Featured Product

GameSir Super Nova Wireless Gaming Controller (PC/Switch/Switch 2) Was $59.99 → $29.99 on Amazon

A genuinely versatile pick that works across PC, Switch, and Switch 2 without needing different hardware for each. The Super Nova features Hall effect joysticks — no stick drift over time, a real upgrade over standard potentiometer sticks — programmable back buttons, and both wireless and wired connectivity depending on how you want to play.

At 50% off, it's one of the stronger third-party controller deals we've seen this year — a solid alternative if you don't want to pay first-party prices for a controller that covers this many platforms.

SANSUI 34" Curved Gaming Monitor (UWQHD 3440x1440, 200Hz) Was $269.99 → $204.99 on Amazon

A serious ultrawide upgrade at a price that undercuts most of the competition. The SANSUI packs a 3440x1440 UWQHD resolution into a 1500R curve, with up to 200Hz refresh rate and 1ms response time for smooth, fast-paced gameplay. HDR support, 300 nits brightness, and strong color coverage (130% sRGB, 97% DCI-P3) mean it holds up for content work and color-accurate tasks too, not just gaming.

PIP/PBP support lets you run two sources side-by-side, and dual HDMI 2.1 ports plus DisplayPort 1.4 (cable included) cover current-gen console and PC hookups without extra adapters. At 24% off, this is a lot of monitor for the price.

Hyperkin DuchesS Xbox X|S Wired Controller (Hall Effect Sticks) Was $49.99 → $29.60 on Amazon

A budget-friendly wired controller built specifically for Xbox Series X|S, with Hall effect joysticks that eliminate the stick drift standard controllers develop over time. It's a straightforward wired connection, so no pairing hassle and no battery to charge, making it a solid backup controller or a first controller for a second player.

At 41% off, it's a smart pickup for anyone who wants drift-proof sticks without paying premium controller prices.

Glorious Model O Wired Gaming Mouse (67g Superlight, Honeycomb) Was $69.99 → $25.00 on Amazon

An ultralight gaming mouse built for speed, weighing just 67 grams thanks to its honeycomb shell design. That weight reduction makes a real difference in fast-flick aim and long session comfort, and the wired connection keeps latency at an absolute minimum for anyone playing competitively.

At 64% off, this is one of the steepest discounts we've tracked on a mouse this well-regarded — an easy recommendation for anyone still using a heavier, older mouse.

GTPLAYER Sim Racing Wheel Stand (Cockpit) Was $89.99 → $62.97 on Amazon

For anyone building out a racing sim setup, this stand is compatible with most major wheel brands — Logitech G25, G27, G29, G920, G923, and Thrustmaster models — giving you a dedicated, stable mount instead of clamping a wheel to a desk. Note: wheel and pedals are sold separately, this is the stand/cockpit frame only.

At 30% off, it's a solid foundation piece for anyone finally ready to build a proper sim racing corner.

What's Streaming

🎮💰 GTA VI Giveaway: Win Cash Live on 8/15

Instead of preordering GTA VI, BLKSUIT is giving the cash straight to one of you. On Saturday, August 15th, around 9PM CST, we're drawing a winner live on stream — spin the wheel, cash lands in your pocket.

How to stack entries:
Sub (new or current) — +2  |  Subbed 3+ months — +2 bonus  |  New follower — +1  |  Cheer 500+ bits during the stream — +1  |  Sign up for the newsletter — +1  |  Every gift sub you hand out — +1

👉 Catch the drawing live on Twitch!

Regular Schedule

Catch BLKSUIT live every Monday and Thursday, plus the giveaway stream on Saturday, August 15th. 🔔

This Week in Gaming

🎮 Microsoft Launches Xbox Backward Compatibility on PC

Microsoft officially rolled out Xbox Backward Compatibility on PC this week, letting players run classic original Xbox games on Windows PCs and handhelds — including the upcoming ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X — for the first time ever. The early release launches with four titles: BLiNX: The Time Sweeper, Conker: Live & Reloaded, Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge, and Fuzion Frenzy. All four are purchasable outright on PC and included with every tier of Xbox Game Pass, and players who already own a digital console copy get PC access at no extra cost thanks to license carryover through Xbox Play Anywhere.

