Despite the recent successful launch of Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero, which sold 3 million units in 24 hours, it looks as though Bandai Namco is pressuring 200 of its 1,300 employees in Japan to voluntarily resign in what is being called a short-sighted move to boost profits. According to a recent Bloomberg report, the Japanese game developer is skirting strict labor laws in Japan by removing all work responsibilities from 200 of its employees. Allegedly, nearly 100 of those staff being pressured into resignation have already left the company. Along with the layoffs, Bandai Namco has apparently cancelled three new games that were in development, namely, new Dragon Ball, One Piece, and Naruto games.

This shift at Bandai Namco comes in spite of a booming Japanese game industry, which will reportedly grow by 6.66% annually until 2029. Game Developer attributes Bandai Namco's coerced "voluntary" layoffs to the losses generated by the consistently underwhelming performance of the company's online division, which supposedly generated a net loss of an equivalent to $51.35 million in the last fiscal year. If our recent reporting is any indication, there seems to be a shift in the overall gaming market, in which younger audiences predominantly seem to prefer multiplayer (specifically PvP) games. Second to PvP is single-player gaming, which was consistently the preferred game type for more than 30% of gamers, regardless of age groups. This latter niche is seemingly where Bandai Namco's strengths and audience seem to lie, along with many of its other Japanese game studio competitors, like From Software, Nintendo, and Capcom.

Today, ASML Holding NV (ASML) has published its 2024 third-quarter results.

• Q3 total net sales of €7.5 billion, gross margin of 50.8%, net income of €2.1 billion
• Quarterly net bookings in Q3 of €2.6 billion of which €1.4 billion is EUV
• ASML expects Q4 2024 total net sales between €8.8 billion and €9.2 billion, and a gross margin between 49% and 50%
• ASML expects 2024 total net sales of around €28 billion
• ASML expects 2025 total net sales to be between €30 billion and €35 billion, with a gross margin between 51% and 53%

CEO statement and outlook
"Our third-quarter total net sales came in at €7.5 billion, above our guidance, driven by more DUV and Installed Base Management sales. The gross margin came in at 50.8%, within guidance. While there continue to be strong developments and upside potential in AI, other market segments are taking longer to recover. It now appears the recovery is more gradual than previously expected. This is expected to continue in 2025, which is leading to customer cautiousness. Regarding Logic, the competitive foundry dynamics have resulted in a slower ramp of new nodes at certain customers, leading to several fab push outs and resulting changes in litho demand timing, in particular EUV. In Memory, we see limited capacity additions, with the focus still on technology transitions supporting the HBM and DDR5 AI-related demand."

With the fifth anniversary of Disco Elysium on the horizon, Longdue is proud to announce its formation as a new independent studio that has raised seed investment to create an RPG that will continue Disco Elysium's award-winning legacy and represent a bold new artistic endeavor that aims to trailblaze in the narrative-first cRPG space.

Longdue is already a dozen strong, including team members that worked on the original Disco Elysium and its unreleased sequel. The team is also drawing talent from across the industry, including veterans from Bungie, Rockstar, and Brave At Night.

At an industry event in Austin today, Thundercomm announces RUBIK Pi, the first Pi built on Qualcomm SoC platforms for developers. RUBIK Pi is an innovative tool that aims to lower the barriers application development with AI inference, allowing developers to access high-performance, easy-to-deploy AI R&D tools.

The Pi product is a must-have for electronics enthusiasts and developers. It can be seen as a microcomputer, integrating a processor, memory, storage, and various interfaces on a credit card-sized board. Thundercomm, a world-leading IoT product and solution provider, building on its expertise in ICT technologies and developer workflows, launched RUBIK Pi, aiming to create the most user-friendly AI R&D tools.

Epic Games kicked off the Unreal Fest in Seattle earlier this week with a keynote that revealed some interesting details about the company's marketing and publication strategies going forward. Also during that same keynote, Riot Games executive producer, Anna Donlon, teased that there will be more "playable experiences" coming to the "Valorant universe."

While Donlon was deliberately vague about any upcoming Valorant-adjacent games currently in development, she was a little more candid about Valorant's Unreal Engine 5 update, admitting that limitations in Unreal Engine 4.27—Valorant's current underpinnings—were what prompted the move to UE5 in the first place. However, a shift to Unreal Engine 5 will not immediately change how the game performs, feels, or looks.

Nintendo is living up to its litigious reputation this week, with news reports emerging of the gaming giant issuing a massive wave of copyright strikes on any YouTube videos containing footage of emulation. In addition to this, it seems like Nintendo may have had some harsh words for the lead developer of a popular open-source Switch emulator.

