The Asus ROG Phone 8 series — demonstrated at CES 2024 in Las Vegas last week — is generating excellent reviews for its gaming capabilities and additional praise for its functionality as a smartphone. The devices start at $1,100 and tick up to an entry level of $1,500 for the ROG Phone 8 Pro. Asus calls the ROG Phone 8 series “the biggest redesign in its history,” and says it has evolved from just a gaming phone into a device suitable for streamers and content creators. At the heart of that is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform, supported by 8,533 Mbps LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage. Continue reading CES: The Asus ROG Phone 8 Series Highlights Mobile Gaming

YouTube is following in Netflix’s footsteps as the latest streamer to expand into games. YouTube Premium subscribers on mobile and desktops will be able to access a suite of games it has branded “Playables.” A total of 37 mini-games can be found using the Explore tab for those who opt-in. Titles include “Angry Birds Showdown,” “Daily Solitaire,” “Brain Out,” and “Daily Crossword.” The streaming games don’t need to be downloaded or installed, but can be played directly from YouTube’s servers. YouTube says the games will initially be available through March 28, making the effort seem somewhat experimental. Continue reading YouTube Experiments with Streaming Video Game Playables

Valve’s Steam Deck OLED comes to market Thursday with an HDR OLED display that sprawls 7.4 inches, better audio, and a huge boost in battery life. Lighter, cooler, and promising faster downloads, the Steam Deck OLED comes in two storage configurations: 512GB and 1TB, priced at $549 and $649, respectively. As with its predecessor, Steam Deck OLED features a microSD card slot. A $79.95 Steam Deck Docking Station is also available to connect to external displays, wired networking, USB peripherals, and power. The release date is set for November 16. Continue reading Valve to Launch Its Overhauled Steam Deck OLED This Week

Sega Corp. has agreed to pay about $776 million for Rovio Entertainment, the Finland-based maker of the “Angry Birds” game franchise. The move aims to help Sega establish a presence in mobile gaming while launching Rovio IP in the PC and console markets. The tender offer — equivalent to about $10.15 per share — was issued from Sega’s wholly-owned UK subsidiary Sega Europe Ltd. and parent company Sega Sammy Holdings. Sega, based in Japan, has as part of its mid-term plan earmarked $1.8 billion for expanding its global presence and “exploring new ecosystems” through 2026. Continue reading Sega to Purchase ‘Angry Birds’ Maker Rovio for $776 Million

The upcoming Razer Edge, a gaming handheld built for streaming, may change how players interact with cloud games. With a 6.8-inch AMOLED display at 2,400 x 1,080 FHD+ resolution with a 144Hz refresh rate, the Razer Edge and Razer Edge 5G from Verizon start at $360 and are designed for ever-connected mobile play. Razer says its latest handhelds are the first developed exclusively for the latest Snapdragon G3x Gen 1 Gaming Platform. They include active cooling “for long gaming sessions playing top AAA titles and native games on the go without having to compromise performance.” Continue reading CES: Razer Edge Cloud Gaming Handheld Arrives January 26

Lenovo is entering the consumer market for wearable displays after selling similar devices for business use for the past five years. The lightweight Lenovo Glasses T1 have micro OLED displays featuring 10,000:1 contrast and 1920×1080 pixels per eye, with an audio speaker at each temple. Capable of being powered by a Windows, Android, macOS or iOS device, they connect with USB-C. Lenovo likens the Glasses T1 to having “a personal monitor” in your pocket and says they allow wearers to experience content “well beyond the limited screen size of mobile devices.” Continue reading Lenovo Introduces Wearable Display Glasses for Consumers

Video games as an advertising medium is still relatively niche, but a migration to streaming has paved the way for what observers predict will be explosive growth. Ad Age recently identified gaming as “the next huge advertising channel.” Fast Company posits U.S. in-game advertising, or IGA, is currently between $6-$8 billion, which is less than 6 percent of U.S. digital advertising. Analytics firm Research Dive predicts in-game advertising will grow to $14 billion worldwide by 2028. Fast Company says here are nearly 3 billion global players — one in four people — and growing by 15 percent a year. Continue reading Video-Game Advertising Projected to Top $14 Billion by 2028

