SPhotonix is the latest big name in 5D glass storage technology, and it's proving to be quite ambitious in its goal to bring the technology to market, estimating "another three or four years of R&D" to get it there.
5D glass storage, for the uninitiated, refers to a technique where high-density, high-durability silica glass is used with 
Have you looked at the price of RAM lately? Retail prices for desktop DDR5 memory kits are three to five times what they were just a month ago. Building a PC has gone from "your GPU should be the most expensive component" to "make sure to budget for enough RAM." In fact, the shortage reminds us of the GPU shortage just a few short years ago. 
Pop!_OS is a new Ubuntu-based Linux distribution from System76, flaunting the COSMIC Desktop Environment and available on either a PC of your choice or one of many US-made laptops or desktops. While the naming of Pop!_OS recalls a more distant era of computing, the operating system itself is quite modern, featuring all the core features you've 
One of our favorite set of earbuds is on sale in time for Christmas. That would be the Bose QuietComfort Ultra (2nd Gen) that we recently reviewed. One of the very few knocks we had against these earbuds was the premium price, but that is partially mitigated with this holiday deal. It still might not be the type of thing that qualifies as 
NVIDIA has announced the release of Nemotron 3, the latest generation in its ongoing Nemotron line of large language models (LLMs). It presents the new models as open, high-efficiency building blocks for agentic AI systems. The first model in the series, Nemotron 3 Nano, is available now, with larger "Super" and "Ultra" variants scheduled Meta's CTO has responded to speculation of VR being "dead" at the company.
After reports from outlets like Bloomberg, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Business Insider suggested that Meta is "considering" a cut "as high as 30%" for its "metaverse" teams, Meta issued an official statement confirming "shifting some of our investment from Metaverse toward AI glasses and Wearables".
"Within our overall Reality Labs portfolio we are shifting some of our investment from Metaverse toward AI glasses and Wearables given the momentum there," the official statement read. "We aren't planning any broader changes than that."
UploadVRDavid Heaney
Following this, in an "ask-me-anything" session on his Instagram page, Meta's CTO Andrew Bosworth was asked the question "Is VR dead for Meta now? You seem to have moved on to glasses and AI?".
Here's how Bosworth responded:
Every now and then there's just a narrative that people cannot help writing, and I'll give you the way to know.
First of all, the answer is no: VR is not dead. We're also investing a lot in glasses and AI, and that's the trick.
The way to know if there's a convenient narrative is if it appears zero-sum. Meta is a big company. We can invest in many things. We can invest in VR, glasses, and AI — and by the way, we have been for years.
Every year we go through a budget process, and in that budget process, we ask every team, "Hey, can you do the same work more effectively?" We've got better tools, we've got AI, we've got things. You're trying to right-size it. How big is the market? How fast is it growing? Is that what we expected? If it's slower than we expected, let's make sure our burn rate is lower. If it's faster than expected, let's double down and make sure we take advantage and don't cede it to other people. You're being smart about it, but it's normal stuff.
Bosworth's response doesn't contradict Meta's official confirmation of shifting some investment "from Metaverse toward AI glasses and Wearables", but seems to push back on the idea that an up to 30% spending cut means the company is no longer investing at all, suggesting that it can work on VR, glasses, and AI concurrently.
UploadVRDavid Heaney
Meta's funding shift from Horizon Worlds and VR to smart glasses comes just over a year after a leaked memo from Bosworth told Reality Labs staff that 2025 will determine whether their projects are "the work of visionaries or a legendary misadventure".
In the memo, Bosworth described 2025 as "the most critical year in my 8 years at Reality Labs", and told staff they "need to drive sales, retention, and engagement across the board but especially in MR". Note that at the time, Meta was using MR to refer to VR too, a nomenclature that it ended earlier this year.
"And Horizon Worlds on mobile absolutely has to break out for our long term plans to have a chance", Bosworth added.
Since then, Reality Labs saw its highest-ever quarterly revenue in Q4 2024 with the launch of Quest 3S, which was the top-selling console on Amazon US for Christmas. But this momentum did not carry through into 2025 at all.
