It's been a while since we've gotten big Switch Online NES and SNES games. Thankfully Nintendo breaks the dry spell with one of the best SNES games of all time.

With its new round of free games like Donkey Kong Country (finally!), The Immortal, and Natsume Championship Wrestling, Nintendo makes good on its promise to add more value to its Switch Online subscription service. The main draw here is obviously Donkey Kong Country, aka the stuff childhood dreams (and nightmares, god that stop and go level has haunted me to this day) are made of.

The Immortal looks pretty interesting too. It's an isometric exploration game that can be pretty maddening, but still looks like a bit of fun entertainment, especially with save states at your command. Check out this James and Mike Mondays episode to see what The Immortal is all about.

Niantic's immensely popular AR sensation Pokemon GO has generated nearly $1 billion in revenue every year for the last four years, Sensor Tower reports.

Pokemon GO just turned four years old but the mobile hit shows no signs of stopping. The free-to-play game has earned substantial revenues of $3.6 billion in estimated microtransaction spending across its four-year lifetime. The game is most popular in the United States, which spent $1.3 billion on the game, making up roughly 35% of total global earnings.

The pocket monster mobile hit is most popular on Android devices, Sensor Tower finds. Google Play generated $1.9 billion or 54% of total earnings, whereas the iOS App Store pulled in $1.7 billion, or about 46% of the mobile pie. Pokemon GO's 2020 numbers are on track to match or even beat 2019's performance with over $445 million earned through the year so far.

Sony hasn't thrown all of its next-gen cards on the table, and reportedly still has a few PS5 surprises in store for the rest of the year.

According to new reports from Eurogamer's Tom Phillips, Sony has held back some of its major game reveals for its rumored State of Play event in August. Phillips has a close ear with the going-ons in the games industry and has a good track record when it comes to inside knowledge--he was among the first to cover Nintendo Switch specs and hardware capabilities.

The move admittedly is common sense. Sony wouldn't benefit from showing everything at a singular PS5 reveal event. The better plan would be to show off the PS5, its games, and do some light talks about how the games will run and play on the system, then reveal more content, games, and features closer to the system's launch. That way the console is kind of refreshed in the public's eye before it hits store shelves in Holiday 2020.

Valorant's new Elderflame cosmetic skin set costs roughly $95 to unlock, which is roughly $31 more than current AAA game releases.

Like all of Riot's games, its new free-to-play hero shooter was built with microtransactions in mind. Now we're starting to see the upper limits of the game's monetization. The devs have announced a new Elderflame cosmetic set that transforms your guns into dragons, but the full set of unique skins come at a steep 9900 VP price tag. This equates to roughly $95 or thereabouts, or about 48% more than your average $59.99 game plus tax.

Given the current VP pricing tiers, the cheapest way to buy the Elderflame set would look something like this:

It looks like AMD is about to refresh its Ryzen Threadripper 3000 series processors just like it did with its Matisse Refresh CPUs in the last 24 hours (our review here).

VideoCardz is reporting that AMD is about to launch a new Ryzen Threadripper PRO series of processors, with samples already out in teh wild and posted on Chiphell. The new PRO series workstation series would be very similar to the just-refreshed Ryzen 3000 series CPUs with their new XT counterparts.

AMD's refresh Ryzen Threadripper PRO would reportedly see the flagship Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3995WX processor that will offer up 8-channel memory, with up to 2TB of capacity which is pretty crazy. The normal Threadripper CPUs only support 4-channel memory with up to 256GB, so these upgrades would be very welcomed by power users.

A new report has come out that the Trump administration has notified both Congress and the United Nations about withdrawing from the World Health Organization (WHO).

CNN has reported that sources close to them have said that the Trump administration is currently moving towards formally withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization. This decision has come right as coronavirus cases are spiking across the United States, but Trump, and surrounding administration officials have still continued to criticize the efforts put in by the WHO in regards to the coronavirus outbreak.

