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Developer FamBoy32-dev released LiveHaptics, a free app that routes a PC's system audio into the Steam Controller's rumble motors, letting hearing-impaired users feel movies, music and games as vibration patterns. The tool works on Windows and Linux, supports USB, Bluetooth and Valve's wireless receiver, and processes audio through a per-channel DSP chain before converting it into a haptic pulse stream.
Starting September 9, Australian law requires online game and app storefronts to verify that buyers are over 18. Steam is meeting this requirement by asking users to link a bank card rather than submit government ID or biometric data, mirroring the approach it already uses in the UK. Credit cards work reliably since Australian issuers only give them to adults, but debit cards—often held by minors—only pass verification under narrower conditions tied to specific bank and network flags.
Asus' Cetra Open wireless gaming earbuds are on sale for $22 off at Amazon and Best Buy, dropping the price to $206.99. It's the first discount the open-style earbuds have received since launch.
After five years of development, Pistol Shrimp Games has launched a free public demo of Free Stars: Children of Infinity, the sequel to The Ur-Quan Masters made by that game's original creators. The demo focuses solely on the melee combat mode, letting players choose from 38 ships—including nearly all classic Ur-Quan Masters vessels plus new additions—for head-to-head arcade battles. It's available now on Steam and GOG for Windows, Mac, and Linux, with console versions still to come.
A hardware comparison finds that Nintendo's Switch 2 and Valve's Steam Deck are closely matched in handheld mode, with the Switch 2's Nvidia Ampere GPU offering a slight graphical edge over the Deck's AMD RDNA 2 chip. The gap widens dramatically when the Switch 2 is docked, boosting its GPU output from about 1.71 to 3.7 TFLOPS, enabling 4K/60fps in titles like Metroid Prime 4, while the Deck sees no docked performance boost. Meanwhile, the Steam Deck's Zen 2 CPU can hit higher clock speeds and it also carries more unified memory, 16GB versus the Switch 2's 12GB.
New handhelds like the Asus ROG Xbox Ally, Ally X, and Lenovo Legion Go line now outperform the Steam Deck in benchmark tests and frame rates, though the gap is often small. Despite a price hike from $450 to $500 in September 2026, the Steam Deck remains cheaper than these rivals, while the Nintendo Switch 2 also stands out as a pricier but capable alternative with DLSS and HDR support.
Two new indie titles are drawing attention this week: Worming from Home, a $10 remote-work life simulator where players control a worm navigating office tasks and social interactions, and Marsupilami 2: Salsa Palombia, a $30 mascot platformer from Ocellus Studio and Microids that lets players swap between three characters with different abilities across multiple platforms including Switch, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
At IFA, Acer showed off a concept called the DualPlay Mini, a small handheld gaming device that can flip open to reveal a keyboard and become a mini laptop. Acer hasn't disclosed specs, but reports say it ran Forza Horizon 6 smoothly with rumble support, and its keyboard is large enough for mouse-and-WASD play.
Roborock used IFA 2026 to expand its robotic cleaning lineup, showcasing the Saros Rover with its wheel-leg design for climbing stairs, alongside the Saros 20 Flow Complete and Saros 20 Neo mop-vacuum hybrids. The company also introduced the F25 Ultra Steam Gen 2 upright steam cleaner, the modular F25 Pro Turbo Combo, plus new outdoor devices: the RockNeo Q2 lawnmower and RockAqua P1 pool cleaner.
Star Wars Zero Company has earned strong reviews and an 85 Metacritic score for its X-COM-style tactics gameplay and story, but many players report severe technical problems including traversal stutter, input lag, crashes, and a bug that forced a mission restart. Nearly 9,000 Steam reviews rate it 'mostly positive' overall, yet a large share of them describe frequent crashes and performance issues, with complaints also surfacing from console players and even high-end PC owners.
Epilogue makes USB-C cartridge readers, the $50 GB Operator for Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance carts, and the $60 SN Operator for Super Nintendo and Super Famicom titles, with an N64 version in development. The devices connect real cartridges to Windows, Mac, Steam Deck, Xbox Ally or even phones, letting users back up save data and play games through companion Playback software that pulls the ROM and runs it in an emulator.
Acer has shown off a concept device called Project DualPlay Mini, an 8-inch Windows gaming handheld resembling its Predator Atlas 8 that can flip open and swivel its screen to reveal a small backlit keyboard underneath. The device runs on an Intel chip and uses a dual-fan cooling setup similar to the Atlas 8, but Acer has not detailed further specs since it remains a concept with no confirmed retail release.