The HDMI Forum confirmed the development of the next-generation HDMI standard with increased bandwidth. According to various media reports, including Videocardz and Dday, the press release from HDMI Forum indicates the possibility of new cables or refinement of existing specifications. Moreover, it could mean we will have new HDMI 2.2 specs. The current HDMI 2.1 specifications, established in 2017, provide bandwidth up to 48 Gbps and support native non-DSC configurations for 4K at 144 Hz and 8K at 30 Hz. When combined with Display Stream Compression (DSC) technology, the current standard can handle up to 10K at 120 Hz. A bandwidth increase could enable higher resolutions and refresh rates without DSC compression.

This development of new HDMI specifications is due to the emergence of other display interface standards such as DisplayPort 2.1, which offers up to 80 Gbps over UHBR20. AMD's Radeon RX 7000 series and Intel's recently launched Arc Battlemage GPUs support UHBR 13.5 while the Radeon PRO supports UHBR20. The HDMI Forum is scheduled to release these new specifications on January 6th, one day before the official CES 2025 opening event on January 7th. With the launch of NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 50 and AMD's Radeon RX 8000 series at CES 2025, it would be interesting to see if the latest graphics cards will support the HDMI 2.2 specs.

During Barclays 22nd Annual Global Technology Conference, Intel was a guest and two of the interim company co-CEOs Michelle Johnston Holthaus and David Zinsner gave a little update on the state of affairs at Intel. One of the most interesting aspects of the talk was Intel's upcoming "Panther Lake" processor—a direct successor to Intel Core Ultra 200S "Arrow Lake-H" mobile processors. The company confirmed that Panther Lake would utilize an Intel 18A node and that a few select customers have powered on Panther Lake on the E0 engineering sample chip. "Now we are using Intel Foundry for Panther Lake, which is our 2025 product, which will land on 18A. And this is the first time that we're customer zero in a long time on an Intel process," said interim co-CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus, adding, "But just to give some assurances, on Panther Lake, we have our ES0 samples out with customers. We have eight customers that have powered on, which gives you just kind of an idea that the health of the silicon is good and the health of the Foundry is good."

While we don't know what ES0 means for Intel internally, we can assume that it is one of the first engineering samples on the 18A. The "ES" moniker usually refers to engineering samples, and zero after it could be the first design iteration. For reference, Intel's "Panther Lake-H" will reportedly have up to 18 cores: 6 P-cores, 8 E-cores, and 4 LP cores. The design brings back low-power island E-cores in the SoC tile. The P-cores use "Cougar Cove," which should have a higher IPC than "Lion Cove," while keeping the existing "Skymont" E-cores. The SoC tile may move from Arrow Lake's 6 nm to a newer process to fit the LP cores and an updated NPU. The iGPU is said to use the Xe3 "Celestial" architecture. With Arrow Lake-H launching in early 2025, Panther Lake-H likely won't arrive until 2026.

Hyper Light Breaker, the sequel to the massively popular indie hit, Hyper Light Drifter, is set to release on Steam on January 15, 2025. The only catch is that the game will release into early access, meaning it will likely change significantly during its first year on the market. At launch, Hyper Light Breaker will cost $29.99.

While Hyper Light Breaker shares a name with and hits a lot of the same aesthetic notes as Hyper Light Drifter, it isn't exactly a sequel in the classical sense. Hyper Light Breaker is set "decades before" the events of Hyper Light Drifter, and the aesthetic looks like an upgraded version of the hyper stylized 3D graphics we saw from Heart Machine in Solar Ash, as opposed to the top-down 2D pixel art of Hyper Light Drifter. Unlike Solar Ash, though, the core gameplay loop will rely on rogue-lite mechanics and hack and slash combat, making it a unique entry in the Hyper Light universe. Additionally, Hyper Light Breaker will be a co-op game, with support for up to three players in a squad.

It looks like the much maligned Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League will officially join the likes of Foamstars in not-quite-abandonware purgatory after the upcoming Season 4 content update. The new update, titled "Season 4, Episode 7: Control" will be the game's penultimate episode, releasing on December 10. Episode 7 will add a long-promised offline mode to the game, as well as a new character, Deathstroke. In the same blog post announcing the arrival of the infamous DC villain, Rocksteady Studios and Warner Bros also announced that Season 4 will officially be the game's final season, with Episode 8: Balance, scheduled for 14 January 2025 being the final episode in the game's live service lifetime. As of the release of Episode 8, Rocksteady will no longer provide any more content updates to the game, although the silver lining is that online co-op will still be available. Co-op will notably not be available in the offline mode, suggesting that when the game's servers are inevitably shut down, there will be no co-op gameplay available.

