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This Week in Gaming (Week 9)

Welcome to the last week of February and this week we have a massive AAA release from a popular Capcom franchise that involves a lot of monsters in the wild. The rest of this week is a lot more low-key, with a rhythm platformer, a 2D scroller action ninja game, a co-op horror game, a retro collection which includes no less than 14 games and finally some greens and bunkers.

Monster Hunter Wilds / This week’s AAA release / Friday 28 February
Fulfill your duty as a Hunter by tracking and defeating powerful monsters and forging strong new weapons and armor from the materials you harvest from your hunt as you uncover the connection between the people of the Forbidden Lands and the locales they inhabit. The ultimate hunting experience awaits you in Monster Hunter Wilds. Steam link

Lumi Trek / Monday 24 February
Lumi Trek is a unique rhythm platformer where you have to combine the three primary colors of light to overcome obstacles. Change the color of the moving star at the right time, and stay calm when deadly traps appear. It may sound simple, but this challenge will make your hands sweat. Steam link Ninja Five-O / Tuesday 25 February
Ninja Five-O entrenches you into the epic and ruthless voyage of Joe Osugi, who is a detective and players become the Ninja Five-O. Utilize a wide variety of masterful ninja skills to uphold justice by solving treacherous crimes such as bank heists and hijackings. Use unique Ninjutsu moves to protect the city of Zipangu and take down the evil Mad Mask bosses. Steam link R.E.P.O. / Wednesday 26 February / Early Access
R.E.P.O. is an online co-op horror game featuring physics, proximity voice chat and scary monsters. You and up to 5 friends can venture into terrifying environments to extract valuable objects using your physics-based grabbing tool. Steam link Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection / Thursday 27 February
Duel alongside old friends as the iconic stars of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! anime return in this expansive collection of classic Yu-Gi-Oh! Titles. Including a plethora of Yu-Gi-Oh! games never-before-released outside of Japan! Steam link PGA Tour 2K25 / Friday 28 February
The master of golf sims is back! Tee off with the world’s top golfers on the most storied courses on golf’s biggest stages. Steam link

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NVIDIA Investigates GeForce RTX 50 Series “Blackwell” Black Screen and BSOD Issues

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Saturday, February 22nd 2025

NVIDIA’s problems with its latest flagship RTX 50 series “Blackwell” GPUs continue. First, it was melting power cables, then stability issues, and recently, the case of missing ROPs. Today, we got a confirmation that NVIDIA is investigating users experiencing significant stability problems, with reports of widespread black screen issues and system crashes since the launch of the dedicated 572 driver branch. Unlike owners of previous generation cards who can roll back to stable drivers, RTX 50 series users are particularly affected as no alternative drivers are available for their hardware. The problems span across the entire RTX 50 lineup, including the 5090, 5080, and newly announced 5070 Ti models. Users have reported issues ranging from display flickering to complete system failures, with some experiencing blue screen of death (BSOD) errors during normal operation.

The situation is especially problematic when using advanced features like DLSS 4 frame generation. NVIDIA staff member Manuel recently addressed these concerns on the GeForce Forums, confirming that the company is actively investigating the problems. Preliminary investigation suggests the issues might extend beyond driver software, potentially requiring VBIOS updates to resolve the stability problems fully. Some users have found temporary relief by reducing PCIe speeds below Gen 5 or lowering monitor refresh rates to 60 Hz, suggesting potential firmware-level compatibility issues. However, these workarounds are not guaranteed solutions for all affected users. The latest driver update (572.47), which added support for the RTX 5070 Ti, failed to address these critical stability issues, including only a single bug fix related to monitor wake-up from sleep mode. This has left many early adopters of the RTX 50 series frustrated with their premium hardware purchases.

Sources: GeForce Forums, via Tom’s Hardware, VideoCardz

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Former Sony Exec Views First-party PS5 to PC Porting as “Almost Like Printing Money”

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Friday, February 21st 2025

Last month, Shuhei Yoshida announced his retirement from Sony Interactive Entertainment. His career at the company started back in 1986, and by 1993 he became involved with the corporation’s nascent PlayStation division. The Japanese industry veteran has gone on a press appearance blitz over the past couple of weeks; many headlines have been generated by his candid musings. Most recently, Sacred Symbols+ engaged in a conversation with Yoshida—their (paywalled) two-hour long podcast episode (#347) was made available to subscribers this week. The former PlayStation chief divulged that he pushed hard for the conversion of first-party titles from console origins to PC platforms, but his colleagues were reportedly reluctant to adopt this practice (at the time). Yoshida-san outlined the benefits: “releasing on PC does many things: it reaches a new audience who do not own consoles—especially in regions where consoles are not as popular. The idea is that those people may become fans of a particular franchise, and when a new game in that series comes out, they may be convinced to purchase a PlayStation.” Sony started readjusting its exclusivity model a few years ago; greater ambitions were revealed in 2024.

