PC Gaming | The Verge

This accessory can snap a Steam Controller to your phone — or almost anything else

2026-05-01T14:32:36-04:00

Valve's new Steam Controller goes on sale on Monday for $99, and accessories-maker Mechanism will be ready. As far as we know, Mechanism's new Basegrip is the very first way to attach a Steam Controller to your phone - as well as Mechanism's lineup of accessories, including mounts for hanging handhelds and gamepads on the Ikea Skadis pegboard or just about anywhere else. The Steam Controller mount will go on sale the same day as the controller, since Valve gave Mechanism early access to the design.

When the Basegrip is paired with Mechanism's phone mount, the company suggests that you can use the Steam Controller to remote-control your PC u …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Roblox’s daily users continue to drop as age checks slow growth

2026-04-30T19:25:47-04:00

Roblox's daily active users continued to slip last quarter due in part to its rollout of age checks on its platform. According to its latest earnings report, Roblox currently has 132 million daily active users globally, down from 144 million at the end of last year, which was a drop from 152 million in Q3 2025. In the US and Canada, the number of active users dropped by one million from the previous quarter, while Roblox's revenue still grew to $1.4 billion.

Roblox says Q1 growth was "tempered by greater-than-expected headwinds" due to the rollout of its age-check features, which "slowed new user acquisition." Russia's December 2025 ban on …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Logitech made an analog and mechanical keyboard in one

2026-04-28T15:01:24-04:00

39 of its switches are hybrid, letting you insert Hall effect or mechanical switches. | Image: Logitech

Each type of keyboard switch comes with perks and downsides. People who are used to typing on mechanical switches might dislike how quiet and squishy analog switches are by comparison. Regardless of your thoughts there, analog switches stand out because there are so many ways that gamers can customize how quickly they register inputs. Logitech's new wired G512 X model attempts to settle the debate by letting you mix-and-match them as you please. The company claims that 39 of this model's switches are compatible with "almost all" popular analog and 3-pin and 5-pin mechanical switches.

The G512 X is launching in the compact 75- and bigger 98- …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Behold the crown jewel of outrageous gaming laptops

2026-04-27T17:27:57-04:00

Ridiculous? Yes. Awesome? Also yes. | Photo: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

The Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo was my pick for the best laptop of CES: It had two high-end screens, great specs, and the promise of being a one-of-a-kind multitasking and gaming monster. Now that this over-the-top laptop is here, I can tell you it's as fantastic as I had hoped for. It's also as expensive as I feared. Our review configuration costs $5,500.

Woof.

This laptop has a lot going on: two full-size 16-inch OLEDs, a top-of-the-line Nvidia RTX 5090 Laptop GPU, a near-top-of-the-line 16-core Intel Panther Lake chip, plenty of ports (including an SD card slot), and a great keyboard and trackpad you can remove and use via Bluetooth. These ar …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Why the Steam Controller is (and isn’t) a big deal

2026-04-27T17:12:21-04:00

It’s not reductive to call it a Steam Deck without the screen. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Most PC gamers already have a controller they love using with Steam - a Sony DualSense, a 8BitDo Ultimate, a Nintendo Switch Pro, or something else. Part of that love comes from Steam treating them like "native" controllers. They can do the things that made the first Steam Controller worth buying. Namely, they offer a level of customizable control never before seen on PC and that you still can't get on a console.

With Steam Input, any of those controllers can have multiple control schemes for different game scenarios (flight, on-foot, in menus), and you swap between them with a button press. You can also create onscreen menus that bloom whe …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Valve’s new Steam Controller isn’t perfect, but I’m buying one anyway

2026-04-27T17:11:40-04:00

After my brief hands-on last year with Valve's new Steam Controller, I said it might be my dream controller. I've been looking for a controller with the customization and sheer function available on Valve's Steam Deck while I'm playing games on the TV. You, me, and a lot of other people have been waiting for this.

I've had the new controller in my hands for more than two weeks, and it's already changing how I play at home. I used to make the Steam Deck handheld my go-to couch gaming experience because of how good it feels to hold, but the Controller has me docking my Deck to play on the TV because it feels even better.

I've spent hours cr …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Valve launches the Steam Controller without the Steam Machine

2026-04-27T13:24:04-04:00

Last November, Valve introduced the world to its new vision of living room gaming: the Steam Machine and Steam Controller. Then, RAMageddon. Memory shortages forced Valve to delay all its hardware and reset expectations.

Now, Valve is releasing the Steam Controller without the Steam Machine.

The Steam Controller is officially going on sale May 4th at 1PM ET for $99 USD, $149 CAD, $149 AUD, £85 in the UK and €99 in the EU. We've already spent two weeks with the pad paired to our Steam Decks and gaming desktops, and you can read reviews from my colleagues Jay Peters and Cameron Faulkner right now. It's pretty great!

What about the Steam Ma …

Read the full story at The Verge.

We reviewed Valve’s new Steam Controller, ask us anything

2026-04-27T13:27:12-04:00

Hey hey, it's Jay Peters, senior reporter at The Verge. Today, Valve finally announced that the second version of the Steam Controller - and the first piece of Valve's slate of new gaming hardware set to launch this year - is finally going on sale for $99 on May 4th.

My colleague Cameron Faulkner and I have had the new Controller in our hands for more than two weeks, and we've each written reviews of it. For Verge subscribers, we have a treat: if you have any questions about the new gamepad, we'd be happy to answer them for you in the comments of this article.

Valve hasn't shared any new information about when the Steam Machine PC and Stea …

Read the full story at The Verge.

This touchscreen mouse is my over-engineering nightmare

2026-04-27T10:20:34-04:00

Who’s asking for this? | Image: Turtle Beach

Turtle Beach's latest collection of PC peripherals are so focused around touchscreen displays that the company even slapped one on a gaming mouse. The $160 wireless Command Series MC7 features a 2.25-inch touch display bar on the left side of the mouse, which seems to be located in just the right position for users to worry about accidentally hitting it with their thumbs.

The display bar is designed to function like a built-in Stream Deck, allowing users to assign customizable commands for macros, apps, and OBS controls. It also brings to mind the infamous MacBook Pro Touch Bar, which was easy to accidentally hit while typing until the feat …

Read the full story at The Verge.

I bought Alienware’s $350 OLED monitor and I can’t believe how good it is

2026-04-22T11:03:58-04:00

At $350, the AW2726DM is cheap enough that some people may choose to buy two for a dual monitor setup.

I've recommended several OLED gaming monitors to readers over the years, and I've finally taken my own advice to buy one. Alienware's new 27-inch 1440p QD-OLED has all the features that I want and a low $350 price that was too tempting to ignore.

The AW2726DM model has five things that make it stand out for the price: a 1440p QD-OLED screen with lush contrast, a fast 240Hz refresh rate, a semi-glossy screen coating to enhance details, a low-profile design without flashy RGB LEDs, and a great warranty (three years with coverage for burn-in).

I've been using Alienware's new monitor for a couple days, and I've already spent hours with it play …

Read the full story at The Verge.