Last week, we broke down the evidence that Nintendo was working on a new model of the standard Switch to go alongside the recently announced, portable-only Switch Lite. Today, Nintendo confirmed the existence of that new model via product page listings that promise improved battery life over the existing Switch.

Wednesday's announcement of the Switch Lite put to rest months of credible rumors that a miniature, portable-focused Switch was on the horizon. But Nintendo still has yet to confirm the other side of some of those rumors: suggestions that the company is planning to upgrade the Switch's internal hardware in the near future.

With a live-action Lord of the Rings TV series in the works at Amazon, it was only a matter of time before the videogame space again tackled the realm of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth. Today makes it official. Amazon Game Studios revealed the development of the next big Lord of the Rings videogame, described as “a free-to-play massively multiplayer online” release for PC and consoles.

Although not much has been said about it publicly, Microsoft is still considering a cheap new micro-console that could stream games from its xCloud service, according to a new set of rumors from people who are familiar with Microsoft's plans.

Light has been shed on Sony's strategy for its next generation console, with a firm focused on attracting the hardcore player. This in itself is not too unusual -- members of this demographic are usually early adopters for new consoles -- but the Wall Street Journal has shared some insight from two anonymous Sony officials into how much Sony is prioritising this audience.

Sony will not launch the PlayStation 5 before April 2020. The statement comes from Sony’s PR department in the wake of the company’s end of financial year results, and has been reported by The Wall Street Journal writer Takashi Mochizuki on Twitter. “No next-gen PlayStation launch over next 12 months,” he said.

Hey, have you ever heard of Sony? Probably not, they’re just a small company. Still trying to pave their in the industry; nothing, you know? Yeah, well they just released their 2018 fiscal year earnings and what do you know? Turns out that small company Sony that everyone has definitely never heard of had the most successful and profitable year ever.

The Nintendo Switch’s latest major update, Switch Firmware 8.0.0, was released last week and it included a ton of additions like a software sorting function and Save Data transferring to another system function. There was another addition however that Nintendo didn’t mention in the patch notes – “boost mode”.

PlayStation 4-exclusive Days Gone has secured the biggest physical sales launch of the year so far in the UK. Impressively for a new intellectual property, Days Gone beat the sales of Capcom's Resident Evil 2 and Ubisoft's Far Cry: New Dawn and The Division 2. However, Days Gone's launch sales come in under those of fellow PS4-exclusives God of War and Spider-Man.

Although we still don't have an exact launch date for the upcoming Need for Speed and Plants vs. Zombies games, EA has revealed a release window for both titles. In the company's latest financial report, EA announces both games are expected to be released this year sometime between October and December.

“The record labels still make CDs and the movie studios still make DVDs, so yes, I’d say it’s too soon to abandon discs for consoles,” writes Michael Pachter, managing director at Wedbush Securities when asked about Microsoft’s plans to drop a physical disc drive from their latest Xbox One model. The all-digital Xbox One is the first major console not to include an option for physical media.

If Monster Hunter World completely passed you by when it released last year, you can make up for lost time by trying it out in a free trial on PS4 right now. From now until May 20, PlayStation 4 owners are able to play through the opening parts of Capcom’s monstrously fun game.

Call of Duty multiplayer has a reputation for being a meat grinder. You spawn into a match, get a kill or two before you die if you're good, then respawn, rinse, and repeat. It's been years since I played a Call of Duty game on consoles, so I'm out of practice and should be tender for the grinder, but I'm kicking ass.

Rockstar Games has released a major Red Dead Redemption 2 update today finally fixing the HDR implementation in the game. They did this by giving the players a choice between Cinematic and Game HDR. If you have previously played RDR 2, the game reportedly shipped with a broken HDR implementation. This was fine for some users but it required a lot of tweaks to get the correct color scheme. After the players complained, and almost seven months post-launch, the HDR option has been fixed with the addition of a new Game HDR.

Sony promises its upcoming console, often referred to by fans as the PS5, will share saved games, have backward compatibility and more.

Amazon Spain has gone up with listings for the unannounced Zombie Army 4: Dead War from Rebellion. The retailer is listing standard (PlayStation 4, Xbox One) and collector’s (PlayStation 4, Xbox One) editions. Here is the Google-translated description from Amazon Spain: About If you thought you were safe, you’re totally wrong.

In some cryptic messaging, Microsoft hints at a next-gen Xbox console reveal for its press conference, which is scheduled for Sunday, June 9.

The future of Xbox is bigger than a single console

The doomed gaming platform's servers will shut down on June 25, meaning fans and preservationists have to take matters into their own hands to preserve its catalog.

Microsoft and Nintendo's burgeoning relationship continued at E3 this year, with the news that Minecraft Dungeons is Switch-bound and that Banjo and Kazooie – characters owned by Microsoft, lest we forget – are joining the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster.

The PS5 and Xbox Scarlett are rumored to cost $399.

Skype, SkyDrive, Office Web Apps could let the system serve productive purposes.

If you unbox and turn on an Xbox One on November 22nd, make sure you have an internet connection nearby. Microsoft has revealed that a day-one patch for its upcoming next-gen console will be a requirement to play games and access basic apps on the console. "Functionally, you will be able to do very little without taking the day-one update," said Microsoft’s senior director of Xbox product management Albert Penello in an interview with Engadget recently.

The new Kinect is kind of awesome. Just by the numbers, it's a huge upgrade. You can see (most of) the full walkthrough we saw just a bit ago here at Microsoft's Redmond campus in the video above. Parts are jaw-dropping.

We're sat opposite Palmer Luckey, 21-year-old inventor of the Oculus Rift. There's so much we want to ask him but right now he's too busy explaining his plans to build the ultimate Pokemon team.

After its launch on Friday, the PlayStation 4 has come under fire from some gamers who say their units have been dead on arrival. The most troubling reports describe a so-called "blue light of death" syndrome, in which the console's light bar flashes blue but never outputs a video signal or boots up.

Can't make up your mind? We're here to help.

There are a lot of very unhappy PS4 owners right now, as reports of bricked consoles and no available replacements come in from all over the web.

As shipments continue to go out for the PS4, many of the consoles are DOA with the "pulsating blue light" being the most common. Now a Foxconn intern claims the consoles were deliberately sabotaged.

While Sony was content to toy with radical designs for the PlayStation 4's controller, it turns out Microsoft took a more conservative approach when building the Xbox One's gamepad. GamesBeat scored a look at the controller creation process and discovered that Redmond was reluctant to tweak the Xbox 360 controller at all since it considers the hardware "best-in-class."

When PlayStation 3 was first released by electronics giant Sony in 2006, it was sold at a loss with the hope of making money back on individual games. That’s pretty close to what Sony is doing again with the PS4, although it’s not as extreme. At least that’s the conclusion drawn by the research firm IHS, which will later today release the findings of a teardown analysis of the PS4 and the combined cost of the components used to build it.

Microsoft didn't mean to take over your living room. When it launched in 2005, the Xbox 360 was just a device for games — "the Holy Grail of gaming," in the immortal words of MTV's Sway. It would show your pictures if you plugged in a thumb drive, but it was designed to be the best way ever for gamers to play.

Now that he Xbox One and PS4 have been reviewed, it's time to break down the scorecard and see why CNET gave the higher mark to the PS4.

Just like that, the Xbox One was released to the public, and the next generation of gaming became the current generation of gaming. In the last two weeks, we've gotten two new consoles in the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One. Add last year's Nintendo Wii U, and you've officially got a lot of new video game stuff to take in.

People are still able to find plenty of "Day One" Xbox One consoles even in the heart of New York City.