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Class of '89 demo at Gen Con 2025
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Class of ’89 demo at Gen Con 2025

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If you are like me, and most people, the biggest regret of your life is that you weren’t on the yearbook staff of your high school. The rest of you have already achieved greatness. For those of us in the majority, Class of ‘89 is going to bring us the taste of what could have been. I got to sit down to a demo of the game at Gen Con this year and I was impressed.

Prototype disclaimer. 80% gameplay complete, 0% Art & Graphics complete

First off, a disclaimer. The game is still undergoing playtesting and design, and work has barely started on the art. This preview will talk through core mechanics and images will be of what I saw, but some gameplay might be tweaked and the art can be improved with time and care.

Your job is simple enough, build a yearbook. Half of your personal board is for teachers and students, with a class of students coming after their teacher. Teachers score points for the students in the class who match their objective. Students will need to be placed in alphabetical order by their last initial. New teachers allow you to restart the alphabet, but might break up a high scoring group of kids. As the game progresses, you will be adding tokens to students, which will highlight their skills – like grades and athletics – and will be the main way they score points. Completing rows and columns on this page gives you bonuses: whether tokens, students, teachers, or clubs (which we’ll come back to). On the other half of your board is the extracurricular page. Here is where you’ll build a tableau of club pictures, ads, and ephemera. These give you one time bonuses like tokens or end of game scoring objectives that encourage the students to excel in certain areas, a.k.a. gathering more of certain token types.

With that not-so-short background, what are you actually doing in this game? Worker placement, where the decisions aren’t really about where you are going, but what’s there when you get there and which worker you use. 

See, every place in the school has a teacher/faculty member (who gives one time bonuses instead of end game scoring), a few students, and a tile that can be placed on your extracurricular board. Since the same staff deck and student deck populate the various sections, the gym teacher that complements your extremely athletic students might be found in the library. The locations let you bump up on the club track (bear with me on this) and have different sized tiles, but otherwise are identical. I don’t think this is a problem, as there’s so much to keep track of and optimize in every placement. Making one more decision would paralyze too many players. Because, believe it or not, there’s another big decision point. Which worker do you use? Every player has the same four workers, each with a different power. Do you excel in clubs, gather an extra resource from this section, get an extra token and signature (currency), or avoid paying the cost of the space and double up workers in a section? And you only get to play three of those workers in a round. So you are going to want to optimize your choices.

6 locations to place workers. End game scoring objectives, round marker, and the club tracker all above the board

Finally, clubs. Clubs like the National Honor Society will give you resources as you climb the ladder in them, and if you are highest or tied for it at the end of each round, you get signatures or the token type that’s associated with the club. Why do I save this for last? Because this is the part of the game we saw least and what I want more of (and the one rule we messed up the whole game, not realizing that you could get tokens). If you’re this far in, you’ll realize that there’s a lot of decision-making going on. What you don’t realize is that the demo-er was going easy on us. For the sake of our brains, they took out a major aspect of the students. Each student is aligned with two clubs, one on each side of the card. When placed next to another student such that they share a club between them, you go up in that track. Not a complicated statement, but one that is going to add to play time and make alphabetizing a lot more difficult. I really want to see what’s going on with clubs once I get to play with that mechanic, but also completely agree that new players might find that one extra bit just too much to deal with.

Finished card examples

As a preview and a demo, this game stood out to me. The worker placement is the main way you interact with other players, but frankly, is much less important than the decisions you make on your board to fill out the space as best you can. And Class of ‘89 has my favorite things in a board game: a relatively quick teach with lots of depth in the gameplay. Giving me a chance to fulfill my childhood aspirations that I let slip through my fingers was just a bonus.


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Cbdt Contemplates If India Needs New Virtual Digital Assets Law
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CBDT Contemplates If India Needs New Virtual Digital Assets Law

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India’s top tax authority, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), has begun extensive consultations with cryptocurrency exchanges and industry participants to assess if a new digital asset law is needed. 

As per a report from the Economic Times, the CBDT has asked crypto players if India requires a fresh law for Virtual Digital Assets (VDAs). And if a new law is needed, the CBDT also wants to know which regulator should oversee it. Options include SEBI, RBI, MeitY, or FIU-IND.

The agency is also probing how much Indian crypto trading has moved offshore, particularly to hubs like Dubai. It also wants to understand why traders are leaving India. The initiative indicates that the government might be rethinking its stringent approach to taxing and regulating cryptos. 

India Crypto Tax Concerns

At present, crypto gains face a steep 30% flat tax with no loss set-off, plus a 1% TDS on every trade. Industry players say this has crippled liquidity and pushed volumes abroad. The Indian government admitted it currently lacks a real-time system to track income from cryptocurrency transactions, even after collecting over ₹700 crore in taxes in two years.

CBDT is now asking whether this 1% TDS is too high, and what the ideal rate should be. Further, the agency is deliberating whether disparate TDS norms should be adopted for retail traders, institutions, and market makers.

The survey also addresses operational concerns, such as checking counterparties’ domicile, correctly valuing VDAs, and dealing with peer-to-peer transactions. CBDT has also asked whether Indian exchanges are ready to comply with the OECD’s global crypto reporting framework (CARF), designed to prevent tax evasion across borders.

Expert Opinions and Outlook

Interestingly, some Indian exchanges have started offering futures and options trading, where TDS is lower, but there’s still no legal clarity on derivatives, offshore transactions, or even the precise definition of “VDA.”

Purushottam Anand, Founder of crypto law firm Crypto Legal, said India will likely bring in a complete VDA regulation. He also stated that the government is doing a thorough examination of VDAs this year, based on global issues such as G20 papers and recent legislative studies. Anand stressed that India feels that any rule or ban will be most effective when implemented with strong international collaboration.

Experts believe this consultation could be the first step toward a comprehensive VDA law. According to legal experts, global consensus today is moving towards regulation, not bans. With advanced markets embracing crypto as a legitimate asset class, there’s hope that India may ease taxes and set clearer rules to retain traders.

