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Hello Games seems intent on not adding microtransactions to No Man's Sky, and is pulling some strategically-timed maneuvers to still make money from No Man's Sky.

No Man's Sky is one of the most interesting live games in the industry. It's a premium game that doesn't bake monetization into its online multiplayer hooks. The game brazenly defies what I call the Engagement Cycle by releasing massive game-changing expansions for free--something that any other publisher would nickle and dime you for--and instead relies on full game sales. So how does No Man's Sky dodge monetization so easily? It's actually pretty tactical.

Soon No Man's Sky will be available on Game Pass on both Xbox One and PC. This is absolutely huge for any game, especially one with a live audience. Game Pass has 10 million subscribers who will all instantly get access to No Man's Sky across two platforms. Not only will Hello Games make money from Game Pass subs, but the service is proven to actually spark full game sales of the titles that're available. After playing on Game Pass, users are eager to permanently own the titles they like.

Today Naughty Dog released new State of Play gameplay footage for The Last of Us 2, and one of Sony's dead-but-not-forgotten systems made an appearance.

The Last of Us 2's newest trailer is full of death. Ellie just massacres her way through the game, burning, slicing, stabbing, shooting, and generally brutally murdering everything in her way. But there's one dead thing that made a surprising appearance in the footage: Sony's ill-fated PlayStation Vita handheld.

The trailer has a neat little nod to the PS Vita--one of the WLF faction members is playing a game (see if you can guess which one) on the Vita when Ellie sneaks up on her. And just like the Vita is in real life, the lady is dead at the end of the footage. Sadly, Ellie doesn't pick up the Vita or mess with it, and we're not sure if you actually can.

Fans are still iffy on Square Enix's new original Avengers game, and for good reason: We simply haven't seen all that much of it yet. But Square Enix will soon change that.

On the heels of E3's cancellation, many pubs have moved to their own digital stream events. Square Enix has no plans to lump all their reveals and updates in one big package. Instead, they'll cut them up and serve them over time. New Outriders gameplay is coming tomorrow, May 28, and new Marvel Avenger's footage will drop on June 24.

So what can we expect from the Avengers update? We already know most of the pertinent details about the Avengers game: It's a live service title with up to 4 player co-op, complete with offline singleplayer. It's a huge grind fest with 10 different crafting materials, and it'll be monetized with cosmetic microtransaction skins straight out of the comics.

A new rumor is making the rounds that claims Apple is getting ready to release several high-end devices that use Mini-LED displays in 2021. Among the devices will be a new 16-inch MacBook Pro aiming at launch in Q2 and a new 27-inch iMac tipped for the second half of 2021. The source of the rumors is an analyst called Jeff Pu from GF Securities.

The rumor reportedly lines up with the previous rumor from noted Apple analyst and leaker Ming-Chi Kuo, who claims that Apple suppliers will begin mass production of related components between Q4 2020 and Q1 2021. The timeframe suggests that most, if not all, of the Mini-LED products, will be released next year.

Kuo previously stated that Apple would release a 14-inch and a 16-inch MacBook Pro using the new display technology. He also expects the launch of a new 12.9-inch iPad Pro with Mini-LED screen tech along with a 10.2-inch iPad and a 7.9-inch iPad Mini. The new screens will allow products to be thinner and lighter than the current designs.

Kingston Digital is the flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company. Kingston Digital has announced that it is now shipping a 7.68 TB model of the DC500R SSD and DC450R SATA SSD. Another new drive called the DC1000M 7.68 TB U.2 NVMe ships in June.

Kingston says the SSD provides additional storage and implements strict QoS ensuring predictable I/O and low latency for data centers using NVMe or SATA. The DC500R is a VMware Ready SSD that's engineered for read-intensive applications like web servers, virtual desktop infrastructure, operational databases, and real-time analytics.

The DC450R has a specific and focused feature set for read-intensive applications and is optimized for data centers looking for more affordable alternatives to write-intensive SSDs. The drive is designed for content-delivery networks, edge computing, applications, and a range of software-defined storage architectures.

Sony plans to show off next-gen PlayStation 5 games during a special reveal event set for Wednesday, June 3, sources tell Bloomberg.

Although Sony has yet to announce plans, we now have multiple sources reporting on a June PS5 reveal event. The first event will center around PlayStation 5 games and Sony is said to carve up other announcements for separate reveals. The game selection could include a mix of next-gen exclusives as well as current-gen games that're enhanced on the new console.

Sony confirmed PS4 games will run on the PS5, and that the next-gen system's native boost mode is so powerful that all current-gen games have to be revamped to ensure compatibility.

A historic moment is about to happen for the United States.

