Lootboxes will soon be regulated not on a game level, but on a platform level thanks to Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo.

Gaming's Big Three will soon require lootbox odds disclosures on games sold on their respective storefronts, which could prompt the gambling-style tactics to be abandoned. At the FTC's event scrutinizing monetization and the games industry, the ESA confirmed that console platform holders will require lootbox probability odds to be disclosed to consumers before they buy. This applies to games with lootboxes on the PlayStation Store, Xbox LIVE, and Nintendo eShop.

"I'm pleased to announce this morning that Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony have indicated to ESA a commitment to new platform policies with respect to the use of paid loot boxes in games that are developed for their platform," ESA's Michael Warnecke told the FTC. "Specifically, this would apply to new games and game updates that add loot box features. And it would require the disclosure of the relative rarity or probabilities of obtaining randomized virtual items in games that are available on their platforms."

Back on June 15th, Western Digital and Toshiba had a 13-minute power outage at their Yokkaichi operations campus in Japan which impacted the NAND production for both partners in a severe way.

Now we have news that nearly all production capacity is back up to normal operations. This was divulged as part of WD's Q4 2019 investor relations posting/notice. Back when the power outage happened, it was estimated that the total NAND capacity impacted was 6 EB or Exabytes of total NAND flash wafers. Just for reference, 6 exabytes is equivalent to 6 million Terabytes. That may seem like a lot, and that is because it is.

Toshiba and WD believe the impacted quarter will be in the September timeframe with a total hit of approximately $315 - $339 million. As AnandTech reports, the impact on Toshiba is unknown as they are a private company. So, we can only assume a similar financial impact bringing totals speculatively to anywhere between $630 million to $670 million.

The internet went abuzz a short while ago as speculation of cooling manufacturer CRYORIG shutting down. It has since been updated with more current information.

This was the start about a month ago as US markets started to show many CRYORIG parts out of stock and a severe lack of communication from the company.

Here we can see the co-founder and head of sales and marketing Steve Shen who according to his reply, has left the company. He notes that the USA tariffs have had a significant impact on the CRYORIG business. Steve has left for another venture he claims is unrelated, but the timing does seem like a sign. Add to this the fact that he claims the company is 'afloat' does not bode well.

Just like every year, there is a line of highly anticipated movies to come out, and one of those movies is the fresh new take on The Joker.

The upcoming Joker movie stars, Joaquin Phoenix and will be arriving in theaters around the globe in October. Cameron Bailey, the co-head and artistic director for the Toronto festival where the movie will be premiering this month has spoken out about the film to Toronto Sun. Bailey begins by saying "First of all it's terrific. So it should play on our largest stage. But it's a really original take on comic book movies and on the Joker character in particular".

For those that didn't know, this upcoming Joker movie is not based on the comic books at all and is instead a fresh new take on the character. Bailey continues and says "It's not based on an existing story, it has one of the greatest actors in modern cinema, Joaquin Phoenix, in the lead, and Robert De Niro is in it as well, one of the best actors that has ever lived." He continues and says "But it has an interesting tone and approach to it. It's set in the late '70s, early '80s and it feels like it was made then".

As humans we have no idea if there is life outside of our planet, but what we do know is that there is now at least some form of life on the Moon's surface and while it may not be alien, it certainly looks alien.

The Israeli spacecraft Beresheet crashed into the Moon during a failed landing attempt on April 11th, the cargo that Baresheet was carrying was human DNA samples and tardigrades. The lander was also carrying 30 million very small digitized pages of information about human society and culture.

If you don't know what a tardigrade is, it's a microscopic moss piglet that measure between 0.002 and 0.05 inches (0.05 to 1.2 millimeters) long. Not only are these little forms of life tiny, but they are almost indestructible as they can survive extreme temperatures of 328 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 200 degrees Celsius), and more than 300 F (149 C). They can also survive exposure to radiation and the vacuum of space.

Just last week, one of the biggest moves in the game-streaming world happened, Tyler Blevins, or better known to gamers as 'Ninja' left his home platform of Twitch to join Microsoft's Mixer platform.

Ninja left Twitch in what can only be assumed as a paid deal by Microsoft, while the details of the deal have not be disclosed it can be assumed that there would of been an astronomical amount of money involved. Especially when considering how many paid subscribers Ninja had on Twitch's platform and his projected monthly donations.

Now, Ninja has taken to his official Twitter account to reveal that he has already reached 1 million subscribers on Mixer. He says "Today we hit 1,000,000 active subscribers on mixer ^-^ thank you for all the incredible support. I haven't felt this good in a long time." Ultimately, this is exactly what Microsoft would of wanted when striking this deal. Ninja has no doubt pulled over a massive part of his audience to Microsoft's new streaming platform. In the future I would say that Microsoft will be grabbing some other well-known streaming from Twitch's platform.

