Latest News - Page 130

NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 30 Series, built using a custom 8nm process from Samsung, rather than the custom TSMC process for the GeForce RTX 40 and RTX 50 Series, is set to return to production at the Samsung Electronics Pyeongtaek Semiconductor Factory. According to a new report by the Korean publication Hankyung, Samsung is prepping to recommence production of the 8nm GeForce RTX 3060, some two years after the last batch of RTX 3060 chips were manufactured.

The report doesn't set a timeline for production, other than that it'll happen "soon." With the initial media and insider reaction focused on NVIDIA re-introducing the GeForce RTX 3060 as a response to the current memory crisis and chip shortages, the report claims that the RTX 3060's return could be primarily for the Chinese market.

Due to restrictions on high-performance graphics cards sold in China, older GPUs like the GeForce RTX 3060 represent a way out for providing a cost-effective AI and PC gaming solution in the Chinese market. Of course, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang did say "it's a good idea to bring back old GPUs" at CES 2026 as a way to address current shortages, so this move could reflect a broader global strategy for 2026 and beyond.

Jon Peddie Research has posted its latest report on the fourth-quarter 2025 global PC graphics card market. Even though AIB (add-in-board) shipments decreased from the previous quarter due to the current memory crisis, they were up 36% year-over-year for the same period. When it comes to market share for graphics cards "largely supported by gamers," NVIDIA's share rose notably.

According to Q4 2025 data, NVIDIA's market share of total graphics card shipments reached a new high of 94%, up 10 percentage points from Q4 2024. As 2025 saw the release of the new GeForce RTX 50 Series from NVIDIA and the Radeon RX 9000 Series from AMD, this data shows NVIDIA pulling ahead, with AMD's GPU shipment market share dropping to 5% from 7% in the previous quarter and 15% in the same period the year before.

Intel's market share for discrete Arc GPUs remained flat at 1%. However, even though there are GPUs out there, Jon Peddie Research notes that the current high memory prices, driven by the AI boom and US government-imposed tariffs, are "killing the AIB market." In addition, more affordable laptops and notebooks with APUs featuring integrated GPUs alongside CPUs are putting additional pressure on the growing GPU market.

The decision for Xbox to bring what were once the biggest reasons to buy an Xbox console, like Halo, Forza, Gears of War, and what will be Fable, to competing platforms such as PlayStation has resulted in a slight branding crisis as fans now question if Microsoft is interested in advancing the Xbox brand or if it makes sense to offload it from their portfolio.

On the heels of Xbox postponing the launch of its upcoming console and the shake-up at the executive level, which saw 25-year Xbox veteran Phil Spencer officially depart from his position, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has conducted a Q&A session to shine some light on the situation at Xbox and how Microsoft is currently viewing its gaming brand. Nadella was joined by Spencer's replacement, Asha Sharma, where they both gave their 20,000-foot view on Xbox's future.

Nadella went on to list Xbox as one of Microsoft's "main identities" and that it wouldn't survive as a company if these identities didn't "continue to thrive". Additionally, Nadella doubled down on "gaming" always being a part of Microsoft, and honored Matt Booty, Phil Spencer, and Sarah Bond for their effort in building that arm of Microsoft over a 25-year period.

The fate of the Knights of the Old Republic remake remains clear, at least for now, and the game is still in active development.

Despite no real updates for quite some time, Saber Interactive asserts that the new KOTOR remake is still happening. "Yes, it is still in development. That's all I can say," Saber Interactive's chief creative officer Tim Willits told IGN.

Progress on the remake was halted in 2022, following a disappointing demo reel shown to investors. Following this development, the game was moved from Aspyr, who was originally handling the KOTOR remake, over to Saber Interactive's subsidiary studio Mad Head Games (who is also making the new Hellraiser: Revival game).

NetEase is distancing itself even further from investments, and has decided to pull the plug on funding for yet another studio that it helped create.

Japanese game dev group Nagoshi Studio will soon lose its funding from NetEase, putting its new game Gang of Dragon--and the future of the group itself--in jeopardy. Sources tell Bloomberg that NetEase's money tap will stop flowing to Nagoshi Studio starting in May. It's said that the studio is now facing impending closure.

NetEase's decision to stop financing Nagoshi Studio came after it was found that the team's debut game, Gang of Dragon, would require around $44 million in additional funding to complete. NetEase has given Nagoshi Studio permission to continue on its own without funding, however, the creatives would have to essentially buy back Gang of Dragon's IP and/or publishing rights (a similar situation kept Remedy from making an Alan Wake sequel until many years later, when they bought back the rights from Microsoft).

SEGA executives offer candor in their responses to an investor Q&A, admitting that high praise doesn't always lead to a boost in game sales.

If the entertainment industry is fickle, then the interactive portion is like a picky-eating child; oftentimes, there's no real rhyme or reason for the trends that occur, and games can come out of left field and amass millions of sales. This disparity also extends to well-reviewed games--just because a game is highly-lauded and beloved by reviewers or fans doesn't always mean it'll sell millions of copies.

