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The Grand Theft Auto franchise just broke Q2 records with over $247 million earned during the quarter.

Take-Two Interactive just published its 10-Q report detailing info on GTA sales. Based on historical data, we can extrapolate the figures and compile them in a graph. The results are pretty interesting.

Based on our findings, the Grand Theft Auto franchise made about $247.423 million in Q2 Fiscal Year 22. This is a record-breaking Q2 that delivered the best earnings since GTA V's release. To date, Grand Theft Auto V has propelled franchise earnings to $6.925 billion since launch in September 2013.

Netflix's expansion into video games starts today with five mobile games available free for all subscribers.

Netflix has kicked off its new gaming plans by releasing a handful of games on smartphones and tablets. The games are currently only available for free for Netflix subscribers on Androida, however they're not found in the Netflix app at the time of writing--users must download them individually from the Play Store.

Two of them are more immersive games set in the Stranger Things universe and the other three are casual mobile titles. This selection emphasizes Netflix's smaller-scale entry into gaming. The company eventually plans to ramp up its games selection to all devices including set-top boxes, web browsers, and consoles.

Square Enix says it will no longer push its game studios to work on projects that don't fit their wheelhouses or strengths--like Crystal Dynamics working on Avengers.

Square Enix's live service plans have been hit-or-miss. With the exception of Final Fantasy XIV, the company hasn't had tremendous success with engagement monetization on consoles and PC. The company acknowledges its shortcomings and promises to change its plans.

In a recent annual report, Square Enix President Yousuke Matsuda tells investors that the company is currently rethinking its games-as-a-service strategy. The shift comes after Crystal Dynamics' online-driven Avengers live game delivered disappointing results.

Activision just reported its best Q3 in the last 10 years, but its critical holiday quarter may not shatter any records.

Activision-Blizzard shares are down by 14% despite its explosive Q3 period where it reported 10-year highs for revenue, operating income, and net income. The culprit involves the company's ongoing lawsuits and investigations regarding sexual harassment and its weaker Q4 forecast.

The company expects to make $2.02 billion in Q4 2021 on the backs of Call of Duty: Vanguard and a mighty deferral. That's 16% lower than last year's $2,4 billion generated from higher-than-expected sales and monetization during COVID-19 lockdowns and the release of both Black Ops Cold War and the World of Warcraft Shadowlands expansion in Q4'20.

Like Ubisoft, EA is also embracing NFTs and play-to-earn as the future of the games industry.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson mentioned NFTs three times during EA's recent Q2 earnings call. Wilson is very optimistic about NFTs and the possibility in adding a new level of collectibles in games like FIFA, Madden, and NHL, possibly as a new monetization opportunity with its billion-dollar Ultimate Team service.

Here's everything Wilson said about NFTs courtesy of a recent transcript:

If you haven't heard about Intel's new 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPUs by now you must be living under a rock... and now GIGABYTE has just unleashed its new family of Z690 motherboards ready for the world of Alder Lake, DDR5 memory, and PCIe 5.0 connectivity.

The company has mostly DDR5-based Z690 motherboards but there are some DDR4-based Z690 motherboards here, so you get the best of both worlds: Z690 chipset that supports LGA 1700 socket and 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPUs but PCIe 5.0 connectivity for future-gen SSDs and GPUs but current-gen DDR4.

This means you wouldn't need to upgrade your RAM, and could just buy a new Intel 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPU with one of GIGABYTE's fresh new Z690-based motherboards. I wouldn't be buying a new high-end $500+ motherboard with brand new DDR5 memory... but that's me.

A new video that is part of NASA's "We Asked a NASA Expert" series tackles the question, "When was the last time an asteroid hit Earth?"

NASA asteroid expert Marina Brozovic explains that the last time an asteroid hit Earth really depends on if you are asking about small or large impacts. Brozovic explains that Earth is bombarded by small asteroids all of the time, but luckily for humans on the surface, these small space rocks usually burn up in the atmosphere on their way towards the ground.

As for large asteroids that can cause impact craters that span miles in width, Brozovic explains that the last time such an event happened was millions of years ago. Large asteroid impacts are considered to be "rare", but that doesn't mean they aren't dangerous, just unlikely. NASA and other space bodies around the world are tracking more than 90% of these large asteroids that could one day pose a danger to Earth. For more information on asteroids, check out this link here.

There are many different types of scams that plague the cryptocurrency world, and unfortunately, every day, people fall victim to them, which is why it's wise to keep up to date with the newest scams going around.

One Coinbase customer is feeling the burn from a recent notification scam that has caused the user to lose more than $12 million in Bitcoin. According to Business Insider, the Coinbase customer that goes by the initials G.R. purchased 200 Bitcoin in April worth $12,380,000 at the time of writing this article. Following the purchase, G.R. received a notification telling him that his account had been located and that he needed to call the provided number to initiate the unlocking process.

G.R. proceeded to call the number and was linked to an individual who impersonated Coinbase's customer support. The scammer guided G.R. to change settings in his Coinbase account that allowed for remote access to the account. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan G. Boyle said, "Once granted access to the Victim Account, UI-1 increased the daily transaction limit and also attempted to deactivate certain notifications and alert settings on the Victim Account."

