Gaming

Been thinking about it today for some reason.

I’ve been playing a lot of Mario Kart World recently, so for me, the new routes in the 1.7.0 update are arriving at the perfect time.

In an interview with French media outlet PSI, former SIE Worldwide Studios chairman Shawn Layden said bringing Sony exclusives to PC was always about expanding title visability beyond PlayStation consoles, and wasn’t a money-making strategy:

Xbox is expected to make some tough cuts soon, and it already dropped a new franchise from IO Interactive, but OD will continue to be part of Xbox’s publishing lineup, according to IGN.

Mechanism’s Steam Controller Dock might fit the bill. It has a dedicated place to lock in the controller’s puck, which means you can rest and charge the controller upright while you aren’t using it.

Honeycomb Aeronautical has answered the biggest question I’ve had about its Echo Aviation Controller with a new XPC version designed to work with the Xbox instead of just PCs. It’s slated to hit stores later this year and like the original it’s compatible with Microsoft Flight Simulator and features a collection of customizable flight sim controls.

That’s what the company told Bloomberg for its story about exiting a partnership with IO Interactive. “We expect to invest about the same in content as we did last year,” Xbox says. “What’s changing is where we’re investing and the kinds of projects we’re backing.”

Last week I wrote about Unhinged, a fascinating horror experience from Netflix that’s part of the streamer’s push into TV-based games. Well, now you can experience it for yourself, as it launches today.

It will run at 30fps both docked and in handheld, Nintendo Everything reports. The physical version will be on cart, according a listing from retailer VGP, but the company says that while the game isn’t a game-key card, “we have not been told to what extent the game is on the cart.”

If you missed the second Super Mario movie in theaters, it’s hitting Peacock on July 30th, which is a good amount of time to jump into the games if you haven’t.

Nintendo provided a deeper look into its upcoming single-player take on Splatoon, getting into the nitty gritty of weapon customization, enemies, and — most important of all — fashion. Personally I can’t wait to wield a beyblade that sprays ink. You can watch the entire presentation below (skip ahead to the 30 minute mark).

Fresh off the reveal of Persona 6 comes a report that Netflix is working on a live-action adaptation of the series. There aren’t many details yet, and the streamer has yet to confirm, but Christopher Monfette — who has worked on series like Picard and the upcoming VisionQuest — is attached as writer.

Nintendo’s next big Switch 2 exclusive drops at the end of July, and tomorrow the company will be showing off a little more of Splatoon Raiders with a 15-minute-long Direct. It starts streaming at 10AM ET.

If you’re trying to cut down the amount of time you spend on YouTube, there’s at least one more video you should watch. Modder Throaty Mumbo has built a custom cartridge that can search and stream YouTube on a Game Boy Color. The quality and experience look awful, but it works.

Dbrand opened up preorders on Monday, shortly ahead of the actual announcement of the Steam Machine’s price and release date. But the cube appears to have vanished from the company’s website, and the YouTube teaser has been made private, as noted on Reddit.

At Aftermath, Chris Person (who else?) explains how to hack together a bootleg Steam Machine using a cheap castoff cryptomining GPU. It’s a high-effort, low-cost build made possible by 3D printing, open platforms, and a host of enthusiasts working together. And the power of Linux, of course.

Mikhail Klimentov interviewed Schreier about the channel, where Schreier sits in a room and explains things about video games. “A rule that I set for myself is that I will not do any video that takes me more than 30 minutes to do in any way,” says Schreier.

“PlayStation hardware unit sales fell to their lowest May total since May 2000, while Xbox hardware unit sales were the lowest ever recorded for a May month,” says Circana analyst Mat Piscatella.

It features the same 3.5-inch, 960 x 640 display as the original, but Ayaneo’s new Android 13-based Pocket Micro 2 includes a faster Snapdragon 865 CPU paired with an Adreno 650 GPU, recessed TMR thumbsticks with glowing LED bases, and improved tiered shoulder buttons. It’s now available for preorder starting at $239.

To celebrate Pokémon Unite’s fifth anniversary, The Pokémon Company is releasing a live-action short drama inspired by the game, which isn’t all that wild given that the franchise’s mainline anime just took a detour to Aeos Island.

A post on Resetera points out that now, instead of claiming that the Steam Machine is capable of “4K gaming at 60 FPS with FSR,” Valve’s website says that the PC offers “Up to 4k gaming with FSR 4.1.”

They were up 3 percent year-over-year from May 2025 to May 2026, according to data shared by Circana analyst Mat Piscatella. Even so, he says that the “overwhelming majority of volume is done digitally now.”

It’s been a bad day for tech and gaming, but you wouldn’t know it from Nintendo — which often goes its own way. At least Star Fox seems good.