SEGA's latest investors Q&A shows a frank and rather direct acknowledgement of the company's situation, at least when it comes to game sales volume, and how it hopes to spark more purchases through marketing and discounts. Capcom took this approach, and it's worked out quite well for them.

UPDATE: Valve now says that it will ship all three devices in 2026:

"We shared recently that there have been challenges with memory and storage shortages, but we will be shipping all three products this year. More updates will be shared as we finalize our plans."

Original article is as follows.

UPDATE: Valve now says that it will ship all three devices in 2026:

"We shared recently that there have been challenges with memory and storage shortages, but we will be shipping all three products this year. More updates will be shared as we finalize our plans."

Original story is as follows.

Nintendo of America has sued the US government over President Trump's illegal IEEPA tariffs, seeking refunds as well as interest.

As per Aftermath's Nicole Carpenter, Nintendo of America has filed a lawsuit against multiple US agencies seeking tariff refunds, including the US Department of the Treasury, US Department of Commerce, and the US Department of Homeland Security.

The 14-page complaint alleges that Nintendo of America has been "directly harmed by Defendant's unlawful actions related to the Executive Orders and IEEPA Duties," and the company asks the US Court of International Trade for a number of remedies, including an official declaration that the IEEPA tariffs are unlawful, as well as refunds for the duties that were paid by Nintendo with interest on top.

If recent numbers are any indication, Marathon may have missed targeted expectations on Steam insofar as peak players, however the game remains #2 on the store's best-sellers list.

Marathon has been out for a day, and we have some indication on how well the game has done. SteamDB's metrics estimate that the shooter peaked at around 88,337 players in its first 24-hour period. These numbers could improve over the weekend as more gamers jump in--Marathon did launch on a Thursday, after all, but that didn't stop the game's biggest rival.

Interestingly enough, the game's biggest contender at launch was Slay the Spire 2, which released on the same day and vastly eclipsed Marathon's reach--Slay the Spire 2 attracted over 430K peak players on day one, as per SteamDB.

A new report from Bloomberg has shed light on a new aspect of the current memory and storage crisis affecting the supply and prices of consumer tech, specifically flash storage. With NAND flash pricing expected to soar by up to 90% this quarter, this will affect the prices of the microSD Express cards required to expand the storage capacity of the Nintendo Switch 2.

As the console ships with only 256GB of internal storage, storage expansion was already a concern before the console launched due to the move to the new (and more costly) microSD Express format. Unlike in the original Switch era, when affordable microSD cards were plentiful, microSD Express cards are much more expensive.

And with the current state of things, in Japan, microSD Express prices have already increased by around 30% since the console's launch, and that number will continue to rise. With storage for the Nintendo Switch 2 set to become much more expensive than on PC or the PlayStation 5, the adverse effect is that gamers will buy fewer games.

Diablo 4's second major expansion, Lord of Hatred, is out April 28, and it's a big one. With two new classes (Paladin and Warlock), a brand-new zone, expanded endgame, level-cap increase, revamped and expanded skill trees, in-depth crafting, and more, it's shaping up to be the most transformative and meaningful post-launch update to the game so far, and it's right around the corner.

However, the current version of the game is set to include one final mini-season, the Season of Slaughter, which kicks off next week on March 11. And it's one where you can clearly see the team at Blizzard having a bit of fun before Lord of Hatred starts a new chapter for the game, with one of the highlights being that it includes a new mechanic that lets players transform into the iconic Butcher to slay demons.

When transformed into The Butcher, a demonic boss that made its first appearance in the very first Diablo game, you'll have a new set of skills and abilities: Carve, Culling, Molten Slam, Hail of Hooks, Hell Charge, and Furnace Blast. For anyone who has faced The Butcher in Diablo 4, Diablo 3, or even the original, these are all self-explanatory.

Generative AI tools are slowly making their way into all industries and markets, especially in software development and engineering. AI has reached a point where 'vibe-coding' lets people without programming experience create custom apps, websites, and more through natural-language input, with generative AI handling all the coding.

And when it comes to coding and programming, it probably doesn't get more complicated than an operating system, or OS. This brings us to Vib-OS, the world's first AI-generated vibe-coded operating system that supports both ARM64 and x86 architectures, with a modern UI. The goal was to deliver a Unix-like system, but the result is more than a little off the mark.

As detailed in a new video from YouTube creator tirimid, Vib-OS not only took a lot of effort just to boot when installed on a virtual machine, but that was just the beginning of an operating system that looks like it was ripped from a nightmarish fever dream.

In a surprise move this week, Apple announced the MacBook Neo, an affordable, lightweight 13-inch laptop with a Liquid Retina display, all-day battery life, A18 Pro processor, 8GB of memory, and storage options starting from 256GB. The surprise part comes from the $599 USD starting price, making it one of the most affordable hardware launches at a time when prices are increasing dramatically due to the current memory and storage crisis.

What makes the Apple MacBook Neo's release interesting and limiting from a hardware perspective is that it uses the A18 Pro chip, which previously powered the iPhone 16 Pro. Granted, the MacBook Neo is positioned as an affordable laptop for lightweight productivity, basic creator tasks, students, and everyday users who want something primarily for browsing, accessing emails, and streaming media.

