Right on schedule, and as we reported earlier this month, Wayfinder has exited its long, tumultuous Steam Early Access period, and, almost immediately after the full release, the game saw a significant spike in player count—at least compared to its recent player count. Wayfinder released to the general public today, and since its full launch, it has gained at least 100 additional positive reviews. Meanwhile, the initial player count only spiked by around 2,000 concurrent players, and the game's all-time Steam review score barely budged from its overall mixed rating.

Wayfinder's 1.0 release seems to be off to a slow start, especially compared to its 24,000+ peak concurrent player count, which it achieved back when it was still slated to be a free-to-play online MMO released under Warframe developer Digital Extremes's publishing wing. Since then, however, Airship Syndicate has drastically changed the nature of Wayfinder, turning it into a co-op (or single-player) dungeon crawler ARPG that's loud and proud about being microtransaction-free. In the Wayfinder 1.0 update, Airship Syndicate also added a whole new area for players to explore and a new movement mechanic, which should dramatically increase the verticality of the game and the diversity of combat encounters.

Unknown Worlds has finally announced the next sequel to its popular indie survival game franchise, Subnautica, and released a teaser trailer alongside the reveal. While details are still scant, the first trailer divulges some key information about the upcoming game. For starters, and likely the biggest divergence from Subnautica and the Subnautica: Below Zero expansion, is the addition of multiplayer gameplay, supporting teams of up to four players. For now, it looks like gameplay will either be single-player or online co-op, although it's unclear whether teams will be able to mix the two, popping into four-player sessions alone or with one or two players sitting it out.

Just judging from the trailer and Steam Store page, it looks like Subnautica 2 will take many of the same game mechanics—crafting, resource management, and an open-world sandbox—as the other games in the franchise, and build on them, instead of trying to rewrite the story. Likewise, it looks to be leaning into the Lovecraftian horror themes earlier on in the game. There also seems to be a new upgrade mechanic that will allow players to augment the biology of their characters, which should add an extra layer of depth to the game. Unknown Worlds has not yet published the full retail price for Subnautica 2 or pinned an exact release date, but it will release as an Early Access game sometime in 2025. Fans of the genre and franchise can wishlist and follow the game on Steam, Epic Games, or Xbox or join the Discord community.

UGREEN has recently unveiled its latest innovation in fast-charging technology: the UGREEN Uno Charger 100 W USB C Charger. Designed for gamers and tech enthusiasts alike, this compact, four-port charger ensures that gaming never has to stop, offering rapid power delivery to handheld consoles like the Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck, and ROG Ally, alongside other devices. The flagship UGREEN Uno Charger 100 W is available to buy for $59.99 from Amazon with UK availability expected shortly on Amazon UK.

The UGREEN Uno Charger stands out with its 100 W fast charging capability, allowing users to charge a MacBook Pro 16-inch to 43% in just 30 minutes, making it equally powerful for gaming consoles and everyday tech. Equipped with three USB-C ports and one USB-A port, the charger can fast-charge up to four devices simultaneously—perfect for those juggling multiple gadgets during extended gaming marathons.

After recently announcing PS5 and PC cross-play, Airship Syndicate announced that its co-op, indie, ARPG dungeon crawler, Wayfinder, will officially exit early access on October 21. Along with the full version 1.0 release, Wayfinder will introduce both a new playable area, called The Crucible, and a new vertical traversal tool, called a Hookshot, specifically designed to explore the ruins of the ancient city. The announcement comes with gameplay footage (see on the PlayStation Blog) of the overgrown, gloomy mega-mech that was built by the ancients to fight a war but has since been reclaimed by nature. The new map adds an extra degree of verticality to the game, giving the developers an opportunity to expand the player experience and arsenal.

In addition to the new region and extended mobility options, Airship Syndicate is teaming up with Critical Role for a paid DLC that will add The Legend of Vox Machina characters to Wayfinder as playable characters. Although exact pricing of the DLC is unknown both the Critical Role DLC Supporter Pack and The Crucible will be available on October 21. After the update, players will still be able to play in both single-player and co-op modes, just like before.

