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Microsoft Refutes Reports of Xbox Division Facing Closure Back in 2021

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Friday, January 17th 2025

Microsoft’s gaming division faced an uncertain future back in 2021, according to an article published by The Information mid-week. The long-form piece mainly focuses on Xbox’s current predicaments, but the wider gaming press picked up on surprising allegations from days past. The story goes that Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO’s, presided over two paths: either keep Xbox Game Studios going, or mothball the whole operation. History shows us that he kept his company’s gaming department alive—a series of acquisitions (during and since 2021) have expanded development and publishing operations—but Xbox’s journey has been rocky in the ensuing years. Investors and industry analysts believe that Microsoft’s $68.7 billion takeover of Activision/Blizzard/King—back in 2023—has not boosted overall revenues to expected levels.

Insider Gaming has managed to make contact with a Microsoft spokesperson—extracted comments have been published in an “exclusive” report. The brand ambassador insisted that Nadella remains resolute about his company being “all in on gaming”—the CEO never entertained the notion of Microsoft winding down “its games business entirely.” Industry experts have also criticized Xbox’s Game Pass business model—many believe that the service’s reach has faltered. The spokesperson commented on these opinions—proposing that engagement on Xbox platforms is “at an all-time high,” helped in part by the recent launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Additionally, Microsoft believes that its audience count is in a healthy spot, with: “well over 500 million monthly players and over the last year, we’ve seen consistent growth in monthly users on cloud”.

Sources: The Information, Wccftech, Business Insider (image source), Insider Gaming

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Kiwi Ears Showcases Multiple Closed-Back Over-Ear Headphones at CES 2025

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Thursday, January 16th 2025

Kiwi Ears, a brand known primarily for its IEMs, decided CES 2025 is the perfect time to show off its upcoming series of closed-back headphones. We already saw a couple of more budget-friendly DJ/monitoring-style headphones from the brand late last year, and Kiwi Ears followed up on this with two different ANC wireless headphones to appeal to the more mainstream crowd. The Aventus uses a 50 mm dynamic driver, and the Ardor ups the ante by using two dynamic drivers—a 10 mm DD on top of the 50 mm DD in the Aventus—for a novel driver configuration in headphones. Both of course have RGB lighting in the ear cups to further appeal to the mainstream market, and will be launching later this month. The dual driver headphones theme continued with the Kiwi Ears Atheia, which foregoes the plastic RGB ear cups in favor of machined wood and now goes for a 50 mm DD + 14 mm planar magnetic driver hybrid configuration. This seems similar to the Noble Audio Apollo from last year, which uses a similar driver setup and adds wireless ANC connectivity on top. The Atheia is also expected to launch later this month, so Kiwi Ears is set to have a busy few days ahead.

Also at the show was yet another wooden ear cup set, although this currently uses the same body as the Atheia. This unnamed model—feel free to suggest a name for Kiwi Ears in the comments—is also closed-back in nature, and is using a single large planar magnetic driver. This is arguably the toughest type of headphones to get sounding correct, at least in the ~$400 price range that Kiwi Ears is aiming for. There’s still work to be done with the tuning, and I provided feedback which is hopefully going to help the brand out. I used all of these headphones with my phone thanks to an upcoming Kiwi Ears dongle-style DAC/amp, the Allegro Pro, which connects directly to the Type-C port on your phone. It uses a customized DAC and a dedicated amplifier section, offers both 3.5 mm SE and 4.4 mm BAL outputs, and even has three onboard EQ profiles you can toggle through a button on the underside. The Kiwi Ears Allegro Mini should be launching within the next month or two, helping wrap up a great showing for Kiwi Ears at CES.

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(PR) Heroes of Hammerwatch II Out Now on PC & Consoles

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Wednesday, January 15th 2025

The wait is over! Heroes of Hammerwatch II is now officially available for purchase! A massive thank you to everyone who played the demo, shared feedback, and reported issues—your incredible support and enthusiasm have been invaluable. Don’t forget to drop a review and join us on Discord to keep up to date with the latest information. Now it’s time to jump into the adventure!

