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343 Industries has a dedicated team working on the next Halo game's campaign, new reports indicate.

Halo gamers are holding out hope that Infinite will get some sort of new campaign DLC content, but it sounds like 343i is already laying the foundations for the next mainline Halo game. Sources have told Ains, the editor-in-chief of Seasoned Gaming, that 343 Industries has a group that's planning out the next Halo singleplayer campaign storyline.

These assertions match up with reports from Bloomberg's Jason Schreier from early 2023, which discussed how 343 Industries was hit particularly hard by the recent Microsoft layoffs. 343i had restructured its business following the departure of studio founder Bonnie Ross, with Master Chief Collection head Pierre Hintze taking over for Ross. The studio had outright eliminated some roles while also making layoffs and letting people go in the process.

Apple is expected to refresh a number of its laptops over the coming months with a new report noting that some of them are now entering the stage of development that leads to mass production. Those laptops are the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros, with new M3 versions on the way.

That's according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, writing in the latest weekly Power On newsletter. Gurman says that the updated M3 versions of the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros have now entered the DVT (design validation test) stage of development which means that the laptops are nearing the mass production portion of their development.

Gurman believes that this progress means the new MacBook Pros are still on course for launch between early and spring 2024, which should match the previous release windows of these high-end laptops.

Apple announced the Vision Pro headset during the June 5 WWDC event but it won't go on sale until early in 2024. When it does, it'll cost a huge $3500 which is going to price a whole lot of people out of it. However, Apple is already rumored to be working on producing something a little cheaper in the future. Details are hard to come by right now, but a new report might have some insight into how Apple intends to cut some of the price moving forward.

That report comes via Bloomberg's Mark Gurman and the Power On newsletter, with the claim being that Apple will aim for a lower price point that could actually be half that of the initial Vision Pro model. Gurman says that internal Apple discussions have aimed at a $1,500 or $2,500 price point.

To get there, Apple is reportedly ready to remove the EyeSight feature, an external display that shows a representation of the user's eyes on the outside of the headset. It's also thought that Apple might want to cut costs by removing some of the external cameras and sensors that will ship on next year's first version.

When Apple announced the iPhone 15 it brought with it the USB-C port that many had been expecting. But that means that everyone who uses a USB-A to Lightning cable for their CarPlay setup needs a new cable to be able to use their iPhone in the car. Now, for the first time, Apple is selling a cable that will do the job.

That cable isn't one that Apple makes, however. The cable is a Belkin offering, dubbed the snappily-named BOOST↑Charge Pro Flex USB-A to USB-C Cable. It comes with a 1m length and is braided, just like Apple's own cables. It's also one that comes with a cool cable tie which also makes it perfect for use in the car where you might not always need that extra cabling.

There are other options for those who want a similar cable, with Lightning and USB-C versions offered for people who don't need that USB-A connector. It isn't a cheap option, though. At almost $20 it's a costly option, especially if all you need is a cable for use in the car.

The Google Pixel 8 Pro is the newest flagship phone to have been announced and it'll be on sale soon enough. But some people are already putting the phone through its paces and the initial benchmark results don't make for great reading if you plan on playing some of the heavier games on the device.

That's based on figures shared by one X user who puts the phone's new Tensor G3 up against some of the other chips out there, especially some of the older ones from the likes of Apple, MediaTek, and Qualcomm. The results also include Apple's M1 and M2 chips which isn't necessarily fair, although they do ship in tablets as well as Mac laptops.

The X post above includes a number of tables that show how the Pixel 8 Pro stacks up when running different tests including 3DMark, and GFXBench. The upshot? The Google Tesnro G3 is faster than the Tensor G2 that came before it. But when it comes to the competition, it still lags behind competing chips like the Apple A16 sold in the iPhone 15. The A17 Pro, part of the iPhone 15 Pro lineup, wasn't included in the tests.

Apple might have only released the iOS 17.0 update to the public a few short weeks ago but it's been beta testing iOS 17.1 for around the same amount of time. Now, it seems that the iOS 17.1 update will be released to the public within a couple of weeks, and the source of that information might be a surprise to some.

The iOS 17.1 update will bring with it a few changes which we'll get into soon, but it isn't as big a refresh as the main annual updates. But Apple does normally release an x.1 update around the end of October each year, and now we know that will be the case this year as well - if the leak is true, the iOS 17,1 update will roll out to everyone who wants it on or before October 24.

That's according to a report by iPhoneSoft which spotted the date on the website of the French regulatory outfit ANFR. The date was in relation to an ongoing situation around the iPhone 12 and the RF radiation it emits, but that's by the by. The real interest here is the date because it says that Apple will release iOS 17.1 to all users no later than October 24.

Following months of rumors it now looks like we might finally be about to see a refreshed iPad or two, with a new report claiming that a pair of tablets will be announced within the next week.

That report claims that the iPad mini 7 and iPad Air 6 are set to be unveiled within a matter of days, possibly even on Tuesday, October 17. If that's the case it will bring an end to rumors about whether or not there will be updated tablets before the end of 2023, with reports seemingly unable to agree on Apple's plans. Now, it seems we are as close as ever to knowing what's going down.

This report comes via Supercharged which cites unnamed people with knowledge of Apple's media plans and says that the company will unveil new iPad mini and iPad Air tablets with upgraded internals. The tablets won't get a big unveiling event, however, with Apple instead choosing to announce the upgrades via press releases and updated videos on the company's YouTube channel.

The inclusion of Xbox games on NVIDIA's GeForce Now service may have affected subscription pricing.

A day before Competition and Markets Authority approved the $68.7 billion Microsoft-Activision merger, NVIDIA raised the price of its GeForce Now cloud game streaming service across Europe, Canada, and the UK. Despite the timing, the increase may be coincidental and not necessarily be associated with merger clearance. NVIDIA says that the decision was to help offset higher operational costs associated with delivering the service in those regions.

Microsoft and NVIDIA have recently started to execute their 10-year cloud deal, which brings key first-party Xbox studios titles to NVIDIA's GeForce Now on a regular cadence. The list includes both new and old Xbox games, ranging from catalog titles to Starfield, and the 10-year licensing deal was a big reason why the European Commission cleared the merger.

Best Buy may not be the only retailer to stop shelving physical media in 2024: Reports say that Wal-Mart could remove Xbox games from its inventory sometime next year.

Retailers are no stranger to nixing products from store shelves. Online direct-to-consumer commerce has put a squeeze on big box retailers to only stock items that can be sold at a profit--or as near a profit as possible--and to cut out things that just don't move volume.

Now that consumers have shifted towards digital media via subscriptions and direct purchases, retailers like Best Buy have decided to stop selling physical DVDs and Blu-rays altogether. Best Buy will still sell games across Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo, but the same may not be able to be said for the world's largest retail chain.

Halo Infinite's new seasonal update will add an entirely new dimension of PvE multiplayer into the game.

Halo Infinite Season 5 - Reckoning merges two of my favorite things: Campaign and firefight. The season will introduce new enemy AI tools within Forge, allowing gamers to create their own unique Halo campaign missions and/or firefight scenarios.

"Our North Star for the Forge AI Toolkit was wave-based PvE experiences. Firefight, Horde; things like that are what we expect players will lean into first when they create stuff, but it also has the capacity to do more linear experiences," Forge designer Michael Schorr told Xbox Wire.

Reports indicate that Disney CEO Bob Iger is being pressured by upper management to morph the company into a multimedia empire, complete with its own video games division. Current trends show that this is not the best time to acquire a pure-play games publisher for billions of dollars.

