In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Xbox boss Phil Spencer says next-gen exclusives basically go against the spirit of modern choice-driven gaming. But in reality next-gen exclusives just go against the Xbox business model.

Once again Microsoft and Sony are kicking off a new console gen by doing very different things. Sony plans to release next-gen PlayStation 5 exclusives that're built from the ground up specifically for the console. Microsoft, on the other hand, won't have Xbox Series X exclusives, and its first-party teams have to make their games playable on four separate SKUs at launch. The reasoning is quite simple: Microsoft's business model is very different than Sony's.

"Sorry, I am a bit soap boxy with this one. Gaming is about entertainment and community and diversion and learning new stories and new perspectives, and I find it completely counter to what gaming is about to say that part of that is to lock people away from being able to experience those games. Or to force someone to buy my specific device on the day that I want them to go buy it, in order to partake in what gaming is about," Spencer said.

Far Cry 6 is coming in 2021 and will star Breaking Bad's Giancarlo Esposito, a leaked storefront listing on the PlayStation Store today confirmed.

After many reports and rumors, Sony, not Ubisoft, finally confirmed Far Cry 6 is actually happening. Leaked PlayStation Store listings revealed a bunch of details including a February 2021 release date on PS4, and that Ubisoft is giving away a free next-gen PS5 copy of the game to anyone who buys the PS4 version.

Far Cry 6 takes place in a Latin America dictatorship called Yara that's ruled by Esposito with an iron fist. We don't see the main player character in the leaked cover art, but we do see Castillo, the main antagonist, and his son Diego. There's also apparently a sidekick named Chorizo, which is probably a dog companion. The game also has offline singleplayer as well as a two-player co-op mode just like Far Cry 5.

UPDATE:Tencent is now the exclusive bidder on Leyou, a new announcement confirms. The buyout hasn't gone through yet, however.

Today Chinese gaming firm Leyou Technologies, parent company of Warframe and Digital Extremes, has halted trading on the Chinese market as it readies an official announcement of a buyout.

Leyou Technologies, who owns studios like Splash Damage, Digital Extremes, and a portion of Certain Affinity, has issued a trading halt order on its investor relations website. This signifies a buyout from one of its three main suitors: Japanese games giant Sony, the Tencent-backed Chinese mobile games company iDreamSky, and internet games and automobile company Century Huatong.

NVIDIA has just released their latest GeForce 451.67 WHQL drivers that are optimized for Death Stranding, Hideo Kojima's masterpiece that was until recently a PlayStation 4 exclusive.

Death Stranding isn't the only PlayStation 4 exclusive getting some PC lovin', with Horizon: Zero Dawn about to launch and optimizations baked into these new drivers, too. We also have optimizations for F1 2020 which also just launched.

NVIDIA also added in some new G-SYNC compatible monitors in the new GeForce 451.67 WHQL drivers, with the following monitors now getting Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) on NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards:

Google isn't far away from unveiling its new Pixel 5 and Pixel 5 XL smartphones, so new renders aren't a surprise before its big launch in the coming months.

The leaks tease that the Pixel 5 and Pixel 5 XL don't look that different, with the Pixel 5 XL just being a "bigger" and probably beefier (battery, RAM possibly) version of the Pixel 5. This isn't a surprise, but the renders including a 3.5mm headphone jack is.

The new Pixel 5 and Pixel 5 XL renders have 3.5mm headphone jacks at the top, which would be a big surprise from Google. Inside, we should see the Pixel 5 using Qualcomm's more mid-range Snapdragon 765 while the higher-end Pixel 5 XL would be powered by the Snapdragon 865.

Amazon confirmed that the second season of The Boys will debut on Amazon Prime Video on September 4, 2020 just a couple of weeks ago. They teased a 'first look' clip of new hero Stormfront, but now we have the official S2 teaser. Check it out:

The second season teaser shows us some absolutely gruesome scenes that we'll see in the new season of The Boys, where Homelander seems even more unhinged, if that was even possible. There's a bunch of heroes and hero propaganda throughout, which seems fitting as we ride into the 2020 elections in the United States.

Antony Starr as Homelander is just something else in The Boys, while Billy Butcher (played like a boss by Karl Urban) is now in hiding after the events of the first season of The Boys. If you haven't watched it, you owe it to yourself to check it out.

NVIDIA's mid-range GeForce RTX 3060 should shake up the graphics card market up a fair bit, where it could battle the current Turing-based flagship GeForce RTX 2080 Ti -- at least in ray tracing performance.

Now we have some new rumors from Kopite7kimi, who has said that NVIDIA taped out the GA106 and GA107 GPUs "weeks ago". We should see the GA106 GPU powering the GeForce RTX 3060, while the GA104 GPU should power the GeForce RTX 3070.

We should also see the GA106 GPU being used in different SKUs, with a GeForce RTX 3060 which is then succeeded by a GeForce RTX 3060 Ti or GeForce RTX 3060 SUPER. The same goes for the GeForce RTX 3070, where we should see a Ti or SUPER variant.

Qualcomm has just announced the flagship Snapdragon 865+ processor, a refreshed and beefier version over the already beefy Snapdragon 865 that is powering the current wave of flagship smartphones.

The new Snapdragon 865+ acts as the same refreshed SoC as the Snapdragon 855+ was over the original Snapdragon 855. This sees Qualcomm offer improved speeds out of both the CPU and GPU, but the super-fast Snapdragon X55 modem is still not baked into the main chipset -- and still sees Qualcomm using a separate component.

We should see the 5G modem built into the next Snapdragon processor, which Qualcomm should announce in December 2020. As for the additional performance grunt, Qualcomm has cranked the Kryo 858 CPU up by 10%, up to a maximum of 3.1GHz.

If you've been waiting the new Galaxy Note 20 smartphone, then you won't have much longer to wait with Samsung officially announcing that Galaxy Unpacked 2020 will happen on August 5, virtually.

The huge event should see Samsung announce a bunch of new hardware, which should include the introduction of the new Galaxy Note 20, Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, the rumored Galaxy Z Fold 2, a 5G-capable Galaxy Z Flip, the Galaxy Watch 3, and more.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic still wrecking havoc on this timeline, Samsung will host its Galaxy Unpacked 2020 event live on its own website. You will be able to tune into Galaxy Unpacked 2020 right here.

Magic Leap has been jumping through virtual sharks for years now with its mixed reality business, with its current CEO and co-founder Rony Abovitz being replaced by Peggy Johnson.

Johnson is a former Microsoft executive, and will now serve as Magic Leap's new CEO starting August 1. In her previous role at Microsoft, Johnson was the executive vice president of business development, as well as handling the venture capital fund M12.

Abovitz announced back in May that he was stepping down as CEO of Magic Leap, which prompted Johnson to reach out to him. Before she was at at Microsoft, Johnson was running the internet services division of Qualcomm.

NVIDIA has just announced that it is bundling Hideo Kojima's masterpiece Death Stranding, with any of its GeForce RTX 20 series graphics cards.

This includes desktop graphics cards and GeForce RTX-powered gaming laptops and desktops as well, with Death Stranding launching on the PC on both Steam and the Epic Games Store on July 14. Remember that Death Stranding packs NVIDIA's kick ass DLSS 2.0 technology.

To coincide with the announcement of the Death Stranding RTX bundle, NVIDIA released a new GeForce Game Ready 451.67 driver that has optimizations and support not just for Death Stranding, but Horizon Zero Dawn and F1 2020.

2013 was a big year for Valve. The company had three projects in experimental phases: A new fantasy RPG, a Morroccan-themed Left 4 Dead 3 set in a vast open world, and a Source 2 project that could've changed gaming forever. That last project was Half-Life 3.

Even in early phases of development Valve had ambitious plans for Half-Life 3. According to a new Half-Life: Alyx The Final Hours documentary, Valve wanted Half-Life 3 to be replayable on a new level. Instead of static levels like Half-Life 1 or Half-Life 2, the game would shake things up and shift certain sequences and levels.

The game would've used procedural generation to create unique and semi-randomized events and situations that could liven up every playthrough, ensuring no two runs were the same. It would've been something like a live campaign with a myriad of different outcomes.

Sony's latest patent further hints at unique save-state sharing functionalities on the PlayStation Network, which should allow gamers to create and share their own custom slices of gameplay.

Sony's PlayStation 5 may usher in a new evolution of the PSN service ecosystem. We've uncovered multiple patents that hint at transformative features similar to Google's Stadia platform and Microsoft's Project xCloud. If these patents coalesce, gamers will be able to capture, create, edit and share custom game demos. Think of it as not only watching a game clip, but being able to play it too.

The latest Sony patent, which was filed in June and published this month, specifically mentions instant play. The patent is built on a simple premise: "cloud-based game slice generation and frictionless social sharing with instant play." This tells us everything we need to know. It's clear Sony wants to emulate Stadia's unique save-state sharing feature with instant click-to-play access. Microsoft is also doing something similar with Project xCloud.

