China seeks to curtail spending in online games

Tekken director Katsuhiro Harada has asked Native American fans of the series for their thoughts on the designs of fighters Michelle and Julia, and what advice they'd give to him if he created a new Native American character for the series.

New Apple AirDrop capabilities were announced recently to add more on the already available ones and most of the features look to guarantee security to the user. AirDrop has been a handy tool for protesters and activists to hide their activities from governments. However, the feature has been controversial for quite some time now. Chinese authorities raised questions about this iPhone feature. It was reported that when the feature is in “receive messages from Everyone” mode it can receive files and messages from anyone, however, this has created a massive privacy concern as a new crackdown by China has ended up exposing senders' names, phone numbers, and email addresses. Know more about AirDrop vulnerabilities here. This will be a concern not just for Apple, but for all of users, specifically activists, globally.

 Apple Inc.'s iPhone sales slump in China is deepening and the company is likely to see volumes decline further this year, according to Jefferies analysts led by Edison Lee. The iPhone maker's latest generation, iPhone 15, got off to an atypically sluggish start in China last year, which most recently expanded to a 30% year-on-year decline, Lee and colleagues said in a note on Sunday, citing industry checks. The rest of the country's mobile market grew in December, with Huawei Technologies Co. growing fastest on the back of its new Mate 60 device lineup.

With GTA 6 generating buzz for its gripping single-player storyline, the spotlight is increasingly turning toward the highly anticipated online component. The success of GTA 5's online experience, particularly the meteoric rise of GTA Online RP servers, has captured the imagination of gamers worldwide, paving the way for a call for dedicated support in the upcoming GTA 6.

Huawei Technologies Co.'s newest laptop runs on a chip made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., a teardown of the device showed, quashing talk of another Chinese technological breakthrough. The Qingyun L540 notebook contains a 5-nanometer chip made by the Taiwanese company in 2020, around the time US sanctions cut off Huawei's access to the chipmaker, research firm TechInsights found after dismantling the device for Bloomberg News. That counters speculation that Huawei's domestic chipmaking partner, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., may have achieved a major leap in fabrication technique.

AMD is reportedly going to push back the launch of its upcoming Radeon RX 7600 XT 16 GB GPU in China as it tries to avoid a clash between its lineup.

China removed an official at a government body overseeing its press and publications regulator, five sources who were briefed on the matter said, days after Chinese gaming stocks were hit by proposed rules to curb spending on video games. Feng Shixin was removed last week from his position as head of the publishing unit of the Communist Party's Publicity Department, the sources said. The department oversees the National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA) which in turn regulates China's vast video games sector.

The third closed beta test—the “Heart Stealing Test”—for Persona 5: The Phantom X will run from January 16 to 31 in China, publisher Perfect World Games and developer Black Wings Game Studio announced. It will run across iOS, Android, and PC. Registration is available here until January 12.

Cutting-edge chip manufacturing machines from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML have been blocked from export to China, according to the firm, amid a report of US pressure in the strategic sector.

In yet another blow to China as it attempts to maintain a path towards self-reliance, Dutch-based lithography systems manufacturer ASML has revoked shipments of some of its DUV machines thanks to a request brought forward by the Biden administration. The export ban for such equipment was supposed to come into effect after a few weeks, which would have given China a little breathing room to procure sufficient machinery to continue mass producing chips for various applications, but the U.S. had other plans.

AMD's best gaming CPU, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, is currently discounted to $317 in China with an AM5 combo deal going for just $466 US.

Chinese tech giant Huawei said Friday it "weathered the storm" of US sanctions as it announced a rise of almost nine percent in revenues in 2023, a year that saw it shock Washington with the release of a high-end smartphone.