The NPD Group has put out their latest November 2015 report, highlighting that it was a good month for consoles. November was the best month for hardware sales on the Xbox One and PS4, with hardware sales growing 11% to $1.12 billion. This contributed a 2% rise in the overall industry, which hit $2.47 billion for the month.

NPD's Liam Callahan explains: "Growth was driven by console hardware, up 14 percent, which offset a 31 percent decline in portable hardware. November 2015 marked the best month ever in total unit sales for 8th generation consoles (Xbox One, PS4, and Wii U), surpassing sales of December 2014 (now second-highest), and November 2014 (now third-highest). Within console hardware sales there were dramatic differences by console generation as 8th generation console sales rose by 22 percent in dollars, 7th generation sales dropped by 76 percent in dollars, which is sharper than the year-to-date decline of 57 percent. In November 2015, 8th generation sales had 93 percent share of overall hardware sales, a 9 percentage point increase from last November".

Callahan also said that the PS4 and Xbox One sales are selling quicker than the Xbox 360 and PS3, where he added: "After 25 months, the combined sales for the PS4 and the XBO are 47 percent higher than the combined sales for 25 months of PS3 and Xbox 360 hardware sales".

While the Steam Controller has only been here for around a month, Valve is adding new features into their peripheral. Valve's Steam Controller is now capable of a touch menu, which will let players consolidate their hotkeys to a single interface.

Valve also added gyro support to make leaning easier in shooters, as well as other games. For RTS games, customizable mapping is now capable on the trackpad, which will make scrolling through menus much easier. An improved HUD will help you operate your controller better, with pop-ups now sprouting up on how button presses and other inputs correspond to the game that you're playing at the time.

The community was a big part of these new improvements to the Steam Controller, thanks to a suggestion from a member on the NeoGAF forums. Valve added the mouse-like joystick feature, where it has the accuracy of a mouse to the peripheral, helping manipulate cameras. Steam users are also wanted to see the Steam Controller include the ability to program specific configurations for non-Steam games, something that will be coming soon.

Studio Wildcard has begun talking more and more about the Xbox One version of its CryEngine-powered ARK: Survival Evolved, which will be released into the Game Preview mode (the Early Access equivalent on the Xbox) next week.

Jesse Rapczak, co-founder of Studio Wildcard, has said that the studio is currently hitting 30-45FPS on the Xbox One. This isn't too bad, considering that even the enthusiast GPUs on the PC struggle with the game on high detail. Rapczak took to Twitter, where he said "depends on lots of things but usually between 30-45 FPS at launch" when pressed about the performance on the Xbox One.

The Xbox One specific optimization will bleed over to the PC in the near future, where Rapczak said that the Xbox One version of the game has more optimizations than the PC version right now. Someone asked Rapczak when the PC version of ARK would receive the optimizations, to which he said the Xbox One optimizations were "coming back to PC soon" and that "we'll keep you posted".

It's not like we didn't already know this, but there will be another generation of consoles - with reports of the Xbox Two and PS5 featuring 5x the performance per watt, we didn't need the boss of Xbox to tell us there's another console coming - but he did anyway.

During an interview with The Verge, Phil Spencer said: "No, I fully expect that you'll see another console from us [...] Our best customers are Xbox console customers, and I want to keep those people engaged both on the Xbox One and anything we might do in the future. I'm 100 percent committed to that". Spencer added: "I don't want to dilute what the Xbox console customer feels. I want to expand what we're able to do for more customers. I love that console experience. It's obviously the core of what Xbox is about, and Xbox One is our most important gaming device inside the company. There's no doubt about that".

It was his talk about the Halo franchise on Windows 10 that has my attention, with Spencer saying: "It's being deliberate. So yes. We will, of course, play a critical role [on Windows 10], as I think that we're an important IP for the company. It's doing the right thing at the right time".

Even though the next-gen consoles, currently teased as the Xbox Two and PS5, aren't expected for a few more years - we're now finding out how long this generation will last for. AMD has said that it will continue to supply APUs for the Xbox One and PS4, with a life cycle til 2019.

AMD also expects that 2016 will see increased console sales over 2015, which will help their bottom line. Considering that APU sales to Microsoft and Sony are a large chunk of their revenue, investors are interested to see where AMD will be taking it in the future. It wasn't long ago that we reported that the next-gen consoles would feature 5x the performance per watt over this generation, with an increased focus on VR.

