The International Olympic Committee announces that Fortnite is going to be part of the inaugural Olympic Esports Week next month in Singapore (tickets are on sale now). Here's word on this Olympics-adjacent esports competition: "Olympic Esports Week marks another step in supporting the development of virtual sports within the Olympic Movement, as laid out in Olympic Agenda 2020+5, and continues the Movement’s collaboration with the gaming and esports communities to create new opportunities for players and fans alike." Fortnite's role will be as the proving ground for competitor's aim in a virtual sport shooting event:

The ISSF’s sport shooting island created in Fortnite has been added to the Olympic Esports Finals line-up. The event will see 12 players from the 2023 Fortnite Champion Series (FNCS) invited to compete on the global stage. A specially designed Fortnite Creative Island, made to reflect sport shooting competition, will put the target-aiming accuracy of sharp shooters to the test and see them navigate the in-game environment as they compete to become an Olympic Esports Series winner. All the thrilling finals action will be streamed globally across Olympics.com and Olympic social channels.

A tweet from Tango Gameworks celebrates that Ghostwire: Tokyo is not a ghost town. It includes an image capturing some of the supernatural adventure game's critical praise, and announces that it has attracted 4 million players on all platforms since its launch just over a year ago. Not all of these users equate to sales, however, as the game is available to Game Pass subscribers. Here's word:

Thank you to 4 million fans thus far who have taken a thrilling tour of @TangoGameworks' Tokyo!
#GhostwireTokyo

The Spring 2023 Sale on The Humble Store* is now underway. This includes discounts of up to 90% on thousands of games between now and May 23rd. Dedicated bargain hunters will want to check in regularly, as this will feature 48 hour featured deals to keep you on your toes. The first of these is The Jackbox Party Pack 9.* There are also publisher-specific sales, as well as breakdowns by genre and featured deals to aid in discovery for such a daunting catalog.

*Blue's News may receive a commission on sales of this item.

Speaking of game store discovery, Steam News has details on changes to Steam store search. This has now been enhanced with the ability to search by tags, developers, publishers, or franchises. It will also be more tolerant of typos since some of us don't always spell so gud:

Search for Developers, Publishers, and Franchises
Looking for a particular developer or publisher on Steam? Excited about a specific gaming franchise? Now those appear in the quick search results too.

Looking for "Bethesda" games? Or perhaps you want to browse all the "Star Wars" or "Final Fantasy" games. Now you can!

Better Handling Of Typing Mistakes
We've also recently updated the search suggestions to better handle typing mistakes or misspelled words.

Continue here to read the full story.

• 🦊Kitfox Turns 10! 🎂 Steam Sale.
• Save 70% on Northgard on Steam.
• Save 60% on Ocean's Heart on Steam.
• Save 30% on Rival Stars Horse Racing: Desktop Edition on Steam.
• Buy Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space from the Humble Store and save 70%.
• Buy Infinite Space III: Sea of Stars from the Humble Store and save 70%.
• In Your Face VR (pay what you want and help charity).*
• Easy-going Games: Whitethorn Showcase (pay what you want and help charity).*

*Blue's News may receive a commission on sales of this item.

• Atari Announces Acquisition of M Network Atari 2600 Titles.
• Activision Blizzard publishes pay equity analysis.
• Plaion is restructuring, layoffs planned.

Official patch.

• Star Wars- The Old Republic - Content from Game Update 7.3: Old Wounds is coming to the Public Test Server.

• Director's Take - A continued look at Lifeweaver — Overwatch 2.

• Darkest Dungeon II - Launch Trailer.

↑ Official trailers. ↓ Content creator videos.

• Naked scouting strategy in survival games - Viva La Dirt League. Thanks Ant.

• Tears of the Kingdom Hopes to Expand the Legacy of Zelda - The New York Times. Thanks Neutronbeam.
• Sea of Thieves - A New Update on Captaincy and Milestones.

• Steam Version of Dead by Daylight is Now Working on Deck.

• Marissa Mayer figures Yahoo could’ve done better buying Netflix instead of Tumblr. Don't sell yourself short, you'd have screwed up Netflix too.

• White House Meets With Tech CEOs on AI Innovation, Regulation.
• Clock speeds for custom GeForce RTX 4060 Ti GPUs confirmed by retailer.
• Acer Predator X45- Curved OLED gaming monitor nears release with 240 Hz refresh rate and 1440p resolution.

• Dump these Cisco phone adapters because it's not fixing them.
• Ex-Uber security chief sentenced over covering up hack.

• Colorado Finally Kills Dumb 2005 Comcast-Backed State Law Banning Community Broadband Networks. Thanks DSLReports via Ant.
• Congress is flooded with bills for childproofing the internet. First we have to childproof Congress.
• Ex-Uber security chief sentenced over covering up hack.

