Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut Review: More Narrative Greatness With A Touch Of Grit

You’re probably tired of hearing this from me, but Ghost of Tsushima is great. And it got even better when Sucker Punch Productions gave it a free multiplayer component. For the most part, that’s already a lot to give for a single game, and many were expecting the studio to work on a sequel. But then the company announced a Director’s Cut, which included the Iki Island expansion.

And to put it simply, the expansion is also great – for all the same reasons that made the base game so enjoyable. So let’s talk about that. Being built on an amazing foundation, the only remaining element was a new story to tell, and boy did Sucker Punch pull it off again.

Another setting, Another Mongol Invasion

Being the continuation of the main story in Ghost of Tsushima, the Director’s Cut expansion naturally kept the Mongol invasion as an important part of the story. Very early on, the story makes clear that the events of the Iki Island expansion happen some time after the main game. That, and there is a canon ending to the base game, which forces you to make a decision after the final duel. There is also what I see as a very minor retcon in the base game’s story in order to tell this one. Which is fine, because it wasn’t a major detail back in the base game.

Though this time, the game takes a sharper turn from the road that history has provided. Which is actually fine, because it’s sort of necessary for the story that the expansion is trying to tell. And the story is essentially one of Sakai Jin dealing with the ghost of his own past.

This time, the fictional invading force is an oddly specific Mongolian tribe led by the a Shaman known as the “Eagle”, Ankhsar Khatun. For context, Khatun is the female equivalent of Khan. As the plot progresses, she managed to poison Jin with a special drug that amplifies his darkest thoughts and suppressed memories. And it is through dealing with this poison that Jin faces his past, contemplates what he should or should not have done, and learns to deal with his choices at the end. Again, not the most original of stories, but with a past as grey as his, it makes for a compelling story all the same.

Of course, not everyone is as lucky, or mentally strong, as Jin. Many of the others on Iki Island were poisoned by the Eagle, and have subsequently irreparably lost their minds. And as Jin fights his inner demons, he also helps the locals fight off the Mongols so that this new threat does not take over the island, and move on not only to Tsushima, but the Japanese mainland as well.

Depicting The True Greyness Of The Warrior Class

The relative greyness throughout Jin’s past also reflects the greyness of the role of the samurai during that era. This makes it a far more realistic depiction of the warrior class of the time. Quite the contrast to the main game, which reinforces the stereotypical idealised version of bushido.

Without going into anymore detail, it’s safe to say that the samurai had to do some really nasty stuff in order to serve their lord, and act as peacekeepers. Honour in battle is certainly far from the focus this time around, and I’ll leave it there to avoid the risk of spoiling the story any further.

New Toys To Play With

There are also three new enemy types added to Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut. One, which you’ll be introduced to very early on, is the shaman, who makes nearby enemies more resilient to damage, and fights like a spearman up close. Another looks like your average grunt, but can swap between dual swords, sword and shield, and pole-arm at will, and even has a unique pole-arm move set. And the final one is a new brute with a double-bladed pole-arm, who is a lot faster than the others in its class. Enemies in general also can take more hits before going down. All that being said, this list looks to be exclusive to the Iki Island region.

On another note, one improvement that you can expect to be transferrable to the main game is more varied stealth assassination animations. Ditto a new chiburi sheathing animation that was previously exclusive to boss duels. That being said, it’s unclear if these are part of the Director’s Cut, or part of the overall improvements that Sucker Punch promised. What’s definitely a new addition thanks to the Director’s Cut is a new armour set with its own unique set of skills, which is a lot of fun and very overpowered if you have quick reflexes in combat. Your horse gets some love too, which comes in both practical and comedic flavours.

Iki The Animal Sanctuary

If you like animals, then the Iki Island expansion has a treat for you – mostly in the form of three more animal types that you can pet. Scattered around the new area are animal sanctuaries for the monkey, deer and cat. The expansion adds a new limited gameplay mechanic that allows a more active use of your flute in these sanctuaries. Play them well, and the animals will calm down enough to trust you and let you pet them. They appear throughout the expanded area, but you can only pet them in their respective sanctuaries.

