This week, Nintendo finally confirmed its next-gen console plans. The company's president, Shuntaro Furukawa, confirmed that a new console will be announced during the current fiscal year. We were already expecting this new console to be a ‘Switch 2', but Furukawa's additional comments appear to confirm that. 

During an investor meeting this week, Furukawa was asked about Nintendo's upcoming console. As reported by industry analyst, David Gibson, the Nintendo president responded by saying “Switch next model is the appropriate way to describe it”.

This lines up with other recent supply chain leaks, which claimed that the Switch 2 would feature a larger display, newly designed Joy-Con controllers with a magnetic attachment system, an improved dock and of course, more powerful hardware under the hood capable of playing games at higher resolutions, frame rates and graphical settings.

The Switch 2 is also expected to be backwards compatible with original Switch games. However, new titles designed for the Switch 2 will have a tweaked SD card design to stop them from being slotted into an older Switch model. This shouldn't be too surprising, as Nintendo did the same thing with the move from the Nintendo DS to the 3DS.

KitGuru Says: As long as Nintendo gives the new console a proper name and not something crazy like ‘Wii U' or ‘The NEW Nintendo 3DS', then the new-gen Switch should be nothing short of a massive success. 

The team at Arrowhead had quite the weekend, after scrambling to reverse a crucial decision from the game's publisher, Sony. In the immediate aftermath of PSN account linking being announced, it came to light that thousands of people had bought Helldivers 2 in countries where PSN is unavailable. To fix this, someone retroactively removed Helldivers 2 from sale on Steam in over 170 countries. Several days later, those countries are still blocked. 

Helldivers 2 sales had to be blocked in over 170 countries, as Sony intended to enforce all PC players to link a PSN account to continue playing. The list of blocked countries coincides with regions where PSN is not available. The issue is that PSN account linking is no longer going to be enforced, in large part due to the number of players that purchased the game in locations outside of PSN's coverage. With this now being the case, many fans had hoped to see the game return to sale in blocked countries, but nearly a week on, the changes to the Steam Store page have not been reversed.

Arrowhead's outspoken CEO, Johan Pilestedt, has now finally commented on this situation. We still don't know why these countries were retroactively blocked from Helldivers 2, and we don't know why this continues to be the case several days on from the decision to drop PSN account linking. However, Pilestedt says that he is in talks with PlayStation and Valve to get this undone:

CEO Addresses Delisted Countries pic.twitter.com/4lHLvFdIAx

— Helldivers Alerts (@HelldiversAlert) May 9, 2024

Helldivers 2 attracted over 200,000 negative reviews on Steam after the changes announced last Friday. With the decision being reversed on Monday, around half of those reviews have been changed back to positive, but others are holding out until the game is relisted in all of the countries the game was available in at launch.

KitGuru Says: What do you think of the ongoing Helldivers 2 situation? Given PSN accounts are no longer going to be enforced, it makes little sense to continue blocking the game in countries where PSN isn't available. 

Recent reports claiming that Nvidia's next-generation flagship GPU, the RTX 5090, would be the only model released this year may not be accurate. A prominent Nvidia leaker with a solid record claims that the RTX 5080 will be released before the RTX 5090. 

That leaker is none other than Kopite7Kimi. This news surprises many, as the RTX 5090 was expected to be the only SKU produced this year. Nvidia has yet to make any public statements about its next-generation gaming GPUs. Still, it did announce the Blackwell series for data centres, which is expected to reach the market this year.

It's not ture. RTX 5080 should be released first.

— kopite7kimi (@kopite7kimi) May 7, 2024

In 2022, Nvidia did something similar, launching the Hopper architecture for data centre products, followed by Ada Lovelace as the gaming GPU architecture. Both product categories were driven by the same architecture but built for distinct market sectors.

Based on current rumours, the RTX 5080 graphics card is expected to feature the GB203 GPU, a successor to the AD103, which could provide up to 96 SMs (or 12,288 CUDA cores). The GB202 is the flagship gaming GPU and is expected to have twice as many cores as the RTX 5080.

