You heard us the first time! The demo is playable RIGHT NOW! GO GO! Welcome to Kaso-Machi, where chaos goblins and crime mysteries await! For the first time EVER, you can get hands on with our colourful, sentient (of course, why wouldn't they be?!) mascots, get behind the wheel of your truck, and start discovering the mysteries that await you in Promise Mascot Agency! GO GO GO!

Delve into this open-world, genre-bending, creature collector, RPG. Be the boss, turn a profit, and collect the most chaotic roster of bizarre mascots. Severed pinky fingers run businesses? Sobbing Tofu! A Very Innocent Cat!? Oh my! Experience the star-studded cast FOR THE FIRST TIME! Featuring the dulcet tones of Takaya Kuroda (Yakuza's Kiryu Kazuma), Ayano Shibuya (Zelda Breath of the Wild & Tears of the Kingdom), and introducing Nobuyuki Hiyama (The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask) as Captain Sign! So what are you waiting for? Mascots of every variety are waiting to be put on your books in this epic new 80-minute demo, now available as part of Steam Next Fest!

Overclockers UK, one of the largest PC retailers in the UK, has shared insights on their X account about the estimated time of arrival (ETA) for GPU restocking. Starting with the newest GeForce RTX 5070 Ti GPUs, the OCUK post notes that RTX 5070 Ti is sold out, and pre-orders are open now, with more GPU stock arriving in two to four weeks. Next up is the GeForce RTX 5080, which is sold out with limited stock arriving weekly, with an ETA of one to three weeks. However, the worst ETA stock re-supply is for the RTX 5090. OCUK notes that the RTX 5090 is sold out, and pre-orders have ceased. The ETA schedule ranges between 2-14 weeks, which is almost 100 days of waiting for RTX 5090 in the UK.

We previously reported that NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5070 and RTX 5060 have faced some production issues with NVIDIA working on it to push out new stock in the coming weeks. However, the situation is not exclusive to these upcoming GPUs, as the stock of the current GPUs is getting grabbed by each minute. OCUK also noted that: "If you have purchased any RTX 50 series GPU but not yet received a dispatch confirmation email, your order is now in a pre-order queue and we are working with our supply chain to fulfil within the ETAs above, or sooner if possible. As always, anyone who does not wish to wait is welcome to cancel for a full refund."

In nearly every corner of our lives, the buzz about AI is impossible to ignore. It's destined to revolutionize how we work, learn, and play. For those of us immersed in the world of gaming—whether as players or creators—the question isn't just how AI will change the game, but how it will ignite new possibilities.

At Xbox, we're all about using AI to make things better (and more fun!) for players and game creators. We want to bring more games to more people around the world and always stay true to the creative vision and artistry of game developers. We believe generative AI can boost this creativity and open up new possibilities. We're excited to announce a generative AI breakthrough, published today in the journal Nature and announced by Microsoft Research, that shows this potential to open up new possibilities—including the opportunity to make older games accessible to future generations of players across new devices and in new ways.

With Atomfall coming to PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Game Pass in just over a month (arriving on March 27), today we released the latest trailer for the game. Featuring -new gameplay, the trailer highlights the main features that you will experience when you enter the quarantine zone. I thought now would be a good time to give you more information on some of the game's key features and what you can expect when you play Atomfall. The trailer (see below) starts at the very beginning of the game. You wake up in a dark and eerie bunker and are met by a wounded man in a hazmat suit who immediately asks who you are and asks for your help. The problem is you don't know who you are, or how you got there. He tells you that you are inside a quarantine zone, built around the Windscale Atom plant following a nuclear disaster.

Set in the luscious British countryside in 1962, Atomfall is a fictionalized telling of what happened five years after true events in Northern England. It is a game about investigation and discovery—as you try to uncover the mystery behind what really happened at Windscale, but also who you are and what you're doing there. There is plenty to explore beyond the rolling hills of Cumberland, including a picturesque village, bandit camps, caves, tunnels, and mysterious buildings and facilities left abandoned by the British Atomic Research Division. All of these will hold their own secrets for you to discover. You will find clues about what has happened and learn more about the colorful characters you meet along the way - but there is no clear single "truth", and different people interpret what happened in different ways. This feeds into the game's "Leads" system, our new take on traditional gaming quests.

