The final DLC in the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Expansion Pass launches for the Nintendo Switch system on April 25. The trailer gives viewers a glimpse into the scenario of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Expansion Pass Vol. 4 - Future Redeemed. Set before the events of the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 game, players join a cast of new and familiar characters in an original story scenario that connects all three installments in the Xenoblade Chronicles series. Future Redeemed also features new battle mechanics, such as Unity Combo, where two characters can attack in unison.

In Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Aionios is the backdrop to an endless conflict between two opposing nations: Keves and Agnus. Through a chance encounter, a group of six soldiers hailing from both rival nations resolve to put aside their differences and work together to expose a new threat - far greater than that of their ceaseless battle. Players can join Noah, Mio and their friends as they traverse epic landscapes, battle ferocious creatures and fight to break the never-ending cycle of violence that binds their homelands.

TrendForce reports that the US Department of Commerce recently released details regarding its CHIPS and Science Act, which stipulates that beneficiaries of the act will be restricted in their investment activities—for more advanced and mature processes—in China, North Korea, Iran, and Russia for the next ten years. The scope of restrictions in this updated legislation will be far more extensive than the previous export ban, further reducing the willingness of multinational semiconductor companies to invest in China for the next decade.

CHIPS Act will mainly impact TSMC; and as the decoupling of the supply chain continues, VIS and PSMC capture orders rerouted from Chinese foundries
In recent years, the US has banned semiconductor exports and passed the CHIPS Act, all to ensure supply chains decoupling from China. Initially, bans on exports were primarily focused on non-planar transistor architecture (16/14 nm and more advanced processes). However, Japan and the Netherlands have also announced that they intend to join the sanctions, which means key DUV immersion systems, used for producing both sub-16 nm and 40/28 nm mature processes, are likely to be included within the scope of the ban as well. These developments, in conjunction with the CHIPS Act, mean that the expansion of both Chinese foundries and multinational foundries in China will be suppressed to varying degrees—regardless of whether they are advanced or mature processes.

Explore a city turned supernatural in this free update including a new rogue-lite "The Spider's Thread" game mode, more side missions, new enemies, new skills, Photo Mode enhancements and more. Plus, Ghostwire: Tokyo is available now on Xbox Series X|S and Microsoft PC Store. Paranormal forces have taken over Tokyo, with nearly all the human populace vanishing in an instant.

The city's denizens have been replaced by beings from another world - yōkai, evil spirits, myths and urban legends brought to life. But now isn't the time to fear the unknown…face it in Ghostwire: Tokyo, now featuring the all-new Spider's Thread update! The Spider's Thread update, available now for all Ghostwire: Tokyo players, adds a new rogue-lite mode to the game on top of other additions to the base campaign, including new enemies, new skills, new areas to explore, new side missions, extended story cinematics, Photo Mode enhancements and more!

Sony is not happy about the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) recent provisional approval of Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and has highlighted the apparent removal of a Microsoft-owned game from being developed on the PlayStation 5. According to legal documents submitted to the UK government, Sony has taken issue with the watchdog's sudden change in opinion - the CMA's position was highly critical at the start of the year - and suspects that Microsoft's expensive PR campaign and submitting of "new evidence" to international competition regulators have influenced a change in direction of rulings. Sony's statement bears down on the unfair nature of the bid's approval: "The CMA's reversal of its position on its consoles theory of harm is surprising, unprecedented, and irrational."

Japan's Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) was the latest anti-trust governing body to give the takeover a thumbs-up, almost two weeks ago - a dramatic turn of events given that it happened on Sony's home turf. The embattled electronics corporation has taken notice of fresh developments in the press, and proceeded to mention controversy surrounding the Redfall platform war. Harvey Smith, the game's creative director, let slip too many details during a promotion tour and seemingly admitted that the higher-ups at Microsoft's Xbox division had decided to can the PlayStation 5 version of Redfall in favor of keeping it exclusive to Xbox, Game Pass and PC. Arkane Studios, as part of the ZeniMax Media Group, was acquired by Microsoft in 2021 - and certain games, already in development, were later released on the PlayStation 5 as timed exclusives, Deathloop being a prime example of this.

The Japanese government, on Friday March 31, announced that it plans to place restrictions on its export of 23 types of semiconductor manufacturing equipment. This follows similar efforts announced by other nations, including the USA and the Netherlands. In a news conference, the Minister for Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Yasutoshi Nishimura stated: "We are fulfilling our responsibility as a technological nation to contribute to international peace and stability." The press release makes no mention of a trade battle between the USA or China, but the implication is that METI is limiting the latter's access to Japan's most advanced chip making equipment.

Nishimura-san continues: "If our exports are not being re-appropriated for military use, we will continue exporting. We believe the impact on companies will be limited." The U.S. government has called on its allies to prevent China's access to semiconductor manufacturing technology in order to slowdown domestic technological and military advancement. Japan and the Netherlands have previously agreed, back in January of this year, to restrict exports to China of equipment that could be used to churn out sub-14 nm chips.

According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Enterprise Infrastructure Tracker: Buyer and Cloud Deployment, spending on compute and storage infrastructure products for cloud deployments, including dedicated and shared IT environments, increased 16.3% year over year in the fourth quarter of 2022 (4Q22) to $24.1 billion. Spending on cloud infrastructure continues to outgrow the non-cloud segment although the latter had strong growth in 4Q22 as well, increasing 9.4% year over year to $18.7 billion. For the full year, cloud infrastructure grew 19.4% to $87.7 billion, while non-cloud grew 13.6% to $66.7 billion. The market continues to benefit from high demand, large backlogs, rising prices, and an improving infrastructure supply chain.

Japan's competition regulator, Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC), yesterday issued a press release in which it announces an approval of Microsoft's proposed $69 billion takeover of Activision Blizzard. The JFTC's review has concluded and their members have: "reached the conclusion that the transaction is unlikely to result in substantially restraining competition in any particular fields of trade." This represents another regional victory for Microsoft, and follows last week's approval of the deal by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The JFTC has informed both Microsoft and Activision Blizzard that a cease and desist order will be not be issued, thus completing its investigation.

The timing of this new development is raising eyebrows - in last week's Senate Finance Committee, several US Members of Congress raised concerns about Sony's "monopoly" over the Japanese gaming market. The Japanese government was also accused of being complicit in its inaction and has: "allowed Sony to engage in blatant anti-competitive conduct through exclusive deals and payments to game publishers." Games industry watchdogs have questioned why another rival console and games company, Nintendo, was not brought up as subject matter in the debate. Microsoft has dedicated considerable resources into getting its proposed deal approved by international antitrust watchdogs, and has even offered to expand the Activision Blizzard games library onto Nintendo hardware platforms.

Japanese OLED display manufacturer JOLED has decided to throw in the towel, as the company board has filed for bankruptcy protection at the Tokyo District Court. JOLED has some 33.7 billion yen (US$257 million) in liabilities and is hoping to cover some of these by selling off assets. The Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ), which is the largest shareholder of JOLED, will be taking over its R&D department, along with around 100 employees as well as its intellectual property. However, it will not take over either of JOLEDs two fabs, located in Nomi and Chiba, Japan. The two fabs employ around 280 staff and currently the two fabs building displays using JOLED's innovative printing technology for OLED displays are expected to be closed.

However, as JOLED still has supply contracts with the likes of Apple, ASUS, Eizo, LG and Sony, INCJ will continue to operate the fabs for now, to fulfil the contracts for the time being. INCJ is apparently accepting responsibility to cover JOLED's liabilities, sheltering the other shareholders of JOLED, which includes Japanese Denso and Chinese CSOT/TCL. JOLED has struggled for most of its existence, being late to market with its OLED displays and haven't been able to compete with the likes of LG and Samsung in Korea and BOE Display and CSOT in China. Hopefully INCJ will be able to take advantage of the intellectual property from JOLED, as the company is focusing on making its own line of OLED displays in the future.

Nintendo is ramping up publicity efforts for its upcoming sequel to Breath of the Wild, which was a ratings and sales smash upon launching in Spring 2017 for the Japanese company. Tears of the Kingdom is the latest addition in the long running Legend of Zelda series and is set for release on May 12. In a newly released video that clocks in at a generous 13 and a bit minutes in length, the game's producer Eiji Aonuma demonstrates multiple aspects of gameplay - including Link's new abilities, refined combat systems, weapon crafting, vehicle building via puzzle mechanics and the transition from sky to land areas.

Aonuma-san starts off the video presentation by announcing that the development cycle for Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has been completed (reached gold status in industry terms). The game is due to launch internationally in mid-May, so it is encouraging that the development team is, allegedly, not tinkering under the hood until the very last minute. Tears of the Kingdom has been delayed since it was first teased at E3 2019 - development began in 2017 following the completion of its predecessor, Breath of the Wild. Nintendo initially announced an estimated release window in 2022, but presumably due to world changing events, the game was pushed back to Q2 2023.