As autumn arrives, Valve's Steam platform is heating up the gaming world with its latest Steam Next Fest. From now until October 21st, gamers can dive into hundreds of free demos from upcoming indie titles, turning their homes into a virtual gaming convention. Steam Next Fest spotlights indie projects and games from smaller development teams, offering various genres, from action RPGs to building strategies and visual novels. Valve compares the event to traditional gaming fairs, with one key advantage: players can try out demos at their leisure, without the time constraints and crowds typically found at physical events. To help users navigate the vast selection, Steam's homepage features an algorithmically curated discovery list tailored to each user's gaming preferences. Additional sorting options include lists of the most popular games, soon-to-be-released titles, and the most requested games participating in the fest.

For those seeking specific experiences, games can be filtered by categories such as action, adventure, strategy, and more. One of the event's unique aspects is that developers can only participate once with a particular game, ensuring that most demos are available to the public for the first time. This exclusivity adds to the excitement, giving players a first look at upcoming releases. Enhancing the interactive experience, Steam Next Fest also features numerous live streams where developers showcase their games, provide behind-the-scenes insights, and engage with the audience through Q&A sessions. These streams offer a personal touch, mimicking the developer interactions one might have at a physical gaming convention.

GameSir, a World-renowned brand in gaming peripherals, proudly announces the launch of its latest product, the Tarantula Pro. This stylish new controller, is designed to enhance the gaming experience across multiple platforms including Switch, iOS, Android, PC and Steam. Inspired by the formidable spider species with the same namesake, the Tarantula Pro stands out with its unique design and lightning-fast response time, making it the perfect device for keen gamers that want a distinctive, feature rich controller with a striking design.

The GameSir Tarantula Pro's distinctive design has multiple extra buttons on the front aligned in three lines, inspired by the appearance of a tarantula. This innovative layout also provides gamers with unprecedented control and flexibility during gameplay. Complemented by an RGB lighting strip and vibrant face buttons, the Tarantula Pro not only offers exceptional performance but also brings a visual flair to the gaming experience.

Valve has merged a new script into the master branch of its SteamOS Gamescope compositor on GitHub. This update introduces display configuration support for the Asus ROG Ally and ROG Ally X, notably enabling Gamescope to utilize the full 48-120 Hz Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) range on the 1920x1080p panels of these devices. Having a wide VRR range is especially worth considering the challenges of maintaining high frame rates on portable devices due to limited computational power. So with VRR being present at 48 Hz, handheld consoles reach tear-free gaming even demanding titles. This update follows a series of recent Steam-related improvements, including an August update that added support for Asus ROG Ally and ROG Ally X buttons to the SteamOS input layer.

With VRR support being added now, we may see future Steam Deck iterations with VRR display support, as the current Steam Deck and Steam Deck OLED don't support this feature. This VRR update shows Valve's continued progress towards a broader release of SteamOS for various PC platforms. It confirms the company's focus on optimizing the operating system for handheld devices as the future of SteamOS. What used to be mini PCs, Valve now sees as handheld gaming consoles, which are the target area of SteamOS. Despite the growing anticipation, the exact release date for a broader SteamOS rollout remains uncertain, given Valve's notorious "Valve Time" approach to product launches. However, with community-driven SteamOS 3 ports like Bazzite and HoloISO already available, enthusiasts have alternative options to explore in the meantime.

Motion Twin, of Dead Cells fame, has announced the early access release date for its next roguelite, Windblown, which looks to be a much more cheerful affair than the grim-dark Dead Cells, and it's designed for multiplayer, too. Windblown will feature many of the same gameplay elements as Dead Cells, though, including fast-paced hack-and-slash combat, platforming, and permanent death. This time, though, Motion Twin has gone for an isometric perspective, instead of the side-scroller style, and the pixel graphics are swapped out for a cutesy cartoon style and color palette somewhat reminiscent of the likes of Paladins. There also appear to be some nifty bullet-hell-style battles thrown into the mix.

