Off The Console

We talk GTA VI’s new release date, Rockstar’s alleged union-busting, Soulja Boy’s questionable new handhelds, and Square Enix’s AI-powered QA plans—plus we break down if Steam’s dominance is turning into a real-world monopoly.

It’s chaos, caffeine, and consoles as always.

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Theme song composed by Gardiner Bryant

Link: https://www.gamefile.news/p/halo-ice-developers-react

Halo may not be what it used to be, but the news of Halo’s remake sent waves across the internet… and the government has noticed. Former creators of Halo during its halcyon days have weighed in, calling the ad to “Destroy The Flood” disgusting. They’ve also clarified that the various figures in the Halo universe are NOT meant to be parallels to anything in the real world. IE: The Prophets are not Popes, Flood aren’t Illegal Immigrants, and Chief isn’t Christ.

Link: http://tomshardware.com/software/linux/nearly-90-percent-of-windows-games-now-run-on-linux-latest-data-shows-as-windows-10-dies-gaming-on-linux-is-more-viable-than-ever

https://www.protondb.com/dashboard

Historically, Gaming has been one of Linux’s sore spots. Even as recently as a decade ago, Linux was considered non-viable for most games. But things have changed due to Valve’s diligent work with Proton. Born from the ashes of the Steam Machine initiative, Proton has changed the game for Linux gamers, so to speak. Data from ProtonDB as reported by Boiling Steam shows that 90% of Windows titles runs on Linux with no issue. This chart does NOT include any performance limitations, unlike say, Steam Deck Verified, so if you have a high powered gaming PC and want to game… you can! That said this still doesn’t indicate that we’ll see anti-cheat games decide to work on Linux.

Link: https://www.1x.tech/

Instead of a sweet cyberpunk looking robot that looks like it could murder you, it looks like a stupid felt robot wearing a turtleneck with beady eyes. It’s a robot you can pre-order for $20K, and exists to do your household chores for you. It COULD be useful for disabled persons or the elderly, and it’s made to automate your chores. It’ll do everything from open the door for your guests, to doing your laundry, to washing your dishes and putting them away. But for any chore it doesn’t know by default, you can schedule a 1X Expert to guide the robot. It’s also AI enabled too, but rather than being hooked up to Skynet it’s hooked up to an LLM of sorts. I’ve seen no footage of this robot mowing the lawn, which is about the only task that I feel I’d want to automate.

Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-28/amazon-makes-significant-cuts-in-video-game-division

14,000 corporate jobs are being removed. It’s unknown how much of that is gaming, but what is known is that Amazon in an internal memo has mentioned “significant role reductions” in its San Diego, Irvine, and central publishing offices. Amazon however seems more interested in expanding their cloud gaming service, Amazon Luna, featuring more and more casual and “AI-focused” games. One particular game that is being effected is the MMORPG known as New World. Since the Irvine office has been affected, New World’s devs will halt new content rollouts effective immediately. They say servers will live through 2026, but it’s only a matter of time until this game dies. It’s even worse since it’s an MMO, and an MMO without a large enough playerbase to support its ecosystem will fall. It’s unknown if Stop Killing Games will save this game or not… sadly.

Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-31/-grand-theft-auto-studio-accused-of-union-busting-after-firings?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc2MTkzOTg3MSwiZXhwIjoxNzYyNTQ0NjcxLCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUNTBISEpHUFFRNkMwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJCMUVBQkI5NjQ2QUM0REZFQTJBRkI4MjI1MzgyQTJFQSJ9.9NYooKXrBMU_quRYMOSw6uACDogcIuS-E27t4GD8f2g&leadSource=reddit_wall

Take-Two fires 30-40 people. Cites “gross misconduct”, but a British trade union claims T2 did this to prevent unionization. It’s being called the most blatant and ruthless acts of union busting in the entire games industry to this point.

Link: https://www.businessinsider.com/open-ai-chatgpt-microsoft-copyright-infringement-lawsuit-authors-rr-martin-2025-10

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26204915-chatgpt-game-of-thrones-sequel-idea/?mode=document

One of the first viral AI copyright situations happened when users fed ChatGPT the entire A Song of Fire and Ice book series, and had AI more or less generate unofficial sequel books, based on George R.R. Martin’s works. He was understandably not happy. Now a judge has allowed a class action lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft to proceed, denying those two companies’ motion to dismiss the lawsuit. Exhibit F showcases a prompt presented by the authors’ lawyers showcasing ChatGPT’s ability to create detailed summaries of Game of Thrones and to present an alternate third book in the series that takes the series in a different direction.