Also Read: AKTU Becomes 1st Indian Uni to Use Blockchain for 50K Degrees



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Borderlands 3, Sea of Stars, and more to leave Xbox Game Pass at the end of August
Game Updates

Borderlands 3, Sea of Stars, and more to leave Xbox Game Pass at the end of August

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Every month Xbox gives and and it takes. While we get new games added to Xbox Game Pass throughout each month, in the middle and the end of the month we also see a bunch of games leave the service.

At the end of August the following games will leave Game Pass according to the recently updated Xbox App:

  • Borderlands 3 Ultimate Edition
  • Sea of Stars
  • Paw Patrol Mighty Pups Save Adventure Bay
  • This War of Mine: Final Cut
  • Ben 10: Power Trip

Of those games, there are a couple of standouts that you should try to play before they leave Game Pass.

Sea of Stars is a three-player co-op turn-based RPG that Eurogamer awarded 4 stars in our Sea of Stars review. This War of Mine: Final Cut is the game 11 bit made before going on to create Frostpunk and The Alters.

In This War Of Mine you do not play as an elite soldier, rather a group of civilians trying to survive in a besieged city; struggling with lack of food, medicine and constant danger from snipers and hostile scavengers. The game provides an experience of war seen from an entirely new angle.

Borderlands 3 Ultimate Edition has its fans (not everyone enjoyed what Gearbox did with the third game in the series), and you might want to give it a whirl ahead of Borderlands 4 releasing in September.

This is a news-in-brief story. This is part of our vision to bring you all the big news as part of a daily live report.



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WIRED Tests Dozens of Air Purifiers a Year. Here’s What We Look For (2025)
Product Reviews

WIRED Tests Dozens of Air Purifiers a Year. Here’s What We Look For (2025)

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If I put a box on its side and cannot grasp the product to lift it from its box, then that’s the first strike. WIRED considers accessibility, and this means handles and wheels on heavier air purifiers. When I review a unit, I think about those with less upper body strength moving the appliances, and whether they’d be able to maneuver it around their home. I move air purifiers all around my apartment; I shouldn’t have to bend at the knees to adjust a purifier’s location.

Photograph: Lisa Wood Shapiro

I was able to move the 50-pound ProX using its hidden handles and built-in lockable wheels.

After an air purifier is unboxed, it’s time to pair it with its app. Not all the air purifiers WIRED tests have an app, but if one does, the pairing process should not be complicated, nor should it require a lot of time. The best user experience is when an air purifier has a QR code that opens the app and adds the device. An app with a simple dashboard, graph that corresponds to the AQI color codes, and a smart remote is usually all that’s needed, though it’s a bonus if the app gives the filter life expectancy.

I prefer a simple power bar design that shows the percentage of filter life used. And while air purifier models give recommendations for when to replace the filter, like every six months, or when the replace filter indicator light glows on the appliance, nothing beats the heads-up of knowing exactly how much filter life has been used.

Internal Air Sensors, Lights, and Scores

While some air purifiers had internal air sensors when I first started testing in 2018, the majority of current purifiers we test now have them. If the purifier has internal sensors, there is usually an indicator light. Next question: Does the air purifier have an easy-to-see or read indicator light or air quality index (AQI) score? If it’s a smart air purifier, then the sensor’s readings feed into the device’s app. And I prefer an indicator light that follows the EPA’s color codes for the air quality index. That means green for good air, yellow for moderate, orange for unhealthy for sensitive groups, red for unhealthy, purple for very unhealthy, and maroon for hazardous. There are some companies, like Coway, that have their own take on the color codes, which can be confusing.

Photograph: Lisa Wood Shapiro

While Coway’s air purifiers are consistently WIRED’s top-rated picks, if I could change one thing about them, it would be their custom color scale, where blue means good and green means moderate. More and more air purifiers are also displaying their internal sensors’ air quality numbers. Most times, air purifiers will show a reading of PM 2.5. If the internal sensor senses an uptick in PM 2.5, the auto mode will trigger a higher fan speed, the indicator light might show orange and red along with the PM 2.5 number like 100. I should be able to see that light across the room, and the numbers should be easy to read.

Then there are some models, like those from Shark, that use their own scoring system. A score of 100 represents good air on the display of Shark’s NeverChange, for example, but 100 PM 2.5 would be considered unhealthy.

Photograph: Lisa Wood Shapiro

Shark

NeverChange Air Purifier

Noise and Size Matter

I think the labeling on air purifiers is confusing on purpose. Often the square footage listed on a product is for one air exchange per hour at the purifier’s highest setting. An air exchange is how many times an air purifier can clean the air of a room in an hour. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends five air exchanges an hour. If you have a 200-square-foot room, your air purifier needs to be able to pull the air of the room into the filter using the fan. That air runs through the filter, PM 2.5 and VOCs are captured by the filter, and the clean air is released back into the air at least five times in an hour. Often, WIRED won’t recommend air purifiers that can only clean unusually small spaces. And while those cute tabletop or miniature air purifiers seem like an easy solution, they are usually too tiny to effectively clean the air in an average-size room.

WIRED also uses a decibel meter to check the manufacturer’s decibel claims. Most of the time, the decibels are close to those listed on the purifier’s user manual. Sometimes they are louder. What’s too loud? The hum of a refrigerator is somewhere between 40 and 50 decibels; a conversation is around 60 decibels. Ideally, an air purifier should be able to clean the air in your room five times an hour without sounding like a conversation. And if an air purifier is louder—a lot louder—than the manufacturer claims, we’ll include that in our review or won’t recommend it.

If an air purifier is too loud at its highest fan setting, users are likely to turn down that fan speed to a quieter and less effective setting, rendering the air purifier into nothing more than a wellness prop. Another issue WIRED takes into account is when the air intake overpowers the external vents, causing unsightly clumps of pet hair to accumulate on the outside of the air purifier.