As of an announcement today, the open-source Switch emulator, Ryujinx, is no longer available for download from its GitHub repository. One of the more active developers for the project confirmed via a message in the official Discord that the lead developer, who goes by gdkchan, was contacted by Nintendo with an "offer," although given the outcome of the interaction, it was likely less an offer and more a threat. Shortly before that, Retro Game Corps, a popular content creator in the Nintendo emulation community, posted on X that his YouTube channel had received multiple copyright strikes, requiring that he move away from showing game emulation on-screen.

Advantech, a leading provider of edge computing solutions, introduces the AIR-310, a compact edge AI inference system featuring an MXM GPU card. Powered by 12th/13th/14th Gen Intel Core 65 W desktop processors, the AIR-310 delivers up to 12.99 TFLOPS of scalable AI performance via the NVIDIA Quadro 2000A GPU card in a 1.5U chassis (215 x 225 x 55 mm). Despite its compact size, it offers versatile connectivity with three LAN ports and four USB 3.0 ports, enabling seamless integration of sensors and cameras for vision AI applications.

The system includes smart fan management, operates in temperatures from 0 to 50°C (32 to 122°F), and is shock-resistant, capable of withstanding 3G vibration and 30G shock. Bundled with Intel Arc A370 and NVIDIA A2000 GPUs, it is certified to IEC 61000-6-2, IEC 61000-6-4, and CB/UL standards, ensuring stable 24/7 operation in harsh environments, including space-constrained or mobile equipment. The AIR-310 supports Windows 11, Linux Ubuntu 24.04, and the Edge AI SDK, enabling accelerated inference deployment for applications such as factory inspections, real-time video surveillance, GenAI/LLM, and medical imaging.

Synopsys, Inc. today announced its continued, close collaboration with TSMC to deliver advanced EDA and IP solutions on TSMC's most advanced process and 3DFabric technologies to accelerate innovation for AI and multi-die designs. The relentless computational demands in AI applications require semiconductor technologies to keep pace. From an industry leading AI-driven EDA suite, powered by Synopsys.ai for enhanced productivity and silicon results to complete solutions that facilitate the migration to 2.5/3D multi-die architectures, Synopsys and TSMC have worked closely for decades to pave the path for the future of billion to trillion-transistor AI chip designs.

"TSMC is excited to collaborate with Synopsys to develop pioneering EDA and IP solutions tailored for the rigorous compute demands of AI designs on TSMC advanced process and 3DFabric technologies," said Dan Kochpatcharin, head of the Ecosystem and Alliance Management Division at TSMC. "The results of our latest collaboration across Synopsys' AI-driven EDA suite and silicon-proven IP have helped our mutual customers significantly enhance their productivity and deliver remarkable performance, power, and area results for advanced AI chip designs.

A few days ago, we reported on AMD's newest expansion plans for Serbia. The company opened two new engineering design centers with offices in Belgrade and Nis. We were invited to join the opening ceremony and got an exclusive interview with one of AMD's top executives, Andrej Zdravkovic, who is the senior vice president and Chief Software Officer. Previously, we reported on AMD's transition to become a software company. The company has recently tripled its software engineering workforce and is moving some of its best people to support these teams. AMD's plan is spread over a three to five-year timeframe to improve its software ecosystem, accelerating hardware development to launch new products more frequently and to react to changes in software demand. AMD found that to help these expansion efforts, opening new design centers in Serbia would be very advantageous.

We sat down with Andrej Zdravkovic to discuss the purpose of AMD's establishment in Serbia and the future of some products. Zdravkovic is actually an engineer from Serbia, where he completed his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in electrical engineering from Belgrade University. In 1998, Zdravkovic joined ATI and quickly rose through the ranks, eventually becoming a senior director. During his decade-long tenure, Zdravkovic witnessed a significant industry shift as AMD acquired ATI in 2006. After a brief stint at another company, Zdravkovic returned to AMD in 2015, bringing with him a wealth of experience and a unique perspective on the evolution of the graphics and computing industry.Here is the full interview:

Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl is almost here, and from the looks of it, it's going to be a massive hit in the gaming industry if done to the finish without any hiccups. Not even true fans of the Stalker series would have been able to anticipate the massive map size of the Stalker 2 game. And the most interesting past is, it's all handcrafted and is not created using any procedural generation, as revealed by technical producer Evegeniy Kulik in an interview.

