Gaming – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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The Verge’s gaming section brings the latest video game news, reviews of the most exciting releases, and interviews with the industry’s biggest names. We cover everything from PlayStation and Xbox blockbusters, to quirky Nintendo games, to the cool indie gems on PC and Android that you might otherwise miss.

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Xbox’s clever disc-to-digital feature was 15 years in the making

Microsoft’s controversial Xbox One bets are paying off more than a decade later.

Tom Warren
Grand Theft Auto VI’s soundtrack will feature 34 brand-new tracks

Six singles are dropping today from the likes of Keith Richards, Travis Scott, and Yung Lean.

Andrew Webster

Latest In Gaming

Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
Virtual Desktop dev says he’ll ‘try to bring the app’ to Steam Frame.

The Steam Frame and Meta Quest headsets can natively beam your Windows monitors into a headset — but some still prefer Virtual Desktop, the app that pioneered the idea in 2016 before getting “sherlocked” by Meta. Developer Guy Godin says Valve didn’t send him a Frame, but he’ll try to port it anyhow.

Technically, I can already stream Virtual Desktop Classic, with working 3D video, but my monitors are stitched together and the controls feel awkward.

Here’s Virtual Desktop Classic streamed from my PC to Steam Frame. A standalone version with passthrough would be better.
Here’s Virtual Desktop Classic streamed from my PC to Steam Frame. A standalone version with passthrough would be better.
Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge
Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
Valve has open-sourced Lepton, its tool to bring Android games to Steam.

“Lepton is intended to help game developers bring their VR Android games to the Steam Frame,” Valve writes. “Lepton is not designed for general Android use, instead opting to keep the bare minimum functionality required to launch into games.”

Developers have already used it to port Meta Quest games to the Steam Frame. But could it do more?

default author avatar
Brad Bourque
Grab a Radeon RX 9070 for $500, and get a free game.

If you’re looking for a GPU upgrade, but don’t want to shell out $800 or more for an RTX 5070, Newegg has the Gigabyte RX 9070 GRE, a capable card for 1440p gaming, discounted to $500 when you click “Extra discount available. Unlock it here” on the product page and then enter your email. The deal also includes Onimusha: Way of the Sword, although you’ll have to redeem the code by October 24th, 2026.

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Twitch CEO: GTA VI multiplayer is coming in 2027.

Bloomberg interviewed Twitch CEO Dan Clancy:

“We spent a lot of time talking with Rockstar about their plans, and also helping them think about how they can engage our creators,” Clancy said in an interview. “You are going to see this big bump with GTA 6, but then an even bigger one next year when they launch multiplayer.”

In an investor call today, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick also said that PC is “becoming more and more important to our company over time,” according to GamesRadar. Perhaps we won’t have to wait too long for a PC version of GTA VI?

Update: Added new Zelnick comment.

Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
Dang, Xbox didn’t blow it in 2013 as bad as I thought.

Sure, the Xbox One’s disc strategy blew up in the company’s face, giving Sony the perfect ammo. But as Tom reveals, Microsoft decided to secretly start printing unique serial numbers on its discs way back then — a decision that’s paying off now!

Tom Warren
Tom Warren
Bill Skarsgård is the lead role in Kojima’s Physint.

Physint just switched publishers from PlayStation to Xbox, and Hideo Kojima appeared at Xbox’s Tokyo game show stream today to reveal the lead role for the game. Swedish actor and producer Bill Skarsgård, best known for playing Pennywise the Clown in the It horror films, will portray the lead role alongside Charlee Fraser in Kojima’s upcoming action-espionage game. Kojima says Physint “continues to make steady progress,” months after Sony gave the studio an unexpected cancellation notice in June.

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
iFixit now has guides for repairing your Steam Machine.

The new guides cover everything from replacing the motherboard to cleaning the heatsink, and offer a neat look at the Steam Machine’s internals.

