Welcome to, The RoundUp! This is our news post summarising the past month in PC gaming, PC tech and new Thermaltake products. On today’s RoundUp for May 2021: Blizzard is losing millions of players across all their titles; Warner Bros interactive splits, and a survey shows that 59% of women admit to hiding their gender while gaming. All that and more in this RoundUp for May 2021.
GAMES NEWS
Games Released
May proved to be a more exciting month for game releases. So, if you missed out, here is what came out for PC this past May.
The highly anticipated Resident Evil: Village released on May 7th. This was followed by Hood: Outlaws & Legends on the 10th of May.
The remastered edition of Mass Effect, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition release don the 15th of May.
Next, came the sequel to 2018’s Subnautica, titled Subnautica: Below Zero. And finally, the animal themed adventure game Biomutant released on May 25th.
Announcements
The biggest announcement from May was that Dying Light 2 finally has an official new release date. The game is due to release on December 7th this year, with a fancy new subtitle, Dying Light 2: Stay Human.
Delays
Ubisoft has delayed Pirate game Skull and Bones until at least 2022. The game was first announced in June 2017, initially due to release in fall 2018.
Everything Else
Gamescon is going entirely digital for their 2021 event. They were previously aiming to run a hybrid show, including some in-person and other fully online events. However, this isn’t going ahead anymore. The event will now take place entirely online on August 25th.
Blizzard is losing a butt ton of players! Over the last two months across all their games they have lost roughly 27 million players. This is a steady decline, having lost 11 million players over the last 3 years.
Ubisoft’s upcoming Division game will be free-to-play and will release between 2021 and 2022. The Division: Heartland is in development alongside The Division 2 and will be a stand-alone game.
And in final gaming convention news, BlizzCon 2021 is not happening. Their goal was to hold an in-person event in November, but due to on-going issues around the global pandemic, that isn’t looking likely to occur. They have optimistically stated they are planning an early 2022 event though.
TECH NEWS
Facebook has acquired Downpour Interactive, best known for developing VR military simulator Onward. This comes as no surprise as Facebook owns Oculus, a well-known VR Headset company.
Sony has made a minority investment in Discord. This comes after Microsoft’s buy out of the popular platform fell through. It seems Sony has plans to try and integrate Discord into their PlayStation Network.
Google Stadia continues with its mass exodus. The VP and Product Head has now also left the company, along with six more Google Stadia staff members.
An engineering sample of Intel’s upcoming Alder Lake CPU showcases how promising it’s looking. It has a 16-core, 24-thread model and utilizes Intel’s 10nm processor with fresh new architecture. Being this far into the production process could hint at the CPU indeed releasing during the second half of 2021.
In further Alder Lake news, it looks like some CPU coolers will need a rework to fit. This is due to the CPUs shape, as well as coming with a different hole pattern.
A painful phishing scam is making the rounds, called ‘Panda Stealer’. So, here is your semi-monthly reminder to please be safe when it comes to clicking links, especially ones from people you don’t know or that seem a bit suspicious.
HTC have revealed their new headset, the Vive Pro 2. This beefy machine offers a 5k resolution display, 120-degree field of view as well as a max refresh rate of 120Hz. This will also need a strong PC too, as unlike the Quest 2 that it’s being compared to, it is not a standalone unit.
AMD are looking into spicing up their sockets to help avoid bent CPU pins. This works to due to a potential shift in socket design that AMD are looking into, with rumours suggesting a land grid array design with their new AM5 CPUs. This means that their pins future will be more bendable.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella hinted that the net generation of Windows is on the way. During their keynote speech for their Build conference in May, Neella talked about a Windows update on the way. This would be the most significant update for the system since 2015 when it first released.
Unreal Engine 5 will release in 2022. It has early access available right now and promises an array of features that will help make developers efforts much simpler.
CONTROVERSIAL NEWS
A Korean player who criticized the ‘One China’ policy has been un-boycotted by Chinese Overwatch teams. Player of Seoul Dynasty Jong-ryeol “Saebyeolbe” Park did apologise for his comments back in April, however the apology was not accepted. This meant that the 3 Chinese Overwatch league teams refused to play against Park, therefore boycotting Seoul Dynasty also. However, it seems this situation has been resolved, with Park himself yet to comment on the situation though.
Activision has officially cut ties with Jeff Leach, who voiced Ghost in the new Modern Warfare series. This comes after a streamer posted a bunch of clips showcasing Leach using gendered insults.
Valorant pro-player Sinatraa has been suspended for six months. This comes after the controversial player refused to cooperate with an investigation into sexual assault allegations made this past March.
Warner Bros Interactive is splitting up. It’s parent company AT&T announced that WarnerMedia will be merging with Discovery to create a new company to compete with Netflix and Disney+. Some of WarnerMedia’s game studios will remain, while the others will move into the new company.
The 4 separate lawsuits against CDPR have been merged into one GIANT lawsuit. These lawsuits tend to revolve about the idea that investors were misled regarding the state of the game, especially on last-gen consoles. The case is still ongoing, with the game company taking vigorous action to defend itself.
And finally, a new survey shows that 59% of women online hide their gender. This is primarly due to trying to avoid online harassment. Lenovo organised a survey on the experience of women in gaming, with 77% of women having dealt with some form of unwanted behaviour when gaming.
THERMALTAKE NEWS
This past May was a quiet month for us here at Thermaltake. In terms of products released, the main one to take note of is our TOUGHAIR, our gorgeous new CPU Air cooler. We also released some new colour variants of our TOUGHRAM RGB in red and gold.
Over on our YouTube channel we released some awesome content. This includes our new series titled “I Tried”, where for a week we try something new. We also looked into Building vs Buying a PC in 2021. Finally, we released a First Look on our TOUGHAIR.
Here on the blog, Michael wrote a post on Emulation on PC and whether it’s a good thing. He also wrote about some multiplayer games that helped him through lockdown. We also wrote about some things to consider before buying a pre-built PC.
Don’t forget, our podcast Thermal Talk is still going strong! Check out our latest episode on your podcast platform of choice: Spotify, SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts
