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ASUS RoG & IKEA to create product lineup of gaming furniture

Maël Valentin
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ASUS RoG & IKEA to create product lineup of gaming furniture

Swedish furniture maker IKEA has announced its entry into ‘affordable gaming furniture accessories’ in collaboration with ASUS RoG. The range of products will be led by the IKEA Product Development Centre situated in Shanghai.

The designers of the Swedish furniture maker and ASUS RoG team held multiple workshops to finalize the line up, which ranges upto 30 products fore now. According to their official announcement on the IKEA newsroom, they also had inputs from the professional gamers.

Ewa Rychert, Global Business Leader of Workspace, said: “There are a lot of existing conventions about gaming which are often stereotypical or negative, for example, all the games are built on violence, gaming is asocial and it is predominantly a men’s activity. In fact, figures show that gaming is among the most truly cross-demographic activities, and it can improve an individual’s mental health and general well-being. It’s a source of relaxation, independence, fun; through gaming, people develop skills within problem solving, teamwork and communication. Playing games also provides a new way of connecting with others which has become even more important recently to feel connected remotely. We hope that the new gaming range will help to embrace and enable the benefits of gaming in life at home.”

“By teaming up with ROG, IKEA wants to combine its home furnishing knowledge with ROG’s expertise in creating exceptional gaming experience,” the company wrote. IKEA mentioned build “affordable gaming furniture and accessories.” It is likely that gaming chairs, desks, foot rests, will part of the product range.

Fortnite Has Been Played For More Time Than Humanity Existed on Earth

Sonu Banerjee
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Fortnite Has Been Played For More Time Than Humanity Existed on Earth

Fortnite is undoubtedly the most popular video game in history. The game, which was originally released as a paid single-player adventure, gained immense popularity after the introduction of its free-to-play battle royale mode in 2017.

The battle royale mode of Fortnite features a huge map where up to 100 players are dropped. The players battle it out while contesting a shrinking ‘safe zone’ till a sole survivor remains.

While the popularity of Fortnite was unmatched, a recent report released by GAME brought to light a shocking fact – The amount of time spent on playing Fortnite is longer than the existence of humanity, and that too, by a margin.

The report states that throughout the world, players have spent a cumulative total of 3.8 billion days playing Fortnite, which is equivalent to over 10.4 million years. For reference, the earliest forms of humanity has existed on Earth for about 6 million years, while the Earth itself dates back to about 4.5 billion years ago.

Fortnite has also gained massive success across streaming platforms. The game has amassed a whopping 1.2 million hours streamed on Twitch across all streams over the past year, making it the most popular title on Twitch, followed by League of Legends.

The battle royale genre itself gained fame through games like PUBG and Fortnite, both of which were hits among gamers at the time of their releases. Even though the former was released first, Fortnite eventually surpassed PUBG in terms of player count due to its cartoonish graphics and unique overall gameplay which provided players with plenty of room for creativity.

PandaScore raises $6M to apply AI to esports

Maël Valentin
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PandaScore raises $6M to apply AI to esports

Paris, September 29th, 2020 – Paris-founded startup PandaScore, which supplies the esports industry with AI-powered statistics and odds, announces today that it has raised €5M (~$6M) in funding. The round is led by Serena, with other investors in the round being Alven, sports-tech investor KB Partners and esports owner, and investor aXiomatic Gaming.

Esports is estimated to have close to 500 million fans worldwide and the industry accounts for over $1bn in global revenues. PandaScore wants to add more fuel to the industry’s growth.

“Esports’ explosive growth is dependent on better data”, says PandaScore founder and CEO Flavien Guillocheau. “Better data lets media companies broadcast more engaging content, bookmakers offer better esports products, and teams and tournaments capture more lucrative sponsoring money. Data is the fuel that powers the esports community and we’re proud to be supplying that fuel.”

PandaScore

Collecting data in real-time from ongoing esports matches, PandaScore uses its proprietary artificial intelligence to sift out and analyze the most useful pieces of information as it happens. Esports broadcasters use this data to give their audiences a richer and more fun experience. Betting traders gain an edge utilizing machine learning to set better odds and a larger esports offering.

“The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted a significant lack of resilience among traditional bookmakers, who really need to increase their agility”, commented Olivier Martret, principal at Serena. “And this is where Pandascore can help. At Serena, we are convinced that Pandascore’s tech is a key asset both for traditional bookmakers, enabling them to gain new market shares, and for newcomers in the bookmaker industry, offering them an unfair advantage to provide efficient and reliable services.”

