CORSAIR, a world leader in high-performance gear for gamers, is delighted to announce the continuation of its partnership with leading video game publisher Ubisoft, bringing immersive in-game RGB lighting integration for all CORSAIR iCUE RGB devices to the latest installment of the popular Far Cry franchise: Far Cry 6. Players can experience exclusive dynamic lighting effects that convey the action not just through the screen, but across their entire iCUE setup as well.

Far Cry 6 welcomes you to Yara, a tropical paradise frozen in time. Far Cry 6 immerses players into the adrenaline-filled world of a modern-day guerrilla revolution. As dictator of Yara, Antón Castillo is intent on restoring his nation back to its former glory by any means, with his son, Diego, following in his bloody footsteps. Playing as local Yaran Dani Rojas, join revolutionary group Libertad and fight your way to Esperanza to take down Antón Castillo and his oppressive regime.

Cooler Master, a global leader in PC component manufacturing, is launching the StreamEnjin, their first ever All-In-One live stream broadcasting device.

Streaming. Simplified
Cooler Master is adding a new device to their vast lineup of technology within the portfolio - the StreamEnjin. The StreamEnjin is an all-in-one livestream mixer that allows you to edit and switch your inputs for seamless broadcasting of your content. Easily create and deliver your customized livestream to multiple CDN broadcast destinations, with 8 preset scenes for convenient personalization. Simple button layout makes switching and mixing a breeze, with the versatile iPad app giving you the freedom to edit your overlays to your liking. The StreamEnjin is designed with a portable form factor with a handle-stand to grab and go to stream from any location you desire.

The StreamEnjin gives you the simplicity and versatility to broadcast your content, integrating simple controls with a portable device for any level streamer looking to share their personalized stream or enhance their stream content for a more entertaining and eye-catching livestream.

Elgato, a leading provider of hardware and software for streamers and content creators, today announced the launch of Stream Deck 5.0, a major app update that introduces the Stream Deck Store, an online distribution platform for plugins, icon packs, tutorial videos, and pro tips, plus thousands of royalty-free music tracks and sound effects. Stream Deck 5.0 is available today as a free update.

Stream Deck, Elgato's widely popular tactile interface with fully customizable LCD keys, makes it easier for content creators to control their myriad apps and tools with a tap of a key. Now, in addition to enhancing the entire Stream Deck experience, the Stream Deck Store is empowering creators with a wealth of digital assets they can use to enrich their content and ultimately boost their streams' production values. The Stream Deck Store includes five sections: Discover, Plugins, Icons, Music, and Sound Effects.

Elgato, a leading provider of hardware and software for content creators, today announced the release of Cam Link Pro, a powerful new PCIe capture card and video mixer that boasts four HDMI inputs to stream or record 4K or 1080p60 Full HD video from DSLR cameras, laptops, tablets, and any other devices that output a clean HDMI signal. From live broadcasting and editing to video conferencing and remote teaching, Cam Link Pro makes multicam production easy for content creators and professionals who engage with audiences online.

As the production value of user generated content continues to improve dramatically, conventional webcam setups are struggling to provide the quality and flexibility to keep up. With Cam Link Pro, creators can connect up to four high-quality cameras, including DSLR cameras, video cameras, and action cams. Other HDMI sources can also be connected to add multimedia content from laptops, tablets, and more. Thanks to Cam Link Pro's four HDMI inputs and built-in Multiview technology, you can create even more advanced multi-camera content by utilizing multiple HDMI devices simultaneously. The Elgato 4K Capture Utility provides a host of Multiview layouts, such as Picture in Picture or Side by Side, that can be switched on-the-fly for professional-grade streams and presentations.

Addressing the demands of the modern data center, Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX) today announced a range of new data center products and solutions, including a new family of Alveo SmartNICs, smart world AI video analytics applications, an accelerated algorithmic trading reference design for sub-microsecond trading, and the Xilinx App Store.

Today's most demanding and complex applications, from networking and AI analytics to financial trading, require low-latency and real-time performance. Achieving this level of performance has been limited to expensive and lengthy hardware development. With these new products and solutions, Xilinx is eliminating the barriers for software developers to quickly create and deploy software-defined, hardware accelerated applications on Alveo accelerator cards.

CORSAIR, a world leader in high-performance gear for gamers and creators, is pleased to announce it has acquired Visuals by Impulse, the world's premium design platform for creators, which will join CORSAIR under its existing Elgato brand.

