It appears that Western Digital is readying its own line of Xbox Series X|S Storage Expansion cards, and undercutting its big rival - Seagate - in a currently exclusive storage solution market. Word spread across several gaming communities over the past weekend about a new listing on Best Buy, now removed as of late April 2, for a 1 TB capacity WD_BLACK C50 Expansion Card with an asking price of $179.99. WD has offered official external storage solutions for the current generation of Xbox home games consoles, under its WD_BLACK range, but Microsoft granted exclusive manufacturing rights to Seagate for the proprietary Xbox Series X|S storage expansion card system. According to official site information and documentation, these expansion cards are effective in "delivering additional external memory while maintaining the same peak speed and performance as the console's internal SSD".

The Seagate range could have been a timed exclusive, and based on the now deleted Best Buy listing, Microsoft seems to have handed a license to WD. The 1 TB WD_BLACK C50 Expansion Card's pricing was a big talking point, due to it being substantially cheaper than the equivalent capacity Seagate model ($219.99) - a saving of forty dollars, which is an encouraging sign for gamers who have long complained that the Xbox proprietary expansion card offers bad value for money. Seagate's current crop of cards start at $139.99 (512 GB) and go up to $399.99 (2 TB).

In Path of Exile: Crucible, you'll learn about the ancient titans who once shaped the primordial surface of Wraeclast. If you're powerful enough, you will earn the ability to forge their power onto your weapons. Our April expansion introduces the Crucible challenge league, nine new Vaal Skills, Atlas Gateways, over ten new Unique Items and improvements to Breach, Abyss, Passive Tree Masteries, the Saboteur, the Pathfinder, Ruthless and much more!

In Path of Exile: Crucible, you'll learn about an ancient race of titans who once shaped the primordial surface of Wraeclast. In this league, you will earn the ability to forge their power onto your weapons.

Amazon is today expanding its Luna cloud gaming service into three new territories - Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom. This is the first sign of the online retail giant's goal to broaden the service beyond the initial launch base in the USA. The company is clearly excited to offer their cloud games library to a larger customer base: "Gamers in the U.S. have been enjoying Luna for the past year and we're thrilled to expand the service, giving more customers the opportunity to play high-quality, immersive games without expensive gaming hardware or lengthy downloads."

These new territories have been granted access to Luna's full package which now consists of Ubisoft+, Jackbox Games, and Luna+ subscription services. The Luna app can be launched on 'select devices', which means a wide range of modern bits of kit can run it: Fire TV, Fire Tablets, Windows PCs, Chromebooks, Macs, iPhones, iPads, Android phones and tablets. Amazon confirmed that its Official Luna Wireless Controller is also being made available to customers in Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom - which is an exclusive item to the Amazon Store. It should be noted that you can run other compatible control devices via Bluetooth, including a wireless keyboard and mouse, as well as the Xbox One and PlayStation DualShock 4 gamepads.

We're incredibly excited to announce that the Apex Legends team at Respawn will continue to strengthen its development team with the introduction of a brand new studio location in Madison, Wisconsin led by industry veteran Ryan Burnett. Ryan is an extraordinary leader with a proven track record in live service games and as a pillar in the massive mid-western game development community in Madison. With nearly two decades of development experience at places like Raven Software and Epic Games, Ryan has a history of inspiring the sort of creativity and innovation in his teams that is the foundation of games like Apex Legends.

It's been our belief since day one that Respawn is not a singular location but a mindset: when passionate and talented people have creative freedom, they'll achieve the unexpected. This view helped us successfully expand to Vancouver in 2019, and as the workplace evolved, it helped us continue to work with the best that the games industry has to offer, whether at the office, remote, or hybrid.

We are excited to announce the opening of our fourth IOI studio in Istanbul, Türkiye. Uniquely positioned in the pan-continental gateway to Europe and Asia, IOI Istanbul is a crucial part in the continued growth and success of IO Interactive.

With a thriving tech and mobile development scene, we identified Istanbul as a region filled with talent that is furiously passionate, development-focused and technically creative. Istanbul is also a city rich in history, offering a strong cultural presence, historic architecture, astonishing Bosphorus views and vibrant and varied culture.

