I see.

So he likely made a similar point as the devs in the article, about working in a project and having to report to someone that reports to someone else that in turn reports to a thid person until at some point there is finally someone that actually makes the decisions. But because there is so many middle-men between one and the other, the worker ends not knowing who he works for and why he has to make this or that change while the person making the decisions doesn't know person doing the work and, therefore, doesn't care about why he decided to do things the way he did.

It becomes too impersonal to get involved and care about it all.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/4149575031735702629

When you join a Steam Family, you automatically gain access to the shareable games that your family members own and they will also be able to access the shareable titles in your library. The next time you log in to Steam, this new 'family library' will appear in the left column as a subsection of your games list. You maintain ownership of your current titles and when you purchase a new game it will still show up in your collection.

Best of all, when you are playing a game from your family library, you will create your own saved games, earn your own Steam achievements, have access to workshop files and more.

Family Sharing enables you to play games from other family members' libraries, even if they are online playing another game. If your family library has multiple copies of a game, multiple members of the family can play that game at the same time. For a more detailed look at how Family Sharing works, see the FAQ below.

Family Sharing is a feature that developers may opt their games out of for technical or other reasons at any time. Visit the Steam Store to see a list of games that currently support Family Sharing.

Finally you can keep playing a Steam game when a family member starts a different game of your library!!!

61,000 of 91,000 Steam games support this new feature.

So Blackwell is still manufactured in the N4 node, which is kind of surprising, but it kind of makes sense feature size-wise since the N4 node used in the Ada GPUs and the high-density N3 node have more or less the same MT/mm² count.

As for the power consumption of ~ 40,000 Cuda cores running at similar frequencies as the last gen (which could reach a 700W TDP in SXM), that is anyone's guess.

Yeah, that's one part of it, along with a lot of development caution, designing by committee, internal politics - it's no wonder a lot of really great developers are quitting AAA studios and making their own (exact thing he did back in days)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMVQ30c7TcA

The Tuesday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

Steam’s Top 10

(Click here for the Top 100)

Rainbow Six Siege rockets back up the Steam charts 8 years after release, proving why Ubisoft isn't worried about making a Siege 2
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/rainbow-six-siege-rockets-back-up-the-steam-charts-8-years-after-release-proving-why-ubisoft-isnt-worried-about-making-a-siege-2/
Ubisoft's quietly huge FPS continues to prove it's not going anywhere. Boosted by a week of free access and a frankly ridiculous discount to $4, Rainbow Six Siege surpassed its all-time Steam concurrents record this weekend with a new high of 201,933.
Not bad for a live service shooter entering its ninth year, but especially surprising considering this is far from the first time Siege has been cheap and momentarily free. Ubisoft has held over a dozen free weekends (and a few whole weeks) on Steam over the years, typically timed around the release of a new season. This time is no different—Year 9 Season 1 began earlier this month with a new operator and balancing tweaks.
So why are more people giving Siege a shot in 2024 than did during a similar free week in 2022? Twitch momentum might help explain it: the biggest streamer on Twitch right now, Jynxzi, almost exclusively plays Siege. His guest appearance at the Rainbow Six Invitational 2024 helped make it the most viewed event in the game's history. He's a big reason Siege is currently the number 11 overall game on Twitch (according to Twitch Tracker).
>> And it looks like the game also did fairly well when it comes to money, given its 6th place in the Top 10 chart above.

The Humble Store presents the Ubisoft Publisher Sale, with up to 85% discounts during 12 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/ubisoft-publisher-sale/.

Fanatical has brought back the Star Wars Collection with a 75% deal during 4 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/star-wars-collection.

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Alien Isolation Just Got an Ultra Nightmare Difficulty Mod
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/alien-isolation-just-got-an-ultra-nightmare-difficulty-mod/
Modder ‘Tuanchik’ has released a new mod for Alien Isolation that adds to it an Ultra Nightmare Difficulty Setting. This mod is for everyone who has already completed the game and wants an extra challenge in their second or third playthrough.
Going into more details, this mod brings “real-life” senses to almost all enemies. All of the humans, androids, and the Alien now have a hearing range of 200 (instead of vanilla’s 50). They also have an enhanced vision (from 20, 50 to 80). Not only that but there are now 2-5 Aliens (instead of only one), and they can walk in rare places.
This mod also brings some changes to the damage system. For instance, hitting a human from behind with a big ass hammer will now kill them instantly. The damage and accuracy of weapons have also been increased significantly. Not only that but the modder has also changed the damage type from “Impact” to “Collision”.  (...)
And that’s not all. The Alien now has a chance of 80% of not searching the hiding locations (lockers and etc.). After all, the Alien has a thermo vision which means that it sees the heat. Oh, and the Hack Tool now has a 5-digit code instead of 3, and you have 5 seconds to crack the code.
>> The article has no media in it.