KitGuru says: If the RTX 5080 comes before the RTX 5090, it will be the first time since the RTX 20 series that Nvidia launches an x80 GPU before the flagship.

Marvel has not had much success with its AAA games so far, with titles like The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy failing to meet sales expectations. However, the company has found great success in the free to play market with games like Marvel Snap and other mobile-focused titles. The next big Marvel game is an unlikely one, a new Overwatch-inspired shooter. So far, we've only had a handful of confirmed characters for the game through the announcement trailer but a recent alpha test revealed a lot more to come. 

Marvel Rivals, the new hero shooter featuring characters from across the Marvel roster, is due to launch later this year for PC, although some digging points to the existence of console versions too. So far, we know that characters like Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, Black Panther and more will be appearing in the game, but it turns out that a massive roster of 39 characters overall is being planned.

According to Miller Ross, a leaker primarily known for sharing datamined information about live service titles like Rocksteady's Suicide Squad, Ubisoft's Ghost Recon titles and Marvel's Avengers, claims that the Marvel Rivals closed alpha build contains data pertaining to a whopping 39 characters overall.

Here is the list as it stands right now:

• Hulk
• Punisher
• Storm
• Loki
• Human Torch
• Doctor Strange
• Mantis
• Hawkeye
• Captain America
• Rocket Raccoon
• Hela
• Cloak & Dagger
• Black Panther
• Groot
• Ultron
• Magik
• Moon Knight
• Luna Snow
• Squirrel Girl
• Black Widow
• Iron Man
• Venom
• Spider-Man
• Magneto
• Scarlet Witch
• Thor
• Mr. Fantastic
• Winter Soldier
• Peni Parker
• Star-Lord
• Blade
• Namor
• Adam Warlock
• Jeff the Landshark
• Psylocke
• Wolverine
• Invisible Woman
• The Thing
• Iron Fist

Marvel has only officially around half of these characters, so don't expect them all to appear in the game at launch. Some of these characters could have been scrapped prototypes, while others might be planned but are being reserved for future content updates. As with any long-lasting multiplayer game, the team behind Marvel Rivals no doubt has a long list of plans for post-launch content.

KitGuru Says: Will you be playing Marvel Rivals when it comes out later this year?

If you are looking to catch up on Destiny over the next month or so leading up to The Final Shape, then you are in luck. Bungie has made three of the previous three expansions free to play right up to June 3rd, the day before the next expansion drops. 

From the 8th of May until the 3rd of June, anyone can download Destiny 2 for free and play through the Shadowkeep, Beyond Light and Witch Queen expansions. If you are on PlayStation, you can also claim Lightfall for free as part of your PlayStation Plus subscription.

Shadowkeep kicked off what we now know as modern Destiny, where Bungie got its roadmap sorted out, enabling the developers to push out a more cohesive story. This current phase of the game will end with The Final Shape, the last expansion in the ‘Light v Dark' saga, the main story arc that has been in place since Destiny first launched in 2014. Players will be saying goodbye to The Traveler, and likely to Destiny as we know it today.

Moving forward, it appears that Destiny 2 will switch to ‘episodic' content after The Final Shape, with the next major release expected to be Destiny 3.

KitGuru Says: Are you catching up on Destiny ahead of The Final Shape next month?

A new report on the Core Ultra 200 desktop CPU claims some new details about Intel's new and improved iGPU. According to sources, new-gen desktop chips from Intel will pack a new iGPU with four Xe-Cores, and the first details on Z890 chipset motherboards are starting to emerge. 

Golden Pig Upgrade (via VideoCardz) recently revealed that the next-generation Z890 motherboards will feature Thunderbolt 4 as a standard feature. Seeing as Intel had already unveiled Thunderbolt 5 in September 2023, we would expect that support for the new Thunderbolt version would be standard. Although Thunderbolt 4 and 3 have the same maximum theoretical performance (both are restricted to a 40 Gbps bandwidth), Thunderbolt 5 can handle up to 120 Gbps. This would be a substantial improvement for external devices that require high bandwidth, such as external GPUs and SSDs.

