Gaming monitors need to be fast. In the early days of fast gaming monitors, OLED technology is quite unheard of. The reason is because OLED panels can only go so fast in terms of refresh rate. While OLED monitors offer colour accuracy and vibrance like no other, they are rather dimwitted in terms of refresh rate until a few years ago. Now though, OLED panels are some of the most sought after in gaming. Pretty soon you are going to be able to get you hands on one with 240Hz in refresh rate, faster than anything that came before it.
The monitors in question are LG’s latest 27-inch and 45-inch models introduced for CES 2023. You get the new 27GR95QE and 45GR95QE gaming monitors. While both have their similarities, they are built to serve different segments.
Both gaming monitors offer 240Hz in terms of refresh rate. Both monitors also offer 0.3ms in GTG response time, faster than almost anything that you can find in the market currently. Both are also NVIDIA G-Sync and FreeSync Premium compatible, making them rather versatile for whatever GPU you might have in your PC. At the same time, they both offer a DCI-P3 colour gamut coverage of 98.5%, something even content creators can highly appreciate. Both are capable of producing images at HDR10 standards with a contrast ratio of 1,500,000:1 for a higher level of detail than any gaming monitor you can find in their classes. Of course, they both sport the latest HDMI 2.1 standard alongside a DisplayPort 1.4 port.
Source: LG
Their difference lies in the shape and size of the panels. The 27-inch monitor is a flat screened 16:9 monitor that most gamers can appreciate. 27-inch is a rather standard size for gaming monitors and 16:9 is currently the most popular aspect ratio for most gamers. It is also the current standard size and aspect ratio in esports, which also means this would be suitable for most esports titles like Dota 2, or Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO). At the same time, its QHD (2,560 x 1,440) resolution is widely accepted as the most optimal resolution for displays at its size and for gaming purposes. Most GPUs today are also optimized for gaming at this resolution which also means that this might be the more popular option for the most serious gamers anyway.
If you want to take things a little further and get even more immersed in your games, you want the 45-inch behemoth that is the 45GR95QE. It is a curved display monitor with an 800R curvature (0.8m radius) That also means that it is more curved than almost anything that you might get in the market. Its shorter optimum distance also means you get to be closer to the action for an even more immersive experience than ever before. It packs WQHD (3,440 x 1440) resolution too to ensure that you still get all the details you need in the ultra-wide monitor.
Source: LG
Source: LG
Source: LG
Source: LG
LG’s UltraGear 27-inch and 45-inch OLED gaming monitors will be showcased in CES 2023 happening on the 5th of January 2023 all the way to the 8th of January 2023. There is no specific information regarding the market availability of the monitors currently. That also means we currently do not have any pricing information too. We are keeping our ears close to the ground for any updates though, so do watch this space. More information on LG’s range of UltraGear gaming monitors can be found on their website.
Tower of Fantasy is getting more exciting, fresh content with the release of the major 2.1 update, dubbed Confounding Labyrinth.
The 2.1 update brings more characters, powers, bosses and the new simulacrum debut in Tower of Fantasy.
New terrains and challenges await in the 2.1 update
Publisher Level Infinite and developer Hotta Studio have released the 2.1 update on the 22nd of November. With it comes a brand-new map, Confounding abyss with new challenges, bosses and the new simulacrum, Lin. Players can find the new location just beneath Mirroria and explore the diverse, underground terrain in the ruins of the Third City.
Explore the Prism Pillar (top) and Deepsoul Industrial Zone (bottom) in the Confounding Abyss
While exploring, players will encounter new challenges with enemies that have mutated under the effects of the Confounding Abyss. One such encounter is with the new enemy Crystal Hoof, where a Culton’s body has fused with a mysterious crystal, resulting in a strong, rock-like body. Experience the unique terrain of the Confounding Abyss with the official 2.1 update trailer.
Face new enemies like the Crystal Hoof in the Confounding Abyss
Rise against the new challenges with the debuting simulacrum Lin, the successor to MIrroria. Lin thrives in the frontlines of battle and has a unique alteration ability. While other simulacrums are equipped with one element each such as flame or frost, Lin can use all elements and construct weapons of any element genre. Find out more on Lin with the simulacrum release trailer.
Experience this exciting free-to-play MMORPG
With such exciting content in the 2.1 update, it’s no surprise Tower of Fantasy has been nominated for Best Mobile Game at The Game Awards and the Google Play User’s Choice Game. Players can also show their support by voting at The Game Awards.
