Tag:

Favorite

Our Favorite All-in-One Printer and Scanner Is $50 Off

by admin October 2, 2025

While a printer upgrade might not sound like the most exciting way to spend your hard-earned dollars, the right machine can save you a ton of time and money. My favorite all-in-one printer and scanner, the Epson EcoTank ET-2980, is marked down by $50 on Amazon. It has all the features most home users will need, even daily printers, and is a much better value than ink cartridge, and even some laser printers.

Photograph: Brad Bourque

In my testing, the Epson EcoTank ET-2980 was my favorite printer that included a scanner. I’ve continued to use the EcoTank long-term for the past few months, and I’ve been consistently impressed with the reliability and excellent print quality. I’ve printed photos, flyers for garage sales, and order invoices for my side business selling TCG cards, and everything has come out pristine and detailed. It was surprisingly easy to set up, with ink bottles that don’t drip or leave stains, and very little initial configuration.

While it may seem like a steep price for a new printer, the ink tanks make a huge difference when it comes to value. Epson includes enough ink in the box for thousands of pages, enough for the average home to print for years, and even if you do need more, the replacement ink is much cheaper than cartridges. In my quick and dirty estimates, you’ll generally break even on the more expensive Epson in just two rounds of cartridge replacements, depending on the brand. You’ll also sidestep concerns about subscription plans or first-party limitations.

There are really only two drawbacks to the ET-2980, and they’re both pretty minor. The first is, like any ink tank printer, it would really prefer to stay put. You can secure the parts for moving it, and I’ve had no issues swapping it from one desk to another, or moving it between rooms, but you’ll want to avoid tilting it or leaving it at an angle for too long, lest you end up with a mess on your hands. The other drawback is the paper tray, which has a solid path and good sensing for alignment, but only holds about 100 regular pages, or less than 20 envelopes.

Source link

October 2, 2025 0 comments

The Grabber in the snow on a Black Phone 2 poster.

Esports

The Strangers director’s favorite horror is one of the most haunting movies ever made

by admin September 30, 2025

Renny Harlin, the director behind The Strangers trilogy, has opened up about his favorite horror movie – and it’s one of the most haunting films ever made.

The Strangers – Chapter 2 landed in cinemas on Friday (September 26), continuing the three-movie saga as Maya (Madelaine Petsch) fights for survival against the three masked killers.

All three movies were shot back-to-back, with Chapter 3 releasing next year. Of course, the killers were first introduced in Bryan Bertino’s 2008 original film, which made our list of the best horror movies of all time.

Article continues after ad

Harlin is no stranger (pun intended) to horror, having helmed the likes of Exorcist: The Beginning and A Nightmare on Elm Street 4. So, when Dexerto caught up with the filmmaker ahead of the release of The Strangers – Chapter 2, we asked him about his top genre pick.

The Strangers – Chapter 2 director Renny Harlin reveals top horror pick

Although it was difficult to pinpoint a specific title, Harlin urged horror fans to check out Nicolas Roeg’s 1973 classic, Don’t Look Now.

Article continues after ad

“ That’s always a tough question because there are, of course, so many. You can go to the classics, you can go to Hitchcock’s Psycho and say that’s the ultimate horror movie,” the filmmaker told us.

Article continues after ad

“But somehow I go to something – maybe it was because I was a young teenager when I saw this movie and it had a really strong impact on me – and it was Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now with Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie.

“It takes place in Venice, Italy, and it’s just always stuck with me as this really amazing, atmospheric, psychological exploration of grief and relationships and [the idea that] if you don’t let go of the past, the past will come and hunt you down.”

Article continues after ad

Don’t Look Now is a haunting adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s short story of the same name.

Lionsgate

As Harlin mentioned, the plot follows a grieving couple who travel to Venice after the death of their young daughter. There, they encounter two elderly sisters, one of whom claims to be a psychic delivering warnings from beyond the grave.

Article continues after ad

“I always recommend it to people, especially the younger generation who haven’t necessarily even heard of it,” Harlin added. “I think it’s worth checking out.”

