Intel's Vision 2025 conference ended yesterday—since then, media outlets have spent time poring over a multitude of announcements made during the two-day Las Vegas, Nevada event. Notably, Team Blue leadership confirmed that their Core Ultra 300 "Panther Lake" processor series is built to scale (on) 18A, and is on track for production later this year." Prominently-displayed presentation material indicated a roadmapped 2026 launch of "Panther Lake" client chips. The success of this next-gen mobile processor family is intertwined with Intel's Foundry service making marked progress. As summarized by the company's social media account, production teams are celebrating another milestone: "Intel 18A has entered risk production. This final stage is about stress-testing volume manufacturing before scaling up to high volume in the second half of 2025."

Under Pat Gelsinger's command, Team Blue set off on a "five nodes in four years" (5N4Y) adventure around mid-2021. This plan is set to conclude with the finalization of 18A, at some point this year, under a newly refreshed regime—with Lip-Bu Tan recently established as CEO. During an on-stage Intel Vision 2025 session, Kevin O'Buckley—Senior VP of Foundry Services—explained the meaning of: "risk production, while it sounds scary, is actually an industry standard terminology, and the importance of risk production is we've gotten the technology to a point where we're freezing it...Our customers have validated that; 'Yep, 18A is good enough for my product.' And we have to now do the 'risk' part, which is to scale it from making hundreds of units per day to thousands, tens of thousands, and then hundreds of thousands. So risk production..is scaling our manufacturing up and ensuring that we can meet not just the capabilities of the technology, but the capabilities at scale." By original "5N4Y" decree, top brass demanded that process nodes be (fully) available for production, rather than be stuck in a (not quite there) final high volume manufacturing (HVM) phase.

NVIDIA has not formally announced the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti GPU, but its existence was leaked months ago via usual insider channels. Despite whispers of a launch happening mid-way through this month, Team Green did not host a rumored special preview event back in March. Premature listings of lower end "Blackwell" GPU-powered pre-built gaming systems have popped up online; Lenovo is the latest company to join in one the fun. Their "Legion Tower 5i Gen 10" pre-build is advertised as "coming soon," and configurable with GeForce RTX 5070, RTX 5060 Ti and RTX 5060 discrete graphics solutions. Curiously, Lenovo is prepping this model with an "Intel ARL-HX customized HM870" microATX motherboard—implying that the Core Ultra 9 APU (285HX or 275HX) will be soldered on.

Lenovo's NDA-busting product page does not go into as much (GPU-related) detail as HP New Zealand's webstore and Best Buy Canada's listings. Last week, reports focused on a new-generation OMEN 16L compact pre-built series—providing further evidence of GeForce RTX 5060 Ti graphics cards being readied with 16 GB and 8 GB pools of VRAM. Interestingly, TechPowerUp's GPU curator has scrubbed the alleged GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB model's page from the site's database. VideoCardz has trained its expert eye on the Legion Tower 5i Gen 10 model's spec sheet and promotional imagery—their investigation put a spotlight on Lenovo's pre-rendered mock-up of a dual-fan card design that sports a single 8-pin power connector. In the recent past, AIB insiders have alluded to several custom models being configured with this older standard. VideoCardz noted that the forthcoming Legion pre-build is listed with "limited DisplayPort 1.4 support." This could be a pre-release mistake (based on placeholder material), or an indication of NVIDIA's cheaper GeForce RTX 50-series options arriving without DisplayPort 2.1 capabilities.

No kidding. This is not a drill. Monster Train 2 will be in your hands in under two months. If you haven't already, please enjoy the trailer (watch below), wishlist the game, and get ready for five all-new clans, dozens of new cards, and surprises of all shapes and sizes. As we ramp up towards launch, we'll be back at a regular cadence giving you deep dives into Monster Train 2's new content, from clan deep-dives to new game mode reveals and more. All aboard.

If you've spent enough time on the internet, you already know what today is about. It's about goofs. It's about tricks. It's about "pulling a fast one." April Fools' Day in the video game world is a particularly special time for video game studios like us. With the right April Fools' Day announcement, your game can land at the top of the gaming news sites and subreddits.

