The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has attracted more than a million preorders in advance of its release next week, reports GamesIndustry.biz. Word is: "The game is being launched on PS4, Xbox One and PC, but the studio did not provide a breakdown of which platforms had more pre-sales than the others." Also, according to reddit, preloads are now being provided on GOG.com and for those who preordered the RPG sequel. Thanks Quinn.

Studio Wildcard announces ARK: Survival Evolved, an open-world dinosaur survival game the indie developer plans to release for Windows, OS X, and Linux on June 2nd through Steam Early Access. Here's an announcement trailer, and here's word:

Powered by Unreal Engine 4, ARK: Survival Evolved takes on the survival genre with a unique blend of emergent multiplayer cooperation and competition. Players awake naked and starving on the beach of a mysterious island among a herd of other confused humans. On ARK, they must then hunt, harvest, craft, research technology, and build shelters to protect against scorching days, freezing nights, volatile weather systems, dangerous wildlife, and potential enemies.

Use cunning strategy and tactics to tame and ride the many dinosaurs and other primeval creatures roaming the dynamic, persistent ecosystems across land, sea, air, and even underground. Build your character’s strengths and gain items, skills, and pet creatures using in-depth role-playing systems. Start a tribe with hundreds of other players to survive and dominate competing tribes...and ultimately discover the ARK’s true purpose.

Continue here to read the full story.

A new video developer's diary from King's Quest offers a behind-the-scenes look at some voice recording sessions for the upcoming remake, revealing the cast includes luminaries Christopher Lloyd and Wallace Shawn, as well as the daughter of the late Robin Williams. Word is: "King’s Quest: 'Voicing a Modern Classic' is the second installment in a four-part series revealing the headlining talent at the heart of bringing King’s Quest™ to life. Talent includes veterans Christopher Lloyd and Wallace Shawn as well as Josh Keaton, Maggie Elizabeth Jones and Zelda Williams. In 'Voicing a Modern Classic' find out what they have to say about voicing one of gaming's most memorable franchises." Continue here to read the full story.

GOG.com announces the release of five former THQ titles on their service, which are now available for the first time with no DRM. Here's word:

The five titles unchained today are:

--Metro: Last Light Redux (-50%) - The 2014 remastered re-release of the blockbuster horror/FPS set in post-apocalyptic Moscow.
--Saints Row 2 (-60%) - The surprise cult hit that reinvigorated the open-world action-adventure genre with its unique sprinkle of quirk. Complete with the GOG.com treatment to greatly improve performance on modern PCs.
--Saints Row: The Third (-66%) - Quirk overload. The massively popular open-world action-adventure that flipped a genre on its head.
--Darksiders + Darksiders 2 (Up to 75% off) - Hack and slash done right. Become a horseman of the apocalypse and fight as Death himself.

All five releases (and extra DLC package for Darksiders 2) are discounted for one whole week, that's until Monday, May 18 at 12:59 PM GMT.

• Infinite Space III- Sea of Stars Early Access Update - 5/10/2015.

• Action Henk on Steam. Save 10%.
• Awesomenauts on Steam. Save 90%.
• Fifth Anniversary Flash Sale on Green Man Gaming.
• Strategy First Anniversary Sale on Steam. Save up to 80%.
• The Witcher Franchise on GOG.com. Save up to 85%.

• Bloodstained- Ritual of the Night by Koji Igarashi — Kickstarter. "IGAVANIA (n): A gothic, exploration-focused action platformer, designed by one of the godfathers of the genre!" Castlevania-inspired. Thanks Ars Technica.
• Day For Night Games to "shelve" The Black Glove. Thanks GameSpot.

• Here's the crazy training schedule of young guys who make a huge salary playing video games.
• Diablo III Break the Bank Giveaway Now Live.

• Star Hammer on Space Game Junkie.

• Xbox One May System Update: Voice Messages, Party Chat Improvements and More.

