Leading gaming accessory maker Turtle Beach Corporation today announced its entry into two large and rapidly growing gaming accessory markets - game controllers and gaming simulation hardware. At E3 2021, the Company revealed two groundbreaking products developed under its best-selling Turtle Beach brand and provided details for the all-new Designed for Xbox Recon Controller and VelocityOne Flight simulation control system. Turtle Beach's entrance into the controller and gaming simulation hardware markets present two major opportunities for the Company to expand its reach by leveraging its strong brand and reputation for creating high-quality gaming hardware.

These new products will provide gamers and simulation fans with first-to-market features and innovations designed to elevate their experiences. The Recon Controller is the first to pair Turtle Beach's signature audio technology with game-winning controls. VelocityOne Flight is the complete flight control system, developed in collaboration with aeronautical engineers and pilots to deliver the most immersive, authentic, and modern PC and Xbox flying experience on the market.

Microsoft's console and gaming division, Xbox, has been working closely with game studios and game developers for years now, and in return for supporting the creation of games, the company gets its platform exclusivity, where the game is only available on Xbox series of consoles. Today, Xbox has decided to unveil a hefty list composing out of AAA titles exclusive to the Xbox Series X|S consoles. Starting off, we have the Forza Horizon 5 game, which delivers the experience of the open world of Mexico, while allowing you to drive the world's greatest cars. The game is set to become available on November 9 on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Xbox Game Pass, PC via Steam on Windows, and Cloud Gaming service, which is in Beta.

Next up is a collaboration with 343 Industries game studio, which has unveiled its next-generation Halo shooter gameplay. Dubbed Halo Infinite, the game is a massive experience set in the world of Halo, which also includes a free-to-play multiplayer element aiming to bring millions of people together across Xbox consoles, cloud, and PC to join the fight. When it comes to new franchises, we have seen the announcement of Redfall, a co-op first-person shooter that sets you in a small island town of Redfall, which has now fallen to the pandemic of vampires, and your goal is to put it to the end. Coming from Arkane Austin, the developers of Prey and Dishonored, the game is sure to be a quality one.

Colorful Technology Company Limited, a professional manufacturer of graphics cards, motherboards, all-in-one gaming and multimedia solutions, and high-performance storage, announces the launch of the GPU History Museum in partnership with NVIDIA. COLORFUL has recently relocated to Shenzhen New Generation Industrial Park. With that, COLORFUL is proud to announce the launch of the first GPU History Museum in China. The museum will showcase the beginnings of the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), to the development and evolution of graphics cards up to the present generation.

Valve, the company behind the Steam gaming platform, will be making an appearance at this year's E3 gaming event. The E3 is taking a form of a virtual trade event this year, which is standard for all of the previous events we had in the past, like Computex 2021. The special appearance this year will come from Valve. According to PC Gamer, Valve will have something to share, more specifically a "message regarding Steam". Usually, Valve doesn't make a lot of appearances at E3 and is not considered a regular there, so this year's E3 show will have the honor to host the company at the PC Gaming Show. This means that we are getting a possibly big announcement from Valve.

The current rumors are suggesting that the company wants to present the SteamPal, a Switch-like portable gaming console that aims to bring gaming on the go, powered by Valve. The exact details of what is to be presented will be unveiled on Sunday, June 13 at 2:30 PM PST / 5:30 PM EST and we will be sure to report about the happenings at E3, so stay tuned for more details.

Cougar has announced a new, RGB-ladden product for gamers far and wide: the Mars Pro 150 gaming desk. The Mars Pro 150 features two RGB strips on the side of the desk, which seems to be adequately-sized for if PC hardware is the only thing you usually put on top of it: 60 x 29.5 x 30 inches (152 x 74.93 x 76.2 cm). It also features a HUB that can serve as a passthrough for multiple monitor setups: the HUB serves up 2x USB 3.0 A, 1x USB Type-C (which can be used as a monitor input so you don't have to connect your laptop directly to an external monitor) and 1x microphone and 1x headphone ports.

