The new MSI Claw with Intel Arc G3 Extreme. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge
Intel couldn't catch a break. Layoffs. Shakedowns. Crashing CPUs torpedoing its reputation, sending desktop gamers fleeing to AMD. Apple and Qualcomm pushing Intel out of multiple flagship laptops. A gaming graphics card going MIA. But its Panther Lake laptop chip, the first on its all-important 18A process, turned out excellent - and a handheld version might make Intel the leader in portable gaming chips.
On Monday, I spent two hours with an MSI Claw 8 EX AI Plus handheld atop Intel's new Arc G3 Extreme. I walked away thinking that next-gen handhelds have finally arrived. The true leap in performance and battery life we've been waiting for …
Sony is sharing new details about some of its upcoming gaming-focused hardware, including pricing and August launch dates for its FlexStrike fight stick and its 27-inch monitor.
The FlexStrike fight stick will be available starting August 6th - the same day as the new PlayStation-published fighting game Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls - and will cost $199.99. Preorders begin on June 12th at 10AM ET. Initially, the FlexStrike will work just on PS5, but Sony says that PC support will be rolled out sometime after launch. The stick will come with a sling carry case and a built-in rechargeable battery.
Get ready for some gaming news. It’s officially June, which means splashy new events from PlayStation, Xbox, and gaming hype man Geoff Keighley. But this season doesn’t just feature the big tentpole shows; there will be a bunch of smaller events, too, and they might feature some promising games as well.
But this year’s events are taking place at a difficult time for the industry. The prices of consoles and gaming hardware have skyrocketed, with all of the threemajorconsole players announcing price hikes and PC handheld makers jacking uphardware costs as well.
Game companies also have to work around the looming giant that is Grand Theft Auto VI, which is set to launch on November 19th. That time of year is usually a very busy one as studios launch their games to get ahead of the holiday shopping season, but we could see some of the industry’s biggest games give GTA VI a wide berth.
We’ll be tracking the biggest news of the June gaming events season right here.
First, give me a bigger, better screen. Even a little bit bigger, so games feel less claustrophobic and with less ugly bezel. Second, get rid of the "Library" button. I am so tired of an accidental press booting me out of my game and into the Xbox library without a simple way to get back.
With the just-announced ROG Xbox Ally X20, Asus did both - and then some. It's now a slick translucent handheld with drift-resistant GuliKit TMR joysticks, a transforming D-pad that goes from 8-way to 4-way by dropping its cor …
Computex 2026 is underway in Taiwan, and we're expecting all manner of flashy computers with jaw-dropping prices (or no prices at all) as the entire industry navigates RAMageddon.
But for desktop PC gamers, AMD has a different pitch. It's relaunching three old components alongside a big new promise: You won't need to buy a new motherboard until 2030.
Today, AMD is promising it will keep supporting its AM5 desktop motherboard socket with new Ryzen processors through 2029, which likely means you can keep upgrading to newer CPUs till the end of the decade without changing your board.
Even if you're still on the older AM4 socket, you may hav …
The AW3426DW familiar specs, updated design language, and a bunch of QD-OLED enhancements. | Image: Alienware
Alienware is taking to this year's Computex 2026 in Taipei to announce some cool gaming monitors, most notably two exciting OLED options that are coming at different points this year. First off, the company is debuting the successor to its very first QD-OLED gaming monitor from 2022 with a refreshed design and high-end specs that's coming in July (price hasn't yet been shared).
The AW3426DW is a 34-inch curved 3,440 x 1,440 resolution with an 1800R curve, just like its predecessor. But the new model has the latest QD-OLED Penta Tandem screen tech that boosts the peak brightness to 1,300 nits from 1,000 nit in the previous version. Its refre …