This week on Zerocade

Game Pass gets 11 confirmed additions in November, from Football Manager 27 and a Warhammer take on Vampire Survivors to the team PvP game Arkheron on November 27. Fourteen games leave by November 15, including GoldenEye 007, Wreckfest and Football Manager 26. Here's every date, which tier gets what, and what's worth playing before it goes.

Notebookcheck's Xiaomi Pad 9 Pro Max review puts Xiaomi's in-house XRing O3 ahead of Apple's M5 iPad Pro in a 4K graphics test (85 fps vs 49.6), behind it on CPU, and far behind it in AI. Here's the 10-core, 3nm chip explained, every benchmark in context, and what the Pad and 18 Fold cost in China (about ₹68,600 and up).

Intel names every chip family after a lake, and right now five of them are in the news at once. Here's which codename is which Core Ultra chip, desktop or laptop, which factory makes it, how many cores it has, and what Nova Lake and Moon Lake are expected to bring next, with India-relevant prices where they exist.

MP1st's sources say Sony's Bend Studio will reveal its next game in 2027 and may release it the same year. It's reportedly third-person with co-op, isn't a live-service game and isn't Days Gone 2. Here's what's claimed, how much to trust it, and how Bend got here after a cancelled live-service project and 2025 layoffs. Days Gone is ₹2,499 on Steam if you want to catch up.

A regular Intel leaker says the Arc B580, the $249 (about ₹23,700) budget gaming card from December 2024, might be made end-of-life so Intel can use its chips for pricier Arc Pro cards that sell to AI customers. Intel hasn't commented. Here's what the claim says, why it lines up with what happened to the RTX 5090, and what B580 and B570 prices look like in India right now.

Nagoshi Studio, the Tokyo team Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi set up with NetEase money in 2021, was dissolved on October 31, a Japanese government gazette notice confirms. Here's the timeline from Gang of Dragon's reveal to NetEase pulling funding over a reported ¥7 billion (about ₹420 crore) shortfall, and what it means for the game.

A Weibo tipster says the OnePlus Turbo 7 will use Qualcomm's unannounced Snapdragon 8 Gen 6, a 185Hz display and a 200MP main camera, launching in China before 2026 ends. Its predecessor, the Turbo 6, became the Nord 6 in India at ₹38,999. Here's what's leaked, where the new chip sits in Qualcomm's lineup, and how it compares with the Turbo 6.

A two-minute reel of what looks like a remake of 1996's Revelations: Persona surfaced on YouTube on October 31. It shows exploration, battles and story scenes in the style of Atlus's recent remakes, plus a surprise cameo from Persona 2's Tatsuya Suou. Atlus and Sega haven't commented. Here's what the footage shows, why many think it's real, and where it would fit next to Persona 4 Revival (₹4,399 on Steam, out February 2027).

Three performance phones launched in China in the last week of October, and each takes a different route to flagship speed for less: the Redmi K100 with the 2024 Snapdragon 8 Elite from CNY 3,499 (about ₹50,000), and the iQOO Neo 12 and OnePlus Ace 7 with last year's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, one of them in a cut-down 'V' version. Here's how the chips differ, what each phone costs, and what might reach India.

Valve's October 2026 Steam Hardware Survey has the RTX 3060 (launched at $329, about ₹31,300) tied with the RTX 5070 at 3.78% each. The RTX 50-series cards that spiked in September fell back, 1080p rose to 50.23%, 16GB RAM overtook a shrinking 32GB share, and Simplified Chinese dropped 9.4 points. Here's what the numbers say and why one month can swing so much.

A rumour doing the rounds says Nintendo is planning a Switch 2 Lite for about $299 (roughly ₹28,400) with a 7.1-inch screen, no TV output and a chip made on Samsung's newer 8LPU+ process, possibly in 2027. Nintendo hasn't said a word. Here's where each claim actually comes from, how it compares with the $499.99 Switch 2, and what the 2019 Switch Lite tells us.

