A new version of Plasma is here, and it feels even more like /home, as it becomes smoother, friendlier and more helpful. Plasma 6.4 improves on nearly every front, with progress being made in accessibility, color rendering, tablet support, window management, and more. As this is going to be a long read, let's get right into it…

Window Management
Plasma already offers Virtual Desktops to help organize your windows and activities; and customizable Tiles you can stick windows to so they don't overlap, allowing you to see everything important at a glance.

Washbear Studio is thrilled to reveal their next game: Railborn. Be ready to survive on a planet criss crossed with railroad tracks, building your mobile train base piece by piece.

Description
Railborn is a survival game where you scavenge for resources to build your train piece by piece. Collect rare plants to recreate dying biomes, navigate an alien world entangled by tracks, and uncover alien monoliths - all aboard your mobile sanctuary. Designed for 1 to 4 players.

IBM and Inclusive Brains, a leader in non-invasive neurotechnologies and multimodal artificial intelligence, have entered a joint study agreement to experiment with advanced AI and quantum machine learning techniques. The aim of the joint study is to boost the performance of multi-modal brain-machine interfaces (BMIs).

Innovation with Positive Social Impact
BMIs have the potential to enable individuals with disabilities—particularly those who have lost the ability to use their hands or voice—to leverage connected devices and digital environments to regain control of their surroundings, eliminating the need for vocal commands or physical operation of a keyboard, screen or mouse. Inclusive Brains aims to improve access to education and employment opportunities using the insights generated in the joint study. Beyond better inclusion of people with paralysis, Inclusive Brains aims to broader societal benefits, including improved prevention of both physical and mental health issues among the wider population thanks to enhanced classifications and therefore a better understanding of brain activity patterns.

Plunge into a chilling sci-fi horror experience deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean in Submersed 2: The Hive. Developed by Spanish studio Main Loop Videogames, this first-person action-horror adventure has surfaced on Xbox One and Xbox X|S Series (also available on PC/Steam, Switch and PlayStation platforms). In Submersed 2: The Hive, you are Celeste Brody, a woman who awakens in a strange and seemingly abandoned underwater facility. Stranded and surrounded by unimaginable dangers, Celeste must uncover the hidden secrets of the mysterious station and survive the threats lurking in the depths.

Celeste Brody facing some inhabitants of The Hive
In Submersed 2: The Hive, survival is a constant battle. You'll need to carefully manage your inventory, where every item, weapon, and bullet counts. With resources scarce and dangers lurking around every corner, making smart, strategic decisions is key to staying alive in the depths of the ocean.

BenQ, the pioneer of monitor lighting solutions, today launched the ScreenBar Halo 2, its next-generation flagship monitor light engineered to deliver optimal eye comfort for professionals working in dim environments. Developed over four years, the ScreenBar Halo 2 enhances workspace lighting through a powerful dual-light design that provides full front and rear illumination.

Building on the success of its predecessor, the ScreenBar Halo 2 introduces a Tri-zone Backlight Design that expands coverage by 423%, reducing contrast between the monitor and its surroundings to ease visual fatigue. The front light features BenQ's ASYM-Light, an asymmetrical optical design with an 18-degree cut-off angle that eliminates screen glare and prevents direct light from reaching the eyes.

Red Hat, the world's leading provider of open source solutions, and AMD today announced a strategic collaboration to propel AI capabilities and optimize virtualized infrastructure. With this deepened alliance, Red Hat and AMD will expand customer choice across the hybrid cloud, from deploying optimized, efficient AI models to more cost-effectively modernizing traditional virtual machines (VMs). As workload demand and diversity continue to rise with the introduction of AI, organizations must have the capacity and resources to meet these escalating requirements. The average datacenter, however, is dedicated primarily to traditional IT systems, leaving little room to support intensive workloads such as AI. To answer this need, Red Hat and AMD are bringing together the power of Red Hat's industry-leading open source solutions with the comprehensive portfolio of AMD high-performance computing architectures.