Rocksteady and Warner Bros. will continue to sell Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, seemingly at full retail price, and all past seasons' content will become available, even in offline mode after the end of Season 4. This is a similar approach taken by Square Enix with Foamstars, when the developer announced last week that it would also stop supporting the PS5 game, despite leaving the online play servers and in-game items shop available after halting further development and support of the game.

The annual Game Awards is just around the corner, with the opening night scheduled for December 12, and gaming industry big-shots have teased that there are big announcements coming. One such announcement is the reveal of the second Borderlands 4 trailer, which is all but confirmed for The Game Awards, thanks to Randy Pitchford, CEO of Gearbox Software. We already know the game is planned for release sometime in 2025, but fans are itching to know more about what's to come from the looter shooter that dominated the early 2010s. Around the same time, Andy Robinson, CEO of Video Game Chronicle, teased that he is "Expecting a VERY big Game Awards next week," going on to hype up his followers with "Fire up the hype train."

Pitchford, who has a reputation for being very active on X, recently posted a not-so-subtle confirmation that Gearbox was working on a new trailer for Borderlands 4. Without revealing much more, Pitchford teased that the next trailer would start where the first left off, suggesting that we may find out more about whom the cybernetic arm at the end of the teaser trailer belongs to. So far, prevailing fan theories and speculation around the owner of said arm propose that it is a hint at the return of Gaige, a playable character, and fan favorite, from Borderlands 2. This is a plausible guess, since the Borderlands franchise is known for bringing back characters from previous games, and it wouldn't be the first time we will have seen a former playable character turn NPC.

The World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization has unveiled its latest projections for the global semiconductor market, highlighting robust growth expectations for 2024 and 2025.

2024: A Year of Strong Rebound
In its updated fall forecast, WSTS has revised its 2024 projections upward, anticipating a significant 19.0% year-over-year growth in the semiconductor market. The global market value for 2024 is now estimated to reach $627 billion, reflecting improved performance in second and third quarter of 2024, particularly in the computing sector.

Ubisoft this week announced that XDefiant would be joining the recently axed Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. As of December 3, the free-to-play first-person shooter will no longer be available to download, and no new players will be allowed to create an account. On June 3, 2025, XDefiant's servers will officially be shut down, making the game unplayable for old and new players alike. Along with the announcement of the closure, the development team behind XDefiant will also see significant changes, with 277 developers being laid off as a result of the shut-down, according to Stephen Totilo on BlueSky.

The remaining development team will be kept on to manage the game throughout its sunsetting until June 2025. It's not really a surprise that XDefiant is shutting down, despite the game's executive producer vehemently denying the allegations of the same as recently as October this year. While the exact reason for the game's closure wasn't revealed, news broke about XDefiant's struggles soon after its March 2024 launch, and it appears that the staunch competition in the space and the difficulties of monetizing a free-to-play game, even one that tries to break the mold, was just too much for XDefiant and its developer team.

According to a recent report by seasoned industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the M5-powered iPad Pro is set to enter mass-production towards the latter half of next year. This falls in line with previous information that came courtesy of supply chain sources.

Apple revealed the M4 SoC alongside the OLED iPad Pro refresh in May of this year, which was quite a surprise considering that this was the first time Apple chose to unveil a new M-series SoC in an iPad instead of a Mac. This trend appears poised to continue, with the 2025 iPad Pro as well. Interestingly, Apple is seemingly switching up its release schedule yet again, barely managing to stick to a uniform 12-month cycle. The M3 followed the M2 after almost 16 months, while the M4 replaced the M3 in just 6 months.

Being the leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing company, TSMC actively works on increasing the efficiency of its upcoming nodes, even when they are finalized and ready for high-volume manufacturing. According to a TSMC employee identified as Dr. Kim on X, recent test runs of the 2 nm N2 nodes show a 6% improvement in production yields compared to baseline expectations. This advancement could translate into substantial cost savings for the company's customers when mass production begins in late 2025. However, specific details about whether the gains were achieved in SRAM or logic test chips remain undisclosed. The timing is particularly noteworthy as TSMC prepares to launch its shuttle test wafer services for 2 nm technology in January. The N2 process represents a giant leap for TSMC, marking its first gate-all-around (GAA) nanosheet transistors implementation, the first step to derive from the classical FinFET design.