The withdrawal is planned to go into effect on July 6th, and the decision has predictably drawn division among medical associations, advocacy organizations, and lawmakers. A state department official also confirmed to CNN that "the United States' notice of withdrawal, effective July 6, 2021, has been submitted to the UN Secretary-General, who is the depository for the WHO." A spokesperson for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he has received the notice and "is in the process of verifying with the World Health Organization whether all the conditions for such withdrawal are met."

SAPPHIRE has just unveiled a new member of its Radeon RX 5600 XT stack of graphics cards, a new member of its PULSE family of custom Radeon graphics cards.

The new Radeon RX 5600 XT PULSE BE is a little different than the regular Radeon RX 5600 XT PULSE, where it is slightly smaller -- but it is based on the same Navi 14 GPU and 6GB of GDDR6 memory. SAPPHIRE has clocked the Navi 14 GPU at the same 1560MHz boost, 1620MHz peak GPU clock -- while upgrading the 6GB of GDDR6 up to 14Gbps.

SAPPHIRE's original Radeon RX 5600 XT PULSE graphics card (my review on that here) needed to have its BIOS updated in order to receive the higher-end GDDR6 clocks. The peak clock is also lower than the BIOS-upgraded Radeon RX 5600 XT PULSE graphics card (coming in at 1650MHz versus 1750MHz).

Some unfortunate news for the PC industry today, with MSI president and CEO Sheng-Chang "Charles" Chiang falling from a building to his death.

We don't know what happened exactly, other than he fell to his death. An MSI spokesperson reached out to Tom's Hardware, explaining: "Earlier today, MSI GM and CEO Charles Chiang passed away. Having been a part of the company for more than 20 years, he made outstanding contributions and was admired by his colleagues. Mr. Chiang was a respected leader in the MSI family, and helped pave the way for the brand's success. We are all deeply saddened by the news, and are mourning the loss of Mr. Chiang. He will be deeply missed by the entire team".

I never personally met Charles, but I have dealt with MSI professionally (and personally) for 10 years with TweakTown. They are one of our strongest partners in the industry, and our hearts go out Chiang's family, and to the entire team at MSI.

Microsoft may give developers tons of freedom in how they handle next-gen Xbox Series X optimizations, but there's one thing they forbid: charging money for next-gen game upgrades.

Internal Microsoft mandates prohibit game developers and publishers from selling game upgrades on the Xbox Series X platform, sources tell Video Game Chronicle. Instead of treating current-gen game upgrades as premium DLC on next-gen consoles, Microsoft is encouraging developers to support its Smart Delivery program, which automatically selects, downloads, and applies any developer-issued next-gen game upgrades.

Third-party games-makers have two options for cross-gen transitional games. First, they can support Smart Delivery, or second, they can release a separate next-gen exclusive SKU of the game. There's lots of wiggle room here. 2K Games, for example, is releasing a $69.99 next-gen exclusive version of NBA 2K21. EA is also releasing next-gen exclusive versions of FIFA 21 and Madden 21, but these games have a new program called Dual Entitlement, which gives a free copy of the next-gen version to anyone who buys a PS4 or Xbox One copy.

The new game from Greedfall developer Spiders Studios is extremely unique and lays out an interesting proposition: What if King Louis XVI quelled the French Revolution with an army of robots?

Spiders' new game Steelrising is rather interesting. It takes place in 18th Century France just before the disastrous and brutal French Revolution tore down the monarchy. King Louis XVI is in power and plans to smash any opposition with his brutal new mech army. Spiders says Steelrising is more action-oriented than Greedfall, Technomancer, or Bound By Flame, but didn't show any actual gameplay. It's possible this could be a very NieR-esque game that's cemented in the studio's native history.

In Steelrising, you play as Aegis, a powerful female automaton who serves as the personal protector of Queen Mary Antoinette. The teaser clearly shows Aegis as she leads a charge against corrupted robots. We should expect themes of transhumanism as well as Detroit: Become Human-style existential moments.

