At Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2026, the company revealed this year’s lineup, including the Samsung Buds4, Buds4 Pro and several Galaxy Book6 variants.

Samsung Galaxy Unpacked is where the company finally unveils the year’s newest devices. While smartphones are always a highlight, like last year’s S25 Edge, which was a surprise reveal, we also get a look at new products within the Samsung Galaxy ecosystem. This year, ahead of Unpacked, CGM got a look at the S26 series lineup, as well as the new Samsung Galaxy Buds4, Buds4 Pro and the entire Galaxy Book6 series.

Starting with the Samsung Galaxy Buds4 line, 2026 sees a complete redesign of the earbuds. VP of Technology and Head of Samsung MX Audio, Han-gil Moon, spoke to journalists at a roundtable ahead of Unpacked via a translator, and shared some of the reasons for this new redesign in response to a question from MobileSyrup’s Dean Daley: 

“There were several reasons behind changing the design. First, in order to provide a more enhanced and comfortable fit, and second, to provide better acoustics in a variety of environments, including outdoors, and even when it is windy around you.”

 Calling this their new “Premium Blade Design,” both models share the same sleek style, with the Buds4 Pro featuring silicone tips, whereas the Buds4 do not. Both pairs come in black or white, with the Galaxy Buds4 Pro also coming in an online-exclusive Pink Gold colourway.

The 2026 earbuds from Samsung feature a new 2-way speaker design, combining a woofer and dedicated tweeter. This means the buds are capable of producing both low and ultra-high frequencies at the same time, offering “real hi-fi audio”. The Samsung Galaxy Buds4 Pro also features a wider woofer, which they boast will deliver ultimate hi-fi sound and maximize ANC capabilities.

Speaking on the 2-way speaker, when I asked Moon about features that were exclusive to the Samsung ecosystem, he had this to say, “There are some features that may not be available in non-Samsung devices, for example, 360 Audio. However, our Buds come with a new redesigned 2-way speaker architecture and also the call quality, which is enhanced and powered by AI, and these features run on-device. So the users of Samsung and non-Samsung devices can enjoy and appreciate the exceptional sound quality from our Buds.”

One of the more exciting features of the Galaxy Buds4 series is Adaptive Hearing and Adaptive Noise Control. The earbuds will adjust your sound experience based on the environment you’re in, whether that’s filtering out background noise or bringing voices forward so they’re easier to hear. Samsung did real-world testing in places like train stations, on motorbikes and in department stores to master these features.

The Samsung Galaxy Buds4 will cost $249.99 CAD, and the Buds4 Pro will cost $329.99 CAD. 

We also had the chance to learn more about the new Samsung Galaxy Book6 lineup, with five variants to choose from: a 14-inch and a 16-inch Book6, a 14-inch and a 16-inch Book6 Pro, and the 16-inch Book6 Ultra. The entire series will be powered by the latest Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, with the Book6 Ultra also coming in a Core Ultra 9 variant. The Book6 Ultra will also feature an NVIDIA RTX 5070 or 5060 GPU, shared with Intel Arc Graphics, while the base and Pro Book6 versions will feature Intel Graphics. 

Samsung also shared some numbers regarding the battery life for the Book6 lineup ahead of Unpacked, and they are impressive. While the base Book6 devices offer 16-18 hours of battery life, the Book6 Pro and Book6 Ultra models offer a whopping 22-26 hours. We have shared the full spec chart from Samsung below.

Samsung Galaxy Book6 Specifications

Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2026 has come and gone. Stay tuned to CGMagazine for more Samsung news and reviews of these devices as they become available.

Infiniteloop teased the next DLC character for the application Desktop Mate on social media, and it looks like Sanrio mascot Hello Kitty is on the way. There’s no release date for the add-on yet. The image also didn’t show how she’ll look in-app when hanging out on our desktops. 

The image is vague. It shows a silhouette of Hello Kitty sitting against a white and grey-striped background, so there’s no screenshot from Desktop Mate used. At the top is the Sanrio trademark, helping to confirm that this is her. Across the front is the text “coming soon.” This statement appears in Japanese and English, just like all past add-on reveals, so the DLC will show up everywhere.

