12 best gaming accessories for PC, Xbox, Playstation and more

August 21, 2023 Audrey

Whether you’ve just started playing video games or are a longtime gamer, having the right accessories on-hand can make or break the experience. Extras designed to enhance the experience — by helping software load more quickly, creating immersive audio, or boosting the controller’s response time, for example — can make a good game, great.

The right gear will often depend on what you’re playing and what you prioritize. I can’t live without my Nintendo Switch and protective case when traveling, but otherwise I only dabble in PC gaming and don’t need any extras while playing Stardew Valley. My husband, on the other hand, games on PC almost exclusively and therefore has a dedicated video card, gaming monitor and gaming keyboard.

However you prefer to game, many items, such as headphones, can be used across platforms. With that in mind, here are the essentials to consider to make the most of your gaming.

Our top picks

Best Gaming Accessories

While some accessories are specific for certain consoles — take, for instance, the Microsoft Xbox Wireless Controllers for Xbox Series X and Xbox One — they can be used for other forms of gaming, such as PC. And no matter what you’re playing, an ergonomic chair will come in handy. Here, experts in the field share their picks.

EPOS H3 Closed Acoustic Gaming Headset

Corey Bertelsen, a game developer and gaming sound designer based in Stockholm, Sweden, swears by these headsets, which offer noise-cancellation and a built-in mic, for both office meetings and multiplayer gaming sessions alike. “They’re really great at blocking outside sound from my ears, and I never have an issue with room noise bleeding into the mic,” he said, adding that they’re great for the price — and that the brand offers higher-end models that he’s hoping to try out in the future. “They’re great for the price, and Epos has some higher-end models that I would like to try out for my home use someday.”

Microsoft Xbox Wireless Controller

While this wireless controller is intended for the Xbox console, Bertelsen is a fan of using it for PC gaming, too. “It’s one of the best for ergonomics and connectivity, especially if you have games on GamePass,” he said. That ergonomic feel can be a game-changer, especially if you have discomfort while playing for long sessions. That’s the case for Tanya DePass, the founder and director of I Need Diverse Games (a non-profit that advocates for diversity in gaming) and pro streamer on Twitch.

“Since I have to use a controller due to having a long term RSI (Repetitive Stress Injury) when PC gaming, I go with this as it’s comfortable, lightweight, and, with an additional dongle, can be used wirelessly with ease at my PC,” she said. “It’s far more comfortable to use for long sessions, and not feel pain or fatigue in my wrists no matter which game I’ve been playing.”

ASUS TUF 23.8” FHD 165Hz 1ms FreeSync Premium Gaming Monitor

While you can find a

Xbox Sport Move Subscribers Dropping Accessibility to One of the Most significant Sequence in Gaming

March 19, 2023 Audrey

Xbox Game Go and Xbox Match Move Ultimate subscribers are about to drop entry to one particular of the major and most celebrated series in gaming. The Xbox Video game Move library is continually evolving, usually including new releases. This is good information for most subscribers who desire to participate in the most recent releases, but it also usually means entire collection are at times added, taken out, and then inaccessible by means of the membership services. For instance, at 1 point, Xbox Activity Move experienced many Ultimate Fantasy online games. Now, it has 1, and it truly is shedding this closing video game. More particularly, alongside six other video games, Xbox Sport Go is dropping Remaining Fantasy 13: Lightning Returns on February 28.

Of course, it’s probable the video game — together with many others in the collection — could return in the long run, but appropriate now there is no word of this. Nevertheless, until the recreation in fact departs on February 28, subscribers can acquire it outright with a 20 percent lower price. After it leaves the subscription company, this low cost expires.

For people that never know: Closing Fantasy 13: Lightning Returns — technically stylized as Lightning Returns: Ultimate Fantasy 13 — debuted again in 2013, but only in Japan, not coming west right up until 2014. It can be the sequel to Last Fantasy 13-2 and wraps the storyline of Ultimate Fantasy 13. On launch, the video game garnered middling testimonials. That said, if you’re a fan of Ultimate Fantasy 13, it is a must-participate in for narrative motives.

