We are giving away a special item pack as a token of appreciation for everyone's support of Monster Hunter Wilds. Hello hunters! This is Yuya Tokuda, the director of Monster Hunter Wilds. Thank you so much for playing Monster Hunter Wilds. As announced yesterday, Monster Hunter Wilds has now sold more than 10 million copies globally. We are very happy that so many people around the world are playing the game. To commemorate the 10 million milestone, we have released a free item pack for the community.

We would also like to thank you for the many comments, thoughts and feedback we have received since the game was released. The development team has been reading your feedback, and we are encouraged by it. We are also using the comments and feedback we have received to help us plan our future actions. In this message, I'd like to take a moment to run through some of our upcoming plans based on your feedback, including a few areas that have already been in the works.

During the livestream reveal of Path of Exile 2: Dawn of the Hunt, we discussed several things in the Q&A that we'd like to provide some further clarification on. In today's news post we'd like to start with additional information about Map Portals in Dawn of the Hunt! We'd like to clarify the situation with having to use portals each time you die. The concern raised during the Q&A was that you would be consuming portals to have to store items in your stash or trade with players. With so few portals, as low as one, you would not be able to leave the map and return.

Map Portals
We have made the following change to address this problem: you will now be able to enter and exit your Maps as much as you like as long as you haven't died. The number of portals is now representative of the number of revives you have during the Map, so if you are able to survive you can come and go as you please. We also wanted to clarify that when returning to a map after dying you will return to the last checkpoint, so if you forgot to make a portal you won't have to run through too much of an empty map to get back to where you died. We're also currently making a change which hopefully will make it for release, otherwise shortly after. This change is that when you die in a Map then revive, assuming you have any revives remaining, you will be instantly placed at the last checkpoint without any loading screens, so you don't need to return to your hideout and re-enter the map every time. We'll continue to provide further updates to topics discussed during the Q&A in the lead up to launch, so keep an eye on our announcements!

Here's something exciting—a first look at DRAGON QUEST I & II HD-2D Remake! We've released a brand-new teaser for the game, which gives you the most tantalizing of glimpses at these beautiful new remakes. Take a look and read on to learn a little more about the game. DRAGON QUEST I & II HD-2D Remake reimagines the first two DRAGON QUEST games with the beautiful HD-2D visual style featured in titles like OCTOPATH TRAVELER series, TRIANGLE STRATEGY, LIVE A LIVE and, of course, DRAGON QUEST III HD-2D Remake. As you can see in the teaser (below), both titles have been remade with the same level of passion and attention to detail as the recent DRAGON QUEST III HD-2D Remake. Speaking of which…

Why is this releasing after DRAGON QUEST III HD-2D Remake?
If you're not familiar with DRAGON QUEST, you may be wondering—why are Square Enix releasing DRAGON QUEST I & II HD-2D Remake after last year's DRAGON QUEST III HD-2D Remake? That's because these three games are narratively connected and together form the "Erdrick Trilogy." DRAGON QUEST III is chronologically the first game, set many years before DRAGON QUEST I, so it makes sense for it to come out first. That said, each game tells its own largely standalone story, so you can start with any of them and get a complete tale with a beginning, middle and end.

Hello Raidou fans, we're pleased to announce RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army! Unleash the supernatural in a thrilling detective adventure set in a fantastical era of 1930s Tokyo. Play the action JRPG remaster in a brand-new way with revamped visuals, QOL changes, an overhauled battle system, and much more!

The Return of Raidou Kuzunoha | World Spotlight
Want to dive deeper into the world of Raidou? Watch "The Return of Raidou Kuzunoha | World Spotlight," a special spotlight video now live on our YouTube channel (check it out after the jump). This 22-minute showcase details the game's setting, enhancements from the original version, as well as an interview with Director Kazuyuki Yamai.

Konami Digital Entertainment, has announced the GRADIUS ORIGINS collection—this compilation will release on the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam on August 7 with digital pre-orders starting on March 27 (yesterday). GRADIUS ORIGINS is the definitive collection of the earliest games from the GRADIUS series—2D shoot 'em up classics that embody nostalgic gaming from the 1980s.