AMD and Red Hat: Driving to more efficient generative AI
Red Hat and AMD are combining the power of Red Hat AI with the AMD portfolio of x86-based processors and GPU architectures to support optimized, cost-efficient and production-ready environments for AI-enabled workloads. AMD Instinct GPUs are now fully enabled on Red Hat OpenShift AI, empowering customers with the high-performing processing power necessary for AI deployments across the hybrid cloud without extreme resource requirements. In addition, using AMD Instinct MI300X GPUs with Red Hat Enterprise Linux AI, Red Hat and AMD conducted testing on Microsoft Azure ND MI300X v5 to successfully demonstrate AI inferencing for scaling small language models (SLMs) as well as large language models (LLM) deployed across multiple GPUs on a single VM, reducing the need to deploy across multiple VMs and reducing performance costs.

AI is creating value for everyone—from researchers in drug discovery to quantitative analysts navigating financial market changes. The faster an AI system can produce tokens, a unit of data used to string together outputs, the greater its impact. That's why AI factories are key, providing the most efficient path from "time to first token" to "time to first value." AI factories are redefining the economics of modern infrastructure. They produce intelligence by transforming data into valuable outputs—whether tokens, predictions, images, proteins or other forms—at massive scale.

They help enhance three key aspects of the AI journey—data ingestion, model training and high-volume inference. AI factories are being built to generate tokens faster and more accurately, using three critical technology stacks: AI models, accelerated computing infrastructure and enterprise-grade software. Read on to learn how AI factories are helping enterprises and organizations around the world convert the most valuable digital commodity—data—into revenue potential.

Greetings, Guardians! The moment we've all been waiting for is finally here—Spirit of the North 2 is officially out now on Steam! Whether you've been with us since the first game or joined along the way, we can't thank you enough for your support, your feedback, and your patience. Now, it's your turn to step into this beautiful, mysterious world once again—this time, with new powers, new companions, and a world that's bigger and more alive than ever before.

You've followed us through development, shared our excitement, and kept the spirit alive—now it's time to experience the magic for yourself. Launch day is just the beginning. We'll be keeping an eye out for your thoughts, feedback, and favorite moments. Don't forget to share your screenshots, theories, and discoveries in the Community Hub! From all of us—at Infuse Studio, and Merge Games—thank you, and we hope you enjoy the journey.

Prepare for humanity's next giant leap in Horizon Journey, an ambitious open-world survival game set on a stunningly authentic recreation of Mars, launching on Steam on June 27, 2025. Developed using real NASA imagery, Horizon Journey challenges players to colonise the infamous Red Planet. Future pioneers can get an early taste of Martian life during the upcoming Steam Next Fest in June, with a playable demo available shortly before the event kicks off!

In Horizon Journey, players step into the boots of a member of the 17th Endeavor Mission in the year 2053. Your mission: survive the hostile Martian environment, establish a foothold for humanity, and begin the monumental task of terraforming. This is not just another sci-fi backdrop; Horizon Journey offers a vast, explorable Mars rendered with unparalleled realism, presenting unique survival challenges drawn from the planet's actual conditions.

If you're a fan of science fiction movies, you've probably seen the story where countries come together to avert or overcome a crisis. These films usually begin with some unexpected dangerous event—maybe an alien invasion, a pandemic or rogue robots. Earth's smartest scientists and engineers work non-stop to discover a solution. Governments pool their resources and, in the end—usually at the very last possible second—humanity triumphs. This might seem like a Hollywood fantasy, but believe it or not, this movie plot is playing out in real life right now. No, we aren't facing an alien invasion or fighting off AI overlords, but the earth does face some pretty serious crises. And nations of the world are working together to develop technology to help address those problems.