Tower of Fantasy nominated for Best Mobile Game at The Game Awards
iQOO, a sub-brand of Vivo, has officially launched their latest gaming smartphone, iQOO 11 5G in Malaysia.
Vivo’s answer to gaming smartphones, the iQOO 11 5G
The iQOO 11 5G is Vivo’s answer to the expanding gaming smartphone bracket. Symbolized as “I Quest On and On”, Vivo founded iQOO in 2019 to cater to those looking for high performance and gaming experience. iQOO has officially announced that the device will be made available in Malaysia starting December 2nd.
The brand has already garnered a lot of attention in China with its previous line of devices, iQOO 9 series with Snapdragon® 8 mobile platform released in January this year. Since, then it has expanded to other countries including India, Thailand and Indonesia.
Teasers for Malaysia launch
In recent months a series of teasers and leaks were spotted, hinting at iQOO’s arrival in Malaysia. In late October, iQOO official stores were spotted on both Lazada and Shopee.
iQOO is the premium partner of BMW M Motorsport
The biggest teaser was dropped in early November, where posters of the iQOO 11 5G was released in Malaysia with BMW M Motorsport branding. iQOO has been a global partner of BMW M Motorsport since August 2020 for design collaborations and racing sponsorships. A “Guess The Slogan” competition was also held from November 4th to 10th to garner attention, with a chance to win a Razer Kishi. More, recently an approved registration for the iQOO 11 was spotted in SIRIM, confirming the arrival in Malaysia.
Guess the slogan and win with iQOO
iQOO 11 5G Specifications and availability
Although it has been officially announced to launch in Malaysia on December 2nd, no official word on device specifications have been made. Based on announcements in China, their variant of the device comes with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. If it remains the same, it will be the first device in Malaysia to have the new Snapdragon SoC.
Express your interest in the iQOO 11 5G and win prizes
The iQOO 11 5G is not for sale yet but will be available exclusively online. From November 21st to December 2nd, you can express your interest in the device via the following Google Form. By signing up, you will have a chance to experience the device for yourself. You also stand a chance of winning a share of the RM 30 000 prize pool.
The biggest thing that has happened to gaming for the past few years is not really the PlayStation 5 or the Xbox Series X. They are great, they are revolutionary, but they are rather regular and expected. You still need to be sat in one location and get it plugged to a display to fully enjoy them. The most important thing that has happened in gaming over the past few years is portable gaming, or mobile gaming.
What really started this handheld gaming phenomena is not really the smartphone. It is more to do with Nintendo’s Switch. Later, Steamdeck revolutionized the handheld gaming space again bringing the entire strength of Steam’s gaming library for PC games to a handheld device no bigger than a hard cover Harry Potter book.
Then Razer comes along with the Razer Edge. The Razer Edge is unique, not really a Nintendo Switch with exclusive titles. It is not exactly a Steamdeck competitor in the hardware space as well.
Source: Razer
Where the Steamdeck is powered by a swatch of PC like parts, AMD’s Zen 3 CPU with integrated GPU, for example, the Edge is made more like a smartphone. It is powered by Qualcomm’s snapdragon G3x Gen 1 platform. That is also an exclusive for Razer, the most powerful integrated processing chip that Qualcomm can produce at this time clocking up to 3GHz on it eight-core Kryo design.
It makes plenty of sense though the Razer Edge is not made to be a smartphone. It is made purely for gaming on the go and to be the best at it. But since it is Qualcomm, there is some smartphone qualities about the handheld device. You get to opt for 5G connectivity for example, so you can technically game anywhere you want to game. You also get WiFi 6E, which is technically still a brand-new technology even for the PC space.
If display quality is what you are looking for, the Steamdeck and Nintendo Switch has nothing on this handheld. It packs a 6.8-inch AMOLED display that refreshes at 144Hz boasting Full HD+ (2400 x 1080). It is technically the most advance display you can find on any handheld device in its class.
Source: Razer
So, what can a handheld device that is built purely for gaming with smartphone class hardware can do? It can run on Android, obviously. In that case, you can play Android games like PUBG Mobile and Mobile Legends Bang Bang. It also comes with Epic Games Launcher app out-of-the-box which also means that it will run games like Fortnite and Rocket League Sideswipe with no issue.
It is not just made for mobile games though. It is designed with cloud gaming in mind too. So, if you have and active subscription on Nvidia GeForce Now and Xbox Cloud Gaming and you want to take them out to the world, you can.
