Business, Financial & Legal - Page 83

A recent patent from Nintendo has revealed that the company has plans for making a Game Boy-like casing for touchscreen devices, most likely smart-phones.

From the images we can see that the current plans for the Game Boy casing are buttons placed on top of the devices touchscreen. These buttons will correspond to the screen below the buttons and input the desired key presses through a conductive sheet with nubs beneath the buttons. The nubs will act as if the user is pressing the screen with their finger thus giving seamless control for the user.

It should also be noted that Nintendo were very specific to say that this Game Boy casing is not just going to be used for smart-phones. According to the patent, the casing "may be attached to other electronic equipment such as a tablet terminal that does not have a telephone function." This means that Nintendo could have plans for bringing the Game Boy casing to tablets and maybe even the Nintendo Switch as well. The patent was official filed on March 16, 2018. As soon as there is further information regarding the case I will be sure to update you.

Sensor Tower has broken down the statistics regarding the recent release of Nintendo Switch Online, from the results we can see that Nintendo Switch Online has caused a 76% spike in downloads for the Nintendo Switch Online app, when compared to the previous week.

From the Sensor Tower results, the release of Nintendo Switch Online on September 18th caused the total figure of Nintendo Switch Online app users to be raised to about quarter of the total Nintendo Switch users. With there being around 20 million total Nintendo Switch users, this means that there are now currently 5 million Nintendo Switch Online app users, 33 and 30 percent of those 5 million users are from Japan and the United States. Platform wise, 60 percent was obtained from Google Play and the following 40 percent was sourced from the App Store.

Looking towards the weekly rise in downloads, the week before the launch of Nintendo Switch Online there was only 70,000 downloads of the app worldwide. After the release of Nintendo Switch Online there was a 123,000 new downloads, this means that there was a 76 percent increase when compared to the previous week. If you would like to view the full breakdown on the Sensor Tower website, visit it here.

Qualcomm is NOT happy right now, claiming that Apple has sold its wireless technology over the last few years so that it could unshackle itself from requiring any use of Qualcomm as a company. But the claims get worse: Apple has allegedly stolen Qualcomm IP and handed it to Intel to help super-power their seriously bad 4G/5G modem technology.

Given that Apple sells hundreds of millions of iPhones per year, the requirement of paying Qualcomm for any modem IP in every single iPhone, this move - if proven, would mean Apple doesn't want to pay anything to Qualcomm and will instead steal everything and hand it to their competition. Intel's entire modem business has been disappointing over the years, while Qualcomm makes leaps and bounds with its various IP, especially the upcoming 5G tech.

Apple has previously stated that Qualcomm was abusing its position as the market leader with smartphone modems, as they didn't like the large fees it had to pay the San Diego-based giant. Qualcomm made some of these claims in 2017 but wasn't as harsh as they are now, which it seems with more information on-hand. Qualcomm is now saying that Apple knowingly, and continually shared its modem secrets with Intel, which is a game changer.

SMITE developers Hi-Rez Studios have decided to create three brand new development teams to take care of each of the respective games, introducing Titan Forge Games, Heroic Leap Games and Evil Mojo Games.

Hi-Rez Studios has decided to split its development teams into three separate studios, each of the studios will control the development of each of Hi-Rez Studios' IP's. The first studio is called Titan Forge Games and will be taking control of the eSports success SMITE. The second is Evil Mojo Games and will be taking the helm of the 2018 hero shooter Paladins. The last is Heroic Leap Games and that team will operate Realm Royale, the new battle royale title on Steam.

Each of the first party studios will be overseen by Chris Larson who is now the general manager, his current goal is to establish each of the respective teams and make sure they "fulfil their maximum potential and stay hyper focused on serving their individual player communities," said Larson. According to the press release, Larson has said that "We view game operation as a marathon, not a sprint. Our games are built to provide near constant updates over many years. By giving each major game its own dedicated studio and identity, we empower them to control their own destiny and focus exclusively on their player communities, while still having access to our leading shared publishing services." For more information regarding Hi-Rez Studios, visit their official website here.

