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I think checking the Steam concurrent gamer numbers is becoming part of my daily ritual, with PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds now pushing a huge 2.43 million concurrent users on Steam.

At the time of writing there were 791,589 current players and a new peak of 2,437,035 players. Comparing this against the mammoth Dota 2, PUBG blows it away, as Dota 2 only has 325,206 current players and 677,750 peak players. Another FPS powerhouse is CS:GO, which only has 159,526 current players and 486,491 peak players.

The first, second, and third positions have hundreds of thousands playing at once and for PUBG's case, millions playing at once. The games below that like TF2, Warframe, PAYDAY 2 and GTA V all have considerably less. PUBG truly is going crazy, where I think we'll see 2.5 million concurrent players over the weekend and then its into the 3 million stretch from there.

We've heard it before, but Apple is working on augmented reality products with a new report from Bloomberg saying the company would be reading to show off its AR tech in 2019, shipping AR glasses in 2020.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has been into AR for quite a while now, with the first seed being planted in the AR garden with Cook revealing ARKit, allowing iOS devices to run augmented reality apps and experiences. Apple's release of AR glasses would drive this home, but the company needs its own custom chip that can handle the graphics and computational tasks required, which will be in real-time, and something that you wear.

The new AR glasses would be interacted with through head gestures, voice commands that you'd use Siri with, or a touchscreen-based remote. Apple is expected to unveil rOS with its AR glasses, which stands for reality operating system.

It feels like the Xbox One X is absolutely dominating the airwaves and headlines, with Elite: Dangerous teased as running at native 4K resolution on Microsoft's updated console.

Michael Gapper, PR and Communications Manager for Frontier Developments, the developer behind Elite: Dangerous, explained to WCCFTech: "So, we've have added two new options for Xbox One X: Performance/Quality and 1080p/4K. We're letting players tailor their own experience. We'll have full details in the changelog when the update goes live. We're aiming to have this update live for the official launch of Xbox One X".

Gapper continued: "Elite Dangerous runs in native 4K @ 3840×2160 on Xbox One X if set to 4K mode. All I can say specifically regarding framerate is that Xbox One X owners will see greatly increased performance over a standard Xbox One whether they play at 1080p or 4K. We try to always give players the best possible framerate and adapt it to the content in the scene".

Mafia 3 will soon have an Xbox One X enhanced patch pushed out, with developer Hangar 13 recently talking about what resolution the game renders at on the Xbox One X, and whether there will be HDR patches for other platforms.

In an interview with WCCFTech and Andy Wilson, Executive Producer at Hangar 13, Wilson said: "The game renders at 3072×1728 and is then upscaled to 3840×2160, via a full 4K output buffer. We're not using any form of checkerboarding as we were able to get the performance we needed out of the console for the desired resolution, as well as the various additional graphical enhancements we've applied".

As for the HDR feature of Mafia 3 being updated and applied to the PS4 and PC versions of the game, Wilson said: "As of right now we only plan to release the HDR update for the Xbox One X-enhanced version of Mafia III".

Uber doesn't know when to stop, so now that the roads have been dominated the ridesharing giant is looking to the skies with its latest partnership with NASA for self-flying transportation. Welcome to uberAIR.

Uber chief product officer Jeff Holden explains: "So far we've been focused on ground-based transportation. For us, the natural next step was flight". Flying vehicles would be better for the environment, with uberAIR not just for the 1% either, the company will be selling its uberAIR service at the same price as UberX at launch.

The new uberAIR service uses vehicles called Electric Vertical Take-Off And Landing Vehicles, or EVTOL for short. Uber Aircraft Systems boss Mark Moore explains: "They'll fundamentally change how are cities function and how we will live in them". Another Uber executive talked about how long it'll be until we get uberAIR into the skies, where he said: "It's very much the early morning on day one of this adventure".

Most PC gamers including myself thought that the Xbox One X wouldn't be that great when compared to a fully decked out gaming PC, but depending on the specs on the PC, games like Star Wars Battlefront II can really stand out on the Xbox One.