Cristiano Amon, Qualcomm's Chief Executive Officer, made a major announcement during a recent company earnings call. Since late last year, technology news outlets have kept a collective eye trained on legal wranglings involving the mobile processor specialist and Arm Holdings. Qualcomm won a partial victory in December—a Delaware jury unanimously found that the: "use of Oryon cores in its Snapdragon X processors for client PCs did not violate its licensing agreements with Arm." However, said jury did not deliver a unanimous verdict on the trial's other lines of query—soon after concluding, Arm filed a motion for a new session.

According to a relatively new Reuters follow-up report, Arm has terminated one of its pursuits. During Wednesday's (February 5) meeting with industry analysts, the Qualcomm boss declared: "Arm recently notified us that it was withdrawing its October 22, 2024 notice of breach, and indicated that it has no current plan to terminate the Qualcomm architecture license agreement." Amon and his colleagues are likely celebrating this development, as well as claimed "positive growth" for Snapdragon X Elite-powered devices. Industry watchdogs believe that Arm could file for a retrial in the near future. According to The Register, the two companies are due to face-off again—albeit under different circumstances: "Qualcomm continues to pursue another case against Arm, alleging the UK outfit didn't honor some of its contractual obligations. Arm reckons that matter will reach the courts in the first half of 2026."

Overclockers UK (OcUK)—a well-known PC hardware retailer—has revealed estimated timeframes for renewed stock of GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 graphics cards. Late last week, its various web presences informed potential customers about anticipated lead times. The company's blog disclosed that: "due to incredibly high demand and limited stock, all 50 Series cards sold shortly after launch with some pre-orders taken in restricted quantities." New GeForce RTX 5090 stock is expected to arrive at the OcUK warehouse in about three to sixteen weeks. The British store reckons that they will receive GeForce RTX 5080 cards in two to six weeks time. TechPowerUp picked up on various online predictions—a week before the market launch of NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50-series GPUs—pointing to extremely low numbers of forthcoming launch stock. An OcUK employee disclosed that their inventory—of GeForce RTX 5090 graphics cards—was in single digits.

OcUK's dedicated RTX 50-series blog includes an apology—apparently their webstore experienced an outage shortly before launch time. They also informed customers about external factors affecting the re-opening of order books: "we have no plans to take pre-orders for any 50 Series cards until we have greater clarity on availability and have fulfilled the pre-orders we have taken." VideoCardz has discovered an informative post on the Megekko.nl discussion forum—where a new member has shared insider information. Board partners and suppliers are complaining about difficult conditions, according to the leaker's sources—they believe that ASUS and MSI have been forced into releasing forthcoming RTX 5090 stock via a staggered batch system (see screenshot below). The Verge has reached out to NVIDIA for comment—regarding shortages at launch—their request was not entertained.

ENDORFY, the go-to brand for tech enthusiasts, gamers, and content creators, is returning to the British market. Renowned for its well-priced, high-performance PC cooling solutions, cases, PSUs, and gaming peripherals, ENDORFY will officially launch its product range in the UK in mid-January 2025 through a strategic partnership with Exertis, one of the UK's leading technology distributors. This strategic partnership with Exertis, one of the UK's most prominent distributors of technology products, will make ENDORFY's solutions and products available to a broad range of retailers, e-commerce platforms, and brick-and-mortar stores across the United Kingdom. The first shipment of ENDORFY products is set to arrive in mid-January 2025, marking the beginning of a new chapter for the brand in the British market.

Yesterday evening (GMT), Overclockers UK's product purchasing manager set expectations for his store's day one inventory of GeForce RTX 5090 and 5080 graphics cards. Taking to the OCUK forum, Gibbo (aka Andrew Gibson) revealed that the flagship stock count was in: "single digits at present, maybe double for launch." His "TDLR" also pointed to the store having a "few hundred" RTX 5080 models ready for launch day, with pre-orders starting on January 30 (for both Blackwell GPU product tiers). Gibbo warned potential customers about anticipated tight conditions: "we are expecting greater demand than (the RTX) 40 series, but with the launch just prior to CNY and lots of other rumors circulating initial waves of supply are poor and will probably take some time to build up. So the stock we have will be made available from the launch via the webshop, but I know what we have is likely to last only seconds, minutes at most."