This is still quite the major improvement over the foxes in the main game. Beyond a single quest in Act II, the only time foxes appear are near their dens, from which they lead you to the nearest fox shrine. You can also only pet them once, if you see them after praying to said shrines. Beyond that, the foxes of Tsushima appear to completely vanish from the island. And unlike the foxes, as long as you return to the sanctuaries on Iki, you can pet the animals as often as you like.

PS5 Exclusive Features Not A Must, With One Exception

Having reviewed the Director’s Cut on a PS5, I’ll say that the improvements on this version of the game are mostly unimportant. Sure, you get constant 60fps gameplay rather than 30fps, but the DualSense features like haptic feedback and adaptive triggers are not really all that big an improvement. This is especially the case for the latter, which was a little disappointing after having experienced what Insomniac did with Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.

All that being said, if you want Japanese lip sync, then unfortunately the PS5 version is a must. It’s a strange thing to be locked behind the latest-generation console. I don’t know if this is a hardware limitation, and I have a hard time believing that it is the case, but here we are. Translations are still whack, with some names translated completely differently. But since these are remnants of the base game, there isn’t much that can be done there short of overhauling the text of from it.

Conclusion

If you can’t get enough of Ghost of Tsushima, then the Director’s Cut is for you. Since it’s built on the bones of such a brilliant game, there’s little that can go wrong. And thankfully, not only did nothing go wrong, but we got another compelling, albeit shorter story experience to continue where the base game left off.

In terms of landmass, the in-game version of the Iki Island is about a third of Tsushima. Though in terms of actual story, it feels a lot more than just a third of the main game. Because of this, the story feels faster – and better – paced. And because of the smaller landmass you can wrap things up pretty quickly. This includes all the side quests, challenges and collectibles, simply because there’s less traversing in between.

For this review, I’ve done almost all there is to do in slightly over 12 hours. Your experience may be quicker if you forgo the collectibles, and play on a difficulty that’s lower than Lethal+. Though that being said, I feel the desire to finish my current playthrough and go for a third one, this time completing the game in canonical order, while making use of the new toys for more of the base game. You don’t have to do that, because in an update quite late into the review cycle, Sucker Punch has added the ability to replay boss duels and outpost captures.

But for all the praise I pile onto this, I must reiterate one criticism. And that’s the fact that Japanese lip sync is locked behind the PS5 version. As I mentioned before, I can live without the DualSense improvements. I can also live without 60fps gameplay, although having it is certainly nice. But by far the one thing that drastically improved my enjoyment of the game is the Japanese lip sync. And it really feels unfair for those who don’t have the console but want to experience Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut at its best state, narratively speaking.

If you’ve never experienced Ghost of Tsushima, definitely jump into the PS5 version of the Director’s Cut. If you don’t yet have the console, then I would say you wait until after you get it. For those who have experienced the base game, I’d say that the new elements and replayabllity makes it worth its asking price, regardless of if you’re upgrading to the PS4 or PS5 versions.

iPhone 13 Pro Supposedly Costs Slightly More To Build Than iPhone 12 Pro

As it turns out, an iPhone 13 Pro teardown has revealed that customers who bought the latest Apple release might be getting more value than those who bought last year’s iPhone. The higher estimated price is attributed to the more expensive A-series processor, NAND flash memory, display subsystem, and main enclosure.

The cost analysis by computer hardware specialist Techinsights estimates that the 13 Pro costs US$570 (~RM2383) for the base 128GB storage model, US$21.50 (~RM89) more than the US$548.50 (~RM2288) build cost for the 12 Pro.

Some of the components highlighted in the report are the A15 processor, the more compact TrueDepth array, and the display subsystem. The 13 Pro uses an LTPO panel used for the 120Hz ProMotion display, which might have added to the build cost when compared to the regular iPhone 13’s OLED panel.

