While many scoffed at Battlefield 3's late-arriving competitor to Call of Duty Elite, it seems to have worked quite splendidly for the publisher. More than 800,000 players have signed up for Premium in its first two weeks of availability, EA Games' Patrick Soderlund revealed. Although Premium less a "service" like Elite and more of a DLC Season Pass, the $50 asking price does include a lot of content. Namely, Premium includes access to over $75 worth of content, making it a "value" for hardcore fans of the series. Speaking to USA Today, Soderlund said that "we are very pleased with the performance so far." When asked if this strategy is something EA will pursue with future games, he said: "We're actually only two weeks into it, so it's a little early to tell how this is going to pay off. It certainly it looks very promising right now."

Call of Duty Elite currently has over two million paying subscribers, a number which took about six months to reach.

The games market went to Hell in May. Diablo III topping retail software sales for the month, according to the latest sales figures from NPD, and helped fuel a resurgence in the PC games space. Other top performers included Max Payne 3, which launched the same day as Diablo III, as well as Sniper Elite V2 and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier.
While action titles continued their dominance of the top 10, 2K Sports' NBA 2K12 held the fifth spot for the second straight week. Blizzard continued to show its impact in the PC market with Diablo III at number 1, the first time since July 2010 that a PC-only title has accomplished that feat. The game that did it in 2010? StarCraft 2, another Blizzard mainstay.

Total video game sales continued to shrink, down 28 percent from last year. However, the PC market jumped 230 percent from the same time last year to $80 million, fueled by Diablo III sales. The overall spend in May, including digital sales and microtransactions was estimated to be $1.17 billion.

HP today announced the new HP Z220 Workstations and HP EliteBook Mobile Workstations, packed with reliable and professional-class features.

HP's most affordable, no-compromise workstations, the Z220, features next-generation Intel Core and Intel Xeon processors, the latest integrated and discrete professional graphics from Intel, NVIDIA and AMD and four integrated USB 3.0 high-speed ports. The Z220 entry-level workstation is available in a choice of an exceptionally expandable, Convertible Mini-Tower (CMT) or a highly compact Small Form Factor (SFF) that's 65 percent smaller and perfect for tight spaces.

MechWarrior Online is beginning its closed beta this week, and developer Piranha Games and Infinite Game Publishing have announced a "founder's program" to give eager players early access to the game. The founder's program is being called "Operation Inception," and it will go on sale June 19. Players can buy one of two tiers of early access, which will grant separate rewards. The $30 Veteran Founder's Package gives you $40 of in-game currency, a one-month premium membership for bonus XP and C-Bills, a Founder's Tag to set you apart, and early access to the game and Founder's assets on July 17. If you want to shell out more for the $60 Elite Founder's Package, you'll get a special "Founder's BattleMech" which boosts earned C-Bills for life, $80 of in-game currency, a two-month premium membership, and the founder's tag and early access.

The prices are about on-par for a retail game. However, for those who don't mind waiting, the game will be free-to-play when it fully launches. A release date is unannounced so far, but it probably won't be too far behind the early access July 17 date. You can still register for beta access and reserve your pilot name at the official site.

The vast majority of laptop and desktop computers sold today are equipped with rotating hard disk drives (HDDs), making the storage system the biggest bottleneck in most client computing applications. Biwin, an industry leader in flash storage products, today announced Elite Series SATA III SSDs, based on the LSI SandForce SF-2281 Flash Storage Processor, that are designed to substantially improve storage performance in laptops and desktops.

With a standard 2.5" form factor (dimensions: 100 x 69.8 x 9.5 mm), Elite Series SSDs are compatible with virtually any desktop computer and millions of laptops. They support 6 Gbps SATA III, and are downward compatible with 3 Gbps SATA II systems.

Cooler Master has today announced the European release of a new Elite Series PC case, the Elite 372 mid-tower. This model measures 192.5 x 427 x 498.3 mm, it weights 4.6 kg, and features a steel body, ATX and micro ATX motherboard support, three 5.25-inch and six 3.5-inch bays (with tool-free mounting), and a front I/O panel with USB 2.0 (x 2), Mic (x 1) and Audio (x 1) ports.

The Elite 372 also has seven PCI expansion slots, top and bottom dust filters, and can be equipped with up to seven fans. Its recommended price tag is 39.90 Euro.

Cooler Master, an industry leading chassis, thermal solution, peripheral, and accessory manufacturer today unveils the Elite 361 rotatable chassis. A formidable Mini-Tower contender, Elite 361 focuses on versatility and expandability within a compact enclosure.

Touting a modern minimalist design, Elite 361 is engineered to be accommodating in space restricted work zones. Given its unique structure and airflow design, Elite 361 can be placed either horizontally or vertically within a space. A rotatable Cooler Master logo and four user attachable rubber feet assist in making these transitions. Front panel ports are positioned to be easily accessible in either orientation.

After releasing the tri-channel RAM to take "Triple-Channel" initiatives, the global leading brand Team Group Inc. presents the 8GB memory module of the Team Elite DDR3 series. The ultra memory storage item goes with the JEDEC standard, marking a turning point of the RAM market to enter the "Triple-Channel" and also the ultra big storage generation.