Similar (predicted) circumstances have been reported across Europe and the Far East—certain outlets believe that GeForce RTX 50 series shortages will last up to three months post-launch. Potential "Blackwell" GPU customers are very likely dreading a forthcoming buying experience riddled with scalper bots, price gouging and all sorts of shady shenanigans. OCUK's product manager recommends taking a pragmatic approach when faced with a chaotic state of affairs: "to put it simply patience and expectations need to be realistic if the UK has—say 10,000 cards, and 500,000 people want one—well it is going to take time so plan ahead and also act like adults. I shall try and keep these forums updated with stock drops with heads up on the site etc. Do not call Sales or Customer service for any info or try to place orders, it shall be strictly via website only and all information will be posted on forums and on product display pages for the products as and when we have it."

PowerColor started its online marketing campaign for new Reaper graphics card family earlier this week—a rendered scythe graphic was posted on social media along with this cryptic message: "The Reaper has arrived. Everything is under your control. Will you be the Reaper or the one reaped?" The Taiwanese graphics cards company has already unveiled its opening salvo of new RDNA 4-based card designs—on the internet and in real life. For example, PowerColor's Radeon RX 9070 XT Reaper model was on display at CES 2025—where TechPowerUp spent a couple of minutes with an SFF-form-factor-friendly demonstration sample. Since then, more photo evidence has been posted on the AMD subreddit—a UK retailer appears to have units in-stock at their warehouse.

Team Red is seemingly operating in silent mode—they have not revealed concrete details about the upcoming launch of Radeon RX 9070 XT and Radeon RX 9070 (non-XT) GPUs. Preliminary specification leaks and photos of boxed retail units have turned up this week—with yesterday's Reddit post indicating that Scan UK has received a big cardboard box containing PowerColor Radeon RX 9070 Reaper cards. Industry watchdogs reckon that AMD is still forming a release strategy—with board partners and retail/e-tail outlets waiting on and seemingly ready to receive new or finalized instructions.

According to a recent investigative report, UK-based Imagination Technologies faces allegations of transferring sensitive GPU intellectual property to Chinese companies with potential military connections. The UK-China Transparency organization claims that following its 2020 acquisition by China-controlled investment firm Canyon Bridge, Imagination provided complete access to its GPU IP to Chinese entities with military connections. The report suggests this included sharing detailed architectural documentation typically reserved for premier clients like Apple. At the center of the controversy are Chinese firms Moore Threads and Biren Technology, which have emerged as significant players in China's AI and GPU sectors. The report indicates Moore Threads maintains connections with military GPU suppliers, while Biren Technology has received partial Russian investment.

The organization argues that Canyon Bridge, which has ties to the state-owned China Reform enterprise, helped these technological transfers to benefit China's military-industrial complex. Imagination Technologies has defended its actions, maintaining that all licensing agreements comply with industry standards. The allegations have sparked renewed debate about foreign ownership of strategic technology assets and the effectiveness of current export controls. When Canyon Bridge acquired Imagination in 2020, security experts raised concerns about potential military applications of the firm's technology. UKCT plans to release additional findings, including information from legal disputes involving Imagination's previous management. Rising concerns over technology transfers have prompted governments to reassess export controls and corporate oversight in the semiconductor industry, as nations struggle to balance international commerce with national security priorities. We are yet to see official government response to this situation.

Mozilla says that "many sites do not respect" Do Not Track requests, as they rely on voluntary compliance, adding that the feature may actually harm user privacy—likely alluding to the fact that it makes it easier for sites to fingerprint and track you. As such, as of Firefox version 135, Mozilla will disable the Do Not Track feature. As a replacement for the feature, Mozilla recommends using the more advanced "Tell websites not to sell or share my data" toggle built into Global Privacy Control, which it says is more widely respected and backed by law in some regions.