The analysis also found that the A15 silicon found in the 13 and 13 Pro series might be the same processor. While Apple claims that the five GPU cores on the Pro are different than the four GPUs on the base 13, the tech giant might actually be disabling one of the GPU cores for the lower-end 13, as it did with the A12X chip. Techinsights says that both SoCs contained the same TMMU71 die mark and the exact same die size, which is 22.82% bigger than last year’s A14.

The price jump between the 12 Pro and 13 Pro is not as big of a leap as the one between the iPhone 11 and iPhone 12, which Counterpoint Research says may have costed 21% more due to the addition of 5G and OLED. The estimates are based on standard market rates so they might not be quite accurate given Apple’s supply chain scale.

The iPhone 13 Pro is launching at the same price as its predecessor, at RM4899. In contrast, the hardware researchers estimate that the Samsung S21+ 5G costs US$508 (~RM2124) to build and was launched in Malaysia for RM3999.

WhatsApp Expands Cross-Platform Chat Migration To More Samsung Phones

WhatsApp has officially rolled out its new chat history transfer feature to a longer list of Samsung phones. The feature allows users to transfer their account’s data from iOS to any Samsung smartphone running Android 10 or higher, but still not the other way around. The tool had previously been announced last month but the messaging app said that it would initially only be available for two phones, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 and the Z Flip3.

The migration feature allows you to transfer your account information, profile photo, individual chats, group chats, chat history, media and settings. However, the transfer does not include your call history, display name, or peer-to-peer payment messages. Instead of backing up and migrating to the cloud, migrating your WhatsApp data from an iPhone to an Android phone requires a physical connection using a Type-C to Lightning cable, and you’re allowed to use adaptors if you don’t have this.

To migrate from iOS, you first need to reset your Samsung phone to factory settings, especially if you’ve been using it for a while. Then, you need to connect the two phones using the aforementioned cable and open up Samsung’s SmartSwitch app. Scan the QR code using your iPhone and the general data migration should start. Make sure you log in WhatsApp on your Samsung using the same number as the one on your iPhone. Once you’re done, just confirm the import, then boom, you should see your chat history appearing on your new phone. Take note that your old device will still have your data unless you wipe it or delete WhatsApp.

This implementation has been in the works for a few months now, when WABetaInfo sighted a “Move chats to Android” tool in one of the betas. Before this, there has been no official way of migrating between the two operating systems. There are third-party apps that can do this but they can be very expensive and may not be worth it for one-time use. WhatsApp says that the feature will be made available to more Android phones soon, but still no word on whether Android to iPhone transfers will also be supported in the near future.

CEOs are dooming business travel - maybe for good, No more outstation

Business travel as we’ve known it is a thing of the past. From Pfizer, Michelin and LG Electronics to HSBC and Deutsche Bank, businesses around the world are signalling that new communications tools are making many pre-pandemic-era trips history.

Take Akzo Nobel, Europe’s biggest paint maker, for instance. At its Amsterdam headquarters, Chief Executive Officer Thierry Vanlancker has spent the past year watching his manufacturing head, David Prinselaar, flap his arms, madly gesticulate and seemingly talk to himself while “visiting” 124 plants by directing staff with high-definition augmented-reality headgear on factory floors. A task that meant crisscrossing the globe in a plane before is now done in a fraction of the time — and with no jet lag. For Vanlancker, there’s no going back.

“Trips to drum up business could drop by a third, and internal meetings by even more,” he said in an interview. “It’s a good thing for our wallets and helps our sustainability targets. Our customers have had a year of training, so it’s not a social no-no anymore to just reach out by video... There’s an enormous efficiency element.”

A Bloomberg survey of 45 large businesses in the US, Europe and Asia shows that 84 per cent plan to spend less on travel post-pandemic. A majority of the respondents cutting travel budgets see reductions of between 20 per cent and 40 per cent, with about two in three slashing both internal and external in-person meetings. The ease and efficiency of virtual software, cost savings and lower carbon emissions were the primary reasons cited for the cutbacks. According to the Global Business Travel Association, spending on corporate trips could slide to as low as $US1.24 trillion by 2024 from a pre-pandemic peak in 2019 of $US1.43 trillion.