Mitsui & Co., Ltd., one of Japan's largest business conglomerates, is collaborating with NVIDIA on Tokyo-1—an initiative to supercharge the nation's pharmaceutical leaders with technology, including high-resolution molecular dynamics simulations and generative AI models for drug discovery.

Announced today at the NVIDIA GTC global AI conference, the Tokyo-1 project features an NVIDIA DGX AI supercomputer that will be accessible to Japan's pharma companies and startups. The effort is poised to accelerate Japan's $100 billion pharma industry, the world's third largest following the U.S. and China.

-NTT sonority, Inc. (President: Hiroshi Sakai), a member of the NTT Group, one of the world's largest technology and business solutions companies, has entered the consumer electronics market via the development of an entirely new type of earphone using a unique technology called the "Personalized Sound Zone" (PSZ). The company has announced plans to commercially release the world's first open-ear PSZ technology developed by NTT Corporation (NTT) that locks audio into a small, individualized space. Crowdfunding for the wireless model nwm MBE001 on-ear speakers equipped with PSZ technology will begin on March 27, 2023, through Indiegogo. NTT sonority's audio brand nwm will continue to enhance its products with PSZ at their core, maximizing consumer safety and allowing users to experience the comfort of being connected through sound without having to worry about sound leakage.

NTT sonority's New Wave Maker (nwm) audio brand was created in November 2022 with the goal of creating an optimal audio experience. The company aims to expand its audio solutions to address future ways of working and living by creating not just a sense of immersion, but the comfort of being connected.

Microids and TMS are pleased to announce that Cobra, the video game, is currently in the pre-production stage. Adapted from the Japanese animation series produced by TMS Entertainment (based on illustrations and comic books created by Buichi Terasawa), the video game provides players the opportunity to step into Cobra's shoes as the famous galactic bounty hunter, in a futuristic and colourful universe on consoles and PC.

Created in 1978, the cult manga Cobra has fascinated many generations of fans with its complex plot known for its many twists and turns. With his legendary Psycho Gun attached to his left arm, and his iconic partnership with Lady, the notorious space pirate Cobra has captivated audiences for decades.

Arm Holdings, the Cambridge, UK-based chip designer, is seeking public listing solely in the USA. This major decision has struck a blow to the UK Government's efforts to encourage a dual public listing. Multiple Prime Ministers and high level staff have been in regular meetings with the Arm Executive Team. The current UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak met with Arm's CEO Rene Haas and SoftBank's founder and Chief Executive Masayoshi Son back in January of this year. It was reported that the meeting was a last ditch attempt to secure an application for UK listing from both companies. Arm Senior Team members have also been in talks with representatives from the London Stock Exchange.

We're about to enter the third month of the year and after last week's loaded release schedule, it appears that we're back to more of an average week of new game releases. This week's AAA title is an RPG game from Japan and we also decided to include a DLC in this week's roundup, simply because it's for a very popular game which often has over 100k PC players online, not taking console players into account.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty / This week's AAA title / Friday 3 March
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is a dramatic, action-packed story of a nameless militia soldier fighting for survival in a dark fantasy version of the Later Han Dynasty where demons plague the Three Kingdoms. Players fight off deadly creatures and enemy soldiers using swordplay based on the Chinese martial arts, attempting to overcome the odds by awakening the true power from within.

The rumour mill has kicked into high gear this week about TSMC planning a second fab in Japan. The original source is the Nikkan Kogyo newspaper (via Reuters), based in Tokyo, although it's unclear where the actual fab would be located, if it's indeed even happening. According to the paper, the new fab would be focusing on 5 and 10 nanometer chips, but production isn't expected to start until sometime in the second half of this decade. This suggests that these would be mainstream nodes by then, which points to yet another fab for either the vehicle industry or something similar.

The fab is said to cost more than a trillion yen, or over US$7.4 billion to build. TSMC's CEO C.C. Wei was asked about the potential fab during TSMC's latest earnings call, but simply said that the company had nothing further to add. TSMC is of course busy building a fab in Japan on Kyushu island, but as it'll have a node capacity for 12 to 16 nm parts, it makes sense that TSMC would already be planning for an extension of said fab that can produce on more advanced nodes as its customers will be moving to more advanced nodes over time.

Razer, the leading global lifestyle brand for gamers, today announced an all-new collaboration with the iconic, Japanese denim brand, EVISU. Founded in Osaka, Japan, in 1991, EVISU is known for its famous seagull logo and is one of the ultimate denim must haves, embraced by both collectors and hipsters alike. The collection is one of Razer's many forays into streetwear as a lifestyle brand with the aim of bringing more collaborative collections catering to gamers worldwide. The brands will be launching a limited Razer | EVISU capsule collection, featuring EVISU's iconic apparels and Razer's award-winning peripherals.