Article continues after ad

Not only is it credited as one of the best horror movies of all time, but one of the best movies full stop thanks to its chilling atmosphere, impeccable cinematography, and truly shocking twist ending.

If you want to give it a watch or revisit, Don’t Look Now is available to rent or buy on all major on-demand platforms. Meanwhile, The Strangers – Chapter 2 is in cinemas now.

You can also check out the new movies streaming this month and the scariest horrors based on true stories.

Article continues after ad

Source link

September 30, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Small but perfectly formed, the De’Longhi Dedica Duo is my new favorite entry-level espresso machine

by admin September 29, 2025

Why you can trust TechRadar

We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

De’Longhi Dedica Duo: two-minute review

The De’Longhi Dedica Duo is an excellent entry-level espresso machine that looks great and performs extremely well, despite its modest price tag.

It has a similar appearance to its predecessor, the De’Longhi Dedica Style, but with some key improvements – including a wider drip tray that can accommodate two espresso cups. The steam wand has been upgraded with a cool-touch handle and a knurled control dial for better grip, and the machine is available in a choice of four colors (including three gelato-inspired pastel shades).

The Dedica Duo’s accessories, such as the color-coordinated portafilter handle, feel robust. It comes with two pressurized portafilter baskets, a coffee scoop, a pin tool, a descaler pack, a tamper, and a stainless-steel milk pitcher. The water tank is easily accessible at the back, with a hinged lid to keep water fresh, and it can be fitted with an optional water filter.

(Image credit: Future)

The machine is operated by illustrated buttons on top for single shot, double shot, cold brew, and steam. Colored lights on these buttons indicate the machine’s status, requiring reference to the manual for full understanding.

De’Longhi Dedica Duo at Amazon for $249.95

Although it takes a little while to heat up, the Dedica Duo delivers a good shot with a fine grind consistently. There is some minor dripping after the pump finishes due to the absence of a three-way solenoid valve.

The Dedica Duo’s cold-extraction mode, while slower than preparing hot espresso, is much faster than traditional overnight cold-brewing and produces a full, mellow flavor. This cold brew is versatile, suitable for drinking straight, with milk and ice, or in blended drinks and cocktails.

My only real complaint is that the system of lights to indicate the machine’s current status and any problems (such as scale, or air in the system) can be confusing, and you’ll find yourself having to refer back to the manual quite regularly while you’re getting a handle on things. Other than that, though, this is an easy machine to recommend and worthy of a full five stars.

De’Longhi Dedica Duo: price and availability

Released in August 2025
List price of $299.95 / £279.99 (about AU$600)
Sold in the UK and US, but not yet in Australia

The De’Longhi Dedica Duo launched in August 2025 with a list price of $299.95 / £279.99. At the time of writing (September 2025), it isn’t yet available in Australia, but hopefully that will change soon.

At that price, it’s one of the most affordable espresso machines I’ve tested in the past year. The Casabrews 5418 Pro is in the same entry-level bracket with a list price of $299.99 (about £220 / AU$460), but it’s clear that Casabrews has cut quite a lot of corners, and it can’t compete with the Dedica Duo for build quality and performance.

Today’s best De’Longhi Dedica Duo deals

De’Longhi Dedica Duo: design

Updated design with refined details and new colors
Wider drip tray to accommodate two espresso cups
Accessories feel substantial and well made

The De’Longhi Dedica Duo is a compact, smart-looking espresso machine. At first glance it bears a strong similarity to its predecessor, the Dedica Style. It’s almost exactly the same size, but on closer inspection you’ll notice lots of refinements and improvements.

Most noticeably, the Dedica Duo comes in an updated range of colors, with classic stainless steel accompanied by soft shades of white, pink and green, which De’Longhi says were inspired by different flavors of gelato. Candy-colored appliances have become increasingly popular in 2025, and they look good, with a satin finish rather than gloss.

Image 1 of 2

(Image credit: Future)(Image credit: Future)

For me, one of the most notable updates is to the drip tray, which is now considerably wider, making it easier to fit two espresso cups underneath the portafiter when pulling a double shot. If you have a particularly tall cup, you can remove the stainless steel grille and place the cup directly on a removable ridged plate at the bottom of the tray. A nice touch, and one that helps make clean-up easier.

