General Gaming Article

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• Kickstarter Games That Raised Over $1 Million
• Humble Bundle: EA Origin Edition
• Samsung Ativ S Neo Lands at Sprint August 16 for $150
• Microsoft Hit with Class Action Suit for Allegedly Hiding Poor Surface RT Sales From Investors
• Oracle's Larry Ellison Accuses Google of Acting "Absolutely Evil" in Handling of Android
• BitFenix Reengineers Prodigy Chassis to Support Micro ATX Motherboards
• AMD and Intel Increase Share of Graphics Market in Q2
• Microsoft Announces Two New Keyboard/Mouse Bundles
• Newegg Daily Deals: Toshiba Satellite 15.6-inch Notebook, NZXT Phantom 630 Case, and More!

Kickstarter Games That Raised Over $1 Million Posted: 14 Aug 2013 05:11 PM PDT Looking at 15 Kickstarter games that were able to raise over a million dollars While Kickstarter sounds like an indie game developers dream come true, many games don't end up reaching their goals. That's why we thought we would pay tribute to the 15 titles that were able to break the one million dollar barrier. Not only did all of these games raise more than $1 million, but many of them even doubled and sometimes even tripled their crowd-funding goals.  In the gallery below, we'll take a brief look at these games, show you how much money they were able to raise, and tell you when you can expect them to be released. We've also tried to incorporate links to their Kickstarter pages so you can see some of the original and often hilarious videos they have employed to meet their goals.  What's your most anticipated Kickstarter game? Let us know in the comments below!

Humble Bundle: EA Origin Edition Posted: 14 Aug 2013 04:06 PM PDT Dead Space 3, Crysis 2, Battlefield 3, and more EA has joined forces with the Humble Bundle crew to offer up an epic bundle of games including several Triple-A titles. This time EA is being a good guy and is giving its share of the proceeds to charitable organizations that include the Human Rights Campaign, Watsi, American Cancer Society, American Red Cross, and San Francisco AIDS Foundation.  Games offered in the bundle include Dead Space, Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box, Crysis 2: Maximum Edition, Mirrors Edge, Dead Space 3, and Medal of Honor (2010), all of which you can get for donating a dollar or more. If you beat the current average donation of $4.65 then you'll also receive Battlefield 3 and The Sims 3 with DLC Starter Pack. If you add up the retail value of the games included, this Humble Bundle is worth well over $200, making this Humble Bundle one of the most epic bundles ever. Once you've purchased the bundle you'll have the option of redeeming all of these games on Origin, but you can redeem a few of the titles on Steam too. Games redeemable on Steam include Mirrors Edge, Dead Space, and Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box, Medal of Honor (2010), and Crysis 2: Maximum Edition.

