COST News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

Samsung may not have much success with its 3nm GAA process, but it intends to make amends with its next-generation 2nm technology, which is said to enter mass production next year. To gain an edge against its foundry rival TSMC, a new report states that the Korean giant is introducing Backside Power Supply (BSPDN) technology, which aims to offer several benefits, which we will discuss here.

Blizzard has implemented the Class Tuning that was previously announced last week and implemented additional changes, adjusting High-Yield Radiation Bomb, as well as adjusting the armor on bosses inside Gnomeregan.

Blizzard is implementing the Discoverer's Delight experience buff starting the week of March 5 for leveling characters, providing a 100% bonus up from 50% experience bonus in Season of Discovery. This buff was first introduced as a 50% experience bonus for leveling players, and with this update, the experience bonus will be increased to 100%. This should allow players to level to the current cap of 40 much faster, experiencing new content such as the Gnomeregan raid.

In today's Developer Update, Blizzard announced that they will be reducing the cost of racial mounts in Season of Discovery by half, starting the week of March 5. This was also the price of mounts during Season of Mastery and Blizzard previously changed that right before Phase 2's launch, to the community's dismay.

Immortals of Aveum was one of those games that got swallowed by the unprecedented slew of triple-A releases that dominated gaming in 2023. A new IP from a new studio, the game didn't fare well at launch, sandwiched as it was between behemoths like Diablo IV, Baldur's Gate 3, Starfield, Armored Core 6, et cetera. This led to Ascendant Studios having to lay off around 45% of its employees just a few weeks after the debut of Immortals of Aveum.

The climax of sees Ganondorf sacrifice his mind in a final attempt to reign supreme, but this isn’t the first time magic has left him without his mind. Throughout his many appearances in as both Ganondorf and Ganon, the King of Evil has found himself in a wide variety of circumstances, but he has always striven to attain power. However, not every scheme to empower him comes without its downsides, as exemplifies.

A digital version of the Pokémon Trading Card Game is heading to mobile later this year.

In Europe, Immortals of Aveum was the 469th best-selling game of 2023.

Engine giant Unity has reported a 57.2 increase in revenue for 2023.

Pocketpair has deployed Palworld Update v0.1.5.0 through Steam with the Xbox patch being rolled out soon as well.

One of 2024’s best games so far is Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, which continues the adventures of everyone’s favorite loveable dingbat, Ichiban Kasuga. In case you haven’t already played this one, now is a great time to at least add it to your game library for much less than it usually costs. Normally $69.99 on both Xbox Series X and PS5, you can snag a physical copy at Best Buy for just $39.99.

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Crew subscribers will receive the new March 2024 Crew Pack on February 29th, featuring exclusive character cosmetics and other great benefits. Katt is headlining the latest Crew Pack, arguably one of the best Outfits in for cat lovers, along with her themed cosmetics. Subscribers will also receive their usual perks, including a pack of V-Bucks to spend and premium Battle Pass access.

Foundation co-creator David S. Goyer has stepped back from his showrunner duties on the Apple TV Plus sci-fi show due to clashes over budget, The Hollywood Reporter has claimed.

Apple is expected to launch the iPad Pro with OLED displays next month with a slew of new changes and front-facing features. However, with forthcoming additions, Apple is also expected to increase the price of the devices. It was previously rumored that the OLED iPad Pro models could cost as much as the new MacBook Pros. It appears that past rumors were somewhat true, as Apple is aiming for a massive price hike for the OLED iPad Pro models due to the upgraded display technology.

Earlier this year, Honor and Porsche Design entered a partnership, and that meant that we were going to get some really gorgeous-looking phones from this partnership. However, that also started signaling the fact that the partnership between Huawei and Porsche Design might come to an end, and that has finally happened.

Blizzard will be implementing more class tuning during the upcoming weekly maintenance, including tweaking Druid healing spells, Rogue's Redirect, and multiple Shaman changes. This comes hot on the tail of recent hotfixes to several classes.