A Persona remake reel on YouTube, GTA 6 clips taken down by Rockstar, a reported PSN ban for sharing one in a chat: leaks are everywhere this month. Here's every route a game can leak through, from rating boards and store databases to early retail copies and full-blown hacks, with real examples, how believable each kind usually is, and how publishers fight back.

The Redmi K100 has 10,000mAh, the OnePlus Turbo 6 and iQOO Neo 12 have 9,000mAh, and a Realme sold in India has 10,001mAh. The main reason is a change inside the battery called a silicon-carbon anode. Here's how a phone battery works, why silicon stores so much more charge than graphite, why it swells, how carbon keeps it in check, and why Apple, Google and Samsung haven't switched yet.

The new iQOO Neo 12 has a second chip next to its Snapdragon: iQOO's own Q3, which promises up to 144fps and 2K upscaling in games. Here's what a phone gaming chip actually does, how frame interpolation and super resolution work step by step, why only some games support it, and what it costs you in latency.

On November 2, Valve patched the 2008 original Left 4 Dead to fix 'several crash and remote code execution exploits'. Remote code execution, or RCE, is the worst kind of game bug: it lets someone else run their own program on your PC just because you joined their match. Here's how it works, step by step, the real cases from Dark Souls to Call of Duty, and how to stay safe in older multiplayer games.

AMD's Q3 2026 results show gaming revenue down 40% to $773 million (about ₹7,340 crore), which Lisa Su put down to the console cycle. Ryzen PC chips grew 7%, but AMD says PC sales slowed late in the quarter as memory costs pushed up prices, and it's planning for PC shipments to fall by double digits in 2027. Here's every number and what it means for gamers.

Bethesda has confirmed The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel, revealing the name and a desert teaser at the end of a 40th anniversary video hosted by Todd Howard. The game is set around Sentinel, a Redguard port city in Hammerfell, five years after Skyrim. There's still no release date, platform list or price. Here's everything that's confirmed, what the teaser shows and what we still don't know.

Tipster Abhishek Yadav says the iQOO 16 will launch in India around December 15-17, and other leaks suggest it could cost close to or over ₹1 lakh. It's already on sale in China from CNY 5,999 (about ₹80,000) with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6, iQOO's Q4 gaming chip, a 6.85-inch 165Hz screen and an 8,400mAh battery. Here's what's confirmed, what's leaked and how it compares with the iQOO 15.

S-GAME says Phantom Blade Zero sold more than 4 million copies across PS5 and PC in its first three days. On Steam it peaked above 820,000 players at once, ahead of Marvel Rivals and Battlefield 6, and it costs ₹4,299 on Steam in India. Here's what the numbers mean, how they compare with Black Myth: Wukong, and what's still unknown.

Sony's Black Friday sale on the PlayStation Store started on November 4 and runs to November 30, with up to 75% off thousands of PS5, PS4 and PS VR2 games and add-ons. It comes in two waves: new deals arrive on November 16, and some offers end early on November 20. Here's the full timeline, what it means for India, and how to avoid paying more than you need to.

Blizzard's World of Warcraft: Forever goes live worldwide on November 4 at 3pm PST, which is 4:30am IST on November 5. It's a new, permanent version of WoW set before Molten Core, with a level cap of 60, more than 1,000 new quests, the new Skyborne race, new class combos like Undead Paladins and controller support in beta. It's included in a normal WoW subscription. Here's everything in it.

In a four-part Ask the Developer interview, Nintendo reveals that the Switch 2 remake of Ocarina of Time was rebuilt from scratch, led by Tears of the Kingdom veterans HokWai Ng, Hidemaro Fujibayashi and Eiji Aonuma. Jumping is now a button, warp points were added and then removed, the Water Temple was reworked, and there's a new Threads of Time feature. It's out November 5 at $59.99 (about ₹5,700) and needs around 27GB.

AMD just blamed a 40% drop in gaming revenue on 'this stage of the console cycle'. Here's what a console cycle actually is: how a generation launches, peaks and fades, why prices used to fall late in a generation but are rising now, and where the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S sit today, with real numbers from Sony and AMD.