As for the release date and playable demo, Motion Twin has not yet announced when the game will fully release, but a Windblown demo will launch on October 14 during the upcoming Steam Next Fest, and Steam Early Access for the full game arrives on October 24. Motion Twin also says that any progress and unlocks achieved during the playable demo will carry over once the full game launches, which is a nice touch.

Metal: Hellsinger is a first-person rhythm shooter featuring roguelike and boomer shooter elements and set to a heavy metal soundtrack with some of the metal world's biggest names. The game follows a mysterious protagonist, known simply as The Unknown, as she battles her way through the various levels of hell on a quest to regain her voice. Today, the rhythm shooter launches an additional VR version, with some interesting new VR-specific rhythm mechanics to spice things up.

Being a rhythm game, Metal: Hellsinger gives players bonuses for performing actions on-beat with the background music—which often gets quite challenging due to the fast pace and swarming enemies—but the VR version steps things up a notch, allowing you to aim the game's dual pistols individually, physically draw and release the crossbow, and actively reload the shotgun to the beat.

Humble Bundle has just announced its monthly Humble Choice game bundle, a monthly selection of games that Humble Bundle members can download and keep forever for free. While the intention is obviously to tempt gamers to sign up for a recurring Humble Bundle membership, there's nothing stopping you from signing up for a month for $11.99 to claim the Humble Choice bundle and then cancelling the membership.

For October, there are eight new games joining the Humble Choice bundle, ranging from colorful, action-packed, third-person RPGs to indie simulation games, and meditative puzzle exploration games. The main attractions of the October Humble Choice bundle, though, have to be Remnant II, Persona 5 Strikers, Jusant, and Dome Keeper, which have each earned positive reviews both from critics and gamers alike.

Amazon Games recently launched the long-awaited free-to-play MMORPG, Throne and Liberty, in early access, and the game appears to have gone down quite well with the community. On Thursday, mere moments after the launch, Throne and Liberty already had a peak player count of 53,884—a figure it likely earned during its advanced access period in South East Asia and Korea, where it has been available since as early as December 2023.

Since then, Throne and Liberty has continued its success, rising to as many as 54,720 concurrent players on Saturday, September 28. While this only places it in third place for current top sellers on Steam, this player count is in spite of the free-to-play game's early access pass costing a minimum of $40 on Steam. Throne and Liberty has also garnered its significant following despite only 60% of its Steam user reviews being positive, making its success even more anomalous.

Valve's latest third-person MOBA-like hero shooter, Deadlock, has had a pretty serious cheater problem, despite still being an invite-only public test. While the game has thus far operated on a player reporting system to identify and punish cheaters, a recent game patch has introduced a rather comical—and seemingly effective—anti-cheat system that can either ban cheating players or turn them into frogs until the end of the match.

Valve says that the new anti-cheat system is set up to be fairly conservative at the moment to avoid any false positives. Aside from the new anti-cheat, Deadlock's September 26 update introduced a new hero, Mirage, whose design and gameplay seem rooted in the jinn from Arabic myths (aka djinn or genie) and added a pretty vast collection of gameplay updates, balances, and quality-of-life improvements throughout the game.

God of War Ragnarök has been one of the most highly anticipated PC launches in recent history, although the launch has been somewhat controversial. After launching on PC via Steam and Epic Games on September 19, players discovered that the single-player narrative-driven action-adventure game would require an online PSN account in order to play. This account requirement somewhat predictably resulted in significant backlash, which, in turn, resulted in a third-party mod to remove the account requirement.

Shortly after the launch of God of War Ragnarök, the game's Steam page became inundated with negative reviews because of the PlayStation Network account required to play the game. Less than a week after launch, God of War's rating on Steam is a solid "Mixed," with only 69% positive reviews. That is compared to Metacritic's user reviews that place the PS5 version of the game at 8.1/10. Shortly after the review bombs started, though, a free mod called NoPSSDK appeared on Nexus Mods and GitHub that removes the PSN account requirement from God of War Ragnarök.