Here’s the official teaser image.

This comes after multiple Vocaloids appeared in Desktop Mate. In December 2025, Kagamine Rin and Len showed up. Those were sold separately, but have special interactions if both are owned. More versions of Hatsune Miku showed up after that. Both Snow Miku 2026 and JR Tower versions launched. The official roadmap on Steam only shows two more “coming soon” spots.

Desktop Mate is available on Steam, and Hello Kitty will be the next DLC character to be added to the application.

The post Hello Kitty Desktop Mate DLC Teased appeared first on Siliconera.

Parade announced that, at the end of February 2026, Chiikawa Sanrio plush of characters from the anime and manga dressed as mascots like Hello Kitty will appear. There will be three varieties. They will appear in actual arcades as prizes in Japan and in many online crane games. There’s no word on if we’ll see them eventually everywhere. 

While three characters appear in this Chiikawa Sanrio lineup, they only feature two of the main characters from the series. Chiikawa is present, wearing a hood that looks like My Melody’s. Hachiware is there too with a Hello Kitty ribbon on the left ear. However, the third is the side character Kuri-Manju in a full Hangyodon costume. All of them are just under a foot tall at 11 inches (30cm).

Here’s how all three of these plush will look. One of the photos Parade shared shows the Chiikawa My Melody one being held, to offer a sense of scale.

We’ve seen this kind of crossover happen before. Gray Parka Service featured a similar plush collection that included six characters from the series dressed as Sanrio mascots. Those launched in Japan in December 2025. Chiikawa was My Melody, Hachiware was Hello Kitty, and Kuri-Manju was Hangyodon for that line too.

The Chiikawa Sanrio plush will appear in Japanese arcades at the end of February 2026, Kodansha handles the manga, and the anime isn’t streaming on any platforms in North America at the moment. Chiikawa the Movie: The Secret of Mermaid Island will air in Japan in 2026. 

The post Chiikawa Sanrio Crossover Plush Reference Hello Kitty, Hachiware appeared first on Siliconera.

Last June, Jagex - the developers of medieval MMO Runescape - found themselves at odds with players after deciding not to create any new content for Pride Month. Disputed internally at the studio before the discussion then leaked online, the decision appeared to be a retreat in the face of a world turning on minority groups.

Following up in September, Games Industry asked Jagex CEO Jon Bellamy if he stood by the call to simply re-run existing Pride-themed quests and events. "Ultimately, my job is governance and protection as much as anything else, and so sometimes those kinds of harsh decisions have to be made to protect the imminent future of the game," he told them. "If there are tough decisions to be made next year, we'll make them. If the world has changed a bit and the environment is different, we will react accordingly."

Five months on and with this year's Pride Month on the horizon, we've asked if the environment is different.

Read more

This past August, we reported on the VR MMORPG Ilysia, which transitioned to a free-to-play business model while still maintaining its early access development. It’s been a few months since that update went live, so it’s time to provide a quick check in. In terms of updates, those have kept on coming, even if sporadically, with a primary […]

The Neverness to Everness closed beta is winding down, but Massively OP’s MJ is slipping in before the doors completely close tomorrow. She is interested in seeing what the game is all about, and of course, showing it off to you! Join us in live at 8:00 p.m. as Massively OP’s Stream Team takes a […]

Red Dunes Games, in close collaboration with Agate, has officially announced Port of Jumanah, a vibrant, stylised 2.5D action-adventure launching on PC and consoles in 2026. Inspired by the real-life pearl divers of Eastern Arabia, Port of Jumanah invites players to dive into a surreal maritime odyssey packed with myth, mystery, and fast-paced combat. Dive […]

A new leak suggests that Santa Monica Studio may already have set the stage for the next God of War game’s story, which we expect to be a PS5 and PS6 title. A determined dataminer, who previously found God of War Ragnarok‘s beginning in the 2018 game‘s PC files, now claims to have found post Ragnarok hidden dialogue that sounds like it’s part of the next game.

