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CES 2023 - Tech startup Displace will showcase the world's first 100% wireless OLED 4K UHDTV at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.

CES is a mecca for experimental concepts that redefine what's capable in today's high-end tech. In the past, we've seen foldable and rollable displays from the likes of LG, and now we're about to see a completely wireless TV. The unit will be shown off formally on January 5, but a show model was spotted by tech influencer Vincent Tech on Twitter.

The new tech comes from Displace, a startup who plans to change television as we know it with the company's self-powered and portable 4K OLED TV. The wireless TV features a 55-inch 4K OLED LG display and has no built-in ports--no HDMI, USB, antennae, etc--or cables, and is powered by batteries that can be hot swapped in and out of the unit's back panel.

Billion-dollar games titan Embracer Group isn't just buying up tons of game developers--it's also collecting old classics in a major effort in video games preservation.

A bit ago, the Swedish Embracer Group started its Games Archive initiative. The goal is simple: Embracer wants to amass as many retro consoles, games, arcade cabinets, and other rare industry collectibles as possible. Embracer is mostly known for acquiring dozens of game developers and publishers across all segments and industries--from mobile to board games--but the Archive is entirely a passion project.

In a Yahoo Finance article, Embracer Group CEO Lars Wingefors reveals that the company has spent over $2 million acquiring a treasure trove of irreplaceable video games, consoles, promo banners, and even demo machines from all generations. Embracer's reports frequently mention the Archive and feature photos of various systems and old-school retro titles.

CES 2023 - Dell's Alienware brand reveals another Concept Nyx peripheral, this time a rather strange gamepad that Valve helped pioneer.

Last year Alienware revealed its Concept Nyx lineup including a console-like box for local streaming of high-def games and those experimental UFO controllers from CES 2020. Now at CES 2023, Alienware has revealed its own personal take on Valve's failed Steam Controller from 2015.

The new Concept Nyx PC controller is a stylish gamepad that's futuristic, novel, and familiar all at once. The gamepad features two analog sticks in DualShock-style parallel orientation complemented by a touchpad dial where the D-pad usually is.

The Federal Trade Commission today held its first pretrial hearing in the administrative complaint against the Microsoft-Activision merger.

As previously announced, the FTC has started its pretrial hearings in the Microsoft-Activision merger with a public scheduling conference. The FTC has sued to block the $68.7 billion merger on the grounds of antitrust and anticompetition concerns, however the regulators are bringing the matter to an internal administrative law judge instead of federal court.

During the brief telephone conference, Chief Administrative Law Judge D. Michael Chappell, who is overseeing the case, noted that the call was "strictly procedural and not evidentiary." Chappell is referring to the evidentiary period where all parties--Microsoft, Activision, and the FTC--offer evidence, testimony, and expert opinions. The purpose of this meeting was to establish a schedule for future hearings, including a decision date. That schedule has yet to be published.

The FTC has set the first pretrial conference for its administrative lawsuit against the Microsoft-Activision merger.

The United States Federal Trade Commission recently announced that it opposes the Microsoft-Activision merger, and has filed an official administrative complaint against the proposed $68.7 billion buyout. The regulators pose that the merger would give Microsoft an unfair advantage over its competitors, namely Sony, which is named as Microsoft's single competitor in the newly-created "high-performance console" market. Microsoft has formally opposed the FTC's complaint and is prepared to go to court to defend itself against regulators.

Rather than challenging the deal in federal court, the FTC will bring the merger to an internal administrative judge in what could end up being a long trial. The judge in the case, Chief Administrative Law Judge D. Michael Chappell, has now ordered a prehearing scheduling conference to lay out the timings of the trial itself. The prehearing scheduling conference will be held tomorrow, January 3 at 3PM EST and is open to the public (see information below).

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GALAX has just revealed its new and monstrous Hall of Fame GH1300 power supply, which is a new ATX 3.0-ready power supply that feeds up to 1300W of power into whatever PC components you can throw at it... especially GALAX's own in-house GeForce RTX 4090 Hall of Fame graphics cards... even two of them.

The new GALAX HOF HG1300 power supply is rated for 1300W of nominal power, while it can peak at up to an incredible 2500W which means it'll be competing against other ATX 3.0-ready power supplies from the likes of MSI and its Ai1300P power supply (which also provides 1300W of power, and is ATX 3.0 compliant).

GALAX and its new Hall of Fame GH1300 power supply is also certified for 80PLUS Platinum efficiency, confirming it can handle 92% at half the load.