The game will feature a 64 square kilometers world, divided into 20 regions, each with different enemies, anomalies and people. As we all know, Stalker 2 is nearing release, and from what we can see, PlayStation players are going to miss out, as the game is slated for release on PC and Xbox. Despite the challenging development period due to the war, the team has cemented the game's title as a true gem in the making, causing us gamers to have nothing but respect towards GSC Game World for their dedication and effort. Just wait to see how hard these developers have worked in creating this game's open world - very uniquely.

When it comes to live service games, it's not a new thing to hear of shutdowns, commercial issues, low player counts and player downturns. We've seen many games that have ended up the same way as Concord in the past, but now, it seems the record has been broken by Concord, the fastest game to get shutdown, and with a tech giant behind it.

Sony saw its 8 years of development and thousands to millions of dollars of investments crash within 11 days after its release. And it's kind of shocking because Firewalk started developing the game 8 years ago, in 2016. But when you realize that the 11 days Concord stayed in the market is actually shorter than other games who got shut down after their release, it's pretty shocking.

E&R Engineering Corp. hosted an event on August 28, 2024, in Taipei, Taiwan, where they launched the "E-Core System." This initiative, a combination of "E&R" and "Glass Core" inspired by the sound of "Ecosystem," led to the establishment of the "Glass Substrate Supplier E-Core System Alliance." The alliance aims to combine expertise to promote comprehensive solutions, providing equipment and materials for next-generation advanced packaging with glass substrates to both domestic and international customers.

E&R's E-Core Alliance includes Manz AG, Scientech for wet etching, HYAWEI OPTRONICS for AOI optical inspection, Lincotec, STK Corp., Skytech, Group Up for sputtering and ABF lamination equipment, and other key component suppliers such as HIWIN, HIWIN MIKROSYSTEM, Keyence Taiwan, Mirle Group, ACE PILLAR CHYI DING), and Coherent.

During a recent earnings call, Co-CEO of CD Projekt Red (CDPR) Michal Nowakowski confirmed that thanks to the success of the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, the development team will be looking at further animation projects.
"[The developer is] definitely planning to do more in terms of animation," says Nowakowski (on Gizmodo). "Expect to see more for sure, but that's as far as I can go right now."

Considering the fact that upcoming projects, The Witcher 4 (given the codename "Polaris") and Cyberpunk 2 (given the codename "Orion") are massive projects which would definitely take a lot of resources and focus, it will probably take a while to finish the animated series. But then again, considering the fact that CDPR will likely play a supervisory role for any project undertaken, a new animated series might not take a huge amount of time.

It's undoubtedly true that Itsuno is one of the key figures behind Capcom's best-in-class action and fighting games. Itsuno is notably known for his good work in the Devil May Cry series, created by Hideki Kamiya, but reaching its peak due to the fact that the Devil May Cry 3 was directed by him. Itsuno is also known for Dragon's Dogma, being his very own dream game, but the sequel turned out to be his last major project for Capcom.

Itsuno posted on Twitter, "At the end of August 2024, I will be leaving Capcom after 30 years and 5 months," "Thank you for your long-term support of the games and characters I have been responsible for. I hope you will continue to support Capcom's games and characters." He also added that he's not done with games yet, but is off to do his own thing. "From September, I will start developing a new game in a new environment. I hope to create fun, beautiful games that are as memorable as, or even more memorable than, the ones I have created so far."

Xiangdixian Computing Technology (XCT), once hailed as China's answer to NVIDIA at its peak, is now grappling with severe financial difficulties and legal challenges. The company, which has developed its own line of GPUs based on the Tianjun chips, recently admitted that its progress in "development of national GPU has not yet fully met the company's expectations and is facing certain market adjustment pressures." Despite producing two desktop and one workstation GPU model, XCT has been forced to address rumors of its closure. The company has undergone significant layoffs, but it claims to have retained key research and development staff essential for GPU advancement. Adding to XCT's woes, investors have initiated legal proceedings against the company's founder, Tang Zhimin, claiming he failed to deliver on his commitment to raising 500 million Yuan in Series B funding.

Among the complainants is the state-owned Jiangsu Zhongde Services Trade Industry Investment Fund, which has filed a lawsuit against three companies under Zhimin's control. Further complicating matters, Capitalonline Data Service is reportedly suing XCT for unpaid debts totaling 18.8 million Yuan. There are also claims that the company's bank accounts have been frozen, potentially impeding its ability to continue operations. The situation is further complicated by allegations of corruption within China's semiconductor sector, with reports of executives misappropriating investment funds. With XCT fighting for survival through restructuring efforts, its fate hangs in the balance. Without securing additional funding soon, the company may be forced to close its doors, which will blow China's GPU aspirations.

