According to Taiwanese United Daily News, Acer and ASUS are expecting the downturn in PC sales to turn around in the second half of the year. That said, Acer reported its worst results in years for the first quarter this year and ASUS is expected to follow suit, when its first quarter earnings numbers are released on Friday this week. The slow sales for both companies are expected to continue for the first half of 2023, but according to the report, there should be an improvement in the second half of the year.

That said, both companies are betting on improved sales of not just PCs to improve their books, as Acer is hoping to sell more displays, while ASUS is focusing on its component business. ASUS has already seen a small improvement in component sales, which the company is hoping is the first signs of a stabilising components market, with more of its potential customers upgrading their systems. That said, with certain components like graphics cards still being priced at levels that many consumers aren't willing to pay for the performance on offer, it might be a slower recovery than these companies are expecting.

Avalanche Software has released quite a big patch for Hogwarts Legacy, improving visual, performance, gameplay, and general stability. In addition to more than 500 bug fixes, it also brings the new Arachnophobia Mode.

Performance-wise, the newest patch resolves general crashes on the PC and various memory leaks, brings plenty of optimizations, fixes ray tracing issues, and more. It also updates minimum driver recommendation for NVIDIA graphics cards, updates NVIDIA DLSS to v3.1.2, AMD FSR to v2.2, and Intel XeSS to v1.1.

Today Electronic Arts Inc. and EA SPORTS announced that F1 23, the official game of the FIA Formula One World Championship, will be released on June 16 across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, via EA App, Epic Games Store, and Steam. Headlined with the return of the epic story mode Braking Point, F1 23 is home to every team, driver and circuit for the 2023 season, including the highly anticipated Las Vegas Grand Prix and Lusail International Circuit, Qatar. Building on the exciting new partnership with Max Verstappen, who now boasts EA SPORTS branding on the chin of his helmet, the back-to-back World Champion is confirmed as the cover star for the digital-exclusive F1 23 Champions Edition.

"The return of Braking Point allows players to immerse themselves in a racing story, which provides a unique look at F1 alongside the authentic race features our players know and love," said Lee Mather, Senior Creative Director at Codemasters. "Our close relationship with the teams has allowed us to refine our handling model, adding greater realism to pad-play, and implementing a new color encoding system used in film and TV creates a more true-to-life experience."

Researchers at the Technical University of Berlin have published a paper called "faulTPM: Exposing AMD fTPMs' Deepest Secrets," highlighting AMD's firmware-based Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is susceptible to the new exploit targeting Zen 2 and Zen 3 processors. The faulTPM attack against AMD fTPMs involves utilizing the AMD secure processor's (SP) vulnerability to voltage fault injection attacks. This allows the attacker to extract a chip-unique secret from the targeted CPU, which is then used to derive the storage and integrity keys protecting the fTPM's non-volatile data stored on the BIOS flash chip. The attack consists of a manual parameter determination phase and a brute-force search for a final delay parameter. The first step requires around 30 minutes of manual attention, but it can potentially be automated. The second phase consists of repeated attack attempts to search for the last-to-be-determined parameter and execute the attack's payload.

Once these steps are completed, the attacker can extract any cryptographic material stored or sealed by the fTPM regardless of authentication mechanisms, such as Platform Configuration Register (PCR) validation or passphrases with anti-hammering protection. Interestingly, BitLocker uses TPM as a security measure, and faulTPM compromises the system. Researchers suggested that Zen 2 and Zen 3 CPUs are vulnerable, while Zen 4 wasn't mentioned. The attack requires several hours of physical access, so remote vulnerabilities are not a problem. Below, you can see the $200 system used for this attack and an illustration of the physical connections necessary.

Following the recent block of the Activision-Blizzard merger with Microsoft by the UK regulatory body, Microsoft is partnering with cloud gaming services to bring extra assurance to regulators that the merger will not harm any segment. Today, Microsoft's Vice Chain and President, Brad Smith, published a Tweet that highlighted the latest deal with Nware, a Spanish company providing cloud PCs to gamers that can stream games from Steam, EGS, and Ubisoft Connect accounts. The Tweet noted that "Microsoft and European cloud gaming platform Nware have signed a 10-year agreement to stream PC games built by Xbox on its platform, as well as Activision Blizzard titles after the acquisition closes. While it's still early for the emerging cloud segment in gaming, this new partnership combined with our other recent commitments will make more popular games available on more cloud game streaming services than they are today."

