Nitro Concepts' first-ever line of Special Edition gaming chairs is here and they're more than meets the eye! Inspired by the heroic Autobots, villainous Decepticons, and the legendary Optimus Prime himself, these gaming chairs really have got the touch. Innovative Design with Intense Colors! The Nitro Concepts X1000 sets itself apart from its competitors through its vibrant colors and ergonomic design.

Featuring high quality PU leather ensures that whether the X1000 is used for work or play, the user will remain comfortable over hours of use. To make the X1000 even more comfortable, there are many options to adjust it to your preference. While the cold foam upholstery ensures the X1000 is comfortable even on hot summer days, the design features a fresh and angular shape, combining for a chair fit for any situation.

TrendForce's latest research revealed that shipments of gaming monitors have seen their first decline since 2016 due to high inflation, resulting in only 19.8 million units being shipped in 2022 for a 13% YoY decline. TrendForce predicts that demand should recover in 2023 however, jumping back up to 20.8 million units—an increase of 5% YoY. This recovery will mostly be driven by three factors: First, a number of brands are replacing their 75 Hz models with 100 Hz models. Second, the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games is scheduled to take place in the third quarter, where Esports is set to be one of the competing categories. This will help drive up demand for gaming products. Lastly, China has finally begun lifting COVID restrictions, which means demand for Internet cafes should gradually recover.

TrendForce reveals that vertical alignment (VA) LCD monitors took the lion's share of the market in 2022 at 51%. This was followed by in-plane switching (IPS) LCD monitors at 43.4%, and finally twisted nematic (TN) LCD monitors accounted for 5%. However, it's worth noting that OLED gaming monitors have grown in popularity, taking 0.6% of the market share in 2022. Thanks to the diversification of OLED products, that market share is expected to grow to 1.6% in 2023. Furthermore, TrendForce predicts that IPS monitors may begin competing with VA monitors given that not only are IPS products increasing their market share but many IPS gaming monitors are seeing a continuous price reduction.

As we're moving into full on spring, we have a rather mixed week of releases in front of us. This week's biggest release is based on a Disney movie, but we also have a famous detective and a selection of other potentially interesting games for you, so click on past the break to find out what else is being released.

Tron: Identity / This week's AA title / Tuesday 11 April
Something has been taken. Enter a new Grid and forge alliances via visual novel gameplay, uncovering truths through Identity Disc puzzles. Make critical decisions and plot your own course in a world without a creator.

MSI has been rumored to have at least eight different models of the upcoming NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 graphics card, and two of them, the RTX 4070 Gaming X Trio and RTX 4070 Ventus 3X, have now leaked online, ahead of the launch scheduled for next week. What makes it interesting is that this will be the first RTX 40 series graphics card that will be able to come without the 16-pin 12VHPWR connector.

MSI's Gaming X Trio, as the more premium edition, will be a 2.5-slot design with triple-fan cooler, have more RGB effects, and will feature the 16-pin 12VHPWR connector. The MSI RTX 4070 Ventus 3X as a more budget-oriented SKU, will have a triple-fan cooling system but only takes two slots, and it needs a single 8-pin PCIe power connector. While both are factory-overclocked models, it is obvious that the MSI RTX 4070 Gaming X Trio will have a higher overclocking potential.

Based on a leak courtesy of @momomo_us on Twitter, we now know that Gigabyte will be launching at least four different NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 based SKUs next week. Although the leaker only posted a single image of all four cards seen from the edge, it still gives us an idea of what to expect. The leaker also confirmed a rumour, that there will be two different types of GeForce RTX 4070 cards, namely those with a single 8-pin power connector and those with the 16-pin 12VHPWR PCIe 5.0 connector.

