In today's overkill digest newsletter, we take a look at upcoming handhelds, and I share why I believe we don't need better-looking games anymore.
Hi, hello, and welcome to a new edition of the overkill digest newsletter, your go-to source for everything handheld gaming (and then some).
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Ok, let's get to this week's content.
What happened this week
- The Odin2 Portal is now available for preorder. Prices start at $329 (the cheaper super early bird prices are already gone) for 8GB of memory and 128GB of internal storage for the Base Model. There are also more expensive Pro and Max models with prices going up to $499 for a Max of 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. All models come with the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 8gen2 used in the Odin2 and Odin2 Mini. Without testing the handheld, I’m a bit torn because I don’t quite see how this version fits into the lineup.
- AYANEO is teasing a new handheld again. Naturally, AYANEO can't leave the spotlight too long on AYN, so they started teasing their next handheld currently called the AYANEO 3. Nothing is known so far, except that it will be their "annual flagship handheld. So expect a successor to the AYANEO 2s. Also, in related AYANEO notes: You can now preorder their AMD Raden RX 7600M eGPU.
- Castlevania is coming to Vampire Survivors. The new DLC will introduce 20 new characters like Simon and Richter Belmont, 40 new weapons, and a new map in the form of Dracula's Castle. Here is the Steam link, the DLC will cost $4 and release on October 31st (obviously!). Talk about a good fit.
- SteamOS 3.6 adds a ton of new changes. Better performance, mura compensation, updates to the Arch Linux base, and more. It finally fixes the black screen issue when switching from Game Mode to Desktop Mode too.
- Netflix closed their Triple-A game studio. The Studio known as "Blue" released exactly 0 games, but was reportedly working on a "multi-platform AAA game for an original IP".
- Ubisoft dismantled the Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown team. More sad news, unfortunately. As always, the culprit was money, as the game didn't meet its financial goals. It "only" sold one million units. (Gaming clearly has a budget problem.)
- Fallout: London has been downloaded over 1 million times. Unlike Ubisoft, Team FOLON is extremely happy with their milestone. They've also recently released a big patch, and of course, our auto-installer works with the new version. And by the way, Fallout 4 is also currently over 70% off on Fanatical.
- The Z2 Extreme chip might come in three SKUs. AMD's successor to the Z1 Extreme used in devices like the ROG Ally or Lenovo Legion Go (first announcement here) will reportedly come in three flavours, using RDNA2, RDNA3 and RDNA3.5 respectively. This might explain why Lenovo is working on three variants of the Legion Go 2.
- Deku Deals is adding Steam support. Deku Deals is a website that keeps track of game sales for the Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and PlayStation. The site not only tracks digital storefronts, such as Nintendo's eShop, but also keeps an eye on game prices across various (some 30+) stores such as Amazon, Best Buy, and others. With the upcoming update (currently in beta testing), Deku Deals will allow users to see the historical price points of Steam games over time, add games to a wishlist, and get notifications of when a game goes on sale.
- Here are the Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered PC specs. The specs look to be essentially the same as those of Forbidden West. And that game runs on Steam Deck.
- Microsoft CEO wants to bring more of their games to more platforms. In his annual shareholder letter, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella shared their plans to bring more of their content to new platforms. So expect even more Microsoft titles on competing platforms. (I'm sorry for linking to LinkedIn.)
- This charger lets you charge 10 devices at once. I usually don’t like linking to Kickstarter projects, but if you have anywhere near as many handhelds as I do, you might like this 10-port USB-C charger.
- Final Fantasy is coming to Magic: The Gathering on June 13, 2025. And I swore to myself to not buy boosters anymore...