"Razer has launched collaborations with fashion and lifestyle partners that are best in class to great success. This time, we're extremely excited to work with the team at EVISU that is known for their commitment to quality and craftsmanship for our next capsule collection," said Addie Tan, Associate Director of Business Development at Razer. "With our knowledge on gaming lifestyle and EVISU's expertise on denim and streetwear fashion, Razer and EVISU have reimagined what it means to be a gamer."

iBUYPOWER, a leading manufacturer of high-performance custom gaming PCs, today announced the new RDY Ouro Kronii system featuring the special edition Y60 Ouro Kronii PC case.

"It's been an incredible journey collaborating with Kronii and hololive Engish," said King Perez de Tagle, Marketing Executive Producer of HYTE and iBUYPOWER. "It's about time The Warden of Time gets a high-performance gaming PC and the RDY Ouro Kronii limited edition systems are ready to ship. stay tuned for even more!" The RDY Ouro Kronii will boast the latest Intel Core i9 13900K or KF CPU, NVIDIA RTX 4070 Ti GPU, Z790 motherboard, and the custom Y60 Ouro Kronii PC case. The RDY Ouro Kronii will provide users with maximum performance in virtually any application with reliable components and iBUYPOWER's expert assembly.

Antec Inc., leading provider of high-performance computer components and accessories for the gaming, PC upgrade and Do-It-Yourself market, broadens its Gold series with three models offering 650 W, 750 W or 850 W. The 80 PLUS GOLD rating and modular cabling make the Neo Eco Gold Modular a great and affordable choice to Antec's range of industry-leading power supplies. They are now commercially available from 109 € (suggested retail price including VAT).

The brand-new NeoECO Gold Modular series was born ready for the best DIY-PC experience, and it also serves exceptional performance and outstanding stability. Featuring 100% full modular design and 80 PLUS Gold certification, the NeoECO Gold Modular series keeps the PC hardware installation convenient and clean. It provides highly efficient power to your system and reduces your electricity bills.

According to Bloomberg, Japan and the Netherlands are getting ready to join the US in limiting access to advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment for China. The three nations are currently in talks—that might end as soon as today—over how they can impose joint limits on what kind of equipment and tools can be exported to China. Apparently there will be no official announcement if a deal is struck, instead the restrictions will simply be implemented as required.

Bloomberg states that the Netherlands will expand export restrictions that ASML is already under, which according to the publication means stricter export rules around DEUV machines, which are used in cutting edge semiconductor nodes. Japan is said to implement similar export restrictions for Nikon as well as Tokyo Electron, with the US already having implemented restrictions for Applied Materials. The export restriction deal is in part being done to appease US equipment makers, who have complained that their international competitors haven't been under the same export restrictions when it comes to China, as they have. The question is if the export restrictions will hinder China in the long run, or if the nation will simply push ahead and develop its own, competing semiconductor manufacturing tools.

Update Jan 28th: Japan and the Netherlands reached an agreement with the US on Friday and the two countries are said to be making individual announcements with regards to their individual agreements with the US.

According to a report from Bloomberg, Western Digital and Kioxia are holding new talks about a potential merger of both companies' flash production businesses. The merger appears to be quite complex, as not only does it involve Western Digital spinning off its flash production business unit, which is then said to be merged with Kioxia, into what will be a publicly traded company in the US, but there will also be a second listing in Japan for the company.

Considering that Kioxia came out of Toshiba's DRAM and NAND flash manufacturing business, in which Western Digital was a partner until Toshiba divested its business into Kioxia. This caused quite some tension between the two companies, but Western Digital and Kioxia kept producing NAND flash in the shared facilities. The report by Bloomberg suggests that a management team from Western Digital will be running the combined company, which could potentially lead to future issues between the US and Japanese sides of the company. Time will tell if a merger will actually take place or not, as the two companies failed to come to an agreement in 2021, but it's possible that something has changed since then. Back in 2021, the merger was valued at US$20 billion plus.