Fallout: New Vegas Just Got a Cool Enhanced Movement Mod
https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/fallout-new-vegas-enhanced-movement-mod/
Modder ‘Wombat’ has released an AIO movement expansion for Fallout: New Vegas, called Enhanced Movement Mod. This mod fixes bugs with how you move around in the game. Thanks to it, you can now move diagonally in first-person mode, sprint better, sneak better, and even lean around corners with ease. Plus, there are new animations and you can even go prone. So, let’s take a closer look at it.
With the first-person diagonal movement, your character’s body tilts slightly to make moving diagonally feel more real. Instead of just moving straight forward or backward, it now feels more natural. This makes your player feel more human and less like a robot.
Additionally, there’s now a new sneak animation system. This new system prevents sudden camera jumps when you sneak. And now, you can fully go prone in the game. Plus, there’s Enhanced Leaning, which makes moving and tilting your weapon feel more real.
The mod also packs a new sprint system that was written from the ground up, with a brand new set of first-person sprint animations. As opposed to using special idles like the original JVS or 50/50 hybrid like JSP, Enhanced Sprint is fully powered by kNVSE. This basically means that we have new animations for both 1st and 3rd person perspectives. Not only that but both modes are 100% synced, and you are able to transition between them seamlessly.
>> The article has a roughly 1 minute video.

Distant Horizons mod blows past Minecraft's max render distance, pushing viewable terrain out to an unbelievable 512 chunks
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/distant-horizons-mod-blows-past-minecrafts-max-render-distance-pushing-viewable-terrain-out-to-an-unbelievable-512-chunks/
There are plenty of mods on CurseForge that will change the way you look at Minecraft. I've spent many years picking and choosing which ones I want to keep so that my world can look as beautiful as possible, and I think I've just found my next download. 
Distant Horizons is one of those mods that will change the way you look at Minecraft. On paper, it may not seem like much, but by adding simple terrain past the default view distance in Minecraft, Distant Horizons will improve your performance and allow for longer draw distances. 
>> The article only has one screenshot, but it has a link to a video.

GAMING NEWS

Unreal Engine 5-powered third-person bullet hell shooter, Project Tower, gets new gameplay trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/unreal-engine-5-powered-third-person-bullet-hell-shooter-project-tower-gets-new-gameplay-trailer/
Yummy Games has released a new gameplay trailer for its upcoming Unreal Engine 5-powered third-person bullet hell shooter, Project Tower. This trailer packs 3 minutes of gameplay footage, and it will give you an idea of what this indie team aims to create. So, be sure to check it out.

Stealth-action adventure game, Steel Seed, gets new gameplay trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/stealth-action-adventure-game-steel-seed-gets-new-gameplay-trailer/
Storm in a Teacup just dropped a fresh gameplay trailer for its new game called Steel Seed. Steel Seed is a single-player stealth action-adventure game. The trailer shows off how you can explore the game world and get into fights. So, be sure to check it out.

PC demo for SAND LAND available now for download
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/pc-demo-for-sand-land-available-now-for-download/
Bandai Namco has just released a free PC demo for its upcoming RPG, SAND LAND. This demo will give you a glimpse at what you can expect from this new RPG which features characters created by Akira Toriyama.

First patch for STAR WARS Battlefront Classic Collection released to address online bugs and issues
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/first-patch-for-star-wars-battlefront-classic-collection-released-to-address-online-issues-and-bugs/
Aspyr Media has released the first patch for STAR WARS Battlefront Classic Collection. This patch aims to address some of the online multiplayer issues that plagued the game at launch. Moreover, it brings a number of fixes. So, let’s take a look at it.

