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How to Purchase Steam Machine

Aritra Patra
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How to Purchase Steam Machine

Valve has finally put a price on the Steam Machine. After months of leaks and guesswork, the company confirmed the cost of its living room gaming PC on June 22, and reservations are already open. The base model starts at $1,049, a number that has split gamers right down the middle.

If you want one, you cannot just add it to your cart and check out. Valve is using a lottery-style reservation system instead, and the window to join it closes soon.

Steam Machine Price Breakdown

The Steam Machine comes in four configurations. Here is what each one costs:

Steam Machine ModelPrice
512GB$1,049 USD / ยฃ879 GBP / โ‚ฌ1,039 EUR / $1,509 CAD / $1,609 AUD / 4,389 PLN
512GB with Controller$1,128 USD / ยฃ938 GBP / โ‚ฌ1,108 EUR / $1,628 CAD / $1,728 AUD / 4,698 PLN
2TB$1,349 USD / ยฃ1,149 GBP / โ‚ฌ1,359 EUR / $1,919 CAD / $2,109 AUD / 5,739 PLN
2TB with Controller$1,428 USD / ยฃ1,208 GBP / โ‚ฌ1,428 EUR / $2,038 CAD / $2,228 AUD / 6,048 PLN

The Steam Controller adds $79 to either storage tier. Buyers who pick a 2TB model also get two extra faceplates: one in red fabric and one in solid walnut.

Valve says these prices already include VAT where it applies.

Why the Steam Machine Costs This Much

Valve has pointed to rising hardware costs and ongoing component shortages as the reason behind the price tag. The company says it priced the device close to what the components actually cost, rather than selling it cheap and making up the difference through software or subscriptions later, the way traditional consoles often do.

That explanation lines up with what happened to the Steam Deck. According to comments Valve made to IGN, the Steam Machine followed a similar price climb to the Deck, which went up by more than $200 from its original target. Based on that pattern, the Steam Machine was likely meant to start closer to $750 before costs pushed it past $1,000.

Component shortages have also limited how many units Valve can build for launch. That shortage is the direct reason the company dropped a standard first-come, first-served sale in favor of a queue.

How the Reservation System Works

You cannot simply buy a Steam Machine right now. Instead, Valve wants you to join a reservation queue through the official Steam Machine page.

Here is how the process plays out, step by step:

  • Sign in with your Steam account and pick the model or bundle you want.
  • Accept the terms and join the queue. You can repeat this for multiple models if you are not sure which one you want.
  • The registration window closes at 10 AM PT on June 25, 2026.
  • Right after that, Valve will randomize every entry into either a reservation queue or a waitlist.
  • Starting June 29, 2026, people in the reservation queue will start receiving purchase emails.

Not everyone gets to join. Valve requires a Steam account in good standing with at least one purchase made before April 27, 2026. The company is also limiting sign-ups to one per household, though you can still register for several different models under that single entry.

PS6 Delayed to 2028 or 2029? Leaker Says No

Aritra Patra
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PS6 Delayed to 2028 or 2029? Leaker Says No

The PlayStation 6 release date is back in the headlines, and not because of new specs or a price leak. This time it’s about timing, and whether Sony plans to delay the console past 2027.

A recent report claimed that analysts now expect the PS6 to launch in 2028 or 2029 rather than next year. But a well-known industry insider has pushed back on that idea, and the reasoning behind the pushback is worth a closer look.

Where the PS6 Delay Rumor Came From

The delay talk traces back to a NeoGAF thread discussing whether the PS6 will slip to 2028 or 2029. The thread picked up steam after recent reports suggested Sony might push the console’s launch window back from the originally expected date, with 2027 long seen as the likely target.

Memory prices are part of the problem. Component costs have been rising, and the PS6 launch window has stayed uncertain partly because of that pressure on memory pricing.

KeplerL2 Responds With a Simple ‘No’

Industry insider KeplerL2, who has previously said the PS6 is set to release in 2027, jumped into the NeoGAF thread with a reaction GIF: Frank Reynolds from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” shaking his head. The message was clear enough without needing words. KeplerL2 doesn’t buy the idea that Sony will delay the console to 2028 or 2029.

KeplerL2 also liked a reply from another forum user, Bojji, who laid out a financial argument for why a long delay doesn’t add up.