This is also just the latest in a long line of changes to both Firefox and web privacy, at large. For one, Google recently completely removed third-party cookies from its Chrome browser—a move it claims is in support of user privacy but has been widely criticized for putting Google in something of a monopoly position when it comes to tracking the data of Chrome users. Overall, the community feedback on Reddit seems to be either positive or indifferent, although one criticism of the new reliance on Global Privacy Control is that GPC doesn't block Google Analytics tracking requests, although the reasoning behind leaving Google Analytics in-tact is that many sites don't function correctly when it is blocked or disabled.

Refurbished Steam Decks have been a more affordable way to get into the handheld gaming PC space for a while now, but Valve just announced that it has now added the OLED version of the Steam Deck to its official refurbished device line-up. Now, you can get your hands on a Steam Deck OLED for as little as $439 for the 512 GB variant or $519 for the 1 TB version—a healthy $110 and $130 cheaper compared to new units, respectively.

Valve claims the refurbished Steam Deck units—generally customer returns—are functionally identical to new stock units, and it says that there is a strict inspection and testing process for all returned Steam Decks that go into the refurbished program. The only material difference between factory new and refurbished units are "cosmetic defects to be small blemishes or scratches (on the plastic casing, not the screen) generally caused from normal handling of the unit," and these will obviously vary from device to device. In case anything goes wrong, Valve offers the same warranty and support for the refurbished units as it does for its factory new Steam Decks. Unfortunately, the refurbished Steam Deck OLEDs are only available in Canada, the EU, the UK, and the US. Other regions are stuck with regular MSRP Steam Decks or third-party refurbished or used handheld consoles.

Smartkem, positioned to power the next generation of displays using its disruptive organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs), has partnered with AUO, the largest display manufacturer in Taiwan, to jointly develop the world's first advanced rollable, transparent microLED display using Smartkem's technology.

"We believe that collaborating with global display industry leader AUO to develop a novel microLED display puts Smartkem's technology on the frontier of microLED display commercialization. Our unique transistor technology is expected to enable display manufacturers to efficiently produce microLED displays, making mass production commercially viable. Smartkem's technology has the potential to take today's microLED TVs from high end market prices of $100,000 down to mass market prices," stated Ian Jenks, Smartkem Chairman and CEO.

According to a recent report from Reuters, tech giant Intel is facing a significant legal challenge as shareholders file a lawsuit following a dramatic plunge in the company's stock price. The legal action comes from Intel's recent announcement of dividend suspensions and plans to lay off over 15,000 employees. The semiconductor behemoth saw its market value plummet by a staggering $32 billion in a single day, leaving investors reeling. The Construction Laborers Pension Trust of Greater St. Louis has initiated a proposed class action suit, naming Intel, CEO Pat Gelsinger, and CFO David Zinsner as defendants. The plaintiffs allege that the company made misleading statements about its business operations and manufacturing capabilities, artificially inflating its stock price between January 25 and August 1.

Intel's financial woes stem from underperforming contract foundry operations and 1% drop in revenue during the second quarter of 2024. While it may seem miniscule, declining revenue is paired with a negative 15.3% operating margin, resulting in a net loss of $1.61 billion. The company's August 1 announcement caught many shareholders off guard, prompting accusations of inadequate disclosure and transparency. This lawsuit is just one of several legal battles Intel is currently strangled in. The company is also locked in a patent dispute with R2 Semiconductor across multiple European countries, centering on voltage regulation technology. While Intel has secured a victory in the UK, it faces ongoing litigation in Germany, France, and Italy. Adding to Intel's troubles, a separate class action lawsuit is being explored on behalf of customers who purchased potentially faulty 13th and 14th-generation processors. The company also canceled its September 2024 Innovation event, citing poor financials, without any words on Arrow Lake or Lunar Lake. While the cancelation of events is sad, it is necessary to get financials back on track, and product launches should continue as usual.

Graphcore today announced that the company has been acquired by SoftBank Group Corp. Under the deal, Graphcore becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of SoftBank and will continue to operate under the Graphcore name.

"This is a tremendous endorsement of our team and their ability to build truly transformative AI technologies at scale, as well as a great outcome for our company," said Graphcore co-founder and CEO Nigel Toon. "Demand for AI compute is vast and continues to grow. There remains much to do to improve efficiency, resilience, and computational power to unlock the full potential of AI. In SoftBank, we have a partner that can enable the Graphcore team to redefine the landscape for AI technology."

