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Ubisoft's massively popular shooter Rainbow Six: Siege has now hit over 20 million registered users, and has a new content update to go with that milestone.

Like its competitors EA, Activision and Take-Two, French games-maker Ubisoft is in the business of engagement. So when the company's biggest shooter hits 25 million registered users, it's a pretty big deal--even if not all of those people log in everyday and play. But even if a portion of those users log in and actually spend money on in-game items and the like, it fuels Ubisoft's ever-strengthening digital transformation. The release of the game's new Operation White Noise expansion

"As the game progressed, we continued to develop it with the community in mind," says said Alexandre Remy, Brand Director on Rainbow Six Siege. "We're thrilled to see that the community has embraced the game, brought along their friends, and really pushed our understanding of what's possible with what we've created."

Qualcomm Snapdragon Tech Summit 2017 - Qualcomm had one surprise after another today, but one of the standouts was having AMD Corporate VP and GM for Client Computing, Kevin Lensing, on stage announcing a large collaboration between AMD and Qualcomm.

As some of you might know, AMD is set to release their Mobile Ryzen with Vega graphics in the New Year, and took the opportunity during Qualcomm's Snapdragon Tech Summit to surprise us with the announcement of AMD using the Snapdragon X16 LTE modem on their new APU.

This means we'll have the worlds of the Ryzen CPU architecture, Vega GPU architecture, and Qualcomm's industry-leading Snapdragon X16 LTE technology all on a single design.

Qualcomm Snapdragon Tech Summit 2017 - Qualcomm changed the technology world today with the announcement and product unveiling of Snapdragon 835-powered Windows 10-based notebooks, but the company also took a few minutes out of its day announcing their next-gen Snapdragon 845 processor.

Qualcomm didn't spend much time covering the Snapdragon 845 but we should expect the company to partner up with Xiaomi since they had the company founder and CEO, Lei Jun, on-stage today at the Snapdragon Tech Summit here in Maui, Hawaii.

The new Snapdragon 845 will be maed on the 10nm process, with the inclusion of the super-fast X20 LTE modem which is capable of gigabit speeds on the right network. We should hear more information on Snapdragon 845 as the conference continues, so I'll update this post when I can.

Qualcomm Snapdragon Tech Summit 2017 - Qualcomm flew out over 300 tech press and analysts to the beautiful island of Maui in Hawaii for their annual Snapdragon Technology Summit where this year they've put their foot down firmly onto the ground that has always been dominated by Intel.

Until now, Intel had an undeniably strong Superman-like grip on the laptop market but had always suffered from mediocre battery life and virtually no mobile connectivity apart from Wi-Fi and the handful of laptops with 4G access.

That all changes today with the introduction of always-on, always-connected PC powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon technology, and Windows 10.

Battlefront II's dreaded lootbox controversy has had an affect on not only EA but the entire games industry, and has caught the attention of key regulators who call the game's in-game purchases a form of gambling. So what's next?

Analyst firm SuperData has given some insight on what could happen to the games industry in the wake of the Battlefront II lootbox fiasco. According to the firm, three different things could happen: lootboxes are classified as gambling, which would significantly disrupt the current lucrative monetization model of the biggest games-makers like Activision, Ubisoft, Take-Two and EA; things could remain the same, which would be best for all publishers; or lootboxes are regulated but not necessarily classified as gambling, and the Western world follows China's example by forcing publishers to disclose drop rates.

All of the scenarios will bring change, the firm predicts. Even if lootboxes aren't regulated publishers should be quite reticent to push in specific forms of microtransactions in their games lest they kick off yet another controversy, this time aimed at one of their franchises instead of a competitor. That being said EA has suffused UFC 3 with microtransactions (not surprising, annual sports games are huge money-makers and EA is all about feeding engagement which is powered by monetization strategies) shortly after the Battlefront II struggle.