A new Bosgame mini PC with AMD's Ryzen AI Max+ PRO 495 and 192GB of memory went up for pre-order on November 3 at $6,199 (about ₹5.9 lakh). Here's what AMD's 'Gorgon Halo' chips are, how one package holds a 16-core CPU, a 40-unit GPU and an AI engine sharing up to 192GB of memory, how it differs from last year's Strix Halo, and what that means for gaming.

Phantom Blade Zero's Steam page lists Denuvo, like many big PC launches. Denuvo isn't a lock on your game so much as a guard around the lock. Here's how it works step by step, why publishers pay for it, the complaints about performance and activations, and why many games drop it a few months after launch.

The iQOO 16 lists '3,300Hz PWM' on its spec sheet. PWM dimming is how most OLED phone screens get darker: by flickering on and off faster than you can see. Here's how it works step by step, why low frequencies give some people eye strain, how DC dimming differs, what the Hz number actually tells you, and a simple test you can do with your own phone.

For a decade, Nvidia launched a new GeForce generation roughly every two years. Leakers now say the RTX 60 may not arrive until 2028, which would be the longest wait in years. Here's how GPU generations normally work, the four forces stretching them out (AI chips, memory prices, chip costs and smaller gains), and what it means if you're buying a graphics card in India now.

A well-known sales tracker says AMD Radeon cards outsold Nvidia GeForce cards by units on Amazon US for the first time. The data is unaudited and covers one retailer, but the trend behind it is real: GeForce cards now sell far above launch prices. Here's what the tracker shows, what it doesn't, and what it means for GPU prices in India.

Bloomberg reports that Ubisoft and at least two other companies have bid for Arkane Lyon, the French studio Microsoft could close on December 13. A day later, the studio's union said a 19-month hiring freeze caused the delays now being used against it. Here's what's reported, what's confirmed and what it could mean for Marvel's Blade.

Santa Monica Studio has moved God of War Laufey from February 16 to May 20, 2027, saying the game needs more time for finishing touches. It's a PS5 exclusive at ₹4,999 in India. Here's the full timeline, what changes for pre-orders and the Collector Box, and why February had become a crowded month.

A free PC update for Hogwarts Legacy adds DLSS 5's 3D-Guided Neural Rendering on November 5, making it the first big game with Nvidia's AI lighting. It works only on RTX 50 cards, RTX Spark PCs and GeForce NOW Ultimate for now. Here's what changes, how to turn it on, Nvidia's frame rate claims, and the debate over how it looks.

Nintendo shipped 6.49 million Switch 2 consoles from April to September, down from about 10.4 million a year earlier. Revenue fell 12%, yet operating profit jumped 49% thanks to software, digital sales and a US tariff refund. Here are all the numbers, the best-selling games, and what Nintendo expects for the rest of the year.

Qualcomm's handset revenue fell 26% to $5.14 billion (about ₹48,800 crore) in July to September, and Counterpoint says smartphone chip shipments dropped 21% worldwide. Memory prices are squeezing phones, MediaTek still leads, and Apple is gaining. Here are the numbers, what CEO Cristiano Amon said, and what it means for the Snapdragon phones coming to India.

Sony shipped 2.6 million PS5s from July to September, down from 4 million a year earlier, taking the total to 97.9 million. Yet its gaming profit rose 83% to ¥220.1 billion on software and PS Plus, and Sony raised its full-year forecast. Its CFO also said next-generation console work is progressing as scheduled. Here are the numbers and what they mean.

On November 3, Steam's Steam Deck page started redirecting to the store's homepage, setting off fears that Valve had quietly discontinued its handheld. By that evening the page was back, with both OLED models listed. Valve still hasn't explained it. Here's the timeline, why people worried, and how much the Steam Deck costs after this year's price rise.

When Nintendo says the Switch 2 is at 26.35 million, that's consoles shipped to shops, not consoles bought by players. Here's the difference between sell-in and sell-through, who reports which number, why the gap matters, and how to read the next console sales headline without being misled.