According to TSMC's projections, chips manufactured using the N2 process will consume 25-30% less power while maintaining the same transistor count and frequency as its N3E node. Additionally, the technology is expected to deliver 10-15% performance improvements and achieve a 15% increase in transistor density. A key innovation in the N2 process is the enhanced design of its GAA nanosheet transistors, which offers improved electrostatic control and reduced gate leakage compared to 3 nm FinFET transistors, given that the gate can be controlled from all sides. This advancement enables smaller high-density transistors to maintain reliable performance through better threshold voltage tuning capabilities. With approximately seven to eight months until full-scale volume production begins, the company has a substantial window to optimize the manufacturing process further and potentially achieve additional yield improvements, although that is less likely.

Taiwanese political officials have agreed to discuss transferring TSMC's advanced 2 nm chip technology to allied democratic nations, but only after establishing the main mass production launch in late 2025 in Taiwan. This new stance comes amid growing international pressure and recent comments from upcoming US president Donald Trump about semiconductor manufacturing. The announcement by National Science and Technology Council Minister Cheng-Wen Wu marks a notable departure from earlier statements by Economic Affairs Minister J.W. Kuo, who had previously emphasized legal restrictions on transferring leading-edge process technology overseas. Interestingly, these different positions aren't so different from one point: timeline of node deployments. As TSMC produces latest nodes in Taiwan, overseas production will lag by a generation or two.

TSMC plans to implement its 2 nm technology in US facilities by 2030. The company's Arizona facility, Fab 21, will begin with less advanced N4 and N5 processes in early 2025 and progress to 3 nm technology by 2028. However, this timeline could face pressure for acceleration, mainly if new trade policies are implemented. Industry analyst Dan Nystedt points out significant challenges in transferring advanced chip production. Integrating research and development with manufacturing processes in Taiwan provides crucial advantages for initial production ramps, making simultaneous mass production launches in multiple locations technically challenging. Simply put, there aren't enough capable engineers, scientists, and factory workers capable of doing what TSMC accomplishes in Taiwan.

Germany is set to invest €2 billion in the semiconductor industry after recent setbacks, according to TrendForce via Liberty Times citing Bloomberg. The German government's new funding is in response to the chip sector's problems, including Intel's delay of the Magdeburg factory and global disruptions in the semiconductor supply chain. The investment will support 10 to 15 projects from wafer production to microchip assembly to strengthen Germany's and Europe's microelectronics ecosystem. This is in line with the European Chips Act which aims to increase the EU's global production capacity to 20% by 2030.

Intel's €30 billion Magdeburg factory delay and other cancelled chip projects from Wolfspeed and ZF Friedrichshafen AG have created uncertainty in the German market. The Ministry of Economic Affairs is now calling for new applications for funding, with up to €3 billion available. The timing of the semiconductor investment follows the global supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic and the increasing geopolitical tensions between the US, China and Taiwan. Germany is following a broader trend of governments investing in local semiconductor production to increase technological independence and economic resilience. The funding is subject to budget reallocation with the new government after February 2025 elections. In the first round of subsidies from the European Chips Act, Germany allocated resources to two key initiatives: Intel's investment and a collaborative project between Infineon and TSMC in Dresden.

For over half a century, general-purpose processors have been built on the Tomasulo algorithm, developed by IBM engineer Robert Tomasulo in 1967. It's a $500B industry built on specialized CPU, GPU and other chips for different computing tasks. Hardware startup Ubitium has shattered this paradigm with a breakthrough universal processor that handles all computing workloads on a single, efficient chip - unlocking simpler, smarter, and more cost-effective devices across industries - while revolutionizing a 57-year-old industry standard.

Alongside this, Ubitium is announcing a $3.7 million in seed funding round, co-led by Runa Capital, Inflection, and KBC Focus Fund. The investment will be used to develop the first prototypes and prepare initial development kits for customers, with the first chips planned for 2026.

NVIDIA today reported revenue for the third quarter ended October 27, 2024, of $35.1 billion, up 17% from the previous quarter and up 94% from a year ago. For the quarter, GAAP earnings per diluted share was $0.78, up 16% from the previous quarter and up 111% from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share was $0.81, up 19% from the previous quarter and up 103% from a year ago.

"The age of AI is in full steam, propelling a global shift to NVIDIA computing," said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. "Demand for Hopper and anticipation for Blackwell—in full production—are incredible as foundation model makers scale pretraining, post-training and inference.