Link: https://x.com/gabefollower/status/1983330154178064856

The new Steam Controller is code named “Triton”. Of course that’s not its official product name. The Steam Deck was internally referred to as Jupiter and the OLED model was referred to as Galileo. But the controller may be closer to release than we realize. It’s only a matter of time before we get one. It may very well be the endgame controller for all games.

Link: https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/korean-fried-chicken-stocks-surge-30-percent-as-nvidia-ceo-jensen-huang-dines-out-on-local-delicacy-entire-industry-buoyed-by-secret-ingredient-jensanity

Korean Fried Chicken might be the world’s best fried chicken, come at me. And Jensen Huang might agree. He was in Seoul meeting with top execs from Samsung and Hyundai, but photos of him eating the spicy fried chicken and having a few beers went viral. Viral to the point where stocks in Korean Fried Chicken chains jumped up anywhere between 20-30% on the KOSDAQ. Love the Korean Fried Chicken promotion, but hate that this could jack up the price of Korean chicken here.

Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2025/10/29/satya-nadellas-plan-to-take-on-tiktok-with-xbox-makes-no-sense/

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, proclaims that gaming’s true enemy isn’t other gaming systems, but shortform content like TikTok. Ex-PlayStation exec Shawn Layden said something very similar in the past… In a sense, it is true, TikTok, much like anything else, competes for your limited time. But that’s like saying going outside or work competes with your ability to game. It true in a sense, but utterly ridiculous to say.

Link: https://gamesfray.com/japan-patent-office-rejects-nintendo-application-relevant-to-palworld-dispute-cites-games-like-ark-as-prior-art-after-third-party-submission/

Japan has rejected a specific patent for a monster capturing patent which was submitted by Nintendo. The specific patent (patent number 2024-031879) revolves around capturing creatures by throwing an object… IE: Throwing a Pokeball or Pal Sphere to capture the creature. It was ultimately rejected by the Japanese Patent Office as they claim the patent “lacks originality”. the JPO cites specific prior art examples, such as Monster Hunter 4, ARK: Survival Evolved, and most surprising of all, Craftopia which is also developed by the same developers as Palworld, Pocketpair. It’s specifically worth mentioning that this is NOT a final verdict. The case still rages on, but it undoubtedly strengthens Pocketpair’s case.

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Theme song composed by Gardiner Bryant

Link: https://www.dexerto.com/counter-strike-2/cs2-skin-update-rug-pulls-collectors-as-1-billion-wiped-from-market-cap-3273322/

New CS2 update will let you trade 5 lesser value items of a covert rarity, and then trade them up for a Knife or Glove. Knifes are CS2 gold and have traditionally been worth THOUSANDS. Some creators are apparently upset because their knife collection isn’t worth nearly as much as they were before. Should’ve SOLD your knives before Valve dropped the update LMAO.

Link: https://www.gamesradar.com/games/over-5-000-games-released-on-steam-this-year-didnt-make-enough-money-to-recover-the-usd100-fee-to-put-a-game-on-valves-store-research-estimates/

A true nightmare for the average indie game developer. You publish a game, pay Valve $100, and then hope you can earn enough to make a living. But the horrors of game development only begin AFTER you release the game. Many indies come out and find success, but for every success, 100 must fail. But worst yet, some of these games don’t even make back the flat $100 fee Valve charges to even publish a game on Steam. One can only know the true horrors of indie game development whilst living as a starving artist during development.

Link: https://openai.com/index/introducing-chatgpt-atlas/

It exists. James will try it out in the BONUS episode.

Link: https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2025/10/24/halo-campaign-evolved-answering-the-big-questions/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSjbIM0iegY

To Celebrate Halo moving to Unreal Engine 5, they’re doing a full on remake of Combat Evolved, which is coming day 1 to Xbox, PlayStation 5, and Steam. They promise THIS time, 2-Player splitscreen co-op on console, with 4-Player Cross-platform online co-op. They’re also giving you a brand new set of prequel missions featuring Master Chief and Sgt. Johnson. There are some features coming from later Halo titles coming to Campaign Evolved, such as the ability to sprint (which is an option to disable), hijack vehicles, use weapons usable from later in the series such as the Energy Sword (which was not possible in Halo 1). But there are concerns about a couple of things, such as changed art designs, the move to Unreal Engine 5, and implementing features & weapons from later Halo games.

Link: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/exclusive-games-are-antiquated-xbox-president-says/1100-6535625/

https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/xbox/next-xbox-wont-be-cheap-sarah-bond-teases-a-very-premium-high-end-next-gen-console-experience

Sarah Bond, President of Xbox says that people are moving past the idea that games should be limited to a single platform or store. Do you agree?

