Gaming in Taiwan. Reviews, Walkthroughs, News

AMD and NVIDIA have reportedly reserved TSMC's entire CoWoS production for the next two years as both firms aggressively compete in the AI race.

This is not investment advice. The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Wccftech.com has a disclosure and ethics policy.

NVIDIA's first batch of its highly-anticipated Blackwell DGX GB200 AI servers is expected to drop into markets by 2025, starting the next gold rush in the industry.

The long-delayed Star Wars: Hunters finally has a new release date. Back in 2021, Lucasfilm Games and developer Zynga announced Star Wars: Hunters, a squad-based arena shooter set after the fall of the Galactic Empire at the end of the original Star Wars movie trilogy. Players can choose from characters like Rieve, a dark-side-empowered warrior, a lightsaber-wielding droid called J-3DI, and even Utooni, a pair of junk-scavenging Jawas stacked together. Each of these characters has their own unique abilities, which will come in handy during frantic battles across several classic Star Wars locations.

As the only British baseball fan on Planet Earth, I had one simple mission when I first arrived in Taipei: to choose a local team to support. Taiwan is infatuated with America’s former favourite pastime, and it’s even dedicated a spot on its $1,000 note to a celebrating squad. After much deliberation, I settled on the Rakuten Monkeys for one rather simple, primitive reason: they’d just signed Korean cheerleader Lee Dahye.

This is not investment advice. The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Wccftech.com has a disclosure and ethics policy.

TSMC has announced that the firm has finally entered the "Angstrom 14 Era" as they initiate development on their cutting-edge A14 process.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate passed an extensive, $95 billion national security package that sends financial aid to Taiwan, Ukraine, Israel, and Gaza. Tucked inside that bill is a piece of legislation the government’s been trying to pass for a while — a purported “TikTok ban.” Called the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controller Applications Act, the bill won’t exactly ban TikTok; instead, the goal is to force TikTok owner ByteDance to sell the popular app. The legislation signed by President Joe Biden on Wednesday will give ByteDance nine months to sell TikTok. (Biden could extend the deadline by 90 days, too.)

Gigabyte has unveiled new «Metal Gear Plus ITX» mini PCs, which feature AMD's «Hawk Point» processors. The new mini PCs from Gigabyte will be available in three different configurations, and seasoned PC builders will be able to customize their chosen variant.

This is not investment advice. The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Wccftech.com has a disclosure and ethics policy.

Catch up on all the latest World of Warcraft news from the last week—take a tour through The War Within in the WoWCast developer chat, pre-purchase the World of Warcraft®: The War Within™ 20th Anniversary Collector's Edition, get a closer look at the new Warbands System, and more! 

This is not investment advice. The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Wccftech.com has a disclosure and ethics policy.

Blizzard released a massive blue post giving an official preview on Warbands, one of the main features of The War Within!

Get a closer look at the new Warbands System with the World of Warcraft development team.

So-net Entertainment Taiwan Limited is all set to release the highly awaited global version of Assault Lily Last Bullet W. Yes, finally, after years of waiting! You can now pre-register for the game and even grab some pretty awesome goodies while doing so!

NVIDIA's Blackwell AI GPUs are expected to lift every other associated segment, including CoWoS (TSMC) & HBM DRAM, as the market expects millions of chips to be shipped by 2025.

Apple currently leverages TSMC’s 3nm process for several of its chipsets, and the company may stick to this manufacturing process for a few iPhone generations. According to the latest report, the iPhone 17 will not be the first lineup to sport an A-series SoC fabricated on the ultra-advanced 2nm node. This will mean that the A19 Pro that is expected in 2025 will retain the 3nm lithography, but it will not be the same technology, as you will soon find out.

This is not investment advice. The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Wccftech.com has a disclosure and ethics policy.

Within two days of NetEase announcing a renewal of their partnership to bring Blizzard games back to China, over two million players have pre-registered, 147,000 accounts reactivated, 92,000 accounts recovered, and Blizzard China has received 1,000+ resumes! While restoring service to other Blizzard games including Hearthstone, Overwatch, Starcraft, Diablo, and Heroes of the Storm, the response for WoW has been overwhelming. Officially reported by Blizzard China and translated by NasDa on Twitter, these stats show the extreme appetite for World of Warcraft in China. While many players completely rerolled on Taiwanese realms in order to keep playing after servers shut down last year, many more still have been left in limbo, without access to the game they invested the better part of two decades into playing.

NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4090 witnessed a sales ban in China, but who will be responsible for the RMA requests of existing units? Well, we do have an answer now.

It didn’t take long for last year’s excellent Street Fighter 6 to take the fighting game world by storm. Capcom’s critically praised fighting game didn’t just revitalize the Street Fighter series, but reignited interest in the fighting genre as a whole. Capcom then focused on growing the competitive side of Street Fighter 6 by hosting a new entry of its tournament circuit, Capcom Cup, with a first-place prize of $1 million.

Microsoft is limiting Xbox Game Pass subscription extensions in certain countries to deter players from stacking their membership at a cheaper rate.

Persona 5: The Phantom X is about to steal your heart – and your free time – with its release on April 18th. Persona 5: The Phantom X, developed by Black Wing Game Studio and distributed by Perfect World Games under ATLUS, is based around the Persona 5 universe, but goes its own way. Both veterans and beginners can explore a distinct Persona 5 chronology and perspective with new characters and a new storyline.

A cataclysmic event struck Taiwan, including the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturer TSMC, as it was forced to evacuate staff and stop production thanks to a massive earthquake, which, according to a recent update by NPR, hit near the eastern city of Hualien at 7:58AM local time. With a magnitude of 7.4, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, it is the strongest earthquake to hit the island in 25 years. A company spokesperson said that upon initial inspection, the construction appeared to be normal, but regular work at the sites was suspended. A statement has also been given below.

This is not investment advice. The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Wccftech.com has a disclosure and ethics policy.

Qualcomm has shared even more performance numbers of its upcoming Snapdragon X Elite PC CPUs, now showcased to be over 50% faster than Intel's fastest Core Ultra chips in Geekbench 6 benchmark tests.

Popular streamer JustFoxii, with over 592K followers on the Amazon-owned streaming platform Twitch, recently provided a significant update to her audience regarding the unsettling incident where a viewer deliberately set her car ablaze back in 2023. Twitch personality disclosed that the perpetrator has been apprehended and subsequently sentenced to a 46-month prison term.

With Noblegarden up for a few hours in Europe and Taiwan, the new mount Noble Flying Carpet seems to be a 1% drop from the daily cache of the event Loot-Filled Basket. From community observations and data collected from our Wowhead Client, the mount seems to have a 1% drop rate, while the transmog pieces have a 5~10% drop rate for each piece.

The Taiwan server giant Quanta has received huge OEM orders for NVIDIA's GB200 AI servers, with tech behemoths interested in the technology.

Nine Sols, the highly anticipated new title from Detention dev Red Candle, will launch on 29th May – but only on PC for now. The side-scrolling action game, which is heavily inspired by Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, has been in development for quite some time, and blew past its crowdfunding targets a few years ago.

I had a favorite version of Mulan growing up (Anita Yuen in the 1998 Taiwanese TV series). I obsessed over Chinese period TV series like Legend of the Condor Heroes, My Fair Princess and The Book and the Sword. I consider myself fairly well-versed in Chinese historical figures, especially those represented in ‘90s and 2000s entertainment in Asia. So when I found out that a UK-based studio had made a VR game called The Pirate Queen based on a forgotten female leader who was prolific in the South China Sea, I was shocked. How had I never heard of her? How had the Asian film and TV industry never covered her?

The developer behind Devotion and Detention has finally announced the release date for its Hollow Knight-style platformer, Nine Sols.

