PAX East 2019 brought with it some exciting news, and the world of virtual reality no doubt sees this news as the biggest in quite some time. Valve has finally made good on their promises from yesteryear, bringing in personnel to work on both the hardware and software side of the VR market. We first saw a hint of this via a prototype VR HMD late last year, with leaked specs confirming it was Valve's own design going beyond the established competition at the time from HTC Vive and Oculus. Since then, the Vive Pro has come out with an even higher-end version using eye-tracking to target prosumers initially, and also showcasing foveated rendering that will no doubt herald VR getting more mainstream and allowing for a higher graphical fidelity as well.

The so-called Valve Index has been listed on Steam now, with no other information to see than from the image below. We know it is coming in a couple of months, perhaps even during Computex although it is unlikely. It certainly looks similar to the prototype HMD, and presumably retains the 135° field-of-view and 2,880 x 1,600 total resolution. No mention of the Steam Knuckles controller here, but that is no surprise for a teaser. What we can tell is the headset has a physical slider, presumably to assist with pupillary distance calibration, as well as fairly large lenses that extend outwards which may assist with IR-based tracking. There is no mention of HTC anywhere here, and it would be right up Valve's alley to introduce this at a relatively affordable price point to then make up on software and distribution (savings via Steam) instead. Perhaps we will see the long-rumored Half Life VR as a launch title? Time will tell, and this may well be the big boost to gaming VR that is sorely needed.

It feels like an entire age has passed since we heard about a full successor to the Borderlands franchise, with offshoots such as Tales from the Borderlands only causing more anticipation to build. In the time since Borderlands 2 came out, Telltale ceased to exist, making Tales from the Borderlands 2 no longer a project coming up. Gearbox too have gone through some.. interesting times.. lately, with CEO Randy Pitchford being accused of deviant activities caused via mishandling of company secrets and also massive annual bonuses at a time the industry was being blamed for underpaying the average worker.

Perhaps the tease of a new Borderlands announcement on Twitter earlier today was just what the company needed as a positive distraction, with timing between Borderlands 1 and 2, and time since Borderlands 2, all suggesting this is very likely going to be Borderlands 3. The highway exit marked number 3 is no doubt another piece of evidence towards this assumption being valid. We will know more on March 28, when PAX East officially kicks off, but no doubt this is enough to kick-start another discussion on whether Claptrap is cool or annoying (or both).

In what ended up overshadowing most of the news coming out of PAX West 2018, Riot Games delivered a masterclass in how not to handle things in a politically-correct environment. The situation in question concerned a series of sessions that were targeted to, and I quote, "women and non-binary folks" which was well intended and meant to be more of an acknowledgement of the minorities in the gaming industry.

Unfortunately, this wording and then poor-execution and follow-up from their part meant that things quickly turned sour. People at the event were quick to notice that the room reserved for these sessions appeared to have volunteers attempt to keep them away. What was intended to be a support session then turned into allegations flying all around, and social media lit abuzz with what seemed to be discrimination against straight men by the company.

After disappointing scores of potential buyers by skipping a GTX 1080 Ti announcement at CES - which could have been a last-moment decision on the company's part when AMD failed to make any relevant VEGA announcement - it looks like NVIDIA has chosen the grand stage of PAX East, which begins at March 10th, as the place to carry the previously-confirmed addition to their Pascal line of GPUs.

This information (which should be taken with a maybe unhealthy grain of salt) came to light by way of an MSI (NVIDIA's AIB partner) representative, which also mentioned that the 1080 Ti would be available from board partners (including, naturally, MSI itself) at time of launch.

In the year of their 30th anniversary, Antec Inc., a leading provider of high-performance computer components and accessories for the gaming, PC upgrade and Do-It-Yourself market, has announced the release of a co-branded Razer Edition of Antec's Cube, a mini-ITX gaming case. The Antec Cube-Designed by Razer combines the e-sports design elements of Razer, with the reliability and build quality of Antec, into a small form factor case for gamers.

Debuting at PAX West 2016, the Antec Cube-Designed by Razer is the product of extensive collaboration between Antec and Razer. The efficient interior layout features one 3.5" HDD drive bay, up to four 2.5" SDD bays, three expansion slots, and accommodates graphics cards of up to 350 mm in length. To allow for a seamless building experience, the Antec Cube-Designed by Razer features a basement compartment that separates the PSU and allows for easy cable management. The side and top panels are fitted with darkened acrylic windows and an innovative, click system which enables users to open and close the case in a quick and easy way. This thought-out case could serve as a conventional PC, gaming rig, or home theatre device and media center, but is also well-suited for professional users.