ASUS today announced ExpertCenter PN42, a mini PC powered by an Intel N100 or N200 processor. The fanless design of this mini PC reduces operational noise and prevents dust from building up inside the chassis. Designed for small or medium-sized businesses, it features up to seven USB ports and can be specified with an additional 2.5 Gbps LAN port and a configurable port for DisplayPort 1.4, VGA, COM, HDMI, or USB-C with DisplayPort 1.2. The integrated graphics of ExpertCenter PN42 enables it to support up to three monitors or two 4K displays simultaneously. It embraces sustainable manufacturing, with a chassis made from recycled plastic.

ExpertCenter PN42 has a robust build quality that ensures durability and reliability. Its fanless design enables it to run almost silently and reduces dust accumulation inside the chassis, making it ideal for quiet environments or industrial use. The ribbed chassis design includes slats to enhance cooling performance, while a dedicated heatsink cools the SSD and WiFi module.

With the launch of Redfall set for early next week, Bethesda has kindly provided some prepwork to consider in advance - a breakdown of the crossover shooter's PC specification requirements (minimum, recommended and ultra) as well as all available accessibility settings and options. They fail to mention any resolution or framerate targets, so it will be up to PC gamers to investigate the nitty-gritty numbers on the day of Redfall's release (May 2). As part of the whole promo campaign NVIDIA has decided to unleash a gameplay trailer (see below) of the game running on a high end PC fitted with a (presumed) high-end GeForce RTX 40-series graphics card.

Redfall's PC audience will get to flex their graphical muscles more so when compared to unfortunate current gen Xbox owners - Bethesda and developer Arkane Studios have recently admitted that their supernatural shooter will be restricted to 30 FPS Quality Mode on Series X and S consoles at launch. A higher framerate performance mode is promised in the future - via a game update - but the Microsoft-owned publisher has not set a more specific release window for the upgrade. The middle and high-tier specifications on PC seem to be quite reasonable, so Redfall is not expected to be a stuttering mess on arrival.

Samsung Electronics today reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2023. The Company posted KRW 63.75 trillion in consolidated revenue, a 10% decline from the previous quarter, as overall consumer spending slowed amid the uncertain global macroeconomic environment. Operating profit was KRW 0.64 trillion as the DS (Device Solutions) Division faced decreased demand, while profit in the DX (Device eXperience) Division increased.

The DS Division's profit declined from the previous quarter due to weak demand in the Memory Business, a decline in utilization rates in the Foundry Business and continued weak demand and inventory adjustments from customers. Samsung Display Corporation (SDC) saw earnings in the mobile panel business decline quarter-on-quarter amid a market contraction, while the large panel business slightly narrowed its losses. The DX Division's results improved on the back of strong sales of the premium Galaxy S23 series as well as an enhanced sales mix focusing on premium TVs.

Sparkle, a Taiwanese computer electronics maker, is again entering the GPU market after almost ten years of inactivity in the space. A while back, Sparkle was one of NVIDIA's original Add-In Board (AIB) partners and helped them launch the GeForce 7900 PCI GPU. The company continued to make NVIDIA-based GPUs until GTX 700 series in 2013. After a decade, Sparkle is back again with ambitions to be Intel's AIB partner and announced not one but three graphics cards to start. Called A750 Titan, A750 Orc, and A380 Elf, these cards feature triple-fan, dual-fan, and single-fan coolers, respectively.

The first in line is the Sparkle A750 Titan, a triple-fan, 2.5-slot design based on Intel Arc A750 GPU. Featuring 8 GB of GDDR6 VRAM, this top-end A750 SKU is clocked at 2300 MHz, up from the factory's 2050 MHz frequency. Titan's smaller brother is Sparkle A750 Orc, a dual-fan, "2.2"-slot (we assume smaller than two and a half and bigger than two slots) GPU with the same A750 GPU; however, it clocked slightly lower at 2200 MHz. Both models feature single HDMI 2.0 and 3x DisplayPort 2.0 output ports and require two 8-pin PCI power connectors. Lastly, we have the Sparkle A380 Elf, a half-length, ITX-sized GPU that fits in two slots and has a single-fan cooler. It is based on Intel Arc A380 and has identical specifications without factory overclocks applied. Pricing and availability are currently unknown.