He continued with this thought process: “it also adds additional income, because porting to PC is way cheaper than creating an original title…So, it’s almost like printing money. And that helps us to invest in new titles now that the cost of games has increased.” The ex-SIE boss believes that emerging markets are best served with releases on PC. Yoshida mentioned a huge (almost untapped) market—his ex-colleagues could do well, by targeting said region in the near future: “China is a huge PC game market…And China is a growing but very small console market. In order to reach the audience in countries like China then it’s crucial to release on PC. So, I believe PC versions really reach a new audience.” PC gamers have largely welcomed an improved flow of ported first-party titles, but Sony has absorbed feedback flak in early 2025; namely an underwhelming reception to Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. In late January, Team Sony announced a revised PlayStation Network account policy; backpedalling from a system that featured strict sign-in requirements.

Sources: PushSquare, Eurogamer, Last Stand Media, Instant Gaming (image source)

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(PR) AAEON BOXER-6647-MTH Harnesses Meteor Lake Power in Rugged Fanless Industrial PC Form

Leading provider of industrial PC solutions AAEON (stock code: 6579), has introduced the BOXER-6647-MTH, a fanless embedded computer powered by the Intel Core Ultra platform. Available with either the Intel Core Ultra 7 processor 155H or Intel Core Ultra 5 processor 125H, the BOXER-6647-MTH sports a broad variety of interfaces tailored for industrial robotics use.

The system hosts LAN ports providing up to 2.5GbE speed, six USB (four USB 3.2 Gen 2, two USB 2.0), and three serial ports that include dual RS-232/422/485 signals and an 8-bit DIO, the BOXER-6647-MTH’s I/O provides a strong foundation with which systems integrators can install cameras, sensors (LIDAR, IMUs), and actuators for advanced robotics applications like AGVs and AMRs. Moreover, the system boasts a wealth of expansion options to accommodate Wi-Fi, 5G, and NVMe storage modules.

The mechanical design of the BOXER-6647-MTH offers a number of unique features, including external SATA and M.2 M-Key device trays that allow users to swap, upgrade, or replace SATA and M.2 NVMe storage devices without the need to open the system or use tools to configure. A second change to what users will have become accustomed to with AAEON’s fanless embedded PC line is its fully sealed chassis panels. Previous products from the selection required additional vents on the system side panel in order to ensure adequate heat dissipation, the BOXER-6647-MTH compensates for this with a more efficient and effective heatsink.

Despite its ventless chassis, the BOXER-6647-MTH remains relatively compact at 220 mm x 154 mm x 62.1 mm, while also maintaining a -20°C to 60°C temperature range. The system can operate in industrial environments with fluctuating power supplies, with a 9 V to 36 V power input range via a 3-pin terminal block connector, while also receiving protection from damage during operation thanks to both shock and vibration resistance features.

With respect to its OS, the BOXER-6647-MTH supports Windows 11 Pro and Windows 11 IoT Enterprise, as well as Linux Ubuntu 22.04.

For detailed specifications, please visit the BOXER-6647-MTH’s product page.

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Nintendo Creates New Subsidiary in Taiwan, Advertised as Fortification of Local Business

Yesterday, Nintendo’s Hong Kong office announced the establishment of a new subsidiary company in Taiwan—specifically, in Taipei City. Their official statement mostly outlines upcoming improved service benefits for local customers. The House of Mario has relied on contracted partners to take care of smaller regional markets. Evidently, their Taiwanese audience has relied on a third party company for over a decade. An older subsidiary—Nintendo Phuten—was shuttered back in 2014. The successor is chaired by Hiroyuki Matsumoto—on February 18, the new company representative delivered a message: “Thank you for your long-term support and love, I would like to express my sincere thanks. In order to further strengthen the business foundation in the Taiwan market and improve the service quality of customers, the company will establish a new local legal person ‘Taiwan Nintendo Co., Ltd.’ as one of the subsidiaries of Nintendo Co., Ltd. Starting from April 1, 2025, we will officially transfer our business in Taiwan to ‘Taiwan Nintendo Co., Ltd.’, and adhere to the business philosophy of Nintendo Group to continue to promote business development.” As reported by Nintendo Life, the veteran video game house has made serious inroads in the region—Taiwanese fans were greeted by a larger than expected (current-gen) Switch console showcase at Taipei Game Show’s 2024 edition.

