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Konami has filed and published a new trademark for Silent Hill at the Japan Patent Office.

A new Silent Hill trademark has re-ignited rumors of a possible Sony-produced sequel. Konami's latest Silent Hill trademark was published today on the JPO database and includes many use cases including video games, commercial game machines/machine equipment, game software, and virtual reality headsets.

Recent reports indicate that Sony has acquired the rights to a big video game franchise. Former reports from 2020-2021 indicated that Sony was producing a new Silent Hill game and Hideo Kojima was possibly involved.

A new report from a well-known Rockstar Games leaker says Grand Theft Auto 6 could release in 2024 after all.

Sources have told Rockstar Games leaker and informant Chris Klippel that GTA 6 has broken an important development milestone and work on the game should accelerated in the coming months (and years).

"An important step in the development of GTA 6 has just been reached. Things should speed up (internally at Rockstar)," Klippel wrote on Twitter.

FromSoftware employees aren't happy working at the studio and are complaining of low wages and other issues. Meanwhile, FromSoft parent company Kadokawa Corp. has made over $1.4 billion in the last 9 months.

Like most big games, it looks like Elden Ring's expansive world came at a human cost. FromSoftware employees have complained about a number of issues on Japanese company feedback website Career Connection, stating low wages and crunch (one review says employees are "breaking their bodies" working so much) as problems with the work environment. FromSoft has earned a 2.6 out of 5 rating for employee satisfaction as a result.

According to the survey, FromSoftware employees earn roughly 4 million yen, or $29,000, a year. Those wages are a stark contrast to the $1.415 billion that FromSoftware parent company Kadokawa Corp. has made in the last 9 months.

On July 17, 2014, the flight MH17 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur mysteriously went missing and was later discovered to be shot down.

The flight carried 283 passengers and 15 crew members, and all were killed in what was discovered to be a missile strike in the Hrabove area of Eastern Ukraine, where the plane was shot down. A Dutch-led joint investigation concluded that four individuals were responsible for the destruction of MH17 and were charged, three of those individuals had connections to the Russian military.

Additionally, the missile that the four individuals used to shoot down the plane was a Russian Buk-TELAR, which is a surface-to-air missile system that originally belonged to the Russian Federation's 53rd Anti-Aircraft Military Brigade. On top of that, the investigation found that the missile system was moved from Russia to a location that was controlled by Russian-funded separatists and that the missile system could have only been operated under the supervision of an appropriately trained Russian military.

A hacker that goes by the name Gummo has revealed that he owns more than $7 billion in Bitcoin in a recent interview.

Gummo first appeared on the Soft White Underbelly YouTube channel back in December 2020, where he discussed his life and how he became a hacker for more than 30 years. Gummo explains that he had a rough upbringing coming from a low-income household and the loss of his single parent but managed to find a love for computers, eventually developing a set of hacking skills that he used for nefarious actions to survive throughout his adolescent years.

In the 2020 interview, Gummo says that he was caught for selling code worth $10 million and was given an option to either sit in prison for the crimes he committed or to use his skills to improve the technology that he hacked by consulting to developers. Choosing the latter, Gummo proceeded to be a "good guy" hacker, where he explained in a recent interview that he does "threat hunts" where he tracks down people "that need to be tracked down", and consulting.

The Sun's chaotic behavior has resulted in eruptions being blasted towards Earth's general direction, which will cause geomagnetic storms into Earth's upper atmosphere, according to officials.

Since mid-January, the Sun has been very active with coronal mass ejections (CME) and solar flares, and due to this activity, it was only a matter of time before some charged particles were flung in Earth's direction. Officials at the Space Weather Prediction Center of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have confirmed that for the next few days, there are warnings in place for mild/moderate levels of geomagnetic storms measuring in at categories G1 and G2.

These warnings aren't anything to worry about on the surface of Earth, as our planet's protective layers protect us from the majority of the harmful particles, but they are very relevant for satellites as geomagnetic storms can cause interruptions in communications. On a more positive note, the British Met Office has said that as a result of two CMEs directed towards Earth, there is an increased chance of both aurora borealis and aurora australis over March 13 and 14.

The cryptocurrency market has been in a slow decline since November 2021 when it peaked out at an all-time high of $69,000.

Despite the price of Bitcoin being in a decline since November some analysts are still predicting that the digital asset is still on track to be valued at $100,000 per coin sometime in 2023. With inflation being a major economic concern worldwide, with the additional strain on the financial system from Russia's war with Ukraine, the cryptocurrency market seems plagued with fear, uncertainty and doubt. A recent small glimmer of bullish hope surfaced when details of Biden's new executive order leaked

Cryptocurrency whales (individuals who own large quantities of various/singular digital assets), such as Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk have been known to be big advocates for certain cryptocurrencies, and with the market being in an overall slump it raises the question "has Musk jumped out of the cryptocurrency game?".

