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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.

Windows 11 has slowly been gaining in market share for quite some time, with most of its new users directly coming from the current leading operating system based on total users, Windows 10.

Microsoft announced it was ending support for Windows 10 in October 2025, and since then, the Redmond company has been pushing Windows 10 users to make the leap to the latest version of Windows. Following the end-of-support, Windows 10 will no longer receive security updates and support from Microsoft.

Unfortunately for both Microsoft and Windows 10 users, adoption isn't happening at the speed that Redmond would like, with reports indicating Windows 11 adoption has been much slower than previous operating system generations.

JPMorgan Chase Bank has put out a public warning advising against anyone attempting to take advantage of a system "glitch" that involved depositing fraudulent checks and withdrawing a portion of the total deposited amount from the ATM before the check could be denied.

The US banking giant stated it is aware of the now viral scheme that took off on the social media platform TikTok. Chase Bank customers were shown knowingly depositing a false check at a Chase Bank into their account and then immediately going to an ATM to withdraw a portion of that recently deposited amount. The withdrawal was processed as it exploited a delay in Chase Bank's internal balance checking system.

Tesla has just launched its new ASS system for its cars, or Actually Smart Summon, which allows your vehicle to come to you, or to a specific spot you choose, all on its own. Tesla says "it's like magic, but with more tech and less hand-waving".

Tesla's new ASS feature will let you tap the Tesla app and have the car come to you, which is a fantastic feature when you're out at the shops and it's raining (or it's hot) and the car can pre-heat (or pre-cool) and roll right up to the doors (or as close as it can) for you. Out at a friends place and parked down the street? No worries... your Tesla will ride itself into the driveway to pick you up.

In the full details for ASS (Actually Smart Summon), Tesla explains: "Buckle up for the ride of your life, except, surprise! You're not in the car. ASS (Actually Smarrt Summon) allows your vehicle to come to you, or head to a spot that you choose, all on its own. It's like magic, but with more tech and less hand-waving".

The Steam Hardware & Software Survey results for August 2024 are now online, and when it comes to GPUs, the GeForce RTX 3060 is still the most popular option among PC gamers. The story hasn't changed much in the desktop space compared to last month, with the GeForce RTX 4060, RTX 4060 Ti, and RTX 4070 proving to be the undisputed go-to cards for this generation.

NVIDIA is dominating, with AMD and Intel barely making an impression outside integrated graphics. However, this month, the Steam hardware chart for GPUs sees a new arrival in the form of AMD Radeon 780M Graphics, the integrated graphics found in popular portable gaming hardware like the ROG Ally, Legion Go, and several other portable devices from companies like Ayaneo, Zotac, and more.

Found in the popular Ryzen 7000 Series of mobile processors, Radeon 780M Graphics has been a game changer (alongside the Radeon hardware inside the Steam Deck) for pushing portable PC gaming handhelds into the mainstream.

The Steam Hardware & Software Survey results for August 2024 show that Windows 10 has been dethroned as the most popular operating system among PC gamers. Yes, this means Windows 11 is proving to be very popular with PC gamers, with the operating system sitting on a majority 50% market share (49.17% to be exact), an increase of 3.36% from July 2024.

The Steam Hardware & Software Survey results show that Windows 10's market share has dropped by 3.07%, almost the same amount that Windows 11's share has grown. This suggests that more PC gamers are jumping to Windows 11 directly from Windows 10.

Although Windows 11 has struggled to overtake Windows 10 as the world's most popular operating system among all PC users, it looks like PC gamers have been transitioning steadily. This probably comes down to the fact that modern PC games and platforms like Steam, Xbox, EA, and Ubisoft are optimized for Windows 11 alongside tech like DirectX.

Funcom's chief product officer Scott Junior is the latest game developer to acknowledge the Xbox Series S' challenging power profile.

Gen 9 consoles introduced an interesting fracture point for Xbox. In a bid to secure more players and fill out console install bases, Microsoft opted to split its new console lineup into two parts: The budget-friendly $299 Xbox Series S, and the powerhouse $499 Xbox Series X. This price disparity also comes with a hefty spec difference, though; the Series S is markedly weaker than the Series X, with 37% less RAM (10GB vs the Series X's 16GB) and a GPU with 60% less Compute Units (CUs).

Despite this disparity in specifications, multiple developers and publishers have gotten big-name games to work on both systems. But it doesn't mean it's necessarily easy. Funcom, who is making the new Dune: Awakening game, acknowledges that the Series S will be a challenge for the team.

From Guitar Hero to Destiny, Xbox gaming CEO Phil Spencer recounts some of the missed opportunities for big publishing and partner deals for the Xbox brand.

Like most hit-based industries, no one knows what games will actually do well. The interactive entertainment space is full of unknowns, but gaming leads to a distinct type of guesswork and hindsight-fueled rumination. Mega-hits can come out of nowhere thanks to viral social media or a unique hook, whether it be Halo with RPG elements (Destiny) or plastic guitars simulating a more complex game of Simon (Guitar Hero).

At PAX 2024, Xbox gaming CEO Phil Spencer gives us a rare look at what it's like to make these kinds of long-reaching decisions that a games executive not only has to make, but live with. Which games do you sign? Which companies do you make deals with? There's wins and then there's misses...and for Phil Spencer, there's been a few misses.