Xi3 Corporation unveiled its Z3RO Pro Computer, a small form factor computer the size of a small paperback at the 2013 International CES trade show, January 8-11, 2013.

With a starting price point of $399, the Z3RO Pro Computer is designed to showcase the future of small form factor desktop computing. Housed in Xi3's smallest chassis (1.875 x 4.875 x 3.625-inches), the Z3RO Pro Computer is designed for general computer use, including home and office environments, and is powerful enough for specialty applications such as digital signage environments and home theater use.

Big tradeshows such as the International CES are often used as a benchmark to gauge which areas of consumer-technology are faring better than the other. Industry analyst DigiTimes observed that PC is riding the CES bus on an uncomfortable backseat, which is an indication that the year could be difficult for the PC industry in general.

According to the analyst, although PC makers are aggressively promoting their Windows 8 creations - notebooks, desktops, and dockable tablets, - TV, living-room web-enablement, is attracting the most attention. Why this spells a bad news to PC makers is that with web-browsing being the most popular PC usage activity, no longer needing a PC, and doing so on web-enabled TVs could pose a disruptive innovation for the PC. Also, the theme for 2013, with PC makers appears to be more of cutting prices, instead of new innovations.

Make trouble for the cops, for your friends or just for fun! Electronic Arts Inc. and Criterion Games today announced that the latest entry in the critically-acclaimed Need for Speed franchise, Need for Speed Most Wanted, is now available at retail stores and on Origin.com in North America.

After shattering franchise records with a total of 43 award nominations and winning the prestigious Best Racing Game award at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), from the E3 Game Critics, Need for Speed Most Wanted is poised for global success. In Spain, Official PlayStation Magazine awarded Most Wanted with a 9.4/10 and called it, "the best online multiplayer experience ever." Game Informer, in North America, gave Most Wanted a 9/10 and described the action as an "exhilarating experience." Edge Magazine, in the UK, also awarded Most Wanted a 9/10 and credited the game for setting a "new standard in open world driving games."

iBUYPOWER is excited to announce that it is now taking pre-orders on new gaming systems with Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro. Starting October 12, 2012, customers may pre-order a lightning fast gaming system from iBUYPOWER with the highly anticipated Windows 8 operating system. Pre-ordered systems will be prioritized for delivery after Windows 8 launches.

"iBUYPOWER is dedicated to offering the latest and greatest technology for gamers," said Darren Su, Vice President of iBUYPOWER, "the flexibility to offer things the moment they become available on the market is something we're very proud to be able to accomplish."

After entering the year with high hopes, the global PC market has seen its prospects dim, with worldwide shipments set to decline in 2012 for the first time in 11 years, according to the IHS iSuppli Compute Platforms Service at information and analytics provider IHS.

The total PC market in 2012 is expected to contract by 1.2 percent to 348.7 million units, down from 352.8 million in 2011, as shown in the figure below. Not since 2001-more than a decade ago-has the worldwide PC industry suffered such a decline.

Worldwide PC shipments totaled 87.5 million units in the third quarter of 2012, a decline of 8.3 percent compared with the third quarter of 2011, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc.

"A continuing slowdown in consumer PC shipments played a big part in the overall PC market decline," said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. "The third quarter was also a transitional quarter before Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system release, so shipments were less vigorous as vendors and their channel partners liquidated inventory.

Ultra-slim PC shipments will grow from 3.4 million in 2011 to 65.0 million by 2015-a quarter of mobile PC shipments-according to the NPD DisplaySearch Quarterly Mobile PC Shipment and Forecast Report. The mobile PC landscape is transforming from a performance-driven market to a convenience-driven market, where easy access to content and usage are the new preferred characteristics.

This fundamental change in preference is most noticeable in the slowing demand for notebook PCs and the increasing demand for tablet PCs. Tablet PC shipments are expected to exceed notebook PC shipment by 2016. Notebook PC players are responding by adopting the features of tablets that consumers have appreciated the most.