Last week we saw Sony announce a brand new limited edition PS4 console to celebrate shipping 500 million units across the entire PlayStation family. A monumental achievement for the Japanese games-maker but now lets look at what Nintendo can celebrate.

At the end of June this year Nintendo released their updated sales numbers for each of their products, according to the numbers when calculated together we get a total of 300.54 million units. This total is counting the following console unit sales in millions:

What is most interesting though is that Sony counted their handheld console sales (PSP/PS Vita) within the 500 million total, this means to be completely fair we would also have to count Nintendo's handheld sales. This is where Nintendo comes in really strong, Game Boy - 118.69, Game Boy Advance - 81.51, DS - 154.02 and 3DS - 72.89. When adding up all of those sales it brings us to a total of 427.11 million units, combining that with the above 300.54 million units we have a grand total of 727.65 million units. Clearly from these numbers Nintendo absolutely obliterates Sony when counting all hardware sales, I wonder if we will get a special 'Limited Edition' Nintendo Switch to celebrate?

AMD has posted better-than-expected Q2 2018 sales and earnings that have pushed AMD stock up 14% in 24 hours, and over 20% in 48 hours.

The company posted $1.76 billion in revenue for the three-month period, compared to $1.15 billion in the same quarter of 2017. AMD posted a net income of $116 million, which when compared to the $42 million loss of the same time last year, is a great result.

AMD Q2 2018 highlights:

On Sunday morning there was one Palo Alto couple that woke up to something I think most people can safely say has never happened to them; a burglar breaks into your house and gets asked to use your Wi-Fi network, while standing in your bedroom. Yeah, I didn't think so.

This happened to a 60-something couple in California with the man jumping out of bed and towards the burglar, pushing down down the hallway and outside of their front door. As soon as the masked intruder was out the door the man called the police, and the person seeking access to their Wi-Fi network was arrested and identified as a 17-year-old minor.

The young man was arrested for burglary which is a felony, and because he was prowling he's been hit with a misdemeanor and not only that, he provided police with false information. The police said that he lied about his identity when they first caught him, right after he got into the 60-something couples house by "cutting a screen covering an open window in the side yard".

The world thinks Facebook is invincible, with over 1 billion daily active users, billions of images and videos uploaded every month... it is ingrained in our very social fabric. Facebook is the largest social media company in the world, with Twitter the second-largest behind what Mark Zuckerberg created.

Well even with all of its control, power, and data it has on everyone the social networking giant saw its shares dip 19% in a single day which saw $120 billion eradicated from its market value, with Facebook now holding the record for the largest one-day drop in the history of the US stock market. Facebook shares dropped as much as 23% in after-hours trading, which is when Facebook reported its second quarter earnings.

Facebook saw slower daily active user growth that grew by only 22 million, which is pretty bad considering the last time Facebook saw these numbers was all the way back in 2011. More so, Facebook CFO said that revenue growth would "decline by single-digit percentages" for the rest of 2018. Doom and gloom for Facebook, it seems. But where have these problems come from?

In a story that is beyond sad, PayPal issued a letter to a woman who had died of cancer to tell her that her death was a breach of their rules, and that the company would look at legal action against her.

PayPal has since said that the letter was "insensitive", apologised to her husband, and is now working out how it was sent. Lindsay Durdle died on May 31 at just 37 years old, after an 18-month battle with breast cancer that had eventually spread to her lungs and brain.

After receiving the heartless letter, her husband contacted the BBC about the story. PayPal was informed of Lindsay's death three weeks ago now, sending the company copies of her death certificate, her will, and his ID. PayPal then sent him a letter in return that was headlined with "Important: You should read this notice carefully".

Epic Games is taking legal action against one of their former Fortnite testers, after inside information regarding the title was leaked out onto a Subreddit forum.

