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Nintendo's recent fiscal year earnings jump across the board thanks to massive software sales surge.

Nintendo just released its FY2020 earnings report, and the results are stellar. The company generated over $12 billion in net revenues during the year, 95% of which was from its gaming branch. Operating income spiked by a staggering 41% thanks to strong game and hardware sales, and profit likewise leaped by 33% year-over-year to a high $2.37 billion.

Nintendo FY2020 Earnings

Nintendo expects to sell less Switch games and hardware this fiscal year, lowering total earnings throughout the year. This could telegraph lower Switch exclusives.

It's possible Nintendo's rumored Mario remasters will be the only major first-party Switch games launched this fiscal year. The company just reported stellar FY2020 earnings thanks to major first-party sales of Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Pokemon: Sword and Shield, both of which surged software sales by 42% . The Switch Lite's strong 6.19 million start also helped push Switch hardware sales to 21.03 million fro the year.

This momentum won't continue for this year--at least Nintendo doesn't think so. For this fiscal year, FY2021, Nintendo laid out conservative forecasts. The company expects net revenues to drop by 8.3% to $11.24 billion, operating income to dip by almost 15% to $2.81 billion, and total profits to plummet by 22% to $1.874 billion.

We are beginning to learn much more about NVIDIA's next-gen Ampere GPU architecture, with some super-juicy rumors that -- as always -- require a considerable amount of salt.

The latest on Ampere is from YouTube channel Moore's Law is Dead, with Tom explaining that has has some "exclusive indsider info" on Ampere. What is talked about in the video above is that Ampere is not just a die shrink (down from 14nm to 7nm) with additional RT cores -- but instead it is a full evolution of the Turing architecture.

One of the new nuggets of information is that NVIDIA will introduce something called NVCache with Ampere, which will act similar to AMD's own technology that debuted with Vega in HBCC (High Bandwidth Cache Controller). Like HBCC, NVCache will use some of the system RAM and SSD of your system, and super-speed game load times and optimize VRAM usage.

President Trump has been pretty head on with a coronavirus vaccine, where the US president recently said that we don't even need a vaccine for coronavirus as COVID-19 is just going to go away.

Trump said: "I just rely on what doctors say. I feel about vaccines like I feel about tests: this is going to go away without a vaccine. It's gonna go away, and we're not going to see it again, hopefully, after a period of time".

He did talk about the expected second wave of coronavirus in the coming months, with President Trump adding: "There are some viruses or flus that came and they went for a vaccine, and they never found the vaccine. And they've disappeared. They never showed up again. They die too, like everything else".

The new Assassin's Creed Valhalla trailer was absolutely amazing, but there's just one issue: It wasn't really representative of the Xbox Series X gameplay experience. Ubisoft says actual gameplay is coming soon, though.

The latest Inside Xbox show felt rushed and lacked the kind of next-gen magic we were expecting. But we can't fault Xbox too hard, especially with the coronavirus pandemic going on right now. Still, though, it might be too soon to get excited about third-party games on next-gen, especially when we don't see actual gameplay footage from big games like AC: Valhalla. We were hyped quite a bit and did our fair share of hype contribution for Inside Xbox...and it just didn't live up to expectations.

Read Also: Next-gen console hype check: Is it too early to get super excited?

id recently teased a look at Doom Eternal's first major campaign expansion, revealing two locales: Urdak, aka Heaven, and what appears to be Earth.

In Doom Eternal's campaign, we pretty much destroyed Heaven. Not only did we kill its second-in-command archangel (Khan Makyr), we pretty much wrecked Urdak, the celestial capital of the above-world. Doom Slayer left so many damn bodies in his wake of destruction, both angelic and demonic alike. Now he's back for more.

The first expansion will take us back to Urdak for more chaos. The sky-city sure has changed since we saw it last, though. Urdak used to be brilliantly-lit and glowing with a kind of wonder. Now it has all the appeal of a haunted house and is probably filled with ghosts and other horrors.

