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Tag: Video games

  • The Razer Blade 14 Is Still One of the Best Compact Gaming Laptops

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    The OLED looks great, but one of the benefits of OLED is HDR in gaming, thanks to the incredible contrast from being able to turn off individual pixels. OLED isn’t known for being bright, but lately, that’s improved on laptops and external monitors. The OLED display on the Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 10, for example, can be cranked up to over 1,000 nits, creating an impressive HDR effect. The Razer Blade 14, however, only maxes out at 620 nits in HDR and 377 nits in SDR. Because of that, I could hardly tell HDR was even turned on. It’s still a pretty screen, and OLED has other benefits over IPS panels, including faster response times, less motion blur, and higher contrast.

    Unfortunately, the Razer Blade 14’s OLED panel is not as colorful as the one I tested on the Razer Blade 16, with a color accuracy of 1.3 and 86 percent coverage of the AdobeRGB color space. Also, the 120-Hz refresh rate is standard for OLED laptops, but you can get 240-Hz speeds on laptops that use IPS, like the Alienware 16X Aurora, which happens to be a much cheaper device.

    The Razer Blade 14’s biggest competition is the ROG Zephyrus G14. I haven’t tested the latest model yet, but it’s a laptop we’ve liked for years now, and it’s on sale often enough for less than the Blade 14. The only real difference is that the Blade 14 uses a more powerful AMD processor, the Ryzen AI 9 365. Not only does it perform better in anything CPU-intensive, such as certain games and creative applications, but it’s also a more efficient chip.

    That leads to some improved battery life—at least, better than your average gaming laptop. I got 10 hours and 19 minutes in a local video playback test, which is about the most you can expect to get from the device. On the other hand, Asus offers higher-powered configurations of the Zephyrus G14, including one that includes the more powerful Ryzen AI 9 HX.

    The RTX 5070 Takes Charge

    Photograph: Luke Larsen

    Bad news: The RAM is no longer user-upgradeable on the Razer Blade 14, so you’ll have to configure it up front with what you need. My review unit had 32 GB, but you can also choose either 16 GB or 64 GB. Because it’s soldered, the memory speeds are faster. As for internal storage, you still get one open M.2 slot to expand space if you need it, supporting up to 4 TB.

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    Luke Larsen

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  • All hail Marge Simpson, the new queen of ‘Fortnite’ | The Mary Sue

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    Whether you love or hate it, you can’t deny that Fortnite is something special. The game has transformed from a run-of-the-mill Battle Royale into one of the Internet’s biggest digital third places, with countless game modes and collaborations available to overstimulate you.

    This past weekend, Fortnite launched what is arguably its most ambitious crossover in years: an entire Battle Royale season themed around The Simpsons. For the majority of November, players can drop into a map modeled after the show’s town of Springfield, fighting to stay alive while taking in the near-endless number of Easter eggs and homages to the show’s decades of canon. The collaboration has even branched into the current season of The Simpsons itself, with weekly animated shorts debuting on Disney+, and a deliciously macabre couch gag in the newest episode.

    There is, honestly, a lot to take in with this new Fortnite season… especially when it became so popular that it crashed the game’s servers upon launching on Saturday. But the more I play of this crossover with The Simpsons, the more I reach one conclusion: Marge Simpson is one of the best additions to Fortnite in a long time.

    Every time a new Fortnite season launches — and with it, a new paid Battle Pass of cosmetics to earn — fans inevitably have strong feelings about which skin is the first to unlock. In a way, that character sets the tone for the season, because enthusiastic or relatively-new players are more likely to equip their skin in a game. Before this The Simpsons season launched, many were convinced that this honor would fall to Homer Simpson, which would lead to every lobby looking like the clone moment from “Boy Scoutz ‘n the Hood.” Instead, Marge is now the first character for Battle Pass users to unlock… and although the lobbies aren’t full of her (I think, in part, because a lot of players are playing around with how their existing library of 3D characters look in the cel-shaded season), she has set the tone in a glorious way.

    I just think she’s neat!

    For one thing, Marge’s presence in the Fortnite season comes with a slew of glorious accessories and cosmetic options. Before you unlock her, you can get an emote of her driving the family’s station wagon, a back bling of the bowling ball “gift” Homer gave her in “Life in the Fast Lane”, and even her vacuum-themed pickaxe from the show’s arcade game. You can also unlock alternate styles for her, either with her blue beehive of hair (which I’ll get to in a minute) down and ready for housework, or as a green witch from “Treehouse of Horror VIII.” The only thing that’s missing is an emote of her krumping.

    Regardless of whatever you equip, nothing can prepare you for what it’s like to see Marge on the Fortnite Battle Royale map. Her gigantic hairdo should, in theory, make her one of the worst skins to play as. While it doesn’t appear to provide extra surface area to shoot at and damage, it still cartoonishly clips out of the roof of most of Fortnite‘s cars, and it’s impossible for her to inconspicuously hide behind anything.

    And yet, that obviousness has turned Marge into the funniest skin to come across on The Simpsons map. I’ve encountered at least one of her in every single match of Fortnite that I’ve played this season, and nearly every person who has played as her has been… actually really good. The map also boasts two NPC versions of her (one in her witch form, and the other just chilling at the Simpsons’ house), who quickly become hostile enemies depending on what you do near them.

    As a result, I have seen animation’s favorite matriarch, brandishing a cartoonish blank stare and pointing a gun at me, more often in the past few days than I have seen my immediate family. It’s the kind of visual that simultaneously provokes laughter and fear, turning the glimpse of her mountain of blue hair into an omen. It immediately raises the stakes: if I don’t defeat this Marge Simpson, my match will be over. My husband and I have both, in the heat of gameplay during this new season, exclaimed so many variations of “Oh no, it’s Marge!”, and the absurdity of that has yet to get old.

    It’s so quintessentially Fortnite…

    It’s the kind of absurdity that, honestly, is so reflective of what makes Fortnite great. I’ve been actively playing the game since 2018, and I can’t really describe what it’s been like to watch it evolve into such a pop culture potpourri. Some of the game’s collaborations have been baffling (or problematic), but the folding in of fictional franchises and pop superstars and new Christopher Nolan trailers has turned Fortnite into a collage of things we love… or things that younger players fall in love with because of the game. (Just ask Keanu Reeves.)

    As someone who has watched and rewatched more episodes of The Simpsons than I can count, I’ve been tickled by the idea of those characters and that lore striking a chord with the Fortnite audience. Sure, you could cynically argue that the whole season is just a gigantic piece of subliminal marketing to draw viewers to the show or get butts in seats for the new movie in 2027… but if it still leads younger fans to fall in love with the characters and their world, I welcome it.

