Xbox gaming CEO Phil Spencer outlines the stark realities of Microsoft's games business, confirming that the Xbox games division is a seperate operating unit with its own budgets, profit and loss accounts, and expectations.

It's a common misconception that because Xbox is part of Microsoft, a tech giant with a $2.45 trillion market capitalization, that the Xbox games division has an unlimited budget and can constantly lose money. This isn't the case. The reality is that the Xbox business is under constant pressure to deliver profits and growth.

In day 2 of the federal FTC v Microsoft case's evidentiary hearing, Xbox gaming CEO Phil Spencer offers an eye-opening look at Microsoft's gaming business. Typically, Microsoft does not divulge very much information on Xbox outside of a few earnings metrics--hardware, content and services revenue, and if we're lucky, an update on Game Pass subscribers. Spencer's testimony in the hearing sheds light on the stressors in running the Xbox business, and what ultimately led up to the $68.7 billion bid for Activision-Blizzard.

Minecraft is the best-earning Xbox game of all time and delivers considerable profits to Microsoft's games division.

At the recent FTC v Microsoft hearing in federal court, Xbox gaming CEO Phil Spencer confirmed that Minecraft earns more revenues than any other Xbox game and that it drives "significant profits" for Microsoft.

Considering the breadth of Minecraft's releases and widespread reach on practically every platform where games are made available, this small tidbit isn't exactly a surprise. The game is (and has been) everywhere, including the best-selling Nintendo Switch and the market-leading PlayStation. In a previous interview from March 2023 with Xbox On, Phil Spencer said that Minecraft had 'maybe 120 million MAUs.' Matching that up with previous statements that first-party Xbox games have a total of 150 million monthly active users (MAUs) on all platforms, we can see that Minecraft accounts for almost all of Xbox's current active players.

Further doubt has been cast over whether Intel will manage to head up its future Arrow Lake CPUs with a 40-core flagship.

Raichu let us know the latest gossip on that 40-core behemoth (Image Credit: Raichu / Hardware Times)

You may recall that the 40-core chip - theoretically combining 8 performance cores with 32 efficiency cores - was previously rumored, then thought to be canceled, and then the grapevine indicated it might be back in the cards.

However, the latest from a regular hardware leaker on Twitter, Raichu, acknowledges that Intel does indeed have plans for this 40-core beast of a 15th-gen processor, but that it's struggling with realizing them.

In a recent federal court hearing, Xbox gaming CEO Phil Spencer says that he has no interest in using Sony's own exclusivity practices against PlayStation.

The recent FTC v Microsoft evidentiary hearing has unearthed lots of interesting details about Xbox, PlayStation, and the games industry in general. Based on key info and testimony presented in the case, we've surmised that Sony and Microsoft are very likely to sign a publishing agreement for Call of Duty on a post-merger basis.

Other revelations include Microsoft's view on Sony's exclusivity practices. According to the Xbox CEO, there's two sides to Microsoft's relationship with Sony. There's the cordial, lucrative, and mutually-beneficial side where big Xbox games like Minecraft see the two companies joining together in a strong symbiotic publishing agreement. Then there's the side that gets publicized the most, the one where Sony snaps up third-party exclusivity deals to further detrimentally impact Xbox. This behavior has made Microsoft see Sony as a "hostile and aggressive" competitor.

Germany is witnessing the impressive download speeds delivered by SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet constellation.

With a vast array of satellites, this network quickly gained renown for its exceptional performance upon its public launch, with download speeds now reaching a staggering 600 Mbps, according to some tests. The fast-growing popularity of Starlink resulted in the mass adoption of the new internet service, and while some users living in populated areas across the United States experienced average internet speeds, other users located in rural areas have been blasted with high-speed internet.

Starlink users located in Germany's rural regions are an example of that, and serve as a reminder that satellite internet connections will truly be part of the future when it comes to high-speed internet. During the recent test, Starlink achieved download speeds exceeding 500 Mbps, and in other tests even reached about 600 Mbps. These tests highlight the achievement that Starlink has made at bringing high-speed internet to rural regions around the globe, further enabling more humans to be connected to the internet.

