Gaming

Rockstar has revealed a lot about GTA 6 today, including the official price of $80, but there is something else that most people missed. Hidden in plain sight on the official GTA 6 website, Rockstar Games revealed more about the game's story than most people expected.

The description for the GTA 6 Ultimate Edition notes that its bonus content is spread across the game's story, with new items becoming available as each chapter progresses. This directly confirms that the campaign is divided into discrete chapters.

It's a small line buried in an edition breakdown, and it may very well mean nothing, but the implications if it is true are significant. For context, the mainline GTA games have historically taken a continuous, mission-to-mission approach to storytelling. You follow your protagonist through one unbroken narrative thread, with little formal delineation between story acts. However, that apparently won't be the case with GTA 6.

Sony says that GTA 6 will 'play best on PS5' ahead of pre-orders opening at midnight tonight, and the game's storefront listing also confirms it'll be enhanced on the mid-gen PlayStation 5 Pro.

Sony's marketing deal with Rockstar has been revealed alongside official confirmation that GTA 6 will cost $80. A new post on the PlayStation Blog gives somewhat vague assertions that PS5 will be the best place to play the hugely anticipated sequel, all without actually highlighting the benefits of the confirmed PS5 Pro enhancements (GTA 6 is also optimized for Xbox Series X/S as well, per the Xbox listing).

In the post, Sony highlights that GTA 6 will use the PS5's proprietary hardware features, including DualSense haptics support like adaptive resistance triggers and improved rumble, complete with sounds coming from the onboard speaker; Tempest 3D Audio engine support; and support of Sony's high-end SSD tech leading to "near-instant loading times."

Grand Theft Auto 6 might not have an integrated GTA Online component--Rockstar says the game is a "singleplayer experience."

Today, Rockstar Games confirmed GTA 6 will cost $80, and that physical editions of the game will ship with a code in a box (there will be no disc version of GTA 6). New info about the game is coming out across all channels, and a new FAQ on the PlayStation Store might indicate GTA 6 is a standalone singleplayer-only game (at least for now).

The FAQ clearly asks if GTA 6 will have any multiplayer modes or features, with a curt response: "Grand Theft Auto VI is a single-player experience." This strongly indicates that if GTA 6 does get online support (which it should, in some way), that it will be released as a standalone product and decouple the main game from the online mode.

GTA 6 will cost $80 for the standard version and will not ship on a disc at launch--physical editions come with a code in a box.

Rockstar Games today made an announcement that should make GTA 6 a far more profitable game. The publisher says that GTA 6's price tag starts at $79.99 in the United States, with pre-orders opening up later tonight at midnight on June 25, 2026. Physical media fans will be disappointed that GTA 6's physical box version will come with a code instead of the full game shipping on the disc.

The reason why Rockstar might be to ensure no leaks happen, and to make sure that everyone can jump into the game at the same time. "The physical version of Grand Theft Auto VI, containing a download code inside the box, will be available starting November 12 to support pre-loading," Rockstar says.

SteamOS (or Linux, more specifically) has always had a rocky relationship with NVIDIA. While AMD and Intel graphics drivers are largely open-source and baked right into the Linux kernel via Mesa, NVIDIA keeps things proprietary. Newer GeForce GPUs do get open kernel modules, but the actual user-space driver stack, the part that does the heavy lifting for gaming, remains closed off. That fundamental difference is why SteamOS has historically worked well with AMD hardware and been a headache everywhere else.

This is also why the Valve x NVIDIA collaboration is bigger news than it might initially seem. In an interview with The Verge tied to the Steam Machine launch, Valve engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais confirmed that the company has assembled "a growing team" focused specifically on NVIDIA support for SteamOS, adding that they are "collaborating with NVIDIA very closely." He also made clear that GeForce support is not arriving this year, making late 2026 optimistic and 2027 more likely.

The timing is important because SteamOS is no longer just a Steam Deck thing. With the Steam Machine now officially out and SteamOS 3.8 pushing expanded desktop PC compatibility, Valve is clearly trying to grow SteamOS into something bigger.