Qualcomm today announced the acquisition of MovianAI Artificial Intelligence (AI) Application and Research JSC (MovianAI), the former generative AI division of VinAI Application and Research JSC (VinAI) and a part of the Vingroup ecosystem. As a leading AI research company, VinAI is renowned for its expertise in generative AI, machine learning, computer vision, and natural language processing. Combining VinAI's advanced generative AI research and development (R&D) capabilities with Qualcomm's decades of extensive R&D will expand its ability to drive extraordinary inventions.

For more than 20 years, Qualcomm has been working closely with the Vietnamese technology ecosystem to create and deliver innovative solutions. Qualcomm's innovations in the areas of 5G, AI, IoT and automotive have helped to fuel the extraordinary growth and success of Vietnam's information and communication technology (ICT) industry and assisted the entry of Vietnamese companies into the global marketplace.

Intel's freshly concluded Vision 2025 "Products Update and GTM" showcase included a segment dedicated to forthcoming Core Ultra 300 "Panther Lake" client processors. Industry watchdogs have grabbed a select few screenshots from Team Blue's broadcast from Las Vegas, Nevada—one backdropped slide confirms that Intel's next-generation mobile CPU series will launch in 2026. This information mirrors the company's Chinese office presenting of an AI PC roadmap—coverage of last month's event highlighted a scheduled first quarter 2026 "volume" arrival of "Core Ultra Next-gen Panther Lake (18A)."

Going back to early March, Intel leadership refuted online rumors of "Panther Lake" mobile CPUs being delayed into 2026, due to alleged problems encountered during the development of the Foundry service's 18A process node. An interviewed executive repeatedly insisted that his firm's brand-new series was on track for release within the second half of 2025. Fast-forward to the end of last week; Lip-Bu Tan expressed a similar outlook in a letter addressed to investors. The newly-established boss stated: "we will further enhance our (leadership) position in the second half of this year with the launch of Panther Lake, our lead product on Intel 18A, followed by Nova Lake in 2026." Industry insiders propose that the Core Ultra 300 series will become available in a very limited capacity come October, via an Early Enablement Program (EEP). Returning to this week—Jim Johnson, senior vice president of the firm's Client Computing Group, informed a watchful audience about the merits of his group's design: "I'm personally excited about Panther Lake because it combines the power efficiency of Lunar Lake, the performance of Arrow Lake, and is built to scale 18A and is on track for production later this year...Our client roadmap is the most innovative we've ever had, and we are far from done."

Yesterday, at Intel Vision 2025, IBM announced the availability of Intel Gaudi 3 AI accelerators on IBM Cloud. This offering delivers Intel Gaudi 3 in a public cloud environment for production workloads. Through this collaboration, IBM Cloud aims to help clients more cost-effectively scale and deploy enterprise AI. Intel Gaudi 3 AI accelerators on IBM Cloud are currently available in Frankfurt (eu-de) and Washington, D.C. (us-east) IBM Cloud regions, with future availability for the Dallas (us-south) IBM Cloud region in Q2 2025.

IBM's AI in Action 2024 report found that 67% of surveyed leaders reported revenue increases of 25% or more due to including AI in business operations. Although AI is demonstrating promising revenue increases, enterprises are also balancing the costs associated with the infrastructure needed to drive performance. By leveraging Intel's Gaudi 3 on IBM Cloud, the two companies are aiming to help clients more cost effectively test, innovate and deploy generative AI solutions. "By bringing Intel Gaudi 3 AI accelerators to IBM Cloud, we're enabling businesses to help scale generative AI workloads with optimized performance for inferencing and fine-tuning. This collaboration underscores our shared commitment to making AI more accessible and cost-effective for enterprises worldwide," said Saurabh Kulkarni, Vice President, Datacenter AI Strategy and Product Management, Intel.

Greetings, heroes! Tribute Games, Dotemu, and Marvel Games assemble today to announce MARVEL Cosmic Invasion, an arcade-style beat 'em up featuring an incredible roster of characters from Marvel's golden eras!

A Cosmic Battle awaits!
After Annihilus has launched an unprecedented attack across the galaxy, all life hangs in the balance. Nova, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Phyla-Vell, Captain America, and many more heroes, both earth-born and cosmic, will join forces in a star-spanning brawling adventure against the deadly Annihilation Wave. Get ready to brawl through the streets of New York City and all the way to the depths of the Negative Zone to foil Annihilus' plan to spread death across the cosmos!