Could this be the next God of War PS5, PS6 game’s story? (Potential spoilers)

The leaker in question, Reddit user TheMorse_, has provided screenshots of strings containing the aforementioned dialogue as well as copies of the text files containing all the strings within which the dialogue was found.

Unless this is a very, very elaborate hoax, the leak might be legit. But still, take everything with a grain of salt, and if you’re worried about spoilers, X out now.

Found Athena cutscene and Atreus in his travels with an unknown individual in the Ragnarök game files.
byu/TheMorse_ inGodofWarRagnarok

From the sound of things, Athena — who seems disappointed with Atreus — might be an antagonist in the next game, and she may initially be disguised as a “robed figure.”

Speaking of Atreus, it does look like he will be the central figure in the upcoming God of War games, which makes sense because continuing with Kratos indefinitely doesn’t seem possible without the series falling off a cliff.

What do our readers think?

The post Next God of War’s Story Partially Leaked via Game Files – Rumor appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

New details regarding the upcoming God of War remakes announced last week have come to light from an unexpected but trustworthy source.

What are the latest details on the God of War remakes?

While attending Fan Expo in Vancouver, Canada, streamer Fuhpuzy spoke to Christopher Judge, who voices Kratos in the new renditions of God of War from Santa Monica Studio. She asked Judge about the upcoming game, and he surprisingly opened up about a few key details.

According to Judge, he won’t be appearing in the game as the voice role of the younger Kratos will be handled by his original actor, TC Carson, who also appeared at Sony’s State of Play to announce the games. Judge also said that the games will feature a whole lot of “new stuff,” including a “new fighting system” and other content.

Kratos Actor Christopher Judge has seemingly just leaked a bunch of info about the series:

– GoW Remake will have new combat, new systems & content
– Only TC Carson is voicing Kratos in the remake
– Next Santa Monica game is being announced late summerpic.twitter.com/LltgiEjrgX

— Synth Potato? (@SynthPotato) February 19, 2026

As for what Judge might be up to, he did hint that new information about the next God of War game could be coming very soon. He mentioned that fans will be “hearing about what we’re doing probably in the late summer,” which could suggest that Santa Monica Studio will be back with another announcement during the yearly summer conference cycle.

The God of War remakes will be comprised of the first three God of War games that released in the 2000s and followed Kratos’ life as a Spartan-turned-God-of-war as he vows to get revenge against the Greek gods.

The post God of War PS5 Remakes Get Exciting New Details appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

It may still be the beginning of 2026, but there are still plenty of new PlayStation 5 games to keep players busy until the heavy hitters release later this year. From High on Life 2 to Yakuza Kiwami 3, there are tons of new experiences to explore that are available on the PlayStation Store. That includes Styx: Blades of Greed, the newest entry in the stealth action-adventure series.

What is Styx: Blades of Greed?

Developed by Cyanide Studio and published by Nacon, Styx: Blades of Greed is the third entry in the action-adventure series, which began with 2014’s Styx: Master of Shadows. All three entries serve as prequels to Cyanide Studio’s fantasy action RPG, Of Orcs and Men, which was released for the PS3 in 2012.

Here is a description of Styx: Blades of Greed, giving players an idea of what to expect from the newly released PS5 entry:

“No more working for others! This time, our famous green-skinned friend is pursuing his own goal and leading his own crew. Aboard his zeppelin, Styx and his crew hunt down a new, mysterious power source: Quartz. Throughout your mischievous journey, you’ll encounter familiar faces and colorful new characters while outwitting the Inquisition’s traps. This adventure marks the beginning of the Great War and the creation of the Black Hand, the mercenary group central to the events of Of Orcs and Men.”