Every phone runs on one main chip called an SoC, or system on a chip. It packs the CPU, graphics, AI engine, camera processor, modem and more into a piece of silicon smaller than your fingernail. Here's what each part does, how they share the work when you play a game or take a photo, and why Apple's chips leave out the modem.

When a studio says its game has 'gone gold', the launch version is finished. But what comes before it, what happens after it, and why can a game still be delayed this late? Here's how the final months of making a game actually work, from alpha to the day-one patch.

Sony and Nintendo both reported falling console shipments this week, and rising profits. That isn't a contradiction. Consoles earn very little, while games, digital sales and subscriptions earn a lot. Here's how the console business actually makes money, with real numbers from both companies.

GOG marked its 18th birthday with its first Showcase on November 5. It launched seven restored Anniversary Editions led by Wing Commander: Prophecy, fixed Nox for modern PCs, announced GOG GALAXY for Linux, started a publishing label called Retrovibe and opened signups for a GOG Social beta. Here's everything announced, and what changes if you already own the old games.

A preliminary leak says every Nova Lake-S desktop chip will limit its cores to 5.1GHz once it passes 90°C, separately from normal thermal throttling at 100°C, and that users can't raise the limit. Here's what the leak claims, how 5.1GHz compares with today's top chips, why Intel might do it and what it would mean for cooling.

A slide that appears to come from Microsoft splits Windows PCs into four AI tiers by memory, from 8GB laptops to 128GB-plus machines that run large AI models locally. It also lists AMD's unannounced Ryzen AI 500 and Intel's Core Ultra Series 4 (Nova Lake). Microsoft hasn't confirmed it. Here's every tier, the chips in each, and what it means if you're buying a laptop.

A small NieR: Automata patch that added Chinese and Korean text made Steam ask for 366GB of free space instead of about 50GB. Square Enix says it has found the cause and is working on a fix. Here's why the number ballooned, how to install just the base game now, and what the game costs on Steam in India (₹1,330).

Reuters reports that Silver Lake and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund approached Unity in recent weeks and discussed a valuation of about $25 billion (roughly ₹2.4 lakh crore). It's the same group that took EA private for $55 billion. No deal is agreed, and Unity declined to comment. Here's what was reported, why Unity matters to so many games, and what could change.

Call of Duty: Warzone stopped working on PS4 and Xbox One on November 6, when Modern Warfare 4's Season 1 went live. Your progress carries over if you sign in on PS5, Xbox Series X|S or PC with the same Activision account, and Warzone has launched on Switch 2 the same day. Here's what carries over, what resets, and what changes in Season 1.

Microsoft has started rolling out a rebuilt Xbox app for Windows to Xbox Insiders. It says the app opens up to 60% faster, key pages load up to 50% faster and in-app windows open up to 65% faster. The app stays free. Here's every change, how to get it early, and what's coming to play.xbox.com and cloud gaming over the next few weeks.

Savage Wind Recomp turns the Switch version of Breath of the Wild into native PC code, with no emulator. Its new Alpha 4 adds Linux and Steam Deck support, and a video shows the game running at roughly 50 to 60fps on a Steam Deck OLED. You need your own copy of the game. Here's how it works, what it needs, what's still broken, and the legal catch.

GOG just relaunched Wing Commander: Prophecy with restored video and controller support, and fixed Nox to run on modern PCs. But why do 90s games break in the first place? Here's what goes wrong when an old PC game meets Windows 11, the tools used to fix it, from emulators to wrappers, and what a 'restored' release actually changes.

Warzone just stopped working on PS4 and Xbox One, six and a half years after launch. Here's what a cross-gen game is, why publishers release games on two console generations at once, what holding on to old hardware costs developers, how upgrades and cross-progression work, and the signs that a game is about to leave older consoles.

AOC's new 4K 180Hz monitor is the latest to use Samsung Display's 'Penta Tandem' QD-OLED panel. Here's what QD-OLED is, what 'tandem' means, why going from four layers to five improves brightness and lifespan, what Samsung's 1.3x and 2x claims really mean, how it compares with LG's WOLED, and what to check before buying one.