On a surface level, Nintendo’s reestablished operation in Taiwan seems to be a customer-focused initiative. Certain gaming news outlets have disclosed more elaborate theories; based on reported problematic market conditions in China. The Chinese Nintendo eShop will be phased out by mid-May 2026, likely in reaction to the government’s introduction of new rules that: “limit the encouragement of spending in online games and battle video game addiction among young people.” Coincidentally, Shuntaro Furukawa (Nintendo’s President) recently new announced “contingency plans”—with a manufacturing model that will become less reliant on Chinese factories. The company chief discussed revised strategies in an interview with Reuters: “Nintendo Switch is not only manufactured in China, but in places such as Vietnam and Cambodia as well. We are predicting various geopolitical risks and establishing ways to respond…While we anticipate a certain impact, the influence on this year’s financial results is expected to be minimal. We will continue to observe the trends, and thoroughly consider how to respond.”

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Grand Theft Auto VI PC Version’s Early 2026 Launch Mentioned During Corsair Investor Call

Under normal circumstances, Grand Theft Auto VI-related leaks have emerged from nefarious sources. Mid-February news reports have pulled information from an unlikely, yet fairly legitimate announcement. GTA franchise fans would not expect a leak to emerge from a company dealing in peripherals, but Corsair Gaming’s Ronald van Veen disclosed a slightly surprising prediction during a recent company call with investors. The organization’s financial VP believes that incoming AAA-blockbuster title will launch on PC mere months after an exclusive debut on home gaming consoles (PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series). Famously, Rockstar Games reserves a sizable time gap between its console and PC rollouts. An official statement—made back in December 2023—revealed a potential repeat of this release cadence; PC-bound GTA players feared another agonizing two to three year wait.

During an earnings call, Corsair’s finance chief discussed the impact of high-profile franchises: “in terms of new games, I mean, there’s been a steady stream of games. What we really haven’t had for the last year or two is what we could call a ‘Fortnite moment’ or ‘PUBG moment.’ So, people are typically playing older games. And I think for our component business and for people looking at new cards, obviously, that tends to depend on new games that are super demanding that you need high-performance graphics in order to get 60 frames a second…If you actually look at the numbers across the last five years, peripheral sales are substantially up, like 50% or 60% up compared to pre-COVID. So, more people are gaming, but not all are gaming on new games. The activity around PC builds or gaming PC builds is roughly on par with pre-COVID now….GTA VI is probably the one everyone is talking about. And we’ll get a glimpse of that, I think, later in the year for console. My understanding now it’s going to come out in the fall for console, and then early 2026 for PC.” Take-Two’s CEO—Strauss Zelnick—believes that Grand Theft Auto VI will boost consoles sales upon launch.

Earlier this month, IGN cornered the head of publishing—according to their resultant report: “Zelnick told IGN that the PC version of a multiplatform game can generate 40% of overall sales, or even more with certain games.” A direct quote reads as follows: “so with Civilization VII, it’s available on console and PC and Switch right away…With regard to others in our lineup, we don’t always go across all platforms simultaneously. Historically, Rockstar has started with some platforms and then historically moved to other platforms.” The Grand Theft Auto VI development team has toiled away for more than a decade—they are (reportedly) very accustomed to delays. GTA’s collective audience is bracing itself for a possible pushback into 2026.

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Sparkle Launches Arc B580 GUARDIAN 12 GB Graphics Card, Stock Available in UK

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Monday, February 17th 2025

Sparkle, a notable Intel GPU board partner, introduced its dual-fan GUARDIAN custom design late last year. The Taiwan-based manufacturer’s Arc B570 GUARDIAN 10 GB model launched mid-way through January—on day one, TechPowerUp’s W1zzard awarded this particular card with “Highly Recommended” and “Great Value” badges. In a December leak, Sparkle’s roadmap revealed Sparkle’s plans for an upcoming Arc B580 GUARDIAN 12 GB SKU. A launch window was not denoted, but the new card would seemingly arrive after the early 2025 release of Sparkle’s B580 TITAN Luna OC model. VideoCardz and its network of observers have detected a new listing on the official Sparkle website; signalling the B580 GUARDIAN’s arrival.