The new memory module of the Elite series, U-DIMM with 16 GB (8GBx2 kit) as its largest storage capacity and SO-DIMM 8GB, both uses selected DDR3 chips and passes 100% stringent testing. The item is in BGA package with stability and compatibility between memory modules and PC platforms have been greatly improved. Meanwhile, the Elite's exclusive heat spreader is helpful in cooling computing temperatures and enlarging storage to offer stability and efficiency. In addition, it features high speed, low power consumption, and high efficiency. It takes only 1.5V low voltage to function well, it lowers carbon emissions, is electricity-saving, power-saving, and environmentally friendly. All these taken together make it the best choice for your PC.

Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI), announced today that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 crossed the $1 billion mark in sales since its launch on November 8, 2011, according to Charttrack and retail customer sell-through information. Highlighting the trend of interactive entertainment gaining a greater hold of audiences worldwide, the game achieved this milestone in just 16 days, eclipsing the record set in 2009 by the feature film "Avatar," which reached the $1 billion milestone in 17 days.

While 2011 box office revenue is on the decline - down 4 percent this year at $9.4 billion, compared with $9.8 billion in 2010 -- the number of people purchasing and participating in gaming is on the rise, with no sign of slowing.(1) With more than 30 million gamers, the Call of Duty community now exceeds the combined populations of the cities of New York, London, Tokyo, Paris and Madrid.

Cooler Master, an industry leading chassis, thermal solution, power supply, peripheral, and accessory manufacturer, today announced the Elite 431 Plus. This new mid-tower case brings premium case features to a mainstream price and design.

The Elite 431 Plus focuses on a classic subdued outlook with clean and attractive lines. A large windowed side panel is included to allow others to admire your new build. In addition, accent lighting from the front 120mm blue LED fan provides an extra touch to the overall look.

Today, we brought you the depressing news that Activision are unlikely to bring the Call of Duty social network called Elite, to the PC platform, despite all their loyal PC gamers, who have bought every iteration of the game going and in particular helped them achieve their blockbuster sales of $400M last week. This delight came courtesy of this tweet:

@thejuggz We are working towards a universal Elite experience but we cannot guarantee if or when a version will be available for the PC.

Well, what do you know, but it looks like Elite is coming to the PC platform after all. Yes, you heard that right. In a tweet a while later, Activision claim to have "misspoken", like this:

We misspoke. Our goal has always been to provide a free PC offering for ELITE. Stay tuned for an update as timing is still being determined.

So PC gamers will at least get the free version. Fantastic. Still second class, but better than nothing. Probably best to keep a close eye on those tweets and a sceptical outlook on this one until it happens. You couldn't make this stuff up.

Just over a week ago, we brought you frustrating news that the brand new Call of Duty Elite social network was going to be delayed for the PC, once again leaving the PC gaming crowd feeling like second class citizens compared to their console counterparts. Now, in a bitter blow, it appears that the Elite service may shut out loyal PC gamers altogether. Plus, as is typical of big companies, the message was delivered in the most terse and disrespectful way possible, via a short Twitter tweet:

@thejuggz We are working towards a universal Elite experience but we cannot guarantee if or when a version will be available for the PC.

So, that's it then, PC gamers may never get it and there's no explanation why. One can only surmise that it's due to the alleged "security issues" previously alluded to. Therefore, hopefuls will just have to wait on tenterhooks for an undefined period of time. So, the biggest sales launch in history isn't enough to convince the company to support the PC platform? It looks like detractors of the Call of Duty franchise have a very legitimate axe to grind this time, doesn't it? Probably the best way to view this unfortunate news is that the benefits weren't worth it anyway.

From now on, amazing performance becomes available on affordable motherboards. In addition to the development of high-end overclocking motherboards that set world record in performance, the LANParty team has recently committed to a research program called "top performance at affordable prices", allowing more consumers to enjoy low-price yet high-performance motherboards.

The BI P45-T2(R)S Elite family is the first wave of the "top performance at affordable prices" series. High-end hardware layouts, excellent BIOS design, and ex-factory overclocking stress test are totally migrated to the product. With the price under USD $110, it can surprisingly challenge $150-level products in terms of performance.

Team Group recently unveiled four new low-voltage DDR3 memory kits for high-performance desktop machines that boast Intel's DDR3 loving X58 chipset. The new kits are available in both 3 GB (3x1 GB) and 6 GB(3x2 GB) flavours and come in both 1066 MHz and 1333 MHz varieties. The memory modules itself feature a 6-layer PCB, 128x8 die layout, and operate at CL7-7-7-21 timings for the 1066 MHz and at CL9-9-9-24 for the 1333 MHz models. Operating voltage for all memories is 1.5V. All four Team Group Team Elite memory kits come with a lifetime warranty.

It appears DFI is preparing an update to its current Intel P45 based P45-T2RS board, called the Blood Iron P45-T2RS Elite. Although an update, the new board with its revised PCB layout and new LAN chip, drops from two PCI-E x16 slots to one, in favour of a third PCI-E x1 slot. Despite being a budget board, it has been said that speeds in excess of 600 FSB are easily attainable. Like most other P45 based boards, the Blood Iron P45-T2RS Elite will support LGA775 Processors ranging from 800 to 1333 FSB, 4 DDR2 slots for up to 8 GB of 1066 MHz, 6 SATAII ports, 12 USB 2.0 ports, legacy support for IDE and floppy, 8CH HD audio via a Realtek ALC885 chip, 1 Gigabit LAN port via a JMC250 chip, a Software Debug LED and on board power and reset switches.
BIOS voltage tweaks include, Vdimm, Vnb, Vcore, Vsb, VHT, and then the usual adjustments for FSB in 1 MHz increments and CPU multiplier. It is also said that DFI have fixed the issue of automatic shutdown while overclocking and that mass production will start next week.