PlayStation decided to throw in two extra games for PS Plus Essential subscribers next month as a holiday bonus. The lineup hits five total titles instead of the usual three and covers everything from fresh 2025 releases like Killing Floor 3 and Synduality Echo of Ada to solid 2024 stuff like The Outlast Trials, Neon White and LEGO Horizon Adventures.
Sony basically confirmed that all five games land for subscribers to grab, but warned people to snag the current month's offerings before they rotate out. The move has people wondering if Extra and Premium tier members might also get some special treatment since those tiers already had a pretty stacked lineup last month, with Grand Theft Auto V and Pacific Drive showing up.
Samsung locked down a deal with Nota AI that lets the Exynos 2500 chip handle on-device AI way better through compression tech. The partnership created something called Exynos AI Studio that helps advanced AI models run without needing cloud servers by squeezing more out of the hardware.
The 2500 packs a 10-core setup with different Cortex processors, an AMD-based GPU, and an NPU hitting 59 TOPS. That NPU gets smoked by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 that supposedly reaches 100 TOPS, so the optimization software from Nota AI basically helps Samsung make up ground by letting the weaker neural processing unit work smarter instead of harder.
Grasshopper Manufacture dropped word that their next direct stream is going down and will focus entirely on Romeo Is A Dead Man updates. The broadcast hits their YouTube channel and promises some fresh gameplay footage alongside development peeks that nobody has seen yet.
Korea already rated the game, which has people thinking a 2026 launch window might get announced during the presentation. Suda51 apparently built something that leans hard into being a straightforward video game instead of chasing realism, mixing his signature bloody humor with a story that feels personable from the jump. Early hands-on impressions suggest this could end up being one of the best releases the studio has ever cranked out.
TSMC plans to drop around $49 billion on four facilities that will pump out 1.4nm chips by late 2028. Japan's Rapidus wants to beat them to the punch by getting their own 1.4nm plant running a year earlier in Hokkaido while also plotting research into 1nm tech down the line.
The Japanese government and companies like Sony and Toyota have already committed $10 billion to bankroll Rapidus since this whole operation needs endless cash. The startup aims to kick off full production in 2027, but first has to crack the same problem everyone faces with advanced nodes, which is getting decent yields. They started messing around with trial 2nm wafer production earlier this year while Samsung quietly installed the high-end ASML gear needed for...
Apple teamed up with ISSEY MIYAKE to drop the iPhone Pocket and people lost their minds over what basically amounts to a fancy phone sleeve. The short strap version runs $150 while the long strap hits $230, which apparently was enough to get the knockoff machine fired up over on Alibaba.
Clones are already flooding the market for about 10 bucks, sitting at a wild 93 percent discount compared to the official gear. The fakes skip the designer label but otherwise look identical to the real deal. Anyone buying the legit version is chasing status rather than function, and that pressure might push some folks toward the cheap rip-offs instead.
Samsung dropped plans to roll out a bunch of OLED monitors next year and the twist is that one of them uses LG panel tech instead of their usual QD-OLED stuff. The company figures it's cheaper to buy WOLED from LG Display than make their own right now, even though they totally could.
The lineup starts with upgraded QD-OLED screens that bump specs like adding 90W USB-C power delivery and DisplayPort 2.1 on their 4K models. The real oddball is a 27-inch WOLED gaming monitor that swaps between 4K at 165Hz and FHD at 330Hz depending on what you need.
Grabbing panels from LG lets Samsung pad out their options without breaking the bank and gives them easier access to bigger WOLED inventory when they want to expand the range even more.
Netflix grabbed Toby Wallace for a lead role in their Assassin's Creed show, which has been stuck in development hell since they announced it five years back. The 30-year-old actor from Bikeriders and Eden got the green light to join the cast after the series finally started moving forward over the summer.
Production kicks off somewhere in Italy next year, though nobody knows which historical period the show takes place in or who Wallace will actually play. Fans are betting on a Renaissance Italy setting that could bring Ezio Auditore into the mix, but reports say the characters will be different from the games. The big mystery is whether Wallace ends up in the present-day storyline or as the actual assassin doing parkour in the Animus.
Jennifer English dropped her take on generative AI at the Golden Joystick Awards and basically told the industry to knock it off. The actor behind Shadowheart from Baldur's Gate 3 and Maelle from Clair Obscur Expedition 33 said devs should stick with human creativity instead of leaning on AI for voices and assets. She pointed out that imperfections and mistakes actually make games better.
Her comments landed right before Clair Obscur cleaned house at the awards show, snagging every category it entered and taking home the biggest prize of the night. The game made history heading into The Game Awards with 12 nominations, breaking records for a single title. English grabbed Best Lead Performance and is competing against two of her costars...
Christie's is getting ready to sell the original Apple partnership paperwork for somewhere between $2 million and $4 million at an auction. The lot has the three-page agreement that tied together Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ron Wayne, plus the withdrawal papers Wayne signed just a few days after founding the company.
This marks the second time the document has hit the auction block. Sotheby's moved it back in 2011 when Eduardo Cisneros dropped $1.59 million to snag it, though the actual hammer price sat closer to $1.35 million after you strip out the auction house cut.
Wayne originally held 10 percent of Apple while Jobs and Wozniak each grabbed 45 percent. He bailed on his stake for $800 pretty much right after signing on. That...
