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Despite coming out just two months before 2017 ended, Sledgehammer Games' latest Call of Duty entry storms the download charts on Sony's PlayStation Network.

Per recent figures on Sony's PlayStation Blog, Call of Duty: WWII was the top downloaded PS4 game of 2017, which says a lot about what gamers actually want in the series. While Activision was quick to tout the game's huge sales figures--CoD: WWII made over $500 million in its opening weekend, putting it close to Black Ops II's astronomical numbers--other sources have corroborated the title's massive success. NPD analyst Mat Piscatella affirmed Call of Duty: WWII is the best-selling game of 2017 in the U.S., and Activision has since confirmed the game has made over $1 billion in earnings just a month or so after launch.

"Call of Duty WWII was November's best-selling game overall, and instantly becomes the best-selling video game of both 2017 year-to-date as well as the rolling 12 month period ending November 2017," NPD Group analyst Mat Piscatella wrote in a recent report.

It appears HTC is teasing a new re-vamped version of its Vive virtual reality headset ahead of the bit Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Despite not really taking off as a majorly accessible gaming device, the Vive (and the Oculus Rift for that matter) aren't going anywhere any time soon. VR is here to stay, even if it's still not fully matured as a big part of the games and interactive industry, and now the Vive-makers at HTC have pretty much said a new headset is on the way.

In an extremely well-timed Tweet, HTC made a pun regarding New Year's resolutions with a Vive graphic thrown in for good measure. This pretty much leads us to believe that a new headset is on the way with expanded resolution. This could be the new next-generation Vive headset people have been talking about for a while, or it could be a refresh that pushes the OLED panel resolution past the 2160 x 1200 of the original.

Back in May of this year I predicted BioWare's new IP, now known as the mech-shooter Anthem, would be monetized in some form with microtransactions. Now key analysts are aligning with my predictions in an effort to gauge how the monetization pattern will go: will it be traditional gear-based lootboxes, or cosmetic-only--or a mixture of both?

EA is no stranger to service games. A good portion of its modern release slate have online-based components of some kind, many of which are near-perfectly monetized with a successful engagement model that not only fuels the billion dollar games industry, but churns the publisher's big money-making wheel. So it's no surprise that BioWare's big new IP, which should big the biggest project it's ever done (an online-based shooter with genre-melding and action-based mechanics that seems to be primarily multiplayer-focus), will likely tap this model: after all EA has probably poured tens of millions into the project. Also remember that Anthem should be a big Destiny competitor, and that means long-term engagement (which further means long-term monetization).

So what are the best ways to monetize for the long-term? The most profitable, of course, are randomized lootboxes. Based on the E3 2017 trailer, Anthem is absolutely prime territory for randomized lootboxes filled with upgraded gear, meaning cosmetics probably wouldn't be the best way to monetize in terms of maximum returns and longer engagement. The trailer showed a bit of RNG when a character opened a chest and got the rare Jarra's Wrath, and as soon as I saw that, I knew MTX would be in for sure. Also remember BioWare has past experience monetizing outright lootbox gear drops in games like Mass Effect 3, Dragon Age: Inquisition, and Mass Effect: Andromeda. But it's not 100% guaranteed to have gear-based lootboxes, and EA could go with a mixed cosmetic-and-gear approach in an effort to curb its Battlefront II controversy...but Anthem also launches a long ways away (in Fiscal 2019, which is from April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019).

Not too long ago Amazon announced their very own personal stylist for consumers, Echo Look, and now the company has secured another patent application that could see the retail giant release a "smart mirror".

Jeff Bezos must have an eye for fashion as Amazon's new patent seems to be some sort of personal fashion guide that would act as an assistant that helps consumers pick outfits for specific occasions, and has so far been kept under wraps by Amazon.

The patent application lists that the "smart mirror" has "system of cameras, projectors, and mirrors to layer digital images onto a reflection of your body in a mirror." The official description lists it as a"display device", and has the ability of producing a "pattern of illumination and non-illumination on the screen so that the illuminated portions of the screen substantially transmit through the mirror."

An ex-NSA contractor, Harold Martin has agreed to plead guilty to what could be the biggest theft of classified data in US history. Martin could face up to 10 years in prison for the single count of illegal retention of national security information.

Martin has been accused of stealing a massive 50TB of classified data from the NSA over the course of the 20 years that he was working there as a contractor. The government has not said what was done with the stolen data, but it is believed that the data stolen included elite hacking tools that Martin stole while working for Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp, the very same firm that employed the whistle blower Edward Snowden.

According to Reuters, the stealing of classified information has caused Martin to be charged with a total of 19 other offenses, as it is alleged by the indictment that Martin also stole documents and information from US Cyber Command, the CIA and the National Reconnaissance Office.

CES 2018 - Netgear have just announced their new Orbi Outdoor Satellite which will allow users to stay connected to their internet while outside and not have to worry about the elements damaging their portable extenders.

