artificial intelligence is already present in almost half of the video games that make their way to Steam. According to CNET, an analysis of the data published by Valve puts the share of October 2026 releases that reported using generative AI in development at 49.9%. A figure that raises an interesting question amid all the noise: how do we find the games that deserve our attention?
The numbers are based on the requirement to disclose AI-generated content that Steam has enforced since January 2024. At that point the percentage was 1.4%, while by the end of 2025 it had already reached 24%. That’s a particularly sharp increase, and now, near the end of 2026, the figure is approaching 50% of titles.
Even with these numbers, the use of AI may be much greater, since the declaration of AI use for games only applies to content players see or hear while playing, such as illustrations, texts, music, or voices. The use of artificial intelligence for internal tasks, from designing gameplay to writing code, isn’t reflected in these figures.
The real challenge is managing to stand out
The available numbers show a significant difference in reception: 47% of titles with fewer than ten reviews say they use AI, while only 17% of those with more than a thousand reviews relied on this technology. This doesn’t mean AI is the cause of lower popularity, but it does show a storefront that is getting more and more crowded and that, amid the debate over its acceptance among players, can easily saturate the market.
While Anthropic tries to limit the clones generated with Claude, there are some genuinely original games among the hundreds of titles AI is bringing to the platform. Time will tell how the market reacts as AI capabilities advance.
Getting a catalog to feel visually consistent is harder than it looks. One image comes out warm, the next one feels cooler and a little washed out, and suddenly the whole set stops looking like it belongs together. Pulling everything into the same color range takes time, plus some technique, but Adobe Photoshop makes it a lot easier to handle.
Photoshop gives you a few solid ways to make a full set of images feel cohesive. With the right approach, you can clean things up in a handful of steps and save yourself a lot of time when you’re working through image after image. In this guide, you’ll see how to get the colors in your images closer together in Adobe Photoshop.
Why color gets messy as a catalog grows
With just a few images, it’s usually easy to tell whether the color looks right. Once you’re dealing with hundreds of files, that gets trickier fast. Now you’re juggling lighting conditions, the software used to create the images, whether they were AI-generated or shot with a camera, and plenty of other variables.
Consistent product color matters more than most people expect. When your images stay within the same visual range, a couple of things tend to happen:
Fewer returns: if the product doesn’t look the same in real life as it does in the photo, you’re more likely to deal with returns your store shouldn’t have had in the first place.
A store that looks more professional: when the product images feel consistent from one listing to the next, people tend to trust the store more.
Before you begin, set a shared color base
A little setup at the start makes the rest of the process smoother.
If you’re working with a team, make sure everybody uses the same color profile. You can set that in Edit > Color Settings. For images that are headed to the web or social media, sRGB is usually the safest choice.
Pick your reference photos. Keep one or several images nearby that already have the base color you want the rest of the set to follow.
Save those colors too. If you already know the tones you’re aiming for, create swatches in the Swatches panel (Window > Swatches). Use the Eyedropper tool to sample the color, then click the + button, like in the image. Give it a name and click OK.
Camera Raw and Match Color: what each one does
Photoshop includes Adobe Camera Raw and Match Color, and both can help when several photos need to line up more closely. They don’t do the same job, though.
Camera Raw
If you edit RAW photos, meaning files whose data hasn’t been processed or compressed, Adobe Camera Raw will probably end up being one of the tools you use most. It opens on its own when you open a RAW file in Adobe Photoshop. If you want to use it on a JPG, a PNG, or even a specific layer, go to Filter > Camera Raw Filter.
On the right side, you’ll find panels for white balance, contrast, highlights, and a lot more. If you aren’t sure where to start, hit Auto. It gives you a first pass that you can tweak by hand afterward. If you’re new to editing, this is a good place to begin because you can get decent results in seconds.
Match Color
Match Color lets you pull the color from one image and apply it to another. It’s especially useful when you’ve got several shots of the same product but the tones don’t line up. To use it, open two images: the one you want to correct and the one you’ll use as the reference.