Gamescom 2019 is expected to go off with a bang, and to add to the craziness SEGA has revealed that they will be showcasing a brand new AAA title.

Gamescom 2019 will be held in Cologne, Germany and according to a new SEGA press release, the company is ready to reveal a brand new triple A title. It is unclear what this title will be, but it has been described as a 'high-budget' game so we can expect that SEGA have been sitting on this for quite some time.

According to the press release, "visitors will be treated to a first-hand look at an all-new AAA game that has yet to be revealed to the public". Tune into Gamescom 2019 event, on August 20 to August 24.

Back in 2011, NASA launched their 'Curiosity' rover from Earth with the mission of landing it on Mars to scour the surface in search for new information. It now has been there seven years, and its still kicking about doing research.

The 'Curiosity' rover spent several months floating through space before safely landing Mars' surface on August 6th, 2012. NASA and Jet Proplusion Laboratory and giving 'Curiosity' a birthday celebration and by doing this we have learned where Curiosity is at the moment and what it is doing.

According to a new blog post, Curiosity is currently stationed in a spot known as the "clay-bearing unit" which is in inside the Gale Crater. The rover is currently using drills to get some of the soil, and with these samples scientists will be able to determine what the conditions of the crater were like long ago. Scientists know that Mars once had traces of what seems to be water, but it is still unclear if this water harbored any form of life whether it be microbial, or intelligent.

Gearbox Software is 'gearing' up for the release of Borderlands 3, but before launch of the third installment in the series, let's take a look at Borderlands 2 sales.

According to a recent article posted by GamesIndustry.biz, Borderlands 2 has seen a small jump in sales traction as of late. The title recently had its sales revealed by Take-Two Interactive in the last fiscal earnings call, clocking in at 20 million units sold globally. Now, new reports have surfaced revealing that Borderlands 2 has gained a further 2 million sales.

This quick increase in sales has a combination of reasons behind it, the game receiving extreme discounts on Steam as well as the hype for Borderlands 3 has well and truly caused some players to quickly smash out the previous titles so they can enjoy the third one. There is also the fact that Gearbox recently released the Commander Lilith and the Fight for Sanctuary DLC back in June. If you didn't know, Borderlands 3 recently went completely GOLD, more on that here.

By now you would know that if it is on the internet then you should assume that it can basically be hacked. A new report has come out of Microsoft and even your printers aren't safe.

Microsoft announced on Monday that Russian hackers who go by the names; Strontium, Fancy Bear, and APT28 have been detected by Microsoft. These Russian hackers have also been linked to military intelligence agency GRU, and are known for their infiltration into the Democratic National Committee in 2016 and other well known hacks.

Since most PC's are using Windows at a corporate level, Microsoft has some of the best hacking detection software available and in April of 2019 Microsoft's Threat Intelligence Center detected an infiltration by Fancy Bear. According to Microsoft, Fancy Bear has used 'internet of things' devices such as phones, a connected office printer and a video decoder to access corporate networks.

Huawei has been on somewhat shaky ground as directives have been handed down by the administrative branch of the USA pushing US-based companies to stop working with Huawei.

Huawei has been caught in several scandals which led to a temporary trade ban which was later rolled back mostly. Now speculation/news is coming from the Global Times, which is a Chinese run state media. They have stated that Huawei will have the Hongmeng OS ready as early as Q4 2019 to go along with the Mate 30 series of phones.

Huawei as of recent is still 100% onboard with using Android, or at least it seems so on the surface. Huawei has made it apparent that they intend for Hongmeng OS to be an IoT solution at least at first. But, that is not to say that if push comes to shove, it could not end up being their version of an Android replacement. It is reported that Huawei has been testing several Android apps for compatibility should the US trade ban rear its head again.

MSI has officially teased its upcoming Radeon RX 5700 XT EVOKE OC graphics card, with an official image that they've shared with us to release now. It's not much...

... but it's all we were given. MSI's new Radeon RX 5700 XT EVOKE OC graphics card rocks a slick gold/black style by the looks of things, but this is just a tease. The company has shipped us a sample for review, so once the NDA is up on the custom Radeon RX 5700 card reviews you can be your bottom dollar (or should that be gold) that we'll have a review ready for you.

MSI's new Radeon RX 5700 XT EVOKE OC graphics card should have overclocked GPU frequencies and the same 8GB of GDDR6, all on a PCIe 4.0 x16 slot and should have 8+6-pin PCIe power connectors. We'll know more in the coming days.

A new discovery has been made by astronomers scouring the observable universe, they have run into what has been called a 'time machine' that takes us back to some of the earliest stars when the universe formed.

According to a recent research that has been published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, astronomers from the Australian National University have discovered one of the first stars that formed after the universes Big Bang. Lead study author Thomas Nordlander, spoke out about this research saying, "We've found a time machine that takes us back to the universe's earliest stars."

