CES 2025: My Favorite (and Worst) Gaming Tech From This Year’s Show
CES isn’t typically where we see the biggest gaming announcements of the year, with major upcoming games typically delayed until the summer and winter, and new console announcements now often coming out in the spring or fall. But after spending a week in Vegas, I leave with the feeling that big changes are about to happen to the gaming industry. Some of this is for the better: small creators get a chance to change the way we interact with our favorite games, but the rest reflects the tech industry’s ongoing need to inject useless AI into our lives. With that in mind, here are four of my favorite (and three least favorite) gaming announcements from CES 2025.
Favorite: MCON Magsafe phone controller.
There’s no reason why we shouldn’t all be playing more games on our phones—and I don’t mean Candy Crush . (Not that there’s anything wrong with Candy Crush , of course.) These things have become powerful enough to run games released for the PS5 , but due to the lack of physical controls, most developers are still making major compromises for their mobile games.
That’s where 20-year-old Josh King comes into play. The YouTuber made waves late last year when he released a video showing off his prototype MCON controller , which uses MagSafe to give your phone a form factor similar to, say, a Nintendo DS. While other phone controllers typically require removing a case and can be a frustrating process to turn your phone on and off, using the MCON should be as easy as using a MagSafe power supply.
I’m in love with the result. It has a full set of controls, a secure magnetic connection, and using it is as simple as attaching it to the device and revealing the hidden controls. Also, if you don’t have an iPhone, it works with MagSafe adapters.
King is currently working with peripheral company Ohsnap to finalize the design, but if you’re already sold, there’s Kickstarter , where you can pre-order your own MCON starting at $99. I can’t wait to get mine and start treating my iPhone like a real portable device that clearly has all the capabilities.
Least Favorite: Razer Project Ava AI Esports Coach
Razer’s Project Ava is one of two concepts the company will unveil at CES this year, and of the two, I hope it’s the one the company leaves behind.
Have you ever heard of a backseat? This is a phenomenon where a streamer gets stuck while playing a game and their viewers keep tuning in via chat to tell them how to move forward. Most streamers I’ve seen explicitly ask their audience to avoid it, usually finding it more annoying than helpful.
Meanwhile, Ava promises to provide a bespoke, artificially intelligent back seat to anyone with a computer.
Essentially how it works is that Ava will watch your game and offer advice based on what she sees, speaking loudly to do so via in-game audio. Razer insists it’s not a scam since Ava can’t access information you can’t, but I think that still misses the point.
Firstly, it’s unclear where Ava gets her advice from, and secondly, it can be very distracting if she talks about your gameplay. But in fact, I have a problem with advice.
If I’m playing Dark Souls , the developers usually find a more elegant way of telling me when I should dodge than the AI screaming in my ear. If I rely on Ava, I train myself to ignore these cues, depriving myself of at least some of the experience and, at most, making my game worse.
Even in a multiplayer game, part of the fun for me is finding the best builds and the most optimal routes. If Ava is just telling me what I should do, am I really playing or learning the game, or am I just pushing buttons while the robot makes all the real decisions?
There is a place for guides here – I am far from guarding the gates. But these kinds of real-time interruptions seem more likely to ruin my enjoyment than enhance it.
Favorite: Lenovo Legion Go S takes SteamOS beyond the Steam Deck
Valve’s Steam Deck is one of my favorite gaming purchases I’ve made in a long time, making my gaming library portable and much more flexible than the Nintendo Switch. A big part of this is the company’s SteamOS operating system, which allows you to conveniently change your handheld device’s settings and access Steam games on the fly.
Trying to copy Steam Decks without SteamOS, like the Asus ROG Ally or Lenovo Legion Go, didn’t work for me because they rely on Windows, which is much more clunky when using a controller. These devices are technically more powerful, but the performance gain is not worth it for me.
That’s why I’m so excited about the Lenovo Legion Go S. It was announced at CES that it would be the first non-Valve gaming laptop to use SteamOS. It will also have Windows versions, but starting in May you’ll be able to get it with the operating system I love so much. What’s more, it does offer performance that’s a slight to moderate improvement over the Steam Deck, and its $500 starting price is actually cheaper than the entry-level Steam Deck OLED. I’m glad to see more partnerships following suit.
Least Favorite: PUBG Ally Brings Dead Internet Theory to Gaming
Graphics card and now AI company Nvidia is about to fill your gaming lobbies with bots, but in a futuristic style. It was announced at CES that Nvidia is working with PUBG developer Krafton to add “co-op characters” to the acclaimed battle royale game.