If you watch the entire comparison, the PC version is powered by AMD's latest Radeon RX Vega 64 graphics card, which rocks 8GB of HBM2 - the latest in graphics memory technology. Inside, the gaming PC was powered by AMD's Ryzen 7 1700 processor, 16GB of DDR4-3000 RAM, and Windows 10 Home. The cost of the PC is at least $1400, with the comparison made against the new Xbox One X from Microsoft which costs $499.

I watched the entire thing and I have to say... I'm beyond impressed with what the Xbox One X is capable of when running a game like Star Wars Battlefront II. Battlefront II is powered by DICE's awesome Frostbite engine and it looks great, and seems ultra optimized for the Xbox One X's additional horsepower. It runs smoother than the PC version which is maxed out, but the maxed out graphics don't seem like they're worth it on the PC, as the Xbox One X seems to keep a much smoother, consistent framerate.

The list of websites that are mining cryptocurrency on users' CPUs is growing, with the phenomenon seeing the creation of the term 'cryptojacking' to fit this new hijacking of users' computers.

The Pirate Bay were one of the first with a javascript-based cryptocurrency miner, but were followed by others that jumped onto the lets-use-our-readers-CPU-for-mining bandwagon. There are people out there that agree with letting the website mine on your CPU while you're visiting the site, if the ads are completely disabled.

But then there's the concern of having multiple websites open in different tabs all trying to secure your CPU resources at once, it could cause problems. ArsTechnica is now reporting that th ere are at least 2500 websites that have embedded cryptocurrency miners that are hidden away from users.

Respawn Entertainment will soon be part of EA's wholly-owned ring of development studios.

EA today announced that it has agreed to buy Titanfall developer Respawn Entertainment for a total of $315 million, with considerations for up to $164 million more provided their games do well enough. The publisher will pay $151 million in cash to acquire the studio, and up to $164 million in stock options along with an "additional variable cash consideration of up to $140 million that is contingent upon achievement of certain performance milestones, relationg to the development of future titles, through the end of calendar 2022."

Respawn is currently developing a number of projects, including a brand new war-based VR game as well as a third-person action Star Wars game.

Take-Two's biggest games for next year include Red Dead Redemption 2 and what's almost assuredly Borderlands 3. Like all of the publisher's big games, these titles should be monetized--and that means microtransactions, DLC, season passes--the lot.

Earlier today we reported that Take-Two pretty much wants to monetize all of its games with recurrent consumer spending options to not only earn more cash, but also keep engagement up and ensure the games last quite a long time. With the Games-as-a-Service model publishers can make their games last for 2-3 years at a time (ex: GTA Online has lasted four and is still making record revenues). We've already predicted Red Redemption 2's new online multiplayer mode will be monetized similar to GTA Online, but what about Borderlands 3? Could it have lootboxes, or just traditional DLC/season passe? Or both?

In the fiscal Q2'18 earnings call, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick gave a few clues about the company's future slate of games, especially Red Dead Redemption 2. Let's pay close attention to the language used here--it could help frame what to expect with next year's biggest game. "I think the key lesson from GTA Online, remember we launched that title four years ago, so we certainly have learned a lot from what we knew four years ago," Mr. Zelnick said in the earnings call Q&A session. That's the first tidbit that relates GTA Online's success to future online models.

Ever thought I could really use a Blu-ray disc drive for my NAS? Well, someone at QNAP clearly has because QNAP have teamed up with Vinpower Digital to integrate Vinpower's industrial-grade Blu-ray optical disc drive in to QNAP's latest NAS, the TVS-882BR NAS series. This NAS will provide the ability to write content from your NAS directly to CD, DVD and Blu-ray optical discs. This provides users with the ability to back-up storage on multiple formats, portable data and just for media playback on their Blu-ray player or DVD player.

"In the past year, we've seen a number of natural disasters that have destroyed whole communities, making storing content in a single location alone highly dangerous and susceptible to complete data loss," said Ryan Swerdloff, Vice President of Vinpower Digital. "Utilizing the optical disc writer drive on the TVS-882BR series provides an added layer of protection not found on most common NAS back-up solutions. In essence, it's an added level of insurance added to an excellent secure storage solution, similar to getting earthquake or flood insurance on top of your standard home insurance policy. You may never need to use it, but should the worst case scenario happen, you'll be protected and relieved you had it."

The TVS-882BR series is perfect for users with valuable data that want to have multiple formats of back-ups and demand excellent performance from their NAS . This 8-bay NAS is backed by Intel's 7th Generation multi-core processors, two M.2 SATA 6Gb/s slots, triple HDMI output, the ability to transcodes 4K H.264 videos on-the-fly or offline and pre-loaded ODD that allows you to experience extensive disc applications right way.

CRYORIG is set to enter the PC case market with an innovative, and fresh design. The CRYORIG Taku PC monitor stand ITX case has been in development for over 2 years, with 1 year of the development phase with manufacturing partner and case experts, Lian Li. The Taku is a innovative hybrid design that incorporates a monitor stand with a high-end ITX form factor PC case to create an creative and unique design.

The benefits are obvious, the Taku's space-saving design allows users to place their monitor, keyboard and PC hardware in a vertical layout, perfect for users where desk space is at a premium. The CRYORIG Taku can house GPU's up to 280mm, SFX or SFX-L power supplies, ITX form factor motherboards and up to 3 HDD's (1 x 3.5" and 2 x 2.5"). The chassis is able to support monitors up to 15 kg, full-sized keyboard underneath the stand and also features a system try that is capable of sliding out for easy installation of PC components.

Some of the keen observers may remember that the Taku was originally a Kickstarter project that failed to achieve funding, however there was enough interest in the product that led to CRYORIG continuing development. CRYORIG used valuable information and feedback from its failed Kickstarter project to improve the Taku. CRYORIG plan to release the Taku to USA, Japan and Taiwan this December, with other releases in other markets to follow in early 2018. The Taku has a RRP of $299.

There are some amazing case mods that are made a few times a year, but one of the highlights of 2017 would have to be 'JUNKRAT' by Stephen Hoad of Tech Modified, with his latest construction winning the first place in the LDLC Modding competition and on show at Paris Games Week recently.

This amazing Junkrat mod was made inside of the Fractal Design Meshify C case with the Fractal Design Integra M 750W PSU. EK Water Blocks components are used throughout for everything water cooling related, while it all goes into the MSI Z370 Gaming Pro Carbon motherboard.

Accompanying that hardware was the Core i5-7600K CPU, 32GB of G.SKILL Trident Z RGB DDR4 RAM, an MSI GeForce GTX 1060 GAMING graphics card, and Samsung 960 EVO M.2 NVMe 500GB SSD.

With most of the gaming headlines busy with Battlegrounds breaking all sorts of records, it should come as no surprise that Grand Theft Auto V has been named the best-selling video game of all time in the US.

Take-Two Interactive released their FY2018 second quarter results yesterday, with better-than-expected results, lifting their outlook on the remainder of 2017. The report states: "Grand Theft Auto V has now sold in more than 85 million units. According to The NPD Group, Grand Theft Auto V is now the all-time best-selling video game, both in revenues and units, based on combined U.S. digital and physical sales across PC, console and portable".

Normally sales of games go down after a few months post-release, but GTA V has continued to fly - even with its full price of $60. The peak concurrent gamers in GTA V are sitting at around 55,000 - and while it doesn't hold a flame next to the 2.3 million that PUBG has, GTA Online is still making GTA V something that gamers are still playing.

We all know that the PC is the superior platform for graphics, but a new video that compares DOOM on the Xbox One, PS4 and even the Nintendo Switch, is perfect to get a good comparison between all of the major gaming platforms.

YouTuber ElAnalistaDeBits has the great video, comparing all of the versions of DOOM against each other, with the PC reigning supreme - no surprise there. In all of the comparisons, the consoles look like there's a blurring filter over the game, while the PC version of DOOM is the best by a long shot. id Software did talk up the fact that they built PC-specific features into the idTech 6 engine, DOOM, and Wolfenstein II - and they really show when you see a good comparison like this.

DOOM is a great looking game even when it has the console blur enabled, but it is truly unleashed on the PC. It shows all of the hard work that id Software has put into the PC version, but just makes me wish more game developers did that... made the PC version first and then just blurred and rendered at a lower resolution on consoles to scale it down.