Business travel has “forever changed,” Greg Hayes, CEO of jet-engine maker Raytheon Technologies, said in July. About 30 per cent of normal commercial air traffic is corporate-related, but only half of that is likely mandatory, he said. While the market may eventually recover, sophisticated communication technologies have “really changed our thinking in terms of productivity,” Hayes said.

Having saved billions from slashed travel budgets during the pandemic with only a marginal impact on operations, companies, banks, consulting firms and government offices will be hard-pressed to explain why they’d return to their old ways. Kit Kat chocolate-bar maker Hershey said the pandemic showed that online meetings were a more efficient use of time and financial resources. Companies like Pfizer are grappling with questions about what one accomplishes with a trip that can’t be done virtually, Tina Quattlebaum, its director of global travel operations, said at the GBTA Mid-Year Virtual Summit in July.

“We don’t think business travel will ever return to 2019 levels,” said Will Hawkley, the global head of travel and leisure at KPMG. “Corporates are looking at their bottom-line, their environmental commitments, the demand from employees for more flexible working and thinking: Why do I have to bring that back?”

That’s a blow to the airline and hospitality industries — already among the biggest casualties of the pandemic. Business travellers, who buy premium-class or more-expensive refundable tickets, rang in as much as three-quarters of airlines’ pre-pandemic profits while accounting for only 12 per cent of seats, according to PwC. The hotels sector, which draws about two-thirds of its revenue from business travellers, could see a dip of as much as 18 per cent by 2022 as virtual meetings replace 27 per cent of corporate travel volumes, a Morgan Stanley study shows.

The world’s biggest airlines collectively lost a whopping $US126 billion in 2020 and are set to lose another $US48 billion this year, according to the International Air Transport Association, their lobby. As they wrestle with those losses and the huge debts racked up after coronavirus punctured a decades-long boom in travel, the last thing airlines need is corporate customers cutting back. Carriers like Lufthansa, Air France-KLM, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines, with thousands of staff and overhead to support, depend on business travellers returning.

“The effect of this structural decrease in business travel will be enormous for the industry, and especially for the airlines that are the most exposed to this category of traveller,” said Pascal Fabre, managing director in Paris for AlixPartners, a consulting firm.

Airlines are trying to stay optimistic. Delta CEO Ed Bastian said about 80 per cent of the carrier’s large corporate clients have indicated that as much as 90 per cent of their pre-Covid business travel will eventually return.

“I don’t expect we’re going to see a degradation in the aggregate of business demand over time,” he said in an interview. “The more people are connected in person, the more opportunities are created. I don’t see this being a significant body-blow to the industry as prognosticated by some.”

Travelling thousands of miles to meet with customers to discuss key issues across a table or over a meal made business sense before the pandemic and that hasn’t changed, said Warren East, the CEO of Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc, which makes aircraft engines.

“COVID-19 has definitely taught people that some of the mad regular dashes across the Atlantic hither and thither aren’t necessary,” he said, speaking at a net-zero event on June 17. “But when you peel back beyond that superficial analysis, you realise people were doing it because they thought it delivered real benefit to them.”

There may also be competitive pressures to keep flying, Air France-KLM CEO Ben Smith said in an interview. “I hear many of our corporate customers saying that the day they lose an account because they weren’t somewhere face-to-face will immediately bring them back to the way operations were before.”

Airlines are banking on a recovery sparked by pent-up demand after about 18 months when executives couldn’t visit customers — hopes that are being dented by the spread of the delta variant. Even if there is an initial burst of activity, it will start to stabilise and the structural change to business travel will become evident by around 2024, according to Fabre.