An asteroid approximately the size of a bus will make a close approach to Earth and will come within the distance between the Earth and the moon.

According to NASA's Asteroid Watch list, the next asteroid to make a close approach with Earth is asteroid 2022 ES5, which was only discovered on March 7. Researchers at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona discovered the asteroid, mapped its orbit, size, movements, and published their results online. Now the asteroid appears in NASA's watch list and small body database where it states 2022 ES5 will come within 207,000 miles of Earth.

To put that number of miles into context, the average distance between the moon and Earth is about 238,855 miles. It should be noted that 2022 ES5 isn't categorized as a "potentially hazardous asteroid" due to its small diameter. NASA categorizes a space rock as "potentially hazardous" if its diameter is 500 feet or greater, and its orbit brings it within 4.6 million miles of Earth, or about 19.5 times the distance to the moon.

The chief of Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, has subtly threatened to crash the International Space Station (ISS) over sanctions imposed on Russia.

The head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, took to Telegram to voice his opinion on Western sanctions recently implemented on Russia while reminding everyone that the Kremlin controls the segment on the station that maintains the orbit of the ISS. Rogozin goes on to say that the Kremlin corrects the station's orbit at least 11 times a year and that other countries should consider the price of the sanctions against Roscosmos.

Additionally, the Russian space agency head published a map showcasing all of the possible locations the ISS could be brought down while also pointing out the 500-tonne station has a low chance of crashing into Russia. Rogozin wrote on Telegram the ISS could "fall down into the sea or onto land". This isn't the first time Rogozin has threatened to bring down the ISS, as last month the Russian space chief took to Twitter to say, "If you block cooperation with us, then who is going to save the ISS from an uncontrolled descent from orbit and then falling onto the territory of the United States or Europe?"

United States officials have claimed that Russia requested military support from China for its invasion into Ukraine.

The US senior officials have remained unnamed but spoke to multiple news outlets such as The New York Times, Fox, Washington Post, and CNN, claiming that Russia asked China for military and economic assistance to help its invasion into Ukraine. The Times asked the unnamed officials what type of weaponry Russia allegedly requested from China, to which the US officials declined to comment.

In response to these allegations from US senior officials, Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu spoke to CNN and said that he's "never heard" of any request for aid from Russia, adding that "China is deeply concerned and grieved on the Ukraine situation. We sincerely hope that the situation will ease and peace will return at an early date."

Millions of dollars in the cryptocurrency have been donated to Ukraine, and now the Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine has announced what it has spent the funds on.

The news comes from Alex Bornyakov, the Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, who took to Twitter to announce that Ukraine has spent $100 million in cryptocurrency donations, with the majority of the money being spent on bulletproof jackets, packed lunches and various military equipment. Bornyakov wrote that cryptocurrency donations are funding the armed forces of Ukraine and went on to thank everyone that has donated.

According to reports, the cryptocurrency donations were used to purchase the following military equipment: 5,500 bulletproof jackets, 410,000 packed lunches, 500 ballistic plates for bulletproof vests, 3,125 thermal imagers and optics, 500 helmets, 3,427 medicines, and 60 walkie-talkies.

Discovery Inc. shareholders have officially approved the WarnerMedia merger, meaning WB Games will soon have a new parent company.

The $43 billion WarnerMedia - Discovery merger has been greenlit by shareholders and is now awaiting regulatory approval. WB Games is included as part of the deal, which means developers like Netherealm, Rocksteady Studios, Avalanche, and WB Montreal will have a new corporate overlord soon. No details have been announced concerning possible layoffs, employee shuffling, or studio closures.

Former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime doesn't believe Facebook's current metaverse plan will be successful.

The metaverse is a nebulous concept that delivers lots of promises to stakeholders and gamers. Investors are promised a huge interconnected ecosystem of ads, monetization, and engagement. Gamers are promised things that technically already exist today--connectivity, interactions, multiplayer games, value, etc. There's just one big problem: The metaverse still hasn't really been defined, and it'll take some serious growing pains and failures to do so.

Some of the games industry's biggest figures are pressing back against the metaverse--at least in its current iteration. According to Reggie Fils-Aime, who led Nintendo of America for multiple years, Facebook (who changed their name to Meta Platforms, signifying its devotion to the metaverse) isn't particularly innovative and their ideals for the metaverse simply won't take off.