Microsoft is introducing Windows 365 Link, a compact cloud PC for business users. The device costs $349 and measures just 120 x 120 x 30 mm, making it smaller than Apple's Mac mini. The compact size comes from the fanless cooling design and the fact that the device doesn't have local storage capabilities. This small computer has quite a variety of connectivity options, including one USB-C, three USB-A ports, HDMI, DisplayPort, and Ethernet connections, supports two 4K monitors, and has Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi 6E wireless capabilities. The specific hardware details are not yet revealed by Microsoft.

It requires Windows 365 with Microsoft Intune and Entra ID, and it works with 365 Frontline, Enterprise, and Business editions. As with other cloud-based solutions, Microsoft will lock some of the security options, "features like Secure Boot, the dedicated Trusted Platform Module, Hypervisor Code Integrity, BitLocker encryption, and the Microsoft Defender for Endpoint detection and response sensor can't be turned off, further helping to secure the device". Microsoft plans to launch the device in April 2025, with early previews in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Businesses interested in testing the device can contact their Microsoft account team before December 15, 2024, to join the preview program.

Q.ANT, the leading startup for photonic computing, today announced the launch of its first commercial product - a photonics-based Native Processing Unit (NPU) built on the company's compute architecture LENA - Light Empowered Native Arithmetics. The product is fully compatible with today's existing computing ecosystem as it comes on the industry-standard PCI-Express. The Q.ANT NPU executes complex, non-linear mathematics natively using light instead of electrons, promising to deliver at least 30 times greater energy efficiency and significant computational speed improvements over traditional CMOS technology. Designed for compute-intensive applications such as AI Inference, machine learning, and physics simulation, the Q.ANT NPU has been proven to solve real-world challenges, including number recognition for deep neural network inference (see the recent press release regarding Cloud Access to NPU).

"With our photonic chip technology now available on the standard PCIe interface, we're bringing the incredible power of photonics directly into real-world applications. For us, this is not just a processor—it's a statement of intent: Sustainability and performance can go hand in hand," said Dr. Michael Förtsch, CEO of Q.ANT. "For the first time, developers can create AI applications and explore the capabilities of photonic computing, particularly for complex, nonlinear calculations. For example, experts calculated that one GPT-4 query today uses 10 times more electricity than a regular internet search request. Our photonic computing chips offer the potential to reduce the energy consumption for that query by a factor of 30."

MSI previously gave us a teaser of what to expect from its upcoming Claw 8 AI+ gaming handheld with Intel's Lunar Lake Core Ultra CPUs, calling it "the most advanced 8-inch gaming handheld in the market," but a recent CES listing has divulged more details about the upcoming challenger to the likes of the Lenovo Legion Go. For starters, the upgraded battery capacity has been revealed, along with an estimated battery life and performance figures. Supposedly, more information will be revealed about the Claw 8 AI+ at CES 2025, which starts on January 7, 2025.

According to the CES page, the new MSI Claw 8 AI+ will have an 8-inch display and an 82 WHr battery, which will supposedly be able to deliver "4+ hours of gameplay for AAA titles." However, these manufacturer claims are generally to be taken with healthy helpings of salt, especially in when it comes to claims as nebulous as "AAA titles" without any proposed quality settings, specific games, or frame rates. Regarding the display, it wouldn't be surprising to see MSI use the same display as the one found in the Lenovo Legion Go, since there is a somewhat limited selection of 8-inch displays for handheld gaming devices. The MSI Claw 8 AI+ will also use Intel's 2nd-generation ARC iGPUs in conjunction with AI-enhanced graphics, which should provide a healthy uptick in both performance and efficiency, with the CES listing touting 48 TOPS of compute power.

Chinese tech site Board Channels keeps tabs on the way computer hardware is moving at the very beginning of the supply-chain. It has some fascinating insights the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50-series "Blackwell" series of graphics cards. Apparently, NVIDIA has planned the transition between the current RTX 40-series "Ada" and the next-generation RTX 50-series such that there's minimal spillover inventory of the older generation graphics cards in the channel, so it doesn't end up with a situation similar to the one between the RTX 30-series "Ampere" and its successor. Back in 2021-22, the cryptocurrency mining boom, which waned toward the end of 2022, had caused an overproduction of RTX 30-series cards that lingered in the channel even as the RTX 40-series launched.