The first two quarters of 2025 saw Quest sales decline year-over-year, revealing that while Quest 3S was a popular stocking stuffer, it simply is not a successful year-round product. While Q3 saw a rebound, Meta explained that this was due to retailers stocking up on Quest 3S for this year's holiday season.
Meanwhile, Meta has continued to push its Horizon Worlds "metaverse" platform with multi-million-dollar creator competitions, especially focused on smartphone-only worlds, as the company hopes to scale the platform from a social VR space to a cross-platform Roblox and Fortnite competitor. But this doesn't seem to have gained much traction.
UploadVRDavid Heaney
This relative stagnation in its Quest and Horizon Worlds efforts comes as the company is seeing skyrocketing sales and significant public and investor interest in its smart glasses.
Back in February, in its Q4 2024 earnings call, Meta's partner EssilorLuxottica said that the Ray-Ban Meta glasses had sold 2 million units, and in its Q2 2025 call in July said that sales had more than tripled since last year, performing "exceptionally well".
In its Q2 2025 call in July, the company said that the glasses were performing "exceptionally well" in the market, with sales having more than tripled compared to 2024.
UploadVRDavid Heaney
This doesn't mean Meta isn't working on new headsets, though. Leaked memos reveal that it plans to launch its rumored ultralight headset with a tethered compute puck in the first half of 2027, and that it recently started work on a gaming-focused Quest 4 set to be a "large upgrade" over Quest 3, though at a higher price.
Trip the Light is a VR dancing sim that recently entered early access on Quest.
Developed by Dark Arts Software, Trip the Light is a dancing simulator that uses both fully immersive VR environments and mixed reality passthrough to see your own surroundings. First appearing last month on the wider Quest platform, the game lets you work with a digital partner to learn new dance routines, complete challenges, score points, and gradually build up combos.
In its current early access build, Trip the Light aims to teach you Salsa using virtual instructors that the studio states are based on real-life professionals. There's also a 'Match Me' mode that tests you to follow solo dance styles like hip-hop, line dancing, and club moves.
More dance styles are promised to be coming soon, and buying the early access release grants you the 'Full Dance Edition.' It's not clear what further features can be expected for the full release, though Dark Arts Software confirmed that early adopters will receive “all of the basic modes, features, and assets that we build between now [and] then.”
Trip the Light is out now on the wider Meta Quest platform.
LG makes some of the most popular TVs on the market thanks to its long running line of OLED sets, which happen to be part of some solid holiday discounts right now. As with most other TV manufacturers in the market, it bundles pre-installed apps on its smart TV platform, WebOS. However, the latest addition to this included set of apps hasn’t 
Despite its limits as a game streaming device, PlayStation Portal has proven surprisingly successful—and now, the update allowing for PlayStation Portal to stream from Sony's servers instead of your own PlayStation 5 has finally come out of beta, meaning the device can now technically function as a standalone handheld. There are still many 
Have you been on the fence about jumping into VR? Now is a great time to go ahead and make the leap because Amazon is serving up a fantastic deal on Meta's Quest 3 headset, which comes 512GB of built-in storage, controllers, and a couple of noteworthy bonuses, not the least of which is a $100 Amazon gift card.
Meta Quest 3 Is 19% Off And Gamers and PC enthusiasts may face prolonged, inflated component prices, as SK Hynix has reportedly forecast that the shortage of DRAM could last until 2028. This may not only impact current-generation products like DDR5 and GDDR7, but also previous-gen DDR4 memory, GDDR6 and even LPDDR, which is typically used in mobile devices.
The report comes from BullsLab Jay, who also stated that the current inventory drying up will not be met with the traditional response of ramping up production capacity for consumer-grade goods, signaling a potential long-term price hike for consoles, graphics cards, and system memory.
The driving force behind these supply issues is the strategic shift toward AI infrastructure. SK Hynix noted that its most cutting-edge memory technologies, specifically HBM and SOCAMM, will be exempt from these shortages, as the company plans to funnel its manufacturing resources and capacity expansions almost exclusively into these types of memory to satisfy the needs of the AI server market. While SK Hynix is aggressively installing new equipment, it's entirely dedicated to advanced storage solutions and HBM for data centres rather than the commodity DRAM used in consumer electronics.