Gigabyte's four SKUs start with the Eagle and Windforce as the more budget friendly options, with the Eagle being the one we'd expect that will sell for the rumoured US$599.99 MSRP. Both of these cards obviously have the 8-pin power connector and seemingly a more basic heatsink compared to the other two cards. The higher-end models include the Gaming and Aero cards, both with 16-pin power connectors and a beefier heatsink with more heatpipes. It's unclear if we'll see a higher-end Aorus branded SKU or not at this point in time, but Gigabyte might forgo it to try to avoid making an overly expensive card that won't sell, considering that the 4070 is still largely an upper mid-range card.

Last weekend ASUS ROG started to tease a handheld gaming system, called the Ally. On April 1 the company uploaded an expensive looking trailer, that bordered on being a total spoof in the latter half. People were quick to dismiss the announcement as an April Fool's Day prank, but since then the company has continued to post preview material and has even highlighted a Best Buy interest page. The ROG Ally has been confirmed to be an entirely real bit of gaming hardware that runs via Windows 11. AMD has been revealed as collaborating with ASUS on a custom Ryzen APU for the handheld system, which is advertised as the "fastest AMD APU yet" in the reveal trailer. Exact specifications for this chipset have not been listed, so expect those details as part of a future announcement.

ASUS ROG looks to be pitching the Ally as potential alternative to the Steam Deck, but it is too early to speculate about its exact method of operation (always online, local vs. cloud, etc.). Games journalists and gaming communities have also compared the Ally to the AYANEO 2 and GPD WIN 4. ASUS has informed various web influencers that it is promising "competitive pricing" for the upcoming handheld gaming system. The ROG Ally features a Full HD display and a dual fan cooling system tuned to operate quietly via the ROG Intelligent System. A new version of Armoury Crate offers the user access to various games library sources (including Xbox Games Pass) and custom-mapping of control inputs. Extra graphical grunt can be provided by the external and proprietary ROG XG Mobile eGPU platform.

Following the exodus of many high profile companies within the gaming and entertainment industries, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has announced the cancellation of E3 2023. The event was to be held on June 13th through the 16th at the Los Angeles Convention Center, and would have been the first in-person E3 in 4 years, the last in-person event having been in 2019. In an email sent out to members the ESA stated that E3, "remains a beloved event and brand," but that the 2023 event, "simply did not garner the sustained interest necessary to execute it in a way that would showcase the size, strength, and impact of our industry." The email ends with no mention of the event's future.

ESA has issued an official public statement from Kyle Marsden-Kish, Global VP of Gaming, on the cancellation:

This was a difficult decision because of all the effort we and our partners put toward making this event happen, but we had to do what's right for the industry and what's right for E3. We appreciate and understand that interested companies wouldn't have playable demos ready and that resourcing challenges made being at E3 this summer an obstacle they couldn't overcome. For those who did commit to E3 2023, we're sorry we can't put on the showcase you deserve and that you've come to expect from ReedPop's event experiences.

Ubisoft has reversed its February decision to be a presence at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, instead it will be holding a separate event in the city with coincidental timing. Ubisoft spokesperson Heather Haefner yesterday provided a statement to The Verge: "E3 has fostered unforgettable moments across the industry throughout the years. While we initially intended to have an official E3 presence, we've made the subsequent decision to move in a different direction, and will be holding a Ubisoft Forward Live event on June 12 in Los Angeles. We look forward to sharing more details with our players very soon."

Ubisoft had previously confirmed its attendance in a statement to Games Industry.biz earlier this year: "E3 is a special moment for our industry and we are excited to showcase our strong line-up in Los Angeles in June. We are still finalizing the details of our plans and look forward to sharing more soon." CEO Yves Guillemot has also hinted in the recent past that he wanted the company to attend E3 2023, but this was prior to the whole event being given the go ahead by co-organizers Entertainment Software Association and ReedPOP. E3 2023 is set to be the first in-person Electronic Entertainment Expo event held since 2019.

Today at the Amplify Partner Conference, HP Inc announced its latest line-up of gaming hardware and software designed to bring gamers everything they need to enjoy the games they love. The new OMEN Transcend 16 Laptop, OMEN 16 Laptop, Victus 16 Laptop, and a vast range of stunning OMEN monitors offer casual, hobbyist, lifestyle, and hardcore gamers the power and flexibility to play and work hard. To bring everything together, new enhancements in OMEN Gaming Hub offer a variety of performance and personalization features.

