British developer Playground Games will be the absolute star of the Xbox Developer Direct 2026, with the first in-depth look at the long-awaited Fable reboot and the proper reveal of Forza Horizon 6, a sequel to a massively successful game that is estimated to have been played by over 50 million users. Sure, there's also Game Freak's Beast of Reincarnation and even a rumored 'secret' fourth game, but those two games are going to be the centerpiece of the showcase due to air on January 22. Officially, both Fable and Forza Horizon 6 are only announced for PC and Xbox […]
Update 09/01/2026: In response to the publication of this article, a separate user on X (formerly Twitter) dug into the Smarty.cz source code to verify the Steam Machine pricing estimates for themselves, and went a step further to look into Alza, another Czech retailer and one of the country's largest. On Alza's listing for the Steam Machine, user Hajedan also found that it had a similar pricing structure for the Steam Machine, though added that the original post's indication that the actual price will be lower than the conversion estimates is almost definitely correct due to Alza and Smarty.cz including […]
Yesterday, Microsoft officially confirmed that the Xbox Developer Direct 2026 will feature three games: Playground's Fable reboot and Forza Horizon 6, and Game Freak's new Beast of Reincarnation intellectual property. However, out of three Xbox Developer Direct presentations, on two occasions there were also secret announcements that Microsoft held off until the actual show. The very first time, in 2023, there was the reveal and shadow drop of Tango Gameworks' Hi-Fi Rush, which was critically acclaimed but still proved insufficient to prevent Microsoft from shutting down the studio just over a year later. Thankfully, the Japanese developer was later resurrected […]
Yesterday, an article from investor website TipRanks circulated throughout the games industry: The rumor was that Microsoft is planning to cut somewhere between 11,000 and 22,000 jobs in January, roughly 10% of its current workforce, to allay the increased cost of data center expansion as part of the company’s hard push toward AI development. If […]
As spotted on Reddit's r/gamingleaksandrumors channel, renowned developer Eidos Montréal appears to have laid off more employees for the third time in less than two years. The first time was in January 2024, when Bloomberg's Jason Schreier reported that the new Deus Ex project they had been working on got canceled by parent company Embracer Group. We later learned that the project was then shopped around to other publishers, but none picked it up because they felt it was too niche. At the end of March 2025, Eidos Montréal lost another 75 employees after its work on Playground's Fable reboot […]
Due to the recent RAM supply shortage, reports noted that Microsoft and Xbox may increase hardware prices again.
To support more AI data centers, the demand for DRAM has never been higher. With the recent RAM shortages, reports and videos indicate that Microsoft and Xbox may have to raise their hardware costs again. This could spell more price hikes on the Xbox Series X|S, which has already gone up twice in the last 12 months in the United States. Sources also shared that Sony avoided the shortage crisis by stockpiling RAM ahead of time.
Microsoft and Xbox already bumped up the cost of the Xbox Series X by $100 back in May, while the Series S had an $80 increase. Then, another price hike was announced in September within the US. The companies also raised the price of some of their Xbox Game Pass subscription tiers.
As PC gamers and PC enthusiasts are in pain and jockeying for reasonably priced RAM, the gaming industry is being hit too. According to Moore’s Law is Dead over on YouTube, as spotted by TGP, there are talks about Xbox warning its partners that the ongoing RAM shortage could force them to increase the cost of their consoles again. “[Microsoft] didn’t plan ahead at all, apparently,” Moore’s Law is Dead’s Tom said.
“If you still want an Xbox for some reason at their current pricing, those prices could go up soon, or supply could just entirely dry up because multiple sources of mine have apparently been warned by sales reps at Microsoft that this is going to affect the Xbox Series consoles very, very soon. Sooner rather than later.”
Interestingly, Sony recently cut PlayStation 5 pricing for Black Friday. Reports pointed out that the reason Sony could do this was that they had already anticipated this RAM shortage fiasco. “From what I’ve heard, Sony planned ahead, bought up gobs of RAM near the bottom of the pricing, and thus they should be fine for months,” Tom continued.
As of writing, no one knows how much the Xbox price increase could be, due to the major RAM shortages. Neither Microsoft nor Xbox has addressed the issue yet, nor has it put out a statement. With the holiday season so close, they may hold back from raising prices until 2026. There is nothing worse than price hikes to sour the end of a year, especially since Xbox has been pushing the ROG Ally X and their many great games.
The RAM shortage scare began after OpenAI signed large, long-term memory supply deals with Samsung and SK Hynix. Because of these agreements, OpenAI could be using as much as 40 per cent of the world’s DRAM output. Other industries, including consoles, tablets, vehicle systems and traditional computers, must then compete for the remaining 60%. While the conversation in Moore’s Law is Dead focused heavily on Xbox, the issue could affect many technology companies and products this holiday season.
The video game industry has already faced sudden and unpredictable stress, and this is another layer of pressure. Data centres and companies that use AI consume large amounts of memory, leaving standard tech sectors scrambling for what remains. It is still unclear how long the shortage will last, or how its effects may extend well beyond gaming devices in the long run.
Grand Theft Auto VI has been delayed, which means we'll have to keep going back to Grand Theft Auto V to get a fix for Rockstar's best-selling franchise. If you're one of the handful of people who have yet to play one of the highest-selling video games ever, it looks like you'll get another chance, at least on PlayStation. According to Billbil-kun at Dealabs, Grand Theft Auto V is heading back to the PS Plus Extra games catalogue. Billbil-kun and Dealabs have a strong track record when it comes to reporting PS Plus games, whether it's one of, or sometimes […]
A new report from VGC alleges that Square Enix is laying off staff in "nearly all areas" of its Western offices, with staff in its Europe and US offices hit. There's currently no word from Square Enix on how many have been impacted by this layoff, but sources told VGC that just from Square's London office, 140 employees are at risk of redundancy. The news was delivered to staff through an internal video call as part of a restructuring that Square had mentioned in the progress report it published today, the same report where it boldly claimed that it wanted […]