This divergence in strategy highlights a growing rift in the semiconductor industry, where consumer needs are taking a backseat to enterprise AI requirements. Unless manufacturers increase production of memory for consumer electronics, buyers should prepare to pay more for most memory-dependent devices.
KitGuru says: If you are planning to buy something with DRAM but haven't done so yet, consider doing it ASAP. It seems things won't improve anytime soon.
The post SK Hynix has reportedly forecast consumer memory shortages through 2028 first appeared on KitGuru.Data compiled by SteamDB has given us a look at just how many games came to the Steam platform this year. As of December 2025, over 19,000 titles have launched on Steam this year, although a good number of them seemed to come and go without garnering any significant traction.
While Steam's open publishing model has successfully lowered the barrier to entry, it has made standing out an immense challenge for independent developers lacking substantial marketing budgets. SteamDB's data, brought to our attention by GamingOnLinux, suggests this is a persistent trend, as only slightly more than 20% of the approximately 19,000 games released in the previous year garnered enough player activity for Valve to enable community features such as trading cards and badges.
Despite Valve's implementation of discovery tools such as wishlists, algorithmic queues, and curator networks, shop visibility remains a source of frustration for indie developers and smaller studios. Developers and players alike struggle to understand the mechanisms that determine which games get promoted, leading many creators to seek external solutions or community-organised initiatives to boost the profile of niche genres.
KitGuru says: While Steam has democratised distribution, the sheer noise of the marketplace means that launch counts are reaching all-time highs while actual discovery becomes increasingly subdued.
The post Steam data shows over 19,000 games released in 2025 first appeared on KitGuru.Chinese display manufacturer HKC is preparing to launch the M10 Ultra, a groundbreaking gaming monitor that claims to be the first to use RGB MiniLED technology. While official details remain scarce, a leak report has provided a first look at the display.
X user @realVictor_M (via Wccftech) shared an image of the upcoming monitor. The M10 Ultra features a native 4K panel with a 165 Hz refresh rate that supports dual-mode function, allowing it to switch to Full HD at 330 Hz. Perhaps the most striking specification is its colour performance; thanks to the use of discrete Red, Green, and Blue LEDs rather than the traditional blue or white backlighting found in standard MiniLED displays, the M10 Ultra achieves an exceptional 100% coverage of the BT.2020 colour space.
This RGB MiniLED technology from HKC represents a major leap forward in colour reproduction. By eliminating the need for colour conversion layers, the display can achieve higher saturation and efficiency. The leak suggests the monitor can deliver 1,000 nits of brightness in HDR mode, with some reports indicating the underlying technology could push peak brightness up to 8,000 nits. Ideally sized for desktop use, the screen is expected to be a 27-inch model, housed in a chassis with a fully ergonomic stand and an RGB ring on the rear.
Connectivity on the M10 Ultra is also quite decent. Unlike many current flagships, which are bottlenecked by older interfaces, this monitor reportedly supports DisplayPort 2.1, enough to drive uncompressed 4K at 165 Hz with 10-bit colour depth. The I/O selection is rounded out by a USB-C port capable of delivering 98W of power.
KitGuru says: Do you think this RGB MiniLED technology will be considerably better than the standard MiniLED tech?
The post HKC teases M10 Ultra, the world’s first RGB MiniLED gaming monitor first appeared on KitGuru.Phantom Blade Zero is one of the more intriguing PlayStation-aligned projects to be shown off in recent years. Initially announced back in Summer of 2023, the game excited many with its stylish and flashy combat which for some seemed too smooth to be real. That said, Phantom Blade Zero is real and is coming out soon(ish), with the game having officially been announced to launch in September of next year.
Making the announcement during The Game Awards, studio S-Game offered another look at Phantom Blade Zero and its “kungfupunk world shaped by conspiracy, intrigue, and cinematicmartial action.”
While a solid trailer in its own right, the most exciting part of the announcement was the confirmation that the game is scheduled to launch on the 9th of September 2026 for PS5 and PC.