Synology today announced the addition of RackStation RS2423+ and RS2423RP+ to the versatile and cost-effective Plus series systems. The 2U 12-bay RS2423(RP)+ are ideal data management and backup solutions for small and medium-sized businesses, as well as branch offices. "With strong performance out of the box and flexible configuration and expansion options, these servers are the perfect on-prem storage solution for growing businesses," said Peggy Weng, Product Manager at Synology.

Offering a performance increase over its predecessor with sequential read/write speeds of over 3,500/1,700 MB/s, the RS2423(RP)+ packs a punch. This device features built-in 10GbE connectivity along with 2 x 1GbE ports with support for additional 10/25GbE networking. The 12-bays of RS2423(RP)+ support up to 216 TB of total storage capacity and can be expanded to 24 bays with a RX1223RP Expansion Unit for up to 432 TB of storage.

TSMC today held a 3 nanometer (3 nm) Volume Production and Capacity Expansion Ceremony at its Fab 18 new construction site in the Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP), bringing together suppliers, construction partners, central and local government, the Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association, and members of academia to witness an important milestone in the Company's advanced manufacturing.

TSMC has laid a strong foundation for 3 nm technology and capacity expansion, with Fab 18 located in the STSP serving as the Company's GIGAFAB facility producing 5 nm and 3 nm process technology. Today, TSMC announced that 3 nm technology has successfully entered volume production with good yields, and held a topping ceremony for its Fab 18 Phase 8 facility. TSMC estimates that 3 nm technology will create end products with a market value of US$1.5 trillion within five years of volume production.

Today, Ubisoft announced that Lost Between Worlds, a new Far Cry 6 expansion, is now available for £17.99, or as part of the Upgrade Pass, on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, as well as Windows PC through the Ubisoft Store and the Epic Games Store. Players can also subscribe to Ubisoft+ on PC and Amazon Luna.

Developed by Ubisoft Toronto, Lost Between Worlds is a thrilling new chapter of Dani Rojas' story, set in a fractured version of Yara. Players will dive into a rich action-packed gauntlet with deadly crystal enemies, a wide variety of unique gameplay challenges with bewildering supernatural obstacles, and multiple player paths. Players will test their wit, prove their skill, and overcome death itself - or be lost forever.

ASRock Industrial launches a new range of industrial motherboards powered by 12th Gen Intel Core Processors (Alder Lake-S) with up to 16 cores and 24 threads, supporting the new Intel 600 Series W680, Q670, and H610 chipsets. Featuring high computing power with performance hybrid architecture and enhanced AI capabilities, rich IOs and expansions for up to quad displays 4K@60 Hz, USB 3.2 Gen2x2 (20 Gbit/s), triple Intel 2.5 GbE LANs with real-time TSN, multi M.2 Key M, ECC memory, plus TPM 2.0, and wide voltage support. The new series covers comprehensive form factors, including industrial Mini-ITX, Micro-ATX, and ATX motherboards for diverse applications, such as factory automation, kiosks, digital signage, smart cities, medical, and Edge AIoT applications.

The expansion of the only computer memory factory in Europe is underway. The factory in question produces Goodram branded memory and is located in Łaziska Górne. In the south of Poland, there is a unique technological company that stands out in Europe. The said company is Wilk Elektronik SA, which is the manufacturer of the well-known in Europe Goodram computer memory brand as well as the IRDM gaming line. Nine months after the symbolic groundbreaking, the scale of this private investment is already visible. The impressive 14-meter high structure of the building is not accidental. The extended part of the company is going to have a high storage warehouse and a new production hall. Thus, the company surface will be expanded from the current 3000 m² by 1140 m² in the warehousing and logistics section and 1200 m² in the production area.

It's been a long time coming, but Sony is finally ready to allow all of its PS5 customers to get access to the M.2 SSD storage expansion slot, courtesy of the September system update, which lands tomorrow. It's not the only feature that the new update will bring though, as Sony has also worked on some user experience enhancements when it comes to navigating the UI, as well as some improvements to the PlayStation Now UI.