There might only be eight of them, but PokemonSquishmallows have made a very big splash since their inception at the end of 2022. Far bigger than the splash even the largest Magikarp could muster up. Magikarp isn't one of the seven Pokemon to have been turned into a Squishmallow so far, and it isn't next in line either. That honor goes to Dragonite, and the first images of Pokemon's next Squishmallow have been shared online.

The Apple Vision Pro is a sturdy piece of glass and aluminum, but at the front, a previous scratch test revealed that the company used plastic, so getting permanent marks on it would take little effort. However, multiple owners are reporting that the front side of their AR headset are showing a crack while the device is just being stored and doing nothing else. This kind of occurrence would make anyone livid who has to fork $3,499 for a head-mounted wearable, and that too, for the measly base storage of 256GB.

The developer of Temtem, that Pokemon-like MMO from a few years back, is now working on a co-op roguelike featuring its collection of creatures, and the news has been divisive. Roguelike fans and some Temtem enthusiasts seem intrigued by the idea, but a vocal part of the Temtem community is upset to see developer Crema seemingly move away from the core MMO. A statement from CEO Enrique Paños – or Kikill0, one of the devs in the Temtem Discord – has fanned the flames by telling disappointed players that they can't expect "infinite content" when putting out major updates is "not feasible" to begin with.

The PlayStation VR2 headset is getting official PC support later this year, Sony confirmed today.

John Cena and James Gunn’s take on the DC superhero Peacemaker is coming to Mortal Kombat 1 on Feb. 28, and the character’s first gameplay trailer is full of the foul-mouthed quips and quirky characteristics that made his eponymous TV series so enjoyable. Oh, and Eagly’s joining the fight too, alongside new Kameo Fighter Janet Cage.

Over the last few years, Vacuum cleaners have evolved. A couple of decades ago, cleaning your floor or couch would've meant finding an outlet close to it to plug your vacuum cleaner into so that you could reach even the corners of your room. However, that has not been the case since cordless vacuum cleaners have come to the fore. These home appliances make chores such as vacuuming effortless and efficient. Despite being a relatively new category of product in India, cordless vacuum cleaners are now catching on widely for a number of use-cases that could only be dreamed of once.

Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree expansion will be FromSoftware's biggest DLC to date.

Garena Free Fire MAX Redeem Codes for February 22: The developers of Garena Free Fire MAX rolled out an event called the Bony Ring event. The details of this event were leaked by data miners just a few days ago, and now it has been introduced in the game. It offers players a chance to get their hands on weapon skins, bundles, emotes, gloo walls, tokens and more. Most items offered in Garena Free Fire MAX bring cosmetic upgrades, allowing players to tweak their character's look and make it stand out from millions of other Garena Free Fire MAX players. Check out the details of the Bony Ring event below.

 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. 

Getting your hands on a copy of Ninja Five-O for Game Boy Advance would normally cost you hundreds of dollars in 2024. And that’s just for a loose cartridge; complete copies of Ninja Five-O have sold for $700 (or more) on eBay in recent months. But there will soon be a much cheaper way to play Konami and Hudson Soft’s beloved GBA action side-scroller, thanks to a re-release from Limited Run Games.

Japanese puzzle game Suika Game is getting local multiplayer, Nintendo announced during its February Nintendo Direct on Wednesday. The paid downloadable content pack is out now for $2.25. A bundle that includes Suika Game and the multiplayer DLC costs $5.24.

With a dog by your side and an empty soda bottle in hand, prepare to survive Magic: The Gathering’sforay into Fallout’s alt-history radioactive wasteland with help from brand-new armor, auras, and other junk.

Twitch has announced it will increase the price of channel subscriptions for the first time next month.

The Samsung Galaxy S23, known for its cutting-edge features and impressive performance, has recently received a notable price cut on Amazon, making it an even more enticing option for smartphone enthusiasts. Let's delve into the details of this price reduction and explore the various discounts and offers available on this flagship device.

The first Elden Ring DLC trailer will drop later today, but the release date for Shadow of the Erdtree might have already leaked online. 

