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3D Realms and Slipgate Ironworks have both reportedly been hit with new layoffs.

2023 was a stellar year for game releases, but inflation and risk aversion led to mass layoffs in the gaming sector. While Newzoo estimates the interactive entertainment industry generated over $184 billion in 2023, about 6,000 people lost their jobs. Layoffs affected the industry across all dimensions: large publishers like EA and Ubisoft made cuts alongside smaller subsidiaries like 3D Realms.

Just last month, reports indicated that Embracer and Saber Interactive made job cuts at 3D Realms. Now Apogee's Scott Miller says that this layoff spree has continued at the Danish publisher. Miller created 3D Realms back in the 90s and still has close ties with the group, so his information is assuredly solid.

Breakout indie hit Dave the Diver found big success in 2023, selling more copies during the year than some AAA games.

In terms of game selection, 2023 was one of the best years in gaming history. The wide spectrum of games yielded big selection variety for gamers, and despite the congested slate of franchised games, consumers were ready and willing to buy cheaper indie games. Since 2020 or thereabouts, we've seen millions of gamers gravitate towards indies through social word-of-mouth, likely driven by streamers and influencers. Dave the Diver is one of these games.

According to a new update from the developers at Mintrocket, Dave the Diver has sold 3 million copies since launching in June 2023. That's no small feat for a AAA game (3 million sales in 7 months is considered a win at most publishers), let alone a smaller-scale game like Dave the Diver.

Meta has permanently dropped its Meta Quest 2 prices, making the Black Friday discounts on the popular VR headset the new norm. Of course, 2023 saw the release of the Meta Quest 3 - which features new mixed-reality capabilities and an improved display.

Still, the Meta Quest 2's new pricing makes it one of the most affordable VR headsets available - with the all-in-one headset with motion controls also doubling as a wired and wireless PC solution.

The Meta Quest 2 128GB model now costs $249.99 USD (down from $299.99), with the Meta Quest 2 512GB now available for $299.99 (down from $349.99). Meta's blog post notes that the price drop will help make VR more affordable and bring more people into the Quest community (and ecosystem).

NASA's Park Solar Probe, a spacecraft designed to monitor and observe our local star, is scheduled to make a milestone pass of the Sun late next year, marking a monumental achievement for humanity.

The space probe is designed to collect valuable data about our Sun, such as solar weather, solar patterns, star evolution, and much more. Notably, the Parker Solar Probe is the fastest human-made object, and with every pass it makes of our local star, it gains speed, breaking its previous record. Last September, the Parker Solar Probe reached 394,736 mph (635,266 km/h), breaking its previous record of 364,660 mph (586,863 kmh).

On December 24, the Parker Solar Probe will pass the Sun at 435,000 mph, at a distance of just 3.8 million miles from the Sun's "surface". According to Parker project scientist Dr. Nour Raouafi, "We are basically almost landing on a star." The incredible speed of the Parker Solar Probe can be attributed to the intense gravitational pull of the Sun, and for a quick comparison of the speed, NASA's Sun probe would be moving so fast it would be similar to traveling from New York to London in under 30 seconds.

Tesla has taken to its website to unveil its impressive delivery numbers for 2023, with the electric vehicle manufacturer exceeding the previous year's deliveries by 38%.

The Elon Musk-led electric vehicle manufacturer managed to produce 1.846 million EVs last year and, of those, delivered 1.809 million. Those figures include the last quarter, where 494,989 EVs were produced, and 484,507 were delivered to customers. It should be noted that Tesla initially told investors it was anticipating hitting 2 million vehicles in 2023 but later walked back its estimate in October. Despite the walk-back of some projections, the company performed better in Q4 2023 than some analysts predicted, per CNBC.

During Q4 2023, Tesla produced 476,777 Model 3/Y vehicles and made 461,538 deliveries. The company didn't reveal the percentages for the other models it offers consumers, such as Model S/X; the company instead opted for an "Other models" category that contains 18,212 EVs produced and 22,969 deliveries made.

The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro models might have only been on sale for a short period of time in the grand scheme of things, but there is already a suggestion that those waiting for what comes next might want to look elsewhere or bite the bullet and place an order today instead. That's the prevailing feeling among the analysts at Barclays at least, with the outfit saying that we shouldn't expect anything groundbreaking when Apple's next iPhones are announced.