Founded in 2015, Visuals by Impulse (VBI) provides professional design for creators on Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook Gaming. Streamers around the world use VBI overlays, alerts, and widgets to customize their broadcasts and grow their fanbases. Thanks to VBI technology and design, anyone can create stylish, personalized live-streaming content — from first-time creators to streaming superstars.

NVIDIA has today announced the expansion of its GeForce NOW game streaming service to Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Australia. The company has worked closely with telecommunication providers to ensure that the streaming service is working well and now they can deliver even more gamers a chance to play their favorite games in the cloud. NVIDIA stated that: "It also offers an opportunity for the world's leading telecommunications firms to deliver high-quality, low-latency PC gaming to nearly any device from the cloud. These partners form the GeForce NOW Alliance, a partnership of operators using RTX Servers and NVIDIA cloud-gaming software to expand and improve cloud gaming globally."

As a reminder, the GeForce NOW is a game streaming service that "brings real-time raytracing to today's biggest blockbusters to underpowered PCs, Macs, Chromebooks, Android and iOS devices." You can access a wide range of games from almost any device and play as much as you like.

Elgato, the leading provider of hardware and software for content creators, along with parent company CORSAIR, today announced a multi-year partnership with Pipeline, the leading training and mentorship platform for aspiring live streamers. Both CORSAIR and Elgato have a long history of building and refining the tools needed to be a successful creator, and adding Pipeline's unique education and community platform creates a set of services that will help any streamer kick-start their career.

Under the terms of the partnership, Elgato and Pipeline are offering a Streamer Starter Kit that includes a twelve-month Pipeline membership and three Elgato products: the Wave:1 microphone, Stream Deck Mini broadcast controller, and the newly launched Ring Light. The partnership will also see the launch of the Pipeline x CORSAIR Streamer Scholarship Program, a first-of-its-kind support system which will help amateur content creators go full-time, with financial support as well as new studio gear from CORSAIR and Elgato.

Xilinx, Inc., the leader in adaptive and intelligent computing, today introduced two real-time computing video appliances for easy-to-scale, ultra-high-density video transcoding applications. Based on the new Xilinx Real-Time (RT) Server reference architecture, these new appliances will enable service providers delivering applications such as eSports and game streaming platforms, social and video conferencing, live distance learning, telemedicine and live broadcast video to optimize video quality and bitrate at the lowest cost per channel for significant TCO savings over both software-based and fixed-architecture approaches.

Designed for edge and on-premise compute-intensive workloads where video channel density, throughput and latency are critical requirements, the new Xilinx Real-Time Video Appliances feature optimized hardware architectures and software to deliver the industry's highest channel density and lowest latency performance. The appliances are available in two pre-configured options integrating Xilinx Alveo data center accelerator cards - the High Channel Density Video Appliance and the Ultra-Low Bitrate Video Appliance.

Windows 10 2004 May update is set to bring a heap of new features to the OS, along with performance improvements in the form of a fixed search indexer. According to the latest report form Windows Latest, we have information that the update version 2004 will reintroduce Bluetooth A2DP sink, a feature from Windows 7 era. The Bluetooth A2DP sink allows users to stream audio from their phones to PC speakers, using Bluetooth technologies. This is a useful feature is you want to play music via your phone on louder speakers connected to your PC, and we are sure users are going to appreciate this. The Bluetooth A2DP sink feature was present in Windows 7 OS, however, Microsoft has later disabled that in Windows 8 OS and it hasn't been available since. The Windows 10 May update is expected to roll out between May 26th and May 28th.

Another one bites the dust: 2K Games has told NVIDIA that it is removing their games catalog from the GeForce Now game streaming service. Fresh out of beta little more than a month now - with a then-touted 1,000 plus games library - the green team's streaming service, which was received with good reviews and good customer feedback, is now looking ever more stale as publishers keep leaving the service in droves.

It is still unclear why publishers are quitting the streaming service, but this doesn't spell good to the future of streaming. The fact that users only need to import a copy of their already purchased game to GeForce Now can be a reason, with removed the need for gamers to re-purchase their games across multiple (mobile or non-mobile) gaming platforms. Another reason may be that publishers are fearful this streaming ability from NVIDIA could cut into sales from next-gen consoles, since users wouldn't have to upgrade their hardware to be able to play the latest and greatest, non-exclusive titles to be released for next-gen systems. Whatever the reason, this doesn't bode well for the future of NVIDIA's streaming efforts.