Essentially pairing you with a bot, but you can give it commands to find armor or weapons for you or coordinate with you in combat.
I could actually see this being really cool in a single-player game, as it’s the next evolution of the gameplay seen in games like Star Wars: Republic Commando . But in multiplayer this raises too many questions.
Will a bot know the map better than humans? How well does he have to be able to shoot before he starts to feel like a cheat or a liability? And perhaps most importantly: will you enjoy winning if the AI leads you to victory? Or will this be the gaming equivalent of a rich man hiring an experienced hunter to take him on an organized expedition and do all the work except pull the trigger?
There’s a lot of difficult balancing to be done here, but even assuming everything goes the way I’d like, I’m still not sure what the point is. Part of the fun of playing an online shooter is knowing that by destroying an enemy, I’ve ruined some 11-year-old’s day. If half the people I’m going to shoot are robots, why not just play a single-player game instead?
Favorite: Razer Project Arielle sold me some heated and cooled gaming chairs.
Razer’s Project Arielle is the company’s second concept device to debut at CES, and I’m definitely more excited about it. Essentially, it takes Razer’s existing Fujin Pro gaming chair and attaches some heaters and a bladeless fan to it, with surprisingly efficient results.
What I initially thought was a gimmick turned out to be a nice little oasis on the CES show floor, either keeping me warm after an hour in the freezing media room or blowing cold air onto my back and neck after I’d spent some time hanging out. wandered around the sweaty exhibition hall.
Of course, you could get a similar experience with a heater or fan, but the climate control built directly into the chair provides immediate access to your back and neck, and I found it to be more efficient and comfortable than my desk fan. house.
Las Vegas is a nightmare when it comes to constant temperatures, and after a week here, I’m almost ready to rob this thing and take it home. I hope Razer treats this the same way they treated their haptic gaming pad concept last year and actually brings it to market.
Least Favorite: Nvidia RTX Neural Faces – AI Yassification Filter.
The culture war spares no one, especially when it comes to gaming. If you’ve been searching for The Last of Us Part II or Horizon Zero Dawn on social media, no doubt you’ve seen Photoshopped photos of the main characters trying to make them look like they just walked out of Sephora, even though that they spent their money. games deep in the heart of the apocalypse. Critics have started calling these changes “jassification,” and it looks like Nvidia is taking sides here: its new RTX Neural Faces feature might as well be an AI jassification filter.
The idea is to help game NPCs cross the uncanny valley by using artificial intelligence to help achieve more natural-looking lighting, skin, and hair, especially when players view that NPC from an unusual angle. The result looks like it tramples the artists’ careful decisions with what Nvidia considers “natural.”
In an example video posted by Nvidia, an NPC with Neural Faces applied appears to have a completely different bone structure, a fresh coat of foundation, new mascara, neater eyebrows, and larger but much deader eyes. I guess it’s cool if you like it, but it’s clearly not the look the modelers or lighting designers were going for, and it definitely wouldn’t suit a lot of gaming’s most famous characters… unless you’re wondering what the tutorial would look like Solid Snake makeup?
Favorite: Acer Nitro Blaze 11
While the Lenovo Legion Go S stands out from other gaming PDAs with its software, the Acer Nitro Blaze 11 is the complete opposite. It’s honestly the biggest gaming handheld I’ve ever used, and while that means it’s not necessarily the most comfortable, there’s a certain amount of enjoyment to be had from carrying it.
With so much space, it has some pretty impressive specs, but what’s really impressive is its 11-inch display with a resolution of 2560 by 1600 pixels. It’s bright, has a durable stand, and can display up to 120fps. It’s also surprisingly lightweight at 2.3 pounds. It’s a pound heavier than the Steam Deck, but compared to a laptop it’s still reasonable.
Of course, if you get tired of holding it while playing, the Nitro Blaze 11 has a trick up its sleeve. Like the Nintendo Switch and the original Lenovo Legion Go, it features detachable controllers. But unlike those devices, its screen is large enough that I feel like the stand mode is worth it (I’m usually just doing competitions). Honestly, at this point in my life, I’m not likely to choose Nitro Blaze. 11. I’m older, I’m busy, and convenience is more important to me than productivity. But a younger, more obviously gamer version of me would be to blame for all of this.