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Chaos Agents Private Alpha launches along with crowdfunding campaign on Republic, oversubscribed within 6 hours

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Popularium’s first game sees more than 20,000 players applying for 1,000 Alpha spots, closes $50,000 equity crowdfunding target in less than 6 hours

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 26, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Chaos Agents, the world’s first autobattler-royale, designed by Richard Garfield and the first game developed by Popularium, launched its private Alpha today. Since the announcement of the private Alpha at Gen Con 2024 in Indianapolis, more than 20,000 players have signed up for 1,000 seats. To meet the demand, Popularium will increase the number of Alpha seats to 5,000 for the initial launch of the Alpha, and plans to expand the Alpha beyond 10,000 players in early 2025.

“We have been overwhelmed by the response to the Alpha announcement,” said Arka Ray, President and CTO at Popularium. “The number of players who want to join the Alpha and experience Richard’s vision has been over 20 times more than we anticipated. And we continue to get hundreds of new applications each week. We’re expecting more than 30 thousand applicants by year end. The team is working through the holidays to accommodate as many players as possible at this early stage of the Alpha. We want every applicant to have an opportunity to experience Chaos Agents as soon as possible.”

To prepare for this rapid expansion, Popularium launched an equity crowdfunding campaign on the Republic platform. The campaign was fully committed and then oversubscribed within six hours of launching publicly. The Popularium campaign on Republic enables members of the public to invest in Popularium. Ray attributed the rapid close of the campaign to players and fans of Popularium co-founders Richard Garfield (Magic: the Gathering) and Jonathan Bankard (Hearthstone, World of Warcraft, Diablo, Command and Conquer) wanting to directly support the development of their next original game.

“This is an exciting time for Chaos Agents,” said Garfield in a community Q&A on the occasion of launch of the Chaos Agents Alpha and crowdfunding campaign on Republic. “The game is being really well received by players, much more so than I expected at this early stage. There are so many different types of play modes that we want to build into Chaos Agents, and thanks to the community and the technology we have built, it’s becoming clear what we can and should be building. There’s no more exciting time for a game’s development when players are clearly enjoying it, but at the same time the opportunities for improvements seem endless.”

The Alpha Launch follows the announcement that Popularium has committed to the “forever multiplayer game” model for Chaos Agents. Through the use of dedicated servers and its proprietary Chaos Cloud Gaming Engine, Popularium plans to ensure that Chaos Agents will be a multiplayer game that “can’t be killed” or taken offline. Players are expected to always have a way to play the game with the globally unique superheroes they have recruited to their team. Garfield and Ray attributed the positive response from this announcement as having helped generate additional interest in the Chaos Agents Alpha and crowdfunding campaign.

In Chaos Agents, the first game of the “autobattler-royale” genre, players coach and guide a globally unique superhero – their Chaos Agent – to victory in a grand battle royale against dozens of other Agents. The player coaches and powers their hero up through deep, strategic card play similar to Garfield’s legendary games, such as Magic and Keyforge, and then sits back and watches as their Agent goes to battle, preparing for the next round of upgrades. Each Agent is globally unique – which means that only one player in the world will be able to play with an Agent at a time and become the global expert on that Agent.

“Evolving and creating new genres is just so much fun,” said Jonathan Bankard, Game Director for Chaos Agents. “All of us at Popularium have worked on projects like Magic and Hearthstone that started as small dreams that ended up impacting many more players than we initially hoped. We are trying something similar with Chaos Agents–to bring the autobattler genre of games to many more people through the proven format of battle royales. The advantage we now have is the early involvement of our community in helping us polish this uncut gem into a brilliant, shining diamond through their play and now investments that let them own a piece of Popularium.”

Chaos Agents plans to expand its Alpha in late January together with the Second Chaos World Championship, and plans to expand the Alpha capacity each month before entering Early Access in late 2025. Players can sign up for the Alpha at popularium.com and request priority access by joining the Chaos Agents Discord server.