The Case Against a Long PS6 Delay

Bojji’s reasoning centers on money already spent and contracts already signed. Sony reportedly has TSMC contracts in place for producing the PS6’s APUs, and possibly GDDR7 deals with memory makers too. Research and development costs have run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

There’s also the sales angle. PS5 sales are slowing down, and nobody can guarantee memory prices will actually drop by 2030. Bojji’s point is that releasing in 2027 lets Sony sell several million units before that year arrives. If memory prices do fall later, Sony can simply lower the console’s price and pick up more market share on top of what it already sold.

Waiting until 2030 carries the opposite risk. No console means no sales during that stretch, and there’s no guarantee memory prices will be any better when 2030 rolls around. They could be lower, the same, or even higher. In that scenario, Sony would be starting from scratch with a product that’s reportedly already finished.

What This Means for the PS6 Release Date

If KeplerL2’s read on the situation holds up, the PS6 could still arrive next year. A November launch would fit the pattern Sony has used for past console releases, including the PS5.

Sony hasn’t confirmed a release date or addressed the delay rumors directly. Until that happens, both the 2027 launch window and the 2028/2029 delay talk remain unconfirmed.

PlayStation Reportedly Pulling Back From PC Ports Over Revenue Concerns

What 2XKO Needs to Prove at Evo 2026, and It Isn’t Hype

Divyesh Moghe
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What 2XKO Needs to Prove at Evo 2026, and It Isn’t Hype

Riot published its official “Know Before You Go” for 2XKO at Evo 2026 today, and it reads like a victory lap: booth activations, Twitch Drops, Pool Party skins, a Chipotle lounge. It is a lot of confidence for a game that laid off roughly half its development team a few months ago.

What 2XKO Needs to Prove at Evo 2026

Entrant numbers are not the problem. 2XKO drew 1,080 registered competitors, third behind Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8, beating Guilty Gear Strive, Fatal Fury and Granblue. For a title in its first year on the main Evo lineup, that is a real result, and it earned 2XKO one of six main-stage Top 8 slots on Sunday.

But an Evo bracket is a snapshot, not a pulse. Fighting games routinely post big Evo numbers while bleeding daily players the other fifty-one weeks. Riot said after the layoffs that it remains committed to the competitive schedule. Committed to what, exactly, is the question Las Vegas answers.

Three things worth watching.

Does Teamfight Fuse survive contact with the best players? It was banned outright at Combo Breaker, then reinstated for Evo after adjustments. Fuse is 2XKO’s identity mechanic. If top players avoid it, Riot’s central design bet is quietly failing in public.

Does the duo format produce a moment? Two humans controlling one team, capable of 2v1, is the only genuinely novel thing in the modern FGC. It has to produce something people clip.

Does the roster hold? Senna and Thresh landed weeks before the biggest tournament of the year. Rushed characters warp brackets. A clean, varied Top 8 says the balance team is intact. A one-character bracket says otherwise.

Riot is putting more than $135,000 on the line, with $5,000 extra for the highest-placing duo. Money buys a field. It does not buy a scene.

Evo runs June 26 to 28 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, with 2XKO Top 8 on Sunday from 10:00am to 2:00pm PT. Full details are in Riot’s official Know Before You Go. Follow our esports coverage through the weekend.

How to Get the Rambo Skin in Fortnite

Aritra Patra
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How to Get the Rambo Skin in Fortnite

Fortnite just added another classic action hero to its growing list of movie crossovers. After bringing in characters like the Terminator, Epic Games has now added John Rambo to the Battle Royale island. Here’s everything you need to know about getting the Rambo skin, including its price and the items that come with it.

The Rambo skin went live on June 19, 2026, at 8 PM ET. It had been sitting encrypted in the game’s files for a while before Epic Games finally added it to the Item Shop.

The set brings Rambo’s classic look to the island, along with a back bling, a pickaxe, and an emote.

How to Get the Rambo Skin in Fortnite

You can buy the Rambo skin directly from the Item Shop using V-Bucks. Here’s how:

  • Open Fortnite and go to the Item Shop tab from the top bar in the main lobby.
  • Scroll through the shop until you spot the Rambo bundle. Since it’s a major new collab, it should sit near the top.
  • Tap the Rambo bundle, priced at 2,200 V-Bucks, or pick individual items if you’d rather not buy the whole set.
  • Check that you have enough V-Bucks before buying.
  • Press and hold the Purchase button.
  • Once the purchase goes through, the skin will show up in your Fortnite locker.

If you’d rather not spend any V-Bucks at all, Fortnite does offer a handful of free skins you can grab without paying.

Rambo Skin and Cosmetics Price List

The Rambo collaboration isn’t just the outfit. Epic Games bundled in a handful of items themed around Sylvester Stallone’s character. Buying the full bundle works out cheaper than buying each item on its own.

Here’s what’s included and what each item costs:

Cosmetic ItemPrice (V-Bucks)
Rambo Bundle (all items)2,200
John Rambo skin + Rambo’s Quiver back bling1,500
Rambo’s Combat Knife pickaxe500
Gunship glider1,200
Prepare for Battle emote300
Rambo’s War wrap300

When Does the Rambo Skin Leave the Item Shop?

The in-game shop timer shows the Rambo skin rotating out on June 29, 2026, at 8 PM ET. That gives players about ten days to grab it before it disappears from the shop.

There’s no word yet on when, or if, the skin will return after that.

Fortnite OG Season 9 Release Date and Time Confirmed

Devil May Cry 5 and Frostpunk 2 DLC Headline June 23 Releases

Divyesh Moghe
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Devil May Cry 5 and Frostpunk 2 DLC Headline June 23 Releases

Two very different games shipped on the same Tuesday, and neither is new. One is a seven year old Capcom action game finding a fourth platform. The other is a strategy sequel that has spent its post launch life arguing with its own premise. June 23 was the week’s busiest release day, and it belonged entirely to back catalogue.

Devil May Cry 5 Switch 2 release shares June 23 with Frostpunk 2’s Breach of Trust

Capcom put Devil May Cry 5 Devil Hunter Edition on Nintendo Switch 2 as a digital release, with a physical version scheduled for August 28. The package folds in Vergil as a playable character alongside costume colours, taunts and battle tracks, and runs at 60fps in both docked and handheld modes. Nero, Dante and V return unchanged. The original has sold over 11.2 million copies since 2019, which is the real reason this port exists: Capcom confirmed the same day that a third and final season of the Netflix animated series is coming, after season two pulled 6.4 million views in a fortnight. The game is now a promotional asset for the show as much as the reverse.

Frostpunk 2’s second expansion took the opposite route. Breach of Trust moves players from New London to New Edinburgh, a city that solved its heating problem with geothermal power and cracked the volcano underneath it doing so. Cold is no longer the enemy. Tremors wreck districts on a timer, Volcano Night eruptions cut visibility and production together, and a recurring Vote of Trust measures whether the population still wants you as First Citizen. Fail it and you inherit your predecessor’s ending.

The expansion adds five factions, two scenario maps, new laws and an independent colony called Aurora that controls the food supply. You can trade with Aurora, extort it, or take it. That choice is the whole DLC in miniature, and it is a sharper piece of design than anything in Fractured Utopias.

For a demon hunting port and a city builder about volcanic politics, the two share more than a date. Both are studios betting that players will pay again for a world they already own.

For more, stay tuned to TalkEsport.

New Valorant Blackspyre Collection Revealed: All Skins, Price, Release Date, and More

Sonu Banerjee
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New Valorant Blackspyre Collection Revealed: All Skins, Price, Release Date, and More

With the highly anticipated Valorant Season 2026 Act 4 being just around the corner, Riot Games has officially shed light on the upcoming skin collection coming to the shooter with the new update.

The new Valorant bundle, named the Blackspyre Collection, brings with it a combination of sci-fi and dark fantasy flair to the game. Equipped with unique visual effects, SFX, and a spooky finisher, the Blackspyre Collection is certain to win the hearts of players once it drops.

In this article, weโ€™ll take a look at everything you need to know about the Blackspyre bundle in Valorant, including all its skins, price, release date, and more.

Valorant Blackspyre Skins

As already confirmed by Riot, the Valorant Blackspyre collection will include skins for the following weapons:

  • Phantom
  • Ares
  • Spectre
  • Sheriff
  • Melee (Blackspyre Divide)

Alongside these skins, the Blackspyre bundle will also include a Spray, Gun Buddy, and a Player Card for players to spice up their profile.

Valorant Blackspyre Bundle Price

While the exact price tag of the Blackspyre bundle hasnโ€™t been revealed at the time of writing, we do know that it is an Exclusive-tier collection.

Based on similar collections weโ€™ve seen in the past, players can expect the Valorant Blackspyre bundle to be priced at around 8700 VP.

Each individual skin in the Blackspyre collection will cost you roughly 2300-2700 VP, while the knife will likely be priced at around 5350 VP.

Valorant Blackspyre Bundle Release Date

As mentioned earlier, the Valorant Blackspyre bundle will hit the live servers on June 24, 2026, alongside the release of Season 2026 Act 4.

2XKO Evo 2026 Players to Watch: Hikari, SonicFox, bleed

Divyesh Moghe
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2XKO Evo 2026 Players to Watch: Hikari, SonicFox, bleed

Four names, three Majors, and nobody holding the crown. Riot dropped its 2XKO players to watch trailer on Sunday, and it is less a hype reel than a warning shot.

2XKO Evo 2026 Players to Watch: Hikari, SonicFox, bleed and Supernoon

The clip runs on friends, family and the love of the game rather than frame data, and that framing is the point. 2XKO has existed as a competitive title for a matter of months. Nobody in this bracket has had time to become the villain yet.

Everyone here already won something. Nobody has won this.

Look at how the season fractured. bleed took Frosty Faustings XVIII, the game’s first official Major. SonicFox and INZEM answered at Combo Breaker, running the bracket without dropping a set. Hikari swept Evo Japan, beating Supernoon 3-0 in the Grand Final. Supernoon, for his part, has finished second and third at the two biggest events on the calendar and has nothing to show for it except the certainty that he belongs there.

Four Majors, four different stories. That is not parity. That is a scene that has not decided anything.

Supernoon is the interesting one

Hikari arrives with the strongest recent Evo result. SonicFox arrives with a resume most of the FGC will never touch. bleed arrives with the first trophy anyone lifted. Supernoon arrives with the losses.

Deep runs are a currency that stops spending eventually. Evo’s open bracket is unsentimental about narrative, and a player who keeps arriving at the last match is a player who keeps having to explain himself. He does not need a good weekend. He needs one match.

Watch the duo format, not just the duos

SonicFox and INZEM matter beyond their own bracket. Their Combo Breaker run made the case that 2XKO’s 2v2 mode is not a novelty attached to a fighting game, but the fighting game. Riot is backing that read with an extra $5,000 for the highest-placing duo, on top of a $135,000 pool.

If a coordinated pair wins in Las Vegas, every team in the scene spends the rest of the year looking for a partner.

2XKO Evo 2026: when to watch

The Major runs June 26 to 28 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, 2XKO’s first appearance in Evo’s main lineup and the third official Major since release. Pools open Friday. Top 8 lands Sunday morning.

Riot’s Know Before You Go post has the full schedule and Twitch Drops. The players to watch trailer is three minutes and worth the three minutes.

More coverage: TalkEsport’s Esports News hub

IEM Cologne Major 2026 Sets New Counter-Strike Viewership Record

Aritra Patra
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IEM Cologne Major 2026 Sets New Counter-Strike Viewership Record

IEM Cologne Major 2026 is the most-watched Counter-Strike tournament ever held. The grand final alone peaked at more than 2.75 million viewers, just enough to beat a record that had stood since 2021.

Data firm Esports Charts tracked the numbers (Chinese platforms are not included in that figure). By the time the event wrapped, Cologne had taken down every major viewership record in the game’s history – peak viewers, average viewers, and total hours watched.

A record by the smallest of margins

Team Falcons beat FURIA 3:0 in the grand final to win the organization’s first Counter-Strike Major. The series peaked at 2,751,121 viewers, according to Esports Charts data.

That’s barely above the old mark of 2,748,434, set back at the PGL Major Stockholm 2021 final between Natus Vincere and G2 Esports. Less than 3,000 viewers separate the two records, but five years is five years.

There’s a strange symmetry here too. Nikola “NiKo” Kovaฤ played in that 2021 final, on the losing end against Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev. This time, he walked away with the trophy.

Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov also picked up his first Major title in the win. For Finn “karrigan” Andersen, it was his second, after winning PGL Major Antwerp 2022 with FaZe Clan. Karrigan had joined Falcons only in April 2026, his first team switch since signing with FaZe back in 2021. Two months into the new roster, he was already lifting a Major trophy.

The final wasn’t even the only record-setter

Cologne’s playoff run had already rewritten the history books before the grand final started. The Team Spirit vs G2 Esports quarterfinal pulled in close to 2 million peak viewers on its own, setting a new tournament record at the time. A day later, the Team Spirit vs Falcons semifinal topped that.

Neither of those matches was a final. That alone made them unusual. No non-final match in Counter-Strike history had ever crossed 2 million viewers before.