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds Mobile has made an incredible multi-billion jackpot in microtransaction and battle pass revenues across all worldwide markets since launching in 2018.

Mega-popular F2P hit PUBG Mobile has become one of the best-earning on-the-go games on the market today with over $9 billion lifetime earnings to date. The data comes from number-crunching analyst firm Sensor Tower, who also noted that Genshin Impact made a whopping $4.1 billion in earnings since launching in 2020.

Putting these numbers into perspective reveals surprising results. PUBG Mobile has generated more revenues than the Grand Theft Auto franchise since GTA V's release; according to numbers provided by Take-Two Interactive, the GTA series has made $7.68 billion in net revenues earnings since Grand Theft Auto V released in 2013.

Genshin Impact has generated an incredible $4 billion in revenues in little over 2 years' time, data from Sensor Tower indicates.

Genshin Impact is one of the most popular online games on the market today, and regularly makes billions of dollars in revenues a year. The game is particularly popular in overseas regions like China and Japan, which is mostly dominated by the mobile platform. According to data from Sensor Tower, the mobile version of Genshin Impact has made over $4 billion in lifetime earnings since launching in 2020.

The info was spotted by Reuters tech correspondent Josh Ye, who notes that Genshin Impact has pulled in $4.1 billion+ in microtransaction revenues on mobiles. Previous revenues were at $3.7 billion as of September 2022, and the game had tacked on $340 million in revenues since then.

Taiwanese games rating board TESRI has once again listed an unannounced Silent Hill game, but this time there are pictures and a synopsis that spoils the plot.

A bit ago, Konami revealed a handful of new Silent Hill games including a fully-fledged remake of Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill Townfall, Silent Hill f, and a real-time interactive experience called Silent Hill Ascension. Konami has an extra game that it hasn't revealed yet, but the surprise has been spoiled by Taiwan's ratings committee.

Silent Hill: The Short Message has been rated by TESRI for the PlayStation 5 and actually includes a short snippet that outlines the plot of the game. If you've been paying attention to Silent Hill leaks, then you'll recognize The Short Message as the game that includes the bizarre post-it note monster in previously leaked images.

The Federal Trade Commission has created a new console market that conveniently removes Nintendo from the big picture.

Nintendo is and always has been a major player in the console gaming space. The company is largely credited for saving the video games industry by releasing the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) following the Crash of 1983. Since then, From the release of the Famicom in 1983 to present day, Nintendo has gone on to sell nearly 400 million consoles (including the Switch) and over 5.4 billion games. In modern times, the Nintendo Switch has handily outsold Microsoft's Xbox One and is in second-place among the Big 3's console sales.

Any gamer knows just how big Nintendo is. However, the Federal Trade Commission has isolated Microsoft and Sony into a new "high-performance console market," cutting out Nintendo from this defined group. Instead of the Big 3, it's now the Big 2.

The Microsoft-Activision merger has been approved in Chile, marking the third worldwide regulator to allow the deal to go through.

Chile's Fiscalia Nacional Economica (FNE) regulatory office has approved Microsoft's $68.7 billion merger of Activision-Blizzard, the national agency has announced. Chile's FNE greenlit the deal in Phase 1 proceedings, whereas the deal is being heavily scrutinized in Phases 2 and 3 in the United States, United Kingdom, and European Union.

The FNE finds that the merger will not substantially affect or lower competition in the country. However the swift approval is likely due to the fact that Call of Duty is not as popular in Latin America as it is in other regions--which is something that Brazilian regulator CADE also found. The FNE notes that "the relevance of Call of Duty would be comparatively less in Latin America than in other regions of the world."

Sony tells advisory firm MLex that Microsoft's 10-year Call of Duty offer to Nintendo is essentially a diversionary tactic.

Microsoft recently announced that it has offered competitors like Nintendo a binding contract to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo's respective platforms (the Switch and future hardware). Earlier this month, Sony reportedly stepped in to tell the financial experts at MLex that Microsoft's offer to Nintendo was essentially a way to deflect attention.

Sony believes that Nintendo gamers aren't interested in Call of Duty, which is arguable. It's true Nintendo has made over $60 billion from the Nintendo Switch since the system launched in 2017, all without Call of Duty, but the platform does indeed have very gory and mature games like Doom. These games are not among the best-selling titles on Switch, though, as Nintendo's more family-friendly first-party titles make the most sales.

Sony is starting 2023 on the right foot with three great PlayStation Plus freebies available to subscribers next month.

January's free PS Plus games include some awesome yesteryear games. We're not getting anything like day-and-date Xbox Game Pass titles, but the lineup should keep players busy for some time.