“Lightning Returns is the concluding chapter of the Closing Fantasy XIII saga and collection heroine Lightning’s last fight. The grand finale of the trilogy provides a world reborn as properly as free character customization and beautiful motion centered battles,” reads an official blurb about the sport. “The environment is sinking into a sea of chaos, and in 13 days, nothing will stay. Although the earth is doomed, there is even now hope for those who call it residence. Just after centuries in crystal stasis, a hero has awoken-a legendary warrior on a god-specified mission to conserve the souls of mankind. Her title: Lightning. Blessed with extraordinary strength and an arsenal of new weapons, she has almost everything she desires for the coming fight. Every little thing apart from time. And now she need to make an unattainable preference…”

Xbox Video game Go and Xbox Recreation Move Greatest are the two obtainable by using Xbox consoles, Laptop, and streamable through Cloud. The previous runs at $10 a month, although the latter — which arrives with EA Participate in, Xbox Stay Gold, bundles alongside one another both of those console and Computer system libraries, and has distinctive benefits — operates at $15 a month.

Daily Deals: Xbox Series X Back in Stock, Save on Weider Adjustable Dumbbells, Razer Gaming Chair, Uber Gift Card, and More

March 27, 2022 Audrey

The Xbox Series X is available again at Walmart. If you’ve been waiting for the newest gen Xbox to come back in stock, now is your chance. In other deal news, score a pair of Weider 55lb adjustable dumbbells for $150 cheaper than the Bowflex versions, grab Animal Crossing: New Horizons for only $39.99, or pick up a well-built Razer Enki X gaming chair for hundreds less than a similar chair from Secretlab or DXGamer. These deals and more below.

Xbox Series X in Stock at Walmart

We might actually see Xbox Series X stay in stock more reliably in the future… or we may not. In any case, the Xbox Series X was in stock for the last two days at Walmart, but only for paid Walmart+ members. Starting today, it’s available for everyone. You will still need to create a free Walmart account to add it to your cart. If you’ve been waiting a while for the newest and most powerful Xbox console, don’t hesitate!

Weider Select-a-Weight 55 lb. Adjustable Dumbbells

Weider 55lb Select-A-Weight Adjustable Dumbbells (Pair)

Walmart is offering an excellent price on a pair of Weider adjustable dumbbells, far lower than comparable brands like Bowflex and Power Block. If there’s any one piece of exercise equipment you should decide on, free weights would be a very good investment. Investing in some exercise equipment at home means there’s less of a reason to spend money for a gym membership. Because these dumbbells are adjustable, you don’t need a rack of individual weights lying around. Each dumbbell can be adjusted from 10 to 55 pounds.

Today Only: Razer Enki X Gaming Chair for $224.99

The Razer Enki X offers exceptional value for a well-built, comfortable gaming chair. Even at its MSRP of $299, it’s $100 cheaper than Razer’s other gaming chair, the Iskur, as well as the Secretlab Titan EVO. Today’s deal drops the price even further by another 25% off. The Enki X features a mix of synthetic leather and fabric upholstery, soft cushy foam for the seat pad and a firmer form for the backrest for solid support, built-in lumbar arch, 152-degree recline, and 2D adjustable armrests.

Razer Kishi Mobile Game Controller for $39.99

The Razer Kishi mobile game controller normally sells for $89.99, but it’s 56% off as part of Amazon’s deal of the day. This is one of the best controllers you can get for your smartphone. It directly connects to your phone via the charging port, so there’s no worry about latency issues with bluetooth or wireless connections, and gives you a traditional gamepad-style control layout. That includes dual clickable analog thumbsticks, D-pad, and four-button mapping. There’s also a passthrough USB Type-C port so you can continue charging your phone while you play.