ADLINK Technology, Inc., a leading global provider of trusted I/O platforms, announces the release of its new Matrix MXE-1300 series of low-power fanless computers based on the Intel Atom D2550 processor. Equipped with the Intel Atom D2550 processor, the MXE-1300 increases processing power by 44% and graphics performance by 90% over the previous Intel Atom platform.

Featuring low power consumption, rich I/O capability, and large storage with 3.5" HDD support, the MXE-1300 series not only leads the market with its fanless, cable-free, and robust mechanical design in a compact form factor, but also makes an ideal application-oriented platform for digital surveillance, intelligent transportation, and factory automation applications.

Sony is reportedly shutting down Optiarc Inc., its subsidiary which deals with PC optical drives. The move could mark the company's exit from PC optical drive business, including its PC Blu-ray drive business. It is reported that officials at Sony find "fierce competition" responsible for lower than viable pricing, forcing the business to operate at a loss. Sony plans to wind up Optiarc by March 2013, and give some of its 400 employees early retirement, while transferring some to other divisions of Sony.

Say, you like scavenging for supplies in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by the walking dead, don't you? If Day Z is too intimidating, you may fancy the newly announced MMORPG The War Z, which seems to offer a slightly less hardcore "survival horror" experience but still has permadeath and that jazz if you want it. Roaming across maps of 200-400 square kilometres, you'll be searching for food and weapons, anything to keep the zombie hordes--and other players--at bay. There are RPG-y elements, like gaining experience to learn new skills, and safe towns where you can buy supplies, but it sounds pretty bleak in general. Hit the announcement for more details. As well as a 'hardcore' mode with permadeath, like in Day Z, there will be 'normal' servers where you can revive. Developer Hammerpoint Interactive plans to run dedicated public servers, but players can also run their own. And, pleasantly, The War Z doesn't seem to be either subscription-based or free-to-play. Like Guild Wars 2, once you buy the MMORPG there are no subscription fees. I wouldn't be at all surprised if there were optional microtransactions too, though.

The War Z is due on PC this fall, and you can sign up for a closed beta launching in summer.

Epic Games' Fortnite will be the company's first game to take advantage of Unreal Engine 4. Debuted at the Spike TV Video Game Awards, the cartoony action title is being described as "a co-op sandbox survival game," with building at the core of the game. "Everything you find allows you to build and improve your structure," producer Tanya Jessen told an audience at a Comic-Con panel. Given that no current console can run Unreal Engine 4, the game will be exclusive to PC. According to The Verge, Epic's Cliff Bleszinski told the audience: "This is a PC designed game, shipping exclusively on the PC."

Fortnite will be available in 2013.

Sega is continuing to reach into its back catalog, and fans are loving it. The latest HD remaster from the house of Sonic is the Saturn classic, Nights into Dreams. The digital re-release will be available on Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, and Windows PC this fall. The updated version adds widescreen HD graphics, as well as support for leaderboards, trophies, and achievements. The original game will be available to play in "Saturn Mode," just in case you're not fond of the sharper graphics and textures.

To give the Battlefield 3 competitive scene a helping hand, DICE is working on a new 'Matches' feature that lets players set up and schedule closed servers for their bouts. It'll all run through the Battlelog, but you'll need to be renting a dedicated server. "Players will be able to coordinate Matches for PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 through the Battlelog," community manager Ian Tornay explains on the Battlefield blog. "To coordinate a Match a player must be actively renting a dedicated server. Once a dedicated server has been selected the Match host can set the Match name, start time, game mode, team size, and map rotations." You can also set rosters, so only certain players are allowed in. Then there are options to tweak and fiddle with settings from friendly fire and available unlocks to health regeneration and squad leader spawning.

There's no word yet on when the Matches feature will launch.