After much anticipation, Frostpunk 2 launched last week to near-universal praise. The strategic city-builder's success is underlined by the fact that the game has seemingly even exceeded its developer's expectations, with game sales for PC and macOS alone already surpassing the game's development and marketing cost just three days after launch.

In a post to the official Frostpunk 2 account on X, the developer celebrated that the game had officially sold over 350,000 copies. At $44.99 in the US, the new game costs $15 more than the original, which launched in 2018 and has generated an estimated total revenue of $53 million—since its launch. In contrast, Frostpunk 2 has supposedly already earned an estimated revenue of $3.5 million, according to Game-Stats.com, although estimates from Gamalytic put that closer to $10 million.

Gaming giant Valve appears to be venturing into uncharted territory. Recent findings on SteamDB have revealed that the company may be working on integrating ARM architecture and Android app support into its ecosystem. A mysterious application, codenamed "ValveTestApp3043620," has been spotted with an update that includes interesting changes. The update features new tags for several popular games, including Left 4 Dead 2, Garry's Mod, and Kerbal Space Program. These tags, such as "proton-arm64" and "proton-arm64e," indicate that Valve is testing a version of Proton specifically designed for ARM64-based systems. Proton, Valve's brainchild developed in partnership with CodeWeavers, is the magic behind running Windows games on Linux systems. By extending this technology to ARM64, Valve could be paving the way for PC gaming on portable Arm-based devices, potentially signaling a new hardware strategy.

The plot thickens with mentions of "proton_experimental" and "proton-arm64ec-vanguard" in the changelog, hinting at ongoing tests and experimental builds. Additionally, references to Waydroid, a tool enabling Android apps on Linux, suggest that Valve's ambitions may extend beyond gaming, possibly aiming to broaden software accessibility of its platform. This development has sparked speculation about the possibility of Steam games running on Android smartphones and tablets or even a possible Arm-powered version of the Steam Deck. However, a more likely scenario could be testing for Windows support on Arm-based chips. The timing of these experiments aligns with recent announcements of laptops featuring Qualcomm's ARM64-based Snapdragon X CPUs. These devices can run Windows-based games through Microsoft and Qualcomm's emulation layer, Prism. If Valve's Proton can provide superior performance or more stable emulation for Windows-based games on Arm devices, it could position itself as a strong competitor to Prism.

GameSir, a leading brand in gaming peripherals, proudly introduces its T7 wired controller. Featuring Hall Effect sticks and triggers, the T7 controller guarantees durability and precise handling for gamers. Compatible with Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One X|S, Windows 10/11 and Steam, the T7 blends functionality and style with its three colour choices too.

Equipped with GameSir non-contact magnetic Hall Effect technology, the controller's sticks are designed to remain wear-free throughout their lifetime. This advanced technology ensures an impressive lifespan of up to 5 million cycles, effectively preventing stick drift and guaranteeing reliable, durable performance for gaming on Xbox, PC, and Steam. Precision-tuned Hall Effect analogue triggers are also built-in, which offer a consistent, smooth pull. This feature is particularly beneficial for racing games, providing the confidence needed to enjoy a seamless and responsive gaming experience. The precision of these triggers ensures that every input is accurate, enhancing overall gameplay.

Valve is excited to announce Steam Families is now available for all users. Steam Families is a collection of new and existing family-related features. It replaces both Steam Family Sharing and Steam Family View, giving you a single location to manage which games your family can access and when they can play. To get started, you can create a Steam Family and then invite up to 5 family members. You can manage your family from your Steam Client, mobile device or web browser. By joining a Steam Family, each member gains access to the following Steam features:

Family Sharing: When you join a Steam Family, you automatically gain access to the shareable games that your family members own, and they will also be able to access the shareable titles in your library. The next time you log in to Steam, this new 'family library' will appear in the left column as a subsection of your games list. You maintain ownership of your current titles and when you purchase a new game it will still show up in your collection. Best of all, when you are playing a game from your family library, you will create your own saved games, earn your own Steam achievements, have access to workshop files and more. Family Sharing enables you to play games from other family members' libraries, even if they are online playing another game. If your family library has multiple copies of a game, multiple members of the family can play that game at the same time. Family Sharing is a feature that developers may opt their games out of for technical or other reasons at any time. Visit the Steam Store to see a list of games that currently support Family Sharing.

