Hypixel Studios is making a return after splitting off from Riot Games. Riot had acquired the studio to finish up their game Hytale, but after more than five extra years of work, the game was still no closer to release. Now, Hytale is back in the hands of the original creators, meaning the game is officially ‘uncancelled'. 

Hytale is no longer cancelled. In a new update posted to the game's official website, Hypixel founder, Simon Collins-Laflamme, confirms that he was able to broker a deal with Riot Games to buy back the IP and take back control of the Hypixel studio. Since re-acquiring the game, Hypixel Studios has been on a mission to hire back as many lost developers as possible. Currently, more than 30 former developers are now back on the project.

Speaking on the rare deal, Simon explained that Riot “ultimately wanted what's best for players” and as a result, they agreed to let him take back the studio and IP to start up work on the game once again. Moving forward, Hypixel Studios will be working on a “revised version of the game” as a fully independent studio.

The new version of Hytale will move the game back to the legacy engine, with the goal of fulfilling the original vision for the game, rather than the greatly expanded version of the game that Riot had wanted. Unfortunately, there are no release date plans yet, but Early Access plans are set to be announced “in the coming days”.

KitGuru Says: It is very rare to see a large company part with a potentially valuable IP and it is even rarer to see a game uncancelled after the hammer has dropped. Hopefully when Hytale does launch in early access, it meets fan expectations. 

Take-Two CEO, Strauss Zelnick, is no stranger to making headlines. While the company's biggest studio, Rockstar Games typically focuses on console game development, before bringing its games to PC later, Zelnick reckons the days of the console are numbered, as the industry shifts more and more towards PC as the leading platform. 

In an interview with CNBC this week, Zelnick discussed his views on the future of the videogame industry. During this interview, he said “I think it's moving towards PC and business is moving towards open rather than closed”.

The comments come just days after Valve made a major hardware announcement, bringing back the Steam Machine as a small, console-sized PC with the full capabilities of a PC and a console combined in one package.

Of course, Zelnick doesn't think the idea of sitting in your living room and playing a game on a large TV is going away. Typically, that is the experience that consoles were created for. However, fully locked-down systems and platforms may eventually be replaced by more open console-like systems like the Steam Machine.

Microsoft is also rumoured to be making massive changes to Xbox consoles for its next-generation systems. It is believed that the next-gen Xbox will actually be a Windows-based PC, with access to services beyond the Xbox store and potentially access to the full Windows desktop as well, but with the default option being a big-screen ‘gaming' UI, as seen on recent devices like the ROG Xbox Ally.

KitGuru Says: I wrote a big article about the console wars coming to an end last year. In that, I came to the same conclusion – PC is the ultimate platform and the industry at large is finally starting to realise it. 

The next wave of titles for Game Pass has been announced. Following on from this month's release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, nine more games are also set to join the library, including day-one releases like Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault and Marvel Cosmic Invasion.

Marvel Cosmic Invasion is a retro-inspired beat em' up, where players will take control of their favourite Marvel superhero and progress through a series of levels. It arrives following a recent resurgence for this genre, thanks to titles like TMNT: Shredder's Revenge and Streets of Rage 4.

Here is the full list of titles joining Game Pass over the next two weeks, including supported platforms and dates:

• Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault (PC, Game Preview) – November 19
• Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo (Cloud, Console, PC) – November 19
• Revenge of the Savage Planet (Cloud, PC, Xbox Series X|S) – November 19
• Monsters are Coming! Rock & Road (Handheld, PC) – November 20
• The Crew Motorfest (Cloud, Console, PC) – November 20
• Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden (Cloud, PC, Xbox Series X|S) – November 25
• Kill It With Fire! 2 (Cloud, Console, PC) – November 25
• Marvel Cosmic Invasion (Cloud, Console, Handheld, PC) – December 1
• Lost Records: Bloom & Rage (Cloud, PC, Xbox Series X|S) – December 2

As always, there will also be a handful of games leaving the Game Pass library. At the end of this month, two of my favourites will be leaving the library – Octopath Traveler 1 & 2. The other three games leaving the service include Lords of the Fallen, Barbie Project Friendship and Steamworld Build.