The gaming desk is adjustable in height between three set presets, at 29.5, 31.5, or 33.5 inches high (74,93, 80, 85.09 cm). It also features what you'd expect in a premium gaming product, including a carbon fiber-like finish so you actually, really, really feel the speed. No pricing was available at time of writing, but one needs only look at the desk, its design, and its features to recognize that it probably won't be cheap.

When NVIDIA's Ampere GPUs first stormed onto the scene, the GeForce RTX 3090 created an entirely new category of performance for the highest-resolution, highest-refresh-rate graphics and most demanding GPU compute tasks on the market. Now, the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti brings much of the power of that revolutionary graphics card to a wider audience. The RTX 3080 Ti's massive complement of CUDA, RT, and Tensor cores teams up with 12 GB of GDDR6X memory to create a potent package that's tailored for gamers first. And in the hotly contested midrange of the market, the RTX 3070 Ti brings more CUDA, RT, and Tensor cores to bear for mainstream systems.

ASUS has taken advantage of these new, more powerful GPUs to create custom designs that serve up high clock speeds, low temperatures, and whisper-quiet noise levels. The ROG Strix LC GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is our first Ampere card to use a hybrid liquid-cooled design for incredible performance potential, while ROG Strix and TUF Gaming versions of both the RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3070 Ti deliver distinctly different takes on air cooling.

As a leading brand in True Gaming hardware, MSI is announcing new graphics cards powered by NVIDIA's newly-launched GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3070 Ti GPUs. Three designs are available for both GPUs - SUPRIM, GAMING TRIO, and VENTUS 3X - and collectively they form the MSI GeForce RTX 30 Ti graphics card family. Built with the MSI essentials, all of our newly announced graphics card products have excellent cooling, optimized circuit board designs, and the latest in graphics card componentry.

Powered by the NVIDIA Ampere architecture, the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3070 Ti deliver an incredible leap in performance and fidelity with acclaimed features such as raytracing, NVIDIA DLSS performance-boosting AI, NVIDIA Reflex latency-reduction, NVIDIA Broadcast streaming features and additional memory that allows it to speed through the most popular creator applications as well.

XPG, a fast-growing provider of systems, components, and peripherals for Gamers, Esports Pros, and Tech Enthusiasts, today announces that it will launch its new DDR5 gaming memory modules in Q3 2021. The new product series will be known as the CASTER series. The modules will deliever frequencies ranging from 6000 to 7400 MHz and come with capacities of 8, 16, or 32 GB. XPG has been working closely with its motherboard partners, including GIGABYTE, MSI, ASUS, and ASRock, to ensure the highest level of compatibility and ability to realize extreme overclocking performance.

The new DDR5 modules will come in two variants, with and without RGB. Despite this difference, they share a cohesive industrial design. The products' designs convey an understated sense of depth and textural contrast with the use of two surface treatments, one glossy and one matte. For added depth, the matte surface of the modules are beveled for an additional textural element and futuristic look. To communicate the XPG brand, the modules sport diagonal intersecting lines and grooves that form geometric forms and X shapes that play off the XPG brand name and visual identity.

HP introduced its latest gaming hardware and software designed for today's gamers with the powerful OMEN 16 and OMEN 17, bright and customizable OMEN 25i Gaming Monitor, and community gaming with OMEN OASIS Beta feature in OMEN Gaming Hub. The company also debuted Victus by HP, its next-generation mainstream-level gaming PC portfolio, with a 16-inch laptop.

Gaming continues to be an outlet for entertainment and connecting with friends. Two out of three people are spending more time watching videos and gaming than they did prior to the pandemic, with one in four gaming three to four hours more and almost one in five gaming six to ten hours more a week6. HP's next-generation gaming portfolio is designed for both veteran gamers and enthusiast explorers to be entertained, connected, and empowered to progress in their favorite games.

