IEM Beijing began on 2 November, with all eight opening series completed. The 16-team Counter-Strike 2 event runs through 8 November.

Opening results

• Natus Vincere 2-0 Team Falcons
• FURIA 2-1 FaZe
• The MongolZ 2-1 Legacy
• HEROIC 2-0 B8
• MOUZ 2-0 TYLOO
• BetBoom 2-1 9z
• PARIVISION 2-1 G2
• Team Liquid 2-0 Aurora

The winners move into the upper semifinals. Group A has The MongolZ vs HEROIC and FURIA vs NAVI; Group B has Liquid vs PARIVISION and MOUZ vs BetBoom.

The opening losers remain in contention through the lower bracket. The next pairings are FaZe vs Falcons, Legacy vs B8, Aurora vs G2, and TYLOO vs 9z.

Beijing replaces Chengdu as the Chinese stop on the IEM circuit this year. The linked event page carries the bracket and current schedule.

Sources: Opening results | Event | BLAST

Linux accounted for 3.95% of participants in Valve's October 2026 Steam Hardware and Software Survey, up 0.90 percentage points from September.

Windows stood at 93.70%, down 1.33 percentage points, while macOS rose 0.43 percentage points to 2.35%.

Within the Linux sample, CachyOS was the largest individual entry at 16.39%, followed by SteamOS Holo at 13.89% and Arch Linux at 8.92%. Valve lists SteamOS Holo and SteamOS separately; the latter represented another 8.09% of the Linux sample. Those distribution figures are shares of Linux respondents, not shares of all Steam users.

The result puts Linux close to 4% in this month's sample. It does not by itself establish why the share changed, or how much came from new Linux players rather than variation in survey participation.

Valve's survey page has the full breakdown of operating systems and hardware.

Sources: Valve survey | GamingOnLinux | Steam

SK hynix expects memory demand to remain ahead of supply through 2030, while Raspberry Pi has announced another price increase for some of its highest-memory products.

SK hynix's forecast

In its third-quarter results, SK hynix points to growing AI infrastructure demand, the difficulty of advanced manufacturing processes and the time needed to build new production facilities. It expects those constraints to keep the market undersupplied through 2030.

The company is expanding production and shifting more capacity toward high-value memory for servers and AI. The 2030 date is the manufacturer's forecast; it is not a prediction that every consumer RAM kit will rise in price continuously until then.

16 GB Raspberry Pi 5 now $385

From 2 November, the 16 GB Raspberry Pi 5 costs $385, an $80 increase. The 16 GB Compute Module 5 variants rise by $40.

Raspberry Pi attributes the increase to limited alternatives for 16 GB DRAM and other component shortages. It is keeping the price of the 16 GB Pi 500+ unchanged and says the increases do not apply across its entire range.

Sources: SK hynix results | Raspberry Pi

id Software is working more closely with MachineGames on technology, according to studio co-director Marty Stratton, who discussed the studio's position following Xbox's layoffs.

Speaking at a Doom: The Dark Ages press event, Stratton acknowledged that roughly half of id's staff had departed. He said the remaining organisation had been deliberately structured to support both game development and technology work.

Stratton described the partnership with MachineGames as closer than ever, with engineering teams at both studios involved. He said the technology work had begun before the layoffs, earlier in the year.

The comments offer some detail on how the two studios are working together, but do not announce a new game, a studio merger or a replacement for id Tech. Suggestions that the collaboration points to a particular Wolfenstein project remain speculation.

Sources: PC Gamer | IGN

Romero Games has secured a new publisher for a redesigned shooter, John Romero told VGC. The publisher's identity and the game's announcement date remain under wraps.

The studio's previous project was built around a team of 110. After losing funding, staffing fell to five; Romero says roughly ten people have since returned, leaving a team of about 15-16.

The original game will not be completed in its old form. Instead, the studio is making a different, smaller shooter using art, code, characters and other work it already owns. Romero says the new scope is designed for the current team size.

He also says the new publishing agreement gives the studio creative freedom, and that the smaller structure lets him spend more time directly designing and building the game. There is no release date yet.

Sources: VGC interview | PC Gamer

Selaco's second chapter, The Machines of War, releases on 13 November. The update adds 19 campaign maps, with the developers estimating another 6-8 hours of play.

Dawn gets more voiced story content and an ally for part of the campaign, while a pursuing machine gives the new chapter a more relentless pace. Chapter 1 also receives a fresh pass on lighting, setpieces and other details.

Combat additions include new enemy types, heavy weapons, a jetpack, deployable drones and cover, and more weapon kits. Enemy AI has been extensively rewritten, with patrols, revised pathfinding and a rally system.

The technical changes include baked lighting, a revised particle system and asset streaming. The developers report a 19% reduction in general VRAM use. Movement scripting has also been reworked, and missed ordinary weapon kits can be purchased in safe rooms.

The full changelog and a new trailer are due when the update launches.

Sources: Developer announcement | GamingOnLinux | Selaco

Three Quake Champions cups produced a title for maxter and two for k1llsen over the weekend.

Estoty Duel Tournament #224

maxter beat k1llsen 3-1 in the grand final after losing their winners-final meeting 1-2. He earned the rematch with a 2-0 lower-final win over dramiS, who finished third ahead of Keltz.

It is maxter's 12th Estoty title and second consecutive win in the series. He moves ahead of ZenAkU into fifth on the all-time winners list, with three tournament victories in seven days including NAQCL #78.

NAQCL Duel Tournament #79

k1llsen won the next NAQCL with a 3-0 final against Thri11er. His route included 2-1 wins over klyb and dramiS and a 2-0 winners-final win over Keltz.