KitGuru Says: Will you be installing any of this month's new Game Pass titles?

German extreme overclocker Cens has broken the DDR5 memory frequency world record, reaching DDR5-13322 just days after the previous record was set.

The achievement was made using a single 24GB G.SKILL Trident Z5 DDR5 module on an ASUS ROG Maximus Z890 Apex motherboard with an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor, cooled under liquid nitrogen (LN2). Cens, a two-time G.SKILL OC World Cup champion, is now the DDR5 OC world record holder.

The record has been validated on HWBOT and CPU-Z, confirming the frequency at 6661.4 MHz (DDR5-13322 effective) with timings of 68-127-127-127-2. HWBOT lists the submission as the current No. 1 global memory frequency score, while CPU-Z provides detailed system verification.

This all arrives just days after the previous record of 13,211MT/s was set, showing just how rapidly things can move in the overclocking world.

KitGuru Says: G.Skill memory and Asus motherboards have been used once again to set a new memory speed world record. How long do you think it will be before we see a new world record set?

It looks like 2026 could be a year of huge change for Apple. The company has employed just a handful of CEOs during its long history, and according to recent reports, they may need to search for a new one within the next year. 

The Financial Times reports that Tim Cook might be stepping down as CEO in 2026 and that John Ternus, Apple's Senior VP of Hardware Engineering, is believed to be a front-runner for the position. This would mark a major change for Apple, which has been led by Tim Cook since the passing of founder Steve Jobs in 2011.

Under Cook, Apple's market cap has continued to grow, currently sitting just shy of $4 trillion USD. As noted by The Verge, Cook was also responsible for Apple's shift towards outsourced manufacturing, allowing it to operate at a much broader, global scale. This has aided Apple's effort to capture the smartphone market, with iPhone sales continuing to be strong.

It wasn't all wins, however. Cook was also very bullish on Augmented Reality, but the Apple Vision Pro headset has not sold enough units to make mixed reality computing a true core pillar of Apple's business.

KitGuru Says: Apple has been more successful than ever under Tim Cook. It will be up to his successor to not derail that gravy train. 

The Game Awards has unveiled its full list of nominees for 2025, with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, and Hades II emerging as frontrunners across multiple categories. The event will take place on December 11th at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.

In the coveted Game of the Year category, six titles are in contention: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Donkey Kong Bananza, Hades II, Hollow Knight: Silksong, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. Several of these also appear in Best Game Direction and Best Art Direction.

Narrative-driven experiences are well represented, with Silent Hill f and Ghost of Yōtei joining Clair Obscur and Kingdom Come II in the Best Narrative category. Meanwhile, Hollow Knight: Silksong and Hades II headline Best Score and Music, alongside Kojima Productions’ Death Stranding 2.

The genre-specific categories spotlight some of the year’s standout titles, with Ghost of Yōtei and Helldivers 2 nominated for Best Action, Hades II and Hollow Knight: Silksong competing in Best Action/Adventure, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II earning a nod for Best RPG. In Best Multiplayer, familiar heavyweights like Helldivers 2, Fortnite, and Battlefield 6 lead the pack.

Fans can already vote on which games they would like to see win in each category and of course, there are even more categories than the ones we've highlighted here, including categories for best mobile game, best adaptation, best VR game and more.

KitGuru Says: Which game do you think will win the coveted GOTY award this year?

Microsoft has announced its next Xbox Partner Preview stream, promising new trailers, updates, and world premieres from third‑party studios. The showcase will highlight upcoming projects from IO Interactive, Tencent, and THQ Nordic, alongside fresh Game Pass announcements.

The event will be broadcast on November 20th at 10AM PT / 1PM ET / 6PM GMT, streaming across YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, and regional Xbox channels. Accessibility features such as subtitles in multiple languages, audio descriptions, and ASL support will be available, with narration provided by voice actor Jennifer English.

