Nintendo Switch sales surged by triple digits in Europe during COVID-19 lockdowns, and helped raise overall hardware adoption by 84% in the region.

COVID-19 is surging sales revenues for the games industry. Sony and Microsoft just reported record quarters for games earnings, and Nintnedo is poised to do the same. But not all regions are the same, and analyst firm GSD shows some interesting metrics.

According to GSD, all three major consoles saw a sharp uptick in sales during COVID-19. The Switch in particular grew triple digits by 106%, reflecting the console's scarcity across the globe right now.

We have right now some truly incredible news if it begins to turn into reality, with our very good friend Igor over at Igor's Lab exclusively reporting details on Vermeer -- or what you will eventually know as the AMD Ryzen 9 4950X processor.

Vermeer is the codename for AMD's upcoming Zen 3-based Ryzen 4000 desktop CPUs, which should see emerge the flagship Ryzen 9 4950X that Igor has some details on. Igor reports from his sources that AMD's next-gen Ryzen 9 4950X will be a 16-core, 32-thread CPU which could roll out with a 3.5GHz base clock and huge 4.8GHz boost clock.

Igor has noticed something interesting with Vermeer, with per core voltage adjustments that would be a huge sandbox for overclockers to play around with. We should expect AMD to build these features into their Ryzen Master Tool software.

Samsung has made its Galaxy Z Fold 2 foldable smartphone official, the successor to the Galaxy Fold which has been rebranded to fall under its Galaxy Z family of foldable phones.

The new Galaxy Z Fold 2 improves upon virtually every area of the already technically impressive Galaxy Fold, where it is faster, thinner, packs a better display, better hinge, faster charging, better cameras, better 5G, better everything really. Samsung really went the whole hog, again.

Samsung plans an event on September 1 for the full unveiling, or should we say, unfolding of the Galaxy Z Fold 2 -- so until then, let's walk you through what we do know about the new foldable.

Call of Duty: Warzone is now enjoying its Season 5 update, with Activision taking the time to announce that Warzone has now passed 75 million players.

Season 5 of the game just launched, changing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and the free-to-play battle royale mode Warzone. Warzone had racked up 60 million players in May 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic has surely been fueling Warzone's continuous growth.

The game itself is wicked fun and I'm personally addicted, so I can see why 75 million other players are loving Warzone and how Season 5 has completely changed the game. After a huge Warzone session last night, it's interesting how the meta changes so quickly and the newly-tweaked Stadium is now a huge hot spot of action and I love it.

It seems we're a few steps away from full disclosure at this point, between The New York Times and its report from The Pentagon on UFOs being 'off-world vehicles not made on this Earth' -- blowing up because Joe Rogan shared it on social media.

And now? President Trump has said that we should have "full transparency" on UFOs in a recent chat with Lou Dobbs on Fox Business.

Dobbs questioned President Trump, asking: "Your administration, you promised would be transparent and you have done your level best to do that despite the Deep State's efforts to bury everything about as deeply as they could. But I have one question as we conclude here".

ASUS has just announced an unnamed ROG gaming monitor, the world's first HDMI 2.1-certified gaming monitor that has HDMI 2.1 bandwidth pushing 48Gbps. This makes it support 4K at up to 120Hz, previously exclusive to DisplayPort.

This is the perfect gaming monitor for next-gen consoles in the Sony PlayStation 5 and Microsoft Xbox Series X, or upcoming next-gen NVIDIA Ampere GeForce RTX 3000 series and AMD RDNA 2 aka Big Navi graphics cards with HDMI 2.1 when they launch over the coming months and into 2021.

ASUS has baked in Auto Low Latency that allows consoles to control the processing mode of the display, where it will be able to prioritize either low latency or processing quality depending on what you're doing at the time.

We are another step closer to Ampere, with NVIDIA reportedlyt discontinuing the GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER graphics card. This isn't the first time we heard about the GeForce RTX 20 series being discontinued, with the first rumors popping up back in July 2020.

The news is coming from Chinese site MyDrivers, which reports that NVIDIA has "completely discontinued" the Turing-based GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER graphics card.

The last batch of Turing-based GPUs has been dispatched, with no further orders on the GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER to be accepted. GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is now EOL = end of life. This list will eventually, where I'm sure the wheels are already rolling, to discontinue the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER, GeForce RTX 2080 and GeForce RTX 2070.