The US is about to send two astronauts into space from US soil for the first time in nearly 10 years, with President Trump in attendance at the NASA and SpaceX launch of mission Demo-2. This mission will see NASA astronauts thrust into orbit on SpaceX's new Crew Dragon spacecraft riding a Falcon 9 rocket.

NASA veteran astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will rocket into orbit from the Kennedy Space Center on Launch Pad 39A, with a 19-hour journey ahead of them to the International Space Station (ISS). The NASA astronauts will stay on the ISS for between 1-4 months both living and working in space.

NVIDIA has just released its new GeForce Game Ready 446.14 WHQL driver, which you can download right here.

The new drivers include the latest performance optimizations for Valorant, as well as support for Minecraft Dungeons, Disintegration, and Crucible. NVIDIA has also added VRSS (Variable Rate Supersampling) to Onward -- as well as a bunch of issues that have been fixed.

There is one particular thing worth highlighting with these new drivers: they have support for Microsoft's soon-to-be-released Windows 10 May 2020 update. The upcoming Windows 10 May 2020 update has an interesting new GPU feature: it will show GPU temperature in the Task Manager now -- thanks to the introduction of the DirectX 12 Ultimate API.

AMD has just released a new set of Radeon drivers which include support for both Gears Tactics, and Predator: Hunting Grounds.

The new AMD Radeon Adrenalin 2020 20.4.2 drivers include the usual bug fixes and issues being fixed up, with AMD fixing Folding@Home issues with Radeon RX Vega class graphics cards. Overwatch players get some "intermittent crash" issues when entering a game or playing for extended periods.

You can read more on the new Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.4.2 drivers on AMD's website.

UPDATE: Take-Two tells GamesIndustry.biz the marketing spend is only for third-party games, not internally-developed titles like Grand Theft Auto 6.

Take-Two plans to spend $89 million on marketing in FY2024, which likely coincides with GTA 6's launch timing.

Take-Two's recent Form 10-K SEC filing might've inadvertently confirmed GTA 6's release window. The form shows Rockstar's parent company Take-Two Interactive plans to spend $89.2 million in Fiscal Year 2024, which indicates something big is on the way. Companies typically spend millions for big marketing pushes ahead of major new releases, and for Take-Two, it doesn't get any bigger than Grand Theft Autio.

AMD has a gigantic pipeline of products coming out over the coming years, but there is a metric boat load of new information that has just leaked through Expreview.

The new Ryzen 6000 series APUs are known as "Rembrandt" and is a massive upgrade over current APUs, where it will pack the new Zen 3+ CPU architecture, and upcoming RDNA 2 GPU architecture. We're expecting AMD to make the new Rembrandt APU on TSMC's new 6nm node (which is an optimized version of TSMC's N7).

AMD's next-gen Zen 3+ architecture will have a bunch of improvements over the current Zen 2 chips that are here, but it is the GPU side that is interesting. AMD will replace Vega GPU cores with RDNA 2 GPU cores, which will surely provide a gigantic leap in performance -- especially considering this is an APU.

Seriously, if you haven't watched Dark on Netflix -- you really should check it out. It is a truly game-changing show, and it is so complex I don't even know how to describe it.

Anyway, it is is a suspenseful series from Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese that had a fantastic first season, and even better second season with a truly nail-biting finale. It was a mystery if season three was coming, and now we know as there is a trialer (above). If you don't want to be spoiled (like me) then don't watch it (but we both know you want to, because I do, too).

Dark's new season is called "The final cycle", with the teaser trailer above unveiling that the show's final season will be ready to binge on Netflix on June 27. For a quick TL;DR on Dark, its Wikipedia explains it (without spoilers) as: "Set in the fictitious town of Winden, Germany, Dark concerns the aftermath of a child's disappearance which exposes the secrets of, and hidden connections among, four estranged families as they slowly unravel a sinister time travel conspiracy which spans three generations. Throughout the series, Dark explores the existential implications of time and its effects upon human nature".

If you've got the room in your gaming space as well as your own bike, you can get it rigged up for some indoor cycling -- in one of the most interesting mods I've seen for Grand Theft Auto V.

The new GTBikeV mod lets you use your real bike to ride around the virtual streets of Los Santos in Grand Theft Auto V. Not just that, but you can also do some drive by shootings and cause general havoc in the game, all while getting fit in your living room.

Makinolo, the creator of the mod, explains GTBikeV: "GTBikeV is a mod for GTA V that turns a smart bike trainer, or turbo trainer, into the game controller, making your game time actual training time. You'll have a cycling workout inmersed (sic.) in the GTA V world environment".

Intel launched its new flagship gaming CPU in the Core i9-10900K (our review here) barely a week ago, packing 10 cores and 20 threads of Comet Lake goodness. Well, now overclocker 'der8auer' has delidded it with some interesting results. Check out his video:

He compares Intel's new Core i9-10900K processor up against some previous-gen chips in the Core i9-9900K and Core i7-8700K. All of these chips are different as well, with the 10900K being a 10C/20T chip, the 9900K is an 8C/16T chip, while the 8700K is a 6C/12T chip.

