Latest News - Page 233

Hollow Knight: Silksong is off to a staggering start, with the title almost reaching half a million concurrent players at the time of reporting.

Using data from SteamDB, we can see the original Hollow Knight achieved an all-time concurrent player count of 72,916, which was hit just yesterday. But Hollow Knight: Silksong, the most wish-listed game on Steam, has now finally released after fans of the franchise patiently waited seven years, and wow, the game has absolutely exploded in popularity with its all-time concurrent player count hitting 517,374.

SteamDB's metrics indicate Silksong beat the original Hollow Knight's all-time player count in just 15 minutes of the game being available to play. Silksong has also reached the top of the Steam Store's global top sellers, and of those nearly half a million players, the game has received 3,000 reviews as of writing and a Steam rating of 90.44%.

Microsoft is estimated to make close to $10 billion in the first twelve months of Windows 10 hitting its end-of-life period, as owners of the millions of commercial devices around the world running Windows 10 will opt-in to pay Microsoft for continued support for the now unsupported operating system.

The estimations come from Nexthink, and while they aren't based on official figures from Microsoft, the estimations do reveal some interesting points to consider. Microsoft stated in June that more than 1.4 billion devices are running Windows, and according to Nexthink, approximately 30% of those devices are being used commercially or within the public sector.

That means there are about 420 million enterprise Windows. Using data from Statcounter, about 43% of Windows users are still running Windows 10, meaning there are 181 million users facing the looming end of support cutoff scheduled for this October.

Surprising no one, Hollow Knight Silksong is a big hit, especially on PC where it has attracted over 400,000 players shortly after launch.

Hollow Knight Silksong released a few hours ago and the Metroidvania is already pulling in huge numbers. The demand for Silksong was so strong that the game's launch disrupted digital storefronts, including Steam, Nintendo's eShop, and the PlayStation and Xbox stores. Now that those hiccups seem to be evened out, gamers can actually jump in and play Silksong--and jumping in they are.

According to Steam DB, the early player counts are incredibly strong for an indie game. At the time of writing, Silksong set a 24-hour peak of 400,528 players, and that has been growing by the minute. Valve's own data shows that Silksong is the #1 top-selling game right now on Steam.

Batman fans are currently patiently waiting for LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, which was unveiled at Gamescom 2025, but there might be another Batman game to get excited about.

UploadVR noticed the voice actor for Commissioner Gordon confirmed Batman Arkham Shadow's sequel is currently in development in a recent interview with Culture Combine. The voice actor, Mark Rolston, who voiced Gordon in the previous title Batman Arkham Shadow, and is also known for playing iconic characters such as Norman Osborn in Marvel's Spider-Man series, along with Lex Luther in Injustice: Gods Among Us, said that work was being done on a sequel.

For those who don't know, Batman Arkham Shadow is a Virtual Reality game, and when asked about how the work was different between Blade Runner and Spider-Man 2, Rolston said that Spider-Man included "complete motion capture, voice and everything," while Blade Runner was just voice over. As for the upcoming Batman game, it appears it will be motion captured, as Rolston said that he has done the same for the Arkham Shadow sequel, saying "about to start another one of those."

PlayStation just wrapped up its State of Play dedicated to IO Interactive's 007 First Light, which fans mostly had a very positive reaction to. But some critics have described what they have seen of 007 First Light as a Hitman "reskin," to which the developers of the title, IO Interactive, have now responded.

In a recent interview with GamesRadar, senior licensing producer Theuns Smit explained that 007 First Light is going to be different from the Hitman franchise, and the team behind the project has grown since the announcement of the game, adding a fresh set of eyes and expertise. Additionally, Smit says that while IO Interactive is leaning into its strengths, it has developed over the course of making games for 25 years, 007 First Light is about creating a different experience for gamers that is different from the Hitman games.

What is possibly the biggest difference that can already be spotted between the Hitman games and 007 First Light is that players will be able to step into vehicles with Bond. This isn't possible in the Hitman games. IO Interactive doesn't have a lot of experience in this area of game development, and many of the new developers that joined the studio were dedicated to this area of development.

Today's the day: After years of waiting, Silksong finally comes out today...but there's just one problem: You might not be able to download it.