AMD expects to see a 7-year cycle for the current-gen consoles, with the Xbox One and PS4 going on sale in 2013, it should work out that 2019 is when they'll die - personally, I'd like to see them in the ground in 2016 with next-gen units released and replacing them with full 1080p 60FPS power and VR support. But, we all know that won't happen.

Steam trading is an extremely lucrative business for hackers. If you know what you're doing, you can make a pretty penny off peddling digital Team Fortress 2 or CS:GO gear across Steam. In an effort to thwart hackers, the digital distribution giant has introduced a new security system that changes Steam trading altogether.

Steam is inundated with scammers. Valve notes that some 77,000 accounts become compromised every month. The promise of ill-gotten gains attracts hackers and digital miscreants the same way that the gold rush pulled in thousands of greedy miners. In a recent blog post, Valve announced a controversial new measure that will slow down the trading system in an attempt to improve security.

The measure is called "Steam trade hold system", also known as trading escrows, which sees Valve act as a middleman between each individual trade. With the new system, digital items are no longer instantly transferred when a trade is complete, but instead are verified through Valve. Users can get around the waiting period by using the Steam Guard mobile app, which instantly verifies identities via two-step authentication.

Oculus VR has announced that all final retail versions of its Oculus Rift CV1 headset will come packaged with a free copy of CCP Games' VR starship sim EVE Valkyrie. In a recent Tweet, EVE developer Sigurdur Gunnarsson said "So very happy to finally announce that EVE: Valkyrie will be bundled with the Oculus Rift at launch :)".

EVE Valkyrie is an interstellar dogfighter that takes place in the landmark MMO universe of EVE Online, and puts players in the cockpit of a spaceship for brutal team-based multiplayer. The game sports a plethora of unlockable ships and weapons, a dynamic character-progression ranking system, 360 degree combat, and aims to fully harness the power of the first consumer Oculus Rift headset.

EVE Valkyrie will likely continue to get better as time goes by, and it definitely won't be the only VR starfighter that CCP Games releases. The studio recently secured a $30 million investment in order to bolster its stance as a leading contender in the virtual reality market. CCP Games also acquired ex-EA networking exec Maria Sayans, who will helm the company's new customer relations office that will assess and digest user-submitted feedback.

Last month we reported on a leak confirming Intel would be releasing Broadwell-E CPUs in 2016 in three flavours of 6-core/12-threads, 8-core/16-threads, and 10-core/20-threads. Now further details have surfaced.

The flagship CPU, as previously mentioned, is the 10-core/20-thread i7 6950X. Now rumors from OC3D (who neglect to cite a source) tell us it features a 14nm process node, 25MB cache, 3.0GHz clock speed, 2400MHz memory clock, and 140W TDP. Furthermore, it comes unlocked, and supports the X99 chipset and DDR4 2400 RAM. As for the rest of the family, see for yourself below.

Broadwell-E is rumored to launch at this year's Computex in June at the $1,000 price point.

As a kid, the Lawnmower Man movie fascinated me. I've always wanted to put on a suit and literally enter a video game, actually feeling the digital realm. With the advent of full-body haptic feedback suits like the one Rez creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi wore at the PS Experience, this long-awaited sci-fi dream is now a reality.

At this year's PlayStation Experience, Sony showcased a slew of VR-enabled games for its PlayStation VR headset. Aside from the games, the Japanese console-maker had something special to show off for Rez Infinite: a full-body VR suit. Tetsuya Mizuguchi walked on stage in what looked like a sliver astronaut getup, but it was actually a haptic-feedback Synesthesia Suit equipped with 26 actuated motors that pulsed to the rhythm of Rez's in-game music.

Attendees at the event were able to try the suit on for themselves, which led to explosive praise. One user said that the experience was drug-like, saying it was "absolutely exquisite" and the suit offered "total sensory immersion in a way that was never possible before without resorting to narcotics." After trying the Rez Infinite suit, Sony's own Shuhei Yoshida said that he "feels like a new person", and that he "sees the world differently now".

Big showcases like CES are perfect springboards for new product announcements and reveals, and with virtual reality expected to take hold in 2016, its pertinent that VR will be a major focus for the event. Despite HTC revealing an April 2016 release for the Vive VR, Oculus hasn't countered, but can we expect an official Oculus Rift release date at CES 2016?

Anshel Sag, analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy, told us exclusively that he fully expects a final Oculus Rift release date at CES 2016. "I think we'll get pricing and availability info (and orders) at CES and they'll probably ship low quantities around CES and volume weeks later with normal shipments later in the quarter."

