Niantic gripped the mobile gaming world with its gigantic release of Pokemon GO, which has been a money printing machine since its launch. But how well did the game do in 2019? Very well.

Pokemon GO been downloaded over 1 billion times so far, with 55 million downloads in 2019 alone and has made over $3 billion since its release -- but it made a record $894 million in player spending 2019 alone. Niantic has an approximate valuation of $4 billion back in December 2018, where they raised $200 million in capital.

Over 1/3 of the player spending for Pokemon GO is coming from the US, with $335 million spent by players in the game. Pokemon GO is super-dominate in the location-based game world, where it makes more than the 6 other location-based games on the market, combined.

AMD didn't show off anything related to Big Navi at CES 2020, and while AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su did say that AMD would be returning with a high-end GPU in 2020.

Well, barely 24 hours later a mysterious entry has appeared in the OpenVR benchmarks results database. The entry is called 'AMD Radeon(TM) Graphics' and nothing specific, so we could be looking at a dual-GPU solution or Big Navi itself.

Whatever it is, it is fast -- as it beats out a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, and that's a very, very big deal. You might be sitting back not believing this, but imagine that something similar to this leaked out before the first-gen Ryzen CPUs. Imagine the headlines "AMD so far behind in CPUs, but they're coming back and will beat Intel!" -- no one would believe it. Fast forward to now, and oh boy how the tables have turned.

Gamespot recently said the Final Fantasy VII Remake demo would release alongside the main game on March 3, 2020. This isn't accurate and Gamespot later dialed back its claims. The truth is no one really knows when it'll drop...but history tells us it'll launch before release.

Square Enix can't be happy about the Final Fantasy VII Remake demo situation. Not only do we know a demo is on the way, but files for the demo were leaked out and extensively datamined to uncover spoilers, character images, file size info, and much, much more. At this point the cat's out of the bag, right? It might be time to launch the demo for PS4 gamers to sample especially with the game's release in just two months.

Since the leak, Square Enix has been silent on the demo. There's been no announcements, confirmations, or reveals, just radio silence. All we know for sure is that it's probably not dropping on March 3. So when should it drop? Pretty soon, given the publisher's past handling of demos.

GameFreak confirms Pokemon Home is coming next month, and it'll be a paid service just like Pokemon Bank.

Pokemon Home is basically Pokemon Bank 2.0, and the cloud service will also cost money like its predecessor. Pokemon Bank was super cheap at just $5 a year so expect Home to reflect that pricing. The service has extensive exporting and importing support across multiple platforms and games: Pokemon Home is compatible with and allows transfers between Pokemon GO, the Pokemon Bank, and soon Pokemon Sword and Shield.

The new $30 Pokemon Sword and Shield expansions add over 200 existing Pokemon to the Galar region, so users will be able to import pocket monsters from the Pokemon Bank and inject them right into the Switch RPG. You won't have to own the new expansions to play your classic Pokemon in Sword and Shield though. As long as the Pokemon are actually included with the update, you can import your existing Pokemon for free.

We've got some bad news for Prince of Persia fans out there: Ubisoft isn't making a new game any time soon.

According to a purported leak, Ubisoft will reveal a new Prince of Persia game during Sony's rumored PlayStation 5 reveal event in February. The leak goes into light details on the game's setting--a somber Babylon--and touches upon villains and even a God of War-esque ability system. Too bad it's totally fake.

Games analyst Daniel Ahmad, who has knowledge of goings-on in the industry, says this is completely fake. Honestly it's not too hard to make that assessment. We avoided covering it because it was beyond shaky to begin with--it reads like one of those "my uncle works at Ubisoft" posts--and only has traces and snippets of info.

GameFreak reveals a solution to the devastatingly disappointing Dexit fiasco, and it's wrapped around DLC.

Today GameFreak announced a $30 Pokemon Sword/Shield expansion pass and its plans to further evolve the new Switch RPG. The expansion pass comes with two DLCs, the Isle of Armor (June 2020) and the Crown Tundra (Fall 2020), both of which add new Pokemon, Gigantamax options for starters, new items, and new areas to explore. But the most ambitious feature is the inclusion of more classic existing Pokemon in the Galar region.

Pokemon Sword and Shield launched with lots of missing Pokemon. Now GameFreak reveals its plan to fix some of those holes in the massive lineup. Pokemon Home, the new multi-platform Pokemon Bank cloud service, will go live in February and allows users to export pocket monsters they've caught from 3DS, Pokemon Go, and even Switch games. Using Pokemon Home, gamers will be able to import Pokemon they've caught right into Sword and Shield when the expansion pass goes live. There's some limitations though and not every Pokemon will be supported.

Steady progress is being made on Atari VCS testing and it should meet its set March 2020 launch for Indiegogo backers.

Atari's new PC-like VCS console might be an iffy proposition in a landscape dominated by the PS4, Xbox One, and Switch, but the project isn't swirling development hell. After multiple delays, Atari now says the Ryzen-powered is in the late stages of testing and validation.

