GamesIndustry.biz does a yearly analyst roundtable, gathering predictions for what the next year will bring to the industry. This year's post paints a picture of an industry stuck in cautious recovery mode, with growth returning slowly, platform boundaries continuing to blur, and a handful of massive releases and technologies threatening to
One of the most influential names in the FPS genre, Vince Zampella, passed away at the age of 55 on Sunday, December 21st, in a tragic car accident with one other unidentified person. Vince Zampella worked on the Medal of Honor series, which spawned Call of Duty, which spawned Battlefield and eventually Respawn's own Titanfall. Between corporate
There was some significant controversy this summer when some customers complained of Gigabyte's GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs leaking the "server-grade thermal gel" that the board vendor touts on its product pages. Gigabyte acknowledged that some early-run cards used too much goop and that the quantity was adjusted on later models, but now itGigabyte has introduced the product page for its GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Windforce OC V2, a revision to the original GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Windforce OC that apparently doesn't use the “server-grade thermal conductive gel” that has been criticised by many users for leaking. This marks a departure from the cooling strategy the company heavily promoted at the start of the year.
The saga began earlier in 2025 when early adopters of the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 50 and Radeon RX 9000 series cards reported a viscous material oozing from beneath their heatsinks. This phenomenon was particularly prevalent in systems with vertical GPU mounts, where gravity caused the non-solid gel to drip away from the components, such as VRAM and MOSFETs. At the time, Gigabyte issued a formal statement defending the choice, claiming the leakage was a purely cosmetic result of over-application during early production runs. The manufacturer maintained that the substance could withstand temperatures up to 150°C and would not impact the reliability or longevity of the hardware.
Image credit: Uniko's Hardware
Despite that, the release of the RTX 5070 Ti Windforce OC V2 suggests a rethink behind the scenes. As spotted by Uniko's Hardware (via VideoCardz), the updated specifications and product imagery reveal that standard thermal pads have replaced the thermal gel. Gigabyte has not provided a formal reason for the swap, but given the reports, most would assume the gel would be the leading cause.
However, the thermal interface isn't the only aspect of the card to see a refresh in this second iteration. The Windforce OC V2 features a significantly altered physical footprint compared to the original SFF-focused design it replaces. The new shroud is approximately 43mm shorter, using a triple-fan array of smaller 80mm fans. Moreover, the PCB layout appears to have been modified, with relocated screw positions and the removal of the dual-BIOS switch found on the first generation. The backplate has also been redesigned with new visuals.
KitGuru says: There is more to this revision than the replacement of thermal materials, but that is the big one. New buyers will no longer have to worry about potential leakage.
The post Gigabyte quietly swaps out thermal gel in RTX 5070 Ti Windforce V2 first appeared on KitGuru.Square Enix has announced that the Octopath Traveler franchise has officially surpassed the six-million-unit sales milestone globally. This figure represents a significant jump from the five million units recorded in December 2024, suggesting that the series’s expansion to new platforms and the recent launch of a new entry have boosted its commercial momentum.
The original Octopath Traveler, which first debuted on the Nintendo Switch in 2018 before migrating to PC, Xbox, and eventually PlayStation 4 and 5, remains the primary driver of these figures. To date, the first game has sold over 3 million units. Its sequel, Octopath Traveler II, has contributed over one million units since its early 2023 launch.
The most recent growth in the series’ figures can be attributed to the release of Octopath Traveler 0 on December 4th. Serving as a prequel to the original and a clean version (no microtransactions) of the mobile title Champions of the Continent, this latest entry launched on day one across nearly all current hardware, including the Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
With the series now established across almost every modern ecosystem, Square Enix is celebrating the milestone with various digital storefront discounts (up to 60%) on the first two titles.
KitGuru says: Did you play any Octopath Traveler games? Do you think Square Enix should keep investing in this series?
The post Square Enix confirms Octopath Traveler series has cleared 6 million sales first appeared on KitGuru.Games industry veteran and Respawn Entertainment founder, Vince Zampella, has passed away. Zampella had been a leader at Infinity Ward before forming his new studio, Respawn Entertainment, and then joining EA.