NVIDIA today has finally launched its GeForce Now streaming gaming service, and users can enjoy partial amounts of free gaming under the business model. There are two tiers of users on offer: Free, and Founders. The free tier, which you may give a go to check the streaming infrastructure and if it's something you would enjoy paying for, is limited to 60-minute play sessions. This means that after the clock has stopped ticking (with potentially intrusive pop-up notifications reminding you of how much time you have left every 10 minutes), you'll be forced to quit the game, and submit yourself to a playing queue until your next 60-minute window is up. RTX isn't available in this tier, though - so if you also wanted to see for yourself what the raytracing talk is all about, you'll have to pay $5 (monthly subscription) to cross that particular river.

Founder-tier members, however, will be able to enjoy the latest RTX-enabled games. The only ones listed on the service, for now, are Wolfenstein: Youngblood, Call of Duty: modern Warfare, Metro Exodus, and Deliver Us the Moon, which NVIDIA has recently started bundling with select RTX graphics cards). There is still a catch though: play sessions will be limited to 6 hours, after which time you'll be brought back to a gaming queue (though you'll have precedence over Free tier accounts, should there be many Founders-tier players in the queue, you might have to wait a while). There's a limited-time 90-day introductory period of which you can take advantage while subscribing for the Founders tier right now, which means you will only be billed after that 90-day grace period is over. Remember - you have to own a digital copy of the game you want to play in any of the more popular storefronts, such as EPIC and Steam, before you can game - but it's still a nice way to experience RTX should you currently own a non-RTX-enabled graphics card.

Club 3D is proud to announce its next generation Multi Stream Transport (MST) Hub models CSV-7300 (DisplayPort 1.4 Triple Monitor 4K60Hz) and CSV-1550 (USB Type C 3.2 Gen 1 DisplayPort 1.4 Triple Monitor 4K60Hz) which will be available in the market from beginning of December.

Since Multi-Monitor-Solutions are part of Club 3D's DNA for many years, we have taken the time to develop the best available solutions with those two new MST Hubs. They both can provide 2x 4K60Hz when the source device is not supporting DSC 1.2 (Display Stream Compression). In case the source device supports DSC 1.2 all three outputs can deliver 4K60Hz. Detailed Display/Resolution charts can be found in the respective specification sheet.

Cherry introduces the new STREAM keyboard, the perfect workhorse for professional work environments. With the many satisfied users of the original STREAM in mind, Cherry has upgraded the keyboard with extended functionality, a modern look, and

CHERRY has equipped the STREAM KEYBOARD with its own proven SX scissor technology, giving the keyboard a comfortable typing feel and uncompromising precision. During development, special attention was paid to the typing sound; compared to the previous model - which was already very quiet - the noise level has been reduced even further. This makes the STREAM KEYBOARD the best choice for open-plan offices with numerous workstations, where employee productivity benefits from a low-noise environment.

Elgato, the leading provider of hardware and software for content creators, today announced the launch of HD60 S+, an external video capture card that lets content creators play high-fidelity console games in stunning 4K60 HDR10 while simultaneously streaming or recording gameplay in 1080p60 HDR10. It's easy to get set up and streaming with HD60 S+ thanks to a simple USB 3.0 connection and full compatibility with today's most prominent streaming applications including OBS Studio, Streamlabs OBS, and XSplit. Accompanied by powerful Elgato 4KCU recording software, HD60 S+ is ideal for content creators looking to grow audiences on Twitch, YouTube, and Mixer.

Building upon the original hugely popular HD60 S, HD60 S+ allows 4K60 HDR10 zero-lag passthrough, with onboard video downscaling to enable streaming to any platform in industry standard full HD 1080p60 quality and recording unlimited 1080p60 HDR10 footage to your hard drive. HD60 S+ also benefits from ultra-low latency Instant Gameview technology, keeping gameplay, mic, webcam, and other sources perfectly synched.

Blue, a 20-year leading innovator in audio technology and design, today announced the new Yeti X USB microphone for gaming, streaming and podcasting. Yeti X features new Blue VO!CE technology, which enables content creators to dial up professional vocal effects and custom presets at the push of a button. A four capsule condenser microphone array delivers exceptional focus and clarity, high-res LED metering provides visual, real-time feedback for vocal levels, and a multi-function smart knob provides instant control over essential mic functions. Combining legendary Blue audio quality with innovative new features, Yeti X is the ultimate tool for creators who want to deliver professional content and build their audience.

