D7VK 1.9 Brings Some Hefty Performance Improvements
D7VK continues advancing for this Vulkan-based implementation of Direct3D 7 that also supports D3D 6 / 5 / 3 APIs too for vintage games ultimately rendered using the modern Vulkan API… ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Gives Up On Xbox Copilot AI
Microsoft is winding down Xbox Copilot on mobile and ending development of Copilot on console, reversing plans to bring the gaming-focused AI assistant to current-generation Xbox consoles this year. “The move follows [new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma’s] reorganization of the Xbox platform team earlier on Tuesday, which added executives from Microsoft’s CoreAI team – where Sharma worked before taking ove … ⌘ Read more

Kids Bypass Age Verification With Fake Moustaches
A new Internet Matters survey suggests the UK’s Online Safety Act age checks are easy for many children to bypass. Reported workarounds include fake birthdays, borrowed IDs, video game characters, and even drawing on a fake mustache. The Register reports: The group surveyed over 1,000 UK children and their parents, and while it did report some positive effects from changes ma … ⌘ Read more

@itsericwoodward@itsericwoodward.com is there a Gamer Master, or Dungeon Master in Magic? My kid plays DnD, and such person is decisive for many outcomes, and for the quality of the game in general.

Congratulations! :-)

My first game of Magic ended with a truly EPIC TURN yesterday…

It was a 5-player game, and I was running my (unpublished) Superfriends deck (mostly Planeswalkers and counter manipulators). After some ups and downs, I was able to pop the ultimate abilities on a handful of PWs all on a single turn, pumping my Bioessence Hydra to 110/110 (!) before tapping it twice to kill 2 opponents, and then following that by destroying all of the lands of a 3rd opponent and stealing all of the creatures from the 4th, at which point the survivors decided to quit. As I said, EPIC TURN!

Game 2 ran long, so I dropped out. But that first game…

Valve’s Steam Controller Now Shipping
For those eager to get their hands on Valve’s new Steam Controller, the gaming controller is now shipping… ⌘ Read more

Omarchy 3.7 Linux Distribution Overhauls Gaming Support, Adds Unified CLI
Omarchy as the Arch Linux based desktop distribution using the Hyprland compositor and led by David Heinemeier Hansson “DHH” is out with a big OS update… ⌘ Read more

NetHack 5.0 Released
“So yesterday the Devteam (it is always the Devteam) released version 5.0 of legendary and venerable rogueike compuer game NetHack,” writes the Rogue-like games column @Play. “It is 39 years old…”

MilenCent (Slashdot reader #219,397) writes: In addition to play changes it’s left for players to discover, this version updates the code to compile with C99, makes it much easier to cross compile the code for other systems than the one … ⌘ Read more

Former Nintendo Executive Says Amazon Once Requested ‘Illegal’ Price Discounts
Amazon once tried to pressure Nintendo to break the law, says former Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aimé. At a recent NYU lecture, he describes a conversation with an Amazon executive, Kotaku reports:

“Amazon was looking to get bigger into the video game space,” said Fils-Aimé. “Amazon’s mentality back then … ⌘ Read more

Many people started to become distrustful of big tech in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. I began feeling pessimistic back in 2016, when AlphaGo beat master Go player Lee Sedol four games to one. Something about that event has soured me on the future of technology ever since.

Linux 7.1 Fixes Audio For The Steam Deck OLED After Being Broken 2 Years On The Upstream Kernel
It turns out the Steam Deck OLED gaming handheld has not had working audio support with the mainline (upstream) Linux kernel since a change in late 2023 that was merged for Linux 6.8. There was an AMD ASoC audio change that inadvertently broke audio support for the Steam Deck OLED handheld but not affecting the original LCD model. Valve’s downstream Steam OS kernel has compensated for this known breakage and other dis … ⌘ Read more

Marvel, DC, Game Publishers Launch Rival Events Saturday for Free Giveaways
The once-a-year free comic book giveaway “is splitting in two,” according to a local news report.