• Blizzard's stolen title Warcaft news roundup - May 5, 2023. I can escalate from here…

Last Link of the Day: Lunar eclipse, full moon, and meteor shower: 3 space events to spot this weekend.

Obituary: Famous TikTok Dad Bobby Moudy Dead by Suicide.

Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. Reports First Quarter 2023 Earnings Results, proving a corporation can lose money in a quarter when it generated over $10 billion in income. The report includes sales data on Hogwarts Legacy, the Harry Potter prequel which launched early last year. The game met with controversy due to statements by Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling. And while there's no certainty about whether this helped or hurt sales, there's no denying the game was a runaway hit. To the tune of a billion dollars in revenue. In a separate press release, Warner Bros. Games discusses the success of the wizarding game, saying it has now sold over 15 million copies:

Warner Bros. Games today announced Hogwarts Legacy, the critically acclaimed, open-world, action role-playing game (RPG) is now available for PlayStation®4 and Xbox One. The game has sold more than 15 million units and $1 Billion in sales globally since its launch on PlayStation®5, Xbox Series X|S and PC on February 10, 2023.

Hogwarts Legacy invites players to embark on an epic journey as a fifth-year student at Hogwarts, gifted with a rare ability to tap into ancient, powerful magic. Guided by the Wizard's Field Guide and unique instruction from professors and other characters, fans will uncover a compelling storyline filled with thrilling challenges and mysteries. Developed by Avalanche Software and published by Warner Bros. Games under the Portkey Games label, Hogwarts Legacy introduces an original story that puts players at the center of their own wizarding world adventure.

The Call of Duty Blog has details on beta ranked play coming to Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 as part of the upcoming shortened Season 03 Reloaded. Word is: "The data from this Beta or shortened season will help with Ranked Play discussions in future seasons." This will launch next week on May 10th. Full patch notes will come before the launch, and the post has a preview of what to expect. This is not for burner accounts in the free-to-play shooter, as you must be at least level 45 to participate. And there's a warning that the level of tolerance for cheating here is somehow "especially" lower than zero: "And remember: RICOCHET Anti-Cheat™ will be enforcing its zero-tolerance policy related to cheating, especially in Ranked Play." For those who fight fair, there's an outline of the process for ranking up and down, and a discussion of rewards for success. Here's the overview:

To those who want to prove they are the greatest Battle Royale player out there, or for those who are considering the long road to a World Series of Warzone™ title, Ranked Play is finally here for Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0.

We are just as excited as you are to drop in and begin this Ranked Play journey together with this first shortened Beta season in Season 03 Reloaded. The data from this Beta or shortened season will help with Ranked Play discussions in future seasons.

GOG 2023 update #2 is actually about 2022, offering more details about how last year went for the good old gamers. This includes words and pictures to explain things like how this online store has grown its audience, how its market breaks down by region, its game release cadence, its customer satisfaction rate, and more. Here's an explanation of the whole presentation:

As a company, each year we strive to make our platform the favorite place for both you and your games. With that, we constantly grow, adding more titles to our catalog, gathering more and more gaming enthusiasts (and trying to fulfill their wishes!), spoiling you from time to time with giveaways of games and goodies collections, and constantly aspiring to make your stay on GOG as enjoyable as it can be.

We wanted to share with you how the last year looked in this regard, as well as shed more light on what we’ve managed to achieve in 2022.

• New Superman game hinted by Warner Bros. Discovery boss.
• Bungie's New IP Might Ditch Tiger Engine For Unreal Engine 5, Job Listing Suggests. Thanks PlayStation Universe.

• Weekend Sale: TerraScape and other bargains up to 80% off! - GOG.com.*
• Publisher Sale: Focus Entertainment with their amazing titles up to -80%! - GOG.com.*

*Blue's News may receive a commission on sales of this item.

• Stanford researchers scoured every reputable study for the link between video games and gun violence that politicians point to. Thanks Ron.
• Overwatch 2 Players Are Upset by Blizzard's Response to Unwarranted Bans.
• Jedi: Survivor players furious as EA servers break game on Star Wars Day. Games as a disservice.

• The Last Of Us HBO Averages Nearly 32 Million Viewers Per Ep In US.

Official patches.

• Microsoft Flight Simulator May 4th, 2023 Development Update.
• Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem -- Patch 1.1.7.6.
• World of Warcraft Hotfixes- May 4, 2023.

• S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 — Become NonStoppable. Never stop never stopping.

↑ Official trailers. ↓ Content creator videos.

• Why Sonic Adventure's Chao NEVER Came Back. Thanks Ant.

• Bungie is raising Destiny 2 season pass prices. Prices are destined to always rise.

• Grumpy Gamer - Unions. Aka Ron Gilbert.
  "I really hope the TV writers can get something meaningful from the strike. I'm skeptical only because big companies taking advantage of creatives is burnt into their DNA. I see this all the time. Thimbleweed Park was the first game I ever saw anything from. I am getting something from RtMI but it's small. I've created a lot over the years and only made other people rich."