While Microsoft just purchased Activision-Blizzard for nearly $69 billion, media giants should still be cautious and tread lightly when it comes to big gaming buyouts. Rising costs and overshot budgets have led to mass layoffs in the games industry, with over 6,100 people being let go in 2023 across a multitude of publishers and developers. Consolidation typically worsens these rates and can trigger dozens and potentially even hundreds of layoffs as companies squeeze out more cost savings.

These realities, combined with other sobering realizations like skewed risk-to-reward ratios, make the current landscape more volatile for buyouts and post-merger operations. Fierce competition has always made gaming a risky business with no guaranteed ROI, but now the stakes are even higher as inflation kicks spending to new heights.

Xbox gaming CEO Phil Spencer gives a loose timeline on when Activision-Blizzard games will come to Xbox Game Pass, and also says that ABK titles are coming to "other platforms" as well.

Following approval from the CMA, the Microsoft-Activision merger saga has come to an end. Xbox has welcomed Activision-Blizzard's 13,000+ employees and treasure trove of games to Team Green. Microsoft has two main goals for this acquisition:

It'll take some time for both of these things to happen. Activision has already confirmed that newer games like Call of Duty Modern Warfare III and Diablo IV won't come to Xbox Game Pass until 2024, however sources have told Windows Central's Jez Corden that certain Activision-Blizzard games could be added to Game Pass immediately.

Valve has only had its huge release of Counter-Strike 2 in the last couple of weeks, but it's just surfaced that AMD Radeon RX 7000 series graphics card owners enabling AMD's new Anti-Lag+ technology will see themselves VAC banned.

Why is this happening all of a sudden? AMD's new Anti-Lag+ technology has been messing around with DLL files, and that's a big no-no for Valve and why the VAC banning is taking place for Radeon RX 7000 series GPU owners using Anti-Lag+ technology on Counter-Strike 2. But now, it's not just Counter-Strike 2, with Anti-Lag+ technology causing issues for Call of Duty: Moden Warfare and Warzone, as well as Apex Legends.

Anti-cheating technology has evolved over the years, and now has a direct feed into the graphics pipeline, meaning that game developers have had to be stricter with their anti-cheating methods and toolsets used to find any weird things going on with game files. Well, AMD's new Anti-Lag+ tech does just that: messes with game files (in this case, DLL files).

Apple is long overdue to give the 24-inch iMac a refresh and it's something that we expect to happen within months, if not before the end of 2023. But that refresh has been expected to use a new M3 chip, based on TSMC's fledgling 3nm manufacturing process. However, while a new report claims that the 24-inch iMac refresh is on the way soon, it does dash hopes that it'll have that new chip inside.

The report comes via the Japanese blog MacOtakara, a website that has had a relatively hit-and-miss history with these kinds of things. In the case of this report, it notes that the M1 iMac is difficult to get in some international stores right now, with delivery windows stretching into the weeks. That leads the outlet to suggest that a new iMac is on the way and that Apple is letting inventory sell through before releasing it. And that's when things get weird.

We've been hearing from the likes of Bloomberg's Mark Gurman that iMac would use M3 chips for months at this point, and he isn't alone in that assertion. However, MacOtakara now says that the new iMac will instead use Apple's existing M2 and M2 Pro silicon instead.

If you're the proud owner of an iPad mini 6 and have noticed that it has a strange scrolling issue that causes one side of the display to move at a different rate than the other, you aren't alone. But the good news is that the iPad mini 7 could be about to fix it.

The jelly scrolling problem is one that was immediately spotted by people when they started to receive their iPad mini 6 back in September of 2021, and it isn't something that Apple has been able to fix in software. The screen tearing problem is something that Apple says is normal, and is just something that can't be avoided when you use the type of LCD display used in the iPad mini 6. However, as true as that may be, it's now been reported that the upcoming iPad mini 7 will fix that unfortunate behavior by changing the way the display is configured.

That's according to Instant Digital, an account that posted the news to the Chinese social network Weibo. They say that the idea is that Apple will change the orientation of the display assembly to make screen tearing less obvious, especially when scrolling down content in portrait mode.