Launched in 2002 by Diamond Comic Distributor, comic book giants like Marvel and DC have historically participated together. But things changed after Diamond Comic Distributors went bankrupt in 2025, “leaving other companies to s … ⌘ Read more

Steam On Linux In April Pulled Back From Its Record High Marketshare
Steam on Linux use in March had skyrocketed to 5.33%, a 3.1% boost month-over-month and easily the highest level we’ve seen Steam on Linux at since its inception more than a decade ago. This record growth came amid the ongoing success of the Steam Deck handheld and Steam Play (Proton) for enabling more Windows games to run well on Linux. The April numbers are in and the Linux gaming marketshare pulled back somewhat but still remaining healthy… ⌘ Read more

Microsoft’s Xbox Mode Is Now Available For All Windows 11 PCs
Microsoft is rolling out Xbox mode to all Windows 11 PCs, bringing a full-screen Xbox PC app interface similar to Steam’s Big Picture Mode. “Some players in select markets will be able to download the Xbox mode experience today, with availability expanding to more players in those markets over the next several weeks,” says the Xbox team. The Verge repo … ⌘ Read more

Wine 11.8 Improves VBScript Compatibility, Finally Fixes Microsoft Golf 1999
Wine 11.8 delivers the latest and greatest support for running Windows applications and games under Linux and other platforms. This newest bi-weekly development release brings several more enhancements in working toward Wine 12.0 stable due out in early 2027… ⌘ Read more

Linux Support Coming For The ASUS ROG RAIKIRI II: A $160 High-End Gaming Controller
The ASUS ROG RAIKIRI II is a recently-launched wireless gaming controller for both PC and Xbox gaming. This is a premium controller priced at $160 USD and has been receiving positive reviews under Windows while now it will soon be seeing mainline Linux support… ⌘ Read more

AerynOS Updated With Linux 7.0, Gaming Optimized Kernel Flavor
AerynOS, the Linux distribution formerly known as Serpent OS, is out with a new monthly ISO refresh and details on other recent improvements to this original, from-scratch Linux distribution… ⌘ Read more

GitHub ‘No Longer a Place For Serious Work’, Says Hashicorp Co-Founder
Hashicorp co-founder Mitchell Hashimoto says GitHub’s frequent outages have made it “no longer a place for serious work,” prompting him to move his Ghostty terminal emulator project elsewhere after 18 years on the platform. The Register reports: “I’ve been angry about it. I’ve hurt people’s feelings. I’ve been lashing out. Because GitHub … ⌘ Read more

Valve Updates GameNetworkingSockets After Nearly Four Year Hiatus
Back in 2018, Valve open-sourced their Steam networking sockets library as a basic network transport layer for games. This library is used by games from Counter-Strike to Dota 2 and since its public open-source drop has been picked up elsewhere. Finally after going nearly four years without a new version, GameNetworkingSockets v1.5 dropped today… ⌘ Read more

Sony Rolls Out 30-Day Online DRM Check-In For PlayStation Digital Games
Sony is reportedly rolling out a 30-day online check-in requirement for some digital PS4 and PS5 games, meaning players could temporarily lose access if their console does not reconnect to renew the license. Tom’s Hardware reports: In the info page of an affected game, you’d see a new validity period and a “remaining time” deadline … ⌘ Read more

@bender@twtxt.net Well I’m open to ideas of course 😅 My goal here was to build something like a Civ-1 inspired game that’s playable online and multiplayer. Do you remember this old bad boy that was played on PC(s) on MS-DOS ?! 😅

@prologic@twtxt.net I am going to give it a more serious spin (meaning I am going to go read the help page). I’ve got to tell you though, most successful games do not need a help. But I am fully aware that there is a subset of gamers that would not mind—if not appreciate—a game with help, manual, and the likes.

@bender@twtxt.net Anything I can do to help with getting started with the game? Help page not enougH/ Some “Getting Started” guide? Walk-through? 🤔

@bender@twtxt.net Yeah !

Maybe put a notice when on mobile stating that the game is for desktop, or bigger screens (tablets), only?

I’ll do this for sure!