The Orbi Outdoor Satellite is specifically designed for outdoor use as the device will extend your Wi-Fi signal by an additional 2,500 square feet. To eliminate fears of an outdoor Wi-Fi device being damaged by the elements, Netgear have made the Orbi Outdoor Satellite completely water and dust resistant.

Most other Wi-Fi extenders provide users with a slower connection speed, but Netgear's Orbi Outdoor Satellite won't have this issue. Netgear have deployed some proprietary technology called FastLane3, which is capable of dedicating bandwidth between the Orbi Wi-Fi and your router, giving your outdoor devices the best connection speed possible.

Now that Wi-Fi is almost a necessity, nothing is more annoying than walking into a room in your home that is just out of reach of the signal to router, with iRobot soon updating the Roomba app with the ability of letting owners of use their Roomba to see which rooms are Wi-Fi dead zones, and which are not.

Your Roomba will be able to map out the problematic Wi-Fi areas within your home, and combined with mapping out floor areas and specific route planning, Roomba devices will have more efficiently navigate from room to room within homes.

Roomba device will be able to map out the strengths of certain areas within users homes, and once Roomba owners update their devices, people struggling with Wi-Fi signals in certain areas of their homes will be able to adjust their Wi-Fi settings accordingly, mostly eliminating Wi-Fi dead zones in their houses.

Mophie has just unveiled what a lot of travelling business and workstation users will love: their new powerstation AC external battery that is capable of charging laptops.

As you can see in the video above, Mophie's new powerstation AC has up to 100W of AC power output, pumping over 15 hours of battery life into your smart devices. There's AC power output and USB-C PD fast-charging, which is something you'll need with its huge 22,000mWh of battery power.

You can charge up specific laptops like Apple's new MacBook and MacBook Pros with the USB-C port, as they only draw 30W. Larger laptops that draw up to 90W will drain the Mophie powerstation AC in less than an hour, so you won't be able to fully charge a higher-end USB-C laptop without draining the powerstation AC completely.

In a world where PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds comes out of nowhere and racks up over 30 million sales, over 3 million concurrent gamers and over $600 million in sales in less than a day, it can make other sales of other games not seem so great.

Case in point is the lovechild of Wing Commander, the legendary and ambitious Chris Roberts with Star Citizen, a game that was born on Kickstarter before jumping into crowdfunding from its fans directly, in which it raised $34.91 million in 2017. This number is down from the slightly-higher $36.11 million from 2016.

Star Citizen raised $17.25 million on Kickstarter, and since that point that made $175.9 million - far less than the $600 million and very quickly growing of PUBG, especially now that it's on the Xbox One/X and planned for "all platforms" in the near future. We can expect PUBG to reach $1 billion in sales in the next couple of months, if not sooner at this rate.

While it seems Bitcoin is cooling off after hitting new records in 2017, it's time for Ethereum (ETH) and Ripple (XRP) to shine.

Ethereum has breached $1000, reaching a new record high price of $1044, an 8.9% rise in the last 24 hours. There are 96.8 million Ethereum coins circulating, with a new market cap of a huge $101 billion.

Ripple (XRP) sets a new all-time record price of $3.17

CES 2018 - LG is pushing more and more into the world of robotics, something it seems to be doubling down with at CES 2018 with their new CLOi branded robotics line.

LG's exciting new CLOi line of products come in three models for commercial use: Serving Robot, Porter Robot, and Shopping Cart Robot. Starting with the Serving Robot, we should expect to see LG's first robot creation at hotels, airport lounges, and even restaurants. This robot will deliver drinks and meals to customers with its built-in sliding tray - but hopefully it won't need a tip.

The Porter Robot will be used in hotels for express check-in and check-out, with payments accepted by the robots that will reduce waiting times. LG's new Porter Robot will even carry your suitcase around, but I'm sure it'll be carry-on size only and not your huge suitcase, or two, or five.

Opera has just pushed out a new browser update, with v50 of its popular browser coming out in the next few hours that will stop sites from hijacking your CPU to mine cryptocurrency.

There are already extensions released for both Chrome and Firefox that block hijacking scripts, but Opera is the first to block cryptomining within its built-in ad blocker. Impressive stuff, especially as Opera is my browser of choice (I'm all-in with Google for everything else).

Ripple (XRP) sets a new all-time record price of $3.17

Tesla's new mid-range Model 3 electric vehicle is right around the corner, with the car giant using the new Model 3 to make the quickest trip across the United States in an electric vehicle.

The Drive editor Alex Roy used Tesla's new Model 3 to drive from Redondo Beach, California to Manhattan, New York in 50 hours, 16 minutes, and 32 seconds. Roy made the journey with Model 3 owner Daniel Zorrilla, beating out his own time in 2016 when he used the Model S and Autopilot in 55 hours.

Even with the super-cold weather hitting most parts of the US right now, the Model 3 had its heater blasting away reducing the miles the electric vehicle could drive without charging. Still, it was able to complete the cross-country journey in just 50 hours, using $100 to charge their Model 3 in that time. Damn impressive.

