Gaming on Mac has been in somewhat of a weird situation lately. On one hand, there seems to be a ton of true AAA titles making their debut on macOS, but on the other hand, sales on the platform have been extremely disheartening in many of the cases. Now, it has been revealed that Assassin's Creed: Shadows, which is set to debut on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation on the 20th of March, will also be available for Mac users on the same day. While that may sound like great news for interested folks, there is a catch - like many of the titles, AC Shadows will be available exclusively on the Mac App Store for a cool $70.

And this is exactly where we hit a major roadblock. For whatever reason, Steam will not include binaries for both Mac and Windows platforms, forcing people with both Mac and Windows PCs to buy the expensive game for both the systems - and this, in my opinion, is the major reason why adoption has been poor. There are plenty of folks with both Macs and PCs - but getting them to pull the trigger for the same game two times is a hard sell. According to the App Store, the game will be playable on Macs powered by the M1 and higher SoCs, and needless to say, support for modern ray tracing goodness will be limited to M3 onwards. It is unclear, as of this writing how the performance is going to be, but there is no denying that the GPUs found on the Pro, Max, and Ultra SoCs in recent years are more than capable of handling even the most demanding of titles with playable framerates.

Welcome to the last week of February and this week we have a massive AAA release from a popular Capcom franchise that involves a lot of monsters in the wild. The rest of this week is a lot more low-key, with a rhythm platformer, a 2D scroller action ninja game, a co-op horror game, a retro collection which includes no less than 14 games and finally some greens and bunkers.

Monster Hunter Wilds / This week's AAA release / Friday 28 February
Fulfill your duty as a Hunter by tracking and defeating powerful monsters and forging strong new weapons and armor from the materials you harvest from your hunt as you uncover the connection between the people of the Forbidden Lands and the locales they inhabit. The ultimate hunting experience awaits you in Monster Hunter Wilds. Steam link

In nearly every corner of our lives, the buzz about AI is impossible to ignore. It's destined to revolutionize how we work, learn, and play. For those of us immersed in the world of gaming—whether as players or creators—the question isn't just how AI will change the game, but how it will ignite new possibilities.

At Xbox, we're all about using AI to make things better (and more fun!) for players and game creators. We want to bring more games to more people around the world and always stay true to the creative vision and artistry of game developers. We believe generative AI can boost this creativity and open up new possibilities. We're excited to announce a generative AI breakthrough, published today in the journal Nature and announced by Microsoft Research, that shows this potential to open up new possibilities—including the opportunity to make older games accessible to future generations of players across new devices and in new ways.

Welcome to another week of new game releases and this week's AAA title takes place in the same world as Pillars of Eternity, for those that were a fan of that game from a decade ago. If RPG games aren't your cup of tea, how about a face full of Norwegian snow, or maybe the summer of 1995? How about some equestrian challenges, some pirate ninjas or maybe something a bit more dystopian? If so, we got the games for you this week.

Avowed / This week's AAA title / Tuesday 18 February
Avowed is a first-person fantasy RPG set in the world of Eora, where your choices carve a path through war, intrigue, and ancient mysteries. Navigate a land in turmoil, forge powerful alliances or deadly rivalries, and wield magic and steel to shape the fate of the Living Lands—and your own destiny. Steam link

Welcome to week two of February, during which one of the oldest game franchises is launching its seventh iteration, although this time around it steps away quite a bit from its past versions, for better or worse. This is followed by some mayhem, Hollywood drama, an action co-op RPG, some classic side scrolling action with a lot of big guns and the week is rounded off with a JRPG.

Sid Meier's Civilization VII / This week's AAA release / Tuesday 11 February
In Civilization VII, your strategic decisions shape the unique cultural lineage of your evolving empire. Rule as one of many legendary leaders from throughout history and steer the course of your story by choosing a new civilization to represent your empire in each Age of human advancement. Steam link

Welcome to February, also known as the shortest month of the year. This week's AAA release brings you some open-world medieval knight action. The rest of the week is pretty low-key, kicking off with a rather odd action-puzzle game which is followed by a new take on the vampire genre. Up next is some musical combat, some more knights, although this time we're back in Camelot and the week is finished off with a paranormal point-and-click adventure.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II / This week's AAA release / Tuesday 4 February
Diving back into the heart-pounding world of 15th Century Bohemia (Central Europe), Kingdom Come: Deliverance II picks up where its predecessor left off, thrusting players into the shoes of Henry, the steadfast son of a blacksmith, embroiled in a tumultuous tale of vengeance, betrayal, and self-discovery. In this gripping sequel, players will traverse a meticulously crafted medieval landscape, from the humble confines of a blacksmith's forge to the grandeur of royal courts, all while navigating the treacherous currents of a kingdom torn apart by civil war. Steam Link