Borderlands 3 should get PlayStation cross-play very soon, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford says.

Cross-play might be thee most important new feature of modern gaming, especially for titles with live services and microtransactions. Borderlands 3, which ahs sold 15 million copies, is one such game. Borderlands 3 didn't launch with cross-play on gaming's biggest platform--the PlayStation 4. That should change soon.

On Twitter, Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford says Borderlands 3 cross-play on PS4/PS5 is an inevitability:

Nintendo confirms it will no longer ship video games hardware or physical games to Russia due to "volatile" market conditions.

One by one many of the world's biggest brands have turned their backs on Russia. The ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine has shocked the world and many companies are pulling their products and services out of the increasingly dangerous region. Nintendo is among the latest companies to stop selling to Russia.

In a statement given to Eurogamer, Nintendo says it has temporarily suspended shipments and sales to Russia due to unreliable economic conditions brought on by international sanctions.

Xbox has a vision for a cyclic, streamlined flow of new games that are both revealed and released over time.

Xbox's game division is absolutely massive. When Activision-Blizzard joins Microsoft, Xbox gaming will have over 30 teams working on a multitude of projects. There's so many games in development right now--and that's how Microsoft wants it. Xbox gaming aspires to have a kind of restaurant that's always updating its menu while serving up something new, and wants to give full visibility of its gaming feast to hungry diners.

"We want to get to this point where there's a steady flow of great games that are coming that customers can predict," Xbox president Phil Spencer said in a recent XboxEra podcast.

Peter Molyneux's new game Legacy, which is built around digital land NFTs and in-game commerce, has made over $57 million in crypto sales.

The latest game from Fable creator Peter Molyneux is a big departure from his previous work. His studio at 22Cans has teamed up with Gala Games, a publisher known for play-to-earn blockchain games, to make Legacy. This game is built around a kind of digital e-commerce platform with its own crypto called LegacyCoin where players create thingamabobs, trinkets, other fantastic creations and sell them on an in-game marketplace. Players buy land, make factories, and sell their goods. Like all blockchain games, the details are fuzzy.

That being said, 22Cans has completely sold out of its digital land NFTs. The company has made a total of $57.721 million from selling digital land based on ETH to USD conversions. That's a huge chunk of revenues that's roughly half of Ubisoft's entire microtransaction earnings made in Q3'21.

One of the most well-known game developers has condemned NFTs, joining voices with a multitude of other industry figures against the speculative market.

Warren Spector, known for creation of some of the most lauded franchises on the planet like Deus Ex and System Shock, is wholeheartedly against NFTs. "NFTs are ridiculous. I do not understand why anybody would want to climb on that bandwagon," Spector said in a recent interview with VentureBeat.

"Ownership of virtual goods that can be instantly reproduced in unlimited quantities. Who thinks that's a good idea? So NFTs...I have no interest."

Microsoft founder Bill Gates warned people during an interview late last month against investing in the biggest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin.

Gates sat down with Bloomberg Technology for an interview on February 22, where he was asked his thoughts on Tesla's investment in Bitcoin, and the price volatility of the digital asset. Gates cautioned against investing in Bitcoin, saying his general thought would be "if you have less money than Elon, probably watch out". Gates was then asked why he isn't bullish on Bitcoin, which he then followed up by saying that Bitcoin uses "a lot of energy", promotes "anonymous transactions" that aren't reversible.

Gates then said that the Gates Foundation does do "a lot in terms of digital currency" but does it differently where transactions aren't anonymous and deals with other problems with Bitcoin, such as money laundering and nefarious activities. The Microsoft co-founder agrees that the push towards digital money is overall a "super positive thing" that will eventually be able to reach some of the poorest countries in the world.

Russia is continuing its advance into Ukraine, and Maxar Technologies' satellites have captured Russian military movements around Ukraine's capital, Kyiv.

Russia is currently surrounding Ukraine's capital Kyiv, with Russian military forces advancing on almost every front. Recent satellite imagery was captured by Maxar Technologies' WordView-2 satellite, which has been observing Russia's invasion into Ukraine since February 24. Maxar Technologies' Earth-viewing satellites have previously taken images of Russia's military convoy that stretched 40 miles; those images can be found here.

The recent images from the WorldView-2 satellite captured Russian military on the outskirts of Kyiv, firing upon Ukraine's capital. The above image shows muzzle flashes and smoke from Russian artillery and showcases what Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described to the New York Times as "a war of annihilation". Ukraine has reported that it has caused Russia "heavy losses in manpower and equipment". For more information on this story, check out this link here.