Although several older figures were recently restocked, what may well be the final new amiibo for Nintendo Switch have now been released. Sora's figure last week, and the Noah and Mio two-pack a few weeks before that. Naturally, the three figures have been pretty hard to come by since pre-orders went live, but now they've all been released, the trio has been popping in and out of stock on Amazon.

February’s remaining Game Pass lineup is a good time at the beach, whether you’re hanging out with the Heeler family and friends in Bluey: The Videogame or feasting on tourists as a bloodthirsty killer shark in Maneater.

There are now more than 1,000 Pokemon, and even though not all of them can boast their own plush, there are almost certainly more than 1,000 officially licensed Pokemon soft toys. Pikachu alone has been turned into a plush so many times that I've lost count. The world famous Electric-type has another one for its collection this week as Pikachu has been included in Pokemon's new Sweet Support plush range, and the Pichu it has been paired with will melt even the iciest of hearts.

Sam Altman's goal of raising about $7 trillion to make artificial-intelligence chips tells a story beyond his borderline-insane ambitions. First, the infrastructure needed to build AI has become exorbitantly expensive. Second, most of that value is still — still! — held by a handful of large technology companies — and the oligopoly is only going to get worse.

We have the solution to Wordle on February 19, as well as some helpful hints to help you figure out the answer yourself, right here. We’ve placed the answer at the bottom of the page, so we don’t ruin the surprise before you’ve had a chance to work through the clues. So let’s dive in, starting with a reminder of yesterday’s answer.

Sony’s most recent earnings report wasn’t a great one for the previously-strong-seeming PlayStation brand. As we reported, Sony downgraded their fiscal year 2024 (which runs from the beginning of April 2023 to the end of March 2024) target for PS5 sales from 25 million to 21 million. They also admitted that no major AAA franchise entries will be published over the course of this coming fiscal year. Needless to say, this wasn’t received that well, partly leading to a plunge in Sony stock that subtracted an estimated $10 billion from the Japanese company’s value.

You may not be fully satisfied with how PlayStation is running its business right now, but Sony’s bringing home the big bucks all the same. The firm’s gaming division is printing cash, as it shipped a sturdy 8.2 million PS5 units throughout the three-month period ending 31st December, 2023. That’s an increase of 1.1 million year-over-year, and it puts the PS5’s lifetime sales at 54.8 million units to date.

Hiroki Totoki has a lot of titles at Sony; in addition to being president, COO, and CFO of the corporation, he's more recently stepped into the role of PlayStation chairman as Jim Ryan winds down his time at the company. He's among the company's top dogs, then — but what does he make of Sony Interactive Entertainment since he became more directly involved? Speaking on a recent earnings call, he seems happy with PlayStation's first-party teams, but has some concerns about the business side of things.

Bandai Namco has revealed that it cancelled at least five in-development games, and will change its internal development structure moving forward. Stricter rules will make it more difficult for future games to proceed past specific development milestones, as increasing costs make games even more expensive, risky propositions.

Some 700 unionised Ubisoft employees downed (development) tools in France, walking off the job in a day of organised strike action. Following the collapse of annual salary negotiations, on Valentine's Day, workers from Ubisoft Paris, Montpellier, Lyon, Annecy, and Bordeaux took part, taking to the streets in the time-honoured French tradition.

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Sony's stock lost $10 billion in value last week after the tech giant lowered its forecast for this year's predicted PlayStation 5 sales. 

The video game industry has never been known for its job security. Game development works in cycles, and when games are released and projects end, people are often laid off. When the next project starts, hiring begins once again only for another potential cut down the line. It was hard for video game developers to feel comfortable in their positions before the most recent period of unprecedented instability. But over the past few years, it’s become a downright crisis.

Chances are that you've used at least a few Microsoft Office programs before, even if you've never worked in an actual office. Tools like Word and PowerPoint have been a staple on home and work PCs for nearly 30 years, and more recent tools such as Microsoft Teams made the transition to remote work seamless for millions of people. It's hard to tell the importance of Office suites with just a few words.

A French retailer has listed Intel's upcoming Core i9-14900KS CPU, which will feature a clock speed of up to 6.2 GHz.