PandaScore taps into the trend of a new generation tuning in to esports for entertainment and betting just as much as their older peers have done with traditional sports. The trend has only been emphasized by the recent lockdowns in many countries, which have disrupted regular sports more than they have the online gaming esports industry.

Pandascore has recently signed some of the fastest-growing companies in the esports entertainment and esports betting industries as clients, including fantasy esports company Sleeper and leading companion app Strafe, global esports organization Top Esports and leading LATAM sportsbook BetCris.The company will use the new funding to expand the team and esports title coverage.

Call of Duty: Mobile – Everything you need to know

Divyesh Moghe
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Call of Duty: Mobile – Everything you need to know

Call of Duty: Mobile has gained a lot of traction in India following the PUBG Mobile ban. While the game has a similar battle-royale mode like PUBG, the core of this game is based on multiplayer battle modes. As lot of players are getting accustomed to this game, here is a basic introduction of Call of Duty: Mobile and everything you need to know about it.

Multiplayer Mode:

As the game is essentially centered around the core of first-person perspective, the multiplayer game mode and its several subcategories form the basis of this game. While the game also has its own dedicated battle-royale mode, the experience during multiplayer matches remains unmatched.

Game modes and maps:

There are total nine subcategories in this mode and all are open for casual matches but players have to rank up and the game modes get unlocked accordingly. The game has core modes like Deathmatch, Frontline, Domination, Search and Destroy and lot of others as well.

These modes vary from simple game of deathmatch where teams with highest kills win, to more complex and strategic modes like Search and Destroy where players have to play a set of matches similar to FPS genre games. The maps are taken from the history of Call of Duty franchise and gives a touch of nostalgia for old COD players.

Loadout:

Between all the multiplayer games, there is a loadout option. In Loadout, you have to select a combination of primary gun, secondary weapon and utilities along with an operator skill. The primary weapon ranges from SMGs to snipers and includes a huge pool of guns whereas the secondary weapon can be a pistol, knife or a rocket launcher.

The loadout can be changed at the start of a new round or after respawning in multiplayer matches. The weapons have tremendous customisation options from Gunsmith and the more you utilise a certain weapon, the more customisation options are available.

Scorestreaks:

There are various utilities present and scorestreaks is one of the most important feature in multiplayer games. Scorestreaks are available when players grabs a certain amount of points from the game. With each kill or assist, there are extra points shown on the screen and added to the scorestreak bar. When the scorestreak bar fills upto certain points, some abilities like UAV, Drones and missiles are available.

A combination of three scorestreaks can be used in a multiplayer game and players can swap them according to their choice. Each scorestreak needs a certain number of points for activation. More the points, greater is the impact of that certain feature on the game.

Battle-Royale Mode:

The game is not focused around battle royale mode and hence it only has a single map with TPP and FPP game modes. While it includes solo,duo and squad mode with separate ranking system, there are no map choices available. The battle royale mode is essentially similar to PUBG but has a lot of skills and classes that come handy in certain situations.

Players can drop into location of their choice and collect items by looting the surrounding areas. Healings are very important in this mode. The circle tick-damage is very large right from the start and hence overstay is not welcomed.

There is also an option to revive back your fallen comrades. Pick up the dogtags and you will be able to revive them if you emerge victorious from the fights. There is a loadout in battle royale mode as well but it is not helpful as everything has to be picked up like traditional battle-royale genre games.

Game Settings:

Basic Settings:

A huge pool of options are available for the players. Keep the standard settings as it is and experiment it by playing into unranked games. There is a lot to experiment around so take your time to find your own preferable set of commands.

Control Layout:

There are two options present infront of the players. The simple one will autoshoot bullets when the user drags the aim on the opponents but as your rank rises, this option becomes ineffective as skill level of opponents is more and a lot of bullets are wasted by using this mode.

There is an advanced option in which players can change their HUD to move from the basic two-finger layout to a more advanced claw or customised layout according to player preferences. Check the settings provided next to the layouts to tweak around your settings to find a perfect fit to your play style.

Sensitivity:

The sensitivity settings in Call of Duty: Mobile differ a lot from PUBG Mobile. The normal sensitivity needs to be adjusted. Also it is recommended to keep “fixed speed” option in rotation mode as the screen accelerations are turned off hence a constant sensitivity will be available throughout the game.

