Fortnite has become such an overnight sensation mainly because its battle royale mode was available for free. However, this doesn’t mean people don’t want to own the game in a physical form. The Fortnite disc copies are now extremely rare, so people are eager to pay as much as $450 for them.

Fortnite disc copies are now sold out on the market

Last year in July, Gearbox Software released a small number of Fortnite disc copies available for Xbox One and PS4, and a few for PC but only in Europe. However, the game didn’t get so much attention back then. These copies were available for $60, and featured the mode Save the World. Two months later, the developers released the battle royale mode for free.

This brought a huge change for the game, as it gradually became one of the most popular titles ever. Therefore, diehard fans now want to own Fortnite disc copies as well. However, these were limited from the beginning, so now it’s extremely hard to find one.

People are willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a used disk

This prompted a lot of eBay offers for Fortnite disc copies that are both sealed and used. For the past weeks, the offers reached an average of $130. You can also buy the games from third-party sellers, but they are available without a case and for a relatively bigger price.

It turns out some fans don’t mind paying so much for a used game. In fact, some of them would pay even more just to have the historical title on disc. The biggest price found for such a copy was $450, and there still were people who wanted to pay it. As an explanation, they said nothing compared with owning official Fortnite disc copies, and downloading the game is not the same.

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Gaming consoles with keyboard and mouse support are probably every gamer’s dream. This might become a reality sooner than you’d think, Microsoft and Razer are preparing a surprise. Official sources suggest the two companies are currently working on a way to integrate support for peripheral devices on Xbox.

Microsoft and Razer are preparing an update for Xbox

Playing games on Xbox by using a controller is the traditional way to do it, but have you ever imagined how a keyboard and mouse would change things? You might soon see it happen, as Windows Central has just made an exclusive presentation.

It turns out Xbox games will soon get the integration of Razer Chroma RGB, which should greatly improve their visual features. According to the presentation, all these features and integrations should have been part of the April update. In other words, they should appear with the Xbox Fall Update for 2018. However, the news is not official yet.

The update will also bring a keyboard and mouse integration on the console

Even so, the update comes with a great prospect for the future. It turns out the new features aren’t only visual, but they might bring a great integration. More precisely, the developers might be trying to integrate keyboard and mouse support for Xbox games. However, gamepad play will remain active.

Here’s how this keyboard and mouse support will work. You will only be able to use one keyboard and one mouse at a time. Also, the console will be able to identify them and tell them apart from a controller. However, there’s another great thing about the integration. If there’s a multiplayer game, you can connect a controller, a keyboard, and a mouse at the same time.

The developers wanted to integrate keyboard and mouse support since they are easier to use than a controller. If gamers have spent a lot of time playing on PC, they might not feel comfortable with a console. However, this might give them an advantage over controller during multiplayer campaigns.

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After launching Steam in China, Valve decided to make one more update to secure its supremacy. With Steam Chat, the platform won’t only work as a marketplace for games but can also pose serious competition to other chat services. From now on, the platform will offer a richer friend list, better group chats, as well as many other features.

Steam Chat gets a revamped friend list

Steam Chat is another step towards turning the platform into one of the best web experiences you can have. For a start, these updates will bring the chat closer to apps that are strictly meant for talking, so players will make the best out of Steam.

At the top of the update list, there are some improvements on your friend list. From now on, Steam Chat will group your friends according to the games they like and are playing at the moment. If some of your friends are playing a game together, the chat will let you know. Also, it will improve the group chat features.

However, this isn’t all Steam Chat will offer. With the new update, you’ll be able to choose one or a few friends as favorites, as in the old times. One last option the list will have is the rich presence. Through it, you can see all that is happening in your friends’ games and their current statuses.

The group chat features make Steam Chat really similar to Discord

As mentioned above, Steam Chat brings improvements to group chats as well. For each group, you can now create separate channels both for text and for voice messages. Also, if you want to add a new friend in the group, you’ll get a link to send him.

This sounds great but, if you know Discord, the updates might look a bit too similar to it. However, this might actually be a good thing. Discord was one of the top platforms for gamers especially for its great messaging features. Therefore, the updated Steam Chat might bring Valve a lot of new fans.

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Valve wants to expand its user base and has decided to exploit the gaming market with the biggest potential in the world. Therefore, the Steam gaming platform will soon reach China. To make everything possible, Valve will start a collaboration with Perfect World, a local gaming promoter. This is a great achievement, given the tough regulations regarding the Chinese cyber world.

Valve will be bringing Steam to China

Valve thought it was time to expand its gamer base, so it took a major step. The company decided to bring Steam to China with the help of Perfect World. This local company has a history of distributing and promoting games like Counter Strike: Global Offensive or Dota 2. This move will bring Steam to China, but it’s not clear when this will happen.

It was about time for Valve to bring Steam to China, as this represents a great opportunity for the company. The gaming market in China is one of the best in the world as, in 2017, it surpassed top countries like US, UK, Japan, or Germany. While PC gaming owned the supremacy, mobile gaming has now managed to get on top.