TrendForce's recent analysis of the foundry market reveals that demand continues to slide for all types of mature and advanced nodes. The major IC design houses have cut wafer input for 1Q23 and will likely scale back further for 2Q23. Currently, foundries are expected to maintain a lower-than-ideal level of capacity utilization rate in the first two quarters of this year. Some nodes could experience a steeper demand drop in 2Q23 as there are still no signs of a significant rebound in wafer orders. Looking ahead to the second half of this year, orders will likely pick up for some components that underwent an inventory correction at an earlier time. However, the state of the global economy will remain the largest variable that affect demand, and the recovery of individual foundries' capacity utilization rates will not occur as quickly as expected. Taking these factors into account, TrendForce currently forecasts that global foundry revenue will drop by around 4% YoY for 2023. The projected decline for 2023 is more severe when compared with the one that was recorded for 2019.

According to news out of Taiwan, TSMC will hold a ceremony to mark the official mass production start of its 3 nm node on the 29th of December. This is said to help "shatter doubts about de-Taiwanization" or in simpler terms, that Taiwan will lose its golden goose as TSMC invests abroad. The 3 nm fab—known as fab 18—is based in southern Taiwan's Tainan and the ceremony also marks the start of an expansion of TSMC's most advanced fab. TSMC is said to be kicking off its N3E node production sometime in the second half of 2023, followed by its N3P node in 2024, all of which should take place at fab 18, which also produces 5 nm wafers.

In related news, according to Reuters, a Japanese lawmaker from the ruling party has said that TSMC is considering a second plant in Japan, in addition to its current joint venture that is already under construction. TSMC's response to Reuters was that the company isn't ruling out Japan for future fabs, but that the company doesn't have any current plans. At the same time, TSMC is said to be sending executives to Dresden, Germany in early 2023, for a second round of talks about building a fab to help support the European auto industry, although this would be a 28/22 nm fab, which is far from cutting edge these days, although a lot more advanced than most fabs making chips for the auto industry.

Global market intelligence firm TrendForce states that Chinese memory manufacturer YMTC is now at risk of exiting the market for 3D NAND Flash products by 2024 following its formal placement on the Entity List of the US Commerce Department on December 15. From this point forward, the Commerce Department will be reviewing and approving individual transactions related to the exportation, re-exportation, and sales of equipment, technologies, and other related goods from the US to YMTC. With acquisitions of equipment parts and technical support from its US partners becoming very difficult and prolonged, YMTC is going to be severely constrained from raising its bit output. Hence, its foothold on the market for 3D NAND Flash products is expected to weaken as time goes by.

TrendForce points out that without the support of the key equipment providers, YMTC is now facing a huge technical obstacle in the development of its latest 3D NAND Flash technology known as Xtacking 3.0. In particular, raising yield rate for the 128L and 232L processes is going to be extremely challenging for the Chinese memory manufacturer. Taking account of this latest escalation in the US-China trade dispute, TrendForce has further corrected down its projections on YMTC's supply bit growth rate and the total NAND Flash supply bit growth rate for next year. YMTC supply bits were initially forecasted to grow by 60% YoY for 2023. However, there was a massive downward correction that put its growth rate at just 18%. Now, YMTC is forecasted to post a YoY decline of 7%, which is a complete reversal from the earlier projections.

Global sales of total semiconductor manufacturing equipment by original equipment manufacturers are forecast to reach a new high of $108.5 billion in 2022, rising 5.9% from the previous industry record of $102.5 billion in 2021, SEMI announced today in its Year-End Total Semiconductor Equipment Forecast - OEM Perspective at SEMICON Japan 2022. The record high caps three consecutive years of record revenue. The global total semiconductor manufacturing equipment market is expected to contract to $91.2 billion next year before rebounding in 2024 driven by both the front-end and back-end segments.

"Record fab constructions have driven total semiconductor manufacturing equipment sales to cross the $100 billion mark for a second straight year," said Ajit Manocha, SEMI president and CEO. "Emerging applications in multiple markets have set expectations for significant semiconductor industry growth this decade, which will necessitate further investments to expand production capacity."

The worldwide semiconductor industry is projected to invest more than $500 billion in 84 volume chipmaking facilities starting construction from 2021 to 2023, with segments including automotive and high-performance computing fueling the spending increases, SEMI announced today in its latest quarterly World Fab Forecast report. The projected growth in global factory count includes a record high 33 new semiconductor manufacturing facilities starting construction this year and 28 more in 2023.

"The latest SEMI World Fab Forecast update reflects the increasing strategic importance of semiconductors to countries and a wide array of industries worldwide," said Ajit Manocha, SEMI president and CEO. "The report underscores the significant impact of government incentives in expanding production capacity and strengthening supply chains. With the bullish long-term outlook for the industry, rising investments in semiconductor manufacturing are critical to laying the groundwork for secular growth driven by a diverse range of emerging applications."