Sony has also added support for 3D audio via the speakers built into TVs, although it's not entirely clear what this brings from the details on Sony's blog post. However, it does appear to use the microphone on the DualSense controllers to measure the acoustics of the room to enhance the audio as much as possible. The Pulse 3D wireless headset is getting access to the built in equalizer settings with this update.

Sonnet Technologies today announced the DuoModo line of professional, modular Thunderbolt expansion systems for the desktop and for rack installation, the latest entries in its award-winning lineup of Thunderbolt products. The DuoModo line is comprised of three interchangeable expansion modules—a three-slot PCIe card system, an eGPU card system, and a Mac mini mounting system with integrated 40 Gbps Thunderbolt storage dock—and three enclosures consisting of two dual-module housings (one desktop and one rackmount) and a single-module desktop housing. Sonnet will also offer four preconfigured systems to simplify the order process for the most popular combinations of modules and enclosures. All modules are Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4 compatible.

DuoModo Echo III Module: This module (the same one used in Sonnet's Echo III Desktop and Echo III Rackmount systems announced at the end of 2020) features one x16 and two x8 PCIe 3.0 slots; accommodates full-height, full-length (up to 12.28 inches long) PCIe cards; and connects them to a computer's Thunderbolt port via the included 0.7-meter Thunderbolt 3 (40 Gbps) cable. The module integrates a universal 400 W power supply and includes a 75 W auxiliary power connector for non-GPU cards that require extra power. The module includes a mode switch that enables the use of three Avid Pro Tools|HDX PCIe cards, and features Noctua cooling fans for ultra-quiet operation.

Globalfoundries has announced they are in the early stages of a massive $1.4 billion investment in their manufacturing capabilities, which aims to increase overall production of semiconductor chips. One third of this development investment will be pre-paid by Globalfoundries' customers, who by investing this way, are also pre-allocating Globalfoundries' future supply - it's a way for the company to receive funds for not-yet-produced wafers, enabling it to proceed with these expansion plans. The company usually reserves $700 million yearly for capacity expansions and technology improvements, so this $1.4 billion figure essentially doubles that.

That doubling comes at a time where existing capacity throughout the semiconductor industry is showing not to be sufficient for global demand. The plans will see Globalfoundries increase its wafer production capability by 13% this year, and 20% in 2022. The increased funding for developmental expenses will be allocated equally between the company's three manufacturing plants already installed in Dresden, Malta (New York) and Singapore. Globalfoundries' 2020 revenue ended up at $5.7 billion, a cutback from 2017's $6.176 billion. The company, however, projects its revenue to increase 9-10% in 2021 due to the current unprecedented demand for its fabrication technologies. The company is also looking to capitalize on this demand in another way: by bringing its IPO forward. Where before the company planned to go public in 2022 or even 2023, the increased current demand and prospective YoY growth places the company in a good place for such a move.

Sonnet Technologies today announced the launch of the eGPU Breakaway Box 750 and eGPU Breakaway Box 750ex, the newest and most powerful members of the company's award-winning family of Thunderbolt 3 to PCIe graphics processing (GPU) card expansion systems. Both systems support full-length, full-height, double-width GPU cards, and utilize large temperature-controlled fans that provide efficient and ultra-quiet cooling for the installed card. Sonnet designed these new expansion systems with the goal of offering users a future-proof purchase, equipping them with 750-watt power supplies capable of supporting the most power-hungry GPU cards available. The systems are nearly identical, except the eGPU Breakaway Box 750ex adds a built-in connection hub for USB devices and Ethernet connectivity.

Sonnet Technologies today announced the launch of the Echo III Desktop and Echo III Rackmount, the newest members of the company's award-winning family of Thunderbolt 3 to PCI Express (PCIe ) card expansion systems. The Echo III Desktop is a full-size desktop chassis that enables the use of up to three high-performance PCIe cards with computers equipped with Thunderbolt ports, while the Echo III Rackmount offers the same support and features in a rack-mountable 2U enclosure. Replacing the popular Echo Express III-D and III-R (including HDX Editions), the new Echo systems have been upgraded with the addition of a mode switch that enables the use of multiple Avid Pro Tools|HDX PCIe cards and new cooling fans for even quieter operation. Both of these units have been Avid-qualified.