THQ Nordic is far from done with the Kingdoms of Amalur IP, and plans to launch new expansion content for the 2012 game. This could lay the groundwork for a big new sequel.

Kingdoms of Amalur is getting a remaster re-release in the next two months on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The remaster packs in new graphics, effects, and improvements to the old-school RPG classic. It also sends a clear signal that THQ Nordic wants to capitalize on the IP, which isn't necessarily something that it does for all of the franchises it owns. But Kingdoms of Amalur isn't just getting a remaster--it's also getting a new expansion.

The next expansion is called Fatesworn, and it's due out in 2021 on all platforms. It'll be a paid and premium-style expansion, and could telegraph THQ Nordic's plans for the series. When games are resurrected like this, we often see devs work on expansions, DLC, or spin-offs to get developers back into the groove and help set up the story and tone for a sequel. Just look at what Valve did with Half-Life: Alyx, for example.

The upcoming Mafia Definitive Edition remake is being pushed back a month to September 25 in order to ensure the game looks and plays as good as possible, developer Hangar 13 today announced.

There's remakes, and then there's the Mafia Definitive Edition. Hangar 13 has completely revitalized the 2002 PS2 original with mindblowing visuals and effects befit of modern platforms, complete with new animations, higher-end textures, and an improved physics system.

It looks so impressive that it could be a next-gen PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X game. But this kind of quality comes at a cost, and sometimes delays a part of the process, especially when your work is being interrupted by a global pandemic.

Halo 3 is coming to the Master Chief Collection on PC next week on July 14, 2020, Microsoft today announced.

On July 14, the Master Chief Collection gets one step closer to full completion on PC. Armed with 24 multiplayer maps, fully remastered graphics, a sprawling campaign (with a brand new jetpack skull), and higher-end PC optimizations like uncapped frame rates and 4K 60FPS, Halo 3 scratches that nostalgia itch while also giving PC players their first chance to jump in and finish the fight. Full cross-play between Steam and Windows Store buyers ensures there's also someone to play with or play against.

Halo 3 also launches with the hugely anticipated Forge mode, which of course needs no introduction. Expect tons of customs chicanery on a level we've never seen before. Forge is also coming to Halo: Reach and Halo 2: Anniversary, too. Theater is also dropping so you can capture your highlights.

You might not have heard about Basemark, but you've surely experienced some of its founders effects on the gaming and tech industry. Tero Sarkkinen, founder and chairman of Basemark, used to run the Futuremark sales and marketing -- Futuremark, you know the gigantic benchmark company.

Well, Sarkkinen has been hard at work with his new journey in Basemark, with the startup raising $7.9 million in funding to continue its advancements in graphics software for autonomous vehicles. ETF Partners was the sole partner in the funding round, with $7.9 million raised.

The legend himself, Tero Sarkkinen -- Basemark founder and chairman, explains: "We are thrilled to have ETF Partners on board. Over the years we have worked hard on building a category-defining product and establishing strong international relationships across the automotive industry. This new capital injection will enable us to hit the gas and take us to the next level".

The United States is seeing a resurgence of the coronavirus, and now three major medical groups have issued at statement o the public about what they can do to battle the coronavirus.

An open letter released to the public by the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, and American Nurses Association has expressed to the public that as states began to reopen, people abandoned some of the steps taken that were made to made progress. Here's what the statement said, "But in the weeks since states began reopening, some of the steps that were critical to the progress we made were too quickly abandoned. And we are now watching in real-time as a dramatic uptick in COVID-19 cases is erasing our hard-won gains."

The statement goes onto say that the three groups are urging the American public to take the necessary and simple steps to start curbing the virus once again. "This is why as physicians, nurses, hospital and health system leaders, researchers and public health experts, we are urging the American public to take the simple steps we know will help stop the spread of the virus: wearing a face mask, maintaining physical distancing, and washing hands." The letter also touches on Dr. Fauci mentioning that if drastic change isn't made across the nation that we could see 100,000 new coronavirus cases each day if citizens don't take the correct precautions.