One of the main criticisms of the device is its 8GB of RAM; however, it seems this might be the limit, or the only configuration available, based on how the A18 Pro mobile chip works. According to High Yield on social media, the TSMC InFO-PoP packaging features DRAM sitting on top of the SoC in a closed design.

NVIDIA's GeForce NOW cloud gaming library continues to grow with 15 more titles headed to the service in March, leading up to the highly anticipated release of Pearl Abyss' Crimson Desert. The new open-world action-adventure has been garnering a lot of attention this year, and it's joined by a very different kind of action game on March 12 with the release of John Carpenter's Toxic Commando.

NVIDIA confirms that Toxic Commando will arrive 'GeForce RTX 5080-ready,' meaning that it'll be available to play for premium subscribers on the latest RTX Blackwell pods with full DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation support. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Crimson Desert will be 'GeForce RTX 5080-ready' on day-one, but it will still benefit from DLSS 4 technologies running on current RTX 4080 pods.

With eight new additions to the library this week and seven more titles announced as headed to GeForce NOW for the rest of March, here's the full breakdown of what's coming.

Microsoft's incoming next-gen Xbox is codenamed Project Helix, and will play both Xbox and PC games, Xbox's new CEO Asha Sharma has officially confirmed.

The new Xbox hardware will indeed play both PC and console games, as per reports. Specifics are unclear outside of this confirmation, however fans now have a better understanding on what to expect from Xbox in the future.

"Great start to the morning with Team Xbox, where we talked about our commitment to the return of Xbox including Project Helix, the code name for our next generation console. Project Helix will lead in performance and play your Xbox and PC games. Looking forward to chatting about this more with partners and studios at my first GDC next week!"

Another rumor has surfaced claiming that NVIDIA is planning to bring back the RTX 3060 in order to help shore up the GeForce line-up, which is facing stock difficulties due to the RAM crisis.

VideoCardz reports that there's a rumor from the Board Channels forum over in China which backs up previous speculation the RTX 3060 GPU could be resurrected in the first quarter of 2026.

This new nugget of gossip from the supply chain claims that RTX 3060s from "various brands" will gradually start to appear from between March 10 to 20. In other words, within the next couple of weeks.

Apple recently unveiled the MacBook Neo, a new $599 MacBook that is aimed directly at students, and anyone looking for a simple laptop capable of answering emails, spreadsheet work, social media, and even some very light photo and video editing. Essentially, Apple now has a Chromebook competitor.

The "Neo" branding is an odd choice from Apple, as it isn't a word we have heard from the company in the past, and previous rumors indicated Apple would be calling this device just "MacBook," which would make sense when considering Apple's current naming schemes for its devices (Pro, Max, etc). However, those rumors weren't true, and we now have Neo. A report suggested that Apple chose Neo because it's just one letter short of "Neon," which ties into the colors of the laptop, such as Citrus and Blush.

However, that theory was incorrect, as Colleen Novielli, Director, Mac Product Marketing at Apple, told Techradar, "We wanted something that felt fun and friendly, and fresh, and felt like it really suited the spirit of this product." And that is simply it. There are no play on words about its size, or color relations, just "fun and friendly, and fresh." Well, if that was the goal, I would say it has been achieved. Neo is fun, friendly, and fresh.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced it has seized LeakBase, a leading hacker forum that is home to more than a hundred thousand members.

In a press release posted to the DOJ website, it states authorities seized LeakBase, a forum that was commonly used by cybercriminals to buy and sell stolen data, and tools used to commit cybercrimes. LeakBase had more than 142,000 members and more than 215,000 messages between the accounts. The DOJ goes on to describe the forum had an "enormous, continuously updated archive of hacked databases, including many from high-profile attacks, including hundreds of millions of account credentials."

Some of this data included information that was illegally obtained from "U.S. corporations and individuals, and offered credit and debit card numbers, banking account and routing information, usernames and associated passwords which could facilitate additional account takeovers, as well as other sensitive business and personally identifiable information."

One of the co-founders of Infinity Ward and creators of Call of Duty has said Activision put "very awkward pressure" on the studio to make a Call of Duty game about Iran attacking Israel.

After the official X account for the White House included a Call of Duty clip in a promotional video that included footage of real-world military bombings, which included killstreak points similar to those seen in Call of Duty, Chance Glasco, one of the creators of the Call of Duty franchise responded in an X post, saying, "This doesn't surprise me. I remember after Activision took over post-Respawn formation there was a very awkward pressure from Activision for us to make the next CoD about Iran attacking Israel."

"Luckily the vast majority of our devs were disgusted by the idea and it got shot down." In another post Glasco wrote, "A lot of us devs were appalled because it felt like political propaganda being pushed by Activision." Additionally, Glasco explained that his main gripe is the government using video games as a way to sway public opinion, and that throughout his time at Infinity Ward helping design the story choices none of the decisions made were motivated by the desire to create propaganda about real-world conflicts.