strategic move Archives

AppWizard

August 11, 2025

‘You’ll now be at the mercy of what loot you can find’: Rust’s latest update brings back hardcore mode tougher than ever, removing the ability to craft guns entirely

The "Hardcore update" for the survival game Rust reintroduces elements that increase gameplay intensity, including the fog of war on the map, requiring players to explore without a detailed layout. Players must craft a compass to mark their location, which only shows their position. Respawn cooldowns have increased to 15 minutes for sleeping bags and 10 minutes for beds, while base upkeep costs have doubled. Firearm crafting is completely banned in hardcore mode, with ammunition crafting costs significantly higher. The update also includes a redesigned game menu, optimized loading times (up to 65% faster), improved metal detector functionality, and visual upgrades. Additionally, the price of Rust has been halved from £35 to £17.50 to attract new players.

AppWizard

August 8, 2025

Minecraft and cheap menus get McDonald’s back to growth

The fast food industry is adapting to challenges such as an E. coli outbreak and rising anti-American sentiment by focusing on affordability and value. A major player has introduced low-cost menus and promotions related to the Minecraft movie to attract budget-conscious consumers. CEO Chris Kempczinski stated the goal is to win back low-income Americans, leading to the introduction of a new snack wrap priced at .99 and other menu items starting at low prices. Early indications show this strategy is resonating with price-sensitive consumers, helping to rebuild loyalty.

AppWizard

August 8, 2025

MumuPlayer Android Emulator version 5.0 out now

Disney is merging its streaming platforms, Disney+ and Hulu, into a single application in select markets, starting with the United States after initial implementation in the Philippines. Subscribers will have a unified Disney+ app that includes Hulu's content library while maintaining separate subscription plans for both services. Hulu will continue as a standalone brand, and Disney plans to rebrand its Star service to Hulu in certain territories. Existing subscribers in regions with the combined app will retain their Disney+ subscription and access to a variety of content from both platforms.

Winsage

August 1, 2025

NVIDIA announces end-of-life support for many of its GTX cards — but it’s not all bad news

NVIDIA will issue one final major driver update for its Maxwell, Pascal, and Volta graphics card architectures in October 2025, after which these cards will only receive quarterly security updates. Regular "Game Ready" updates will cease, although support for these architectures will continue until October 2028. The Pascal architecture, launched in 2016, remains popular, with the GTX 1060 being used by 2.15% of PCs as of June 2025. NVIDIA will extend Game Ready driver support for its newer RTX GPUs on Windows 10 until October 2026.

BetaBeacon

August 1, 2025

Epic Games Store for Android will be coming to Google Play Store: CEO Tim Sweeney

Epic Games Store will soon be available on Android via the Google Play Store, aiming to provide users with an alternative to Google's ecosystem and support more open app marketplaces on mobile platforms.

Winsage

July 31, 2025

Nvidia will support GeForce drivers on Windows 10 until October 2026

Nvidia has released a new GeForce Game Ready Driver that extends support for Windows 10 devices and various games, maintaining compatibility for GeForce RTX GPUs with Windows 10 until October 2026. This update provides continued access to optimizations for new games and applications. Windows 11 has surpassed Windows 10 in market share, claiming 52 percent compared to Windows 10's 44.59 percent. Nvidia will also provide quarterly security updates for Maxwell, Pascal, and Volta-based GeForce cards until October 2028, although updates for the CUDA architecture for these older cards will be discontinued in the next CUDA Toolkit update. The update includes support for 62 new G-Sync compatible monitor displays and enhances performance for upcoming titles like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Mafia: The Old Country, launching on August 8th. Users can download the update from Nvidia’s official website.

AppWizard

July 31, 2025

First-party and Game Pass push Xbox revenue up 10%

Microsoft's Xbox division achieved a ten percent increase in revenue, with a 13 percent surge in content and services revenue for the financial year 2024/25. Xbox Game Pass generated nearly billion in annual revenue for the first time. The latest Call of Duty installment, Black Ops 6, attracted over 50 million players, totaling two billion hours of gameplay. Microsoft launched Forza Horizon 5 on PlayStation and Oblivion Remastered across all platforms. The company is developing around 40 games currently.

AppWizard

July 31, 2025

Atari to buy Thunderful, company undergoes another round of restructuring

Atari has entered an agreement to acquire the European firm Thunderful Group through a directed share issue valued at SEK 50 million, gaining control over 82 percent of Thunderful's outstanding shares, with Thunderful's board approving the transaction. CEO Wade Rosen highlighted the acquisition as a milestone for Atari's expansion in Europe, while Thunderful has initiated a restructuring operation aimed at achieving cost savings of SEK 6 to 8 million for the latter half of the 2025 financial year and SEK 40 to 45 million during 2026, which will involve job cuts. CEO Martin Walfisz will step down as part of this transition, marking the third round of restructuring for Thunderful in recent years.

Winsage

July 29, 2025

Microsoft is finally addressing my biggest issue with the Taskbar and multi-monitor support on Windows 11

Microsoft is testing a new feature in Windows 11 preview builds that allows users to access the notification center and calendar flyout on secondary displays. Previously, users could only interact with the system tray on their primary monitor. This enhancement aims to improve the multi-monitor experience by enabling users to see their calendar and a larger clock on any monitor. The feature is being rolled out to Windows Insiders in the Dev and Beta Channels, with general availability expected soon. Other recent updates include improvements in energy saver functionality, a revamped BSOD screen, and a customizable Start menu.

Winsage

July 27, 2025

Upgrading to Windows 11 Pro usually costs $199, but now it’s only $15

Windows 11 Pro is currently on sale for .97, down from the regular price of 9. It offers features like snap layouts, virtual desktops, support for advanced hardware, DirectX 12 Ultimate, BitLocker encryption, TPM 2.0 support, Smart App Control, and integration of Microsoft Copilot for AI assistance.