A partially disassembled Steam Machine
A partially disassembled Steam Machine
A partially disassembled Steam Machine
1/3Image: iFixit
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Monster Hunter Wilds players won’t have to pay to edit their characters starting next year.

Capcom’s getting rid of its character edit vouchers with the upcoming Ascendance expansion, so you can change your character’s appearance for free without needing workarounds. Capcom is giving players 10 free character and Palico edit vouchers to tide them over in the meantime.

Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
The Switch 2’s Joy-Cons are more durable than expected.

That’s according to Gal Silver, a technician at GameTraderZero who’s modded and repaired more than 1,000 Switch 2 Joy-Cons over the past year. You can read their findings on NintendoLife but despite using older thumbstick tech, the new Joy-Cons have much improved durability with fewer issues and no instances of “drift issue straight out of the box.”

A photo of the Joy-Con 2 controllers for the Nintendo Switch 2.
Photo: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Nintendo opens up Fire Emblem with the gigantic Fortune’s Weave

As Fire Emblem has gotten bigger, it’s gotten more ambitious, yet the new game is as engrossing as ever.

Jay Peters
Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
EU proposes banning kids under 13 from social media, online games, and AI chatbots.

The EU Kids Act will be formally unveiled tomorrow where it will eventually be put to a vote by the 27 nation bloc. Parent-chaperoned “mini accounts” are proposed for children 13 to 15.

“I am aware that many perceive the power of Big Tech as overwhelming and impossible to roll back. I disagree,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. “We do not have to accept addictive features. We do not have to accept children being drawn into ever more extreme content. We do not have to accept that girls have their photos used for AI-generated sexualized images.”

Tom Warren
Tom Warren
PlayStation announces two new wireless PS5 headsets.

Sony has two new wireless headsets for PS5 players: the PlayStation Pulse and Pulse Edge. Visually it’s hard to tell the difference between these headsets, apart from the fact the Pulse Edge has a hidden and detachable boom mic (instead of integrated on the Pulse). The Pulse Edge also has eight magnets per planar driver instead of six on the Pulse, active noise cancellation, a carry case, and built-in audio controls on a PS5. They’re both designed to compliment the existing Pulse Elite, and the Pulse will arrive this holiday, followed by the Pulse Edge in early 2027. No exact release dates or pricing yet.

The Pulse and Pulse Edge come in white and black.
The Pulse and Pulse Edge come in white and black.
Image: Sony
Andrew Webster
Andrew Webster
Rock stars tease Rockstar game.

It’s no surprise that there will be plenty of music in Grand Theft Auto VI’s in-game radio stations, but now we have an idea of who exactly will be featured. Kotaku has compiled a list of artists — ranging from Keith Richards to Yung Lean — who have started teasing their participation.

How The Oregon Trail became a generational iconHow The Oregon Trail became a generational icon
David Pierce and Travis Larchuk
Andrew Webster
Andrew Webster
Slice and / or dice.

There are some disappointing parts of Insomniac’s take on Wolverine — the flat narrative, the dull exploration — but if you’re in the mood for some pure superhero action, it definitely delivers. The game is out today on the PS5 and you can check out my full thoughts below.

Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
Steam Frame AMA time.

I’m hopping in now to answer your questions, and I’ve got a Steam Frame on my desk to spot-check answers, too!

Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
See what it’s like to use the Steam Frame.

Did you think the Steam Frame was a VR headset? As I explain in my review, it does a lot more. Here, step into the lenses with me and I’ll show you. (Also on YouTube, if you’d rather!)

Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
The Steam Frame’s modular attachments are already intriguing.

Wish Valve’s headset let you see your surroundings in full color instead of monochrome? In my hand is the $150 Arcturus Vision Camera, which can solve that (see images below). Need more battery and better audio? Pop the compute core into Valve’s upcoming “Enthusiast Kit” to add twin stackable magnetic batteries, premium off-ear drivers, and more.