    Marge is a character who has always been a little more badass than she might look on the surface, and the evolution of Julie Kavner’s decades-long performance as her has been a hot-button topic amongst Simpsons fans as of late. Regardless of whatever the future holds for Marge, and the show as a whole, I love that Fortnite is expanding her legacy in the silliest way possible.

    (featured image: Epic Games)

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    Image of Jenna Anderson

    Jenna Anderson

    Jenna Anderson is the host of the Go Read Some Comics YouTube channel, as well as one of the hosts of the Phase Hero podcast. She has been writing professionally since 2017, but has been loving pop culture (and especially superhero comics) for her entire life. You can usually find her drinking a large iced coffee from Dunkin and talking about comics, female characters, and Taylor Swift at any given opportunity.

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  • A supernatural detective mystery, FMV terror and other new indie games worth checking out

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    Welcome to our latest roundup of what’s going on in the indie game space. As always, we have a bunch of new games for you to check out this weekend, along with fresh looks at some upcoming projects and a release date or two.

    But first, I really enjoyed this week’s edition of The Guardian‘s Pushing Buttons newsletter. The publication’s video games editor, Keza MacDonald, wrote about spending a day in a theater playing what sounds like the ultimate pass-the-controller game with dozens of other people.

    The attendees were there to experience Asses.Masses, which is designed to be played collaboratively. The aim is to help a herd of unemployed donkeys get their jobs back. Audience members take turns to pick up the controller, and everyone else in the room can offer advice. It sounds like a fascinating social experiment.

    New releases

    ‘Tis the season for scares, so of course we have to include some creepy games in this week’s roundup. There was some buzz this week around The Séance of Blake Manor from Spooky Doorway and publisher Raw Fury. This is a supernatural detective mystery game in which you investigate a woman’s disappearance in 19th century Ireland.

    To solve the case, you’ll have to interrogate suspects and keep track of environmental clues and other evidence. You’ll encounter strange goings-on as you conduct the investigation amid a gathering of mystics who are looking to speak to the dead on All Hallow’s Eve. The art style is quite fetching, and the vibes remind me of Lorelei and the Laser Eyes and Blue Prince.

    The Séance of Blake Manor is out now on Steam. The regular price is $20, but there’s a 10 percent discount until November 10.

    The Run is a choose-your-own-adventure-style interactive film from PRM Games, Benacus Entertainment and RNF Productions. It’s an FMV experience in which you help a fitness influencer (played by Roxanne McKee, who appeared in Game of Thrones) make decisions and try to survive the masked figures who are hunting her in northern Italy. There are 20 possible deaths and around five endings. Legendary giallo filmmaker Dario Argento makes a cameo appearance too.

    It’s neat to see more FMV games popping up (and we’ve got another one to highlight momentarily). The Run is out now on iOS for $10. It’s coming to Android and Steam soon. You’ll also be able to check it out at the Genesis Cinema in London. A two-month residency of The Run just started there. The audience votes on choices using glowsticks.

    Solo developer Yannick Audéoud (aka Misty Whale) spent a decade making his debut game, Orbyss, and now it’s out in the wild. This is a puzzle game that sees you switching between orbs to solve puzzles — bit like in Cocoon. Instead of a beetle that carries such spheres, you technically play as “a firefly of energy” that can bounce between the objects.

    Orbyss has time-manipulation puzzles and ones that involve drones. Audéoud has included accessibility features as well, such as visual cues to represent sound-based mechanics on screen. This self-published game is on Steam. The regular price is $15 and there’s a 15 percent discount until November 12.

    Death by Scrolling is the latest game from Ron Gilbert’s Terrible Toybox and publisher MicroProse Software. The famed director of the first two Monkey Island games (who has had a hand in so many other great games over the years) has now created a vertically scrolling roguelite.

    The idea here is to stay alive long enough and earn enough gold to pay a ferryman and escape purgatory. I’m probably not going to jump into another roguelite for a minute since I’m still recovering from my time with CloverPit and Ball x Pit, but I definitely want to try out Death by Scrolling at some point. It’ll typically run you $8 on Steam, but there’s a 10 percent discount until November 11.

    Upcoming

    Here’s another FMV game for you. This one is all about taking care of a very, very good dog.

    Golden Retriever Simple Life features Pichu, the pet pooch of developer Pablo Coma (Rablo Games). You’ll feed, train and play with the doggo. Going on walks and learning tricks is part of the fun too.

    There’s no release window as yet for Golden Retriever Simple Life, which is coming to Steam. In the meantime, you can stay up to date on the game’s progress with developer updates Good Boy Diaries from Pichu.

    I’ve seen Egging On pop up from time to time and I’ve been looking forward to checking it out. I won’t have to wait much longer to do that as it’s coming to Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC (Xbox app and Steam) on November 6. It’ll hit Game Pass on day one.

    In this precision platformer, you play as an egg (yes, a hen’s egg) that tries to escape a farm. Fall too far and… well, you can probably guess what happens. Egobounds developed Egging On, and Alibi Games and IndieArk are the game’s publishers.

    Anchor takes the format of games like Rust and Valheim and plunges you into the depths of the sea in the wake of a nuclear holocaust. The multiplayer survival game is slated to support more than 150 players per server and there are plans to expand that.

    You and your friends will take charge of genetically engineered beings and build a base that you have to defend from threats such as “failed clone experiments” and raids from other players. Things will change in this world even when you’re not playing the game, so you’d better make sure your base is secure.

    Sharks are a major factor in Anchor as well. They aren’t always necessarily hostile. But, as in real life, they’re attracted to blood, so any damage you sustain could spell doom.

    Fearem is the developer of Anchor, which doesn’t yet have a release window. It has set course for Steam.

    There’s a lot going on in this trailer for Agni: Village of Calamity, which premiered during the ID@Xbox indie showcase this week. In this debut title from Separuh Interactive, you play as Agni, an investigator who undertakes an unauthorized investigation in a remote village. You’ll need to solve puzzles and fend off monsters as you try to uncover the village’s secrets and find your missing partner.

    Agni: Village of Calamity is steeped in Indonesian folklore. The one large monster that speaks in a childlike voice is quite unsettling. I’m intrigued to learn more about this survival horror game. It’s coming to Xbox Series X/S, Xbox PC and Steam in 2026.

    Let’s wrap things up for this week with one more survival horror tale. There’s often horror in beauty and vice versa (take a look at Silent Hill f, for instance). The Florist leans into both as well.

    As Jessica Park, you deliver a flower arrangement to a lakeside town. But an affliction takes over the area, causing the spread of flora that snares victims and turns them into monsters. For what it’s worth, the teaser in that final shot of the trailer reminds me of a certain sequence from The Last of Us Part II.