EA has made a major push into PC digital distribution with Origin, and it seems to be paying off. Analysts have predicted that we're heading toward an all-digital age, and EA intends to speed up the process by actively moving toward that goal itself. "We'll continue to deliver games in whatever media formats make sense and as one ebbs and one starts to flow, we'll go in that direction," EA Games president Frank Gibeau said. "Ultimately Electronic Arts, at some point in the future - much like your question about streaming and cloud - we're going to be a 100% digital company, period. It's going to be there some day. It's inevitable." He also noted the problem that many in the industry have pointed out: our only measure of tracking sales numbers is through NPD, which tracks retail sales but has lagged behind on reporting digital numbers. Part of that is probably that the large digital marketplace Steam is reluctant to share its sales data, but it still creates a definite issue of incomplete data. "I think one of the problems with this industry right now is that people tend to look at it like they're looking at an elephant through a straw," he told GI.biz. "They only see a little parts of it and they're not looking at the total picture, right? Between Facebook, social, mobile, free to play on PC, Asia, consoles... it's a vibrant, growing, huge market. An occasional bad report from NPD, which measures a sliver of what's actually happening in gaming gives people an erroneous impression."

The enhanced re-release of Doom 3 is coming just in time for Halloween, publisher Bethesda Softworks has announced. The "BFG Edition" of id's classic FPS will be available on October 16 on PC, Xbox 360, and PS3. The console versions will retail for $40, while the PC version will be $30. BFG adds Doom 3, Resurrection of Evil, and "The Lost Mission"--all optimized in 3D, 5.1 surround sound, achievements, improved rendering and lighting, and a new checkpoint save system. There's also an armor-mounted flashlight, "allowing players to illuminate dark corners and blast enemies at the same time."

The BFG Edition also includes the original Doom and Doom 2, making it the "definitive collection" for the series. Perhaps after this release, id will be a bit more forthcoming about Doom 4.

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.

From the launch day server meltdown to the way everyone you know seems to be playing, it's pretty clear that Diablo III is quite popular. But just how popular? Blizzard announced today that it sold 3.5 million copies within the first 24 hours, which supposedly makes it the fastest-selling PC game of all time. On top of those 3.5 million copies were another 1.2 million doled out free to World of Warcraft Annual Pass subscribers. After a week, Blizzard says, Diablo III was up to 6.3 million players--not including South Korean game rooms, where it's estimated to have a 39% share. "We're definitely thrilled that so many people around the world were excited to pick up their copy of Diablo III and jump in the moment it went live," CEO Mike Morhaime said in the announcement.

"We also regret that our preparations were not enough to ensure everyone had a seamless experience when they did so. I want to reaffirm our commitment to make sure the millions of Diablo III players out there have a great experience with the game moving forward, and I also want to thank them for their ongoing support." As well as rolling out sneaky little balance updates, Blizzard is investigating reports of nasty hacks, and preparing to launch the real-money auction house on May 29.

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient computing platforms, today unveiled the $49 APC Android PC system.

Powered by a WonderMedia ARM processor, APC integrates memory, storage, and a full set of consumer I/O features in a small footprint Neo-ITX motherboard that can be connected to a TV or monitor. The system also features a custom build of Android that has been optimized for keyboard and mouse input, and comes with a browser and a selection of preinstalled apps.

Palit Microsystems Ltd, the leading graphics card manufacturer, has unleashed the GeForce GTX 670 graphics card. It taps into the powerful Kepler architecture to deliver faster, smoother, richer gaming. It's more than state-of-the-art technology and features. It's truly game-changing performance.

Following with GeForce GTX 680 JetStream, JetStream 風- that introduces innovative custom cooling and optimized overclocked capabilities to deliver the ultimate gaming experience, now continuing to represent the exciting new series is the Palit GeForce GTX 670 JetStream, which offers incredible overclocked performance, low noise emission, as well as a powerful cooling design for efficient heat dissipation.

Apparently a remake of the classic Leisure Suit Larry is in the works. Kickstarter is being instrumental in bringing back games playing on nostalgia, from Tim Schafer adventure games and cyberpunk to post-apocalyptic RPGs and, ah, wank jokes. The campaign to fan-fund Leisure Suit Larry HD, a remake of Al Lowe's sleazy adventure game wrapped up yesterday at $673,602, having passed its goal of $500,000 last week. $655,182 was raised directly through Kickstarter, with the rest coming from Paypal.

