It's not just Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd (TSMC) that is setting up manufacturing fab plants in the USA, but it looks like Samsung is joining in on the fun, too.

Samsung Foundry has filed the appropriate documents with authorities in Arizona, New York, and Texas so that it can build a next-gen semiconductor manufacturing facility in the US, according to our friends at AnandTech. The new facility would cost over $17 billion, create over 1800 jobs, and would see it made somewhere near Austin, Texas.

We don't know what node Samsung would make at this new facility, but we should expect a next-gen 3nm node at the very least. Samsung Foundry already has a huge 640-acre site known as 'S2' in Austin, Texas with the plan submitted to the government of Texas would see the company building a 7 million square feet (650,000 square metres) facility next to their current S2 plant.

After decades of independence, Gearbox is now part of The Embracer Group (aka THQ Nordic). Gearbox might've found a new home, but it hasn't found a new publisher.

Embracer might own more IPs than any other video games company on the market right now, but it doesn't necessarily have the publishing might to release huge mass-market games that sell multiple millions of copies. That's why Gearbox is still teaming up with other partners to get its games distributed.

2K Games will continue publishing Gearbox's future games, including Borderlands 4 and other projects. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick confirmed the news in a recent Q4'21 earnings call:

Call of Duty revenues have doubled in 2020, helping propel Activision-Blizzard to its new all-time $8 billion revenue high.

Activision has adapted the Call of Duty franchise into the perfect storm of engagement and monetization. The combination of the free-to-play Warzone, multiple annualized premium releases, and a monetized mobile game shows Activision has all the bases covered. The trifecta becomes much more potent when an online cross-platform, cross-progression, and cross-SKU framework ties these games together.

This forward-thinking plan is paying off big time. Throughout 2020, Call of Duty revenues were up 200% over last year, and drove Activision segment earnings to $3.9 billion (+78% YoY). In-game spending on microtransactions and battle passes in Call of Duty games is also up a whopping 50% in Q4, and helped spike the company's total-year mTX revenues to $4.8 billion.

Blizzard has just published its schedule for Blizzcon 2021, which kicks off on February 19 - 20.

The new Blizzcon 2021 schedule, and it contains a special 40-minute video detailing the future of the Diablo series. We could get three major game showcases during the stream: Diablo IV, Diablo Immortal, and the oft-rumored Diablo 2 Remastered.

The Diablo 2 Remaster has been in development for some time now, and Vicarious Visions, who made the Tony Hawk 1&2 remasters, has been assisting Blizzard in making it. The Diablo IV news may not be super exciting given the game's frequent changes, so the big reveal should be Diablo II remastered and a finalized release date for Diablo Immortal.

Activision earned 57% of its total-year revenues from microtransactions, DLC, and other in-game purchases.

While scouting Activision's total-year 2020 earnings, I noticed something interesting: The company made 57% of its revenues from mTX throughout the year. In 2020, Activision-Blizzard made more money than it ever has before, breaking over $8 billion in revenues. A good chunk of that was from in-game spending.

The financials show Activision earned $4.852 billion from microtransactions throughout 2020, mostly driven by Call of Duty mtX, which was up a mighty 70% year-over-year in Q4. It's also worth noting the company earned 82% of its revenues from digital, which is par for the course.

Intel is currently playing around with it's next-gen Xe HPG gaming GPU in the labs, with GPU boss Raja Koduri tweeting out a picture of the Xe GPU mesh shading in action.

Raja teased an unreleased 3DMark Mesh Shader Feature test, something that was up and running on the Intel Xe HPG gaming graphics card. This is the first public test of the Intel Xe HPG graphics card, and while it's just a 3DMark Mesh Shading Feature test, at least it's something.

It would've been nice for Raja to tweet out the Intel Xe HPG gaming-focused graphics card playing Crysis, or at least Cyberpunk 2077 -- but a Mesh Shading Feature test will have to do for now.

GALAX is getting closer and closer to the official launch of its new GeForce RTX 3090 Hall of Fame (HOF) graphics cards, with 3 of the new cards listed on Australian retailer Mwave for up to $4500 AUD.

The new GALAX GeForce RTX 3090 HOF, GeForce RTX 3090 HOF Premium and GeForce RTX 3090 HOF Limited Edition are all listed for $3899 AUD, $3999 AUD, and $4499 AUD respectively. Australia has a 10% GST which is added to their products (fact check: I'm an Aussie) so these prices would convert, very roughly, to:

It seems Mwave is very ahead of the curve, and seems to be the first retailer in the world to list GALAX's new GeForce RTX 3090 HOF family of graphics cards.