• The standalone version of Spider-Man Remastered is out now for PS5.
• One Of The First Nintendo GameCube Consoles Has Been Found.
• Next Week on Xbox- New Games for May 8 to 12 - Xbox Wire.

• War Thunder Mobile — Gameplay Trailer.
• AV fever has cooled off, but driverless cars aren’t going away.

• IBM CEO says working from home won't get you anywhere. You should work from a private jet like he does.
• Paramount Plus is officially a success, while Netflix risks it all over passwords.
• Forget ad-supported streaming — here come the ad-supported TVs.
• TikTok tracked UK journalist via her cat's account. Cats are really crap at best online practices.

• AMD CEO Says Moore's Law is Not Dead: Working On 3nm Now, Looking Beyond 2nm & Will Continue Using Chiplets.
• Chip war heats up as Samsung claims it can beat TSMC within 5 years.
• Report: Microsoft is Partnering with AMD on Athena AI Chipset. Thanks Slashdot.
• AMD reportedly resumes production of Ryzen 3000G series.
• US, UK governments make weak plea to AI companies: 'The private sector has an ethical, moral, and legal responsibility.' The private sector has neither ethics nor morals.
• Google Employees Are Mocking Sundar Pichai With 'Shrek' Meme. Thanks Matthew.
• Raspberry Pi Pico Mechanical Keyboard Kits Offer RGB Support and OLED Display.
• CYBER: Apple II and How the Computer Became Personal.

• Generative AI brings new risks to everyone. Here's how you can stay safe.
• Banks warn of big increase in online scams.
• Payment software giant AvidXchange suffers its second ransomware attack of 2023. Thanks DSLReports via Ant.
• Russian hackers are using WinRAR as a 'cyberweapon' against Ukraine.
• $10M Is Yours If You Can Get This Guy to Leave Russia.

• Riot Games to compensate 1,548 women in gender discrimination case. A few details added to a rehash of this report from last year.
• OpenAI’s regulatory troubles are just beginning.

• Redfall review - PC Gamer.

Thanks Neutronbeam.

• Case: Cooler Master MasterBox TD500 Mesh V2 Review - APH Networks.
• Graphics Card: Intel Arc A750 Graphics - TweakTown.
• Headset/Earbuds: FiiO FT3 Review - Headfonia Reviews.
• Keyboard: Asus ROG Azoth keyboard review - Guru3D.
• Laptop: Lenovo Yoga 9i (Gen 8) Review- Packed With Features - Tom's Hardware.
• Misc: NVIDIA ConnectX-7 400GbE and NDR Infiniband Adapter Review from PNY - STH.
• Printer: Anycubic Photon Mono 2 Review- Thrifty Beginner 4K Resin - Tom's Hardware.
• SSD: G.SKILL Ripjaws S5 32GB DDR5 6400MHz CL32 Dual-Channel Kit - Nikk Tech.

Happy Cinco de Mayo! I mentioned my recent food poisoning at the hands of a local Mexican restaurant, so I may be too gun shy to celebrate with a meal. But MrsBlue is a tequila drinker, and we have some of that around, so I may whip up some margaritas to mark the occasion. Please be careful of yourself and others if you decide to celebrate in kind. Drinking and driving is no bueno.

Bueno Round-up
Thanks Ant and Neutronbeam.

Breakfast Links

• Steve Jobs Garage. Thanks Reddit.
• Elfman Excited About "Beetlejuice 2" Return.

Stories

• Why There Are 600 Versions of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Thanks Matthew.
• 90,000 old BMWs too dangerous to drive due to airbag recall, maker says.
• Americans Caught Smuggling 450 Pounds of Fruit Roll-Ups Into Israel. Caught by a candy sniffing dog?
• Peter Thiel confirms he’s signed up to be cryogenically frozen after death but says it’s more of an ‘ideological statement’

Science
Thanks Acleacius.

• Mathematicians Found Something Mind-Blowing About the Number 15.
• Reconstructing ancient bacterial genomes can revive previously unknown molecules – offering a potential source for new antibiotics.
• Thirsty tomatoes emit ultrasonic sounds—and other plants may be listening. The silence of the tomatoes.
• Why are many kelp forests disappearing. Thanks Matthew.

Media
Thanks RedEye9.

• We Remade Dune: Part One For $20.
• The Laptop Watcher.
• The Best Burgers by Budget with Sean Evans, George Motz, and Alvin Cailan - Burger Bucket List.
• Star Trek Bloopers Rare Gag Reel HD (NSFW).

Auction

• One of the rarest Fornite cards sets new record price at auction.

Follow-ups

• In a world first, RSV vaccine wins FDA approval for adults 60 and up.
• YouTube prankster testifies about video that got him shot. Thanks RedEye9.
• Westinghouse unveils small modular nuclear reactor. Thanks Slashdot.