“In the past, it was seen as a good thing to go to the other side of the world to shake someone’s hand, but not anymore,” Augustin de Romanet, the CEO of Aeroports de Paris, which operates dozens of airports around the world, said in an interview. “Many things that have been done by conference call during the pandemic will stay that way, especially when it comes to far-flung countries. This will be for costs and the environment as well as people’s wellbeing.”

Company executives travel for many reasons — from business development and customer support to trade shows, conferences and meetings with local staff. Trips for intra-company activities will likely bear the brunt of the cuts “because client relationships aren’t at stake,” said AlixPartners’ Fabre.

“We have learned how to work, develop products, sign contracts without travelling,” he said.

Deutsche Bank’s global head of Investment Banking Coverage and Advisory, Drew Goldman, said that while the bank’s client-related business travel will return to about 90 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, trips for internal meetings will probably be a shadow of what they were before — at 25 per cent to 30 per cent.

Volkswagen is making employees jump through hoops before they can fly. Internal booking software steers them toward alternatives to flying, the most carbon-intensive form of travel. They’re also asked to justify why they can’t conduct the business online. At French defence and tech giant Thales, “trips will be for longer and probably less frequent in order to optimise costs, environmental impact and wellbeing,” said CEO Patrice Caine.

The world’s biggest airlines collectively lost a whopping $US126 billion in 2020 and are set to lose another $US48 billion this year, according to the International Air Transport Association, their lobby. As they wrestle with those losses and the huge debts racked up after coronavirus punctured a decades-long boom in travel, the last thing airlines need is corporate customers cutting back. Carriers like Lufthansa, Air France-KLM, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines, with thousands of staff and overhead to support, depend on business travellers returning.

“The effect of this structural decrease in business travel will be enormous for the industry, and especially for the airlines that are the most exposed to this category of traveller,” said Pascal Fabre, managing director in Paris for AlixPartners, a consulting firm.

Airlines are trying to stay optimistic. Delta CEO Ed Bastian said about 80 per cent of the carrier’s large corporate clients have indicated that as much as 90 per cent of their pre-Covid business travel will eventually return.

“I don’t expect we’re going to see a degradation in the aggregate of business demand over time,” he said in an interview. “The more people are connected in person, the more opportunities are created. I don’t see this being a significant body-blow to the industry as prognosticated by some.”

Travelling thousands of miles to meet with customers to discuss key issues across a table or over a meal made business sense before the pandemic and that hasn’t changed, said Warren East, the CEO of Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc, which makes aircraft engines.

“COVID-19 has definitely taught people that some of the mad regular dashes across the Atlantic hither and thither aren’t necessary,” he said, speaking at a net-zero event on June 17. “But when you peel back beyond that superficial analysis, you realise people were doing it because they thought it delivered real benefit to them.”

There may also be competitive pressures to keep flying, Air France-KLM CEO Ben Smith said in an interview. “I hear many of our corporate customers saying that the day they lose an account because they weren’t somewhere face-to-face will immediately bring them back to the way operations were before.”

Airlines are banking on a recovery sparked by pent-up demand after about 18 months when executives couldn’t visit customers — hopes that are being dented by the spread of the delta variant. Even if there is an initial burst of activity, it will start to stabilise and the structural change to business travel will become evident by around 2024, according to Fabre.

“In the past, it was seen as a good thing to go to the other side of the world to shake someone’s hand, but not anymore,” Augustin de Romanet, the CEO of Aeroports de Paris, which operates dozens of airports around the world, said in an interview. “Many things that have been done by conference call during the pandemic will stay that way, especially when it comes to far-flung countries. This will be for costs and the environment as well as people’s wellbeing.”

Company executives travel for many reasons — from business development and customer support to trade shows, conferences and meetings with local staff. Trips for intra-company activities will likely bear the brunt of the cuts “because client relationships aren’t at stake,” said AlixPartners’ Fabre.

“We have learned how to work, develop products, sign contracts without travelling,” he said.