Given the Xbox Series X we had for years went UP in price, one can only imagine how much more a new gen Xbox would be, assuming they don’t leave the market like we think.

Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/s/nxDeOlYcYe

https://x.com/mattshumer_/status/1981406315693187430

https://x.com/mattshumer_/status/1981798226635190641

Dead Internet “Theory” in full force here. AI Bro generates this CINEMATIC EPIC “gameplay” footage full of crazy shit no competent dev would actually leave in. It’s going for this sort of gritty realistic cinematic style but it’s full of goofier shit than most cartoony or anime games.

Link: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Fedora-Allows-AI-Contributions

The Fedora Council has made their judgement. AI-Assisted Contributions to the project will be allowed… with proper disclosures. The big question is how will you hold anyone accountable for AI-Assisted code? And most importantly, how can you tell code is AI if someone who’s good at coding actively hides any sort of telltale signs of AI code?

Link: https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ram/nvidias-homegrown-memory-design-is-nearly-complete-and-standardized-jedec-says-socamm2-will-replace-the-bespoke-socamm1-standard-that-nvidia-created

SOCAMM2 is a new physical standard for memory backed by Nvidia and designed for use in next-gen AI servers. Current iterations make use of LPDDR5X memory, and are said to consume only 1/3 the power of an RDIMM module of an equivalent size while approaching the performance of memory modules soldered directly onto a motherboard, without introducing much signal loss from say a DRAM slot. This standard would also be installed parallel to the motherboard in question, rather than perpendicularly. Ideally could this be a new memory standard that PC handhelds should strive for? We buy a barebones PC handheld with no storage and memory, but then we supply our own SSD and SOCAMM2 drives?

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Theme song composed by Gardiner Bryant

Link: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/nextfest

Link: https://www.pcgamer.com/software/platforms/steam-is-officially-bigger-than-canada-with-a-41-million-concurrent-user-record/

41,666,455 concurrent users all at once on Steam. It’s a population that’s a bit more than the entire population of CANADA. Last time Steam had broken a record was last year when it hit 35+ Million concurrent users all at once on Steam. Many factors could be involved. Could be due to Battlefield 6’s series high, record breaking sales. Could also be due to ARC Raider’s public server slam test. Or dare I say… The Next Fest? Whatever the case is, it seems no matter how you game, whether it’s on a PC, or Steam Deck, or even that newfangled ROG Xbox Ally X, you’re bound to be on Steam, so Valve just keeps winning.

Link: https://old.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/1o7cawu/rog_xbox_ally_review_thread/

The ROG Xbox Ally X released on October 16th, 2025. While many praise its performance and battery life, there are MANY criticisms surrounding the price and the fact that Windows is still Windows despite the FSE. And also the FSE feels somewhat incomplete. There are also criticisms that despite the fact that this is an Xbox branded device, this is NOT an Xbox that plays Xbox games, but a PC, despite MS’s marketing that everything is an Xbox.

Link: https://thegamepost.com/insider-halo-studios-generative-ai-game-development/

They weren’t kidding when they said it was woven into every aspect of game development. Everything from game logic to world design to enemy behaviors and even internal workflows. It isn’t exactly surprising given game devs already use AI for stuff like vibe-coding. Call of Duty infamously sometimes uses AI generated assets for ingame assets and marketing (sometimes). The problem herein lies that AI is often being used as a substitute for human talent, not as a supplement or tool. Tighter deadlines, layoffs and Microsoft is HEAVILY invested in AI. They really want you to use AI so you can rush out games faster it seems. What a shame really. Of course this is just a rumor.

Link: https://www.thegamer.com/pokemon-legends-z-a-voice-acting-story-characters-lumiose/

https://x.com/Dr_Scaphandre/status/1978580508465328239/video/1

https://x.com/MizukiumZ/status/1978697114793218539

Games don’t intrinsically NEED voice acting to be good… but The Pokemon Company can certainly afford voice actors. Even lower budget games from Japan can somehow secure pretty decent voice actors. The reason why the lack of voice acting is so egregious in Pokemon Legends: Z-A is because there are actual cutscenes where character mouths are animated as if they were talking, subtitles and all, but no voices come out. It’s the worst of both worlds, featuring meticulously animated cutscenes with no voices coming out of their mouths and subtitles you need to read following a cutscene’s pace rather than the old JRPG special of pressing A to progress dialogue boxes. Furthermore, there is a cutscene depicting a rock concert, with the lead singer belting out some lyrics but there are no words coming out of his mouth. What the hell?

Link: https://www.vice.com/en/article/us-gamers-arent-buying-video-games-anymore-new-study-reveals/?