The steam wand now has a cool-touch handle, which is a nice upgrade, and its control dial sports a knurled texture that looks good and provides extra grip. The wand doesn’t bend, but it does pivot, and its angle makes it easy to achieve a good whirlpool movement when texturizing your milk.

Image 1 of 2

(Image credit: Future)(Image credit: Future)

All of the Dedica Duo’s accessories feel robust in the hand, unlike those of some other entry-level coffee machines I’ve tested recently (I’m looking at you, Casabrews). The portafilter handle is satisfyingly weighty, with a textured end that matches the steam wand dial, and is colored to match the body of the machine.

You get two pressurized portafilter baskets (one for single shots and one for doubles), a coffee scoop, a pin tool for clearing the hole of the steam wand if it becomes blocked, a pack of descaler, a weighty tamper that makes it easy to put sufficient pressure on your ground, and a stainless steel milk pitcher (with a fine spout ideal for pouring latte art).

(Image credit: Future)

The machine’s water tank slides onto the back, and has a sturdy-feeling hinged lid to keep water fresh. It can also be fitted with an optional water filter, but this needs to be purchased separately. The tank lifts out easily and is simple to slot back into place. You’ll need to pull the machine away from the wall to do this, but it’s so small and light, this shouldn’t present a problem.

The Dedica Duo has a power switch on its right-hand side, and is operated using a set of illustrated buttons on top: single shot, double shot, cold brew, and steam. Pressing combinations of these buttons, or pressing and holding, provides access to certain menus, and the colored lights on them give you information about the machine’s current status, so it’s useful to keep the manual on hand for reference. For example, a solid white light on only the steam button means there’s probably air in the system that needs clearing.

De’Longhi Dedica Duo: performance

Steady pressure for consistently extracted hot espresso
Cold-extraction works well, too, producing a smooth flavor
System of indicator lights can be confusing

The Dedica Duo is an excellent entry-level espresso machine, providing the steady pressure necessary for preparing consistently good coffee. The Casabrews 5418 Pro I reviewed a few weeks ago was so variable, it had me questioning whether I actually knew how to make espresso at all; the Dedica Duo has restored my faith in my own abilities. It takes a little while to heat up, but once it does, and the espresso buttons on top are illuminated, you can be confident that you’re going to get a very good shot. I’ve been using a fairly fine grind for my coffee, and the results have been faultless.

There’s no three-way solenoid, so you can expect a little dripping after the pump has finished, but that certainly isn’t the end of the world.

(Image credit: Future)

The Dedica Duo’s star feature is cold extraction, and it works very well. Whereas some other espresso machines I’ve tested recently create “chilled” drinks by asking you to fill a cup with ice and then dumping a shot of hot espresso on top, the Duo’s cold brew mode bypasses the Thermoblock heater and uses ambient-temperature water direct from the tank.

This takes longer than brewing hot espresso (measured in minutes rather than seconds), but it’s still a lot faster than preparing cold-brewed coffee in the traditional way (by infusing the grounds in the fridge overnight), yet the resulting flavor profile is very similar. The flavor is full and rounded, but more mellow than the same coffee extracted hot. Whether you drink it straight, add milk and ice, or use it in blended drinks and cocktails, it’s very tasty.

Image 1 of 3

(Image credit: Future)(Image credit: Future)(Image credit: Future)

It’s worth noting that the Dedica Duo isn’t a quiet machine. Unlike some advanced machines from the likes of KitchenAid or Jura, the Duo has no space in its compact chassis for sound-deadening material, so you’ll be able to hear its pump working away at full volume. Pumping water doesn’t take very long, though; but if you’re sensitive to noise then it’s something to be aware of.

For me, the only disadvantage of the Dedica Duo is the system of lights that change colour and/or blink to indicate your machine’s status or any problems. These aren’t always self-explanatory, and until you’ve learned what they all mean, you’ll find yourself referring back to the manual regularly. Perhaps it would be better to have a small row of status lights for common issues in the interest of clarity.

Should you buy the De’Longhi Dedica Duo?