Deutsche Bank’s global head of Investment Banking Coverage and Advisory, Drew Goldman, said that while the bank’s client-related business travel will return to about 90 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, trips for internal meetings will probably be a shadow of what they were before — at 25 per cent to 30 per cent.

‘Companies have acknowledged that reducing the level of flights is one way of reducing climate change. For the next 10 years, the best way to reduce emissions from aviation is to fly less.’
Andrew Murphy, aviation director at Transport & Environment

Volkswagen is making employees jump through hoops before they can fly. Internal booking software steers them toward alternatives to flying, the most carbon-intensive form of travel. They’re also asked to justify why they can’t conduct the business online. At French defence and tech giant Thales, “trips will be for longer and probably less frequent in order to optimise costs, environmental impact and wellbeing,” said CEO Patrice Caine.

In Singapore, United Overseas Bank, Southeast Asia’s third-biggest bank, plans to cut its travel budget by as much as half, and will limit trips to cases “where face-to-face interaction is essential,” said Dean Tong, head of group human resources. On New York-based Marsh & McLennan’s second-quarter earnings call, CEO Dan Glaser said, “companies, not just Marsh McLennan, will travel with more purpose and will be more thoughtful about travelling.”

Sophisticated technologies are enabling companies to do things they never imagined doing remotely. At French tire maker Michelin, new tools are already eclipsing the automatic reflex to make a trip, CEO Florent Menegaux said in an interview. The company recently used a drone for a virtual visit of its Campo Grande plant in Brazil by the top manufacturing brass in France. “We start machines remotely, have used drones to visit factories and train people from home,” Menegaux said. “We will continue to travel because human bonds are absolutely necessary to our activity, but we will most certainly have an overall reduction of about 20 per cent to 30 per cent in our travel costs.”

Royal Dutch Shell has created online control rooms with interactive 3D simulations of oil platforms and plants, giving engineers virtual access from home. In Troy, Michigan, Kevin Clark, the CEO of Aptiv, a former car parts unit of General Motors, is using drones and Oculus augmented-reality headsets to show customers the performance and manufacturing run rates of plants in Mexico, Hungary, or China.

“We won’t travel as much,” Clark said. “I think it’ll be more when we have to travel people will travel, versus, it’s nice to travel.”

For most companies, cost savings will be the primary driver to scale back, but carbon-footprint worries and employee wellbeing are not far behind, Fabre said.

Businesses globally are under pressure from investors and regulators to shrink their CO2 emissions. The European Commission rolled out an ambitious climate plan in July to force all industries to shift away from fossil fuels. Aviation has long been a target even though it accounts for only about 2.4 per cent of global human-induced CO2 emissions. That’s because the sector was growing rapidly before the pandemic and has other negative effects on the Earth’s upper atmosphere.

“Companies have acknowledged that reducing the level of flights is one way of reducing climate change,” said Andrew Murphy, aviation director at advocacy group Transport & Environment. “For the next 10 years, the best way to reduce emissions from aviation is to fly less.”

Airlines are providing companies tools to blunt the impact of CO2 emissions with carbon offsets and refreshing fleets with newer, more efficient planes. But with the tons of carbon dioxide they spew, airlines can’t do much to show that flying is a sustainable way to get around. Hydrogen-fuelled planes and electric commercial jetliners are decades away, and alternative aviation fuel isn’t widely available and jacks up ticket prices.

Carriers may have to modify aircraft configurations to cut business class seats and add more premium economy places. Premium economy costs less to operate than business class and takes up less space.

Air France, for instance, is developing its so-called leisure-business category for passengers who buy premium-class tickets for holiday travel, according to Steven Zaat, the group’s CFO. Thirty-two Air France 777s are fitted with “quick change” systems that allow the airline to reduce the size of its business-class cabin. The airline is still confident about a rebound in business travel, but “we can always reconfigure our planes if necessary,” Zaat said in a Bloomberg TV interview.

While airlines grapple with the possibility of fewer business customers, some of those clients are happy not to be zipping around the world all the time.