Animal Crossing: New Horizon and Zelda Games for $39.99 Each at Urban Outfitters

Urban Outfitters isn’t necessarily a store you’d browse for video games, but surprisingly they have the lowest price right now on these three popular

Xbox gamers are fed up with pressured crossplay against Personal computer gamers

January 19, 2022 Audrey

Xbox players are escalating significantly pissed off at staying pressured to play towards Personal computer players. When crossplay was in the beginning a common request from Xbox and Computer system players that Microsoft has backed strongly for a long time, those participating in 1st-particular person shooters on Xbox are struggling to opt out of the working experience to keep away from Computer system cheaters.

Game titles like Call of Obligation: Warzone and Halo Infinite pressure Xbox gamers to match towards Pc gamers in a variety of playlists. You really do not have to glimpse really considerably to see why people today are offended about it. “Now that dishonest in Halo is verified on Laptop, can we have to alternative to opt out of cross-perform?” requested just one Reddit put up in November, just months just after the multiplayer version of Halo Infinite launched.

“Forced crossplay is a rip-off by Microsoft,” reads one more post in Microsoft’s Halo Waypoint forums. “Forced crossplay is a oversight,” states a further Redditor, and the record goes on, and on, and on.

Halo Infinite and Get in touch with of Obligation: Warzone are both equally struggling from an influx of cheating, mostly mainly because they are free-to-perform titles so it is easy for hackers to create a new account pursuing a ban. While there’s an alternative to disable crossplay in Warzone, if you test to load into a playlist on Xbox it will request you to re-empower it. Whilst on PlayStation you can basically dismiss the prompt and carry on to the playlist with crossplay continue to disabled.

Warzone gamers on Xbox have been complaining about this compelled crossplay for far more than a calendar year, with numerous discussion board posts and YouTube movies highlighting how annoying it is to be forced into crossplay. Most of the problems are associated to Personal computer cheaters, who have plagued Warzone for several years just before Activision last but not least additional a new anti-cheat program in October with a kernel-level driver to capture Laptop cheaters.

Now that cheaters are currently ruining Halo Infinite multiplayer game titles, the call to get rid of forced crossplay is undoubtedly developing louder. Halo Infinite gamers on Xbox are matched versus Pc gamers in most playlists, and even in ranked modes you have to enjoy solo or as a duo to stay clear of pressured crossplay towards distinctive inputs. If you want to squad up as a crew of three or four Xbox gamers, you will be compelled to participate in towards Personal computer players in ranked Halo Infinite modes.

Halo Infinite is already struggling from an influx of cheaters.

Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge

Microsoft’s final decision to force crossplay in its very own Halo Infinite title operates towards past commitments from the company’s head of Xbox. “I’ll by no means pressure somebody in our games whose taking part in with a controller or a mouse and keyboard to perform versus somebody with

You can secretly participate in over 20 unlisted online games on Xbox Sport Move for Computer

December 3, 2021 Audrey

Xbox Game Move for Computer system is an uncomfortable, stunning beast. It consistently manages to impress me with its at any time-rising video games line-up, even though at the very same time baffling me with its obscure user encounter.

Consider the EA Enjoy integration, for instance, which gives you accessibility to dozens of online games from EA’s membership provider. Not only can you not lookup for specific EA games inside Xbox Game Go for Laptop, but I recently uncovered that there are truly about 20 EA Engage in online games not outlined at all in the Xbox application that you can perform with an Xbox Activity Go Pc subscription.

To participate in 1 of these games, you want to indicator into the EA Enjoy or Origin application, then simply variety the game name into the research box and download it (make positive your EA and Xbox accounts are connected).

It’s a rather great bunch too! The headliner has to be Crysis Remastered, which arrived out very last year, but amid them you’ll also obtain Worms W.M.D (in my eyes, the silliest and most finish Worms activity of them all) as well as the biggest Battlefield match, Battlefield: Terrible Organization 2 (full with the Vietnam enlargement).

ea play games — (Impression credit history: Robert Zak)

There is certainly also a reliable collection of indie titles which includes Superhot, Trine 2, The Attractive Brutale, and even anything for the videogame historians in the form of Ultima Underworld 1 and 2.

