GoKawiil
Tech News
A comparison piece outlines eight features and advantages the Xbox Series X offers that the PlayStation 5 Pro lacks, despite the PS5 Pro's superior raw performance. The report notes the Xbox Series X starts at $750, significantly undercutting the PS5 Pro's $900 price following Sony's recent price increase.
Nintendo has reminded owners of the Switch 2 that the screen protector film installed on the console at the factory is not meant to be peeled off. The console, which launched in mid-2025 at $450 and later rose to a standard $500 price point, includes this film as part of its design rather than as an optional add-on.
Virgin Media is hiring one person to play Grand Theft Auto VI for eight hours and provide an honest review of the game, paying €100 (about $112) per hour, roughly $900 total, plus a free copy of the title. Applicants must be 18 or older and can split the gameplay hours across the week; the broadband provider is accepting applications through its website.
Xbox Series X pricing has risen sharply since its November 2020 launch at $499, with current models ranging from $725 to $900 depending on storage configuration. The 1TB disc version now sells around $799 and the digital-only white edition for $750, a roughly 60 percent increase from launch price.
PCWorld built a PC matching the Xbox Series X's specs and priced it at roughly $1,200 including Windows and a controller, or about $730 for core components alone. That's down sharply from the $1,559 PCWorld found necessary to match the console at its 2020 launch, when the gap versus the console's price was about $1,060.
Microsoft is sending emails to Xbox Series X/S owners who haven't used their consoles recently, encouraging them to trade them in at Best Buy for as much as $375 in store credit, provided the hardware and accessories are in excellent condition. The push comes months after Microsoft raised Xbox console prices by $100-$150, and follows its earlier announcement of retail partnerships to sell refurbished consoles at lower prices.
Amazon has discounted NBA 2K27 by 29%, bringing the price below $50, a $20 reduction from its standard listing. The sale applies to the Switch 2, PS5, and Xbox Series X versions of the newly released basketball title.
AMD is rolling out its FSR 4.1 upscaling technology beyond the Radeon RX 9000 series, bringing it to Radeon RX 6000-series cards, Strix Halo and Gorgon Halo-based devices via new Adrenalin 26.10.1 drivers available now. Xbox Series X/S consoles and Xbox Ally handhelds will get the feature later, with Xbox CTO Scott Van Vliet saying AMD worked closely with the company to optimize the technology for developers.
AMD announced its FSR 4.1 upscaling technology will expand to Xbox Series X/S consoles and the Ally, Ally X, Ally X20 and Ally S handhelds. The feature uses machine learning to boost performance by rendering games at lower resolutions then sharpening the image. AMD is also bringing FSR 4.1 to older RX 6000-series graphics cards and Ryzen AI 9-powered laptops, having already enabled it on 7000-series cards.
Microsoft is promoting a trade-in offer encouraging Xbox Series X owners to exchange their consoles, reportedly in the lead-up to a new device referred to as Project Helix. The push suggests the incentive is tied to generating interest or offsetting costs for the upcoming hardware.
AMD announced that FSR 4.1 upscaling, previously limited to RX 9000 and RX 7000 graphics cards, is now available on Radeon RX 6000-series GPUs, Xbox Series X and S consoles, Ryzen Z-series handhelds, and systems with Ryzen AI Max and AI 9 processors. AMD adapted the neural network to run on INT8 shader hardware rather than the FP8 matrix hardware found in newer cards, with a further-shrunk version for handhelds. The update also brings improved frame pacing for Frame Generation, upcoming Vulkan API support, and wider rollout of Ray Regeneration.
Sensor Tower estimates Rockstar had pre-sold about 6.45 million copies of Grand Theft Auto VI as of October 20, generating roughly $630 million in revenue. PlayStation 5 accounts for about 74% of pre-orders (4.8 million units) versus 1.66 million on Xbox Series X|S, ahead of the game's November 19 release.