"The Atari VCS engineers and factory teams are in the later testing and validation phases of production and are returning to China this month to oversee ongoing production efforts," reads a recent update.

UPDATE: WB Montreal has uploaded yet another teaser image that hints at six different factions or "sides" in the game. There's also four circles on the inside which could indicate four playable characters, hence the Arkham Legacy rumors with multiple characters.

WB Montreal gives more cryptic signals for its new Batman game, calling on gamers to capture the Knight.

Today WB Montreal dropped another random teaser for its new Batman game accompanied with the French tagline cape sur la nuit, which roughly translates to "cape of the night" and alludes to the Dark Knight's shadowy resolve. The studio shared separate pieces of the image across its Instagram and Twitter which were then combined to form a very righteous-looking sigil promising law and order over Gotham. Speculation says it could be Gotham P.D.'s clandestine crest.

Sony has been holding back some big PS5 surprises, and SIE president Jim Ryan teases the console's most differentiating features have yet to be revealed.

Sony's actually revealed quite a bit about the PlayStation 5 already. The next-gen PS5's most dramatic jump over the PS4 is raw graphical and compute power and blinding-fast loading speeds, both of which are made possible by a powerful new Navi GPU- and Zen 2 CPU-outfitted SoC and custom SSD storage. On paper, the PS5 is similar to the Xbox Series X in terms of functionality.

But apparently there's a lot more to the PlayStation 5. Sony Interactive Entertainment president Jim Ryan hints the best is yet to come, and the PS5 will have "special appeals" not found in any other system.

In their new developer's update video, Rare has announced that Sea of Thieves has been played by more than 10 million players.

In the new developers update video, which has been released onto the official Sea of Thieves YouTube Channel, Sea of Thieves' Executive Producer, Joe Neate said that Sea of Thieves had been played by more than 10 million players. The player count has been accumulated across Xbox Game Pass, Xbox One, and PC.

The videos also states that Rare will soon be rolling out a new content update to Sea of Thieves. This update is called "Legends of the Seas" and will feature a game-wide celebration of the games community. Players will be able to jump into the action between January 15th and 22nd to claim limited-edition custom sails, emotes, and more. Sea of Thieves is available on Xbox One and PC.

No one wants to see The Simpsons end, but that day will eventually come whether it's sooner or later, and Fox is currently in preparation for that moment.

Fox Entertainment President Michael Thorn spoke to Deadline about Fox's current flagship animated shows. Rumors are suggesting that because Fox is increasing its production in other animated shows, that big shows such as The Simpsons and Family Guy are ending soon. Thorne says this isn't the case and that none of Fox's flagship animated shows will be ending anytime soon.

Thorn said, "It's twofold--it's part of our business and programming strategy but also preparing for that day (in which Fox says good-bye to The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Bob's Burgers) whenever it comes." Despite Fox not having any plans for ending its big shows, Thorn does say that day will eventually come and that they are currently preparing for that moment when it comes.

A man from the United Kingdom has been caught stealing a ridiculous amount of Harry Potter merchandise, which he was then selling on eBay.

The man, 35-year old Adam Hill, who is now a former Warner Bros. employee, has been caught stealing Harry Potter merchandise from his work. Throughout 2017 and 2018, Hill managed to steal $48,000 USD worth of Harry Potter merchandise that included items such as wands, badges, keyrings and more. Hill was taking these items from his workplace and selling them from his personal eBay account.

Hill got caught when his colleagues noticed a bunch of Harry Potter merch arriving and disappearing from under his desk at work. Crown Prosecution Service's Jan Muller, said: "In a significant breach of trust, Adam Hill had the audacity to steal thousands of pounds of merchandise from Warner Bros in plain sight of his work colleagues; but they reported him after growing suspicious of the items constantly piling up under his desk". Hill has been sentenced to 14 months in prison suspended for 18 months and 250 hours of unpaid labor.

Australia's biggest gaming retailer chain, EB Games, has unfortunately announced that it's closing down numerous stores.

According to Kotaku, EB Games has said that due to revenue margins not meeting the required marks, they will be closing down 19 of their stores across Australia. In a statement given to Kotaku, EB Games has said that "Where possible, staff were offered the opportunity to work in surrounding stores." EB Games also stresses that they will be opening more "large format" stores that will combine their pop culture outlet 'Zing' with their gaming side.

EB Games expects that these stores around Australia will be closed down by the end of January 2020, throughout this closing period discounts on stock will range from 20-60%. If you didn't know, EB Games is the Australian subsidiary of major US retailer Gamestop, as of late Gamestop has had to lay off many of its workers, but the company still has plans to turn things around in the long run.

CES 2020 - Inwin was not all custom signature series cases and RGB, they slid in a stylish and quite attractive mITX entry into their showing at CES 2020.

Meet the B1, a small and chic mITX entry made for APU usage for office PC's, HTPC, or general computing. The B1 is meant to fit in as a suitable mITX enclosure while also fitting in as a piece that can be a conversation starter or not look out of place in a stylish setting. The tempered glass is quite dark, so if you opt for non-RGB components, you would be hard-pressed to know there's a PC inside.