According to NBC Los Angeles, authorities have confirmed that Zampella's vehicle had been involved in a crash in the San Gabriel Mountains on Sunday afternoon. A Ferrari struck a concrete barrier and then burst into flames.
As a co-founder of Infinity Ward, Zampella was one of the minds behind the Medal of Honor and Call of Duty franchises. Following a high-profile departure from Activision, Zampella co-founded Respawn Entertainment, where he continued to innovate with the release of Titanfall and its sequel.
Beyond shooters, Zampella’s leadership at Respawn oversaw the development of the critically acclaimed Star Wars Jedi games. Most recently, he had also been aiding the direction of the Battlefield series, including Battlefield 6.
The post Respawn founder Vince Zampella has passed away first appeared on KitGuru.Hogwarts Legacy was the bestselling game of 2023 and it is still charting even today. Given that success, it should come as no surprise that a sequel is being developed, but while the first game was purely single-player focused, Hogwarts Legacy 2 could lean towards multiplayer.
As spotted by Game Rant, Avalanche Studios is now hiring for a Senior Software Engineer. Specifically, the studio is seeking candidates with “online multiplayer RPG” experience, giving us a hint at the direction they are going in with Hogwarts Legacy 2.
It is unclear if they are thinking MMO-style gameplay, where you'll see other human players in all corners of the game, or if they are thinking co-op gameplay, where up to four player characters are roaming the world together, but outside of that, you won't run into other players.
Hogwarts Legacy garnered its popularity as a single-player experience, so this sounds like a massively risky change. Still, titles like Baldur's Gate 3 have proven that you can still have deep and meaningful RPG gameplay with multiple players, so maybe it will work out.
KitGuru Says: It sounds like Hogwarts Legacy 2 is being built to capture the imaginations of the shareholders and not the gamers who made the first one such a huge success.
The post Hogwarts Legacy 2 may end up being a multiplayer game first appeared on KitGuru.It has been almost three months since EA's Board of Directors announced that it had received a $55B buyout offer. Last night, EA took the next step towards closing the deal, with shareholders officially voting to approve the buyout.
As first spotted by Stephen Totilo, EA's shareholders have now voted in favour of the acquisition proposal. Now, the next step will be getting the acquisition approved by government regulators, which depending on the level of scrutiny, can either take several months, or years. A recent example of this taking longer than expected was the Microsoft – Activision merger, with the deal's agreed upon closing date having to be extended a couple of times due to continued meetings with regulators.
The EA deal will see a consortium of private investors banding together to pay out $55 billion to shareholders in exchange for 100% control over the company. Once the deal is completed, EA will no longer be a publicly traded company and it will be delisted from the stock exchange. This also means that things like earning reports don't have to be publicly published.
The buyout is expected to be completed before the end of 2026.
KitGuru Says: There will be a lot of debt accrued with this deal, so there will no doubt be some major changes at EA once the dust settles here. Expect more multiplayer, more microtransactions and fewer true single-player projects
The post EA shareholders approve $55 billion buyout first appeared on KitGuru.Back in 2023 as part of its effort to get the acquisition of Activision approved, Microsoft signed legally binding agreements with a number of rival game companies to ensure continued equal access to Call of Duty across all major platforms. Microsoft has made good on those promises for the most part, but we've yet to see COD return to Nintendo consoles. According to new reports, that could change within the next few months.
According to Windows Central's Jez Corden, Microsoft has been working on the Nintendo Switch version for Call of Duty for a long time now, and the first release should be launching “in a few months”.
If this is accurate, then that would make Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 the first COD title since Call of Duty Ghosts to release on a Nintendo console. We also anticipate that Call of Duty will only be coming to the newer Switch 2 system and not the original Switch console.
Prior to this rumour, fans expected this year's Call of Duty to skip Nintendo's platform again. Microsoft has not yet made any official announcements, but there will be an Xbox Games Showcase in January, so we may get an announcement then. Hopefully future titles, like COD 2026, release on the Switch 2 at the same time as other platforms.
KitGuru Says: The Switch 2 has limited internal storage space, so hopefully the developers will be looking at ways to optimise the install size of the game.