Sparkle’s Arc B580 GUARDIAN graphics card seems to be available for purchase in the United Kingdom, at the time of writing. CCL Computers and AWD IT have units in-stock at their respective warehouses, ready for immediate shipping. Both e-tailers have priced their offerings at £289.99 (including VAT), AWD has kindly knocked off £10 from their original demand of £299.99. Overclockers UK has a pre-order listing, coming in at a very reasonable £274.00 (incl. VAT). The Sparkle Arc B580 GUARDIAN 12 GB model conforms to Intel reference specifications, so global costs of ownership are likely sticking close to baseline MSRP.

Sources: Sparkle Product Page, VideoCardz, CCL Online UK, OC UK

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This Week in Gaming (Week 8)

Welcome to another week of new game releases and this week’s AAA title takes place in the same world as Pillars of Eternity, for those that were a fan of that game from a decade ago. If RPG games aren’t your cup of tea, how about a face full of Norwegian snow, or maybe the summer of 1995? How about some equestrian challenges, some pirate ninjas or maybe something a bit more dystopian? If so, we got the games for you this week.

Avowed / This week’s AAA title / Tuesday 18 February
Avowed is a first-person fantasy RPG set in the world of Eora, where your choices carve a path through war, intrigue, and ancient mysteries. Navigate a land in turmoil, forge powerful alliances or deadly rivalries, and wield magic and steel to shape the fate of the Living Lands—and your own destiny. Steam link

SNØ: Ultimate Freeriding / Monday 17 February
SNØ is a game about downhill skiing where you carve your way down various mountainscapes trying to score as many points as possible by pulling off high risk maneuvers and tricks. Go for the high score or simply flow through serene, arctic landscapes. The controls are easy to learn, and there are endless procedural mountains to explore. Steam link Lost Records: Bloom & Rage / Tuesday 18 February
Embark on a new narrative journey by the creators of Life is Strange. Film your summer of 1995 and create memories of a lifetime with your new friends. 27 years later, confront the dark secrets that made you all promise to never speak again after that fateful summer. Steam link Unbridled: That Horse Game / Wednesday 19 February / Early Access
Unbridled: That Horse Game offers you the ultimate horse experience, giving you the freedom to follow your own dreams and create your own unique story. Experience the freedom of riding, the challenges of horse sports, and the joy of breeding horses – all in a stunning virtual world. Steam link Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii / Thursday 20 February
Embark on an over-the-top, modern-day pirate adventure with an ex-yakuza, now pirate captain & his crew. Engage in exhilarating combat on land and sea in the hunt for lost memories and treasure. Steam link Peripeteia / Friday 21 February / Early Access
Peripeteia is a first-and-third-person role-playing stealth game taking place in alt-history cyberpunk Poland. Inspired by immersive sims from Ion Storm and Looking Glass Studios, Peripeteia expands on the formula with new ideas and an original setting. Steam link Also launching this week:
Microtopia and Stories from Sol: The Gun-Dog

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AMD Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT Listed On Amazon – One Buyer Snags a Unit

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Saturday, February 15th 2025

We live in crazy times, that’s for sure. We have already witnessed a plethora of listings for AMD’s RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT GPUs – both set to hit shelves early next month – indicating a decent value proposition compared to NVIDIA’s RTX 5070 family, if the leaks and rumors are anything to go by. More recently, as spotted by @momomo_us, Amazon briefly listed a bunch of RX 9070 and 9070 XT cards from XFX. The pricing details are as follows:

  • XFX Swift AMD Radeon RX 9070 OC – $649.99
  • XFX Swift AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT – $749.99
  • XFX Quicksilver AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT – $769.99
  • XFX Mercury AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT OC – $819.99
  • XFX Mercury AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT OC Magnetic Air Edition – $849.99

As expected from previous whispers, the base RX 9070 card is priced at a relatively okayish $650, and the RX 9070 XT is priced $100 higher. However, things soon took an interesting turn, when a Sapphire Nitro+ RX 9070 XT also got listed on Amazon CA – and a curious Redditor actually managed to purchase the thing. The triple-slot, triple-fan card, was priced at a whopping $1,365 CAD, or roughly $962 – which is quite an absurd price for what the card is expected to offer. Of course, the listing was not meant to go live before official release, which was originally intended for late January before being pushed back to early March. Needless to say, it is highly likely that the Redditor’s order will end up getting cancelled, or perhaps, shipped only after the official release.

