Overwatch, Hearthstone, Starcraft, and other Blizzard tournaments will be available on Twitch

Twitch announced today that it has signed a deal with Blizzard Entertainment that gives the popular video game streaming site two-year, third-party live-streaming rights to some of Blizzard’s biggest e-sports events in popular games like Overwatch, Starcraft, Hearthstone, and Heroes of the Storm.

The deal doesn’t seem to include total exclusivity for Twitch, just third-party streaming-platform rights, so Blizzard will still be able to offer a first-party stream through its own site. And Twitch only has some of Blizzard’s events, including the Heroes of the Storm Global Championship, StarCraft II World Championship Series, Hearthstone Championship Tour, World of Warcraft Arena Championship, Overwatch APEX League, and Overwatch Premier Series.

That said, it’s still a pretty significant signing for Twitch given the massive popularity of Blizzard’s games, especially in the competitive and streaming contexts. Additionally, as part of the deal with Blizzard, Twitch will be offering in-game loot for Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, and Hearthstone for Twitch Prime subscribers, starting with a Golden Loot Box in Overwatch that guarantees a legendary item.

Spotify is now available

Microsoft revealed at Build last month that Spotify would be arriving in the Windows Store, and it's now available today. While Spotify has created mobile apps in the past for Windows Phone, the company has opted to convert its desktop app to a Windows Store one using Microsoft's Centennial Desktop Bridge tool. That means this isn't a Universal Windows App, and won't run on Windows Mobile or the Xbox One console.

The Spotify app in the Windows Store is identical to the desktop app that is available online, and the only major change is that Spotify will now be updated through the Windows Store. Spotify arriving in the Windows Store does mean that Surface Laptop owners still running Windows 10 S will be able to download and install the app. Microsoft's Windows 10 S variant will only support apps from the company's Windows Store.

Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8 will reportedly be announced in August

Samsung is planning to announce the Galaxy Note 8 in August, according to a new report from Reuters, citing a source that claims to be familiar with the matter.

The Reuters report also claims that the Note 8 will feature a dual-camera system and a slightly larger curved display than the Galaxy S8 Plus, which is in line with rumors from earlier this year. An August announcement would make sense, as Samsung has announced previous Note devices, including the Note 5 and the ill-fated Note 7, in a similar time frame.

A late August release date would also mean that Samsung would have a chance to get its newest flagship device on the market before Apple’s own upcoming iPhone 8.

Get your wallet ready for Thursday.

Although Valve itself has still not announced a start date for the Steam Summer sale, it wouldn't feel right if it weren't leaked ahead of time. That appears to be the case with PayPal once again--and the sale is set to begin quite soon.

PayPal's UK Twitter account today sent out a message revealing that this year's Summer sale kicks off at 6 PM BST (10 AM PT / 1 PM ET) on Thursday, June 22. It claims, "It's official," though, as noted above, Valve has still not made an actual announcement itself. Dubious as this may seem, PayPal appears to have a promotion (at least in the UK) where spending £20 on Steam with PayPal during the sale will save you £5. You can read the details of this here.

Deals from a previous Steam sale

PayPal's promotion runs until July 5, which may be the end of the Steam sale. These dates line up with an image that surfaced on Reddit last month, which alleged that the Steam sale would run from June 22 until July 5.

Assuming Valve doesn't implement any major changes, you can expect this to be a fairly straightforward sale. The company has moved away from complex setups where deals are rotated in at regular intervals throughout the day. We'll report back as more details are announced.

E3 2017: 6 Things We Learned About Xbox One X

The console's official name

Microsoft's upcoming console was previously codenamed Project Scorpio, and despite rumors that it might be called Xbox Scorpio or Xbox S, we learned from the company's E3 2017 press conference that the upcoming system has been officially named Xbox One X. What's slightly interesting about the name is that its acronym spells out XBOX.

While we already knew that it would feature an 8-core AMD SOC outfitted with an integrated GPU capable of delivering six teraflops of performance when we covered its tech specs, we also learned a bunch of new details about the system, which include its price, release date, design, and more.

Xbox One X price

As suggested from the rumored pricing leaks this morning, Microsoft confirmed that the Xbox One X will retail for $499. This puts it on par with the Xbox One's original retail price when it released in 2013. This also makes it cost roughly $100 more than the PS4 Pro's suggested retail price. It is worth mentioning that the Xbox One X will be noticeably more powerful than Sony's high-end console.

While $499 may be prohibitively expensive for some, it is inline with some predictions. Microsoft also offers the more affordable Xbox One S console geared for 1080p gaming. The cheaper system recently got a $50 price cut and retails for $250.

Xbox One X release date

The console is set to release worldwide on November 7, 2017. This puts it a year behind Sony's PlayStation 4 Pro, which released on November 10, 2016 for $399. While the PS4 Pro plays certain games at 4K, many of them are up-scaled using a rendering technique called checkerboard rendering. Microsoft asserts that the Xbox One X will be the "world's most powerful console" and can run games natively at true 4K.

Improvements to existing Xbox One games at 1080p

In addition to allowing you to play games at 4K, Microsoft asserted at its press conference that the Xbox One X would bolster existing Xbox One games in a number of ways that include adding anisotropic filtering, supporting AMD FreeSync, faster load times, and enabling supersampling; the latter of which renders games above 1080p and then downsizes them to an HDTV. This makes them look sharper than traditional 1080p.

$300 PlayStation VR Available For A Limited Time

Price of entry is one of the main barriers holding some people back from picking up their own VR headset. Sony's PlayStation VR aims to be a lower-priced option compared to its PC counterparts, but it's still an expensive purchase. At the moment, however, its cost is a bit more palatable.

Over on eBay, Newegg is selling the $400 PSVR for only $300. Discounts on the headset have not been commonplace, and this might well be the cheapest that a new version of the headset has been sold for since its launch last October.

Shipping on this deal is free, and Newegg is a reputable seller, but the offer is only available to those in the United States. It's unclear how long this discount will be available for, so you should act quickly if you're interested.

An important thing to note is that this doesn't come with anything but the headset itself--you'll still need a PS4 and a PS4 camera at a bare minimum. PlayStation Move controllers (two of which are included with $500 PSVR bundles) are optional but do often enhance the experience. You can GameSpot's PSVR review for more details.