What would pockets of humanity like Chinatown look like on faraway alien worlds? Gamer and skilled builder THInterloper answers the question with this amazing custom No Man's Sky base.

No Man's Sky has a thriving base-building community. Gamers come together to share their custom creations, offering a more colorful sci-fi vibrance than something like Minecraft or Fallout 4. Many creations, like THInterloper's Chinatown complex, are quite elaborate and capture the neon-lit signs, plentiful eateries, and stores of the real-life square in SoHo. We got in touch with the builder to ask a few questions.

The base was made in Euclid, the game's first starting galaxy, and took two weeks on and off--or about 40 hours--to make. That's pretty impressive. I've spent a lot longer in Fallout 4's base building and my stuff never turned out like this. The build was made possible due to some clever glitches and tricks, which gives creators a lot more freedom.

Nintendo's handheld-only Switch Lite is a huge success right out of the gate, and came close to the original Switch console's massive 2017 debut.

While combing over Nintendo's recent earnings report, I found something interesting: The Switch Lite has sold 6.19 million units in its first six months on the market. But how much is that really? To put things in context, I compared the Switch Lite's figures up against the original Switch's 6-month sales in 2017. The results speak for themselves.

The Switch sold 7.65 million units in its first 6 months on sale, just 1.44 million units higher than the Switch Lite. The cheaper $199 portable shaves off a number of features--no TV docked play, for instance, and a lower-clocked GPU that's locked at 302.7MHz--but the $100 price drop is a huge driver for widespread adoption.

The Xbox Series X has the flexibility, software, and storage hardware to shrink game sizes...but there's no catch-all solution that will reduce every game. It's up to developers to find that compromise.

Games are getting way, way too big. Warzone is over 100GB, Red Dead Redemption 2 is the same, and even Final Fantasy 7 Remake clocks in at 80GB. The Last of Us II could also be 100GB on two Blu-ray discs. Next-gen consoles like the Xbox Series X have the potential to dramatically reduce the size of games through a combination of hardware and software, both of which revolutionize how console data is managed, stored, and processed.

Speed is a big part of how storage will be revolutionized on Xbox Series X. The console's new ultra-fast 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD can blast compressed data through at 4.8GB/sec to the new SoC-based decompression block, which then rapidly decompresses the data and sends it to the RAM, CPU, and GPU for processing. Once it's decompressed, the SSD can deliver stored uncompressed data at 2.4GB/sec to the rest of the system.

Microsoft has officially announced its new Surface Book 3 hailed as its most powerful Surface laptop yet. Microsoft brags that the laptop combines speed, graphics, and immersive gaming with the versatility of a laptop and tablet combination. The machine can be figured with 10th generation Core i5 and i7 processors paired with up to an NVIDIA GeForce 1660 Ti GPU.

Buyers can get up to 32 GB of RAM and up to 2 TB of storage. Surface Book 3 comes in 13.5-inch or 15-inch screen sizes. With the new high-end hardware, Microsoft brags that the Surface Book 3 is 50% faster than its predecessor. Microsoft promises up to 17.5 hours of runtime per charge.

The machine has the graphics muscle to act as a digital canvas for creating in Adobe Creative Cloud and other applications. Book 3 will connect with the Surface Dock allowing users to output video content to dual 4K displays. Connectivity options include both USB-C and USB-A ports along with an SD card slot. The 13.5-inch unit has a native resolution of 3000 x 2000 and supports multitouch. Native resolution for the 15-inch version is 3240 x 2160.

Facebook doesn't have the best reputation when it comes to privacy, safety, and security. Sometimes errors that Facebook makes impact apps from companies that aren't owned by Facebook. That is precisely what happened with popular iPhone apps like Spotify, Venmo, Tinder, TikTok, DoorDash, and Pinterest this week. All of those apps experienced persistent crashes due to a bug in the Facebook SDK earlier this week.

Reports of the crashes began pouring in around 6:30 PM Eastern on May 6. Facebook has since resolved the issue. A Facebook spokesperson issued a statement that said a new release of Facebook included a change that triggered crashes for some apps using the Facebook iOS SDK. According to the spokesperson, Facebook identified the issue quickly and resolved it.