• 4 self-driving cars have been in accidents in California since Sept. Thanks HARDOCP.
• Dev puts Web browser on Apple Watch- a cool hack, but useless for now.

• Google temporarily shuts down Map Maker due to vandalism.

Thanks Acleacius.

• Grand Theft Auto V - Grand Theft Auto V IQ Features Performance - Part 3 - HARDOCP.
• IBM's Watson supercomputer to speed up cancer care.
• IBM’s Watson Wants To Help Pick A Therapist For You.
• Does Artificial Intelligence Pose a Threat? Thanks HARDOCP.
• World's Brightest Young Innovators in the Spotlight at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Thanks HARDOCP.
• Removing reflections from photos taken through windows. Thanks HARDOCP.

• FCC shoots down petitions to delay open internet rules. Thanks HARDOCP.
• Yahoo Sues Ex-Staffer Claiming She Gave Secrets to Writer. Thanks HARDOCP.
• Wyden- If Senate tries to renew NSA spying authority, I’ll filibuster.

• 10 YEARRRSSSS LATERRRRR: Iconic World of Warcraft hero Leeroy Jenkins makes us feel old. Thanks John…
• If men are ‘failing’ we need to look to the future, not at lazy stereotypes. Thanks Acleacius…

Link of the Day: Star Wars: The Binks Awakens. Missed this at the time. Thanks JDreyer.

Videogamer notes that the C.V. on the LinkedIn profile for Luis Nieves states that a Fallout 4 cinematic trailer as the most recent project for this 3D artist. There are no further details except that this is listed as a product of Mirada Studios, co-founded by Hollywood director Guillermo del Toro, and that the job concluded in March. The next installment in the Fallout series of RPGs hasn't been officially announced, though it has been trademarked, possibly detailed, and rumors swirl that it will be shown next month at the E3 Expo. An E3 showing would certainly fit with the timeframe offered for creation of this alleged trailer, but this all remains speculative at this point.

GamesIndustry.biz has word on SEGA's financial reporting, showing packaged software sales up by 41 percent, though SEGA still characterizes sales as "weak." They also note that Alien: Isolation has sold around 2.1 million units to date, saying this is a disappointing figure for the kind of investment such a project must have required. This gets worse when you take discounts into account, saying: "And not all of those units were sold at full price, either. SteamSpy puts the game's owners at around 440,000, but it has been available for as little as £7.99 or $12.49 within the recorded period."

The Steam stats page reveals a new concurrent user record was set over the weekend on Valve's digital service. The page currently lists a concurrent user peak at 9,502,661. The last record reported for the service was in March at just over nine million. Thanks GameSpot.

Project CARS pulls in at the poll position on the new U.K. top 30 PC sales chart on GFK Chart-Track for the week ending May 9th. Grand Theft Auto V slips into the third spot this week and the Homeworld Remastered Collection debuts at number 12. On the all platforms chart Project CARS also debuts at number one as Mortal Kombat X falls to number three. Here's how this is all summarized:

This year we’ve seen a couple of motorcycle racing games (PQube/Milestone’s ‘RIDE’ & Koch/Kylotonn’s ‘Motorcycle Club’) but now we have a 4 wheel racing game that does something that no other racing sim has done for 2 years – and that is to claim No1 on the UK All Formats Top 40 (since Codemasters’ ‘GRID 2’ back in week 22, 2013).

The game in question is ‘Project Cars’ for PS4/Xbox One/PC, a crowd-funded AAA release developed by Slightly Mad Studios in the UK and published/distributed by Bandai Namco. It’s also the first boxed product release to tick the following 3 boxes: triple screen 4K resolution and compatibility with Occulus Rift & Project Morpheus…although neither of these VR headsets are actually commercially available right now. Rockstar/Take 2 remain at No2 with ‘GTA V’ (-3%) and Warner’s 3 week run at No1 with ‘Mortal Kombat X’ is over (-35%) as the title drops to No3.