GRADIUS holds a special place in gaming history - not just for its side-scrolling spacecraft battles, but also for introducing a legendary cheat code. First appearing in the original 1986 Japanese FAMICOM version, the now-iconic code (activated once players pushed the ↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A buttons on their controllers) gave players a crucial power-up boost, and would later go on to become a staple in gaming culture. With this new collection, players can relive the challenge of GRADIUS while paying homage to the origins of one of gaming's most famous secrets.

Surprise game alert! SaGa Frontier 2 Remastered is digitally available now for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Steam, iOS and Android! This excellent RPG is a real fan-favorite thanks to its unique storytelling, beautiful watercolor graphics, satisfying turn-based combat and character progression and top-tier soundtrack. This new remastered edition enhances the game further, with updated visuals and UI, new gameplay features, additional playable characters, new events and more.

Basically, it's one of the crown jewels of the franchise brought bang up to date… and available today. SaGa fans are no doubt frantically checking their respective storefronts to download the game, but for anyone unfamiliar with SaGa Frontier 2, read on and we'll explain everything you need to know about this epic history-spanning RPG, including what's new.

Intel has released its latest version of the Arc GPU Graphics Driver, version 101.6653 Beta. The latest GPU graphics driver update brings Game On driver support for inZOI, KARMA: The Dark World, and The First Berserker: Khazan games, and improves performance Intel Arc B-series Graphics GPUs in Rise of Ronin game. According to Intel, you can expect up to 15 percent performance increase at 1080p resolution and up to 18 percent at 1440p resolution, both with Ultra Settings.

As it is the Beta released, Intel did not fix any previously known issues, so there is still an extensive list, including issues in Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 and Call of Duty: Blackops 6 games, as well as some other applications like PugentBench, Topaz Labs Photo AI, MLPerf, Adobe Lightroom Classic, and others. You can check out the full release notes below.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.6653 Beta

Quantum networks—where entanglement is distributed across distant nodes—promise to revolutionize quantum computing, communication, and sensing. However, a major bottleneck has been scalability, as the entanglement rate in most existing systems is limited by a network design of a single qubit per node. A new study, led by Prof. A. Faraon at Caltech and conducted by A. Ruskuc et al., recently published in Nature (ref: 1-2), presents a groundbreaking solution: multiplexed entanglement using multiple emitters in quantum network nodes. By harnessing rare-earth ions coupled to nanophotonic cavities, researchers at Caltech and Stanford have demonstrated a scalable platform that significantly enhances entanglement rates and network efficiency. Let's take a closer look at the two key challenges they tackled—multiplexing to boost entanglement rates and dynamic control strategies to ensure qubit indistinguishability—and how they overcame them.

Breaking the Entanglement Bottleneck via Multiplexing
One of the biggest challenges in scaling quantum networks is the entanglement rate bottleneck, which arises due to the fundamental constraints of long-distance quantum communication. When two distant qubits are entangled via photon interference, the rate of entanglement distribution is typically limited by the speed of light and the node separation distance. In typical systems with a single qubit per node, this rate scales as c/L (where c is the speed of light and L is the distance between nodes), leading to long waiting times between successful entanglement events. This severely limits the scalability of quantum networks.

Over a week ago, ASUS "quietly" unveiled a revamped Q-Release Slim mechanism—eagle-eyed hardware media outlet—Uniko's Hardware—spotted this revised quick release PCIe system on a freshly detailed premium ROG CROSSHAIR X870E APEX motherboard model. Wider press reportage jumped on the manufacturer's mixed bag of official responses; regarding reported damage inflicted by a "problematic" design. The ASUS North American office downplayed the severity of this matter, while colleagues in China launched a fairly comprehensive compensation program. According to VideoCardz, the latter organization has confirmed—as of last week—that a problem-free/improved Q-Release Slim system is on the way.