Today we are announcing Midnight Society will be closing its doors after three incredible years, with an amazing team of over 55 developers contributing to our new IP DEADROP. We are actively seeking other game studios that would be interested in offering employment opportunities to our talented team members. If you know anyone who's hiring please forward this message to them or DM us for direct intros. We express our sincere gratitude to each and every one of our community members and deeply sorry we were unable to reach our ultimate goal.

Midnight Society was founded on the core principles of transparency and open development. From as early as the creation of the very first weapon, environment, and gameplay systems, we shipped playable builds of our games to our massive community of players. With the leadership of three industry veterans, the studio grew to over fifty AAA developers from the largest franchises in the world (Call of Duty, Halo and Fortnite), alongside hundreds of thousands of community members who signed up to play in-development Snapshots of our first game and provide crucial feedback for the team.

The video game industry may be preparing for significant pricing transformation, with the prediction that Grand Theft Auto 6 (GTA 6) could set a new precedent for game pricing when it launches in the fall of 2025. According to a recent industry analysis by Epyllion Group CEO Matthew Ball, the current standard price point of $70 for premium games is becoming unsustainable given the escalating development costs of major AAA titles. Ball suggests that GTA 6, one of the most anticipated releases in gaming history, may need to retail for at least $91 to reflect its production value. The potential price increase could have ripple effects throughout the industry, with other developers and publishers likely to follow suit. Anticipated are price points between $80 and $100 for premium titles, with cascading effects on lower-priced games that could see increases of around $10 across different price tiers.

Michael Douse, Publishing Director at Larian Studios, has voiced support for price adjustments, noting that game prices have remained relatively stagnant despite inflation. "A good company raises salaries in line with inflation so that their staff don't die or something, but games prices haven't risen with inflation. This isn't the reason the industry is in the shit for now, but it is an uncomfortable truth. On the other hand, the responsibility for a game developer is to make sure that the game they show lives up to that promise, and that investment from the player," Douse stated on X. While development costs and employee salaries have risen with inflation, game prices have seen only minimal increases. Even multimillion-dollar productions maintain the $70 price point, a model the industry now views as unsustainable.

LG Electronics (LG) has announced a partnership with Xbox, providing players access to hundreds of games with the Xbox app on LG Smart TVs. Owners of LG's latest Smart TVs will be able to effortlessly discover and play a wide selection of PC and console games from industry-leading partners, and soon Xbox, through the new Gaming Portal. This versatile, gaming centric hub is designed as an all-in-one solution for seamless navigation and personalized gaming, both for the latest AAA games and casual webOS app games.

For gaming enthusiasts, LG Smart TV users can soon explore the Gaming Portal for direct access to hundreds of games with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, including popular titles like Call of Duty: BlackOps 6, and highly anticipated releases like Avowed. With Game Pass Ultimate, players will also be able to stream a catalog of select Xbox games they own such as NBA 2K25 or Hogwarts Legacy.

Welcome to week 50 and Lucia, alternatively Freddy week if that's something that's celebrated in your part of the world. This week's AAA title will bring back childhood memories for many of you, at least if you're old enough to remember Dr Jones. As for the rest of this coming week's new releases, we have a spoiled cat, some people trying to survive the apocalypse, a bunch of people playing with swords, a hungry elevator and some ruins in need of repair.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle / This week's AAA title / Monday 9 December
Uncover one of history's greatest mysteries in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, a first-person, single-player adventure set between the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade. The year is 1937, sinister forces are scouring the globe for the secret to an ancient power connected to the Great Circle, and only one person can stop them - Indiana Jones. You'll become the legendary archaeologist in this cinematic action-adventure game from MachineGames, the award-winning studio behind the recent Wolfenstein series, and executive produced by Hall of Fame game designer Todd Howard. Steam link

Welcome to the first week of December and the first of advent for those that celebrate it. This week's AAA release is the 2024 release of a FPS shooter that first saw life back in 1998, but under a new developer and publisher. If this isn't your cup of tea, then you can try your luck in beating humans, demolishing things, surviving a bullet hell, finding your lost memories or pretending to be a superhero.