Samsung Ativ S Neo Lands at Sprint August 16 for $150 Posted: 14 Aug 2013 12:14 PM PDT Sprint's first Windows Phone 8 smartphone with international roaming If you head over to Sprint and check out the Windows Phone 8 selection, you'll only find a single device. It's the HTC 8XT with a 4.3-inch display and 800x480. Jonesing for something bigger with a higher res? Samsung's Ativ S Neo will be available on Friday, August 16, for $150 with a new line or eligible upgrade, two-year service agreement, and $50 mail-in-rebate (via reward card). The Samsung Ativ S Neo is the first Windows Phone 8 device from Sprint with international roaming capabilities. It also boasts a bigger screen than HTC's offering, upping the ante to a 4.8-inch HD 1280x720 display. That's still not as impressive as some of the higher end Android handsets, but it beats 800x480. It also rocks a 1.4GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage expandable via a microSD card slot (supports up to 64GB), 1.9MP front-facing camera, 8MP rear-facing camera with LED flash, 3G/4G LTE mobile hotspot capability, NFC support, and a removable 2,000 mAh lithium-ion battery good for up to 14 hours of talk time. Anyone planning on picking one of these up? Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Microsoft Hit with Class Action Suit for Allegedly Hiding Poor Surface RT Sales From Investors Posted: 14 Aug 2013 10:08 AM PDT It was only a matter of time, really We suppose it was inevitable that a class action lawsuit of some sort would be filed against Microsoft over its handling of Surface RT. If you recall, Microsoft was never very forthcoming about its Surface RT sales figures, waiting until its Q4 2013 earnings report to reveal that Surface RT was essentially a flop, causing the company to take a $900 million charge on unsold inventory. The class action suit filed against Microsoft accuses the company of making misleading statements in regards to its financial performance and Surface RT in particular. Microsoft still hasn't revealed exactly how many Surface RT tablets it sold, though the company did reveal in a 10-K filing that total Surface revenue was just $853 million, or $47 million less than the charge it took on Surface RT. That doesn't work out to a lot of tablet sales. "Prior to the beginning of the Class Period, Defendants led the market to believe that Microsoft's launch of Surface RT had been executed in a measured and conservative fashion so that it could observe and understand its progress and outcome," the lawsuit states. "What Defendants knew, but failed to disclose to investors, however, was that Microsoft's foray into the tablet market was an unmitigated disaster, which left it with a large accumulation of excess, over-valued Surface RT inventory." The lawsuit further states that Surface RT's original $500 price point made it "generally unsalable," further accusing Microsoft of "recklessly" ignoring the market value of its tablet. What it all boils down to is a bunch of angry investors seeking to recover damages on behalf of all purchasers of Microsoft common stock, with an amount to be determined at trial. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Oracle's Larry Ellison Accuses Google of Acting "Absolutely Evil" in Handling of Android Posted: 14 Aug 2013 09:10 AM PDT Larry Ellison, head of Oracle, doesn't see eye to eye with Larry Page, head of Google There remains some bad blood between two very wealthy Larrys, one of which is the CEO and co-founder of Oracle (Larry Ellison) and the other Google's chief and co-founder (Larry Page). The two companies are gearing up for trial in a U.S. appeals court over a lawsuit surrounding Google's Android operating system and Oracle's Java platform, and from Ellison's vantage point, what Google did with Android was downright "evil." "We just think they took our stuff, and that was wrong," Ellison stated in an interview on CBS This Morning on Tuesday, Reuters reports. Ellison was asked if he thought Page was evil, and while he avoided saying anything negative about the other Larry, he did say that "I think what they did was absolutely evil." The dispute originates from Oracle's acquisition of Sun Microsystems in 2010. One of the assets involved in that deal was Java, and according to Oracle, Google's Android platform infringes on several Java patents. A federal judge saw things differently and ultimately ruled in favor of Google last year, leading to Oracle's appeal. Ellison has a history of launching verbal grenades at rival CEOs, so his comments regarding Larry Page and Google's handling of Android aren't really surprising. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

BitFenix Reengineers Prodigy Chassis to Support Micro ATX Motherboards Posted: 14 Aug 2013 08:38 AM PDT Prodigy chassis reborn as Prodigy M for slightly bigger builds The boys and girls at BitFenix claim the hardware community has been clamoring for a version of the Prodigy that supports micro ATX motherboards rather than limiting support to mini ITX builds, and so the company answered their collective call with the Prodigy M. The new Prodigy M is a reimagined and reengineered version of the original with the same svelte dimensions, only now you can squeeze a micro ATX motherboard inside and even run with dual graphics cards in CrossFire or SLI, if that's what floats your gaming boat. Though it's relatively small, you can cram a pretty impressive system inside. In addition to dual graphics cards, it has five PCi slots, support for tower CPU coolers up to 160mm in height, and can accommodate slim water cooling radiators up to 240mm in length. Cooling chores are also aided by up to five 120mm fans. On the storage front, the Prodigy M has a removable rack that can be outfitted with up to two 3.5-inch HDDs or three 2.5-inch SSDs. The bottom of the chassis holds an additional two 3.5-inch drives and the included SSD rack on the side panel houses up to two more 2.5-inch drives. The Prodigy M will be on store shelves in October. No word yet on price, though as a point of reference, the original Prodigy sells for about $80 street. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

AMD and Intel Increase Share of Graphics Market in Q2 Posted: 14 Aug 2013 06:48 AM PDT Nvidia stands as odd man out in GPU race According to newly released data by Jon Peddie Research (JPR), AMD was the big winner in the GPU sweepstakes in the second quarter of 2013, at least in terms of market share growth. AMD bumped up its share of the GPU market to 21.9 percent, a gain of 10.9 percent sequentially, while Intel grew a more modest 6.2 percent sequentially for a 62 percent stranglehold on the market. Out of the big three, only Nvidia saw a decline in GPU shipments in Q2. Nvidia's share fell 8 percent sequentially to 16.1 percent, the result of a drop in both desktop and mobile discrete shipments. The advantage AMD and Intel have over Nvidia is that both sell x86 processors with integrated graphics. As such, notebook shipments played a large role in both companies being able to increase their share of the GPU market, especially AMD, which saw APU shipments increase an "astounding" 47.1 percent in notebooks. "The overall PC market declined 2.5 percent quarter-to-quarter while the graphics market increased 4.6 percent. Overall this net 7.1 percent increase reflects an interest on the part of consumers for double-attach—the adding of a discrete GPU to a system with integrated processor graphics, and to a lesser extent dual AIBs in performance desktop machines," JPR said. Total discrete GPUs (desktop and notebook) were down 5.5 percent sequentially due to the same problems plaguing the PC industry -- increased interest in tablets and persistent economic slowness. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Microsoft Announces Two New Keyboard/Mouse Bundles Posted: 14 Aug 2013 06:12 AM PDT Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop and Sculpt Comfort Desktop are aimed at uncomfortable office workers It isn't uncommon for manufacturers to cite survey results and research findings while launching new products and Microsoft did exactly that on Tuesday, making public the results of a recent survey conducted by its own PC Accessories group in order to make its case for a couple of new PC peripheral bundles — the Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop and Sculpt Comfort Desktop. In its "Healthy Computing" survey, which involved around 5,300 workers across 10 countries,  Microsoft found that as many as 89% experience discomfort on the job (85% in the U.S.) and that this adversely affects both their productivity and health. A large part of the problem, according to the survey, stems from the mice and keyboards that they have to use at work, with less than one in three workers reporting that "their external keyboards (24%) and external mice (29%) are ergonomic." So, in order help all these troubled office workers, Microsoft has launched the $79.95 Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop and the $129.95 Sculpt Comfort Desktop, both of which are mouse and keyboard bundles. Sculpt Comfort Keyboard, which costs $59.95 when bought alone, has a contoured design, detachable palm rest and split space bar with backspace functionality, all of which combine to afford greater comfort to your forearms, wrists and and palms. The Sculpt Comfort Mouse, which usually retails for $39.99, has a right-handed thumb scoop design and features Microsoft's. The Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop bundle includes the Sculpt Ergonomic Keyboard and the Sculpt Ergonomic Mouse, which retail for $80.95 and $59.95, respectively. The keyboard is best characterized by its split layout "that keeps wrists and forearms in a relaxed position, and a cushioned palm rest that protects against inflammation and repetitive stress injuries." The Sculpt Ergonomic Mouse, as per the official product page, has been designed to "encourage a more natural hand, wrist, and forearm posture." Follow Pulkit on Google+ Image Credit: Microsoft

Newegg Daily Deals: Toshiba Satellite 15.6-inch Notebook, NZXT Phantom 630 Case, and More! Posted: 14 Aug 2013 05:47 AM PDT Top Deal: School is almost is session and you need a new notebook for home and research reports. You also like to game during your downtime. Peg two birds with one stone by taking advantage of today's top deal for a Toshiba Satellite S855-S5188 15.6-inch Notebook for $750 with free shipping. It has an Intel Core i7 3630QM processor, 6GB of RAM, 750GB hard drive, and AMD Radeon Hd 7670M graphics. And for a limited time, it comes with a free SteelSeries gaming mouse with purchase. Other Deals: WD My Passport 500GB USB 3.0/USB 2.0 Black Portable Hard Drive for $60 with free shipping (normally $70 - use coupon code: [0813BTS14]) NZXT Phantom 630 White Steel / Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case for $145 with free shipping (normally $160 - use coupon code: [0813BTS5]) PowerColor AX7950 Radeon HD 7950 Boost State 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card for $230 with free shipping (normally $250 - use coupon code: [HCWPISQ88]; additional $30 Mail-in rebate) OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W Modular High Performance Power Supply for $77 with free shipping (normally $90 - use coupon code: [APSU15Z]; additional $30 Mail-in rebate)

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