Fans Angry Over Pokemon Go Champion’s Disqualification For Allegedly Shaking the Table
It’s “the curious case of… the Pokémon Go pro who celebrated too hard,” reports the gaming news site Aftermath. It all started on the first weekend in April…

Firestar73, a competitive Pokémon Go player who placed seventh at last year’s world championships, managed to narrowly cinch a game-five fin … ⌘ Read more

@prologic@twtxt.net I am fairly bad, or have a very poor understanding of the game, so I can’t figure out what to do. Tried a few times. 😅 Also, I am sure you know by now, but it is not mobile friendly at all. Maybe put a notice when on mobile stating that the game is for desktop, or bigger screens (tablets), only?

Congratulations!

Godot 4.7 Reaches Beta With HDR Output, Ray-Tracing Improvements & Editor Enhancements
Godot 4.7 reached its beta milestone on Friday for this leading open-source, cross-platform game engine… ⌘ Read more

@kiwu@twtxt.net Working on my game Frontier Crown – Going to push a new version today hopefully that includes much improved graphics, expanded ruleset and scope.

Opera GX Browser Gets Flatpak’ed & Snap’ed On Linux
Last month Opera released the Opera GX gaming-focused web browser for Linux. It rolled out in RPM and Debian package format support while now for those interested is also available via Flatpak and Snap sandboxed app formats… ⌘ Read more

Godot 4.7 Will Finally Have HDR Output, Including On Linux With Wayland
The upcoming Godor 4.7 open-source, cross-platform game engine release is rolling out support for high dynamic range (HDR)… ⌘ Read more

Your Phone’s Next Speed Boost May Come From Magnetic Chips
alternative_right writes: A new technology has been proposed that could fundamentally solve the issue of smartphones overheating during high-spec gaming or extended video streaming. Researchers at KAIST have discovered the principle of processing signals using the minute vibrations of magnets (spin waves) instead of electrons. This method significantly reduc … ⌘ Read more

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Gets a Price Cut
Microsoft is cutting the monthly price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass, but the tradeoff is that new Call of Duty releases will no longer arrive on the service at launch. Instead, they’ll show up about a year later. The Verge reports: After Xbox CEO Asha Sharma admitted last week that “Game Pass has become too expensive for players,” Microsoft is dropping the price of Xbox Game Pa … ⌘ Read more

PlayStation To Require Age Verification For Messages and Voice Chat
A new email from Sony says that PlayStation will require players to verify their age later this year to keep using communication features like messages and voice chat. Insider-Gaming reports: The initiative comes from the goal of providing “safe, age-appropriate experiences for players and families while respecting their privacy” and provi … ⌘ Read more

I won our only game of Magic for this week with my (yet-to-be published) “Bolas Triumphant” deck: 5 players over 3 hours, including 4 board wipes (one of which came from my Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh), and I even got to cast Omniscience via a Fae of Wishes. I can’t speak for everyone, but I know I had a good time. 😁

Wine 11.7 Brings VBScript Fixes, DirectSound 7.1 Channel Support
For those using upstream Wine for running your Windows games/apps on Linux rather than the likes of the Proton 11.0 beta, out today is Wine 11.7 as the newest bi-weekly development release… ⌘ Read more

Proton 11.0 Beta Released With More Games Playable On Steam Play
Valve and CodeWeavers have just released Proton 11.0 Beta as their first beta milestone for this software that powers Steam Play now rebased against upstream Wine 11.0… ⌘ Read more

SDL Adds Policy To Forbid LLM/AI Generated Code Contributions
The SDL library widely used by cross-platform games and part of the Steam Runtime has now established a policy to block code contributions made using AI / Large Language Models (LLMs)… ⌘ Read more

Sunshine Game Streaming Introduces Vulkan Video Encode Support
Sunshine v2026.413.143228 released this week as a new feature release for this self-hosted game stream host for Moonlight, an open-source game streaming client that is an implementation of the NVIDIA GameStream protocol. Notable with this Sunshine release is Vulkan Video encode support as an alternative to using the Video Acceleration API (VA-API) for game streaming… ⌘ Read more

GreenBoost Memory Orchestrator For NVIDIA GPUs Introduces GreenBoost-Proton For Gaming
Last month we showcased GreenBoost as an open-source means of augmenting NVIDIA GPU vRAM with system RAM and NVMe storage. This memory tiering solution for NVIDIA GPUs was developed by an open-source developer with a focus on CUDA and allowing larger LLMs to be handled on graphics cards with smaller vRAM capacities. There was a setback to the project due to NVIDIA legal but now the project is going in new form and also has … ⌘ Read more

Amazon Luna Ends Its Support for Purchased Games and Third-Party Subscriptions
Amazon’s Luna cloud gaming service is making some changes, reports Engadget:

It’s no longer possible to buy Ubisoft+ and Jackbox Games subscriptions or standalone games through Luna. Amazon will automatically cancel any active subscriptions bought through Luna at the end of customers’ next billing cycle. If you have … ⌘ Read more

To Fill Air Traffic Controller Shortage, FAA Turns To Gamers
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: As the Trump administration seeks to fill a national shortage of air traffic controllers, officials are targeting a new talent pool: gamers. The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday is making a recruiting push aimed at avid players of video games, as the agency strives to fill thousands of … ⌘ Read more

TIL that SSH actually stands for Secure Snake Home, a massively multiplayer snake game playable via the SSH protocol: ssh snakes.run

Of course, no one else was online when I was playing, so…

Image

FEX 2604 Released With Better Memory Savings For Running x86_64 Apps/Games On ARM64
Out today is the newest monthly update to FEX for this emulator for running Linux x86/x86_64 binaries on AArch64 (ARM64) Linux systems, including games and the likes of Steam Play with Windows games. This Valve-sponsored project that is quite important for the upcoming Steam Frame has rolled out more performance improvements, memory savings, and other improvements with FEX 2604… ⌘ Read more

ASUS Armoury Driver Supports A Few More Laptops With Linux 7.0
Merged back in Linux 6.19 was the ASUS Armoury driver to enhance support for the ROG Ally gaming handhelds and modern ASUS laptops. The ASUS Armoury driver enables various laptop features to be toggled under Linux and since its introduction it has continued expanding support for more ASUS devices. Ahead of Linux 7.0 coming out on Sunday, a few more devices are now supported by this upstream driver… ⌘ Read more

Valve Developer Improves The Linux Gaming Experience For Limited vRAM Hardware
Natalie Vock of Valve’s Linux graphics driver team primarily working on the RADV Vulkan driver has come up with a new interesting creation: patches to the Linux kernel and KDE for sharply improving the gaming experience for those running systems with limited amounts of video memory. Such as for graphics cards with just 8GB of dedicated vRAM, the patches now available – initially on CachyOS for a nice out-of-the-box experience – p … ⌘ Read more

Valve Releases Native Steam Link App For Apple’s Vision Pro
Valve has released a native Steam Link beta for Apple Vision Pro, letting users stream their existing Steam games onto a large virtual screen in visionOS. It supports up to 4K resolution and will let you dynamically adjust the curve of the display. The Mac Observer reports: Steam Link does not support VR titles in this beta, and Valve clearly states that t … ⌘ Read more

New Jersey Cannot Regulate Kalshi’s Prediction Market, US Appeals Court Rules
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: A federal appeals court ruled on Monday that New Jersey gaming regulators cannot prevent Kalshi from allowing people in the state to use its prediction market to place financial bets on the outcome of sporting events.
A three-judge panel of the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Ci … ⌘ Read more

Wine Staging 11.6 Ships Big Patch Series For Working On DirectComposition
Following Friday’s release of Wine 11.6 with reviving the Android driver and improving game mod support as part of DLL loader updates, Wine-Staging 11.6 is out today with extra patches atop… ⌘ Read more

I went 1 for 2 at Magic this week… Temmet made a good showing the first game before being overwhelmed by an infinite number of Wylls (aka Fred Durst, on account of all his “rollin’, rollin’, rollin’!”). As a result, I unleashed Chatterfang on the group for the second game, and he lead his squirrel army to victory once again. Good times!

‘AI’ Is Coming For Your Online Gaming Servers Next
“Consumer PC parts aren’t the only things being gobbled up by the ‘AI’ industry,” writes PCWorld’s Michael Crider. “A Starcraft-inspired strategy game is shutting down its multiplayer servers because the hosting company got bought out for ‘AI.’” The game will still be playable offline for now, but the shutdown highlights the ripple effects of the AI boom on the gaming indust … ⌘ Read more