Just as we predicted days ago, Capcom has not only announced a brand new Mega Man game, but plans to bring a slew of games to the Nintendo Switch.

To celebrate 30 years of Mega Man, games-maker Capcom has revealed Mega Man 11, a brand new entry in the beloved side-scrolling franchise that will come to PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Switch in late 2018. The game itself follows the same Metroidvania style but this time around there's 3D hand-drawn artwork that only resembles Mighty No. 9 on the surface. In fact the game looks to be everything Mighty No. 9 wanted to be.

Along with Mega Man 11 Capcom will release all Mega Man X games on the Nintendo Switch, making good on two promises at once: to continue supporting the Switch and pulling older franchises to the forefront of the company's business model.

TIO Networks is a telecom, wireless, cable and utility network operator in North America that also offers bill payment services, earlier this year PayPal purchased this company for $233 million and now it has come out that TIO network has had their data compromised. PayPal announced on November 10th that there was a potential breach in the TIO network but now has later confirmed that they "identified a potential compromise of personally identifiable information for approximately 1.6 million customers."

Thankfully PayPal's systems are not linked in anyway to that of TIO Networks as PayPal reassures customers that their data remains in secure hands.

"A review of TIO's network has identified a potential compromise of personally identifiable information for approximately 1.6 million customers. The PayPal platform is not impacted in any way, as the TIO systems are completely separate from the PayPal network, and PayPal's customers' data remains secure."

Jason Kingsley, CEO of Rebellion Developments, the developer known for single-player titles such as the Sniper Elite franchise as well as Aliens vs. Predator said in a recent interview on Metro GamesCentral that single-player games are not dead and that the "industry is incredibly dynamic."

Kingsley continues to explains that the current direction of the gaming market needs to be looked and to do this feedback needs to be given by the players. Kingsley believes that the loot-box system needs full feedback from gamers as there seems to be divide in the community of players that actually like the system and then players that extremely disagree with the implication of it in their games.

Enjoying games is originally the whole point of the gaming experience but Kingsley is worried that main component is being clouded by the desperate need to make as much money as possible out of players that are willing to give more money on top of the initial cost of their favorite game.

Amazon have been planning on their full release in Australia for quite some time now and while local retailers have been preparing for the American retailer super-giant their time has run out, Amazon is fully open and operational. The plan of becoming open for business just before Christmas seems to of gone right ahead as Amazon have already been selling Kindle e-reader devices and audio books.

Now that the American retailer has been fully activated in Australia there is suspicion to what Amazon's game plan might be, known for sacrificing profits on sales through extremely low prices just to greater it's presence is something that would put local retailers under a huge threat. Australia is already home to many technology retail giants such as Harvey Norman, JB Hi Fi and The Good Guys, all of which are expected to take a considerable hit to their profits once Amazon becomes the social norm for purchasing technology upgrades or gifts.

Morgan Stanely analysts have warned that Kmart and Targets parent company Wesfarmers could take a huge loss of $400m in annual earnings by 2026. Wesfarmers may be afraid of the huge American retailer but Harvey Norman owner and director Gerry Harvey is quite the opposite, saying that him and his company are here and ready to take Amazon on if they have fair pricing.

California being arguably the leading state in allowing for the push of self-driving cars has recently tweaked the rules to get more self-driving cars on roads. The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has stopped a loophole from General Motors (GM) that would of allowed autonomous car companies the power to not be liable if the vehicle was to crash due to code malfunction.

Californian regulators have read many comments objectifying to the regarding implication of the new rule, furthermore the DMV decided to dismiss the idea entirely due to the public's initial reaction.

Overall, this is beneficial to the people, having laws in place that make the creator of the self-driving car liable in times of malfunction will provide motivation for the company to perfect their product before releasing it to the public. Shifting the blame from the people causing the accidents to the companies creating the cars will mean that if the product is not perfected there will be very large scale costly mistakes, which I doubt companies are willing to put that up for risk.