Digital Chat Station (DCS)—a tenured leaker of Qualcomm pre-release information—has shared new "Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2" chipset details. Earlier today, their Weibo feed was updated with a couple of technological predictions. The announced smartphone chip's "SM8850" identifier was disclosed once again, along with the repeated claim that Qualcomm has selected a 3 nm "N3P" node process. Industry watchdogs expect to see the San Diego-headquartered fabless semiconductor designer introduce its next-generation flagship smartphone SoC in October. The current-gen Snapdragon 8 Elite platform was unveiled last Fall; sporting cutting-edge "Oryon" (aka Phoenix) processor cores and an integrated Adreno 830 graphics solution. DCS reckons that the natural successor will reuse a familiar "2 + 6" core configuration; comprised of two prime "big performance" units, and six "normal" performance-tuned units. An Adreno 840 iGPU was listed as DCS's final point of conjecture.

The incoming "Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2" chipset was mentioned in the same sentence as rumored "Pegasus" cores (Phoenix's sequel)—slightly far-fetched rumors from 2024 suggested Qualcomm's upgraded processor architecture being tested at maximum frequencies of 5.0 GHz (on performance cores). As pointed out by Wccftech, Gen 1's performance cores run at 4.47 GHz (by default). In today's follow-up post, DCS claimed that Qualcomm's: "self-developed CPU architecture is now in the second generation, with a performance setting of over 380 W+." Industry watchdogs reckon that the "Snapdragon 8 Elite 2" chip will be capable of recording 3.8+ million point tallies in AnTuTu V10 gauntlets, thanks to the alleged utilization of ArmV9 architecture. DCS theorized that the speculated "SM8850" SoC will support ARM's Scalable Matrix Extension 1 (SME 1) and Scalable Vector Extension 2 (SVE2) instruction sets.

ASUS and MSI's price hiking of GeForce RTX 50-series graphics cards is already a well explored subject matter (news-wise), but GPU market watchdogs have spent time investigating circumstances further down from the perch of NVIDIA's most visible board partner players. Citing evidence presented on the official Team Green subreddit, VideoCardz has levelled criticism in ZOTAC's direction. Apparently, the brand's North American store has—quite recently—jacked up asking prices for its custom GeForce RTX 5090 designs. The Hong Kong-based manufacturer only offers a choice of two models via its US webstore: SOLID OC and AMP Extreme INFINITY. At the time of writing, ZOTAC's webshop is undergoing "construction work"—fortunately, screenshots and crucial points of info were preserved by Redditors and media outlets. The flagship AMP Extreme INFINITY SKU has hit an unprecedented $2999.99 price point, although not reaching the heights of ASUS Astral ($3359.99!). A mid-March Wayback Machine save state reveals a previous RTX 5090 AMP Extreme INFINITY listing at $2599.99, but its initial launch price was $2499.99. Naturally, a flagship design—comprised of a robust cooling solution, fancy features/accessories and ARGB lighting—demands a premium upcharge, but ZOTAC's top-tier SKU is priced $1001 above Team Green's $1999 MSRP baseline.

ZOTAC's GeForce RTX 5090 SOLID (non-OC) SKU was supposed to act as the "barebones" baseline MSRP-conformant model, but price watchers noted that ZOTAC USA had removed this entry from the official webstore. Tom's Hardware reckons that the last recorded cost of ownership was $2199.99. ZOTAC's next best option is the brand's factory-overclocked variant—GeForce RTX 5090 SOLID OC—now adjusted up to $2699.99. Launch pricing was somewhere just above $2200, but that figure has changed over time. It was $2369.99, prior to this week—according to a Wayback Machine archived state. As reported last month, ZOTAC rolled out a "Priority Access Campaign" via Discord—this anti-scalping strategy received praise upon initiation, but VideoCardz's watchful eye has kept track of very few successful transactions. According to their latest investigative piece, a "top secret" ZOTAC Discord group was formed—this separate elite member-focused channel offers even "easier access" to coveted cutting-edge gaming graphics card.

Hello Kindred, we would like to share an update on the development and release window of Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. As Marco explained in the video (view it below), Bloodlines 2 will not be ready for release in the first half of 2025. Paradox Interactive and The Chinese Room are committed to delivering this game, and we believe that ensuring great technical quality is more important than sticking to a specific date.

