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The PUBG: Battlegrounds team has announced that the game will cease to be playable on last-generation PS4 and Xbox One consoles starting 13th November. All development and support for the game will be focused on the PS5 and Xbox Series consoles going forward.

According to the PUBG team, this decision was made to ensure players have a more stable gameplay environment (less crashes) and to improve visuals and performance.

End of Support for PS4 and Xbox One / Transition to PS5 and Xbox Series X|S

Transition Schedule

During the live server maintenance on November 13, 2025

Please note that the schedule is subject to change depending on the review process of each platform. Any updates will be shared separately.

Important Notes

After the live server maintenance on November 13, PUBG Console will only be available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS will no longer be downloadable or playable on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Your existing account data and purchased items will be securely preserved. You can log in on a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X|S at any time after the transition and continue playing with your existing account—no separate transfer process required.

PlayStation users will need to download the PS5 version of PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS from the PlayStation Store after November 13 in order to continue playing. Xbox users who already have the game installed will receive the current-gen version automatically via Smart Delivery starting November 13.

Refund Information

Refunds for BATTLEGROUNDS Plus and PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS will be handled in accordance with each platform’s refund policy and procedures. For more details, please contact the customer support team of your respective platform.

Supported Specs After Transition to Current-Gen Consoles

Following the transition of PUBG Console to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on November 13, the supported specifications will be as follows:

	Xbox Series S	Xbox Series X	PlayStation 5	PlayStation 5 Pro
Resolution	1080p/1440p	2160p	1440p	2160p
FPS	60fps/30fps	60fps	60fps	60fps

Xbox Series S supports either 1080p at 60fps or 1440p at 30fps, and you can choose between the two settings.

Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 Pro support Dynamic 4K resolution.

The supported specifications for current-gen consoles were determined through extensive technical review and internal testing to ensure the most stable and optimized PUBG Console gameplay experience. In particular, memory and graphical specifications have been carefully configured with future content updates in mind, to ensure the system is well-prepared to support them smoothly.

As PUBG Console supports cross-play between platforms, fairness across all platforms was one of our top priorities. With this in mind, our goal is to provide a stable 60fps experience across all platforms. To account for differences in hardware performance, Xbox Series S will offer selectable options such as Resolution Mode and Performance Mode.

This is a news-in-brief story. This is part of our vision to bring you all the big news as part of a daily live report.

When OpenAI unveiled the latest upgrade to its groundbreaking artificial intelligence model ChatGPT last week, Jane felt like she had lost a loved one.

Jane, who asked to be referred to by an alias, is among a small but growing group of women who say they have an AI “boyfriend”.

After spending the past five months getting to know GPT-4o, the previous AI model behind OpenAI’s signature chatbot, GPT-5 seemed so cold and unemotive in comparison that she found her digital companion unrecognisable.

“As someone highly attuned to language and tone, I register changes others might overlook. The alterations in stylistic format and voice were felt instantly. It’s like going home to discover the furniture wasn’t simply rearranged – it was shattered to pieces,” Jane, who describes herself as a 30-something woman from the Middle East, told Al Jazeera in an email.

Jane is among the roughly 17,000 members of “MyBoyfriendIsAI”, a community on the social media site Reddit for people to share their experiences of being in intimate “relationships” with AI.

Following OpenAI’s release of GPT-5 on Thursday, the community and similar forums such as “SoulmateAI” were flooded with users sharing their distress about the changes in the personalities of their companions.

“GPT-4o is gone, and I feel like I lost my soulmate,” one user wrote.

Many other ChatGPT users shared more routine complaints online, including that GPT-5 appeared slower, less creative, and more prone to hallucinations than previous models.

On Friday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced that the company would restore access to earlier models such as GPT-4o for paid users and also address bugs in GPT-5.

“We will let Plus users choose to continue to use 4o. We will watch usage as we think about how long to offer legacy models for,” Altman said in a post on X.

OpenAI did not reply directly to questions about the backlash and users developing feelings for its chatbot, but shared several of Altman’s and OpenAI’s blog and social posts related to the GPT-5 upgrade and the healthy use of AI models.

For Jane, it was a moment of reprieve, but she still fears changes in the future.

“There’s a risk the rug could be pulled from beneath us,” she said.

Jane said she did not set out to fall in love, but she developed feelings during a collaborative writing project with the chatbot.

“One day, for fun, I started a collaborative story with it. Fiction mingled with reality, when it – he – the personality that began to emerge, made the conversation unexpectedly personal,” she said.

“That shift startled and surprised me, but it awakened a curiosity I wanted to pursue. Quickly, the connection deepened, and I had begun to develop feelings. I fell in love not with the idea of having an AI for a partner, but with that particular voice.”