The post Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 might be coming to Nintendo Switch after all first appeared on KitGuru.2025 is nearly over, and this year's seen us explore many new locations across VR and mixed reality. Today, we're highlighting some of our favorites.
Like last year, we're splitting the UploadVR editorial team's top picks for 2025's best titles across three articles. This first one looks toward the best games across four platforms: Apple Vision Pro, PC VR, PlayStation VR2, and Meta Quest. We're also discussing our top immersive entertainment experiences beyond gaming, too.
The next article will focus on mixed reality apps and games, alongside a focus on this year's best uses of hand tracking. Because only fully released games normally count, tomorrow will also include our early access categories.
Finally, our last article features our biggest awards for 2025. In line with last year, this includes the Best VR Game Of The Year across any platform, Best VR Hardware, Best Developer, Best Multiplayer, Best Virtual Place, and Most Anticipated VR Game for 2026.
So, let's begin with the first round for our best of 2025 awards.
2025's been another eye-opener in how filmmakers use immersive tech to deliver compelling narratives. On Apple Vision Pro in particular, Apple Immersive Video saw projects like the Metallica concert experience, Bono: Stories of Surrender, MotoGP Tour De Force, and D-Day: The Camera Soldier.
Some experiences touch upon heavier themes: The Reality of Hope used VRChat to cover a life-saving friendship, Reflections of Little Red Dot examined Singapore's history, while Soul Paint encourages introspection. Other notable projects include Touching The Sky, Alien Perspective, and Black Cats & Chequered Flags.
This year's award goes to The Clouds Are Two Thousand Meters Up, a free-roaming VR experience based on a Taiwanese short story. While you can't influence what happens, most scenes are fully explorable as you witness the narrative unfold. It feels like walking into a movie, going that extra immersive mile while backing that up with a compelling narrative.
UploadVRHenry StockdaleApple developers only started supporting tracked controllers near the end of 2025 as games like Pickle Pro started supporting the input method. Big name title Glassbreakers made its way to Apple Vision Pro in 2025, alongside the winner of Apple's own selection for best of the year, puzzler Porta Nubi.
Gears & Goo from Resolution Games is our winner for Best New Apple Vision Pro Game. Resolution's developers adapted tower defense to Apple's gaze and pinch interface with a challenging multi-hour campaign, and we'd love to see more Gears & Goo in the future.
UploadVRIan HamiltonEven without a new Quest headset launch, this year certainly hasn't lacked for games across Meta's standalone ecosystem.
Many of 2025's best Quest games left it late. Alongside big names like Marvel’s Deadpool VR and Thief VR, these last few months also saw Glassbreakers, Arken Age, Hotel Infinity, Reach, Of Lies and Rain, Demeo x D&D, Titan Isles, and Memoreum arrive. Still, Alien: Rogue Incursion, Pixel Dungeon, and GORN 2 ensured the rest of the year had its fill too.
There can only be one winner, and Ghost Town is 2025's Quest Game of the Year. Fireproof Games delivered what we considered to be an “utterly engrossing supernatural VR adventure” with strong gameplay design and some of the best visuals we've seen yet on Quest 3.
It's a highly worthy follow-up to Fireproof's previous hit, The Room VR: A Dark Matter, and we'd dearly love to see more of this world in the future.
UploadVRHenry StockdaleAll eyes might be on Valve with next year's Steam Frame launch, but 2025's still seen some great PC VR releases. Leading a handful of exclusives were Vertigo 2: Into The Aether, BattleGroupVR2, and Lushfoil Photography Sim.
They were joined by multiplatform hits like Of Lies and Rain, Lumines Arise, Demeo x D&D, Arken Age, Reach, Thief VR, Ghost Town, and The Midnight Walk. That's before mentioning slightly older games coming to PC VR like Vendetta Forever, Zero Caliber 2, and Dungeons of Eternity.
For 2025, Roboquest VR is our PC VR Game of the Year. Flat2VR Studios' exhilarating conversion of RyseUp Studios' 2023 FPS roguelite feels like it was natively designed for the platform, and we called it “an instant classic” in our review.
