GeForce RTX 5090 graphics cards—whether in Founders Edition or AIB custom form—are still in very high demand; certain buyers are even flying into nearby nations to take advantage of even the slightest favorable conditions. This was apparent during launch week—three months ago—with so-called "tourists" queuing up alongside locals in Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. Day one anti-scalping measures were implemented, but launch stock of GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 graphics cards was rapidly depleted. According to the latest reports, (mostly) Chinese buyers have been making regular visits to Japan's big electronics retail hub, in Osaka. Up until fairly recently, tax-free circumstances—for non-natives—have made the purchase of flagship NVIDIA "Blackwell" GPU-based gaming GPUs worth the trip, even with the added expense of plane tickets and other overheads.

Additionally, certain outlets actually had units readily available on shelves or behind shop counters. Eventually, stores dropped the whole tax-free thing. This measure did not cause much discouragement; tourists were still willing to pay the extra cost—still reasonable, compared to escalated (global) card prices. As disclosed in a MyDrivers news report, multiple Osaka-based retailers have bolstered their anti-tourist sales methodologies—one visitor spotted an updated placard that stated: "GeForce RTX 5090/RTX 5080 cards are only sold to customers who use it in Japan. If the purchased product is to be taken out of Japan, it will not be sold." VideoCardz believes that this newer "symbolic" countermove will be tricky to enforce; are shop workers going to be tasked with performing "Japanese citizen tests" on a regular basis? Chinese ultra high-end GPU seekers could continue to source units from abroad; the latest rumblings suggest a potential forthcoming ban of NVIDIA's region-exclusive GeForce RTX 5090D model.

Digital Extremes's free-to-play third-person looter-shooter, Warframe, has changed radically over the years, serving as something of a golden example of how to do live-service games. The developer also shows no sign of slowing that progress, with the game's upcoming Warframe 1999 and Koumei & the Five Fates updates looking to introduce a slew of new content and gameplay updates. While both updates were previously announced, Digital Extremes revealed additional details about the rollout of the updates and their content at the Tokyo Game Show.

For starters, Digital Extremes announced that Warframe 1999—the 90s- and cyberpunk-themed story update—will be getting a playable demo on October 16, with an in-game cosmetic reward for players that try out the demo, to boot. The Koumei & the Five Fates update is slated to land on October 2 and deliver a new playable Warframe, Koumei, and a new Shrine Defense game mode with enemies inspired by Japanese folklore. There are also quality-of-life changes, new weapons, and weapon and Warframe mods coming in the same update, and an old Warframe will get a drastic rework and be available as a free login reward between October 3 and 16.

Sony Group Corporation is reported to be considering a partial spinoff and listing of its financial services division, in order to raise capital for further investments in its entertainment arm and next generation image sensor technologies. Reuters has published details from a corporate strategy meeting that took place last week (on May 18) - executives at the Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation are contemplating the future of Sony Financial Group. This arm of the business is comprised of several subdivisions including a bank and an insurance firm. Sony Corporation managed to gain full control of these finance organizations three years ago, according to Reuters.

Sony is seeking to retain a stake of just below 20%, and posits that its financial businesses will gain the ability (following the suggested partial spinoff and listing) to raise cash independently for sustainable growth. The company hopes to provide extra funds for its entertainment and semiconductor operations that "need an unprecedented amount of investment." The PlayStation group is aiming to ramp up production of its PS5 console - supply chain problems have caused delays and unit shortages in the past, and Sony is keen to build on the gaming platform's success, without restrictions going forward. The company is keen to advance its camera parts division - in order to meet increasing market demand for smartphone and vehicle sensor components. Hiroki Totoki (President of Sony Group Corp) emphasized that greater investments in these sectors will allow the company to stay competitive large global rivals.

The NVIDIA RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation graphics card was released to the public in late April, but very few reviews and benchmarks have emerged since then. Jisaku Hibi, a Japanese hardware site, has published an in-depth evaluation that focuses mostly on gaming performance. The RTX 4000 Ada SFF has been designed as a compact workstation graphics card, but its usage of an AD104 die makes it a sibling of NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4070 and 4070 Ti gaming-oriented cards. Several PC hardware sites have posited that the 70 W RTX 4000 Ada SFF would "offer GeForce RTX 3070-like performance," but Jisaku Hibi's investigation points to the RTX 3060 Ti being the closest equivalent card (in terms of benchmark results).