Remedy is thrilled (as thrilled as Finnish people can be) to announce that we are working together with Annapurna, who are co-financing the development of Control 2 and taking the Control and Alan Wake franchises to film, TV and beyond.

What does that mean for you, our dear fans? Above all it means Remedy is able to make Control 2 exactly the game we want it to be, while we now also have an incredible partner to extend our IPs to other mediums. We are also going to be publishing Control 2 ourselves. When I look at all the games we have in the pipeline, the future of Remedy is incredibly exciting. You can trust us to keep bringing you incredible video game experiences.

Simply NUC, a global leader in customized PC solutions, in collaboration with Intel, proudly announces the Intel AI PC Development Kit. This advanced kit is equipped with the powerful Core Ultra 7 (155H), 32 GB RAM, 512 GB storage, and Windows 11 Pro, making it ideal for developers and researchers focused on AI innovation. The configured PC features Intel Iris Xe graphics and the OpenVINO toolkit, enabling optimized AI performance for deep learning and computer vision tasks.

The Intel AI PC Development Kit is tailored for software developers, data scientists, and educators focused on AI and machine learning projects. With robust processing capabilities, users can efficiently create, test, and deploy AI models. Additionally, as part of the Intel AI Developer Program, users gain access to valuable resources such as tutorials, webinars, and community support. Program participants can also enjoy a $500 discount on the kit, making it an affordable and comprehensive solution for AI innovation.

According to a recent report from Globes, Arm, the chip design giant and maker of the Arm ISA, is reportedly developing a new discrete GPU at its Ra'anana development center in Israel. This development signals Arm's intention to compete directly with industry leaders like Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA in the massive discrete GPU market. Sources close to the matter reveal that Arm has assembled a team of approximately 100 skilled chip and software development engineers at its Israeli facility. The team is focused on creating GPUs primarily aimed at the video game market. However, industry insiders speculate that this technology could potentially be adapted for AI processing in the future, mirroring the trajectory of NVIDIA, which slowly integrated AI hardware accelerators into its lineup.

The Israeli development center is playing a crucial role in this initiative. The hardware teams are overseeing the development of key components for these GPUs, including the flagship Immortalis and Mali GPU. Meanwhile, the software teams are creating interfaces for external graphics engine developers, working with both established game developers and startups. Arm is already entering the PC market through its partners like Qualcomm with Snapdragon X chips. However, these chips run an integrated GPU, and Arm wants to provide discrete GPUs and compete there. While details are still scarce, Arm could make GPUs to accompany Arm-based Copilot+ PCs and some desktop builds. The final execution plan still needs to be discovered, and we are still waiting to see which stage Arm's discrete GPU project is in.

Ola, an Indian automotive company, is venturing into AI chip development with its artificial intelligence branch, Krutrim, planning to launch India's first domestically designed AI chip by 2026. The company is leveraging ARM architecture for this initiative. CEO Bhavish Aggarwal emphasizes the importance of India developing its own AI technology rather than relying on external sources.

While detailed specifications are limited, Ola claims these chips will offer competitive performance and efficiency. For manufacturing, the company plans to partner with a global tier I or II foundry, possibly TSMC or Samsung. "We are still exploring foundries, we will go with a global tier I or II foundry. Taiwan is a global leader, and so is Korea. I visited Taiwan a couple of months back and the ecosystem is keen on partnering with India," Aggarwal said.

Texas Instruments (TI) (Nasdaq: TXN) and the U.S. Department of Commerce have signed a non-binding Preliminary Memorandum of Terms for up to $1.6 billion in proposed direct funding under the CHIPS and Science Act to support three 300 mm wafer fabs already under construction in Texas and Utah. In addition, TI expects to receive an estimated $6 billion to $8 billion from the U.S. Department of Treasury's Investment Tax Credit for qualified U.S. manufacturing investments. The proposed direct funding, coupled with the investment tax credit, would help TI provide a geopolitically dependable supply of essential analog and embedded processing semiconductors.

"The historic CHIPS Act is enabling more semiconductor manufacturing capacity in the U.S., making the semiconductor ecosystem stronger and more resilient," said Haviv Ilan, president and CEO of Texas Instruments. "Our investments further strengthen our competitive advantage in manufacturing and technology as we expand our 300 mm manufacturing operations in the U.S. With plans to grow our internal manufacturing to more than 95% by 2030, we're building geopolitically dependable, 300 mm capacity at scale to provide the analog and embedded processing chips our customers will need for years to come."