That is not all though. While you will not be able to install PC games directly on your Razer Edge, you still can play them. The Razer Edge is the only handheld gaming device out there that comes with the ability to play Steam games at 144Hz via Steam Link remote play. You also get access to Moonlight, and Parsec. We are guessing that Razer might get PlayStation remote play available on the Razer Edge soon too. Sure, you want to be constantly connected to the internet, that is why you might want to get yourselves the 5G variant.
The Razer Edge is technically just an integrated handheld device that works like a smartphone. You can detach it from the new Razer Kishi V2 Pro that it will come with. That also means that you can even use the controllers with your smartphone, if you like. But then again, you would want to be using your Razer Edge for all your games.
Source: Razer
Source: Razer
Source: Razer
Source: Razer
Source: Razer
Source: Razer
Source: Razer
Source: Razer
Source: Razer
Source: Razer
Source: Razer
Source: Razer
Source: Razer
Source: Razer
Source: Razer
Source: Razer
Source: Razer
Source: Razer
Source: Razer
The Razer Edge will be available only in the United States for now January 2023 onward. It will only be available in stores and Razer.com in its WiFi only variant at launch. Yes, there will also be a 5G variant as we mentioned, but it will only be available later and exclusively from Verizon. The WiFi variant of the Razer Edge will retail for US$ 399.99 (MYR 1,885*) at launch. Unfortunately, there are no mentions on its availability and official pricing in other regions currently. More information on the Razer Edge can be found on their website.
*Approximately based on exchange rate of US$ 1 = MYR 4.71 as of 18/10/2022 on xe.com
LEVEL UP KL has been a hallmark event for the Malaysian Gaming Industry since the conference ballooned into a regional event almost a decade ago. The regional conference brings together gamers, developers and publishers under one roof for a week on a yearly basis. This year, the conference returns to form with its first physical conference held from the 4th until the 7th of October 2022.
[Source: MDEC] Tan Sri Mahadhir Aziz, CEO of MDEC, delivering his welcoming speech at LEVEL UP KL 2022
This year’s edition of LEVEL UP KL saw over 1,500 participants, 80 speakers and over 100 exhibitors from all around the world. The conference also saw the participation of developers such as Streamline Studios, Metronomik, Larian Studios, Bandai Namco and PlayStation Studios. The conference saw these studios, among others, sharing their approaches to developing industry-leading games and the techniques they used behind the scenes.
Additionally, LEVEL UP KL was, once again, ground zero for the SEA Game Jam and SEA Game Awards. The former saw young, aspiring gamers put their mettle to the test in an arduous competition to build a game in a mere 48 hours. These aspiring developers had their hard work shown off at the exhibition in LEVEL UP KL 2022 among the many industry leaders present there.
The SEA Games Awards also crowned winners in multiple categories highlighting the talent and capabilities of developers in the region. This year’s nominees and winners raised the bar in each category with many of them achieving commercial game standards. The winners are listed below:
Amidst the furore and celebration of LEVEL UP KL 2022, the Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) also announced the forging of new partnerships which are geared toward positioning Malaysia as the regional game development hub. These partnerships not only forge open markets between Malaysia and other game development industries worldwide but also mark MDEC’s first steps into exploring the viability of the Metaverse in the Malaysian Gaming Industry.
[Source: MDEC] MDEC launches LEVEL UP KL 2022 to empower Malaysia’s digital video game industry towards becoming the regional gaming hub.
MDEC signed a partnership memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Nine66, a gaming company based in Saudi Arabia to explore and promote collaboration between the gaming industry in both countries. The MoU covers areas such as talent development and co-development.
Aside from Nine66, MDEC also signed an MoU with SEA Gamer Mall (SEAGM) to launch the Malaysia Game Fest (MGF). The Malaysia Game Fest will span a period of three months starting in October 2022 until December 2022. During this period, MDEC will be driving efforts with SEAGM to promote local game products and increase the commercialisation of Intellectual Properties (IPs) across Southeast Asian platform partners.