In terms of other new releases there are 2 new Nintendo titles, starting at No21 with Wii U ‘Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush’ with amiibo functionality and then at No32 we have 3DS compilation ‘Puzzle & Dragons Z + Super Mario Edition’. Re-entering the Top 40 for the first time this year at No38 is EA’s ‘Skate 3’ (+15%), which continues to enjoy a cult following on 360/PS3. The game dates from 2010 but units sold in 2014 and 2015 so far are close to 25% of entire lifetime sell-through, which is a highly unusual sales pattern for a boxed product.

• World of Tanks Esports Interview with Wargaming.net's Mo Fadl.

• Iwata 'optimistic' that Nintendo NX will be region free.
• GTA V’s Rockstar Editor won’t be a PC exclusive, is coming to PS4 and Xbox One.
• PS4 and Xbox One 8GB memory is 'enough to last this gen,' says ex-Naughty Dog dev.
• Dishonored: Definitive Edition coming to PS4 and Xbox One?
• PS4 Could Very Well Become The Best-Selling Console In History. Thanks HARDOCP.

• So just how accurate is Apple Watch's heart rate sensor?
• Is Final Fantasy Type-0 HD coming to PS Vita?
• Terminator Genisys- Revolution is the first Android app you can pre-register for. Thanks Ant.

Thanks Ant.

• A third of people would rather lose a finger than their internet connection.
• Utility: Verizon To Exit Wireline Business Within 10 Years.
• Read the NDA a Comcast customer was told to sign to get a $600 refund.

• Project CARS Benchmarked: Graphics & CPU Performance - TechSpot.
• Time to Get Fired-Up over Coding as FunTech Launches Two New Summer Camps for Kids.
• Apple R&D spending increase analysis. Thanks HARDOCP.
• VirtualBox 5.0 Beta 3 released. Thanks Ant.

• Arcanum on Matt Chat. Thanks Ant.
• The Ballads of Reemus: When the Bed Bites on Just Adventure.
• Dragonball Xenoverse on True PC Gaming.
• I Am Bread on Christ Centered Gamer.
• Shadowrun Chronicles: Boston Lockdown on GameWatcher.
• Wolfenstein: The Old Blood on Ars Technica and PC Gamer.

• Crucial Ballistix Sport 2400MHz Quad Channel DDR4 16GB Memory Kit on eTeknix.
• Fractal Design Define R5 Dual Loop Water Cooling Build ON Techgage.
• Liztek HDDT1BSB USB 3.0 Hard Drive Dock on Technogog.
• Patriot FUEL iON iPhone 6 Magnetic Charging Case on TweakTown.
• Raijintek Triton CPU Cooler on pcGameware.
• XTracGear Carbonic XXL on APH Networks.

• Check Out These 10 Must-Have GTA V Mods for PC. Thanks HARDOCP…
• Game explores impact of dementia…
• Metal Gear Solid 5′s Quiet doll to feature soft, manipulatable breasts. Of course it will…

Not sure where this lack of faith came from, but I have sort of been waiting for Mad Men to jump the shark for about three seasons now. At this point I'll have to thankfully admit defeat, because it has remained compelling to the bitter end, for me at least. One more episode to go, and I will miss it greatly.

R.I.P.: Elizabeth Wilson Dead- Character Actress With Roles in '9 to 5' and 'The Graduate' Dies at 94.

Mad Links:	Thanks Ant and Acleacius.
Play:	Bubble Shooter: Archibald the Pirate. Get On Top.
Science:	Star-forming clump found in the early Universe. Arizona water shortages loom: The state prepares for rationing as Lake Mead hits record low.
Media:	Everytime Owen Wilson has said WOW on Film. TEENS REACT TO 90s HANDHELD GAMES (Tiger). DUCK HUNT (NES) (Teens React- Retro Gaming).
The Funnies:	Dilbert.