Then duplicate the layer of the image you’re fixing. Select that copied layer and go to Image > Adjustments > Match Color. At the bottom, in the Image Statistics section, open the Source dropdown and choose the reference photo. If Preview is checked, you’ll see the change right away.
How to handle color in hundreds of photos
Actions: an action records the steps you apply to one image, whether that’s adjustments, cropping, or color retouching, and then repeats those steps on other images. Open the panel from Window > Actions, then click the + button there to create a new action.
Smart Objects: if the same element appears across every image, convert it to a Smart Object. Once you correct the color on that layer, the change updates in every document that includes it.
And for the rest of the workflow, Photoshop gives you a couple more tools that are worth keeping close:
Creative Cloud Libraries: inside Libraries, you can save colors, logos, and other graphic elements. If you’re working with a team, it’s a simple way to keep everything in one place instead of having to hunt for files.
Adobe Firefly: tools like Generative Fill and Generative Expand aren’t built specifically for color matching, but they can still help with related tasks, like extending a background or removing distracting elements.
From a photo catalog to video in Adobe Premiere Pro
If you also work in Adobe Premiere Pro, you can use the Lumetri Color panel to adjust video while using the photos you’ve already edited in Adobe Photoshop as your reference. The colors you’ve saved in Creative Cloud Libraries also show up in Adobe Premiere Pro, so it’s pretty easy to keep the tones aligned there too.
Photoshop gives you very fine control over color, lets you work non-destructively, and speeds up batch editing in a real way. If you manage a large catalog and want your photos to stay consistent, it’s got the tools to help you do that with a professional finish. It also saves a lot of time on a job that can get repetitive fast and feel a little overwhelming when you’re just getting started with editing.
Prime Video has set The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 3 for November 11, 2026. This time, it’s bringing in Marnûkh, Adam Young’s new “Orc with an arc,” along with a five-year jump that moves the story into Sauron’s open war, the forging of the One Ring, and the early formation of the Nazgûl.
In episode 2, you’ll reportedly see Marnûkh lead Galadriel and Arondir to the Orc prison of Gundabad to rescue an elven smith, and if he survives, that could interfere with Sauron’s plan. It also pushes The Rings of Power past where seasons 1 and 2 had gone. Adar had already hinted that Orcs might be more than faceless extensions of evil; now the show is giving you a named Orc with agency, a personal story, and maybe some real moral complexity, right in the middle of a debate Tolkien readers know well.
If you want a different angle on Middle-earth, this season looks worth your time, even if the audience numbers are still up for argument. Season 1 reportedly debuted with 25 million viewers, while season 2 reportedly saw some drop-off, even as Amazon said it reached more than 55 million viewers and Nielsen reported a strong debut week in the U.S.
You’ll be able to watch the eight-episode season on Prime Video, with four episodes available at launch and the remaining four released in batches over the next three weeks.
DeepL has updated DeepL Voice, its live voice translation service, with a new model called Aure. It’s available now and, in DeepL’s telling, makes translated speech sound more natural in real time. The idea is to carry over tone, emotion, emphasis, and speaking pace more faithfully. Aure replaces DeepL’s earlier method, which used a voice sample captured at the start of a call.
DeepL says Aure keeps analyzing both the original audio and the translated text as the conversation moves along. In practice, that should help preserve changes in mood , pauses, stress, and even sarcasm, rather than ironing everything out into the same neutral delivery. Under the hood, DeepL says the model splits voice identity, melody and rhythm, and linguistic content into separate elements. It also uses reward-based tuning to cut down on distracting accents in the translated output.
DeepL lists support for English , German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Korean. That’s useful, though it’s still a pretty short list for a product with global ambitions. If you rely on DeepL Voice for multilingual meetings, customer support, education, or telehealth, this update looks like one to pick up. Still, humor, irony, and other culture-specific nuances need more independent testing in real-world use.
DeepL also says Aure is already included automatically in DeepL Voice for Online Meetings, In-Person Conversations, and the DeepL API.