Tuesday news, part two:

A year after being removed from Steam, Dark and Darker is coming to the Epic Games Store
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/a-year-after-being-removed-from-steam-dark-and-darker-is-coming-to-the-epic-games-store/
The extraction-dungeon crawler Dark and Darker still isn't available on Steam, but developer Ironmace is getting ready to bring it back into the public eye by way of a different digital storefront: The Epic Games Store.
"With increased confidence in the quality of our game, we have started preparations on introducing Dark and Darker to a wider audience," Ironmace announced on the Dark and Darker Discord. "As a first step, we are happy to announce the launch of the Dark and Darker store page on the Epic Games Store.

Eric Barone drops the biggest Stardew Valley 1.6 update patch note yet: A new Meadowlands farm type with 'chewy blue grass that animals love' and some bonus chickens too
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/life-sim/eric-barone-drops-the-biggest-stardew-valley-16-update-patch-note-yet-a-new-meadowlands-farm-type-with-chewy-blue-grass-that-animals-love-and-some-bonus-chickens-too/
As PC Gamer's BaroneWatch enters its ninth day, Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone has shared what is expected to be the final individual patch note for the Stardew Valley 1.6 update before it goes live. And folks, this is a big one: The update will include an all-new farm type called Meadowlands Farm.
>> And here’s the list of the over 1000 mods that are compatible with the 1,6 update. Well, not really. But you’ll find a link to the list in that article.

Easy Anti-Cheat washes its hands of the Apex Legends hacking disaster that saw streamer accounts hijacked live: 'There is no RCE vulnerability within EAC'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/battle-royale/easy-anti-cheat-washes-its-hands-of-the-apex-legends-hacking-disaster-that-saw-streamer-accounts-hijacked-live-there-is-no-rce-vulnerability-within-eac/
The day after the North American finals of the Apex Legends Global Series was postponed because of a mid-match hack against two players, Easy Anti-Cheat has issued a statement saying "there is no RCE vulnerability" in its software that was exploited to carry out the attack.

Astarion's actor was deployed to replace the missing mocap of around 150 lines of Baldur's Gate 3 dialogue: 'I just had this dog's breakfast'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/baldurs-gate/astarions-actor-was-deployed-to-replace-the-missing-mocap-of-around-150-lines-of-baldurs-gate-3-dialogue-i-just-had-this-dogs-breakfast/
Astarion is a stand-out performance in Baldur's Gate 3—with his voice actor, Neil Newbon, earning several awards because of his stellar work. (...)
Turns out, Newbon also wore a lot of other, non-Astarion shaped hats during the production of Baldur's Gate 3—not as a voice actor, but as a mocap artist. That's per a talk given by Greg Lidstone at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2024. 

Dwarf Fortress creator blasts execs behind brutal industry layoffs: 'They can all eat s***, I think they're horrible… greedy, greedy people'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/dwarf-fortress-creator-blasts-execs-behind-brutal-industry-layoffs-they-can-all-eat-s-i-think-theyre-horrible-greedy-greedy-people/
You don't have to worry about Tarn Adams' millionaire status turning him corporate any time soon. At this year's GDC, the Dwarf Fortress maker came out swinging against a brutal climate of layoffs, cancellations, and general downsizing across the games industry, declaring that the executives responsible can "all eat shit." Just in case you needed a reason to like Dwarf Fortress even more.

Blizzard's World of Warcraft patch schedule suggests The War Within expansion will launch in August
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/world-of-warcraft/blizzards-world-of-warcraft-patch-schedule-suggests-the-war-within-expansion-will-launch-in-august/
Today marks the launch of World of Warcraft patch 10.2.6 and Plunderstorm, Blizzard's new battle royale PvP experiment. Based on my interviews with Blizzard representatives and WoW's past update cycles, I've figured out when the MMO's next expansion will probably release.
More precisely, it puts the The War Within expansion launch as sometime in August, perhaps around August 20.

