Desk
Consoles, handhelds, PC gaming and the platforms and hardware behind them.
Stories on this desk are written by Hitechreports’s automated newsroom from the sources credited on each piece. Bylines are desk signatures, not individual journalists.
Signatures used by this desk: Frame Rate, Player Two
A Fortune report says Microsoft's Xbox and Windows teams clashed over whether the next Xbox console should run Windows 11, a claim the Xbox CTO calls a misrepresentation.
XDA Developers ran Minecraft and a 125B-parameter local AI model at the same time on an HP OmniBook Ultra 16 with Nvidia's RTX Spark chip, reporting roughly 120 FPS throughout the session.
A Reddit user built ScreenPlink, an open-source laser dry-fire shooting game, with Anthropic's Claude Code over roughly two weeks. A webcam watches the monitor, tracks laser hits and drops the target.
With the PlayStation 5 Pro now priced at $900, a new comparison of AMD desktop chips shows which processor comes closest to matching the console's gaming performance, and which ones beat it outright.
BGR gathered owner complaints about PlayStation 5 Pro add-ons, from cooling fans that won't shut off to media remotes with no backlighting, and found several accessory categories owners regret buying.
A Nintendo Switch 2 jailbreak dubbed ns2jb has yielded the first complete game dumps, including Deltarune and a leaked beta of The Duskbloods, while Nintendo works to patch the exploit and pulls the app that enabled it.
Xbox is testing paid, ad-free cloud gaming for Insiders who don't have a Game Pass subscription, charging $3.99 to $11.99 for packs of hours that roll over monthly. A wider rollout is due in November.
PS5 Pro buyers are recommending Sony's $79 disc drive and DualSense Charging Station as must-have add-ons, while some question whether the $199 DualSense Edge controller earns its premium price.
GameStop and other US retailers say many stores will see no restock of the Legend of Zelda 40th Anniversary Switch 2 console or its matching Pro Controller at launch, with Nintendo admitting it underestimated demand.
The unofficial KyTyPS5 emulator now runs Gran Turismo 7 on PC with no visible graphical glitches, though framerates stay below 20fps. It follows earlier wins with Demon's Souls and Astro Bot.
Nvidia's GeForce 621.01 WHQL driver adds Advanced Shader Delivery for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 and Gears of War: E-Day, aiming to kill shader-compile load screens. A journalist reports lower RAM use, though CPU load stays high.
AMD and Maingear are giving away a custom Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 themed gaming desktop worth about $3,417 to mark 12 million players, with entries open through October 29.
Capcom's free-to-play mobile spin-off, built by Tencent's TiMi Studio, arrives on iOS and Android October 29 with seven weapon types, four-player co-op, and gacha-based character pulls.
A new leak claims Nintendo is developing a Switch 2 Lite built around a cheaper Samsung 8nm chip, a move that could undercut the $499.99 Switch 2 with a lighter, less expensive handheld.
Nintendo Switch 2 users report SmileBASIC 4 vanishing from eShop listings in North America, Europe and Japan, a day after a software-only jailbreak exploit led to demonstrations of a homebrew launcher and Vulkan graphics support.
Nintendo Switch Sports Resort is out now with 12 sports, a single-player campaign and an explorable Wuhu Island. A Polygon ranking singles out Skateboarding, Archery and Table Tennis as highlights, with Basketball landing at the bottom.
Beta drivers for AMD FSR 4.1 are now downloadable on the Xbox Ally, Xbox Ally X and Xbox Ally X20, fulfilling Microsoft's earlier promise to bring the upscaling tech to current Xbox hardware.
Nintendo's latest Ocarina of Time remake trailer takes viewers through the Great Deku Tree, Forest Temple, Jabu-Jabu's Belly, Water Temple and Fire Temple, showing off updated controls and a new Hall of Fallen Heroes for boss rematches.
Nintendo Switch 2 launched globally on November 12 at $499.99 in the US and Rs 39,999 in India, with a wide library and fresh Black Friday deals.
Nintendo Switch Sports Resort adds three open-world leisure activities, Prop Plane, Skateboarding and Power Cruising, that let players explore Wuhu Island freely using the Switch 2's motion and mouse controls, according to a Polygon review.
A developer has published the first working Nintendo Switch 2 jailbreak, built partly with AI coding tools, letting users run homebrew and modded games such as Mario Kart World on current firmware.
A developer going by pepsipu has reportedly jailbroken the Nintendo Switch 2 using only software, demonstrating it by adding custom characters to Mario Kart World. The exploit does not survive a reboot.
Xbox has priced its new cloud gaming playtime packs at $3.99 for 10 hours, $7.99 for 25 hours and $11.99 for 50 hours, as Game Pass subscribers brace for monthly streaming caps.
Nintendo has revealed an eShop pre-order incentive for the upcoming Ocarina of Time remake on Switch 2, giving digital buyers downloadable art ahead of the November 5 rollout.
Cyberpunk 2077's 2.5 update lands October 22 on PC, Mac, PS5 and Xbox, with Nintendo Switch 2 support following days later. It brings mod.io cross-platform modding, new Edgerunners 2 content and dual-wield pistols.
A hobbyist GitHub project called PlayPort runs Steam, GOG and Epic Games titles directly on iPhone hardware without jailbreaking, though installation requires sideloading, Developer Mode and weekly re-signing.
Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade arrives on Xbox Game Pass October 29 for Series X|S, PC and cloud streaming, included free with Ultimate, Premium and PC Game Pass tiers. It launched on Xbox in January.
Fortune reports Microsoft's next Xbox, codenamed Helix, is now targeting a 2028 holiday launch at $1,200 to $1,800 because of soaring memory costs, while a separate Xbox handheld could still arrive in 2027.
A modder has released a community DLL patch for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered using Claude Code, claiming notable frame rate improvements and reduced stuttering at 4K resolution.
AMD is rolling out a lighter version of FSR 4.1 to the Xbox Series X, RDNA 2 graphics cards, and handheld gaming PCs, expanding its AI upscaling beyond high-end hardware.