Only 4% of gamers in the US actually buy more than 1 game monthly. 30% of gamers buy one or two new games a year, and 33% not even buying new games at all. Though general survey takeaways indicate that the industry is still funded by hardcore gamers. Of course, it’s hard to state how much of this was due to Roblox/Fortnite, but it certainly could be the case.

Link: https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/high-schoolers-admit-to-dating-ai-as-romantic-relationships-grow-3267837/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akihiko_Kondo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictosexuality

The children yearn for AI companions, and I have no idea why. Life and relationships are all about compromises, not dating a sycophant machine that literally won’t tell you no for anything. Also somewhat related is this Japanese man, Akihiko Kondo, who unofficially married Hatsune Miku in a symbolic marriage. The marriage was not approved nor sanctioned by Crypton Future Media, who owns the rights to VOCALOID as a whole.

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Theme song composed by Gardiner Bryant

Link: https://www.tomshardware.com/virtual-reality/valves-next-gen-deckard-vr-headset-reportedly-enters-mass-production-company-allegedly-plans-to-ship-up-to-600k-units-annually-upcoming-steam-frame-could-launch-before-the-end-of-the-year

The Valve “Deckard” has been a long rumored device, and as per Chinese analyst firm “XR Research Institute”, they claim the headset will launch THIS year and has entered mass production. Previous leaks have priced the Deckard or Steam Frame at $1200. I’m not really a VR person so I don’t know what’s worth getting. $1200 for what is effectively a Half-Life Alyx machine is awfully expensive, even if the game is the best VR game we’ve gotten.

Link: https://cybernews.com/security/steam-riot-gaming-services-hit-by-disruptions-ddos-suspected/

Steam & Riot Games and OTHER Services experienced widespread issues beginning around 8PM EDT, October 6th. An alleged DDOS attack appears to be the cause launched by the record breaking Aisuru botnet, reaching a record breaking 29.69 terabits per second. In addition to Steam / Riot, PSN, Epic Games, AWS, Hulu, and specific ISPs were hit by this DDOS attack as well.

Link: https://insider-gaming.com/xbox-handheld-amd-10-million-units/

A supposed dedicated Xbox handheld, separate from ASUS’s Xbox products, was rumored for quite some time. Reports suggested that it would effectively be a Series S on the go. But now we know it at some point DID exist, and that it will now never come to fruition because AMD required a minimum of 10 million units in their contract. Of course to commission AMD for a custom chip does mean AMD needs a minimum guarantee that you will at least purchase X or so amount of chips from them. Jez Corden however says that this is untrue. Steam Deck is reported to have sold 4 Million as of the time of writing.

Link: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/hackers-claim-discord-breach-exposed-data-of-55-million-users/

Last week, an entity that Discord uses for Age Verification was hacked, but it was unclear how many people were affected… until now. Discord claims only ~70,000 people were affected, but the hackers claim 5.5 Million Users have been affected. BleepingComputers has spoken with the alleged hackers and they claimed to have stolen 1.6TB of data, which includes 100GB of ticket transcript data and 1.5TB of attachments. The group demanded $3.5 million as a ransom from Discord, but Discord has since ceased communication with the hackers. Should their demands not be met, it’s possible that the leaked data from Discord’s ZenDesk will be leaked publicly.

Link: https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/console-gaming/sony-and-amd-tease-likely-playstation-6-gpu-upgrades-radiance-cores-and-a-new-interconnect-for-boosting-ai-rendering-performance

In a video from PlayStation, both Sony’s lead PS5 architect Mark Cerny and AMD’s senior VP Jack Huynh were both featured talking about upgrades to what they dubbed “Project Amethyst”. Upgrades to AI Rendering & Raytracing. There’s also discussion in the video about something called Universal Compression, which supposedly analyzes all data and compresses all data when possible. And we can expect all of these to also show up on Non-PlayStation AMD hardware, such as their GPUs and APUs.

Link https://www.vice.com/en/article/playstation-leak-confirms-ps6-release-date-and-hardware-rumors/

A new leak reported by Vice suggests that Sony is targeting a 2027 release window for the PlayStation 6, with internal manufacturing planned to begin that same year. The information comes from reliable insider KeplerL2, who claims the timeline is now set, though the final public release could slip into early 2028.

While the article doesn’t confirm specific specs, it echoes previous reports that Sony is already deep in next-gen hardware development. PlayStation architect Mark Cerny has also hinted in interviews that “future consoles” are in progress, further fueling speculation that PS6 is well into production planning.