“A nice side effect of fewer long-haul business trips is less stress for the people who fly,” Hans-Ingo Biehl, the head of VDR, the German Business Travel Association, said in an interview. A study by the Baylor College of Medicine found frequent fliers have the same cancer risk as obese people. Also, companies have found that jet lag hurts productivity.

“There are a lot of myths and fantasy about travel, but it’s really very tiring,” said Michelin CEO Menegaux. “We should do it only when it’s absolutely necessary. I travel a lot and I can tell you it’s physically gruelling and takes a heavy toll.”

Cloud Mining Company Wins Chinese Court Case; Regains More Than 485000 AMD Radeon GPUs

Genesis Mining, An Iceland-based cloud mining outfit, recently won a lawsuit in a Chinese court, against a Chinese hosting provider, Chuangshiji Technology Limited. By decree of China’s Supreme Court, the defendant was ordered to return the Radeon RX 470 8GB GPUs it seized from Genesis Mining and by all, we mean all 485681 units.

Genesis Mining’s legal woes began in 2018, when it took Chuangshiji Technology Limited to court, over multiple monetary issues with the latter. The lawsuit, which stretched over a span of several years, was filed in 2019, after the defendant began withholding said RX 470 GPUs, presumably purchased by Genesis Mining. The Genesis lawsuit specifically demanded that Chuangjishi hand over more than 560000 GPUs, along with 60000 ASIC miners after the company terminated its agreement with the company.

Naturally, things didn’t go according to plan for Genesis; Chuangjishi refused to comply and instead, began selling its ill-gotten gains, all without Genesis’ consent.

Sadly, Genesis’ victory in the Chinese court is a Pyrrhic one; while the Icelandic cloud-based mining company may have won back its nearly half a million RX 470 GPUs, China’s recent crackdown on cryptominers and their farms means that the company will have to consider two alternatives: shift its operations out of China and into a country where cryptomining isn’t banned or find new homes for them, the latter being an arduous task, given the age of the RX 470 and its GPU core.

That said, selling them to actual gamers might actually net Genesis a tidy profit, especially given the ongoing chip and GPU shortage that is happening around the world.

Nintendo Denies Reaping More Profit From New Switch Model And Shoots Down Pro Variant Rumour

Nintendo has taken to Twitter to deny allegations of squeezing out more profit from the newly announced Switch model. As you may recall, Bloomberg published a report last Friday suggesting that the Japanese video game giant is marking up the prices of the newly announced variant – earning an estimated US$40 (~RM168) more on each unit sold, where production would only cost the company a mere additional US$10 (~RM42) over the existing model. For your reference, the standard Nintendo Switch retails at US$300 (~RM1,267) while the OLED model is priced at US$350 (~RM1,458).

“A news report on July 15, 2021(JST) claimed that the profit margin of the Nintendo Switch (OLED Model) would increase compared to the Nintendo Switch,” the company stated via its official account on Twitter. “To ensure correct understanding among our investors and customers, we want to make clear that the claim is incorrect.”

It is pretty unusual for Nintendo to comment regarding any allegations or even rumours, let alone releasing an official statement intended to assure its investors via social media. Prior to this, the video game giant would often sidestep from commenting or would just provide vague details that neither confirm or deny certain information. Needless to say, this is indeed a rare occasion for the company.

Following the statement, the company also took the opportunity to shoot down rumours suggesting that it is developing or planning to release another variant of the console after releasing the OLED model in October. This is clearly referring to the numerous hearsays of the alleged Nintendo Switch Pro, which has been circulating around for months.

While that may sound disheartening for those looking forward to a beefier and 4K-capable version of the device, keep in mind that this isn’t the first time that the company has denied the development of a new model. In fact, Nintendo previously insisted that it had no plans to introduce a new Switch variant before finally removing the drape off from the recently launched 7-inch OLED model.