According to the report by Board Channels that's been translated by Gazlog and VideoCardz, the China-specific RTX 4090D has been vaporized from the channel, none of NVIDIA's AIC partners has any boards to sell. The RTX 4080 SUPER sees most AIC partners have their final batches shipping, which should clear out in November 2024. The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER isn't as prominent a SKU as the RTX 4080 SUPER, and is being phased out at the same pace as its bigger AD103-based sibling, with last orders shipping this month. The RTX 4070 SUPER and RTX 4070 remain the most popular high-end graphics SKUs in this generation, and NVIDIA will supply these SKUs throughout December. Given that the RTX 5070 series doesn't come out till February (with wide availability in March), this makes sense. The RTX 4060 series will phase out a lot slower than the other SKUs, given its popularity, and the fact that the RTX 5060 series won't ramp until Q2-2025.

Intel's discrete GPUs are close, and recent reports indicate Intel will reveal its next-generation Arc Battlemage graphics cards in December, moving from an earlier expected Black Friday announcement. Hardware insider Golden Pig Upgrade first mentioned this timeline shift, with data researcher Tomasz Gawroński providing supporting evidence through shipping manifest analysis. The December timing appears to position Intel's announcement before CES 2025, where AMD plans to showcase its Radeon RX 8000 series with RDNA 4 architecture, and NVIDIA will present its GeForce RTX 50 line. This will give Intel ample room to "steal" the attention of the tech press, who will be busy with NVIDIA and AMD during CES.

X account Bionic_Squash has confirmed Battlemage won't be Intel's final discrete graphics card, addressing questions about the company's long-term graphics development plans. Intel's future roadmap includes the Xe3 "Celestial" architecture, though current information only confirms its initial implementation in mobile chips at a reduced scale. The timeline for a full discrete graphics card using Celestial architecture remains unspecified. We are also left to wonder about Intel's approach to discrete GPU marketing push, as the company has yet to gain any significant footing among enthusiasts. In the coming years, Intel's expansion could prove worthwhile as it updates its GPUs with more performance from newer generations.

Microsoft's Windows-on-Arm (WoA) project has been going through an expansion phase, with the recent range of Snapdragon X SoCs powering many laptops. However, as we are about to get bombed with WoA devices in 2025, Microsoft has prepared an official ISO image of the Windows 11 operating system, available for users to download on the official website. The download size is about 5 GB and requires an Arm-based system to work, as expected. The need for Windows 11 ISO image for WoA comes from the increased number of desktop builds shipped to developers worldwide based on Arm. There are many workstations like the ones offered by ODMs, with an Ampere Altra or Altra Max processor inside.

This is also good news for enthusiasts waiting for the NVIDIA-MediaTek collaboration to drop its first goodies next year, and we expect to see some interesting solutions arise. With Microsoft investing its developer resources into producing Windows 11 Arm builds, it signals that the adoption of Arm-based devices is about to get much higher interest from the consumer standpoint.

Elitegroup Computer Systems, with its long-standing expertise in computer motherboard design, has successfully developed the CubeSat On-Board Computer (OBC). This groundbreaking product will carry a payload and is set to launch aboard the Lilium3 CubeSat from National Cheng Kung University, expected to lift off in Q4 2025, initiating space experiments.

In parallel, ECS has developed the high-performance OBCC6M7R motherboard specifically designed for CubeSats, which will officially begin accepting orders for sale starting in November this year. The introduction of this product will accelerate ECS's commercialization of space industry technologies, injecting strong momentum into the company's future growth.

NVIDIA today announced incoming changes to its GeForce Now game streaming service, some of which are not likely to sit well with gamers. The biggest, and likely most controversial change coming to GeForce Now is the addition of monthly playtime caps for all GeForce Now users, regardless of which plan they're on. According to the blog post announcing the changes, GeForce Now gamers will be limited to 100 hours of gameplay per month in addition to the daily playtime caps. NVIDIA will allow gamers who don't use their whole monthly cap to roll 15 hours of game time into the following month.

It's not all bad news, however, as NVIDIA also announced that it will be increasing the resolution and image quality of the GeForce Now Performance tier—previously Priority—from 1080p to 1440p. The Ultimate and Basic tiers remain unchanged in both name and feature set. NVIDIA says the playtime limit was necessary in order "to continue providing exceptional quality and speed—as well as shorter queue times." Of course players can buy extra playtime at a rate of $2.99 for 15 hours of GeForce Now Performance and $5.99 for 15 hours of GeForce Now Ultimate. The playtime limits will come into effect on January 1, 2025, and anyone that signs up for a paid GeForce Now subscription before then won't be subjected to the new playtime limits until January 2026.