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Dogecoin Founder Reacts to Sudden Crypto Market Collapse
NFT Gaming

Dogecoin Founder Reacts to Sudden Crypto Market Collapse

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Dogecoin (DOGE) founder Billy Markus, known on X as Shibetoshi Nakamoto for his sarcastic and ironic comments on cryptocurrency, has dropped a note on the current market outlook. In a post for his more than 2.2 million followers, Markus captured recent events with different crypto assets and their attempts to hit new levels.

Billy Markus mocks 2025 crypto price trends

Markus used a GIF of “Kermit the Frog” falling from a high rooftop to illustrate the price pattern with different crypto assets in 2025. He accompanied the GIF with the words, “Crypto when nearing ATHs in 2025.”

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The Dogecoin founder’s post suggests he is making fun of the high anticipation most investors in the crypto space feel in bull market cycles. Notably, he is stating that, so far in 2025, crypto assets have consistently disappointed market expectations.

He observed that every time an asset’s price begins to climb toward its all-time high (ATH), instead of breaching the level, it often crashes sharply. Markus has constantly shared his thoughts on staying afloat in the crypto space, especially during rough times.

Markus could be using humor to pass on a message to investors in the crypto market. That is, investors should expect sudden downturns, as volatility is part of the crypto space. In past cycles, there has always been volatility, profit-taking and psychological resistance around ATHs.

Crypto collapse near ATH frustrates investors

Reacting to the post, a user, “Alpha Doge,” agreed with Markus’ stance and highlighted his frustration with the nose-dive pattern each time the price is nearing an ATH.  He believed that crypto assets appear to be deliberately trying to drive investors over the edge.

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Billy Markus’s message and general crypto market outlook highlight the need for traders not to get too comfortable with predictions. This is because crypto remains a volatile asset class.

For instance, Ethereum (ETH), the leading altcoin, has in the last seven days inched close to the ATH of $4,891.70 set in November 2021. However, it only managed to hit $4,761 before it came crashing to its current price of $4,260.93.



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93% of Bitcoin Is Mined. What Happens at the 21 Million Cap?
Crypto Trends

93% of Bitcoin Is Mined. What Happens at the 21 Million Cap?

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How much Bitcoin is left to mine?

Bitcoin’s total supply is hardcoded at 21 million BTC, a fixed upper limit that cannot be altered without a consensus-breaking change to the protocol. This finite cap is enforced at the protocol level and is central to Bitcoin’s value proposition as a deflationary asset.

As of May 2025, approximately 19.6 million Bitcoin (BTC) have been mined, or about 93.3% of the total supply. That leaves roughly 1.4 million BTC yet to be created, and those remaining coins will be mined very slowly.

The reason for this uneven distribution is Bitcoin’s exponential issuance schedule, governed by an event called the halving. When Bitcoin launched in 2009, the block reward was 50 BTC. Every 210,000 blocks — or approximately every four years — that reward is cut in half. 

Because the early rewards were so large, over 87% of the total supply was mined by the end of 2020. Each subsequent halving sharply reduces the rate of new issuance, meaning it will take over a century to mine the remaining 6.7%.

According to current estimates, 99% of all Bitcoin will have been mined by 2035, but the final fraction — the last satoshis — won’t be produced until around the year 2140 due to the nature of geometric reward reduction.

This engineered scarcity, combined with an immutable supply cap, is what draws comparisons between Bitcoin and physical commodities like gold. But Bitcoin is even more predictable: Gold’s supply grows at around 1.7% annually, whereas Bitcoin’s issuance rate is transparently declining.

Did you know? Bitcoin’s supply curve is not terminal in the traditional sense. It follows an asymptotic trajectory — a kind of economic Zeno’s paradox — where rewards diminish indefinitely but never truly reach zero. Mining will continue until around 2140, by which point over 99.999% of the total 21 million BTC will have been issued.

Beyond the supply cap: How lost coins make Bitcoin scarcer than you think

While over 93% of Bitcoin’s total supply has been mined, that doesn’t mean it’s all available. A significant portion is permanently out of circulation, lost due to forgotten passwords, misplaced wallets, destroyed hard drives or early adopters who never touched their coins again.

Estimates from firms like Chainalysis and Glassnode suggest that between 3.0 million and 3.8 million BTC — roughly 14%-18% of the total supply — is likely gone for good. That includes high-profile dormant addresses like the one believed to belong to Satoshi Nakamoto, which alone holds over 1.1 million BTC.

This means Bitcoin’s true circulating supply may be closer to 16 million-17 million, not 21 million. And because Bitcoin is non-recoverable by design, any lost coins stay lost — permanently reducing supply over time.

Now compare that to gold. Around 85% of the world’s total gold supply has been mined — approximately 216,265 metric tons, according to the World Gold Council — but nearly all of it remains in circulation or held in vaults, jewelry, ETFs and central banks. Gold can be remelted and reused; Bitcoin cannot be resurrected once access is lost.

This distinction gives Bitcoin a kind of hardening scarcity, a supply that not only stops growing over time but quietly shrinks.

As Bitcoin matures, it’s entering a monetary phase similar to gold: low issuance, high holder concentration and increasing demand-side sensitivity. But Bitcoin takes it further; its supply cap is hard, its loss rate is permanent, and its distribution is publicly auditable.

This may lead to several outcomes:

  • Increased price volatility as available supply becomes more limited and sensitive to market demand
  • Higher long-term value concentration in the hands of those who remain active and secure in their key management
  • A premium on liquidity, where actually spendable BTC trades at a higher effective value than dormant supply.

In extreme cases, this could produce a bifurcation between “circulating BTC” and “unreachable BTC,” with the former gaining greater economic significance, particularly in times of constrained exchange liquidity or macroeconomic stress.

What happens when Bitcoin is fully mined?