Although Facebook-owned Oculus VR is seen as the pioneer in virtual reality tech, it wasn't the first to formally announce a concrete window of availability. HTC and Valve jumped the gun with their promise of a release in 2015, which was ultimately delayed into 2016. After delays and speculation, HTC revealed a final April 2016 window for the HTC Vive VR. Amid the promises of its competitors, Oculus VR took the conservative approach with a Q1 2016 window for the Rift CV1.

Currently on Kickstarter and sitting at 540% of its $31,000 goal with a massive 44 days to go, the PINE A64 is quoted as "the world's first 64-bit expandable Quad Core 1.2Ghz supercomputer, tablet, media center, and more."

Available for only $15, this product is what seems to be the first real Raspberry Pi competitor. While Raspberry Pi released its Zero computer for only $5 recently, PINE offered up its first backers a $5 PINE A0 system, packed with a quad-core 64 bit processor and no Ethernet port.

The PINE A64 board measures in at 3.125" x 5" and features a 64-bit quad-core ARM A53 CPU, claiming to offer between 20 to 30 percent better performance than the Raspberry Pi-2B and Pi-1A+ while being almost half the price. designed to run Android 5.1, this product has been made with desktop PC processing tasks in mind, however, there are almost limitless options available for tech savvy users looking to tinker and create projects.

Magic Leap has reportedly secured another $827 million in Series C funding, according to sources of Forbes. If the report is true, it means Magic Leap has raised over $1.4 billion in total. What is Magic Leap? Its a new form of augmented reality that blends real life with holograms. Take a look below.

The augmented reality start-up kicked off its funding rounds in February 2014, where it raised over $50 million to work on its "Cinematic Reality" platform. Later in the year, it raised $542 million in Series B financing. The company hasn't announced its Series C funding, but Forbes said it had filings that it secured through private market data tracker VC Experts.

As for the dynamics of Magic Leap, MIT Review's Rachel Metz discusses how the new tech will work. "Essentially, [Magic Leap] has developed an itty-bitty projector that shines light into your eyes-light that blends in extremely well with the light you're receiving from the real-world," Metz said after trying a live demo test of Magic Leap tech.

CCP Games has announced that it has hired Electronic Arts veteran Maria Sayans into a newly created position, with Sayans now CCP Games' chief customer office. The company recently secured a $30 million investment to boost its 'leadership position' in the VR market.

In her role, Sayans will oversee every aspect of CCP Games' relationship with its customers, but she'll also be in control of their marketing, web development and customer service teams in Reykjavik, Shanghai, Atlanta, and Newcastle. Sayans will spearhead a new CCP office in London, will be reporting directly to company CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson.

Pétursson talked about securing Sayans, where he said: "As we embark on this new chapter in CCP's story, it's really important to us to further build on the fantastic relationship we've built with our customers. Maria will help us unify our communications across teams and studios so we can better enable our players to realize their wildest dreams".

eSports giant Azubu has just secured another $60 million in a new round of funding, with their viewership increasing by 1200% in the last 12 months alone.

The new funding was led by London-based Sapinda Group, with a contribution also coming in from Sallfort Privatbank of Switzerland. Azubu will use the money to expand into new global territories, as well as grow its next-gen platform, Azubu 3.0. Azubu CEO Ian Sharpe said: "We believe that the global eSports community deserves a broadcast and viewing platform that's designed specifically for their businesses. We are developing our technology in direct collaboration with the community and brand partners in order to provide the best possible, and crucially, most monetizable streaming experience".

Jason Katz, COO of Azubu said: "We are expanding operations in a number of new regions around the world and creating bigger and more content partnerships and corporate relationships, which we're looking forward to announcing in the near future. This latest round of financing will support our global growth and expansion into 2016 and beyond".

We said it broke our hearts, but it's better than getting our hopes up - Half-Life 3 rumors begin to fly, but Valve said that the entry in the Steam Database had nothing to do with the company that can't count to three.

An eager fan reached out to Valve's Marc Laidlaw, asking if he could clarify a few things. Laidlaw responded, saying that the entry for Half-Life 3 had nothing to do with Valve, so another developer or publisher has most likely created it. Conspiracy theories have started, saying that Laidlaw is in damage control, fanning the flames that Half-Life 3 is coming soon.

While some people say that Half-Life 3 isn't coming out ever, I think Valve is waiting until the HTC Vive is here, and then they're going to unveil it as the perfect system seller for their VR headset - as well as Steam Machines, SteamOS, Steam Box, and the rest of the hardware they've got coming out in 2016.