At its PAX East booth, GIGABYTE showed off three of its upcoming socket LGA2011v3 motherboards, which it plans to launch alongside Intel's Core i7 "Broadwell-E" processors. The three include the X99-Designare EX, the X99 Phoenix SLI G1, and the X99 Ultra Gaming (pictured in that order). The running theme on these boards, apart from their design-language that's similar to GIGABYTE's Z170-series motherboards, is 32 Gb/s M.2 slots, even U.2 slots in some cases, reinforced PCIe - and in some cases even memory - slots, and USB 3.1, besides out of the box support for the latest CPUs.

The X99-Designare EX features five PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots, from which three can function at x16 speed and two U.2 ports. GIGABYTE is probably betting on NVMe SSDs with U.2 connectors heavily. The X99 Phoenix SLI G1 appears to be a slightly more toned down board in terms of features. It features just four PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots, wireless networking, and just one U.2 connector. Unlike the Designare, which is slotted in the company's mainline Ultra Durable lineup, this board is the company's new G1 Gaming offering for this platform. Then there's the X99 Ultra Gaming. This board is based on the same PCB as the X99 Phoenix SLI G1, lacks wireless networking, but features reinforced memory slots. The three boards could launch alongside Intel's new CPUs.

HyperX, a division of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced the launch of higher-capacity additions to HyperX Savage and HyperX Predator DDR4 high-performance memory. Both product lines cater to enthusiasts and gamers who want fast speeds and aggressive timings.

HyperX Savage DDR4 is now available as a 2666MHz 128GB kit of eight with each DIMM containing a massive 16GB of RAM. It joins a family of other previously announced Savage DDR4 memory from 2133MHz to 3000MHz in various single modules and kits from 4GB to 64GB capacities. High-speed HyperX Savage DDR4 is perfect for gaming, video editing and 3D rendering. The built-in XMP ready profiles are optimized for Intel Core i5 and i7 processors, as well as Intel 100 Series and X99 chipsets, enabling users to easily overclock by selecting a memory profile without any adjustments in the BIOS.

HyperX, a division of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced the launch of HyperX Savage DDR4 memory. With its fast speeds and aggressive timings, HyperX Savage DDR4 offers ultra-responsive multitasking and an overall faster system making it perfect for advanced gamers, overclockers and power users.

With speeds up to 3000MHz, HyperX Savage DDR4 allows for faster video editing, 3D rendering and gaming. The built in XMP ready profiles are optimized for Intel Core i5 and i7 processors, as well as Z170 on 100 Series and X99 chipsets enabling users to easily overclock just by selecting a memory profile without any adjustments in BIOS. Available in single modules and kits up to 64GB, Savage DDR4 runs as low as 1.2V and at max 1.35V resulting in less power consumption than DDR3 and higher reliability.

MSI MGA (Masters Gaming Arena), a globally renowned eSports tournament formerly known as MSI Beat IT and hosted by the leading gaming brand, MSI, has partnered with ESL and will be ready to launch its 6th culmination as the months approach. Eric Kuo, MSI Vice President of Global Sales & Marketing, talks about renaming the annual gaming tournament from Beat IT to Masters Gaming Arena, "The rename marks our determination to evolve and do even better as one of the world's leading gaming brands. Years of MSI Beat IT gaming legacy will be carried on in the name of Masters Gaming Arena. MSI's gaming spirit and unflinching devotion to eSports live on. MSI MGA will continue to bring global players together and hand in hand we'll write thrilling chapters in the gaming history!"

MSI MGA will kick off with regional qualifiers for the United States, Europe and Asia. The first qualifier will start in June for Asia, with subsequent weeks covering the rest of the regions across the globe. The 4-day Grand Finals will be held in late August in the United States, where the best gamers from all around the world will compete over more than $200,000 USD in cash prizes and travel support.

HyperX, a division of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced that it has created the world's fastest DDR4 128GB memory kit running at an astounding 3000MHz. The kit consists of eight 16GB HyperX Predator modules (16GB x 8) motherboard in an eight module, quad-channel configuration along with an MSI X99 MPOWER motherboard in an eight module, quad-channel configuration along with an Intel Core i7 5820K processor.

During Computex en Taipei,HyperX will unleash a high-performance system featuring the upcoming 16GB modules powered by the recently released HyperX Predator M.2 PCIe SSD. The live demo will take place during the HyperX Roadshow Experience from June 4-7, 2015, at the ATT 4 FUN center, in Taipei. More details will be forthcoming about availability and pricing for HyperX Predator 16GB DDR4 modules and kits.

HyperX, a division of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced HyperX Savage, its next-generation SATA Rev. 3 (6Gb/s) SSD. HyperX Savage is powered by the Phison S10 quad-core, eight-channel controller delivering incredible read/write speeds for both compressible and incompressible data, as well as high IOPS. It replaces the highly successful HyperX 3K SSD.