Additionally, Intel's Core Ultra 200 desktop series, which uses the basic GT1 graphics, will support up to four Xe-Cores. Considering the target audience of such CPUs, that should be more than enough, as customers tend to pair such processors with dedicated graphics. For basic tasks, the four Xe-cores should be more than enough.

Intel Arrow Lake-S desktop processors are expected to debut later this year. According to an MSI overclocker, more information on these upcoming CPUs should be available in the next quarter.

KitGuru says: Do you think four Xe-cores will be enough for these CPUs, or would you like to see a bit more? Will the lack of Thunderbolt 5 on cheaper motherboards make you go for a higher-tier one?

Apple recently announced its next-generation processor, the M4. The upgraded processor is designed to deliver M2 level performance at just half the power, with capabilities to boost further beyond Apple's previous chips. However, it wouldn't be a 2024 chip launch if AI wasn't also mentioned. 

Apple claims the M4 can deliver the same performance as the newest PC CPUs while using just a fifth of the power. The M4 is built on the second-generation 3nm node and packs a 10-core CPU, of which four are performance cores, and six are efficiency cores. This allows it to provide 50% more power than the M2 inside the previous iPad Pro. Additionally, the M4's 10-core GPU features dynamic caching, mesh shading, ray tracing, and a new display engine that renders four times faster than the M2. 

It is unclear how many cores the M4 NPU has, as Apple did not disclose it. Nonetheless, Apple's M-series processors (except the M1 and M2 Ultra) have consistently had the same 16-core NPU count since the M1's inception. NPU performance has increased progressively with each iteration, and the new NPU on the M4 accentuates that trend. The jump from the M1 to the M2 was quite significant, contrary to what we've seen from the M2 to the M3. However, with the M4, we go from M3's 18 TOPS to the 38 TOPS.

Apple's announcement comes less than two weeks before the Windows and Surface AI event in Seattle on May 20th. Microsoft is confident that Windows on Arm will eventually outperform Apple's MacBook Air M3 computers regarding CPU performance and AI-accelerated workloads. This optimism originates primarily from Qualcomm's future Snapdragon X Elite processors, which promise up to 45 TOPS. It will be interesting to see how the M4 stacks up against the Arm-powered Windows laptops available this summer.

KitGuru says: What other devices do you think Apple will upgrade with the new M4 SoC?

Roland Wooster, an engineer at Intel who also heads the VESA Display Performance Metrics group, characterised the latest version of VESA DisplayHDR as a “tightening” of the specification while broadening the scope and criteria of the testing. The idea is to enhance the visual quality of the monitors you purchase, but one of the tests will also affect how much electricity they use. 

High-Dynamic Range (HDR) displays may look stunning when done right, replicating how your eyes adapt to bright lighting, particularly as you emerge from the darkness. However, displays struggle to preserve dark sections of the screen and sustain detail in low-illuminated environments. HDR displays are available in DisplayHDR 400, 500, 600, 1000, and 1400 specs, which relate to how much light they can generate in nits. You will require an HDR-capable GPU and monitor, as well as material that has been optimised for the format. 

To improve the classification of how panels can reproduce HDR content, VESA is updating its DisplayHDR specification to better align with the new and upcoming products arriving on the market. The latest specification should also motivate manufacturers to create better low-end displays to get the most basic DisplayHDR certification (DisplayHDR 400).

One of the assumptions in the new specification is that you have a MiniLED display. A basic LED display features a single backlight that adjusts the brightness of the whole display. OLED screens can effectively switch individual pixels on and off for infinite contrast. Mini or MicroLED displays fall somewhere in the centre, with hundreds or thousands of individual LED backlights (local dimming) to separate parts of the screen. One of the changes to the standard is to cease testing two sections of the screen — white and black — and instead use a “starfield” pattern that activates the other local dimming zones.

Another change coming with the new DisplayHDR 1.2 standard is to bring some of the visual-quality characteristics associated with higher-priced displays down to lower price points. DisplayHDR 400 now has a colour gamut of 99% sRGB and 90% DCI-P3, which is almost identical to the colour spectrum required by more costly DisplayHDR 1000 screens. It also increases the bit-depth needed to 8 bits + 2 bits of dithering (8-bit+FRC). 