[Source: MDEC] (From L-R) Datuk Fadzli Abdul Wahit, Head/Senior Vice President, Transformation of MDEC; Gopi Ganesalingam, Senior Vice President, Ecosystem Development, MDEC; Mohan Low, Director of Digital Creative Content, MDEC; Ts Mahadhir Aziz, CEO, MDEC; Raymond Foo, Senior Marketing Manager, SEA Gamer Mall; DC Gan, Managing Director Magnus Games Studio; Kadri Harma, CEO of Nine66
Finally, MDEC signed an MoU with Magnus Games Studio, a home-grown game studio to promote initiatives and projects involving the “Metaverse”. In this agreement, MDEC will be leveraging Magnus Games’ Metaverse to market and promote the upcoming Malaysia Digital Content Festival 2022 which will be happening on the 17th and 18th of December 2022 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.
The world of large format gaming displays is not necessarily a crowded space. There is a good reason for that. When you buy a large format display like a TV, you want something that can at least project up to 4K in resolution. Anything lower than 4K with displays less than 40 inches can look rather weird and pixelated (the days of 1080p Full HD TVs are far behind us).
At the same time, while 4K TVs are abundant today, 4K gaming is not something that is easily accessible today. Well, when we say not easily accessible, we are mostly talking about PC gaming more than console gaming. Sure, the PlayStation 5 and latest Xbox Series X can easily play games at 4K resolution and boasts up to 120fps for displays that does 120Hz. But at the same time, not every game can run at that framerate at 4K resolution too.
In the world of PC gaming, 4K gaming is not unheard of, it is just rather rare. The most common high-end gaming set up in the world of PC gaming sports displays that tops out at 1440p at 165Hz these days. That is also because in the world where your display is no more than an arm’s length in front of you, you never really need anything that is more than 30 inches big and more than 1440p to look good. At the same time, the amount of money you want to spend on hardware that can run games at 4K resolution at up to 120fps always is ridiculous.
Source: Samsung
That does not mean that there is no such market though. For those with enough money to get something like an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 and Intel’s latest 12th Generation Core i9 processor combinations, Samsung has something that will wet their beaks and make full use of their hardware. They have this, the Odyssey Ark.
The argument behind the Samsung Odyssey Ark is plenty simple. The idea is to make the best gaming display money can buy. They came up with a 55-inch behemoth that is curved at 1000R.
The 55-inch curved display sports Samsung’s highly acclaimed Quantum Matrix technology with Mini LEDs. With up to 14-bit processing, 16,384 black levels, your blacks look deep, and your images looks ultra-realistic. At 55-inch, you are going to be fully immersed in the game world too. At 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio with HDR10+, finding things in the darker areas of your map is a breeze.
It is not just a beautiful looking 4K display too. It is a super-fast display; it is a gaming display after all. It sports up to 165Hz in refresh rate. Its Grey-to-Grey response time is as low as 1ms for the fastest response you can get out of your display. It even supports AMD’s FreeSync Premium Pro for not just a tear free gaming experience, but also a super responsive one.
Source: Samsung
You might want to forget going for a VESA mount for this monitor. The stand it comes with is plenty enough to handle the weight of a 55-inch gaming monitor. It is also a tiltable base so that you can use it in what Samsung calls the “cockpit mode”. You flip the display vertically and it really wraps around your head.
A display this size also requires big sounds. Because it takes up so much space on your desk, you might want to not get a sound bar, or a speaker set up. This one offers you four speakers with Dolby Atmos certification. They call it the Sound Dome Technology with object tracking capabilities for the most immersive experience available.
Of course, it comes with its own Samsung TV style remote, because it is that big. It also comes with something called an Ark Dial. It is a smart remote thing that allows you quick and easy access over the TVs more prominent and more frequently accessed functions. At the same time, like the latest Samsung TVs, it comes with a One Connect Box for a much easier access to all its four HDMI 2.1 ports, LAN port, and USB ports.
Source: Samsung
Source: Samsung
Source: Samsung
Source: Samsung
Source: Samsung
Source: Samsung
Source: Samsung
Source: Samsung
The Samsung Odyssey is nothing short of breathtaking. It only comes in black, but it also has RGB strips on the top and bottom of the back plate. It does not matter though what colour the display comes in, the 55-inch curved Mini LED panel stands out like a sore thumb anyway. The Odyssey Ark is now available for pre-order in the United States of America (U.S.A.) and select regions. Malaysia? Not yet, but we can expect it to come pretty soon, since the 49-inch ultra-wide behemoth has already landed. In the U.S.A. it will set you back US$ 3,500 though, about MYR 15,631*, or the price of a very high-end, very big TV from the likes of Samsung. More information the Samsung Odyssey Ark can be found on their website.