Three bursts from the Sun have been observed, and these bursts are heading towards Earth. Officials expect an impact very soon.

The Sun can launch what scientists call coronal mass ejections (CME) from its surface, which are large expulsions of plasma and magnetic field that usually come after a sunspot, knots in the Sun's magnetic field, erupt. Officials at the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center confirmed that on November 1 and November 2, a sunspot called AR2887 released two of these CMEs, which was followed by a third CME from sunspot AR2891.

The first two blasts from the Sun are moving much slower than the third, as the third ate its way through the first and second. All three of the CMEs are on track to hit Earth, with arrival times for the large CME to be on November 3. Officials also warned that the CME impact might produce minor to moderate geomagnetic storms in Earth's upper atmosphere that can cause disruptions for power grids, satellite orientations, GPS communications, and more. On a more positive note, the CME impact can also cause beautiful auroras, such as this one.

The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center recently warned multiple coronal mass ejections (CME) are heading directly towards Earth.

Following up on yesterday's story, the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center has published a new update regarding the incoming CMEs. For those that aren't aware of the multiple CMEs heading towards Earth, on 01-02 November, the Sun erupted several CMEs from its southwest area, one associated with a C4 solar flare and another related to an M1 flare. NOAA originally predicted that the impacts might cause a G1 (minor) geomagnetic storm, but now the official prediction center has updated its forecast.

According to the recent update published to the official NOAA website, "The G1 (Minor) Geomagnetic Storm Watch for 04 Nov has been upgraded to a G2 (Moderate) Geomagnetic Storm Watch. The G1 (Minor) Geomagnetic Storm Watch for 03 November remains in effect." It should be noted that these impacts pose no danger to humans on the surface of Earth but can cause disruptions for satellites, GPS communications, and radio communications. Additionally, CME impacts can cause auroras to appear in the sky. To learn more about CMEs, check out this link here.

There are many asteroids floating around in the solar system, and sometimes one passes extremely close to Earth.

NASA, along with other official bodies around the world, are tracking all of the asteroids that are considered a "threat" to Earth. For an asteroid to be considered a "threat", it must be more than 460 feet in diameter, and luckily 90%+ of the asteroids that are this width or more are currently being tracked. The smaller asteroids are much harder to track, and sometimes researchers are unaware that they even have had a close flyby with Earth.

Asteroid 2021 UA1 is a prime example, as researchers didn't know it had come extremely close to Earth until after it passed by. Asteroid 2021 UA1 measures 6.6 feet in diameter, and on October 24, it passed over Antarctica within 1,800 miles of Earth. Researchers didn't know that the small asteroid was on its way because the asteroid approached from Earth's daytime side - the direction of the Sun. If you are interested in reading more about this story, check out this link here.

AMD didn't make too much of a fuss when its 4700S processor launched, but now Minisforum is using the AMD 4700S processor inside of its new CR50 system.

The new Minisforum CR50 packs the AMD 4700S 8-core processor kit, AMD Radeon RX 550 graphics, and 16GB of GDDR6 memory with options for either 16GB RAM + 256GB SSD or 16GB of RAM + 512GB SSD. The 8-core AMD Zen 2-based CPU has a max boost clock of up to 4.0GHz, with 512KB of L1 cache, 4MB of L2 cache, and 8MB of L3 cache.

Minisforum's new CR50 mini PC is pretty damn small, measuring in at 205mm long, 192mm wide, and 86mm tall. There's plenty of connectivity but only HDMI and DVI display outputs, no DisplayPort here... but you do have USB 3.2 and USB 2.0 ports, as well as the usual GbE ethernet connection and 3.5mm audio jacks.

Intel's new 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPUs are about to be unleashed onto the world, with the flagship Core i9-12900K processor already pushed to record-breaking heights: the land of 8GHz.

Intel's new Core i9-12900K is the flagship Alder Lake-S processor that was overclocked to 8GHz by extreme overclocked HiCookie, who used the new AORUS Z690 Tachyon motherboard. DDR5 memory was used, of course, also overclocked to a blistering DDR5-8300 on looser 52-52-52-100-127-2 timings.

You're not going to be overclocking Intel's new Core i9-12900K processor to 8000MHz on the stock cooler, not even a huge 360mm AIO liquid cooler or a custom water loop... HiCookie used exotic LN2 cooling, used by extreme overclockers. Still, the Core i9-12900K pushed to 8GHz says a lot about Intel's shift to its new Intel 7 node with Alder Lake as the previous-gen Core i9-11900K was never pushed to 8GHz.

AMD's next-gen Zen 4 Dense (Zen 4D) has been teased from leaker Tom at Moore's Law is Dead, with Zen 4D packing a "completely redesigned cache system, stripped down features, and reduced target clockspeeds for lower power consumption and increased density".

Alrighty... all of that, but it also "trades away some single core performance for massively increased MT in a similar die space to Zen 4". OK, you have my attention now... especially with the added tease that Zen 4D-based processors would have 16 cores per chiplet and DDR5 RAM support.