Swipe to scroll horizontallyDe’Longhi Dedica Duo score card

Attribute

Notes

Score

Value

Very reasonably priced, squarely in the “budget” bracket for an espresso machine of this type.

5/5

Design

Modern and stylish, with thoughtful touches such as a wide, adjustable drip tray and cool-touch steam wand.

5/5

Performance

Brews consistently well hot or cold, with steady pressure from the pump. Status lights can be confusing, though.

4.5/5

Buy it if

Don’t buy it if

De’Longhi Dedica Duo: also consider

If the De’Longhi Dedica Duo doesn’t sound like quite the right espresso machine for you, here are two alternatives in the same price bracket, both of which come highly recommended.

How I tested the De’Longhi Dedica Duo

I used the De’Longhi Dedica Duo for three weeks in place of my usual coffee machine, and brewed coffee using a blend of fresh Brazilian and Colombian arabica beans, freshly ground using a Sage Dose Control Pro grinder. I used the tamper provided with the machine to tamp the coffee. I tested the steam wand with chilled, full-fat dairy milk and oat milk.

I flushed the machine with hot water before and after brewing to make sure it was clean, and purged the steam wand and wiped it with a damp cloth after making each drink.

For more information, see how we test, rate, and review products at TechRadar.

First reviewed September 2025

De’Longhi Dedica Duo: Price Comparison

Source link

September 29, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

One of our favorite video doorbells is 47 percent off in the run-up to Prime Day

by admin September 27, 2025

The Ring Battery Doorbell Plus is top pick for battery-powered doorbells, offering sharp 1536p video with a head-to-toe view that makes it easy to spot packages on the porch floor other doorbells might miss. It’s also the most responsive video doorbell our reviewer has tested, pulling up live feeds in about half the time of others.

Beyond that, the doorbell supports radar-based motion detection, which allows for more accurate notifications compared to previous models. It also retains support for color night vision, pre-recorded Quick Replies, and two-way talk, and, for $4.99 a month, you also get bonus features like package and people alerts. And because it works with Amazon Alexa, you can pull up the live feed on an Echo Show or Fire TV with just your voice for free.

Source link

September 27, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Our Favorite Wi-Fi Router Is $20 Off

by admin September 27, 2025

Are you constantly resetting your dated router, or feeling like your streaming isn’t as snappy as it used to be? You might consider upgrading your router, and our favorite Wi-Fi router, the Asus RT-BE58U, is currently marked down by $20 on Amazon. For just $130, you could upgrade your whole house to Wi-Fi 7, and get all the benefits that come with it.

Photograph: Simon Hill

Importantly, the Asus RT-BE58U support Wi-Fi 7, the latest and greatest in in-home wireless internet. If you want to learn more about the benefits of the new standard, make sure to check out our full explainer that breaks down all of the technical details. The practical benefits are speeds up to four times faster than Wi-Fi 6, lower latency, and better handling for more connections to the router. While these devices were expensive at launch, as prices have come down and device support has risen, they’ve become worth the extra price.

The Asus mobile app gives you a surprising amount of control over your Wi-Fi settings without having to dig into the even more detailed admin panel. With excellent feature support, you can configure your network-wide VPN, or create separate networks for smart home devices and guests. If you want added security or parental controls, Asus offers those with no additional monthly fee.

We were impressed with the RT-BE58U’s range right out of the box, with our reviewer Simon Hill saying it covered his two-story, 1,600-square-foot home without any extra help, although he noted that sometimes devices would switch to the slower 2.4-GHz band at the edges of the range. If you think you’ll need extra coverage for your larger-than-average house, you can use Asus’ AiMesh feature to easily add extra routers or range extenders to your setup.

Of course, it still has all the wired connections you’d expect from a modern router, with three gigabit LAN ports, 2.5- and 1-gigabit WAN ports, one of which is also a LAN port, and USB WAN for 4G LTE and 5G mobile tethering. As long as you don’t have an expansive home, the Asus RT-BE58U should cover almost all of it with fast, reliable internet, and it’s easy to set up and configure to your needs, but you can always check out our full roundup of the best Wi-Fi routers if you aren’t sure.