While the confirmed titles already cover a mix of stealth, dark fantasy, and horror, speculation is building around what else might surface. With THQ Nordic involved, fans are wondering if long‑rumored projects like a new Darksiders entry or updates on Gothic Remake could appear. Tencent’s presence raises the possibility of more Chinese‑developed action RPGs following the success of Black Myth: Wukong. Meanwhile, IO Interactive’s Bond game could be joined by additional footage from its ongoing Hitman: World of Assassination updates.

Konami’s Silent Hill 2 Remake is also likely to make an appearance, as an Xbox version of the game has appeared in multiple leaks recently.

KitGuru Says: Will you be tuning in to the next Xbox Partner Preview?

Arc Raiders has broken its concurrent player record on Steam for the third time since launch, climbing to nearly half a million simultaneous players this past weekend.

Embark Studios’ extraction shooter debuted at the end of October and immediately made waves. Within its first 24 hours, Arc Raiders surged past 250,000 concurrent players on Steam. This momentum continued into early November, when the game hit a peak of over 328,000 players, cementing its place among Steam’s most‑played titles. Just a week later, Arc Raiders surpassed 462,000 concurrents, overtaking Helldivers 2 and even edging past Battlefield 6’s weekend totals.

Now, the game has reached a new milestone: 481,966 concurrent players on November 16th, according to SteamDB. That figure places Arc Raiders among the top 25 all‑time peaks on Steam, ahead of titles like Fallout 4 and Among Us. Across all platforms, the game has already topped 700,000 concurrent users and sold more than 4 million copies worldwide.

Despite strong competition from recent shooters like Battlefield 6 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Arc Raiders has managed to create a strong foothold amongst shooter fans. Now, Embark Studios just needs to focus on delivering on its post-launch roadmap to keep players engaged in the months ahead. Previously, Embark struggled in this aspect with its first title, The Finals, which lost a large chunk of players in the months post-launch.

KitGuru Says: Have you played Arc Raiders since launch?

Capcom has shed new light on Resident Evil Requiem, the upcoming third entry in the modern Resident Evil saga, with producer comments pointing to a darker, more traditional survival horror experience.

Speaking to Press Start, producer Masato Kumazawa said the team’s goal was to “put the horror back in survival horror”, dialing back the action‑heavy approach of Resident Evil Village in favor of tension, scarcity, and atmosphere.

Requiem is confirmed as the conclusion to the Winters arc, tying together narrative threads introduced in Resident Evil 7 and expanded in subsequent entries. The producer teased “long‑awaited answers” for fans who have followed this storyline since 2017, while also positioning the game as a launchpad for the next era of Resident Evil games.

Atmosphere is central to the design, with lighting, sound, and environmental storytelling used to create unease. Combat remains part of the formula, but resources will be limited, forcing players to make difficult choices. “We want players to feel vulnerable again”, Kumazawa said, noting that scarcity is a deliberate design choice to heighten tension and reward careful exploration. Influences include Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 4, though Capcom stressed Requiem is not a throwback. Instead, the game blends classic mechanics with modern presentation to appeal to both longtime fans and newcomers.

Resident Evil Requiem is scheduled to release on February 27th for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC (Steam and Epic Games Store), and Nintendo Switch 2.

KitGuru Says: Have you been keeping up with the modern Resident Evil games? Are you looking forward to Requiem?

MONTECH has announced the NX600 and NX600 ARGB, a new pair of dual‑tower CPU coolers aimed at delivering strong thermal performance at a competitive price. The company positions the NX600 series as a solution for high-TDP CPUs, with support for both Intel and AMD-based systems. 

The NX600 design uses a dual‑tower structure with 52 fins per stack, optimized for airflow and heat dissipation under heavy workloads. Six copper heatpipes and a soldered copper base transfer heat efficiently from the CPU to the fin array, supporting high‑TDP processors with consistent reliability. Cooling is handled by MONTECH’s E28 fans. The standard NX600 ships with two 120mm PWM fans for a clean, understated look, while the NX600 ARGB includes two addressable‑RGB versions of the same fans, adding lighting effects without compromising performance. Both models aim to balance noise levels with airflow, targeting builders who want dependable cooling without moving to liquid solutions.