Tom says that AMD could make a 2 x 16C Zen 4D-based "R9 7965WX" processor for the AM5 processor in Q1 2023 as an "alternative to the flagship 16C Raphael" processor. But the big question is... if you didn't already know the answer: what is this new CPU going to be targeted towards? Intel's new Hybrid CPU technology.

Last week, a hobbyist researcher with a small YouTube channel called Basti564 uncovered a set of textures for a new Oculus headset. Over the weekend, Basti564 compiled the surfaces into a 3D model and published images and a video of their findings.

During the Facebook Connect conference, the company now known as Meta talked about an advanced headset that it's currently preparing to launch next year. The new headset, dubbed Project Cambria, is a high-end VR headset compatible with the Quest ecosystem and brings new features to the mix.

Project Cambria will have face-tracking, eye tracking, high-resolution displays, compact "pancake-style" lenses, and as previously leaked images revealed, it will have a docking station for charging. The rendered 3D model also shows that Project Cambria will have a compact faceplate and a sleek, built-in head strap that resembles the "ball-cap" design of the Hololens 2.

Valve released the October Steam Survey results, and the numbers look great for Meta. The Oculus brand has long held the largest share of the VR pie. To this day, the original Rift, which hit the market five years ago, represents a 5% slice of SteamVR users. Quest 2, however, holds more than a 35% share of SteamVR users.

Last month, Valve noted that 1.85% of Steam users connected a VR headset to their machines. That's a marginal increase of 0.05%, but when you consider Valve has 120 million Steam users, it works out to 60,000 new headsets connected to SteamVR, and roughly 2.2 million SteamVR users, total.

The top three headsets on the SteamVR survey are the Oculus Quest 2 with 35.02%, the Valve Index with 17.30%, and the now-discontinued Oculus Rift S with 16.25%. HTC's Vive Pro and Vive Pro 2 gained a small fraction of the market share, but the original Vive is losing favor with gamers, ultimately netting HTC a marginal loss in overall market share. 14.05% of SteamVR users have HTC headsets. More than 61% of SteamVR users have Oculus headsets.

AMD has just released its new Radeon Adrenalin 21.11.1 drivers which have support for the just-to-be released Call of Duty: Vanguard, and Forza Horizon 5.

The new Radeon Adrenalin 21.11.1 drivers provide up to 23% more performance in Forza Horizon 5 at 4K Extreme Settings on the Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card over the previous software driver version 21.10.2. There's some fixed issues with the display corruption on the Samsung Odyssey G9 C49G95T gaming monitor at 5120 x 1440 @ 240Hz, now resolved.

Another issue with Call of Duty: Warzone with visual artifacts when moving the mouse cursor in the in-game menu, is now fixed in the new Radeon Adrenalin 21.11.1 drivers. You can download these new drivers for both Windows 10 and Windows 11, depending on which operating system you're using now that Microsoft's new OS is in the wild.

Global entry! We have teamed up with Allied Gaming to give away one of its awesome gaming accessory packs worth over $280 USD ($380 AUD) to one lucky winner.

Allied Gaming's accessory pack which we are giving away consists of the Allied Warhead 7.1 RGB gaming headset, Allied Firehawk RGB gaming mechanical keyboard, Allied Flashbang RGB gaming mouse, and Allied TacMat RGB gaming surface.

The total value of the package comes to $380 AUD (or around $280 USD). It ought to make the perfect gift for the gamer in your life, or heck, for yourself if it's time to upgrade your gaming gear to the next level.

Battlefield Portal from the start has sounded like something exciting that would be delivered alongside Battlefield 2042, but now that EA DICE has detailed a little more about it... maybe Battlefield Portal will outshine Battlefield 2042.

In a new post on its website, EA details Battlefield Portal by introducing it as their "love letter to Battlefield fans that allows you to define the experience you'll have in Battlefield 2042. Alongside classic content from Battlefield 3, Battlefield Bad Company 2, and Battlefield 1942, you're able to create new ways to play, whether that's recreating classic experiences on reimagined maps, or combining the world of 2042 with our past".

Battlefield Portal's new trailer gives us a next-gen glimpse of classic maps like Battle of the Bulge, El Alamein, Arica Harbor, Valparaiso, Noshahr Canals, and Caspian Border -- and at launch, you'll be able to enjoy any of these classics with the weapons, gadgets, and classes that you love. But in the future... well, Battlefield Portal is going to be oh-so-much more.

343i is injecting a ton of old-school nostalgia into Master Chief Collection to celebrate 20 years of Halo and Xbox.

Today 343i announced its big plans for 20 years of Halo, which actually takes us all the way back to Macworld 1999 with the first old-school Master Chief skin. The developers are rolling out a bunch of new content skins that chronicle two decades of evolved combat.

First up we have the Orion skin, which was the first armor featured in the Macworld presentation back in 1999. Chief looked a lot different here and it's awesome we can actually use this skin...but only in Halo 2 multiplayer. Other skins include hilarious additions like an OG Xbox "The Beast" that can be attached to your back, or the oversized Duke controller for shoulder pauldrons (I still contend this is the best Xbox controller ever made).