Silicon Motion has announce that it has kicked off development for PCIe 5.0 SSD controllers, preparing for the big next-gen wave of NVMe M.2 SSDs.

Right now the PCIe 4.0-based NVMe drives are maxing out at about 7GB/sec, so we should expect up to 14-16GB/sec or so from PCIe 5.0-based NVMe SSDs of the future. Most PCIe 4.0 SSDs come are on the PCIe 4.0 x4 interface and can still pump away at 7GB/sec, so a PCIe 5.0 x4 SSD should offer around 14GB/sec.

PCIe 4.0 x16 has up to 32GB/sec of bandwidth available while the next-gen PCIe 5.0 standard will double that up to a huge 64GB/sec that will leave 16GB/sec for the x4 interface -- perfect for next-gen PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSDs.

Qualcomm has just announced its next-gen Snapdragon X65 5G modem, which offers a great leap over the last-gen Snapdragon X60 5G when it comes to download speeds.

The last-gen Snapdragon X60 5G modem is built into the new Snapdragon 888 chipset, but the new Snapdragon X65 5G modem offers super-fast 10Gbps download speeds... up from the 7.5Gbps offered on the Snapdragon X60. You might need to wait until networks catch up to offer that insane 10Gbps, but Qualcomm is ahead of the curve -- as always.

Qualcomm also says it is first with the Snapdragon X65 to support the upcoming 3GPP Release 16 specification, otherwise known as "5G phase 2" that will have improvements including MIMO connectivity, improved power consumption, and so much more. It will also help 5G networks move from just consumers to more commercial and business users through support for unlicensed spectrum and non-public networks.

AMD has been making great strides between each of its Zen architectures, with the difference between Zen and Zen 2 being very noticeable -- but it was the jump from Zen 2 to Zen 3 with the recent Ryzen 5000 series CPUs that things really went up into another level.

But the fun isn't over, with the next-gen Zen 4 architecture in the oven and promising some truly gigantic IPC gains and overall performance uplifts over the current-gen CPUs. The new rumors are coming from ChipsandCheese, with news from AMD's next-gen server family codenamed Genoa. These new EPYC processors will be powered by the Zen 4 architecutre and will offer tremendous benefits all over the place.

The rumors tease that the current Genoa engineering samples with the identical cores and CPU clocks as the Milan EPYC processors, but the new Zen 4-powered CPUs are up to 29% faster.

This isn't good for Pakistan, its distributors and retailers -- or the general public, as NVIDIA's unreleased GeForce RTX 3060 graphics cards are being sold in the country already.

ZAH Computers is an official dealer in Pakistan, selling the Palit GeForce RTX 3060 Dual OC graphics card for 120,000 PKR (Pakistani Rupees) which works out to around $750 or so... a huge premium, price gouging at its finest over the starting price of the GeForce RTX 3060 which is meant to be $329.

But don't worry, the company is saying that the $750 premium pricing is because of the high customs duties and import prices. Our friends at Wccftech report that "simply put are excuses that these distributors and dealers are known to hide behind and have been doing so for quite a while now".

ASUS has always crammed some serious mobile gaming hardware inside of its ROG Phone gaming smartphones, with the next-gen ROG Phone 5 to reportedly be powered by Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 888 chip.

According to new Geekbench 5 results the next-gen ASUS ROG Phone 5 gaming smartphone will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 and not the upcoming, tweaked Snapdragon 888+ processor. The details from Geekbench have a codename of Lahaina, which is the Snapdragon 888 while Lahaina+ is the Snapdragon 888+ chip.

The new ASUS ROG Phone 5 should pack up to 16GB of RAM which is insanity, right up there with kick ass gaming laptops and gaming desktops that pack 16GB of RAM. We should have more information on the next-gen ASUS ROG Phone 5 over the coming months, but so far it's shaping up to be a beast -- and we should expect nothing less from ASUS.

EA plans to raise millions (possibly billions) in a new senior note offering to help pay for new studio acquisitions, development, and other business costs.

EA today announced that it will sell a specific amount of senior notes for an undisclosed price in a new share offering. Senior notes are debts that mature after a set period and have higher priority over existing debts. Shareholders that buy senior notes have a guarantee of a return with a set interest rate. Usually, EA would pay these senior notes off after a 5-6 year period.

Case in point: EA held a senior note offering in 2016 for $1 billion split between two maturity dates: $600 million would be due in 2021, and the remainder, $400 million, is due in 2026.

EA is spending more on research and development as it ramps up big next-gen projects from Battlefield 6 to Star Wars.