Delta Force / This week's AAA title / Thursday 5 December
Delta Force is back! The iconic series returns as the definitive free-to-play modern team-based tactical shooter and featuring three distinct gameplay modes: large-scale PvP warfare, intense extraction shooter action, and a remake of the legendary Black Hawk Down campaign. Steam link

Humanoid Origin, a game studio started and lead by former Mass Effect creator, Casey Hudson, has just announced that it will be shutting down just 3 years after its creation. The main driving factor behind the closure of Humanoid Origin is a lack of funding, with the announcement coming from a LinkedIn post on Monday, November 25. In the announcement, Hudson places some of the blame on the "broader challenges in the industry" and says that the studio's main goal right now is to support its employees in the transition to new projects.

The fledgling game studio was unable to launch its first project, which was to be an ambitious, large-scale AAA sci-fi game for which it had aggressively been hiring creative talent since the company's 2021 start. This is just the latest studio casualty in what has been a brutal year for the gaming industry as a whole. Earlier this year, studios owned by much larger corporations with deeper pockets also saw similar closures, like the somewhat mysterious shuttering of the Humble Games publishing division, which was later clarified as "restructuring."

Steam is highly valued by many gamers, not only for being a fairly inexpensive, easy way to buy and manage games, but also because it provides statistics on player count and play times, via tools like SteamDB, which are a neat way for gamers to see how the community is participating in games before buying them. According to a post on the FandomPulse Substack, however, Ubisoft has taken issue with Valve's player statistics.

The Substack post quotes Ubisoft insiders who claim that the game developer and "other companies" want Valve to disable or restrict the APIs used by tools like SteamDB and Steam Charts as a direct response to the disappointing performance of Star Wars Outlaws. This news also comes ahead of the early 2025 launch of Assassin's Creed Shadows, which has already caused significant apprehension as a result of game previews. The claims also mention that Ubisoft seeks to control the narrative of its games and potentially present a rosier image to its investors. If Ubisoft has its way, the gaming industry would lose even more transparency, since tools like SteamDB are often used by game journalists to evaluate the popularity and commercial success of games.

After a couple of slow week's we have a packed week of new releases for you this week, kicking off with some nuclear stalking action in this week's AAA title. This is followed by a tactical turn-based strategy game set in WW2, a fantasy open world survival crafter, a game for wanna be pilots, a MOBA battle royal hero shooter mixup, a murder on a train with a comedy twist and finally a tactical shooter set in an anime universe. Star Wars Outlaws is also out on Steam this week among many other new releases.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl / This week's AAA release / Wednesday 20 November
Discover the vast Chornobyl Exclusion Zone full of dangerous enemies, deadly anomalies and powerful artifacts. Unveil your own epic story as you make your way to the Heart of Chornobyl. Make your choices wisely, as they will determine your fate in the end. Take over a role of the lone stalker and explore photorealistic seamless open world in a 64-km² radioactive zone with a variety of environments that reveal post-apocalyptic atmosphere from different angles. Steam link

As we enter the last week of October and the first few days of November, we have a crammed week of new games, as well as a bunch of old releases that have either been refreshed or released on PC for the first time. This week's AAA title is a single player RPG that appears to have something to do with an age of dragons. This is followed by a mystery on the moon, a strange life, cowboys, some martial arts, a trip through hell, mechanical animals and finally a sequel to Elona.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard / This week's first AAA release / Thursday 31 October
When a pair of corrupt ancient gods break free from centuries of darkness, the vibrant land of Thedas needs someone they can count on. Rise as Rook, Dragon Age's newest hero. Be who you want to be and play how you want to play as you fight back and lead your team of seven companions, each with their own rich story. Together you will become The Veilguard. Steam link

Welcome to the last full week of October and boy is it going to be a busy week of new game releases. This week's AAA release is said to force you to go rogue on your tour of duty. Next you'll be starting your own tentacle cult, which if followed by being kicked out of hell for the second time, an inaccurate history lesson, being blown away by the wind and finally being turned into a blue hedgehog.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 / This week's AAA title / Friday 25 October
Developed by Treyarch and Raven, Black Ops 6 is a spy action thriller set in the early 90s, a period of transition and upheaval in global politics, characterized by the end of the Cold War and the rise of the United States as a single superpower. With a mind-bending narrative, and unbound by the rules of engagement, this is signature Black Ops. The Black Ops 6 Campaign provides dynamic moment-to-moment gameplay that includes a variety of play spaces with blockbuster set pieces and action-packed moments, high-stakes heists, and cloak-and-dagger spy activity. Steam link