Rockstar Games are getting in the holiday spirit by offering up some pretty damn amazing one-of-a-kind gifts, with L.A. Noire themed consoles with the Xbox One X, PS4 Pro, and Nintendo Switch.

PC gamers aren't left out, as there's a... PSU.

The developer is celebrating the re-release of L.A. Noire again, as it's available in VR and now on the Nintendo Switch. On the more powerful Xbox One X and PS4 Pro consoles, Rockstar has added in some technical enhancements including improved lighting and clouds, as well as higher resolution textures.

Thanks to a cast of stars and a slew of reveals, this year's The Game Awards celebration is shaping up to be pretty substantial.

2017 was one of the best year's for gaming in a long time, and the year just didn't quite pushing out great games. Now that December's rolled around 2017 is almost kaput, and that means it's time to reflect and reward devs' hard work. Geoff Keighley's annual TGA 2017 showcase will include a number of high-profile celebrities this time, including Justin Roiland, Felicia Day, Andy Serkis, Aisha Tyler, Zachary Levi, and of course Hideo Kojima, Guillermo Del Toro, and Norman Reedus (hey looks like we're getting new Death Stranding info!).

The show will also have "more reveals than ever before" so we should see some goodies announced from publishers and indie devs alike. The Game Awards 2017 starts on Thursday, December 7 at 8:30PM EST / 5:30 PM PST.

After most of the gaming world already knew it was happening, From Software has now confirmed it's handling the development of a new Armored Core game.

In celebration of the original game's 20th anniversary, From Software, who's mostly known for its Dark Souls series, has announced it will be making the next mech shooter. The anniversary will be celebrated with a new PS4 theme and a special stream highlighting the new game's music...but no new details will be announced during the footage.

"Armored Core 20th Anniversary PS4 theme will be delivered to 12/5 tomorrow. Please download it! Since from now on from software will continue to push forward with development, thank you!" the studio wrote on Twitter. "Watch Armored Core 20th anniversary music special, thank you! But now I can talk about the AC series is not going to end it, so please be patient. Continue from software, thank you!"

A user recently posted on Baidu that they were able to hack their MSI Z170A XPower Titanium BIOS, allowing it to support the Intel Core i3-8350K Coffee Lake CPU. Although Intel's 6th, 7th, and 8th Generation CPUs all use the same LGA1151 socket, motherboard vendors and Intel only allow 6th and 7th Generation processors to run on the Z170 and Z270 chipsets.

The 8th Generation processors, which offer more cores per dollar, can only run on the new and more expensive Z370 motherboards. When news of the incompatibility between 8th Generation Core processors and Z170 and Z270 motherboards broke, people were upset about the reasons given for locking the new CPUs out of the more affordable motherboards.

Power delivery concerns were the main reason we were given as to why Intel would not support 8th Generation CPUs on previous Z170 and Z270 chipsets. It seems that nature, or rather one very smart thinking hacker, found a way to make it work. They were able to trick the motherboard into accepting the unsupported CPU. The voltage regulator module on the Z170A XPower Titanium is a very robust one, and should not pose a problem with the newer CPUs.

In wake of the heated pay-to-win lootbox controversy, EA today revealed a slew of new changes coming to Battlefront II.

Publisher Electronic Arts has been adamant that nothing about Battlefront II is set in stone: even EA CFO Blake Jorgensen says the company made a few mistakes regarding monetization, and says the company will learn from these errors. Now after the first wave of changes that adjusted Star Cards, EA is altering a few other things about the contested Star Wars shooter.

The big new changes including adjustments to "economy and progression", ie how fast you earn credits and the like. Every match you complete nets you more credits that can be redeemed for lootboxes, and if you do better in the session, you earn more credits. Arcade Mode earnings has also been boosted, and EA confirmed a new singleplayer DLC pack for the game's campaign mode.