Add two super fast NVMe SSDs to your Raspberry Pi 5. Ideal if you need redundancy or just a load more storage on your RPi. NVMe Base Duo is a PCIe Gen 2 extension board for Raspberry Pi 5. Simply populate it with one or two M-key NVMe SSDs (2230 to 2280 sizes supported) and mount it under (or over) your Pi for a compact and fast storage solution. It even comes with rubber feet!

It's the perfect solution for turning your Raspberry Pi 5 into a file server, media center, reverse proxy, etc.—really any task that benefits from large amounts of fast storage, redundancy, or just to make use of a couple of spare disk—especially with random high operations per second (IOPS) workloads. In short, it's a game changer! NVMe Base Duo is now available for pre-order with the first batch of units shipping in mid-April. For a lot more detail about NVMe Base Duo and to reserve your unit click here.

Jim Ryan—President & CEO, Sony Interactive Entertainment—revealed a sobering restructuring plan earlier today: "The PlayStation community means everything to us, so I felt it was important to update you on a difficult day at our company. We have made the extremely hard decision to announce our plan to commence a reduction of our overall headcount globally by about 8% or about 900 people, subject to local law and consultation processes. Employees across the globe, including our studios, are impacted." Ryan's full email—addressed to the entire Sony Interactive Entertainment workforce—can be found here. It reveals that company leadership has decided to close its PlayStation London Studio—the South East UK team is/was reportedly working on an announced "PS5 online game." Microsoft revealed a larger scale layoff program late last month—affecting 1900 employees—albeit without shuttering any major development studios. A number of its California-based teams are in the process of ditching "traditional" office locations (including a former aircraft hangar), and are moving to a work from home (WFH) model.

The SIE chief believes that current circumstances are not sustainable: "These are incredibly talented people who have been part of our success, and we are very grateful for their contributions. However, the industry has changed immensely, and we need to future ready ourselves to set the business up for what lies ahead. We need to deliver on expectations from developers and gamers and continue to propel future technology in gaming, so we took a step back to ensure we are set up to continue bringing the best gaming experiences to the community." His email outlines an "impact for employees across all SIE regions—Americas, EMEA, Japan, and APAC," with reductions affecting native development teams and Firesprite, a Liverpool, UK-based studio (founded by former Psygnosis veterans). Hermen Hulst, Head of PlayStation Studios, also posted a blog entry on the subject of SIE global layoffs—he confirmed a number of reductions and project cancellations.

MSI is preparing to launch its MPG 321URX QD-OLED monitor this month—we first spotted this model during an official expansion of the company's QD-OLED gaming monitor lineup—utilizing Samsung Display Gen 3 panels. The announcement outlined an initial MSRP of $1199 for MSI's MPG 321URX gaming monitor, although a time-limited special introductory offer of $949 was later advertised. ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) released its Swift OLED PG32UCDM gaming monitor (in USA and UK markets) late last week—competing at a $1299 price point with MSI's 321URX model. The two companies are attempting to outdo each other—earlier this month MSI pledged a 3-year warranty on its OLED panel products, semi-forcing ASUS into matching that generous offer—they previously advertised a two-year period for ROG Swift OLED monitors.

Monitors Unboxed has investigated alleged permanent MSI MSRP price cuts—affecting the MPG 321URX, as well the 49-inch 491CQP and 27-inch 271QRX QD-OLED models. The manufacturer appears prepped to undercut its competition to the tune of $350 (MPG 321URX vs. PG32UCDM): "I've gotten a second update from MSI regarding the MSRP of their QD-OLEDs. They have decided to change their mind and offer their previously lowered pricing permanently, instead of just as an introductory price. That means the official MSRPs of their products are as follows (read more after the jump)." At the time of writing, MSI's MPG 321URX QD-OLED is available to pre-order at a few North American and UK e-tailers, although a couple of listings state the item is "coming soon," or due in stock by early April.