The Indian IT sector may be set to soar globally with AI, experts assert. In another development, the US Federal agencies are mandated to test AI for bias and oversight. Additionally, the US government has also implemented safeguards against AI, ensuring transparency. All this, and more in our daily roundup. Let us take a look.

TSMC's 3nm supply seems to be reserved by the three big tech firms, as Apple, Intel, and AMD manage to grasp a hefty portion of the production.

Nvidia CEO applauds Taiwan's key role in AI revolution; Tim Cook advocates AI for business carbon footprint reduction; UK launches AI project to track Hedgehog populations; Baidu stocks soar on Apple collaboration for AI services in China- this and more in our daily roundup. Let us take a look.

Rise of the Ronin, the latest tentpole PS5 console exclusive from legendary Japanese developer Team Ninja, has been subject to a colossal marketing push in Asia, where posters and billboards have been spotted around cities such as Taipei for several weeks now. That’s all culminated in an Edo period art exhibition in Huashan 1914 Creative Park – coincidentally, the former home of a Japanese sake manufacturer– where Sony has installed several 19th-century props inspired by the game.

Samsung’s struggles in bringing up the yields of its 3nm GAA process were well-known, but there is a positive update that a tipster provided, claiming that the Korean giant’s foundry has managed to increase that number to three times the original figure. This means that the previous 10-20 percent yields of the 3nm process is now hovering between 30-60 percent. While these are improvements, the company continues to trail behind TSMC, and there are rumors claiming that Samsung placed more stock in its second-generation 3nm GAA process.

As we near the end of Dragonflight Season 3, Raider.IO has partnered with Blizzard to host another Beak the Meta competitive Mythic+ dungeon event, and with a special twist! While off-meta specs will still compete against one another, Havoc and Vengeance players will participate in an exclusive Meta vs. Meta bracket available only to groups made up entirely of Demon Hunters! Starting April 2nd, both groups will compete for prestige and prizes, including the exclusive Dreaming Banner of the Aspects! Registration is currently open and will close at 11:59pm PDT on April 20th, 2024. Register for Break the MetaLearn More on Raider.IO

The Dimensity 9300 has set the stage for MediaTek, howling that it is back in the premium Android smartphone segment, and it intends to make its rivals nervous with the Dimensity 9400 launch. With the exception of Google and Apple, the Taiwanese firm has signed on every other phone maker as its customer, but Vivo is rumored to want a first crack at the company’s flagship silicon, and it may have already secured the first batch for itself. A new report also compares the performance differences of the Dimensity 9400 with the Dimensity 9300, claiming a 20 percent improvement.

As the Hearthstone 10th Anniversary event starts on Korean and Taiwanese servers, we are getting the first glimpse of what to expect from the event. Hearthstone 10th Anniversary Guide We're currently compiling information, so the article will likely change as new details are discovered.

There was a slight chance that Samsung would have partnered with MediaTek to bring its Dimensity 9000 to its flagship Galaxy S series in the past. Given that the Taiwanese company took the premium Android SoC market by surprise with this release, competitors started taking note of MediaTek and where it could be headed. Unfortunately, the deal between the two firms could not materialize, with a tipster sharing that there was a scarce supply of the chipset, amongst other reasons.

Samsung is regarded as a major smartphone chipset customer for Qualcomm, which is likely why the latter recently renewed a multi-year agreement with the Korean giant to use its Snapdragon silicon. However, it can become worrisome if one company depends on just one client to bring in 40 percent of the total revenue for a specific quarter, but according to the data shared for Q4 2023, Qualcomm appears to be too dependent on Samsung in this regard. We have witnessed on previous occasions that things can go from bad to worse if companies cannot diversify.

A few years ago, MediaTek garnered its popularity through its Helio lineup of chipsets that were found in mid-range and affordable smartphones. The Taiwanese firm had cemented its position firmly in this category, but it was believed that the company could not match the likes of Qualcomm in the flagship silicon space.

