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12 stories tagged hardware
Microsoft is hiking Xbox Series X and Series S prices worldwide from August 1 - up to $799.99 for a disc Series X and $499.99 for the Series S - while discontinuing the 2TB model, blaming a 2.5x surge in memory and storage costs.
Valve has officially priced the Steam Machine: $1,049 for the 512GB model and $1,349 for 2TB, with reservations opening June 30. A surging memory market - DRAM up over 170% year over year - pushed the SteamOS living-room PC well past early expectations. The six-inch cube packs a Zen 4 CPU and RDNA 3 GPU for roughly six times the Steam Deck's power, and launches alongside the Steam Frame headset and Steam Controller 2.
Valve has confirmed a summer 2026 launch window for the SteamOS-powered Steam Machine and Steam Frame, with both now wishlistable on Steam and leaks pointing to a reveal as soon as June 23. The box promises over six times the Steam Deck's power, but pricing - likely around $1,000 amid a RAM shortage - remains unconfirmed.
Xbox celebrated its 25th anniversary at the Xbox Games Showcase with the X25 Anniversary Collection, headlined by the Xbox Series X25 Limited Edition - the first-ever translucent Series X in 'OG Green' with a light-up green X, 1TB of storage, and a matching X25 Special Edition controller. The collection arrives in November 2026.
NVIDIA's GTC Taipei keynote at Computex 2026 was mostly AI and robotics, but GeForce owners got real news: DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction with a 2nd-gen transformer model arrives in August in 11 games including Marvel Rivals and Gothic 1 Remake, the RTX Spark Blackwell superchip with 128GB unified memory hits thin laptops in fall, ShadowPlay jumps to 240fps capture, and partners showed off a wood-clad RTX 5080 and an RTX 5090 with a curved AMOLED display.
Sony has dated its new accessory lineup: the FlexStrike wireless fight stick launches worldwide August 6 at $199.99 alongside Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls with pre-orders from June 12, the 27-inch QHD 120Hz gaming monitor with a DualSense charging hook arrives August 27 in the US and Japan at $349.99, and the Pulse Elevate wireless speakers slip to later in 2026.
Brazil's Anatel regulator just leaked Microsoft's unreleased Xbox Cloud Gaming Controller and Xbox Elite Series 3. The cloud pad packs Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, a Realtek chip, and a 500mAh battery so it can talk directly to xCloud without a phone or console as middleman.
Scuf Gaming's first officially licensed PS5 pro controller is on sale now for 219.99 USD with Omron mechanical buttons, TMR magnetic thumbsticks, and 11 customisable extra inputs across paddles, side buttons and G-Keys.
Nintendo shares fell as much as 10% in Tokyo on Monday — a second straight session of losses after Friday's earnings — pushing the stock to a 21-month low. The trigger: a 16.5 million Switch 2 forecast, a dividend cut to 162 yen, and a 100 billion yen hit from the AI-driven DRAM chip surge.
Nintendo announced sweeping price hikes on May 8, 2026: Switch 2 jumps from $449.99 to $499.99 in the US (+$50), with Canada and Europe seeing similar increases — all effective September 1. Japan gets hit harder and earlier on May 25, with the Switch 2 jumping ¥10,000 and original Switch hardware climbing 26 to 36 percent. Nintendo Switch Online subscriptions also rise in Japan effective July 1. Nintendo cited market conditions and the global business outlook without naming tariffs, semiconductors, or the yen.
Sony's 007 First Light Limited Edition DualSense Wireless Controller launches May 27 alongside IO Interactive's James Bond debut. We break down the gold-on-black design (which the game's art director says is NOT actually inspired by the gun barrel sequence), the $84.99 price tag, and how it compares to other premium DualSense editions.
Sony has hiked PS5 prices by $100–$150 globally starting April 2, citing a severe DRAM shortage driven by AI infrastructure demand. The PS5 now costs $649.99 and the Pro hits $899.99 in the US.