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE 16 GB reference model has reached UK shores, albeit very briefly and with a very low stock count—e-tailer AWD-IT Gaming PC (ADMI Ltd.) was the first shop in the region to offer XFX's Navi 31 XL partner card. Team Red's formerly Chinese market-exclusive Radeon RDNA 3 GPU has made its way West—as of late last year—but retail presence in Europe is less than inspiring. Circumstances could change—recent rumblings indicate that more custom options are incoming—GIGABYTE is readying a Gaming OC variant, possibly paving the way for a wider release through mainstream channels. PowerColor's Hellhound Radeon RX 7900 GRE OC model has also been spotted on European price comparison engines.

UK buyers were treated to an initial batch of a dozen (or fewer) XFX Radeon RX 7900 GRE Reference graphics card, at £659.99 (~$832) including VAT and free delivery. AWD-IT's listing is inactive at the time of writing, but the SKU remains as a searchable asset on their web store. It appears that curious UK hardware enthusiasts have snapped up the first round of Golden Rabbit Edition (GRE) curiosities, although the price point was nowhere near as attractive when lined up against past offerings within EU mainlands. For example, Italy's PSK Mega Store had reference stock priced at €542.66 (~$585) a piece, with a digital copy of AVATAR: Frontiers of Pandora bundled in. The XFX Radeon RX 7900 XT 20 GB SPEEDSTER MERC 310 model is currently discounted—£699.99 via Ebuyer UK—representing a very tempting higher-specced custom design prospect (going for only £40 more than the RX 7900 GRE) .

Box Limited, a popular PC and electronic retailer in the United Kingdom, has ceased doing business—this follows insider reports of Box Ltd. filing for administration last week. A few days ago, the company's web store was updated with a front page announcement that confirmed a total cessation of operations. The online store is still semi-functional (at the time of writing)—you can add items to your basket, but the checkout process automatically kicks you back to the site's main page. UK publication, eTeknix, had the inside track on Box's troubles—despite a very buoyant 2023: "Box Limited is one of the biggest PC and tech retailers in the UK, or at least… we thought they were. When Tactus bought them out last year for £100 million, it seemed like things were only on the up for Box, but according to our sources, things are looking pretty bleak for the UK retailer."

Last week's article elaborated further on problems behind-the-scenes: "Firstly, Box may be owned by Tactus, but are currently being sued by their new owner for £18 million because they had allegedly over-inflated their value before they were bought out. That's a big no-no in the business world, obviously, and while I cannot confirm if that is true or not, as that's a matter for the courts to decide, it's fairly safe to assume that it has some bearing on their more recent predicament...Sources close to us, whom we cannot disclose, have informed us that Box Limited has submitted an administration application. Further sources have indicated to distributors of various hardware that "box is end of life" and that their insurance companies are recommending they do not send products to Box Limited. No point sending hardware to them if they're going into administration, as you would just be throwing money away… not a good business move." The Tactus Group has a pretty large portfolio of UK retail presences, including: Chillblast, Horizon, Geo, and CCL Computers. The loss of Box.co.uk is certainly going to sting (following last year's £100 million investment) since their acquisition also covered several brick and mortar shops located in the UK Midlands.

Dell Technologies, Intel and the University of Cambridge announce the deployment of the co-designed Dawn Phase 1 supercomputer. Leading technical teams built the U.K.'s fastest AI supercomputer that harnesses the power of both artificial intelligence (AI) and high performance computing (HPC) to solve some of the world's most pressing challenges. This sets a clear way forward for future U.K. technology leadership and inward investment into the U.K. technology sector. Dawn kickstarts the recently launched U.K. AI Research Resource (AIRR), which will explore the viability of associated systems and architectures. Dawn brings the U.K. closer to reaching the compute threshold of a quintillion (1018) floating point operations per second - one exaflop, better known as exascale. For perspective: Every person on earth would have to make calculations 24 hours a day for more than four years to equal a second's worth of processing power in an exascale system.

"Dawn considerably strengthens the scientific and AI compute capability available in the U.K., and it's on the ground, operational today at the Cambridge Open Zettascale Lab. Dell PowerEdge XE9640 servers offer a no-compromises platform to host the Intel Data Center GPU Max Series accelerator, which opens up the ecosystem to choice through oneAPI. I'm very excited to see the sorts of early science this machine can deliver and continue to strengthen the Open Zettascale Lab partnership between Dell Technologies, Intel and the University of Cambridge, and further broaden that to the U.K. scientific and AI community," said Adam Roe, EMEA HPC technical director at Intel.