The Xbox Series X & S consoles are now available to pre-order and come with 1 TB and 512 GB custom NVMe storage drives respectively. The two consoles both feature a custom port for an Xbox Storage card which features the same custom NVMe technology used in the internal drives. The consoles can still be expanded via an external USB storage device but will be limited by the bandwidth of USB 3.2.

The Xbox Series S will only support digital games and with the rise of Xbox Game Pass and ever-increasing game sizes the internal drive will quickly be exhausted. The price for a 1 TB expansion module will be £159 (~ 200 USD) which is fair considering the speeds offered by the drive and the mandatory Microsoft tax. The expansion modules do represent a considerate cost in comparison to the consoles with the 1 TB expansion module costing over 60% of the MSRP for an Xbox Series S.

Thermaltake, the leading PC DIY premium brand for Cooling, Gaming Gear, and Enthusiast Memory solutions is thrilled to introduce four budget-friendly chassis, the Versa T25 TG/ T35 TG RGB & H330 TG/ H350 TG RGB Mid-Tower Chassis. The overall designs allow users to display their interior designs clearly, the new Versa T25 TG and Versa T35 TG RGB Chassis comes with two tempered glass panels at the front and on the left site. While Versa T25 TG has a plain full-size tempered glass front panel, and the Versa T35 TG RGB has an RGB belt across the front panel that can be controlled by the RGB button on the IO-port; exhibiting two RGB stripes and some angles that bring some twist to the Versa series.

Being one of the two RGB enclosures the H350 TG RGB Mid-Tower Chassis inherits the consistent RGB lighting design while bringing in some new elements into the H series. The H350 TG RGB also has an RGB button along with a controllable RGB stripe which slashes through the matte front panel, distinguishing it from the previous version. The H330 TG, however, has a trapezoid-shaped solid panel while leaving the rest of the front panel with a meshed filtered design. Both H330 TG and H350 TG RGB enclosures have a tempered glass side panel for users to show off their design as well. These entry-level chassis all have inlets on the front panel to maximize air intake, and each comes with a preinstalled 120 mm fan at the rear. These four enclosures not only do they bring a new appearance to the Thermaltake chassis family, but ensure excellent ventilation.

Chenbro has launched the RB23712, a Level 6, 2U rackmount server barebone with 12 drive bays designed for storage-focused applications in the Data Center and HPC Enterprise. The RB23712 is an easy-to-use barebones server solution that pre-integrates an Intel Server Board S2600WFTR with support for up to two, 2nd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors to ensure a flexible, scalable design that can meet a wide variety of deployment needs, while also assuring mission-critical reliability.

The RB23712 offers Apache Pass, IPMI 2.0 & Redfish compliance, and includes Intel RSTe/Intel VROC options, providing an ideal solution for hosting Video, IMS, SaaS and similar storage-focused applications for either public or private Cloud services.

GLOBALFOUNDRIES (GF), the world's leading specialty foundry and the leading U.S. pure-play manufacturer of semiconductors, today announced it has secured a purchase option agreement for approximately 66 acres of undeveloped land adjacent to its most advanced manufacturing facility, Fab 8, in Malta, N.Y., near the Luther Forest Technology Campus (LFTC).

The land parcel is located at the southeast end of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) Saratoga Technology + Energy Park (STEP) campus, adjacent to Stonebreak Road Extension, between GF's Fab 8 facility and Hermes Road. Exercising the option to purchase the land and commencement of development to expand GF's Fab 8 facility will be subject to zoning regulations and client demand. The parcel is being sold at Fair Market Value, with a purchase price determined by an independent appraiser.

QNAP Systems, Inc. today launched new SATA 6 Gb/s JBOD enclosure models: the 4/8/16-bay desktop models (TL-D400S, TL-D800S and TL-D1600S), the 4-bay rackmount model (TL-R400S) and the 12-bay rackmount model with redundant power (TL-R1200S-RP). These storage enclosures are compatible with NAS, PCs and servers, and can be directly attached using SFF-8088 cables if a QXP PCIe card is installed in the NAS/PC/server. The TL SATA JBOD supports multi-lane SATA 6 Gb/s transfer, and each SATA lane directly connects to a single SATA drive to help improve performance. With the 1-1 high-speed channel, the TL SATA JBOD delivers excellent transfer performance.

