Valve’s new $1,059 VR hardware tries to revive an abandoned VR “revolution.” In the 2010s, Valve was at the forefront of a virtual reality revolution that looked to some like it would upend the gaming industry. The Valve of six to ten years ago seemed committed to being a…
Preservation “goodies” also includes downloadable 3D models for desktop perusal. Those who remember PC gaming in the days before Steam may have fond memories of the “big box” packaging that made those games stand out as shelf eye candy and sought-after in-home collectibles. Today, PC gaming platform GOG is…
Trump admin’s propaganda “arcade” hits some apparent legal limits. An anti-immigration-themed adaptation of Tetris was removed from the White House website over the weekend. The move comes days after The Tetris Company disavowed any involvement with the game and said that it “take copyright infringement very seriously.” The White…
Blast your opponents in 1v1 arcade space battles like it’s 1992 all over again. After five years in development, Free Stars: Children of Infinity—the official sequel to The Ur-Quan Masters by the old game’s original creators—has released a free public demo. It’s a “combat demo” in the style of…
“I think we can’t get in trouble for that now. It’s like 20 years ago.” Back in 2009, Ars wrote about what was being reported as a leaked trailer for the then-upcoming Left 4 Dead 2, saying the footage “looks like it’s straight from a high-gloss action movie.” Today,…
Over 1 million Game Pass subscribers will have to pay more for their heavy streaming use. In 2020, Microsoft announced that Game Pass Ultimate subscriptions would include unlimited access to its new Xbox Cloud Gaming service (then still known as Project xCloud). Now, that kind of streaming buffet service…
Interactive mobile “gizmos” are easy to make, hard to share outside Meta’s platform. The relatively recent rise of AI-assisted coding tools and the whole concept of “vibe coding” have effectively upended entire software development workflows. While these tools have been available to novice coders willing to put in the…
Cut content from Portal 2, hints of Half Life 2: Episode 3, and so much more. Here at Ars, we’re intimately familiar with data leaks surrounding Valve’s games, hardware, and the workings of Steam itself. But nothing could have prepared us for this weekend’s “terarelease” encompassing more than 12TB…
“It just felt like the right thing to do.” Panic, the indie game publishers behind the quirky, yellow crank-sporting Playdate gaming handheld, is issuing refunds to customers who had to shoulder the cost of inappropriate tariffs imposed by the Trump administration this year. The news comes months after the…
“Most” Xbox One and Series X games are compatible; discs will still work after being claimed. For decades, console owners have faced a choice between the convenience of digital downloads and the permanence of physical game discs. Soon, Xbox owners will be able to get the best of both…