The game is currently in a late development stage, and feedback from the community has been taken into account during this time. TCR is working hard on quality assurance to ensure it is stable and free of bugs that could disrupt the player experience. Bloodlines 2 will launch in October 2025 when the game meets the technical quality standards that you, our fans, rightfully expect and deserve. Please stay tuned for the game's exact launch date. We want to ensure that the content we share with you is high-quality and showcases exciting game features. With this updated release timeline, we will pause our development diaries so that the team can concentrate on refining the game.

I want to thank everyone for your support approaching launch, we—at Sword & Axe LLC—have been working hard for years to bring Dark Deity 2 to you and I think you're going to be really happy with it! Can't wait to see all the builds and team compositions you put together as your build up the Eternal Order! Verroa is a peaceful continent on the brink of war as the Asverellian Empire seeks to expand—at your homeland's expense. Command unlikely heroes, fight challenging turn-based battles, and watch hardship forge iron into steel. Dark Deity is back, bigger and better than before!

Engage in Thrilling Tactical Combat
Fight through over 40 tactical scenarios utilizing your team of twenty's varied abilities and prowess, where you will complete side objectives and balance your experience gain to make your squad as strong as can be.

During GTC 2025, NVIDIA unveiled the professional (PRO) side of its "Blackwell" GPU line—headlined by a monstrous GDDR7 96 GB option, that unleashes the full potential of their GB202 die. Industry watchdogs anticipated sky-high pricing, as befits such a potent specification sheet/feature set. As reported by VideoCardz over the past weekend, a North American enterprise PC hardware store—Connection—has populated its webshop with several of Team Green's brand-new RTX PRO Blackwell Series SKUs. The publication received tip-offs from a portion of its readership; including some well-heeled individuals who have already claimed pre-orders. Starting off, the investigation highlighted upper crust offerings: "the flagship model, called the RTX PRO 6000 with 96 GB of VRAM, will launch at $8435 (bulk) to $8565 (box), and this price seemingly applies to both models: the Workstation Edition and a sub-variant called Max-Q. Both are equipped with the same specs, but the latter is capped at 300 W TDP while retaining 88% of the Al performance, claimed NVIDIA."

Connection has removed its RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell and RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q product pages, but the rest of Team Green's professional stack is still visible (see relevant screenshot below). The RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell 48 GB card is priced at $4569.24 (or $4439.50 for bulk). The cheapest offering is a $696.54 RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell 8 GB model. Officially, NVIDIA and its main professional series board partner—PNY—only revealed 4500, 5000 and 6000 product tiers. VideoCardz put a spotlight on some of these unannounced options, including: "the RTX 4000 non-SFF version, while this retailer has six listings for such SKUs (two SFF and two non-SFF, both in bulk and box variants). Presumably, this would suggest that NVIDIA may launch a non-SFF version later. However, the company didn't put 'SFF' in the official card's name, so perhaps this information is no longer valid, and there's only one model." According to a GDM/Hermitage AkiHabara Japan press release, a local reseller—Elsa—is preparing NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Workstation Edition and RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition stock for scheduled release "in May 2025, while the other models are scheduled for release around summer." Additionally, another retailer (ASK Co., Ltd.): "has stated that the price and release date are subject to inquiry."

Ken Kutaragi—the former chairman and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE)—met with retro PlayStation enthusiasts earlier this month. Almost three weeks later, news outlets have just familiarized themselves with Julian Domanski's happy (March 1) social media post. The Tokyo-based professional videographer/photographer spent some time with the "The Father of the PlayStation," as well as an extremely rare piece of console gaming history: "I never thought I'd see something so rare, but today I actually got to fondle a Nintendo PlayStation! The last one in existence was believed to have sold at auction for $300,000. Turns out the ex-CEO of Sony CEI has one in his closet. Ken Kutaragi, top bloke. Signed my PS1 too!" Back in the late 1980s, Sony and Nintendo started work on a CD-ROM version of the 16-bit Super Famicom (international SKU: SNES). Sony unveiled a prototype "Play Station" at the 1991 Consumer Electronics Show; apparently Nintendo's internal reference name was simply "SNES-CD."