There are several different editions of Styx: Blades of Greed to choose from. The Standard Edition, which just comes with the base game, is $49.99. The Quartz Edition, which includes some extra goodies, is $59.99. Lastly, the most expensive edition, titled Styx Collection, includes everything from the Quartz Edition plus the first two games, Styx: Master of Shadows and Styx: Shards of Darkness, for $69.99. Here is everything included in the Styx Collection:

• Base game
• Master of Shadows Skin
• Greedy Skin Pack
• Legacy Skin Pack
• Weapon Pack
• Styx: Master of Shadows (PS4)
• Styx: Shards of Darkness (PS4)

Just before its release, Styx: Blades of Greed has been getting decent reviews. According to the review aggregate site Metacritic, it has garnered an average score of 75 based on 16 critic reviews.

The post Beloved Action-Adventure Game Series Arrives Today on PS Store appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

The Runescape Road to Restoration continues, and Jagex is once again proving that it's willing to make dramatic changes in service of improving the longstanding MMORPG. It stripped out the controversial Treasure Hunter system after enough players voted in favor of the move, and it's continuing to work through its long list of features and determine what has to go in the name of "integrity and game health". Next on the chopping block? Auras. The time-gated buffs are being removed entirely, with the "most meaningful" effects to be preserved through other items and rewards, providing this doesn't lead to power creep or more micromanagement.

Read the full story on PCGamesN: Runescape is ditching Auras so you can "play on your own terms" without suffering the weight of cooldown anxiety

Crusader Kings 3 developer Paradox Black is in the midst of working on a big 'spring cleaning' update, and it's turned to modders for some assistance. Riad Deneche, QA manager at the Crusader Kings 3 studio, explains that the focus of its upcoming patch is "tackling bugs that have been haunting our backlog, and introducing a set of changes and smaller features that we believe will meaningfully enhance the CK3 experience." In service of this, it's calling upon one mysterious, upstanding member of the community to help - and Deneche says the team was "genuinely shocked" by their list of proposed fixes.

Read the full story on PCGamesN: Paradox recruits a mystery modder to improve Crusader Kings 3, and is "genuinely shocked" by how big their wishlist is

In most media, an alien race crash-landing onto Earth means only one thing - a bloody battle where humanity must expend all its energy, bombs, and bullets to survive against its otherworldly invaders. In Astrobotanica, things are the complete opposite for two reasons. Firstly, it's set 300,000 years ago, and last time I checked, cavemen didn't have tanks and assault rifles. Secondly, Xel - the blue-skinned, pointy-eared protagonist of the new survival game - isn't here to kickstart some planetary domination. Instead, they're here to indulge in their hobby of botany, live off the land, and coexist with the primitive human population.

Read the full story on PCGamesN: Astrobotanica just hit Steam Early Access, so now I can finally hang with cavemen as a botany-obsessed alien

It took over 10 years, but some dedicated fans have finally made a pair of previously unavailable Mario Kart games available to play.

While Nintendo might officially treat Mario Kart World as the ninth entry in its go-karting series (10th if you count mobile game Mario Kart Tour), that’s technically not accurate.

That’s because Nintendo previously released Mario Kart arcade cabinets as part of a partnership with Sega and Bandai Namco. You might have seen them at an arcade but they’ve never been made available on consoles.

Recently, though, this often-overlooked part of Nintendo history was made more widely available thanks to fan efforts, although only via the legal grey area of emulation.

2005’s Mario Kart Arcade GP and its 2007 sequel are now playable through Dolphin, an emulator for Nintendo GameCube games.

While those two games never saw console ports, the arcade system they ran on, dubbed Triforce, was built on similar hardware to the GameCube, with the Mario Kart Arcade games using the same engine as GameCube title Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

This was also the same system used for the arcade release of another GameCube racing game, F-Zero GX, which was developed by Sega and can be played nowadays through the Nintendo Switch 2’s GameCube library.

The Mario Kart arcade games were made by Bandai Namco, which is why they feature some of the company’s characters, like Pac-Man.

Technically, a different group of fans did get these games running before, but through what is described as ‘suboptimal techniques’ that meant they weren’t entirely stable.

‘When we first started on this journey, most of us hadn’t had the opportunity to play any of the Triforce games on an original cabinet,’ says fan JMC47. ‘The best we could do was buy the core systems and games and try to get them running with what we had.