    Unclear Games is taking an old-school approach here as it’s using a fixed-camera design. You likely know the drill here: solving puzzles and defeating foes is your only way to stay alive. Finding out information about floral specimens will be helpful too. The Florist is coming to Steam in 2026.

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  • End of the Console Wars: Behind the Scenes of GameStop’s Back-and-Forth with Trump | RealClearPolitics

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    The strength of the nation will be measured, President Trump bellowed inside the Capitol Rotunda during his second inaugural, not just by battles won, “but also by the wars that we end.” True to his word, Trump has pursued peace the world over. Ever eager for credit, he keeps a list of every conflict concluded.

    Trump mediated Serbia-Kosovo tensions. The president de-escalated border clashes between nuclear-powered India and Pakistan. He negotiated a ceasefire to the war in Gaza. The official list is up to eight.

    Even ardent critics have praised those efforts, but now Trump earns the adulation of a different, often overlooked, demographic: the gamers. The president just took credit for ending “the console wars.”

    Then the White House posted a picture of the president in cartoon power armor on the South Lawn during an extended back-and-forth over the weekend that drew tens of millions of views online with the beloved video game retailer GameStop.

    “It’s one of these moments that you never think could happen, and it does happen in this crazy timeline we live in,” a source familiar with GameStop social media told RealClearPolitics. “But no matter the administration, you’re going to be excited for the White House to acknowledge your brand.”

    “MGGA,” the company said in a statement to RCP, an abbreviation for “Make Gaming Great Again” and a play on Trump’s MAGA slogan. “Video games and shitposting,” the company said, “bring us all together.”

    It is the latest unexpected development in the second Trump season, the continuation of an unprecedented political-cultural moment. The conflict in question has not led to real bloodshed, but it has divided friend groups across basements and dorm rooms since the turn of the millennium. The often caffeine-addled, sometimes juvenile, combatants: Team Xbox and Team PlayStation. The casus belli? The first-person shooting game “Halo.”

    The cartoon super-soldier known as “Master Chief” could only protect humanity from alien threats on an Xbox. And while players without that gaming system were left out of the fun for two decades, keeping the wildly popular sci-fi franchise exclusive was a savvy business decision that generated billions of dollars for Microsoft on the back of Xbox sales. But then that company went and did something unexpected.

    They announced that they would re-release un updated version of the original Halo, and for the first time, they would make it available on the Sony PlayStation, Microsoft’s biggest competitor. The news rocked the industry with the New York Times likening the move to “letting Mickey Mouse roam Universal Studios.” In this way the Berlin Wall of video games came down.

    Enter GameStop.

    “For the past two decades, the global gaming community has been engaged in an ongoing and increasingly petty feud known as The Console Wars. Said conflict originated in the early 2000s with the release of Halo: Combat Evolved as an Xbox-exclusive title. Halo: Campaign Evolved is officially coming to PlayStation in 2026 with cross-platform play,” the retailer, akin to a Blockbuster but for video games, wrote in a tongue-in-cheek press release, declaring its stores would continue to operate as “demilitarized zones.”

    Enter the White House.

    The Trump rapid response account then shared the Game Stop post, writing “NUMBER 9: President Trump presides over the end of the 20-year Console Wars,” a reference to the very real wars that Trump has helped end or prevent.

    Enter GameStop … again.

    Gamestop

    Sensing an opportunity, the company’s social media team then shared a grainy image of Master Chief shaking Trump’s hand in what appears to be the Oval Office (a good-natured source close to the gaming retailer jokingly cautioned that the photo may be AI-generated). After the White House shared an image of Trump as Master Chief on the South Lawn, complete with an energy sword, from their official account, the GameStop social media team pulled out all the stops.

    They posted an image of the president as the alien-slaying super-soldier and photo-shopped the face of Vice President JD Vance over the normally buxom female character known as Cortana.

    “I made sure to give Vance a more masculine presence,” a GameStop source involved in the memes told RCP, adding that they hope the VP will find the photo-shop funny “like everyone else.”

    A spokesman for Vance did not return RCP’s request for comment. The White House, meanwhile, enjoyed the moment. “Yet another war ended under President Trump’s watch – only one leader is fully committed to giving power to the players and that leader is Donald J. Trump,” said Kush Desai, a spokesman for the president.

    All of it may be a fleeting moment in the digital ether, but video game sales in the last decade have outpaced sales in the film, television, and music industries. And while that demographic may not vote on the strength of memes alone, the majority seem to be in on the joke. Just like the White House.

    Philip Wegmann is White House correspondent for RealClearPolitics.

     

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    Philip Wegmann, RealClearPolitics

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  • R.I.P. the Console Wars

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    Master Chief is re-enlisting for a new tour of duty, this time in a whole new setting. Microsoft released the trailer for Halo: Campaign Evolved, a remake of series originator Halo: Combat Evolved — and for the first time ever, for the PlayStation. For decades, the Halo franchise has been a Xbox/PC ‘sclusie. It was one of the last holdouts of the console war, when PlayStation and Xbox fought over who had the sickest graphics and rumbliest packs. And Nintendo was also there. “It’s really a new era—Halo is on PlayStation going forward,” Halo Studios community director Brian Jarrard said on a livestream, per PC Gamer. Halo’s Xbox exclusivity made Master Chief a default mascot for the entire platform. Now he and Sonic will have to split a pint in Tapper and reminisce about how they used to be big shots.

    But there is one snag in the HaloxXbox love fest: unlike the OG Halo, there is no multiplayer mode. The anniversary edition of Combat Evolved had online multiplayer capability. And back in the day there was at least LAN. Remember LAN parties? Halo: Campaign Evolved comes to all platforms in 2026.

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    Bethy Squires

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  • This Upgraded SteelSeries Gaming Headset Is $80 Off

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    In the world of high-end gaming headsets, the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless (8/10, WIRED Recommends) stands out with an impressive feature set and excellent audio. Right now, you can pick up the wireless model for just $300 from Amazon, an $80 discount off the usual price. That might sound like a lot for gaming headphones, but these offer quite a lot for the price.

    Photograph: Eric Ravenscraft

    SteelSeries

    Arctis Nova Pro Wired/Wireless Headset

    This luxurious gaming headset is a great pick for daily gamers who want excellent sound quality and high-end comfort. They have big drivers that make sounds in-game pop, and an excellent mic with noise-canceling so good your friends won’t even know you have a dog. They’re super comfortable, with the SteelSeries signature ski-goggle strap to take the pressure off your head.

    While they’re built for gaming, they also sound great listening to music or watching movies. They have a nice, punchy sound profile and spatial audio support for a more immersive experience. If you’re on a PC, the SteelSeries GG software gives you a ton of options for balancing your audio across multiple sources, and you can even set individual EQ profiles for different applications.