Famously—a day later—the House of Mario broke away from this partnership and ended up working with Philips; resulting in the extremely underwhelming CD-i home entertainment system. Kutaragi and colleagues formed Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) in late 1993, and proceeded with the development of their first-gen proprietary 32-bit RISC-based console design. Ultimately, the PlayStation would far surpass Nintendo's N64 (expensive cartridge format) gaming platform in terms of sales by the late nineties. Since then, hardcore collectors have spent countless hours tracking down Nintendo PlayStation prototypes. Rumors had spread about only two-hundred units being produced back in the day. Domanski's mentioning of a $300K+ winning bid harkens back to another former SCEI executive; Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson. As reported by VGC, the other example: "was once owned by the first CEO of Sony's games division." This BBC article does a good job of describing a bizarre chain of events; ending with Ólafsson's prototype being sold for $360,000, including a $60,000 buyer's premium fee. Kutaragi's variant seems to be in much better condition, and sports slightly different external markings—most notably; a strong blue PlayStation logo.

The "standard" ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5090 OC Edition is already a really an "astronomically expensive" prospect (if you can find available stock); launch MSRP was $2800, but retailers pushed that figure beyond the $3000 mark. An even fancier golden variant exists—as a reminder; news outlets picked up on the existence of a "Dhahab" model early last month. This luxuriously decorated collector piece was likely introduced as a regional exclusive, for MENA (Middle-East and North Africa). This week, ASUS managed to sneak one gold encrusted sample out to San Francisco, California.

Ernest Cheng—Director of Marketing at the firm's North American branch—shared a photo (via LinkedIn) of the very unique ROG Astral RTX 5090 Dhahab OC Edition model; freshly scribbled on by Jensen Huang during GTC 2025. The ASUS exec commented on this blessing: "graphics card is one of a kind when it's been anointed. But it says a lot more when it's a Golden ROG RTX 5090 Astral." Press outlets reckon that this extremely special item will be auctioned off for charity; the presence of Team Green CEO's autograph and slogan ("RTX ON!") will boost its value severalfold. A Jensen Huang-signed ROG MATRIX RTX 4090 PLATINUM card attracted a top bid of $16,000; Der8auer (aka Roman Hartung) was officially congratulated as the winner back in late 2023.

Update 18:02 UTC: ASUS has confirmed that it will be supporting a local charity: "we are extremely honored to have this special edition ROG Astral RTX 5090 Dhahab OC graphics card, signed by NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang. This card will be officially auctioned to support relief efforts for the California wildfires in Los Angeles."

Earlier in the week, Apple specialist press outlets picked up on a noted industry analyst's technological forecast for a future iPhone processor design. Jeff Pu—of GF Industries, Hong Kong—predicted that the next-generation A20 SoC would be produced via a TSMC 3 nm (N3P) nodes process. Despite rumors of Apple gaining front row seats at the "2 nm ballgame," the partnership between fabless chip designer and foundry could potentially revisit already covered ground. The A19 chipset was previously linked to N3P (by insiders), with Pu expressing the belief that A20 would utilize the same fundamental lithographic underpinnings; albeit enhanced with TSMC's Chip on Wafer on Substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology (for AI improvements).

This morning, MacRumors followed up on their initial news article—they reported that "wires were crossed" at GF Industries, regarding projections for the (2026) iPhone 18 generation. The publication received direct feedback from the man of the hour: "Jeff Pu (lead Apple analyst) has since clarified that he believes the A20 chip will be manufactured with the N2 process, so the information about the chip using the N3P process should be disregarded. Earlier reports had said the A20 chip would be 2 nm, so rumors align again. This is ultimately good news, as it means the A20 chip should have more substantial performance and power efficiency improvements over the A19 chip." Cutting-edge smartphone processor enthusiasts expressed much disappointment when A20 was (regressively) linked to N3P; the latest revisement should instill some joy. According to industry moles, TSMC is making good progress with its cutting-edge 2 nm node process—mass production is expected to start at some point within the second half of 2025.

We're just a few weeks away from The Last of Us Part II Remastered arriving on PC on April 3, and we here at Naughty Dog wanted to make sure players were prepared for the journey ahead. Whether it's your first time experiencing Ellie and Abby's acclaimed stories, or you've previously played and are excited to jump in via a new format, we have plenty of quality-of-life features and even new content in store.

PC features detailed
The PC version of The Last of Us Part II Remastered brings with it all the improvements and new features added in the PlayStation 5 version released in 2024, such as the roguelike survival mode No Return, Guitar Free Play, and hours of developer commentary. And in partnership with our friends at Nixxes Software and Iron Galaxy, Part II Remastered has been brought to PC with plenty of PC-centric quality-of-life features that further bring the snow-covered mountains of Jackson, Wyoming, and the rainswept streets of Seattle, Washington to beautiful life.