The gaming division of SilentiumPC, branded as SPC Gear, proudly presents the SM900 streaming microphone kit as the newest addition to the gaming portfolio. SPC Gear has tailored a prefect kit for Games, who are seeking an affordable full-fledged recording setup. The SM900 package consists of the high-end cardioid USB microphone, an adjustable arm, shock mount as well as a pop filter. Be it for streaming of your favorite games on Twitch or YouTube or recording of podcasts and voiceover, the SM900 USB streaming microphone kit is the perfect starter-kit.

Flawless Recordings Quality
The recording quality is one of the major functions of a great microphone. The SM900 uses a cardioid collection pattern, which is praised by almost everybody who works with their own voice, be it a streamer, vlogger or a musician. The advantage here is, that any unwanted feedback and background noises are effectively eliminated, while maintaining the fullest depth of voice possible. In addition to that, the SM900 is able to offer a wide frequency range from 18 to 21.000 Hz while the sound pressure level is rated with 135 dB.

Google's Stadia platform will be the first serious effort to bring cloud gaming to the masses - a first, real step in a game that Microsoft and Sony are pursuing as well which will change the outlook for entertainment hardware development as we know it. The company has just announced that its Stadia Pro service will be launching come November of this year, with a $130 upfront cost for a Founder's Edition, which includes a limited edition Night Blue Stadia Controller, Chromecast Ultra, a free copy of Destiny 2, and 3 months of Stadia Pro for users and a special friend of theirs.

Besides this Founder's Edition pack, Stadia will be available in two packages. The Pro, which goes for $9.99 a month and allows you to play games up to 4K at 60 FPS with HDR and 5.1 surround, and the base version, which will be free of charge but limited to 1080p 60 FPS. You will always require a Chromecast Ultra and a Stadia controller, which will run you $70 each, though - so if this is up your alley, the Founder's Edition seems like a good setup, including three moths of games and the free-to-play-going Destiny 2. So they're not actually offering a game here - they're offering access to it through their cloud. Remember that unlike other subscription services, excluding free to play games, you'll always have to purchase each game you're going to play on the platform - it will be a digital storefront like any other.

Elgato, the leading provider of hardware and software for content creators, today announced the launch of two new additions to its award-winning portfolio of broadcast controllers: Stream Deck XL and Stream Deck Mobile. From the 32-key Stream Deck XL taking your productivity to new heights, to the convenience of Stream Deck Mobile delivering the full Stream Deck experience to iOS devices, the two new products offer an unprecedented range of options for both professional creators and beginners alike.

The new Stream Deck XL expands the celebrated Stream Deck to 32 brightly-lit LCD keys. Each key is fully programmable and customizable, offering one-touch tactile control with instant visual feedback. Stream Deck's robust software enables you to assign limitless actions to keys: start and stop streaming, adjust audio and lighting levels, switch cameras, trigger onscreen actions, or anything else to simplify and enhance the content creation experience. With a detachable USB-C cable and non-slip magnetic stand included, Stream Deck XL becomes the centerpiece of a modern content creator's setup.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Valve had promised continued support to the Steam Link after discontinuing it last year, and most took it to mean basic updates to the hardware device itself at the time. That was 2018, and it is remarkable how the topic of in-house game streaming has come up since. Be it Google's Project Stream which seemingly is leading up to a major announcement by the company at GDC coming up very shortly, or Microsoft introducing their new Wireless Display app for PC game streaming on the XBOX One, as well as bringing its XBOX Live service to mobile platforms on iOS or Android alike, 2019 seems to herald a re-focus into the concept of game streaming whether the infrastructure is ready or not.

Valve for their own part has had their Steam Link be enjoyed by a fairly niche audience, one that shares a more local form of game streaming from a host device to another on the same network. NVIDIA's Shield offered a similar concept, and that too has not really made the news as much as NVIDIA would surely have wanted. This latest news from Valve allows streaming of one's Steam library (games, in particular) to phones, tablets, and TVs with no download or service fees applicable. Interested users can participate in the open beta program by simply downloading the app (Google Play store only for now) or on the Raspberry Pi as has been the case for a few months already. The Steam Link app is compatible with a number of popular Bluetooth controllers, including the Steam Controller, and Valve recommends a 5 GHz network or wired Ethernet for best experience. Looks like the weekend just got busier than I originally planned!