*Approximately based on conversion rate of US$ 1 = MYR 4.47 as of 16/08/2022 on xe.com
When you think electric car, you think Tesla. When you think gaming, you do not really think Tesla. You think PCs, you think gaming consoles, you think Steam. But gaming and Tesla has a place in the same sentence.
The Tesla is not really a technological marvel. It is a step in the right direction for the automotive industry. They are currently still the largest electric automaker in the world. Traditional automakers like BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and even Porsche have been working overtime mostly to play catch up for now. At least that is the case on the surface.
We are not talking about other automakers though. We are talking about Tesla. We are also talking about gaming.
You can technically game in a Tesla. The expansive touch sensitive display that is found in Tesla autocars are pretty much its control center. The interface you get from the display is the Tesla’s nerve center, control hub. It is also the entertainment hub for your car. Usually, in a car, you can expect media players and some form of navigation software. In a Tesla you can find games too.
You can play rather traditional simple games like Solitaire and even Chess. You can even find Missile Command and Super Breakout, cult classics that will feature long lines in any arcade. Then there is something that comes from the modern era of gaming; Beach Buggy Racing 2. You even get Sonic the Hedgehog in a Tesla. Tesla, in this case, is not new to gaming.
What will be new though is Steam on a Tesla. This might sound like a surprising bit of news. Thing is, it should not be.
Steam has announced their very own gaming console in the Steam Deck. The console mimics the handling style that is the ever so popular Nintendo Switch, except it is a lot more advanced. It is also obviously heavier, and bulkier too, since it is built to be a gaming PC in a handheld chassis.
The Steam Deck, however much less powerful it will be against regular gaming PC towers, is purpose built for gaming with Steam on board though. That also means that games should run smoothly on the Steam Deck still, as long as they are optimized. How would that work on a Tesla?
Tesla’s center control, its nerve center, is rather powerful. The Tesla Model X and Model S’s center unit runs on AMD’s Ryzen CPU and it also packs a powerful RDNA-2 GPU, the same one you can find on the latest gaming consoles. That means that these cars are practically gaming consoles attached in a car. As long as games are optimized, they should be able to run on a Tesla with acceptable graphics quality at least.
Of course, there is no confirmation on Whether Steam will find a home in your Tesla. The announcement was made by Elon Musk on his twitter account. He also claims that a demo is coming in the coming month. There are no announcement or confirmations on Steam as well currently. Until then, this could just be rumours.
The gaming industry is booming, and Asia is its centre. But it’s also becoming more competitive. And with payments increasingly being baked into the player experience, getting this fundamental element right is even more critical.
The growth of gaming over the past three years has been rapid, and there are no signs that this trend will slow down any time soon. Like many digital shifts, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated a pre-existing trend as consumers spent more leisure time at home, on smartphones or games consoles.
For gaming publishers, this has obviously been a huge boost to the industry. Globally gaming industry revenue is predicted to grow from USD$178bn in 2021 to USD$269bn in 2025, an increase of 51% in just five years. And this is especially true in Asia, which leads the world in its number of active gamers. Almost half of all gaming revenue came from Asian markets pre-COVID-19 and this percentage has been maintained despite the growth of gaming globally in the past two years.
The Role of Payments
Another major trend in gaming is a shift in the way that consumers pay for them. The old model of buying games outright in a single one-off purchase is now outdated in the majority of cases; subscriptions and in-app purchasing have become the norm for games on all platforms, from mobile games through to many of the major titles on the most popular consoles.
Source: StockVault
This trend has given publishers much greater scope when it comes to monetizing the games that they produce. But it also means that payments are now a much more integral element to the overall player experience than before, and therefore need to be considered much more carefully.
When thinking about payments in gaming, there are three primary factors that need to be considered:
Invisibility – Ultimately players don’t want to go through the process of making payments when it means interrupting the game they are playing. So any payment needs to be as quick and painless as possible to encourage them to do it frequently.
Security – But at the same time, any game’s checkout process must be safe. Games have been proven to be atarget for scammers in the past who have viewed the industry as an easy target.
Choice – The payments landscape is becoming more diverse, and in-game payment options need to reflect that. Consumers are increasingly unprepared to spend money online if they cannot use their payment method of choice, particularly those that have developed into regional payment preferences.
Let’s look at these in more detail, particularly what they mean for gaming companies in the Asian market.