    By including a USB DAC for wireless connectivity, the Arctis Nova Pro can achieve some unique and compelling features not found on other headsets. The range is impressive, thanks to more room for the antenna and power than you’d find in a smaller USB dongle. You can adjust the volume and audio mix from a generous knob on the front, and it has multiple audio inputs for switching between consoles.

    Best of all, the hub can charge a spare battery for the headset, giving you essentially infinite run time as long as you’re seated at the computer. When you run down the 25 or so hours on one charge, just swap out the battery and the headset will reconnect and pick up where you left off. It’s the perfect feature for anyone with battery concerns, but don’t worry, you can also charge the headset via USB-C directly.

    At $300, these aren’t cheap, and there are better gaming headsets for single-console or casual gamers, as well as an even more expensive model, but I think these are a great middle ground for anyone with a budget and a Steam backlog.

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    Brad Bourque

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  • Nintendo San Francisco store to level up for the holiday season

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    It’s almost the holidays, and that means Union Square will be busy with tree lightings and the likely inclusion of the annual Macy’s Holiday Windows featuring adoptable pets. One of the new kids on the block is the Nintendo San Francisco store, which will transform for the season.

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    Gieson Cacho

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  • Mexico is considering slapping an eight percent tax on violent video games

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    Violent video games have found themselves in the crosshairs of politicians yet again, but this time with Mexico’s government. Earlier this week, Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies approved a comprehensive financial package that includes an eight percent tax on video games with mature content. As first reported by Insider Gaming, the proposed tax covers games that have a C or D rating under Mexico’s video game age classification system, which is similar to ESRB in the US. The C rating is for players who are at least 18 years old and allows for extreme violence, bloodshed and moderate graphic sexual content, while the D rating is reserved for adults only and allows for prolonged scenes that include similar content.

    The proposed law was first introduced in September, when the country’s Treasury Department claimed that “recent studies have found a relationship between the use of violent video games and higher levels of aggression among adolescents, as well as negative social and psychological effects such as isolation and anxiety.” The report cited a study from 2012 in a footnote, which also observed some positive associations with video games, including motor learning and building resilience.

    The current interpretation of the proposal that’s been approved by the Chamber of Deputies would apply to digital and physical copies of affected games, as well as any in-game purchases or microtransactions. The proposal still has to go through Mexico’s other congressional chamber, the Senate, where it will be debated before a November 15 deadline to submit a budget proposal.

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    Jackson Chen

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  • Xbox’s First Handhelds Are Powerful, But Break the Bank More Than the Mold

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    However, because the X-ROGs are fundamentally regular PCs, they’re a lot more versatile than Nintendo or Valve’s efforts. Not only can you play media, web browse, or do anything else you might do on a PC (even Office tasks, if you hate joy), but you can install any other PC gaming client—Steam, Epic, GOG, and more are all available. Better still, the Xbox app aggregates all games installed on the system into one library view, regardless of where they originate. You can even turn your Xbox ROG into an ersatz Steam Deck by running Steam in Big Picture mode (although some of its controller keybindings may not work).

    The big win—pardon the pun—is that you can install mods with ease. While I’ve gotten a few mods running on my Steam Deck over the years, its Linux underbelly makes things trickier. On the X-ROGs, I’ve been able to use mods as easily as on my main gaming desktop, with no second guessing if they’ll actually work. It’s a great feature that’s facilitated by having standard Windows as the base.

    Soft Where?

    But wait, there’s a third UI player in the mix: Asus’ own Armoury Crate SE software. Broadly, this is more of a device manager, with a dedicated button on both consoles to bring up a Command Center quick menu. This allows you to instantly switch power profiles, create custom control inputs, or set frame rate limits. It also offers a real-time monitor displaying useful system information like temperature, CPU and GPU performance, battery level and power drain, and the current frame rate.

    However, fully open Armoury Crate and you’ll find an array of far deeper controls, from granular system settings to tweaking color profiles of the LED rings that sit under each thumbstick. It also has its own Update Center—yet another to check—and its own unified library, distinct from the Xbox app’s. After a week with the X-ROGs, I’m finally familiar with where functions live, but the learning curve is steep, and having essentially three central interfaces—Xbox, Windows, Armoury Crate—for a single device is ridiculous.

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    Matt Kamen

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  • Dad shares warning for parents about popular gaming platform Roblox

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    The popular online game, Roblox, is being sued by multiple state attorneys general, who claim online predators can groom, extort and exploit kids they meet on the platform. In an exclusive interview with CBS News, a father says his son became a victim, despite using the game’s parental controls. The chief safety officer at Roblox said the platform has rolled out over 100 new safety features this year, adding, “we take every case of harm extremely seriously.”

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  • Should You Cancel Xbox Game Pass? Everything to Know on the Price Hikes and New Features

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    Like it or loathe it, we live in a subscription economy. Music, movies, meal boxes, and more are no longer things you buy once. They’re a constant draw on your wallet. Gaming is no exception, and while every major player in the sector has some form of sub for players—from PlayStation Plus and Nintendo Switch Online for consoles to Apple Arcade on phones—none of them offered quite as much for a modest monthly fee as Xbox Game Pass.

    Depending on the subscription tier, the service gave players access to a significant library of titles and was available on Xbox consoles, PC, or via cloud gaming. While most of its competitors focused on back-catalog titles for their gaming subscriptions, Game Pass stood apart by including major first-party titles on their day of release for subscribers to its Ultimate tier.

    Microsoft long claimed it was “the best deal in gaming,” and with new releases costing upwards of $70 per title versus a $19.99 monthly price tag on Game Pass Ultimate, it was hard to argue. Recent changes to the service, however—including some hefty price rises—have upset users in a big way, sending so many people rushing to cancel their subscriptions that the membership site crashed.

    What’s Happened?

    On October 1, Microsoft revamped the entire structure of Game Pass. Previously, and following an earlier rejig in September 2024, players had essentially four options—Game Pass for PC, Game Pass Core, Game Pass Standard, and Game Pass Ultimate. Going forward, Core is replaced with Essential, and Standard is replaced with Premium, while Ultimate retains its name. All tiers are now accessible on PC, although a dedicated PC-only plan remains available.

    It’s not the rebrand that’s had people canceling, though—it’s the hefty price hikes that have come with the upper tiers. While Essential keeps the almost totemic $9.99-per-month pricing of Core, Premium jumps to $14.99 from Standard’s $11.99 (a 25 percent increase), and the PC-only offering goes from $11.99 to $16.49 (a 38 percent increase). It’s Game Pass Ultimate that’s proven the most contentious, leaping from $19.99 to $29.99. Price increases on subscription services routinely boil the frog and creep up in price slowly—just look at what you used to pay for Netflix—but a massive 50 percent spike overnight, the equivalent of $120 more a year, has caught many off guard.

