Steam Deck UI Will Replace Big Picture In The Future

Valve announced the Steam Deck last week. And while there’s a lot to say about the hendheld gaming PC, as the company touts it, it notably has a UI that’s quite good looking. And at some time in the future, it will replace the Big Picture mode on the digital storefront.

This came from a Valve moderator, austinp_valve, as an answer to a question in the Steam forums. But while they said that it will happen, there’s no date as to when it is going to happen. But chances are it will happen later rather than sooner.

Some would say that it’s about time that the Big Picture mode got an update or overhaul. As PC Gamer points out, it was first added in beta back in 2012, but the last time it got updated was all the way back in 2015. But the Steam Deck UI is likely more an overhaul than an update to Big Picture, as on the surface they look nearly nothing alike.

And all things considered, this may be the only way Malaysians can experience the new UI. Valve doesn’t usually bring in hardware to our shores, if the company’s Index and Steam Controller were any indication. Hopefully things will be different with the Steam Deck, but the company’s history doesn’t paint a pretty picture.

Watch Dogs Legion Will Get Cross-Play At Some Point In The Future

Ubisoft initially planned for the multplayer component for Watch Dogs Legion to launch on 9 March. Ultimately though. the publisher has decided to delay the multplayer component on PC indefinitely. And while the mode is available on consoles, the main co-op mode, Tactical Ops, has been pushed back. Though for what it’s worth, the publisher says that cross-play and cross-platform progression is still on the way.

In a tweet responding to another player, the official Watch Dogs Twitter account said that the dev team is working on adding this feature to Legion. Though it will be added in a future update, no exact date was given.

Naturally, enabling cross-play isn’t exactly on top of Ubisoft’s priority list. As it should be, since Watch Dogs Legion still needs its multiplayer component to work properly. And with there being no word on when players can expect that to be fixed, anything else beyond that would naturally also not have a concrete release date.

That being said, there’s also the question of if Ubisoft can fix the issues plaguing Watch Dogs Legion before players lose interest. The game was released back in October last year. Those who got the game early would likely have been done with the singleplayer campaign by now. Even the promised Bloodline DLC has yet to drop.

Zoom Posts Amazing Earnings, Questions Remain About Future Growth

Zoom, the video conferencing company that catapulted to popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, has reported a revenue of US$882.5 million (~RM3.6 billion) in the last three months of 2020 – a 370% jump compared to the same period the year before, the BBC said.

To understand the magnitude of this change, consider that Zoom’s profit in 2019 only amounted to US$21.7 million (~RM88.1 million). The following year, it rapidly ballooned to US$671.5 million (~RM2.7 billion). According to the BBC, the company’s total revenue in 2020 was US$2.6 billion (~RM10.6 billion) or an astounding increase of 326%.

But with even those numbers, Zoom can hardly rest on its laurels. People around the world are being vaccinated and lockdowns are being slowly lifted. Analysts question whether the platform can maintain its meteoric growth if work from home happens to be only a momentary trend.

And there are some ominous signs for the company. According to CNBC, Zoom finance chief Kelly Steckelberg conceded that the company was losing customers at a higher rate than before the pandemic – though it also lost fewer customers than expected.

Analysts say the company is also facing stiffer competition from Microsoft, Google, and Cisco now. Time will tell if Zoom has what it takes to tango with the big boys.

PS5 SSD Storage Expansion May Be Accessible Following Future Firmware Upgrade

Back in November last year, Sony Interactive Entertainment said that the SSD expansion slot in the PS5 is “reserved for a future update”. Which is a complicated way of saying that it’s not available for use right now. That may change come summer, or some time between late June and late September.

Bloomberg reports that SIE will be pushing out a firmware update within that summer time frame. The update will come with optimised fans speeds for the PS5. But more importantly, it will also unlock the SSD slot inside the console. A Sony spokesperson says instead that “the timing has not been announced and details will be shared later”.

On one hand, this is great news. As spacious as 660GB sounds like, it’s ultimately not a lot. Especially not when two games in a single series can take up the bulk of it. But on the other, it’s not know yet if SIE has made significant progress with the certification of third-party SSDs.

Well, that and the fact that the PS5 isn’t exactly an easy console to get a hand of at the moment. But if you’re one of the lucky ones to own the console, then this may be the good news you’ve been waiting for.