The global economy has faced increased inflation risks and downstream inventory corrections in 2H22, which have affected IC design houses faster than wafer foundries, as they are far more sensitive and responsive to market reversals. TrendForce reports that adverse factors such as weak overall consumption, restrictions from China, and the slowdown of corporate IT spending and CSP demand have impacted the revenue performance of the world's top 10 IC design houses in 4Q22, leading to a QoQ decline of 9.2%, or approximately US$33.96 billion.

TrendForce predicts that the revenue of these top 10 companies keep declining—though with a slight convergence—into 1Q23, owing to ongoing inventory corrections across the entire supply chain as well as Q1 being the traditional off-season for consumer demand. Demand will continue to be weak despite new product launches and inventory replenishment in the supply chain.

Leading gaming accessory maker Turtle Beach Corporation (Nasdaq: HEAR) today announced its new flagship wireless multiplatform gaming headset - the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro - is now available globally. The coronation of the new king of gaming headsets has begun, with critical acclaim already mounting for the Stealth Pro's top-rated audio quality, best-in-class active noise-cancellation, and wealth of ultra-premium features for gaming on Xbox, PlayStation, Windows PCs, Mac, Nintendo Switch, and mobile devices.

GamesRadar gave the Stealth Pro a 5/5 review score and Editor's Choice Award, calling it, "A masterpiece of an all-in-one, multi-purpose gaming headset," while IGN scored it 9/10 and said Stealth Pro, "is one of the best gaming headsets you can buy," and that it produced, "Some of the best sonics Turtle Beach has ever delivered." Additionally, Windows Central scored Stealth Pro a 5/5 plus the publication's The Best Award and said, "Simply put, Turtle Beach has confidently usurped the best Xbox headset crown with the Stealth Pro. Bravo," and Ga meTryant gave it a full 10/10 score, saying, "This headset truly lives up to the title of King."

Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC ("SIE") announced today it has entered into an agreement with ProbablyMonsters Inc. to acquire Firewalk Studios, a studio of industry-leading creatives developing an original AAA multiplayer game for PlayStation 5 (PS5) and PC. Firewalk will collaborate alongside world-class development teams, including Bungie and Haven Interactive Studios, to define a new generation of live service experiences for PlayStation gamers.

Based in Bellevue, WA, Firewalk was formed in 2018 as part of ProbablyMonsters, an independent AAA game company founded by CEO Harold Ryan (former CEO, President and Chairman at Bungie) that builds sustainable game teams focusing on original AAA games. Firewalk's team of best-in-class developers, led by industry veterans Tony Hsu (Studio Head, previously GM and SVP of Destiny at Activision) and Ryan Ellis (Game Director, previously Creative Director at Bungie), have years of collective expertise on some of gaming's most successful and impactful multiplayer titles. ProbablyMonsters and Firewalk announced an exclusive publishing partnership with SIE in April 2021 and now Firewalk will be the 20th studio to join PlayStation Studios.

We have a fresh batch of games, including many coming your way on day one with Game Pass! Sharpen your stakes, get your coffee, and prep your favorite lo-fi beats while you pre-install your next favorite game.

Available Today
Minecraft Legends (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Available on day one with Game Pass: The piglins are threatening to consume the Overworld. Are you the hero this gentle land needs? Explore lush biomes to make alliances with new friends and familiar mobs, then face the piglins in epic battles. But be warned - they always fight back.

Daedalic Entertainment has published the official PC system requirements for The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, and these are quite high, especially considering that the game has been delayed several times and that it will be available for Nintendo Switch. Even though game has opened up pre-orders on Steam earlier today, many users are wary that the game might be another unoptimized PC port, specifically due to its high RAM and graphics card requirements.

Developed by Daedalic Entertainment and co-published by Daedalic Entertainment and NACON, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum will be available on May 25, 2023 on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and at a later date on Nintendo Switch. As far as PC system requirements are concerned, you'll need at least an Intel Core i7-4770 or AMD Ryzen 5 1600 CPU, 16 GB of RAM, and either an GTX 1080 or RTX 2060 graphics card, and this will get you 1080p resolution at medium preset and no ray tracing. For recommended requirements that will run the game at 1440p with ray tracing and DLSS Quality, you'll need an Intel Core i3-6100 or AMD Ryzen 2600 CPU, a hefty 32 GB of RAM, and an RTX 3080 graphics card. The game will have both DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 support, and need 45 GB of storage space.

