Technology

The best PS5 games from 2025

Published

3 months ago

December 28, 2025

In this new era of console… inclusivity? driven by Sony and mostly Microsoft bringing their exclusives to other platforms, it’s getting harder to highlight games that make a singular console shine. Indeed, the top-performing games year after year on both PlayStation and Xbox are multiplatform releases, and often the best games of the year, like 2025 GOTY winner Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, similarly launch on most everything. (Once again, like in all things, Nintendo is the exception.)

But while lists like this will probably disappear as we get deeper into the era of everything being an Xbox, Sony still seems committed to high-quality exclusives. Here are its best of 2025.

Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

As software exclusivity goes the way of Sega’s console business, console makers have other ways to attract consumers to their part of the video game ecosystem. For Microsoft, it’s Game Pass; for Sony in 2025, it’s the PlayStation Portal. This year, Sony launched an update for the Portal that enables cloud streaming and making the device a must-have for PlayStation households. For $200, roughly half the price of a PS5, you essentially get a second one, able to play select games without the need to stream them from the console. The list of streamable games isn’t comprehensive, but there are over 2,000 of them, and the ability to play them on the go is a literal game changer.

Get into a discussion with true Final Fantasy sickos about the top 10 games in the franchise, and you better have a lot of time and earplugs on your hands as everyone debates entries two through 10 — because No. 1, invariably, is Final Fantasy Tactics. Having finally played the game for the first time, taking advantage of the remaster Square Enix released this year, I get it. The best video games are often timeless while also able to speak to a specific moment, and Tactics’ story is and does exactly that.

But more than narrative, Tactics’ brilliance is also in its expansive job system that grants players a facsimile of godhood that’s so much fun to wield. The arithmetician class has the ability to cast any learned spell in the game instantly and without requiring mana. To offset the class’s ruinously slow speed, pair it with white mage to create the most diabolical unit in the history of strategy RPGs. Ramza Beoulve is just a guy trying to save the world, and FFT made me believe he can because I made his ragtag band of misfits into walking nuclear weapons.

Sucker Punch’s sequel to Ghost of Tsushima plays things relatively safe. It doesn’t change things up dramatically but instead polishes the experience. Which means the experience isn’t all that different from its predecessor — that means lush landscapes to explore, lots of combat techniques to learn, and, uh, plenty of hot springs to bathe in — but everything feels more finely tuned this time around. That’s especially true of the game’s tale of revenge, which is both more gripping than the original and also gives the open-world experience some much-needed structure.

The original Death Stranding was so weird that half of the fun was just wrapping your head around the experience. I’m not sure I really understood it until I was almost done (if at all). The sequel is still plenty weird, but because it builds off of the previous game, it’s also much easier to understand from the get-go. It’s still a delivery simulator where you trek across a postapocalyptic landscape to get goods and people where they’re needed. But now the setting has shifted to Australia, which means there are new environmental elements to deal with — hello, sandstorms — along with a whole new cast of weirdo characters to meet, played by everyone from Elle Fanning to George Miller.

But don’t worry; the story is still as inscrutable as ever.

Bennett Foddy sure made you feel the “walking” part of this elaborate walking simulator. In Baby Steps, your job is to walk, and you do that by controlling every move involved in taking a step, down to the fine motor details. What results is a hilarious examination of human psychology, emotional maturity, and a newfound appreciation for just how hard it is to ambulate a body with nothing more than DualSense trigger buttons.

When Lumines Arise was first announced, I made the mistake of asking, “Oh, is it a series or something?”, unfamiliar with Lumines’ days as a PSP powerhouse. My elders have never let me live that down, so I thought I’d see for myself what the game is.