While Apple laptops have never really been the first stop for PC gaming, Linux is slowly shaping up to be an excellent gaming platform, largely thanks to open-source development efforts as well as work from the likes of AMD and NVIDIA, who have both put significant work into their respective Linux drivers in recent years. This makes efforts like the Asahi Linux Project all the more intriguing. Asahi Linux is a project that aims to bring Linux to Apple Silicon Macs—a task that has proven rather difficult, thanks to the intricacies of developing a bespoke GPU driver for Apple's custom ARM GPUs. In a recent blog post, the graphics developer behind the Asahi Linux Project showed off a number of AAA games, albeit older titles, running on an Apple M1 processor on the latest Asahi Linux build.

To run the games on Apple Silicon, Asahi Linux uses a "game playing toolkit," which relies on a number of custom graphics drivers and emulators, including tools from Valve's Proton translation layer, which ironically was also the foundation for Apple's Game Porting Toolkit. Asahi uses FEX to emulate x86 on ARM, Wine as a translation layer for Windows apps, and DXVK and vkd3d-proton for DirectX-Vulkan translation. In the blog post, the Asahi developer claims that the alpha is capable of running games like Control, The Witcher 3, and Cyberpunk 2077 at playable frame rates. Unfortunately, 60 FPS is not yet attainable in the majority of new high-fidelity games, there are a number of indie titles that run quite well on Asahi Linux, including Hollow Knight, Ghostrunner, and Portal 2.

Welcome to the first full week of October and another busy week of new game releases. This week's AAA release involves balls and dragons, but no need to worry, it's not an adult only game. This is followed by a co-op metroidvania game that actually appears to have a story, this week's remake which involves a ghost town on a hill, a shady parkour platformer, an old-school style JRPG, a turn-based RPG and finally a peaceful exploration game. Also out this week is the Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred DLC.

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero / This week's AAA release / Friday 11 October
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero takes the legendary gameplay of the Budokai Tenkaichi series and raises it to whole new levels. Become a super warrior and experience the earth-shaking, limit-breaking power of Dragon Ball battles! Engage in heart-pounding, high-speed 3D battles that stay true to the anime and video game series, with breathtaking visuals and authentic combat moves like beam clashes, rush attacks, movements too quick for the eyes to see, and planet-razing ultimate attacks. Steam link

Welcome to the second half of September and what is nothing but a jam packed week of new game releases. The week kicks off with an almost two-year old PlayStation game that has something to do with Norse mythology gets launched on PC, although it does come with the DLC included and it's not capped at 60 FPS. As for the rest of this week's new games, we have a packed week starting with a lot of spell casting, another PlayStation game, but this time we're taking a JRPG of the highest rank, which is followed by a souls-like RPG game. Next up we have Dr Dr, which oddly enough isn't German at all, followed by another highly anticipated game that involves frozen punks. If there's nothing you like this week, you're most likely not a gamer.

God of War Ragnarök / This week's AAA release / Thursday 19 September
The sequel to the critically acclaimed God of War (2018), God of War Ragnarök picks up with Fimbulwinter well underway. Kratos and Atreus must journey to each of the Nine Realms in search of answers as Odin's forces in Asgard prepare for a prophesied battle that will end the world. Along the way, they will explore stunning, mythical landscapes, and face fearsome enemies in the form of Norse gods and monsters. As the threat of Ragnarök grows ever closer, Kratos and Atreus must choose between the safety of their family and the safety of the realms. Steam link

Welcome to another week of September and more new game releases. This week, we have a massive AAA release, well, at least for those that are into hammers of war and marines in space. For those that are not, we still have a busy week of new releases that starts with a very different take on what a car is, a new version of an Atari classic, an RPG farming sim, a normal take on what a car is and finally some eldritch horrors, because it's Friday the 13th.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 / This week's AAA release / Monday 9 September
Embody the superhuman skill and brutality of a Space Marine. Unleash deadly abilities and devastating weaponry to obliterate the relentless Tyranid swarms. Defend the Imperium in spectacular third-person action in solo or multiplayer modes. Steam Link

In a notable step forward for the RISC-V architecture, the Box86 and Box64 emulator developers have successfully run The Witcher 3 on a RISC-V processor. While performance is far from optimal, even on a Milk-V Pioneer with a 64-core processor and an AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT graphics card, the achievement is remarkable.