SUPER BOMBERMAN R 2 release date confirmed! SBR2 physical launch on SEPT. 12, digital launch on SEPT. 13, 2023! SBR2 is the perfect way to mark the Bomberman series' 40th anniversary this year. Pre-orders are open NOW! The latest title of the party battle games series SUPER BOMBERMAN R! With new adventures and game modes, it has the largest content volume in the series' history! The game features not only offline battles that can be played with family and friends, but also online battles that connect players from all over the world, as well as a single player mode.

In addition to the well-known "Standard", "Grand Prix" and "Battle 64" a new battle mode called "Castle" in which players are divided into Attack side and Castle side to battle for the treasure! A "Stage Editor" function has also been added, allowing players to create their own stages for "Castle" and share them online with players around the globe.

In February, we brought a preview of PC Game Pass to 40 new countries for the first time ever. The response was incredible. Thank you to all the players who jumped in to test the experience and help us shape the preview. New members looking to join PC Game Pass can head to PC Game Pass website to learn more about local pricing as well as how to sign up.

To celebrate the launch, new members will receive a special welcome offer for their first three months for a limited time. Those who were a part of our Insider Program will receive two free months of PC Game Pass membership, with no further action needed, as a thank you for helping us shape the experience and being one of the first PC Game Pass members in your country. This will be available directly in member's accounts in the coming days.

Naughty Dog has released yet another patch for the PC version of The Last of Us Part 1, fixing the so-called mouse camera stuttering. Unfortunately, it does not fix anything else as just four days ago, Naughty Dog released a big patch fixing over 40 bugs.

Naughty Dog is still looking into some other issues like shader loading, various performance and stability issues, potential memory leak issues, and issues with corrupted textures, so this will not be the last patch for the game.

Personal computers (PCs) based on Arm architecture will grow in popularity and their market share will almost double from 14% now to 25% by 2027, according to Counterpoint Research's latest projections. The ability of Arm-based hardware to run Mac OS has allowed Apple to capture 90% of the Arm-based notebook computer market. However, the full support of Windows and Office365 and the speed of native Arm-based app adoption are also critical factors in determining the Arm SoC penetration rate in PCs. Once these factors are addressed, Arm-based PCs will become a viable option for both daily users and businesses.

As more existing PC OEMs/ODMs and smartphone manufacturers enter the market, they will bring their expertise in Arm-based hardware and software, which will further boost the popularity of Arm-based PCs. The availability of more native Arm-based apps will also increase user comfort and familiarity with the platform. Overall, the trend towards Arm-based PCs is expected to continue and their market share will likely increase significantly in the coming years.

The PC Gaming Show 2023 will return on June 11th, despite the fact that E3 2023 show has been cancelled. The show will broadcast on Twitch, Youtube, and other platforms and follow the Xbox Games Showcase, as announced by PC Gamer. PC Gamer has also confirmed that Sean "Day[9]" Plott will be returning as the host of the show.

The PC Gaming Show was started back in 2015 as a response to how the platform was underrepresented at the E3 show, showing reveals, announcements, trailers, and more for the PC platform. The precise broadcast time for the PC Gaming Show will be shared at a later date.

or the fifth consecutive month, International Data Corporation (IDC) has lowered its 2023 forecast for worldwide IT spending as technology investments continue to show the impact of a weakening economy. In its new monthly forecast for worldwide IT spending growth, IDC projects overall growth this year in constant currency of 4.4% to $3.25 trillion. This is slightly down from 4.5% in the previous month's forecast and represents a swing from a 6.0% growth forecast in October 2022.

"Since the fourth quarter of last year, we have seen clear and measurable signs of a moderate pullback in some areas of IT spending," said Stephen Minton, vice president in IDC's Data & Analytics research group. "Tech spending remains resilient compared to historical economic downturns and other types of business spending, but rising interest rates are now impacting capital spending."