For an event still in its infancy, Taipei-based indie expo G-EIGHT immediately appears accomplished far beyond its years. Its sophomore effort – conducted on the Taipei Expo Park on a sunny weekend in early December – was bustling with enthusiastic attendees, all eager to test drive the latest efforts from local Taiwanese developers, spanning established names like Red Candle through to up-and-coming student projects from freshly minted graduates.

Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly decided to switch parties, now eying for Samsung Foundry as its primary AI chipmaker as it sees "uncertainty and volatility" at TSMC.

Apple’s iron grip on the ARM notebook and desktop space might be coming to an end, starting with Qualcomm and its Snapdragon X Elite. However, one rumor claims that Huawei is another player to enter this space, and there are claims that the former Chinese giant has already developed a competitor to the M1. Then again, the company might have obtained dependency from a slew of foreign companies in a bid to jumpstart its smartphone business, starting with the Kirin 9000S, but that does not mean that there are no other hurdles that need to be scaled.

The new game mode for Hardcore WoW Classic called «Self-Found» is now live on WoW Classic realms! This new game mode will prevent you from trading other players, sending or receiving mail, and prevent you from using the Auction House, making the entire journey from 1-60 a much more difficult task!

Mphasis launches DeepInsights Doc AI for advanced document processing;  OpenAI partners with Figure AI to elevate humanoid robots with advanced AI models; Author Calum Chace optimistic about AI's impact on jobs; Meta CEO Zuckerberg explores AI chip collaboration with Samsung in Asia tour- this and more in our daily roundup. Let us take a look.

Intel has made some "serious" strides in the semiconductor industry, announcing its bleeding-edge 10A "1nm process" & revealing plans.

This is not investment advice. The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Wccftech.com has a disclosure and ethics policy.

SMS fraud, or "smishing", is on the rise in many countries, fuelled by the increasing use of smartphones. This is a challenge for telecom operators who are meeting at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the sector's biggest annual gathering, in Barcelona this week.

A lot has changed at HTC in the decade since a small team broke off to form its mixed reality division. In fact, it’s a fundamentally different business in several meaningful ways. For one thing, you can’t call HTC a phone company any longer. Contrary to popular perception, the Taiwanese corporation does still produce handsets — primarily mid-range devices for the Asia market.

The boss of consumer electronics firm HTC on Monday welcomed Apple's launch of its own a mixed reality headset, saying it will help the technology take off and become mainstream. Apple began sales of Vision Pro, the company's pricey virtual and augmented reality headset on February 2 in company's biggest product launch since the original iPhone went on sale in 2007, putting it in competition with HTC.

A new The Division game has received a rating in Taiwan  – seemingly, one that hasn’t even been announced yet.

AI generated propaganda matches effectiveness of genuine content, study finds; AI boom raises alarming concerns over big tech's surging water consumption; Ludhiana industry gains insights on AI advancements at LMA session; AI technology aids US and allies in monitoring China's Taiwan invasion intentions- this and more in our daily roundup. Let us take a look.

AMD's CEO, Dr. Lisa Su, will deliver the opening keynote of Computex 2024 where we'll get to hear about the upcoming technologies for PC & AI segments.

 Intel Corp. has landed Microsoft Corp. as a customer for its made-to-order chip business, marking a key win for an ambitious turnaround effort under Chief Executive Officer Pat Gelsinger. 

Intel has reportedly demanded further subsidies from the Biden administration under the CHIPS Act as the firm ramps up developments in setting facilities in the US.

Sam Altman seeks US approval for multibillion dollar AI chip venture;  Google unveils free AI cyber tools for enhanced online security; Apple set to launch AI code completion tool for developers; AI hiring tools risk filtering out top candidates, despite hopes of bias reduction- this and more in our daily roundup. Let us take a look.

TSMC has prepared its enhanced 3nm node for multiple partners this year, a couple of whom are Apple’s competitors, but the semiconductor giant will receive the biggest revenue push from the latter, with a new report talking about a 50 percent boost in orders. This is likely because several SoCs from Apple this year will be mass produced on the cutting-edge manufacturing process.