Valve's latest arena shooter Deadlock has been generating hype for a long time, with recent concurrent player counts exceeding 170,000 at one point, according to SteamDB. More recently, however, reports indicate that cheaters are already invading Deadlock, despite the fact that the game is still in invite-only public alpha testing.

As shown in a recent Reddit post containing a kill-cam video from Deadlock, a supposed cheater very brazenly appears to use a wall hack to track an enemy through a wall and pre-emptively dodge an attack. In the clip, the gamer who spotted the alleged infraction, this isn't even the first time they have encountered the same cheater in-game, and there are countless reports on both Reddit and the Deadlock forum reporting similar experiences.

The latest Steam hardware and software survey reveals a significant shift in the gamer's operating system landscape, with Windows 11 gaining 3.36% among Windows OSes and finally surpassing the 50% mark in August 2024, now standing at 50.81%. This milestone is a notable achievement, considering the OS had been experiencing a decline in popularity just a month prior. The sudden surge in Windows 11 adoption can be attributed to users transitioning from Windows 10, which lost 3.29% of its user base in the same period. Additionally, a few users on older Windows versions, such as 8.1 and 7, have also switched to Windows 11.

Despite Windows 11's growing popularity, Windows 10 remains a formidable presence, with 48.66% of Steam users still preferring the older OS. Its success can be attributed to its stability and compatibility with a wide range of games and hardware. Many users have expressed concerns over Windows 11's performance and its stringent hardware requirements, which have made it less accessible for some gamers, especially those without the TPM 2.0-enhanced system. However, with Microsoft set to discontinue security updates and technical support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025, users will need to consider upgrading to Windows 11 or another supported OS in the near future. The periodical resurgence of Windows 10 suggests that some users are hesitant to give up the older OS, but the writing is on the wall. As the deadline for Windows 10 support approaches, more users will likely make the transition to Windows 11.

Black Myth: Wukong is seeing a thunderous worldwide opening today (August 20). Steam Charts by SteamDB, a service that tracks and aggregates public information on concurrent players for games on Steam, measured over 1.73 million concurrent players for the game on Steam, breaking a previous record held by Valve's homebrew Dota 2. Steam is only one of three other platforms the game released in, with the others being Epic Games Store, and Xbox Series X/S, so the actual concurrent player count could only be higher. The action fantasy RPG is based on the 16h century Chinese epic "Journey to the West," and introduces a richly detailed ancient China. The game is known to also introduce several new combat mechanics.

Even as close to 2 million people are discovering the game, neither NVIDIA nor AMD have put out optimized drivers for the game as of this writing. Intel released the Arc 101.5971 Beta drivers with optimization for the game as of August 19. While AMD has put up a driver page for Adrenalin 24.8.1 WHQL, the download link on that page goes to the previous month's driver. Looks like someone failed at copy and paste.

Update 12:41 UTC: NVIDIA has released Game Ready Drivers

The original DOOM and DOOM II were relaunched as a package deal by ZeniMax late last week. This sees the two games wrapped around a new Windows executable that includes high resolution texture remasters (though it still looks quite blocky), along with online multiplayer, Crossplay support, and a 16:9 viewport that supports 4K resolution with 120 frames per second. This wouldn't be the first such "re-launch" by Bethesda, the parent publisher of ZeniMax, the company re-launched DOOM and DOOM II as separate games on Steam and Microsoft Store in 2019, with a modern Windows executable with WASD controls, a 16:9 viewport, "HD" textures, and the original MIDI background score pre-rendered as PCM. Both the 2019 and this new 2024 re-releases are fully compatible with the latest Windows 11, and don't need any emulators.