The difference between SDR and HDR content is that HDR displays use brightness adjustments to achieve HDR visual enhancements, while SDR screens don't. That implies an HDR display must maintain colour accuracy when the panel lightens and darkens. DisplayHDR 1.2 significantly enhances colour testing to validate that accuracy across three brightness levels. The new specification also assures that an HDR display performs better with SDR material and does not increase the dark level. 

The brightness and white-point accuracy testing range has also changed, rising from 1 nit to 100% of the tier level, such as 600 nits for DisplayHDR 600. Moreover, VESA has implemented single-image contrast ratio criteria, which will significantly enhance contrast ratio and image quality, particularly for the lower-cost DisplayHDR 400, 500, and 600 tiers. 

Lastly, DisplayHDR testing now includes a “black crush test“. In very shaded places, some displays may just give up and show the whole picture as a uniform black rather than preserving the detail. The test includes brightness testing at multiple fractions of a nit to verify that the features are not “crushed” to a pure black. 

Although the VESA DisplayHDR 1.2 specification has already been defined, its impact won't be immediate. VESA will keep the DisplayHDR 1.1 definition and certification in place until 2025 (and 2026 for laptops) to protect existing goods under development.

KitGuru says: Do you agree with the VESA DisplayHDR 1.2 specification changes, or should VESA make it more/less demanding?

Today we take a look at another relatively new unit in the Enermax power supply range, the D.F. 12. This little PSU will suit a huge array of chassis designs given its diminutive 122mm length. It is fully modular, 80 Plus Gold rated and incorporates the Enermax Dust Free Rotation tech for ultra cleanliness. 

Enermax ship this unit with a 120mm double ball bearing fan. They have partnered up again with OEM RSY, who seem to have a good relationship with the company. We will take a closer look at the internal design when we open the chassis later in the review today.

• The Smallest* ATX 3.1 ATX PSU with only 122mm in depth
• ATX 3.1 & PCIe 5.1 with 600W 12V-2×6 Cable
• Substantial Packaging Saves 28.7% of Packaging
• Up to 235% Power Excursion
• Invest in Longevity with Dust-Free Rotation Tech.
• Fully Modular 80 PLUS® Gold Certified
• Industrial-Grade 100% Japanese Capacitors
• Optimal Semi-Fanless Tech. with 50% Zero-RPM
• Easier for Back-Connect Devices

While CD Projekt Red said it had ‘no plans' for advanced modding tools for The Witcher 3 back in 2015, the times have changed. The studio announced plans to launch a proper editor for the game, allowing much more comprehensive user-generated content. Now, the RED Kit is officially becoming available. 

The RED Kit is a set of new tools that allow creators to form their own questlines, or make edit existing content in The Witcher 3. This means Skyrim-style expansion and quest mods will finally be possible for The Witcher 3, assuming modders are up to the challenge of creating such content. Assuming mod makers do support the game, this will allow The Witcher 3 to live on for years to come.

Mark your calendars — The Witcher 3 REDkit, an extensive mod editor based on the game’s engine, releases on May 21st, 2024!

It will be available for free for everyone who owns The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on PC.

Wishlist on @Steam, @GOGcom or @EpicGames:

… pic.twitter.com/wCx8CE9SJo

— The Witcher (@witchergame) May 7, 2024

The new mod editor will only be available on PC and there don't seem to be any plans to support mods in The Witcher 3 on any of the console versions. The RED Kit has been available on Steam in beta form for a few weeks now. After testing, CD Projekt Red has now announced that the software will become available to all, for free, starting on the 21st of May.

Unfortunately, while the RED Kit will get you up to speed with CD Projekt Red's proprietary engine, future games from the Studio will be using completely different tech, with games like The Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2 being built with Unreal Engine.

KitGuru Says: A more comprehensive set of modding tools can only be a good thing. Hopefully this will inject some new life into The Witcher 3, which will make the long wait for the next game a little easier. 