Valve has released the Steam Machine, but now that the device has made its way into the hands of reviewers, we are beginning to learn that Valve may have fallen short in many areas other than price (and the inclusion of a controller).

In their recent review of the Steam Machine, Gamers Nexus discovered several Steam Deck-specific remnants while examining SteamOS within the new device. There are numerous directories and usernames that feature the word "deck". While these may appear as completely cosmetic mistakes leftover by Valve developers, they actually have real-world impact in games.

For example, when a game is first booted, it may believe the device it's being played on is a Steam Deck, which means specific inputs such as mouse and keyboard are automatically disabled at launch. Gamers Nexus discovered this was the case with Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. To remedy this, Valve has rolled out a per-game option that disables automatic Steam Deck detection, which will prevent the title from thinking a Steam Deck is being used to play it.

Valve has recently unveiled the price of the Steam Machine, and as gamers are deliberating the value offering given the higher-than-normal price, it may be worth noting that not every Steam Machine will ship with the exact same component configuration, thanks to the AI boom.

In an interview with Gamers Nexus, Valve confirmed that the Steam Machine's official specifications list states it features 16GB of DDR5-5600 system memory, but that the total memory capacity will be available in two configurations: a single RAM stick or two sticks.

Why does that matter?Objectively, dual-channel memory configurations perform better than single-channel configurations. However, during the same interview Valve claimed the performance delta between the two memory configurations was negligible, enabling them to ship the PC/console hybrid in both configurations.

With the Steam Machine finally here and the wider gaming community still wrestling with the higher-than-expected $1,049 price for the base 512GB model without a Steam Controller, there is some good news for the compact rig built for mainstream PC gaming that runs on SteamOS. As the Steam Machine features an RDNA 3-powered GPU that is equivalent to the Radeon RX 7600 XT, Valve has confirmed that AMD's new FSR 4.1 support for RDNA 3 and, by extension, the Steam Machine is coming soon.

Speaking with PC Gamer, Valve has confirmed that it has been "working with AMD on FSR 4 support for Steam Machine" and that it will be "coming soon." This probably means that, since the Steam Machine is currently available to order, FSR 4 support will become available shortly after the first units ship to gamers. Of course, with AMD officially launching FSR 4 for the RDNA 3-powered Radeon RX 7000 Series desktop graphics cards today, Valve might have the FSR 4 update already ready to go.

FSR 4.1 for RDNA 3 brings AMD's AI-powered Super Resolution upscaling technology to more gamers, delivering massive improvements in image fidelity while still boosting performance. For a relatively low-power device like the Steam Machine, compared to current-gen desktop GPUs, FSR 4.1 would immediately improve the gaming experience by delivering noticeable visual upgrades.

Microsoft has quite a few TV shows and films in the works, adding more value to the Xbox brand through indirect monetization and exposure to millions of viewers.

The latest issue of Entertainment Weekly delves into Xbox's 25th anniversary, highlighting upcoming games and multimedia projects that are on the way--and there's a lot of them. It's been revealed to EW that Xbox and Microsoft currently have over a dozen transmedia productions in development across film and TV shows. That's a sizable array of adaptations for a gaming-first organization, and if done correctly, it could help change Microsoft's fortunes on the entertainment battlefield.

The news also comes at an interesting time when Xbox needs as much help as it can get. The group owns a bevy of billion-dollar IPs, including treasured gems like Call of Duty, Diablo, Overwatch, World of Warcraft, Minecraft, Halo, Doom, Gears of War, and Fallout--most of which either had or are getting adaptations.

The use of AI in video games has been a hotly debated topic this year. Everyone seems to have a strong opinion on the matter, and the video game industry seems to be trudging forward without any care. Michał Nowakowski, joint CEO of CD Projekt Red, said this week that fully AI-generated games are coming, and he knows it for a fact because he's already been in the room with the people building them.

Speaking to Edge's Knowledge newsletter, Nowakowski recalled a conversation with the founder of a primarily AI-based studio:

Valve finally dropped the Steam Machine price today, and it's a tough pill to swallow. The base 512GB model starts at $1,049, with the 2TB version hitting $1,349 and a 2TB bundle with the Steam Controller reaching $1,428. Preorders open June 25 via a lottery system, with the device officially launching June 30.

