnLinux, are shown in a recent package update on SteamDB. According to the update, the rhythm game went from unsupported due to graphics performance to being listed as fully Frame Verified, even featuring correct and complete controller layout support. Following the verification, Beat Saber is now listed on the "Great on Frame" page on the Steam Store.

Epic Games has long been attempting to set up the Epic Games Store as an alternative to Steam, which is why it has offered its infamous free weekly games since 2018. More recently, Epic has promised a Game Store overhaul in order to draw in more game publishers and players with new features, a refined UI, better game discovery, and even Linux support. Now, in a recent interview with PC Gamer, Newzoo analyst, Emmanuel Rosier, argues that it may be too little too late for Epic to claw back enough market share with a redesign,

The analyst echoes previous reports that said players were simply going to Epic for the free games and then turning around and going back to Steam when they wanted to buy a game they actually wanted to spend money on. The premise of the argument is that Steam is "inevitable," meaning it is too big for new gamers to avoid and too entrenched for long-time and casual gamers to turn their backs on.

Microsoft's internal roadmap for the Disc to Digital feature has been leaked, revealing that the feature will be generally available this month. According to the roadmap, an insider beta of the Disc to Digital feature has been available since July, with general availability for Xbox One and Series X owners expected in August. For those unfamiliar, Disc to Digital is Microsoft's initiative to promote a digital-only future for Xbox consoles. This feature allows players to insert their game discs into the console to convert them into digital licenses. When the disc is scanned, Microsoft uses the unique key to create a digital license, which prevents the disc from being activated on third-party consoles and stops it from being rented, borrowed, or sold to others.

This marks a significant shift away from physical disc game releases, as both Sony and Microsoft are moving towards ending disc-based games, encouraging gamers to use digital licenses exclusively. According to the roadmap, Xbox One and Series X users will be the first to scan their games and obtain digital licenses, as these consoles have physical disc readers. Game licensing will now be tied to the specific user account, with Xbox managing all engineering, certification, and support efforts if any issues arise. However, publishers retain the right to participate, maintaining full control over rights, pricing, and branding.

Apple today announced Apple Upgrade, a new product leasing program provided by Klarna for iPhone, Apple Watch, Mac, and iPad available on the Apple Store online, in the Apple Store app, and at Apple Store locations in the United States. Apple Upgrade makes it even easier for customers to get the Apple products they love with a leasing plan that is right for them.

"At Apple, we put the customer at the center of everything we do," said Karen Rasmussen, Apple's vice president of the Apple Store online, "and we're thrilled that Apple Upgrade offers our customers, both online and in-store, a more flexible way to pay for the products they love."

There has been a lot of talk recently about both the merit of platform exclusive games and digital games, and Microsoft's latest partnership with Ubisoft seems to be a move to support both its Xbox platform on PC and console as well as its digital game sales. The new Xbox × Ubisoft initiative will grant buyers of certain Ubisoft games on the Xbox Store a free PC license that can be redeemed via Ubisoft Connect.

Ubisoft and Microsoft will include any games purchased from July 21 in this agreement, but those PC licenses will gradually be added to user accounts in a progressive rollout slated to be completed on August 4. There are 13 games in total covered by this agreement, and the free license only goes one way—you cannot purchase the PC version of the game in order to get a free Xbox license. Additionally, content like season passes and DLC content will also cross over from Xbox to PC, but consumables and single-use items will not. It also seems as though the games will be locked to the Ubisoft Connect platform instead of something like Steam.

Following a similar story relating to PlayStation Account server errors just a few days prior, on the launch of the Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls beta, Xbox has seemingly run into issues during the advanced access launch of Halo: Campaign Evolved. The resulting Xbox outage has resulted in gamers being unable to access core online features, such as account login, game downloads, the Xbox Store and subscriptions, and launching apps on console and mobile. Reportedly, the newly added Xbox Backwards Compatibility feature has also experienced issues during the server outage.

Microsoft, for its part has acknowledged the issues and says it is working on a fix, but, at the time of writing, the outage has already been over 12 hours since the uptick in issue reports on Downdetector. Both this Xbox outage and the previous week's PlayStation outage have come shortly after PlayStation announced that it would stop producing physical games media as soon as 2028, and it is expected that Xbox will follow suit.

A recent update to Valve's gifting requirements and rules has made gifting games on Steam a little easier. For starters, buyers will no longer need to have a Steam account in order to purchase gifts for a Steam user. They can now check out as guests, and the recipient will receive an email with their Steam gift, as per usual.

