Welcome back fellow PC enthusiasts to the first round of news for the shortest month of the year!
Things have been surprisingly interesting over the first few weeks and
it doesn’t look like 2022 is planning on letting off the gas anytime soon.
Valve hooks us up with an extremely useful interface tweak, one I didn’t even realize
was missing until now. Microsoft is putting the kabash on the HoloLens 3?! AMD is putting even
more chips on the table with next-gen Ryzen and Radeon this year, And Microsoft…wait,
SONY?! Sony has made a move on acquiring a major developer, something I did not see coming.
Okay, enough of that, let’s crack open this burrito and see what’s inside, shall we?
Head honcho Brad Chacos brought this interesting and useful bit of information to the table, so big
thanks to him for that. With Valve prepping for its Steam Deck launch the company has been making
tons of tweaks within Steam to make the handheld’s life a little easier. What could that be? How
about the ability to see just how much space a game is going to take up after installation
BEFORE you chose to download it! But, the catch is right now you’ll need to be using the beta
client of Steam, however, this feature should be rolling out to everyone sooner rather than later.
Seems simple right? I mean, I never even thought about how I had to go through the process and
begin installing a game before I was privy to how much space I would even need free on my storage.
But why do I think this will be so useful for the Steam Deck?
Well, if you haven’t noticed not all versions have massive storage solutions so users will need to
be careful. And with this update, they’ll know ahead of time whether they can proceed with the
installation before even clicking the install button and potentially wasting their time.
But you know who isn’t wasting time? Microsoft, with the HoloLens 3 apparently. PCWorld’s Mark
Hachman broke down the report from Business Insider that Microsoft killed off the HoloLense in
2021. So in the trash can with that mixed-reality plans. This is such a weird move with so many
companies leaning into the ‘Meta-verse’ and virtual everything. So what gives?
According to the report from Business Insider, there’s a bit of back and forth within Microsoft
on directions for the project. But, the statement Microsoft gave to PCWorld stated: “Microsoft
HoloLens remains a critical part of our plans for emerging categories like mixed reality and the
metaverse,” the company said. “We remain committed to HoloLens and future HoloLens development.”
If the Business Insider report is accurate then the plans could be in place but the device itself
is what’s changed. Rather than stick with Microsoft’s design,
the company could be planning to partner with a Samsung device.
While Microsoft’s move sounds like a big bet, then AMD’s could be even bigger. On
Tuesday executives for AMD stated the company has secured enough manufacturing capacity
for 2022 to meet demand, and get this, including its next-generation CPUs and GPUs.
That’s a big tease for sure and something I’m sure most DIYers will believe when they see it.
This all comes from AMD’s constant growth with the expectation of $5 billion in revenue during
the first quarter of this year. But DIY isn’t where a lot of this is being made,
it’s in the server space. And you know what the server space uses a lot of? CPUs and GPUs.
While that’s true with server-grade gear,
the upcoming launch of the Zen 4 CPUs and the statements line up for what I hope to be
a solid and available launch. But the mention of Next-gen GPUs is really exciting as well. So
why don’t you share in the comment section what you think that’s all about?
But on to things you can’t buy, like a gaming studio.
It’s what all the cool kids are doing these days. Microsoft is leading the front in buying up
every studio that accidentally leaves its keys laying about, so why wouldn’t Sony jump in too?
Who else had Sony buying Bungie on their developer acquisition bingo card?! Certainly wasn’t me.
First off, I need to remind people out there in case they forgot. Bungie may
have left Microsoft some time ago to go to Activision, and then broke off on its own,
but Bungie DID NOT take the Master Chief with them. Halo continued on with 343 and Microsoft.
Now with that out of the way, it’s going to be quite interesting to see
where the future of Bungie and the likes of Destiny go from here. For the $3.6 billion
dollar price tag, I hope Sony, and us gamers get something spectacular out of the deal. I mean,
Sony is enjoying great success on PC launches, after all, let’s hope they don’t forget that.
Well, there we have it once again folks, another solid week in the rearview mirror and lots to look
forward to in 2022. Valve is still making quality of life improvements on Steam and I’m here for
every bit of it. Microsoft has reportedly killed off the HoloLens 3 in favor of a new device in
partnership with Samsung to dive headfirst into the Meta-verse. AMD has big bets and is putting
all its chips on the line to meet major demand in 2022. And Sony broke out the bank card and picked
up the once Microsoft-owned Bungie, let’s see if they captured lightning in a bottle with this one.
I want to thank you all again for joining me on this week’s recap. If you want to see
something wild and crazy make sure you check out Gordon’s article on the world of esports Excel
Spreadsheets. But before you do that let me know what you thought of this video by hitting that
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