Two days after arguing that the DRAM in home PCs would be put to better use in data centers, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman sat down with around 50 Samsung presidents on Saturday, October 31. The group went well past the chip business, with leaders from Samsung's finance and biotech arms joining the electronics side at the company's training center in Yongin. Samsung presented it as part of a leadership seminar series for its company-wide AI push, and the talks apparently covered where AI is headed, the markets it could open up, and how it changes the way large companies make decisions. According to Samsung, Altman told the room that adopting AI alone doesn't give anyone an edge, and that the payoff comes from using it to move faster and build better products.

Nothing came out of it in terms of a new supply contract, at least publicly, and Samsung's own write-up stuck to AI strategy. Still, it's hard to look at the visit separately from the memory shortage. Samsung signed a letter of intent with OpenAI back in October 2025 to act as a memory partner for Stargate, with OpenAI's demand projected at up to 900,000 DRAM wafers per month. Separately, on October 31, SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won also reportedly met Altman in Seoul, with SK hynix and SK Telecom executives joining, according to industry sources. Last month, AMD's Lisa Su spent hours with Samsung's chip chief chasing HBM supply, and amid all these meetings, Micron's CEO expects the memory crunch to get worse in 2027 and 2028. It seems like every major buyer is knocking on the same Korean doors.

Microsoft's Xbox division has missed a performance goal tied to executive pay for the fifth time in six years. Microsoft's top named executives, a group that has included CEO Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood, have had one Xbox-related metric in their pay packages since 2020. According to Game File, which went through Microsoft's new proxy statement filed on October 21, the fiscal 2026 target was 4.3% growth in Xbox content and services revenue. Instead, that revenue fell 6% by the compensation measure, while the proxy's own business highlights put the drop at 5%. The miss caps a rough year for the division, which saw its revenue slide and later announced plans to lay off 3,200 workers as part of a year-long reset.

The target metric itself has shifted over the years. It started as Game Pass subscriber growth, which Xbox missed in 2021 and 2022, then switched to content and services revenue growth in 2023, which Xbox missed that year and again in 2024. Fiscal 2025 was the lone exception, with Xbox growing that revenue by just under 15% against a target of more than 14%. Of course, the Xbox goal is only a small slice of the pay package. Nadella's total compensation for fiscal 2026 came in at roughly $90.6 million, down from about $96.5 million a year earlier, though the filing doesn't pin that dip on Xbox. CEO Asha Sharma has denied divestment rumors and said Microsoft will take the long-term view, so it's reasonable to expect the turnaround to take more than one fiscal year.

Brandon Stirrup, a senior business strategy manager at Xbox, has stirred up quite a debate after posting on X that the games industry is dragging its feet on AI. Over the weekend, Stirrup shared a rough football game he says he "vibe coded" in about three hours of active work, despite never having made a game before, with an AI agent testing and iterating on it. He went on to say that studios not planning around AI are "planning for a fake future." He also said he'd happily take the hit if it meant hundreds of people at Xbox could stop pretending they don't use AI. Here's part of his X rant:

Look if I'm fired tomorrow it will be because I told you the truth that nobody wants you to know. You can make a game with a simple prompt and yes you can make custom, tailored games. Everything you want in a game is right there for the taking, for better or worse. Gaming is the only industry slow-walking the transition because users have negative sentiment. Everyone else accepts reality, Gaming is the only industry where leaders are afraid to talk about AI. Users want the truth. We're using AI.

The war for the soul of the solar system is nigh as Stardock today announced that Ashes of the Singularity II will release November 10, 2026, on Steam. The sequel to the massive-scale real-time strategy game puts players in the middle of a war over humanity's future, fighting against enemies that have already surpassed it.

Set in the near future, Ashes of the Singularity II puts humanity in a fight for its own survival. The Post-Human Coalition, a faction of humans who have abandoned their physical bodies, has become the most technologically advanced power in the solar system. At the same time, a rogue artificial intelligence has built the AI Substrate, a machine civilization determined to secure its own future at any cost. Caught between them, humanity is losing ground.