In Apple’s latest Q1 2024 earnings call, it was revealed that nearly 30 percent of the technology giant’s iPhone revenue for the quarter was thanks to its presence in one market, China, and given its recent 13 percent shipments decline in the region, the company stands to lose out on a ton if its market share continues to be threatened. Unfortunately, that looks to be the case here, with analysts believing that Huawei’s comeback is creating a torrent of problems and other reasons for that sales slump.

The renowned chip design expert Jim Keller has called the "AI ambitions" of OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman unnecessary, claiming he can do the same with much less capital.

The Kirin 9000S chipset was the first stepping stone that would enable Huawei to stop relying on foreign technologies, but it has been a tough road, especially with the U.S. trade sanctions breathing down on the former Chinese giant’s neck. The company is rumored to want to make its Mate 60 series more accessible to customers from a pricing perspective, and with the P70 launch in tow, that would be the ideal move to make. However, a tipster states that unless Kirin 9000S production picks up, that will not be possible.

Greetings, Adventurers!

Dragon's Dogma 2 will be CAPCOM's first $70 game, but it may not be its last, judging from what the company said recently.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is the first Capcom game priced $70, but it sounds like there’s more to come.

The iPhone SE 4 will be Apple’s first low-cost offering to transition from an LCD to an OLED, matching the company’s other high-end devices, but buyers will have to muster up sufficient patience because this particular model is slated to launch sometime in 2025. Thankfully, the company will not have to fret over the display cost of the iPhone SE 4 since Samsung and BOE are reportedly fighting over orders.

Blizzard has shared an update for upcoming class tuning, which will be implemented after this upcoming week's maintenance. The changes are for Druids, Shamans, Paladins, and Mage's Conjure Water Rank 5.

Future consoles like the PlayStation 6 and the next generation Xbox are either going to have smaller performance gains or significantly higher prices over their predecessor due to a few reasons, as highlighted by some recent comments from a well-known AMD leaker.

Hot on the heels of a backlash against Diablo 4 portal reskins that cost the same as Palworld comes a new microtransaction horror: a horse bundle that costs more than Diablo 4 itself.

There’s no shortage of morally grey things you can do in Palworld. From running your own sweatshop of Pals gathering resources to capturing and selling humans to Black Marketeers, almost nothing seems to be off the table in this game. While you usually want to build up a large collection of Pals to either help run your bases or help you in battle, sometimes you might just want to strip one of any value it might have at the cost of its life. This is a great, if not morbid, way to gather some extra items off a Pal you may not have much use for. In a sentence we never thought we’d say, here’s how you can butcher your Pals in Palworld.

European games firm Embracer Group has cut its workforce by eight per cent since it started a "restructuring" process in 2023.

Blizzard has released hotfixes for Season of Discovery Realms, addressing issues related to the Blood Moon event, several Gnomeregan bosses, and various class tweaks.

NASA is constantly pushing the limits, venturing into the unknown realms of air and space. Their most recent project, the UVEX mission (UltraViolet EXplorer), scheduled for launch in 2030, promises to shed more light on the mysteries of galaxy and star evolution. UVEX's primary mission is to conduct a comprehensive survey of ultraviolet light across the entire sky. But it doesn't stop there. Equipped with advanced technology, the telescope can quickly identify sources of UV radiation in the universe. This capacity is critical for observing events such as the aftermath of gravitational wave-induced neutron star mergers.

The PS5 has entered the "latter half" of its life cycle, according to Sony, and a price cut looks unlikely.

Some new PS5 Pro details might have been revealed, including a possible price point for the rumored powered-up PS5 console.

Staff at three of Ubisoft's French studios are striking today over compensation.

Ascendant Studios' debut game was Immortals of Aveum, a single-player, magic-based first-person shooter with semi-open environments and high production values. Published by EA Originals, it launched last summer to a somewhat mixed reception, and reportedly didn't sell. As a result, the developer let go of practically half its employees. Now, an anonymous source has offered their thoughts on what happened.