Lumines Arise is Evil Dr. Tetris Effect Mean Bean Machine. Mean Bean Machine in that the game is played by globbing together matching blocks in two-by-two configurations. It’s part Tetris Effect because the game has an incredible synth / pop-house soundtrack that’s synced to the action, creating a full-body puzzle-playing experience. And evil in that the game is hard as shit. My skills as a Tetris player, limited though they are, just do not transfer to Lumines Arise. But! There is a flow state I can reach. Throughout playing, the shapes of the blocks will change from blocks, to eggs, to clocks, whatever, and I’ve found some patterns are easier to group than others. It’s interesting and fun to figure out what shapes make the game easier for me and which ones are impossible to configure.

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Ash Parrish

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Technology

OpenAI made economic proposals — here’s what DC thinks of them

Published

1 hour ago

April 8, 2026

Press Room

OpenAI made economic proposals — here’s what DC thinks of them

Happy ceasefire day and welcome to Regulator, a newsletter for Verge subscribers about Big Tech’s rocky journey through the world of politics. If you’re not a subscriber yet, you can do so here, but my only request is that you sign up before Donald Trump decides to revisit his previous threats toward Iran and kickstart World War III.

I’m back after being waylaid last week by the deadly combo of a moderate cold and the beginning of pollen season. (Twenty-one percent of the District’s acreage is taken up by public green space, and DC is consistently ranked the best city park system in America. Unfortunately, I am allergic to every tree and grass.) If you’ve got tips on anything I may have missed or anything I should know about the upcoming weeks, send ’em to tina.nguyen+tips@theverge.com.

Do you actually believe anything OpenAI says?

On Monday, OpenAI published a 13-page policy paper addressing the impact that artificial intelligence would have on the American workforce. The company also proposed what it believed was the solution: putting higher capital gains taxes on corporations replacing their workers with AI and using that money to create a bigger public safety net. Its solutions included a public wealth fund, a four-day workweek funded by “efficiency dividends,” and government programs to help transition workers into “human-centered” work, all financed by the abundance that artificial intelligence would deliver.

Unfortunately, it was released the day that The New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz published a meticulously reported, 17,000-word-plus article chronicling Sam Altman’s history of lying to everyone around him, including to his Silicon Valley backers, his employees, his board, and — relevant in this case — lawmakers trying to regulate AI. The New Yorker article reinforced a long-standing narrative about Altman, and OpenAI by extension: They may spout idealistic values, but would quickly jettison them for financial and political gains.

On its own, said several people I spoke to, the paper was a net positive to AI governance overall, in that it introduced new ideas into the political discourse around the emerging technology. But unless the company’s policy and political influence made good on those promises, said OpenAI’s critics, it may as well just be a piece of paper.

“My guess is that there are people on the team who care about the stuff, who’ve thought really hard about this document and are proud of it, and did good work, even if it’s not addressing all of the questions that I wish it would address,” Malo Bourgon, the CEO of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI), told me. “And there’s still the question of: Are those people gonna find themselves in the position that many previous people at OpenAI have found themselves in, where they thought the company had certain values or aligned with things they cared about, and then ended up finding out that wasn’t the case, becoming disenchanted and leaving?”

With OpenAI proposing policy, it’s worth looking back at its history with the government, which the New Yorker piece details in depth. Altman had been one of the first major CEOs to publicly advocate for federal oversight for AI, going so far as to propose a federal agency to oversee advanced models in 2023 — but privately he worked to suppress the laws containing his own safety proposals. A state legislative aide in California accused OpenAI of engaging in “increasingly cunning, deceptive behavior” to kill a 2023 AI safety bill that it was publicly supporting. In 2025, the company subpoenaed supporters of a California state-level AI bill in an effort to, as one such supporter put it to The New Yorker, “basically scare them into shutting up.” And though Altman had once worked extensively with the Biden administration to build AI safety standards, the moment that Donald Trump became president, Altman successfully persuaded him to kill the initiatives he’d once advocated for.

Nathan Calvin, the general counsel at Encode, an AI policy nonprofit where he focuses on state legislative initiatives, had received one of those subpoenas. “What I’ve seen from their policy and government affairs engagement has just been abysmal,” he told me. While he believed that the team who’d written the OpenAI proposal, primarily from the technical safety research side, was acting with good intentions, he was still reserving judgment. “Will those folks remain engaged as we move from general policy principles towards the many other ways in which lobbying and government influence actually happens? Part of me is hopeful, but a lot of me is also quite skeptical about whether that will happen.” (OpenAI did not return a request for comment.)