Amidst escalating tensions in the U.S.-China semiconductor industry, Huawei is reportedly working on a new AI chip called the Ascend 910C. This development appears to be the Chinese tech giant's attempt to compete with NVIDIA's AI processors in the Chinese market. According to a Wall Street Journal report, Huawei has begun testing the Ascend 910C with various Chinese internet and telecom companies to evaluate its performance and capabilities. Notable firms such as ByteDance, Baidu, and China Mobile are said to have received samples of the chip.

Huawei has reportedly informed its clients that the Ascend 910C can match the performance of NVIDIA's H100 chip. The company has been conducting tests for several weeks, suggesting that the new processor is nearing completion. The Wall Street Journal indicates that Huawei could start shipping the chip as early as October 2024. The report also mentions that Huawei and potential customers have discussed orders for over 70,000 chips, potentially worth $2 billion.

Researchers at Fraunhofer IAF have made a significant advance in semiconductor materials by successfully fabricating aluminum yttrium nitride (AlYN) using metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). AlYN, known for its outstanding properties and compatibility with gallium nitride (GaN), shows great potential for energy-efficient, high-frequency electronics. Previously, AlYN could only be deposited via magnetron sputtering, but this new method opens the door to diverse applications. Dr. Stefano Leone from Fraunhofer IAF highlights AlYN's ability to enhance performance while reducing energy consumption, making it vital for future electronics.

In 2023, the team achieved a 600 nm thick AlYN layer with a record 30% yttrium concentration. They have since developed AlYN/GaN heterostructures with high structural quality and promising electrical properties, particularly for high-frequency applications. These structures demonstrate optimal two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) properties and are highly suitable for high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs).

According to The Verge, Valve confirmed its intention to extend support for its Linux-based SteamOS to rival gaming handhelds, including the ASUS ROG Ally. This move marks a significant step towards realizing Valve's decade-old vision of a widespread "Steam Machine" ecosystem. Lawrence Yang, a designer at Valve, confirmed to The Verge that the company is actively working on adding support for additional handhelds to SteamOS. This revelation came after eagle-eyed observers spotted a curious line in Valve's latest SteamOS 3.6.9 Beta release notes mentioning the addition of "support for extra ROG Ally keys." While the development is still in progress, Yang emphasized that SteamOS isn't quite ready for out-of-the-box use on rival devices. However, he assured that the team is making "steady progress" towards this goal.

This initiative doesn't necessarily mean that manufacturers like ASUS will officially endorse Valve's installer or ship their devices with SteamOS preinstalled. Many companies, including ASUS, have cited various reasons for sticking with Windows, including Microsoft's dedicated validation teams that ensure compatibility across diverse hardware configurations. Other devices, such as Lenovo Legion Go, AYANEO, and GPD Pocket 4, ship with Windows, but it could be interesting to see with SteamOS. Alongside support for third-party handhelds, Valve is also working on a general release of SteamOS 3 for non-handheld PCs. Finally, Valve hasn't forgotten about its promise to enable dual-booting on Steam Deck devices. While there's no specific timeline, Mr. Yang confirmed that it remains a priority for the company. We remain to see how this will materialize, and with added bells and whistles to SteamOS, the adoption of Linux-based gaming could be pushed even further.

NEO Semiconductor, a leading developer of innovative technologies for 3D NAND flash memory and 3D DRAM, announced today the development of its 3D X-AI chip technology, targeted to replace the current DRAM chips inside high bandwidth memory (HBM) to solve data bus bottlenecks by enabling AI processing in 3D DRAM. 3D X-AI can reduce the huge amount of data transferred between HBM and GPUs during AI workloads. NEO's innovation is set to revolutionize the performance, power consumption, and cost of AI Chips for AI applications like generative AI.

AI Chips with NEO's 3D X-AI technology can achieve:

• 100X Performance Acceleration: contains 8,000 neuron circuits to perform AI processing in 3D memory.
• 99% Power Reduction: minimizes the requirement of transferring data to the GPU for calculation, reducing power consumption and heat generation by the data bus.
• 8X Memory Density: contains 300 memory layers, allowing HBM to store larger AI models.

SK hynix is reportedly developing 400-layer NAND flash memory, with plans to begin mass production by late 2025. The company is collaborating with supply chain partners to develop the necessary process technologies and equipment for 400-layer and higher NAND chips. This information comes from a recent article by Korean media outlet etnews citing industry sources.

SK hynix intends to use hybrid bonding technology to achieve this, which is expected to bring new packaging materials and components suppliers into the supply chain. The development process involves exploring new bonding materials and various technologies for connecting different wafers, including polishing, etching, deposition, and wiring. SK hynix aims to have the technology and infrastructure ready by the end of next year.