Embark on a new adventure in Heroes of Hammerwatch II
A rogue-lite action RPG brimming with randomly generated levels, deep customization, and rich persistent progression. Battle your way through the perilous Dark Citadel, collecting powerful equipment and trinkets that unlock game-changing upgrades and abilities. This unique mix of permanent equipment in the style of action RPGs along with run-defining rewards from its rogue-lite roots results in a compelling experience where you are sure to get something new out of every run, always progressing in some way, with no two runs the same.

Heroes of Hammerwatch II is the long-awaited sequel to Heroes of Hammerwatch (2018).
This game is stacked.

Sources: Heroes of Hammerwatch II Official, HoH2 Steam Profile

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Hyper Light Breaker Launches To Early Access on Steam With Surprising Player Counts and Mixed Reviews

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Wednesday, January 15th 2025

Hyper Light Breaker, a new 3D indie platformer we reported on previously has finally launched to early access on Steam, and despite the surprising success of its predecessors, Hyper Light Drifter and Solar Ash, Hyper Light Breaker isn’t looking like the break-out indie hit of the month. While the game has garnered a solid 5,230 peak concurrent players just five hours after launch, the Steam reviews are hardly anything to write home about so far.

According to SteamDB, Hyper Light Breaker has a review rating of just 35.5%, with 31.4% of the reviews giving the game a positive rating, while 68.6% of Steam reviewers gave it a negative score. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, it looks like most of the issues with Hyper Light Breaker stem from the game’s early access status. Early reviews on Steam report that the game’s core mechanics and gameplay loop are satisfying, but that the game, overall, seems like it needs more time in the oven. Some of the more serious complaints when it comes to Hyper Light Breaker relate to the game’s combat being somewhat difficult to grasp, progression feeling unsubstantial, initial difficulty being too high, and a steep learning curve. Others pointed out that there appears to be a lot of missing content. That said, as some reviewers have pointed out, the game is in early access. If we look at the likes of Windblown—or No Man’s Sky for an example on a longer timeframe—it’s easy to see the value in an early access period and community feedback. If Heart Machine, the developer behind Hyper Light Breaker, uses its community feedback properly and implements fixes to issues as they arise, it seems like it could be a game enjoyed by many indie gamers.

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(PR) ENERMAX Launches LIQTECH XTR, Workstation-Level CPU AIO Cooler

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Monday, January 13th 2025

ENERMAX is proud to be launching its new workstation-level CPU AIO cooler: LIQTECH XTR. Specifically designed for the AMD Ryzen Threadripper and Intel Xeon W series processors with a cooling capacity of over 550 W. LIQTECH XTR AIO cooler debuted at Computex 2024 with a live demo, achieving a cooling capacity of over 550 W. The LIQTECH XTR 360 mm CPU cooler features an enlarged cold plate design on its water block, fully covering the IHS area of both AMD Threadripper and Intel Xeon W series processors. Thanks to ENERMAX’s high-efficient EP1 pump with a 450L/h flow rate and 3000 RPM radiator fans, LIQTECH XTR can provide more than 550 W cooling capacity on both AMD and Intel platforms.

LIQTECH XTR AIO cooler is also the first ENERMAX CPU cooler to implement the magnetic, fully rotatable, real-time status digital display. Users can manually adjust the LED screen on the water block to set their preferred digital direction. The additional software, ENERMAX’s tuner, can further provide a real-time data showing on the water block. ENERMAX’s LIQTECH XTR AIO cooler is the perfect cooling solution for workstations that need to perform heavy duty tasks such as 3D rendering, product visualization & simulation, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning acceleration. It fully supports AMD socket sTR5/SP6/sWRX8/sTRX4/TR4/SP3 and Intel socket LGA 4677.

Availability and Warranty
The LIQTECH XTR AIO cooler is now available at the ENERMAX USA online store, Amazon USA, and ENERMAX USA authorized retailers and distributors.
The series will be available in Europe and other regions in January. For further details, please visit the ENERMAX website.

Source: ENERMAX

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AMD Ryzen AI Max 395+ Mini PC: GMK Announces Strix Halo-Powered Compact System

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Sunday, January 12th 2025

At CES, AMD unleashed the much awaited Ryzen AI Max “Strix Halo” APUs with mammoth iGPUs, up to a whopping 40 CUs for the Radeon 8060S. These chips are powerful enough to not require discrete graphics at all, making them ideal for mini PCs, which lack the physical room for dedicated graphics. GMK appears to be among the first to announce a mini PC with the top-end Ryzen AI Max+ 395 APU, although any further details are under wraps as of now.