**A modest, absolutely not craven request:**

Next week I plan on running an issue of Regulator cataloging the nerdiest events happening during Nerd Prom, aka the White House Correspondents’ Dinner party circuit. If you’re a tech founder, tech company, or someone that does something related to technology and you’re throwing an event during WHCD week, please let me know what you’re up to! From what I’ve heard so far, the tech world is about to shake up the normal social dynamics of the week — I’ve already caught wind of the Grindr party in Georgetown, and the Substack party, which famed looksmaxxer Clavicular is attending — and I’m so, so excited to pull together the most bonkers “SPOTTED” column that Washington’s ever experienced.

(Again, this is contingent upon whether we’re at war with Iran by the end of April, in which case, I imagine no one will be up for frivolity.)

Speaking of DC reporters, this is very true of all of us:

Screenshot via @jakewilkns/X.

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Tina Nguyen

Technology

Space travel tickets are back, but prices keep rising

Published

2 hours ago

April 8, 2026

Press Room

Space travel tickets are back, but prices keep rising

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

After nearly two years on pause, Virgin Galactic is selling tickets again. The catch is the price. A seat now costs $750,000. That number is not a typo. It is also a sharp increase from the company’s earlier pricing, which was $600,000. Now the company is reopening sales with 50 new spots available.

The company says flight testing is expected to begin in the third quarter of 2026, with commercial service starting in the fourth quarter of 2026.

If you are thinking about booking, you are not alone. More than 675 customers are currently waiting for their turn to experience space travel.

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AIR TAXIS IN THE U.S. COULD LAUNCH THIS SUMMER

Virgin Galactic’s spaceplane fires its rocket engine as it climbs toward the edge of space during a suborbital flight. (Virgin Galactic)

What a Virgin Galactic $750,000 ticket actually includes

Buying a ticket does not mean moving to space. These are short suborbital trips that last about 90 minutes. Here is how it works. Virgin Galactic uses a spaceship that launches from a carrier aircraft at high altitude. After release, the spaceplane fires its rocket engine and climbs to the edge of space. Passengers experience a few minutes of weightlessness before gliding back to Earth. It is closer to a thrill ride than a long mission. Still, for many, the appeal is simple. You get to see Earth from above the atmosphere.

Why space travel ticket prices keep rising

Going to space sounds incredible, but paying for it is a very different story. Building reusable spacecraft is expensive. Testing takes years. Safety requirements are intense. When something goes wrong, the entire program can slow down.

Virgin Galactic knows this firsthand. The company has faced delays, technical challenges and even tragedy. In 2014, a test flight operated by Scaled Composites, the company that designed and built the spaceplane, crashed and killed co-pilot Michael Alsbury. Since then, progress has been careful and at times slow. That helps explain the high ticket price. With only a limited number of flights and passengers, companies rely on premium pricing to stay afloat.

The company’s latest financials highlight that reality. Virgin Galactic reported a net loss of $279 million in 2025 and negative free cash flow of $438 million, underscoring how expensive it is to build and scale commercial spaceflight. CEO Michael Colglazier signaled that pricing could continue to climb as the company ramps up production and testing.

A new generation of spacecraft is driving the timeline

This latest ticket release is tied to a new development phase. Virgin Galactic says it expects its next-generation SpaceShip to enter ground testing in April 2026, with flight testing expected to begin in the third quarter of 2026. Commercial flights with this new vehicle are still on track for the fourth quarter of 2026.

A second SpaceShip is already in progress and is expected to enter service between late 2026 and early 2027, which is expected to increase flight frequency even more.

“We completed pivotal milestones during the first quarter of 2026, and with assembly of our first SpaceShip nearly complete and ground testing set to begin in April, we have released a limited number of Virgin Galactic Spaceflight Expeditions, each priced at $750,000,” said CEO Michael Colglazier.

That production ramp is key. The company is trying to move from monthly flights to a twice-weekly schedule per ship.

NEW PERSONAL EVTOL PROMISES PERSONAL FLIGHT UNDER $40K

Richard Branson floats in zero gravity during a flight, demonstrating the experience passengers can expect. (Virgin Galactic)

Who is competing in space tourism right now?

The timing of this relaunch is not random. Blue Origin has paused its tourist flights for at least two years. Meanwhile, SpaceX is focused on satellites, cargo missions and government contracts. That leaves Virgin Galactic as the only active option for private individuals who want a ticket to space right now. It is a small market, but for now, it is theirs.

Can space travel ever become affordable?

This is the big question hanging over the industry. Space tourism has been around for more than two decades, yet only a handful of people have actually gone. The dream has always been to make it more accessible. Right now, that dream still feels far away. Companies are trying to scale up. Virgin Galactic plans to increase flights from about four per month to as many as 10. If that happens, prices could eventually come down. But for now, the math is simple. Limited supply plus high costs equals very expensive tickets.

FLYING CAR NOW FOR SALE FOR $190,000

The view from the edge of space shows Earth’s curvature, one of the main draws of space tourism. (Virgin Galactic)

What this means for you

Even if you are not planning to spend $750,000 on a 90-minute trip, this still matters. First, it shows how close space travel is to becoming a real consumer experience. Not for everyone yet, but no longer something that feels out of reach. Second, the technology being developed for these flights often trickles down. Advances in materials, safety systems and aviation design can influence other industries over time. Finally, it is a reminder of how early we still are. Space tourism exists, but it is not mainstream. It is still in the phase where wealthy early adopters help fund the future.

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Kurt’s key takeaways

Virgin Galactic reopening ticket sales is a signal. The industry is not fading away. It is evolving and trying to enter a new phase. At the same time, the higher price tag tells a different story. Space is still hard. It is still risky. It is still expensive. For now, the view from above remains one of the most exclusive experiences money can buy.

Would you ever pay for a trip to space if prices dropped enough, or does the risk still outweigh the thrill? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.

Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

Technology

Why Microsoft’s war on Windows’ Control Panel is taking so long

Published

13 hours ago

April 8, 2026

Press Room

Why Microsoft’s war on Windows’ Control Panel is taking so long

Microsoft first started trying to get rid of the Control Panel in 2012, with the launch of Windows 8. More than a decade later, it’s still working on migrating all the old Control Panel items into the modern Settings app in Windows 11. While there have been hints that the Control Panel might finally go away, the reality is a lot more complicated for Microsoft.

“We’re doing it carefully because there are a lot of different network and printer devices & drivers we need to make sure we don’t break in the process,” explains March Rogers, partner director of design at Microsoft. I could be wrong, but I think this is the first full explanation we’ve had from Microsoft about why it’s taken so long to get rid of the Control Panel.

It looked like Microsoft was about to finally cut the Control Panel in 2024, after years of Microsoft pushing aside the Control Panel in its latest Windows 11 updates. But a support note hinting at the imminent removal of the Control Panel was quickly updated to confirm Microsoft was still in the process of migrating the Control Panel to the Settings app.

Last year Microsoft also migrated clock settings, keyboard character repeat delay, mouse cursor blink rate, and formatting for time, number, and currency into the Settings app. There are also plenty of other mouse settings in the main Settings app that let you avoid the Control Panel these days.

I can’t remember the last time I used the Control Panel thanks to Microsoft’s recent mouse and keyboard improvements to the main Settings app, but a lot of Windows users used to prefer the legacy interface simply because you don’t have to dig into multiple levels to find different controls.

Microsoft is “focusing on design craft in Windows at the moment,” according to Rogers. The Settings interface is being “redesigned for clarity” this month, alongside other improvements to Windows 11 that are part of a broader effort to fix the OS.