"It's really happening. I promise. For real." Those are the first words from Roy Graham, Head of Story at Magic: The Gathering, in a video posted yesterday announcing Planeswalker, the animated series heading to Netflix in 2027.
An animated Magic: The Gathering series was first teased back in 2019 with Joe and Anthony Russo at the helm. But that fell apart. In 2024, Netflix announced it still planned to make a series based on the game, but it decided to rework it from the ground up.
Now fans are finally getting their first glimpse of the show, which will be called Planeswalker. According to the sneak peek, because each plane exists in its …
As much as I appreciate the ingenious design of the Nintendo Switch's Joy-Con, my family and I can't stand using them as standalone gamepads. So when we travel with the Switch 2, we always bring at least one full-size gamepad, plus a couple of 8BitDo's Zero 2 controllers for games that don't use analog thumbsticks. I've spent years hunting for an alternative that pairs the size of the Zero 2 with as much of the functionality of a larger controller as I can get, and CRKD's new Atom Plus is nearly exactly that. But if you have larger hands like I do, you may find the gamepad's focus on portability a struggle.
Lucia and Jason, the two main characters of GTA VI. | Image: Rockstar Games
The long-awaited launch of GTA VIis around the corner, happening next Friday, November 19th. While discounts on the game itself will be rare for some time, there’s a clever workaround to save you a few bucks on your digital copy. We found discounts on gift cards for both Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox Series S/X owners to help shave some dollars off your upcoming trip to Vice City. You can pick up a $75 Sony gift card for $69 at Newegg when you use coupon code BNWF2669 at checkout, and Costco members can pick up four $25 Sony gift cards for $89.99.
Meanwhile, Xbox owners can pick up a $90 Xbox gift card for $80 at Newegg by using the coupon code BNWF2662 at checkout. The GTA VI standard edition is $79.99, while the ultimate edition is $99.99, so you can either spend an extra $10 out of pocket for the upgrade, or buy the standard version and set any leftover credit aside for use later on.
While neither offer amounts to huge savings, it’s an opportunity to save on a major video game release that likely won’t get any sort of discount this year. Preloading has already begun on both consoles, and the game will unlock at midnight local time on November 19th.
Get that apple back to its rainbow roots, but for a new generation. | Image: The Verge
When Apple CEO John Ternus announced the first touchscreen Mac last month, the biggest reaction in the room wasn't for the PROLED MacBook Pro's OLED touchscreen or the thinner and lighter chassis; it was for the illuminated lid logo. It's a throwback to the light-up logos on the old MacBooks, which Apple started phasing out in 2015, and which were completely gone by the 2018 MacBook Air redesign. It's a nostalgia play, but boy did it work. It's fun!
Just like in the old days, the new logo's brightness is linked to the screen's: The brighter or dimmer the screen, the brighter or dimmer the logo. But the light-up logo on the old MacBooks was …
A screenshot from Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus.
It's been nearly a decade since Bethesda's MachineGames released Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus in 2017, and now Xbox is ready to announce a sequel from the studio. Wolfenstein 3 was officially announced today, just days after Bethesda also confirmed that the next Elder Scrolls game will be called The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel.
In a post, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced the name and a photo of a script. "Looking forward to sharing more," she said. MachineGames also announced the game in a post, saying the game is "in production" and sharing a photo from a motion-capture session. IGN reports that Brian Bloom (who plays protagonist William …
The Humble Bundle storefront for buying games and other software recently got a new look, but on the settings page, it no longer offers a way to add or update two-factor verification methods, as reported by Kotaku. PC Gamer also points out that there are Humble Bundle support pages discussing two-factorverification, and the writer for the publication said that they had set up two-factor verification on the old version of the site.
However, it does appear that, at least as of now, there is some form of two-factor verification. When I tried logging into my Humble Bundle account while writing this article, I was prompted to check my email for …
Microsoft is starting to test new customization options for Xbox consoles today. Xbox Insiders will be able to start testing new rotating backgrounds, new library options for digital games, and the ability to move the Xbox Guide menu to the right-hand side.
"Xbox Insiders can now save favorite dynamic backgrounds and shuffle through them automatically," says Eden Marie, principal software engineering lead at Xbox. "You can also choose Shuffle at the start of any background category. Have your background change each time you sign in, or set it to change hourly, daily, or weekly."