Hollow Knight Silksong is so popular that demand for the game is crashing digital storefronts. Too many gamers are logging in at once and trying to download Silksong, and it's basically throwing all the major stores out of whack. Users have reported issues with Steam, the Nintendo eShop, the Xbox store, and the PlayStation Store--all on Silksong's launch day. Coincidence?

Silksong looks to be one of the most anticipated games in recent memory--well, outside of Grand Theft Auto 6--based on today's trends alone, and at the time of writing, I can't even find Silksong when searching for it on the Xbox console storefront (I was able to download by going to the Xbox app on my phone and searching for Silksong that way). Things are certainly disrupted right now and I have to wonder what the Big 3 are thinking right now about Silksong, especially Microsoft, who nabbed the game as a day one drop on Xbox Game Pass.

Noctua will be unveiling its very first entry into the AIO liquid cooling market in Q2 2026, with a Computex 2026 debut, it seems.

The company has just published its September 2025 roadmap that it will be launching "all-in-one liquid coolers" in Q2 2026, which would be Noctua's first foray outside of its comfort zone of selling high-end air coolers and fans. The new AIO liquid cooler was previewed earlier this year at Computex 2025, used with an Asetek G8 V2 pump, Noctua's in-house custom three-layer insulation, and an integrated mass damper to get rid of vibrations.

Noctua's new AIO cooler should ship in 420mm, 360mm, and 240mm AIO cooler variants, with either NF-A14x25 G2 or NF-A12x25 G2 fans, as well as the company's in-house SecuFirm+ mounting system, meaning it will work with existing brackets. The company has more cooking for reveals in the next few months, with expansions to its chromax.black product family, with the NF-A14x25 G2, NF-A14x25r G2, and NH-D15 G2 launching in Q4 2025.

Intel's mid-range Core i5-14600K processor has dropped to a new low price of $149 on Newegg, including a free copy of Battlefield 6, making it an insanely great CPU for the money.

Intel is giving away free copies of Battlefield 6 with its Core Ultra + Core CPUs as part of its "Gamer Days 2025" deals, with the Core i5-14600K dropping to $189 on Newegg but when mixed with a $40 off promo code, drops to an incredibly awesome $149.

The Core i5-14600K processor ships with 14 cores and 20 threads of CPU performance for the LGA 1700 platform, with more than enough processing power to run Battlefield 6 at high 120FPS and beyond. If you consider that Battlefield 6 costs $69 on its own, it means that the Intel Core i5-14600K drops down to only $89 on its own... a bloody impressive deal.

Samsung is reportedly considering bringing in more of ASML's new High-NA EUV lithography machines into its domestic semiconductor labs to accelerate the advancement of its leading-edge 2nm GAA process technology.

South Korea is heating up with its domestic semiconductor foundry competition, with SK hynix and now Samsung eyeing the use of ASML's new High-NA EUV machines. In a new report from FNnews, we're hearing that Samsung, TSMC, and Intel are looking into deploying additional High-NA EUV machines to boost next-gen semiconductor technology.

Samsung's move to use more High-NA EUV machines is essential for building new chips with ultra-fine circuits measuring 2nm or less, and the timing of the machine installation would determine success -- or failure -- in next-gen AI and high-performance semiconductor markets. Samsung was the first to deploy ASML's new High-NA EUV EXE:5000 lithography machine in South Korea, SK hynix claiming the same, at its Hwaseong campus earlier this year in March 2025.

AMD will release its next-gen Instinct MI500 Scale Up Mega Pod with a huge 256 x MI500 AI chips spread across three interconnected racks, with next-gen AMD EPYC "Verano" CPUs.

The new MI500 Scale Up Mega Pod will feature 256 physical GPU packages, reports SemiAnalysis on X, versus just 144 physical GPU packages for NVIDIA's next-gen Kyber VR300 NVL576 AI server. Each of the outer racks would house 32 compute trays per rack, with 18 switch trays in the middle, for a total of 64 compute trays per Mega Pod.

Each of the new Mega Pods would feature 256 physical/logical GPU packages, compared to 144 physical/logical GPU packages for NVIDIA's upcoming Kyber VR300 NVL576 AI servers with new Vera Rubin AI GPUs inside. Instinct MI500 UAL256 will be AMD's second-gen rack-scale AI system, after the upcoming Instinct MI450X IF128 known as "Helios" which will be launching in 2H 2026.

iPad users can finally rejoice after years of toil, as Meta has decided to finally make an official Instagram app for iPad. Yes, that is right - no more poorly optimized, stretched Instagram app on iPad.