There’s a popular assumption that as Bitcoin’s block rewards shrink, the network’s security will eventually suffer. But in practice, the mining economy is far more adaptive — and much more resilient — than that.

Bitcoin’s mining incentives are governed by a self-correcting feedback loop: If mining becomes unprofitable, miners drop off the network, which in turn triggers a difficulty adjustment. Every 2,016 blocks (roughly every two weeks), the network recalibrates mining difficulty using a parameter known as nBits. The goal is to keep block times steady at around 10 minutes, regardless of how many miners are competing.

So, if Bitcoin’s price drops, or the reward becomes too small relative to operating costs, inefficient miners simply exit. This causes difficulty to fall, lowering the cost for those who remain. The result is a system that continually rebalances itself, aligning network participation with available incentives.

This mechanism has already been tested at scale. After China banned mining in mid-2021, Bitcoin’s global hashrate dropped by more than 50% in a matter of weeks. Yet the network continued to function without interruption, and within a few months, the hashrate fully recovered, as miners resumed operations in jurisdictions with lower energy costs and more favorable regulations.

Critically, the idea that lower rewards will inherently threaten network security overlooks how mining is tied to profit margins, not nominal BTC amounts. As long as the market price supports the cost of hash power — even at 0.78125 BTC per block (post-2028 halving) or lower — miners will continue to secure the network.

In other words, it’s not the absolute reward that matters, but whether mining remains profitable relative to costs. And thanks to Bitcoin’s built-in difficulty adjustment, it usually does.

Even a century from now, when the block reward approaches zero, the network will likely still be protected by whatever combination of fees, base incentives and infrastructure efficiency exists at that time. But that’s a distant concern. In the meantime, the current system — hashrate adjusts, difficulty rebalances, miners adapt — remains one of the most robust elements of Bitcoin’s design.

Did you know? On April 20, 2024, following the launch of the Runes protocol, Bitcoin miners earned over $80 million in transaction fees within a single day, surpassing the $26 million earned from block rewards. This marked the first time in Bitcoin’s history that transaction fees alone exceeded the block subsidy in daily miner revenue.

The future of Bitcoin mining: Energy consumption

It’s a common misconception that rising Bitcoin prices will drive endless energy use. In reality, mining is constrained by profitability, not price alone.

As block rewards shrink, miners are pushed toward thinner margins, and that means chasing the cheapest, cleanest energy available. Since China’s 2021 mining ban, hashrate has migrated to regions like North America and Northern Europe, where operators tap into surplus hydro, wind and underutilized grid energy.

According to the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, between 52% and 59% of Bitcoin mining now runs on renewables or low-emission sources. 

Regulations are reinforcing this trend, with several jurisdictions offering incentives for clean-powered mining or penalizing fossil-fuel operations.

Moreover, the idea that higher BTC prices will always mean higher energy use misses how Bitcoin self-regulates: More miners raise difficulty, which compresses margins, capping energy expansion. 

Renewable-based mining brings its own challenges, but the dystopian future of endlessly expanding fossil-fueled hash power is increasingly unlikely.



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Scientists Pitch Bold Plan to Turn Nuclear Waste Into Nuclear Fuel
Gaming Gear

Scientists Pitch Bold Plan to Turn Nuclear Waste Into Nuclear Fuel

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Nuclear fusion has seen some exciting advances, and the promise of clean, efficient energy does seem to be creeping closer to reality. But skeptics point to practical issues we may not be trying hard enough to solve—issues that will inevitably weigh down our reactors when they finally arrive.

A new proposal by Terence Tarnowsky, a nuclear physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, focuses on one key part of the problem: finding a supply of tritium, a fundamental ingredient for fusion. Tarnowsky, who will present his roadmap next week at the ACS Fall 2025 conference, suggests tapping into the thousands of tons of nuclear waste, including spent reactor fuel, using the sleeping atoms within to support tritium production. With the right adjustments to an accelerator-like apparatus, this strategy could reliably create a self-sufficient source of the precious isotope.

In a successful fusion reactor, tritium and deuterium—two lightweight hydrogen isotopes—fuse and release a gigantic load of energy in the process. By contrast, current nuclear plants run on fission, or the splitting of heavy atoms such as uranium, which also generates a hefty amount of power but produces long-lived radioactive byproducts. This waste material just “[sits] around the country,” presumably for a million years, and costs hundreds of millions of dollars each year to manage, Tarnowsky explained to Gizmodo during a video call. 

Meanwhile, the promise of fusion is shadowed by an inevitable shortage of tritium, an extremely rare and unstable hydrogen isotope. “There are only tens of kilograms [of tritium]—both natural and artificial—on the entire planet,” Tarnowsky said. And it doesn’t help that nuclear experiments worldwide are burning through those tiny supplies at an alarming rate. “So, where is this tritium supposed to come from?”

Breeding tritium in labs is a viable option, but again, there’s a very good reason we haven’t found the perfect recipe; it’s a “tricky fuel to deal with,” Tarnowsky said. 

“If you breed tritium now, it’s not like you can stash it in a container for 30 years from now, because it decays to helium-3 very quickly,” he explained. “And it also has the chemistry of hydrogen. Hydrogen likes to get out of things; it likes to get stuck in walls. So it’s a hard thing to deal with.” For context, the half-life of tritium is 12.3 years, meaning it decays to half of its original amount in that time.

Tarnowsky’s proposal combines previous theories with recent technological advancements. Simply, the idea is to employ a particle accelerator to trigger the decay of uranium and plutonium atoms inside nuclear waste, resulting in a series of neutron bursts and other nuclear transitions that would eventually produce tritium atoms. The waste would be covered with molten lithium salt to shield the process from overexposure to harmful radiation, according to Tarnowsky. 

With the right design, Tarnowsky surmises this method could “produce more than 10 times as much tritium as a fusion reactor at the same thermal power,” as noted in the press release. That said, he admits that this roadmap would require bold commitments from both the public and private sectors. 