The Facebook SDK is used by app developers for multiple reasons, including the ability for users to sign on using their Facebook account. The apps that experienced the persistent crash issues were attempting to communicate with Facebook servers and crashing as a result. The apps were reportedly crashing even if users were not logged in to Facebook and didn't have apps made by Facebook installed.

As digital superiority is becoming a foregone conclusion, it's honestly rather embarrassing that we so stubbornly hold on to something so impractical, and by something, I mean physical discs. I love DVDs and have a huge collection. That said, for years, I have to settle for the inconvenience of carrying piles of DVDs around with great care. Therefore, it may not come off as much of a surprise that I can hardly contain my excitement when I come across a perfect DVD to MP4 solution to fit in the new status quo.

If you want to convert your DVDs, you have a few options to choose from. For example, the famous Handbrake may well rule the roost in home DVD converting. Or if you need a specialist who can handle brittle, decade-old discs from various studios, just like me, turn to WinX DVD Ripper, the free but powerful DVD video conversion program for Windows.

First, the DVD ripper accepts almost all the DVDs I throw to it (I'm a big movie fan, so I have a motley crowd of discs). Unlike Handbrake, which requires Libdvdcss to be installed to circumvent CSS used on DVDs, it has no problem reading DVDs with 99 titles, region DVDs, homemade DVDs, damaged & old discs, non-standard DVD, TV series, new releases, etc.

Tile is a company best known for creating small tags that allow users to find things they've lost, such as laptops, bags, and car keys. Tile has announced that it will be collaborating with Intel to bring the Tile "finding power" to PC OEMs. The collaboration means that coming Intel-powered laptop and notebook computers will be findable if misplaced or stolen.

Tile says that the updated Intel solutions are expected to be available later this year for OEM adoption. The technology will allow PC users to find their laptop or notebook even if the device is in sleep mode. Both the Tile and Intel teams are working closely with PC manufacturers to determine the best Tile experience for their customers.

"This collaboration with Tile is an exciting addition to our world-class wireless connectivity solutions. We are always looking for ways to further enhance PC platform experiences and in this case, we enable new capabilities including enhanced security by simplifying device tracking and recovery for both consumer and commercial PCs," said Eric McLaughlin, Vice President, Compute Client Group, General Manager Wireless Solutions Group, Intel.

Capcom plans to start leaning out and trimming the fat from its books with a new digital diet.

Capcom just reported its third straight year of record profits, and digital sales helped spark the milestone. Now that Capcom has had a taste of digital, it wants more. The company confirms it will double-down on digital games in an effort to reduce costs.

The plan is simple: Capcom wants to reduce overall expenses by reducing physical media costs. Selling retail games requires manufacturing costs, shipment costs, and warehouse costs--all of which add up fast. Capcom won't stop selling physical games, and retail games won't simply dry up, but it's making a conscious effort to lean into digital.

Microsoft has gone official with its latest set of headphones called the Surface Headphones 2. They are offered in light gray or matte black colors for $249.99 with the release date set for May 11. The next-generation Surface Headphones support voice, touch, and fingertip controls with 13 levels of active noise cancellation.

The levels of noise cancellation are controlled using a mechanical dial on the left ear cup that can control the noise cancellation between blocking out and being able to hear the outside world. The headphones promise omnisonic sound with volume controlled by the dial on the left side ear cup. Each ear cup has its microphone to ensure clear calls.

Microsoft promises all-day battery life with up to 20 hours of listing per charge and almost an hour of run time with only a five-minute charge. Details on the Surface Headphones 2 were leaked ahead of the official unveiling. The Surface Earbuds were also unveiled and will also launch on May 11 for $199.99. The Surface Earbuds promise a comfortable and stable fit with four anchor points that sit inside the ear to hold them securely. The earbuds come with three sets of interchangeable silicone tips for the perfect size.

Capcom just reported its third consecutive year of record profits, raking in a strong $150 million in net income in FY2019.