About Popularium: Popularium was founded by an all-star team of gaming industry veterans behind the largest multiplayer games and platforms in history, such as Magic: The Gathering, Hearthstone, World of Warcraft, and Xbox Live, to innovate and create gaming experiences. Popularium started from a simple idea: What would games look like if they involved the community from an early stage? What if this community had the tools to impact the narrative and economy by playing games the way they want to, rather than the way games wanted them to play? Chaos Agents, designed by Popularium co-founder Richard Garfield, is Popularium’s first effort to bring this vision to life.

Press Contact: Chris Gale, Chris@GaleStrategies.com 

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SOURCE Popularium

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SK hynix Begins Mass Production of 192GB SOCAMM2 ‘Setting a New Standard for AI Server Memory Performance’

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–     Mass production of 192GB high capacity products designed for the NVIDIA Vera Rubin platform
–     Maximizes power efficiency by featuring high density DRAM based on the latest 1cnm process
–     Company to closely collaborate with NVIDIA to solve bottlenecks in AI infrastructure and provide optimal performance

SEOUL, South Korea, April 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — SK hynix Inc. (or “the company”, www.skhynix.com) announced today that it has begun mass production of the 192GB SOCAMM2, a next-generation memory module standard based on the 1cnm process (sixth-generation of the 10-nanometer technology) LPDDR5X low-power DRAM.

SOCAMM2[1] is a module that adapts low-power memory – which was previously used mainly in mobile products like smartphones – for server environments. It is designed to be a primary memory solution for next-generation AI servers.

[1]SOCAMM2 (Small Outline Compression Attached Memory Module 2): An AI server–optimized memory module based on LPDDR. It offers a slim form factor and high scalability, while its compression connector enhances signal integrity and allows for easy module replacement

SK hynix emphasized that the 1cnm based SOCAMM2 product that is now in mass production delivers more than double the bandwidth with over 75% improved power efficiency compared to conventional RDIMM[2], providing an optimized solution for high performance AI operations.

[2]RDIMM (Registered Dual In-Line Memory Module): DRAM module for server/workstation that includes a register or buffer chip to relay address and command signals between the memory controller and DRAM chip in a memory module

In particular, the company noted that its SOCAMM2 products are designed for NVIDIA Vera Rubin platform.

SK hynix expects the new SOCAMM2 product will fundamentally resolve the memory bottlenecks encountered during the training and inference of large language model (LLM) with hundreds of billions of parameters, thereby playing a pivotal role in dramatically accelerating the processing speed of the overall system.

The company stated that with the AI market shifting focus from inference to training, SOCAMM2 is gaining significant attention as a next-generation memory solution capable of operating LLMs with low power consumption. To meet the demands of its global Cloud Service Provider (CSP) customers, SK hynix has not only been providing a supply portfolio, but also stabilized its mass production system early on.

“By supplying the 192GB SOCAMM2, SK hynix has established a new standard for AI memory performance,” Justin Kim, President & Head of AI Infra (CMO, Chief Marketing Officer) at SK hynix said. “We will solidify our position as the most trusted AI memory solution provider, through close collaboration with our global AI customers.”

About SK hynix Inc.

SK hynix Inc., headquartered in Korea, is the world’s top-tier semiconductor supplier offering Dynamic Random Access Memory chips (“DRAM”) and flash memory chips (“NAND flash”) for a wide range of distinguished customers globally. The Company’s shares are traded on the Korea Exchange, and the Global Depository shares are listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. Further information about SK hynix is available at www.skhynix.com, news.skhynix.com.

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SOURCE SK hynix Inc.

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EBANX announces expansion into four Southeast Asian countries and Turkey, unlocking a USD 610 billion digital market

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Following the inauguration of its Asia-Pacific Headquarters in Singapore, EBANX brings its payments infrastructure to Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Turkey, opening access to more than 380 million consumers for global merchants

SINGAPORE, April 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — EBANX, a global technology company specializing in cross-border payment services for emerging markets, today announced it will begin operating in five new countries: Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Turkey. With this expansion, EBANX will have integrated payment methods across seven economies in Asia, including India and the Philippines. Combined, they represent a USD 610 billion opportunity in digital commerce and more than 1.1 billion consumers, according to data from Payments and Commerce Market Intelligence (PCMI) and World Data Lab (WDL) analyzed by EBANX. The five new markets alone account for 57% of that volume and 386 million of those consumers — whose spending is projected to grow 97% over the next decade, faster than regions like Europe, the US, and Canada, per WDL data featured in EBANX’s Beyond Borders 2026 study.