    It doesn’t help that it follows two price hikes on Xbox consoles themselves in the span of less than a year, at least in the US. In May 2025, the 512-GB Xbox Series S went from $299.99 to $379.99, the 1-TB Xbox Series X from $499.99 to $599.99, and the 2-TB Series X from $599.99 to $729.99. These prices rose globally, with prices reflected in each territory. But then, in September, prices rose again for buyers in America, taking those same models to $399.99, $649.99, and $799.99, respectively. Microsoft cited the increases being “due to changes in the macroeconomic environment”—read: tariffs—but the combined effect on pricing across the whole Xbox ecosystem really challenges that “best deal in gaming” idea.

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    Matt Kamen

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  • These Steelseries Earbuds Have Barely Been Out of My Head in Months—and They’re on Sale

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    Looking for a great discount on a unique gaming headset? I’ve been using the SteelSeries Arctis GameBuds (9/10, WIRED Recommends) for months for both gaming and everyday use, and they’re currently marked down at Amazon to just $128, in both a black Xbox version, and a white Playstation version.

    Photograph: Eric Ravenscraft

    SteelSeries

    Arctis GameBuds

    While most gamers opt for over-ear headsets, there are actually quite a few advantages to using earbuds instead. For starters, they’re much more portable, which is particularly important if you play on your phone or a gaming handheld. My favorite Switch 2 carrying case has a convenient storage pocket inside that these slip right into, so I don’t have to go hunting for them in the overhead compartment once I’m already buckled in for a long flight.

    They also have great compatibility, with the discounted versions supporting either Xbox or PlayStation, and both styles playing well with Switch, PC, and smartphones without any additional software or drivers. The compact USB-C dongle fits right into the case, and has a horizontal layout that lets it sit cleanly on top of consoles or phones, providing low-latency 2.4GHz audio, as well as BLuetooth for just listening to tunes. Battery life is right up there with other wireless earbuds, managing around 10 hours in just the buds, and pushing 40 total with the charging case.

    I also really appreciate the SteelSeries mobile app. In addition to the normal settings you’d expect for active noise-canceling, there’s a huge library of equalizer settings for popular games. You’d be surprised at how much of a difference these make, letting you switch between ideal setups for different games without having to set up any profiles or remember frequencies.

    They’re really comfortable too, so much so that they’ve become my go-to earbuds for walking the dog or working out. They have a great fit and sound isolation, and even though it’s personal preference, but the use of actual buttons instead of capacitive touch for controls makes bumping pause less likely.

    If gaming earbuds don’t sound like your speed, make sure to check out our roundup of other great gaming headsets. You might be surprised by how well modern earbuds can work for both gaming and regular life though, so don’t be afraid to give these a shot, particularly at the discounted price.

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    Brad Bourque

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  • The Next Minecraft Movie Gets a Release Date

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    Photo: Carlos Tischler/Eyepix Group/LightRocket via Get

    Chicken jockeys, we ride at dawn. Jared Hess announced on Instagram that there will be a second Minecraft movie. Though what it will be called is TBD. A Second Minecraft Movie? Yet Another Minecraft Movie? Or, hear me out, Not Another Minecraft Movie, and you cast Chris Evans as a cheeky nod to his cinematic roots.

    We don’t know much about what this next Minecraft movie will be, except that it almost certainly will be huge. A Minecraft Movie broke all sorts of records this summer, and helped Warner Bros. have one of its most successful years ever. Remember when you were walking the One Battle After Another press tour, Paul Thomas Anderson, and there was only one set of footprints? That’s when A Minecraft Movie was carrying you. The main deet Hess shared with his IG audience was the release date. Minecraft Movie 2 Name TBD comes out July 23, 2027. Same as the second Simpsons movie.

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    Bethy Squires

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  • 10 Video Games That Feel Like Playing A Movie

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    Do you ever find yourself sitting in the movie theatre, yelling at the screen, annoying everyone around you? You just can’t help yourself! If those movie characters would just make better decisions, then you wouldn’t feel compelled to tell them what to do! Do you ever wish you could control the actions of movie characters? With a little known technology called “video games,” now you can. Picture this: a movie where you get to call all the shots. You want the main character to jump off a cliff? That’s your prerogative. With these 10 video games that feel like playing a movie, you get to be the director, the actor, and the screenwriter all at once!

    Venom Snake sits in a helicopter in "Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain"
    (Konami)

    Created by the incomparable game designer genius Hideo Kojima, the Metal Gear series is easily one of the most cinematic video game franchises ever made. A military alternate history that takes place across decades, each game in the series feels like its own film sub-genre. Metal Gear Solid is a gritty 90’s spy thriller. Metal Gear Solid 3 is a 60’s Cold War flick with its own James Bond-style theme song. Metal Gear Solid 4 is a sci-fi dystopian epic. But when it comes to pure cinema, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain is the franchise’s crown jewel. Centered around a mercenary company caught in the middle of the Russia-Afghanistan war, the plot follows a grizzled soldier’s attempt to seek revenge against the man who nearly destroyed everything he and his comrades built. When your main character is motion captured and voice acted by Kiefer Sutherland himself, you know you’re making video game movie magic.

    The Last of Us Series

    Ellie in The Last of Us Part 2
    (Sony Interactive Entertainment)

    The franchise that elevated video game narratives into full blown Oscar bait, The Last of Us series feels like a play-through of a Best Picture winner. The franchise is set in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by a fungus, one that has turned human beings into mushroomy zombies. The first game follows grizzled smuggler named Joel on his quest to deliver his most precious cargo yet: a little girl who is immune to the virus. While the brutal gameplay and emotional weight of the game make it feel like post-apocalyptic greats such as Children of Men and 28 Days Later, the true “movie” quality of the games comes from the choices that it forces you to make. Much of the series’ narratives revolve around morally complicated choices that are made for you, that the game expects you to execute on. And when I say “execute,” I mean that in the most homicidal sense of the word. You are not the main character – their choices are their own. You might control the pace of the plot, but you can’t change the script.

    Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

    (Ninja Theory)

    If A24 ever decided to make a game, it would probably look a lot like Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. A mythological folk horror, the plot follows 8th century Pict warrior Senua on a quest into Helheim in order to save the soul of her lover. Carrying her beloved’s severed head with her, Senua navigates the abyss at the cost of her own sanity. Deeply cerebral, the game is essentially a downward spiral into madness – Senua’s mental state becomes more tortured the deeper she goes. The boss fights are close quarters affairs that feel more like nightmare sequences than standard gameplay combat. There’s something deeply troubled about this game – it’s a haunted version of The Northman. A decaying Green Knight. Beowulf dipped in blood.