After a longer wait than anticipated, Hades 2 officially launched into Steam Early Access this week. Supergiant's big sequel is getting off to a hot start too, garnering over 100,000 players at launch. 

Supergiant first launched Hades in 2020, with the game being an Epic Games Store exclusive for its first year on the market. Since then, the game has come to Steam, as well as all current console platforms. Hades was a huge critical and commercial success, but Hades 2 appears to be surpassing it in record time. The original game peaked at just over 36,000 concurrent players on Steam. Meanwhile, Hades 2, which has been out for just two days, has garnered over 103,000 concurrent players.

Hades 2 isn't a complete game just yet. The title should spend the rest of the year in early access, getting new content, bug fixes and balance updates along the way. Once the game hits version 1.0, Supergiant will begin bringing the game over to consoles like PlayStation and Xbox. The game will also likely be released for the Switch 2, which Nintendo has begun openly talking about this week.

Hades 2 has launched to an overwhelmingly positive reception on Steam so far, based on around 12,000 user reviews.

KitGuru Says: Have any of you picked up Hades 2 yet? Given Supergiant's history, this is one of the few times where I may pick up a game in early access rather than waiting. 

In late 2023, Remedy gave us an update on Project Vanguard, announcing that the game was rebooted under the working title ‘Kestrel'. This was one of two experimental multiplayer games in the works at Remedy. Unfortunately, after evaluating the project once again, Remedy has now made the decision to cancel it.

Kestrel, formerly known as Project Vanguard, was originally planned as a free to play title. However, after a reboot, it was decided that the game would be released as a ‘premium' title. Now, it would seem that Remedy has changed its plans again, with Kestrel being officially cancelled today. Speaking on the decision, Remedy CEO, Tero Virtala, explained the upside to this, saying:

“The decision to cancel codename Kestrel allows Remedy to focus more on the other games in its portfolio. Other ongoing game development projects will get experienced developers reassigned from Kestrel. In addition, the planned investment needs for Kestrel are removed and Remedy’s overall recruitment needs are reduced.”

From the sounds of it, the Kestrel team will not be let go. Instead, their experience working on a multiplayer game will be transferred to ‘other ongoing projects'. Given what we know about Remedy's development roadmap, we would assume that the Kestrel team will now be merging with the team working on Condor, Remedy's other multiplayer project. While Kestrel may have been a new IP, Condor is described as a multiplayer game with a unique Remedy twist, set in the Control universe.

Kestrel was being developed in collaboration with Tencent, which had invested in Remedy and the project. Those resources are now being reassigned. In a recent development update, Remedy stated that it expects Condor to move into production later this year, so this move should accelerate that process.

KitGuru Says: With those who worked on Kestrel now moving to other Remedy projects, it is likely that some of the ideas behind the game will live on in some form.

Today Microsoft announced some major changes to its first-party studio line-up. Several of Bethesda's studios are being closed down, including Arkane Austin, the studio responsible for Prey (2017) and Redfall (2023). Due to the closure of Arkane Austin, Redfall's promised DLCs will no longer be coming out. 

While Redfall didn't exactly sell well, there were still a few die-hard fans who ponied up for the game's more expensive editions, which included access to future DLCs, including two new playable characters. It has been a year since the game came out and Arkane has been silent on future content ever since, aside from one update that improved the game's performance on consoles by adding a 60FPS mode. Now we know why things have been so quiet – there is no more Redfall content on the way, in fact, the team responsible for putting the game together is being let go.

Signup here https://t.co/wb1R4m4emj to receive details on how eligible players can receive this credit. pic.twitter.com/69Os17kpQ8

— Arkane Studios (@ArkaneStudios) May 7, 2024

In a statement shared to social media this afternoon, Arkane confirmed that its Austin studio is closing and as a result, there will be no further updates for Redfall. However, the game's online services will remain active for anyone who does want to play the game, although we would expect that to change in 2025.

Any Redfall players who did own the Hero Pass either by purchasing the game's Bite Back Edition, or by purchasing the Bite Back Edition upgrade, will be “eligible to receive the value of the upgrade” but specific details on exactly what this means are scarce. It is possible that the cost of the Bite Back Edition Upgrade will be refunded to your Microsoft account to be used on another game. However, we've also seen situations like this in the past where a code for another game is offered instead. We should get more solid details on how this will be handled later in the week.