According to the TPU GPU database: "NVIDIA has disabled some shading units on the RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation to reach the product's target shader count. It features 6144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 80 ROPs. Also included are 192 tensor cores which help improve the speed of machine learning applications. The card also has 48 ray tracing acceleration cores. NVIDIA has paired 20 GB GDDR6 memory with the RTX 4000 SFF Ada Generation, which are connected using a 160-bit memory interface. The GPU is operating at a frequency of 1290 MHz, which can be boosted up to 1565 MHz, memory is running at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective)." The SKU's 70 W TGP and limited memory interface are seen as the card's main weak points, resulting in average clock speeds and a maximum memory bandwidth of only 280 GB/s.

Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon, the latest high-octane action game by FromSoftware, Inc. and Bandai Namco Europe S.A.S. will release globally on August 25. Combining the 25 years of experience developing the ARMORED CORE franchise and action games in the Elden Ring, and Dark Souls franchise, Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon is full of mech action, including fast-paced battles, in-depth customization, and thrilling boss fights. The game is coming to PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC via Steam, and is now available to pre-order at participating retailers and on Bandai Namco Store.

A mysterious new substance called "Coral" was discovered on the remote planet, Rubicon 3. As an energy source, this substance was expected to dramatically advance humanity's technological and communications capabilities. Instead, it caused a catastrophe that engulfed the planet and the surrounding stars in flames and storms, forming a Burning Star System. Almost half a century later, Coral has resurfaced on Rubicon 3, a planet now contaminated and sealed off by the catastrophe. Extra-terrestrial corporations and resistance groups fight over control of the substance. The player infiltrates Rubicon as an independent mercenary and finds themselves in a struggle over the substance with the corporations and other factions.

The official NieR Series Twitter account declared a sales milestone this week, and showed a great appreciation for its fanbase: "You'll be delighted to hear more than 7.5 million copies of NieR: Automata have been sold or shipped to date. Thank you for your love and support!" PlatinumGames' action role-playing game has accumulated very decent numbers over a six year period - NieR: Automata first arrived on PlayStation 4 and PC back in March of 2017. Thanks to highly favorable reviews from the computer game press, and word of mouth spread throughout the gaming community, the unlikely spin-off (from the Drakengard series) has become an enduring classic. It also helps that NieR: Automata broke free from being a PS4 and PC timed exclusive, and later on found its way onto the Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.

It is probably safe to assume that NieR: Automata has made a return on its production budget, so talk naturally turns to the prospects of a hypothetical third entry in the series. PlatinumGames and the game's creator, Yoko Taro, have remained very tight-lipped about a possible continuation. The normally eccentric video game director took a more straightforward approach when sharing good news about his game's healthy sales figures: "It seems that 7.5 million copies have been sold. It's so awesome that it makes me dizzy. I can't exceed this number for the rest of my life…I can only thank everyone who supported me!" Taro has taken a more evasive stance when dealing with questions regarding a third Nier title.

The final DLC in the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Expansion Pass launches for the Nintendo Switch system on April 25. The trailer gives viewers a glimpse into the scenario of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Expansion Pass Vol. 4 - Future Redeemed. Set before the events of the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 game, players join a cast of new and familiar characters in an original story scenario that connects all three installments in the Xenoblade Chronicles series. Future Redeemed also features new battle mechanics, such as Unity Combo, where two characters can attack in unison.

In Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Aionios is the backdrop to an endless conflict between two opposing nations: Keves and Agnus. Through a chance encounter, a group of six soldiers hailing from both rival nations resolve to put aside their differences and work together to expose a new threat - far greater than that of their ceaseless battle. Players can join Noah, Mio and their friends as they traverse epic landscapes, battle ferocious creatures and fight to break the never-ending cycle of violence that binds their homelands.

Following on from the hack into Square Enix's (Deus Ex, Tomb Raider franchises) servers last week, the Japanese company has been sending out an email to its members, updating them on the situation. They explain that no personal information was lifted, but have suspended their member's service while investigations continue. This rather reassuring explanation is in stark contrast to initial reports that up to 1.8 million accounts (1M in Japan, 800K in America) had had personal information lifted, such as names, phone numbers and email addresses. However, it does appear that no personal, login or credit card info was accessed in the end, the company reports (hopefully honestly). Here is that Square Enix email in full: