All articles tagged with #pc gaming
PC requirements for The Blood of Dawnwalker show a 16GB RAM baseline across presets, with VRAM needs scaling from 6GB+ at 1080p30 to 8GB+ at 1080p60 and 1440p60, and up to 12GB+ for 4K60 Ultra; a capable CPU/GPU is still required for higher resolutions. The game launches Sept 3, 2026 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, and RAM price spikes and tight supply are noted in context.
Voices38 cracked Denuvo on Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced about a month after its July 9 release, following a shorter 11‑day gap with the prior crack on Crimson Desert; the remake overhauls combat, stealth, and naval mechanics, adds new story content and officers, enables underwater exploration, and brings quality‑of‑life improvements while running smoothly on PC with ray tracing; the piece also notes a growing trend of publishers removing Denuvo from many titles.
SteamDB shows Gears of War: E-Day’s open beta reaching 14,331 peak concurrent players, a new series record; unlike prior Steam entries, the original trilogy and Gears 4 aren’t on Steam and Gears 5 launched through different storefronts, so counts may be inflated by platform differences. The beta adds PvP and Horde mode and will be freely playable next week, with further weekend uptake expected.
A Destiny 2 modder is developing a tool called Shadowkeep Singleplayer Exploration Mode to unvault and let players wander vaulted areas from Destiny 2’s pre-vault era (like the Leviathan map) without any mechanics or enemies—pure exploration—providing a nostalgic way to revisit old maps as official updates dwindle.
A leaked Microsoft document outlines bringing Xbox 360 games to PC via Project Helix, with developers able to toggle backward compatibility and choose pricing or Game Pass inclusion, and a gradual rollout planned for 2027–2028 on next-gen devices; the plan also mentions a disc-to-digital feature for Xbox One/Series discs and a separate October 2026 target for original Xbox games to reach PC.
During its earnings call, Sony CFO Lin Tao said the PS5 is more affordable than high-end gaming PCs and that physical discs aren’t the key differentiator from PC games. Sony reiterated it will not reverse its plan to end production of PlayStation disc games by 2028, arguing the console’s curated content and stable environment matter more, and that PS and PC gaming can coexist.
A leaked Xbox roadmap says the disc-to-digital program will roll out this August, creating transferable digital licenses for disc-based games. It also indicates that original Xbox titles will reach PC in October, while Xbox 360 games are planned for arrival on current-gen consoles later (and publishers can opt in with set terms). The moves are framed as part of a broader Xbox reset, though critics note a heavy reliance on old content amid other project cancellations.
Microsoft reportedly plans to bring Xbox 360 titles to PC through backward compatibility for the forthcoming Project Helix, a PC-based platform, with developers able to set prices and potentially include games on Game Pass; a disc-to-digital program to convert physical copies to digital is also expected, building on a broader effort to port Xbox and original Xbox titles to PC using emulation, with a rollout likely over the coming years.
Microsoft plans to allow Xbox 360 titles to run on PC via Project Helix, with developers able to set pricing and Game Pass availability, as part of a broader strategy to make Xbox games portable across devices; rollout is expected gradually from 2027–2028 on next-gen devices, while a full original Xbox-to-PC launch is slated for October 2026. A disc-to-digital licensing path for digital copies from physical discs across Xbox devices is also described, with a beta planned for July and general availability in August, all amid Microsoft’s post-July Xbox reset.
Microsoft isn’t quitting Steam, but it is dramatically expanding its PC gaming push: boosting the Xbox PC app and Windows 11 gaming optimizations, pushing Xbox Helix to treat PCs as a core platform, opening Battle.net to third‑party content while maintaining cross‑store efforts with Ubisoft and EA, and rolling out Positron and stronger backward compatibility to bridge console and PC libraries. The goal is a larger PC‑gaming footprint that still leverages Steam as a key channel.
New data shows Xbox Play Anywhere adoption is climbing toward 50% for new releases, with recent AAA wins like 007: First Light helping, but many major titles and older games still lack support. Ubisoft’s PC/Play Anywhere experience is notably inconsistent, and indie developers face costs to port to PC/Xbox. While the feature is highly valued, Microsoft must do more to persuade developers to adopt it across more titles to strengthen the ecosystem.
Rumors say Microsoft’s Xbox is weighing a move away from Steam as part of a broader PC strategy tied to its next-gen Project Helix, with Windows Central’s Jez Corden noting a window to pull out but warning it would leave substantial revenue on the table; the discussion comes amid corporate restructuring and rising hardware costs, though no firm confirmation exists.
The first four original Xbox games added to the PC Backward Compatibility library—Blinx: The Time Sweeper, Conker: Live & Reloaded, Fuzion Frenzy, and Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge—received emulation updates that fix a display-scaling bug that capped the resolution, address lighting issues in Conker, and improve overall emulation; however, frame pacing and some judder remain, with more patches promised for these titles and others.
Xbox expands its Ubisoft deal: by linking your Xbox account to Ubisoft Connect, you can claim free PC copies of 13 Ubisoft games—including Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Valhalla, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Far Cry 6, Immortals Fenyx Rising, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, Riders Republic, Skull and Bones, The Crew 2, The Crew Motorfest, Rainbow Six Extraction, Rainbow Six Siege, and Watch Dogs Legion—via the Ubisoft Connect app on PC; premium editions are also available through the Xbox PC app, and you don’t need to own the PC copy to claim it.
ASRock's Radeon RX 9050 arrives in a 4GB VRAM variant—the first modern GPU with only 4GB VRAM in years—built on AMD's RDNA 4 with a 64-bit bus and up to 2,600MHz, enabling features like FSR 4 but falling short for today’s AAA titles; pricing hasn't been announced, though a Best Buy listing hints at about $889 in a prebuilt PC.