GALAX teased but has now made its new GeForce RTX 4090 20th Anniversary Edition graphics card official.

In order to celebrate its 20th birthday, the company has unveiled a very special edition GeForce RTX 4090 20th Anniversary Edition graphics card that features a triple-fan cooler: two fans on the front, and a single fan on the back, with the 12VHPWR power connector hidden away for the ultimate in aesthetics.

GALAX is taking some inspiration from NVIDIA and its GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition graphics card with its new GeForce RTX 4090 20th Anniversary Edition graphics card but with the added touch of the power connector hidden behind an acrylic panel: also accessible very easily when you need to connect or disconnect the power cable. We can't see the hidden 12VHPWR power connector through these renders, but we know it's there.

AMD Radeon RX series graphics card owners will want to hope they didn't install the new Radeon 23.10.1 drivers, enable AMD's new Anti-Lag+ technology, and play Counter-Strike 2... because VAC bans were being handed out, which... well, you know that's not good at all.

Counter-Strike 2 only launched a couple of weeks ago now, with AMD's latest technology -- Anti-Lag+ which is exclusive to the Radeon RX 7000 series GPU family -- meant to enhance responsiveness by optimizing frame alignment within the game code.

Well... yeah, Counter-Strike 2 doesn't like that and Valve has admitted that some gamers were getting VAC banned because of it. The official Twitter/X account for Counter-Strike 2 laid out the warning, tweeting that AMD's latest driver enabled Anti-Lag+ for Counter-Strike 2, but was implemented by detouring engine dll functions. Valve warned that if you are an AMD Radeon RX 7000 series graphics card owner "DO NOT ENABLE ANTI-LAG" because any tampering with CS code will "result in a VAC ban".

The new Xbox gaming Mastercard may benefit savvy consumer who is on Microsoft's side of gaming.

If you have decent credit, can pay bills on time every time, and are firmly committed to the Xbox brand, then the new Xbox Mastercard might be a good fit. The credit card comes with reasonable APR rates for well-qualified applicants, ranging from 20.99% APR on the lowest end all the way to 31.99% APR on the highest end (the goal is, of course, to always pay off the full balance and never pay interest). The card has no annual fee. Terms and conditions can be found here.

Apart from building credit and establishing another line of credit, the main reason to get an Xbox Mastercard is to take advantage of the point system. Cardholders can earn points for purchases made on the card, and these points can be redeemed for "eligible digital products" on the Xbox site. Cardholders can also redeem their points for gift cards The idea here is to create a cycle of charges to accrue points and payments to help better improve creditworthiness.

Microsoft has completed its $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard King, and current Activision CEO Bobby Kotick plans to retire next year.

After many months of back and forth, the $68.7 billion Microsoft-Activision merger saga is coming to an end. UK regulators have approved gaming's biggest merger and Microsoft has welcomed Activision and its 13,000 employees and 8x billion-dollar franchises into the Xbox brand. As expected, the acquisition will see a changing of the guard as Activision CEO Bobby Kotick will leave the company in 2024.

Kotick will stay until the end of 2023 to ensure a smooth transition as Activision moves from an independent company to a limited-integration subsidiary of Microsoft's games division.

Ever wanted to play turn-based soccer? No, it's not something we've ever thought of, but EA has turned (pun not intended) this very idea into a mobile game.

EA Sports FC Tactical will be out on Android and iOS, bristling with 5,000 authentic players drawn from over 10 top leagues (with the Premier League being one of them, as you might expect, as well as the Bundesliga and Serie A).

EA tells us the emphasis will be on planning in-game strategies and managing elements such as stamina and power-plays. Simulated matches will offer turn-based decisions on defense and attack, with choices of whether to go for goal, or dribble, and so forth, along with skill moves to employ, all adding up to 'authentic' football action.