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CES isn’t usually the venue where we witness the year’s most significant gaming announcements, as major forthcoming games are typically reserved for summer and winter events, while new console revelations now frequently happen in the spring or autumn. However, after spending a week in Vegas, I feel as though the gaming sector is on the brink of a substantial transformation. Some aspects are promising, with smaller creators getting the opportunity to alter how we engage with our cherished games, while other aspects highlight the tech industry’s relentless push to insert unnecessary AI into our lives. Keeping that in mind, here are my four preferred (and three least preferred) gaming announcements from CES 2025.
Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt
There’s no reason we shouldn’t all be gaming on our smartphones more—and I don’t mean Candy Crush. (Not that there’s anything wrong with Candy Crush, naturally.) These devices have become sufficiently powerful to run games meant for the PS5, yet due to their absence of physical controls, most developers still have to make significant compromises for their mobile games.
This is where 20-year-old Josh King enters the picture. The YouTuber gained attention late last year after he published a video demonstrating his prototype MCON controller, which utilizes MagSafe to provide your phone with a shape somewhat resembling a Nintendo DS. While common phone controllers often require you to remove your case and can be a hassle to attach and detach from your phone, the MCON is designed to be as straightforward as connecting a MagSafe power bank.
I am enamored with the outcome. It offers a complete array of controls, the magnetic connection is robust, and using it is as easy as attaching it to my device and flipping open the concealed controls. Moreover, if you don’t own an iPhone, it is compatible with MagSafe adapters.
King is currently collaborating with the peripheral company Ohsnap to finalize the model, but if you’re already convinced, there is a Kickstarter page where you can pre-order your own MCON starting at $99. I am eagerly anticipating mine and genuinely look forward to treating my iPhone as the true handheld device it evidently has the potential to be.
Credit: Razer
Razer’s Project Ava is one of two ideas the company is presenting at CES this year, and of the two, I sincerely hope it’s the one they discard.
Have you ever encountered backseating? It’s the situation in which a streamer becomes stuck while gaming, and their audience keeps chiming in through the chat feature to instruct them on how to advance. Most streamers I’ve observed openly request their viewers to refrain from doing so, often finding it more bothersome than beneficial.
Ava, on the other hand, vows to provide a tailored AI backseater to anyone with a computer.
In essence, Ava monitors your gameplay and suggests strategies based on its observations, often speaking over the in-game sound to deliver these suggestions. Razer asserts that it’s not cheating, as Ava cannot access information beyond what you can see, but I believe that this still overlooks the core issue.
To begin with, it’s uncertain where Ava derives its advice, and secondly, it could become quite distracting if it interrupts your gameplay. However, my primary concern is with the very notion of giving advice.
If I’m engaged in Dark Souls, the developers have typically devised a more nuanced way to signal when I should dodge than having an AI shouting in my ear. If I become reliant on Ava, I’m training myself to disregard those cues, depriving myself of at least part of the experience and potentially making myself worse at the game overall.
Even in multiplayer scenarios, part of the enjoyment for me lies in discovering the best builds and most efficient paths. If Ava is merely directing my actions, am I genuinely playing or absorbing the game, or am I just pressing buttons while the AI makes all the significant choices?
There is undoubtedly a place for guides—certainly, I’m not one to impose restrictions. However, this kind of real-time interruption seems far more likely to detract from my enjoyment than to enhance it.
Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt
Valve’s Steam Deck ranks among my preferred gaming acquisitions in recent history, offering the freedom to use my game library in a portable format with far more versatility than the Nintendo Switch. A significant factor contributing to this is the SteamOS operating system from the company, simplifying the process of adjusting the handheld’s configurations and accessing your Steam games rapidly.
Efforts to replicate the Steam Deck without SteamOS, such as the Asus ROG Ally or the Lenovo Legion Go, simply haven’t appealed to me, as they depend on Windows, which presents a considerably clumsier experience when utilizing a controller. Although these devices are intrinsically more robust, the gain in performance fails to justify the switch for me.
This is precisely why I’m thrilled about the Lenovo Legion Go S. Revealed during CES, this will be the inaugural gaming handheld not produced by Valve to incorporate SteamOS. It will also have Windows versions, yet starting in May, you’ll have the chance to acquire it with the operating system I cherish immensely. What’s even more exciting is that it seems to present specifications that showcase a slight-to-moderate enhancement over the Steam Deck, and its starting cost of $500 is actually lower than the base level Steam Deck OLED. I’m eager to witness additional collaborations following this trend.