People everywhere seek devices that can adapt to hybrid play and work. Sixty-two percent of gamers prefer a PC that fits their entire life instead of being used for gaming only. With a billion new gamers entering the space in the last seven years and 84 percent of them using games to connect with others with similar interests, gaming devices enable access to countless games and corresponding communities.

REDMAGIC is proud to launch the first generation of its 4K gaming monitor. With an ultra-fast refresh rate of 160 Hz, its display is designed for gamers who demand amazing visual quality and performance. Introduced as a "Dive into the gaming reality", the 27-inch gaming monitor features over 2000 mini-led lights with a 16:9 aspect ratio. It delivers 99% DCI-P3 with a HDR VESA-certified display 1000, and equipped with a dedicated anti-glare feature.

"At REDMAGIC, we believe in providing gamers worldwide with the ultimate e-Sports experience. We strive to deliver high-quality gaming equipment, using professional solutions to optimize the user experience. Our objective is to expand our focus beyond peripherals to other e-sports categories, making multi-terminal gaming more professional and enjoyable for gamers. It is our commitment to provide innovative and high-quality products to the gaming community that we value user feedback and take it seriously in the design and development of our products," said the REDMAGIC team.

Lucky number 13 is also the last week of March and this time around there are a lot of new releases, some of which are highly anticipated console ports, least not courtesy of an HBO TV show, but it doesn't stop there. We also have a WWI strategy game, a slow pace environmental strategy game, a game where you fight bugs and a rather different fishing game in this week's lineup. In fact, it's such a busy week of releases that we've thrown in a few extra games, just because we can.

The Last of Us Part I / This week's AAA title / Tuesday 28 March
Experience the emotional storytelling and unforgettable characters in The Last of Us, winner of over 200 Game of the Year awards. In a ravaged civilization, where infected and hardened survivors run rampant, Joel, a weary protagonist, is hired to smuggle 14-year-old Ellie out of a military quarantine zone. However, what starts as a small job soon transforms into a brutal cross-country journey.

Today, Lenovo announced the latest 8th generation of Lenovo Legion Slim laptops, allowing gamers to harness the freedom that the newest series has to offer. The Lenovo Legion Slim series is all about empowering players to crush their gaming goals while also pursuing their creative passions, and there are more options than ever among the new Lenovo Legion Slim 7i and 7 (16", 8), Lenovo Legion Slim 5i and 5 (16", 8), and—an all-new size for this year—the Lenovo Legion Slim 5 (14", 8), which elevates laptop power and portability to a whole new level. This newest generation of the series is also the first to sport the Lenovo Artificial Intelligence (LA) family of chips. These are onboard physical AI chips that power Lenovo AI Engine+, which dynamically adjusts the Lenovo Legion ColdFront 5.0 thermals to optimize cooling on the fly and maintain maximum output with minimal noise.

Lenovo Legion Slim series laptops are designed to meet the multi-faceted needs of gamers, with an SD slot, rapid charging battery technology Windows 11, three months of free Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, as well as access to Nahimic by SteelSeries 3D immersive audio, and Lenovo Vantage helping users get the most out of their machines. Offering peace of mind, Lenovo's Legion Ultimate Support service is available with round-the-clock tech support, guidance and assistance so gamers don't have to miss a beat, and with Legion Arena, users can create their ultimate gaming hub with all their titles accessible in one place rather than having to switch between apps. Additionally, gamers looking to expand their horizons—literally—can look forward to the new Lenovo Legion R45w-30 44.5" 32:9 ultrawide curved display and the new Lenovo Legion Y34wz-30 Gaming Monitor that delivers extreme clarity and vivid color with its 34-inch mini-LED backlit panel.