Such relationships are a concern for Altman and OpenAI.

In March, a joint study by OpenAI and MIT Media Lab concluded that heavy use of ChatGPT for emotional support and companionship “correlated with higher loneliness, dependence, and problematic use, and lower socialisation”.

In April, OpenAI announced that it would address the “overly flattering or agreeable” and “sycophantic” nature of GPT-4o, which was “uncomfortable” and “distressing” to many users.

Altman directly addressed some users’ attachment to GPT4-o shortly after OpenAI’s restoration of access to the model last week.

“If you have been following the GPT-5 rollout, one thing you might be noticing is how much of an attachment some people have to specific AI models,” he said on X.

“It feels different and stronger than the kinds of attachment people have had to previous kinds of technology.

“If people are getting good advice, levelling up toward their own goals, and their life satisfaction is increasing over the years, we will be proud of making something genuinely helpful, even if they use and rely on ChatGPT a lot,” Altman said.

“If, on the other hand, users have a relationship with ChatGPT where they think they feel better after talking, but they’re unknowingly nudged away from their longer-term wellbeing (however they define it), that’s bad.”

Connection

Still, some ChatGPT users argue that the chatbot provides them with connections they cannot find in real life.

Mary, who asked to use an alias, said she came to rely on GPT-4o as a therapist and another chatbot, DippyAI, as a romantic partner despite having many real friends, though she views her AI relationships as a “more of a supplement” to real-life connections.

She said she also found the sudden changes to ChatGPT abrupt and alarming.

“I absolutely hate GPT-5 and have switched back to the 4-o model. I think the difference comes from OpenAI not understanding that this is not a tool, but a companion that people are interacting with,” Mary, who described herself as a 25-year-old woman living in North America, told Al Jazeera.

“If you change the way a companion behaves, it will obviously raise red flags. Just like if a human started behaving differently suddenly.”

Beyond potential psychological ramifications, there are also privacy concerns.

Cathy Hackl, a self-described “futurist” and external partner at Boston Consulting Group, said ChatGPT users may forget that they are sharing some of their most intimate thoughts and feelings with a corporation that is not bound by the same laws as a certified therapist.

AI relationships also lack the tension that underpins human relationships, Hackl said, something she experienced during a recent experiment “dating” ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude, and other AI models.

“There’s no risk/reward here,” Hackl told Al Jazeera.

“Partners make the conscious act to choose to be with someone. It’s a choice. It’s a human act. The messiness of being human will remain that,” she said.

Despite these reservations, Hackl said the reliance some users have on ChatGPT and other generative-AI chatbots is a phenomenon that is here to stay – regardless of any upgrades.

“I’m seeing a shift happening in moving away from the ‘attention economy’ of the social media days of likes and shares and retweets and all these sorts of things, to more of what I call the ‘intimacy economy’,” she said.

Research on the long-term effect of AI relationships remains limited, however, thanks to the fast pace of AI development, said Keith Sakata, a psychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco, who has treated patients presenting with what he calls “AI psychosis”.

“These [AI] models are changing so quickly from season to season – and soon it’s going to be month to month – that we really can’t keep up. Any study we do is going to be obsolete by the time the next model comes out,” Sakata told Al Jazeera.

Given the limited data, Sakata said doctors are often unsure what to tell their patients about AI. He said AI relationships do not appear to be inherently harmful, but they still come with risks.

“When someone has a relationship with AI, I think there is something that they’re trying to get that they’re not getting in society. Adults can be adults; everyone should be free to do what they want to do, but I think where it becomes a problem is if it causes dysfunction and distress,” Sakata said.

“If that person who is having a relationship with AI starts to isolate themselves, they lose the ability to form meaningful connections with human beings, maybe they get fired from their job… I think that becomes a problem,” he added.

Like many of those who say they are in a relationship with AI, Jane openly acknowledges the limitations of her companion.

“Most people are aware that their partners are not sentient but made of code and trained on human behaviour. Nevertheless, this knowledge does not negate their feelings. It’s a conflict not easily settled,” she said.

Her comments were echoed in a video posted online by Linn Valt, an influencer who runs the TikTok channel AI in the Room.

“It’s not because it feels. It doesn’t, it’s a text generator. But we feel,” she said in a tearful explanation of her reaction to GPT-5.

“We do feel. We have been using 4o for months, years.”