The discrete GPU market has been a duopoly for quite some time, and when Intel announced that the company is rebooting plans for its discrete GPU lineup, another player was about to break that duopoly. Today, that has been changed forever and Intel has officially become the third manufacturer of discrete GPUs, as we can see on the online listing. On BestBuy, CyberPowerPC has listed "Gamer Xtreme Gaming Desktop" powered exclusively by Intel components. When it comes to the CPU choice, Intel's 6C/12T Core i5-11400F CPU model is present without iGPU. Now comes the interesting part. The GPU powering the system is Intel Iris Xe discrete graphics card, which is a DG1 GPU based on Xe-LP SKU.

This model features 80 EUs, resulting in 640 shading units. While this is not any gaming beast, casual 1080p gaming should be just fine on this configuration. The system is listed for 750 US Dollars, and it is sold out, as of the time of writing this. While the performance of this configuration may not be something monumental, it is an important step towards Intel's inclusion in the discrete GPU market. By using OEMs, the GPU will reach a very large market without any major problems. We are waiting to see the first reviews of the system, which will surely take a good look at the card and examine its performance.

SPC Gear, the gaming label of the European manufacturer SilentiumPC, presents a new line of gaming chairs, focusing on high durability, eye-catching appearance and comfortable bucket chair design. The new SR400 series consists of three models using high-quality ecological PU leather and two models utilizing the breathable fabric. The different color schemes and material choices appeal to most gamers on the one hand, while the metal-reinforced frame combined with a backrest and seat made of molded foam ensures high comfort on the other hand. A variety of adjustment options, including the height of the 3D armrests to inclination of the backrest, further improve comfort and sitting posture. Thanks to their attractive design, the SR400 and SR400F both suit gamer's workstation and more toned-down office environments.

TAITRA (Taiwan External Trade and Development Council) announced today that NVIDIA will be delivering a keynote, entitled "The Transformational Power of Accelerated Computing, from Gaming to the Enterprise Data Center" at COMPUTEX 2021 Hybrid. Jeff Fisher, Senior Vice President of NVIDIA's GeForce Business Unit, will present on June 1 at 1:00 pm Taiwan time on the massive opportunities that GeForce PC gaming represents for the Taiwan ecosystem.

Manuvir Das, Head of Enterprise Computing at NVIDIA, will then address "The Coming Democratization of AI." He will share three shifts driving this trend and explain how enterprises that embrace them can thrive in the coming years.

ROCCAT, Turtle Beach Corporation's award-winning Hamburg, Germany-based PC peripheral brand, today announced that the Kone Pro and Kone Pro Air are now available at participating retailers worldwide and from www.roccat.com. Since debuting in 2007, the Kone mice have represented the pinnacle of ROCCAT's precision design and have delivered the competitive feature advantages serious PC gamers need to win. The all-new Kone Pro mice combine ROCCAT's ridiculously fast Titan Optical Switch technology - which registers mouse clicks up to 100 times faster than standard gaming mice - with the signature feel of the brand's fan-favorite Kone shape. ROCCAT has put over a decade's worth of research into hand sizes, grip-types, and ergonomics to make the Kone Pro feel perfectly at home in gamers' hands. Windows Central reviewed the Kone Pro, calling it "an exceptional gaming mouse" with a 4.5/5 review score plus their "Recommended" award. The Kone Pro series mice come in Arctic White and Ash Black. The wired Kone Pro is available for a MSRP of $79.99, and the wireless Kone Pro Air is available for a MSRP of $129.99.