The impact of poor UX, card declines, and inefficient risk management
As we have already stated, one of the key criteria for the success of payments in gaming is that transactions such as subscriptions and in-app purchases are seamless to the point of being invisible. A clunky user experience with multiple verification steps is one way checkouts can fail in this objective.
Multi-step authentication processes, high lag times or time-outs, or hidden costs can make a payments experience frustrating to such an extent that the consumer abandons the transaction and in extreme circumstances could stop them playing the game altogether. And research does suggest that APAC consumers have the highest rates of cart abandonment in the world generally, meaning gaming companies in the region must focus on giving players a best-in-class payment experience.
Even more significant can be the impact of payment declines. If a player cannot complete a transaction because their card payment is declined then this completely de-rails their gaming experience. A declined transaction not only has a negative effect on revenues for gaming companies that lose the individual transaction in the short term but also the frustration this causes players may render the game unplayable in the long term, costing the operator recurring payments from loyal customers.
Partnering with a payments partner that minimises abandoned transactions and their associated costs is critical. Some of the criteria gaming partners should consider include:
Does the payments company connect me to local acquiring and enable smart routing to maximize acceptance rates?
Does the payments company prevent mass declines of legitimate transactions and limit false positives through industry and regional expertise in risk management?
If a legitimate transaction is declined due to human error or oversight e.g. a card used for a recurring transaction expires, does the payments company have capabilities in place to recover the transaction?
Fighting fraud
Unfortunately, gaming platforms have long been a target for fraudsters. This threat has increased in the past two years as bad actors were better able to hide in plain sight due to the increase in player numbers more generally. Card-not-present fraud (where a fraudster uses stolen card details to make a transaction) and friendly fraud (where a consumer uses their own card details to make a legitimate transaction and then claims a chargeback) are both frequent in gaming, including in APAC.
Another practice gaming publishers should be aware of is carding, where a fraudster steals credit card information and tests its usability by making one or a number of small transactions at a relatively insecure platform, before moving on to making more substantial transactions elsewhere. In-game purchases have been a traditional target of these types of fraud.
Offering seamless gameplay via in-app purchases and subscriptions without compromising the safety of the platform or players must be a priority. A risk management platform with real-time, highly configurable, fraud detection and scoring engine capabilities is the optimal solution to maximise protection.
Diversifying Checkout
The APAC region is a diverse landscape when it comes to payment preferences, with local digital wallets being particularly popular. And it isn’t only the region as a whole that has marked payment preferences; within APAC, individual countries have their own local payment methods that have proved to be popular with consumers. So for gaming companies with ambitions to expand their player base throughout the region, having more options to enable players to pay is essential.
This is particularly true because we know that there are several key payment methods that are important to consumers in many APAC countries. AliPay and WeChat are obvious examples in China, but countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia all have diverse payment landscapes that do not rely on card transactions.
According to research conducted by Mastercard, 94% of consumers in APAC are thinking about trying an alternative payment method for the first time in 2022 and 84% said they already had access to more payment methods than they did in 2020. This includes crypto; 45% of APAC consumers are considering using crypto for payments in 2022 vs. only 12% that said they had used crypto to make a payment in 2020.
And globally younger consumers tend to be less reliant on traditional payment methods such as debit and credit cards than older generations. More tech-savvy and less loyal to financial institutions such as banks, these consumers will happily switch payment methods to ones that offer a better user experience. As gamers tend to skew towards younger demographics as well, having a diversified checkout is even more important.
It’s an Exciting Time for Gaming in Asia Pacific
And APAC continues to lead the world when it comes to the sizes of the gaming industry market. But there is a route to making the most of the opportunities a booming industry provides, and that begins with payments.
Working with a payments partner that doesn’t offer you a one-size-fits-all solution and instead can tailor a customized platform that suits your business strategy and needs is essential in today’s market. This is especially true in a region such as APAC with so many individuals, and unique markets. Gaming businesses
When you want to buy a display for your gaming rig, you first look at the gaming monitors. Gaming monitors are so common these days that you can spend anywhere between a few hundred Ringgit to a few thousands and get yourself a ‘gaming monitor’ of some sorts. Of course, if you want a good one, you are going to have to splurge a little bit.
There is a small problem though. The current biggest gaming monitor you can find on the market is no larger than 43-inches. If you want to go bigger, you are going to have to buy a TV, a 4K TV set that is not really made for PC gaming. Most of the time, these TVs are made for console gaming, which usually only tops out at 120hz refresh rate.