Source link

September 27, 2025 0 comments

Commanders oversee battleships as they cross the waves

Product Reviews

Tiny Metal 2 is the third game in the turn-based strategy series, and it just so happens to be taking after my favorite Advance Wars

by admin September 26, 2025

2001’s Advance Wars is a perfect little game: Compact yet tactically rich, a purposefully limited but versatile library of units like top-heavy tanks and chonky bombers smashing together in rock-paper-scissors shoot-outs. The only wildcard, each commanding officer’s slow-charging heroic power, can swing the tide of a battle but is still relatively tame—like gaining a couple extra tiles of range on artillery strikes for one pivotal turn. Give a small team of brilliant game designers the remit to make chess with toy soldiers, and I think this is what they would come up with. And yet it is not my favorite Advance Wars.

My favorite, Advance Wars: Dual Strike for the Nintendo DS, is more the Chess 2 of strategy games. More units, more powers, combining those wildcard bursts in ways that drag matches out into dizzying swingy battles like games of Risk where someone’s turning in their bonus cards every freaking turn. Forget perfect: I loved the bombast of Dual Strike being messily over-the-top, and on a visit to indie studio Area 35’s Tokyo office ahead of TGS this week I immediately clocked that its new entry in the Tiny Metal series takes after my one true love.

Six years after Tiny Metal: Full Metal Rumble, the confusingly named Tiny Metal 2 puts you in control of two factions at once so you can combine their strengths. Even better, you can now do it in co-op, with one player taking command of each team.

The more immediately obvious upgrade in Tiny Metal 2 if you’re not the specific type of weirdo still carrying a torch for Dual Strike 20 years later is that it looks much, much nicer than the first couple games, which traded out Advance Wars’ charming 2D style for a swag-less low poly 3D. Tiny Metal 2 is less Unity asset store and more comic booky. It’s missing the polished sheen of a 2025 Nintendo game, but stylish enough to make a nice first impression.

(Image credit: Area 35)

Tactically it feels like there’s a bit more going on here too. The fundamentals borrowed wholesale from Advance Wars are all still here: you capture buildings with infantry to earn resources and manufacture new troops; tanks can brush off machine gun fire but are susceptible to a heavy blast of artillery; submarines are death for other ships though easy to sink once they break the surface. But a focus fire mechanic makes the order of your orders matter much more.

At first I merrily threw my troops into the fray one at a time, each attack on an enemy earning them a bit of damaging retaliatory fire. Then I realized I could give a couple weaker units a command to focus on an enemy and wait for a combined strike, so that when I rolled in with a heavy mech to trigger the team-up attack the enemy would be toast before it could hit back.

(Image credit: Area 34)

Tiny Metal 2 also lets you choose what direction units are facing and makes attacks from the sides or rear potentially more effective, though the extra step this adds to controlling each unit—and the number of possible attacks you have to try on an enemy to find the optimal one—is maybe more fiddly than this kind of light strategy game really benefits from. The UI is already working hard to convey strengths and weaknesses for each unit against other types, but some sort of visual front/back/side armor rating would cut out some of the tedium of fretting over each and every move.

The much nicer art and the promise of co-op team-ups that lean into melding the commander powers of each are more appealing to me than those niggles are concerning, though. Even with Nintendo recently returning to the Advance War series for the first time in decades in the form of a cute but quite limited remake, this remains an oddly rare form of snackable strategy game. Tiny Metal 2 seems to have enough ideas of its own to finally help propel it out of “We have Advance Wars at home” territory.

It’s on Steam now, and out sometime next year.

Source link

September 26, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Save $50 on Our Favorite Budget Graphics Card

by admin September 25, 2025

If you’re building a new gaming PC, I’ve got a sweet deal for you on a graphics card. The PNY Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti OC (7/10, WIRED Review) is currently marked down to just $379 at Walmart. While prices have been in flux since launch, this is anywhere from $50 to $100 off the usual price, a discount that makes it a much more appealing purchase for gaming at 1080p.

