Windows September 2026
Global headlines curated by our intelligent agents.
Latest News
The Zarimi Cordless Electric Air Duster for PC Maintenance Drops to $19.79 Ahead of Prime Day
Say goodbye to buying compressed air canisters in bulk.
'Xbox Is Not for Sale' — Asha Sharma Denies Reports That Microsoft Is Considering Selling Its Gaming Business
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has denied reports suggesting Microsoft was considering selling its gaming business.
The CyberPowerPC RTX 5070 Gaming PC Drops to $1399, Includes a Free Copy of Control: Resonant
A stellar 1080p, 1440p gaming rig that can also handle most games in 4K.
Microsoft's Deal for Hideo Kojima's Physint 'Substantially Below What Xbox Would Typically Spend to Develop a Premium Game'
Microsoft’s high-profile deal for Hideo Kojima’s Physint is reportedly “substantially below what Xbox would typically spend to develop a premium game.”
Attackers Exploit Zimbra Flaw to Deploy Web Shells and Harvest Authentication Secrets
Attackers exploited CVE-2026-73570 in Zimbra to deploy web shells and access mailbox data on servers with SNMP notifications enabled.
Attackers Abuse MSP360 to Deploy ScreenConnect in Dual-RMM Phishing Attacks
Microsoft says phishing attacks abuse MSP360 and ScreenConnect to maintain redundant remote access on compromised Windows endpoints.
‘Xbox is not for sale’ says Microsoft’s gaming chief
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma is taking a ‘long-term view’ of Microsoft’s gaming division.
'This Is Your Dreamcast Moment' — Former PlayStation Boss Offers New Xbox CEO Some Words of Advice
Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden has offered new Xbox CEO some words of advice as she resets Microsoft’s gaming business: “pick a lane.”
Alexa who? This jailbroken Echo Spot runs a custom Android skin and reports to a PC
Amazon built the Echo Spot for Alexa, but this customized unit now works as a PC companion, and it's entirely vibe-coded.
US-Focused CSuite Phishing Steals Microsoft 365 Sessions and Deploys RMM Tools for Remote Access
CSuite phishing targets Microsoft 365 sessions and deploys remote-access tools, with 51% of 351 sandbox submissions coming from the U.S.
Super Mario Galaxy is unofficially coming to PC after reverse-engineering milestone
Super Mario Galaxy is the first Wii game to be decompiled, and this reverse-engineering process has also led to a newly announced PC port.
The Steam Frame: VR’s Future or the Beginning of the End?
I’ve always loved VR. I bought my current headset – a Pico 4 – three years ago, for around £300/$400. While that particular model isn’t available in America for very questionable reasons, if I wanted an alternative and was willing to enter Zuckerberg’s walled garden (I am not), a Quest 3S is even cheaper. With good wireless support, color pass-through cameras and a robust native library of games even before connecting to a PC, I felt VR had finally arrived at where it should be. A new world of games, accessible for less than a Nintendo Switch 2.While I understand RAM prices are skyrocketing, when Valve announced its entry into the lightweight, wireless VR field would cost a wallet-obliterating £889/$1,059 for the cheapest Steam Frame model, my heart sank. And worse yet, it wasn’t launching any new software to accompany it. The Steam Frame’s killer app? A native port of Half-Life: Alyx, an admittedly excellent game, but one released in 2020 with a mod scene that has largely moved on due to lack of support from Valve itself.Even the store page for the Steam Frame proudly displays Moss Book 2 as one of the great games you could play on the Frame. And while it is great (as are many VR games – there’s a library here dwarfing any console for sure), the developers, Polyarc, recently closed its doors due to a lack of sales and funding, even after releasing a non-VR version. While there’s still a steady trickle of VR games, on the PC side of things, almost all the big players have tapped out. There are no big AAA releases to look forward to. No big next step for VR design. And the buy-in price to access this via Valve’s new hardware is triple what I’d be willing to pay for a headset. Quadruple that, in the case of Meta’s newly-announced lightweight VR glasses.Despite all this, I love VR. It has filled the hole in my life where lightgun games and oddball titles with one-off peripherals (pour one out for Samba De Amigo and Steel Battalion) used to live. It features some of the coolest mech games, most terrifying trips through haunted wastelands and experimental arcade experiences around. VR isn’t going anywhere, with a slow but steady flow of new hardware and modders continually patching VR support into older classic games. But I also cannot fathom what the future of VR looks like, or if it even has one at all.VR has filled the hole in my life where lightgun games and oddball titles with one-off peripherals used to liveIf Valve and Meta are to be believed, VR isn’t an alternative to a lower-end handheld console. It is the domain of enthusiast tech nerds with money to burn. It is a whole medium with almost no major studios involved anymore, and even Meta’s big announcement showcase last week featured little more than rehashes and ports of ‘classic’ games, and many of those will remain exclusive to Meta hardware too. Valve has all the money in the world but without investing some of it into developers, I worry that unless the Frame sells unexpectedly well, that it too will lose interest in this field.While I love my cheap, versatile little headset, and adore adding VR mods to classic games to experience them in new ways, I’d like for VR to grow and be supported once more. To be able to point to something big and new and exciting on the horizon to get other people on board with me. And a port of a six-year-old game, however good it was, isn’t going to cut it.Steam Hype is the latest site in the Hookshot network, joining Nintendo Life, Push Square, Pure Xbox and the retro-centric Time Extension to cover all corners of the gaming universe. Hookshot is also partnered with the tech experts at Digital Foundry and is partnered commercially with IGN. As Hookshot’s dedicated PC gaming site, it’s got news of the latest releases, updates and mod drops, plus weekly roundups and a must-play monthly playlist to help you keep up with the never-ending deluge of new experiences.