If you're like me, then you've been rueing the day when Bethesda fixed Fallout 4's super-useful infinite bottlecap glitch. Sadly, that day is today. Yes, Fallout 4's illustrious bottlecap glitch is no more, so be sure to avoid downloading the new patch on PS4 and Xbox One if you want to keep amassing materials to your hearts content.

Multiple users are reporting that the bottlecap glitch has indeed been fixed, and Kotaku corroborates these reports. I myself avoided updating the PS4 flavor of Fallout 4 out of paranoia, and it's served me quite well. I knew that Bethsoft would nix this handy tool as soon as possible.

Oddly enough, Bethesda silently scrapped the glitch without telling anyone, leading would-be glitchers to a very nasty surprise the next time they visited Arturo's stall at Diamond City. The PS4 patch notes have absolutely no mention of a bottlecap glitch fix. The patch isn't all bad, however. Fallout 4's patch 1.02 improves the fps stutters that afflicted console gamers, but doesn't outright fix them. If anything, the patch is more of a bandaid.

Thanks to a slip up at the hands of Microsoft, Xbox LIVE accounts accessed through the official Xbox LIVE website can now be hijacked on Windows 10 and Windows Phone platforms. The company has said that it's "not currently aware" of any reported suspicious activity, but warns users that their accounts may be at risk.

Microsoft reports that it "inadvertently disclosed" the private keys for sensitive security certificates, which hackers can use to acquire Xbox LIVE account information from Windows users. Armed with Xbox website's SSL/TLS digital certificates, hackers can prompt users to re-enter usernames and passwords on an insecure network. Be aware that this security measure doesn't affect Xbox 360 or Xbox One users directly, and is only limited to access to the Xbox LIVE mainsite.

"Microsoft is aware of an SSL/TLS digital certificate for *.xboxlive.com for which the private keys were inadvertently disclosed," reads the security warning. "The certificate could be used in attempts to perform man-in-the-middle attacks. It cannot be used to issue other certificates, impersonate other domains, or sign code. This issue affects all supported releases of Microsoft Windows. Microsoft is not currently aware of attacks related to this issue."

Due to the inherently strong language and culture barrier, it's often quite difficult understanding Japanese business politics. Millions of gamers across the globe are still trying to figure out why Konami continues to ignite the anti-Kojima controversy at every turn. Former Square Enix president Yoichi Wada is well-versed with all the ins and outs of the Japanese games industry, and blatantly decrees that this kind of treatment is "bad business" for everyone involved.

It seems like there's never a dull moment in the Konami vs. Kojima scandal; every month or so, Konami finds a new way to burn its reputation. The latest development in the ongoing struggle took place at The Game Awards 2015, where Kojima's magnum opus Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain won an award for Best Action Adventure. As revealed by TGA host Geoff Keighley, Hideo Kojima was forbidden to attend the show on orders from Konami's lawyers, causing even more fresh backlash from the community.

Konami's strongarming tactics are drawing the attention of key Japanese industry figures, most notably ex-Square Enix president Yoichi Wada, who expressed his disgust in a Facebook post:

Mozilla revealed that it will be pulling out of the smartphone race as titans like Apple, Samsung and Android push the beleaguered open-source company out of the mobile market.

Due to flagging support from consumers and developers alike, Mozilla is surrendering its plans to get a foothold in today's global handset market. In a recent press release, the company announced that its Firefox OS-powered phones will no longer by sold by carriers. The company hoped to tap a niche market with its Firefox phones, which offered cheap and lightweight hardware solutions and new, alternative experience.

"Firefox OS proved the flexibility of the Web, scaling from low-end smartphones all the way up to HD TVs. However, we weren't able to offer the best user experience possible and so we will stop offering Firefox OS smartphones through carrier channels," said Mozilla's senior vice president of Connected Devices Ari Jaaksi.

With Asetek demanding that AMD stop sales of its Radeon R9 Fury X video card due to watercooling issue between CoolerMaster and Asetek, AMD has now publicly replied.

Packed with a closed loop cooling system, AMD defended its Radeon R9 Fury X with CoolerMaster-supported liquid cooling, stating "We are aware that Asetek has sued Cooler Master. While we defer to Cooler Master regarding the details of the litigation, we understand that the jury in that case did not find that the Cooler Master heat sink currently used with the Radeon Fury X infringed any of Asetek's patents."

With this quote in mind, AMD has not directly stated if they will be continuing to sell or cease production of its Fury X cards, with them claiming that the lawsuit has nothing to do with the R9 card directly.