Larian Studios Exec Michael Douse, director of publishing, has spoken in Microsoft's defense after info from a leaked email was revealed. The information comes after a number of email conversations and documents continue to be made public following the FTC hearings regarding Microsoft's bid to buy Activision Blizzard. The latest however included assessments from Microsoft for games it wanted to shore up Game Pass with until Starfield came out. It is always a gamble on how much to spend to get a game on Game Pass at launch and it appears that Microsoft sorely underestimated the success of Baldur's Gate 3 but according to Michael Douse, it wasn't the only one.

Players wanting improved visuals need look to no further as Halk Hogan Releases the first HDRP pack for Starfield which weighs in at just under 600MB. The HD Reworked Project aims to overhaul many of the game's textures including environmental, such as terrain, fabrics, fire, and more, but also NPC facial textures as well. Halk has stated that performance should not be affected and GPUs with 6GB or VRAM should not experience any issues in using the 1.0 pack.

Folks holding out for a Steam Deck 2 may be waiting for a bit as Valve reiterates that it has no plans for one anytime soon. The news comes from Valve coder Pierre-Loup Griffais while attending the Tokyo Game Show 2023. This is not the first time that Valve employees have said something similar. Steam Deck designers previously stated in December 2022 that Valve is more focused on optimizations and updates for the current deck than introducing a follow-up. One of those same designers reinforced those statements again earlier this spring. Meanwhile, Valve reiterates that it has no plans, once again, for a new model anytime soon.