To find out your own sensitivity, hop into training mode and keep trying to tweak the numbers until you find a perfect sensitivity which allows you to move your character by 180° which will allow you to keep a track of enemies over wider view.

There is also gyroscore option available but there is drastic change as compared to PUBG Mobile. Keep the gyroscope sensitivities similar to your normal sensitivity and then change if needed. By keeping the gyroscope to maximum, it will make you game unplayable.

FalleN steps down from MIBR following roster changes

Sonu Banerjee
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FalleN steps down from MIBR following roster changes

Brazilian CSGO star Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo has decided to step down from his clan MIBR. The AWPer and IGL who’s often regarded as one of the best players to have ever touched the game has shared his thoughts through a Twitlonger post this sunday.

FalleN’s decision comes after the organisation announced dropping three players from their roster including TACO, Fer and coach ‘dead’. The MIBR lineup, which was once called to be the best CSGO team in the world, was failing to deliver up to expectations as of late, a factor which might have induced MIBR’s decision.

FalleN was clearly unhappy with the decision of MIBR to drop his former teammates from the squad, as he expresses clearly in the statement.

“At this moment, more than ever, I need to be faithful to my values and heart to close this chapter of this beautiful story,” FalleN said. “With regard to the fans who never left us, I communicate my insatisfaction with MIBR in front of the decision to completely overhaul the line-up I chose to play for.”

“I’m not satisfied with the recent decision,” the 29-year-old continued. “Last weeks have been tough and challenging and that is why I’m asking to leave the active roster while I think on my next steps.”

While the squad was underperforming, former MIBR coach ‘dead’ was recently suspended by the ESIC for a span of six months after he was found abusing a spectator bug in ESL One: Road to Rio, which might have fueled MIBR’s decision to drop him from the team.

However, FalleN has assured fans that he’ll be back to the pro scene in future. “The only thing I’m sure is this isn’t where the game ends for me,” a statement that is sure to delight his fans amid the crisis.

TACO, fer, and dead dropped from MIBR roster

Pranav Nalawade
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TACO, fer, and dead dropped from MIBR roster

MIBR has decided to part ways with two of their star players Epitácio “TACO” de Melo, Fernando “fer“ Alvarenga and coach Ricardo “⁠dead⁠” Sinigaglia. The Brazilian organisation shared the news of their sudden change in roster through a tweet this weekend.

“We are living in a moment where it is important for MIBR and MIBR fans to make changes and we will be making some adjustments to the roster over the next several weeks,” the org said in a statement. “Today, we say goodbye to TACO, Fer and Ricardo from our active roster. The rest of the MIBR roster will be retooling and getting ready for fall events including Blast and Flashpoint 2.”

The organisation also thanked the three parting members for their time spent with the team.

After the sudden exit of the three, MIBR will be left with Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo, kNg and Alencar “⁠trk⁠” Rossato.

The roster change follows multiple subpar performances from the team and disappointing finishes in several tournaments. The departing coach, dead, has recently been suspended by the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) for six months after he was found abusing a spectator bug during ESL One: Road to Rio.

Both TACO and Der have issued statements on Twitter regarding their exit from the team. TACO specified that “it was a decision made exclusively by the organization” and has hinted towards his possible future return to competitive CS by saying that he’d be “looking forward” to see what the future holds.

Nvidia buys chip-maker Arm for $30 billion from SoftBank

Pranav Nalawade
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Nvidia buys chip-maker Arm for $30 billion from SoftBank

NVIDIA and SoftBank Group Corp. (SBG) today announced a definitive agreement under which NVIDIA will acquire Arm Limited from SBG and the SoftBank Vision Fund (together, “SoftBank”) in a transaction valued at $40 billion. The transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to NVIDIA’s non-GAAP gross margin and non-GAAP earnings per share.

The combination brings together NVIDIA’s leading AI computing platform with Arm’s vast ecosystem to create the premier computing company for the age of artificial intelligence, accelerating innovation while expanding into large, high-growth markets. SoftBank will remain committed to Arm’s long-term success through its ownership stake in NVIDIA, expected to be under 10 percent.

“AI is the most powerful technology force of our time and has launched a new wave of computing,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “In the years ahead, trillions of computers running AI will create a new internet-of-things that is thousands of times larger than today’s internet-of-people. Our combination will create a company fabulously positioned for the age of AI.