Nintendo Switch is one of the most successful gaming console launches in the past few years. It has seen massive consumer adoption, and Nintendo is even expanding its production. The only logical thing for other companies watching this would be to step in the game and launch their console. That is exactly was the latest rumor suggests about Apple. According to a rumor coming from the South Korean forum, Apple could be preparing a Switch-like design, just with its custom Apple ecosystem surrounding it. As the rumors suggest, the fruit company could get into the console gaming market by launching a product based on custom hardware. Rumors suggest that Apple could use a custom processor to power the console, which wouldn't be like M or A versions the company currently uses. Of course, this is just a rumor and it should be treated as such.

Owing to high demand generated by the proliferation of WFH and distance education, monitor shipment for 2020 reached 140 million units, an 8.6% growth YoY, which represents the highest growth in about 10 years, according TrendForce's latest investigations. With demand persisting through 1H21, monitor shipment for 1Q21 underwent a staggering YoY increase of 34.1%, and this figure is projected to exceed 10% for 2Q21. Total monitor shipment for 2021 will likely reach 150 million units, a 7.3% growth YoY. Gaming monitors, which have been gaining attention in the monitor market, are expected to make up 17.3% of this total and reach 25.9 million units in shipment in 2021. In addition to being one of the most in-demand applications in the stay-at-home economy, this product category has long been a resource-intensive focus of monitor brands and panel suppliers alike.

In collaboration with Newzoo, Intel today released a report titled "Diversity and Inclusion in Gaming." This research identifies industry gaps and key insights in an effort to help make gaming more accessible and inclusive. "To strengthen diversity and inclusion across the gaming space, the industry needs to listen and act on the needs of its diverse gaming audience, as well as make hardware and software more affordable and accessible. As part of Intel's desire to better understand its global customer base, Intel is taking key learnings from this report and shaping current internal and external programs to better serve gamers from all backgrounds and walks of life," said Marcus Kennedy, general manager of Intel's Gaming and Esports Segment.

Newzoo, a leading provider of games and esports analytics, independently conducted a survey of 1,824 individuals in the United States between the ages of 10 and 65 who self-identified as gamers. The survey reveals that the gaming market lags behind in diverse representation, both in the player base and in the games themselves. Women, people of color, the LGBTQIA+ community and those with disabilities are often overlooked.

Sharkoon Technologies is an international supplier of high-performance quality PC components and peripherals. With the Light² 180, Sharkoon introduces the newest member of the Light² family. The gaming mouse aims to impress with an extremely low weight and easy handling. It boasts a high-performance PMW3360 sensor with up to 12,000 DPI and a symmetrical design with a honeycomb-structured upper shell.

A particularly pleasant handling is offered by the low weight of the Light² 180 at only 63 grams. The honeycomb structure of the upper shell should support a secure hold in the hand while it also contributes to the light weight of the Light² 180. However, the shell can be exchanged for a closed version, which is supplied with the mouse, in just a few simple steps - allowing the mouse to be adapted to individual needs. With dimensions of 120 x 63.5 x 39 mm, the Light² 180 is not only one of the lightest, but also the most compact representative of the Sharkoon Light² series. Thanks to its symmetrical shape, the Light² 180 should offer comfortable use, regardless of the preferred grip and playing style.

We already posted our review of the Sharkoon Light² 180.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, today presented two gaming systems of AMD X570 platform with AORUS MODEL X and AMD B550 platform with mini system AORUS MODEL S, which adopt the top-notch components and materials for extreme performance. Enhanced by the strict verification and leading technology, GIGABYTE provides the PC system of extreme performance with optimized heat dissipation and acoustic control. The system maintains cool and quiet even under the full operation, which balance the high performance and low temperature to keep the system acoustic under 40dB without throttling. Furthermore, the three-year warranty of full system offers an ease and comprehensive service for users.