Apple’s smart glasses and camera-equipped AirPods are getting attention again after supplier Quick Intelligent Equipment, also cited as TCB Devices, said on its latest earnings call that it’s involved in Apple projects tied to both products. Apple hasn’t announced any of this, but the comment does suggest quiet work on lighter wearables beyond Apple Vision Pro.
Analysts and supply-chain reports have been pointing in the same direction. They place Apple’s smart glasses in late 2027, and the idea seems to be less full AR, more voice and awareness of what’s around you. The glasses would likely use cameras, microphones, and speakers to answer questions about what you’re looking at, translate languages, handle Siri requests, and push heavier processing to your iPhone so the glasses don’t get too heavy or burn through battery too fast.
That same push reportedly includes AirPods with cameras. Those are now expected in 2027 instead of 2026, and they could arrive alongside Apple’s 20th-anniversary iPhone. The cameras reportedly wouldn’t be there for normal photo-taking. They’d feed visual context to Siri, so it has a better read on nearby objects, places, and the user’s surroundings.
If you keep up with Apple’s wearable plans, this one deserves attention. Quick Intelligent Equipment’s comments point to a move toward everyday glasses and earbuds, while Meta’s Ray-Ban smart-glasses line reportedly still controls about 94% of the current smart-glasses market. Longer-range forecasts, though, still put Apple, Samsung, and Meta out front by 2030.
You can’t download any of this yet, of course, but if Apple does launch these products, it’ll also have to deal with recording, bystander privacy, GDPR compliance, on-device processing, tighter controls, and clear signals for when the camera is on.
Take-Two Interactive said on a recent investor call that once Grand Theft Auto 6 arrives on November 19, 2026, for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, Rockstar Games will turn its attention to whatever comes next.
During the call, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick spoke highly of the Rockstar team, described Grand Theft Auto 6 as one of the biggest entertainment launches ever, and said pre-orders are running well ahead of expectations. The company now expects fiscal-year net bookings to land between $8.0 billion and $8.2 billion.
A lot of that confidence is tied to Grand Theft Auto V. Take-Two says the game has sold more than 235 million copies and generated billions through GTA Online, which gives you a pretty clear sense of the bar Grand Theft Auto 6 is expected to hit, both at launch and in the years after.
If you keep an eye on Rockstar, this is the part to watch. Zelnick still isn’t saying whether the next internal project is Red Dead, Bully, or some other series that’s been sitting dormant. He’s also said the studio’s release pace could look “dramatically different” over the next decade, though that doesn’t necessarily mean smaller games.
There are a few other pieces to keep in mind too: a likely new GTA Online built on Grand Theft Auto 6 technology, Rockstar publishing Remedy Entertainment’s Max Payne 1 and 2 remakes, and the broader ripple effect on console sales, competing release calendars, market momentum, and investor confidence.
Paapa Essiedu, set to play Severus Snape in HBO Max’s Harry Potter series, has spoken about the Alan Rickman comparisons ahead of season 1’s December 25, 2026 premiere. His answer was pretty direct: he isn’t trying to do a Rickman impression.
What he is aiming for is a Snape full of “contradictions,” “hidden layers,” and actual humanity. Essiedu has called Rickman “an icon” and “a legend,” and he’s made clear that Rickman’s legacy isn’t being pushed aside. His take, as he sees it, exists next to that one, inside HBO Max’s one-season-per-book Harry Potter reboot. He also joked that nobody may be able to judge the whole thing fairly until “2039 or whatever it is.”
There’s another piece of this that may catch people off guard. Essiedu has said he read J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books, but he didn’t grow up with the films. He’s also said he hasn’t really watched Rickman’s performance, and even admitted that parts of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows didn’t fully stay with him because he read it so fast. That leaves him space to shape a version that leans more heavily on the books.
If what you want is a Snape pulled more from the page than from film nostalgia, this one’s worth keeping an eye on.