AMD just continues to swing winning hits against Intel, with news breaking that AMD has reached the highest x86 CPU market share its had since Q4 2013.

The news is coming from Mercury Research, which reports that during Q2 2020 the company reached an x86 CPU market share of 18.3% which is the highest AMD has been since Q4 2013. Not only that, but AMD also reached a new all-time high for the mobility CPU market, too.

AMD's newly-launched Ryzen 4000 series "Renoir" chips have been kicking some serious ass, and that will only continue in 2021 when we will see many more laptops released powered by Renoir.

Intel has just announced two new virtual events: the first is an "update" from Raja Koduri -- so expect something on the Intel Xe GPU architecture, while the second is the Tiger Lake launch event.

Raja Koduri, Chief Architect at Intel and also the point man on the GPU business, will provide an update via a webcast on August 13 at 9AM ET, where we will hopefully be provided with some juicy updates on Intel's upcoming Xe GPU architecture.

After that, Intel will be hosting the Tiger Lake virtual launch event on September 2, which is the event we heard about a few weeks ago when Intel said it had "something big" to share on September 2 -- this is it, the Tiger Lake launch.

A fresh batch of hype is coming out of the oven, with reports that NVIDIA is gearing up for a September 17 launch of its next-gen Ampere-based GeForce RTX 3000 series graphics cards.

We now have a new report from MyDrivers, which is reporting that NVIDIA will launch Ampere GeForce RTX 3000 series cards on September 17. It will begin with the flagship GeForce RTX 3080 Ti (or is that the GeForce RTX 3090) and then stage out the GeForce RTX 3080 release for October, while the GeForce RTX 3060 would drop in November.

All the way back in March 2020, I first wrote that we would see an August 2020 reveal for the next-gen GeForce RTX 3000 series cards, while the launch would take place in September 2020. These new rumors seem to be lining up with what I predicted earlier in the year.

Sony will be hosting its State of Play event on August 6, where we could be introduced to more details on the PlayStation 5 -- even though Sony has promised "no big PS5 announcements".

But now French retailer Carrefour has teased pricing on the next-gen PlayStation 5, which will reportedly cost $599 at launch. The all-digital PlayStation 5 will cost $499 at launch, but won't come with a 4K UHD Blu-ray player.

The pricing is higher than the previous pricing of $499 for the standard PS5 and $399 for the all-digital PS5 from a few weeks ago, but I think we'll still see a firm November 20, 2020 launch.

We are expecting Sony to have some pretty solid backwards compatibility when it launches its PlayStation 5, which should support the 'overwhelming majority of PS4 games' on the PS5 at launch.

Some exciting news from streamer Lance McDonald who says that an insider of his at Sony says that PlayStation 5 backwards compatibility is solid. He tweeted that the PS5 would play any PS4 game without approval required from Sony by the developer, but quickly deleted the tweet "out of respect for the platform holder".

McDonald said: "There's been some confusion about this in the past and I can clear it up now. The PlayStation 5 can run all PlayStation 4 games without per-game whitelisting. Sony continue[s] to test titles but the system will not prevent you from launching untested games".

The hype is beginning to feel real about AMD's next-generation Big Navi GPU, otherwise known as Navi 2X on the RDNA 2 architecture. But what about RDNA 3? Yeah, let's dive right into it.

A fresh batch of rumors suggest that AMD is currently in the early design phase of the RDNA 3 architecture, and it could represent the most radical change of GPU design ever. AMD could shift towards using a chiplet design for its RDNA 3 architecture, similar to the chiplet design used on the revolutionary Zen architecture.

This would let AMD mix and match many different GPU IPs together, where we could see I/O like memory controllers and other parts of the chips being put on different nodes. The main GPU dies (in this case, RDNA 3 chiplets) could be on the 'Advanced Node' (5nm with TSMC) while the other parts like the memory controller, can be on a different node.

Today Logitech announced the G923 racing wheel that's optimized for high-end game simulations.

Logitech's new G-series racing wheel line just got a next-gen revamp in time for next-gen consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, making the new G923 a perfect fit for upcoming games like Gran Turismo 7 and the new Forza reboot. It's also compatible with PS4, Xbox One, and PC games too.