NieR: Automata briefly asked for 366GB on Steam, GTA 6 is reported at 210GB on PS5, and Helldivers 2 shrank from 154GB to 23GB on PC. Here's what actually fills a game install, why some games copy the same data many times, how SSDs and compression changed the rules, and why patches can be huge.

Ubisoft's 'Most Requested Update' for Assassin's Creed Valhalla is out on every platform. It adds New Game+, a level cap rise for Divine gear, 300+ engravable runes, a free Naoe outfit and PSSR upscaling on PS5 Pro, where Quality Mode now runs at 60fps. Here's what's in it, how to unlock New Game+, and how big the download is on each platform.

Rockstar says GTA 6 preloads begin on November 10, and Xbox players reportedly get in a few hours earlier. A leak from Microsoft's store backend puts the Xbox build at 209.86GiB, which is 225.34GB, more than the PS5's reported 210GB. Here's when you can download it in India, how much space to clear, and why the two numbers don't match.

Market analysts Alinea Analytics estimate Helldivers 2 has passed 23 million copies and about $786 million in revenue, with two-thirds of copies sold on Steam. Stellar Blade is put at 5.4 million copies, split almost evenly between PS5 and PC. These are estimates, not Sony figures. Here's the breakdown, what Sony has confirmed, and what the games cost in India.

A leaked photo shows what's reported to be Intel's Nova Lake-H laptop processor, part of the Core Ultra 4000 family, with 16 CPU cores and six tiles on one package. Reports say the CPU cores are made by TSMC on N2P while the rest uses Intel's own 18A-P and Intel 3. Intel hasn't announced it. Here's the reported layout, how it compares with Panther Lake, and what it could mean for gaming laptops.

Six pallets of Nvidia hardware worth $11.4 million (about ₹100 crore) left Oakland, California on August 29 and never reached Fort Worth, Texas. Oakland police are investigating it as a grand theft, and no arrests have been announced. Here's what's known, what isn't, and why Nvidia chips have become a target for thieves.

Leaker Digital Chat Station says Oppo has suspended development of its Ultra phones, including the Find X10 Ultra that was due next quarter, because chip prices have become 'insane' and buyers are moving to wider phones. Oppo hasn't confirmed it. Here's what was claimed, what Oppo is said to be making instead, and what it means for Find X10 buyers in India.

Sony and developer Oh BiBi have stopped work on Ratchet & Clank: Ranger Rumble, the free-to-play mobile arena shooter that was soft-launched in a handful of countries but never reached India. It leaves the App Store and Google Play on November 21, and its servers close on May 1, 2027. Here's every date, what happens to purchases, and how far the game got.

The 1998 stealth classic is coming back on December 3, rebuilt by Nightdive Studios and published by Atari. It costs ₹1,349 on Steam in India ($29.99), runs at up to 4K and 120fps, and adds The Tarnished Mirror, a brand-new four-mission campaign from the makers of a famous fan mod. Here's every edition, platform and change.

Intel's next laptop chip, Nova Lake-H, reportedly has six tiles on one package. AMD's Ryzen desktop chips have used chiplets since 2019. Here's what tiles and chiplets are, how the pieces talk to each other, why chipmakers stopped making one big chip, and what it means for the laptop or PC you buy.

MSI's new Venture 15 AI+ has no graphics card, yet it's sold as a laptop that can handle modern games at 1080p. The reason is integrated graphics, a GPU built into the processor itself. Here's how an iGPU works, why memory is its biggest weakness, how Intel and AMD's latest compare, and when you still need a dedicated card.

Smurfing is when a skilled player uses a fresh account to play against beginners. A Sony patent published on November 5 describes a way to catch it by comparing how players press buttons and move through menus. Here's what smurfing is, why matchmaking struggles with it, what games already do about it, and what Sony's patent actually says.

The RTX 5070 Ti launched at an MSRP of $749. On November 6, the cheapest one in a US store was $1,339.99. Here's what MSRP actually promises, who decides what a graphics card costs on the shelf, why memory shortages push prices up, and what to check before you buy one in India.