Qualcomm has announced that commercial shipments of their new Centriq 2400 family of server CPUs, which are made on Samsung's fresh 10nm FinFET process and pack a huge 18 billion transistors into an area of 398 mm².

Inside, Qualcomm's new Centriq CPUs have up to 48 single-thread 64-bit ARM v8-compliant cores, a custom design that Qualcomm has dubbed Falkor. These cores have a base clock of 2.2GHz while the peak clocks ramp up to 2.6GHz on the Centriq 2460.

Each and every Falkor core has 64GB of L1 instruction alongside something Qualcomm calls "24KB single-cycle L0 cache" that is made for low-power operation, bringing it up to a total of 88KB of l-cache per core. In total, the Centriq 2460 has 48 cores, 60MB of cache, 2.2/2.6GHz base/peak frequency, and 120W TDP.

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Microsoft has had its new Xbox One X console on the market for a few days now, and there's already an exclusive limited edition bundle that you, me, and virtually no one we know can buy either.

The new Xbox One X bundle sees Microsoft teaming with NBA superstar Stephen Currey, with a new Xbox One X and Curry 4 "More Power" VIP Kit that is being handed out to "today's top athletes, entertainers, and influencers". The new kit includes:

This bundle seems locked for the elite, but Microsoft has said you could win one through following "partner social channels" like Under Armour, and V-MODA.

A few days ago Intel announced it had collaborated with AMD on their new Kaby Lake G processor, with Radeon RX Vega GPU tech inside joined by 4GB of HBM2. 24 hours after that, Radeon Technologies Group Chief Architect, Raja Koduri, announced he was officially leaving. Rumor has it he was joining Intel, but even the largest analysts and tech media in the world didn't believe he'd join Intel for many reasons - anti-competitive reasons, and more.

It's now confirmed that Raja Koduri has joined Intel as their Chief Architect, and Senior Vice President of the newly-formed Visual Computing Group. Raja will also be the General Manager of a new initiative that will push edge computing solutions.

Dr. Murthy Renduchintala, Intel's chief engineering officer and group president of the Client and Internet of Things Businesses and System Architecture said: "Raja is one of the most experienced, innovative and respected graphics and system architecture visionaries in the industry and the latest example of top technical talent to join Intel. We have exciting plans to aggressively expand our computing and graphics capabilities and build on our very strong and broad differentiated IP foundation. With Raja at the helm of our Core and Visual Computing Group, we will add to our portfolio of unmatched capabilities, advance our strategy to lead in computing and graphics, and ultimately be the driving force of the data revolution".

When Activision showed the latest Call of Duty: WWII game off to actual World War II veterans, they gave approval on the project's authenticity (which says quite a bit).

Sledgehammer Games has been working for quite some time on making the recently released Call of Duty: WWII as accurate and visceral as possible. The studio enlisted the help of popular World War II historian and author Martin K.A. Morgan to ensure the game aligned with actual events during the war, and also did tons upon tons of research. This not only paid off on the consumer front--Call of Duty: WWII made over $500 million in sales in its first 3 days and broke new digital records--but also with actual veterans who served during the tumultuous time.

"We think it's daunting to show our games to our fans, and here we were showing it to people who actually stormed the beaches of Normandy, who actually fought through the Hürtgen Forest and we're showing them those levels from the game," Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg told Newsweek in a recent interview. "It was an incredibly gratifying experience. After the lights came up, these gentlemen looked at us and said 'yup, you got it right!' It was one of those human moments where something you're making for entertainment purposes intersects with real life in a pretty impactful way."

Following the news of breaking away from Square Enix and becoming independent once again, IO Interactive is currently developing the next game in the Hitman series.

In a recent update about the new Hitman Game of the Year collection, IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak gave a brief teaser on the future of the franchise. Yes, IO is working on the next game, and more info will come next year. The next game will have new features and "franchise firsts"...but it'll be a while before we hear anything.

"One last thing about our next Hitman game; I want to let you know that we're making great progress and we have exciting new features and some franchise firsts, which we can't wait to tell you all about. You'll have to wait a little longer as we don't plan to start talking about that until some point in 2018," Abrak said in the post.