Fusion economy is irreversible in some ways, Tarnowsky said. It’s certainly not something where one “can flip a switch and have a backup system running if something goes terribly wrong with tritium breeding,” Tarnowsky said. “You need to plan ahead by a very long time frame.”

But the longer we wait, the more we’re essentially digging ourselves into a hole, he said. “Every year we continue to operate our nuclear power plants—in a very safe manner!—we also make more spent fuel every year, [which] increases about 2,000 metric tons per year. So the liabilities are getting worse every year.”

All that said, Tarnowsky remains hopeful for the future of nuclear fusion—and, really, completing our transition toward clean energy. 

“I’d say, you know, 10 years ago, this kind of technology being proposed in this space would not have received this much interest; people were wary about nuclear power plants,” he said. “And then they went to burn dirty coal. Well, what are you going to do? But we’re having this conversation now, and people aren’t just reacting with fear.”



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Make-A-Wish launches initiative to "empower the games industry" to grant wishes
Esports

Make-A-Wish launches initiative to “empower the games industry” to grant wishes

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Make-A-Wish International has launched Infinite Wishes, a new global initiative that aims to unite the video games industry “to help grant life-changing wishes for children living with critical illnesses.”

Announced in a press release on August 13, 2025, the Infinite Wishes initiative was launched “in response to a dramatic rise in gaming-related wishes,” which range from children wishing for a custom-built PC to wishing to meet developers.

Infinite Wishes aims to provide “a flexible, inclusive framework for the industry” to allow game companies to help grant these gaming-related wishes, and “to make a meaningful impact, no matter an organization’s size or budget.”

The initiative offers tiered partnership levels and non-financial participation offers, allowing companies to get involved in a way that suits their goals and resources.

“Infinite Wishes is about creating pathways for the games industry to do great things, whether that’s funding wishes, hosting a livestream, or simply sparking a new idea for impact,” said April Stallings, charitable gaming and creators community manager at Make-A-Wish International.

“We know how passionate and talented this community is. This initiative is about giving teams a purpose-driven outlet to rally around – one that lifts spirits, sparks creativity, and changes lives.”

To help guide the programme, Make-A-Wish International has assembled a Games Industry Advisory Committee, consisting of representatives from Square Enix, Bethesda, Bandai Namco Entertainment, Raccoon Logic, 2K, Deviant Legal, Modoyo, Stream for a Cause, and Dames4Games. While inaugural members include Raptor PR and PlaySafe ID.

“There’s never been a better time for the games industry to show its heart, said Wouter Van Vugt, EMEA communications and community engagement senior director at Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe and chair of the Make-A-Wish Games industry advisory committee.

“Through Infinite Wishes, our industry has the opportunity to channel our collective goodwill and reach into something that delivers lasting, real-world impact for children who need it most. The opportunity to help fulfil a child’s wish is one of the most powerful things we can offer.”



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Ripple CTO Unveils Behind-the-Scenes of New XRP Project
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Ripple CTO Unveils Behind-the-Scenes of New XRP Project

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David Schwartz, Ripple’s longtime chief technology officer, has been running a new experiment on the XRP Ledger, and over the weekend he decided to show what has been going on under the hood. 

This time the focus was far more practical: a hub server he has been running that could soon become part of XRPL’s production infrastructure.

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The update came with several charts — bandwidth, latency, peer counts, even disconnection rates — all pointing to a network holding good over a full day of monitoring. There was a single bump in latency, something Schwartz noted only affected a few weaker links, and a small data dropout that he dismissed as a monitoring glitch.

Here’s the past 24 hours. All good. There is one spike in latency that only affected a few links that were already poor. The tiny drop in network b/w appears to be a monitoring dropout and doesn’t show on the switch port’s monitoring. I think we’re nearly production ready. pic.twitter.com/1GNCqF8EBc

— David ‘JoelKatz’ Schwartz (@JoelKatz) August 17, 2025

Everything else looked clean enough for him to suggest that the system is “nearly production ready,” words that carry some weight given XRPL’s history of uptime and stability.

What is it for?

For Schwartz, the server is designed to help important XRP Ledger nodes stay more reliably connected, making the network less prone to sudden drops or sync issues. Yes, it had been some time since he last handled live infrastructure, but the work was both fun and useful, he says.

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For a blockchain that has been running since 2012, reliability may not sound like the most exciting breakthrough, but it matters. The closer the ledger gets to enterprise and payments use cases, the more every connection counts, and adding a layer that quietly strengthens the backbone could end up being more important than headline-grabbing features. 

Schwartz’s update does not announce a launch date, but the takeaway is simple: the groundwork for XRPL’s next phase is already being tested.





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Product Reviews

The best gaming monitors in 2025

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If you want to get the most out of your games — whether you’re into competitive FPS titles, sprawling RPGs or story-driven adventures — a good gaming monitor can make all the difference. Smooth gameplay, low input lag and crisp visuals are just the start. With the right screen, everything from your aim to your immersion gets a serious upgrade.

These days, there’s a lot more to consider than just refresh rate or screen size. You’ll find ultrawide gaming monitors, widescreen displays, models with USB-C support, and monitors that can bring out the best in your CPU and GPU. Some even match the style of your setup, pairing perfectly with gaming headsets and accessories for a clean, cohesive look.

Whether you’re shopping on a tighter price range or splurging on high-end picture quality, we’ve rounded up the best options to suit different setups and play styles — so you can level up your experience without the guesswork.

Table of contents

Best gaming monitors for 2025

AOC

Screen size: 27-inch | Resolution: 2,560 x 1,440 | Refresh rate: 180Hz | Panel type: VA | Response time: 1ms GtG | Aspect ratio: 16:9 | Brightness: 1000 cd/m² | Weight: 11.9 pounds with stand | Display type: VA panel with Mini LED backlight | Response time: 1 ms GtG | Connector type: 1 × DisplayPort 1.4, 2 × HDMI 2.0

The Q27G3XMN offers a nearly unbeatable mix of features, performance and affordability. It’s a mini-LED monitor with HDR performance that’s not as good as the OLEDs on this list, but far better than anything you’ll find on an edge-lit LCD. With a 180Hz refresh rate, it’s also fast enough for all but the most fast-paced competitive esports games. Best of all, it’s priced affordably at under $300. For those reasons, unless you have a bigger budget or more specific needs, the Q27G3XMN is going to be the best bet for most people.