In the image above we have a comparison between the dies of the Core i9-10900K, Core i9-9900K, and the Core i7-8700K. Nerd porn, really.

You probably didn't want it, but it's coming anyway: Microsoft has just unveiled its official Xbox clothing line.

The company teamed with Meta Threads on the Xbox clothing line, which has on offer: hoodies, t-shirts, joggers, and more. Not just that, but alongside the Xbox clothes we have some Minecraft, Gears of War, Forza, Halo, Sea of Thieves, Mixer, and other brands and franchises that Microsoft owns along with Xbox. Check out the entire range here.

If you want pure Xbox clothes, there's the Curvilinear Hoodie for $60, a long sleeve tee for $35, a flex tee for $25, and a bomber jacket for $80. There's a bunch of other Xbox clothes on offer here.

It was just two weeks ago now when 2K Games announced its new Mafia Trilogy, a new definitive collection of their infamous crime drama franchise. While it looks absolutely stunning in its remake goodness, it's not fairing too well on consoles:

Mafia II: Definitive Edition in particular has some major issues on consoles, with the in-depth folks at Digital Foundry ripping Mafia II: Definitive Edition apart and seeing how it ticks. The Xbox One and PS4 versions of the game don't run the game at 4K -- this includes the flagship Xbox One X and PlayStation 4 Pro consoles.

But it gets worse: the console versions of Mafia II: Definitive Edition see performance drop down to just 20FPS.

It came out of nowhere, then we began hearing non-stop news about AMD's new Matisse Refresh and now we have some early leaked benchmark results on the purported Ryzen 9 3900XT, Ryzen 7 3800XT, and Ryzen 5 3600XT processors.

The new benchmark results are coming from CPU-monkey, which has a database with a bunch of processors and their performance numbers. AMD hasn't confirmed these Matisse Refresh CPUs, and we're looking at leaked benchmarks -- so as always, prepare your salt shakers.

As for the benchmarks we're looking at Cinebench R20 results in single-core tests, where AMD's purported Ryzen 9 3900XT beats Intel's new Core i9-10900K. But more interestingly (at least to me) is the mid-range Ryzen 5 3600XT battles the higher-end Core i9-10900 and beats it, the Core i9-10900KF and beats it, and it also beats the Core i7-10700KF and Core i7-10700 processors. What a champion.

For the first time in 8 years, Blizzcon has been cancelled and won't be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in California.

Blizzard today confirmed Blizzcon 2020 isn't happening. The risks for coronavirus exposure are just too high, but we won't see any kind of digital-only stream replacement either.

"Ultimately, after considering our options, we've come to the very difficult decision to not have BlizzCon this year," Blizzard executive producer Saralyn Smith said in a blog post.

A new NoClip documentary spills details about one of the coolest Half-Life games that never released.

In 2007, Arkane Studios was working on a Half-Life 2 expansion called Ravenholm. The game starred an HEV suit-wearing Adrian Shephard (yes, Shephard from Opposing Force) and had a decently playable alpha build complete with polish, lighting effects, physics systems--the works. Arkane had actually designed 9-10 mission for Ravenholm before the project was abruptly cancelled by Valve.

Ravenholm was pretty innovative and quirky in its own ways. It introduced new weapons like the nailgun, which shot spikes that could conduct electricity to solve puzzles and interact with the environment in big ways. The game had lots of physics hijinks and looks pretty damn fun. You could wreak total havoc on the environment by setting traps for enemies, for instance. There was also the charge gun, an electricity-powered gun that could be refilled by nearby electric arcs and sparks.

HP has announced new notebook computers that slide into its EliteBook range, including a pair of premium machines in the x360 line, among others. The EliteBook x360 1030 G7 and the x360 1040 G7 are both premium laptops that are 6.3% smaller than the previous generation. The notebooks have 89% screen-to-body ratios, which HP claims is the highest among business convertibles.

10th generation six-core Intel Core vPro processors are under the hood for performance. HP notes that the 1040 G7 is capable of up to 29 hours of battery life per charge. Also announced in the EliteBook range is the 805 G7 and 800 G7 series machines designed for multitasking and multi-place working available with both AMD and Intel processors.

The EliteBook 800 range is offered with 13.3-, 14-, and 15.6-inch diagonal screens. The 805 Series are AMD Ryzen PRO-based systems using Radeon VEGA graphics. HP says they are the world's thinnest and lightest AMD-based mainstream business notebooks. The 800 G7 series PCs are Intel machines with 10th generation Intel Core vPro processors. HP announced the Elite c1030 Chromebook earlier this month.