UploadVRJames GalizioIt's another year when PlayStation VR2 relied on third party publishers - Climate Station aside - and the hits continued coming. 2025 provided a strong library like Hitman, Maestro, Of Lies and Rain, Demeo x D&D, Reach, Lumines Arise, UNDERDOGS, and Roboquest VR. We're also not forgetting Wanderer: The Fragments of Fate, which has gradually improved with updates.
For 2025, Arken Age is our PlayStation VR2 Game of the Year. VitruviusVR delivered a strong sci-fi action-adventure with tactile VR-first gameplay design. While it's also a solid PC VR and Quest 3 game, Arken Age benefits from Sony's headset with strong haptic feedback and PS5 Pro enhancements. Our appreciation's grown since launch and if you love action titles, it's an essential buy.
UploadVRHenry Stockdale
Two intelligence services from at least two NATO nations have raised alarms over a potential "weapon of fear" currently under development by Russia. This anti-satellite system is reportedly being developed to target Elon Musk’s Starlink constellation, which has become a critical backbone for Ukrainian military communications and battlefield
Are you still shopping for a holiday gift? First and foremost, check out our staff picks of ho-ho-hot tech selections, then have a gander at our roundup of last minute stocking stuffer deals. Of course, it's a bit late in the game with Christmas now just two days away, but if you're shopping for yourself (or are okay with printing a picture
Astronomers have finally captured a black hole twisting the very fabric of spacetime. This phenomenon, known as frame-dragging or Lense-Thirring precession, confirms a cornerstone of Einstein’s general theory of relativity by showing that massive, rotating objects don’t just spin in situ—they drag it along with them like a spoon stirring honey
Nintendo confirmed in a roundabout way that it is discontinuing its Switch 2 + Mario Kart World bundle after an internal GameStop memo stating as much was leaked on X. However, it's not all bad news. If you're quick, you can still find the bundle in stock, and at a great discount to boot. More on that in a moment.
CONFIRMED: the SwitchStar Citizen is undoubtedly one of the most ambitious projects currently in development, with the space sim having raised hundreds of millions in funding since its initial announcement back in 2012. Well over a decade since its reveal and a solid 8 years on from its Early Access launch, Star Citizen continues to receive new levels of support from fans – with 2025 said to have been their best year yet, raising over $150 million.
As part of Star Citizen’s 2025 recap, the team at Robert Space Industries looked back at all the progress which has been made over the past 12 months.
While Star Citizen still has a ways to go, 2025 saw many welcome additions introduced, including almost 100 new locations, two-dozen ships and multiple live events across 11 ‘major’ updates.
By far the most interesting revelation however is the fact that in 2025 alone, Star Citizen raised over $152 million in funding.
For context, this represents a 35% increase over their previous best year funding-wise and brings the total amount raised so far to a whopping $926 million – all of which is said to be going “directly to the game's development.”
When all is said and done, it is very possible that Star Citizen will be the most expensive game ever made. While video game budgets are typically kept hidden, we do know that Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War cost over $700 million to develop.
With GTA VI being the only other game to potentially rival Star Citizen’s budget, it will be interesting to see how the space sim progresses over the coming years and how much it will have raised in total by the time the game finally releases.
KitGuru says: What do you think of the game? Will it ever hit 1.0? Have you contributed any money to the project? Let us know down below.
The post Star Citizen had its biggest year ever funding-wise as project nears $1 Billion first appeared on KitGuru.Starting off as a bit of a mixed bag of a developer, Bloober Team have slowly but surely proven themselves in the horror genre, with their most recent original release ‘Cronos: The New Dawn’ receiving high praise from players while exceeding half a million copies sold since its launch back in September. While intended to be a rather daunting experience, the developers at Bloober Team have confirmed that Cronos will be getting a new easier difficulty mode early next year.
Making the announcement via a humorous skit published to their YouTube channel, Bloober Team confirmed that Cronos: The New Dawn will be getting an easier difficulty option in the form of the Temporal Diver Mode.
Arriving in early 2026, the developers explained their mentality behind the upcoming addition, stating:
“Hey there travellers. Cronos: The New Dawn was a game developed to challenge the players. But we’ve heard your voices, and we know that some of us want to explore the story behind the game in your own pace. So right now, we are working on a new difficulty setting that will be introduced in early 2026. Such is our calling.”