We have some just-leaked rumored specs on NVIDIA's purported GeForce RTX 3070 Ti and GeForce RTX 3070 graphics cards, with some interesting specs on what should be two very popular cards in the sub $500 market when they launch later this year.

The new leaks are coming from Kopite7kimi on Twitter, who tweeted out that the RTX 3070 (SUPER or Ti) should feature the GA104-400 GPU, but so too will the RTX 3070. The big difference here according to these leaks is that the higher-end GeForce RTX 3070 Ti has 8GB of GDDR6X memory, while the regular GeForce RTX 3070 will reportedly have GDDR6 -- the difference there is the X.

NVIDIA will reportedly use 3072 CUDA cores on the GA104-300 GPU inside of the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, knocking it down to 2944 CUDA cores on the regular GeForce RTX 3070 according to this new rumor. Both cards would offer 512GB/sec of memory bandwidth.

If you're itching to own a next generation Ampere GPU right now, and simply can't wait until NVIDIA unveils its next-gen GeForce RTX 3000 series cards -- and have $12,500 burning a hole in your pocket, then you can buy an Ampere GPU right now.

NVIDIA is now selling its Ampere A100 PCIe 4.0 card through Server Factory, where it costs £8,299 excluding VAT -- adding that and we're looking at around £10,000. This converts to roughly $12,500 -- and as PC Gamer points out, if the Ampere A100 card is available in the UK you should be able to find it in the US for roughly the same price (without the wait for shipping).

But seriously, don't run out and buy it -- NVIDIA is about to launch their new Ampere GeForce RTX 3000 series graphics cards in the coming months, which you can read all about here. As for the crazy high-end Ampere A100 PCIe accelerator, you can read more about that here.

ASUS has experienced a huge uptick in gaming laptop sales in the month of April 2020, right in the middle of the on-going COVID-19 pandemic worldwide.

ASUS and ROG (Republic of Gamers) gaming laptops represent close to 25% of ASUS laptop sales in April 2020, where surprisingly the higher-end ROG models with GeForce RTX graphics being the most popular, and best-selling laptops in the ASUS lineup. ASUS and ROG gaming laptops now command 22.6% of the global market share of laptops.

The company has had some kick ass laptops out this year, unveiling the world's first gaming laptop with a super-insane 300Hz display in the ROG Zephyrus S GX701. There are countless other superb gaming laptops that ASUS has in its arsenal -- and things are only going to get better towards the end of 2020 and into 2021 with the next-gen Radeon and GeForce graphics cards launching.

I don't think this has ever happened, and seems to be the first time it might have happened -- a pro Rocket League player was shocked by lightning through her PS4 controller.

Rocket League streamer Karma was streaming commentary for a 1v1 Salt Mine II tournament -- but not playing the game, and was shocked through her PlayStation 4 controller and the lightning bolt didn't even hit her house. The lightning struck her neighbor's house, but transferred through to her house and into her controller.

Karma said it "somehow hit me -- the controller sparked" with "really big sparks". Scary! She said that her hands were sore for two afterwards, but with any event like this there are also mental scars from it, too.

It's official: Kanye West has said that he is "running for president of the United States" in the upcoming 2020 election. Not just that, but he has the "full support" of Tesla Motors and SpaceX founder Elon Musk.

The announcement of his run for president comes less than 72 hours after he tweeted a picture with Musk, tweeting "When you go to your boys house and you're both wearing orange". Orange Man Bad? It's not funny anymore, try different jokes, I guess.

Yeezy doesn't just have support from Musk, but also billionaire Mark Cuban who seemed to think Yeezy was a good choice. Cuban said: "If you think Biden is a joke compared to Trump you aren't paying attention. It's time to step away from all the memes and look at reality. The Pandemic Response could not be botched any worse and he refuses to take any responsibility or try to improve it. That's disqualifying".