The big selling point of the new G923 racing wheel is its Trueforce integration, a new proprietary next-gen technology centered around immersion and realism. Logitech's new Trueforce haptics connect directly with in-game engines that power racing simulations to dynamically react to what's happening on the screen in real-time.

Cold Symmetry's brutal action-RPG Mortal Shell releases on August 18, 2020 on PS4, Xbox One and PC, the developer today announced.

The latest Mortal Shell trailer gives an eerie look at the game's decidedly haunted atmosphere, touching upon the Souls-like combat and emphasis on dark medieval fantasy visuals. The footage also showcased Solomon, the new fourth Shell that can be possessed (classes are "shells" in the game), and a bunch of visceral combat against hulking bosses.

The best part of the trailer was the new Ballistazooka, an old-school death-dealing shoulder cannon that dishes out extreme destruction.

UPDATE: New reports from The Verge suggest Apple is to blame for Project xCloud not releasing on iOS. Microsoft is apparently halting xCloud testing due to iOS policy restrictions.

Microsoft has set a firm September beta rollout date for its innovative Project xCloud streaming service.

Starting September 11, every Game Pass Ultimate subscriber will be able to stream games to their mobile phones at no extra cost. Right now this only includes streaming Game Pass games, not games you already own, and is exclusive to Game Pass Ultimate subscribers. Microsoft has made plans to turn every Xbox One console into a remote game streaming platform, but that availability isn't included with this beta test.

Activision and Treyarch confirm the next Call of Duty is on the way, and it could be shown during Sony's new State of Play event tomorrow.

The wait is almost over: Treyarch says it'll show off the new Call of Duty game sometime soon. What better place to show it than Sony's new State of Play event tomorrow, where over 100 million PS4 owners will be tuning in?

Treyarch, Raven Software, and Sledgehammer Games have been working on 2020's premium Call of Duty game for some time. As past reports--and newly leaked promos--say, the new Call of Duty game will take place during the Cold War. The campaign may also span from the Vietnam era up until the Cold War's end in the 1980s.

Sony shares skyrocketed to $81.25 days after the company announced record Q1 PlayStation earnings, and now analysts think PlayStation 5 could surge stocks by another 20%.

Sony just reported a massive $2.17 billion in profits in Q1'20, nearly half of which was generated by the PlayStation brand. Sony's Q1 numbers are the highest in the history of the video games industry, and PlayStation earnings amounted more than 30% of Sony's total revenues. Sony shares have skyrocketed by nearly 50% year-over-year to $81.25 as a result, the highest point since June 2001. This could just be the beginning of the upward trajectory.

This milestone wasn't lost on investors, nor was it lost on analysts, who now predict big things for Sony's FY2020 period. The company expects the PlayStation brand to deliver a record $2.24 billion in profits on $23.4 billion in revenues, driven primarily by the PlayStation 5 and digital software.

Capcom eventually wants 90% of its game sales to be digital, and it's on its way to achieving that goal.

Capcom, like any games company, loves digital storefronts. Digital keeps COGS down tremendously as there's no manufacturing or shipping costs for digital titles. The end goal for all third-party games-makers is release as many games onto digital stores as possible, especially the PlayStation Network with it's massive 110 million+ install base.

Now Capcom says it ultimately wants the highly-coveted 90% digital game sales ratio.

Contrary to popular belief, Microsoft isn't retiring Xbox LIVE Gold, the company today confirmed.

A bit ago Microsoft de-listed 12 month Xbox LIVE Gold subscriptions from the Xbox and PC stores. The industry started buzzing about Xbox LIVE Gold being retired and just folded into Game Pass Ultimate, which would force anyone who wanted to play online multiplayer into buying Game Pass. Big games like Halo: Infinite are going free-to-play and won't require Xbox LIVE Gold, either. And finally, a recent update seemed to rename Xbox LIVE as part of Xbox Services.

Now Microsoft officially confirms Xbox LIVE Gold isn't going away. "This language update is intended to distinguish that underlying service, and the paid Xbox Live Gold subscription. There are no changes being made to the experience of the service or Xbox Live Gold," a Microsoft spokesperson told VideoGameChronicle when specifically asked about the new update's vernacular.