Given that this is still 9 months away, it would not be surprising to see the title get a delay at some point. That said, with GTA VI scheduled to launch in November, it is unlikely that S-Game would want to hold their game back for too long.
Whether it truly arrives in September or not, Phantom Blade Zero looks to offer an experience which will hopefully be worth the wait.
KitGuru says: Are you excited for Phantom Blade Zero? What are your thoughts on the aesthetics? Does the combat look too choreographed? Let us know down below.
The post Phantom Blade Zero gets official September 2026 release date first appeared on KitGuru.Quest 3S is on sale for $250 again, and from Best Buy it comes with a $50 gift card, 1 month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners.
For Black Friday 2025, the 128GB model of the headset was on sale for $250 ($50 off its regular $300 price), and the 256GB storage model for $330 ($70 off its regular $400 price), in a sale that ended after December 2. On top of this, Best Buy was providing $110 of perks. Now, Meta has brought the sale back, and Best Buy has brought its deal back too.
You can find the deal for the 128GB base model of Quest 3S here, and for the 256GB model here.
Both deals end after 11:59 pm PT on January 3, giving plenty of time to order for a holiday season gift.
In both cases, you still get 3 months of the Meta Horizon+ subscription, as with all purchases of new Meta Quest headsets.
You could use the $50 Best Buy gift card to get the Elite Strap to make the headset more comfortable for just $20, for example, while during the 1 month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (normally $30) you can play popular flatscreen games like Call of Duty on a giant virtual screen.
As for The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, it's also normally $30, and it's widely considered to be one of the best VR games of all time due to its physics-based combat system, earning an 'Essential' score in our review.
UploadVRJamie Feltham
While Quest 3S can run all the same content as Quest 3, and has the same fundamental capabilities (including the same XR2 Gen 2 chipset and 8GB RAM), if you have the funds we always recommend Quest 3 over Quest 3S. The proper Quest 3 features Meta's advanced pancake lenses which are clearer and sharper over a wider area, have a wider field of view, and are fully horizontally adjustable, suitable for essentially everyone's eyes. These pancake lenses also enable Quest 3 to be thinner, which makes the headset feel slightly less heavy.
Still, at $250 and with $110 worth of perks Quest 3S is hard to say no to, and it could be an impulse gift for the holiday season to bring a friend or loved one into VR and mixed reality.
Ahead of the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas next month, ASUS is giving a sneak peek at what to expect, which includes a "new chapter" for its innovative Zenbook Duo laptop. Already a unique laptop among a crowded field, a short teaser clip posted to X suggests that the next-generation model will sport dual battery slabs.
There's 
The writing has long been on the wall, but finally, the maker of the synonymous Roomba vacuum, iRobot Corporation, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as a "strategic transaction" intended to secure the company’s long-term future. Let's find out what that also means for both future customers and current owners.
The filing, initiated in 
If you're going to spend a fortune on memory for your new build, you might has well pair it with an extravagant motherboard that has all the bells and whistles, right? Hey, it's your money and if you have over a grand to spend on a motherboard, then MSI's newly available MEG X870E Godlike X Edition has your name written all over it. Just be The Ace Combat series is easily the most well known in the combat flight sim genre, with the franchise stretching all the way back to 1995. The latest entry, Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown launched back in 2019 has continued to see consistent sales. With Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve finally being unveiled at The Game Awards, the team revealed that AC7 is closing in on 7 million copies sold.
Taking part in an interview conducted by the Japanese publication Famitsu, Ace Combat director Kazutoki Kono and producer Manabu Shimomoto were asked for an update on Skies Unknown’s total sales – revealing that the title “will soon reach 7 million copies.”
As mentioned, Ace Combat 7 has been a pretty consistent seller, with the title having managed to shift roughly a million copies each year since launch (aided in part by its release across additional platforms); reaching 5 million by its 5th anniversary and 6 million by its 6th.
With roughly a month to go until Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown’s 7th anniversary, it appears as though the game will once again reach a substantial milestone which lines up neatly with its years on the market and entry number.
Given that Ace Combat 8 has now been officially announced however, it will be interesting to see whether sales for the previous title begin to slow down.
Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.
KitGuru says: Are you a fan of the Ace Combat series? Have you been waiting for a new game? Will Wings of Theve outsell Skies Unknown in the long-run? Let us know your thoughts down below.
The post Ace Combat 7 nears 7 million sales ahead of game’s 7th anniversary first appeared on KitGuru.Team Ninja have been great in supporting their upcoming releases with free demos for all to check out and enjoy. Such has been the case with the Nioh series, offering various alpha, beta and timed-limited demos across its previous two entries. With Nioh 3 officially confirmed to be launching in early February, Team Ninja have announced a demo for the threequel – arriving one week ahead of the full game.
Announced during The Game Awards, Team Ninja / Koei Tecmo confirmed that Nioh 3 will officially launch on the 6th of February 2026.
For those who can’t wait that long however, a demo will be released shortly ahead of its full arrival, landing on the 29th of January. Unlike the previous Nioh 3 demo from earlier this year, the upcoming snippet appears not to be time-limited.
Additionally, players will be able to transfer their save data over from the demo to the full game upon its release – suggesting that it will likely be the first few playable hours in demo form.
Regardless, having a demo of any kind for a game is an increasingly rare occurrence, and so it is encouraging to see Team Ninja continue to give players the opportunity to try before they buy.
Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.
KitGuru says: Are you looking forward to Nioh 3? Did you partake in the first demo? Should game demos be a requirement? Let us know down below.
The post Nioh 3 to get another demo next month ahead of February launch first appeared on KitGuru.One of the few decisions made by Xbox in recent years which has turned out to be a success has been the launching of their Xbox Developer Direct Showcase. Having taken place in January of 2024 and 2025, it comes as little surprise that Microsoft is planning a 2026 edition of the showcase – now confirmed to be going live next month.
In an interview conducted by the publication Variety, president of game content and studios at Microsoft ‘Matt Booty’ confirmed that a 2026 edition of their dev direct will be happening in January, while also teasing some of the expected projects, stating:
“I can't share exactly what's there, but we've got a lot of stuff that we're shipping next year. In fact, usually Dev Direct is about highlighting what's coming up for the year ahead. This year, we've got more stuff coming up than we can fit in one show.”
Booty continued, “So I will tell you that Playground Games is going to be in the Dev Direct, but we'll have more stuff next year to ship than we can fit into one Dev Direct show in January, which is a good place to be.”
Whether this means that Xbox will host a second direct later in the year, or will instead save up those announcements for other industry shows we will have to wait and see. That said, Microsoft has been pretty successful with their Developer Directs so far and so it is encouraging to see them continuing the practice.
Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.
KitGuru says: Have you enjoyed the previous Xbox Directs? Outside of Forza, what do you hope to see shown off? Will we get a look at Fable? Let us know your thoughts down below.
The post Xbox Developer Direct confirmed for January 2026 first appeared on KitGuru.For Day 15 of the KitGuru Advent Calendar we have teamed up with be quiet! to offer up an excellent hardware bundle. One lucky winner today will be getting a be quiet! Pure Base 501 DX case, a Pure Loop 3 LX 360 AIO liquid cooler and a new set of LightWings LX fans to add some extra colour to your rig.
The be quiet! Pure Base 501 DX is a compact ATX case that emphasises high airflow while keeping aesthetics top-tier via a tempered glass side window for component visibility, as well as integrated ARGB lighting. The be quiet! Pure Loop 3 LX 360 AIO is a 360mm liquid cooler with a copper cold plate, quiet PWM pump, and customisable ARGB lighting. The be quiet! Light Wings LX fans feature an optimised blade design, rifle bearings, and vivid ARGB illumination, providing both strong cooling performance and striking aesthetics.
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 was your first PC case?
This competition is open worldwide.
The winner will be picked randomly shortly after 11AM GMT December 16th, and a new competition will be announced for Day 16. 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 15th and ending at 10:59AM GMT on December 16th. 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 16!
The post KitGuru Advent Calendar Day 15: Win a be quiet! hardware bundle! first appeared on KitGuru.
Connexion