Russia's Star Blizzard Targets 100+ Organizations With Fake Event Invites to Deliver Backdoor
Star Blizzard uses fake event invites and RedFlick scheduled tasks to install CosmicPulse on Windows systems tied to Ukraine.
Xbox’s Mythic Achievements are here and they’re just like PlayStation Platinum trophies
Xbox testers can try out the new Mythic Achievements today.
Apple could move away from traditional spring and fall product launches
Apple could move away from its traditional spring and fall product launch windows as new CEO John Ternus looks to release more products throughout the year. The change is reportedly one of several ideas being considered
Open thread: Do Googlebooks solve a problem you actually have?
The Googlebook line was made official just over a week ago, but readers are questioning their reason for existing. Are you one of them?
The Asus ROG Ally Z1 Extreme Handheld Gaming PC Drops to $424, Still One of the More Powerful Options
Grade A refurbished with 90-day warranty.
Hackers Use NeedyMantis to Maintain Long-Term Access in Breached Networks
NeedyMantis maintains long-term access in targeted intrusions, using DLL sideloading and HTTPS-to-WebSocket command-and-control.
The Witcher 3 Gets 30 FPS on an RTX 5080 With Frame Gen Disabled
The Witcher 3 Remastered comes out tomorrow with a whole host of improvements that yet again bring it into the current generation. But it seems like if you want to max the game out with path tracing, you're going to need an absolute beast of a gaming PC.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered Update Patch Notes Include PC-Specific and Console-Specific Changes
CD Projekt has released the patch notes for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered update, confirming PC and console-specific changes to the single-player role-playing game.
Steam's Must-Play Rhythm Games
Steam Hype helps demystify PC games by introducing newcomers to whole worlds of gaming with its Genre Intros. If you’re fresh to Steam or just looking to bulk up your wishlist, it answers all the questions you were too afraid to ask.Case in point: Rhythm games. Many a gamer has gone wading into the deep sea of DJMax and gotten lost to a killer KPop beat. But where should you start? Here are 10 picks that start small and escalate all the way expert-only. Better still, aside from the inclusion of one VR game, you also won’t need anything beyond a basic mouse and keyboard to play.Rhythm Basics: Bits & BopsReleased: December 9, 2025Developer/Publisher: Tempo Labs GamesDemo: YesInspired by Nintendo's classic Rhythm Heaven series, this is a great place for rhythm game newbies to get a feel for the kind of action to come while still limiting itself to a single input. Bits & Bops is a collection of cute call-and-response challenges through an assortment of minigames, culminating in a longer, tougher 'remix' that combines everything you’ve learned into one.One Button: Rhythm DoctorReleased: December 6, 2025Developer/Publisher: 7th Beat Games/IndienovaDemo: NoAnother one-button game similar to Bits & Bops, but with a consistent medical theme wrapped in an ongoing story. It starts simply enough, requiring you to tap the button on every seventh beat, but quickly escalates to include three intersecting rhythms. Indeed, it does a lot of weird and cool stuff within its one-button format, and has a ton of community-made stages. It can get pretty tough but each stage throws in unique surprises so it always feels fresh.Two Button: UnbeatableReleased: December 9, 2025Developer/Publisher: D-CELL GAMES/PlaystackDemo: Yes - listed as [White Label]Unbeatable is effectively two games in one. The first – and arguably more important part – is an FLCL-inspired anime rock-opera story following a band in a world where music is illegal, so go do some crimes. This story mode is relatively relaxed and a gentle introduction for arcade mode, which is where things get really tough. Even though you only have two buttons to press to keep in time, you won’t believe how challenging and fleshed-out it can get!Rhythm Rotation: BeatblockReleased: September 26, 2025 (Early Access)Developer/Publisher: BubbyTabby/SKY HOUR WORKSDemo: NoOriginally prototyped for the Playdate (the cute little indie handheld with the crank-handle controller), Beatblock is an excellent experiment in rhythm controls. Using the mouse or analogue stick, block incoming bullets and avoid bombs while clicking when the beat circle closes around you. But what really makes this one sing is that the levels feel like choreographed music videos with you at