Although Capcom only released a few games last fiscal year, its total FY2019 earnings have once again beat expectations for the third year running. The Resident Evil maven generated a total of $767.3 million in net sales, down nearly 20% year-over-year. Capcom says this drop was the result of lower packaged sales in the year, which makes sense considering Monster Hunter: World was the only game Capcom released in FY2019. Less games means less purchases in the critical holiday period. Digital sales of key games helped offset the thin slate.

Operating income and total profits both spiked by over 25%, though. Operating income jumped to $214.7 million, up 25.8% YoY, driven by continued strong monetization in Monster Hunter World as well as digital purchases of hits like Resident Evil 2 Remake (remember, RE3 Remake released in April, outside of the fiscal year cutoff period).

One of the biggest challenges that people around the world face right now due to the coronavirus is helping kids to learn and stay occupied. People without children in the home don't understand how difficult it can be to get any work done with a rambunctious child wanting attention. Another challenge for parents is helping their kids to learn while at the same time trying to focus on their work so they can pay the bills.

Google has a new app that's available for Android users called Read Along by Google: A fun reading app. The app is designed to keep children entertained with short stories and other learning games. The key component of the app is that it has an in-app reading buddy that listens to the young reader as they read aloud and offers assistance when they struggle.

When the young reader does well, they are rewarded with stars. The app is aimed at kids who already have basic knowledge of the alphabet. Google has made the app for offline use without the need for an Internet connection after the initial download. Kids will be greeted with a fun game-like experience that features hundreds of stories and word games available in nine languages.

Here at TweakTown we've hyped up next-gen consoles quite a bit. With the impressive 8-core Zen 2 CPU specs, high-end RDNA-powered Navi 2 GPUs, ultra-fast PCIe 4.0 SSDs, and 16GB of GDDR6 RAM, it's hard not to get excited. But it could be a while before we see proof of amazing third-party games running on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles.

Today's Inside Xbox event drove one point home for me: Developers aren't ready to show off their major next-gen game innovations just yet. And until they are, it might be harder to get totally excited about next-gen.

Every single game shown at the event came with a disclaimer warning consumers that hardware hasn't been finalized, and the footage wasn't actually captured on an Xbox Series X console. "Game and console in development, footage representative of expected Xbox Series X gameplay," reads the disclaimer.

Things changed significantly for iPad Pro users when Apple announced it's very expensive Magic Keyboard for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro and the 11-inch iPad Pro. The cool thing about those keyboards is that the iPad Pro attaches magnetically and makes it more like a laptop complete with a trackpad. Microsoft has announced that it will be updating Office for iPad with support for the latest iPadOS that brings trackpad and mouse use to the tablet.

Work is reportedly underway right now to update Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Office applications that support trackpad functionality. The updated functionality is expected to ship for the iPad by this fall. With Microsoft saying "by" the fall, it could turn up earlier. No specific date or timing has been announced.

Microsoft has a history of supporting new features on iOS and iPadOS. It was quick in rolling out support for iPad Split View for Outlook on iOS last year. Microsoft also rolled out a new unified Office app for Apple devices earlier this year. That unified app rolled in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other office mobile features into a single app.

Google has announced my updates to its Google Lens app that allows people to be more productive and improve work and learning at home. One of the new features allows users to use Lens for more information on items and objects they see every day in their yard or home. One example Google gives is the ability to use Lens to take a photo of a flower seen on a daily walk to get more information.

One of the coolest new features is that Lens can now allow users to copy handwritten pages directly onto their laptops. When text is selected using Lens, there is an option that can be tapped titled "copy to computer" that allows the text to be pasted onto another signed-in device with Chrome. This is a way to copy handwritten notes for work or school and get them in digital form directly on a computer.

Google does say you have to write neatly, which rules out people with messy handwriting like myself. Both the smartphone used to photograph the text and the computer it's pasted to have to be signed into the same Google account. Lens updates also include the ability to allow Lens to translate words in Spanish, Chinese, and over 100 other languages by simply pointing the camera at the text.