Aesthetically, the NX600 series features a redesigned top cover with striped and translucent accents, intended to blend into both RGB‑heavy and minimalist builds. MONTECH highlights this as a way to offer visual appeal without overwhelming system design.

Compatibility covers Intel LGA115X, 1200, 1700, and the upcoming 1851 socket, alongside AMD AM4 and AM5 platforms. With its dual‑tower layout, copper base, and choice of ARGB or non‑RGB fans, the NX600 series enters the market as MONTECH’s latest attempt to compete with established air‑cooling brands while keeping pricing accessible.

The standard non-ARGB black and ARGB black versions of the cooler will be available in the UK via SCAN priced at £24.99 and £29.99 respectively. Over in the US, the white versions are also available in both ARGB and non-ARGB form.

KitGuru Says: Are you in the market for a new air CPU cooler? If you are on a tighter budget, these could be well worth checking out. 

Back around 2018, an E3 leak claimed that Ubisoft was planning on announcing a new Splinter Cell game. That turned out to be entirely false, but the publisher was indeed working on a revival of the stealth-action franchise at one point, although it was quickly cancelled in a pivot towards ‘live service' games.

This week, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier published a new interview with AdHoc Studios co-founder, Nick Herman, covering his journey from Ubisoft to founding his new studio and releasing the new hit-game Dispatch. In this interview, Herman reveals that around 2017, when he took on a role at Ubisoft's San Francisco studio, he and a small team had worked on a new Splinter Cell game for several months:

Herman had the following to say about his time working on Splinter Cell:

“I was so excited to be a part of this and help revitalize it, because it’s been dormant for a while, and we thought we could tell a great story and do something the fans would love”.

However, it is claimed that the game was cancelled very early on, as Ubisoft had begun asking its studios to focus on ‘Games as a service', otherwise known as live-service games. The group struggled to come up with an idea that would stick and ultimately, Herman left Ubisoft to start up AdHoc Studios, which just released its first hit game, Dispatch, which prominently features Breaking Bad co-star, Aaron Paul in a lead acting role.

Eventually, Ubisoft San Francisco hired a new leader, Mark Rubin, and began working on XDefiant. While the game garnered some hype during its beta testing phase, players had issues with the title at launch and ultimately, Ubisoft shut the game down and closed the San Francisco studio.

While some have taken this interview to mean that Splinter Cell was cancelled specifically for XDefiant, that was not the case. The Splinter Cell project had a short-lived life in 2017 and was cancelled to focus on live-service multiplayer games. However, XDefiant didn't come to be until after 2019, at least two years after the short-lived Splinter Cell project.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: There is a serious lack of stealth-action games on the current market. Ubisoft has the perfect IP to fill that gap. Hopefully at some point in the next couple of years, it capitalises on that opportunity.

Over the past year, Bungie has been attempting to fight a plagiarism lawsuit from a writer who claimed that the original Red War campaign for Destiny 2 copied from his own published work. Now, Bungie has been forced to settle, after content vaulting ruined its chances of effectively fighting the case.

As reported by The Game Post, Bungie has settled the lawsuit, although the specific details of the settlement agreement have not been made public. The settlement comes after Bungie failed to get the case dismissed, in large part due to its decision to delete the Red War campaign from the game.

While initially the Content Vault was pitched as something Bungie could pull content in and out from, that turned out to not be the case. All of the ‘vaulted' content can no longer be implemented back into Destiny 2. As a result, Bungie attempted to submit YouTuber playthroughs, lore videos and Wiki articles as evidence to fight the lawsuit. The judge assigned to the case would not accept this evidence, as they were third-party retellings of the events and could not be considered truly representative of the product.

If Bungie had been able to create a legacy build of Destiny 2 with the Red War campaign still in-tact, then it would have been able to properly demonstrate the differences between its own work and that of the writer on the other side of the lawsuit. Content Vaulting continues to look like a worse and worse idea by the day. Fortunately for Destiny players, Bungie has since realised what a colossal mistake this was and will no longer be vaulting content.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: It isn't much of a ‘vault' if Bungie itself can't unlock it and reimplement the content. I imagine a lot of Destiny players right now would be keen for a limited-time event that allowed them to replay the original campaign missions, but it simply isn't possible according to Bungie itself. If it had been possible, they wouldn't have had to settle this lawsuit.

