PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is one of the biggest releases of 2017, and has smashed all sorts of records in the gaming industry since it hit Steam Early Access in March earlier this year.

PUBG developer Bluehole has signed a timed exclusive with Microsoft for Xbox One X, which will definitely boost sales of Microsoft's new flagship console with the hottest game right now as a console exclusive. Bloomberg is now reporting that Bluehole "has had talks with all of the major console companies", and then being very specific that the developer was "in talks with Sony" about a PS4 release of Battlegrounds.

Sony might not see a release of Battlegrounds on the PS4, but Bluehole even talking to them in the first place is promising. Microsoft might only have a timed exclusive on Battlegrounds for Xbox, and I'm sure Sony wants to make sure it's ready as soon as it possibly can with a PS4 version of PUBG. If we're seeing 1.5 million concurrent users on the PC right now, where would those numbers be if Battlegrounds was on both Xbox and PlayStation consoles?

ECS is hitting the Z370 motherboard game with their upcoming lets-throw-all-the-cool-words-in ECS Leet Gaming Z370-Lightsaber, a new motherboard ready for Intel's eighth-gen Coffee Lake CPU architecture.

The new Leet Gaming Z370-Lightsaber rocks a pretty plain look given its burst-in-your-face name, but inside still supports 4 x DIMMs capable of memory at up to 3200MT/s, 3 x PCIe x16 ports, and 2 x M.2 ports that are connected to a PCIe 3.0 x4. We also have 6 x SATA ports, and 2 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports that are backed up by Realtek's ALC1150 codec and Killer E2500 Ethernet.

ECS is aiming the Leet Gaming Z370-Lightsaver at overclockers, with some beefy VRM heat sinks, and on-board power and reset buttons. Next to the power and reset buttons, ECS has placed diagnostic LEDs that will help you know what's happening to your motherboard when your overclock fails. There are three other buttons that provide you with an update BIOS, reset CMOS settings, or a "quick OS" button.

Call of Duty: WWII's beta has wrapped up, with developer Raven putting in the extra mile for the PC version of the game. You don't need a supercomputer to run the game, either.

Raven Software worked on the PC port of the game, with Raven CTO Dwight Luetscher talking with PCGamer recently where he said: "The World War 2 setting, and this game in particular I think, is very well suited for the PC community, in the way some of the recent releases haven't (been)". He continued: "We really believe this is the year where the PC is going to excel. This is the year that we're going to give it our best shot to win the hearts and minds of the PC community".

I don't believe a word about "this game" being "very well suited for the PC community", but I see it as more that PUBG is doing so well it's going to drag the entire PC gaming market out of the slump that Raven thinks it was in, and into the limelight. Not another Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V development job on the latest COD because it has some additional PC features that gamers have been complaining were missing from the series for YEARS.

Samsung has some of the best flagship smartphones on the market and available right now to buy, with the Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+, and even the new Galaxy Note 8. Apple on the other hand, is still a little while away from unleashing its new iPhone X.

Right now, Samsung is the only company in the world that is capable of making enough OLED displays, NAND flash, and DRAM in the quantities that Apple need for the mass sales of its iPhone. This is a huge profit driver for Samsung, with The Wall Street Journal reporting that these massive orders chalk up big profits for Samsung's component business, which is around 35% of Samsung's revenue.

So when your friends say "but the iPhone X is way better than your Samsung junk", you can reply with "well, your iPhone X wouldn't even exist without Samsung" and then link them to this article. Boom.

I awoke to an email this morning from Futuremark that announced they have a new entry into the 3DMark family of benchmarks, with Time Spy Extreme launching on October 11. What is Time Spy Extreme?

Futuremark's new 3DMark Time Spy Extreme benchmark run is a 4K DX12 benchmark run of the current Time Spy benchmark that will stress multi-core processors, countless GPU combinations, and more. Futuremark explains: "A decade or so ago, hardware sites were asking, "Will dual-core processors enhance your gaming experience?" Today, we're looking at new processors from AMD and Intel that can have up to 18 cores in some cases".