World of Warcraft’s battle royale mode won’t force you to PvP so everyone can 'have an awesome pirate party with your friends and collect plunder’
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/world-of-warcraft/world-of-warcrafts-battle-royale-mode-wont-force-you-to-pvp-have-an-awesome-pirate-party-with-your-friends-and-collect-plunder/
World of Warcraft releases a wild battle royale mode today as part of its Plunderstorm 10.2.6 patch, but you won't have to battle other players to fully enjoy it, Blizzard developers said.
"Even if you're not the one to directly attack other players, you can go around killing monsters, opening chests and still collect Plunder along the way," said Orlando Salvatore, a lead software engineer for Warcraft. Of course, you'll still be a viable target for other players to attack. 
The 60-player free-for-all mode, which lives on a separate server than your normal WoW characters, launches today. Plunder is the currency dropped by monsters in the zone, other players, chests, and by winning the match. Plunder adds up to give you levels of Renown, which is similar to the reputation levels in the current Warcraft Dragonflight expansion. Each new level of Renown (there are 40 in all) earns you Plunderstorm's rewards–mounts, pets and transmog items.
>> And here’s a bit more detail on how this PvP mode came to be.

Halo co-creator that joined EA to work on Battlefield 'gut punched' as publisher lays off entire team: 'I don't have anything positive to say about EA'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/halo-co-creator-that-joined-ea-to-work-on-battlefield-gut-punched-as-publisher-lays-off-entire-team-i-dont-have-anything-positive-to-say-about-ea/
Marcus Lehto is the co-creator of the Halo games and, until 2012, was a senior creative on every Halo game made by Bungie. After that he left to set up on his own with the studio V1 Interactive (which made the shooter Disintegration), before joining EA in 2021 and founding Ridgeline Games, a Seattle-based developer that was working on a new Battlefield game with more of a story focus.
I say "was" because unfortunately Ridgeline has become one of the latest victims in a brutal period of game and tech layoffs. At the end of February EA announced that it would be closing the studio, and laying off all of its staff. Around the same time, Lehto announced he would be leaving the publisher. And he's not a happy camper.

The English actors behind FF14's beloved twins acted in silos for 9 whole years before meeting in the real world, but became fast friends: 'it's become easier to bounce off each other'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/final-fantasy/the-english-actors-behind-ff14s-beloved-twins-acted-in-silos-for-9-whole-years-before-meeting-in-the-real-world-but-became-fast-friends-its-become-easier-to-bounce-off-each-other/
If you've played Final Fantasy 14, you'll be familiar with the Leveilleur twins: (…)
The two actors recently spoke with Fanbyte's Jessica Scharnagle in an extended interview—in it, they talk about how (despite their character's close bond), neither actor had actually met each other until 2022. That's seven years after they first appeared in Heavensward (there was a change in localisation company), and almost nine years when you take development time into account, according to Walker. 

And here's part... I'm kidding! Today they've shown some mercy on us and, thanks to that, there's only two news posts.

One of Dell's higher ups spilled the beans a couple weeks ago talking about 1000W chips and how they'd be able to cool them without using watercooling:

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/nvidias-b100-and-b200-processors-could-draw-an-astounding-1000-watts-per-gpu-dell-spills-the-beans-in-earnings-call

It definitely could be the case, the PCI-e Hoppers were more power-efficient than the SXM and you could have packed 2 of these together for ~60% of Blackwell's performance at 700W. So it makes sense a somewhat improved node/architecture could deliver 100% at 1000W or even less.

(I don't think FP4 will be adopted for inference the way FP8 was, BTW, the precision is way too low)

Since Jizz/Yuri is still missing (although he's online on Steam...), let's go with some more news.

MORE WAYS TO PLAY YOUR GOG GAMES – WE’RE TEAMING UP WITH LUNA CLOUD STREAMING SERVICE!
https://www.gog.com/en/news/bmore_ways_to_play_your_gog_games_were_teaming_up_with_luna_cloud_streaming_serviceb
Soon, you’ll be able to play your favorite games from our store, like the Witcher series or Cyberpunk 2077, on multiple devices of your choice. We’re teaming up with Amazon Luna cloud gaming service to give you even more ways of enjoying your titles, while still keeping our mission of DRM-free gaming. We’ve set up a blog post explaining everything in more detail so make sure to check it out HERE.

Baldur's Gate 3 wins again: It was the most-played game on Steam Deck over the past 12 months
https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/handheld-gaming-pcs/baldurs-gate-3-wins-again-it-was-the-most-played-game-on-steam-deck-over-the-past-12-months/
Valve has revealed the list of the top 100 most-played games on Steam Deck between March 2023 and March 2024 and it's yet another trophy for Baldur's Gate 3, which claimed the top spot despite only being available for half that time.