Gaming doesn't have to be enjoyed only on a high-end gaming PC. Announced today, Lenovo LOQ—pronounced "lock"—lets new gamers set out on the first steps of their gaming journeys, allowing them to explore new virtual worlds and connect with new real-world communities with gaming devices that are packed with features without breaking the bank. Offering plenty of choice, the brand-new lineup of Lenovo LOQ gaming laptops include the Intel-based Lenovo LOQ 16IRH8 and Lenovo LOQ 15IRH8 laptops as well as the Lenovo LOQ Tower 17IRB8 desktop PC, and the AMD-based Lenovo LOQ 16APH8 and Lenovo LOQ 15APH8 laptops. Inspired by Lenovo's premium Legion-branded gaming line-up, the new Lenovo LOQ line encompasses more than just design features such as the rear I/O notch on its laptops and the shared stylized 'O' in both brands' logos. The two sub-brands are complementary in catering to a wider gaming community, including beginner gamers setting off on their gaming paths to greatness with Lenovo LOQ as well as those leveling up to Lenovo Legion devices to compete against more advanced opponents.

"With the launch of the new Lenovo LOQ brand, we're building a lineage of gaming excellence and PC offerings that are not just for the gaming community's top players, but for new and future gamers alike," said Jun Ouyang, Lenovo's vice president and general manager of the Consumer Business Segment, Intelligent Devices Group. "Lenovo LOQ breaks down barriers to entry for gamers, empowering them to embark on adventures of connection and fun in the gaming world."

ViewSonic Corp., a leading global provider of visual solutions, launches the world's first "Designed for Xbox" projectors. The new X1-4K and short throw X2-4K LED projectors deliver buttery-smooth 4K UHD visuals on a large screen that is 100" combined with the theater-level sound from Harman Kardon speakers, making gaming more immersive and exciting than ever before.

"ViewSonic has been striving to innovate our solutions with a user-centric mindset and provide the utmost audiovisual enjoyment. Besides being the world's first projector brand to receive low blue light certification by TÜV SÜD for eye protection, we are now also introducing the first "Designed for Xbox" projector solution in the industry," said Dean Tsai, General Manager of Projector & LED Display Business Unit at ViewSonic. "We're pleased to partner with Microsoft to bring the best gaming experience to all Xbox gamers with our latest X series LED projectors. We will continue to innovate our projector solutions to elevate the home entertainment experience for all."

CD Projekt has admitted to writing off the development funds spent so far expended on Project Sirius - a codename for a satellite studio produced spin-off game in its best selling The Witcher series. The Polish development and publishing group is restarting Project Sirius from scratch, and it is not clear whether their East Coast USA-based outfit, Molasses Flood, will remain as part of the rebooted cycle. Within a recently released company financial report its reasoning was made clear: "The aforementioned decision is based on results of evaluation of the scope and commercial potential of the original concept of Project Sirius, and ongoing work on formulating a new framework for this project."

CD Projekt had spent over $7 million in 2022 on development costs for Project Sirius. More than $2.2 million has been spent in 2023, presumably right up until the decision to bin all currently completed work. Project Sirius was announced in the autumn of 2022, and at around that time Molasses Flood was undertaking a large scale recruitment drive. The game was in a pre-production phase by the end of the year, with over sixty members of staff confirmed to be working on it. Development was also being supported by members of CD Projekt RED's team at their Warsaw headquarters, and now it is very apparent that the overseers were not happy with what was going on in New England.

Check out the first Aliens: Dark Descent gameplay trailer, announcing that the real-time tactical action game will launch on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC on June 20, 2023. Here's your first look at the upcoming strategy game, which will feature an original story set in the Alien universe. In this gameplay trailer we learn that our ship has crashed onto Planet Lethe, and you'll be investigating a Xenomorph outbreak.

Aliens: Dark Descent challenges us to recruit and level up a squad of Colonial Marines as we explore the dangerous planet. Deploy your team strategically to safely make your way through the zone, but tread carefully as death is permanent.