Thomas Hannah, a former Fortnite tester has been accused of leaking information of the in-game Fortnite event for the fourth season. Hannah provided this information to an unnamed third party, it was then posted to a subreddit which has now been taken down. Epic Games filed the lawsuit against Hannah on May 7th, since then Hannah has also filled a defense asking for Epic Games' claims to be dismissed by the court. He says that the information that was shared was throughout a private conversation without knowledge of the other persons motives, here is what he had to say "[I was] pumped with a series of questions and guesses regarding where the meteor would hit."

Hannah has said that he is aware that he has broken the non disclosure agreement that was signed with Epic Games, and also that the information that was given was without consent from the company. Epic is demanding damages and legal fees under the state and federal trade secrets laws, as the company has said that Epic "has suffered and is continuing to suffer irreparable injury."

Foxconn is doubling down on its US plans with the company extending past its Wisconsin-based display factory plant, with news of a US-based headquarters in Milwaukee, just 30 miles away from its upcoming factory.

The company plans to buy a 77-storey building from Northwestern Mutual where up to 500 people wi-ll work there. Foxconn's new HQ will also feature an innovation hub that will work with startups to create apps for their new display tech.

Wisconsin has been at the center of some major tech movement lately, with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee starting up a new co-op program that sees engineering students flying over to Taiwan to study at the Chung Yuan Christian University.

THQ Nordic, the developers behind Biomutant, Darksiders and many more titles have released their 2018 quarterly earnings report. It appears that the company has almost made more sales in just the 3 months of 2018 than they did in the entire of 2017.

THQ Nordic recently decided to acquire Koch Media, the parent company of developer Deep Silver who made Saints Row and Dead Island. This acquisition has payed off quite well for THQ Nordic, as the company recently released its 2018 quarterly earnings and it appears that the company has $25.9 million USD in profits from revenues of $78.9 million.

This massive increase measures to a 439% increase in profits and a 673% increase more revenue when compared to the exact same quarter of last year. Back in 2017, from January through to December 31st THQ Nordic only made $31.3 million USD from $58.3 million in revenue. This means that THQ Nordic has almost made all of their 2017 earnings in just the first quarter of this year.

Red Barrel, the developers behind the critically acclaimed horror series Outlast have spoken out about the titles sales as well as the companys revenue from the series.

The first Outlast came to Steam at a price point of just $19.99, while the title only cost the developers $1.4 million CAD to build and distribute. The second Outlast was a bit more pricey, costing $7 million CAD to build and was set a price point of $29.99.

According to an interview with Red Barrel CEO, Philippe Morin combining both of these titles unit sales has brought the total of the series to a massive 15 million units sold. This has resulted in the developer making $45 million CAD after expenses have been taken out. Here is what Morin had to say about the developer moving onto new IP's "We're prototyping, and the way I want to approach this is to get a prototype that we're really happy about, and then figure out the best way to get it done. Are we going to need the same kind of budget? Can it be lower? Right now, I don't know."

Cliff Bleszinski, the creator behind the very popular Gears of War series has taken to Twitter to announce that his studio Boss Key Production is now officially closed, effective immediately.

Boss Key Productions was the developers behind the failure of a title LawBreakers, CliffyB addresses that "LawBreakers was a great game that unfortunately failed to gain traction" as the title was squashed throughout the raw popularity of the Battle Royale genre. In hopes of stringing something together CliffyB says that him and his team "scrambled to do our take on the huge battle royale genre with Radical Heights, which was well received. However, it was too little, too late."

Its good to see a developer coming out and admitting that one of their titles was a desperate attempt to keep their studio afloat, here is what CliffyB finished up on saying. "To those of you who have supported myself and the studio these last four years, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Please note, that the servers for Radical Heights will remain up for the near future."

The newest Marvel movie taking to the big screens is Avengers: Infinity War and the title has now been projected to set a new box office record.