The games include one of the more active and popular live games on the market complemented by an indie hit as well as one of the best Star Wars titles ever made.

Gran Turismo is officially the best-selling first-party PlayStation franchise in history, and it may take a while longer before it shows up on PC.

A bit ago, Polyphony Digital CEO Kazunori Yamauchi appeared to say that Gran Turismo 7 could arrive on PC. This led to a lot of speculation that the studio was actively exploring opportunities to bring the landmark racing series to PC for the first time, and possibly even developing and/or optimizing a PC version.

Now Yamauchi clarifies these reports by saying Polyphony is not actively working on a PC version of Gran Turismo 7 or any other Gran Turismo game.

It looks like Arkane could be developing more content for its new Deathloop franchise, possibly a fully-fledged sequel or a new expansion.

A recent interview with Deathloop voice actors Jason Kelley, who plays Colt, and Ozioma Akagha, who plays Julianna, may have confirmed that more games and experiences in the lauded grindhouse series may be on the way.

"Do you know the codenames or anything they were using for the game?" the interviewer asked.

Nintendo was reportedly working on a mid-gen Switch upgrade with boosted specs, but the device may have been cancelled for a fully-fledged next-gen Switch model.

We've been reporting on an upgraded Switch for years now--all the way back when Nintendo patented that curious Supplemental Computing Device (SCD) add-on. Throughout that time we've seen lots of rumors pop up regarding a new enhanced Nintendo Switch, including mention of a DLSS-enabled Switch found in an NVIDIA leak and that the new Switch could tap the new T239 Tegra chip built on the 8nm Orin SoC. Sources have also told Bloomberg that new Switch devkits have been released.

Now we have another interesting report on Nintendo's plans for its next Switch. According to Digital Foundry's John Linneman, Nintendo originally had tentative plans to create an upgraded Switch but the model was abandoned (possibly due to significant chip supply issues from COVID-19). Game developer sources told Linneman that Nintendo wanted to create a mid-cycle Switch upgrade--supposedly similar in comparative power as a PS4 Pro is to a PS4--but the project was cancelled so that Nintendo could focus a new next-generation Switch model instead.

A few days ago The New Yorker published an in-depth article on HBO's new The Last of Us television series airing in January, and nestled in the feature was comments about Naughty Dog's upcoming game projects. In the interview, studio co-president Neil Druckmann indicated that the new game was more like a television series than any other game the studio has made so far. The game wasn't specified, of course, and Druckmann has since clarified the quote.

"It's about making our games in an even more collaborative manner! Stoked to show you our projects as soon as we can!" Druckmann said on Twitter.

At the time of writing it appears that Naughty Dog could be working on at least two projects, and they both may or may not be related to The Last of Us universe. Druckmann seems to confirm this when he says projects plural.

Intel has announced that its former boss of the AXG graphics division will be shelved, moving back to his previous role as Intel Chief Architect... a sign that the GPU division of Intel is in serious trouble.

Raja Koduri left AMD and its Radeon Technologies Group (RTG) back in 2017, joining Intel as Chief Architect and then moving into the role of the head of a newly-created Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Group (AXG). But now, Intel has split AXG into two divisions -- data center and gaming GPUs -- downgrading Koduri to Chief Architect once more.

Intel has said that its AXG division changes will "accelerate and scale their impact and drive go-to-market strategies with a unified voice to customers". The staff at Intel's AXG division that were in charge of creating consumer GPUs will now be moving onto the client computing group, which creates GPU designs for laptops and other products.

Atari's hardware revenues crash by 91% as the company suspends manufacturing of its VCS console.

Atari recently published its half-year earnings for the fiscal year ending March 2023, and the results show a substantial increase in total losses. The once-mighty gaming giant reported a heavy 91% reduction in hardware and "cartridge" sales (a curious term that isn't defined in the document), with this segment generating only 200,000 Euros (about $197,174). Atari notes the drop is because of the underperformance of the VCS console in the retail sector as well, and it should be noted that Atari has suspended production of the consoles and is expected to resume manufacturing in 2023.

According to the figures, Atari made more from blockchain (about 700,000 Euros) than it did from its video games hardware. As you'd expect, Atari makes most of its revenues from games, which includes three new titles that were released in the year as well as a vast library of catalog releases. Atari made 2.8 million Euros (about $2.71 million) from its Games segment. Total revenues were 4.3 million Euros as compared to 6 million Euros from last year, primarily because of the significant drop in hardware earnings.