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Apex Legends is expected to hit $1 billion in total lifetime earnings in 2021. Now EA expects the game to rake in $1 billion per year thanks to its current trajectory.

Apex Legends will soon become EA's latest billion-dollar franchise and join the likes of Madden and FIFA. The BR sensation is expected to hit $1 billion in total revenues just two years after launch, but EA expects Apex to amass serious money-making momentum through next year and beyond. $1 billion is just the start. EA forecasts Apex could start earning a billion dollars every single year from here on out.

The main driver is diversification and access. Apex's mobile version will launch in 2021 and offer a huge new window of spending opportunities to millions of gamers, and the China launch may follow soon after. There's also the launch on Nintendo Switch. EA wants Apex on every storefront, every platform, and everywhere gamers play.

It was only yesterday that we reported that Assassin's Creed Valhalla couldn't reach 4K 60FPS on some of the fastest hardware on the planet... yeah well, it does, I just did it myself.

I've just run Assassin's Creed Valhalla's built-in benchmark with the Ultra preset at 4K and reached 62FPS on the Intel Core i9-10900K processor and MSI GeForce RTX 3090 GAMING X TRIO graphics card. The previous reports were from GameGPU that couldn't reach 60FPS at 4K, and were hitting just 56FPS average.

I'll be running all of the cards I have here (including some other Big Cards that may or may not have just arrived) with Assassin's Creed Valhalla and will have a deeper dive into the performance at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K in the next few days.

Split Light Studios dropped a teaser trailer for its upcoming game Pirate VR: Jolly Roger, and it looks fantastic. It almost seems too good to be real.

The Pirate VR: Jolly Roger Steam page describes that game as a Robinson Crusoe-style story, in which you find yourself on an island in the Caribbean Sea. The developer said that Pirates VR: Jolly Roger is a linear game, which implies that you won't get to wander freely throughout the island. Still, the trailer depicts a wide range of environments that you'll encounter, such as jungle scenes, dark caves, and a sunken ship.

The trailer also shows off impressive graphics, although it's unclear if the visuals were dressed up for the video. The clip appears highly scripted, so it remains to be seen if the final game looks this good.

Seeya Technology is now offering a lineup of OLED microdisplays for use in VR and AR devices. Seeya's new displays are as small as half an inch, with resolutions higher than QHD.

Seeya Technology is a relatively new company. It was established in 2016 to develop OLED microdisplays for future technology devices. Seeya invested $300 million in its fabrication plant in 2017, and it's now up and running with a production capacity of up to 20 million displays per year.

Seeya Technology's current OLED microdisplay offerings include a 0.49" color panel with Full-HD resolution; a 0.62" OLED with 1728x1369 pixels; and a 0.83" 2560x1440 (QHD) OLED panel. At the top of Seeya's product stack sit a pair of 2560x2560 panels available in 1.03" or 1.4" options.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla is now here and so we know how the rendering resolutions are on the current-gen consoles, including the Xbox One S, Xbox One X, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 4 Pro.

The folks at VG Tech confirm that the Xbox One X renders Assassin's Creed Valhalla at around 3093 x 1740, while its lowest point is 2432 x 1368 and highest is full 4K at 3840 x 2160. Meanwhile, the PlayStation 4 Pro runs the game at around 2304 x 1296, its lowest point is 1824 x 1026 while its highest is 1440p at 2560 x 1440.

I've compiled it into a list below:

GodView Tech is currently running a Kickstarter campaign to fund the production of its GodView 5K AR/MR smart glasses, which are compatible with any device that supports HDMI or video of USB Type-C.

GodView Tech launched its Kickstarter campaign on October 28, and within 30 minutes, the company had pulled in the $5000 it needed to complete the project. The campaign has since gone on to raise more than $160,000, so it's fair to say people are excited about the GodView smart glasses. Given the specifications, it's not hard to see why.

The GodView Smartglasses offer an extremely high resolution for an augmented reality device. Top-end hardware like the Microsoft Hololens 2 and Magic Leap One offer 2K and 2.5K resolution, respectively. GodView Tech claims its headset produces a 5K resolution projected display.

bHaptics today revealed a pair of haptic feedback vests that are sure to bring an extra level of immersion to your VR gaming experience. The company is taking pre-orders now, with delivery expected before the holidays.

bHaptics' TactSuit X series comes in two flavours. The TactSuit X16 is the entry-level option. It features 16 ERM vibration motors, with eight on the back and eight on the vest's front. The X16 comes equipped with a 4900mAh battery, which gives it a claimed 22hrs of playtime.