The first reviews of Framework Laptop 13 (AMD Ryzen 7040 Series) are live, and the results are everything we hoped for when we kicked off the product. Reviewers called out the massive jump in graphics performance, increases in battery life, and improvements in multi-core workloads. The integrated graphics capabilities are especially astounding, putting a wide range of recent game titles within reach in a thin, light, portable system. Check out some of what reviewers have to say:

"It immediately jumps to my number one recommendation for software developers looking for a small and portable laptop. But, given how insanely good this laptop is, I'd also strongly recommend those looking for a laptop for school or home or office use, to really consider this one."—JustJosh

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) rejected a previous draft of Microsoft's proposed deal to merge with Activision Blizzard (to the tune of $69 billion). The expected summer completion date was missed due to this sole case of opposition—all of the other international regulatory bodies had approved a conglomeration of Xbox and Activision portfolios. Ubisoft later emerged as an unlikely knight in shining armor, since the UK CMA has provisionally approved freshly revamped conditions—it turns out that Microsoft had agreed to sell its cloud streaming rights to the French video game publisher. The Financial Times sat down with one of the company's co-founders—CEO Yves Guillemot—and discussed how cloud gaming will revolutionize the industry.

Guillemot was not asked to comment on how much his firm has agreed to spend—allegedly a one-off fee—on purchasing Activision Blizzard's cloud streaming rights (from Microsoft). He did discuss the inherent risk of embracing a relatively immature market technology: "When Netflix first said it was going to go into streaming, their shares fell a lot and they were widely criticized. Today, we see what they have become. It's going to be the same with video games, but it will take time. But when it takes off, it will happen very quickly...We strongly believe in the next five to 10 years, many games will be streamed and will also be produced in the cloud. That's what pushed us to go forward with the Microsoft deal." This looks to be an unusual move for Ubisoft, considering the rumors of a recent strategy shift in reaction to downturns in sales.

Microsoft's proposed $69 billion takeover of Activision Blizzard got the "go ahead" from the vast majority of regulatory bodies around the world, but the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) ultimately chucked a spanner into the works—consequently the deal's signing off date was delayed into the autumn. The top brass at Microsoft and Acti-Blizz have worked on a revised set of terms (to address concerns raised earlier this year), and the outcome has been semi-positive. The competition watchdog appears to be satisfied, prior to making a concrete announcement: "While the CMA has identified limited residual concerns with the new deal, Microsoft has put forward remedies which the CMA has provisionally concluded should address these issues. The CMA is now consulting on the remedies before making a final decision."

Under the newly redrafted deal—submitted for approval last month—Microsoft has agreed to transfer the rights to stream Activision games from the cloud to French video games publisher—Ubisoft—for a 15 year long term. The CMA's freshly published press release provides an insight into future infrastructures: "Under that new deal, Microsoft will not purchase the cloud gaming rights held by Activision, which will instead be sold to an independent third party, Ubisoft Entertainment SA (Ubisoft), before the deal is completed. The prior sale of the cloud gaming rights will establish Ubisoft as a key supplier of content to cloud gaming services, replicating the role that Activision would have played in the market as an independent player."

Hi Everyone, today I'd like to share that the talented team at Criterion Games will be joining EA Entertainment. Criterion has a rich history in gaming, having worked on Battlefield, Battlefront, Burnout, and of course, Need for Speed. I'm thrilled to have a studio with such pedigree join the studios I oversee. As we've said before, we're all-in on Battlefield. Today, Criterion is added to our world-class Battlefield studios dedicated to ushering in a new era for the franchise.

The majority of the team will be working alongside DICE, Ripple Effect, and Ridgeline that are led by Byron Beede, GM of Battlefield. Criterion's experience with Battlefield, our technology and building engaging experiences will have an immediate positive impact as we continue to work on Battlefield 2042, and as we continue pre-production on a connected Battlefield Universe. There is no better studio to join us on this journey and I couldn't be more excited.