Square Enix's long-running Front Mission franchise was set to expand with an all-new entry—Front Mission 2089: Borderscape—first revealed back in April 2022. The Japanese multinational publisher announced BlackJack Studio as their chosen development partner on this fledgling project, destined for launch on mobile platforms (Android and iOS). Months later, this collaboration was terminated. Video game news outlets have picked up on a new-ish lawsuit; filed on March 13 in a Seattle, Washington court. Contained information indicates that Square Enix ended a licensing agreement and canceled development in October 2022. The 26-page legal document alleges that HK Ten Tree Limited (aka BlackJack Studio) had produced a "Front Mission-style" game that reuses assets from the shelved "2089: Borderscape" title.

BlackJack's Mecharashi IP is advertised on Steam as a: "mecha-themed tactical turn-based game. The game adopts a Front Mission-style combat system, where you can assemble mechas however you want, equip a wide selection of weapons, and choose your favorite pilots to engage in battle." According to the latest reports, Mecharashi/Metal Storm has already launched in China and Japan—a Western release is "coming soon." Square Enix seems intent on preventing the game from reaching a wider audience. According to Polygon, the Japanese video game giant has: "sent multiple DMCA takedown notices to get the game removed from storefronts; it was removed from Steam, but is back after a counter-claim was submitted. Square Enix said it also filed a lawsuit in Japanese court." Additionally, Square is seeking "maximum statutory damages of $150,000 for each copyright infringed." The Front Mission IP lives on in the shape of remakes—under license, Forever Entertainment S. A. developed and published Front Mission 1st: Remake (2022). Front Mission 2: Remake arrived roughly a year later, with Storm Trident S.A. taking care of development duties. Front Mission 3: Remake was unveiled last year at the Tokyo Game Show 2024.

Graphics card price watchers have highlighted refreshing downward motion in Europe, apparently affecting three out of the four GeForce RTX 50 series graphics cards. VideoCardz received a couple of email tip-offs from its pan-European audience, prompting the publication of a short investigative piece. NVIDIA's slight adjustment of official pricing for GeForce RTX 5090, RTX 5080, and RTX 5070 models is the result of a strengthened Euro. The US dollar's value has dropped by roughly 3.9 %; according to recent detective work, focusing on German trends. Team Green's "generous" reductions have arrived roughly two weeks after a stabilization of the USD-EUR exchange rate.

Curiously, the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is an outlier here—NVIDIA did not reduce its German guide price (€879 + VAT) for this upper-mid-range offer. A Founders Edition does not exist at this GPU level, so Team Green has tasked its board partners with the creation of so-called "MSRP conformant" alternatives. One of VideoCardz's tipsters has observed various GeForce RTX 50 series models simply "rotting on shelves," due to potential buyers balking at unreasonable retailer-implemented price hikes. NVIDIA's minor changes (4.3 to 4.6 %) are unlikely to make a noticeable impact across the Euro zone.

According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker, the server market reached a record $77.3 billion dollars in revenue during the last quarter of the year. This quarter showed the second highest growth rate since 2019 with a year-over-year increase of 91% in vendor revenue. Revenue generated from x86 servers increased 59.9% in 2024Q4 to $54.8 billion while Non-x86 servers increased 262.1% year over year to $22.5 billion.

Revenue for servers with an embedded GPU in the fourth quarter of 2024 grew 192.6% year-over-year and for the full year 2024, more than half of the server market revenue came from servers with an embedded GPU. NVIDIA continues dominating the server GPU space with over 90% of the total shipments with and embedded GPU in 2024Q4. The fast pace at which hyperscalers and cloud service providers have been adopting servers with embedded GPUs has fueled the server market growth which has more than doubled in size since 2020 with revenue of $235.7 billion dollars for the full year 2024.

A much-rumored remake of Bethesda's Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006) action role-playing game was the subject of recent debate; online tipsters proposed that the unannounced modernized version was on track for a potential mid-2025 launch. Going back to 2023, an ex-member of Virtuos—a Singapore, China-based video game development company—made claims on Reddit about the remake/remaster's apparent existence. Earlier this year, MP1st managed to extract further details from another ex-Virtuos team member—an accidental leak provided insight into the leaked project's technological underpinnings; Unreal Engine 5. According to MP1st's report, the "fully remade" version could arrive with updated gameplay systems and a much-improved HUD.