The B1 has an integrated 200W InWin PSU, which is likely Flex ATX form looking at the chassis form factor. The chassis does not have any expansion slots and therefore, will be relegated to APU/iGPU usage. The only I/O on the front is a single USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port and a combo 3.5mm jack, while that may seem minimal, it helps with the minimalistic design of the B1. The clean lines around the chassis are relatively unbroken except the tiny I/O.

Steam has announced that its enabling new functionality support for gaming soundtracks on Steam. Steam customers will now be able to purchase game soundtracks in a new app.

Originally, Steam didn't have a soundtrack app, and the closest thing that consumers could get to purchasing soundtracks from games was via DLC's. Now, Valve has announced via their community blog that customers will now be able to purchase and download soundtracks without having to own the whole game.

Customers will also be able to manage their owned and downloaded soundtracks in one simple Steam library folder instead of having to find the files across multiple game directories. This new update also helps developers of games as they can now sell their soundtracks separately from their game. If you are interested in reading more about this new update, check out Valve's blog post here. Valve plan on rolling this new feature out on January 20th.

You have most likely noticed in your main city the increased use of e-scooters, and with the increased use of a form of transportation comes with the increase injuries.

According to a new study by UCSF, researchers have found that with the increase of e-scooters use in the US, the percent of e-scooter related injuries has risen by 222% between 2014 and 2018. The study reports that there has been over 39,000 e-scooter related injuries between the previously mentioned dates.

Out of those 39,000 people who were injured, 3,300 people were hospitalised, which is a massive 365% increase. So what age were the people that were injured? As you would of expected 18 - 34 year olds were the main victims. Shockingly, almost a third of the injuries were head related.

Back in April last year, humans achieved something had never done before - taking an image of a supermassive black hole. Now, that black hole has been caught emitting jets that are traveling close to the speed of light.

The black hole that we took a picture of is called Messier 87 (M87), and according to NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory, that same black hole has been caught emitting jets of material from its accretion disk. The accretion disk is where gas, dust, and other materials swirl around the black hole, and some of the materials are sucked into the black hole, while some are shot back out into space.

The X-ray data indicated that some of the particles that were moving in the jets were traveling faster than the speed of light. While that might sound impossible, it's only possible because of the phenomenon known as superluminal motion. Brad Snios, a postdoctoral researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said "The jet travels almost as quickly towards us as the light it generates, giving the illusion that the jet's motion is much more rapid than the speed of light".

Back in May, we heard a rumor about Ubisoft's next Assassin's Creed game and what era in history it would be focussed around. Now rumors are flying again, but this time circling around an Amazon listing.

The original rumors indicated that Ubisoft was working on a vikings-themed Assassin Creed title. Images were leaked online but were later proven to be fake, and there was also an "easter egg" found in The Division 2. The images were debunked, and then news went dead about the new game, and Ubisoft hasn't made any official announcement so far.

Now, on the German version of Amazon, a listing for Assassin's Creed Ragnarok - Valhalla Edition. While this listing can certainly be fake, it's still very interesting to see rumors starting up again for a vikings-themed Assassin's Creed game. We will have to wait for an official announcement from Ubisoft to know for sure what they are working on. Would you like to see the next Assassin's Creed game go into the vikings era?

Over the course of Earth's life many meteors have slammed into its surface, scientists know about the impacts but have struggled to find the craters, until now.

One meteor, in particular, crash-landed into Earth around 790,000 years ago, and the explosion that it created blanketed 10% of the Earth in rock debris. The debris was launched all the way from Indochina to eastern Antarctica and from the Indian Ocean to the western Pacific. Scientists were aware of the impact the meteor created but were unable to find the crater until just recently.

Through the analysis of geochemical and local gravity, scientists were able to pinpoint the impact location to southern Laos on the Bolaven Plateau. The crater was found under a massive field of cooled volcanic lava that spanned a ridiculous 2,000 square miles. According to the recent study, scientists estimated that the crater impact measured in at about 300 feet thick, 8 miles wide and 11 miles long. In the entirety of this article, you will find a geological map of what the scientists have comprised out of evidence.

CES 2020 - Intel kinda teased its next-gen Thunderbolt 4 technology at CES 2020 this week, but didn't go into detail about it -- and now, we know why.

Thunderbolt 4 is essentially a re-branding of Thunderbolt 3, with ex-TweakTown staffer and now Tom's Hardware contributor Paul Alcorn talking with Intel during CES. Alcorn writes: "Intel confirmed it referenced USB 3.1 in the presentation, meaning Thunderbolt 4 is in fact not faster than Thunderbolt 3".

Articles started flying quick and fast out of CES 2020 that Intel had teased Thunderbolt 4, after it had pushed out slides that its new Tiger Lake architecture had integrated Thunderbolt 4. Confusion happened pretty quickly, with Intel trying to clarify by saying: "Thunderbolt 4 continues Intel leadership in providing exceptional performance, ease of use and quality for USB-C connector-based products".