Pros

  • Relatively affordable
  • True HDR performance
  • Fast enough

Cons

  • Expect some smearing
  • No USB ports

$298 at Amazon

AOC

Screen Size: 23.8-inch | Resolution: 1,920 x 1080 | Refresh Rate: 180 Hz | Panel Type: VA | Response Rate: 4ms (gtg) | Aspect Ratio: 16:9 | Brightness: 250 cd/m² | Weight: 6.9 pounds with stand | Display type: VA panel with W‑LED backlight | Response time: 1 ms MPRT | Connector type: 1 × HDMI 2.0, 1 × DisplayPort 1.4, plus 3.5 mm audio out

Today, there are only two reasons to buy a 1080p monitor: Either you want the fastest possible display, or you want to spend as little as possible and get as much performance as possible. If the latter is true, I would go for the AOC 24G15. For $110, you’ll get a 24-inch screen with a high contrast VA panel, 180Hz refresh rate and 1ms response rate. If you’re patient, I’ve seen the 24G15 go on sale for as little as $90.

One thing to note: AOC also sells a 27-inch version of the 24G15 for about $30 more. I would avoid that model; it won’t look good due to low pixel density.

Pros

  • Affordable
  • 180Hz refresh rate
  • 1ms response rate

Cons

  • Low resolution
  • Epect some smearing

$109 at Amazon

Alienware

Screen size: 26.7-inch | Resolution: 2,560 x 1,440 | Refresh rate: 360Hz | Panel type: QD-OLED | Response time: 0.03ms (GtG) | Aspect ratio: 16:9 | Brightness: 250 cd/m² | Weight: 9.4 pounds without stand | Display type: QD‑OLED | Response time: 0.03 ms GtG | Connector type: 2 × DisplayPort 1.4, 1 × HDMI 2.1, USB 3.2 Gen 1 hub including 1 × Type‑C (downstream)

If you want a gaming monitor that basically does it all, the Alienware AW2725DF has a lot going for it. This QD-OLED features a 360Hz refresh rate and 0.03ms response. It also carries a Vesa DisplayHDR True Black 400 certification, so expect near-flawless HDR performance. It even has a HDMI 2.1 port if you want to use it with an Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5. From a performance standpoint, the only downside is that it won’t produce true blacks in rooms with too much ambient light. However, this is true of every QD-OLED monitor on the market right now.

At close to $1,000, it’s also expensive. But for what it’s worth, the OLED market is incredibly competitive at the moment. I’ve seen the AW2725DF go on sale a few times over the past couple of months, dropping to as low as $700.

Pros

  • 360Hz refresh rate
  • Fantastic HDR performance
  • Three-year burn-in coverage

$698 at Amazon

Dell

Screen size: 34.18-inch | Resolution: 3,440 x 1,440 | Refresh rate: 165 Hz | Panel type: QD-OLED | Response time: 0.01ms (GtG) | Aspect Ratio: 21:9 | Brightness: 250 cd/m² | Weight: 13.8 pounds with stand | Display type: QD‑OLED ultrawide (curved 21:9) | Response time: 0.1 ms | Connector type: Built‑in USB 3.2 Gen 1 hub, standard DP and HDMI inputs

For those looking for a more immersive gaming experience, an ultrawide monitor is the way to go. And right now, one of the best 21:9 displays you can buy is the Dell AW3423DWF. It offers an excellent 165Hz refresh rate, 0.01ms response time and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro support. The panel is also DisplayHDR TrueBlack 400 certified, making it great for watching movies and playing single-player games. The only feature that would make the AW3423DWF better is had Dell included an HDMI 2.1 port, but since ultrawide gaming isn’t really a thing in console gaming, the omission is not a deal breaker.

$571 at Amazon

LG

Screen size: 31.46-inch | Resolution: 4K and 1080p | Refresh rate: 240Hz and 480Hz | Panel type: WOLED | Response time: 0.03ms (GtG) | Aspect ratio: 16:9 | Brightness: 275 cd/m² | Weight: 19.8 pounds with stand | Display type: WOLED dual‑mode OLED (4K UHD or FHD) | Response time: 0.03 ms GtG | Connector type: DisplayPort and HDMI ports (DP for 4K 240 Hz or HDMI for 1080p 480 Hz), G‑Sync/FreeSync compatible

If money is no object and you play a mix of immersive games and competitive shooters, the LG 32GS95UE-B is the monitor for you. It offers something no other monitor on this list does. The 32GS95UE-B4K is both a 4K, 240Hz display and an FHD, 480Hz one. Moreover, it can switch between those two modes with the press of a button.

Yes, the 1080p output looks muddy stretched across a 32-inch screen, but for a feature that extends the versatility of an already incredible monitor, that’s a small sacrifice. At $1,400, the 2GS95UE-B is the most expensive monitor on this list. But if you’re in the market for a 4K display, chances are you’ve already spent a lot of money building a PC that can drive that many pixels.

Pros

  • Dual 4K and 1080p modes
  • Up to 480Hz refresh rate
  • OLED

Cons

  • Very expensive
  • Low pixel density at FHD

$1,099 at Adorama

How we test gaming monitors

While I’ve not used every product recommended in our list, I have extensively tested dozens of gaming monitors in the past, including models with WOLED and QD-OLED panels. In the case of the Alienware monitor I highlight above, I bought one for myself with my own money. Separately, I spent dozens of hours over a two-year period researching computer monitor options to write the current version of this guide.