Cooler Master, the high-performance component and peripherals brand, today announced it worked with D-BOX to produce its latest entry into the gaming chair market, The Motion 1 Haptic Gaming Chair. Cooler Master and D-BOX are currently present at the 2023 Game Developers Conference—GDC, taking place in San Francisco, from March 20 to 24, 2023. We invite all gaming studios to experience the Motion 1 haptic gaming chair at booth P1679 (Games from Quebec)

Motion 1 is the world's first haptic engine gaming chair developed in collaboration with D-BOX, a worldwide leader in haptic technology. Motion 1 is engineered to provide haptic feedback to your games and entertainment. Feel the bullets strafing your canopy in your favorite air battle movie, ocean waves crashing into your boat during a raid in Assassin's Creed Valhalla or the gentle tug as you accelerate in your favorite racing game. It's an entirely new dimension of realistic feedback that enhances your gaming and entertainment in a premium package replete with ergonomic comfort.

This coming week's games have something of a horror theme with a remake of a horror game from 2005, which is also this week's AAA title. Two of the games are even in VR, which could cause some further excitement compared to a regular horror game. Overall it's not a super exciting week for new game releases, unless you're into horror themed games that is.

Resident Evil 4 / This week's Remake & AAA title / Thursday 24 March
Survival is just the beginning. Six years have passed since the biological disaster in Raccoon City. Leon S. Kennedy, one of the survivors, tracks the president's kidnapped daughter to a secluded European village, where there is something terribly wrong with the locals. And the curtain rises on this story of daring rescue and gruelling horror where life and death, terror and catharsis intersect.

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. announced the new Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 Mobile Platform—delivering premium experiences brand new to the Snapdragon 7-series. Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 provides exceptional CPU and GPU performance fueling swift, nonstop gaming, dynamic low-light photography and 4K HDR videography, AI-enhanced experiences and high-speed 5G and Wi-Fi connectivity.

"Snapdragon is synonymous with premium mobile experiences. Today's launch of the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 illustrates our ability to bring some of the most in-demand flagship features to our Snapdragon-7 series—making them accessible to more people," said Christopher Patrick, senior vice president and general manager of mobile handsets, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "We are committed to delivering the most innovative solutions to meet the needs of consumers, our customers, and the industry at large."

Acer will be participating in the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2023 held from March 20-24 in San Francisco to share the latest innovations of its industry-leading SpatialLabs experience. It combines advanced eye-tracking cameras, a stereoscopic 3D display and stereo rendering capabilities to deliver immersive 3D experiences without the need for specialized glasses. With a click of a button, 2D visuals seem to pop out of their screens, giving designers, marketers, and other professionals a unique way of interacting with their creations in 3D views.

SpatialLabs TrueGame
Following its launch in 2021, Acer took it up a notch by bringing its glasses-free stereoscopic 3D technology to the world of gaming through the SpatialLabs TrueGame application. With a Predator Helios 300 SpatialLabs Edition laptop, or a SpatialLabs View display paired with a PC, users can enjoy the supported titles in their true 3D form, delivering immersive gaming experiences as envisioned by their developers. This is possible because games are mostly created with a three-dimensional world in mind as developers include information about depth in each scene and object they build. SpatialLabs leverages this already-existing information in order to present the games in stereoscopic 3D. A dedicated pre-configured profile is now available for each game title, among the 70+ modern and classic titles on launch, to offer players a seamless experience with their favorite games. More profiles for additional titles will be added on a continuous basis moving forward.

Gamers throughout the UK will be able to experience a new level of 4K gaming, with the launch of BenQ's first OLED Gaming Monitor, the MOBIUZ EX480UZ. BenQ, the world-leading human technology and solutions provider, has created a next-level 4K 48" OLED gaming monitor. The newest monitor to join the BenQ and MOBIUZ family boasts a 0.1 ms response time, FreeSync Premium and a 120 Hz refresh rate to support smooth and uninterrupted gameplay.