QNAP NAS users can use the TL SATA JBOD with their NAS, including setting RAID parameters and creating a storage pool using the Storage and Snapshots app. Alternatively, the TL SATA JBOD can be used as a NAS external storage device. Windows, Mac, and Ubuntu users can use the QNAP JBOD Manager desktop utility to quickly obtain and view information about the JBOD status, health, fan speed, and check for firmware updates. A TL SATA JBOD can expand the storage space of your QNAP NAS, Windows and Ubuntu computers for versatile usage.

I like to write articles on No Man's Sky because barely have I ever seen a game this well supported. In fact, I'd even risk saying this game sees better support - and more support - than many other games that even have the "games as a service" philosophy. The only other game I can think of that has had comparable improvements and overhauls throughout its lifecycle is Warframe, but that's a completely different beast. In No Man's Sky, I think we can see exactly how studios that make games as a work of love go on about supporting them.

While the games' release may have been a flop compared to the expectations set upon it (in no small part because of their own creators), I think it really is commendable that hello games didn't just pocket the immense profits they made with the games' release and are, instead, still working it up to its entire potential. It just really goes to show how good tool planning and the adequate mindset can bring about improvements over time.

TSMC is working hard to ensure its number one spot in the semiconductor manufacturing industry, and it has the funds to back it up. Yesterday TSMC's Board of Directors approved the company budget for another semiconductor fab expansion. With a budget totaling 6.74 billion US dollars allocated, TSMC has "Approved capital appropriations of approximately US$6,742.1 million (approximately NT$200.9 billion) for purposes including: 1) Fab construction, and installation of fab facility systems; 2) Installation and upgrade of advanced technology capacity; 3) Installation of specialty technology capacity; 4) Installation of advanced packaging capacity; 5) Second quarter 2020 R&D capital investments and sustaining capital expenditures."

Gigabyte has announced and released a new PCIe Expansion card which will allow users to add a 20 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (such a mouthful) connector to their PC. This solution lacks any sort of hub, and it's a single-connector affair, which limits its usefulness by a fair share. According to Gigabyte, this solution has been thought-up for users who are satisfied with their current systems but were left in the cold when it comes to supporting the latest standard - eliminating the need to upgrade their motherboard before its time. Users will have to sacrifice a PCIe x4 slot for this expansion, though. No pricing is available at time of writing.

Control is one of the best non-surprising surprises of this year's gaming scene. Remedy's tale of science fiction and paranatural objects and events is joined with a strong narrative, some of the best environments and art direction we've seen this side of 2019, and strong gunplay to boot. That Remedy isn't finished with exploring the world of Control is a given, and now we have some idea of how things will (para)naturally pan out.

First off, a free content drop coming later this year is a Photo Mode and a new game mode, dubbed Expeditions, which will shore-up endgame content for players who want to get engrossed, without end, in the gameplay of Control. There will also be two paid expansions for the game. The Foundation drops in 2020 with new story missions, enemies, and game mechanics, and will explore the nature of The Oldest House. The second Expansion, AWE (Altered World Event in the games' lingo) will explore the Investigations Sector of the Oldest House and the Federal Bureau of Control. This last one is the most intriguing, and could (tinfoil hat galore) mean a mesh of Control and Alan Wake. We know from Control's lore that the events depicted in Alan Wake are considered an Altered World Event in the game, and that they occur in the same universe. Also, the teaser image recreates the legendary Alan Wake cover art. Perhaps we'll find closure to Alan Wake outside the game proper? I'll be here to see, definitely. Finishing off, the Expansion pass will reportedly be set at a $24.99 pricing, which means individual expansions could go for $14.99 each.

Kasedo Games and Bulwark Studios are pleased to announce that Heretek, the expansion to the critically acclaimed Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus, is now available for Windows PC, Mac & Linux, priced at $9.99, €9.99, £6.99.

Exposing the dark underbelly of the Adeptus Mechanicus faction like never before, in Heretek, players must uncover what has brought civil unrest to The Caestus Metalican while also battling the fearsome Necrons on Silva Tenebris.