EBANX’s announcement follows a series of milestones in the region: the inauguration of its Asia-Pacific Headquarters in Singapore, a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), and the appointment of Eduardo de Abreu as Chief Product Officer (CPO) and regional CEO of EBANX Singapore.

“Asia is where the world’s fastest-growing consumer base is, and also where some of the most ambitious digital companies are headquartered,” said João Del Valle, Co-founder and CEO of EBANX. “Our investment in the region allows us to be closer to both. Global companies need local payment infrastructure to reach Asian consumers, and Asian companies need that same expertise to sell internationally. The opportunity runs in both directions.”

Among the five new EBANX’s additions, Vietnam is the fastest-growing digital commerce market, with a 22% compound annual rate through 2027, according to PCMI projections — rising from USD 36 billion to USD 44 billion. The others are not far behind. Indonesia will expand 19% over the same period, from USD 106 billion to USD 125 billion. Turkey’s 15% growth takes it from USD 123 billion to USD 142 billion. Malaysia and Thailand round out the group at 16% and 15%, respectively.

As global merchants look to diversify beyond established markets like the U.S., Europe, Brazil, and Mexico, cross-border demand in these economies is already waiting for them: international transactions account for 30% of e-commerce volume in Thailand and Malaysia, and 28% in the Philippines.

EBANX’s operations in Indonesia, Thailand, and Turkey are already available to merchants, with Malaysia and Vietnam set to follow in the next quarter. These operations will be fully supported by EBANX’s APAC HQ in Singapore.

A region that skipped the card era

Southeast Asia’s payment landscape is structurally distinct from other emerging markets. EBANX’s new countries of payment operations largely bypassed card infrastructure entirely, going from cash straight to e-wallets and account-to-account (A2A) transfers. Combined, those two methods account for 65% of e-commerce in Thailand, 61% in Indonesia, 50% in the Philippines, 35% in Malaysia, and 21% in Vietnam, according to PCMI.

“This did not happen by accident,” explained Eduardo de Abreu, Chief Product Officer and regional CEO of EBANX Singapore. “Southeast Asia has one of the youngest, most digitally fluent consumer populations in the world. Many of them got their first smartphone before they ever had a bank account, and certainly before they had a credit card. Digital wallets and instant transfers solved a real problem for a generation that was already living online.”

According to WDL data analysed by EBANX, Southeast Asia and India are the only regions where Generation Z holds the largest share of online spending across all verticals, at 27%. Elsewhere in Asia, Generation X leads at 30% — nearly double Gen Z’s 18% share.

How to reach local consumers

That payment landscape has become a barrier for global companies looking to scale in the region. According to an EBANX survey with its merchants, its fragmentation and low card usage often lead to performance issues that prevent them from reaching local consumers.

“The global companies we talk to about Southeast Asia are no longer asking about the region’s potential; they are asking how to unlock that potential and achieve high conversion rates,” said Abreu. “Our APAC Headquarters in Singapore gives us the regulatory anchor and the operational proximity to build country-by-country solutions that actually convert. We have been working toward this expansion for years, and the infrastructure is ready.”

Considering the seven Asian countries in EBANX’s portfolio, the company will have integrated more than 20 payment methods across the region. Among them are some of the most widely used alternative payment methods in each market, such as digital wallets and account-to-account (A2A) transactions—like bank transfers and QR-based paymentsas well as credit and debit cards.

ABOUT EBANX

EBANX is the leading technology platform connecting global businesses to the world’s fastest-growing digital markets. Founded in 2012 in Brazil, EBANX was built with a mission to expand access to international digital commerce. Leveraging proprietary technology, deep market expertise, and robust infrastructure, the platform enables global businesses to offer hundreds of local payment methods and streamline cross-border payments across Latin America, Africa, and Asia. With a global footprint, it established a technology and regulatory headquarters in Singapore in 2026. More than just payments, EBANX drives growth, enhances sales, and delivers seamless purchase experiences for businesses and end users alike.