CES 2018 - Nissan will be showing off the latest in its car technology at CES 2018 next week, with Nissan to unveil new software that comes from the medical field, and is capable of translating drivers' thoughts into actions where it would improve vehicle responsiveness.

This new software monitors drivers' brain wave activity to anticipate the intended movement, like turning the steering wheel, indicating, or braking. Nissan says that this system is 0.2-0.5 seconds faster than the driver, which is impressive on its own.

Nissan's new B2V technology is meant to make the driving experience better, with semi-autonomous technology like this increasing reaction times to the countless actions required when behind the wheel.

Shaun Escayg spent seven years working at Naughty Dog, but now it appears he's switched over to Square Enix's big new Avengers game.

Tomb Raider dev Crystal Dynamics is currently developing a new original Avengers game as part of a big multi-year agreement between Marvel and games publisher Square Enix. The project, which has been under wraps for a while, represents another huge partnership like EA's current exclusive rights to Star Wars games, so it's only natural that top-tier talent in the games industry are getting recruited for the game. Now Crystal Dynamics has snagged Shaun Escayg, who spent nearly a decade working with Naughty Dog on some of the studio's best games, including The Last of Us, and Uncharteds 4 and Lost Legacy.

Escayg didn't outright confirm he's working on the project, but he did share a particular picture on Instagram that pretty much points the way. He also announced his departure from Naughty Dog on Twitter:

Following its delisting from the NYSE and subsequent bankruptcy filing, peripheral-maker Mad Catz is back for 2018 (and possibly beyond).

Mad Catz was believed to be dead after months and months of tumultuous financials, but now the company is back under a slightly new banner called Mad Catz Global Limited, and plans to release a slew of new gaming hardware peripherals for 2018. In fact the company has announced a trio of new hardware: the Rat Air mouse, the RGB-lit Strike 4 mechanical keyboard, and the Freq 4 gaming headset. All of these new devices (and possibly more) will be shown off at CES 2018 in Las Vegas.

"We couldn't be more excited than to begin 2018 by announcing the return of Mad Catz to the global gaming arena," said Mad Catz director of sales and operations, Selena Chang, in a recent press release.

Turok is finally coming to the Xbox One, at least according to new PEGI ratings.

Night Dive Studios, who are currently remastering the first two original Turok games, have yet to formally announce a release date for the duo's Xbox One release. Right now the remasters are available on PC but console gamers have been waiting a bit to jump back into that weird Jurassic world for some dino-slaying action. The devs have only delivered a tentative "coming sometime soon" timeline, but thanks to the PEGI ratings board, it looks like the remasters are coming soon.

Originally spotted by deals wizard Wario64, PEGI rated Turok for Xbox One two days ago, meaning the game should be coming out soon (maybe in a few weeks, or a few months...but soon). As someone who grew up with the original Turok on Nintendo 64, I can say it'd be cool to jump back in and relive some of those old moments...and I'm curious to see how the graphics hold up on the Xbox One.

Following the big announcement that the Switch is now the fastest-selling console of all-time in the United States, the Japanese console-maker also shares some impressive stats for its first-party games like Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario: Odyssey.

According to Nintendo's latest figures, more than half of current Switch owners have purchased Super Mario Odyssey. The company says 60% of Switch users own the game, but we're not sure if this is based on the current 10 million console sales milestone or standard "over 4.8 million sales" ten-month figure. If it's the former, that means about six million gamers own Super Mario Odyssey, which is a huge sales figure for the plumber's latest adventure.

Similarly, Zelda: Breath of the Wild enjoys a 55% attach rate with Switch owners, which could put the number as high as 5.5 million copies sold.

According to internal sales figures from Nintendo, the company's new Switch handheld-console hybrid has become the all-time fastest-selling video games console in the United States.

Since its release in March 2017, the Switch has sold 4.8 million units in a 10-month period, making it the fastest-selling system in the U.S. The Switch's fast pace actually beat sales of Nintendo's ultra-popular yesteryear Wii console, which shows just how big this momentum actually is. Nintendo would've likely sold far more units if it weren't hit with supply issues early into the Switch's production and shipment cycle, but the company asserts that these kinks will be worked out with time.

To date the Nintendo Switch has sold more than 10 million units globally, and company President Tatsumi Kimishima hopes the console can reach 20 million sales by the end of the fiscal year ending March 2019.

Brawlout, a Super Smash Bros inspired fighter recently was released onto the Nintendo Switch and actually had quite an impressive opening, attracting over 50,000 players within the first two weeks of its release.

The resemblance between Brawlout and Super Smash Bros is quite uncanny as some of Brawlout's characters feature almost identical move as some characters in Super Smash Bros.

While there might be similarities between Brawlout and Super Smash Bros, this hasn't stopped Nintendo Switch owners from buying the game and having some Super Smash-like games before the inevitable (please, please Nintendo gods) release of Super Smash Bros on the Nintendo Switch.