Google sent out a fairly cryptic invite to the game developers and associated press this week in the form of a GIF (converted into relevant images below). It teases a keynote on March 19, 2019 and more information was made available shortly confirming this would be in the form of a keynote to be held at 10 am PST during GDC this year. The media giant promises to "reveal all", and also has developer-focused sessions throughout the course of the event. An early report from The Information suggests the keynote will have Google talk about their new game-streaming service, code-named Yeti. This is in line with our own expectations, after having participated in the fairly successful Project Stream beta test that concluded recently.

Kotaku went further to suggest that Yeti is a streaming service in conjunction with a hardware platform- a simple streaming box, if you will, to take on the dedicated game consoles of 2019 and beyond. Indeed, Google has been wanting to get into this highly lucrative market, with intentions to take over Twitch before Amazon pulled one over them. There remain many challenges in general to a game-streaming world, not least of which were detailed in our own editorial linked above. But, with the next generation consoles getting ready for development and Microsoft willing to explore a game-streaming future themselves, perhaps Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo and others should pay very close attention to said Google keynote in less than a month's time.

We covered Project Stream in a more detailed news post recently, so this is a short update. The test period is active as of the time of testing, and will remain so through January 15, 2019. Selected entrants now get a bonus incentive of retaining a copy of Assassin's Creed Odyssey, with all progress from the test retained, even after the stream test is done. Indeed, users (who are limited to the USA as of the test period) with a minimum of an hour of game play will see the game added to their Uplay account on file and this should prompt more of the testers (which you can still apply to be, from everything we have seen) to try out Google's take on game streaming over the internet. Yours truly happens to be one who applied, was selected, and played all of five minutes thus far, but be on the lookout for another post early next year with impressions galore on how it goes.

EA's Executive VP of Strategic Growth Matt Bilbey said in an interview to gamesindustry.biz that he expects game streaming to be an unavoidable fact of our lives, replacing traditional consoles and gaming-specific devices with smartphone-based solutions or Smart TV apps. Matt Bilbey spoke on how scaling bandwidth and latency is paramount to this streaming future, and likely one of the reasons streaming services up to now have struggled for acceptance - and even survival.

"(...) today, that [bandwidth and latency issues] is still a challenge. But I think over the next year to two years, that barrier will drop. Not for everyone, but for a lot of people. Bandwidth capabilities will go up so the business model around streaming a game becomes more viable. If you buy into a streaming solution and the experience is laggy half the time, you're going to stop and not do it again, which is the challenge some of the companies previously had. I think there's now a solution where we can deliver on the promise, and we're working with a lot of the companies who create the server infrastructure, and there are a lot of innovative solutions from a lot of big companies we're working with that will actually allow us to bring this to life."

Elgato, a leading provider of hardware and software for content creators, today announced Stream Deck Mini, a brand-new addition to its line-up of streaming and video production tools. A miniaturized version of the ground-breaking Elgato Stream Deck live content tool, Stream Deck Mini offers six fully-customizable LCD keys, allowing creators to easily switch scenes, launch media, control chat, configure an unlimited number of actions, and more. The ideal addition for streamers and video producers who want to get serious about their content and community, Stream Deck Mini makes it simple to create quality content at the push of a button.

"When Stream Deck launched just over a year ago, it gave content creators access to a level of tactile control that was traditionally exclusive to mainstream entertainment broadcasters" said Julian Fest, VP & General Manager of Elgato. "Stream Deck Mini is every inch a Stream Deck. It keeps all the same functionality, in a smaller form factor, and at a more attainable price."

The Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG), an international committee headed by an EPFL professor, has just unveiled JPEG XS. A new time of higher amounts of content consumption - and the ways we consume it - requires a new way to send its data. With this new format, the image-compression process uses less energy, and higher-quality images can be sent with low latency over broadband networks like 5G. JPEG XS will have applications in areas such as virtual reality, augmented reality, space imagery, self-driving cars and professional movie editing.

Headed by Touradj Ebrahimi, a professor in EPFL's School of Engineering (STI), the JPEG XS format was essentially designed to stream live video and VR - it's not a replacement to JPEG, and file-sizes will actually end up being slightly bigger. The big push with this format is lower compression and decompression latency, as well as energy efficiency of the decompression process itself. The fact that it's open source and has a universal HDR coding format also means that its uptake should be relatively high.