Vice cautions readers to take the leak with a grain of salt—plans in the hardware world can shift due to supply chain or internal delays. Still, with the PS5 approaching its mid-cycle refresh and Sony’s typical seven-year console cadence, a late-2027 PS6 launch lines up with history and feels increasingly plausible.

Link: https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/nas/synology-walks-back-controversial-compatibility-policy-for-2025-nas-units-third-party-hdd-and-ssd-support-returns-with-diskstation-manager-7-3-update

Sometime in April of this year, Synology announced that 2025 NASes they sell will REQUIRE Synology branded HDDs for use with their NAS’s full capabilities. After some months have passed and significant backlash, Synology has relented and reversed this change. This change was only reversed for HDDs however, with NVMe SSDs still needing to be a part of their hardware compatibility lists to be used for storage pools. Will they ever be forgiven?

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hL_NVL3XjMc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRny-dYJ0_8

Her new album “Life of a Showgirl” is currently being considered her worst album, and as such Moist Critical aka Penguinz0 comments on it. In particular, he comments on one song, “Wood”, examining the lyrics and how it sounds like Swifty herself is… particularly fixated on something hard. And of course, following up on that, it seems portions of that first video had become copyrighted. Not even singing the song as a cover, but merely saying the lyrics.

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Theme song composed by Gardiner Bryant

Link: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250929186526/en/EA-Announces-Agreement-to-be-Acquired-by-PIF-Silver-Lake-and-Affinity-Partners-for-%2455-Billion

https://news.ea.com/press-releases/press-releases-details/2025/EA-Announces-Agreement-to-be-Acquired-by-PIF-Silver-Lake-and-Affinity-Partners-for-55-Billion/default.aspx

https://steamcommunity.com/id/Abdullah_Al_Saud

We usually espouse the benefits and virtues of being privately owned… and in a sense EA is privately owned… by Saudi Arabia’s Private Investment Firm and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners. The reason why these two in particular are so important is due to the governmental ties. Saudi Arabia is obvious, yes, but for those who may not know Jared Kushner has ties to El Presidente due to being married to his daughter, Ivanka. This should raise serious red flags, regardless of what political party owns EA.

Link: https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2025/10/01/xbox-game-pass-ultimate-premium-essential-plans/

https://x.com/Wario64/status/1973423496610124281

Xbox Game Pass was once touted as the best value in gaming… but that value diminishes as time goes on. The price of Game Pass Ultimate has gone up from $20/Month to $30/Month, a 50% increase in price. And previously they raised the prices from $17 to $20 a month as is. Compare that to the highest end PlayStation subscription, PlayStation Plus Premium, which is currently $160. Microsoft however has added benefits, such as Ubisoft+ (which by itself is $16/Month) and Fortnite Crew (which by itself is $12/Month) and that you can earn $100 in points a year by gaming. But gamers are furious and have been attempting to cancel Game Pass subs in droves, with Wario64 on Twitter commenting that the page for cancelling Game Pass subs has been overloaded.

Link: https://xboxera.com/2025/09/30/amazon-france-ships-xbox-ally-x-units-over-two-weeks-early-user-impressions-posted-on-reddit/

Over in the US, the Xbox Ally devices are sold at Best Buy, Microsoft, and ASUS’s store. But in the EU, more specifically, France, Amazon sells them. However due to a blunder, Amazon France shipped one over two weeks early. Why this happens to random people and never me, I will never know. The original Reddit post has since been deleted, but the semi-review from the Redditor suggests that that the most significant gains are at the midrange, about 17W, with good battery life.

Link: https://www.eventhubs.com/news/2025/sep/28/cc12-pay-per-view-announcement/

I only ask this because Capcom Cup 12’s top 16 brackets will be pay-per-view as if you’re paying to watch boxing or UFC.

Link: http://discord.com/press-releases/update-on-security-incident-involving-third-party-customer-service

“Discord recently discovered an incident where an unauthorized party compromised one of Discord’s third-party customer service providers.” The service in question is their customer support / trust & safety agents. That said, Discord ITSELF wasn’t hacked, but given some of these inquiries had to do with age verification… it’s not a good look. A list of compromised materials…

Link: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/teen-who-threatened-to-kill-epic-games-employees-pleads-guilty

So this “teen” is actually 19 so legally an adult. But yeah, don’t make death threats to developers. I’m glad devs are cracking down on this shit.

Link: https://www.gematsu.com/2025/10/rock-band-4-to-be-delisted-on-october-5

Rock Band 4 turns 10 on October 5th, 2025… just in time for Harmonix to delist the game from Xbox / PlayStation stores. The Music Licenses for Rock Band 4’s base game are expiring. If you haven’t bought the game already, it’s too late. Thankfully it’s not a live service game so you can still play your copy if you own one, and the DLCs are still downloadable if you own them too.

Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g78e809zqo

100% tariffs on movies is crazy given how global movie making really is. I noticed he brought up the threat of this happening when two big foreign movies made it. One was Ne Zha 2 a while back and now he brings this back up when Demon Slayer Infinity Castle 2 too. A lot of anime nerds want to back El Presidente but they don’t know that he’s about to send them back to the stone ages.

Link: https://deadline.com/2025/09/talent-agent-ai-actress-tilly-norwood-studios-1236557889/

AI Talent Studio Xicoia is reportedly in talks with multiple talent agents who want to sign on their first AI creation, an actress called “Tilly Norward”. Should this deal come to pass and some talent agency signs this AI on as an actress, it would be the first to have such an agency. Also of note is that former AI “artist” Puhm notes that all of the big studios are working on AI assisted projects, but due to the nature of NDAs, she cannot specify which ones are.

Link: https://openai.com/index/sora-2/

Sora 2 makes videos using AI. There are MANY ramifications to this… but for now we should gloss over some of these examples, many of which are on Twitter.

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Theme song composed by Gardiner Bryant

In this episode of ‘Off the Console’, hosts James and Hi-Tech Lo-Life discuss the latest in gaming news, including the controversial pricing of the Xbox Ally and Ally X, Costco’s decision to remove Xbox consoles from their inventory, and Nintendo’s legal battle against the Department of Homeland Security. The conversation also delves into what the hosts have been playing recently, highlighting personal gaming experiences and preferences, while emphasizing the impact of tariffs on gaming device pricing and the importance of consumer rights in the gaming industry. In this conversation, the hosts delve into the evolving landscape of the tech and gaming industries, discussing Nvidia’s monopolistic ambitions, AMD’s competitive strategies, and the implications of EA’s potential sale. They also explore the decline of Destiny 2 and the ongoing trend of remakes in gaming, alongside Kojima’s intriguing new project involving ghosts, and much more!

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Chapters:

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In this episode of Off the Console, Hi-Tech Lo-Life and James are joined by Noah Kupetsky from SteamDeck HQ for a wide-ranging talk on gaming and culture. They cover the hype around Endless Legend 2, the Steam Deck 2, FSR 4 graphics, and the Stop Killing Games movement. The crew also dives into government scrutiny of games, indie dev struggles, Nintendo’s stance on modding, and how Steam’s algorithm impacts visibility. Plus, they touch on Warner Bros., geek culture, censorship, GTA VI, Corsair’s lawsuit, open-source tech, and the future of Xbox, mobile, and gaming events.

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Link: https://events.nikkeibp.co.jp/tgs/2025/en/exhibitor/

https://www.gematsu.com/2025/07/tokyo-game-show-2025-exhibitors-list-and-main-visual-announced

https://www.gematsu.com/2025/09/tgs-2025-official-live-stream-program-schedule-announced

Submitter: Hi-Tech Lo-Life

Tokyo Game Show (henceforth TGS) is one of the big three gaming conventions, the other two being E3/Summer Games Fest and Gamescom. Whereas E3/Summer Games Fest is hosted in America and Gamescom in Europe, TGS is hosted in Japan, naturally. Many publishing firms are getting ready to expo their games at TGS this year. This year’s TGS is also set to be potentially the biggest one yet. Valve also showcased the Steam Deck at TGS in 2022 and 2024. Will we see Valve skip out this year, or will Valve show up with something?

Link: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/09/live-updates-apple-event-iphone17-airpods-ios26.html

Submitter: Hi-Tech Lo-Life

Apple just announced the new iPhone 17 series, and new Airpods and Apple Watches slated for release September 19th. No major price hikes which is good. The big and I really do mean BIG issue here is not with the refreshes but with their newest iPhone… the iPhone Air. The thinnest smartphone potentially ever made… but has Apple completely lost the plot here? What terrible compromises would potential customers deal with, and why do we live in the timeline where everything has to be thinner at the cost of useful features… like headphone jacks?

Link: https://gamesfray.com/last-week-nintendo-and-the-pokemon-company-received-a-u-s-patent-on-summoning-a-character-and-letting-it-fight-another/

Submitter: Hi-Tech Lo-Life

In Nintendo’s crusade to completely burn down Palworld and Pocketpair, Nintendo & The Pokemon Company was granted potentially the most ridiculous patent of all.