Factors to consider before buying a gaming monitor

LCD vs OLED

When shopping for a gaming monitor, you first need to decide if you want to go with a screen that has an LCD or OLED panel. For most people, that choice will come down to price; OLED gaming monitors are more expensive than their LCD counterparts. Even if money isn’t a concern, the choice might not be as straightforward as you think; both LCD and OLED panels come in a few different flavors, and knowing the differences between each type is important to making an informed decision.

LCD monitors come in three different varieties: twisted nematic (TN), vertical alignment (VA) or in-plane switching (IPS). For the most part, you want to avoid TN monitors unless you’re strapped for cash or want a monitor with the fastest possible refresh rate or fast response rate. TN screens feature the worst viewing angles, contrast ratios and colors of the group.

The differences between VA and IPS panels are more subtle. Historically, VA gaming monitors featured slower pixel response times than their TN and IPS counterparts, leading to unsightly image smearing. However, that’s improved in recent years. VA panels also frequently sport better contrast ratios than both TN and IPS screens. They’re not dramatically better than their IPS siblings on that front, but when contrast ratios aren’t an inherent strength of LCDs, every bit helps.

On the other hand, IPS panels excel at color accuracy and many offer high refresh rates and response times that are as fast as the fastest TN panels. The majority of LCD gaming monitors on the market today feature IPS panels, though you will frequently find VA screens on ultrawide monitors.

What about OLED?

If you can afford one, an OLED screen makes for the best monitor for gaming. The ability of organic light-emitting diodes to produce true blacks is transformational. Simply put, every game looks better when there isn’t a backlight to wash out shadow detail. Plus, you can experience true HDR with an OLED screen, something that LCDs aren’t known for.

Today, OLED screens come in two different flavors: WOLED and QD-OLED, with LG producing the former and Samsung the latter. I won’t bore you with the technical details of how the two panel types differ from one another other than to note both technologies broadly offer the same set of shortcomings.

Most notably, OLED monitors don’t get very bright. At best, the most capable models peak at around 250 nits when measuring brightness across the entire screen. I didn’t find this to be an issue in my testing, but your experience may vary depending on the ambient light in your gaming setup.

If brightness is important to you, note that due to manufacturer tunings, different models can perform better than others, even if they feature the same panel from LG or Samsung. It’s worth comparing monitors in the same class to find the model that’s right for you.

Separately, almost all OLEDs feature sub-pixel layouts that produce text fringing in Windows. The latest generation of OLED panels from both LG and Samsung are much better in this regard, to the point where modern OLEDs are good enough for reading and image editing. However, it’s still worth going to your local Micro Center or Best Buy to see the model you want in person, as the text fringing issue is hard to capture in photos and videos.

Another (potentially more serious) issue is burn-in. Organic light-emitting diodes can get “stuck” if they display the same image for long periods of time. Every OLED gaming monitor you can buy today comes with features designed to prevent burn-in and other image quality issues. Provided you don’t use your new OLED monitor for eight hours of daily productivity work, I don’t think you need to worry about burn-in too much.

Screen size, resolution and aspect ratio

After deciding where you fall on the LCD vs OLED debate, you can start thinking about the size of your future gaming monitor. Personal preference and the limitations of your gaming setup will play a big part here, but there are also a few technical considerations. You should think about size in conjunction with resolution and aspect ratio.

A 1440p monitor has 78 percent more pixels than a 1080p resolution screen, and a 4K display has more than twice as many pixels as a QHD panel. As the size of a monitor increases, pixel density decreases unless you also increase resolution. For that reason, there are sweet spots between size and high resolution. For instance, I wouldn’t recommend buying an FHD monitor that is larger than 24 inches or a QHD one bigger than 27 inches. Conversely, text and interface elements on a 4K monitor can look tiny without scaling on panels smaller than 32 inches.

You also need to consider the performance costs of running games at higher resolutions. The latest entry-level GPUs can comfortably run most modern games at 1080p and 60 frames per second. They can even render some competitive titles at 120 frames per second and higher — but push them to run those same games at 1440p and beyond, and you’re bound to run into problems. And as you’ll see in a moment, a consistently high frame rate is vital to getting the most out of the latest gaming monitors.

If your budget allows for it, 1440p offers the best balance between image quality and gaming performance. As for 1080p resolution and 4K, I would only consider the former if you’re on a tight budget or enjoy competitive gaming shooters like Valorant and Overwatch 2. For most people, the user experience and productivity benefits of QHD far outweigh the performance gains you get from going with a lower resolution screen.

Just a few years ago, 4K was not a viable resolution for PC gaming, but then NVIDIA came out with its 40 series GPUs. With those video cards offering the company’s DLSS 3 frame generation technology, there’s a case to be made that the technology is finally there to play 4K games at a reasonable frame rate, particularly if you exclusively play big, AAA single-player games like Alan Wake 2 and Cyberpunk 2077 or enjoy strategy games like the Total War series. However, even with frame generation, you will need a GPU like the $999 RTX 4080 Super or $1,599 RTX 4090 to drive a 4K display. Plus, 4K gaming monitors tend to cost more than their 1440p counterparts.

If you want an ultrawide, note that not every game supports the 21:9 aspect ratio, and fewer still support 32:9. When shopping for a curved monitor, a lower Radius, or ‘R’ number, indicates a more aggressive curve. So, a 1000R monitor is more curved than an 1800R one.

The best gaming monitor

(Photo by Igor Bonifacic / Engadget)

Refresh rates and response times

And now, finally, for the fun stuff. The entire reason to buy a gaming monitor is for its ability to draw more images than a traditional computer monitor. As you shop for a new screen, you will see models advertising refresh rates like 120Hz, 240Hz and 360Hz. The higher the refresh rate of a monitor, the more times it can update the image it displays on screen every second, thereby producing a smoother moving image. When it comes to games like Overwatch, Valorant and League of Legends, a faster refresh rate can give you a competitive edge, but even immersive single-player games can benefit.