    Red Dead Redemption 2

    A man rides a horse while carrying a gun in the game 'Red Dead Redemption 2'
    (Rockstar Games)

    While Red Dead Redemption was an epic Western in its own right, the sequel upped the cinematic feel of the series to Sergio Leone levels. Set in the dying days of the Old West, the story follows a group of outlaws on the run from the long arm of the law – and they’re running out of places to hide. As Pinkerton agents close in on all sides, the gang’s charismatic leader Dutch van der Linde slowly begins to lose his composure, while the group’s strongman Arthur Morgan begins to question the morality and sustainability of the outlaw life they lead. Red Dead Redemption 2 is bigger than a movie, it’s an entire HBO series like Deadwood. A larger than life epic about one man’s relationship to honor – honor upheld or left behind.

    Grand Theft Auto V

    The cast of "Grand Theft Auto V" looking ready for business
    (Rockstar)

    The ultimate video game satire, Grand Theft Auto V is a sardonic reflection on the modern age. It feels like if Black Mirror abandoned its sci-fi trappings and decided to take a stab at the world of today – painting L.A. with its dark and cynical brush. Set in the mirror world of Los Santos, the story follows a trio of criminals from separate walks of life, all attempting to get rich quick in a rat race world. It’s got the madcap crime thriller humor of a Guy Ritchie movie combined with the American sleaze of Heat and Scarface. Nasty people in a nasty world who are tired of keeping up nice appearances – not that the sociopathic Trevor was ever concerned about his appearance to begin with, but you get what I mean.

    Okami

    A wolf with a burning shield on her back stands gloriously in "Okami"
    (Capcom)

    One of the most underrated games of all time, Okami feels like a Studio Ghibli film that never was. The plot is set in mythological Japan, and the player takes control of a wolf named Amaterasu who is the reincarnation of the sun goddess. Winding her way through a stunning, brushstroke world, Amaterasu comes face to snout with characters from Japanese folklore. Maiden devouring serpents, drunken samurai warriors, demon-possessed royals, wandering gods, and young girl who was born out of a stalk of bamboo. While it lacks the cinematic cutscenes of more modern games, it makes up for it with is gorgeous brushwork worlds that feels straight out of Princess Mononoke.

    The Uncharted Series

    An adventurer stands in front of smoldering wreckage of a plane in the desert in "Uncharted 3"
    (Naughty Dog)

    The video game version of Indiana Jones, the Uncharted series is a Spielberg-esque globe trotting romp. The franchise follows historian and adrenaline junkie Nathan Drake on his never-ending quest for artifacts lost to time. The game takes the player into classic adventure film worlds: steaming jungle ruins, forgotten mountain temples, lost cities of the desert, and forgotten coves where pirates stashed loot long ago. With its run and gun play style and stunning set pieces, the game feels like you’re flying by the seat of your cargo pants. The train level in Uncharted 2? Perhaps one of the cinematic gaming sequences ever designed.

    Detroit: Become Human

    An android looks inquisitive in "Detroit: Become Human"
    (Quantic Dream)

    Building off of the “playable movie” groundwork of genre pioneer Heavy Rain, Detroit: Become Human is a sci-fi epic that stands alongside Blade Runner. Taking place in 2038, the action is set in a world where androids live alongside humans – though they are (supposedly) deprived of free will and emotion. You cycle between playing as one of three androids – a police investigator, a housekeeper, and a caretaker for an elderly painter. After bearing witness to a morally grey legal system, domestic abuse, and android discrimination respectively, each character embarks on a “choose your own adventure” style journey that will change their city forever. There aren’t traditional combat sequences, rather playable cutscenes with timed dialogue options and the choice between different prescribed actions. It’s the most traditionally “cinematic” game on this list – a movie where instead of yelling at the screen when a character makes a bad decision, you can yell at yourself when you make one.

    God of War

    A man holds a young boy's face in his hands in an image from the game God of War
    (Santa Monica Studio)

    While the God of War franchise made a name for itself with its breathtakingly cinematic combat sequences, the series reached its video game movie apex in the modern era. God of War trades the hack and slash brutality of its predecessors to tell an emotional story based around an older and (somewhat) wiser Kratos – an emotionally stunted man attempting to bond with his young son. The most cinematic aspect of the game is its “one take” cinematography. The “cutscenes” don’t cut at all, but rather the game’s over the shoulder camera simply tracks the characters cinematically during narrative moments. Like Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, the lack of cuts make the game feel as impressive as real one take wonder films like Victoria – made all the more jaw dropping by its mythological magnitude.

    Max Payne 3

    A man with a shaved head jumps through the air in "Max Payne 3"
    (Rockstar)

    An underrated Neo-noire gem, Max Payne 3 plays like a combination mobster movie and gritty crime thriller. The plot follows alcoholic hero Max Payne, whose marksmanship skills are equally as sharp as his one-liners. Hired to serve as a bodyguard to a wealthy South American family, things quickly go awry after the family’s socialite children are kidnapped by criminals. The gameplay is made cinematic as hell through the use of “bullet time” which allows Max to launch himself through the air in slow motion while picking off foes with surgical precision. The plot unfolds with the brutality of crime epics like City of God and Elite Squad, buoyed by Max’s dry humor noir witticisms – “I had a hole in my second favorite drinking arm” is a favorite line to this day.

    Have a tip we should know? [email protected]

    Image of Sarah Fimm

    Sarah Fimm

    Sarah Fimm (they/them) is actually nine choirs of biblically accurate angels crammed into one pair of $10 overalls. They have been writing articles for nerds on the internet for less than a year now. They really like anime. Like… REALLY like it. Like you know those annoying little kids that will only eat hotdogs and chicken fingers? They’re like that… but with anime. It’s starting to get sad.

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    Sarah Fimm

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  • You Can Get Lenovo’s Gaming Handheld for $120 Off Right Now

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    Excited by the fervor of new gaming handhelds hitting the market but don’t want to shell out the big bucks? The Legion Go S with SteamOS installed offers an easy entry into the space, is great for occasional travelers and couch gamers, and is marked down by $120 at Best Buy.

    Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

    Lenovo

    Legion Go S (SteamOS)

    Having spent time with both the SteamOS and Windows models, I prefer the one running Valve’s custom handheld software. While Lenovo does a good job bridging the gap with extra buttons and control options, trying to use a desktop operating system with just a controller and touchscreen can often be a frustrating experience. With SteamOS, you turn on the device, scan a QR code with your phone, and within minutes you’re downloading your games and save files from the cloud.

