Windows 11 is getting a new layout for its virtual keyboard specifically tailored to allow those with a gamepad to type on it using the peripheral.

The nifty innovation for those of us who like to use an Xbox controller with their PC has been introduced with the latest Windows 11 preview build in beta. Build 22635 actually came out last week, but has just been updated with this additional piece of functionality.

Microsoft tells us:

Intel's new Core Ultra 200V series "Lunar Lake" processors ship with next-gen Xe2 "Battlemage" integrated GPUs that offer some gigantic improvements in performance, right after AMD launches its Ryzen AI 300 series "Strix Point" APUs with upgraded RDNA 3.5-based Radeon 890M GPUs.

The new Xe2 "Battlemage" GPU has a 50% performance increase over Xe "Alchemist" inside of Meteor Lake, with more improvements in ray tracing through improved ray tracing units, better utilization of the CPU cores versus Alchemist Xe-LPG GPUs.;

Intel compares its Xe GPUs on the Core Ultra 7 155H "Meteor Lake" CPU against the new flagship Core Ultra 9 288V "Lunar Lake" CPU in a bunch of games, delivering a 31% uplift in performance, and in some games, over 60-70% more performance over Alchemist. Very nice to see.

Intel has officially launched its new Core Ultra 200V series "Lunar Lake" processors, to take on the next-generation thin-and-light laptop market against AMD and Qualcomm.

The company has tweaked virtually everything under the hood of Lunar Lake, with new P-Cores and E-Cores, a massively upgraded integrated GPU, and even more AI performance. Intel is also debuting on-package memory with its new Core Ultra 200V series "Lunar Lake" CPUs -- RAM that is next to the chip itself.

Intel is using its new Lion Cove P-Cores for more performance than the previous-generaiton, and Skymonth E-Cores that are tuned for efficiency. For Lunar Lake, Intel is using Low-Power variants of its E-Cores called LP-E, which sit on a dedicated low-power island.

The Black Myth: Wukong saga continues as Microsoft has issued a new statement on why the Chinese best-selling game has yet to release on Xbox consoles.

Black Myth: Wukong was originally supposed to launch on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, but has only launched on PS5 and PC. Since its release in late August, the action RPG has become a mega-hit across the globe, selling over 10 million copies on just PS5 and PC combined. So...where's the Xbox version?

Insider reports indicate that Sony had some sort of exclusivity deal with Black Myth: Wukong. The details aren't extensively clear, but the information points to Sony Interactive Entertainment helping assist Wukong's development in an effort to speed up the game's launch on PS5. This may not have been a traditional marketing deal, however, as Sony has not attached any sort of exclusivity disclaimer to Wukong's promo materials on the platform.

NVIDIA's various Taiwan-based systems and AI server part suppliers (cabinets, assembly, liquid cooling components, and more) expects orders for GB200 NVL36 AI servers to start in mid-September, with the higher-end GB200 NVL72 AI server cabinets expected in the second half of October.

In a new report from Ctee, we're learning that the "market generally believes" the GB200 AI server orders will be "launched as expected" with NVL36 and NVL72 AI server cabinets in mid-September, and late-October, respectively. GB200 is crucial for NVIDIA, as it's expected that out of the 5 million Blackwell chips to be produced in 2025, around 80% of them will be used in GB200.

Each of the GB200 AI GPUs cost around $30,000 each, with the GB200 Superchip (CPU + GPU) costs upwards of $70,000. NVIDIA's new NVL72 AI server cabinet costs around $3 million per AI server, filled with 72 x B200 GPUs and 36 x Grace CPUs. The NVL36 AI server cabinet features 36 x B200 AI GPUs and 16 x Grace CPUs.

Sony has reportedly "locked down marketing rights" to Rockstar's game-changing GTA 6 for its PlayStation 5 and upcoming beefed-up PlayStation 5 Pro consoles.

On the XNC podcast recently, "MAGG" said that we're going to learn during Rockstar's second trailer for GTA 6 that "Sony has locked down marketing rights for GTA 6 for the PS5 and PS5 Pro only". Colt asked what would that mean for Xbox, to which he replied: "nothing, they're still getting it... it's just not going to get the marketing exposure, that's all".

Sony would be silly not to throw whatever money they need to at Rockstar, for what will arguably be the largest entertainment release of all time (not just gaming, but music sales, box office records, etc) with GTA 6. It has been killing it in console sales with the PlayStation 5 demolishing Microsoft's and its weak Xbox sales, and has a beefed-up PlayStation 5 Pro console right around the corner.

TSMC is expected to build its third chip plant in Japan as early as 2030, joining the Taiwanese semiconductor leader and its recent "Nightless Castle" project which saw a new fab built in Japan in under 2 years with 24-hour work days.

Taiwan's Minister of Economic Affairs, Kuo Jyh-huei, said he expects a new plant to be built that will make advanced chips in Japan, continuing on TSMC's fabs in Kumamoto Prefecture, but didn't specify an exact location. The minister said during an interview with Kyodo News: "experienced engineers are essential in producing advanced chips. Japan lacks enough experience so (such skilled engineers) will not be available until 2030 or later".