Escape from Tarkov has officially launched on Steam but the transition to the biggest PC gaming platform hasn't gone smoothly. Following the launch, many players had issues getting into the game and so far, the store page has been flooded with negative user reviews. 

Escape from Tarkov has launched to ‘mixed' reviews on Steam, with the majority of the top-rated reviews being negative. Players had issues creating accounts at launch, while others had issues with an error stating the game files were ‘corrupted' after a fresh install. Due to the game using a third-party launcher, even when purchased on Steam, players also expressed concern about missing their 2-hour refund window before even getting to try the game for themselves.

Currently, the review split stands at 10K negative reviews to just over 4K positive reviews. The positive reviews that do exist all express admiration for Escape from Tarkov's tension, immersion, realistic shooting and difficulty. It is perhaps the most ‘hardcore' extraction shooter on the market, while games like Arc Raiders and Marathon look to serve a broader audience of players.

Battlestate Games had increased server capacity for Escape from Tarkov in the lead-up to the Steam launch. However, many players encountered issues with the game launcher and the website for creating accounts. We expect those issues to subside pretty quickly, at which point, players should have an easier time getting into the game. Still, it is clear that Tarkov is not a game for everyone.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Have you tried Escape from Tarkov since the Steam launch earlier this week? Have you had any issues? 

Crystal Dynamics has had a rough few months. Following the cancellation of Perfect Dark, which Crystal Dynamics was the primary developer for, the studio was forced to cut a sizable number of developers from the team. Now just a short while later, the company has had to let go of more employees. 

Crystal Dynamics is undergoing its fourth round of lay-offs in just two years. This time around, the company has announced plans to let go of 30 employees as part of a ‘restructuring' effort.

The company claims the cuts were made to “optimise the continued development” of Tomb Raider, the studio's flagship franchise. If we take out the marketing spin, then we can gather that the next Tomb Raider game is not close to release, and Crystal Dynamics simply had more employees than it needed at this point in the project's lifespan.

The next Tomb Raider game was greenlit a couple of years ago, shortly after Embracer Group acquired Crystal Dynamics and the Tomb Raider IP from Square Enix. While Embracer continues to own Crystal Dynamics and by extension, Tomb Raider, it is actually Amazon Games that will be publishing the next game in the series. This is notable, as Amazon Games also underwent a massive round of lay-offs last month, leading to the cancellation of multiple projects, and the shelving of New World, the company's only successfully released game.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: If you've been looking forward to the return of Tomb Raider, it sounds like you'll be waiting a few more years at least. 

This week, NCSoft and Sony officially revealed their Horizon MMO project – Horizon Steel Frontiers. One thing about the announcement immediately stood out as strange, the game is only coming to PC and mobile, with no PS5 version planned. As it turns out, that may have been Sony's decision. 

NCSoft has addressed the lack of PS5 version for Horizon Steel Frontiers, its new MMO based on PlayStation's popular Horizon series of action-adventure games. Speaking with 4Gamer, NCSoft said that it would “like to” release a PS5 version of the game, but added that it is “not something we can decide on our own”.

The big question raised from this statement is why? Why would Sony put money into creating an MMO based on its Horizon franchise and not bring it to PlayStation consoles?

We may already have the answer to that, as it was also revealed yesterday that Guerrilla Games' next big project won't be a continuation of the single-player games, but rather a multiplayer spin-off instead. Given that Horizon Steel Frontiers is not coming to PS5, it would seem that Sony was concerned about the MMO stealing the thunder from Guerrilla's own multiplayer game, which will launch on PS5.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Horizon began life as a PlayStation exclusive franchise and the majority of fans are PlayStation gamers, so not bringing Steel Frontiers to the console is certainly a strange choice. I don't see any reason why both Steel Frontiers and Guerrilla's own Horizon multiplayer game couldn't co-exist on the platform.