The local partner should solve all the governmental issues

However, the move is still a bit risky. This is not the first time when Valve is trying to bring Steam to China, and it didn’t happen without problems. Last year, for instance, some of these services were blocked, but people could still access most games. Now, Valve has taken all measures of precaution by choosing a local partner. Perfect World should deal with all the possible censorship issues that might arise.

Valve already knew bringing Steam to China was a great idea. While the gaming platform wasn’t really present in the country, the second most common language on Steam was Chinese. This means the service is already popular among Chinese people, so bringing it to their country would be the wisest move.

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It’s the end of an era, as Oath has just announced it would shut down one of the most popular messaging services in the world. After 20 years of existence, we will finally say goodbye to Yahoo Messenger. Starting July 17^th, you will no longer be able to use the service that probably marked your childhood and teenage years.

Prepare to say goodbye to Yahoo Messenger

Oath, Yahoo’s parent company, made a distressing announcement on June 8^th. After 20 years of being one of the top messaging services, the company decided to shut down Yahoo Messenger. If you have important data to get from its archives, hurry up to do it before July 17^th. After that date, the chats and the service will no longer work.

Your Yahoo ID won’t disappear, as you can still use it on Yahoo Mail, for instance, or Yahoo Fantasy. However, it’s better if you download everything you need right now and, once you’re done, you delete the app from your computer.

Yahoo Messenger had a hard time dealing with the competition

This is truly a historical moment, as Yahoo Messenger has been an important part of everyone’s life. It first appeared in 1998, when it was called Yahoo Pager. Soon after its release, it became the top messaging service and remained on its position for many years. However, its popularity slowly decreased as better apps appeared on the market.

Yahoo Messenger was first introduced on mobile in 2009, when it received an iOS version. Then, it reached Android as well, but the chat apps from Facebook, Google, or Apple proved a lot better. This year, for instance, the service occupied the 160^th place in the iOS top and the 117^th in Android. Therefore, the main reason for this shutdown is definitely competition from other messaging apps.

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As the popularity of Instagram has increased, the social media platform has decided to adopt a new strategy and improve its video content. In a possible attempt to challenge the new rival YouTube, we might soon get longer Instagram videos that would last up to one hour.

Longer Instagram videos might soon be a thing

If you want to post videos on Instagram, you have to face a few limitations. You can only post a one-minute long video on the feed while, for Stories, the limit is of 15 seconds. This can convince users to turn to other platforms if they are interested in video content, so the situation called for a solution.

It turns out this solution might be longer Instagram videos. These lengthy videos should last up to one hour and will be displayed in vertical form. Rumors suggest that Instagram has already discussed the issue with possible creators of video content, but we’re not sure how the feature would look like. Most probably, the videos should come as a complementary to Stories.

Also, the platform hasn’t revealed when these longer Instagram videos will get here. However, the change is enough of a breakthrough for Instagram. So far, its main focus has been on short videos, but the update might bring an entirely new category of users.

Longer video content is a great opportunity for advertisers

However, longer Instagram videos can open up many other opportunities. YouTube, one of the biggest video platforms, can incorporate most of its ads in videos. Therefore, longer videos might mean more space for ads. Also, this can count as a serious blow at YouTube’s popularity on the video domain.

Just like YouTube, Instagram has many popular users that might enjoy longer videos. They always had the option of livestream, but this type of video content allowed no ads. Soon enough, you’ll get longer Instagram videos on your feed, but you’ll probably get some ads with them too.

There’s one last reason why Instagram might have opted for this video format. It turns out the platform knows people spend way too much time on social media. Not everyone might be keen on watching one-hour videos, so this might make people spend less time on their smartphones.

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Spotify is a really friendly music platform, as you can basically find anything you want on it. However, this happens as long as the music in question respects some policies. Recently, the platform has adopted a new policy blaming Hate Content and Hateful Conduct, which convinced it to remove some music. Based on these new regulations, Spotify has announced at the beginning of this month the removal of some artists from their playlists. The artists in question are R Kelly and XXXTentacion.

Spotify removes R Kelly from its playlists based on hate content

Spotify might be inclusive with music of any kind and belonging to all genres. However, when it comes to the messages it promotes, the platform gets a lot stricter. As soon as it adopted the policy on Hate Content and Hateful Conduct, it felt the need to clarify what this means.

Hate content is any kind of content that incites and promotes hatred. This hatred can be of any kind, but it’s usually directed against specific races, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, disabilities, or religious statuses. Also, hateful conduct is any kind of behavior that promotes such hatred.

The incident has actually increased Kelly’s streaming numbers

R Kelly was a direct subject of this removal as he has recently been accused of running a sex cult. Also, many women have condemned him over the years for being violent. XXXTentacion was also known for his violent behavior, as well as his lyrics that promote aggression and suicide. As a result, Spotify decided to remove these artists from its playlists.