INTERCEPTOR: INTRODUCING UPDATE 4.2 - Venture to forsaken Sentinel worlds in update 4.2, INTERCEPTOR! Explore corrupted planets, fight a legion of challenging new robotic guardians, hijack their technology, steal their ships, harvest their resources, destroy their freighters, and much, much more! It's been lovely to watch our players enjoying what Fractal (our first No Man's Sky update of 2023) had to offer and it's been thrilling to watch you all cruising around in your shiny new Utopia Speeders and filling up your Wonders Catalogues with your latest discoveries.

Barely six weeks later and we are delighted to launch another major update for No Man's Sky, and it's one of our largest in recent memory. We're calling Interceptor, with a brand new class of incredibly varied Starship, a bunch of new gameplay features, new world variants and a ton of new content! The ever-present tyrants of universe enforcement, the Sentinels, have become prey to a corruption that is spreading through their factions. Only the bravest Travellers will dare venture to forsaken Sentinel worlds to investigate. Those that do, however, will find abandoned encampments to explore, intriguing crystals to harvest and, for the most persistent, the blueprints for a hitherto undiscovered Sentinel Interceptor starship which come in a huge variety of models.

CD PROJEKT RED's Cyberpunk 2077 is already one of the most technologically advanced games available, using several ray tracing techniques to render its neon-illuminated environments and vast Night City visuals at incredible levels of detail. On April 11th, a new Cyberpunk 2077 update will hit the streets, featuring the technology preview of the Ray Tracing: Overdrive Mode, which enhances the game's already-amazing visuals with full ray tracing, otherwise known as path tracing.

Full ray tracing accurately simulates light throughout an entire scene. It is used by visual effects artists to create film and TV graphics that are indistinguishable from reality, but until the arrival of GeForce RTX GPUs with RT Cores, and the AI-powered acceleration of NVIDIA DLSS, real-time video game full ray tracing was impossible because it's extremely GPU intensive.

Naughty Dog shared a bit more details about fixes and patches coming for Last of Us Part I on PC, as well as the game verification for Steam Deck. As you already know, the PC version of the game had numerous issues and while some were fixed with two previous updates, it appears that two more are coming this week. According to Naughty Dog's official Twitter account, a new hotfix will be coming tomorrow, and a big patch is expected on Friday. The release notes will be available as soon as the hotfix is live, and more information about the big Friday patch is expected soon as well.

Naughty Dog also answered some questions about the Last of Us Part I verification for Steam Deck, and it appears it won't be coming soon as they are prioritizing fixes and patches for PC before submitting it for that same verification. Hopefully, these two new patches will fix the rest of the big issues and Steam Deck verification will come soon, as it was promised by Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann.

Naughty Dog has released its first v1.0.1.5 patch for the PC version of The Last of Us Part I, which fixes several performance issues that plagued PC users since the launch. The PC port of game leaves much to be desired, with a lot of reported crashes, optimization issues, and general gameplay issues, which led to a rather low rating on Steam.

Naughty Dog has already released an official statement over at Twitter, acknowledging issues and scrambling to fix them. "The Last of Us Part I PC players: we've heard your concerns, and our team is actively investigating multiple issues you've reported. We will continue to update you, but our team is prioritizing updates and will address issues in upcoming patches."

Update: The Last of Us Part I v1.0.1.6 Patch has been released on Steam, fixing several other issues. You can check out the full release notes below.

Although NAND suppliers have continued to roll back production, there is still an oversupply of NAND Flash as demand for products such as servers, smartphones, and notebooks is still too weak. Therefore, TrendForce predicts that the ASP of NAND Flash will continue to fall in 2Q23, though that decline may shrink to 5~10%. The key to supply and demand returning to a market equilibrium lies in whether NAND suppliers can cut back on production even more. TrendForce believes if demand remains stable, then the ASP of NAND Flash will have an opportunity to rebound in 4Q23; if demand is weaker than expected, then ASP will take longer to recover.

Client SSD: Currently, PC OEM's have managed to liquidate most of their component inventory, and are now gearing up in preparation for mid-year sales events. Suppliers are cutting prices to clear out their inventories of PCIe Gen 3 SSDs, which are gradually being phased out. Meanwhile, prices of PCIe Gen 4 SSDs continue to face downward pressure due to a slow intake of new customer orders. The continuous decline of QLC products in 1Q23 has also dragged down the prices of TLC products, and there is relatively little room for prices to keep falling in 2Q23. While it still remains unclear whether or not demand will recover, TrendForce projects that the prices of PC client SSDs will drop 5~10% in 2Q23.