    This Legion Go S is fairly bulky, which I actually found more comfortable than slimmer options. It has built-in controller grips, and a spacious button layout, plus triggers and bumpers that are luxurious and well-placed. The screen is nice and bright, and features a 120-Hz refresh rate, although it’s an IPS panel instead of the OLEDs we’re starting to see elsewhere. This model comes with 1 TB of storage and 32 GB of memory, plus a MicroSD card slot if you want to really load up on games.

    Like with most of the non-Nintendo gaming handhelds, you’ll probably need to tweak settings or even resolution to get the latest games running smoothly. I did find it more powerful than my aging Steam Deck, and in games like Vampire Survivors and Trackmania 2020, the kinds of games I often play on the go, it had no problem and required very little tweaking. A lot of that is thanks to the SteamOS support, which helps games automatically understand the device’s capabilities better than Windows often does with custom hardware.

    I’ve got the new Legion 2 in hand and am working on a full review, but know that it’s a larger and more expensive device and also runs Windows out of the box. If you’re looking for a more compact device and plan on using SteamOS for your gaming, this is a solid deal on a capable handheld.

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    Brad Bourque

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  • Why Did Jared Kushner and Saudi Investors Take Over EA Games?

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    But while Madden gets much of the attention in the United States, EA’s real heavyweight is the soccer game EA FC. (The game was formerly known as FIFA, before EA’s partnership with the FIFA organization ended in 2022.) FC is notorious for minting money through a game-within-the-game called Ultimate Team, where players can spend endless amounts of money for packs of digital “cards” that represent individual soccer players. The players in those packs are random, as are their stats, which gives Ultimate Team players a slot machine-like compulsion. They want to acquire cards of their favorite players, but also the best version of their favorite players, because winning games will get a player even more cards. It’s ingenious, terribly extractive, and almost every major sports game on the market has a feature like this now—but FC has long been the most profitable of them all.

    All of these assets make EA an appealing blue-chip acquisition for private equity investment, especially since, as the Financial Times reports, those investors believe that the company’s operating costs can be lowered significantly with the use of AI. (A claim no one in the games industry has managed to deliver on just yet.) EA’s sports games also dovetail nicely with both the Crown Prince’s real-world soccer efforts and his nation’s continued gaming investments, which seek to further entangle the nation with the global economy and ultimately lure jobs to Riyadh.

    The irony here is that the video game industry, like so many corners of entertainment and culture, is in trouble. Traditional games have struggled in the wake of “games as a service” like Roblox and Fortnite, which let users play for free but charge fees for subscriptions and in-game merchandise, with exclusive merch sold during limited-time brand collaboration events. Old-fashioned games are expensive to make and can take years to produce; they are a high-risk industry where all parties involved are uniquely vulnerable, and in dire need of the sort of cash Saudi investors have been happy to spend in nearly every field.

    On September 28, Saudi Arabia announced its latest endeavor: the Saudi Film Fund’s rebrand as Riviera Content, with new investments totalling $32.5 million Saudi riyal (about $8.7 million USD). Universal Studios and Columbia Pictures were both named as collaborators in the fund. It’s a smaller data point than the EA purchase, but these announcements are all of a piece, and all examples of money spent for the same purpose. The goal here seems to be for Saudi Arabia to be as inescapable as the oil that gave the nation its wealth to begin with—to have a hand in everything you see on a screen or in an arena, to put its dollars into things you can’t live without. So that, by extension, you can’t live without Saudi Arabia—and whatever Saudi Arabia chooses to do with its power.

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    Joshua Rivera

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  • The ASUS TUF T500 Is a Great Gaming PC for Beginners

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    Because it’s so easy to build a gaming desktop at home, companies making prebuilt machines need to offer either a great value or something unique. That’s why the Asus TUF T500 isn’t technically a desktop PC, at least in the classic sense. Instead, it leverages a smaller motherboard and laptop CPU, reducing the overall footprint but dropping the ability to upgrade or repair some of the individual parts.

    Most notably, the T500 is sporting a full-size desktop GPU, which is the biggest determining factor when it comes to gaming performance, and also the part that gets replaced the most often. That should give this desktop a much longer lifetime than gaming laptops that are similarly-equipped, at least on paper. This version came with an RTX 5060 Ti installed, a card that generally hits 60 to 90 frames per second at 1080p, a good match for a living room console replacement.

    I’m pleasantly surprised with the execution, and the T500 offers a solid value and a unique upgrade path, with some expected compromises around cooling and ports. It’s a solid choice for the tech-averse or television-bound gamer looking to move from consoles to PC, but I think more savvy users will still want to build their own.

    A Unique Appeal

    Photograph: Brad Bourque

    The upside to Asus’s approach is that the T500 is a relatively compact machine, around six inches wide and twelve inches deep, or just a little bigger than two Xbox Series X consoles sitting side by side. With gaming handhelds increasingly capable even for newer titles, I imagine the people who have room for a desktop and monitor, but only just barely, aren’t a huge audience. Asus specifically calls out college students, but I’d think a gaming laptop would get you through at least four years, and you could take it to class with you. At this size, it seems more likely you’d find one tucked into an entertainment stand in a living room or home theater.

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    Brad Bourque

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  • Lenovo’s Latest Gaming Laptop Is $200 Off Right Now

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    Looking for a new gaming laptop but can’t stand the edgy gamer aesthetic? You might check out the Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 10 (7/10, WIRED Review) in a sleek, all-white look. Best Buy is offering $220 off the list price of this attractive gaming laptop, bringing the price down to just $1,650. It boasts an excellent screen.

    • Photograph: Luke Larsen

    • Photograph: Luke Larsen

    • Photograph: Luke Larsen

    • Photograph: Luke Larsen

    Lenovo

    Legion 7i Gen 10 (16 Inch, Intel)

    The biggest selling point, and one of our reviewer Luke Larsen’s favorite features, is the big, beautiful OLED panel. This 2,560 x 1,600 screen is one of the most color accurate laptop screens to date, and has a huge peak brightness of 1,000 nits, and 486 nits in SDR, which beats most other panels by over 150 nits. Our review unit had a 240-Hz panel, but that model isn’t currently listed for the non-Pro Legion 7i, so this machine has a very similar 165-Hz screen.

    It’s powered by an RTX 5060, which is importantly the more powerful 115-watt version, as opposed to the cheaper 85-watt variant that some gaming laptops use to cut down on costs. The performance is a good match for the screen, with Cyberpunk 2077 running at 67 fps with Ray Tracing set to low at native resolution. Lowering the quality or the resolution can easily push you to 200-plus fps in games like Marvel Rivals, perfect for a quick round on your lunch break.