For example, the LUMI supercomputer, located in Kajaani, Finland receives a portion of its funding from the European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU), an effort that pools EU resources to create/provide exascale computing platforms. Additional funding comes from LUMI consortium countries, which include Finland, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden and Switzerland. According to the Top500 list published in November 2024, LUMI is the 8th fastest supercomputer in the world and the fastest supercomputer in Europe. The final configuration of the LUMI supercomputer can sustain 380 petaflops of performance, which is roughly the equivalent of 1.5 million high-end laptops. It's based on the HPE Cray EX platform with AMD EPYC CPUs and AMD Instinct MI250X GPUs. According to the Green500 list, LUMI is also the world's 25th most energy efficient supercomputer. It runs on 100% hydropower and the waste heat from the facility is recaptured to heat about 100 homes in Kajaani.

Today Canonical announced the release of Ubuntu 25.04, codenamed "Plucky Puffin. Ubuntu 25.04 delivers the latest GNOME 48 with support for triple buffering and an improved install and boot experience. The introduction of a "devpack" for Spring expands toolchain availability in Ubuntu. Advancements in silicon enablement with Canonical's partners deliver performance improvements for AI workloads on Intel GPUs, and support for confidential computing on AMD SEV-SNP.

"Plucky Puffin combines the very latest in open source desktop technology with a focus on making high quality developer tooling readily available on Ubuntu. Ubuntu 25.04 delivers performance improvements across Intel GPUs, and a new purpose-built ISO for ARM64 hardware enthusiasts. Our increasing support for confidential computing with AMD SEV-SNP makes Ubuntu the target platform to deploy AI workloads securely and at scale on both public clouds and private data centers.", Jon Seager, VP of Ubuntu Engineering at Canonical

Greetings scientists…Well today is the day when Far From Home can proudly announce that Forever Skies 1.0 is officially out now on Steam! Our game has been in Early Access for almost two years (22 months), and today it launches with brand-new content and a whole host of QOL, performance and bug fixes. First off, check out our launch trailer below! Forever Skies is a first-person survival game set on a post-apocalyptic, ecologically ruined Earth. Play solo or with up to 3 friends as you build, upgrade, and fly a high-tech airship. Scavenge resources, craft tools, and face dangers on the surface as you hunt for a cure to save humanity.

SOUL MASK, ALOFT AND PLANET CRAFTER
To mark the occasion of our launch, we've partnered up with our friends to create some great survival co-op gaming bundles. So if you or your friends already own Soul Mask, Planet Crafter, or Aloft, you can use these bundles to get an additional 10% off Forever Skies or vice versa.

SaxonQ, developer of the first mobile quantum computer, and Quantum Machines, the leading provider of advanced hybrid quantum-classical control solutions, announced today a milestone demonstration of real-time quantum computing on SaxonQ's mobile quantum computer at Hannover Messe 2025. The live demonstrations included a quantum chemical calculation of H₂ energy levels and basic real-time image recognition, marking the first time anyone has shown such applications running on a portable room-temperature quantum computer publicly, demonstrate the potential of mobile quantum computing outside laboratory conditions.

"Developing a mobile quantum computer that runs in real-world environments—without cryogenic cooling and powered by a simple wall plug—is a challenge that requires the best available control technology. Quantum Machines provides exactly that. This successful demonstration proves that we can run reliable quantum operations on-site. It's an exciting step toward bringing quantum computing to industrial applications," says Dr. Frank Schlichting, CEO of SaxonQ.

Welcome to Easter week and this week kicks off with a dark ARPG that offers six unique classes. This is followed by an open world MMORPG with retro vibes, a photography sim, a cute retro RPG, an escape room that's an entire world and finally a co-op survival game that involves a lot of flying, just not in planes.

Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree / This week's major release / Thursday 17 April
Create your Inquisitor from one of six unique Classes, and wield blades and magic to battle nightmarish creatures. Craft hundreds of weapons and items, and learn powerful Talents to define your combat style. Explore a vast, interconnected world and unearth its secrets across 60 quests that will push your skills to their limits. Steam link

Unlock Infinite Possibilities in AV-over-IP with Kiloview X86-64 Compute Card powered by AMD. At Kiloview, we design solutions that empower AV professionals with unmatched flexibility and seamless operation. That's why we created the X86-64 Compute Card for the Cradle Series RF02—bringing the power of a PC into a professional AV server to simplify workflows and maximize expandability. Powered by AMD Ryzen Embedded 8645HS and Radeon 780M GPU, this high-performance computing module allows users to run Kiloview's software ecosystem or any third-party applications—from Multiview, Routing, Recording to Mixing, Switching and production, and more—all on a unified platform. With this, your AV workflow is no longer limited by hardware constraints. With software-defined flexibility and AMD's processing power, we've made AV-over-IP easier than ever.