Sources: VideoCardz, VideoCardz

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AMD Zen 6 Powers “Medusa Point” Mobile and “Olympic Ridge” Desktop Processors

AMD is readying two important client segment processors powered by the next-generation “Zen 6” microarchitecture, according to a sensational new report by Moore’s Law is Dead. These are the “Medusa Point” mobile processor, and the “Olympic Ridge” desktop. The former is a BGA roughly the size and Z-Height of the current “Strix Point,” but the latter is being designed for the existing Socket AM5, making it the third (and probably final) microarchitecture to do so. If you recall, Socket AM4 served three generations of Zen, not counting the refreshed “Zen+.” At the heart of the effort is a new CPU complex die (CCD) that AMD plans to use across its client and server lineup.

The “Zen 6” performance CCD is being designed for a 3 nm-class node, likely the TSMC N3E. This node promises a significant increase in transistor density, power, and clock speed improvements over the current TSMC N4P node being used to build the “Zen 5” CCD. Here’s where it gets interesting. The CCD contains twelve full-sized “Zen 6” cores, marking the first increase in core-counts of AMD’s performance cores since its very first “Zen” CCD. All 12 of these cores are part of a single CPU core complex (CCX), and share a common L3 cache. There could be a proportionate increase in cache size to 48 MB. AMD is also expected to improve the way the CCDs communicate with the I/O die and among each other.

Going all the way back to the Ryzen 3000 series “Matisse,” the two CCDs on the client desktop processor have had Infinity Fabric links to the I/O die, but no direct high-bandwidth interconnects between the two CCDs. For threads to migrate between cores of the two CCDs, they would have to make a round-trip through the main memory. AMD is looking to solve this with the introduction of a new low-latency bridge connection between the two CCDs. If the goal is to enable threads to seamlessly migrate among cores of the two CCDs, cutting out round-trips to the main memory, then the purpose of this bridge interconnect is to establish cache coherency between the two CCDs. This would vastly lower intercore latency.

Here’s where things get very interesting. Apparently, the “Medusa Point” mobile processor is chiplet-based, and will use a single 12-core “Zen 6” chiplet, with a large mobile client I/O die built on an older node, likely the N4P. This mobile cIOD will contain an updated iGPU that’s powered by the newer RDNA 4 graphics architecture. It will also contain the chip’s memory controllers, and an updated NPU. We hope AMD works to increase the number of PCIe lanes put out by this I/O die, or at least update it to PCIe Gen 5. Pictures show small rectangular structures on the mobile client I/O die causing some speculation that it is some kind of low power island CCX with “Zen 6c” cores, although MLID lays this to rest by saying that these are workgroup processors (WGPs) of the iGPU. There are eight of these and a large slab of L2 cache, which seems to confirm that the iGPU is based on the RDNA 4 graphics architecture, and has 16 compute units (CU).

Since AMD is using the same CCD for “Medusa Point” as the “Olympic Ridge” desktop processor, you could expect variants of “Medusa Point” with 3D V-Cache. The 3D V-Cache technology is expected to be implemented on “Zen 6” much in the same way it is on “Zen 5,” with an upside-down stacking—3D V-Cache die (L3D) below, with CCD on top.

Given the increase in CPU core counts, especially with “Olympic Ridge” getting up to 24 cores with two CCDs, and the inter-CCD bridge interconnect for cache coherency, AMD is going to need a new client I/O die for desktop. We’ve already discussed this in older articles. The new cIOD is expected to be built on the Samsung 4LPP (4 nm EUV) foundry node, which offers improvements over the TSMC N6 DUV node the current cIOD is being built on. A key area of focus for AMD will be the memory controllers, which will be updated to support higher DDR5 memory speeds using technologies such as CKD. You can currently run a “Granite Ridge” processor with memory speeds of up to DDR5-8000 but using a 1:2 clock divider is engaged between FCLK and MCLK, with 1:1 speeds being limited to around DDR5-6400. The new memory controllers will look to increase speeds with 1:1, and unlock speeds beyond 10000 MT/s with 1:2.

Then there’s the matter of AI acceleration, and the new cIOD will present AMD with the opportunity to implement at least a 50 TOPS-class XDNA 2 NPU. Intel received flack for giving its “Arrow Lake” processors a 16 TOPS-class NPU that doesn’t meet Copilot+ requirements, and the company is probably working to fix this in “Panther Lake,” and so if AMD decides to implement an NPU on the cIOD for “Olympic Ridge,” we predict it will be at least 50 TOPS-class.