Microsoft's added real PC-specific upgrades too, not just a straight port — 4x resolution upscaling, VSync support, both fullscreen and windowed modes, and enhanced anti-aliasing, with Achievements support coming to all four titles in the months ahead. It's a notable philosophical shift: traditional backward compatibility usually means newer consoles running older games, but Microsoft is now extending that concept to Windows itself, strengthening the thread connecting Xbox consoles, PC, and handhelds into one continuous library.

The timing is pointed, too. This launches just weeks after Sony announced it's ending physical disc production for new PlayStation games in January 2028 — Microsoft is leaning hard into game preservation right as its biggest rival leans away from it.

🗓️ Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game Delayed on Xbox Hours Before Launch

Just hours before its scheduled release today, Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game got hit with a last-minute delay — but only on Xbox Series X|S. Developer Gameplay Group International cited "unforeseen circumstances on a backend feature" and pushed the Xbox version back a full six weeks to September 3, while PC and PS5 launched on schedule. Existing Xbox pre-orders will remain active and won't be cancelled, which hasn't done much to soothe frustrated fans who got the news with barely half a day's notice.

The Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 versions technically launched today too, but with real caveats: no crossplay, no Deluxe Edition access at launch, and English-only language support for now. That combination — a full Xbox delay plus a stripped-down Switch launch — points to a shared root cause in the game's cross-platform networking backend, since Avatar Legends was built around a unified matchmaking pool spanning all four platforms from day one.

Reviews for the game itself have been positive so far, praising its hand-drawn 2D visual style, training options, and responsive combat. For Xbox players, though, the wait just got a lot longer.

⚠️ Riot Games Suspends ardiis From VCT Co-Streaming

Riot Games handed down a disciplinary suspension to Ardis "ardiis" Svarenieks today, barring the NAVI streamer from co-streaming any VCT competition through August 19 following discriminatory comments he made during a VCT Game Changers co-stream. Riot's statement cited "the use of discriminatory and offensive language" targeting Game Changers competitors — a league specifically designed to create opportunities for women and gender-diverse players in VALORANT esports.

The backlash started building days earlier when clips of ardiis and former Fnatic pro Leo referring to certain players using language many viewers called transphobic began circulating widely. Ardiis posted an on-stream apology, though the delivery undercut the message somewhat — he questioned aloud why he should have to apologize even while reading the statement. NAVI responded by immediately suspending its own cooperation with him, posting that "there is a line that should never be crossed."

The timing has drawn its own criticism: the suspension lifts the day before VCT EMEA Stage 2 Playoffs begin on August 20, leading some fans to call the punishment more symbolic than substantive.

👉 👉 Check out the article!

🦑 Splatoon Raiders Launches Today — It Almost Was a Tower Defense Game

Nintendo's first-ever Splatoon spin-off is out today on Switch 2, and a fresh "Ask the Developer" interview reveals just how different it could have looked. Director Yoshihiko Ito explained that Raiders started as an attempt to build a solo version of Salmon Run, Splatoon's four-player co-op mode — and the earliest prototype was, in his words, "very much like a base defense game," built around placing traps around the map and watching waves of Salmonids get picked off automatically.

The team scrapped it fast. "It didn't really feel like a Splatoon game to us," Ito said, since the series is built on rapid, varied action — inking ground, swapping in and out of squid form, constant movement — and a defense-game loop where you place traps and watch them work flattens all of that out. The fix was "gadgets": equipment players actively wield and switch between mid-fight, which producer Seita Inoue says turned into "the most hectic game screen I've ever seen."

The final product is Nintendo's first-ever Splatoon entry built primarily around single-player, with a new protagonist (the Mechanic), three difficulty tiers, and optional four-player online co-op — priced at $49.99 digital.

👉 👉 Check out the article!