Modern media workflows demand uncompromising performance. From 4K multi-channel encoding/decoding to ultra-low latency streaming, broadcasters and content creators need solutions with both raw power and flexibility. This is where Kiloview's latest X86-64 Compute Card, advanced by AMD, comes into play. By integrating a high-performance computing architecture from AMD with Kiloview's KiloLink Server Technology, users can significantly enhance overall efficiency for their AV production and device management. The KiloLink Server optimizes the process of IP-based video transmission to remotely bulk upgrade, restore, reset, or restart any paired Kiloview products with just a few clicks.

Quantum Machines (QM), the leading provider of advanced quantum control solutions, has recently announced the NVIDIA DGX Quantum Early Customer Program, with a cohort of six leading research groups and quantum computer builders. NVIDIA DGX Quantum, a reference architecture jointly developed by NVIDIA and QM, is the first tightly integrated quantum-classical computing solution, designed to unlock new frontiers in quantum computing research and development. As quantum computers scale, their reliance on classical resources for essential operations, such as quantum error correction (QEC) and parameter drift compensation, grows exponentially. NVIDIA DGX Quantum provides access to the classical acceleration needed to support this progress, advancing the path toward practical quantum supercomputers.

NVIDIA DGX Quantum leverages OPX1000, the best-in-class, modular high-density hybrid control platform, seamlessly interfacing with NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper Superchips. This solution brings accelerated computing into the heart of the quantum computing stack for the first time, achieving an ultra-low round-trip latency of less than 4 µs between quantum control and AI supercomputers - faster than any other approach. The NVIDIA DGX Quantum Early Customer Program is now underway, with selected leading academic institutions, national labs, and commercial quantum computer builders participating. These include the Engineering Quantum Systems group (equs.mit.edu) led by MIT Professor William D. Oliver, the Israeli Quantum Computing Center (IQCC), quantum hardware developer Diraq, the Quantum Circuit group (led by Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon Professor Benjamin Huard), and more.

Quantum networks—where entanglement is distributed across distant nodes—promise to revolutionize quantum computing, communication, and sensing. However, a major bottleneck has been scalability, as the entanglement rate in most existing systems is limited by a network design of a single qubit per node. A new study, led by Prof. A. Faraon at Caltech and conducted by A. Ruskuc et al., recently published in Nature (ref: 1-2), presents a groundbreaking solution: multiplexed entanglement using multiple emitters in quantum network nodes. By harnessing rare-earth ions coupled to nanophotonic cavities, researchers at Caltech and Stanford have demonstrated a scalable platform that significantly enhances entanglement rates and network efficiency. Let's take a closer look at the two key challenges they tackled—multiplexing to boost entanglement rates and dynamic control strategies to ensure qubit indistinguishability—and how they overcame them.

Breaking the Entanglement Bottleneck via Multiplexing
One of the biggest challenges in scaling quantum networks is the entanglement rate bottleneck, which arises due to the fundamental constraints of long-distance quantum communication. When two distant qubits are entangled via photon interference, the rate of entanglement distribution is typically limited by the speed of light and the node separation distance. In typical systems with a single qubit per node, this rate scales as c/L (where c is the speed of light and L is the distance between nodes), leading to long waiting times between successful entanglement events. This severely limits the scalability of quantum networks.

In industrial environments, equipment runs 24/7, handling frequent and intensive write operations. To support these demanding workloads, storage solutions must offer high endurance to extend lifespan, minimize downtime, and lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Designed to meet these demands, the Cervoz T455 Series, M.2 2280 NVMe SSD delivers 35% greater endurance through a refined firmware architecture and proven storage technologies. Ideal for industrial automation, edge computing, and high-performance computing (HPC), it ensures reliable performance under heavy workloads.