"We developed the MOBIUZ EX480UZ to offer gamers a new immersive experience with our first OLED monitor," says Royce Lye, Managing Director of BenQ UK & Ireland. "Gamers, either professional or amateur, can enjoy a new audio and visual gaming experience with top-of-the-range display technology that can support smooth, uninterrupted gameplay, but also promote healthy extended used with our latest built-in eyecare technology."

Back in October of last year, pictures from an ASUS event in China appeared online, showing off a pair of mATX motherboards that had most of its peripheral and power connectors on the reverse side of the motherboard. Now it appears that ASUS has decided to launch such a product, in the shape of the unforgettably named TUF Gaming B760M-BTF WiFi D4. The BTF part in the model name stands Back To (the) Future, although ASUS is most likely not allowed to use that term due to copyright restrictions, so it had to make do with BTF. Regardless of naming, the interesting part here is that all of the power connectors, the four SATA ports, the USB-C and USB 3.0 headers, as well as multiple other headers and one of three M.2 slots, are on the reverse side of the motherboard. This is all done to allow for cleaner cable management.

Other noteworthy features on the board include a single PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, one PCIe 4.0 x4 and one x1 slot, three USB-C ports, of which one is capable of 20 Gbps speeds and 2.5 Gbps Ethernet. As this is a mid-range board, we presume ASUS wants to test the waters so to speak, to make sure there's a market for such a product. However, one major hurdle is the small fact that there aren't any suitable chassis in the market and the product page even mentions that "This motherboard is compatible with specific case models", without going into any details. Presumably, ASUS will offer a suitable chassis, or have some partner(s) lined up that will provide a suitable chassis. Gigabyte announced something similar in May last year, but decided to team up with system integrators, something ASUS might be planning on as well.

The world's leading computer brand, GIGABYTE has finally made its highly-anticipated AORUS gaming laptop lineup available on the market, including the AORUS 17X, AORUS 15X, AORUS 17, and AORUS 15. These premium laptops are completely re-designed for high-performance gaming at their cores, offering cutting-edge technologies and optimized portability for an unbeatable gaming experience on the go.

The AORUS 17X and AORUS 15X are the flagship models with maximum performance. These powerful gaming machines boast an Intel 13th-gen 24-core CPU and up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 GPU with a TGP of 175 W, resulting in a noticeable improvement in gaming performance of up to 86% compared to the previous gen, ensuring that even the most demanding games will run smoothly and without lag. The AORUS 17 and AORUS 15 are super-portable gaming laptops, which have received upgrades in the next-gen chips, featuring Intel Core 13th-gen i7 H series processors and up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 GPU with a TGP of 140 W.

This is technically the first full week of game releases in March, but outside of a single AA title—which is technically a remake of a 2008 release—this week's releases are mostly lowkey games. We do at least have a good mix of games to look forward to, ranging from strategy and simulations to adventure and horror, even if they're not from big developers or publishers.

Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse / This week's AA title / Thursday 9 March
A group of children mysteriously disappeared during a festival on Rogetsu Isle. Although they were found, they had lost their memories. Now they have returned to the island as teenagers. The girls rely on the Camera Obscura, a camera with the power to capture and seal away unthinkable horrors, and the faint beam of their flashlight while exploring various locations and fending off the ghosts that attack them as they attempt to discover the truth of their haunting past.

Today, we are doubling the size of our Alienware peripheral suite with options targeting a range of playing styles, tailored experiences and price points. From the deskbound, marathon PC gamers to the maverick who maneuvers throughout multiple gaming environments, our growing ecosystem delivers reliable high-performance gear to span more lifestyles than ever before.

We hope you tuned into our Alienware Update launch event where we welcomed two new high-fidelity headsets (AW720H and AW520H), our first ever gaming wireless keyboard (AW920K), and a sculpted right-handed wireless mouse (AW620M). Pairing effortlessly across the Alienware ecosystem, these new peripherals work in unison with your existing setup to help ensure comfortable, uninterrupted gameplay.