Ars Technica Gaming

1. AMD is adding HDMI 2.1 support for Linux. That's good news for the Steam Machine.

   Fixed Rate Link being added now; Display Stream Compression coming soon.

2. The RAMpocalypse has bought Microsoft valuable time in the fight against SteamOS

   Op-ed: Valve has made a dent in Windows' gaming share, but can it keep going?

3. Nvidia fixes the 8GB RAM problem with one of its GPUs—if you can pay for it

   Framework charges nearly double for the 12GB version of the mobile RTX 5070.

4. "Super ZSNES" is a stab at a modern SNES emulator from the original developers

   Upgrades to SNES graphics and sound go way beyond the typical screen filtering.

5. Steam Controller: The Ars Technica review

   Valve's new hardware is solid but might not justify its $99 price.

6. Meet the players who lost big money on Peter Molyneux’s failed Legacy

   After millions in NFT sales, the hyped “play to earn” game was effectively dead in weeks.

7. Lawsuit: Nintendo is getting tariff refunds—its customers should get them instead

   Lawsuit demands Nintendo pass Trump tariff refunds on to its customers.

8. Microsoft removes Call of Duty from Game Pass, lowers subscription pricing

   New Xbox CEO says subscription "has become too expensive for too many players."

9. Framework Laptop 16 upgrades make it look less like an unfinished prototype

   A lower-end Ryzen AI 340 CPU option will also bring the price down, for now.

10. Meta's AI spending spree is helping make its Quest headsets more expensive

    Prices for "critical components" are surging because of massive data center investments.

11. The Ukraine war's deep impact on Metro 2039’s development, story

    Upcoming sequel wants to capture a "uniquely Ukrainian perspective" on the post-apocalypse.

12. Retro Rewind re-creates the glorious drudgery of working a '90s video store

    What the nostalgic throwback lacks in complexity it makes up for in repetitive charm.

13. What leaked "SteamGPT" files could mean for the PC gaming platform's use of AI

    AI tools could help moderators sift through mountains of suspicious incidents

14. Steam client files point to "framerate estimator" feature in the works

    JSON text strings suggest performance charts based on "framerates of other Steam users."

15. Valve brings native Steam Link app to Apple's Vision Pro

    New app can replace third-party options that were jankier to use.

16. Nvidia rolls out its fix for PC gaming's "compiling shaders" wait times

    Microsoft, Intel are also working on their own solutions for the issue.

17. Playing Wolfenstein 3D with one hand in 2026

    Over three decades later, this historical curiosity has more than a few rough edges

18. Sony is raising PlayStation 5 prices again, this time by between $100 and $150

    Memory, storage shortages have made all kinds of consumer tech more expensive.

19. AMD's Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition crams 208MB of cache into a single chip

    Both of the chip's CPU dies will include 64MB of extra cache stacked beneath.

20. Nintendo's physical Switch 2 games will soon cost more than digital copies

    The first physical game affected will cost $10 more than a digital copy.