Enhanced Endurance for Demanding Industrial Applications—Over-Provisioning Technology: Endurance SSD Performance and Longevity
Cervoz's Over-Provisioning technology optimizes SSD performance by reserving extra storage space, boosting efficiency, and extending lifespan. How SSD Over-Provisioning Delivers Benefits:

• Extended Lifespan: Efficiently reserves additional storage space, enhancing NAND durability at least 35%.
• Consistent Performance: Maintains steady performance levels even under high-intensity workloads.
• Optimized Resource Management: Reserved space allocation for optimal write efficiency.

There's more to being a Hobbit than fleeing for your life and trying to survive increasingly hostile environments. This is why Wētā Workshop invites you to a taste of adventure that's a little more… wholesome. I had a cozy chat with Stephen Lambert, Tales of the Shire: A Lord of The Rings Game creative director, to dig a bit deeper into why this particular Hobbit hole will feel like a home away from home when it launches on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam—July 29.

How would you describe the main pillars of gameplay in Tales of the Shire?
Stephen Lambert: So much of the game is about community. We've got four main areas that we focus on while living your idyllic life as a Hobbit: how you spend your time cooking, gardening, fishing, and doing peaceful activities. The other aspect is exploring by water, so looking around the environment and discovering little secret moments and lovely little glades and areas to hang out within the world. And then there are obviously the tales within the community. So getting to meet new people and help them along their journeys.

Technology and its impact on interactive entertainment experiences is nothing short of remarkable. AI and machine learning are allowing our creators to explore new ways to test games, build worlds, and create deeper, more immersive experiences at a faster rate without sacrificing quality. Our artists are empowered to create more realistic, dynamic animations and visuals at a greater scale, delivering more cinematic moments that draw us in and leave us stunned. Or completely immersed in the most enthralling environments possible, surrounded by and interacting with authentic, high-fidelity characters.

Above all, these advancements connect and offer millions of EA's players and fans around the globe new ways to play, create, watch, and connect in and beyond our games like never before. At the recently concluded Game Developers Conference (GDC), EA's brilliant minds showcased some of these technological innovations, highlighting how they empower our developers to craft extraordinary interactive entertainment experiences. Their talks provided insight into the cutting-edge tools and techniques driving the future of game development at EA, and the positive impact this will have on our developers, players and fans across the globe.

When Lunar debuted in North America in 1993, it was a standout in the emerging Western market for Japanese RPGs. Lunar featured detailed, animated cinematic cutscenes, plenty of voice acting, high-quality music, and-most importantly-an endearing story packed with engaging and memorable characters. While it wasn't the first CD-ROM-based JRPG to hit the market, it was one that left a powerful impact on everyone who played it. A sequel, two PlayStation remakes, a PSP outing and more further broadened the audience for Lunar. More than 30 years after the series' debut, Lunar and Lunar 2 are coming back to the realm of PlayStation with the Lunar Remastered Collection. To give some insight into what makes the Lunar games special—and to stir fond memories among longtime fans—we talked to Matthias Pergams, producer over at GungHo Online Entertainment America.

Silver Standard
"LUNAR was one of the first JRPGs on the CD-ROM format, with animated cutscenes, in-game voice acting, and even an opening theme song," Pergams explains. "The series gained a dedicated following both within and outside Japan, paving the way for the genre as a whole. It's a work that has a unique historical significance." The original Lunar has been remade and re-released a few times for various platforms (along with Lunar 2, to a lesser degree), so we were curious as to why the PlayStation 'Complete' versions of the two games were chosen as the base for the remasters. "Each version is different and possesses unique merits, so we actually struggled quite a bit with this question. Ultimately, the choice came down to which version we felt represented the series best. For us, it was the PlayStation version."