Then the logic branches out, with items (4) and (5) being mutually exclusive scenarios, before reuniting again in item (6):

The issue naturally is how one would interpret these. While it seems to aim squarely at Palworld, Nintendo seemingly put other games potentially in their crosshairs too. Lots of other games where you can capture creatures and use them in battle. Things like of course, the new Digimon games, or Shin Megami Tensei games where you can potentially recruit demons to fight with you.

Link: https://www.resetera.com/threads/nintendo-direct-announced-for-september-12-6am-pacific-9am-eastern-3pm-central-european-10pm-japan.1293483/

Submitter: Hi-Tech Lo-Life

By the time we record this episode, the direct will have already concluded. List interesting games below.

Link: https://www.eurogamer.net/the-saudi-arabian-takeover-of-fighting-games-biggest-tournament-means-players-and-the-wider-community-have-a-choice-to-make-between-its-culture-and-a-payout

https://www.si.com/esports/news/fgc-sonicfox-evo-ownership-statement

Submitter: Hi-Tech Lo-Life

RTS, the co-owner of EVO alongside Sony, was recently acquired by Saudi Arabia, who has become a sports powerhouse in general, encompassing both physical sports and eSports. One community in particular that is starting to show signs of resistance is the Fighting Game Community (henceforth FGC). One particular player, Sonicfox, 8-time EVO champion, has stated that they will continue to attend EVO to fight for representation of LGBTQ+ people, even in countries like Saudi Arabia where LGBTQ+ expressions are considered illegal and under Sharia Law can constitute the death penalty.

Link: https://kotaku.com/ghost-yotei-charlie-kirk-joke-playstation-sony-2000625478

Submitter: Hi-Tech Lo-Life

Drew Harrison, 10 year vet at Sucker Punch said quote “I hope the shooter’s name is Mario so that Luigi knows his bro got his back,”. We usually wouldn’t talk about directly political topics but this one had to be pointed out given this was directly in the games’ industry. Off The Console does not condone acts of violence pointed at anyone, for any reason, regardless of your differences.

Link: https://www.ign.com/articles/criticism-isnt-hate-hollow-knight-silksong-sparks-debate-about-difficulty-runbacks-and-the-dreaded-git-gud-comments

https://www.polygon.com/hollow-knight-silksong-easy-mode-mods/

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1030300/discussions/0/595159519774039622/

Submitter: Hi-Tech Lo-Life

Silksong’s been out for over a week now and players are now discovering that the game might actually be too hard for them. It’s gotten to the point where there are popular Silksong mods that make the game easier in different ways. The most downloaded mod is a mod that gives enemies health bars, including big boss health bars for important bosses. The second most downloaded mod is a mod that gets rid of most instances of double double damage.

In addition to this, Team Cherry recently pushed out a patch which fixes some bugs (no pun intended), but also increases rewards from some sidequests and breakables, reduces the prices of some benches, and slightly nerfs two bosses that players seemed to be having a tough time with… namely Moorwing and Sister Splinter. Should players simply… git gud?

Link: https://www.gamesmarket.global/business/pressure-continues-steam-denies-early-access-release-for-adult-games-ed57cc6bd4b4e60ee9663c5f90a1b797

Submitter: Hi-Tech Lo-Life

In what appears to be an ongoing effort from payment processors and collective shout, it seems Valve has made one change, and a peculiar one at that. Adult games cannot be in Early Access anymore on Steam. As per one developer, there was no official policy change. In other news it appears more and more games industry associations around the world are throwing their hat into the ring calling out the amount of power companies like Visa, MasterCard, and others have over not just Steam but basically any other gaming storefront. It’s unclear why Early Access in particular, but one theory proposed by the article is that maybe payment processors are worried about these adult games adding content that may not align with their values later in development.

Link: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-Legion-Go-Modder-transforms-popular-gaming-handheld-into-Cyberdeck-with-optional-190-Wh-battery-expansion.1112086.0.html

Submitter: James

A creative modder has transformed the Lenovo Legion Go handheld into a powerful “cyberdeck”-style device by building two custom 3D-printed docks. One version includes a massive 190 Wh battery pack made from 18650 cells, dramatically extending the device’s runtime, while also adding a wireless Lenovo keyboard and extra USB ports. The second dock is slimmer, omitting the battery for better portability, but still includes the docked functionality. Both designs allow the Legion Go to be removed easily, offering flexibility between handheld and workstation-style use.

This mod showcases a growing trend of turning gaming handhelds into hybrid productivity or mobile computing setups. While it’s not yet clear if the modder will release the designs publicly, the project demonstrates the Legion Go’s versatility and appeal among DIY enthusiasts. If widely adopted, mods like this could blur the line between handheld gaming and portable PC workstations.