While Arkane Austin will no longer exist, Arkane Lyon is still alive and well. The Arkane Lyon studio is the very one responsible for Dishonored and more recently, Deathloop.

KitGuru Says: Redfall never looked particularly interesting to me and so far, it looks like I dodged a bullet. Still, it always sucks to see announced DLC cancelled down the line, and seeing an Arkane studio shut down certainly stings too. 

While Microsoft hasn't interfered with Bethesda's operations much since acquiring the company in 2020, that is slowly starting to change. A round of lay-offs earlier this year impacted several Bethesda teams. Now, a few studios are also being shut down, including Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks.

An announcement penned by Xbox Studios lead, Matt Booty, has surfaced online today after being sent to internal staff at Microsoft. In this announcement, we learn about some major changes happening behind the scenes at Bethesda. For starters, Arkane Austin, the studio responsible for Redfall and Prey, is being shut down. Additionally, Microsoft's only Japanese studio, Tango Gameworks, is also closing down, just one year after shipping Hi-Fi Rush, which was arguably the best first-party Xbox game of 2023.

Alpha Dog Studios, Bethesda's mobile-focused studio primarily known for Mighty Doom, is also closing down and the game Mighty Doom will be ‘sunset' in August. Finally, we have Roundhouse Games, which is not closing down. However, the team will be absorbed by Zenimax Online Studios to aid in work on The Elder Scrolls Online and other projects.

Microsoft refers to this as a “consolidation” of Bethesda teams, which will enable the company to “invest more deeply” in Bethesda's portfolio of IP both new and old. However, fans will no doubt be displeased to see that an Arkane studio has been closed, as well as Tango Gameworks. Arkane is known for some of the best single-player games Bethesda has ever published while Tango Gameworks was Microsoft's only foothold in Japan, a part of the world that Microsoft has had issues establishing itself in for years.

KitGuru Says: What do you think of Microsoft's recent decisions regarding Xbox and its studios/workforce?

Helldivers 2 has made plenty of headlines since launch but it was finding itself in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons last week. On Friday, Arrowhead and Sony announced plans to require PSN accounts in the PC version of the game, despite the fact that the game was sold in over 170 countries where PSN is not available. This led to an uproar, with over 200,000 negative reviews being posted on the game's Steam Store page. Now that the decision has been reversed, thousands are no flocking back to Steam to remove negative reviews. 

On Monday, Sony and Arrowhead announced that after further discussion over the weekend, the decision had been made to drop PSN requirements for Helldivers 2 on PC. This means anyone who owns the game can continue to play without linking a PSN account. Given that PSN is only available in 70 countries, and the game was already sold to players in many unsupported regions, this decision is for the best. Had the plan gone ahead, thousands of players would have been locked out of the game, and it would have cost a fortune in refunds to those affected.

Now that this disaster has been avoided, tens of thousands of Steam gamers have returned to the Helldivers 2 store page to return their reviews back to positive. Over 200K negative reviews were posted over the weekend and so far, around 80,000 of those have now been changed back to positive.

There is still a long way to go to get the game's overall rating back up to positive from mixed, but efforts have begun and as we've already seen, Helldivers fans tend to get results when focused on a unified goal.

KitGuru Says: Arrowhead's positive rating for Helldivers 2 will no doubt be restored eventually, just as long as no further PR disasters take place. 

Today in a rare statement addressing speculation, Nintendo officially confirmed plans to announce its next generation console soon. The highly anticipated ‘Switch 2' will be officially announced in the current fiscal year. Additionally, Nintendo has confirmed its summer announcement plans, confirming that the next major Direct showcase will take place in June. 

While the Nintendo Direct stream in June will include plenty of new game announcements and first-looks, the Switch 2 is not expected to be a major portion of the showcase. Nintendo stated in its announement that it plans to focus on new games coming to the Nintendo Switch in the second half of 2024, before showing off what it has in store for next year.