🎬 GTA 6 Trailer 3 Speculation Heats Up

With no official word from Rockstar, the guessing game around a third GTA 6 trailer has become its own news cycle. Industry watchers are pointing to a late-July-to-mid-August window, largely because it lines up with two dates on the calendar: the recent conclusion of the World Cup and Take-Two's August 7 earnings call — both moments Rockstar has historically favored for major reveals. Rockstar has already laid plenty of groundwork this year: pre-orders opened June 25, cover art dropped, and 60 new screenshots have been released.

The pattern-based case has real precedent — Trailer 1 arrived December 2023 (after leaking roughly 16 hours early), and Trailer 2 landed May 2025 — but it's still just inference built on history, not anything Rockstar has confirmed. What isn't speculation: the November 19, 2026 release date has been locked since Take-Two's February earnings report, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S exclusivity is confirmed, and Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick told Variety directly that no further delays are expected.

Pre-order data backs up the hype — PS5 pre-orders are reportedly outselling Xbox roughly 6-to-1 — and some estimates put GTA 6's opening week revenue potential at $5 billion, which is exactly the kind of number that makes Rockstar's marketing team allergic to another slip.

👉 👉 Check out the article!

This Week in Streaming

🎓 Kai Cenat's Streamer University 2026 Wraps With Record Numbers

Kai Cenat's second annual Streamer University closed its doors yesterday after five days of nonstop broadcasting at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas. The numbers dwarfed last year's debut: over 53 million hours watched — the equivalent of more than 6,000 years of content consumed — marking a 120% jump in viewership from 2025. More than one million applicants competed for just 120 spots, with this year's class including creators Jasontheween and PlaqueBoyMax, actress Skai Jackson, rapper DreamDoll, and Love Island's Jeremiah Brown, guided by faculty like Duke Dennis, T-Pain, Lizzo, and Fanum.

The event also confirmed something bigger than the numbers: this was Kai's first-ever Streamer University broadcast simultaneously on both Twitch and YouTube, following his July 6 return from a nine-month hiatus. That dual-platform approach has stuck for the entire run, signaling the end of Twitch exclusivity for the platform's most-subscribed streamer.

Kai closed the event by announcing Streamer University will expand to Europe for 2027 — no venue or dates confirmed yet, but he's already committed to running it annually for the rest of his streaming career.

🤖 Kick CEO Accuses StableRonaldo & Lacy of Viewbotting

A public fight over whether audiences are real is playing out between Kick and two of its own former FaZe Clan-affiliated streamers. Kick CEO Eddie Craven accused Rani "StableRonaldo" Netz and Nick "Lacy" Fosco of inflating their live viewer counts with bots during Episode 76 of Kick Talk, the platform's official show — claiming "up to 90 percent of their viewership was botted." Both streamers have been firing back on stream and across social media, using their own revenue numbers as counter-evidence.

The accusation set off a chain reaction across Twitch, X, and TikTok that's kept the streaming world arguing for days. Detection systems — including Kick's own — are reportedly better at ruling out who definitely isn't viewbotting than at proving conclusively who is, which is part of why this dispute hasn't been resolved with a simple yes-or-no answer. Craven himself has acknowledged some streamers' traffic is clearly organic, and has said blanket bans on suspected botting would "empty" the platform.

Revenue numbers offer partial evidence since Twitch and Kick generally filter out artificial traffic before calculating payouts — but "partial" is doing a lot of work in that sentence, and this one is still unresolved.

📊 TheBurntPeanut Tops Streams Charts H1 2026 Rankings

Streams Charts released its combined rankings for the first half of 2026, and multistreaming giant TheBurntPeanut topped the list across Twitch, Kick, and YouTube Gaming with an astonishing 128.9 million Hours Watched. The American VTuber built that number on high-energy streams and collaborations, playing action-heavy titles like ARC Raiders and Rust, despite his fair share of controversy along the way.

The rankings also highlighted Kick sensation westcol, whose March 27 stream interviewing Colombian President Gustavo Petro peaked at 840,610 viewers — the platform's highest single-moment peak of the half. Brazilian influencer Virginia Fonseca made the list too, with her February Rio Carnival broadcast pulling 663,302 peak viewers shortly after she began streaming on Twitch.