EA's latest third quarter financials show a clear trend: R&D spending has been climbing quarter-over-quarter for some time. This makes sense given EA's current games pipeline, which includes a number of high-profile games like Battlefield 6, Dragon Age 4, and a new Mass Effect.

We took a closer look at EA's R&D spending since FY12 and discovered interesting data on how the company spends money for new technologies, engines, and games development. EA typically spends at least $240 million every quarter on R&D regardless of how much net revenue it earned during the period, and the investments have been consistent for nearly 10 years.

EA may soon lay Anthem to rest once and for all and scrap its plans for a big revival.

EA will soon decide whether Anthem lives or dies. Sources tell Bloomberg's Jason Schreier that EA is currently weighing the decision carefully. The overall cost will be the deciding factor, both in capital spending and developer investment--the latter of which is in precious supply. The current Anthem revival team consists of roughly 30 developers, but BioWare will need at least 90 devs for Anthem Next, sources tell Bloomberg.

Right now, BioWare is working on a number of projects including Dragon Age 4, a game that's been in planning phases of development since 2016, and a new Mass Effect game. Both of these properties are guaranteed hits and take priority, whereas Anthem, a fledgling new IP, isn't as important sales-wise.

CD PROJEKT RED has been hacked with the developer confirming the news on Twitter, saying that it had "discovered that we have become a victim of a targeted cyber attack".

The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 developer added: "An unidentified actor gained unauthorized access to our internal network, collected certain data belonging to CD PROJEKT capital group, and left a random note the content of which we release to the public. Although some devices on our network have been encrypted, our backups remain intact. We have already secured our IT infrastructure and begun restoring the data".

The hackers have reportedly taken internal source codes for CD PROJEKT RED games like Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher 3, Gwent, and even an unreleased version of The Witcher 3. Not only does the hacker reportedly have the source codes to those games, but also accounting, administrator, legal, and investor relations information might have been accessed as well.

Apple really is getting serious about AR and VR. Rumours about its upcoming AR/VR headset have been circling the internet since the beginning of the month, and now there are a few dozen AR/VR job postings on Apple's website.

Apple is currently looking to beef up its AR/VR team. The company is seeking a handful of software developers and hardware engineers with AR/VR experience in various disciplines, including software engineers, system UI engineers, video and 3D professionals, and audio software engineers.

Apple is also looking to fill a pair of marketing roles for the AR/VR division, including an art director position and a creative technologist position.

Battlefield 6 is going to be a huge release for EA this year, with the latest leaks teasing next-gen destruction in Battlefield 6 with "unscripted skyscraper destruction" on the cards.

But there is another news nugget here with Battlefield 6: it might have a free-to-play mode for BF6 that will be part of the battle pass system. We don't know what type of battle royale experience to expect in Battlefield 6, but it has to be better than the dumpster fire that was the battle royale 'Firestorm' mode in Battlefield V.

We might not see this come to fruition, but I doubt EA DICE is sitting there not thinking about having a battle royale mode for Battlefield 6 when it has been so mega successful for Activision-Blizzard with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and its battle royale mode Warzone. We already know from previous rumors that Battlefield 6 development was being influenced by Call of Duty: Warzone's success, too.

It was only just over a month ago that Steam smashed through 2021 with an insane 25 million concurrent users, and now that record has been broken with 26.3 million Steam users online at once.

The data is coming from the SteamDB tracker, which saw 26.3 million gamers online at once -- up from the 25.4 million on January 2. Valve recently hosted the Steam Game Festival where it offered PC gamers hundreds of demos of PC games from mostly indie developers.

But spin that in with the COVID-19 lockdowns across the planet and you have more people inside, playing PC games (and on consoles, tablets, and smartphones) than ever before. I wonder if we'll see Steam's concurrent user record broken again throughout the year, and if so would we breach 30 million concurrent users on Steam before the end of the year.

It seems like Apple is getting serious about moving into the world of XR. The latest round of news shows that the headset that Apple is developing will have extremely high-end features. Rumor has it the device will have dual 8K displays, eye tracking, passthrough cameras, and more than a dozen sensors to track the world your hands and other movements.

Apple has been very bullish about augmented reality, but it has been very quiet about virtual reality. Tim Cook has said in the past that he believes that virtual reality won't be as popular as augmented reality, and that isn't as useful. The latest leaks suggest that the company is likely working on a virtual reality headset as well, and it would likely be the first XR headset that Apple releases.

Don't get too excited about Apple taking over the VR industry, though. Rumor has it this headset won't be cheap, with suggestions of a $3000 price tag for the device. It won't compete in the consumer space at that price, but it would be right in line with enterprise-level hardware.