Microsoft is also improving how you organize disc-to-digital …
The first 25 original Xbox on PC games. | Image: Microsoft
For the 25th anniversary of Xbox, Microsoft is beginning to make good on its paid "next-gen game preservation" promise. Starting today, you can play 25 different original Xbox games on your Windows PC, as long as you have (or are willing to pay) for digital copies.
In July, Microsoft originally launched the idea with just four Xbox games, so 25 is progress, and Microsoft says all these games are now playable with keyboard and mouse.
Plus, Microsoft says it's adding achievements to original Xbox games for the first time, starting with four games: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and its sequel, Blinx: The Time Sweeper, and Conker: Li …
Microsoft has spent the past 25 years trying to shake up the game console market. The original Xbox, which launched on November 15th in 2001, took on an industry dominated by Sony and Nintendo. Twenty-five years later, Xbox finds itself in a similar position. It's not starting from scratch this time around, but to reach another 25-year milestone, it needs to do something radically different.
The original Xbox was radically different. Born out of a fear of Sony putting a PC in the living room, Microsoft built its first game console around familiar PC technology. A custom Intel Pentium III processor powered the original Xbox, alongside an Nvi …
A photo from the GDC Festival of Gaming 2026 event.
More video game developers are using generative AI tools in their jobs compared to last year, according to the GDC Festival of Gaming's latest annual industry survey. Forty percent of developers surveyed say they use it "as part of their job," an increase from 36 percent in 2025. Usage was higher with game developers that work on free-to-play games at 58 percent and mobile-only studio workers at 70 percent.
The survey is being published as the game industry continues to reckon with generative AI tools. While many game developers, particularly indie developers, have spoken out strongly against the technology, AI is at the center of indie awa …
I never liked hunting for Golden Skulltulas in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The game has 100 of them tucked all over Hyrule, and even over my many hours with the N64 classic growing up, I can't remember ever actually finding all of them, or even wanting to. Jumping into the Ocarina of Time remake, I expected to ignore the Golden Skulltulas once again. But while poking around Nintendo's Zelda Notes companion app, I discovered that its maps are a huge help to tracking down all of the elusive golden spiders - and pretty much every other collectible in the game - and now I find myself constantly opening up the app to make sure I haven't …
It's tempting to seek out the do-everything wireless gaming headset with noise cancellation, phenomenal sound quality, multiplatform connectivity, swappable batteries - you name it. But if you just want the basics done well, Sony's new $99.99 PlayStation Pulse headset is worth considering. It has very good sound and just enough extras, even if you use more gadgets than just your PlayStation 5.
Inside the Pulse's nondescript ear cup shells are custom planar magnetic drivers, which deliver clean, detailed sound whether you're gaming, listening to music, or both. They aren't bass-heavy or too shrill; their default equalizer is pleasing and pun …
The Xbox Ally X. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Microsoft is now rolling out Automatic Super Resolution (Auto SR), an upscaling technology that competes with Nvidia's DLSS, for the Xbox Ally X, Xbox Ally X20, and select Windows Copilot Plus PCs, the company announced today. Auto SR is also getting some new features alongside this official release.
In April, Microsoft started testing Auto SR on the Xbox Ally X, but you could only use it while docked. The full release of Auto SR announced today now works while you're playing handheld and running on battery, and it also supports games running at 1080p. Microsoft does note that playing in handheld and at 1080p might lead to performance that …
The Fairgames cancellation won't result in job cuts, and developer Haven Studios will now support other PlayStation studios, Bloomberg reports. The game was canceled following a recent test where "player feedback and retention results were mixed and fell short of the goals we had set, …
Sony is retiring the PlayStation Plus app for PC on December 10th. Sony says it will notify users directly about the shutdown. The app allowed PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers to stream certain games on PC, but according to Sony, not many people are using that perk:
With a very small number of eligible PlayStation Plus Premium members (less than 0.4%) using the PlayStation Plus app on PC, making this change allows us to focus on enhancing high-quality experiences that more of our members want to use. As a result, the PlayStation Plus cloud streaming app on PC will no longer be available.
Some Independent Games Festival (IGF) jurors published a statement yesterday saying they would not vote for games that use generative AI in "any capacity." Soon after, the developer of indie hit Big Walk has published a statement saying it "sparingly" used AI in the "final stretch" of the game's development to "help work through difficult technical challenges and bugs."