HyperX Savage is the fastest SATA-based SSD in the HyperX family. With sequential speeds of up to 560MB/s read and 530MB/s write, and IOPS of up to 100,000 read and 89,000 write, HyperX Savage offers higher performance, ultra-responsive multitasking and an overall faster system. It features an eye-catching red steel and aluminum case with a low profile to fit most notebooks, desktops and small-form factor PC builds. This new design continues the HyperX trend as a leader in stylish gaming products.

HyperX, a division of Kingston Technology, the independent world leader in memory products, today announced its HyperX Predator DDR4 memory was overclocked at 4351 MHz, the highest frequency among all DDR4 memory in the world. The mark was set by overclocker "Toppc" of MSI using one 4GB HyperX Predator 3333MHz DDR4 module on the new MSI X99S XPOWER AC motherboard. The valid CPU-Z screenshot can be found here. The video of the overclocking record can be found here.

In addition to having the highest frequency, 10 out of the top 20 memory clock records were achieved using HyperX Predator DDR4 memory. Eight of those records were set at the recent HyperX OC Takeover (HOT) World Finals event during 2015 International CES, where the world's top overclocker's gathered to compete for $15,000 (USD) in prize money. HyperX DDR4 memory currently also has the top scores in two other benchmarks recognized by HWBOT, MaxxMEM and MaxxMEM Read Bandwidth, respectively.

Alienware, a leader in high-performance gaming systems, is announcing details and availability for the legendary return of the Alienware Area-51 gaming desktop and the portable powerhouse Alienware 13 gaming laptop. Alienware also revealed the innovative Alienware Graphics Amplifier, giving gamers desktop graphics performance at home and high-performance mobile gaming with the Alienware 13. A truly no compromises approach to gaming.

When combining the new Alienware 13 and Graphics Amplifier, gamers no longer need to choose between a portable performer for fragging on the go or the fantastic FPS of a gaming desktop. The Alienware Graphics Amplifier boosts the already potent gaming performance of the Alienware 13, providing desktop graphics quality gaming at home while continuing to offer the same high-performing experience that road warriors demand.

HyperX, a division of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced it will demo next-generation HyperX Predator DDR4 Memory during PAX Prime 2014 in Seattle, Washington, beginning today through September 1, 2014. HyperX Predator DDR4 kits will ship in September. HyperX Predator DDR4 memory is specifically designed for the next generation Intel X99 chipset and the Haswell-E processor. The combination of high frequency, low voltage and aggressive CAS latencies in the HyperX DDR4 memory kits provide users with one of the fastest solutions on the market. HyperX Predator DDR4 memory will be available in 16GB kits of four starting at 1.2V, and frequencies from 2133MHz to 3000MHz.

"With the industry launch of DDR4 memory, the HyperX team is excited to have our Predator DDR4 memory ready for the next generation of PC enthusiasts who continually want the absolute best performance possible from their system," said Edward Baily, business manager, HyperX. "Gamers can also turn to HyperX for all of their peripheral hardware needs from the comfortable and great sounding Cloud headset to the speedy and accurate Skyn mouse pad. As HyperX continues to support the world of gaming and eSports, we hope the community sees us a trusted leader in the gaming hardware industry."

MSI Computer Corp, a leading manufacturer of computer hardware products and solutions, showcased their award-winning selection of gaming laptops during PAX Prime 2013 at booth #7411, 6th floor in Seattle, WA. MSI exhibited their entire repertoire of G Series gaming laptops which includes the newly released GS70 Stealth, the world's thinnest and lightest 17" gaming notebook, the GT Series powerhouse armed with Intel Haswell and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M/780M, the GX series powered by AMD's Richland processor and AMD Radeon HD 8000M, and the GE series including the ultra-portable 14" GE40.

To celebrate MSI's participation at the show, MSI was holding a variety of daily activities and contests, giving attendees the opportunity to win prizes such as souvenirs, gaming components and a gaming laptop. For more details, please check it out at event page.

Intel's pocket-sized prodigy, NUC (next unit of computing), made waves since 2012, when it launched as a full-fledged desktop system, based on Core "Ivy Bridge" platform. The industry has since been looking forward to second-generation NUC, which runs the company's latest Core "Haswell" processors. One such fun-size powerhouse was spotted at PAX Prime. Labelled Intel D54250WYK, the kit runs a Core i5-4250U dual-core processor (1.30 GHz clocks, 2.60 GHz Turbo Boost, 3 MB L3 cache, HD Graphics 5000, 15W TDP). The reference-design enclosure is smaller in size than its predecessor, measuring 116.6 mm x 112 mm x 34.5 mm, compared to the original's 116.5 mm x 112 mm x 39.3 mm. Connectivity on the device include a single 3.5 mm headset jack, four USB 3.0 ports, gigabit Ethernet, HDMI, and mini-DisplayPort (both of which give out 7.1-channel digital audio). Wireless connectivity options could include anything from 802.11 b/g/n (or even 802.11 ac), Bluetooth 4.0. Intel could detail, or perhaps even launch, its next-generation NUC at IDF San Francisco.

