Xbox Series S Get Another Price Hike In India



The Xbox Series S will receive its second price hike in India in just six months, and third overall, just days ahead of preorders re-opening.

Media analyst Rishi Alwani posted on Twitter that Xbox Series S will get a price hike to Rs.39,990, approximately $485. In the US, the Series S retails for $300. Preorders start on January 10. Reasons for the price hike are unknown and could be a result of low sales in India or the waning power of the Indian Rupee against the US Dollar. According to another report from Alwani, Rockstar opted not to release the Xbox Series X port of Grand Theft Auto 5 in India.

Back in August 2022, Xbox Series S had already received a price hike in India to Rs.37,990, around $462. Also in August, Sony raised PS5 prices across markets. Shortly after, Microsoft released a statement claiming that they had no current plans to raise prices on Xbox consoles. Clearly, this statement was not meant for India. In September 2022, Phil Spencer reaffirmed that Microsoft had no plans to raise console prices. However, in December 2022, Microsoft announced that it would be raising the price for first-party games from $60 to $70. Whether the increased prices in India forebode any changes in other markets is mere speculation.

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Valorant 6.00 Patch Introduces Lotus Map, Reintroduces Split After Tweaks



The next major patch for Riot Games’s first-person tactical shooter Valorant is now live, and the update will add two new ready-for-battle locales, one brand-new and the other reworked for better balance.

The new map is called Lotus, which is the ninth map to be introduced since the game’s June 2020 launch. The map features an Indian aesthetic and will feature three main areas like fellow Valorant map Haven.

Split will be returning to the map pool along with the addition of Lotus, and the two maps will be replacing Breeze and Bind in competitive and unrated matches. Split has received multiple tweaks since debuting in Valorant’s closed beta, which include silent drops down Mid platform for all players as well as minor adjustments on both sides of the map.

The Valorant 6.00 patch will also fix over a dozen bugs, including 10 focused solely on the playable Agents. Killjoy’s Lockdown ability will now take damage from all other abilities, for example, while Sova’s Hunter’s Fury will no longer damage an ally Fade’s Haunt.

Valorant is available to play now for free on PC. Xbox Game Pass for PC owners can unlock all playable Agents by linking their Game Pass account to their Riot account.

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Preorders Are Now Open For Flying Cars



Flying cars are no longer a thing of science fiction. Thanks to Aska, we may have them sooner than expected.

According to a CNET report, Aska is preparing to showcase the A5 sometime “within a month” and to purchase one, and it’ll cost you $789,000 with a $5,000 deposit. The vehicle is about the same size as an SUV with propellers on top, similar to a helicopter, and fits into a traditional parking space. But for the A5 to take off and land, the vehicle needs an area the size of a helipad.

The A5 is powered by electric batteries supported by a gas engine that uses premium gasoline. Thanks to its gas engine, the A5 can travel an additional 50 miles of range and can be charged at home or at an EV station. Currently, the A5 can reach up to a max speed of 150mph and travel up to 250 miles on a single charge.

As of now, the Aska A5 needs a pilot to fly, but co-founder and ceo Aska Kaplinsky expects the A5 to be fully autonomous by 2030 to help avoid air collisions. Aska aims to start a ride-sharing service in 2026 to help tackle long commutes. To help people move further from big cities and reduce the number of cars they own.

Even though Aska currently makes one to two A5s a month, they still need to get approved by the Federal Aviation Administration and other agencies to make the car street-legal.

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Valve Could Allow Local Network Downloads For Steam Deck



It looks like Valve might enable local network downloads for Steam Deck, making it easier and quicker to get games on the handheld.

Pavel Djundik, creator of Steam DB, posted on Twitter that Valve had added more code related to moving files from the PC to Steam Decks through local networks. Djundik previously tweeted about Steam working on peer-to-peer downloads in October 2022.

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