Additionally, and more pertinent in the modern gaming landscape, where people may play with friends across the globe, Steam no longer restricts gifts to the same region. In other words, buyers can now purchase gifts for friends in different regions.

Unsurprisingly, there has been more than a little backlash following Sony's recent decision to end the production of physical games media in 2028. Much of that backlash has been met with questions from skeptics about the real-world success of physical media compared to digital, and even game preservation experts have highlighted that the death of physical media hardly changes the landscape, given the dependence on day-one patches.

Now, former Valve employee, and writer for Left 4 Dead, Chet Faliszek, has added his voice to the chorus questioning the backlash, with the writer arguing in a recent YouTube video that Sony's decision is purely a result of consumer choice. He argues that consumers and gamers created the circumstances that drove Sony to make the decision to end physical media production by preferring digital media.

Following the launch of the Steam Machine, Valve has finally rolled out its compatibility rating system for its living room gaming experience in Steam, with a new UI that shows both Steam Machine and SteamOS compatibility ratings. The new UI is only available in SteamOS in the Steam Deck client or in Big Picture mode, which makes sense, since the update is more than likely targeted around the launch of the Steam Machine. It's unclear if Valve will add a similar SteamOS compatibility indicator to the desktop and web clients, although it does display SteamOS and Steam Deck compatibility in the library on both desktop and the web, so it seems likely that the feature is planned for later.

Currently, the SteamOS and Steam Machine compatibility ratings are hidden in a fly-out window under a UI block called "SteamOS compatibility." The window shows three tabs, for the Steam Deck, Steam Machine, and then general SteamOS, all of which have their own specific compatibility requirements. While the Steam Machine tab shows information relating to the Steam Machine Verified program, the SteamOS tab simply notes whether the game will run on SteamOS via the Proton compatibility layer and whether it needs an internet connection for initial setup or gameplay. The SteamOS rating is likely to apply to most other modern Linux distributions, so it is a welcome addition to Valve's Linux gaming feature set.

As was the case with the Steam Deck, Valve is selling the Steam Machine via Komodo Station, an Asian reseller that serves much of South-East Asia, and as a result, it skips the reservation and lottery system that is currently in place on Valve's own Steam Store. While this doesn't combat issues like scalping and shortages as well as Steam's in-house system, it provides a much more realistic indication of current stock levels. According to Komodo Store, however, all versions of the Valve Steam Machine have officially sold out less than 48 hours after the new hardware launched.

In Japan, the Steam Machine starts at $1,175 for the 512 GB model and goes up from there to ~$1,638 for the 2 TB model with two Steam Controllers and two additional faceplates. It remains to be seen how well the console will sell in the west when it officially starts shipping on June 25, however, since the price is quite high, especially compared to consoles like the PS5 Pro and similar small-form-factor PCs. As far as sentiment goes, there appears to be a divide forming in online spaces, like r/steammachine on Reddit, where some are saying the convenience of not having to set up any hardware is worth the price trade-off. The Steam Machine was seemingly meant to cost around 30% less initially, but it's unclear if or when it will come down to that price, which will only be possible if the RAM crisis comes to an end and hardware prices ease.

Epic Games has been working on enhancing its Epic Games Store (EGS) to better compete with Steam, and the upcoming Epic Games Launcher version 2 will bring significant performance improvements to the desktop application. According to the latest rumors, EGS Launcher v2 will be 5 to 6.5 times faster than the current launcher. This aims to attract more users with a substantial redesign of the storefront, both architecturally and visually. It should open about five times faster on a cold start, while returning from the system tray to the library could be roughly 6.5 times quicker on average. For players who have grown accustomed to waiting on menus and slow page loads, this may be the most meaningful change.

Epic also seems to be redefining what the store aims to represent, as engaging players is one of the best ways to keep them returning to the platform. The new storefront layout is built around a more personalized home page, with quick-access categories and a scrollable hero section designed to help players find relevant games faster. Product pages are also being reworked to do more than just display a title, price, and rating. Epic wants them to highlight story elements, community activity, and even a player's own progression where relevant. With this, EGS hopes to counter earlier claims by two former Epic Games employees that the EGS saw only an initial spike in active users during free game promotions, with gamers eventually returning to Steam.

