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For my money, the biggest advantage console gaming has over PC gaming these days is that you can still get your games on physical discs and cartridges. With PlayStation ending discs for new releases in 2028 , that advantage is disappearing – and for at least one PC gamer, physical games are making a comeback on Steam with an extremely cool array of custom, SSD-based cartridges.

"Got a couple of used 2.5" SSDs for cheap so I decided to make a Game Cartridge system," Jibril-sama explains on Reddit . "Games are actually on those SSDs with a script to auto navigate steam to the game's page. Auto-starting the game right away is also possible."

The clip below shows a bunch of these cartridges, each of which comes in a slick custom casing with game art. Jibril-sama plugs one into a dock, and the game instantly becomes available to play on Steam. This is entirely impractical for a lot of reasons – we'll get into those in a minute – but there's no denying it's cool as hell.

Steam Game Cartridges from r/pcmasterrace

The system shown in the clip runs Linux, and "all it needs is a systemd template to check for a script on the SSD and launch it. And a udev rule to trigger the system," as Jibril-sama tells our friends at Tom's Hardware . "So basically: Plug in SSD -> udev rule sees the event -> triggers the systemd daemon -> systemd daemon looks into the SSD and finds the script -> execute the script."

But how on earth are you getting ahold of that much storage media unless you're literally the owner of an AI datacenter? Well, Jibril-sama apparently isn't kidding about getting those SSDs cheap – apparently the 128GB drives were just €7 apiece, which given storage prices these days, feels like trading beans for gold.

I had a pleasure to help with work on a viral project which took over a part of the internet yesterday!Check it out here:makerworld.com/en/models/30...All pictures were done by me, including the ones in Tom's Hardware article.#steam #PC #cartridge #photography #retro #gaming #DIY

— @princessmidori.bsky.social ( @princessmidori.bsky.social.bsky.social ) 2026-07-16T21:57:40.114Z

It's actually pretty easy to do the practical part of this without all the cool cartridges, since you can just designate an external USB drive to house your Steam library, either entirely or in part. It's a nifty way to keep all your games installed if you're out of room on your system's main drive, but admittedly, it's not nearly as fun as plugging individual games in.

And either way, "you still don't really 'own' the games on Steam," as Jibril-sama readily admits . You'll always be beholden to Valve's online authentication to actually play your games, which means this isn't really a way to preserve your library the same way as traditional physical media. "But it's at least something fun and useful to me personally."

Discontinuing physical discs is one thing, but the PlayStation Portal already hints at Sony's worrying ambitions for an all-digital future.

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Gemini 3.5 Pro is reportedly months behind schedule as Google works to improve the model.

Bloomberg says the delay has frustrated employees, with some worried Anthropic and OpenAI are pulling ahead.

Coding performance appears to be a major problem, despite Google recently updating the model’s training data.

Google will certainly feel that it belongs at the front of the AI race with the other big hitters , but its next big Gemini model is said to be struggling to get over the line. Gemini 3.5 Pro is reportedly months behind schedule as Google works to bring it up to its internal standards.

According to Bloomberg , the delay is based on information from people familiar with the matter, along with ten current and former Google employees. The setback has reportedly frustrated engineers, researchers, and managers inside the company, with some worried that Anthropic and OpenAI are beginning to pull further ahead.

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Turmoil at the American Diabetes Association has taken a fresh turn, with leaders blocking editors at its flagship journal from publishing an opinion piece and first-person accounts detailing a high-profile controversy at the group’s own annual meeting just last month.

Nearly five weeks after five diabetes specialists were escorted out of a conference center in New Orleans for handing out reprints of an editorial expressing concern over cuts to federal research, the ADA’s flagship journal, Diabetes Care, was preparing to publish an editorial and several accounts detailing the episode, which drew national attention and prompted the ADA to both apologize for the evictions and pledge a formal review. But the organization says it delayed publication pending the outcome of that review — even as there is disagreement about how it is being carried out.

In the spiked editorial and personal accounts, now available on an open-access website , the diabetes specialists who were ejected in early June detail their treatment. Prominent ADA members, including past leaders and one who resigned in the wake of the confrontation, also express dismay over how the events were handled initially and afterward. All voice disappointment over the decision to suppress views opposing policies of the Trump administration while also disagreeing with how ADA’s leadership handled the episode and its aftermath.

Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…

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Bitcoin Magazine

Crypto.com Secures $400M Investment From Citadel Securities at $20B Valuation

Global market maker Citadel Securities has invested $400 million in crypto exchange Crypto.com, giving the platform a $20 billion valuation, according to a Thursday announcement.

Crypto.com, which has a number of digital asset products, said the cash would help the Singapore-based company expand its services to assets such as blockchain-based securities and derivatives.