‘The experience on bare hardware was rarely good and never great, but that was not how they were meant to be played. Triforce games were designed to be a part of an arcade experience, with a cool cabinet, interesting features, and unique control schemes. Through emulation, we were able to bring some of that arcade magic back to these games that no longer have a cabinet to call home.’

A third entry, Mario Kart Arcade GP DX, launched in 2013, but that one wasn’t built using the Triforce tech, which is why it’s not been emulated on Dolphin.

There is a fourth Mario Kart Arcade game from 2017, but it’s a VR experience and is only available in a specific Bandai Namco arcade based in Tokyo.

Given the length of time, it’s extremely unlikely Nintendo has any interest in officially re-releasing these arcade Mario Kart games, especially when Mario Kart World is still fresh and expected to see long-term support.

That said, while there have been some gameplay updates since launch, Nintendo’s been shockingly quiet about post-launch DLC. There were theories of Donkey Kong related characters being added to coincide with Donkey Kong Bananza’s launch, based on voice actor credits, but nothing ever came of it.

Hopefully, Nintendo will have something to share during its next Nintendo Direct. After the Partner Showcase earlier this month, we are due for one focused on first party games, but there’s no official date yet.

Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter.

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For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.

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Meta Corporation will undergo a significant restructuring within its Reality Labs division, which deals with the metaverse and virtual reality technologies. Among those affected will be gaming teams.

More details: https://gameworldobserver.com/2026/01/14/meta-is-closing-three-vr-studios-as-part-of-major-cutbacks

He can't say it directly, but what he means is pretty obvious.

Video games are big business, and the company behind Mario, Zelda and Pokémon may be the most important player, says the author of a new corporate history.

Nintendo Switch 2; Nintendo
This ruthlessly competitive game will have everyone from your granny to semi-pros trying to set fire to their opponent’s side of the court with powered-up ‘fever rackets’

Tennis has been a regular hobby of Mario’s for the past 30 years, beginning with the headache-inducing Mario’s Tennis on the Virtual Boy and most recently resurfacing as the surprisingly complex Mario Tennis Aces on the Switch. Now he’s back in his whites (and reds) with a charming new take on the sport that dials back the difficulty level and adds lots of fun modes and features, aiming to appease complete newcomers and Djokovic-esque veterans.

At first, the range of options is almost bewildering. You can opt to play in one-off matches with up to three other players or NPCs, or enter a more structured tournament of singles or doubles play. Then there’s the extremely fun Mix It Up, which offers a range of fun tennis derivatives. These include Forest Court where piranha plants appear and gobble any balls that get close, and Pinball where bumpers and barriers pop up as you play. Trial Towers, meanwhile, presents a tower of increasingly tough tennis challenges which all have to be completed to open the next two buildings; fail more than three times and you’re sent back to the beginning – yes, it’s Mario Tennis: The Roguelike.

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© Photograph: Nintendo

© Photograph: Nintendo

© Photograph: Nintendo

A portrait of the company whose ‘toymaker philosophy’ stands in contrast to the tech giants that rule our lives

What is the highest-grossing entertainment franchise of all time? You might be tempted to think of Star Wars, or perhaps the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Maybe even Harry Potter? But no: it’s Pokémon – the others don’t come close. The Japanese “pocket monsters”, which star in video games, TV series and tradable playing cards, have made an estimated $115bn since 1996. Is this a sign of the lamentable infantilisation of postmodern society?

Not a bit of it, argues Keza MacDonald, the Guardian’s video games editor, in her winsomely enthusiastic biography of Nintendo, the company that had become an eponym for electronic entertainment long before anyone had heard the words “PlayStation” or “Xbox”. Yes, Pokémon is mostly a children’s pursuit, but a sophisticated one: “Like Harry Potter, the Famous Five and Narnia,” she observes, “it offers a powerful fantasy of self-determination, set in a world almost totally free of adult supervision.” And in its complicated scoring system, “it got millions of kids voluntarily doing a kind of algebra”.

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© Photograph: MasaPhoto/Getty Images

© Photograph: MasaPhoto/Getty Images

© Photograph: MasaPhoto/Getty Images