Intel is preparing its next-gen Phantom Canyon NUC systems that will pack the next-gen Tiger Lake CPUs, and they should be quite the mini powerhouses judging by these specs.

We're told to expect some Tiger Lake-U processors with up to TDP of up to 28W, PCIe 4.0 x4 support for super-fast SSDs, and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti or RTX 2060 graphics card. This would be absolutely perfect for most gamers, and anything less can be done through a Thunderbolt 3-powered external graphics card.

Inside, you should be able to equip a new Phantom Canyon NUC (seriously, that name is awesome) with 64GB of DDR4 at up to 2400MHz, while faster 2666MHz memory will be limited to 32GB. There should be 2 x M.2 slots, 2.5+1GbE ports, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports, and more.

Amazon put up some placeholders for WB Games Montreal's new game, hinting at an imminent announcement.

After cancelling their ambitious Suicide Squad live game, WB Games Montreal is currently working on a Batman-related project. Details are scarce, but sources close to the matter say it's centered around the Dark Knight's son, Damian Wayne. But the focus of the game could've shifted since then. Back in 2018, the studio teased the project would borrow from The Court of Owls story arc from the 2011 graphic novels.

We've had no actual information for years now, but that could change quite soon. The now-deleted Amazon placeholder listings hint WB Montreal's game could be announced soon, possibly this month at Gamescom 2019 in Germany.

Next-gen games on Xbox 360? It could be possible thanks to Project xCloud.

Microsoft's new Project xCloud streaming service could enable next-gen gaming on old legacy hardware like the Xbox 360. The service uses the power of remote servers to beam games to devices like mobile phones regardless of their hardware limitations. It's a way of making gaming more accessible to gamers on-the-go or even at home. And since gamers can literally use their Xbox One hardware as a host server to stream games, the current-gen could beam games to last-gen. How bizarre.

Nothing's been confirmed just yet, and we don't know if it's possible--or more importantly, if Microsoft even cares about the X360 any more--but MS Studios head Matt Booty at least entertained the idea. In a recent interview with GameInformer, he talked about how the unique use-case underlines xCloud's core ethos.

Take-Two once again teases a huge roadmap of new IP, sequels, and franchises, strongly hinting GTA 6 is currently in development.

In its recent Fiscal Year Q1'20 earnings call, Rockstar Games parent company Take-Two Interactive teases its massive slate of new games. The pipeline is "bigger than ever," and Take-Two says it'll include sequels from its biggest franchises (ahem...Grand Theft Auto...ahem). But it's not all GTA 6 and Rockstar. There's a myriad of fresh projects in dev across its entire label of studios, including the new 2K project from ex-Call of Duty dev Michael Condrey, new titles from its Social Point mobile house, and innovative games from its new indie label Private Division, which is publishing Obsidian's new The Outer Worlds RPG.

In the call, company CFO Lainie Goldstein outlined strong growth indicators for FY2020 and beyond thanks to this new slate. "Looking ahead, we have the strongest development pipeline in our history, including sequels from our biggest franchises, as well as exciting new IP," she said.

Technically all Halo games are service games with expanded multiplayer (Halo 5 pushed the bar with REQ microtransactions). But Halo 6, aka Halo: Infinite, could push things even further by adding in a live campaign that continually unfolds over time.

Halo: Infinite is sounding more and more like a hybrid campaign that blends RPG progression with FPS action for a long-winded, ever-evolving experience. I recently predicted Infinite would have a GaaS-based campaign that's updated with new missions, chapters, and storylines across years. I posited that Infinite could be a platform instead of a game; it could be the beginning of a literal infinite rollout of Halo content. Everything about the Xbox business (which thrives from engagement and monetization) and how 343i describes the game makes this seem more and more likely.

Now there's even more evidence to support our theory. In a recent interview with GameInformer, Microsoft Studios boss Mat Booty seems to hint that Halo: Infinite will have some sort of expanded live-based gaming that lives outside of multiplayer.

Blizzard's been on a classic kick lately. First we got remasters of the original Warcraft and Starcraft games, and now they're doubling-down with World of Warcraft classic. But we shouldn't hold out hope for Diablo II remastered.

In its recent earnings call, Activision-Blizzard pledged to make more remasters of key franchises. It's a way of re-engaging players and making money with sales, and also baking in microtransaction hooks in older games. Company CEO Robert Kotick pretty much says more classic re-releases are on the way.

"At Activision we have seen great results from remastering some of these beloved games over the last couple of years. They are obviously having a big impact on our bottom line and a real impact there, but I'd say what's really important is that it's reaffirming the enduring nature of these franchises for us. We think there's a lot of IP in there the fans are going to want to experience again. So now what I'd say stay tuned for some future announcements."

Discord will soon roll out a new streaming feature, but it's not going to be huge like Twitch.

Discord's new Go Live feature is basically screen-sharing to a small group of random players, creating a more intimate and close-knit experience with strangers online. It won't deliver huge mass-audience streaming like Twitch or YouTube and is instead limited to just 10 viewers. Go Live can be used by anyone on a server, and numerous people can stream at once in a single voice channel. It's meant to deliver a kind of camaraderie to users across a server and even has huge game-changing potential.

This is basically a continuation to Discord's screen-sharing feature, which shows your friends' screens while in-game and it could revolutionize interactivity. Go Live won't require users to be friends with the viewers, though. Gamers could share tips on how to take on a specific boss with real-time footage, all complimented by live voice chatting to boot. Using Go Live in tandem with a multiplayer game would basically deliver a new level of tutorials to Discord servers.

Activision has big plans for Modern Warfare's post-launch content pipeline.

Like any game released from Activision-Blizzard, the new Modern Warfare reboot will expand greatly long after its initial October release. In fact, Modern Warfare will have the most content of any Call of Duty game--a bold statement made in Activision's latest Q2'20 earnings call. That means roadmaps, live services, new modes, maps, weapons, and a timed cadence of content--all monetized in some way.

"We have a number of surprises in store after that including the largest post-launch content pipeline in franchise history," Activision COO Coddy Johnson said in the call.

Update: AMD has issued a statement, clarifying the situation: "We expect there will continue to be strong supply of Radeon RX 5700 series graphics cards in the market, with multiple designs starting to arrive from our AIB partners. As is standard practice, once the inventory of the AMD reference cards has been sold, AMD will continue to support new partner designs with Radeon RX 5700 series reference design kit".

AMD only launched its Radeon RX 5700 XT and RX 5700 just over a month ago now, and now we have reports from Cowcotland that the new Navi-based cards have been pushed into EOL status, or end-of-life.

The news is a surprise, but it does make sense if you think about it. The reference cards eat up AMD manufacturing time and most likely cost them a decent amount of coin to produce, and in a few days the third-party custom Radeon RX 5700 XT and RX 5700 cards launch.

AMD released its game-changing EPYC Rome CPUs and in the hours afterwards, AMD shares spiked by a huge 16% in between Google and Twitter announcing they're using the new EPYC Rome chips in their servers.

AMD shares closed at $33.92 on Thursday, up by a huge 84% this year alone after riding the success of Zen 2 powering the new Ryzen 3000 series CPUs, and the new Navi-powered Radeon RX 5700 series graphics cards.

Patrick Moorhead, Founder, President and Principal Analyst of Moors Insights & Strategy had some comments on AMD's new EPYC Rome CPUs, where he said: "AMD took a big step forward today in the datacenter with its launch of the 2nd Gen EPYC processor and platform. It is a bigger leap forward than I had expected".