For context on scale: Streams Charts noted separately that Kai Cenat's Streamer University alone generated more Hours Watched than TheBurntPeanut's entire first half of 2026 combined — a reminder of just how concentrated attention gets around single mega-events versus a creator's cumulative year.

👨‍👩‍👧 Instagram Now Requires Parental Approval for Teens Under 16 to Go Live

Meta expanded its Teen Accounts safety push this month with a new restriction specific to livestreaming: users under 16 can no longer go live on Instagram without a parent or guardian's approval. It's part of the same framework that already requires parental permission for teens under 16 to disable the blurred-images feature in DMs, which automatically blurs images suspected of containing nudity.

Meta says the underlying Teen Accounts restrictions have been a genuine success so far — 97% of 13-to-15-year-olds have kept the default protections enabled rather than turning them off. That data point is likely part of why Meta felt comfortable extending the same philosophy to Live specifically, rather than leaving it as an open door.

The change is also being framed as a first step toward a wider rollout: Meta has signaled Teen Accounts-style protections are expected to expand to Facebook and Messenger next, pushing the same guardrails across its full platform family rather than keeping them Instagram-specific.

Hot Deals This Week

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (PS5) Was $69.99 → $29.83 on Amazon

Insomniac's dimension-hopping platformer remains one of the best showcases for what PS5 hardware can actually do — near-instant world transitions powered by the SSD, jaw-dropping visuals, and tight, varied gunplay across a genuinely inventive weapon roster. It's also just a great pure platformer underneath the spectacle, with Rivet joining Ratchet as a fully playable second lead.

At 57% off, this is one of the steepest discounts we've tracked on it since launch. If you picked up a PS5 and never got around to grabbing this one, there's no better time.

Until Dawn (PS5) Was $59.99 → $29.99 on Amazon

Supermassive Games' butterfly-effect horror classic gets a real price cut here — a cinematic, choice-driven slasher where every decision ripples forward and any (or all) of your eight playable characters can die permanently depending on what you do. It's built for replays, since the branching paths mean two playthroughs rarely look the same.

At 50% off, it's an easy pickup for horror fans who missed it originally, or anyone looking for a great co-stream game — Until Dawn plays especially well with chat weighing in on your choices in real time.

Hello Kitty Island Adventure Deluxe Edition Gift Box (Nintendo Switch) Was $83.99 → $69.99 on Amazon

A cozy life-sim that's become a genuine phenomenon in its own lane — explore a tropical island, decorate your camp, complete quests, and hang out with Hello Kitty and the full Sanrio cast. The Deluxe Edition Gift Box adds physical bonus items on top of the base game, making it a strong pickup for anyone gifting rather than just downloading.

At 17% off, it's a modest discount, but this is a title that rarely goes on sale at all, so even a smaller markdown is worth flagging for fans of the genre or anyone shopping for a Sanrio-loving gamer in their life.

FINAL FANTASY VII Remake Intergrade (Nintendo Switch 2, Standard Edition) Was $39.99 → $29.83 on Amazon

Square Enix's full reimagining of the original PS1 classic's opening act finally lands on Switch 2, bringing the complete Remake experience — real-time action combat layered over classic ATB strategy, a fleshed-out Midgar, and the Intermission DLC starring Yuffie — to Nintendo's new hardware.

At 25% off, this is a strong way to catch up on the FF7 Remake trilogy ahead of the eventual third entry, especially for anyone who's been waiting specifically for a portable option.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 Standard Edition (PS5, Xbox, PC) Was $49.99 → $25.00 on Amazon

The 3+4 remaster bundle brings back the two most beloved entries in the series with rebuilt visuals, the classic 2-minute run structure, and every legendary pro skater roster fans grew up with, all running clean on modern hardware.

At 50% off, this is one of the steepest discounts we've seen on it since launch. One thing worth flagging clearly: this price is for PS5, Xbox, and PC only — it does not apply to the Switch 2 version, so if you're specifically after it for Switch 2, this deal won't get you there.