Of course, this situation had a direct impact on the streaming numbers of the two artists. Interestingly enough, the impact was different. After the Spotify removal, XXXTentacion suffered a 17 percent decline in its streaming numbers.

On the contrary, R Kelly suffered an increase, showing the incident with Spotify did nothing to affect his popularity. Before the streaming platform decided to remove his songs, he had an average of 6,584,000 streams per week. Soon after that, the artist saw his streaming numbers increasing, reaching 6,676,000 per week.

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A Romanian World of Warcraft player was charged with one year in federal prison after launching distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) on the game’s servers. Eight years after the incident, the trial finally ended with the player’s charges, apart from a serious fine for the same attacks.

The Romanian player had launched a DDoS attack on the WoW servers

Calin Mateias, now aged 38, faced trial for the DDoS attacks after he was extradited from his home country. According to the investigations, the man launched attacks on the WoW servers in 2010, between February and September. It turns out he had a conflict with his team based on loot splitting and hierarchy matters, so he decided to launch the attacks as some sort of vengeance.

Mateias was extradited soon after the incident, as he received the accusations in 2011. However, until November 2017, he has only been in custody. Only now did he receive the federal prison charge. The court found him guilty of launching DDoS attacks on a network of protected computers.

Soon after his intervention in the game, plenty of European WoW servers went down. This prevented many people from playing the game, so it counts as serious damage. Given the unpleasant situation it caused, the court also had the man pay a $29,987 fine to Blizzard Entertainment.

The man had a history of cyberattacks

This wasn’t the first time when Mateias engaged in cyberattacks. In 2004, he also received an accusation of trying to steal over $10 million from the tech company Ingram Micro. He was part of an organized group that attacked the company’s ordering system. After placing fake orders, he and his group could overcome the company’s security filters and order products to Romania.

At a certain point, the company figured everything out and blocked all the orders placed by Mateias. However, he didn’t stop. He managed to find some people in the US he recruited to receive the orders the company had previously blocked.

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Microsoft decided it was time to step up their game and turn its payment feature a lot more useful. After launching Microsoft Pay as a response to services like Apple Pay or Android Pay, it decided to integrate it into Outlook and allow users to pay email invoices without leaving the app.

Microsoft Pay will soon be a part of Outlook

At first, Microsoft launched Microsoft Wallet in 2016, but converted it to Microsoft Pay in an attempt to bring some competition to other popular platforms. Now, it decided to make it even more accessible and assure their user-base stays the same. Therefore, it integrated this service into Microsoft Outlook.

The integration works as follows. You most probably receive invoices via email or maybe you need to make payments to certain senders. For this, you had to close Outlook and access the Microsoft Pay service. From now on, whenever you need to make a payment, you’ll be able to do it directly from the email app.

The Microsoft Pay option will be available right in the Outlook window. Whenever you select it, a panel will open at the right, thanks to the Adaptive Cards of the platform. There, you can introduce all the data that makes the payment possible.

Microsoft wanted to make everything more accessible for users

This option should start rolling out over the next few weeks. At first, it will undergo a test, so only a limited number of users will benefit from it. Then, it will gradually spread to everyone over the upcoming months. Braintree and Stripe are the service that will take care of payment processing, while FreshBooks, Invoice2Go, or Zuora will process the invoices.

Microsoft decided to integrate Microsoft Pay into Outlook as an attempt to make things easier to use. Resorting to different services provided by the same company was a bit unpractical. Therefore, the tech giant decided to bring Adaptive Cards across most platforms and make them more accessible for users.

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If you weren’t so happy about the Snapchat redesign, we have some good news. Some rumors suggest the app might be going back to some of its initial features that will be effectively integrated in the new version. The company has already confirmed a test that moves friends’ Stories into the Discover tab. This resembles the old design, and makes a clear distinction between friends and ads brought by brands.

The Snapchat redesign moves friend Stories to the Discover tab

The rumors about the new Snapchat redesign seem to be founded, as a small section of users could see the tests run on the app. If you remember the old features, you know that all Stories were available in one single tab. Now, Snapchat moved Stories from friends to the Discover tab, but it now has a few other separate tabs. One of them is for friends, the other one for subscriptions, and the third one for ads and other suggested content.

However, the Snapchat redesign is actually a lot better. The old feed mixed everything together, so you often could stumble upon an ad when you wanted to see what your friends had been doing. Now, tapping the Friends tab will keep all the other content away.

This latest redesign seems a bit friendlier than the previous one

Snapchat wanted to highlight a clear distinction between people and brand content. If the redesign is final, you will be able to see more Stories from your friends. At the same time, subscription content will appear in a different feed, but it’s still there. It will be separate, but still readily accessible.

If you enjoy this Snapchat redesign, don’t get too excited yet. The company said it was running only a few tests at the moment. Depending on the feedback they receive on the new features, the company will decide if the new design is final or not.

Image source: Max Pixel