After a few busy weeks of new game releases, this week is a bit slower, but it doesn't mean that there aren't a lot of new releases, just nothing that really stands out. This week's major release takes us off-roading in a very colourful game. We kick off the week with some RTS planning in a WW2 setting, which is followed by a first person RPG set in the Napoleonic era, followed by another first person game, but this time with trolls in the Finnish forests and we're not talking about the Moomin kind. We end the week with a 2D platformer set in a familiar universe and finally we have a very different city builder which brings Discworld vibes. Don't forget to check out this week's other releases as well.

Over the hill / This week's major release / Wednesday 14 October
Explore the world in the golden age of offroading. Drive iconic 4x4 vehicles from the 60s to 80s by yourself or with friends through challenging trails and beautiful scenery. Take to the trails solo or with up to three friends. Cruise through scenic landscapes, tackle challenging off-road routes, and work together to overcome the obstacles standing between you and your destination. Steam link

Today during the Triple-I Initiative showcase, indie developer Strange Scaffold (I Am Your Beast, CLICKOLDING, Space Warlord Baby Trading Simulator) unveiled Gods With Badges, a narrative tactics game examining the power, social dynamics, and institutional pressures of law enforcement through narrative consequence and brutal turn-based battles.

Originally conceived by acclaimed strategy studio Artificer under the name Hard Justice, Gods With Badges builds upon the foundations and development materials of an ambitious, previously unrealized project, reinterpreting them through Strange Scaffold's distinctive creative lens.

Sony has confirmed it will not exhibit at CES 2027 in Las Vegas, ending a run that goes back to the very first show in 1967. A company spokesperson told Bloomberg that neither Sony nor any of its affiliates plan to exhibit at the January event. Sony did not have its own booth at CES 2026 either, but its Sony Honda Mobility joint venture still showed off an Afeela EV prototype at that show. That EV project was apparently the last big reason for Sony to keep showing up. Sony Honda Mobility canceled the Afeela 1 and a planned SUV in March, after Honda reassessed its electrification strategy, and the two companies said they would review the future of the joint venture.

Sony has also been pulling back from consumer hardware elsewhere, with TCL taking a 51% stake in a new joint venture that will assume its home entertainment business, including Bravia TVs. Sony's own statement says it "continuously and strategically" evaluates how it approaches events, and that its focus keeps shifting toward entertainment, intellectual property, and technology that supports creators. For gamers, it looks like PlayStation won't be using a CES stage next year either, although that was somewhat predictable. CES had slowly stopped being a Sony show already, but a 60-year streak ending is still strange to see.

AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire World Labs, an AI model and research lab led by AI pioneer Dr. Fei-Fei Li. The acquisition will bring a world-class team of researchers and model experts to AMD, strengthening its ability to develop AI hardware, software and systems around the needs of emerging models and applications.

As AI expands into reasoning, robotics, simulation and physical AI, the demands on compute infrastructure become more diverse. World Labs' expertise in developing advanced models will give AMD deeper insight into how workloads are evolving and help shape its future technology roadmaps. The acquisition advances AMD's strategy to deliver AI infrastructure for an open ecosystem.

Blizzard recently revealed that it is working on a new open-world shooter as a continuation of the StarCraft series, and, given the recent push from Xbox for Xbox exclusives, the expectation was that the StarCraft would be an Xbox exclusive of some sort. However, new information has emerged that this may not be the case for the RTS-turned-shooter.

According to a Blizzard representative responding to Kotaku, the studio "can only say for now that StarCraft won't be exclusive," although the representative declined to provide more specifics. For the time being, it's safe to assume that StarCraft will launch on PC and Xbox, at least—given the close relationship between Xbox consoles and PC, and the "hybrid" branding surrounding the Xbox Helix—but it's unclear whether the game will also launch on PlayStation 5.

Since Xbox's new CEO, Asha Sharma, took over, the company has made a number of changes to its strategy, including the Xbox Game Pass subscription service, and it seems as though more Game Pass changes may be planned for 2027, if a recent rumor posted to the ResetEra forums holds any water.