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Link: http://old.reddit.com/r/GamingLeaksAndRumours/comments/1n7ojk1/steam_frame_trademarked_by_valve_computer_hardware/

https://uspto.report/TM/99370857

https://uspto.report/TM/99370861

https://old.reddit.com/r/GamingLeaksAndRumours/comments/1n84pmv/steamvr_datamine_seems_to_confirm_that_steam/

Submitter: Hi-Tech Lo-Life

Valve has trademarked the name “STEAM FRAME”, which covers categories of game consoles, accessories, and controllers. We’ve talked a lot about wanting a Steam home console of sorts, more or less resurrecting the old idea of a Steam Machine, but this time being helmed by Valve with actual Valve hardware. Could a Valve hardware release be imminent? A trademark of course doesn’t actually mean that’s what the system will be called. “Neon Prime” was trademarked two years ago and the current game is named Deadlock.

Of course, SadlyItsBradley noticed that all mentions of the Deckard have been renamed to… Steam Frame? So not a new traditional console so to speak but a VR Headset to challenge the Quest 3?

Link: https://news.lenovo.com/pressroom/press-releases/legion-gaming-devices-ai-tablets-software-best-in-customer-choice/

https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/handheld-gaming/lenovos-legion-go-2-packs-ryzen-z2-extreme-and-an-oled-display-thick-gaming-handheld-starts-at-usd1-049

Submitter: Hi-Tech Lo-Life

Lenovo’s next generation hardware is coming October 2025, and it has a more elegant name than ASUS’s. But the price point is… out of this world, with the Z2 version starting at $1,099.99 and the Z2 Extreme version starting at $1,349.99. The big question is… what the hell contributed to the massive price increase? Tariffs, OLED, VRR, the Z2E?

Link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1030300/Hollow_Knigh1t_Silksong/

https://www.dexerto.com/gaming/hollow-knight-silksong-player-count-3246060/

https://www.polygon.com/steam-down-hollow-knight-silksong-release-nintendo-eshop-crash/

Submitter: Hi-Tech Lo-Life

Those of us have that played it… tell us how it is? Also let’s look at reviews. Silksong has also exceeded 500,000+ concurrent players on Day 1… as a result it seemingly crashed both Steam & the Nintendo eShop.

Link: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/02/google-antitrust-search-ruling.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/09/03/google-search-monopoly-remedy-ruling/a8a67e42-88f2-11f0-895c-97bd39cbdc59_story.html

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/sep/03/google-monopoly-case-ruling

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp8zdrenm1zo

Submitter: Hi-Tech Lo-Life

Google was deemed an illegal monopoly by Judge Amit Mehta years ago, but Judge Mehta subsequently gave Google a win, stating that Google will NOT be forced to sell off Chrome or Android.

Link: https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/battlefield-6-wont-support-ray-tracing-heres-why-ea-is-prioritizing-performance-for-all-players

Submitter: Hi-Tech Lo-Life

Developer Christian Buhl of DICE has come out and actively stated that they will not have Raytracing at launch, nor will they have it in the future for Battlefield 6. I found this super interesting as Battlefield V was one of if not THE first commercially released game with Raytracing, back when it the RTX 2000 series was new.

Link: https://insider-gaming.com/another-key-fairgames-developer-quietly-leaves/

Submitter: Hi-Tech Lo-Life

Fairgame$ is another title in Sony’s mostly failed live service initiative, and arguablly the LEAST interesting of the bunch, including yes, Concord. Why is Sony so insistent on these live service games?

Link: https://clawsomegamer.com/tim-sweeney-on-unreal-engine-5-optimization-issues-the-main-cause-is-order-of-development/

Submitter: Hi-Tech Lo-Life

Unreal Engine 5 has been a very hot point of contention, especially given recent games have ran kind of poorly and with some that don’t really look THAT much better than prior UE4 titles. But Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games states that developers may need to change their workflow, namely how many developers target high end first and tack on low-spec testing at the end. Optimization should be begin early. He vows to provide more support and expanding ‘developer education’ so that ‘optimize early’ becomes standard practice.

Link: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/grand-theft-auto/god-help-us-all-gta-6-may-be-a-aaaaa-game-says-devolver-co-founder-and-thats-why-the-entire-industry-is-taking-cover-from-it-like-its-a-nuclear-blast/

Submitter: James

 Devolver Digital co-founder Nigel Lowrie has basically declared Grand Theft Auto VI a whole new beast—calling it a “AAAAA” title. That’s gaming lingo for “beyond AAA,” like AAA but five times more intense, in both scale and cultural clout. Yeah… it’s that colossal. 

Industry Impacts:

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