This is Furukawa, President of Nintendo. We will make an announcement about the successor to Nintendo Switch within this fiscal year. It will have been over nine years since we announced the existence of Nintendo Switch back in March 2015. We will be holding a Nintendo Direct…

— 任天堂株式会社（企業広報・IR） (@NintendoCoLtd) May 7, 2024

Not much is known about Nintendo's Switch plans for late 2024. Many fans will no doubt be hoping for an update on Metroid Prime 4, a game first announced for the Nintendo Switch during the console's first year on the market. Now, we're coming up to the end of the Switch lifecycle and we have yet to see the game.

Zelda fans will no doubt be hoping to finally see the long-rumoured Switch ports of Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD too. A new 3D Super Mario game has also been in the works since Odyssey back in 2017, which would serve as a particularly big send-off to the Switch.

KitGuru Says: What games are you hoping to see announced for the Switch this year? Chances are, this holiday season will see the launch of the last major Switch exclusives. 

Typically whenever Nintendo is asked about its next-gen console plans, the company simply states that it is always exploring new opportunities but that there are ‘no immediate plans' for a new system. That has finally changed this week, with Nintendo acknowledging plans to announce a new console for the first time. 

We've been hearing for months that a Switch 2 is on the way, with a redesigned handheld system, dock and controllers. Recent rumours have suggested that Nintendo is targeting an early 2025 launch for the new console and recent statements from Nintendo leadership point to exactly that.

“This is Furukawa, the president of Nintendo. We will be announcing the successor to the Switch during this fiscal year for the first time in nine years since we announced the existence of the Nintendo Switch in March 2015”, Nintendo shared on Twitter.

Interestingly, this same announcement was also used to spread news about the next Nintendo Direct, which is taking place in June. However, this stream is expected to focus on titles for the current-gen Switch, rather than being all about next-gen.

KitGuru Says: It looks like we're going to be in for some big Nintendo announcements in the months ahead. What games are you hoping to see launch alongside the Switch 2? 

Apple's new iPad Pro launch event today brought about more surprises than expected. This year's iPad Pro will not only be the first to feature an OLED display, but it will also be the first Apple product powered by the new M4 processor. 

The Apple M4 processor at the heart of the new iPad Pro is the first in Apple's line-up to really focus on AI acceleration. A bit part of the sales pitch for the M4 over its predecessors is the improved NPU, which Apple claims will allow the M4 to compete with chips from Intel, AMD and Qualcomm.

The new and improved processor means you should also be able to run iOS-ported games like Resident Evil Village, No Man's Sky and Death Stranding at better visual settings and frame rates too. Given the iPad's new OLED display, it could end up being an impressive little gaming device, for both native and cloud gaming.

It wouldn't be an Apple event without some bragging about design and making things thinner. Another key change Apple is boasting with the new 11-inch and 14-inch iPad Pro is a new ultra-thin design that makes the iPad Pro the thinnest product in Apple's history, beating out the iPod Nano.

As usual, this new design also means new accessories, including a new magic keyboard and a new Apple Pencil. Prices for the iPad Pro will also continue to start at £999 for the 11-inch model and £1,299 for the 13-inch model.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: My 2018 iPad Pro isn't showing any signs of age yet, but with OLED finally here, it might be time for me to upgrade. Are any of you thinking about picking up this year's iPad Pro? 

MSI recently released a firmware update for some of its QD-OLED monitors, promising to fix bugs and introduce new features, like support for additional aspect ratios. For now, the new firmware is rolling out for MPG QD-OLED monitors, with MAG series QD-OLED monitors expected to follow. 

The latest firmware version 010 includes eleven updates, including fixes to colour gamut, language, and flickering. Moreover, it also introduces new features like adding new aspect ratios, DSC modes, the ability to turn off the Power LED, and a few optimisations to input latency and panel protection.