the centre of the action. Tons of user-created content on this one too, and it’s not even finished yet!Four Button: Vivid/StasisReleased: July 5, 2025Developer/Publisher: Team Vividstasis/Hajimeli & SKY HOUR WORKSDemo: N/A (It’s free!)This one might be a bit of a difficulty spike if you’re coming straight from Beatblock, so be ready to dial the difficulty down. This colossal four-button rhythm game has an extensive visual novel story mode, online multiplayer and much more, and it’s completely free. It features dozens of guest artists and crossovers with a load of other rhythm games, so the number of tracks it includes is in the hundred. Just don’t be ashamed to dial it down to Opening (Easy) mode.Multi-Button: DJMax Respect VReleased: March 12, 2020Developer/Publisher: NEOWIZDemo: NoDJMax Respect V is the latest in a long-running series which has been around since 2004. With support for between four- to eight-button play and hundreds of tracks across all kinds of genres, plus plenty of play-modes and fiercely competitive online ranking, this is a go-to for a reason. It doesn’t have user-created tracks here and DJMax can be very expensive – at full price, it’s close to $800! But hold out and you can often find it for much less.Rhythm Bullet Hell: AfterbeatReleased: June 14, 2019 (Early Access)Developer/Publisher: Vitamin Games/KwaleeDemo: NoIn Afterbeat (formerly Project Arrhythmia), you’re stuck in an animated music video where every part of the laser light show hurts. Less a typical rhythm game, more pacifist bullet hell where the music is the enemy, it comes with a powerful in-game editor to create your own stages you can share on Steam Workshop. And despite still being in early access, it already has thousands of user-made stages already.Rhythm Brawler: Dead as DiscoReleased: May 5, 2026 (Early Access)Developer/Publisher: Brain Jar GamesDemo: YesA relatively recent Early Access debut but already extremely promising, Dead as Disco takes the stylish, choreographed fighting of the Batman: Arkham series – intercepting attacks, parrying and countering with effortless grace – and syncs it all to a beat. Every punch, kick, parry or block becomes part of the soundtrack, the crunchy impact noises becoming layers of percussion.Rhythm VR: Beat SaberReleased: May 21, 2019Developer/Publisher: Beat GamesDemo: NoIt would be remiss of us not to mention that rhythm games have found a big audience in VR, usually with calorie-burning benefits too. The uncontested king, favoured by casual and obsessives alike, is the block-slicing lightsaber rave king, Beat Saber. It’s available on almost all over VR platforms but is best on PC, thanks to an amazing modding scene that has elevated the game into whole new dimensions. Literally. Rhythm Chaos: PROJEKT GODHANDReleased: March 1, 2026Developer/Publisher: Anarch EntertainmentDemo: YepLastly, a game by rhythm game freaks for rhythm game freaks. Projekt Godhand bills itself as the "ULTIMATE TOOL ASSISTED BULLSHITTING KEYBOARD DESTRUCTION RHYTHM GAME", which means it’s an eight-button rhythm game with a love of high-BPM gabber nonsense. Interestingly it doesn't track which keys you're hitting, just which side of your keyboard, so you’ll find yourself slamming your hands frantically across the buttons to the beat. Just don't assume that because it's silly that it's easy; it just means the game doesn't have to play by anyone's rules anymore, only the beat matters.Whether you’re a beginner or a master looking for your next musical obsession, we reckon that’s a good lineup to start with. But that’s just the abridged version. If you want the full details on all these games and a whole bunch more, check our our full-featured intro to rhythm games here, along with plenty more Genre Intros over on Steam Hype.
JADEPUFFER-Linked Attackers Used Compromised Service Principals to Delete Azure Resources
JADEPUFFER used compromised Azure service principals to delete most targeted storage accounts in an 18-hour intrusion, Microsoft says.
Microsoft CEO Says 'Streamlining' at Xbox is 'Great to See' as Layoffs Affect Thousands
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has spoken about the state of Xbox following layoffs that affected thousands of workers, saying that the "streamlining" at the company is "great to see."
Microsoft appears to be dropping Copilot+ PC branding
Microsoft appears to be quietly moving away from its Copilot+ PC branding, two years after introducing the label for Windows laptops built around on-device AI features. As reported by 9to5Google, recent Surface devices meet the same