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Nintendo has two new Switch gaming consoles in the works for launch this year. According to the Wall Street Journal, one will be a cheaper entry-level model and the other targeted at more serious gamers.

A screenshot posted on Reddit has been stirring up some excitement among PlayStation 4 owners. The image shows a page from the Brazilian PlayStation Store, and there is a small window advert for EA Access. The EA Access service offers popular games like the Madden NFL series and the NHL range to Xbox One subscribers for US$29.99 a year.

Microsoft's plans of introducing a disc-less version of the Xbox One S is well known and we're getting to know that the console is all set for a global launch on May 7. Expected to be known as the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition, the new console will be priced at the lowest tier in the Xbox One family to encourage newcomers to get a feel for the digital ecosystem.

15 years after the release of the original Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, Paradox is finally announcing a sequel to the "cult" RPG game. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 is set in modern-day Seattle, and the gameplay will include brutal first person melee fights, strong language, and hub-like levels with non-linear progression.

The Closed Beta of Mortal Kombat 11 will debut on March 28 with a roaster of five fighters, namely Baraka, Jade, Kabal, Scarlet, and Scorpion. At launch, the game is expected to come with a lineup of no less than 28 characters, including Cassie Cage, Kano, Sub-Zero, Raiden, and Kano. This new Mortal Kombat title will launch on April 23.

Yesterday, Sea of Thieves celebrated its first anniversary. During the year that passes, the game received four major updates, and now everyone should get ready for the Anniversary Update, which is set to arrive at the end of April. This massive update — the biggest so far — promises to take Sea of Thieves to a whole new level.

A leaked email allegedly from Phil Spencer, the Xbox head executive, has given some ambiguous details about how Microsoft and Xbox will challenge Google’s recent massive announcement about its Stadia game-streaming service. It seems something big is going to happen at E3 though, which officially starts on June 11.

The Mek Mini is one step up from the ZBox series in terms of performance, features, and upgradeability. Its ample ventilation grilles on five of its six sides should hopefully be enough to keep temperatures and noise in check.

While Google has the performance side of Stadia covered with a custom hyperthreading CPU plus and AMD GPU capable of delivering 10.7 TF of processing power, testers of the demo version pointed out that input lag is quite noticeable, and the image quality may be affected in dynamic scenes. Hopefully Google is taking notes and the final version releasing this summer will be better optimized.

In a world where everyone seems to be a streamer or caster or some kind, a USB microphone may be a viable purchase. They combine the possible advantage of improved audio with a power source that is already built into your machine. A recent "data-driven" review puts the Blue Yeti at the top of a new list of the best of these devices.

During a visit to India where he has been discussing newly launched Dell and Alienware laptops for the Indian market, Dell executive Frank Azor had time to make a few interesting comments about what direction Alienware won’t be taking in the near future. It seems an Alienware gaming phone certainly isn’t in the picture.

Google has officially announced its Stadia cloud gaming service at the 2019 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Google Stadia will allow users to play games from any computer, smartphone, smart television or tablet that has an Internet connection. The GPUs that have been selected for the service’s hardware are custom Radeon chips from AMD.

After a rather long wait, the French and Italian vehicles are finally joining Armored Warfare as the offerings of a new dealer, named Francine De Laroche. The Arabian Nights campaign is now moving on with new events, but the 0.28 update also comes with Battalion Ranked Battles, new achievements, as well as many tweaks and fixes.

The team behind the much-delayed Atari VCS has announced an APU replacement for the game console. Previously, a customized A10 chip from AMD’s Bristol Ridge series was going to be installed, but perhaps wisely the developer has now upgraded that choice to a more modern dual-core Ryzen processor. Graphics will be processed by a Radeon Vega GPU rather than the R7 GPU.

Since consoles can't keep up with the hardware developments, the future of gaming might involve streaming setups. Google already provides the best broadband infrastructure in the U.S., plus the company just finished the beta tests for its "Project Stream," and it also hired a few well-known gaming industry names, so all the signs are there.

War Thunder 1.87 "Locked On!" is a massive update to Gaijin Entertainment's popular vehicular combat title and — just like its predecessors — has a suggestive name. The game now features French helicopters, new cruisers, rank VII ground vehicles, advanced supersonic jets, complex radar systems, and more.

Dataminers have been busy exploring the code for Apex Legends, and it seems there could be some interesting developments coming soon for the battle royale hit. NPCs could be making an appearance in the game, as could flamethrowers. Arguably the most-exciting rumor for Titanfall fans is the possible introduction of wall-running.