The higher-end TactSuit X40 is packed with 40 ERM motors to add more realism to the haptic response. The extra vibration motors come at a high cost on power. The battery in the X40 has twice the capacity at 9800mAh, which gets you 18hrs of playtime.

It seems that hackers have gotten their hands-on the Watch Dogs: Legion source code, with ransomware group Egregor claiming they've broken into both Ubisoft and Crytek.

The group threatened the release of the Watch Dogs: Legion source code, saying: "Guys, if the goal of the last mission in your game about hackers was the hack of your company, we've done it". Ubisoft has told RPS that they're aware of the issue and are investigating.

But it looks like the Watch Dogs: Legion source code was leaked out, coming in as a 560GB download. I haven't looked for it, and nor will I look for it -- but I'm sure Ubisoft is working overtime trying to plug the leak -- and I'm sure without success.

Kioxia has just unveiled their new XG7 and XG7-P NVMe SSDs, filling out their PCIe 4.0-powered range of storage products with enterprise and datacenter solutions already on the market.

The new Kioxia XG7 SSD offers at least 6.3GB/sec reads and 4.6GB/sec writes, so it might not be the very best -- but bloody hell we're talking over 6GB/sec reads. The higher-end Kioxia XG7-P drive comes in up to 2TB and 4TB capacities, while the XG7 comes in 256GB to 1TB.

Kioxia is the first to offer client-focused OEM SSDs with 4TB capacities, and should find their way into systems in 2021.

EA confirms Apex Legends will hit mobile devices sometime in its FY22 period, which extends from April 1, 2021 through March 31, 2022.

Apex Legends has been huge for EA's digital growth. The F2P BR routinely pulls in hundreds of millions in monetization every year since its 2019 launch, and naturally EA sees the lootbox-monetized live game as a prime candidate to tap the $77 billion mobile market. Now we finally have a release window for Apex's mobile launch.

According to EA CEO Andrew Wilson, Apex will drop on mobiles sometime in 2021--the same year it'll release on Nintendo Switch. Apex is so powerful that EA wants it making money on as many platforms as possible.

Today we posted up an erroneous report stating the Xbox Series X's internal SSD didn't support PCIe 4.0, and that it used a stock WD SN530 SSD. Western Digital has reached out to clarify this is wrong, and the built-in Series X SSD is in fact a customized solution that supports PCIe 4.0.

(Photo credit: Modern Vintage Gamer)

According to Western Digital, the Xbox Series X's WD SN530 SSD isn't a stock OEM drive that's limited to PCIe Gen3 x4 performance. Instead, the drive has been outfitted with a special ASIC that enables both PCIe Gen3 x4 and Gen4 x2 performance, which allows for up to 3.938 GB of max throughput. For reference, the Series X targets 2.4GB/sec in uncompressed data transfers.

Sony's next-gen PS5 won't support 2560 x 1440 video output for 1440p monitors...at least at launch.

PS5 console reviews confirm some frustrating news for 1440p monitor owners: The console won't output at a native 1440p resolution on WQHD displays. Instead, the PS5 will revert back to 1080p 60FPS and upscale the image to 1440p. It's possible that certain monitors could push upscaled 4K if the displays allow it, but again that'll be upscaled.

Apparently the PS5 supports three resolutions at launch: 720p, 1080p, and 4K. The sweet-spot resolution isn't included, likely because the PS5 is targeting HDTVs and UHDTVs, not the kind of enthusiast monitors that PC gamers use.

Micron just unveiled the world's first 176-layer TLC NAND flash that will enable high-performance, high-capacity flash drives across consumer and enterprise markets.

Micron's new fifth-generation 176-layer 3D NAND flash is the same height as its 64-layer memory, but packs in 2.75 times more layers in the same space--a space that's 30% smaller than today's leading flash chips. The cells are 1/5th the thickness of a sheet of paper and is ideal for mobile electronics, consumer SSDs, autonomous vehicles, and SD cards, but also have applications for data centers.