While the Kickstarter's now closed, Paypal donations are still open so that total's ticking slowly upwards. However, LSL fell short of its second funding goal. Replay Games was gunning for $750,000, hoping to add new speech, puzzles, cutscenes locations, minigames, "girls" and more if it hit that mark. Still they got close, so one imagines Larry's adventure may be fleshed out a little.Leisure Suit Larry HD is coming to PC, Mac, and Android and iOS devices. The remake was actually announced back in October 2011, to be funded the regular way, but when that fell through they turned to fans.

MAINGEAR, an award-winning PC system builder offering custom desktops, notebooks, workstations and media centers, is one of the first to offer the new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 graphics solution to their newly revamped desktop product line up. The monstrous power of NVIDIA's latest new graphics is offered in quad SLI mode and is pushing performance to a new level of realism with consistent frame rates, smooth game play, and advanced technologies.

Is it better to have record setting performance, or incredible sleek looks when introducing a product? MAINGEAR and NVIDIA want to know: is it too much to ask for both? MAINGEAR is proud to add the new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 to their newly updated lineup of desktops. This latest game changer powered by two Kepler GPUs has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory and 3072 CUDA cores, allowing gamers to crank up the gaming realism with NVIDIA Surround, NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround and PhysX rendering incredibility detailed environments and characters in full 1080 HD or even 2560 x 1600 with a single graphics card. With a screaming 75% increase in performance compared to the GeForce GTX 680, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 has an innovative vapor chamber thermal design that has a TDP of 300W which runs quieter than the previous generation, and the GeForce GTX 690 tears through the latest PC games and looks great while doing it.

Today Shacknews is reporting that Diablo III will be open to the public for beta testing. The open beta weekend begins this afternoon at 12:01pm Pacific, then will run until 10:00am on Monday, Blizzard explains in a Diablo blog post. All you need to play is a Battle.net account. You can download the client in advance, so you don't miss a second. The beta is relatively small, packing the first part of Diablo III's first act, but you will be playing Diablo III. Unlike proper closed beta testers, open beta players won't receive 'Beta Bucks' to spend in the auction house and cannot post in the beta forums.

Diablo III launches for PC and Mac on May 15. The closed beta test will wrap up on May 1.

Digital Storm, the predominant name in computer system integration and engineering, proudly introduces the Marauder line of high performance gaming PCs with a ground-breaking price. Designed with PC gamers in mind, the Marauder gaming line delivers an incredibly immersive gaming experience while being one of the most affordable gaming PCs ever offered by Digital Storm.

Gamers who have endured lag filled game-play with unimpressive low-resolution visuals finally can break free thanks to Digital Storm's Marauder gaming line, the first gaming PCs built around Corsair's Vengeance C70 chassis. No longer do gamers have to settle for sub-par performance because of a limited budget thanks to the Marauder's ground-breaking price.

RS Components (RS) and Allied Electronics (Allied), the trading brands of Electrocomponents plc, the world's leading high service distributor of electronics and maintenance products, are commencing shipments of Raspberry Pi, the credit-card sized computer board designed to seed a new generation of programmers. The shipments are being sent to the first group of customers from around the world, all of whom registered for a Raspberry Pi from RS and Allied.

When ordering Raspberry Pi from the dedicated online store, customers can click through to the associated parts and accessories required for activation of the board. These include USB A-B cables, HDMI cables, power supplies and SD memory cards from a range of leading suppliers, all available to purchase from stock. By ordering these cables and other accessories from RS and Allied at the same time as the Raspberry Pi board, customers can make a saving on the delivery cost, as the same total shipping charge is applicable.

MobileMark 2012, the latest version of the premier performance-qualified battery life metric based on real world applications was released today by the Business Application Performance Corporation (BAPCo), a non-profit consortium of leading computing industry companies.

MobileMark 2012 extends the BAPCo benchmark family, alongside SYSmark and EEcoMark, which has been widely accepted by IT Managers, PC OEMs, press and analysts worldwide. It provides commercial and government IT decision makers, retailers, media, channel buyers, consultants, component designers, hardware designers, and manufacturers an objective, easy-to-use tool to evaluate the performance-qualified battery life of notebook PCs across the wide range of activities that a user may encounter.