Microsoft has made a nearly $70 billion offer to buy Activision Blizzard in a move that will bolster its Game Pass franchise, instantly expand its reach in mobile gaming, and create a content platform for the consumer virtual worlds that are expected to be big business in coming years. Statista estimates the global gaming market generated just over $178 billion in revenue in 2021, more than PwC projections for video streaming (almost $59 billion) and box office ($23 billion) combined. When the transaction closes, Microsoft says it will be the world’s third-largest gaming company by revenue, behind Tencent and Sony. Continue reading Microsoft Believes Activision Purchase Is ‘Key’ to Metaverse

Nvidia is introducing its next-generation cloud gaming platform, GeForce NOW, which offers GeForce RTX 3080-class gaming online. GeForce NOW RTX 3080 will make available to users what Nvidia describes as “the most powerful gaming supercomputer ever built,” ready to take on Google Stadia and Xbox Cloud Gaming’s xCloud. Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang said the company has spent the past decade improving GeForce NOW cloud gaming “to bring the best gaming platform to anyone with a computer,” thanks to second-generation GeForce NOW SuperPOD servers. Continue reading Cloud Gaming: Nvidia Rolls Out Its GeForce NOW RTX 3080

Chinese online game companies are falling in line with Xi Jinping’s government mandate to curb negative influences on the country’s youth, vowing to self-police the workarounds kids have found to circumvent regulatory limits on play-time. In August, China banned persons under 18 from playing video games more than three hours each week. More than 200 game firms including Tencent and NetEase say they will comply with regulations announced by China’s National Press and Publication Administration and take steps to ensure the rules are enforced. The NPPA suggested use of facial recognition to accomplish that goal. Continue reading Gaming Industry Reacts to New Entertainment Rules in China

TikTok parent company ByteDance has acquired startup Pico, which, according to IDC, was the third largest virtual reality headset manufacturer worldwide in Q1 2021, with shipments growing 44.7. percent year-over-year. The purchase marks ByteDance’s first step into virtual reality and the company said that Pico’s “comprehensive suite of software and hardware technologies, as well as the talent and deep expertise of the team, will support both our entry to the VR space and long-term investment in this emerging field.” Continue reading ByteDance Buys Startup Pico, Virtual Reality Headset Maker

With the coronavirus pandemic, more people are staying at home and, according to Newzoo, 700+ million of them are playing video games on consoles. The market research firm said the console industry is slated to rake in $45 billion in revenue this year. Microsoft and Sony have unveiled new consoles, and Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad stated that consoles are a “much more profitable business” than a decade or more ago, especially since digital distribution of games enables the game companies to enjoy bigger profit margins than before. Continue reading Game Consoles See Revenue Growth with Digital Distribution

App Annie reported that, in the first half of 2020, users spent 1.6 trillion hours on mobile devices, a big leap from the same period in 2019. App Annie market insights director Amir Ghodrati stated that, even if millions of people are out of work, it’s crucial for brands and companies to advertise on mobile devices, to acquire new users and enable them to set up new app habits. According to App Annie, psychologists say it takes an average of 66 days to form a habit. As the coronavirus pandemic continues, those habits are solidifying. Continue reading Advertising Opportunities Emerge for Mobile During Pandemic

Apple has always had strict limits on apps that users can access on its devices. For gaming, that means its 1+ billion iPhone/iPad users have one option: Arcade, the subscription service Apple unveiled in September. The App Store guidelines also ban streaming from the cloud, which limits Arcade’s capabilities. Still, software developers need to be on Apple’s iOS if they want to reach a maximum number of users. According to Sensor Tower, the iOS App Store was responsible for 65 percent of all global app spending last year. Continue reading Apple App Store Rules Ban Cloud-Based Streaming Services

A recent Ericsson Mobility Report reveals that there has been a 68 percent increase worldwide in mobile data traffic and that it is expected to continue to grow with the adoption of 5G and increased expansion of 4G mobile networks. Ericsson predicts that, by the end of 2025, there will be 2.6 billion 5G subscriptions, accounting for 65 percent of the world’s population and generating 45 percent of the globe’s total mobile data traffic. In related news, AT&T rolled out low-band 5G service to customers in 10 cities. Continue reading Ericsson Projects Global Mobile Data Traffic to Soar with 5G