The news was announced in a new blog post by Instagram, where the company wrote the new app will be a "redesigned experience" for iPad, which will "reflect how people use bigger screens today." What does that redesign entail? According to Instagram, the iPad app will open on Reels, Instagram's version of the vertical video content popularized by TikTok.

The iPad app won't open on the photo and video feed tab, as it does on every other platform, as Instagram seemingly believes that iPad users are more likely to be using their device to watch videos rather than browse photos.

One of the latest additions to my desk workspace is the new Genk Moonbase, a 7-in-1 supercharging station that provides awesome utility in style.

Now that almost every device has made its way up to the USB-C standard, including Apple's latest devices, thanks to the EU, charging across different branded devices has never been easier. However, now that most devices are charging with USB-C and are capable of fast-charging at various speeds, users with numerous devices, such as myself, are running into the problem of being unable to fast-charge several devices simultaneously. This problem can be overcome by taking up many ports within a power board, which can be hard to access or ugly when placed on a desk.

But what if there was a simpler, cleaner option that also added some style to your desktop space?

Acer has unveiled a new range of gaming monitors intended for gamers looking for powerful, yet intelligent hardware that pushes the limit.

According to Acer's press release, the company is making some new additions to its Predator line-up of gaming monitors, with the introduction of the Predator X27U F8, a new 27-inch OLED 2560 x 1440p resolution display capable of an insane 720Hz refresh rate. The X27U F8 is a dual-mode gaming monitor, meaning it can easily switch between resolution and refresh rate. Acer states the X27U F8 is able to switch between 2560 x 1440p at 540Hz to 1280 x 720p at 720Hz.

The idea behind the dual-mode monitor is to provide a premium option for competitive gamers who simply want as many frames as possible in-game and don't necessarily care too much about the resolution of their display. While 540Hz is still an insane refresh rate that far exceeds the frame ceilings of most FPS games, some titles, such as Counter-Strike, can reach beyond that. That is where the 720Hz mode comes in. After the Counter-Strike, or whatever game that is capable of 720 FPS gaming sessions is done, the user can switch back to 1440p at 540Hz for a slower-paced, or cinematic title that benefits more from resolution.

Earlier this year, rumors began circulating that Amazon had scrapped its big-budget Tomb Raider TV series for its Prime Video service after years of delays. It turns out that's not the case, as a new report from Variety has confirmed with Amazon MGM Studios that the live-action adaptation of the iconic video game series is set to begin production on January 19, 2026.

Not only that, but Sophie Turner (best known as Sansa Stark from HBO's Game of Thrones series) is set to take on the role of Lara Croft, with Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Fleabag, Killing Eve) and Chad Hodge (Wayward Pines, Good Behavior) serving as co-showrunners. Rumors of Sophie Turner stepping into the shoes (and shorts) of Lara Croft began to appear last year, with today's announcement confirming her commitment to the adaptation.

"I am thrilled beyond measure, to be playing Lara Croft," Sophie Turner said. "She's such an iconic character, who means so much to so many - and I am giving everything I've got."

A distributed denial-of-service attack, or DDoS attack, is designed to bring down a network, site, or online service by flooding it with fake requests to the point that it becomes overwhelmed and becomes inaccessible to all. It's a very serious issue that can lead to the loss of service for critical infrastructure, and over the years, the scale and complexity of DDoS attacks have continued to increase.

Cloudflare, a "connectivity cloud" solution designed to protect websites and networks, block bot traffic, and generally make the internet faster and more accessible, has announced that it recently blocked the largest recorded DDoS attack in history, which peaked at 11.5 terabits per second (Tbps) of traffic. Which is around 5.1Bpps, or 'billions of packets per second,'

"Cloudflare's defenses have been working overtime," Cloudflare wrote in a post on social media. "Over the past few weeks, we've autonomously blocked hundreds of hyper-volumetric DDoS attacks, with the largest reaching peaks of 5.1 Bpps and 11.5 Tbps."

If you've been following the display and TV market for a while and have been eyeing a new OLED to get that per-pixel lighting with near-infinite contrast and lifelike colors, you might want to hold out for LG's fourth-generation OLED panels. With these panels set to power the company's next-generation OLED TVs and gaming monitors, they're going to be a game-changer.