According to the newest weekend forecasts from box office pro, Avengers: Infinity War has already surpassed the highest first-weekend release record. Star Wars: The Force Awakens made $248 million and has been bumped down to second place, Avengers: Infinity War is now taking the top place with an expected total of $250 million by the end of Sunday in US and Canada time.

On a global scale, Avengers: Infinity War is also taking the lead, as the title has already made an estimated $380 million, bringing in a total of $630 million. Universal's The Fate of the Furious previously held the global first place weekend with $541.9 million and that was including the world second largest market for movies, the Chinese market. Avengers: Infinity War is yet to open in the Chinese market so it will be very interesting to see how these numbers increase when it does.

The Kickstarter project Hellboy: The Board Game has been taken by storm, raising a massive $1.3 million in just one day of the project being released.

The board game is centered around the Hellboy comic book and is designed for 1 - 4 players that want to explore "gothic locations, hunt down clues, discover artifacts, fight horrific creatures and face off against terrifying bosses."

The game originally only had target goal of $184,099 goal and has already reached at the time of writing this $1,341,914. The project still has 28 days left, so it will be very interesting to see how far this already $1m+ figure can really go. If you are interested in the upcoming Hellboy Board Game check out the official Kickstarter page for the project here.

It has been revealed that Microsoft's Xbox division has earned a massive $2.251 billion in revenue just last quarter, which started at the beginning of the year and ended on March 31.

According to the announcement from Microsoft, Xbox monthly gamers have also increased 13-percent. Originally, over a year-over-year basis Xbox monthly gamers have gone from 52 million to 59 million, showing that huge 13-percent increase.

Microsoft has said in their press release "Gaming revenue increased 18 percent driven by Xbox software and services revenue growth of 24 percent mainly from third party title strength." These third-party titles would most likely be the massively popular Fortnite, or even Microsoft's partnered Rare title Sea of Thieves.

The on-going lawsuit between Valve and the ACCC is about to come an end, Valve has appealed the fine of $3 million and the Australian High Court has tossed the appeal out. Newell is going to have to pay-up.

According to an announcement from the ACCC, Valve has breached consumer law in Australia causing the company to be slapped with a fine of $3 million. Justice Edelman, fined Valve back in 2016 for not allowing Australian gamers the right of refunding products between the years of 2011 and 2014, Valve appealed this notion but the High Court has dismissed their proposal.

Here is what the ACCC said: "As a result of the High Court's refusal of special leave, the Full Federal Court's decision that Valve is bound by the ACL in its dealings with Australian customers, despite being based overseas, is the final decision on this issue"

We have all experienced those pesky 'warranty void if removed' stickers on our devices, but it looks like those stickers don't really matter... with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) saying they're worthless.

Motherboard reports from an FTC press release, that the Commission has sent letters to six companies that said that their stickers are in violation of a long standing law. The press release said: "The letters warn that FTC staff has concerns about the companies' statements that consumers must use specified parts or service providers to keep their warranties intact".

It continued: "Unless warrantors provide the parts or services for free or receive a waiver from the FTC, such statements generally are prohibited by the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, a law that governs consumer product warranties. Similarly, such statements may be deceptive under the FTC Act".

Samsung has had a massive first three months of 2018, with a huge 58% increase in profit and demand for its memory chips through the roof, more than enough to offset Apple's reduced requirement of displays for iPhone X.

Bloomberg is reporting that Samsung's operating income reached $14.7 billion in Q1 2018, compared to $13.5 billion that analysts expected Samsung to report. Samsung sold through a huge $56.4 billion in Q1 2018, with these sales including the new Galaxy S9 and the near unlimited want for memory across the world with ASIC miners and graphics cards.

Samsung became the world's largest chipmaker by sales late last year, besting Intel, but memory is where Samsung is making its strides lately. Lee Jay-yun, an analyst with Yuanta Securities Co. explains: "Memory chips are the loyal son of Samsung. Still, momentum may slow toward the end of this year with price rises likely to be less steep than last year".