Brutal self-assessment paints a picture of a Microsoft gaming division in crisis. Just 100 days ago, when new Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma replaced long-serving executive Phil Spencer, she said she’d work to “understand what makes work and protect it.” Now, Sharma and Xbox Studios chief Matt Booty…
Move also cuts off a massive market of legit users who buy cards with physical cash. For years, Valve’s physical Steam gift cards have been the closest you could come to buying a Steam game at a brick-and-mortar store. Now, Valve says it is phasing out the production of…
Sprite-based graphics architecture makes first-person 3D a challenge. Here at Ars, we’ve taken pleasure in reporting on versions of Doom that run on everything from wireless earbuds and printers to Windows’ notepad.exe and even inside Doom itself. So when we hear that a piece of game-playing hardware from the…
But the hardware refresh is tethered to a bundle with pricey AR glasses. When the Steam Deck OLED launched three years ago, we were glad to see that the new, more brilliant screen fixed the biggest flaw of Valve’s original handheld hardware. So we’re unsurprisingly excited about today’s announcement…
The port seems solid, and all DLC is supported—but there’s no crossplay, sadly. Despite all the graphics capabilities of modern Macs, being a Mac gamer is generally a thankless existence. Every once in a while, though, Mac gamers get a bone thrown to them that is substantial enough that…
Europe, Australia, and Asia can still get it while the getting’s good. Well, that was fast. Less than 24 hours after Valve announced renewed availability of the Steam Deck OLED (at a massively increased MSRP), the handheld is once again listed as “out of stock” in the US and…
Smooth movement, compelling combat, and tons of secrets make for an innovative throwback. Modern Legend of Zelda games like Breath of the Wild are built around Link’s ability to run, climb, and jump with the best of them. In old-school, top-down Zelda titles, though, the ability to increase Link’s…
But there are some real-world constraints that virtual pinball could easily ignore. If you owned a Windows computer in the late ’90s or early ’00s, you probably remember 3D Pinball for Windows – Space Cadet, a surprisingly competent virtual table included for free with multiple Microsoft OS releases through…
Consensus and genre labels aren’t reliable predictors of what you’ll enjoy. I don’t like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. I’m sorry to disappoint you. I know it’s confusing, and I hope you will still respect me. I had to say that a lot back in 2015. When the game…
Keep the charging puck’s exposed pins far away from anything metal. When we reviewed the new Steam Controller last month, we noted how the satisfying click of the magnetic charging puck easily connecting to the back of the controller lets users “save the hassle of fiddling with a power…