NatetheHate—a noted provider of video game insider knowledge—has adjusted his launch timeframe for Bethesda's "outsourced" Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remake project. Previously, he predicted a June 2025 release window. An adjusted schedule brings things forward—as disclosed by an interaction on social media. The soothsayer reckons that Microsoft's flagship ARPG development team will make a related announcement: "either this month (March), or next month...likely sooner than the original June target, but still working to get details on an updated release date." In their coverage of NatetheHate's latest proclamation, Video Games Chronicle (VGC) cited other unnamed sources—based on word of mouth, they believe that the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remake will launch in April. The VGC article touches on Virtuos being a veteran in the business of porting older/existing AAA titles to modern hardware platforms.

Nintendo seems to readying a speculated mid-2025 launch of the much-anticipated Nintendo Switch 2 hybrid games console, according to industry watchdogs. International preview events are scheduled to happen throughout April, so online theories have settled on potential May or June release windows. Members of Famiboards—a Nintendo discussion forum—have kept tabs on a wide variety of pre-launch information outlets, going back to 2021. Their latest tracking activities—with eyes firmly trained on shipping manifests—have produced compelling evidence of Switch 2 materials turning up on North American shores in the recent past. A Famiboards detective detailed their discoveries: "so, it finally happened. HVBG exported 383,000 units of the completed console set between January 17th and January 22nd. They were all shipped to the US, and all were of the USZ (US/Canada) region code. 41,598 units of the charging grip were also shipped to the US, confirming that HGU0620 is the charging grip with a product code of BEE-A-ESSKA, which matches the Switch 1 charging grip's HAC-A-ESSKA."

Nintendo's mid-January unveiling of Switch 2 served as a refreshing break from the norm; the Japanese gaming giant operates under very secretive conditions. Their early 2025 teaser showcased a device that seemed to recycle its predecessor's feature set, but the CGI trailer implied mouse-like functionality. Patent leaks have provided further insight into the design of Nintendo's next-gen Joy-Con. Last month, Shuntaro Furukawa—the company's president—disclosed that his team was taking "all possible measures" to provide sufficient stock for Switch 2's launch window. This week's insider investigation paints a promising picture, at least for potential North American buyers: "383k is a decent-sized shipment, but I wouldn't be surprised if the numbers increase. HVBG had received 1.2 million units of one-per-system parts like the SoC and screen as of December, and 1.7 million as of January, and we can expect 100% of those to end up in units shipped to the US. One thing we can learn from the shipments is that the console set is not a bundle."

We dedicated a lot of our launch presentation of Framework Desktop to the Ryzen AI Max processor it uses, and for a good reason. These truly unique, ultra-high-performance parts are the culmination of decades of technology and architecture investments that AMD has made, going all the way back to their acquisition of ATI in 2006. For our first technical deep dive on Framework Desktop, we're going to go even deeper into Ryzen AI Max and what makes it a killer processor for gaming, workstation, and AI workloads.

What makes Ryzen AI Max special is a combination of three elements: full desktop-class Zen 5 CPU cores, a massive 40-CU Radeon RDNA 3.5 GPU, and a giant 256-bit LPDDR5x memory bus to feed the two, supporting up to 128 GB of memory. Chips and Cheese did an excellent technical overview of the processor with AMD that goes even deeper on this, and we'll pull out some of the highlights along with our own insights. We'll start with the CPUs. Ryzen AI Max supports up to 16 CPU cores split across two 4 nm FinFET dies that AMD calls CCDs. These dies are connected together using an extremely wide, low power, low latency bus across the package substrate. The CPUs are full Zen 5 cores with 512-bit FPUs and support for AVX-512, a vector processing instruction set otherwise only available on Intel's top end server CPUs. We're excited for you to see the multicore performance numbers these CPUs can do in our upcoming press review cycle!

Many hardcore fans of the Roccat brand will lament last year's absorption of designs/IPs into the Turtle Beach product portfolio. Five years earlier, the German PC gaming accessory maker was acquired by the larger North American organization—at the time, mouse enthusiasts expressed worries regarding a sudden cut-off of popular models. The long-running Kone series was a main topic of conversation. Pleasingly, Roccat's engineering department continued to deliver new designs and refreshes of old favorites well into the early 2020s. The Kone Pure Air and Pure SEL were the team's last models to emerge under the banner of Roccat, prior to 2024's full Turtle Beach takeover. Confusingly, this somewhat unfaithful Kone design was only made available to a South Korean customer base.