“Simon Segars and his team at Arm have built an extraordinary company that is contributing to nearly every technology market in the world. Uniting NVIDIA’s AI computing capabilities with the vast ecosystem of Arm’s CPU, we can advance computing from the cloud, smartphones, PCs, self-driving cars and robotics, to edge IoT, and expand AI computing to every corner of the globe.

“This combination has tremendous benefits for both companies, our customers, and the industry. For Arm’s ecosystem, the combination will turbocharge Arm’s R&D capacity and expand its IP portfolio with NVIDIA’s world-leading GPU and AI technology.

“Arm will remain headquartered in Cambridge. We will expand on this great site and build a world-class AI research facility, supporting developments in healthcare, life sciences, robotics, self-driving cars and other fields. And, to attract researchers and scientists from the U.K. and around the world to conduct groundbreaking work, NVIDIA will build a state-of-the-art AI supercomputer, powered by Arm CPUs. Arm Cambridge will be a world-class technology center.”

“NVIDIA is the perfect partner for Arm,” said Masayoshi Son, chairman and CEO of SBG. “Since acquiring Arm, we have honored our commitments and invested heavily in people, technology and R&D, thereby expanding the business into new areas with high growth potential. Joining forces with a world leader in technology innovation creates new and exciting opportunities for Arm. This is a compelling combination that projects Arm, Cambridge and the U.K. to the forefront of some of the most exciting technological innovations of our time and is why SoftBank is excited to invest in Arm’s long-term success as a major shareholder in NVIDIA. We look forward to supporting the continued success of the combined business.”

“Arm and NVIDIA share a vision and passion that ubiquitous, energy-efficient computing will help address the world’s most pressing issues from climate change to healthcare, from agriculture to education,” said Simon Segars, CEO of Arm. “Delivering on this vision requires new approaches to hardware and software and a long-term commitment to research and development. By bringing together the technical strengths of our two companies we can accelerate our progress and create new solutions that will enable a global ecosystem of innovators. My management team and I are excited to be joining NVIDIA so we can write this next chapter together.”

Commitment to Arm and the UK

As part of NVIDIA, Arm will continue to operate its open-licensing model while maintaining the global customer neutrality that has been foundational to its success, with 180 billion chips shipped to-date by its licensees. Arm partners will also benefit from both companies’ offerings, including NVIDIA’s numerous innovations.

SoftBank and Arm are fully committed to satisfying the undertakings made by SoftBank when it acquired Arm in 2016, which are scheduled to complete in September 2021. Following the closing of the transaction, NVIDIA intends to retain the name and strong brand identity of Arm and expand its base in Cambridge. Arm’s intellectual property will remain registered in the U.K.

NVIDIA will build on Arm’s R&D presence in the U.K., establishing a new global center of excellence in AI research at Arm’s Cambridge campus. NVIDIA will invest in a state-of-the-art, Arm-powered AI supercomputer, training facilities for developers and a startup incubator, which will attract world-class research talent and create a platform for innovation and industry partnerships in fields such as healthcare, robotics and self-driving cars.

Additional Transaction Details

Under the terms of the transaction, which has been approved by the boards of directors of NVIDIA, SBG and Arm, NVIDIA will pay to SoftBank a total of $21.5 billion in NVIDIA common stock and $12 billion in cash, which includes $2 billion payable at signing. The number of NVIDIA shares to be issued at closing is 44.3 million, determined using the average closing price of NVIDIA common stock for the last 30 trading days. Additionally, SoftBank may receive up to $5 billion in cash or common stock under an earn-out construct, subject to satisfaction of specific financial performance targets by Arm.

NVIDIA will also issue $1.5 billion in equity to Arm employees.

NVIDIA intends to finance the cash portion of the transaction with balance sheet cash. The transaction does not include Arm’s IoT Services Group.

The proposed transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including the receipt of regulatory approvals for the U.K., China, the European Union and the United States. Completion of the transaction is expected to take place in approximately 18 months.

‘Missharvey’ Blames Valve for the Declining Player Count of CSGO

Sonu Banerjee
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‘Missharvey’ Blames Valve for the Declining Player Count of CSGO

Professional CSGO player missharvey has raised her voice against Valve for not showing enough support for the first-person shooter and the competitive scene revolving around it. Through a column on Dexerto, the 34-year-old shared her concerns about the future of the game, and how the “lack of freshness” coming out of CSGO may ultimately lead to its demise.

