Valve has recently been testing NVIDIA DLSS support for their Proton Windows compatibility layer for Linux with an experimental version available in 6.3-7 and now fully supported with 6.3-8. This latest addition to Proton will allow NVIDIA Linux gamers to take full advantage of Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) in supported games. Proton has seen significant development attention recently with this release also bringing initial support for the BattlEye anti-cheat software enabling games such as PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and DayZ to run correctly. Epic Games have also previously announced that they are working with Valve to add support for their Easy AntiCheat software. This latest release also includes support for 24 new titles and various miscellaneous bug fixes.

Steam, an online platform for gaming, has seen some incredible numbers in terms of usage last night. Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and the fact that many people are in quarantine/self-isolation mode, the number of concurrent users of the platform has skyrocketed. Beating all the previous records of 18 million and 20 million concurrent users, Steam saw as much as 23 million concurrent users last night. Precisely 23,572,311 of users online, setting a new record-high number. The most played games were Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. For more statistics, please see here.

HyperX , the gaming division of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., today announced it has shipped 5 million award-winning gaming headsets. With the popularity of video games Fortnite and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG), the gaming headset market continues to grow at a rapid pace and HyperX continues to gain new fans. HyperX gaming headsets are worn by gamers globally, including first-time players and professional gamers.

"With the explosive growth of Fortnite, NBA 2K and esports, HyperX is seeing an exciting expansion in the global gaming headset market," said Marcus Hermann, senior business manager, HyperX. "HyperX has been supplying hardcore gamers with gear for over 10 years and we are now seeing our HyperX headsets becoming more popular with casual gamers. Shipping 5 million headsets is a major milestone as we continue to grow."

Chinese authorities have apprehended 15 individuals tied to a gang that has been developing and selling cheat programs for the ever so popular PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. The arrested suspects have been fined around 30 million yuan, equivalent to 4.71 million dollars. While this is great progress, the police will continue their efforts to bring the whole gang to justice. According to the local Chinese newspapers, the notorious gang probably profited over 30 million yuans from selling their programs to PUBG players. Some of the programs that were being sold also came with hidden malicious code to steal the victims' login credentials and other personal data. Earlier this year, Chinese police also arrested around 120 people suspected of creating cheats for the popular battle royale. A huge portion of PUBG's player base resides in China which makes selling cheats to the Chinese population an extremely lucrative activity. Heck, even Dell advertised their latest gaming laptops as great for running multiple 'plugins' in PUBG.

MalwareHunterTeam recently discovered the PUBG ransomware that is currently floating around the internet. When executed, the pesky program would encrypt the files and folders that are located on the victim's desktop and add the ".PUBG" extension to them. While meant to be more of a joke than actual malware, the program demands that the victim play PUBG for an hour. Nevertheless, users can decrypt their files in two ways. They can introduce the "s2acxx56a2sae5fjh5k2gb5s2e" code into the program and proceed to restore their files or launch the PUBG executable for three seconds. MalwareHunterTeam noted that the program runs a background check for a "TslGame" process, and therefore users can rename any executable to TslGame.exe and trick the malware into thinking that the fake executable is the real deal.

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice and What Remains of Edith Finch". Those are the two big takers in the ceremony that took place last night, with Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice coming on top in five of its nominated nine categories: Best British Game, Artistic Achievement, Best Performer (Melina Juergens really was fantastic), Audio Achievement, and the new Game Beyond Entertainment category, which recognizes titles that "deliver a transformational experience beyond pure entertainment." I have to say I agree on all counts; the game is much more than just that, and is a perfect example of game systems, technical and writing competence bridging the gap between 3D entertainment and a deep look at human nature. And that ending... My god, what a beautiful, thematically-perfect ending.

Intel held an event in Beijing last week to launch their new 8th Gen Intel Core mobile processors. As usual, PC and laptop manufacturers flocked to the venue to promote their latest gaming products. This time around, Dell single-handedly stole the spotlight. The company claimed that their gaming laptops were perfect for running multiple 'plugins' in PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. Ben Mansill from PC Authority was present during Dell's presentation, and this was what he had to say about Sally Zhang, the Account Director and assigned Dell spokesperson:

"She spoke of how Chinese gamers are the most innovative and dominant in the world by using 'plugins' to, for example, run faster than other players, or blow up ten cars at a time, and that these top gamers can really use 8th-Gen power to 'run more plugins to win more at Chicken Dinner', and that the top players run the most 'plugins' so that's where 8th-gen Dell power gives them the gamer's edge. Behind her a video proudly shows various cheats in PUBG in action (they really like the one with the massively oversized gun and show that a lot), with the new Dell gaming laptops shown every few seconds while Sally told us that gamers should buy a Dell because they're better at running many plugins. Wow."