Space is barren of resources, which means recycling is extremely important and that nothing should go to waste if it can be reused again.

NASA is aiming for 100% recyclability of its space stations, and while that number is extremely difficult to get to, the space agency has reached a score of 98% of all water astronauts bring aboard the International Space Station (ISS) is recycled by the International Space Station's Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS). NASA's technological achievement means all sweat and urine are being converted back into water used in the space station's life support systems.

How is all this water captured? One aspect of the system is an "advanced dehumidifiers" that capture any moisture that is expelled by astronauts, whether that be through breathing or sweat that is left floating in the air. As for the urine, the space station is equipped with a filtration system that distills the urine and converts it back into drinkable water.

SSD prices are down by 25% since March, according to a new report from Tom's Hardware, which has been keeping an eye on price tags in the US market (over a range of 60+ popular drives).

The WD Black SN850X 2TB looks like a real bargain (Image Credit: WD)

Indeed, Tom's Hardware previously observed prices falling between 15% to 30% from January to March, and now with these fresh drops of 25% (on average) midway through the year, SSD pricing really is a whole lot cheaper than the levels we saw at the start of 2023.

Looking at the 1TB SSDs Tom's tracks the prices of, some of the biggest falls come with Samsung drives. Notably the Samsung 990 Pro, which is half the price it was in March (dropping from $170 to $85). Samsung's 980 Pro SSD is also 40% less than it was three months ago (you can now pick it up for $60).

Artificial intelligence is going to space, and if NASA's plans are completely fulfilled, we could see talking spaceships and spaceship systems within the next ten years.

A new report from The Guardian has shone some light on NASA's plans to implement artificial intelligence in space and the unique applications machine learning technologies can introduce. Visiting NASA researcher Dr. Larissa Suzuki spoke at a meeting at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), where she explained that engineers are looking to the Lunar Gateway as a location to implement AI, or more specifically, a ChatGPT-like interface that astronauts will be able to consult.

Notably, the Lunar Gateway is NASA's project of constructing a space station around the Moon, serving as a lunar outpost that will assist NASA in all of its Artemis missions. Suzuki outlined during the meeting an interplanetary communications network powered by an AI would be able to detect spacecraft failures as they occur, possibly fix these failures, and automatically alert mission control.

If you've recently installed Super Mario 3: Mario Forever on your Windows PC, then you need to scan for viruses, as there's a version of the installer circulating that's laden with malware.

Bleeping Computer spotted that security firm Cyble flagged up the dodgy installer in a lengthy blog post explaining how it works, and what it exploits and steals.

Unfortunately for anyone who has been hit, this is a nasty infection that pulls a couple of stunts. The first is to install SupremeBot, a crypto-miner (using your PC's system resources for the attacker's mining gain), and the second line of attack is Umbral Stealer.

After a few benchmark leaks covering some synthetic tests painting a picture of the GeForce RTX 4060 presenting a 20% raw performance uplift over the GeForce RTX 3060, it looks like we've now got some official (or at least NVIDIA-approved) looks at how the RTX 4060 performs in-game.

Cyberpunk 2077 in RT Ultra Mode with DLSS 3 enabled, image credit: AusGamers.

The game in question is Cyberpunk 2077, still one of the best-looking PC games available, and back in the headlines thanks to the upcoming September release of the Phantom Liberty expansion. NVIDIA has provided a few outlets early access to the GeForce RTX 4060, allowing them to post benchmark results using Cyberpunk 2077's hardware-intensive 'RT Ultra' setting with DLSS 2 and DLSS 3 enabled.

Over at AusGamers, the only stipulation was that DLSS needed to be set to Balanced, but other than that, there were no restrictions on what to test or compare performance with. And with that, we see in-game results compared to the GeForce RTX 3060 12GB (the STRIX OC model from ASUS) and the GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER (Founders Edition).