The shrink was made possible by a combination of Micron's advanced memory techniques: Its CMOS-under-array (CuA), charge-trap, and replacement-gate architectures have been used in tandem to squeeze together 176 layers of ultra-dense memory.

As publishers like Activision-Blizzard, Take-Two Interactive, and Sony raise next-gen PS5 and Xbox Series X game prices to $69.99, Electronic Arts isn't sure about charging more for its games..

In a recent Q2'21 investor's call, EA dodge questions about a possible price hike for its games. The company is currently working on a number of next-gen titles including Battlefield 6, Dragon Age 4, and a new Mass Effect (other games like FIFA 22, Madden 22, and Jedi: Fallen Order 2 are also coming). These games may or may not be exclusive to next-gen consoles and offer higher-end premium experiences.

Read Also: Sony almost charged more than $70 for PS5 games

UPDATE:PlayStation boss Jim Ryan says these reports are "categorically false."

Original article continues below:

If Sony had their way, next-gen PlayStation 5 games might have cost more than $69.99 at launch.

Sony reveals its future plans for the PlayStation 5's post-launch evolution, and they include ambitious functionalities like 8K resolution gaming.

We've known for a long time the PlayStation 5 would support 8K gaming. But now Sony clarifies how this will actually work. At launch, the PS5 will be compatible with 8K UHDTV displays but won't actually output video signals at 8K resolution. The PS5 will only be able to push 7680 x 4320 signals with a post-launch firmware update. These same updates will allow Sony to dynamically adjust the PS5's cooling solution--including voltages and built-in fan RPM--on a per-game basis.

Another big change that Sony plans to implement is letting gamers store PS5 games onto external HDDs. At launch, PS5 next-gen games can exclusively be stored on the custom SSD. Gamers can't use their beefy external HDDs as cold storage for games. On PS5, players will not be able to store or launch next-gen games from HDDs.

We had an exclusive first-look at Phison's next-gen E18 SSD controller just a couple of weeks ago, with benchmark results pushing a huge 7.4GB/sec -- but now it's official, check it out:

Phison's new PS5018-E18 (E18) PCIe 4.0 controller is the industry's fastest PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD solution now, succeeding Phison's previous-gen PS5016-E16 that dropped in late 2019. The new Phison E18 SSD controller is on the newer TSMC 12nm node, too.

The new Phison E18 is the world exclusive SSD controller capable of breaching 7GB/sec reads -- right up to the new heights of 7.4GB/sec reads and up to 7GB/sec writes, with capacities of up to 8TB (!!!) and bursting through 1 million IOPS.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla is right around the corner, and you're going to need quite the gaming PC to run it... not even flagship hardware can hit 4K 60FPS on Ultra graphics.

GameGPU has run the built-in benchmark for Assassins Creed Valhalla on a couple of different setups, the flagship Intel Core i9-10900K processor mixed with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card. The second setup is powered by an AMD Ryzen 9 3900X processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics card.

These tests were run at the 4K resolution and the highest in-game visual settings possible, with the Core i9-10900K and GeForce RTX 3090 not capable of hitting 60FPS.

It looks like the UK is moving towards putting Terminators onto the battlefield, with UK armed forces head General Sir Nick Carter saying 1/4 of the UK army could be robots by the 2030s.

In a recent interview with Sky News, General Sir Nick Carter explained: "I think you are going to see an armed forces that's designed for the 2030s. You won't get there overnight but that's the direction of travel".

"No, I can't spell that out, not least because decisions haven't been taken, but what I'm hinting at is that we need to be thinking about how we measure effects in a different way. I mean I suspect we can have an army of 120,000 of which 30,000 might be robots, who knows".

A huge new 300-megawatt Tesla battery installation is planned for November 2021 in Victoria Australia, with the State Government pushing towards renewable energy looking forward. The new 300-megawatt Tesla battery farm is twice the size of the one an hour drive from me here in South Australia at Hornsdale, SA.

The new Tesla battery installation will be built by French renewable energy contractor Neoen SA, and will be built at the Moorabool electricity terminal near Geelong, Victoria, Australia. The 300-megawatt battery farm will be capable of powering 500,000 homes in Victoria for around 1 hour.

Neoen SA will pay the construction costs for the battery, coming it at around $61 million ($84 million AUD) which will include operation and maintenance of the 300-megawatt Tesla battery farm.