Part two of the news:

Minecraft now has one unified launcher on PC
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/minecraft-now-has-one-unified-launcher-on-pc/
Minecraft is finally making its debut today on Xbox Game Pass for PC, with both its original Java version and the Windows 10/11 Bedrock Edition hitting the service through a new unified Minecraft Launcher. It's two Minecrafts for one price because, well, that's how the Game Pass subscription service works. And in the future, that will be how Minecraft works generally.

Unpacking turns the stress of moving into a wonderfully mellow puzzler
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/unpacking-turns-the-stress-of-moving-into-a-wonderfully-mellow-puzzler/
Adorable zen puzzler Unpacking has been on my radar for a while, and I'm not ashamed to admit I played its short demo a staggering number of times during the summer's Steam Next Fest. If you're in need of some relaxing, satisfying storage management then good news: Unpacking is out today.

WoW's game director opens up about its current struggles and future plans
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/wows-game-director-opens-up-about-its-current-struggles-and-future-plans/
World of Warcraft's in the midst of one of its most challenging years in its history. Between the Activision Blizzard lawsuits, delays, and simmering frustration with the lack of communication from the development team over contentious design choices, I can't remember another time where the future of the MMO felt this uncertain. And in a surprisingly in-depth interview with VentureBeat, World of Warcraft game director Ion Hazzikostas talks about all of it.

Microsoft says it has metaverse plans for Halo, Minecraft, and other games
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/microsoft-says-it-has-metaverse-plans-for-halo-minecraft-and-other-games/
The metaverse: it's bullshit. But that's not stopping all sorts of big players from betting the virtual farm on it. Tim Sweeney is, as far as we can tell, a true believer, and Facebook recently renamed itself to Meta, a deep commitment intended to reflect the growing influence of the metaverse concept on its products. Now Microsoft has shared more about its own plans for the metaverse, which are heavily focused on commercial applications but also includes gaming.

Blizzard co-head Jen Oneal steps down just 3 months after taking the job
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/blizzard-co-head-jen-oneal-steps-down-just-three-months-after-taking-the-job/
Former Blizzard president J Allen Brack stepped down in August in the wake of a lawsuit filed by California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing alleging widespread discrimination and sexual harassment at the company. He was replaced by Mike Ybarra and Jen Oneal, who took over as co-heads of the studio, marking the first time that Blizzard had been led by a woman.
Just three months later, however, Oneal has announced that she is stepping down from the role, and leaving Blizzard entirely at the end of the year.

Blizzard morale takes a hit following co-leader's surprise resignation
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/activision-blizzard-q3-2021-earnings/
On Tuesday, Activision Blizzard announced its financial results for the period that includes the July filing of California's discrimination and sexual harassment lawsuit and the immediate aftermath. The headline for investors is that the company's revenue outlook for the end of the year is weaker than analysts projected, but it beat its third quarter forecast with net revenue of $2.07 billion, improving year-over-year with help from Diablo 2: Resurrected.
Finances felt like the call's secondary topic, however, as Activision Blizzard's leaders reiterated plans to overhaul recruiting and HR practices, and surprised employees with the news that Blizzard co-leader Jen Oneal is stepping down. The resignation came as a shock, and according to some has wounded morale at Blizzard just as it was starting to improve.

By the way, Backblaze has published its HDDs stats for Q3 2021:

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/backblaze-drive-stats-for-q3-2021/

The quarter:

Notice how one drive had 0 failures and another five only got 1. That's in stark contrast with antoehr two drives that did awful, one of Seagate's 12TB and another of Seagate's 14TB drive.

These are the Annualized Failure Rates:

And, while there are no SSD specific results, they updated the comparison graph posted last month:

Don't forget to check the blog post for more info!

Some ASUS Z690 & B660 Motherboards Will Not Be Compatible With Noctua’s LGA 1700 Alder Lake CPU Coolers

https://wccftech.com/some-asus-z690-b660-motherboards-will-not-be-compatible-with-noctuas-lga-1700-alder-lake-cpu-coolers/


HiCookie overclocks Intel Core i9-12900K to 8GHz and DDR5 memory to 8300 MT/s''

https://videocardz.com/newz/hicookie-overclocks-intel-core-i9-12900k-to-8ghz-and-ddr5-memory-to-8300-mt-s


Intel adds 32 IDs of DG2 GPUs to its new graphics drivers, the first wave of mobile Arc Alchemist?

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-adds-32-ids-of-dg2-gpus-to-its-new-graphics-drivers-the-first-wave-of-mobile-arc-alchemist

A high failure rate on a HDD is a good reason for replacing it with something new hehehehe

Indeed. And that's why they'll replace all the Seagate 12TB of that model. And after that, maybe the 14TB too.

At least we now know which models we should stay away from.

Hundreds of games release dates may have been leaked (again) on Nvidia

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/hundreds-of-games-release-dates-may-have-been-leaked-again-on-nvidia.1622813/

Yeah, I'd put a lot of salt in some of those releases, most of all in those 2023 & 24 games.

Just Watch Crysis 4 go exclusive to you know who. I know Crytek need the money but it's practically got "exclusive to one store" written all over it.

Another MH this soon seems a bit much, but I guess Capcom knows the IP prints money so spamming it to death seems like the go-to.

Pretty sure HFW is the release date for the PS5 and not PC, otherwise that'd make the game day and date with PC (unless Sony plan to move this quickly, which I wouldn't mind).

Christ ESO is still far out and it's still going to use that retarded engine. Game is practically going to be either janky or dated by the time it comes out at this rate. 

Also, 'bout fuckin time we got a new Dragon's Dogma, and hopefully it'll be using the RE engine too. 

TES 6 in two years from now.. I doubt that lol.

But assuming that list is true, hype!!

Yea the main thing to take away from it isn't the release dates as even if they were real, half them will get delayed guaranteed... But rather that the those games will most likely come to PC. And there are certainly some interesting ones that I never heard of.