Past 100 million hours watched, a first for the game

IEM Cologne Major 2026 also became the first Counter-Strike tournament to pass 100 million hours watched, finishing at 100,301,009 hours total.

That’s new territory for the game. The previous record sat just above 76 million hours, so Cologne didn’t edge past it. It cleared it by close to 25 million hours.

Average viewership climbed to a new high too, landing at 627,863 across the tournament.

Some of that comes down to a format change. Stage 3 switched to an all-best-of-three format instead of mixing in best-of-one matches like earlier stages did. More best-of-three games between top teams simply means more hours on screen, and Cologne had plenty of those.

Fortnite OG Season 9 Release Date and Time Confirmed

Aritra Patra
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0
Fortnite OG Season 9 Release Date and Time Confirmed

Fortnite OG Season 9 launches on Thursday, June 25. The new season follows two weeks of Chapter 7, Season 3 content and brings back one of the most well-known original seasons in Fortnite history.

Epic Games has not announced an exact start time for the update. As with past Fortnite OG releases, players will need to watch for the standard downtime window instead.

Fortnite OG Season 9 Start Time

Downtime for Fortnite OG Season 9 is expected to begin around 1 AM PT on Thursday. Epic Games typically does not confirm an exact go-live time ahead of these updates, so the downtime window is the best signal of when the new season will actually start.

This downtime usually lasts between three and four hours. Mid-season updates tend to come with shorter server breaks than a full seasonal switch. Since this update marks a complete season change, and the first one since Chapter 7, Season 3 began, the downtime could run on the longer side while Epic works through the transition.

Here is when downtime is expected to start across major time zones:

Region / Time ZoneDowntime Start
Pacific Time (PT)1 AM
Central Time (CT)3 AM
Eastern Time (ET)4 AM
Brasilia Time (BRT)5 AM
British Summer Time (BST)9 AM
Central European Summer Time (CEST)10 AM
China Standard Time (CST)4 PM
Korean Standard Time (KST)5 PM
Japan Standard Time (JST)5 PM
Australian Eastern Time (AET)6 PM
New Zealand Standard Time (NZST)8 PM

Once downtime ends, players should be able to log back in and start playing Fortnite OG Season 9 right away.

Players should plan around the early morning hours of Thursday, June 25, depending on their region. Once the downtime window outlined above passes, Fortnite OG Season 9 will be live and ready to play.

How to Get the BAILA Emote in Fortnite for Free

MSI 2026 Co-Streamers: Riot’s List Slips as Kick Looms

Divyesh Moghe
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MSI 2026 Co-Streamers: Riot’s List Slips as Kick Looms

The remote co-streamer roster for the 2026 Mid-Season Invitational was supposed to drop today, per Riot’s own MSI primer, which promised the full lineup on June 22 with on-site creators named closer to the final week. As of this writing, nothing. Silence from a publisher that rarely misses a content beat this close to an international event.

MSI 2026 Co-Streamers Are Late, and Kick Is Already in the Building

What Riot has confirmed is the scale. More than 100 co-streamers will feed into a Co-Streamer Hub powered by Opera GX, making this the largest co-streaming roster in MSI history. The program stays invite-only, weighted toward creators who covered regional leagues all year rather than whoever posts the loudest clip. Every qualified team can co-stream too.

The timing is what makes the delay interesting. Riot announced in April that Kick would carry live broadcasts for global and regional LoL Esports, VALORANT and TFT events starting with MSI 2026, everywhere except China and Korea. Kick viewers get the same Drops. Kick streamers get held to the same moderation standards Riot applies elsewhere. That is a lot of hedging language for a platform whose reputation precedes it.

Co-streaming has been a fight all year. Riot keeps the invite list closed, creators keep asking why, and the audience keeps drifting to whoever has the funniest reaction. Now a fourth platform enters the mix and the roster reveal goes quiet on the day it was due. Draw your own line between those two facts.

The stakes are not abstract. MSI 2026 runs June 28 to July 12 at Daejeon Convention Center II, eleven teams, every series a best of five, twenty of them, no filler. T1, Team Liquid, Karmine Corp and Deep Cross Gaming all have to survive Play-Ins where only one advances. The winner takes a direct Worlds 2026 slot. Caedrel, Kameto, Ibai and Hoร ng Luรขn are the names most fans expect to see attached to an official channel.

Whoever holds the co-stream is holding a real slice of that audience. Riot knows it. That may be exactly why the list is taking longer than promised.

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