The company continues: "The CPU test has been redesigned to let processors with 8 or more cores perform to their full potential. Compared with Time Spy, the Extreme CPU test is three times more demanding. It also lets processors use more advanced instructions sets up to AVX2 when supported".

It was reported last week that GIGABYTE and MSI weren't working on custom AMD Radeon RX Vega graphics cards, but that rumor was wrong. I quickly reached out to my contacts at GIGABYTE which confirmed they were indeed working on custom RX Vega.

Now we have some photos to show courtesy of our friends at VideoCardz, with the GIGABYTE Radeon RX Vega 64 GAMING OC graphics card. We can see that it rocks what will surely be an updated Windforce 2X cooler, but it is pretty damn massive compared to AMD's sleek Radeon RX Vega 64 reference board.

GIGABYTE will be throwing DVI away (yay) and using just 1 x HDMI 2.0 and 3 x DP ports, while GIGABYTE seems to be using a custom PCB on their RX Vega 64 GAMING OC variant.

Ten years before CD Projekt RED made The Witcher series a beloved name in gaming, another game development studio called Metropolis tried to make an adaptation on Sapkowski's works back in the 1990s.

The Metropolis Witcher project was believed to be lost in the ravages of time, but two developers give us a rare look into the early days of PC games development--back before CDPR thought about plunging headlong into making a series that would become their magnum opus. Polish game dev Metropolis Software started developing their Witcher adaptation in 1996, but apart from a few pictures, nothing had ever surfaced--until now.

In a recent interview with arhn.eu , ex-Metropolis game devs Kacper Reutt and Jarek Sobierski not only discussed key points about the failed project, but also managed to get an early tech demo prototype up and running in the stream. What followed is an early look at what could've been the very first Witcher game. The interview is about 13 minutes of interesting game development tidbits and I advise any Witcher fan to give it a watch.

Sony is updating the original PlayStation VR headset with some small hardware iterations--just don't expect new HMD technology or anything.

The new PlayStation VR, model CUH-ZVR2, will allow HDR pass-through via a new enhanced Processor Unit, aka the little box that flips the video signal to the television. With the new box users will no longer have to unhook the video feed cable to game on an HDR screen, which solves one of the main frustration points for PS4 Pro owners. But there's a trade-off: the new CUH-ZVR2 model won't be compatible with the cord from the original CUH-ZVR1 launch model, meaning if you lose your cord you'll have to buy a new one.

"A hardware update to PlayStation VR is being prepared. The new version, model number CUH-ZVR2, features an updated design that enables the stereo headphone cables to be integrated with the VR headset and a slimmer, streamlined connection cable. There's also an updated Processor Unit that supports HDR pass through, enabling users to enjoy HDR-compatible PS4 content on a TV without having to disconnect the Processor Unit in between the TV and the PS4 system. This function can be used only when the VR headset is turned off," reads an update on the PlayStation Blog.

All new purchases of an HTC Vive now come bundled with a free copy of Fallout 4 VR.

Fallout 4 VR is being heralded as an industry changer by AMD, who has recently partnered with Bethesda in a cross-collaborative initiative. A bit ago I predicted that Fallout 4 VR would be the killer app VR so desperately needs, and Bethesda Game Studios is doing everything in their power to make that happen.

"[Fallout 4 VR] is a ground-breaking VR title. It will change the way we think about VR. It will be an industry changer," AMD corporate vice president Roy Taylor told MCVUK at this year's VR World Congress.

In a surprise announcement, Disney and GoG.com have brought back Battlefront 2's classic multiplayer on PC.

When GameSpy went kaput in 2014, many games that used its servers were knocked offline, including the beloved 2005 shooter Battlefront II. Over the past few years dedicated fans kept the game alive through private servers, but now Disney and CD Projekt RED's GoG storefront have brought the game back online and restored it to its full glory--and just a month before the release of the big new Battlefront sequel, I might add.

In a press release GoG explains that the definitive Battlefront II legacy experience will be available to all owners on Steam and GoG.com with full cross-play. Existing and new owners will be able to play online in the full range of modes and gametypes, and no one will need to download any special tools--the game will be hosted with GoG Galaxy's servers.