On Monday, Tweakers divulged its direct communication with ASUS—a spokesperson answered the Dutch site's query: "yes, a change has been made to the Q-Release Slim system for new X870 motherboards. Based on user feedback, we have modified the PCIe slot for the Q-Release Slim system, including removing a metal component to reduce the possibility of damage to the video card." The company representative noted that newly introduced/attached stickers will inform users about "correct system usage." Based on the aforementioned ASUS statement, Tweakers reported: "that both the original and revised versions of the system have been extensively tested and that users should study the included documentation to use the Q-Release Slim system properly. According to the manufacturer, both versions of the technology meet 'industry standards for wear resistance'." That last point suggests that ASUS will not be issuing a wide recall of currently released boards that feature original Q-Release Slim mechanisms.

Following hot on the heels of the massive Worlds Part II update back in January which introduced a whole range of visual enhancements, gameplay additions and quality of life improvements to No Man's Sky, the team have let their imaginations run wild on something whimsical but remarkably transformative for what is possibly our most surprising update yet. We're calling it Relics, and it is available to download for PC, console and VR free to existing players from today. Since launch, because of the way that No Man's Sky's planetary terrain works, players have enjoyed being able to dig down through the earth to find buried technologies or other valuable items hidden beneath their feet. From today, players will start to find a whole new category of palaeontological finds—the skeletal remains of alien creatures which used to inhabit these worlds. So, terrain manipulators at the ready!

Just as the living creatures which continue to populate the star systems, there is a huge variety of prehistoric bones, in all shapes and sizes, to excavate and collect. It's up to you how you reassemble them and there's a lot of fun to be had building ever-more outrageous skeletons to put on display in your bases-turned-museums or share with your fellow Travellers. Much like with the aquatic life from the Aquarius expedition from last year, the skulls and bones out there to be discovered vary hugely in rarity so you never quite know what you're going to unearth. The most uncommon finds hold huge value and can be bartered with at the Space Station. To coincide with Relics, a tailor-made community expedition starts shortly which challenges players to compete for the rarest finds.

Hi everyone, as you all hopefully know, we released Kaiserpunk on Friday! While we're proud of the work we've done, we're not satisfied. The release clearly shows there's a lot of interest in Kaiserpunk and its promise, but it also shows that we didn't fully achieve what we are aiming for. That means that the work continues—on delivering the game that Kaiserpunk deserves to be, and the game you deserve to play. We're incredibly grateful for all the feedback you've shared—both those of you telling us how much and why you like the game, and from those of you who let us know what's keeping you from enjoying the game. All your feedback helps us understand how to move forward, and every player is equally deserving of our gratitude.

For now, however, our focus will be on the latter group—seeing what we can do in the short and medium term to ensure that even more of you enjoy our game. The feedback we're receiving seems to come in three primary categories; performance, UI/UX and game balance. We'll be focusing on all three in the coming days and weeks. Regarding performance, some of you have experienced issues you shouldn't have—that's not ok—end of story. We're working as fast as we can to improve performance for all players. However, it will likely take about a week or so for us to make a meaningful impact. Second is UI/UX. UI/UX for complex games is always challenging, but that doesn't mean we won't work on improving it. We'll work hard with this starting with the first patch, but we'll need ongoing help and feedback from you. Please share any additional feedback you may have—you can find the best ways to reach us at the end of this message.

Fatshark has released its latest free update for Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, called Nightmares & Visions. The latest updated brings a new wave-based activity, improvements to the end-game mode Havoc, overhaul of the Ogryn Talent Tree, time-limited special event, balance and quality of life changes, support for NVIDIA DLSS 4, and some bug fixes and changes.

The biggest update is the new game activity, Mortis Trials, which is a wave-based activity, with randomized abilities and buffs. Nightmares & Visions also bring a big refresh to the Havoc mode, with plenty of improvements, including rank overhaul and campaigns, as well as new challenges. The update also adds a time-limited special event, called "A Day At The Theatre", which focuses on playing Mortis Trials, while Ogryn Talent Tree also got a big rework.

Technology and its impact on interactive entertainment experiences is nothing short of remarkable. AI and machine learning are allowing our creators to explore new ways to test games, build worlds, and create deeper, more immersive experiences at a faster rate without sacrificing quality. Our artists are empowered to create more realistic, dynamic animations and visuals at a greater scale, delivering more cinematic moments that draw us in and leave us stunned. Or completely immersed in the most enthralling environments possible, surrounded by and interacting with authentic, high-fidelity characters.

Above all, these advancements connect and offer millions of EA's players and fans around the globe new ways to play, create, watch, and connect in and beyond our games like never before. At the recently concluded Game Developers Conference (GDC), EA's brilliant minds showcased some of these technological innovations, highlighting how they empower our developers to craft extraordinary interactive entertainment experiences. Their talks provided insight into the cutting-edge tools and techniques driving the future of game development at EA, and the positive impact this will have on our developers, players and fans across the globe.

If Nightdive Studios were a home, it would be built upon the foundation of System Shock. As one of the studio's formative projects, the Kickstarter campaign for its acclaimed System Shock remake put Nightdive on the map. But it wasn't System Shock that inspired Nightdive's creation, rather its sequel, System Shock 2. With the recently announced June 26, 2025, release date for System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster fast approaching, some have wondered: why a remaster instead of a full remake? To answer this, let's look back at Nightdive's origins, remasters as a form of preservation, and the many enhancements that make System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster a worthy tribute to a beloved classic!

Where It All Began
"Like many others, my first experience with System Shock was the sequel," begins Nightdive Founder and CEO Stephen Kick, who recounts being introduced to the game while eating lunch with his friends at school. After sharing how much he loved Half-Life, his friend Marshall suggested giving System Shock 2 a try. "The next day, he came back to the table and handed me the Big Box. That night, I installed the game and was instantly captivated. Every aspect of it congealed into an unforgettably immersive experience that still gives me chills every time I think about it."

Developers at Nightdive Studios will be the first to tell you no two projects are alike. Nowhere is this more true than the soon-to-be-released remaster of System Shock 2. Announced six years ago as System Shock 2: Enhanced Edition, Nightdive reannounced the project under a new name—System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster. This name change offered eagle-eyed fans a clue as to the remaster's release window, which is only accurate preceding August 11 when System Shock 2 celebrates its 26th birthday. Sure enough, during today's MIX Spring Showcase, Nightdive shared the exciting news that System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster will release on June 26. As exciting as it's been for System Shock fans to hear they'll soon be able to play Nightdive's long-awaited System Shock 2 remaster, one key question remains: why did it take six years?

Good things take time
Nightdive has been chipping away at its remaster of System Shock 2 in the years following its announcement, working on it in conjunction with other projects. While many of these harbored their fair share of challenges, System Shock 2 was unique in regards to the number and type of complexities the team encountered. One of the biggest according to Nightdive developer Alex Lima was a lack of access to the game's complete source code. To piece everything together, "extensive reverse engineering" was required. "The codebase is a complex amalgamation of various legacy libraries developed by Looking Glass, along with some more recent contributions from both Irrational Games and Looking Glass," Lima explains. "There's virtually no consistent coding standard. As a result, we had to depend extensively on debugging and breakpoints to understand its functionality."

Pick up MySims: Cozy Bundle and rediscover the charm of two classic MySims games. Use your imagination to rebuild a town in MySims and help a cute magical land become an even better place in MySims Kingdom. There are stories to uncover, locations to explore, and lots of characters with big personalities to have fun with. Meet funny, friendly characters filled with personality! Some will be with you the whole time, and others you'll meet as you play and explore. Help them, give them gifts, and become friends (or even BEST friends!) as they inspire you to get even more creative. You're not only building houses, you're building communities of memorable, adorable townies!

Sul Sul, MySimmers! MySims is now available on Steam! We have loved bringing this game to you on Switch, so we're excited that PC gamers now get to enjoy the same levels of cozy customization. But we aren't done *just* yet. We have also been working hard on a couple new additions that will be coming to PC soon…. Stay tuned for more updates…

Intel has released its latest version of the Arc GPU Graphics Driver, version 101.6651 Beta. The latest GPU graphics driver update brings Game On driver support for the latest Ubisoft Assassin's Creed Shadows game on Intel Arc B-series, A-series Graphics GPUs and Intel Core Ultra with built-in Intel Arc GPUs, as well as improves performance in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Intel Arc B-series Graphics GPUs. According to Intel's release notes, you can expect up to 15 percent improvement on 1080p resolution and up to 12 percent improvement on 1440p resolution, both with Extreme Settings.

The new GPU graphics driver also fixes an issue in Black Myth: Wukong game on may experience application crash while running benchmark with Full Ray Tracing turned on Intel Arc B-Series GPUs, where the game might experience application crash while running benchmark with full ray tracing turned on. There are several new known issues which you can check out in the full release notes below.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.6651 Beta

The first MSI Claw was designed for ergonomic comfort and seamless gaming across platforms like Steam, Ubisoft, and Xbox. It even handled mobile games effortlessly. Now, thanks to valuable feedback from our community, we've made significant improvements in both hardware and software for the next generation—introducing the Claw 8 AI+ and Claw 7 AI+, powered by the latest Intel Lunar Lake processor for enhanced performance and efficiency.

Key Upgrades Based on Community Feedback
1) Enhanced Connectivity with Dual Thunderbolt 4 Ports. Both the Claw 8 AI+ and Claw 7 AI+ now feature two Thunderbolt 4 ports, allowing you to connect an external SSD without unplugging the power cord. This ensures greater flexibility and seamless gameplay.

The wait is nearly over! We're thrilled to announce that the highly anticipated remaster of Croc Legend of the Gobbos is launching April 2, 2025! Wishlists are open for PC on GOG.com—with Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox digital storefronts following soon. Croc's back and he's still got the moves! Croc Legend of the Gobbos is the heartwarming journey of an endearing, humble little crocodile equipped with only his iconic backpack and a wiggly butt as he platforms his way across a series of unique worlds by running, jumping, climbing, swimming and tail spinning on his quest to rescue his adopted family of Gobbos from the grasp of the evil sorcerer Baron Dante and his impish Dantini hordes.

With its broad appeal and groundbreaking creativity, the original game quickly became a multi-million selling platforming classic, and while the Croc Legend of the Gobbos remaster delivers an authentic gameplay experience that transports players back to the golden age of gaming, it also introduces a roster of modern updates including enhanced HD graphics, modern control mechanics with an updated camera, and retro video modes to recreate the gaming experience that charmed us in the 1990s.

Large language models (LLMs) love large quantities of memory—so much so, in fact, that AI enthusiasts are turning to multi-GPU setups to make even more VRAM available for their AI apps. But since many current LLMs are extremely large, even this approach has its limits. At times, the GPU will decide to make use of CPU processing power for this data, and when it does, the performance of your CPU cache and DRAM comes into play. All this means that when it comes to the performance of AI applications, it's not just the GPU that matters, but the entire pathway that connects the GPU to the CPU to the I/O die to the DRAM modules. It stands to reason, then, that there are opportunities to boost AI performance by optimizing these elements.

That's exactly what we've found as we've spent time in our R&D labs with the latest AMD Ryzen CPUs. AMD just launched two new Ryzen CPUs with AMD 3D V-Cache Technology, the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9900X3D, pushing the series into new performance territory. After testing a wide range of optimizations in a variety of workloads, we uncovered a range of settings that offer tangible benefits for AI enthusiasts. Now, we're ready to share these optimizations with you through a new BIOS feature: AI Cache Boost. Available through an ASUS AMD 800 Series motherboard and our most recent firmware update, AI Cache Boost can accelerate performance up to 12.75% when you're working with massive LLMs.

What's better than first-person sprayer PowerWash Simulator? A second PowerWash Simulator! That's right, we're thrilled to finally be able to talk about the next soap-erior sequel in our beloved franchise, PowerWash Simulator 2, coming in 2025 to Steam, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and Epic Games Store. Available to wish list now on your platform of choice. Those of you who are eagle-eyed Game Pass fans may have enjoyed the original already, but for those unfamiliar with the concept, let me give you the rinse. PowerWash Simulator is what it says on the tin: find yourself in a mess, clean it up, build your business, become deeply immersed in soothing satisfaction, and indulge in some fascinating lore, including a mayor, a cat and… aliens?