What if you want to go bigger than regular TVs, since the largest TV in the current commercial market tops out at 86 inches? You buy a projector that can go up to 110 inches with little issues. There are even projectors that can do much bigger than 110-inch, but those are industrial type projectors. There is still another problem here. Projectors are never targeted for gaming.
Source: Acer
Not this one though, the Predator GD711 4K gaming projector. Yes, it tops out at 4K in resolution. At that, you do not get more than 60hz of refresh rate. Understandably, it does not have HMDI 2.1 to work with. But with gaming, refresh rate and frames per second (fps) is sometimes more important than resolution. That is why the Predator GD711 is made to refresh at 240hz in Full HD resolution.
The best thing about having a projector is that you can get a large projection almost anywhere in your home. When you have friends over, you can get the screen to go as big as 300 inches. Imagine watching a good movie at 4K with that kind of size with your friends. You can even plug your consoles in and play multiplayer games at that with no fuss with that kind of real-estate. Acer recommends a throw range of 2.7m to get a 100-inch screen though.
Projecting all the goodness from your PC or Consoles is an LED that is rated to last up to 30,000 hours with minimal drop in luminance. It is rated at 4,000 LED lumens, which is sort of equivalent to about 1250 ANSI lumens. We would say that at that brightness, you might want to think of using the projector in a slightly dimmed room.
Unlike traditional lamp though, LED projectors do boast much better colour reproduction. The Predator GD711 offers 125% of Rec.709 colour gamut coverage. You get sharp, vivid, and highly accurate colours with highly accurate details still. Even the blacks are going to be as black as your screen can be. On top of that, while you can hook it up to your sounds system, you can also rely on the 10W speakers of the GD711 if you plan on bringing it to your friend’s house or set it up in any other rooms in your house. You can even hook it up to a Bluetooth speaker if you want.
Source: Acer
Source: Acer
Source: Acer
Source: Acer
Source: Acer
Source: Acer
Source: Acer
The Predator GD711 4K gaming projector is now available at Acer’s very own online store and their official stores on Shopee and Lazada. You can also get your hands on one from Acer’s partner retailers nationwide. There are no colour options, like any other Predator products it comes in matte black. It also comes with a remote control, for you to also control its Aptoide OS built into the projector. The Predator GD711 retails at MYR 4,999, which is quite a lot of money for a projector. For a 4K projector though, and one that can refresh at up to 240hz, the price now looks more like a bargain. More information on the Predator GD711 can be found on their website.
Acer’s Nitro 5 was always known for its strong value proposition and being the budget champion in gaming laptops. 2021 was a little bit of a turning point for the Nitro 5 though. It stopped becoming an entry-level option. You still can get the Nitro 5 with entry-level specs and a price to match, but the Nitro 5 expanded its option pool to hit the upper echelons of gaming with AMD’s Ryzen 9 and NVIDIA’s RTX 3080 bundle option. It was shocking to say the least, but a welcome.
Fast forward to 2022 though, there is a new Nitro 5 in town, and it looks good.
We start with what it packs. It is a 12th Generation Intel Core i7 (up to) that is paired with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti (up to). While it just stops shy from its higher-end cousin that tops out at an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, the RTX 3070 Ti is plenty powerful enough for any sort of gaming situations. You also get to pack it with up to 32GB DDR4 RAM and up to 1TB of SSD storage. There is an additional SATA slot to give users the option to upgrade the notebook with another SATA storage.
The powerful insides keep games running optimally at up to 165fps on the 165Hz refresh rate QHD display (up to). You can opt for a Full HD 144Hz display if you are on a budget. The display also boasts 100% of DCI-P3 colour gamut coverage which means that it is even more colour accurate than before. At the same time, if you are looking for a laptop for both work and play, especially if you are in the creative industry, the colour accuracy is what you want.
Underneath the 4-zone RGB, Acer’s improved cooling system for the new Nitro 5 allows Acer to increase the maximum power draw of the GPU to extract even more performance and power from the GPU. At the same time, the Killer DoubleShot Pro wireless network module and WiFi 6E ensures that the Nitro 5 is always connected to the fastest available internet source.
The Acer Nitro 5 is now available from Acer’s own eStore, and official online stores on Shoppe and Lazada. You can also find the Acer Nitro 5 in Acer’s authorized retailers nationwide. It will set you back from MYR 4,399 all the way to MYR 8,699. For more information on the Acer Nitro 5 gaming laptop, you can head to their website.