Jay Frechette, the Community Manager for Respawn Entertainment, has shared information about the company’s battle against cheaters, specifically in the smash-hit battle royale game Apex Legends. Apparently, over 355,000 players have already been banned from the PC version, and the game developer is busy working on additional methods to combat cheating.

Anthem, the new action RPG game from BioWare, is apparently causing hard crashes on PlayStation 4 consoles. A growing number of gamers are taking to both Reddit and Electronic Arts’ Answers HQ to complain about issues with PS4 shutdowns while playing the game. Apparently, the critical bug is also affecting PC users and Xbox owners, too.

Thanks to the latest update for the PlayStation 4 and the addition of an officially supported app in the Apple App Store, the PS4's Remote Play is now available on compatible iOS devices. However, since iOS doesn't natively support the PS4's DualShock 4 controllers, gamers will have to resort to on-screen controls or a supported third-party solution.

According to insiders familiar with the matter, the console known as "Maverick" will debut soon as the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition. Pre-orders might begin mid-April and general availability should arrive in early May. Even more, Microsoft is apparently working on a custom Fortnite-edition console as well.

Respawn Entertainment’s Vince Zampella has taken to Twitter again to report on Apex Legends’ latest milestone. The battle royale game, which is set in the Titanfall universe, has now been tried out by over 50 million people worldwide – in its first month since launching. The title is currently available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

Sony has discontinued production and shipment of the PlayStation Vita handheld game console. The final two SKUs that were still listed on the Japanese product page now have the solemn words “shipment complete” in their respective summaries. Production of game cards for the Vita will cease at the end of March.

The eighth season of Epic Games' Fortnite comes with two new locations - Lazy Lagoon and Sunny Steps — as well as pirates, ninjas, and "a ship load of new fighters" that will join the battle. The season's Battle Pass comes with more than 100 brand-new exclusive rewards and comes for the same price of 950 V-bucks.

There is a rumor that Microsoft will take center stage at E3 2019 by revealing the expected new Xbox consoles. The consoles, codenamed Lockhart and Anaconda, are believed to feature SSDs, custom CPUs based on AMD’s Zen 2 microarchitecture, and custom Navi-based GPUs. However, the release schedule for the latest Xbox hardware is still a long way off: End of 2020.

Skybound Games has announced that it has terminated its contract with Starbreeze Studios for Overkill’s The Walking Dead, effectively cancelling further progress on the first-person shooter. Skybound Games is part of Skybound Entertainment, which was cofounded by the creator of The Walking Dead, Robert Kirkman.

Testers from the Windows Insider program report that the latest Windows 10 builds feature a new app called Microsoft Gaming Services that adds direct access to Xbox APIs and allows users to download and install games directly from the Xbox distribution servers. Moreover, the 2020 update planned for Windows 10 could integrate seamless compatibility between the two platforms.

Capcom announced that they will bring three classic Resident Evil games to the Nintendo Switch eShop. Resident Evil Zero, Resident Evil 1 (the Gamecube remake), and Resident Evil 4 will be available on Nintendo's mobile console May 21 with pre-orders opening February 28.

The modders are back at it again! After the Nintendo switch was modded to run Linux, 2 developers released a twitter video presenting their modified Nintendo console that manages to run Android 10 Q. It never ceases to amaze us what some modders can do.

A YouTuber has asserted that Microsoft will port some games and features to the Nintendo Switch later this year. The indie title Ori has been specifically named in relation to this new purported deal to link the two platforms. This development will also apparently bring Xbox Game Passes to the Switch.

Anthem, the action RPG developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts, has been officially launched. Players get to try on exosuits known as Javelins and explore a massive open world while fighting off hordes of monstrous adversaries. Early reviews of the game have ranged from lukewarm to mixed, but it will be paying gamers who eventually decide the title’s success or failure.

Reggie Fils-Aime, President and COO of Nintendo of America, announced that he will retire from the company on April 15. Doug Bowser, currently the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, will step up as the new President upon Fils-Aime's retirement. Fils-Aime oversaw one of the most successful periods of Nintendo's life and managed the launches of the Nintendo DS, 3DS, Wii, and Switch.

"The Challenge on Wheels" special event that has begun today will last until March 7 and comes with the chance to obtain the Panhard EBR 75 FL 10 for free — or at least a good discount when purchasing it. This is the first premium wheeled vehicle in World of Tanks and can be obtained after completing ten challenging stages.

Polish e-retailer X-Kom ran a promotion this past weekend that offered a free copy of Fallout 76 with four sets of PlayStation 4 thumbstick covers, all for POL 19 zl (~US $5). This discount is not out of the norm for retailers selling Fallout 76, a title that has had trouble selling copies and satisfying gamers.