Acquiring trawled as a result of the EA Play catalogue, in this article are all the EA Enjoy game titles not detailed in the Xbox app that Game Move subscribers can play:

Aragami
Bard’s Tale Trilogy
Battlefield: Undesirable Organization 2
Beholder
Capsized
Crysis Remastered
Diluvion
Dungeons of Dredmor
Epistory
Legrand Legacy
Mini Metro
The Alluring Brutale
Peggle Nights
Rebel Galaxy
Superhot
This War of Mine
Torchlight
Torchlight 2
Trine
Trine 2: Total Tale
Ultima Underworld 1
Ultima Underworld 2
Worms W.M.D.

This checklist may quietly expand also, so be confident to look at into the EA Engage in app, then set the filter to only clearly show EA Participate in membership video games to see if any new surprises pop up.

Wanting at that list, it is tempting to chirpily conclude that ‘Xbox Game Go for Laptop is just the present that retains on giving’ and would like everybody a Happy Cyber Monday, but it’s nevertheless one more indicator of what a strange, unwieldy working experience it is. The Xbox app feels like 1 of those arcade claw machines filled with definitely wonderful goodies that you want to brute-force, kick, or try numerous situations prior to receiving your prize. Or in this case, a clunky claw equipment that drops your prize into one more clunky claw device (EA Engage in) by means of which you can sooner or later get your goodies.

I want to enjoy you Xbox Video game Go, but in some cases you make it so difficult…

Apple says it competes with PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo

October 30, 2021 Audrey

Apple’s products compete as gaming platforms with Sony Playstation, Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo, the company said on Friday in a regulatory filing.

Previously, Apple only said it competed against Google’s Android in smartphones and Microsoft Windows in PCs for the attention of software developers.

Apple’s competitors were an important topic in a high-profile antitrust trial with Epic Games earlier this year in which Apple argued that it didn’t have a monopoly because its App Store competed against other gaming platforms that also offered Epic’s Fortnite, the Epic app Apple banned from its store.

At the time, the company did not list gaming consoles as competitors in its SEC filings.

Ultimately, the judge ruled that Apple did not have a monopoly in the market for “mobile gaming transactions,” but ordered the company to change its business practices and allow developers to link out to payment methods not operated by Apple. Epic Games and Apple are appealing the ruling.

The update in Apple’s annual filing also reflects how much money the company makes from gaming on its phones and tablets.

According to the court ruling in the Epic Games trial, about 70% of all App Store revenue comes from gaming apps, which is generated by less than 10% of App Store users.

Apple is also increasingly catering to gamers in product decisions. In September, Apple released new iPhone 13 Pro models with displays that can increase their refresh rate, a popular feature among gamers.

Apple’s App Store had gross sales of over $64 billion in 2020, according to a CNBC analysis. Apple makes more profit from games than companies like Microsoft, Nintendo, Activision Blizzard and Sony, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month.

Risks from legislation and government investigations

Apple warned investors in its annual filing that it may be forced to make further changes to its App Store, which could decrease the number of apps downloaded and reduce the commission Apple takes.

Apple “is also subject to litigation and investigations relating to the App Store, which have resulted in changes to the Company’s business practices, and may in the future result in further changes,” the company said in the filing with the SEC.

Apple takes between 15% and 30% of paid software downloads, in-app purchases and subscriptions sold by third-party apps on its App Store.

Apple’s App Store is part of its services business, which reported $68.43 billion in sales in the company’s fiscal 2021, a 27% increase over the previous year. Apple doesn’t break out revenue from the components in services, which also include subscriptions, extended warranties and advertising.

According to Apple’s filing, sales in its services business increased last year primarily because of growth in advertising, App Store and cloud. But Apple warned that its advertising business may be hurt by increased scrutiny on other technology companies.

“For example, the Company earns revenue from licensing arrangements with other companies to offer their search services on the Company’s platforms and apps, and certain of these arrangements are