The rumor claims a number of changes are coming to the Xbox Game Streaming subscription services, the biggest of which is the removal of day-one releases as of sometime between February and April 2027, and a corresponding change in the price structure for Game Pass, which will see Game Pass cost $3 less—$19.99 monthly. Additionally, Game Pass will also be split into a $12.99 ad-free tier and the aforementioned ad-supported tier. This is not the first time an ad-supported Game Pass tier has been mentioned, lending credence to the rumors.

Blizzard has confirmed a new StarCraft game during the BlizzCon 2026 Opening Ceremony, thus ending a wait that stretched back to StarCraft II's last expansion in 2015. The game is simply called StarCraft, not StarCraft III, and it drops the series' real-time strategy roots entirely, pivoting to an open-world, story-driven shooter. It's set in the Koprulu Sector roughly 70 years after the events of Legacy of the Void, with Blizzard describing it as a fresh story. The project is led by Dan Hay, previously creative director on several Far Cry games at Ubisoft. During the reveal, Hay said the game would be fought "not from above, but down in the mud, in the fire," which signals clear changes in gameplay mechanics.

The announcement trailer leaned entirely on cinematics, showing Dominion soldiers training and eventually fighting the Zerg, with no gameplay footage shown yet. A 2030 release is a long way off, and Blizzard has been upfront that the game is still early in development. That gives the studio plenty of room to reveal actual gameplay before launch, though it also means specifics on combat systems, world structure, or platforms are still unknown. Given how quiet the franchise has been since 2016's Nova Covert Ops, it's honestly a bit of a surprise Blizzard chose to reinvent StarCraft as a shooter rather than return to its RTS format, though I suspect that's exactly why it's getting attention now.

Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc. today announced the GUNDAM ROGUE ORBIT is coming this March, introducing a brand-new timeline in the Gundam saga, where humanity fights for survival against an unknown threat in a fast-paced, narrative-driven action game. In the game, developed by Bandai Namco Studios Inc., players fight epic battles across the solar system in a powerful new Mobile Suit. GUNDAM ROGUE ORBIT will launch on March 5, 2027, with preorders available now for PlayStation 5, XBOX Series X|S, and PC via Steam, and is available for preorder now in Standard, Launch, Deluxe, and Collector's Editions.

The new trailer reveals more of the world and story of GUNDAM ROGUE ORBIT, with new gameplay footage showcasing customized Mobile Suits, newly introduced characters, and a mysterious black Mobile Suit with glowing red eyes. Players take control of the Gundam Helix as ace pilot RE-X, joined by Vii, a Haro unit that serves as a general-purpose intelligent assist unit built specifically for the Gundam Helix. Together, they stand against the Apocalypse.

Recently, rumors popped up that Sony may be rethinking its commitment to an all-digital game future, thanks to supposed internal chatter at Microsoft about a "100% physical" Xbox Helix console. Now, industry insiders, both former and current, appear to be shutting down those rumors entirely, alleging that Sony will stick to its digital guns and have an all-digital console ecosystem by the end of December 2028.

Richard Browne, formerly of Sony and Psygnosis, commented on both new rumors in a new X post, claiming that there was no talk of a change in Sony's plans at the recent Gamescom industry expo, adding that publishers are "following their guidance for discless in 2028," and that Microsoft's new Project Helix would also likely be digital when it launches. While his commentary has largely been called into question, given he last worked at Sony in 2014, notable leaker, NateTheHate2, has also chimed in, echoing Browne's comments about Sony.

Kioxia Corporation, a subsidiary of Kioxia Holdings Corporation (TOKYO: 285A) and Sandisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) today announced anticipated significant investments in Japan, totaling over $31 billion (approximately 5 trillion yen) contingent upon government support. The investments through 2032 will continue to strengthen the Kioxia and Sandisk partnership, one of the most successful joint ventures across any industry. The partnership has helped drive decades of NAND flash memory innovation and invested over $50 billion (approximately 9 trillion yen) in Japan over the past 25 years. Kioxia and Sandisk will continue to deliver leading technology to support the growing demands of an AI and a data-driven world.

Aligned with market trends, these investments will support the ongoing buildout of infrastructure at the Yokkaichi Plant and the Kitakami Plant, along with related infrastructure, technology. Kioxia and Sandisk each has committed to drive meaningful, multi-year bit growth and ensuring stable supply to address the strong demand for their innovative flash memory technology. In line with these commitments, the announced investments are intended to fuel the joint venture's long-term success and ability to deliver leading-edge flash memory innovations at scale and with stability.