Despite the price being deemed ridiculous by many, Valve never wanted it to cost this much. Engineer Yazan Aldehayyat told Eurogamer the final price is "significantly more" than the company had originally planned. So what was the plan? IGN's Jacqueline Thomas sat down with Valve engineers Pierre-Loup Griffais and Yazan Aldehayyat and asked exactly that.

Neither gave a hard number, but they said the price hike the Steam Machine experienced was "probably similar" to what the Steam Deck went through. The math is pretty clear from there. The Steam Deck 512GB recently jumped about 40% from $549 to $789, while the 1TB model went from $649 to $949.

Ori and the Blind Forest developer Thomas Mahler shares strong criticisms about Xbox Game Pass, saying that the subscription is essentially a factory that belts out 'mediocre' games.

Game Pass has received lots of scrutiny lately and is often blamed for a portion of Xbox's current plight. The main issues with the service are cyclical and took years to develop, but the main gist is that Microsoft simply spent too much funding games for a risky business model--if subscribers ever leave, it'll be disastrous for Xbox, and that's partly what happened.

Developers have shared their views on Game Pass, with Arkane founder Raphael Colantonio saying Game Pass "damages the industry," and Journey to the Savage Planet developer Alex Hutchinson has also said that the service may harm indies in the long run. Others like Moon Studios' Thomas Mahler have harsher words about Game Pass; Mahler worked closely with Microsoft on two Ori games, both of which launched into Game Pass on day one, so he has a unique inside perspective.

The Steam Machine will start at over $1,000 for the 512GB system, Valve today announced.

Valve has opened sign-ups for Steam Machine purchases while confirming a shocking $1,000+ price tag for the system. There will be two versions offered; the 512GB option for $1,049, and a 2TB version for a whopping $1,349, with two separate bundles that include a Steam Controller. The prices reflect the ongoing RAM crisis that's driving up hardware costs, Valve says.

"The overall effect is that our original goal for the price of Steam Machine is no longer viable. So the prices we're sharing today reflect the state of the world for manufacturing; or, more accurately, it reflects the price of the components as we've secured them over the past 6 months."

Claude Guillemot, one of the original five brothers who founded French games publisher Ubisoft, has died in a tragic plane crash in France, overseas publication Ouest-France reports.

Ubisoft has lost one of its original pioneers. It's been revealed that Claude Guillemot was killed in a plane crash, leaving the four remaining Guillemot brothers to help lead Ubisoft and other companies into the future. Guillemot was one of the two passengers aboard the Cessna 421 Golden Eagle craft who died in the collision.

The publisher delivered a statement: "Ubisoft was deeply saddened to learn of the death of Claude Guillemot, co-founder of the group and chairman of Guillemot Corp, in an accident. Our thoughts are with his family ⁠and loved ones during this difficult time. No further statements will be made at this time."

First released in 1998 for the Nintendo 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is widely considered to be one of the greatest games of all time. It's also a game that has been a staple in the modding and fan development scene for years, with one of the more notable projects being from a developer named CryZENx. It was an ambitious fan project that aimed to recreate and remake The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in Unreal Engine 5.

This is a project we've been following for a few years now, with several playable demos showcasing various locations, dungeons, and even characters from the iconic game. Unfortunately, CryZENx has announced that they've officially stopped working on it. Now, if you're thinking that development is ceasing because Nintendo caught wind of the project and issued a cease-and-desist, that's not the case.

The reason for the cancellation is simple, and it has everything to do with Nintendo announcing that it's working on a The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake of its own for the Nintendo Switch 2, and that it's on track for a 2026 release.

Valve's Steam is the number one platform for PC gaming; that much is true. Even though it's the place to play popular multiplayer titles like Fortnite and Rocket League, and a place that has been handing out high-profile free games for years now, the Epic Games Store is not only a distant second when it comes to reach, but in overall features and performance. The good news is that Epic is looking to overhaul everything about the Epic Games Store and the Epic Games Launcher over the next 12 months.

