Tag: online gaming

Technology

UPI fraud to sextortion, shocking rise in Cybercrime! Know how HP is dealing with this threat

India is being applauded for following a path of digitalization and introducing the revolutionary digital payment mode UPI. However, digitalization has also led to some serious UPI fraud and crimes. In a concerning trend, Himachal Pradesh has seen a shocking surge in cybercrime complaints. Officials have reported at least one complaint every hour which includes cases of UPI fraud, job fraud, sextortion, and blackmailing. Know what officials have reported about these cybercrime cases.Staggering surge in cybercrimeAccording to a report by PTI, from January to October 2022, the state recorded 4,593 complaints, which escalated to a startling 8,152 in the same period in 2023. Financial frauds, social networking issues, and miscellaneous complaints witnessed a 77% increase, with Mandi, Kangr...
Technology

Nvidia’s Top Gamer Graphics Card Caught Up in US-China Trade War

 Chinese gamers now have to pay more than double the list price of Nvidia Corp.'s flagship consumer graphics card after it was caught up in a US technology export ban on its biggest geopolitical rival. Prices for the year-old GeForce RTX 4090, originally listed at $1,599, are now as high as 29,000 yuan ($3,970) on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s Taobao marketplace as retailers begin to pull it from their shelves. The RTX 4090 is Nvidia's top-of-the-line GPU and an aspirational item for gamers worldwide, but it's now prohibited to export to China without a US government license after its performance was found to exceed a threshold set by American officials, Nvidia said in a filing this week. We are now on WhatsApp. Click to join. Washington's intent with the curbs is to prevent China's mil...
Technology

Microsoft and the UK Both Need to Admit Mistakes

The long-awaited green light from the UK competition watchdog for Microsoft Corp.'s $69 billion takeover of games publisher Activision Blizzard Inc. should prompt some self-criticism all round. The UK reached a good outcome but in a needlessly drawn-out and volatile manner. Microsoft's inappropriate public berating of the UK was reputationally damaging for the software giant and, worse, British politicians gave the impression of being swayed by it. The regulator, the regulated and the government have lessons to learn.Having blocked the transaction outright in April, the Competition and Markets Authority on Friday celebrated a revised deal put forward by Microsoft as good news for cloud gaming — the area where the world's leading regulators agreed the deal as initially structured would ...
Technology

Video games give sports stars second life

The post-retirement careers of the biggest sports stars can be fascinating to watch -- Viagra ads, property ventures, crypto projects -- but one option is becoming a sure-fire winner: put your face on the cover of a video game.And death is no barrier for this particular career, with two popular games this year choosing sports legends who are no longer with us. LA Lakers basketball star Kobe Bryant, who died in a helicopter accident in 2020, graces the cover of "NBA 2K24". And two of the world's greatest footballers from bygone eras -- Pele and Johan Cruyff -- get posthumous respect with their figures emblazoned on "FC 24" from EA Sports.They are joined on the cover of the EA game by a galaxy of still-living stars of the more recent past -- Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldinho -- and present ...
Technology

ESports makes debut as Asian Games medal event but women left behind

ESports' inclusion as a medal event at the Hangzhou Asian Games was hailed as a landmark, but out of nearly 500 gamers for what is supposed to be a mixed-sex competition, just eight are women.Excited video-game fans thronged a shiny new arena in the Chinese city on Sunday as eSports made its debut at the Games as a medal event, seen as a major step toward Olympic status. But while the fledgling sport has made great strides in official recognition, fans say it has a long way to go when it comes to women. Large numbers of young women turned out for the first day of matches at the specially constructed China Hangzhou Esports Center, picking out souvenir pins from the stadium shop and posing with staff dressed as characters from the wildly popular Arena of Valor game.Their enthusiasm made ...
Technology

From $1 Billion to Almost Worthless: Faze Clan Runs Out of Hype

Three months after its July 2022 debut on the Nasdaq, FaZe Holdings Inc. threw an exclusive party at a San Diego nightclub, hiring the rapper Travis Scott to promote its stable of video-game stars and YouTube personalities.Social-media influencers mingled with gamers in expensive streetwear. Many looked bored as they filmed the event for their online channels. Well past midnight, Scott appeared for a 15-minute show, his voice barely audible over the thumping bass. The party, which cost $1.7 million, got the company and a sponsor's name in hundreds of Google search results, YouTube videos and Instagram stories. Lee Trink, FaZe's chief executive officer at the time, hailed the event as a great success. “We achieved all of the things we would have hoped for, including making money,” he sa...
Technology

Sea Brings Back One of Its Top Game Titles, Free Fire India, After Ban

Sea Ltd. is bringing back one of its top mobile games in India a year and a half after it was banned, a boon for the internet company's effort to revive its growth.Now called Free Fire India, the game will be available Sept. 5, Sea's gaming arm, Garena, said Thursday in a statement. Partner Yotta, a unit of India's Hiranandani Group, will provide infrastructure to store data of Indian users on local servers, Garena said. The relaunch is set to provide a boost for Singapore-based Sea, which is trying to reverse slowing sales growth amid intensifying competition. New Delhi in February 2022 banned Free Fire, at the time Sea's most popular mobile gaming title in the country, citing security concerns because of its Chinese links. Weeks later, Sea said it would shut its main e-commerce opera...
Technology

Partial relief on tax for online gaming firms? Find out

After talking tough last time around, the government has sought to provide partial relief to online gaming companies today. Government has decided to levy taxes on online gaming companies on the total funds deposited to play online games and not on every bet, Reuters quoted Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as saying on Wednesday.Last month, the government said it had decided to impose 28% tax on funds that online gaming companies collect from their customers for every bet. The decision to impose a 28 per cent tax on the full face value of bets placed on online games will be implemented from October 1 even though there was demand for a review from states like Delhi and Goa, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Wednesday. The GST Council -- the highest decision making body of t...
Technology

May go back to GST council on online gaming regulatory framework: MoS IT Chandrasekhar

Amid the online gaming industry raising concerns over the levy of 28 per cent GST, Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Monday said the government may request the GST Council to consider the facts of new regulatory framework for the industry.The minister also mentioned that it took three years for the Council to reach a decision on online gaming. Online gaming players have expressed disappointment with the decision of the Goods and Services Tax Council to levy a 28 per cent tax on online games involving real money. The Minister of State for Electronics and IT during a CNN-News 18 Townhall programme said that the GST Council is not the government of India but it is truly a federal organisation representing state governments and the centre."We have to also recognize that the process of...