Sony has purchased a $250 million minority stake in billion-dollar titan Epic Games, the company today announced.

Sony has invested $250 million into Epic Games in a bid to strengthen its relationship with one of gaming's top moneymakers. The deal isn't just about swelling Sony's coffers, though. Epic has unique technological advantages in the industry thanks to its Unreal Engine games-making software.

For perspective's sake, the $250 million investment only nets Sony a 1.5% stake in Epic, which is now valued at over $17 billion.

Sony officially reveals the design and color scheme of next-gen PS5 game boxes, and they're not radically different.

The PS5's game cases will be different enough to distinguish between current- and next-gen games, but Sony hasn't opted for a dramatic redesign. The PS5 game cases feature a slightly darker transparent blue plastic casing, and the game cover art is accompanied by a stark white banner instead of the PS4's stylish blue gradient.

New job listings confirm Id Software is currently working on a next-gen Doom game for PS5 and Xbox Series X.

id's main Dallas, Texas branch is currently hiring multiple positions to work on a next-gen game, and we're betting it's the next big Doom slaughterfest. id is currently hiring for 21 open positions required for making a AAA game, but only a few of them explicitly mention next-gen consoles.

Both the Senior UI Programmer and Senior Rendering Graphics Programmer jobs specifically mention creating games for next-gen systems.

My heart hasn't stopped fluttering since Zack Snyder himself announced Zack Snyder's Justice League, which will be an exclusive on HBO Max in 2021.

But now some truly exciting news has just been announced: Junkie XL will be joined by the legend himself Hans Zimmer in scoring the true vision of Justice League. The news came from some back and forth between Snyder and some fans on Vero, where he was asked "We getting the Junkie XL score for JL?"

Snyder responded, saying: "Fuck yes" and then answered another question that asked in the form of "Han's Zimmer's two piano notes?" and Snyder throws out "Of course is there another".

AMD just launched their Matisse Refresh CPUs led by the new flagship Ryzen 9 3900XT (our review here), but then leaks on the new Ryzen Threadripper PRO series led by the flagship Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3995WX processor was teased -- and now, the Renoir APUs.

Some new leaks are from Dutch retailer Centralpoint, which has listed the Ryzen 7 Pro 4750G, Ryzen 5 Pro 4650G and Ryzen 3 Pro 4350G processors. The listings state that the two higher-end Ryzen PRO processors will ship within 3 to 5 days, while the Ryzen 3 Pro 4350G will be in stock on July 10.

As for pricing, we're looking at:

Intel has just announced the new generation of Thunderbolt, with the new Thunderbolt 4 standard being virtually identical to Thunderbolt 3 -- but Intel being Intel, we have Thunderbolt 4. Check it out:

What does Thunderbolt 4 do exactly? What is Intel's aim with Thunderbolt 4 is to boost up the minimum performance requirements, provide a couple of improvements, and USB4 specifications. The new Thunderbolt 4 standard supports dual 4K displays (versus just one 4K display on TB3) but now you can also connect a single 8K display over a single Thunderbolt 4 connection. Impressive.

Jason Ziller, Intel general manager of the Client Connectivity Division explains: "Thunderbolt provides consumers with a leading connectivity standard across a range of devices, helping to advance computing experiences and delivering on the promise of USB-C with simplicity, performance, and reliability. The arrival of Thunderbolt 4 underscores how Intel is advancing the PC ecosystem toward truly universal connectivity solutions".

PC gamers across the world might be stuck inside because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but we are doing what we do best: gaming. The entire global PC gaming hardware business has been thriving because of this -- as well as the countless releases of new games, and the upcoming next-gen consoles right around the corner.

Analyst firm JPR has released their Worldwide PC Gaming Hardware Market Report, which if you want to buy it and check it out will cost $27,500. The report is written by Senior Analyst Gaming Industry at JPR, Ted Pollak, who explains: "The PC Gaming Hardware market is in a rare scenario where every segment is going up. We see a lot of people buying and upgrading personal and company subsidized computers with better parts, with the intention of playing video games. In the Entry-Level, much of this revenue comes from new gamers".

He added: "The 2020 Entry-Level category is forecast to grow 21.7% which is unprecedented and totally unexpected. The Mid-Range has bounced back from a slide; now in positive territory. At the High-End, 1440p+ display sales (spurred by more affordable offerings) created a chain reaction of upgrades as gamers configure rigs for 60+ frames per second".