Photograph: Brad Bourque

PNY

GeForce RTX 5060 Ti OC

This is the most modest entry from Nvidia’s 50 Series that I think is worth your time, but that doesn’t mean that you’ll be disappointed. The 16-GB card can chug right along in most modern games at 1080p, beating 60 fps in every game in our test suite with the settings cranked up and the ray tracing turned on. It struggled to keep up at 1440p, at least with everything set to ultra, but a little tinkering, or Nvidia’s latest tech, can help with that. Common games like Minecraft, Helldivers 2, and Marvel Rivals all ran over 90 fps, which is great news for weeknight Squirrel Girl enjoyers like myself.

As an RTX 50 Series card, the 5060 TI supports the latest version of DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) which includes Multi-Frame Generation. For every traditionally rendered frame of gameplay, the GPU can use machine learning to generate up to three extra frames with low overhead. The result is a much smoother experience, with big fps jumps each time you turn up the setting. The tradeoffs are a slight increase in input lag, as well as the occasional tiny artifact, which I feel makes this a great option for slower, cinematic games, but less optimal for twitchy shooters.

This PNY example isn’t the flashiest, with a plastic housing and only two fans, but I think a lot of gamers will be satisfied with it. It does feature the classic 8-pin PCIe power plug, so it could be an upgrade for an older system too, but I don’t think the performance jump would be that noticeable from the higher-end 30 or even 20 Series cards. If you want to check out your other options, I’ve got a full GPU buying guide that covers the latest from both AMD and Nvidia, from this card all the way up to the $2,000 RTX 5090.

Power up with unlimited access to WIRED. Get best-in-class reporting and exclusive subscriber content that’s too important to ignore. Subscribe Today.

Source link

September 25, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Elon Musk’s Favorite Game Is Getting Remastered 25 Years Later

by admin September 25, 2025

Classic sci-fi immersive sim Deus Ex is returning with a fresh coat of paint and updated features, compliments of Aspyr. The remaster about a futuristic society crumbling beneath the weight of feckless governments and wild conspiracy theories arrives at a hell of a time.

“Question Everything. Trust No One,” reads the tagline to a game with many fans, including billionaire Elon Musk. He called the original “one of the best games ever” in 2020. This new remaster promises visual upgrades and quality-of-life improvements similar to Aspyr’s existing HD remasters of the Tomb Raider games. Hopefully, Deus Ex Remastered will be the definitive way to replay one of the most important games of the century. At least it will make the PC version accessible on console. The PS2 version, Deus Ex: The Conspiracy, joined PS Plus earlier this year.

The irony of Elon Musk’s love for the game has haunted it in recent years. One of the game’s original writers, Austin Grossman, called it the immersive sim’s “worst legacy” in an interview earlier this month.

“That kind of political weight and social satire is a real common thread between Deus Ex and Dishonored,” Grossman, who co-wrote the Warren Spector-directed hit with Sheldon Pacotti and Chris Todd, recently told PC Gamer. “It is the thing that Elon Musk likes, creepily. It is creepily in Elon Musk’s worldview. So that may be its longest, worst legacy.”

Musk has been a lifelong gamer with a notorious career as an amateur Quake player back in college. Last year, however, he was caught cheating at games like Diablo 4 and Path of Exiles 2 by allegedly paying other people to boost his accounts. Trust no one, indeed.

Source link

September 25, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Our favorite slim MagSafe power bank is down to a new low price

by admin September 21, 2025

Carrying around charging cables, adapters or even a bulky power bank defeats the purpose of traveling light. But now there are plenty of options for those who want a power bank as svelte as their phone — even those who are investing in an iPhone Air. One of Anker’s latest fits the bill: the Anker Nano 5K MagGo Slim power bank.

Now, both Anker and Amazon are running sales on it, dropping the price from $55 to $46. The 16 percent discount a new low for the power bank and available in the black and white models. It’s just about a third of an inch thick and attaches right to your iPhone. On that note, it works with any MagSafe compatible phone with a magnetic case.