A monitor with a 240Hz refresh rate will look better in motion than one with a 120Hz refresh rate, but there are diminishing returns. At 60Hz, the image you see on your computer monitor is updated every 16.67ms. At 120Hz, 240Hz and 360Hz, the gap between new frames shortens to 8.33ms, 4.17ms and 2.78ms, respectively. Put another way, although a 360Hz monitor can display 50 percent more frames than a 240Hz screen in a given time period, you will only see a speedup of 1.14ms between frame intervals. And all that depends on your GPU’s ability to render a consistent 360 frames per second.

Ultimately, a fast response monitor will do you no good if you don’t have a gaming PC with a graphics card that can keep up. For example, with a 1440p 360Hz monitor, you realistically need a GPU like the RTX 4070 Super or RTX 4080 Super to saturate that display while playing competitive gaming titles like Overwatch 2 and Valorant.

There’s also more to motion clarity than refresh rates alone. Just as important are fast response times, or the amount of time it takes for pixels to transition from one color to another and then back again. Monitors with slow response times tend to produce smearing that is distracting no matter what kind of game you’re playing. Curved gaming monitor options help with immersion by wrapping the screen around your field of vision, making the gaming setup feel more expansive. Unfortunately, response times are also one of the more opaque aspects of picking the best gaming monitor for your needs.

Many LCD monitor manufacturers claim their products feature 1ms gray-to-gray (GtG) response times, yet they don’t handle motion blur to the same standard. One of the reasons for that is that many companies tend to cherry-pick GtG results that make their monitors look better on paper. The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) recently created a new certification program to address that problem, but the grading system is unwieldy and, as far as I can tell, hasn’t had a lot of pickup from manufacturers.

For now, your best bet is to turn to resources like Rtings and Monitors Unboxed when shopping for a new gaming monitor. Both outlets conduct extensive testing of every screen they review and present their findings and recommendations in a way that’s easy to understand.

FreeSync vs G-Sync

No matter how powerful your system, it will sometimes fail to maintain a consistent framerate. In fact, you should expect frame rate fluctuations when playing graphically-intensive games like Alan Wake 2 and Cyberpunk 2077. For those moments, you want a gaming display with adaptive sync. Otherwise, you can run into screen tearing.

Adaptive sync technologies come in a few flavors. The two you’re most likely to encounter are AMD FreeSync and NVIDIA G-Sync, and each has its own set of performance tiers. With G-Sync, for instance, they are – from lowest to highest – G-Sync Compatible, G-Sync and G-Sync Ultimate.

The good news is that you don’t need to think too much about which adaptive sync technology a display supports. In the early days of the tech, it was rare to see a gaming monitor that offered both FreeSync and G-Sync since including the latter meant a manufacturer had to equip their display with a dedicated processor from NVIDIA. That changed in 2019 when the company introduced its G-Sync Compatible certification. Today, if a monitor supports FreeSync, it is almost certainly G-Sync Compatible, too, meaning you can enjoy tear-free gaming whether you’re using an AMD or NVIDIA GPU.

In fact, I would go so far as to say you shouldn’t make your purchasing decision based on the level of adaptive sync performance a monitor offers. As of right now, the list of G-Sync Ultimate-certified displays is about two dozen models long, and some are a few years old now.

The best gaming monitor

(Photo by Igor Bonifacic / Engadget)

Inputs

Almost every gaming display on the market right now comes with at least one DisplayPort 1.4 connection, and that’s the port you will want to use to connect your new monitor to your graphics card. If you own a PS5 or Xbox Series X/S, it’s also worth looking out for monitors that come with HDMI 2.1 ports, as those will allow you to get the most out of your current generation console.

A word about HDR

As fast and responsive gaming monitors have become in recent years, there’s one area where progress has been frustratingly slow: HDR performance. The majority of gaming monitors currently on sale, including most high-end models, only meet VESA’s DisplayHDR 400 certification. As someone who owned one such monitor, let me tell you it’s not even worth turning on HDR on those screens. You will only be disappointed.

The good news is that things are getting better, albeit slowly. The release of Windows 11 did a lot to improve the state of HDR on PC, and more games are shipping with competent HDR modes, not just ones that increase the brightness of highlights. Thankfully, with more affordable mini-LED monitors, like our top pick, making their way to the market, HDR gaming is finally within reach of most PC gamers.

Gaming monitor FAQs

Are curved monitors better for gaming?

It depends on personal preference. Many manufacturers claim curved monitors offer a more immersive gaming experience due to the way the display wraps around your field of vision. However, I find the edge distortion distracting, particularly when you increase the field of view in a game.

What aspect ratio should I look for in a gaming monitor?

The vast majority of 24-, 27- and 32-inch gaming monitors feature 16:9 aspect ratio panels, and that’s been the case for many years. In fact, nearly every game made in the last two decades supports 16:9 resolutions, such as 1,920 x 1,080 and 2,560 by 1,440, and if you buy a standard-sized monitor, you won’t need to worry about letterboxing.

In the case of ultrawides, 21:9 is the most common aspect ratio, with some very wide models sporting 32:9 panels. Among games, support for 21:9 and 32:9 resolutions is far from universal, so don’t be surprised if a game doesn’t fill the entirety of your screen.

Is OLED good for gaming?

OLED monitors are great for gaming. Not only do they offer excellent motion clarity and input latency, but they’re also easily the best displays for HDR gaming. If money is no object, and you primarily use your PC for gaming, you can’t go wrong with an OLED monitor.

How much does a good gaming monitor cost?

While you could easily spend more than $1,000 to obtain the best gaming monitor on the market now, the reality is that the budget and midrange categories have never been more competitive. In 2015, I spent $500 CAD to buy a 1080p monitor with a 144Hz refresh rate and TN panel. The budget AOC model I highlight above is not only cheaper than my first gaming monitor, but it also features a faster 180Hz refresh rate and a higher contrast VA panel.



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