Kone Pure models—in wireless (Air) and wired (SEL) forms—eventually trickled out to wider global market regions, albeit with Turtle Beach logos printed on their outer shells and packaging. A lukewarm reception from the gaming mouse community prompted further speculation—would the Kone lineage end in 2024? Chinese gaming mouse manufacturers have often "brazenly" cloned the designs of many Western-developed models. Loyal fans and brand purists would normally decry the emergence of a throwback to classic Roccat Pure times, but KYSONA's recently unveiled rendition is being celebrated. Their Uranus Pro wireless gaming mouse offering has gained traction in the West, thanks to a prominent YouTuber's recommendation and positive feedback from owners of early import units. KYSONA is hardly a big name, but they are involved in the contract manufacturing of peripherals for "visible" brands—including AJAZZ, Attack Shark, and DELUX.

Microsoft launched its Majorana 1 chip—the world's first quantum processor powered by a Topological Core architecture—last month. The company's debuting of its Majorana design was celebrated as a significant milestone—in 2023, an ambitious roadmap was published by Microsoft's research department. At the time, a tall Majorana particle-based task was set: the building of a proprietary quantum supercomputer within a decade. Returning to the present day; outside parties have criticized Microsoft's February announcements. The Register published an investigative piece earlier today, based on quotes from key players specializing in the field of Quantum studies. Many propose a theoretical existence of Majorana particles, while Microsoft R&D employees have claimed detection and utilization. The Register referred back to recent history: "(Microsoft) made big claims about Majorana particles before, but it didn't end well: in 2021 Redmond's researchers retracted a 2018 paper in which they claimed to have detected the particles."

As pointed out by Microsoft researcher Chetan Nayak; their latest paper was actually authored last March 2024, but only made public in recent weeks. Further details of progress are expected next week, at the American Physical Society (APS) 2025 Joint March Meeting. The Register has compiled quotes from vocal critics; starting with Henry Legg—a lecturer in theoretical physics at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. The noted scholar believes—as divulged in a scientific online comment—that Microsoft's claimed Quantum breakthrough: "is not reliable and must be revisited." Similarly, collaborators from Germany's Forschungszentrum Jülich institute and the University of Pittsburgh, USA released a joint video statement. (Respectively) Experimental physicist Vincent Mourik and by Professor Sergey Frolov outlined: "distractions caused by unreliable scientific claims from Microsoft Quantum."

Intel representatives have placed a Panther Lake demonstration sample unit on an actual pedestal; as reported by PC Games Hardware (PCGH). German press outlets and other visitors were greeted by Team Blue's dedicated showcase plinth at this week's Embedded World 2025 expo/trade fair. The Nuremberg-based event is advertised as a "world-leading conference presenting state-of-the art technology and forward-looking research." Attendees and industry watchdogs reckon that the prominently displayed demo piece is an example of Intel's Panther Lake-H (PTL-H) mobile-oriented chip design. Last October, Pat Gelsinger (now ex-CEO) unveiled a physical PTL-H sample on-stage during his special guest appearance at Lenovo Tech World 2024. During a CES 2025 keynote presentation, Michelle Johnston Holthaus (Intel's interim co-boss) confirmed a 2025 launch window, while holding up another (or the same) Panther Lake chip.

Recent industry insider whispers have suggested that the Intel Foundry is encountering problems with their 18A node process; thus causing a shift in Panther Lake's release schedule. One prominent leaker claims that Team Blue's opening salvo of PTL-H products will roll out in 2026, but rumors were dismissed by an official source (last week). John Pitzer—Corporate Vice President of Investor Relations at Intel—insisted on multiple occasions, during a fireside chat, that his team's Core Ultra 300 series (aka Panther Lake-H) is on track for launch within the second half of 2025. Intel's Embedded World 2025 booth does not feature any technical rundowns relating to the showcased next-gen offering; their minimalist plinth is simply adorned with blue text spelling out: "Panther Lake." NDA-busting details have emerged online, courtesy of insider leaks—the top-most PTL-H SKU could appear with a 4P+8E+4LP+12Xe3 configuration.