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Week in Gaming: Microtransactions are seeping into console gaming, and it makes me feel bad

Imagine you’re a child. Imagine you’re out in the park one day, and you find a shiny 50p. Also, imagine it’s the 90s. Stick with me here. You take your hard-earned pocket money to the corner shop, selecting for yourself a paper bag of sherbet lemons and some Opal Fruits (“what excellent, historically accurate detail,” you say. “I am so totally immersed right now”). The huge, hairy shopkeeper looms at

Wiz Khalifa is the tenth member of YouTube's Billion Views Club

What do Wiz Khalifa, Mark Ronson, Meghan Trainor, Enrique Iglesias, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Justin Bieber and Psy all have in common? As you might have guessed if you read the headline, they all have videos with more than a billion views on YouTube. Khalifa’s See You Again, a tribute to the late Paul Walker and featured on the Furious 7 soundtrack album, is the newest member of that exclusive

Exclusive: GE nears deal to sell over $30 billion of loans to Wells Fargo – source

Wells Fargo has so far outbid other parties for General Electric’s vendor financing, commercial distribution finance and direct lending assets, the person with direct knowledge of the situation said on Friday. GE and Wells Fargo representatives declined to comment. The company unveiled its latest divestment agreement on Monday – for its North American corporate aircraft financing portfolio – bringing its total deals to date related GE Capital to $97 billion.

Dell to use VMware to help pay for EMC deal: sources

While the bulk of its offer will be in cash, Dell also plans to pay EMC shareholders with “tracking stock” that follows the value of the 20 percent of VMware that EMC does not own, the people said on Friday. Dell, EMC and VMware did not immediately respond to requests for comment. EMC shares ended trading on Friday up 2.5 percent at $27.86 after tech website Re/code reported that Dell

Fear and respect: VW's culture under Winterkorn

BERLIN/LONDON (Reuters) – Like many chief executives, Martin Winterkorn was a demanding boss who didn’t like failure. Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) has declined to comment on whether the firm’s culture or the management style of Winterkorn, who resigned last month, had been a factor in the cheating. Lawyers for Winterkorn did not respond to a request for comment.

JPMorgan again wins dismissal of whistleblower lawsuit in U.S

JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) on Friday won the dismissal of a U.S. whistleblower lawsuit filed by a former vice president who claimed the bank ignored red flags about a client’s potential fraud, even after authorities exposed the massive Ponzi scheme operated by longtime JPMorgan client Bernard Madoff. U.S. District Judge Robert Sweet in New York granted the bank’s motion to throw out the complaint, finding that Jennifer Sharkey had

Banks take spotlight as earnings season heats up

The financial sector, recently a weak performer in the stock market, will garner the majority of investor attention next week as a number of big banks post their quarterly results. Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Bank of America Corp, Wells Fargo & Co, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase & Co – the five biggest U.S. banks by market cap – are due to report results as the sector has trailed the market

Mexico expects first results in Volkswagen probe in three months

Mexico expects preliminary findings from a probe into Volkswagen’s compliance with emissions standards within three months, the environment minister said on Friday, adding the review will include gasoline-fueled cars as well as diesel. Mexico announced last month it was investigating whether Volkswagen cars complied with emissions rules in Latin America’s second economy, after Europe’s largest carmaker admitted to cheating in U.S. diesel emissions tests. “I expect we can begin to