The Tuesday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Steam has two new deals and a new set of weeklong deals:

• The new daily deal is DuckTales: Remastered, 75% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/237630/DuckTales_Remastered/
• RDS - The Official Drift Videogame will be 45% off during the next 11 days: https://store.steampowered.com/app/934930/RDS__The_Official_Drift_Videogame/
• And here are some of t he weeklong deals:
  • Age of Civilizations II is 20% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/603850/Age_of_Civilizations_II/
  • Sentinels of Freedom gets a 40% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/812870/Sentinels_of_Freedom/
  • Horizon Chase Turbo, that has a demo, is half its usual price: https://store.steampowered.com/app/389140/Horizon_Chase_Turbo/
  • Downfall gets a 60% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/364390/Downfall/
  • Toki is 80% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1058320/Toki/
  • And Voyage: Journey to the Moon is a massive 90% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/302180/Voyage_Journey_to_the_Moon/

The Humble Store has a new sale: You can pet the dog Store Sale, with up to 80% discounts for the next 6 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/you-can-pet-the-dog-store-sale/

And Fanatical has a new bundle added to the Bundlefest, the VIP Mystery Bundle, with up to 10 unknown games up fro grabs: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/vip-mystery-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

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MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Crysis Remastered versus Crysis Enhanced Edition Comparison Video
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/crysis-remastered-versus-crysis-enhanced-edition-comparison-video/
YouTube’s ‘Digital Dreams’ has shared a comparison video between Crysis Remastered and the latest graphical overhaul mod for the original Crysis, Crysis Enhanced Edition. This comparison video will give you an idea of the graphical differences between them, so I strongly suggest watching it.

GAMING NEWS

Story trailer released for Serious Sam 4
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/story-trailer-released-for-serious-sam-4/
Devolver Digital and Croteam have released the story trailer for Serious Sam 4. This trailer will also give you a glimpse at the game’s graphics, so be sure to watch it.

Mafia Definitive Edition will be using the Denuvo anti-tamper tech
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/mafia-definitive-edition-will-be-using-the-denuvo-anti-tamper-tech/
2K Games and Hangar 13 have updated the official Steam store page for Mafia Definitive Edition, revealing that the game will be using the Denuvo anti-tamper tech. Furthermore, the game will allow 5 activations per 24 hours machine activation limit.

Over 500K Activision ‘user accounts’ hacked along with login credentials being made public [UPDATE]
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/over-500k-activision-user-accounts-hacked-along-with-login-credentials-being-made-public/
Activision has reportedly been hacked and hackers behind the breach have gained access to the accounts of over half a million users, according to reports. Over half-a-million Activision Accounts may have been breached, with log-in credentials with passwords, also being made public.
UPDATE Activision claims that the Call of Duty account hack reports are false.
>> False or not, it would be a good idea to change your password, just in case.

EA Sports won’t release a free demo for FIFA 21
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/ea-sports-wont-release-a-free-demo-for-fifa-21/
EA Sports has just announced that there won’t be a free demo for FIFA 21. EA Sports claims that instead of releasing a demo, its development team decided to focus on delivering a great product on both current and next-gen platforms. However, the game will be available on EA Play so that gamers can play it prior to its official release.
>> I mean... it won't be that different from last year's game. Or the year before. Or the one from two years ago...

Tuesday news, the second part:

John Carmack says Microsoft's Bethesda buyout might let him 're-engage' with old games
https://www.pcgamer.com/john-carmack-says-microsofts-bethesda-buyout-might-let-him-re-engage-with-old-games/
Microsoft's acquisition of ZeniMax Media and all its various studios is the big news of the day, and id Software co-founder John Carmack appears to be all in favor of the buyout.

The Elder Scrolls Online will continue 'exactly as it was' following Microsoft purchase
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-elder-scrolls-online-will-continue-exactly-as-it-was-following-microsoft-purchase/
Following the earth-shaking news that Microsoft has acquired ZeniMax Media, parent company of Bethesda Softworks, there have been a number of announcements today by everyone from Todd Howard to Phil Spencer to Pete Hines. Even John Carmack had something to say.
A lot of players, meanwhile, still have have questions about Bethesda games, and what changes will potentially be made to their releases and platforms, particularly when it comes to games on PlayStation.
At least one of those questions has been answered: The Elder Scrolls Online will reportedly continue as normal after the acquisition. The reassurance comes from a statement by ZeniMax Online studio director Matt Firor on Twitter.

BlizzCon is coming back for an online event in February
https://www.pcgamer.com/blizzcon-is-coming-back-for-an-online-event-in-february/
Blizzard cancelled BlizzCon 2020 in May, saying that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic made the traditional weekend-long party impossible to hold safely. But it also committed to an online event in 2021 that would "channel the BlizzCon spirit," and today it confirmed that "BlizzConline" will take place February 19-20, 2021.