Gigabyte is making an important fix to the design of its GeForce RTX 4080 and 4090 series GPUs after various reports of cracked PCBs were spread online. PC gamers wanting to buy a high-end Gigabyte GeForce RTX GPU should be on the lookout for a new label on the packaging to ensure the GPU features an updated PCB design.

We were fortunate enough to receive remasters of a trio of classic LucasArts point-and-click adventures on PS4, and it's now looking like they're being ported to PS5 too. Grim Fandango, Full Throttle, and Day of the Tentacle are all playable on Sony's previous console (and technically PS5 as well), but it seems the current-gen system will soon have native versions of its own.

Taipei’s blue-hued Bannan Line is always packed to bursting, as it’s the approximately 26-kilometre MRT line which ferries passengers to key city destinations like Ximen and Taipei Main Station, but it was abuzz with added enthusiasm late last month, as enthused gamers rode the train all the way through to its destination station for the Taipei Game Show.

Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang anticipates advances in computing over the next few years will keep the cost of developing artificial intelligence well below the $7 trillion that Sam Altman is said to be fundraising.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will exclusively be mass produced on TSMC’s second-generation 3nm process, but its successor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, might switch to a dual-foundry approach as Qualcomm reportedly looks to secure orders from both Samsung and its Taiwanese semiconductor rival. The San Diego chipset maker has apparently requested both companies to provide 2nm samples, which can be evaluated further.

This is not investment advice. The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Wccftech.com has a disclosure and ethics policy.

In 2023, TSMC only had one 3nm customer, which was Apple, but as it takes on more clients this year, it needs to address its production capabilities to cater to additional orders. According to one report, the Taiwanese giant intends to increase production to 100,000 monthly wafers in 2024 while also focusing on increasing yields by 3nm.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's co-director, Motomu Toriyama, has revealed that the game was almost put on three disks due to how "rich" the content in the game is.

TSMC's 2nm process has attracted significant client interest, with the likes of Apple and Intel lining up to secure the initial production batch amid huge demand.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, US President Joe Biden will soon announce subsidies top semiconductor companies like Samsung, Intel, TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co) and others to make advanced chips in the US. The strategy is to keep the US and its allies as ahead of fierce rivals like China as is possible. 

This is not investment advice. The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Wccftech.com has a disclosure and ethics policy.

Intel is bringing in some major AI performance improvements with its next-gen Panther Lake client CPUs while Clearwater Forest chips are in fabs.

AMD's recently released Instinct MI300X accelerators have taken the AI market by storm, as it is causing "headaches" for competitors due to their appeal in the industry

Intel Foundry has announced a "strategic" collaboration with the famous Taiwanese semiconductor firm UMC as they vow to move together in semiconductor development.

The semiconductor giant TSMC preps for 1nm production, as the firm starts planning the development of a cutting-edge fab in Taiwan.

The number of cyber attack cases in India increased by 15 per cent per week on an average in 2023, trailing only Taiwan in the Asia Pacific region, cyber security firm Check Point said on Monday.

Last year's fast uptake of generative artificial intelligence looks set to continue, which is the kind of good news that will convince Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. that the worst is over for the global chip sector. All it needs now is for us to keep chatting with bots, create AI-generated cat videos, and let computers write school essays.

OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman, who has been working to raise billions of dollars from global investors for a chip venture, aims to use the funds to set up a network of factories to manufacture semiconductors, according to several people with knowledge of the plans.

AI Roundup: Several notable developments took place in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) today, January 18. At the Microsoft forum, startup founders have shared their views on AI opportunities in India. Meanwhile, the World Economic Forum's AI Governance Alliance highlighted the need for global efforts to make access to AI equitable at Davos.

The era of AI PCs is upon us, & the upcoming PC markets will evolve into something that the world hasn't seen yet, as hinted by several manufacturers at CES.