PUBG Corporation has shared several screenshots of their upcoming 4 km by 4 km map for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. Due to its small nature, players can expect more intense shootouts and shorter matches. The map will feature a southeastern Asian environment. If all goes according to plans, players should be able to test the new map in early April. The developer hopes to return to their open development model and improve the map based on player feedback.

Today, SteelSeries is proud to announce its official partnership with leading battle royale game, PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS (PUBG). With the announcement of the partnership, SteelSeries is announcing a PUBG QcK+ mousepad, with additional PUBG-branded peripherals and accessories coming later this summer. Today, SteelSeries and PUBG will also kick off the one-year Anniversary Celebration with a global campaign, giving away tons of SteelSeries gear as well as PUBG swag, codes and more.

"This partnership signals the coming of incredible products, meaningful integrations along with creative activities among the PUBG influencer and streamer communities," said SteelSeries CEO, Ehtisham Rabbani. "Together our brands are creating an opportunity for the battle royal community to connect their PUBG obsession with premium gear that is both innovative and designed for competitive esports."

After being crowned as Steam's third best-selling game ever, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) is on its way to conquer the mobile world. Developed by LightSpeed & Quantum Studio and published by Chinese tech giant Tencent, PUBG Mobile has been soft launched in Canada. The game is now available for download at the Google Play Store. PUBG Mobile stays true to the PC version. It was developed on the Unreal Engine 4 and supports features that include 7.1 surround sound and in-game voice chat. For the time being, only the original Erangel map is in the mobile version. The minimum requirements consist of a smartphone with Android 5.1.1 and 2 GB of RAM. Although there is no mention of a minimum processor requirement, the developer states that the game is supported on more than 500 Android devices.

One thing that phenomenon games like PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds can boast of is an extraordinary number of active players at any given time (there's been in excess of 3 million active players at one point in time already). This is mostly due to the multiplayer, competitive nature of the game; and where there's competition, there's ways (and ways) of trying to trump it. In a blog post, PUBG developers have taken an open stance on the issue of cheaters, which continues to be one of the most harrowing plagues in PUBG. And the results are in: PUBG has detected "over 100,000 instances of the new pattern related to use of cheat and now we have confirmed that it was clearly an attempt of compromising our game." And for those, players, there's only one solution: "these players will be permanently banned in a single wave."

That more players will be banned than many games have players at any one point in their longevity is already impressive enough. However, PUBG's dedication to maintain its game in a fun, fair state has become a torch of sorts for the company: "We will continue to check the data logs like this even if it means the anti-cheat team has to filter through hundreds of billions of data logs manually. In addition, we are looking into adopting a new solution to detect and ban more cheaters and we have been continuously strengthening our security systems. We have also liaised with investigative authorities in some countries to take legal actions against developers and distributors of cheats. We are determined to take strong measures against them going forward." Et tu, cheaters? Ready to feel the banhammer of righteousness?

Minkonet, a prominent Seoul-based gaming technology company, today announced its partnership with PUBG Corp. to deliver 3D replay functionality in the online gaming phenomenon, "PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS" (PUBG). The robust 360-degree data capture technology powers the 3D Replay and Killcam features that will debut in PUBG's upcoming PC 1.0 release.

"Building replay systems for battle royale, open world and massively multiplayer online games that typically feature huge maps and many objects interacting in real time presents many technical challenges," said Peter Kim, co-founder and CEO of Minkonet. "We know expectations from the community are high and our team worked side-by-side with the PUBG developers to design and deliver a never-before-seen, immersive replay experience that is sure to deliver countless hours of 'wow-factor' moments and shareable content."

The PUBG Development and Community Team has shared the name of the game's upcoming desert map along with some additional details on its regions. The map is called Miramar, and according to the developers, it deviates a lot from the existing Erangel map in terms of terrain and overall setting. Miramar is located in a harsh desert environment populated by different urban areas. Therefore, players are encouraged to develop new tactics to get the upper-hand on their opponents. The PUBG team also revealed some of the more noteworthy landmarks that are located in Miramar. The map will be available with the 1.0 update.

Earlier this year, Bluehole confirmed their partnership with Microsoft to bring the popular PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) title to the Xbox One console. However, their relationship didn't end there. During a recent Microsoft quarterly earnings conference call, the company's CEO Satya Nadella stated the following:

"Gaming pushes the boundaries of hardware and software innovation, with some of the most CPU and GPU-intensive applications and content, giving us a huge opportunity in the cloud. As one example, PUBG Corp., with the hit game PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, is not only partnering to make Xbox the exclusive console at launch, but is also running on Azure."