For further information, please visit:
Website: https://www.ebanx.com/en/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ebanx

Media Contact:
Shan Huang
shan.huang@ahgstrategies.com 

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SOURCE EBANX

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Agoda Report Highlights Opportunities for Japanese Hoteliers to Capture Asia’s Travelers as Only 34% Reach Advanced Localization

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Insights from Agoda’s latest report highlight how moving beyond basic localization can drive stronger revenue outcomes as Japan sees rising intra-Asia travel demand

SINGAPORE, April 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Digital travel platform Agoda, in its latest deep dive report “Tailored to Win: Mastering Localization to Capture Asia’s Travelers in Japan“, reveals opportunities for Japanese hotels to capture more value from Asia’s fast-growing travel demand, with only 34% of properties having progressed beyond basic localization strategies.

Among surveyed properties, 71% of hotels at early stages of localization report positive revenue outcomes, compared to all hotels that have implemented more advanced localization, showing that while early efforts are delivering results, a more holistic approach maximizes commercial outcomes.

According to the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), the market welcomed over 42 million international visitors in 2025, a 16% year-on-year increase, with Asian travelers accounting for over 80% of all arrivals.[1]  With such a high concentration of regional travelers, tailored strategies are becoming essential for hotels looking to better capture Japan’s Asian visitor market.

Agoda’s report highlights that with around 7 in 10 visitors coming from just five key Asian markets (South Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Thailand), hotels need to move beyond one-size-fits-all strategies and tailor their offerings to the distinct preferences of each market, whether through localized digital payment options, language support or culturally relevant on-site experiences. Hotels that adopt this more integrated approach are already seeing results, with around 80% of surveyed hoteliers reporting improvements in bookings.

“Only 34% of hotels have reached advanced stages of localization today with real opportunity lying in accelerating these efforts across the guest experience,” said Tadashi Ikai, Senior Country Director for Japan at Agoda. “By closing gaps across payments, language, and cultural understanding, hotels can better connect with Japan’s highly concentrated Asian traveler base and turn this into a sustained competitive advantage.”

Despite the potential results, Japanese hotels face several challenges in advancing localization efforts. According to the report, hoteliers cite limitations in payment integrations and marketing resources (each at 51%) as key barriers, alongside gaps in foreign language capabilities and awareness of cultural norms (each at 49%). These constraints continue to slow the adoption of more advanced, market-specific strategies.

As Japan’s tourism landscape becomes increasingly shaped by regional travel, the ability to deliver culturally attuned and localized guest experiences is becoming a key differentiator. To help partners navigate these challenges, Agoda’s report includes targeted “Quick Wins” based on traveler motivations:

South Korean Travelers: Seeks cultural exploration and unique local experiencesChinese Travelers: Spends more on experiences such as dining and activities rather than accommodationTaiwanese Travelers: Strongly motivated by culinary exploration and wellness experiencesHong Kong Travelers: Frequent, tech-savvy repeat visitors who value flexibility and convenienceThai Travelers: Often travel in families and favor budget-conscious, short-haul getaways

Agoda’s digital suite for localization draws on a global network of over 6 million diverse accommodations across markets, enabling partners to better align their offerings with the preferences of different traveler segments. With support for 39 languages, multi-currency payment options, and 24/7 customer support, Agoda helps hotels deliver more seamless and locally relevant experiences. Dedicated programs such as the Agoda Growth Program for visibility in priority markets, country-specific promotions and Agoda Media Solutions for native-language campaigns further support partners in localizing effectively. Through Agoda’s platform and expertise, hotels can overcome barriers, reach new segments and optimize their returns from international demand.

To explore how practical localization tips and actionable insights can help hotels capture more value from Asia’s diverse traveler base, download the full report at https://ago-da.co/4bAITjm.

[1] Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) (2025), “Tourism Statistics Database – Inbound Travel to Japan (Annual Data 2025).”
Available at: https://www.tourism.jp/en/tourism-database/stats/inbound/

 

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SOURCE Agoda

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