<em>The Arcturus Vision Camera accessory.</em>
<em>Plugged in.</em>
<em>A 1080p screen capture of what I see with the stock monochrome cameras.</em>
<em>Now with the Arcturus Vision Camera</em>. <em>The screenshot doesn’t do justice to the higher resolution you get, though</em>.
<em>You can remove the Steam Frame’s compute / optics core after undoing three latches.</em>
1/5
The Arcturus Vision Camera accessory.
Photo: Kelsey McClellan / The Verge
The Steam Frame is made for irresponsible hardware nerds like me

5

Verge Score

Valve’s new headset is another joyous piece of early access hardware.

Sean Hollister
Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
Hori’s new modular arcade controller lets you swap in a joystick, trackball, or paddle.

The Hori Arcade Classic Pro, now available for preorder in Japan for around $260, features a pair of modular slots where you can install a standard 8-way joystick, a paddle, a trackball, or a rotating loop lever stick. It’s compatible with PC and the Switch 2 and could be a great solution for playing a wide variety of classic arcade titles.

Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
The Delta emulator devs are already working on support for the iPhone Duo.

In addition to a “Delta Duo” teaser recently shared on Threads, lead developer Riley Testut told Retro Dodo that “the plan is to have dedicated support for the Duo in Delta” and the work they did “making sure that Delta worked with resizing and multi-window support back when Stage Manager first debuted for iPadOS”is already proving beneficial for the upcoming Duo support.

The Delta emulator logo shown on half open iPhone Duo.
Image: Delta
Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Warcraft III is getting a new campaign after 23 years.

The Warcraft III Reforged remake was widely panned. But since it launched in 2020, Blizzard has worked to fix many of the bugs. Now it’s finally delivering the promised new narrative content with the Forsaken Kingdom campaign, the first new campaign since 2003’s Frozen Throne.

Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Diablo V is coming in spring of 2029.

There will be a panel at 4:45 PM ET (1:45 PT) today at BlizzCon where more info will be revealed, but for now you’ll have to satisfy your thirst for fire, brimstone, and Sanctuary with this short teaser.

Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Netflix is making a Diablo animated series.

We’ve got almost no details beyond that, but Blizzard told Variety that “this is only the beginning, with even more taking shape across our universes.” So we might finally get those Overwatch and World of Warcraft series as well.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Polyarc, known for its VR series starring a mouse, appears to be shutting down.

”After nearly 12 years riding the joyous rollercoaster of emotions that is making video games, our time together has come to an end,” Polyarc, the developer of the Moss franchise, wrote in a LinkedIn post on Friday.

Earlier this year, Polyarc laid off staff after it couldn’t secure funding “following the cancellation of a major project.” It also released a flatscreen collection of the two Moss games, titled Moss: The Forgotten Relic.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Roblox will soon let you play games in your browser.

By the end of 2026, you’ll be able to hop into a Roblox game right from Chrome with support other browsers coming in the future, Roblox announced as part of its developer conference news on Friday. The company also revealed plans to let developers launch their games as apps on other platforms and offer offline modes.

Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
Did… he forget that Final Fantasy VII originally came on three discs?

FFVII Revelation director Naoki Hamaguchi has revealed to IGN his “only choice” was to ship the new game on a single disc that forces you to download the rest of the game, because the team “didn’t want to make any compromises” in fidelity.

But the original game shipped on three discs. FF8 shipped on four! So did FF9.

Here, I whipped out a copy to show you. Forgot about the awesome booklet art!
Here, I whipped out a copy to show you. Forgot about the awesome booklet art!
Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Valve just launched a big update for SteamVR.

SteamVR 2.17 adds a bunch of new features, including a quick access menu for handy settings on the VR dashboard bar, letting you access Steam achievements and notes in-game in VR, and improvements to Steam Link streaming. Check out Valve’s full patch notes to see everything new.

A screenshot from Valve showing off SteamVR 2.17.
A screenshot from Valve showing SteamVR 2.17.
Image: Valve