Focus Entertainment and Saber Interactive are excited to share a Reaction Trailer for their upcoming game RoadCraft, celebrating its demo's success during Steam Next Fest and allowing everyone to witness all kinds of memorable moments filled with truckloads of fun. The next-gen heavy-machinery simulation and sandbox game where players reshape the Aftermath is coming May 20 to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

The demo is still live for a few days!
In one week, over 350,000 players tried out the RoadCraft demo. With almost 12,000 simultaneous active users, it ranks 3rd most played demo during the Steam Next Fest. Having been greeted so warmly, the demo has won an extended lifetime following its Steam Next Fest participation, giving everyone the opportunity to get in on the fun… or go back to it until March 20, 6 pm CET!

The next evolution of Rainbow Six Siege was revealed today at the Siege X Showcase. Launching on June 10, Siege X will introduce Dual Front, a dynamic new 6v6 game mode, as well as deliver foundational upgrades to the core game (including visual enhancements, an audio overhaul, rappel upgrades, and more) alongside revamped player protection systems, and free access that will allow players to experience the unique tactical action of Rainbow Six Siege at no cost. Plus, from now through March 19, a free Dual Front closed beta is live on PC via Ubisoft Connect, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, giving players a first chance to play the exciting new mode. Read on to find out how to get into the beta and try Dual Front for yourself.

Dual Front
Taking place on an entirely new map called District, Dual Front is a new mode that pits two teams of six Operators against each other in a fight to attack enemy sectors while defending their own. Players can choose from a curated roster of 35 Operators—both Attackers and Defenders - that will rotate twice per season. During each match, two objective points are live at all times, one in each team's lane; teams must plant a sabotage kit (akin to a defuser) in the opposing team's objective room and defend it in order to capture the sector and progress towards the final objective: the Base. Sabotage the Base to claim victory, but don't forget to defend your own sector, lest your foes progress faster than you and beat you to it.

Ask a typical IT professional today whether they're leveraging AI, and there's a good chance they'll say yes-after all, they have reputations to protect! Kidding aside, many will report that their teams may use Web-based tools like ChatGPT or even have internal chatbots that serve their employee base on their intranet, but for that not much AI is really being implemented at the infrastructure level. As it turns out, the true answer is a bit different. AI tools and techniques have embedded themselves firmly into standard enterprise workloads and are a more common, everyday phenomena than even many IT people may realize. Assembly line operations now include computer vision-powered inspections. Supply chains use AI for demand forecasting making business move faster and of course, AI note-taking and meeting summary is embedded on virtually all the variants of collaboration and meeting software.

Increasingly, critical enterprise software tools incorporate built-in recommendation systems, virtual agents or some other form of AI-enabled assistance. AI is truly becoming a pervasive, complementary tool for everyday business. At the same time, today's enterprises are navigating a hybrid landscape where traditional, mission-critical workloads coexist with innovative AI-driven tasks. This "mixed enterprise and AI" workload environment calls for infrastructure that can handle both types of processing seamlessly. Robust, general-purpose CPUs like the AMD EPYC processors are designed to be powerful and secure and flexible to address this need. They handle everyday tasks—running databases, web servers, ERP systems—and offer strong security features crucial for enterprise operations augmented with AI workloads. In essence, modern enterprise infrastructure is about creating a balanced ecosystem. AMD EPYC CPUs play a pivotal role in creating this balance, delivering high performance, efficiency, and security features that underpin both traditional enterprise workloads and advanced AI operations.

Hello Director! We're happy to announce that all owners of will be receiving a free content update. The update is hitting PC players (Steam and Epic Games Store, GOG to follow later) today, including several improvements to support newer hardware. In the near future we will release this same update for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S platforms. We have a small team working on these updates so we want to space them out to give us time to fix potential issues that might come up. We appreciate your patience! Keep an eye on our social channels for the exact date and time, as well as update notes.

Control Ultimate Edition contains the main game and all previously released Expansions ("The Foundation" and "AWE") in one great value package. A corruptive presence has invaded the Federal Bureau of Control…Only you have the power to stop it. The world is now your weapon in an epic fight to annihilate an ominous enemy through deep and unpredictable environments. Containment has failed, humanity is at stake. Will you regain control?