Former Skullgirls developers have launched a new studio called Future Club
https://www.pcgamer.com/former-skullgirls-developers-have-launched-a-new-studio-called-future-club/
In August, multiple employees of Skullgirls devloper Lab Zero Games resigned from the studio after an internal investigation revealed an alleged pattern of inappropriate behavior from lead designer Mike Zaimont, who had assumed control of the company. Shortly after that, Zaimont laid off all remaining employees. Today, some of those former members of the studio announced that they have launched a new operation called Future Club, "a cooperatively structured independent game studio."

Halo 3: ODST and Firefight are out on PC now
https://www.pcgamer.com/halo-3-odst-and-firefight-are-out-on-pc-now/
Halo 3: ODST, the most divergent game in the series, has finally arrived on PC for the first time. You can pick it up separately or as part of Halo: The Master Chief Collection now.

Microsoft plans to leave ZeniMax alone, according to Phil Spencer
https://www.pcgamer.com/microsoft-plans-to-leave-zenimax-alone-according-to-phil-spencer/
With Microsoft's acquisition of ZeniMax Media, around 2,300 more people are about to become employed by the increasingly gigantic corporation. Acquisitions often come with redundancies and cuts, however, especially when there are big overlaps, as there are with ZeniMax and Xbox Game Studios.
Speaking with CNBC this week, head of Xbox Phil Spencer avoided specifics when questioned about the possibility of cuts, but he did say that Microsoft isn't planning to meddle.

LG said to be rolling out a fix for their 2019/2020 OLED TVs in the next few weeks

Also 980 Pro SSD reviews are coming out

https://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/samsung_980_pro_1tb_nvme_ssd_review,1.html

https://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/9600/samsung-980-pro-250gb-2-nvme-ssd/index.html

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/samsung-980-pro-m-2-nvme-ssd-review/3

The reads are quite fast. The writes are a tad slower than I was expecting but still pretty good. Only 250GB reviews are live so far. The prices are pretty much in line with the last gen Evo drives which is fap worthy.

980 PRO 250GB - $89.99
980 PRO 500GB - $149.99
980 PRO 1TB - $229.99

980 PRO 250GB - £82.99 / 90 EUR
980 PRO 500GB - £135.99 / 149 EUR
980 PRO 1TB - £207.99 / 227 EUR

It just doesn't fit the die size estimation, didn't realise this before intill I saw your post. 80CU + 128 Rops + 384-bit bus = ~440mm2, this is my own estimate, it should be 505mm2. And mixing 1/2GB Vram chips would be false marketing.

Another rumor from Wccftech/videocardz that fit my prediction:

https://wccftech.com/amd-radeon-rx-6700-6800-series-rdna-2-navy-flounder-gpu-specs-revealed/
https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-navy-flounder-to-feature-40-cus-and-192-bit-memory-bus

A die with 40CU's and 192-bit bus, videocardz says it's either navi 22 or 23, wccftech think it's navi 22. The source says it's either navi 23 or 22.

My guess:
Navi23, 40cu(64 Rops), 192-bit bus, 10% faster geforce 2080 super, 150W, 240mm2
Navi22, 60cu(96 Rops), 256-bit bus, 15% faster than geforce 2080 ti, 225W, 340mm2
Navi21, 80cu(128 Rops), 256-bit bus + big cache, 45% faster than geforce 2080 ti, 275W, 505mm2

I also think my original RTX performance will turn out to be correct, big navi will have 2.1x higher RTX performance than geforce 2080 ti, PS5 around 15-20% higher.

Edit: Die size for Navi22 should be 340mm2, I keep writing 360mm2 for some reason.

A bit of LTT fun.. watercooled chair

Might need to apply some thermal compound lol

Weren't you the one that claimed Big Navi would have a 512 bit bus or are you referring to a different prediction?

It will be interesting to see how that Navy Flounder performs as it will have the same CUs as the 5700XT, but with lower memory bandwidth (256-bit vs 192).

Also, with that number of compute units, my guess would be that it's the successor of the 5600 cards so it will go against the 3060 cards.

Yep I first thought big navi would have 512-bit bus, than changed it to 384-bit bus and now changed it again to 256-bit bus + big cache after redgamingtech video. I also got the amount of Vram for geforce 3090 wrong, thought it would be 12GB, otherwise it's looking good.

I will say that RDNA 2 with big cache is gonna be one interesting cookie. Certainly threw my predictions out the window. I'll be interested to see how that plays out.