The cash will help bridge the gap “between digital asset and traditional markets to create a more efficient 24/7 financial ecosystem,” a Thursday announcement read.

“The size of the opportunity in front of us is staggering, as crypto increasingly becomes the rails for finance,” Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek said in a statement.

“Having built the right regulatory and tech infrastructure over the last decade, Crypto.com is now perfectly positioned to capture this new wave of growth across all asset classes.”

“The convergence of traditional financial markets and digital asset infrastructure is an exciting evolution with the potential to further improve market efficiency,” added Jim Esposito, President of Citadel Securities.

Thrilled to announce our first institutional funding round with a $400 million strategic investment from Citadel Securities valuing https://t.co/pFc4Pz8PQj at $20 billion. An incredible milestone 10 years in on our journey and the beginning of a new phase of growth. Grateful to…

— Kris (@kris) July 16, 2026

Wall Street’s interest in tokenization

Esposito’s comment comes as Wall Street interest in blockchain technology piques — despite a market slump.

Back in February, BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, announced that it was working with decentralised exchange Uniswap to bring one of its funds on-chain.

Before that, in January, the New York Stock Exchange said it was building a platform allowing traders to buy and sell tokenised versions of US-listed equities and exchange-traded funds.

And most recently, the S&P 500 gave crypto platform Trade[XYZ] the green light to debut a new derivative contract on decentralized exchange Hyperliquid, allowing traders to gain leveraged exposure to the top index.

Citadel’s crypto interest

Miami, Florida-based Citadel, has for some time been interested in digital assets: Back in 2023, the company helped debut EDX Markets, a “first-of-its-kind exchange” giving investors “safer, faster and more efficient cryptocurrency trading.”

The exchange this year applied for a national trust bank charter with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, marking a step toward deeper integration between digital asset firms and the US banking system.

Citadel last year also pumped $200 million into crypto exchange Kraken to help accelerate the company’s strategy of bringing traditional financial products on-chain.

This post Crypto.com Secures $400M Investment From Citadel Securities at $20B Valuation first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo .

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I was pretty excited when I read about Marathon's Vault Breaker PvE mode in June: I like shooting things, and I love the Marathon aesthetic, but the grind of extraction shooters just isn't my thing. In an update released today, ahead of next week's mid-season update, Bungie revealed more about the upcoming "experimental" PvE mode, including that its initial iteration will only be available for two weeks.

Vault Breaker will go live alongside the mid-season update on July 21, and will be playable until August 4. The full rollout is currently set to happen in Marathon season 3, which begins on September 22—although that won't necessarily be the date it goes live.

It's understandable that Bungie would want to go slow with Vault Breaker, at least to start. As "a roguelite PvE experience inside Cryo Archive," it makes significant changes to the Marathon formula: Players will access Vault Breaker with unique Sponsored Kits, and instead of extracting with the loot they've gathered, it will all be left behind. Instead, players will upgrade their equipment with a new kind of in-game currency collected during runs called Vault Data.

One new detail revealed in today's update is that there will be two tiers of Vault Data. Tier One Vault Data is found in vaults and must be exfilled in order to be collected, and will also be awarded for killing a UESC Commander regardless of whether or not you successfully extract; Tier Two Vault Data is only earned by successfully solving consecutive vaults on the same run, and then extracting. Bungie warned that "this will be especially tough for solo Runners," although you'll also be able to take the mode on in duos or trios, if you're into that sort of thing.

There will also be two tiers of Vault Data items offered on a weekly rotation, as well as a "daily deluxe weapon," Prestige weapons, and other items. However, while this equipment can be purchased with Vault Data, they're only for use in standard Marathon modes, and won't be available in Vault Breaker, which as mentioned is only accessible with Sponsored Kits.

"At the start, the kit is at its weakest, offering only one standard weapon along with a small amount of equipment and consumables," Bungie explained. "As you earn Vault Data, different upgrade paths will begin to open. You might want to focus on weapon quality. Others may want more survivability, or they may want to get started with a wider mix of implants and cores. The path is entirely up to you."

It's a long shot, but even so I hold out some small hope that Vault Breaker will be such an immediate success that Bungie decides to keep it around, rather than pulling it until season 3. PC Gamer Marathon man Rory Norris had similar thoughts about the new "PvP-lite" Sponsored Survival mode , an experimental queue that ran for a week in June: He said the mode is so good, "it should remain a permanent fixture and be expanded to the other maps once the test wraps up next week."

Bungie is in a tough spot right now. Destiny 2 is dead , the studio has been gutted , and the only bullet it has in the chamber is Marathon, which has not been a blockbuster success. I don't know how likely it is that the addition of a proper PvE mode will turn that around, but I'm eager to try it, and I hope that opening the door to players who want to engage with the setting but aren't big fans of extraction shooters proves a successful strategy.

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