The minister also said he's willing to work together with Japan on training up skilled engineers, with Japan's next steps in the semiconductor business vital: it is fortifying supply chains for semiconductors, so working with Taiwan is paramount to Japan's future in the industry.

Saudi-funded Savvy Games Group plans to make another major buyout or stake acquisition through 2024, but who will it be?

Through the Savvy Games Group, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund has spent billions of dollars on strategic video games company buyouts and stake purchases. We've seen Savvy buy Scopely for $4.9 billion, which turned out to be an excellent investment--Scopely made the mega-successful Monopoly Go mobile game, which managed to generate over $3 billion in little over a year.

Now Savvy plans to make even more major investments throughout 2024. "On the game development and publishing side, we expect to be able to announce another major investment or acquisition, hopefully in a top team or publisher that can bring another great game to our portfolio," Savvy Games Group CEO Brian Ward told publication Arab News.

Elon Musk has announced a major milestone for his AI startup, xAI, which just turned its new AI training system "Colossus" online over the weekend.

Elon tweeted: "This weekend, the xAI team brought our Colossus 100K H100 training cluster online. From start to finish, it was done in 122 days. Colossus is the most powerful AI training system in the world. Moreover, it will double in size to 200K (50K H200s) in a few months. Excellent work by the team, NVIDIA and our many partners/suppliers".

Colossus is home to 100,000 of NVIDIA's current-gen Hopper H100 AI GPUs, while Musk says that soon the most powerful AI training system in the world will have 50,000 of NVIDIA's beefed-up H200 AI GPUs (faster HBM3E memory, and more of it over the H100 AI GPU).

NVIDIA's next-generation GeForce RTX 5090 reportedly has a 600W TDP, while the RTX 5080 is pegged at 400W and will have 10% more performance than the current-gen flagship RTX 4090.

In a new post on X by leaker "kopite7kimi" we're learning that there are some new GeForce RTX 50 series "Blackwell" GPU details regarding TDPs on the higher-end RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 graphics cards. The leaker says that the flagship GeForce RTX 5090 will have a 600W TDP, while the RTX 5080 will have a 400W TDP.

VideoCardz confirmed with kopite7kimi that the RTX 5080 is "projected" to show a 1.1x increase in performance over the RTX 4090, but the leaker "did not specify whether this improvement pertains to overall, raster, or ray tracing performance". We've previously heard rumors of the RTX 5090 having a base GPU clock of 2.9GHz+ which would result in around 30% more performance from GPU clocks alone, while Micron itself said its next-gen GDDR7 will have 30% performance gains.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger is reportedly planning to present the board on how to streamline the company, including selling some parts of the business off and scrapping projects, to the board later this month.

In a new report from Reuters, we're learning that Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger and key executives are expected to "present a plan" later this month to Intel's board of directors, to "slice off unnecessary businesses and revamp capital spending" according to a source familiar with the matter.

The plan will reportedly include ideas from Gelsinger and his team to shave overall costs by selling businesses, including its programmable chip unit Altera, as Intel can no longer continue to fund the company. Reuters' source said that Gelsinger and the other high-ranking executives are expected to present the plan at a mid-September board meeting.

Epic's free games initiative has helped drive up users on its proprietary storefront for a fraction of the price of advertising.

In the world of retail, there's few things that are more effective than freebies. Promos, discounts, and of course free bonuses are a powerful motivator to get people into stores, both digital and physical. That's especially true for the Epic Games Store's free games program.

In a recent interview with PC Gamer, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney delivered some interesting comments on how EGS' freebies have helped drive user acquisition. According to Sweeney, securing free games is actually much, much cheaper than placing advertisements on social media and Google search. Epic has spent tens of millions of dollars on these kinds of deals over the years, with $11.6 million spent in the first 9 months alone, but the payoff has been worth it.

Sony is responding to the launch of its failed live service shooter Concord.

In an unprecedented move that's rarely seen since the Cyberpunk 2077 release in 2020, Sony and developer Firewalk Studios have announced plans to pull Concord from sale on the PlayStation Store, Steam, and the Epic Games Store, refund all purchases of the game on PS5 and PC, and take the game completely offline.

Gamers will have until September 6 to play Concord, the announcement says.

New research from vpnMentor indicates VPN usage across Brazil has skyrocketed more than 1500% since the ban of Elon Musk's social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

Following a legal dispute between X and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, Musk decided to halt all operations of the social media platform across Brazil. Furthermore, the Moraes instructed X to appoint a new legal representative by 7:97 PM Friday ET, which X didn't fulfill the request and informed the Supreme Court justice it won't be complying with the demands.

Following the deadline passing Moraes instructed Brazil's National Telecommunications Agency to block access to X. The instruction was passed on to more than 20,000 IPS across the country. In addition to the general population being severed from X there is also the R$50,000 ($8,900) fine for both individuals and companies using VPNs to circumvent the X ban and still access the Musk's social media platform. Despite the looming threat of an extremely expensive fine, VPN access across Brazil has surged by 1600%.

