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Retailers including Best Buy, Newegg and Walmart are closing out Labor Day sales with discounts of up to 38% on pre-built gaming PCs, some saving buyers over $1,200. Featured deals include an ABS Kaze II Aqua with a Ryzen 7 9800X3D and RTX 5080 for $2,999.99, and an iBuyPower Y40 with a Ryzen 9 9900X and RX 9070 XT for $2,199.99.
Unico has unveiled the Traveller ULW10, a 10-inch 4:3 CRT-style monitor built for retro gaming consoles, featuring a hidden rear compartment to stash hardware out of sight. The display supports RGB SCART, VGA, and HDMI inputs but notably omits composite video due to internal space constraints, and it can digitally emulate CRT and pixel-art visual effects despite not being a true CRT. It will launch via Kickstarter in three colorways, with pricing still unannounced.
Newegg is selling the ABS Kaze II Aqua gaming PC, which pairs an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D with an Nvidia RTX 5080, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 2TB SSD, for $2,999.99 using a coupon code. That's $500 off list price and actually cheaper than the same bundle cost when it was featured back in April, despite rising component prices industry-wide.
Branch has released three Sega-branded versions of its Ergonomic Chair Pro—styled after Sonic, Sega Genesis, and Sega Dreamcast—aimed at gamers who want comfort alongside themed aesthetics. The Sonic model features a mesh back while the Genesis and Dreamcast versions use leather, and all three retain the adjustable, ergonomic design of Branch's standard office chair.
At IFA, Acer unveiled Project DualPlay Mini, a concept device that flips and swivels its eight-inch screen to switch between a handheld gaming console and a compact laptop. The prototype features an Xbox-style controller layout with dual-fan cooling but no trackpad, and Acer's own demo shows a mouse being used in laptop mode. Acer says it remains a concept with no confirmed plans for retail release.
Starting in November, Microsoft will limit monthly Xbox Cloud Gaming playtime for Game Pass subscribers: five hours for Essential, 10 for Premium, and 15 for Ultimate. Once users hit these caps, they'll need to buy additional hours from the Xbox Store to keep streaming games, though downloading and playing titles locally remains unlimited. Microsoft has not yet revealed pricing for extra playtime beyond the cap.
Best Buy has launched a Labor Day sale offering steep price cuts across gaming laptops, desktop PCs, monitors and a MacBook. Highlights include hundreds of dollars off machines from Gigabyte, Acer, Lenovo and Asus, with savings reaching as high as $900 on select gaming laptops and $600 off gaming PCs.
HP's HyperX Omen 15 replaces the Victus 15 as the company's mainstream gaming laptop, pairing a Core Ultra 9 processor, 32GB of RAM and a 15.3-inch 1800p OLED screen with strong gaming benchmarks. Tom's Hardware found the as-tested unit costs about $2,100, a few hundred dollars more than its closest rival, and noted the build relies on an aluminum lid but cheap, flexible plastic for the rest of the chassis.
Fractal Design has released the Refine 2, an updated version of its minimalist gaming chair aimed at desk setups. The new model keeps the same overall silhouette and adjustability as its predecessor but adds locking 4D armrests and a slightly loosened tilt limiter, and it now comes in a fabric option in addition to mesh. All configurations are priced at $640.
Starting in November, Xbox will limit how many hours Game Pass subscribers can stream games via its cloud service before requiring extra purchases. Ultimate subscribers get 15 hours monthly, Premium users get 10, and Essential tier members get just five, after which additional playtime must be bought.
Woot is selling a refurbished Alienware 16 Aurora gaming laptop with an Nvidia RTX 5050 GPU for $927 for new customers using a checkout code, or $1,029 for returning shoppers, undercutting the $1,099.99 new price at Alienware's own site. The refurbished unit still carries a one-year Alienware warranty and includes a 1600p 120Hz 16-inch display, Intel's Core 7 240H processor, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 512GB SSD.
Microsoft is partnering with TCL to add its Xbox app to select smart TVs in the coming months, enabling access to Xbox Cloud Gaming without a console. The rollout coincides with a new pay-as-you-go cloud gaming option launching in November, which lets users stream games without an active Game Pass subscription.