Gaming

Since December 2021, I’ve never had to think about charging my Logitech wireless gaming mouse. It charges just by sitting atop this pricey mousepad. No alignment necessary. And now, that pricey mousepad is the best price it’s ever been: $87 at Amazon. That’s still cash, but seriously: I’ve never looked back.

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The Claw 8 AI Plus and Claw 7 AI Plus have appeared on Amazon for $899 and $799 respectively, and will ship Dec. 25th and Dec. 1st respectively, per Videocardz... but the listings seem to have been stripped of those crucial details now.

MSI already announced both handhelds in June as quick followups to the embarrassing original. Lunar Lake could bring better performance and battery, but apparently not pricing.

I have a hard time believing this OneGx2 could be comfortable to hold, but major kudos if OneXPlayer can figure it out! I’m currently toying with a similar GPD machine that hides its joysticks beneath little covers, but a split keyboard and sticks beneath a full keyboard is something else.

If you read my Lenovo Legion Go review and thought “that but less expensive and cumbersome,” Videocardz may have good news: the unannounced smaller “Legion Go S 8ARP1” now has a firmware update for its unannounced AMD Rembrandt APU. That’s a last-gen architecture that should be more affordable than AMD’s “Extreme” line.

Also, though: the original Legion Go is its best price ever right now.

Riot says it’ll punish creators who violate its ToS anywhere on the internet, not just within its games:

Though we aren’t going to proactively monitor everything that happens across social media, it is now within our rights to issue penalties in-game when that content is brought to our attention.

Examples: hateful slurs, social media posts that promote rulebreaking, stream sniping, and offers to buy and sell accounts. Also, Riot says it’ll now ban players across all its games at once.

Bilibil-kun, the Dealabs leaker who correctly revealed the design of the PlayStation 5 Pro, now says the currently white PS Portal will soon be available in black for the same $200 price.

While the PS Portal can only stream games, it recently got updated to stream some of them from the cloud. Meanwhile, Sony’s also reportedly working on a true Nintendo Switch / Steam Deck rival.

Ahead of Pac-Man’s 45th anniversary next year, Casio is launching a collection of four retro digital watches featuring the yellow dot chaser. The standouts include a yellow calculator watch with an inverted screen and a model that’s expected to have Bluetooth connectivity and step tracking. Pricing isn’t known, but availability is expected in December — at least in Japan.

Temporarily at least. Seven years after launch, Nintendo’s free-to-play mobile game Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp shut down today. But your campsites can live on, as players will be able to move their saves over to a paid version of the app that launches on December 3rd. Time to see how much more chill the game is without microtransactions.

Polaris Quest has announced Light of Motiram, which is described as a game set in “a world overrun by colossal machines” on its Steam page. It also looks remarkably like Sony’s own open-world blockbuster series full of mechanical creatures.

Pixeldarts features a screen that can detect where its electronic suction cup darts stick for automatic scoring, but it also allows other games to be played, including one with paint splashes that’s reminiscent of Splatoon. It can be preordered through Kickstarter for $220, while full pricing is expected to be closer to $399, with shipping expected in June 2025.

Sony launched a site outlining the history of PlayStation, and it includes a fun tidbit: the PS2 has officially sold 160 million units. That strengthens its position as the best-selling console of all time. Nintendo is nipping at its heels with the Switch, though its momentum is slowing for obvious reasons.

Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscribers have a fresh dose of Sega games to check out today, headlined by the sequel ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron and the technically impressive platformer VectorMan. The additions come just a day after the Game Boy title Donkey Kong Land 2 hit the service as well.

The former president of Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Worldwide Studios and current head of indie initiatives has been a part of PlayStation since it started in 1993, but now he’s leaving in January.

Shuhei Yoshida (aka @yosp) explains on the official podcast and in another in-depth interview that he felt it was time and that PlayStation is in good hands.

CRKD has announced a new version of its compact NEO S controller with an attachment that adds five fret buttons for playing Fortnite Festival and other rhythm games. The accessory was designed by some of the people who created Guitar Hero and DJ Hero’s peripherals, and the controller is available for preorder now for $59.99 with shipping expected to start as early as November 29th.

We already knew that CD Projekt Red was working on the next mainline Witcher game, codenamed “Polaris.” Now the studio says that it has reached the “full-scale production phase” of development, meaning it’s still likely a few years away from release. Elsewhere, the developer says that it has now sold 30 million copies of Cyberpunk 2077, and 8 million copies of its expansion Phantom Liberty.

The Chinese version of the digital store is going offline in 2026, though Nintendo hasn’t given a specific reason as to why. This means that Switch owners in China won’t be able to buy games digitally after March 31st, 2026, while all networks services will end on May 15th. The Switch got a belated debut in China, launching in 2019 in partnership with Tencent.

After a series of leaks, Epic has confirmed that Godzilla is coming to Fortnite. He’ll appear in a new season called “Hunters,” which also features Baymax of Big Hero 6 fame. It kicks off on December 1st — the day after the next in-game concert. Now to see what a kaiju looks like in Jordans.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 has had a pretty rough launch, and now Microsoft has put out a hotfix aimed at addressing some of the performance and stability issues. “We will continue to investigate any issues and keep the community informed,” says game lead Jorg Neumann.