Bungie has confirmed in its Feb. 1 “This Week in Destiny” newsletter that it’s finally ending its four-year partnership with Prime Gaming. Since January 2020, Bungie has released a monthly package containing free shaders, sparrows, emotes, and other cosmetics that Amazon Prime members can redeem for free. The 49th and final Prime Gaming exotic package will include a timed-exclusive shader and will be available through Mar. 7, so make sure to log in and claim your rewards before they leave for good.

With today's release of Patch 1.3.2 in Diablo 4, players can find a few new wares in Tejal's Shop. Notably, there is a new Mount and Platinum Bundle for players interested in buying the currency — the Vitreous Scourge bundle.

The genius inventor and toymaker, Whizbang, has opened the doors to his magical workshop—and all of Azeroth’s invited! This place is teeming with plushies, Miniatures, and more. With nonstop nostalgia and options galore, you’re bound to find a new favorite toy—or even build one yourself. Welcome to a world of whimsy and wonder, welcome to Whizbang’s Workshop! 

The Wand Company revealed at the end of January that it would be releasing miniature versions of its luxury Poke Ball replica collection. Showing off five of the Poke Ball types that will be getting shrunk down to look the way they do when clipped to a trainer's belt, what the initial reveal didn't divulge is how much the replicas will cost. Now the first of the five designs is available to buy on Amazon, the price of the mini Poke Balls has been confirmed.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 could be one of 2024’s biggest games. Given the success of other recent fantasy adventure titles like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Elden Ring (not to mention, Capcom’s own stunning streak of great titles), the cult classic series may find a much bigger audience when it launches on March 22.

Immortals of Aveum was the debut game of Ascendant Studios, an independent developer with triple-A ambitions. Founded by former Electronic Arts and Sledgehammer Games Creative Director Bret Robbins, the studio wanted to deliver a sci-fi single player shooter focused on magic, and it partnered with EA to publish the game.

Diablo 4’s troubled history with microtransactions has grown more grim after Blizzard began selling class-locked portal reskins.

We have prepared a Guide explaining each step of the process of unlocking the new Epic Crafted Gear Recipes inside Gnomeregan. You'll need to get your hands on Pristine G-7 C.O.R.E. Processor, which this guide will walk you through, similar to the process of unlocking the Void Touched Gear in Phase 1. Gnomeregan Crafted Gear Guide

With the industry as volatile as it is, publishers and developers must find new ways to monetise and offer value to their players to keep them coming back. Released on Friday, Helldivers 2 from developer Arrowhead Studios had a massive weekend, doing things slightly differently from its competitors in the service space, which might be part of the reason for its success.

It’s healthy to be skeptical when you see microtransactions in games. Many titles cross the line from fair to exploitative, all but forcing players to throw in money that could buy another full game (or more) to actually have a good time. So when initial reports surfaced about Helldivers 2’s microtransactions, people were wary. At first glance, the now-popular live-service shooter utilizes some familiar strategies. There are both free and premium battle passes that feature items that can affect gameplay and a number of currencies to parse out. Plus, there wasn’t a roadmap released at launch, so it was tough to gauge how horrible any microtransactions could be.

Nvidia's new RTX 4080 SUPER graphics card seems to be mostly sold out already. It's still unclear whether the upgraded version of Nvidia's RTX 4080 card is unavailable due to high demand or low stock at launch.

A new report sheds some light on just how much EA invested in its single-player FPS Immortals of Aveum, which received mixed reviews and was deemed a financial flop.

In August of last year, Ascendant Studios developer Aaron (name changed for anonymity) was ready to take a well-deserved victory lap. He had crunched hard with many of his colleagues in the final sprint to complete Ascendant’s debut game, Immortals of Aveum, but the team had finally done it. He attended a launch party in the Bay Area where he celebrated with his colleagues, some of whom he said had to pay partially out of pocket to make the trip. But while the event was supposed to be jubilant, there was an uneasy atmosphere: it seemed like Immortals of Aveum wasn’t performing especially well. At the party, developers kept asking leadership how the game was doing, only to be met with non-committal answers.