That sounds random, but this game has been so beloved (by over 17 million of you!) that we wanted to give you more. Design Director Dan Chequer tells us a little more about why a sequel was the natural next step. "PowerWash Simulator has exceeded our expectations by taking off in the incredible way it has. Although we've added a huge amount of incredible content to the original game, we built and designed the game over four years ago when we never expected it to become so large. As a result, it has some technological limitations keeping us from adding new and interesting features. So, it made sense to start discussing where we could go from here."

Dear Spectre Fans, it's been two weeks since we launched Spectre Divide Season 1: Flashpoint. We're incredibly grateful for the positivity and support that you've shown over that short time. Unfortunately, the Season 1 launch hasn't achieved the level of success we needed to sustain the game and keep Mountaintop afloat. We were optimistic about the first week. We've had ~400,000 players play, with a peak concurrent player count of ~10,000 across all platforms. But as time has gone on, we haven't seen enough active players and incoming revenue to cover the day-to-day costs of Spectre and the studio. Since the PC launch, we stretched our remaining capital as far as we could, but at this point, we're out of funding to support the game. This means Mountaintop will be closing its doors at the end of this week.

We expect to take Spectre offline within the next 30 days, but we plan on disabling new purchases and refunding money spent since Season 1 launch via the platforms. We'll be following up with more information on this soon. We pursued every avenue to keep going, including finding a publisher, additional investment, and/or an acquisition. In the end, we weren't able to make it work. The industry is in a tough spot right now. This is a painful update to share. We love Spectre, and we're incredibly proud of what we built with this community. From the entire team at Mountaintop, I want to thank the Spectre community for all your support these past few years. We've loved every minute, and we're sincerely going to miss you. Special thanks to our incredible investors too, without which Spectre wouldn't have been possible.

The wait is over! Our second Wicked Inside is complete. Join us; for an exclusive deep dive into the new content, features and improvements in The Breach Update as well as everything coming next for "No Rest for the Wicked." There are a few surprises along the way! Let us know what you think!

The Breach—our biggest update
You wanted more of our campaign, you wanted more story, more zones to play in, more enemies, more bosses… in short: more of everything. And that is exactly what we have been focusing on. The Breach will be launching on the 30th of April 2025. Watch our latest showcase for the detailed updates and fixes.

NVIDIA today announced ahead of the Game Developers Conference (GDC) groundbreaking enhancements to NVIDIA RTX neural rendering technologies. NVIDIA has partnered with Microsoft to bring neural shading support to the Microsoft DirectX preview in April, giving developers access to AI Tensor Cores in NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs to accelerate neural networks from within a game's graphics pipeline. Neural shading represents a revolution in graphics programming, combining AI with traditional rendering to dramatically boost frame rates, enhance image quality and reduce system resource usage.

"Microsoft is adding cooperative vector support to DirectX and HLSL, starting with a preview this April," said Shawn Hargreaves, Direct3D development manager at Microsoft. "This will advance the future of graphics programming by enabling neural rendering across the gaming industry. Unlocking Tensor Cores on NVIDIA RTX will allow developers to fully leverage RTX Neural Shaders for richer, more immersive experiences on Windows."

Hello, this is Akihiro Hino, CEO of LEVEL5. For LEVEL5, 2025 is both a year of challenges and a year of great strides forward: yes, we are set to release three major titles! I know that many of you may be wondering: "Will they really be released on time? Won't there be delays again?" To address these concerns, I wanted to create a space where we could regularly update players on the progress of our game development. Throughout this journey, there will be exciting breakthroughs, but also unexpected obstacles. I want to use this blog to share as much as possible about what's happening behind the scenes—both the good and the challenging. More importantly, I hope that by doing so, we can move forward together with our fans, step by step, toward the completion of all our games.

Of course, not everything can be shared publicly. That said, I still want to convey my thoughts and experiences from the process with everyone—even if only on a personal level. For moments like these, I plan to use this blog as a way to share updates from a more "unofficial" point of view. It might sound a bit strange for a company president to say "unofficial," but the reality is that my perspective as the CEO and my perspective as a creator can sometimes be very different. In such cases, I want to walk that fine line and share as much as I can with our players, making the lead-up to these games exciting rather than just a long wait. I appreciate your support, and I hope you enjoy following along!