Unlike the Strix Point parts, Strix Halo abandons the smaller and more efficient Zen 5c cores for a Zen 5-only setup, with up to 16 Zen 5 cores for the highest-end Ryzen AI Max+ 395 SKU. This allows for some serious performance potential, with AMD promising substantially better performance than both Intel’s Lunar Lake and Apple’s M4 Pro, although it would be much fairer to compare Strix Halo to Apple’s M4 Max, and Intel’s Arrow Lake-H/X instead. Regardless, there is no denying Strix Halo APUs open up new doors in terms of performance for compact systems, the rest remains to be seen as and when the products reach reviewers.

Source: Notebookcheck

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GameSir Presents New “G7 Pro” Xbox Controller at CES 2025

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Saturday, January 11th 2025

GameSir has showcased its brand new G7 Pro wireless gaming controller at this week’s CES trade event, where they teased a very compelling sub-$100 price point. It seems that a lucky few have already playtested early sample units—leaks from late last year revealed the existence of Xbox and Steam variants. During a showroom visit, the TechPowerUp team discovered that GameSir had left the oft-rumored Valve-licensed “prototype” back at HQ. Fortunately, their Xbox G7 Pro model was available for close up inspection in Las Vegas—reports suggest that a launch is lined up around Spring time.

Highlights from the G7 Pro’s feature list include: TMR analogue sticks (first introduced via their Tarantula series), 1000 Hz polling rate (wired on Xbox, wireless on PC), optical microswitch face buttons, two rear programmable back buttons + two programmable shoulder triggers, swappable faceplate system, and a new tactile D-pad. TechPowerUp also spent time with some other new controller models—GameSir has another affordable-tier Nova controller (white example is pictured below) incoming, as well as a retro-gray Tarantula model.

An attachable smartphone controller—featuring a Game Boy-esque D-pad and button layout—was demoed. Attendees played around with this prototype and enjoyed a throwback experience with some older 2D games, through emulators. GameSir also showcased its new generation telescopic mobile controller, the X5—reportedly heading to market later this year. At one point during TechPowerUp’s visit, GameSir CEO Shuailin Ye was spotted wielding a new lightgun controller. This has been designed for modern VR gaming.

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HAVN x King Mod Systems Gaming PC Showcased at CES 2025

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Friday, January 10th 2025

HAVN and King Mod Systems have partnered up on putting together a high-end gaming PC—a sample build was assembled in good time and sent out to Las Vegas. TechPowerUp inspected the fruit of their labors earlier this week at CES 2025. Unsurprisingly, the two collaborators have opted to use a white finish HAVN HS 420 VGPU Edition case—feel free to check out Darksaber’s glowing review of this exact model. A black variant was positioned close by, so it was convenient to compare and contrast between the sibling enclosures. Coincidentally, TechPowerUp and HAVN teamed up on a giveaway competition of four HAVN HS 420 models last month.

The HAVN x King Mod Systems Gaming PC utilizes some fine internals, but its AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D processor will become less cutting-edge in the near future. Team Red is lining up the Ryzen 9 9900X3D CPU for launch around March 2025. HAVN and King Mod Systems have selected Gigabyte’s B650E AORUS Elite X AX ICE mainboard for their showroom build, along with a white TRYX PANORAMA 360 mm AIO ARGB liquid cooler, an MSI RTX 4080 SUPER GAMING X SLIM WHITE graphics card, and a 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5 5600 CL36 memory kit.