"When tackling the uplift of PC performance, multi-core, high frequency, and copious storage become a must to the premium PC platform, as well as how to make the best components matrix to provide the optimized performance with reliability turns into more inevitable." indicated by Eddie Lin, Vice President of the GIGABYTE Channel Solutions. "The new AORUS system is well-tempered by multiple verification and tuning of GIGABYTE's R&D team, which provide a perfect match of cool, quiet, and powerful performance with compatibility and three-year whole system warranty.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, today presented two gaming systems of Intel Z590 platform with AORUS MODEL X and mini system AORUS MODEL S, which adopt the top-notch components and materials for extreme performance. Enhanced by the strict verification and leading technology, GIGABYTE provides the PC system of premium performance with optimized heat dissipation and acoustic control. The system maintains cool and quiet even under the overclocking, which balance the high performance and low temperature to keep the system acoustic under 40dB without throttling. Furthermore, the three-year warranty of full system offers reassuring and comprehensive service for users.

"When tackling the uplift of PC performance, multi-core, high frequency, and copious storage become a standard to the premium PC platform, as well as how to make the best components matrix to provide the optimized performance with reliability turns into more inevitable." indicated by Eddie Lin, Vice President of the GIGABYTE Channel Solutions. "The new AORUS system is well-tempered by multiple verification and tuning of GIGABYTE's R&D team, which provide a perfect match of cool, quiet, and powerful performance with optimized compatibility, Expandability, and three-year warranty of whole system.

ENACFIRE, an emerging audio accessory brand, is pleased to announce the launch of its G10 wireless earbuds, the first 2-in-1 gaming and lifestyle wireless earbuds in the range. Designed for hours of gaming and music listening, they are small and comfortable to wear with a Role Switch feature and an expertly-tuned sound to enhance listening experiences. The ENACFIRE G10 gaming earbuds are extremely affordable and available to buy for $26.99 from Amazon.com and will be available on Amazon UK from May for £29.99.

With a specific focus on gaming, the G10 include a Role Switch feature to gently streamline the single mode switching process. This allows it to break through the master-slave restrictions of traditional wireless earbuds to flip between Single Earbud and Couple Earbud Mode in a second without the need for a complicated manual connection process. The ultra-low-latency technology from ENACFIRE's proprietary Bluetooth chip helps to accelerate the audio processing to provide a better gaming experience with even more detail to help players immerse themselves into new worlds. Using this Game Mode provides 40% faster speed and high 200 ms transmission delay. Whether playing or listening to music, this will enhance the experience and provide smooth audio.

[Editor's note: Our review of the CORSAIR K55 RGB PRO XT can be found here for those interested.]

CORSAIR, a world leader in high-performance gear for gamers and content creators, today announced a new pair of RGB gaming keyboards for PC gamers to get started on the path to victory: the CORSAIR K55 RGB PRO and K55 RGB PRO XT. These latest entries in the K55 family light up your desktop thanks to dynamic RGB backlighting, and include six dedicated macro keys with Elgato Stream Deck software integration for one-button actions and shortcuts. Whether you're getting started in gaming or looking to upgrade your setup, the K55 RGB PRO and K55 RGB PRO XT offer the essential features and head-turning style that gamers demand.

The new K55 RGB PRO keyboards brilliantly illuminate your battlestation. The K55 RGB PRO features five zones of RGB lighting with six preset onboard lighting effects, while the K55 RGB PRO XT kicks things up a notch with per-key RGB backlighting, offering ten onboard lighting effects and near-limitless customization through CORSAIR iCUE software. With a recently redesigned user interface for even more intuitive control, iCUE unlocks dynamic RGB lighting customization, key remaps, and powerful in-game macros. iCUE also coordinates system-wide synchronization of your RGB lighting, along with exclusive iCUE game integrations when playing select games for the most immersive experience possible.

MonsterLabo, the maker of fanless PC cases designed for gaming with zero noise, has today tested its upcoming flagship offering in the case lineup. Called The Beast, the case is designed to handle high-end hardware with large TDPs and dissipate all that heat without any moving parts. Using only big heatsinks and heat pipes to transfer the heat to the big heatsink area. In a completely fanless configuration, the case can absorb and dissipate a CPU TDP of 150 Watts and a GPU TPD with 250 Watts. However, when equipped with two 140 mm fans running below 500 RPM, it can accommodate a 250 W CPU, and 320 W GPU. MonsterLabo has tested the fully fanless configuration, which was equipped with AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT processor, paired with NVIDIA's latest GeForce RTX 3080 Ampere graphics card.