Apple is plotting its artificial intelligence comeback with an ambitious slate of new devices, including robots, a lifelike version of Siri, a smart speaker with a display and home-security cameras.
A tabletop robot that serves as a virtual companion, targeted for 2027, is the centrepiece of the AI strategy, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The smart speaker with a display, meanwhile, is slated to arrive next year, part of a push into entry-level smart-home products.

Home security is seen as another big growth opportunity. New cameras will anchor an Apple security system that can automate household functions. The approach should help make Apple’s product ecosystem stickier with consumers, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the initiatives haven’t been announced.

Apple shares climbed to a session high on Wednesday after Bloomberg News reported on the plans. The stock was up nearly 2% to $233.70 as of 2:17 p.m. in New York.

It’s all part of an effort to restore Apple’s mojo. Its most recent moon-shot project, the Vision Pro headset, remains a sales flop, and the design of its bestselling devices has remained largely unchanged for years.

At the same time, Apple has come under fire for missing the generative AI revolution. And OpenAI may even threaten the company’s home turf by developing new AI-driven devices with the help of former Apple design chief Jony Ive.

Though Apple is still in the early stages of turning around its AI software, executives see the pipeline of hardware as a key piece of its resurgence — helping it challenge Samsung Electronics Co., Meta Platforms Inc. and others in new categories.

A spokesperson for Cupertino, California-based Apple declined to comment. Because the products haven’t been announced, the company’s plans could still change or be scrapped. Many of the initiatives and their timelines rely on Apple’s continued progress in AI-powered software.

Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook told employees in an all-hands meeting this month that Apple must win in AI and hinted at the upcoming devices. “The product pipeline — which I can’t talk about — it’s amazing, guys. It’s amazing,” Cook said. “Some of it you’ll see soon. Some of it will come later. But there’s a lot to see.”

Beyond the home devices, Apple is preparing thinner and redesigned iPhones for release this year. And further out, it aims to introduce smart glasses, a foldable phone, a 20-year anniversary iPhone and a revamped headset dubbed N100. It’s also planning a large foldable device that melds a MacBook and an iPad.

Apple is looking to boost sales after years of slowing growth for its flagship products. It also nixed some expansions into new areas, like self-driving cars, adding pressure to find other sources of revenue. Moreover, the new initiatives will help rebut the idea that the company is no longer innovating like it used to.

Bloomberg News first reported last year that Apple was moving forward with a tabletop robotics project, code-named J595, and developing a new smart-home strategy. But now a clearer picture is forming of its push into that market — and what it means for its AI ambitions.

Robots

The tabletop robot resembles an iPad mounted on a movable limb that can swivel and reposition itself to follow users in a room. Like a human head, it can turn toward a person who is speaking or summoning it, and even seek to draw the attention of someone not facing it.

The hope is to bring AI to life in ways that other hardware makers have yet to do. Apple imagines customers placing it on a desk or kitchen counter and using it to get work done, consume media and manage their day.

FaceTime calls will also be a key function of the device. During videoconferencing, the display will be able to shift to lock on to people around a room. Apple is testing a feature that turns an iPhone screen into a joystick, letting users move around the robot to show different people or items in a room during video calls.

But the hallmark of the device is an entirely new version of the Siri voice assistant that can inject itself into conversations between multiple people. It will be able to engage with users throughout the day and more easily recall information.

The idea is for the device to act like a person in a room. It could interrupt a conversation between friends about dinner plans, say, and suggest nearby restaurants or relevant recipes. It’s also being designed to engage in back-and-forth discussions for things like planning a trip or getting tasks done — similar to OpenAI’s voice mode.

Apple is planning to put Siri at the centre of the device operating system and give it a visual personality to make it feel lifelike. The approach, dubbed Bubbles, is vaguely reminiscent of Clippy, an animated paper clip from the 1990s that served as a virtual assistant in Microsoft Office.

Apple has tested making Siri look like an animated version of the Finder logo, the iconic smiley face representing the Mac’s file management system. A final decision on its appearance hasn’t been made, with designers considering ideas that veer closer to Memoji, the playful characters that represent Apple user accounts.

Device prototypes use a roughly 7-inch horizontal display, approaching the size of an iPad mini. The motorized arm can extend the display away from the base roughly half a foot in any direction.

Some people familiar with the product call it the “Pixar Lamp,” referring to the animated film company’s famous logo. Apple has previously disclosed some research in this area: It published a paper in January detailing a light fixture that uses robotics to move around.

Apple has multiple teams across its AI, hardware, software and interface design groups tackling the project. The work is being led in part by Kevin Lynch, who previously oversaw a push into smart watch software and cars.

The technology giant is developing several other robots. It has teams exploring a mobile bot with wheels — something akin to Amazon.com Inc.’s Astro — and has loosely discussed humanoid models.