The graphics card and now AI enterprise Nvidia is set to populate your gaming lobbies with bots, but in a futuristic fashion. Announced during CES, Nvidia is partnering with PUBG developer Krafton to introduce “co-playable characters” to the renowned battle royale game.
Essentially, the experience teams you with a bot, granting you the capability to instruct it to locate armor or weapons for you or synchronize with you during a skirmish.
I can genuinely envision this being quite fascinating in a single-player experience, representing the next stage of gameplay seen in titles like Star Wars: Republic Commando. However, in a multiplayer setting, it provokes numerous questions.
Will the bot possess greater map awareness than human players? How proficient should it be at shooting before it feels like either a cheater or a burden? And perhaps most critically, will it bring satisfaction to win if an AI guided you to triumph? Or will it become the gaming equivalent of a wealthy individual hiring a skilled hunter to guide them on a curated expedition, handling all the tasks except pulling the trigger?
There’s a multitude of complex balancing challenges to navigate here, but even assuming everything functions as intended, I remain uncertain about the purpose. A significant portion of the enjoyment of playing an online shooter is in the knowledge that when I can defeat the enemy, I’ve disrupted some 11-year-old’s day. If half the opponents I’m aiming at are bots, why not simply indulge in a single-player game instead?
Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt
The Razer Project Arielle represents the company’s second concept gadget showcased at CES, and the one that has me genuinely more enthusiastic. In essence, it takes Razer’s existing Fujin Pro gaming chair and attaches some heaters and a bladeless fan onto it, yielding surprisingly effective outcomes.
What I initially believed would be a mere gimmick, turned out to be a delightful oasis on the CES exhibition floor, either warming me after an hour spent in the chilling media room or providing a blast of cool air to my back and neck after meandering around the humid show floor.
Of course, you could achieve a similar experience with a space heater or a fan, but having climate control directly embedded in your chair offers immediate access to your back and neck, and I found it to be significantly more effective and comfortable than my desk fan back home.
Las Vegas is notorious for its inconsistent temperatures, and after spending a week here, I’m nearly prepared to orchestrate a heist to acquire this chair and take it home. I’m hoping Razer treats this concept with the same care it extended to its haptic gaming cushion project from the previous year and brings it to reality.
The cultural battle spares no one, particularly within the realm of gaming. If you’ve searched for The Last of Us Part II or Horizon Zero Dawn on social media, undoubtedly you’ve encountered photoshops of their female protagonists attempting to portray them as if they just emerged from a Sephora, despite the fact that they spend their games entrenched in the heart of the apocalypse. Detractors have begun labeling these edits as “yassification,” and it appears Nvidia is taking a stance: its new RTX Neural Faces feature might as well be an AI yassification filter.
The concept aims to aid game NPCs in crossing the uncanny valley by employing AI to facilitate more natural lighting, skin, and hair, particularly when players view that NPC from an atypical angle. The outcome resembles a mere trampling over the artists’ carefully crafted decisions with whatever Nvidia interprets as “natural.”
In an illustrative video shared by Nvidia, an NPC with Neural Faces applied seems to possess an entirely different bone structure, a fresh layer of foundation, some new mascara, tidier brows, and larger yet markedly lifeless eyes. That’s appealing if you fancy it, I suppose, but it’s evidently not the appearance that the modelers or lighting artists aimed for, and it certainly wouldn’t suit numerous iconic gaming characters…unless you’re intrigued by what a Solid Snake makeup tutorial would entail?
Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt
If the Lenovo Legion Go S distinguishes itself from other gaming handhelds through its software, then the Acer Nitro Blaze 11 presents a contrasting narrative. Honestly, it’s the largest gaming “handheld” I’ve ever encountered, and while that may render it less than ideal for portability, there’s a certain effusive delight in toting it around.
With ample space, it houses some rather remarkable specifications, but what truly stands out is its 11-inch, 2560 by 1600 screen. It boasts brightness, features a robust kickstand, and supports up to 120 frames per second. Surprisingly, it is lightweight at 2.3 pounds. While that’s a pound heavier than the Steam Deck, it remains manageable compared to a laptop.
Admittedly, if you become weary of holding it during gameplay, the Nitro Blaze 11 has a neat feature. Similar to the Nintendo Switch and the original Lenovo Legion Go, it incorporates detachable controllers. However, unlike those devices, its display is sufficiently large to make kickstand mode feel worthwhile to me (I usually just hold the competitors).
To be frank, at this phase of my life, I’m unlikely to choose the Nitro Blaze 11. I’ve matured, my schedule is tighter, and utility surpasses performance for me. Yet, a younger, more gamer-oriented version of myself would have jumped at this opportunity.
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