The casting has drawn racist abuse, reports of death threats, and added security. Supporters, though, keep pointing to Essiedu’s work in I May Destroy You, Gangs of London, and Black Mirror, arguing that what matters most here is emotional depth, not a perfect visual match.
You’ll be able to watch Paapa Essiedu alongside Dominic McLaughlin, Arabella Stanton, and Alastair Stout on HBO Max when Harry Potter season 1 premieres on December 25, 2026.
Bethesda has confirmed there won’t be any “big announcements” for The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel on November 11, 2026. So Skyrim’s 15th anniversary won’t also serve as a reveal event for the sequel.
In a message from Bethesda Game Studios, the studio said it won’t have anything new to share about Sentinel “for some time,” despite weeks of fan speculation around November 11. The date matters, of course: Skyrim originally launched worldwide on November 11, 2011.
The timing lands just days after Bethesda finally confirmed the full title in its November 3 40th anniversary video, ending the long silence that followed the short E3 2018 teaser. And the name “Sentinel” pretty much locks in Hammerfell, the Redguard homeland, as the setting fans had been guessing for years, which helps explain why the reaction online has been split.
If you’ve been waiting since 2018, this is a pretty blunt reality check. Industry reports still suggest the game is more than two years out, likely arriving in 2028 or 2029. Full production reportedly began after Starfield shipped in 2023 on Creation Engine 3, and separate reports say Microsoft’s July 2026 layoffs affected more than 50 Bethesda Game Studios employees and hurt morale.
You can play Skyrim right now on current platforms, but The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel still isn’t available to download.
WhatsApp’s iPhone beta is starting to look a little different for some TestFlight users. In a limited rollout, the app swaps out Communities in the bottom bar for a new Contacts tab. The same tab has reportedly shown up in the WhatsApp beta on Android too, and it pulls favorite contacts and the full contact list into one spot so starting a chat takes fewer taps. Contacts can be sorted alphabetically, by recent activity, or by birthdays. People who are online show up closer to the top with a green dot, and recently active contacts can be arranged by last seen.
WhatsApp is also trying out contact adding inside the app itself, with the option to sync those contacts to the iPhone address book.
Communities doesn’t appear to be going away. Reports suggest it’s being folded into the Chats tab as a filter, though a separate test points to a different shuffle where Updates gets replaced instead of Communities.
If WhatsApp is mostly your app for everyday one-to-one messages, this change is one to keep an eye on. It lines up with the app’s broader move toward easier one-handed use, even if it’s still not clear whether this exact version of the layout will roll out to everyone.
For now, you’ll only see it if you’re in the small group of iOS beta users getting access through Apple TestFlight. A broader beta rollout is expected over the next few weeks.
“Daffy Season” hit theaters on November 6, 2026, paired with “The Cat in the Hat.” It brought Looney Tunes back to the big screen for their first brand-new theatrical short since 2012’s “Daffy’s Rhapsody,” and it also stands as Eric Bauza’s final movie performance in the franchise before his death on October 25, 2026, reportedly from hypertensive cardiovascular disease.
The short runs seven minutes, and the premise is straightforward: Daffy is furious that everyone, Elmer Fudd included, cares more about soccer season than duck season.
Warner Bros. seems to be treating “Daffy Season” as both a nostalgia move and a test run for something bigger, whether that ends up meaning more theatrical shorts or even the reported “Ocean’s 11”-style feature.
Early reaction from the Annecy premiere has mostly been positive. People have praised the energy, the visual snap, and that classic Looney Tunes spirit, though some felt the central joke leaned a little too hard on its gimmick and thought a few of the cameos were distracting.
If you still want to see these characters on the big screen, “Daffy Season” feels worth catching.
You can watch “Daffy Season” now ahead of “The Cat in the Hat,” which opened on November 6, 2026, with DNEG’s 3D animation shaped to resemble hand-crafted 2D work inspired by Chuck Jones and Maurice Noble.
Though you may need to wait a little longer for a clearer sense of how “Daffy Season” is landing outside the US.