That announcement is likely to come in or around September of this year, but 9to5Mac reports on an analyst note that warns of no new features or upgrades being in the pipeline for the iPhone 16 that will make it a more compelling option than the one that is already on store shelves. As a result, the analysts' report goes on to say that it has reduced Apple's stock price target from $161 per share down to just $160.

In terms of the current iPhones, the report adds that Barclays believes that there have been indications that buyers of iPhones have chosen to pick up the cheaper models rather than the Pro ones this year, something that is unusual for an iPhone launch. The report also says that there has been a lack of improvement in iPad and Mac sales, as well as sales of Apple Watches. All of those things combined to see Apple's price target reduced by the analysts.

Rumors surrounding the release of Samsung's new flagship phone, the Galaxy S24, appear to be correct, with the company announcing the Unpacked event for 2024.

The company announced that the event will take place on Tuesday, January 17th, at 10:00 a.m. PT / 1:00 a.m. ET and will be held at the SAP Center in San Jose, California. Even more interestingly, Samsung has a new reservation system for the new device, allowing consumers to save some money on their new Galaxy S24, S24 Plus, or S24 Ultra.

The system includes a $50 reverse credit via preorders. There are no commitments, of course; you do not have to preorder the phone if you don't like what you see come January 17th, but the option is there for someone who wants to save money on a brand-new flagship phone.

If you've been patiently waiting for Apple to make its upcoming Vision Pro AR/VR headset available to buy, you might not have to wait quite as long as we first thought. That's according to an admittedly sketchy report by a Chinese investor news service. That news service, Wall Street Insights, claims that Apple will release the Vision Pro headset to retail on January 27.

What's particularly interesting about that date is that it's a Saturday, a date that Apple has historically not used when releasing new products for sale. However, as MacRumors notes, it's likely that the date might refer to the Chinese Saturday which would in turn make the US release date the 26th - a much more likely Friday.

Little has been officially confirmed in terms of when the Vision Pro headset will go on sale, however. Apple announced the much-rumored device back in June during the company's annual WWDC event but no firm release date was given. All Apple said was what is currently shown on its website - Vision Pro will release in early 2024.

The 2023 Steam Awards winners have been announced, with the outcome across all 11 categories determined by community votes. And it's no surprise that the Game of the Year Award has been handed to Baldur's Gate 3, beating out finalists Resident Evil 4, Lethal Company, EA Sports FC 24, and Hogwarts Legacy. It's one of the most played, celebrated, talked about, and groundbreaking RPG releases in years - it's a well-deserved nod.

It was somewhat predictable as Alan Wake II was exclusive to the Epic Games Store, while the critically acclaimed The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Super Mario Bros. Wonder are, you know, Nintendo games. However, a couple of the other award winners are a little surprising.

Starfield, currently sitting on a 'Mixed' community review rating on Steam, with recent reviews being 'Mostly Negative,' won the Most Innovative Gameplay Award. Starfield has been a divisive release from Bethesda Game Studios and the team behind Skyrim and Fallout 4 - the main criticisms levied at the game center around its archaic and lackluster design when it comes to exploration, travel, and having to sit through half a dozen loading screens just to get anywhere.

Recent reports and rumors point to NVIDIA releasing a new GeForce RTX 3050 6GB GPU in February 2024, with a price point of around $179 USD. It will represent the company's entry-level RTX offering for desktop PC gamers, with a sub-$200 price point that could be quite attractive for budget gamers.

Based on the previous generation's Ampere architecture, this new budget GPU will replace the existing GeForce RTX 3050 8GB card with 6GB of VRAM on a 96-bit bus for an effective bandwidth of 168 GB/s. This notable reduction will also reduce the overall power draw to 115W, according to new listings on Russian retailer Citilink, which has three entries for new GeForce RTX 3050 6GB models from NVIDIA partner Palit.

The most interesting of the three is the GeForce RTX 3050 KalmX 6GB (NE63050018JE-1070H), which features a fanless design - something we haven't seen for a while. A fanless passively cooled lGPU would be great for a mini PC, which should be able to deliver some impressive results thanks to the GeForce RTX 3050 supporting DLSS Super Resolution.