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G.Skill and Enermax Partner with Splave for Memory and PSUs Built to His Specs

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Friday, January 10th 2025

You’ve seen Splave on top of overclocking leaderboards, get ready to see him on PC hardware store shelves. The professional overclocker now has a line of high-end PC memory kits and power supplies in partnership with G.Skill and Enermax. The new Enermax Revolution DFX Pro 1350 W Splave Edition (the show demo was a different model as proof of concept) has a few features custom designed by him. The first one is a button that flushes all capacitors to make sure there’s no residual power left in it when the AC input is switched off. Overclockers tend to need this between resets, and even waste a few seconds waiting on their PSUs to drain, or getting their motherboards to do that job (not recommended). The PSU has individually sleeved cables that are designed to not get in the way, and make them easier to manage; and the fan is configured to turn backwards for 20 seconds, blowing air out, each time the PSU is sent an ACPI shutdown command. Next up, is the new Splave Ultra line of DDR5 PC overclocking memory by G.Skill. These kits appear to be based on the Trident Z5 CK series and the Trident Z5 Neo series. The kit shown at CES was just for representative purposes. The ones based on the Trident Z5 CK series will target Intel platforms, and the ones based on the Z5 Neo will come with EXPO profiles and will be meant for AMD platforms. Splave’s secret sauce for these modules will be in the XMP or EXPO profiles they ship with. Just to give you some idea, imagine DDR5-6000 with CAS latency of 28, out of the box.

Lastly, there’s the Splave T-1K, a first-party line of high-performance gallium-based thermal paste. To be clear, this isn’t a liquid metal TIM (although gallium is one), rather it is a silicone-based thermal grease that’s blended with gallium metal, and so it spreads and compresses just like regular thermal paste, and won’t run off. Although it has metal particles, much like pastes based on silver, the T-1K is electrically non-conductive.

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Micron at the 2025 CES: Scripting a Strong Comeback to the Client and PC-DIY Segments

Micron at the 2025 International CES showed us product that hint at the company planning a strong comeback to the client and PC-DIY market segments. The company’s Crucial brand is already a high-volume player in the client segment, but the company never really approached the enthusiast segment. Products like the company’s new T705 Pro and P510 NVMe SSDs, and DDR5 Pro Overclocking memory, seek to change this. We begin our tour with PC memory, and the DDR5 Pro OC CUDIMMs. Crucial has jumped onto the CKD bandwagon, introducing memory modules and kits that come with DDR5-6400 out of the box, but which are geared for manual overclocking to take advantage of the 1β DRAM chips underneath (hence the name).

The company also showed us their first DDR5 CSODIMM suitable for the next generation of notebooks with HX-segment processors. This module comes with a CKD and a DDR5-6400 JEDEC-standard SPD profile out of the box. Lastly, there’s the Micron-branded LPCAMM2, which comes in speeds of up to LPDDR5X-8533, and is suitable for the next generation of ultraportables.

Switching gears to client SSDs, and we have the star-attraction at the booth, the Crucial T705 Pro and T705 Limited Edition. These are NVMe Gen 5 SSDs that use the company’s cutting-edge Micron G9 NAND flash chips, and a Phison E26 Max14um controller, belting out up to 14.5 GB/s of sequential reads, and up to 12.7 GB/s of sequential writes. The drive comes 1 TB, 2 TB, and 4 TB capacities. There’s also a limited edition white heatsink variant.

Next up, is a drive which Crucial hopes will become the next MX500—a well priced mainstream SSD that strikes a high performance/dollar balance—the new P510. Launched a couple of days ago, the drive features a new revision of the Phison E31T DRAMless Gen 5 controller, and Micron’s latest G9 NAND flash, to produce up to 11 GB/s of sequential reads, and up to 8.6 GB/s of sequential writes. Crucial is aiming for volumes, and will price these drives well. The Cruial P310 is their new mass-market mainstream SSD, which is based on a Phison E27T Gen 4 controller, offering sequential transfer speeds of up to 7.1 GB/s. There’s a version with heatsink for the PlayStation 5. Micron scored several design wins with popular OEMs, and will supply these drives to power their next-gen gaming notebooks and desktops. At the very entry level is the E100, a drive targeting low-cost builds. It comes in 480 GB and 1 TB capacities, with a Gen 4 DRAMless controller paired with G7 QLC NAND. You get sequential transfers of up to 5 GB/s, and endurance of up to 100 TBW. Next up, Micron showed off a few of its enterprise products, such as the 7450 high capacity SSDs for hot data storage, which comes in capacities of up to 7.68 TB, with extremely high endurance. We also spotted the company’s new high-capacity RDIMMs, and MRDIMMs.