It was recently rumored that the development of Persona 6 had been concluded, indicating that the game would likely be launching somewhat soon, and that previous rumor has been somewhat substantiated by the recent announcement and publication of the store pages for Persona 6 on Steam, PS5, and Xbox Series consoles. Notably, there is no Nintendo Switch 2 store page just yet, and it's unclear if Persona 6 will release on the Switch 2. An official release date has not been set, but Atlus West has strongly suggested in a post on X that Persona 6 will launch after Persona 4 Revival, which is slated to launch on February 18, 2027. Current rumors claim a September 2027 launch for Persona 6.

The store pages provide some clues as to the game's themes and aesthetic, with screenshots hinting that Persona 6 will take on a somewhat darker tone than Persona 5 Royal. According to the Steam Store page, Persona 6 will feature "a completely fresh, standalone story and new cast of characters," and players will be confronted with "strange rumors, unsettling urban legends, and occult incidents." Of course, Persona 6 will still follow the party-based, turn-based JRPG combat format combined with relationship simulation and slice of life elements. Atlus is also careful to note that Persona 6 requires no prior Persona experience and is a self-contained story, much like the other numbered entries in the franchise.

AMD announced in May 2026 that the Ryzen AI Halo Developer Platform mini PC would arrive in June, and launch day has apparently arrived, with the Strix Halo-powered mini PC now available for pre-order via Micro Center in the US. The Ryzen AI Halo developer kit is mostly aimed at AI developers, and although there are two SKUs, both have identical hardware, featuring the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 CPU, with its Radeon 8060S iGPU, and 128 GB of LPDDR5x-8000 memory shared across both the CPU and GPU cores. The mini PC is launching with 2 TB of SSD storage, and it includes a 120 W PSU.

Pricing is set at $3,999, and the only difference between the two available SKUs is that one ships with Linux, while the other ships with Windows 11 Pro. No shipment date has yet been confirmed. Physical I/O is limited to USB Type-C, with three unspecified USB Type-C ports, likely USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 or USB4, one of which has DisplayPort Alt Mode support, an HDMI 2.1 port, a 10 Gbps Ethernet port, and a USB Type-C port for power input. It will also ship with both Bluetooth 5.4 and Wi-Fi 7. The mini PC itself measures just 149 × 149 × 43.18 mm, and the chassis appears to be mostly aluminium.

The weekend prior to launch, Forza Horizon 6 featured advanced access for buyers of the $120 Premium Edition of the game, garnering peak concurrent player counts of just over 172,000 players on the first day of Advanced Access. Following Advanced Access, the new racing game officially launched to a global audience on May 19, and it appears to have been a successful launch day so far. Nine hours after the official release, Forza Horizon 6 peaked at 273,148 concurrent players on Steam, making it a very successful launch compared to Playground Games's Forza Horizon 5, which only managed to reach a peak of 81,086 concurrent steam players in 2022.

By comparison, Subnautica 2, which launched but a few days earlier in Early Access on Steam and on the Xbox Series consoles, managed to garner over 467,000 concurrent players on Steam on launch day. Forza Horizon 6 also launched on Xbox Series X|S, and on PC via the Microsoft Store, so the actual player turn out was likely much higher than that, despite the premium $69.99 price tag. The Steam review rating for Forza Horizon 6 is also quite positive, currently at 86% positive, and the game's proprietary ForzaTech engine acquitted itself admirably in our performance testing on both handheld devices and on more powerful hardware.

Valve's official tags in the Steam Store can be a helpful resource for narrowing down your search for new games, but by Valve's own admission, the list of tags has become somewhat bloated in recent years. In an effort to remedy this, Valve has revealed a rework of the current list of tags, with 17 new tags coming to Steam and 28 tags being removed. The full list is included below the break, but some of the new tag highlights include "Bullet Heaven," a relatively new game genre that gained popularity thanks to games like Vampire Survivors; Samurai; Desktop Companion; Cleaning—for Power Wash Simulator fans—Organizing; and Desktop Companion. In stroke of typical Valve whimsy, it has also defined the tag "Capybaras" as "The largest and possibly most adorable rodent species."

As for removed tags, Valve argues that some tags, like NSFW and Mature, are too generic, and there are more descriptive tags that should be used in their place, while other tags, like LEGO and 3D Vision, have been removed over IP concerns—in these IP-related cases, franchise pages will fill the same discoverability niche as a tag. Other tags were also removed for being too subjective or underused. With the changes, Valve hopes to make tag filtering more effective, whether filtering to include or exclude tags from your search. Valve also revealed the most popular tags on Steam. Singleplayer is the most-used, with over 98,000 games or about 62% of all Steam games, getting that tag. Indie, with 53% of the Steam library, came in second, followed by Action, Casual, and Adventure.