According to reports from Deadline, comedy legend Jack black may be set to play yet another iconic video game character as the default character skin, Steve, in the upcoming adaptation of the bestselling video game of all time, Mojang Studios' Minecraft.

Variety has also reported that Black is now a part of the cast but didn't say who he might be playing. Black is well known in the industry for iconic roles in movies such as School of Rock, the Kung Fu Panda series he recently won an Emmy for, and most recently, Bowser in the second highest-grossing movie of 2023, Illuminations the Super Mario Bros. Movie. He will also star as another video game character, the Sassy robot Claptrap, in Lionsgate's take on the video game Borderlands, hitting cinemas on August 9.

For fans of the game, Minecraft's main man, Steve, doesn't really have a defined personality and is more of an empty vessel for players to project their ideals onto. It would be interesting to see if Black will portray Steve with a muted performance or if he will bring his own comedic chops to the popular skin.

Kicking off the year with a beautiful lights display, stargazers will be in for a treat as the first meteor shower of 2024 is set to arrive this week.

The Quadrantids, as the shower is known, have been active since December 26, 2023, and will continue to be visible in the night sky well up till January 16 but will peak Thursday, January 4, making this the best time to see the first shower of the year.

The Quadrantids have the potential to be the strongest shower of the year, and it has only just begun, although the showers usually fall short due to the short length of the maximum activity, sitting around only 6 hours, and poor weather conditions. These meteors under the night sky average 25 meteors an hour and usually lack a consistent trail but instead produce large, bright fireballs.

The small robot doesn't officially have a name yet, but LG Electronics decided to give a sneak peek ahead of the coming announcement madness week of CES 2024, which is scheduled to kick off next Tuesday.

LG describes the new wheeled robot as a "moving smart home hub," which will act similarly to an Amazon Alexa device or any other similar assistant-like device. The small robot will be capable of answering questions, connecting to smart home applications to provide updates on the device status, alerting users of unusual activity, notifications for when a light has been left on, weather updates, transportation updates, personal schedules, and even reminders to take medications.

All of these features, along with its cameras, speakers, and sensors used for gauging temperature, humidity, and air quality, are all powered by Qualcomm's RB5 robotics chip. LG writes in its press release that when a user returns home to the wheeled robot, it will greet them at the front door while simultaneously analyzing the user's emotions, voice, and facial expressions. It will then select music or other content based on the analyzed data to attempt to suit the user's mood.

A drone has been sent over Tesla's Gigafactor in Shanghai revealing the EV manufacturing plant is ready to ship hundreds of Tesla's.

The video was captured by Tesla watcher Wu Wa, who sent a drone capable of shooting in 4K over Giga Shanghai, Tesla's largest vehicle plant that is responsible for producing more than 950,000 vehicles ever year. The vehicles captured in the above video are believed to be headed to Europe, and highlight Tesla's exponential growth in the region through continuous exports. Wu Wa believes the fleet of vehicles is scheduled to leave on January 8.

It's not just exports that are going well for Tesla in China, as more than 60,000 Tesla were purchased by new owners in China just in December, an indicator the Tesla brand is expanding more within the region. On a wider scale, Giga Shanghai has become a pivotal part in Tesla's global push to get as many EV's in the hands of as many drivers as possible. For more information on this story, check out this link here.

NASA has taken to its official social channels to share images of Jupiter's moon Io captured by its JunoCam instrument aboard its Juno spacecraft..

The new images mark the closest look at Jupiter's volcanic moon Io in decades, with the space agency explaining its Juno spacecraft made an extremely close approach with the moon on December 30. NASA writes that Juno passed above the surface of Io at an altitude of just 932 miles, and due to its low height, it was able to capture a close look at hundreds of mountains scattered across its surface.

Notably, Io is believed to be extremely volcanically active, ranking first in the category for the most volcanically active body in the solar system. This means the surface of the moon is littered with many volcanoes constantly spewing emissions and lava. Reports indicate that these volcanoes aren't massive, only 2.14 - 0.62 miles in height.

The vastness of space is quite difficult to imagine, especially considering the general measurement used to measure distances between objects is light years, but what does that actually mean? And how would light travel throughout an entire year?

