Tech The biggest game of 2017 has already made $400 million, and it hasn't even launched yet

Tech The biggest game of 2017 has already made $400 million, and it hasn't even launched yet

Having sold over 13 million copies since launching in March — making nearly $400 million — "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" is a bona fide blockbuster.

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(Bluehole Studios via SideArms4Reason/YouTube)
Even more impressive is that the game technically isn't finished — it's available only through Steam, the world's largest digital game store, as an "Early Access" title. That means you can buy it, and play it, as millions have, but it's not considered a finished product.

At any given point in a day, hundreds of thousands of people are playing "Battlegrounds." It's the No. 1 most-played game on the world's largest game service, Steam, with over 1 million concurrent players:

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(Valve)
That's a tremendously important metric. Steam is, by far, the largest game platform, with somewhere in the vicinity of 200 million active users.

The top two spots are usually permanently occupied by "Dota 2," which is free, and "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive," which costs $15 ("Battlegrounds" costs $30). Both of those games are created and operated by Valve, the same company that runs Steam.

The creative director for "Battlegrounds," Brendan "PlayerUnknown" Greene, celebrated a previous Steam achievement on Twitter:

— PLAYERUNKNOWN (@) 2013-07-22 14:22:09.0
As Greene pointed out, "Battlegrounds" snagged the record for "highest peak player count of any non-Valve game" way back in July. Just a few months later and the game is the highest peak player count of any game on the service. This is especially impressive as the game has only been available since March and, of course, is unfinished, yet it bests the likes of "Grand Theft Auto V" and "Fallout 4" and even Valve's own heavy-hitters.

There's a simple explanation for why it's doing so well: It's an unbelievably good game.

More than just a bizarre name, "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" boasts a brilliant concept: 100 people on a massive island, armed with their wits and a scattered arsenal, fighting to the death. Whoever survives at the end of the match wins — and there can only be one.

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In images, "Battlegrounds" looks like a shooting game. In reality, it's a game about survival. Shooting is just part of survival.

(Bluehole Studios)
The future of "Battlegrounds" is even brighter.

The game is expected to reach "1.0" by the end of the year, and it should arrive on the Xbox One by then as well. All of which is to say one thing: Expect to hear a lot more about "Battlegrounds" as the year goes on.

See the Giant 6 Feet Long Sea Turtle that Washed Up at a Beach Leaving People in Shock (Photos)

See the Giant 6 Feet Long Sea Turtle that Washed Up at a Beach Leaving People in Shock photo

A giant sea turtle measuring up to two meters (6ft 7in) in length washed up dead on a Spanish beach, Tuesday. The leatherback – the largest of all living turtles – was found in Calella on the Costa del Maresme in the province of Barcelona.

Video footage shows an excavator being used to remove the huge creature. This is the second such find within a month on the Catalan coast, according to La Vanguardia.

In August fishermen came across a leatherback, also known as a lute turtle, tangled in their nets. Authorities say the species, which can weigh up to 700kg (1,500lb), is rare in Catalonia.

Department of Agriculture officials said this particular creature was in an advanced state of decomposition, reports Radio Calella.

The ‘Dermochelys coriacea’ are primarily found in the open ocean, as far north as Alaska and as far south as the southern tip of Africa. Their recent sightings in the Mediterranean are surprising, biologists said, as no more than 10 have been spotted in the area in 2,000 years.


Recent satellite tracking research indicates that leatherbacks feed in areas just offshore, according to Sea Turtle Conservancy. Pere Alzina, a local biologist, said it would be a great surprise if they found a nesting area for leatherback turtles in the Mediterranean.

The turtle has been transferred to the Veterinary Faculty of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) for an autopsy. Meanwhile, a leatherback turtle also washed up dead on a beach in Wales earlier this week, according to the BBC.


Marine Environmental Monitoring (MEM) said about 10 leatherback turtles had washed ashore on UK beaches in the last two months, most of them dead.


The leatherback turtle is listed as endangered under the US Federal Endangered Species Act and marked vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources in 2013.

Medical revealed pancreatic cancer could be treated with a Parkinson's drug

Medical revealed pancreatic cancer could be treated with a Parkinson's drug

Medical revealed  that a common drug for Parkinson's disease has anti-cancer effects in mice and human pancreatic cells.