1X has revealed NEO, its humanoid robot that's designed to be your helper around the home.

The intelligent android assistant, as 1X calls it, is a prototype model, as you might guess, and we've been treated to a short clip of the NEO Beta robot in action.

The idea is to produce a soft robot, rather than a mechanical or stiff android, to look more naturally human. Indeed, some commenters don't believe it's a robot in the video that's just been shared, and are saying it's just a human in a suit.

FromSoftware games have become extremely popular with a large portion of the gaming industry really respecting the difficulty and time that goes into completing each of the studio's titles.

The explosion in popularity of FromSoftware games peaked with the release of Elden Ring, which went on to sell 25 million units by June 2024, being awarded Game of the Year, and becoming one of the best-selling video games of all time. The success of Elden Ring brought an influx of new fans of FromSoftware games, and probably one that falls to the wayside in discussions about FromSoftware's Dark Souls and Elden Ring games is Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

However, rumors previously suggested Shadows Die Twice was pegged to receive its own anime based on the video game, and now according to Ecuf, who writes it can exclusively announce the production of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice will be handled by Qzilla. Additionally, the anime will have a "low episode count" and be based on the events occurring in the FromSoftware title. For those anime fans out there, Qzilla recently produced the opening for Jigokuraku / Hell's Paradise Season 1.

Devices with foldable screens are nothing new, but a tri-fold display is, and we now have a name for Huawei's incoming smartphone of this nature.

The official name is the Huawei Mate XT, as shown in a new teaser clip (see above). It's hardly an exciting name and not something that reflects the tri-foldable nature of the device - though the 'T' could stand for tri-fold, perhaps - but at any rate, it's in line with the existing naming conventions for Huawei.

The phone was spotted being used by Huawei's CEO Yu Richard recently, and has been teased several times since then. When fully unfolded, the three displays (connected by a pair of hinges) essentially form a 10-inch tablet.

One of the most beloved performances to ever grace the big screen screen was Ian McKellen's role as Gandalf the Grey/White in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies, and with new Middle-Earth movies on the way it begs the question - Will Ian McKellen be returning to the iconic role of Gandalf?

McKellen has previously expressed extreme enthusiasm at the idea of returning to the role of Gandalf, even going as to publicly say he wants to pick up the staff before he finally retires, which currently doesn't have an end in sight. McKellen told The Big Issue that his passion for The Lord of the Rings hasn't subsided and that he will keep on acting as long as his body has the strength to enable to him to do so. "I shall just keep at it as long as the legs and the lungs and the mind keep working," said McKellen.

The 85-year-old said to the publication that he was informed there are new Middle-Earth movies in the works and he has been approached to reprise his role as Gandalf. McKellen didn't confirm that he was returning to the role but said, "Gandalf will be involved, and they hope that I'll be playing him." Speaking to BBC Breakfast McKellen said, "I'm not letting anyone else put on the pointy hat and beard if I can help it."

Nintendo is no stranger to filing copyright claims against any piece of content depicting its content in a light it doesn't like, in fact, the company has made quite a name for itself and its legal department as it has previously filed complaints against some of its biggest fans producing content about the company's games.

Nintendo has been doing this for quite some time, and as a company has taken stringent measures to protect the way it believes its IP should be viewed by the world. The Mario creator has now updated its Game Content Guidelines for Online Video & Image Sharing Platforms, which the company introduced in 2018 and has since rolled out several changes to.

The guidelines outline all of the rights Nintendo holds when it comes to its IP, and its latest change gives Nintendo the power to ban users forever if they show Nintendo IP in an "unlawful, infringing, inappropriate" manner. Nintendo outlined in an FAQ question asking for further elaboration on the new rules, any content containing Nintendo IP that has been sourced through "data mining or other methods" is now prohibited.

Xbox Game Studios will be releasing Age of Mythology Retold on September 5, and ahead of the public release, gamers should know that to access ranked multiplayer matches, your PC will need to hit a benchmark score of at least 1000.

The release of Age of Mythology Retold is right around the corner, and with review codes being sent out to reviewers we have already gotten a sneak peek at what players of the iconic real-time-strategy (RTS) game can expect out of the revamped version. As I outlined in my "20 minutes of Age of Mythology: Retold gameplay" video, the classic RTS has gotten a fresh coat of paint in the form of Ray Tracing graphics, animation overhauls of units, new maps, new civilizations, automatic economy features, and much more.

However, what hasn't been touched on is the multiplayer side of the game, which is undoubtedly a component of the game that many people are excited about. Age of Mythology: Retold will require players on PC to hit a benchmark score of at least 1000 with the inbuilt benchmark tool to be eligible for ranked multiplayer matches. I ran the benchmark tool with my NVIDIA RTX 4090 with the graphics settings completely maxed and ended with a score of 1713.70.