This arrives via the Epic Games PC subreddit, where 'ImAnthlon' shared images from a presentation outlining what's in store. First up, the Epic Games Launcher, the app created to rival Steam, is getting rebuilt from the ground up. And with that, Epic Games notes that it will load up to 5X faster from a cold start, on average, and get you to your library 6.5X faster, on average, when restoring the app from its system tray icon.

The Epic Games Store and its storefront are also being redesigned with new features, and the company added that user reviews a la Steam are coming at some point. Now, a lot of this stuff is already there on Steam, like a personalized home page with recommendations based on interests and playstyles, but 'feature parity' makes sense if the Epic Games Store is to compete.

Although the Xbox brand has felt like it's been in a constant state of evolution, change, and turmoil in recent years, the current definition of Xbox is fairly straightforward, and that is Xbox is the all-encompassing games and hardware platform that includes Xbox Series X|S consoles, Xbox on PC/Windows, and Xbox Game Pass which includes Xbox Cloud Gaming.

Basically, every device is an Xbox, even though the current Xbox leaders are downplaying that reality by shifting focus back toward consoles. And with the rise of PC gaming handhelds in recent years, last year saw the release of the ROG Xbox Ally X, a Windows-based device that introduced the full-screen Xbox Mode for PC. And with that, it looks like Microsoft plans to continue supporting handhelds, with a new Xbox Handheld category and logo joining its list of 'ways to play.'

As spotted by memoryman3 on the NeoGAF forums (via NotebookCheck), the product page for Gears of War: E-Day, which is Xbox's big holiday 2026 first-party release, showcases the new Xbox Handheld logo, joining Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox on PC.

In April, 2026, the Indonesian Game Rating System (IGRS) confirmed Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred was coming to the Nintendo Switch, which at the time was only confirmed for PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One.

The IGRS website listed "Nintendo Switch" under the new DLC, but didn't specify which one. It was presumed the listing referred to the Nintendo Switch 2, given the new hardware capabilities and the general intent to support Nintendo's latest platform. Now, another ratings board, the Taiwan Entertainment Software Rating Information, has rated Diablo IV for the Switch 2, specifically the Lord of Hatred expansion.

So, now we have two separate game rating authorities rating Diablo IV for the "Nintendo Switch," which will more than likely be the Switch 2. Two independent sources, particularly in this instance being official game rating authorities, is enough to soft confirm that Diablo IV is arriving on the Switch 2, and now it's just a matter of time before Blizzard Entertainment or Nintendo makes the official announcement. However, nothing is set in stone, and it may be some time before that announcement comes.

Rockstar confirmed that pre-orders for Grand Theft Auto 6 will open on Thursday, June 25, via the PlayStation and Xbox digital storefronts, as well as select physical retailers.

Following that announcement, rumors have begun to fly about the price of GTA 6, as Rockstar and Take-Two Interactive, the publisher of the Grand Theft Auto franchise, have yet to unveil it.

The price for GTA 6 is likely the most talked-about thing in gaming currently, as endless threads of price speculation populate both Reddit, X, and other various forums and channels. For quite some time, GTA 6 has received various pricing predictions, with some conflating the hype surrounding the title as justification for Take-Two/Rockstar to charge $100 for the standard edition, marking a significant jump from $69.99, the current standard for a AAA title.

Valve knows dataminers are reading its code, and now it's poking fun at them. A new variable discovered in a recent Dota 2 update by dataminer Gabe Follower is named "m_bHackWhyAreYouGuysReadingOurVariableNames." This means that Valve's developers are fully aware of the community combing through every Half-Life 3 update for references.

The variable does not confirm anything about Half-Life 3. It does, however, show how closely dataminers are tracking Valve's codebase, with even trivial internal labels being examined for possible HLX references across Dota 2, Counter-Strike 2, and Steam updates.

For context, HLX has been the reported internal codename for a new Half-Life project. Dataminers have linked various references in Valve titles to a revamped physics engine featuring dynamic destruction, realistic vehicle behavior, and AI NPCs that react to environmental changes. None of this has been confirmed by Valve, and the company has not commented on the matter.