The 2024 re-launch includes all episodes of DOOM, DOOM II, all public mods, and a new first-party DOOM episode called "Legacy of Rust," created by community members who worked at id Software. This episode also includes some new weapons, such as a flamethrower. You also get a new Remixed background score. You can select between this, a pre-rendered original soundtrack, a pre-rendered Yamaha OPL3 FM synth soundtrack, or get the game to use a MIDI device. The DOOM + DOOM II 2024 release is available on GOG, Steam, EGS, and Microsoft Store for $9.99.

Interesting things are happening in the gaming community, as Windows 10 operating system has seen an increase in its user base on the Steam platform, while Windows 11 has dipped below the 46% mark for the first time since its launch. According to the latest July data from Steam's hardware and software survey, Windows 10's share rose to 47.69%, marking a significant uptick that contrasts with Windows 11's decline to 45.73%. This trend highlights a growing preference among gamers for the older operating system, which is often praised for its stability and compatibility with a wide range of games and hardware. Many users have expressed concerns over Windows 11's performance and its stringent hardware requirements, which have made it less accessible for some gamers, especially those without the TPM 2.0-enhanced system.

The shift in user demographics is particularly interesting given that Windows 11 was designed with gaming enhancements in mind, including features like DirectStorage and Auto HDR. However, the adoption rate appears to be hampered by issues related to compatibility and performance, leading many gamers to stick with the more familiar and reliable Windows 10. This trend could prompt Microsoft to reevaluate its approach to Windows 11, particularly in terms of addressing user concerns and enhancing compatibility with existing hardware. Other OSes are seeing stagnation, especially with Linux-based distributions recording zero change. Apple's OSX stands at 1.37%, a +0.06% increase from last month.

Hori, a veteran Japanese peripheral maker, is set to release a Valve-licensed Steam controller in Japan on October 31. Priced at ¥7980 (about $50), the controller will come in four vibrant colors: Neon Yellow, Luminous Violet, Shiny White, and Midnight Black. This Japan-exclusive launch represents an intriguing development in the Steam Controller's evolution and potentially signals Valve's ongoing efforts to capture the Japanese gaming market, long known for its affinity for portable gaming. Unlike its predecessors, the Hori Steam Controller avoids trackpads in favor of traditional analog sticks and D-pads, a design choice that may appeal to console gamers, particularly Nintendo Switch users.

Despite this significant change, the new controller retains several key features from earlier Valve designs. It boasts dual analog sticks with touch sensitivity, a feature inherited from the Steam Deck that enables precise gyro aim toggling. The controller offers comprehensive Steam Input configuration options in its "Steam Mode," as well as an "XInput Mode" for non-Steam games. It supports both Bluetooth and wired USB connectivity and includes built-in gyro functionality. Additional features include four programmable buttons, rapid-fire capability, and dedicated Steam and Quick Access buttons for use in Steam Mode. While its availability beyond Japan remains uncertain, this release shows Valve's commitment to expanding its footprint in the global gaming hardware market.

Steam has officially launched its Summer Sale, and there are plenty of good game titles to be found across all genres. In addition, Steam is also doing a neat promotion on Steam Deck LCD models.

We had a quick look through the list and picked out a few that have caught our eye, but there are a lot of titles so we might have missed a few. As said, Steam is also running a promotion for its Steam Deck LCD models, the 64 GB and 512 GB one, which are 15 percent off during Steam Summer Sale. This year, Steam also launched a list of "extra-deep discounts", which is a selection of games that you just might not want to miss.

Today we've launched Steam Game Recording into Beta, a new built-in system for creating and sharing your gameplay footage, that works on any game on Steam. From capturing highlights to documenting entire campaigns, there are many ways to use this all-new set of features.

The Steam Game Recording Beta can record, replay, clip, and share all your favorite gameplay. You can set it to record automatically in the background every time you start playing or record on demand. Although still in Beta phase, there are plenty of features with promise of more to come.