You can check the detailed update notes of the new firmware (version 010) for the MPG 271QRX QD-OLED and MPG 321URX QD-OLED monitors below:

• DSC switch added to the OSD to enable DLDSR and DSR modes.
• MPG 271QRX QD-OLED: Added HDMI PC/Console switch in the OSD. (MPG 271QRX QD-OLED default setting is “Console” mode.)
• Support for a variety of aspect ratios, MPG 321URX QD-OLED allows selection between a 24.5″ and 27″ option, MPG 271QRX QD-OLED allows 24.5″.
• Fixed Color Gamut clamping while HDR is enabled. HDR mode will now store separate present mode settings.
• Optimised multiple language issues.
• Fixed image flicker issue when VRR is enabled.
• Added “Power LED” switch in the OSD to allows users to turn it off.
• Input lag and latency optimisation.
• Fixed problem with white line during 2560×1440@360Hz. (MPG 271QRX QD-OLED only).
• Fixed displayed abnormal (dark screen) after VRR switched.
• Optimise a behavior of panel protect while protect completed that depends as executing power states.

As far as we know, the MAG QD-OLED monitors haven't received a firmware update yet but they might still receive one later.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru says: Do you own an MSI QD-OLED monitor? How has your experience been so far?

Since the release of the Intel 13th Gen Core K-series (extended to the 14th Gen series CPUs), users have reported stability issues, particularly with the Core i9 SKU. The reason for that seems to be linked to motherboard vendors using what would be considered “overclock” settings by default. Intel has since then shared a statement recommending vendors add a Default/Baseline profile to motherboard settings. Until recently, there wasn't a deadline for introducing these new profiles, but Intel now wants them available by the end of May.

Most motherboard vendors were keen to offer the Extreme power profile (the most power-intensive profile) out of the box. However, the higher power profile has resulted in stability issues for users. In response to this, Intel is purportedly adopting a new Default/Baseline configuration by default, which would limit the CPU's PL2 (Power Limit 2/Maximum Turbo Power) to 188W. This is much lower than the Performance and Extreme profiles, which support up to 253W.

Image credit: Uniko's Hardware

Users who previously used the Extreme profile would witness a performance loss, but their processors at least should become more stable overall. Alternatively, users can change their power profile to what they used before the update. 

According to Benchlife, motherboard manufacturers have been using the “Extreme Profile” since the introduction of Coffee Lake. Up to now, Intel hasn't prohibited motherboard manufacturers from using such profiles or making them the default setting. However, after numerous reports on the stability of the 13th and 14th Gen Core K-series chips, things had to change. Biostar (via Uniko's Hardware) seems to be the first motherboard maker to automatically apply the Default profile after installing fresh firmware.

This month, Intel is expected to share more on its investigation into stability issues with 13th and 14th Gen processors. The company is also claimed to have begun asking motherboard makers to adopt the new standard power profile for all motherboards by the end of the month. 

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KitGuru says: Do you own an Intel 13th or 14th Gen Core K-series CPU? Have you had any stability issues with it? Which motherboard are you using?

SanDisk's latest drive is the Desk Drive, the company's first desktop SSD, offering large capacity combined with a USB 3.2 Gen 2×1 (10Gbps) interface. We check out the flagship 8TB model, with a price of over £660 here in the UK.

At launch, the SanDisk Desk Drive comes in just two capacities, 4TB and 8TB. SanDisk rates the drive as up to 1,000MB/s for reads but there is nothing listed for write performance.

Although marketed as a drive for the desktop, the SanDisk Desk Drive is compact enough to be carried around (although you will have to remember to carry the power adapter with you as well). The Desk Drive supports both Windows (8.1 and 10 upwards) and MacOS (11 upwards). It supports Apple Time Machine and there is a link bundled with the drive to download Acronis True Image for Western Digital.

SanDisk backs the drive with a 3-year warranty which seems a little mean with 5-year warranties in abundance for SSDs these days.

Physical Specifications:

• Usable Capacities: 8TB.
• NAND Components: BiCS5 112-layer TLC NAND.
• NAND Controller: in-house WD.
• Interface: USB 3.2 Gen 2×1 (10Gbps).
• Form Factor: External.
• Dimensions: 99.2 x 99.2 x 40.2mm,
• Drive Weight: 272g.

Firmware Version: 1007.