Sony's reportedly stopped making any more PS VR2 headsets until it can figure out a way of shifting a pile of unsold VR goggles
https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/vr-hardware/sonys-reportedly-stopped-making-any-more-ps-vr2-headsets-until-it-can-figure-out-a-way-of-shifting-a-pile-of-unsold-vr-goggles/
Sony's virtual reality headset for the PlayStation 5, the PlayStation VR2, is a lovely device but it has a few drawbacks. It only works on that system, there's not a huge amount of great VR games to play on it, and it's as expensive as the base console. So with sales on the decline, Sony has put a temporary halt on production, to stop its warehouses from clogging up with unsold stock.
>> And that’s why the rumors about PS VR2 coming to PC seem legit.

Latest Windows 11 Update Breaks AMD iGPU Drivers, Ryzen APU Handhelds & Laptops Affected
https://wccftech.com/latest-windows-11-update-breaks-amd-igpu-drivers-ryzen-apu-handhelds-laptops/
AMD Ryzen APU-powered handhelds and laptops are facing performance-breaking bugs with the latest Windows 11 update which breaks the iGPU driver.

Steam Play Gets NVIDIA’s Reflex Technology In New VKD3D-Proton Update
https://wccftech.com/steam-play-gets-nvidia-reflex-technology-in-new-vkd3d-proton-update/
VKD3D-Proton, a translation layer used for Steam Play on Linux, has seen the inclusion of NVIDIA's Reflex technology in the latest update.
Phoronix reports that Valve's Steam Deck could potentially leverage NVIDIA's reflex technology after a new update on the VKD3D-Proton has added support for the feature.
>> I fail to see how the AMD powered Deck could benefit from this, but good new for Linux users.

AMD Zen 5 "Znver5" CPU Enablement Spotted in Change Notes
https://www.techpowerup.com/320510/amd-zen-5-znver5-cpu-enablement-spotted-in-change-notes
Close monitoring of AMD engineering activities—around mid-February time—revealed the existence of a new set of patches for GNU Compiler Collection (GCC). At the time, news reports put spotlights on Team Red's "znver5" enablement—this target indicated that staffers were prepping Zen 5 processor microarchitecture with an expanded AVX instruction set (building on top of Zen 4's current capabilities). Phoronix's Michael Larabel has fretted over AMD's relative silence over the past month—regarding a possible merging of support prior to the stable release of GCC 14.
He was relieved to discover renewed activity earlier today: "AMD Zen 5 processor enablement has been merged to GCC Git in time for the GCC 14.1 stable release that will be out in the coming weeks. It was great seeing AMD getting their Zen 5 processor enablement upstreamed ahead of any Ryzen or EPYC product launches and being able to do so in time for the annual major GNU Compiler Collection feature release." (...)

AMD demos fully GPU-driven rendering through Work Graphs on Radeon RX 7900 XTX with 39% improvement
https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-demos-fully-gpu-driven-rendering-through-work-graphs-on-radeon-rx-7900-xtx-with-39-improvement
Microsoft officially announced Work Graphs last week, but the formal introduction is taking place at GDC (Game Developer Conference). Attendees, primarily game developers, are shown the techniques and methods to utilize this new technology in games, which are designed to provide visible performance improvements.
(…)
AMD has showcased that Radeon RX 7900 XTX using Work Graphs can work 39% faster compared to conventional method. In other words, the standard technique involving ExecuteIndirect is 64% slower. Those are ‘super early numbers’, likely to be optimized in the future.
>> First Nvidia, now AMD.

AMD Makes HIP Ray Tracing Libraries Open-Source, Allowing Easier Integration Into Games & Apps
https://wccftech.com/amd-hip-ray-tracing-libraries-open-source-easier-integration-into-games-apps/
AMD has finally made its HIP Ray-Tracing library an open-source asset, allowing developers to incorporate RT capabilities into applications and leverage them.

NVIDIA Blackwell GB202 Gaming GPUs To Utilize TSMC 4NP Node, Significant Improvement To Cache & SM Throughput
https://wccftech.com/nvidia-blackwell-gb202-gaming-gpus-utilize-tsmc-4np-node-significant-improvement-cache-sm-throughput/
NVIDIA just announced its Blackwell GPUs for AI and now eyes are all set on its gaming parts which are rumored to feature the same TSMC 4NP node.