RISC-V, a free and open-source instruction set architecture, is still in its early stages compared to established platforms like ARM and x86/x64. Despite this, the Box86/Box64 team, known for creating environments to run Windows programs on Linux, has demonstrated that AAA gaming is possible on RISC-V hardware. To accomplish this feat, the developers utilized Box64 with Wine and DXVK to emulate the necessary instructions.

Welcome to the end of August and this week, we have a bunch of new releases for your perusal. This week's AAA release allegedly has something to do with criminals in a galaxy far far away. The remaining releases this week contain some other big releases as well and the week starts off with a post-apocalyptic survival city builder, which is followed by you waging war as a god, if that's what you're into. If big flying robots are your thing, then there's a game for you this week, alternatively we have a game for those that prefer fast cars. The week ends on a bit of a slower note with a Japanese action-RPG and an office RPG or sorts.

Star Wars Outlaws / This week's AAA release / Friday 30 August
Experience the first-ever open world Star Wars game, set between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Explore distinct locations across the galaxy, both iconic and new. Risk it all as Kay Vess, a scoundrel seeking freedom and the means to start a new life, along with her companion Nix. Fight, steal, and outwit your way through the galaxy's crime syndicates as you join the galaxy's most wanted. Not on Steam, but available on uPlay and EGS. Gold Preorder ($110) gets headstart on Tuesday

As we enter the second to last week of August, we finally have a massive new AAA release that involves a magical Chinese monkey. As for the rest of this week's upcoming new games, we have a cyberpunk co-op looter shooter, a dusty story-driven action-adventure, a wholesome narrative game, wizards with guns and a game named after a very fast airplane, even though it doesn't even seem to involve any airplanes.

Black Myth: Wukong / This week's AAA release / Tuesday 20 August
Black Myth: Wukong is an action RPG rooted in Chinese mythology. The story is based on Journey to the West, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. You shall set out as the Destined One to venture into the challenges and marvels ahead, to uncover the obscured truth beneath the veil of a glorious legend from the past. Steam Link

AMD is developing a new technology that promises to significantly reduce the size on disk of games, as well as reduce the size of game patches and updates. Today's AAA games tend to be over a 100 GB in size, with game updates running into tens of gigabytes, with some of the major updates practically downloading the game all over again. Upcoming games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is reportedly over 300 GB in size, which pushes the game away from those with anything but Internet connections with hundreds of Mbps in speeds. Much of the bulk of the game is made up of visual assets—textures, sprites, and cutscene videos. A modern AAA title could have hundreds of thousands of individual game assets, and sometimes even redundant sets of textures for different image quality settings.

AMD's solution to this problem is the Neural Block Compression technology. The company will get into the nuts and bolts of the tech in its presentation at the 2024 Eurographics Symposium on Rendering (July 3-5), but we have a vague idea of what it could be. Modern games don't drape surfaces of a wireframe with a texture, but also additional layers, such as specular maps, normal maps, roughness maps, etc). AMD's idea is to "flatten" all these layers, including the base texture, into a single asset format, which the game engine could disaggregate into the individual layers using an AI neural network. This is not to be confused with mega-textures—something entirely different, which relies on a single large texture covering all objects in a scene. The idea here is to flatten the various data layers of individual textures and their maps, into a single asset type. In theory, this should yield significant file-size savings, even if it results in some additional compute cost on the client's end.

After a couple of slow weeks of new game releases, we're finally back on track with a wealth of new game releases this week. We even have a AAA title, although some of you might disagree with it being such, mainly due to the blue aliens and there being four different editions of the game. When it comes to the rest of this week's releases, we have a city builder with sacrifices, a medieval inspired MMO, a very sandy game that has nothing to do with giant worms, a Viking inspired online co-op game, a DLC for a very popular RPG game and a dystopian city builder.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora coming to Steam / This week's AAA release / Monday 17 June
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a first-person, action-adventure game set in the Western Frontier. Abducted by the RDA, you, a Na'vi, were molded to serve their purpose. Fifteen years later, you are free, but find yourself a stranger in your birthplace. Reconnect with your lost heritage and discover what it truly means to be Na'vi as you join other clans to protect Pandora. Steam link