COLECO, a pioneer in the gaming industry, is thrilled to announce the launch of its highly anticipated Revival Series: Mini Arcade Machines. With an illustrious history of introducing iconic gaming experiences, COLECO is once again revolutionizing the gaming landscape by bringing back the beloved classics that defined a generation. COLECO first made waves in 1981 when it released a line of mini arcade machines that forever changed the way people enjoyed arcade games. Titles like Pac-Man, Frogger, and Donkey Kong captivated the masses, allowing them to experience the thrill of the arcade from the comfort of their homes.

Responding to the passionate requests of its devout fan base, COLECO is excited to present the Revival Series. These stand-alone mini arcade machines are set to capture the hearts of gamers once again, offering a one-game-per-machine experience, a unique feature that sets them apart from competitors. With limited runs of each game, ranging from 2,500 to 5,000 units, the Revival Series promises an exclusive and collectible gaming experience of unparalleled quality.
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Intel China Confirms Raptor Lake Refresh Incoming, Tries to Explain "Core" Branding
Intel China has taken to Weibo and Bilibili in a new effort to explain how things will pan out for 14th generation CPU lineups, with emphasis on its new branding and naming conventions for 2023 and beyond. These announcements contain the company's first official acknowledgement of Raptor Lake-U, Raptor Lake-S and Raptor Lake-HX SKUs getting a refresh. Team Blue's branding scheme is set to become even more convoluted with Meteor Lake premiering with "Core Ultra" instead of the old "i" labelling system. The China office's product rundowns indicate that the Raptor Lake Refresh series will be split into Core # and Core i# families, which complicates matters further.

It seems that Raptor Lake-U & H Refresh (mobile) and the entire Meteor Lake lineup will be assuming the new Core # branding scheme, but the latter series will be more performant—hence the adding of Ultra (e.g Ultra Core 5/7/9), so customers can tell the difference between product lines lumped into the same generation! Desktop Raptor Lake-S Refresh and high-end mobile Raptor Lake-HX Refresh processors will retain the company's traditional "Core i" naming convention, this will eventually be retired with the 14th gen family.
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Bioware Insists that Star Wars: The Old Republic has a Bright Future
A BioWare Austin developer is openly discussing the transfer of their long-running "Star Wars: The Old Republic" MMORPG to an external studio—games news sites picked up on insider information earlier this month alleging that the studio and its parent company (EA) were holding meetings with Broadsword Online Games. An EA spokesperson responded to the leak (at the time) and explained: "We're evaluating how we give the game and the team the best opportunity to grow and evolve, which includes conversations with Broadsword, a boutique studio that specializes in delivering online, community-driven experiences. Our goal is to do what is best for the game and its players." It seems that the involved parties have agreed upon terms for "handing off" responsibilities, according to a developer's recent declarations.

Keith Kanneg - the Executive producer for Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) - has this week provided a comprehensive update about future plans on the game's discussion board: "Appreciate your patience with us as we continue to navigate the future shift of SWTOR's development team to a third party studio. We're working through the changes right now so I'll share with you the details I have. With 7.3 now live, our priority is continuing to prepare for Game Updates 7.3.1 and 7.4 along with planning for 2024 and 2025 with a focus on content and continued modernization initiatives." It is interesting that Broadsword is not named or directly referred to.

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Plans for E3 2024 & 2025 Hanging in the Balance
An internet sleuth active on games discussion forum ResetEra uncovered presentation material from a Los Angeles City Tourism Board of Commissioners meeting (dated June 21). One slide seemed to suggest that the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2024 and 2025 trade show events are cancelled. The organization responsible for organizing and presenting E3 - Entertainment Software Association - is now in damage control mode, given that news media is picking up on the tourist board's supposed verdict. This year's show was called off following the withdrawal and non-registration of key games publishers, and industry folks have theorized that the City of Los Angeles is no longer confident about E3's prospects going forward.

Gamesindustry.biz is attempting to dampen speculation with their newly published article "E3 2024 and 2025 have not been cancelled, still in discussions." Coincidentally this news site is owned by ReedPOP, a firm that was acting as a co-organizer for E3 2023. James Batchelor (Editor-in-Chief) reached out to the ESA for a comment and "clarification" regarding rumors surrounding the cancellation of their upcoming E3 shows. A spokesperson responded and stated that their leadership is: "currently having conversations about E3 2024 (and beyond)," and later added that: "no final decisions about the event have been made at this time."

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(PR) Framework Dives Deep into Laptop 16's Alloy Construction
The Framework Laptop 16 is extremely rigid and durable, while also being surprisingly light and thin through use of a combination of magnesium alloy and machined aluminium parts for the enclosure. The laptop is under 18 mm thick, which is unusually slim for a 16" high-performance, upgradeable system. If you choose to add discrete graphics using a Graphics Module, the back section of the laptop extends to just under 21 mm thick, enabling much higher thermal capacity for the GPU. This is a substantially more mechanically complex product than the Framework Laptop 13, with a larger screen size, higher performance parameters, and two new module systems with the Input Modules and Expansion Bay. With all of that, we've still achieved a clean, minimal industrial design, with no externally visible fasteners.

We've done this through careful design work, architecting the system to be made of two core mechanical parts: a molded magnesium alloy Bottom Cover and a CNC aluminium Top Cover. Both of these are items we make in collaboration with one of the most advanced enclosure manufacturers in the world, Catcher Technology. We fabricate the parts at Catcher's massive, highly-automated facility in Tainan, Taiwan, where there are vast fields of molding and milling machines.
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(PR) Audio-Technica Launches AT2020USB-XP Cardioid Condenser USB Microphone
Audio-Technica, a leading innovator in transducer technology for over 60 years, announces the launch of the AT2020USB-XP cardioid condenser USB microphone - the latest addition to A-T's comprehensive lineup of 20 Series content creation products. Competitive features and studio-quality sound have become the calling card of the 20 Series, and the AT2020USB-XP is no exception, delivering ideal performance for streamers, podcasters and other content creators.

Building on A-T's most recent USB condenser model, the AT2020USB-X, the AT2020USB-XP includes the same silent touch-sensitive mute switch, built-in headphone jack with volume control and personal mix control to allow for monitoring of the microphone, as well as plug-and-play USB-Type C operation. Additions and improvements for the AT2020USB-XP include a 24-bit 192 kHz sampling rate, three levels of noise reduction (via selector switch with LED indicator), automatic gain control (with LED indicator), and the inclusion of a clip-on pop filter.
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