LG's fourth-generation OLED panels have now been verified by UL Solutions and awarded a Perfect Reproduction rating for delivering a 95% accuracy of original images in a living room with broad daylight lighting conditions of 500 lux. Using a 4K video as the benchmark, this result is comparable to that of a calibrated, darkened movie theater in terms of brightness and color accuracy.

It's an impressive achievement that comes down to LG bringing its groundbreaking 'Dream OLED' display technology to life and using blue phosphorescence (PHOLED) technology that includes a two-stack tandem structure for blue light, which has the shortest wavelength and requires the most energy. Basically, here you've got all three primary colors of light (red, green, and blue) with phosphorescence, which is widely considered a 'holy grail' of sorts for OLED display technology.

The new Intel Arc Pro B50 GPU is available now, with the AI and workstation-focused graphics card delivering a viable alternative to AMD's Radeon Pro W7500 and NVIDIA's RTX A1000. Based on the 'Battlemage' architecture, it also supports DisplayPort 2.1, multiple displays, and hardware AV1 decoding for editors, with 16GB of GDDR6 memory for $349 - assuming the card is sold at close to MSRP pricing.

Based on the Battlemage BMG-G21 GPU, the hardware consists of 16 Xe2 Cores, four fewer than the gaming-focused Intel Arc B580. However, with a maximum boost clock speed of 2600 MHz and a power rating of only 70W, it's being positioned as an affordable workstation GPU that can be paired with additional Intel Arc Pro B50 GPUs or easily slot into a compact case. Additionally, compared to the Intel Arc B580 12GB gaming GPU, its 16GB of GDDR6 memory is supported by a slower 128-bit interface, resulting in a total memory bandwidth of 224 GB/s.

With the launch of the Intel Arc Pro B50, our friends over at Igor's Lab have posted an in-depth review of Intel's new affordable workstation option, pitting it against AMD's Radeon Pro W7500 and NVIDIA's RTX A1000, and the results are impressive.

Acer has announced a bunch of new Predator gaming hardware at IFA 2025 this week, including the new Predator Helios 18P AI laptop and new Predator Orion 7000 Desktop Gaming PC. Check them out:

The new Predator Helios 18P AI laptop has been purpose-built upon the fantastic foundation of the Predator Helios 18 AI gaming laptop that I just finished reviewing, with the new Predator Helios 18P AI taking it up another notch. Acer's new Predator Helios 18P AI supports desktop-level AI computing, inferencing, and productivity... as well as content creators and gamers who are looking for a beast new laptop to own.

Inside, the new Acer Predator Helios 18P AI laptop features up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX with Intel vPro, which allows for hardware-level security and business-grade stability. It supports up to 192GB of ECC memory, up to the flagship NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop GPU with 24GB of GDDR7 memory, and up to a huge 6TB of Gen5 SSD storage.

SK hynix has just announced that it has assembled the industry's first High-NA EUV lithography machine, ready for mass production at its M16 fabrication plant in South Korea.

The new High-NA EUV lithography machines are next-generation lithography systems that are capable of better resolution by using a larger NA, compared to earlier EUV systems, enabling the world's finest patterns, expected to help shrink the pattern and improve density.

The TWINSCAN EXE:5200B, the first model for volume production of ASML's High NA EUV product line, enables printing of transistors 1.7 times smaller and achievement of transistor densities 2.9 times higher, compared with the existing EUV system, with a 40% improvement in the NA to 0.55 from 0.33.

NVIDIA will be removing the GeForce RTX 5080 and GeForce RTX 5070 Ti graphics card from the market in October according to new leaks, which is when the new RTX 5080 SUPER and RTX 5070 Ti SUPER cards launch.

In a new video from leaker Moore's Law is Dead, we've got some new leaked details on the RTX 5080 SUPER, RTX 5070 Ti, and RTX 5070 SUPER including specs, performance, pricing, and its launch window. MLID says that one of the most exciting things he was told is that NVIDIA plans to EOL (end of life) the RTX 5080 and RTX 5070 Ti in October.

The leaker says that it points to NVIDIA wanting to provide users with more than 16GB of VRAM consistently above the $550 pricing level, with a big VRAM capacity upgrade for the RTX 5070 Ti SUPER that will have 24GB of GDDR7 versus 16GB on the RTX 5070 Ti non-SUPER.