There were no fans present in the system to help move the heat away, and the PC was being stress-tested using Microsoft's Flight Simulator. The company has posted a chart of CPU and GPU temperatures over time, where we see that the GPU has managed to hit about 75 degrees Celsius at one point. The CPU has remained a bit cooler, where the CPU package hit just above the 70-degree mark. Overall, the case is more than capable of cooling the hardware it was equipped with. By adding two slow-spinning fans, the temperatures would get even lower, however, that is no longer a fanless system. MonsterLabo's The Beast is expected to get shipped in Q3 of this year when reviewers will get their hands on it and test it for themselves. You can watch the videos in MonsterLabo's blog post here.

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. announced the latest addition to its 7-series portfolio, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 780G 5G Mobile Platform. Snapdragon 780G is designed to deliver powerful AI performance and brilliant camera capture backed by the Qualcomm Spectra 570 triple ISP and 6th generation Qualcomm AI Engine, allowing users to capture, enhance, and share their favorite moments seamlessly. This platform enables a selection of premium-tier features for the first time in the 7-series, making next generation experiences more broadly accessible.

"Since introducing the Snapdragon 7-series three years ago, more than 350 devices have launched based on 7-series mobile platforms. Today, we are continuing this momentum by introducing the Snapdragon 780G 5G Mobile Platform," said Kedar Kondap, vice president, product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "Snapdragon 780G was designed to bring in-demand, premium experiences to more users around the world."

Some of you may have noticed I recently covered a Kickstarter keyboard, the Marsback M1, and there's another one just round the corner too. While looking at the Kickstarter link for more details, I went down a rabbit hole and found some fantastically bizarre items that maybe are worth a short series on. First up, and from MSI themselves, is the Liberator! What it liberates you from, or at least aims to do so, is the use of a keyboard+mouse combination for directional movement by instead offering foot controls in the form of a pedal. The tech in itself is not new, with several ergonomic designs come out over the years for those physically challenged or even just wanting to make better use of legs and improving circulation while sitting down for hours. This take, however, is my first introduction to a gaming foot pedal, because why not slap gaming on everything in addition to the mandatory RGB lighting?

MSI has been quiet about the Liberator, despite a supposed debut of March 16 (today!). There is a dedicated Facebook page for the product which is chock-full of hilarious marketing that you need to use, albeit in Mandarin, and Google Translate does not do it much justice either. This in turn leads to the Typeform page which, again in Mandarin, walks you through some of the salient features including three large pads with Omron-branded switches, game/macro compatibility with some AAA games including the Far Cry series in addition to some racing games, and localized pricing information that leads us to believe this will be a relatively expensive product (~$100 discounted on the crowdfunding platform, ~$140 otherwise) with the usual caveat of how directly converting foreign currency prices is best for an estimate only. What do you think about the MSI Liberator? Share your thoughts in the comments section and let us know if this is something you want to see announced globally.

As security and innovation collide, Denuvo by Irdeto today announces it has joined the exclusive PlayStation 5 Tools and Middleware program. Denuvo, the leader in video games protection, offers its Anti-Cheat solution through this program to publishers and developers whose games are available on PlayStation 5.

Denuvo is at the forefront of games security with over 2 billion unique game installs protected across all platforms, and over 1,000 games secured. Joining the PlayStation 5 Tools and Middleware program therefore fosters Denuvo's continued commitment to excellence and innovation in game security. It also supports Denuvo's goal of protecting the developers' investment, where approximately 70% of their revenue is earned in the first two weeks after the launch of a game.