Cryptocurrency Mining Banned In More China Provinces As Crackdown Continues

Cryptocurrency mining is being banned in more regions across China as provincial authorities follow the central government’s lead in cracking down on the digital currencies.

China’s northwestern province of Qinghai and a district in Xinjiang recently ordered cryptocurrency mining operations to shut down, Reuters said citing government notices.

A separate Reuters report said that authorities in China’s southwestern Yunnan province were probing the misuse of electricity by bitcoin miners. The news agency based that information on a report by the Science and Technology Innovation Express News.

Xinjiang is China’s largest bitcoin mining hub while Yunnan is the fourth-biggest. Qinghai is ranked ninth, Reuters said citing data compiled by the University of Cambridge. The rising Asian power has long held the crown for bitcoin mining – according to one study, over 75% of global bitcoin mining took place there as of April last year.

Now, Beijing seems very eager to change that. Banks and payment firms have been banned from offering cryptocurrency-related services. Authorities are aggressively pursuing those who use cryptocurrencies to launder money gained from illegal schemes. And then, of course, you have these provincial- and district-level crackdowns on cryptomining.

Are cryptocurrency’s days in China numbered? While the economic superpower’s rejection of cryptocurrencies is certainly notable, it hasn’t deterred smaller countries like El Salvador from embracing bitcoin. China itself is looking to launch its own (central bank-backed) digital currency.

Musk Says Telsa To Accept Bitcoin Again When Miners Use More Clean Energy

Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the company will return to accepting bitcoin as payment when the cryptocurrency’s miners use more clean, environmentally friendly energy. The crypto-enthusiast and environmentalist has seen his core passions collide with one another.

“When there’s confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions,” he said on Twitter. According to Reuters, bitcoin rallied over 9% after the post.

CNBC said the billionaire was responding to pointed remarks from Magda Wierzycka, the CEO of South African asset manager Sygnia, who accused him of manipulating the price of bitcoin. Previously, Tesla bought US$1.5 billion (~RM6.2 billion) worth of bitcoin and later said it would accept the digital currency as payment for cars.

That policy was abruptly reversed last month with Musk declaring that the push for cryptocurrency “cannot come at great cost to the environment.” To be fair to the billionaire, even then, he maintained that Tesla will accept bitcoin transactions again when miners transition to “more sustainable energy.”

Of course, that statement as well as his latest one raise more questions than answers. Given the tremendous power demands of bitcoin mining, is that transition to cleaner energy even possible? Wouldn’t that require national-level, government-driven efforts to move away from ‘dirty’ energy sources like coal? Why seemingly put the onus on miners and how long would that transition take?

Finally, the billionaire-dollar question: Can enthusiasm for bitcoin be sustained until then?

EU Court’s Ruling Opens Door To More Regulatory Scrutiny Of Facebook, Big Tech

The European Court Of Justice, the EU’s highest court, has ruled that national regulatory agencies can act against alleged privacy violations by Facebook and other big tech companies even when they’re not the respective lead regulators, Reuters said.

Many large American tech companies – Facebook, Google, Apple, and Twitter – have planted their EU headquarters in Ireland, making them subject to the Irish data protection regulator under the rules of an EU privacy law called GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).

The problem is, quite a few national regulatory agencies in other EU countries have complained that their Irish counterpart has been taking too long to decide on cases. Ireland, on the other hand, has claimed that it needs to be especially meticulous when dealing with powerful, cash-flush companies. 

This apparently came to a head when Facebook contested the territorial competence of a Belgian privacy watchdog which had pursued legal action against the social media company. Consequently, a Belgian court sought guidance on the matter from the EU Court of Justice.

“Under certain conditions, a national supervisory authority may exercise its power to bring any alleged infringement of the GDPR before a court of a member state, even though that authority is not the lead supervisory authority,” the EU court ruled.

Big tech companies have been beginning to feel the pinch as governments around the world take a more critical view of their dealings and practices. Even on their home ground in America, legislators have been increasingly vocal against the anti-competitive power of Silicon Valley giants.