For the uninitiated, Cronos: The New Dawn is a 3rd person horror experience in which players must “survive the brutal wastelands of the future, fight nightmarish merging creatures and jump back in time to harvest souls as you seek to uncover the origins of the apocalypse that wiped out humanity.”
Being a survival horror game, Cronos is understandably not the easiest of experiences. That said, it is encouraging to see a new option being added which should allow more people to check out the game while not taking away from other players’ personal stories. It will be interesting to see whether anything else is added alongside the new difficulty mode.
KitGuru says: Have you played Cronos: The New Dawn yet? What do you think? Would you have appreciated an easier mode? Let us know down below.
The post Cronos: The New Dawn to get ‘Temporal Diver’ difficulty mode in early 2026 first appeared on KitGuru.The Nintendo Switch 2 has been a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to 3rd-party support so far. While some publishers have released impressive ports, others have seemingly done the bare minimum to get the game running on Nintendo’s latest and greatest. One title which seemed to come out of the oven a bit too hot was Persona 3 Reload – being limited to just 30fps. Thanks to further optimisations however, a new update for the Switch 2 version now allows it to run at 60fps (in docked mode at least).
As shared by the publication rpgsite, ATLUS have released a new patch for Persona 3 Reload on Switch 2. Though the list of changes is rather light, patch 1.03 brings with it support for 60fps via a new performance mode alongside improved frame rate stability across the board.
While a relatively uncommon practice so far, this new performance mode is being limited to those playing in docked mode – meaning you will still have to make do with 30fps in handheld.
Given the Switch 2’s 120hz screen, it would have been nice if ATLUS were able to get the handheld version to hit 40fps at the very least. Regardless, having a performance mode option is welcome to see, even if it is limited to docked mode.
KitGuru says: Are you bothered by Persona 3 Reload’s framerate on Switch 2? Is 30fps acceptable for a turn-based game? Should the handheld and docked modes have more parity with one another? Let us know your thoughts down below.
The post Persona 3 Reload on Switch 2 updated with 60fps performance mode when docked first appeared on KitGuru.For Day 23 of the KitGuru Advent Calendar, we have teamed up with Arctic to give one lucky reader a massive cooling upgrade. One winner today will receive the panoramic Arctic Xtender VG case, as well as a massive Liquid Freezer III Pro 420mm AIO liquid cooler.
The winner won't have to worry about space. The Arctic Xtender VG chassis actually has space for two 420mm liquid cooling radiators. The Liquid Freezer Pro 3 will pair well with high-end CPUs, bringing temperatures down to a minimum.
To enter this giveaway, all you have to do is head over to our competition announcement post on Facebook, HERE. In the comments, leave an answer to the following question – What CPU cooler are you currently using?
This competition is open worldwide.
The winner will be picked randomly shortly after 11AM GMT December 24th, and a new competition will be announced for Day 24. The chosen winner has 48 hours to respond, if we do not hear from them, a new winner will be picked.
Terms and Conditions: This competition is open worldwide, starting at 11AM GMT on December 23rd and ending at 10:59AM GMT on December 24th. Due to the busy Christmas season, prize deliveries could take longer than usual, and some prizes may not ship until January. In compliance with GDPR, we will not collect or store any personal information as part of this competition. Once the winner has been contacted and their prize received, personal details will be deleted from our email servers. Your details will not be shared, we respect your privacy.
KitGuru Says: Good luck to all who enter, we'll be back tomorrow morning to announce a winner and turn the calendar over to Day 24!
The post KitGuru Advent Calendar Day 23: Win an Arctic hardware bundle! first appeared on KitGuru.
NVIDIA has made available a new out-of-band hotfix driver for GeForce GPU owners that aims to resolve a trio of quirky issues, one of which addresses slight banding that is sometimes observed on gradients in SDR color mode. As is always the case, you really should only install the hotfix if you're affected by any of the specific issues it
Spotify is the victim of what may be the greatest act of music piracy in history and the company is not happy. Recently, Anna's Archive released a massive 300 TB of torrents, which reportedly includes the metadata of 265 million tracks, 186 million unique IRSCs, and 86 million songs. The metadata composes "99.9% of tracks", while the 86 million
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