Microsoft will allow home users to extend security support for Windows 10 beyond its October 2025 end-of-life date for a $30 fee per year. This marks the first time the Redmond giant has offered such an option to individual consumers, as extended security updates were previously available only to business and education customers. While the extension will maintain essential security patches, users won't receive new features, bug fixes, or technical support from Microsoft. This decision affects millions of Windows 10 users worldwide who may be unable or unwilling to upgrade to Windows 11, either due to hardware limitations or personal preference. While Microsoft strongly encourages users to transition to Windows 11, which offers enhanced security features and AI capabilities, many older computers don't meet the newer operating system's stricter hardware requirements.

The company will begin enrollment for the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program closer to the 2025 deadline. Microsoft will also continue providing Security Intelligence Updates for Microsoft Defender Antivirus through at least October 2028, offering an additional layer of protection for Windows 10 users. This move can be interpreted as Microsoft's acknowledgment of the significant number of users still running Windows 10 and the potential security risks of leaving them unprotected. Using an ESU package from an official source like Microsoft is always better than sourcing them from third-party like 0patch offers, and it is a welcome addition for millions of PCs running Windows 10 today.

Western Digital Corp. today reported fiscal first quarter financial results. "Western Digital's performance in the fiscal first quarter demonstrates our commitment to operational excellence and disciplined capital investment as our focus on lasting quality and reliability, driven by industry leading innovation and a diversified portfolio, has allowed us to target the most attractive end markets to improve profitability." said David Goeckeler, Western Digital CEO.

"The strength of our diversified product portfolio is demonstrated by the rapid emergence of enterprise SSD as a core pillar of growth within our Flash business. The strength of our HDD product portfolio lies in our UltraSMR technology, delivering the industry's highest capacity hard drives with unmatched reliability, quality, and performance, offering a compelling TCO to our customers. With the continued proliferation of the AI Data Cycle, our Flash and HDD product portfolios are well-positioned to capitalize on significant opportunities as adoption continues to grow." continued David Goeckeler.

Capcom today gave gamers a sneak peek at Monster Hunter Wilds, the sequel to the wildly popular Monster Hunter Rise and Worlds, showing off some in-game footage and divulging details about the new ARPG. Monster Hunter Wilds is slated to launch on February 28, 2025, but eager gamers can try out the latest installment in the Monster Hunter franchise a whole three months early thanks to an open beta starting at the end of October. The open beta will be available to PS5, PC via Steam, and Xbox Series S/X, although the PS5 open beta will be available to PlayStation Plus subscribers from October 29, while everyone else will have to wait until November 1 at 3:00 AM (GMT) to participate. The open beta ends on November 4 at 2:59 AM (GMT).

The Monster Hunter Wilds showcase introduces players to another new playable area, called the Oilwell Basin, and a new base, called Azuz, the Everforge, and it looks like the new environment will be mostly in underground caves, shrouded in darkness and the occasional lava vein. Along with the new environment, of course, Wilds will also introduce new monsters, which complement their cavernous surroundings. The showcase also gave us some more information on some of the monsters we can expect to see in the Oilwell Basin, like the oil-silt-lurking Rompopolo, the highly mobile Ajarakan, and what appears to be the area's main monster, called the Black Flame, which will seemingly have a significant role to play in the game's story quest. Of course, the Oilwell Basin is only one new area in Monster Hunter Wilds, and previous promotional images from the new game have shown off plenty of wide-open spaces and grassy plains with rock outcroppings, meaning there will be a degree of diversity for players to explore in the game when it eventually launches.

Assassin's Creed Shadows has had a bit of a rough time of late, with Ubisoft initially pulling out of the Tokyo Game Show entirely and delaying the launch of Shadows to February 2025, attributing its absence at the show to the buggy, incomplete nature of the 2025 entry into the Assassin's franchise. In the announcement confirming the launch delay and the Tokyo Game Show Absence, Ubisoft also communicated that it would be shaking up the Assassin's Creed launch and monetization strategy significantly. Apparently as part of that monetization switch-up, Ubisoft has also changed the price of the Assassin's Creed Shadows Collector's Edition, cutting it by a whopping $50.

Ubisoft confirmed the price change on Discord in an official Q&A, announcing that, due to dropping the three-day early access that Collector's Edition buyers would originally have received, the Collector's Edition would now cost $229.99 instead of the previous price of $279.99. Meanwhile, the Collector's Edition will still include all the other paraphernalia and real-world loot that it originally bundled. The aforementioned delay and changes to the monetization strategy not only saw the cancellation of the Season Pass model previously used by Ubisoft, but it also meant that all Assassin's Creed Shadows players would also get the game's first expansion for free along with the base game.