There has been a trend of game studios involving prospective audiences more actively during the development process in the last few years, with Early Access games, like Subnautica 2, being a prime example of this. Now, it seems as though Ubisoft has finally caught on and is soft launching its own version of an early player feedback system in The Player Council. The Player Council is a new initiative by Ubisoft to solicit player feedback during various stages of game development and to give players insight into the development process.

Players who wish to sign up to The Player Council can do so on playercouncil.gg. Initially, the program is soft launching with four games: Codename Split Point, an online 1v1 PvP turn-based tactical game that is currently in the early concept phase; Codename Rook, a single-player strategy game based on tactical decision-making, planning, and calculation; Riders Republic, the already released MMO extreme sports game; and Atomega, a 2017 first-person arena shooter. For the latter two games, Ubisoft is requesting player feedback for upcoming content. Two more games, Codename Decagon and Codename Harlequin, are planned to be added to the program sometime between the launch and December.

Mere days after Worms: Galactic Tactics leaked, hinting at the upcoming game's strategy-based gameplay, Team17 and Absolutely Games have revealed Galactic Tactics at Gamescom 2026. No official launch date has been provided, but Absolutely Games, the developer behind Galactic Tactics, has given us a look at what the gameplay will be like when the game eventually launches. Team17 also snuck in an announcement at the end of the Galactic Tactics trailer that hints at a 2.5D remake of the classic original Worms game.

Worms: Galactic Tactics is a new isometric, 3D spin on the Worms franchise, with XCOM-like turn-based tactical gameplay. Galactic Tactics will still inherit the goofy voice lines, whimsical character design, over-the-top weapons, and destructible environments from its predecessor, but it will no longer be confined to a 2D side view. The game's premise is that the characters have all been kidnapped from their home world and are being made to compete in a gladiator arena in multi-stage death matches of increasing difficulty. The game will feature both single- and multi-player game modes, and presumably, there will be local multiplayer.

During today's gamescom Opening Night Live showcase, Amplitude Studios were thrilled to announce that Humankind 2, the sequel to 2021's critically acclaimed Humankind, is releasing on PC in 2027.

Humankind 2 is a historical turn-based strategy game in which every age transforms your civilization and the world around it. Found cities, develop technologies, forge alliances, command armies, and guide your people from their earliest settlements to the Modern Age. Building upon the core gameplay mechanics found in the first Humankind game, Amplitude Studios' sequel enhances the experiences with further ways to rewrite history in brand new ways.

Welcome to what is technically the last week of August and we have a week packed with new releases, several coming from known franchises. We kick off the week in a galaxy far, far away with some turned-based tactics, as this week's major release. The week's regular lineup starts with a survival-adventure onboard a very famous ship and we quickly go from there back into space, but this time with some xenomorphs involved. Next up we have some anime-inspired turn-based strategy, followed by a prequel to a 2019 hit game and finally we round off the week with an old school metroidvania type hack and slash game. Check out this week's other releases for some more franchise action and more.

Star Wars Zero Company / This week's major release / Thursday 27 August
Command an elite squad through a gritty and authentic story in Star Wars Zero Company, a single-player turn-based tactics game set in the twilight of the Clone Wars. You will step into the shoes of Hawks, a former Republic officer who leads Zero Company as they are recruited for an operation that pits them against an emerging threat that will consume the galaxy if left unchecked. Steam link

In a surprising throwback, an unlikely new Worms game has appeared in a leak on X. The official artwork and name of Worms Galactic Tactics has been leaked by @intercelluar on X, who shared the official artwork alongside a caption saying that "New Worms game developed by Absolutely Games (Project Arrakis)."

Project Arrakis appears to be the new Worms game's internal code name, under which we previously got a look at some of the in-game content, including the art style and the isometric turn-based tactical gameplay. According to those prior leaks, Worms Galactic Tactics will have a similar gameplay structure to XCOM, but perhaps with the addition of roguelike gameplay mechanics. In previously leaked in-game screenshots, it seemed as though Worms Galctic Tactics would feature squads of five players per team.