    Of course, the battery life is going to suffer a little bit as a result of the higher-power GPU. We got less than five hours in a video playback test, so you’ll want to make sure you’re nearby an outlet, especially if you plan on gaming between classes. Thankfully it has an excellent trackpad and keyboard, with a firm press and solid 1.6-mm travel for the size, and it even squeezes in full-size arrow keys and a numpad.

    The biggest thing holding back the Legion 7i is the price, with other lower-wattage RTX 5060 laptops coming in closer to $1,000. A healthy discount here makes this a much more appealing buy, especially if you like to watch movies or want to game at higher refresh rates without spending way more on a gaming laptop with a higher-end GPU.

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    Brad Bourque

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  • Electronic Arts Is Going Private in a $55 Billion Jared Kushner–Saudi Takeover

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    In a somewhat surprising team up, Jared Kushner and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund are joining together to buy video game giant Electronic Arts for a staggering $55 billion.

    EA announced today that it has agreed to be taken private by a group of investors that includes Kushner’s private-equity firm Affinity Partners, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), and investment firm Silver Lake. The group plans to pay stockholders $210 a share in cash.

    The deal comes as the gaming industry has seen younger gamers gravitate more toward mobile and free-to-play hits like Fortnite and Roblox, rather than the pricey, franchise-driven blockbusters EA is known for. Founded in 1982 by ex-Apple exec Trip Hawkins, EA has built mega-series like sports franchises FIFA and Madden NFL, as well as the iconic life simulator The Sims. Battlefield 6, the next installment in the company’s military first-person shooter series, drops next month.

    EA CEO Andrew Wilson, who will stay on after the sale, tried to calm nerves about the coming shake-up.

    In a memo to staff, Wilson called the agreement one of the largest investments ever made in the entertainment industry.

    “Our new partners bring deep experience across sports, gaming, and entertainment. They are committed with conviction to EA – they believe in our people, our leadership, and the long-term vision we are now building together,” Wilson wrote.

    Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund already owns nearly 10% of EA, a stake it’s rolling into the new deal. The fund has been on a gaming buying spree in recent years. In 2021, it launched Savvy Games Group to manage a planned $38 billion push into the industry. Savvy has since acquired companies like Scopely, the studio behind Monopoly Go. And then earlier this year, Scopely itself bought the gaming division of Niantic, the makers of Pokemon Go.

    These moves could hint at where the new owners want to steer EA. By taking the company private, they can make big changes without considering quarterly market reactions.

    The deal is slated to close in the first quarter of fiscal 2027, at which point EA would be removed from public trading.

    Shareholders and regulators still need to sign off, though regulatory approval may be easier in a business-friendly Trump administration—especially with the president’s son-in-law among the investors.

    “Electronic Arts is an extraordinary company with a world-class management team and a bold vision for the future. I’ve admired their ability to create iconic, lasting experiences, and as someone who grew up playing their games – and now enjoys them with his kids – I couldn’t be more excited about what’s ahead,” Kushner said in a press release.

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    Bruce Gil

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  • This Video Game Company Just Sealed the Largest-Ever Private Equity Deal at $52.5 Billion

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    Electronic Arts, maker of video games like “Madden NFL,” “Battlefield,” and “The Sims,” is being acquired for $52.5 billion in what could become the largest-ever buyout funded by private-equity firms.

    The private equity firm Silver Lake Partners, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund PIF, and Affinity Partners will pay EA’s stockholders $210 per share. The companies value the deal at about $55 billion, including debt. Affinity Partners is run by President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

    PIF, which was already the largest insider stakeholder in Electronic Arts, will be rolling over its existing 9.9 percent stake in the company.

    The commitment to the massive deal is inline with recent activity by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, wrote Andrew Marok of Raymond James.

    “The Saudi PIF has been a very active player in the video gaming market since 2022, taking minority stakes in most scaled public video gaming publishers, and also outright purchases of companies like ESL, FACEIT, and Scopely,” he wrote. “The PIF has made its intentions to scale its gaming arm, Savvy Gaming Group, clear, and the EA deal would represent the biggest such move to date by some distance.”

    PIF is also a minority investor in Nintendo.

    Electronic Arts would be taken private and its headquarters will remain in Redwood City, California.

    The total value of the deal eclipses the $32 billion price paid to take Texas utility TXU private in 2007.

    If the transaction closes as anticipated, it will end EA’s 36-year history as a publicly traded company that began with its shares ending its first day of trading at a split-adjusted 52 cents.

    The IPO came seven years after EA was founded by former Apple employee William “Trip” Hawkins, who began playing analog versions of baseball and football made by “Strat-O-Matic” as a teenager during the 1960s.

    CEO Andrew Wilson has led the company since 2013 and he will remain in that role, the firms said Monday.

    “Electronic Arts is an extraordinary company with a world-class management team and a bold vision for the future,” said Kushner, who serves as CEO of Affinity Partners. “I’ve admired their ability to create iconic, lasting experiences, and as someone who grew up playing their games – and now enjoys them with his kids – I couldn’t be more excited about what’s ahead.”

    This marks the second high-profile deal involving Silver Lake and a technology company with a legion of loyal fans in recent weeks. Silver Lake is also part of a newly formed joint venture spearheaded by Oracle involved in a deal to take over the U.S. oversight of TikTok’s social video platform, although all the details of that complex transaction haven’t been divulged yet.

    Silver Lake has also previously bought out two other well-known technology companies, the now-defunct video calling service Skype in a $1.9 billion deal completed in 2009, and a $24.9 billion buyout of personal computer maker Dell in 2013. After Dell restructured its operations as a private company, it returned to the stock market with publicly traded shares in 2018.

    By going private, EA will be able to reprogram its operations without being subjected to the investment pressures and scrutiny that sometimes compel publicly held companies to make short-sighted decisions aimed at meeting quarterly financial targets. Although its video games still have a fervent following, EA’s annual revenues have been stagnant during the past three fiscal years, hovering from $7.4 billion to $7.6 billion.

    Meanwhile, one of its biggest rivals Activision Blizzard was snapped up by technology powerhouse Microsoft for nearly $69 billion in 2023, while the competition from mobile video game makers such as Epic Games has intensified.

    After being taken private, formerly public companies often undergo extensive cost-cutting that includes layoffs, although there has been no indication that will be the case with EA. After jettisoning about 5 percent of its workforce in 2024, EA ended March with 14,500 employees and then laid off several hundred people in May.

    The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027. It still needs approval from EA shareholders.

    EA shares, which rose rose nearly 5 percent Monday, had jumped 15 percent Friday after rumors of a takeover began to circulate.

    Copyright 2025. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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    Associated Press

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