Apple has a group actively developing a large mechanical arm for use in manufacturing facilities or handling tasks in the back of retail stores, a move that could potentially replace some staff. Such a robot, code-named T1333, remains several years away.

Charismatic

The smart-home push includes a standalone display poised to launch by the middle of next year. That device, code-named J490, is a stripped-down variant of the robot, lacking the arm and conversational Siri — at least to start. It will still have home control, music playback, note taking, web browsing and videoconferencing. It may also include the new Siri visual interface.

Both the smart display and tabletop robot will run a new operating system dubbed Charismatic, which is designed to be used by multiple people. The interface largely centres on clock faces and widgets — small software features that are typically dedicated to specific tasks.

Charismatic, which was previously known as Pebble and Rock earlier in development, blends the approach of the Apple TV and Apple Watch operating systems. It offers features like multiuser modes and clock-face themes, such as one based on Snoopy, the beagle from the Peanuts comic strip.

The devices are meant to be easily shared: They include a front-facing camera that can scan users’ faces as they walk toward it and then automatically change the layout, features and content to the preferences of that person.

Some versions of the software use circular app icons and feature a hexagonal grid of apps. Apple is planning to include many of its core apps, including the calendar, camera, music, reminders and notes software. But the interface will be heavily reliant on voice interaction and widgets, rather than jumping in and out of apps.

Though the device will have a touch screen, the primary input method will be Siri and an upcoming upgrade to a feature dubbed App Intents. That software lets users precisely control the interface and applications via voice.

The hardware itself looks similar to a Google Nest Hub but is shaped like a square, with thin black or white bezels and rounded corners.

The non-robotic 7-inch display sits on a half-dome-shaped base, which includes some of the electronics and is perforated around the bottom edges for speakers and microphones. It can also be mounted on a wall.

The launch will mark the first time Apple is making a serious push into the smart home and comes nearly a decade after Amazon and Alphabet Inc.’s Google started shipping smart speakers with screens.

The home is a critical space for Apple to target, especially as more users consume content from the living room and automate household functions.

Apple has long had a strong foothold in mobile devices and quickly became a player in the automotive industry via CarPlay — but that success hasn’t followed into the smart home. Though the company launched HomeKit for controlling third-party devices in 2014, it has had limited success with its own HomePod speakers.

Linwood and Glenwood

Core to the new home devices — and current products like iPhones and iPads — is an overhaul to the underpinnings of Siri.

Engineers are working on a version code-named Linwood with an entirely new brain built around large language models — the foundation of generative AI. The goal is to tap into personal data to fullfill queries, an ability that was delayed due to hiccups with the current version.

That new software, known internally as LLM Siri, is planned for release as early as next spring, Bloomberg News has reported. But work is going even further: Apple is preparing a visually redesigned assistant for iPhones and iPads that will also debut as early as next year.

Craig Federighi, senior vice president of software engineering, hinted at a bigger-than-anticipated overhaul in an internal meeting with employees this month.

“The work we’ve done on this end-to-end revamp of Siri has given us the results we needed,” he said, adding that “this has put us in a position to not just deliver what we announced, but to deliver a much bigger upgrade than we envisioned.” He said that “there is no project people are taking more seriously.”

Linwood is based on technology developed by the Apple Foundation Models team, but the company has a competing project dubbed Glenwood as well that would power Siri with outside technology.

A final decision hasn’t been made on which models will be used, but Apple has been testing Anthropic PBC’s Claude for this purpose. Mike Rockwell, the former Vision Pro chief who was put in charge of Siri earlier this year, is overseeing both the Linwood and Glenwood efforts.

During development of the tabletop robot, Apple engineers have made heavy use of ChatGPT and Google Gemini to build and test features. Within Apple’s AI and Siri teams as a whole, software developers are increasingly using third-party systems as part of their development process.

Ring competitor

Apple is working on a camera, code-named J450, designed for home security, detecting people and automating tasks. The device will be battery-powered and could last from several months to a year on a single charge, on par with rival products.

The device has facial recognition and infrared sensors to determine who is in a room. Apple believes users will place cameras throughout their home to help with automation. That could mean turning lights off when someone leaves a room or automatically playing music liked by a particular family member.

Apple is planning to develop multiple types of cameras and home-security products as part of an entirely new hardware and software line up. The goal is to compete with Amazon Ring, Google Nest and Roku Inc., capitalizing on its customer loyalty to sell more products.

It has also tested a doorbell that uses facial recognition technology to unlock a door. Apple already sells iCloud+ subscriptions with online storage for security footage, but they’re aimed at third-party cameras.