Since the Big Bang occurred 13.8 billion years ago, many of the stars that formed in the early days were gigantic in comparison to our sun. A bio-product of the stars being extremely big is that they are also short-lived. Once the stars decay to the point of their supernova explosion many of the elements are ejected into space, this is what astronomers search for and have recently found.

CD PROJEKT RED is on the fringes of getting its next big game out, with Cyberpunk 2077 being turned into a tabletop card game in the meantime.

Cyberpunk 2077 - Afterlife: The Card Game is coming "sometime in 2020" and is being designed by Eric Lang and published by CMON Games who were behind the Bloodborne card game. In Cyberpunk 2077 - Afterlife, players will assume the role of 'Fixers' which are a type of 'handler' in the universe of Cyberpunk.

You will need to build a faction of cyberpunk agents and task them on missions, which means Afterlife sounds like a management title of sorts. You will have to continue washing through funds to keep your agents in the best condition as they fight in Night City. Interesting flex for Cyberpunk.

Respawn Entertainmetn and EA have announced through the official Apex Legends Twitter account that a new limited-time Solos mode is dropping with the Iron Crown Collection event. Check it out:

As you can see, solo mode is coming to Apex Legends for a very limited time with the Iron Crown Collection event taking place between August 13-27 so you'll have just two weeks to enjoy one-on-one battles.

I'm sure the developer could change things up and offer a Solos mode permanently if it were popular, but we'll have to wait and see how it is received. We should expect some new cosmetics and other changes in the Iron Crown Collection event for Apex Legends, and we're only a few days away from finding out.

Here we go again: Reuters is now reporting that a report that was researched by "independent experts" was presented to the UN Security Council North Korea sanctions committee last week, which has sold bold claims.

The report says that North Korea used "widespread and increasingly sophisticated" hacks to secure $2 billion, laundered over the internet. These funds, according to the UN report, are being used to fund its weapons of mass destruction. Scooping up the funds this way means it's much harder for other governments and their respective spy agencies to snoop.

The experts said they are looking into "at least 35 reported instances of DPRK actors attacking financial institutions, cryptocurrency exchanges and mining activity designed to earn foreign currency" in around 17 nations around the world.

The latest version of GPU-Z has improved support for AMD's new Radeon RX 5700 series graphics cards, with TechPowerUp detailing the new GPU-Z v2.23.0 in a new post.

TPU also added in support for additional variants of NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 2060 and RTX 2070 SUPER, while a bunch of other graphics cards on both Team Green and Team Red received added support in GPU-Z v2.23.0.

The new version has an updated icon and splash screen with high-DIP support, so high-res monitor owners and reviewers/benchmarkers willl enjoy that. GPU-Z is a staple of my life, so the new changes are welcomed. You can grab TechPowerUp GPU-Z v2.23.0 here.

Many of us have gotten used to the fingerprint sensors on various locations on our smartphones.

Over the last year, many manufacturers have started placing fingerprint sensors into their phone screens with varying levels of success. While we will see this improve on Android-based handsets as time goes on, Apple is choosing a more refined (slower) approach as they commonly do.

While many Apple fans would be delighted to see in-screen fingerprint sensors on their newest iDevices now, Apple tends to take the more 'when its ready' approach. This is good as it in many cases can ensure the bugs get worked out. But if its anything like wireless charging, let's hope Apple is not last to the races.

GAEMS has just released its new Guardian Pro XP (and for me out of nowhere) and holy hell does it look impressive, it is the latest in gaming cases from the company and costs a hefty $700. But check it out:

It rocks a built-in 24-inch 1440p HDR display that can connect into an Xbox One or PS4 console (as well as the Xbox One S, Xbox One X, and PS4 Pro). GAEMS also includes chambered speakers with passive subwoofers, and rails at the top of the case above the monitor that can be used to mount webcams and/or lighting.

A sizeable space for your PS4 and controller, where it'll also get charged up in a neat spot. A couple of thumbscrews keep the console in its place, nice and neatly with lots of ventilation above it.

Did Capcom just tease the world of Resident Evil 8... or can we expect another awesome Resident Evil remake to be announced soon? Whatever is coming, we know there's a new Resident Evil game in the works.

According to an email that originated from fan-site Biohaze, members of the Resident Evil Ambassadors program in Japan have been receiving invites to alpha test a new Resident Evil game. The email in question is seeking testers to test a game that is in-development, with testing to kick off on either September 8 or 9.

Capcom Division 1 is the team developing Resident Evil, with the email from the team reading: "To all Resident Evil Ambassadors, thank you for your patronage regarding the Resident Evil series. Today, we are letting you know that we are recruiting testers for a game that's in development! We are interested in incorporating the feedback of all Ambassadors into our development, so please read the details below and, if you are interested in participating, click the Entry button".