Quake changed gaming forever 30 years ago today — seminal title established online multiplayer culture and made 3D graphics accelerators essential PC components

On this day in 1996, id Software unleashed Quake on the unsuspecting public. The game’s influence is difficult to overstate, with its pioneering 3D engine inspiring the first wave of 3D accelerator PC expansion card purchases, the establishment of online multiplayer competitive culture, and much more.

,
Ludicrous $999 Steam game lasts just 10 minutes — ‘Congratulations On Your Purchase’ is pure conspicuous consumption with its golden ticket Steam Achievement

‘Congratulations On Your Purchase’ recently appeared on PC digital marketplaces priced at $999. Its main claim to fame is that it is proudly ‘the most expensive game on Steam.’ Buyers get a golden ticket Steam Achievement….

,
Nintendo Switch 2 is $399 at Woot for new customers, $419 for returning customers with code — save up to $100 on gaming handheld while stocks last

Get a brand new Nintendo Switch 2 for less.

, ,
Ubisoft co-founder Claude Guillemot dies in plane crash — French publisher established in 1986 became one of the biggest entertainment companies in the world

Ubisoft co-founder Claude Guillemot was killed when his twin-engine private plane crashed enroute to an airshow. Aside from building the French gaming empire, Guillemot was also a licensed and avid pilot.
…

Epic Games unveils Launcher V2 in re-attempt to topple Steam, says redesigned storefront is up to 6.5x faster — promises player profiles, user reviews, universal controller support, and much more

Epic Games has just shown off a new year-long roadmap for its launcher, promising to bring community-requested features and a faster overall platform in the next 12 months.
…

,
MSI’s new Claw 8 EX AI+ handheld with an Intel Arc G3 Extreme and 32GB of RAM costs $1,799 — company says it’ll be ‘a tough year’ with chances of ‘another price hike’

MSI’s new Arc G3 Extreme-based handheld costs nearly $2,000 but the company is rather apologetic about it, even if it’s warning that the price may rise in the future.
…

, ,
Cancelled Xbox 360 version of GoldenEye 007 gets recompiled for PC — ‘No emulator, the game runs as a real native executable,’ insists dev

GoldenEye Recomp v1.0 has been released, providing ‘a native PC port of GoldenEye 007 built by statically recompiling the original game into C++’ with no emulation involved.
…

,
Hardcore SpongeBob speedrunners smudged Xbox optical disks with sweat and grease to exploit ‘lag clip’ trick — filthy smeared disks cut gameplay times in ultimate pursuit of speed

A grease smear-induced optical disc reading quirk can save speedrunners lots of time in SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom on Xbox.
…

,
Xbox will pay five times more for memory and storage in 2027 than it did two years ago — CEO Asha Sharma admits there’s an unsustainable hardware gap that ‘cannot continue’

The next-gen Xbox Helix is looking in trouble due to surging memory and storage costs that are forcing even a giant like Microsoft to bend down.
…

, ,
Valve to discontinue physical Steam gift cards by the end of 2026 due to scammers — says nefarious actors continue to exploit them despite years of restrictions

Physical Steam gift cards will no longer be restocked at retail stores, though digital gifting options and existing cards will remain supported.
…

,