What is a light year? To understand this, we must first know what light-time is - the distance light travels within a specific period of time. In just one light-second, a photon of light has traveled 186,000 miles or 300,000 kilometers. In one light minute, light travels 11,160,000 miles, and one light hour is 671 million miles. With these measurements, we can understand that it takes 8.2 minutes for light from the Sun to reach Earth and 43.2 minutes for it to reach Jupiter.

But what about an entire day? Light from the Sun will travel 16.1 billion miles over the course of a day, reaching far beyond the Kuiper Belt and 29 light-days to the inner wall of the Oort Cloud, a collection of dormant comets that would take light 1.87 years to reach. Light from the Sun will travel 5.8 trillion miles over the course of one year, and the closest star and exoplanet are Proxima Centauri & Proxima B, located 4.25 light-years from Earth.

LG has plenty to show off at CES 2024 next week, with new TVs, speakers, gaming monitors and more... including its new LG Styler clothing care solution. Check it out:

The new LG Styler clothing care solution features a handheld, high-pressure steamer, the Dynamic Moving Hanger, and Dual TrueSteam technology, the company says its latest Styler delivers faster and more effective clothes-refreshing cycles with improved drying, dehumidification, and de-wrinkling performance.

We have a first for the LG Styler lineup, with its new model featuring a handheld, high-pressure steamer that makes it even easier to remove wrinkles from shirts and other garments, which saves the trouble (and time) of using a separate iron. LG Styler owners can hang their wrinkled clothes inside of the door, take out the steamer attached to the bottom of the Styler itself, and start the steam process with a simple press of a button.

The latest Steam Hardware and Software Survey results for December 2023 are here, and closing out the year, we've got another look at what GPU PC gamers are rocking to play games. Top of the list is the GeForce RTX 3060, retaining its spot as the most popular graphics card - followed by other mainstream GPUs from NVIDIA like the GeForce GTX 1650, GTX 1060, RTX 2060, and RTX 3060 Ti.

Yeah, the GeForce GTX 1060 is still going strong. The top twenty GPUs are all GeForce cards, with a few integrated offerings from AMD and Intel. As we're heading into 2024 and the release of NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Series SUPER cards, the most popular desktop model for the Ada Lovelace generation is the GeForce RTX 4070 - cracking the top twenty with a 1.53% share.

That isn't the most popular Ada GPU, as the GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU sits above this, with a 1.96% share. The next three desktop Ada cards in the list are the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, GeForce RTX 4060 Ti, and GeForce RTX 4060 - in that order.

LG has just unveiled its new 2024 OLED TV lineup, which drives things to another level, with the company outfitting its new OLED TV family with its latest AI processor, improved image quality, and so much more.

The new LG 2024 OLED TV lineup features the company's very latest AI processor, promising 4x higher AI performance, new unparalleled viewing experiences, and even more vibrant and lifelike picture quality. LG is pushing its consumer-centric approach with its "Sync to You, Open to All" vision that sees the company pushing for personalized experiences for every lifestyle, with products "accessible to all."

Inside, the new expanded OLED TV lineup for 2024 features its new cutting-edge AI-powered processor developed by LG, exclusively designed for OLED TVs. The new LG SIGNATURE OLED M4 and LG OLED G4 TVs feature a new α 11 AI processor, which the company says effectively enhances picture and audio quality. LG promises a 70% improvement in graphics performance and a 30% increase in processing speed over its predecessor.

Valve has announced that as of January 1, 2024, Steam no longer officially supports the Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 operating systems. This means that the Steam Client running on PC hardware with these outdated Microsoft operating systems will no longer receive updates, including those focusing on security.

As for the reasoning, this isn't a decision spearheaded by Valve, as Steam relies on an embedded version of Google Chrome, "which no longer functions on older versions of Windows." In addition, future Steam Client updates will require features and security updates that are only available in Windows 10 and higher.

On that note, Microsoft ended its security updates for Windows 7 in January 2020, and Windows 8.1 security updates ended in January 2023. "Computers running these operating systems, when connected to the internet, are susceptible to new malware and other exploits which will not be patched," Valve writes in the Steam Support update.