According to Kotaku and Shack News, Borderlands 2 developer Gearbox Software is already working on DLC before the game is even released. What can you expect? A new character class. At a PAX East panel this past weekend, the developer showed conceptual images for a new Mechromancer class. The class will be available to everyone when the DLC hits 60-90 days after the game hits shelves, but it will be free to those that pre-order the game, according to Kotaku. Gearbox also detailed two special editions for the game. The first will be the "Deluxe Vault Hunters Edition" for $99, completed with a bobble-head doll of game narrator and weapons dealer Marcus Kincaid. The second will be the "Ultimate Loot Chest Edition," which offers a Borderlands 2-style loot chest, sans hydraulics. Finally, the Gearbox gang tossed out Easter eggs with codes inside, redeemable at a special website, that allowed attendees to compete to potentially insert their names into Borderlands 2 or Aliens: Colonial Marines as an Easter egg.

Get this - Epic Games is working on a PC-exclusive. This teaser was released by Cliff Bleszinski and Mike Capps of Epic Games, at PAX East. "We might be working on a PC-only title," said Bleszinski. "Let me say that again: we are working on a PC game," Capps added. Capps told Joystiq that the project is currently underway, and that Epic Games intends to keep it PC-exclusive. This fits into the scheme of recent developments at Epic Games. Epic unveiled its latest Unreal Engine 4, with demos that made the most bleeding-edge PC hardware sweat, and so it is only apt that the first game will serve as a technology demonstrator, and will probably offer jaw-dropping visuals that make use of the resources today's gaming PCs can expend.

PNY Technologies, Inc. ("PNY") will showcase the all new XLR8 GeForce GTX 680 2048MB GDDR5 graphics card, 2133MHz DDR3 desktop memory kit, Smart Active HDMI Cables, and a sneak peak at their brand new revamped line-up of XLR8 Solid State Drives at the PAX East 2012 exhibition.

PNY has once again partnered with Newegg.com at the 3-day gaming festival, being held April 6th - 8th at the Boston Convention Center. Visitors to PNY's booth (#613) will be offered the opportunity to take part in free play, live tournaments, contests, prize giveaways, and more. Attendees can enjoy the free play on the gaming stations -- built with PNY products, featuring games such as Street Fighter 4, StarCraft 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Beta and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

Corsair, a worldwide designer and supplier of high-performance components to the PC gaming hardware market, today announced the Vengeance 2000 Wireless 7.1 Gaming headset and Vengeance C70 PC case. The new products are the first wireless headset and first PC case in the company's growing arsenal of award-winning Vengeance PC gaming products.

"Our Vengeance wired headsets have built a loyal following by giving gamers a competitive advantage with detailed positional audio, reliable voice communication, and comfort that lasts over marathon gaming sessions," said Ruben Mookerjee, VP and General Manager of the Components Business Unit at Corsair. "The new Vengeance 2000 wireless headset relieves gamers from the hassle of accidentally rolling over cables or ripping their headset connector out of their PCs during the heat of battle."

Corsair, a worldwide designer and supplier of high-performance components to the PC gaming hardware market, today announced its participation and activities at PAX East 2012, an annual festival for tabletop, console and PC gamers being held in Boston, Massachussetts from April 6th to April 8th. Corsair will be located in booth #1150.

Corsair has teamed up with Digital Storm, Intel, and NVIDIA to give away a fully configured dream gaming PC each day of the event. These awesome dream machines will be built using Corsair's PC cases, power supplies, CPU coolers, SSDs, and Vengeance memory. These gaming PCs will also Intel Core desktop processors and NVIDIA GeForce GTX graphics cards.

Digital Storm, the predominant name in computer system integration and engineering, is excited to announce our partnership with EVGA to create a one-of-a-kind experience for gamers at PAX East in Boston, MA during April 6th - 8th.

Attendees will be able to compete in a DiRT 3 racing simulator contest at EVGA & Digital Storm's booth (#1156) for a chance to win Digital Storm's newly released flagship high-performance PC, Aventum. Competitors will battle it out on a $30,000 full motion 180˚ view racing simulator, powered by one of Digital Storm's benchmark crushing Aventum systems. The competitor who posts the fastest time will walk home with a $4,000.00 Digital Storm Aventum gaming PC! Attendees will also get a chance to win additional great prizes such as an EVGA GeForce GTX graphics card, six Corsair Vengeance 1500 gaming headsets, a Corsair Special Edition White Graphite 600T chassis, and a NVIDIA 3D Vision kit!