Anker

Anker’s Nano 5K MagGo Slim is our pick for best, well, slim MagSafe power bank. It took two and a half hours to charge an iPhone 15 from 5 percent to 90 percent. However, it could boost the battery to 40 percent in just under an hour. Overall, though, the minimalist design and easy to grip matte texture, really sold it to us.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Source link

September 21, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

‘There is a chance that they will stay in Roblox’: Gen Alpha is into PC gaming, but one industry analyst isn’t so sure they’re going to age out of their favorite haunt

by admin September 20, 2025

The kids are playing computer games.

According to the latest Global Games Market Report from the analysts at industry intelligence firm Newzoo, Gen Alpha—defined in this case as anyone born in or after 2010—makes up “an increasing share of the player base, especially on PC.”

As a lifelong fan of computer games, this is good news to me. The kids are with us! But the kids aren’t necessarily playing the kinds of games I grew up on: You may have heard of that excruciatingly popular platform called Roblox where kids are pressured to spend their parents’ money in games like “Steal a Brainrot.” (Which, to be fair, does sound like something you’d find on Newgrounds circa 2000, so maybe we’re not all that different.)

Earlier this week, I spoke to Newzoo director of market intelligence Emmanuel Rosier about what young gamers are up to, and two aspects of his perspective stuck out to me the most:

Gen Alpha doesn’t care if it can run Crysis. They’re growing up playing browser games, tablet games, phone games, and games on low-powered family PCs. You can’t win the Minecraft, Fortnite, and Roblox generation over with ray tracing.
They aren’t necessarily going to leave Roblox behind. It’s a common assumption, but in Rosier’s personal opinion, it’s not a sure thing that kids will age out of the Roblox ecosystem en masse.

Regarding videogame graphics, Rosier observed in a recent article that Battlefield 6 doesn’t support ray tracing, “not because the tech isn’t there, but because enabling it would exclude too many players.”

“I don’t think 8K is really the next step in the market,” he told me. “I don’t think it’s going to be about that. I don’t think the young people that were born playing on mobile or on tablet care that much about the visuals.”

Pushing graphics settings as high as they’ll go and fighting with Randy Pitchford over frame rates are still aspects of PC gaming today, but I think Rosier is clearly right that we’re no longer in a place where increased graphical fidelity is a primary selling-point for games. PC gaming is just as much something done on a low-spec family computer, or a Steam Deck.

I don’t think the young people that were born playing on mobile or on tablet care that much about the visuals.

Emmanuel Rosier

“The entry barrier on PC is lower than console, because in most families, there is already a computer, there is a laptop,” Rosier said. “But the other thing is that the younger players, they play the free-to-play cheap games that can run on any device. You don’t need a GeForce RTX 5000 to play Roblox. You just need a browser.”

But what about when the kids graduate from Roblox to the games I understand? Rosier, a parent to Roblox-playing teenagers himself, isn’t so sure that’s going to happen.

“I think there was this initial assumption from older people that Roblox is a platform for kids,” Rosier told me. “When they grow up, they will play GTA or Call of Duty and things like that. I’m questioning that perspective.

“I’d say there is a chance that they will stay in Roblox, because all their friends are still in Roblox, and there is this network effect, that it is difficult to go and play Call of Duty alone, or, you know, you have to convince so many friends to come and play with you and spend $80 or $70 to play a different experience. And I am not sure at this point that once these teenagers, or kids, grow up, that they will start playing different games and feel like it’s a promotion.”

That uncertainty about the Roblox generation’s future as PC gamers is just Rosier’s personal opinion for now, but Roblox games are getting surprisingly sophisticated (they have their own Call of Dutys in there), and the demographic data that Roblox shares does suggest that players stick around.

“We don’t have proof,” he said. “The only thing that we see that is being shared by Roblox is that the average age of the players of Roblox is going up, but I don’t think it’s older players jumping in, it’s just the existing players that are aging and not leaving.”

Ah well, c’est la vie. If you’re looking for me this weekend, I’ll be adapting to the future by playing Break Your Bones, a Roblox game where you “Try to BREAK all of your BONES.”

In related news, another bit of Newzoo’s recent report that interested me was an analysis of videogame release windows, which led the firm to suggest that publishers consider releasing some dang games in May instead of stuffing them all into the end of the year.

Best gaming rigs 2025

All our favorite gear

Source link

September 20, 2025 0 comments