Nghia Pho, a former NSA employee has pleaded guilty to taking home classified information that was soon after linked to a hack from Russian intelligence. Pho will be sentenced on April 6th and has had his maximum penalty capped at 8 years, which would usually be 10 years.

According to sources of The New York Times, Pho stole the information both in physical and digital form between 2010 and 2015, then proceeded to intentionally use this information to then rewrite his resume. The hack came through exploited Kaspersky anti-virus software which the company was not aware of at the time. Kaspersky was aware that it has held NSA data but it is not clear whether it was that specific data or not.

Recently the NSA has had to deal with many leaks, scrambling to fix all these leaks could either motivate others to come forward and blow the whistle, or they could see Pho be made an example of, putting fear into others that were considering coming forward because of the penalty.

The hottest rumor of the weekend comes from a post on Reddit that teases the LinkedIn page of an AMD technical engineer saying they're working on a GDDR6 memory controller.

GDDR6 will see memory bandwidth cranked up to 16Gbps, up from the 11Gbps used on the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti with its GDDR5X memory tech. 16Gbps will blow away even HBM2, which is fairly useless for gamers. NVIDIA's next-gen Ampere GPU architecture should feature GDDR6, too.

I think we'll see a next-gen Vega and then Navi using HBM2 and even HBM3 if it arrives in time, or if Navi is delayed more since Raja Koduri has left RTG. Also, I think we'll see AMD use GDDR6 on their mainstream RX 600 series cards, leaving HBM2 on a re-spun Vega architecture. There's no need for HBM2 for gamers right now, no matter what AMD pushed out saying HBM2 was the bees knees.

To celebrate the upcoming home video release of '47 Metres Down', we have ten Blu-ray copies of the film to give away thanks to our friends at Universal Sony Entertainment.

Stay out of the water! Fun-loving, twenty-something, sisters Kate & Lisa are ready for the holiday of a lifetime in Mexico. When the opportunity to go cage diving to view Great White sharks presents itself, thrill-seeking Kate jumps at the chance while Lisa takes some convincing. After some not so gentle persuading, Lisa finally agrees, and the girls soon find themselves two hours off the coast of Huatulco and about to come face-to-face with nature's fiercest predator.

But what should have been the trip to end all trips soon becomes a living nightmare when the cage breaks free from the boat and plummets to the ocean floor. Kate & Lisa find themselves trapped deep underwater with less than an hour of oxygen left in their tanks. They must somehow work out how to get back to the safety of the boat above through 47 meters of shark-infested waters.

To celebrate the upcoming home video release of 'American Made,' we have fifteen Blu-ray copies of the film to give away thanks to our friends at Universal Sony Entertainment.

The CIA. The White House. Pablo Escobar. One man played them all. Tom Cruise reunites with his Edge of Tomorrow director, Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Mr. and Mrs. Smith), in this international escapade based on the outrageous (and real) exploits of a hustler and pilot unexpectedly recruited by the CIA to run one of the biggest covert operations in U.S. history.

Based on a true story, American Made co-stars Domhnall Gleeson, Sarah Wright, E. Roger Mitchell, Jesse Plemons, Lola Kirke, Alejandro Edda, Benito Martinez, Caleb Landry Jones and Jayma Mays.

In the wake of the convoluted and messy Battlefront II lootbox controversy shockwaves have been sent across the industry and major publishers are taking notice. But for the most part the big players like Take-Two Interactive and Activision aren't really perturbed about microtransactions...but they've heard consumers loud and clear regardless.

Now that EA has been thoroughly vilified within the gaming community, what do its competitors think about lootboxes? Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption publisher Take-Two Interactive doesn't think lootboxes are gambling perse, but the company knows that content comes first and monetization second.

"We don't view that sort of thing as gambling. Our view of it is the same as the ESA statements. In terms of the consumer, the sort of noise you hear in the market right now, for me it's really all about content. It's all about how we're delivering on content and making sure you're focused on engagement," said Take-Two President Karl Slatoff at Credit Suisse's annual technology conference.