Why is AI making computers and games consoles more expensive? The latest commodity coveted by the AI industry is computer memory, and the sector is signing deals directly with manufacturers for billions of dollars worth of chips - the very same chips that consumers use in smartphones, laptops and games consoles. At best, this is driving up prices, and at worst, it is causing shortages that limit production. Why does AI need so much memory? AI models are very, very big.

After the smash hit that is the Steam Deck, all eyes are on Valve for its next hardware move. A console to take on Sony and Nintendo? A new trademark filing for the "Steam Frame" has gamers and press alike turning the speculation up to 11. And yeah, I couldn't resist doing some of my own. The United States Patent and Trademark Office has a public filing for the Steam Frame name, assigned to Valve Corporation and its corporate office in Bellevue, Washington, and began on September 2nd.

With Wimbledon under way, I am going to grasp the opportunity to make a perhaps contentious claim: tennis is the most important sport in the history of video games. Sure, nowadays the big sellers are EA Sports FC, Madden and NBA 2K, but tennis has been foundational to the industry. It was a simple bat-and-ball game, created in 1958 by scientist William Higinbotham at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, that is widely the considered the first ever video game created purely for entertainment. Tennis for Two ran on an oscilloscope and was designed as a minor diversion for visitors attending the lab's annual open day, but when people started playing, a queue developed that eventually extended out of the front door and around the side of the building. It was the first indication that computer games might turn out to be popular.

While President Donald Trump has revealed a tariff exemption for some electronics, video game consoles are not thought to be among them. Christopher Dring, who writes about the gaming industry in The Game Business newsletter, said while Sony did not directly mention tariffs in its decision, their "knock-on effect" could have an impact on pricing worldwide. "The US is the biggest market for video game consoles, and rather than simply increase prices there, it's possible the likes of PlayStation could increase pricing globally in an effort to protect, as best they can, the US market," he told the BBC. "Ultimately, the era when game consoles went down in price over time is certainly over." The price increase comes as Nintendo's launch of its rival Switch 2 console was marred by the impact of US tariffs on markets worldwide.

Shares of Super Mario maker Nintendo plunged the most in seven months as investors abandoned Japan's outperforming video game stocks on worries that U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs will drive up console prices in the United States. Nintendo sank 9.2% in Tokyo, its biggest intraday drop since the stock market rout on Aug. 5. The shares had traded at an all-time high last month and jumped 23% this year before Friday's plunge. Under Trump's new levies, game consoles, including the upcoming Switch 2, "could have higher selling prices in the U.S. -- the world's biggest market for game consoles -- due to heftier import costs, as most are either manufactured in China or rely on suppliers in the country for parts," wrote Nathan Naidu, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, in a note. Trump raised duties on Chinese imports to 20% from 10% on March 4.

Nestled between an original Donkey Kong arcade machine, a mint condition OutRun racing simulation game and booths wired up with GameCubes and Nintendo 64s, the engineer Luke Malpass works away dismantling a broken Nintendo Wii. There has been a steady stream of people bringing in their old game consoles for repairs or modifications, on the house, to Four Quarters, a retro games arcade in Elephant and Castle, which has been transformed into a games clinic for two days. Gabriella Rosenau, 35, brought in her broken Wii that had been in the garage "for years". "I still play my brother's old Nintendo 64 and I love it, but I'd really love to get [the Wii] fixed." "I've done the odd bit of Call of Duty and the PlayStation stuff, but I have more of an interest in the retro games," she adds. Rosenau is part of a growing community who are ditching contemporary video games and picking up the consoles from their childhood, or even before their time.

We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. A 4K projector is the ultimate tool for cinephiles or gamers who want to get the most out of their ultra-high definition films and games without getting into multi-thousand-dollar screens and burdensome furniture. Only the most expensive TVs can even come close to the literal scale of a projector's maximum screen size, and then you deal with the challenges of anchoring a 110-inch flatscreen. Moreover, 4K projection technology has evolved enough to fall significantly in price over the past couple of years. Spending a lot for the absolute premium models is still possible, but most of our recommendations will set you back under 2,000. A 65-, 75-, or even 85-inch 4K TV could still be the most cost-effective choice, but there's no denying that 4K projectors--like our best overall, the feature-rich XGIMI Horizon S Max--have become much more accessible and versatile.

In a desperate attempt to shun western technology, President Vladimir Putin has ordered the creation of a new Russian video game console. Now, as a Russian chief admits it won't be as good as the Xbox or the PS5, commentators have flocked to social media to mock the upcoming machine, dubbing it the'Putindo 64'. On Reddit, someone posted: 'The Putindo is gonna be a wild collectors item in a few decades.' Another user posted'I only hyev tetris' in a reference to the famous puzzle video game created in 1985 by Russia's Alexey Pajitnov. Another said: 'what is going on with russian government, why are they trying to develop a console when they are fighting at the front.'

It's no secret that Russia has been slowly working towards eschewing as much Western technology as it can and developing its own, and its latest effort seems to be related to video games. On December 25, Anton Gorelkin, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, revealed some information on a domestic video game console being developed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, as reported by TechSpot. The theoretical console will have an Elbrus processor and be powered by either Aurora or Alt Linux, both Russian forks of the popular Linux operating system. According to TechSpot, the Elbrus processor was developed by the Moscow Center of SPARC Technologies and primarily designed for defense, critical infrastructure and other applications. Despite the weaker chipset, Gorelkin stressed that the console isn't designed to play ports of older games, but will play "domestic video game products."

Although Panic paused development on its official Playdate charging dock, an enterprising character artist has swooped in with an open-source kit (via Gizmodo) that transforms the device into an interactive robot pet. PlayBot is Guillaume Loquin's name for the cute add-on, which anyone with the right know-how can build. Loquin, whose day job is as a character artist at Ubisoft, put those skills to use in bringing the device to life. Although it won't do anything crazy like have a chat, pop wheelies or play fetch, Loquin's video below shows it reacting to a wake-up tap, navigating around a corner and getting dizzy after spinning the Playdate's crank. The developer estimates 45 minutes of play per charge.