According to the jurors' statement, a copy of which was posted by Austin Walker, while this year's IGF entries have been "incredible," there has been "a significant increase" in the number of games "developed with generative AI tools," leading to "fairly intense discussion a …
Rockstar Games is making Grand Theft Auto VI available on Xbox Cloud Gaming when it launches next week. While you'd normally assume that would mean Grand Theft Auto VI would be available to stream on phones, PCs, the web, Xbox consoles, and even TVs, it appears to be restricted to just Xbox Series X / S and Xbox One consoles.
That does mean that anyone with an older Xbox One console can stream Grand Theft Auto VI instead of having to upgrade to a PS5 or Xbox Series S / X console to play. Rockstar notes that Xbox Cloud Gaming will use the Xbox Series S graphics settings to stream to Xbox consoles.
One of the best upgrades you can make to your PC gaming setup is an OLED monitor. Fortunately, MSI’s factory-reconditioned Mag 272QP X24 is on sale at Woot through November 18th with a 180-day manufacturer warranty for $290.99, which is more than $100 cheaper than the full MSRP of $399.99.
MSI’s 27-inch screen is well-featured for the price, with 1440p resolution, a 240Hz refresh rate, and both G-Sync and FreeSync compatibility, which help reduce screen tearing when your FPS is below the max refresh rate. PC games are particularly well-suited to take advantage of the deep black levels OLED panels produce, too, giving every game you play a deeper, more immersive feel. MSI’s budget OLED also features quantum dots for fuller, more vivid colors. It doesn’t cut corners on ports either, with two HDMI 2.1, one DisplayPort 1.4a, and one USB Type-C DP Alt input.
The price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimatehas fluctuated between $20 and $30 per month over the last year, but you can get three months of the top plan for around $19 per month. At Newegg, using the coupon code BNWF2656 at checkout knocks $11 off the usual cost of a three-month subscription. That brings the price down to just $57.99 for three months. In addition to full access to over 500 games on both Xbox consoles and Windows PC machines, the upgraded Ultimate plan includes EA Play and Ubisoft Plus Classics, which have their own libraries and benefits, and Fortnite Crew for full access to the Fortnite battles passes. On Xbox, Ultimate enables online multiplayer, as well.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (three-month subscription)
Previously a straightforward proposition, the service has undergone a variety of changes over the last year that has made it slightly less appealing. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate was previously $29.99 per month, but earlier this year Microsoft removed the Call of Duty games from the library, and in the process dropped the price to $22.99.
More recently, Microsoft added hourly limits to cloud gaming. All Game Pass plan subscribers previously enjoyed an unlimited amount of cloud gaming on their computer or mobile device, but now plans scale the number of included hours, with the Ultimate plan including 15 hours per month. That news came just weeks before announcing pay-as-you-go plans for non-Game Pass subscribers.
Other deals to consider
The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X is discounted to $269 at various retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy, and B&H, a $70 break from the usual price. This eight-core, 16-thread desktop CPU is compatible with AM5 motherboards, and has a maximum boost clock of up to 5.5GHz out of the box, with full support for overclocking. It’s probably overkill for light gaming, but serious gamers and demanding PC users will get the a lot of bang for their buck with this AMD processor. The discounted price lets you reach near AMD’s fastest consumer chip offerings, and is much cheaper than the faster Ryzen 7 9800X3D.
This Lego Pokémon Pikachu and Pokéball set is on sale for $159.95 at Amazon. That $40 discount is the largest we’ve seen since the collaboration launched back in March, and a remarkably good value for a set with 2,050 pieces. Once built, it’s a sizable set, standing 13.5 inches tall and 15.5 inches deep, and the Pikachu has posable ears and limbs. This seems like a fantastic gift, either to yourself or to another Pokémon fan you care about.
Amazon has the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar marked down to $899, a $200 discount from the usual price. This Dolby Atmos-equipped soundbar supports eARC over HDMI, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity for easy adjustments or listening to music, and has Alexa voice commands for when you can’t find the remote. You can also combine the soundbar with Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speakers for a proper surround system.
Sony is launching a new version of its PlayStation Portal exclusively in Japan next month. The updated model will launch in the midnight black color option we've seen before, and will include "additional" internal storage for future-looking features.
It's the additional internal storage that's the surprise change to this particular model, which will be locked to Japanese language options and can only be used with a PlayStation account registered in Japan. Sony says the extra storage is for "future functionality" that it will announce once these features are finalized.
Sony is also renaming this particular Portal from PlayStation Portal Rem …
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