Thri11er beat Keltz 2-1 in the lower final to reach his third consecutive NAQCL podium. The prizes were $50 for k1llsen, $30 for Thri11er and $20 for Keltz; Yup placed fourth.

EGB QC Cup #13

k1llsen followed with another 3-0 final against Thri11er, this time without dropping a map all tournament. He also beat Thri11er 2-0 in the upper semifinals and S V H 2-0 in the winners final.

S V H finished third after beating maxter and dramiS earlier in the bracket. Thri11er came back through maxter, St0n3 and S V H before the final. This gives k1llsen two titles in the last three EGB QC Cups.

Sources: Estoty results | NAQCL results | EGB results | EGB

evillair has released eBloodworks and eCrucible, two new texture sets for Quake III Arena. Both were made for the evillair Jam at Map-Center, with Blender, Substance Painter and Photoshop used to produce textures in the old Quake 3 style.

eBloodworks draws partly on his earlier Quake 4 work. eCrucible goes for dark gothic architecture and blue metal accents, with some inspiration from Quake Champions.

The jam is organised by Map-Center and lvlworld and follows their Redux format: take an existing map and rebuild its visual presentation while preserving the raw layout. Their July event produced three remakes, by IoriDyson, Obsessed and DetroHogga.

Both texture sets are available through evillair's site. For anyone with an unfinished .map gathering dust, this is a fairly decent excuse to open it again.

Sources: evillair | Texture sets | Plus Forward | The Foundry

Map-Center has released Halloween Horror Jam 2026, a pack of 14 single-player Quake maps connected by a new hub from sock. The maps are built for Arcane Dimensions 1.9 Beta 5.

The themes range from ghosts and spider infestations to backrooms, fever dreams and a tribute to The Shining. New enemies include Blood's Cultist, Pumpklings and the Pumpkin Lord boss. There is also a score-based minigame for smashing breakable objects around the maps.

Zombie and Thundergoose worked on the Cultist, Xage converted Blood textures, and Razzzor contributed the Pumpkin Lord as well as a map. sock handled the Arcane Dimensions update and the hub.

The release page has screenshots and links to the download. Fourteen maps should keep Halloween going for a while yet.

Sources: Map-Center release | Downloads | Map-Center

St0n3 won Blood Run: Red October on 25 October, recovering from a 0-2 winners-final loss to WiseGenie to beat him 3-2 in the grand final. St0n3 reached the rematch by defeating Keltz 2-0 in the lower final. Keltz placed third and PepCo fourth.

The rivalry has become a fixture: St0n3 and WiseGenie have met in four consecutive Blood Run finals and won two titles each. WiseGenie has reached the final at five straight events.

Arena and gameplay update

The tournament used the Bloodrun update released earlier that day, including revised versions of Tech Zone and Acid Base.

Tech Zone has wider routes around Mega Health and Lightning Gun, a higher ceiling above Mega Health, rebalanced lighting and a flatter teleporter corridor. Its remaining Quake III Arena sounds and jumppad assets have also been replaced.

Acid Base gets redesigned teleporters, more visible column detail, ambient sounds and acid in place of the neutral liquid. Players can no longer place totems above Red Armor. Both arenas also lose wall logos and receive texture adjustments.

Beyond the maps, Plasma Gun knockback drops from 100 to 75 ups. The UI adds support for password-protected servers and a vertical mouse-inversion option; resetting pitch now preserves inversion.

Sources: Results | Update details | Bloodrun PTS | Red October

maxter won NAQCL Duel Tournament #78 in Quake Champions on 25 October, beating Keltz 3-1 in the grand final. Thri11er finished third and Yup fourth.

It was a familiar ending: maxter had beaten Keltz 2-1 in the winners final, then repeated the same two scorelines from their Estoty #223 meetings two days earlier. Keltz had won their earlier NAQCL #76 final 3-0, so this was a useful turnaround for maxter.

Before the finals, maxter beat St0n3 and dramiS 2-0. Thri11er's lower-bracket run included wins over klyb, dramiS and Yup before Keltz stopped him 2-0 in the lower final.

The $100 prize pool was split $50 for maxter, $30 for Keltz and $20 for Thri11er.

Sources: Plus Forward | Bracket | NAQCL

250 FPS Quake Live League Season 6 has confirmed its ten-player Division 2 lineup and increased the prize pool from $300 to $400.

The field is st0n3, rell, swex, dem0n, el1k, sCoopY, mijkeee, Radist, WiseGenie and dazat0r. This is the league's first season with a second division.

The winner receives $200, the runner-up $100, and third and fourth place $50 each. The announcement also provisionally lists invitations to Season 7 Division 1 for the top two finishers; that promotion detail is still preliminary.

Players will arrange their matches individually rather than following Division 1's fixed match-day schedule. Opening pairings include st0n3 vs sCoopY, dem0n vs el1k, swex vs Radist, dem0n vs WiseGenie and el1k vs dazat0r.

Sources: 250 FPS | Plus Forward | Tournament | 250 FPS

k1llsen won EGB Three Map QL Cup #1 on 29 October without dropping a map, beating cherepoff 2-0 in both the winners final and grand final. He takes $40 of the $50 prize pool, with $10 going to cherepoff. dazator finished third and H3LLDOWN fourth.

The bigger surprises came earlier. cherepoff sent AGENT into the lower bracket, where a win over overqill bought him one more round before dazator ended his run in 7th-8th place. cYpheR lost to ARSENY and then H3LLDOWN, finishing 9th-11th.

k1llsen's route included wins over imijkeee and ARSENY before the two meetings with cherepoff. Meanwhile, cherepoff had to survive a 2-1 lower-final win over dazator to earn another shot at the title.

Sources: Plus Forward | Bracket | EGB