The new research suggests that carbidopa, which is a drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and widely used to treat
Parkinson's disease , has significant anti-cancer properties.
Carbidopa is typically used in conjunction with levodopa (L-Dopa) to treat Parkinson's disease. And previous studies have shown that patients with Parkinson's tend to have a lower incidence of cancer .
In older research, scientists investigated whether or not it was the drug L-Dopa that yielded the anti-cancer effect, but they did not find any significant results.
So now, a team led by Dr. Yangzom Bhutia - from the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) in Lubbock - hypothesized that carbidopa alone could have anti-cancer properties.
Commenting on the motivation for the research, Dr. Bhutia says, "Interestingly, no one has previously suspected carbidopa as a potential player in this phenomenon."
"Carbidopa is never used by itself as a drug for any disease," she adds. "But [...] we believe that the reduced incidence of most cancers in Parkinson's disease patients is due to carbidopa."
The first author of the study is Jiro Ogura, of the Department of Cell Biology and Biochemistry at TTUHSC, and the findings were published in the Biochemical Journal.
Carbidopa stops tumor growth in mice
Dr. Bhutia and team chose to focus on
pancreatic cancer as it has one of the poorest survival rates, and because treatment options for this cancer type are scarce.
The researchers tested the effect of carbidopa both in vitro, in human pancreatic cell cultures, and in vivo, in a mouse model of pancreatic cancer. The mice were 4 weeks old, and the team divided them into two groups: a treatment group and a control group.

Each mouse in the treatment group received 1 milligram of carbidopa daily, which is the equivalent of a human dose of less than 400 milligrams per day. Such a dose is still safe for humans, even though the recommended dose for treating Parkinson's disease is 200 milligrams per day.

For the cell cultures, the researchers used two human pancreatic cell lines to conduct a colony formation assay.
In cell cultures, carbidopa "significantly reduced the number of colonies in both the cell lines compared with the untreated controls." Xenograft studies of the mice confirmed the in vitro findings, as carbidopa "significantly reduced the tumor volume compared with untreated controls."
Additionally, the weight of the tumors was considerably reduced in the treatment group.


Carbidopa activates cancer-fighting protein
The researchers also monitored the activity of a protein called aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), which has been shown in previous studies to play a key role in cancer cell formation in various cancer types, including breast , colorectal , and
pancreatic cancer.
Activating this protein has been shown to have an anti-cancer effect.
The study conducted by Dr. Bhutia and team also revealed that therapeutic concentrations of carbidopa activate the AhR protein. In both pancreatic and liver cancer cell lines, the drug acted as an AhR agonist.
"Hence," the authors explain, "carbidopa could potentially be repurposed to treat pancreatic cancer and possibly other cancers as well." However, further investigations are needed.
Dr. Bhutia comments on the significance of the study, saying, "Pancreatic cancer, especially the pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, is the most lethal of all cancers with a dismal survival rate."
Carbidopa as an anti-cancer agent to treat pancreatic cancer would be something truly amazing. Given the fact that it is an FDA-approved drug, repurposing the same drug for cancer treatment would be tremendously cost- and time-saving."

We captured Ekti back official, bookkeeper general EFCC

 

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has affirmed the capture of two key authorities of the Ekiti State Government.

This is contained in a curt articulation issued Thursday evening by representative of the commission, Wilson Uwujaren.

He recognized the authorities as the Commissioner for Finance and the Accountant General of the state.

Uwujaren said they were grabbed by EFCC agents "following their refusal to respect past solicitations for cross examination in connection to pending examination on the abuse of salvage subsidizes by the Gov. Ayodele Fayose organization".

The advancement happened as Governor Ayo Fayose proclaimed his aim to keep running for president in 2019.

Fayose said he will challenge on the stage of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Fayose guaranteed that he will run an intentional government that will provide food for all Nigerians independent of religion or tribe.

He deplored the province of Nigeria and encouraged the gathering to help him turn into the nation's next pioneer.

He said in discourse: "Our economy will be resuscitated and come back to the way of advance that it was before we had the incident of having these dumbfounded individuals in control.

"We will guarantee broadening of the economy through agribusiness, sufficient supply of energy and huge industrialization, in this way making work for our young people. We can do it, and we will do it.

"With me as your President, you can be rest guaranteed of an administration that will be receptive to your requirements.

"You are ensured a government that will relate with all Nigerians not on the premise of ethnicity, religion, political affiliations and the level of votes however on value and equity as natives of one country, one individuals, and one fate.

"My gathering pioneers, I introduce myself to you as the required vehicle for our gathering to move back to the administration. I am doing as such in light of the fact that I am certain that with God and every one of you behind me, we can do it, and we will do it."