Rumors about the upcoming Sony PlayStation 6 have been flying around for months now, purporting to reveal everything from pricing and specs to an approximate release window. Now, the gaming giant's CEO, Hiroki Totoki, has addressed the PS6 launch date in a new interview with The Wall Street Journal.

In the interview, Totoki explains that the volatility of the current PC and console hardware market makes it difficult to pin down pricing or a release date. He notes that memory prices are still expected to be high in the 2027 financial year, thanks to an ongoing supply shortage, and, given those market conditions, Sony has to "think carefully" about its launch strategy for the new console.

Intel Corporation today announced the appointment of Dean Jarnac as executive vice president and chief sales officer. Jarnac will lead Intel's global sales organization—strengthening Intel's customer relationships and go-to-market execution across its product portfolio, including client, data center, AI, networking, and ASICs.

"Customer focus and execution are central to Intel's strategy and future success," said Lip-Bu Tan, Intel CEO. "Dean is a proven leader with deep industry relationships and a strong track record of building high-performance sales organizations. His customer-first mindset, operational discipline, and extensive semiconductor experience will help us deepen customer partnerships and accelerate growth across our business."

It was recently revealed that Xbox would be leaning into inter-studio collaborations to increase output and efficiency at its in-house game studios, and this seems to be the case now. In a recent podcast, Windows Central journalist and notable industry insider, Jez Corden, commented that he had heard rumors that inXile Entertainment, the studio behind Clockwork Revolution, was already working on its next game after Clockwork, and that the next game would be "Fallout-adjacent."

"We know inXile's working on Clockwork Revolution, but they're already incubating the next project...and I've heard some interesting rumors that that could potentially be Fallout-adjacent as well." He goes on to explain that the project is still in the very early stages of development and could still be abandoned or change in the not too distant future. This would also make it the fifth Fallout game on the cards, with Bethesda announcing four other Fallout games currently in the works. The full interview is available below.

In Microsoft's latest financial results from Q4 2026, the tech giant reported that Xbox content and services saw a 10% decline in revenue compared to the previous year, while Xbox hardware revenue declined by 13% YoY. This is no surprise, as Xbox CEO, Asha Sharma previously shared that Xbox revenue was plummeting, which was part of the reason the gaming division resorted to such intense layoffs in early July. Following the financial report, Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella commented that Microsoft has adjusted its strategy so that Xbox's publishing and hardware business so that the gaming division can see growth in 2027.

Satya Nadella, CEO of MicrosoftWhen it comes to Xbox, we are making the necessary decisions required across our content portfolio platform and operations to reset the business for long-term growth. We have the best IP in the industry and talented studios around the world and believe we can bring these strengths together and expect to return the business to growth in fiscal 2027.

Stardock today released Galactic Civilizations IV: Federations & Empires, an expansion that replaces the series' single government track with four completely distinct forms of government. The base game gives players one way to govern. Federations & Empires rebuilds the entire Government screen around each form's own resource, core loop, and free hero ship, so picking one means playing what feels like a different strategy game. The expansion is available now on Steam, Epic Games Store, and direct through Stardock with a launch discount price of $19.99, and it ships alongside a free Version 4.0 update for every Galactic Civilizations IV owner.

"Our goal is that each government type changes the way players play the game," said Brad Wardell, Lead Designer of the expansion. "Each government has its own special ships, resources, improvements, and more."

Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) today announced results for its fiscal third quarter ended June 28, 2026.

"Despite a challenging memory and supply environment, our third quarter results reflect solid execution of our growth strategy, with quarterly revenues at the high end of guidance," said Cristiano Amon, President and CEO of Qualcomm Incorporated. "We are well positioned to execute on the vision we outlined at our recent Investor Day, with total non-handset revenues growing to $40 billion by fiscal 2029 - nearly double the target we shared in November 2024. In the near term, we expect year-over-year growth in non-handset revenues, including Data Center, to accelerate from 24% in fiscal 2026 to greater than 60% in fiscal 2027 - a significant inflection point in the execution of our growth strategy."