Missharvey pointed out that CSGO had reached its peak concurrent player count of 1.3 million in April, 2020, and it has been declining steadily ever since. She mentioned how the gameplay mechanics of CSGO are still relevant, but after eight years, it is starting to bore people out. The problem keeps worsening due to the lack of new content added to the game and the lack of communication from Valve regarding it.

Missharvey wants Valve to work on the community feedback to make CSGO a better game than what it is today. She also complimented Riot Games for actively responding to feedback they get from their community on Valorant, and for being transparent on their plans for the tactical shooter. “I actually feel as if Valorant’s dev team is listening more to Counter-Strike players than Valve itself,” she said.

Riot’s take on the FPS genre has indeed gained immense traction following its release on June 2nd. Many are considering Valorant to be the next big name in the world of competitive shooters and prominent personalities from the CSGO scene as well as popular streamers have already switched to Valorant. Missharvey herself has been seen sharing clips of her playing the game through her Twitter.

“There have been a lot of times in my career where I wish Valve showed us more, and once again we seem to be at a crossroads,” missharvey concluded. “They have everything they need to stay on top, but seem to be happy to just sit back and let other games play catch-up. I mean, c’mon, 64-tick competitive servers in 2020?”

Your Valorant Rank Only Depends on Wins and Damage Inflicted: Riot Devs

Sonu Banerjee
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Your Valorant Rank Only Depends on Wins and Damage Inflicted: Riot Devs

Riot has attempted to make the ranking system behind their tactical shooter Valorant transparent to its players ever since its early days. Each rank in the game has been divided into three subdivisions. The ranks start from Iron and range all the way to Radiant, the highest rank attainable. Unlike other games of the genre like CS:GO, Valorant enables players to get an idea on their rank progression after each game, which helps them determine how close they are to the next skill group.

Riot devs had previously mentioned that the number of round wins in a match is the most significant factor in determining the impact on a player’s rank. This message informed players that winning rounds should be the top priority rather than netting kills.

However, in a recent Q&A posted by Riot on their blog, a Valorant dev states that non-damaging abilities have no impact on players’ ranks whatsoever.

In the blog, Ian Fielding, Senior Producer of Valorant explains that kills play a major role in determining the combat score of a player.

“Your combat score is not just based on kills, although that is a big factor in the score. We also look at damage inflicted, meaning that assists where you help kill an enemy are taken into account, as well as utility that does damage,” Fielding said. “There are some other factors that help inform your combat score, such as first bloods and streaks. These are called out on the combat score tool tip.”

However, the good news for players may lie in the fact that Riot is looking to take into account the non-damaging assists while calculating the combat scores in a future update.

“Longer term, we are looking into ways to incorporate non-damaging assists into your combat score as well,” Fielding reassured players.

US Navy ‘Among Us’ Stream Shows References to Nagasaki Bombing and Racial Slurs

Sonu Banerjee
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US Navy ‘Among Us’ Stream Shows References to Nagasaki Bombing and Racial Slurs

The US Navy is back at streaming video games on Twitch once again, and this time, their stream features indirect references to the World War II bombing on Nagasaki and racial slurs.

The streamer, who was playing ‘Among Us’ – the newest trend in the world of online games, was in a Discord call with a person who was moderating the stream’s chat.

Among Us is an online or local party game with upto ten players. The game lets players choose their nicknames and outfits before the start of a match, a feature which ignited quite a controversy towards the US Navy stream.

While some other players in the streamer’s lobby picked harmless names in an attempt to mock the streamer, the nicknames on a few other players weren’t so innocent. The players which caused an outburst in the Twitch chat throughout the stream had names like “Nagasaki” and “Japan 1945”, both of which are references to the atomic bombing in World War II. One of the players named themselves as “gamer word”, a refer to a racial slur, and wore a black outfit.

The streamer played the game in the same lobby as these three players for about an hour before creating a separate lobby. While both the streamer and the moderator refrained from directly addressing the offensive names, at one point one of the streamer’s friends claimed to the Twitch chat that the controversial names were pumping the viewer counts up. “See chat, one thing you don’t understand is this is a numbers game and you guys are just helping us with the numbers,” he said.

When the chat continued to point towards the names, the streamer made a separate lobby. The names in the new lobby had been changed to not include any offensive names, and the streamer claimed to have kicked off those members. “The last two guys have been deleted, everyone. Shush,” the moderator said to the chat.

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