Apex Legends has now been played by over 25 million people in the first week of its release. There is a rumor that Tencent Holdings is interested in becoming the official distributor of the battle royale game in China. Tencent is already involved in similar genre titles such as Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.

The existence of the TU116 GPU, which exists to deliver Turing-level performance without ray-tracing, has been established at this stage. Today (February 14, 2019), VideoCardz has posted what it describes as exclusive images of this chipset. It also has pictures of what may be the MSI Ventus XS 1660 Ti, a card purportedly based on the TU 116.

The latest Nintendo Direct broadcast has revealed a treasure trove of games and plans that will keep even the fussiest Nintendo fan content. Among the games featured were Super Mario Maker 2, a battle royale version of Tetris called Tetris 99, and Dragon Quest XI. However, the presentation’s main event was clearly the introduction of the gorgeous-looking The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening.

Those who missed the private beta stage of Ubisoft's upcoming title The Division 2 can join the open beta, which is scheduled to begin on March 1. Sadly, the open beta will only run for three days and the trial will end on March 4. The game will launch on March 15 on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.

Despite its critical and commercial failure, the PlayStation Classic may be an attractive retro gaming device, especially given Walmart's latest price cut. The PlayStation Classic can be found at Walmart for a mere $40, 60% less than its original retail price. Additionally, those willing to hack or modify their PlayStation Classic may find the mini-console to be a suitable emulation box.

2019 could be the year when the Smach Z handheld Windows gaming device finally becomes reality. Smach is still trying to hype things up, as it recently updated the official site with new prices and specs, plus it added a few videos showing various gaming sessions. There is no specific 2019 launch date mentioned, so delays may still occur.

A new piece in Bloomberg has cited sources allegedly close enough to Activision Blizzard to allege that the gaming company will let "hundreds" of staff go. The firm is apparently taking this action to maximise profits and to "centralize functions". An announcement to this effect is expected on February 12, 2019.

Thanks to the votes of The Steam Community members, PUBG is now holding the Game of the Year Award for 2018. However, CD PROJEKT RED, the Polish company behind the successful Witcher franchise, was crowned as The Best Developer. PUBG competed for this prize against Monster Hunter World, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Hitman 2, and Assassin's Creed: Odyssey.

Microsoft Studios has been renamed Xbox Game Studios. The announcement was made by the corporate vice president of Xbox Game Studios, Matt Booty, in a news post on the Xbox website. The idea is to bring all Microsoft and Xbox gaming-related business under a single brand, which is made up of 13 game development studios.

Vince Zampella, one of the founders of Respawn Entertainment, has announced that the new battle royale game Apex Legends has broken the one million unique players mark in under eight hours. The impressive feat is testament to a combination of the genre’s popularity and the huge Titanfall fanbase. Apex Legends is set in the Titanfall universe.

Microsoft has been receiving praise for the Xbox Adaptive Controller commercial that was shown this Super Bowl Sunday. The clip, which was called “We All Win,” gives some children with disabilities the opportunity to speak about their love of video gaming. The Microsoft device helps users create customized controllers, giving the kids an opportunity to “crush my friends” as one pleased young gamer admits.

Contrary to previous rumors, it looks like Nintendo is ready to release a smaller and more affordable Switch version that may come with fewer features, possibly ditching the TV Dock altogether. Design-wise, a smaller frame would most likely mean smaller screen and side-controllers, as well. Additionally, Nintendo is rumored to launch a new online service with more classic titles.

The Wii Shop Channel finally closed its doors today, marking the end of Nintendo's first digital distribution platform. The Shop Channel was home to the Virtual Console, Nintendo's massively successful digital storefront that housed a myriad of retro titles. The Shop Channel's closure also sounds the final death knell of Nintendo's most popular non-handheld console, the Wii.

Nintendo has been mum on the development of Metroid Prime 4 since its announcement at E3 2017, but it looks like development has not been going well. In a video announcement, Shinya Takahashi stated that Nintendo has decided to restart development of Metroid Prime 4 and hand over the reins to Retro Studios, the development house behind the first three Metroid Prime games.

In development since 2017 and available for PC gamers since December 2018, the Vikendi winter map for PUBG is now available on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. The new map is accompanied by the Survivor Pass: Vikendi that rewards players of all levels for completing more than 200 missions over a multi-week season.

Navi is the currently-accepted name for the generation of AMD processors to succeed the Radeon VII GPU. Cards based on this upcoming 7nm platform may be released later this year. A new leak points to new chipset variants for the series that may differ from those mentioned in previous rumors.