Shuffling the deck chairs: Xbox continues its “reset” with dramatic restructuring
Activision gets Halo, Obsidian becomes part of Bethesda, and more internal shake-ups.
Kyle Orland
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141
Gaming // Gaming & Entertainment
Not just Proton: Getting to know Valve’s new SteamOS compatibility layers
New system-level tools bring Arm chipsets, Android APKs into the Steam ecosystem.
Kyle Orland
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77
Steam Frame: The Ars Technica review
Valve’s new $1,059 VR hardware tries to revive an abandoned VR “revolution.”
Kyle Orland
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251
GOG brings back “big box” PC games, one printable template at a time
Preservation “goodies” also include downloadable 3D models for desktop perusal.
Kyle Orland
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59
The White House made a “Tetris” clone. The Tetris Company was not amused.
Trump admin’s propaganda “arcade” hits some apparent legal limits.
Kyle Orland
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96
The combat demo for Free Stars: Children of Infinity is out, and it’s free
Blast your opponents in 1v1 arcade space battles like it’s 1992 all over again.
Lee Hutchinson
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51
A ratings board wouldn’t let Valve release a trailer. It “leaked” it instead.
“I think we can’t get in trouble for that now. It’s like 20 years ago.”
Kyle Orland
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40
Xbox imposes harsh new time limits for Game Pass game streaming
Over 1 million Game Pass subscribers will have to pay more for their heavy streaming use.
Kyle Orland
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157
Most Read
Pocket’s AI made my game ideas real. Now Meta controls the results.
Interactive mobile “gizmos” are easy to make, hard to share outside Meta’s platform.
Kyle Orland
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106
A 12TB Steam “teraleak” spills more than a decade of lost PC gaming history
Cut content from Portal 2, hints of Half Life 2: Episode 3, and so much more.
Kyle Orland
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71
Panic passes Trump tariff refunds back to the Playdate customers who paid them
“It just felt like the right thing to do.”
Kyle Orland
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98
Xbox’s new disc-to-digital program gives physical games a digital future
“Most” Xbox One and Series X games are compatible; discs will still work after being claimed.
Kyle Orland
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99
New bootloader lets you take the “Meta” out of the original Meta Quest
Privilege escalation attack grants “full control” and freedom from Meta’s servers/apps.
Kyle Orland
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50
Ars Live recap: How can we stop publishers from killing their own games?
The Stop Killing Games movement faces an uphill battle.
Kyle Orland
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48
Live now: Ross Scott discusses the Stop Killing Games movement
Our discussion takes place live on August 11 at 2:30 pm ET.
Kyle Orland
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49
Developer Cold Iron Studios shuts down cloud version of $60 game with no refunds
A reminder of the perils of digital ownership.
Scharon Harding
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100
Valve slowly expands SteamOS support on non-Valve hardware
New update includes improvements for the Intel-based MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ among others.
Kyle Orland
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70
New official 30th anniversary Quake mission pack adds new maps and mechanics
19 new maps continue the story from MachineGames’ other campaign additions.
Samuel Axon
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60
Sony acknowledges backlash, “cautiously” moves ahead with end of PlayStation discs
Sony doesn’t think the move will hurt it financially.
Scharon Harding
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122
Pathogenic review: Damn, it feels good to be a virus
The hot new roguelite twin-stick shooter lives up to the hype.
Aaron Zimmerman
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43
Just because a game is on disc doesn’t mean it will work in the future
DoesItPlay tracks the many “physical” games that don’t work without the Internet.
Kyle Orland
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127
New AMD Linux patch boosts low-end gaming performance on Steam Deck
Improved efficiency in EPP mode leads to ~32% jump in “1% low” frame rates.
Kyle Orland
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29
Sony’s decision to ditch discs was practically inevitable, data shows
Circana numbers show US gamers overwhelmingly voting with their wallets.
Kyle Orland
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199
Microsoft brings original Xbox backward compatibility to Windows PCs
First four compatible titles can be run with an 11-year-old graphics card.
Kyle Orland
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123
Sales of Valve’s Steam Deck crater after recent price hike
Analysis of bestseller charts shows an 80 percent dip from 2025’s sales rate.
Kyle Orland
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80
RIP bargain bin: The price impact of Sony’s disc-free PlayStation plan
Used discs are often cheaper than even deep digital discounts.
Kyle Orland
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137
Hundreds rally at Bethesda HQ to protest Xbox layoffs, and Ars was there
Union wants to halt a “perpetual cycle” of layoffs, get back to contract bargaining.
Kyle Orland
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161
Hackers quickly prove that Neo Geo Doom ports are not “impossible”
Clever coding and graphical compromises get a classic game on more classic hardware.
Kyle Orland
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97
Valve’s new Steam Machine verification system is silent on these Steam Deck-busters
Dozens of titles too taxing for Steam Deck are still unrated for the new hardware.
Kyle Orland
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61
Bethesda, id Software reportedly hit hard by Microsoft layoffs
As much as 50 percent of some teams affected by reductions, and more could be coming.
Kyle Orland
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168
The Nintendo Switch’s days are numbered—but what is that number?
Ars analysis suggests the 9-year-old console could keep selling for years.
Kyle Orland
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88
The incredible shrinking Xbox: Five studios, 3,200 employees let go
Move affects ~20% of the gaming division, which will refocus on its biggest franchises.
Kyle Orland
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269
Wing Commander IV and the FMV future that never quite was
C:\ArsGames takes a look at the time Chris Roberts more or less made a whole movie.
Lee Hutchinson
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134
Sony announces end of PlayStation discs, parts of digital store in the same day
“We will own nothing, it’s truly sad.”
Scharon Harding
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218
Hotly anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI will cost more than other AAA games
GTA6 might be an outlier, though—at least for now.
Samuel Axon
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246
Valve’s Steam Machine ships June 29 for $1,049, but you probably won’t be able to buy one yet
Valve says it’s using a randomized purchase queue to make the experience “less frustrating and more fair.”
Ryan Whitwam
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268
