Now that smartphone makers are finally starting to adopt wireless charging more often into their newer models, companies are beginning to make it easier to use the technology by offering wireless charging pads in their products and services – for example Starbucks are trialling wireless charging coasters on some UK stores. Now the world’s largest furniture retailer, IKEA, is all geared up to give the technology a major boost by announcing a range of lamps and other furniture which will have wireless charging built-in to them.

As part of its commitment to making homes smarter, IKEA will soon launch a range of desk, table and floor lamp with wireless charging pads included in the base or a platform higher up. The technology being built-in to the lamps is based on the more common “Qi” standard – the market leader in wireless charging technology – so most smartphones with wireless-charging capability will charge as soon as you leave them on the lamp. However, should you happen to have an iPhone or a flagship Samsung phone – which both utilise a rival technology – IKEA will also sell you a number of wireless charging covers that will let you take advantage of your new power-giving furniture as well.

Besides the lamps, IKEA will also offer two wireless charging bedside tables; as well as charging pads to add the technology to your existing furniture. The wireless charging lamps and bedside tables will be available to buy in all UK IKEA stores from mid-April, starting at £30. The company has also confirmed that its new range will debut in US stores at the same time, but pricing will be announced in the near future.

Tools firm Autodesk is due to debut their entry into the game engines market at GDC in San Francisco with a preview of their Stingray Game Engine.

Built on the tech found in the Bitsquid engine that Autodesk acquired last summer, Stingray is supposed to be designed to be user-friendly for both experienced developers as well as those just starting out; helping them create what Autodesk says will be “graphically advanced games” for a range of different platforms. Last year Autodesk said that the new engine would “change the way games are made and buildings designed”.

The demonstration will take place on Wednesday March 4th in Room 3003 of the Moscone Center’s West Hall from 3:30pm to 4:30pm. They hope to demonstrate how the engine will allow developers to evaluate how their games run on multiple platforms as well as the integration with 3D content tools, among other things.

Already one developer, Fatshark Games, is using the engine for their Warhammer: End Times title, Vermintide.

Studios will be able to learn more about the engine, as well as gaining Beta access from the www.autodesk.com/stingray site.

It was announced this morning that the UK retailer GAME has acquired the gaming events company Multiplay in a deal worth about £20 million.

GAME is a well-known gaming retailer in the UK, with a store in most major cities and many towns as well. They are known for holding competitions to win games, gaming related mechandise as well as being a collection point for special free exclusive content such as prize Pokemon; they also are usually the focal point for midnight releases of big name games. Multiplay is an events company that also provides servers for online multiplayer gaming, with their most popular event being a gaming festival called Insomnia that takes place 3 times a year and will have its 54th event this April.

The deal will see GAME paying £12.6m of the £20m up front, with the reminder of the price being made up by cash and shares over the next three years. The CEO of Multiplay, Craig Fletcher, will remain in charge of Multiplay reporting in to GAME CEO Martyn Gibbs; so far no jobs are reported to be under threat due to the deal.

“With our combined passion and expertise, we are looking forward to delivering more, bigger and better experiences for our communities and are excited for what the future holds.” said Gibbs about the deal.

GAME itself had troubles a few years back when the company went into administration, with a number of stores closing down as a result. Happily they managed to survive and this deal only proves that they’ve managed to recover from the problems of the past.

In their “Utopia in Progress” presentation at the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona earlier today, HTC announced that they have entered into partnership with Valve to develop virtual reality technology, showing off a small video presentation to show off their new headset – the HTC Vive.

We’ve already heard from Valve that they’re planning to develop VR hardware called SteamVR that will be properly shown off at GDC in a few days, but the announcement of a partnership means that HTC, developer of smartphones and other related devices, will be one of the first to be making use of the SteamVR system.

Speaking on stage to the crowd HTC CEO Peter Chou talked about Valve as the leader in gaming saying that they were “dedicated to bringing the best” to their customers. He said that HTC were “so excited” to be working with them on this project and that HTC believes that virtual reality will have the ability to “totally transform” the way we interact with the world, and will eventually become a mainstream device for the general consumer, with the possibilities being “limitless”.

The Vive will make use of 70 sensors allowing for full 360-degree exploration and will have a 1200×1920 screen in each eye, powered by a 90Hz refresh rate. HTC have also announced two VR game controllers that will work in tandem with the headset so each hand can be represented accurately within the virtual space.

HTC will be at GDC along with Valve, and we know that Valve plan to demonstrate the SteamVR there so it’ll be interesting to see if the two companies are planning to do presentations and demonstrations in tandem there or not.

Final Fantasy XIV has offered some free time to inactive players of the game as a celebration for the reaching of a new milestone for the game – they’ve bypassed the four million mark on the total of account registrations.

This of course is registrations, not subscriptions. World of Warcraft still far and away holds the subscription record right now having bypassed the ten million mark; but Square Enix aren’t doing too badly in an MMO industry where you need to have a good game to keep people paying a monthly fee to play.

The free play time is aimed at players who have let their subscriptions lapse and will be running until March 9th 1 AM PDT. To qualify you need to have purchased and registered the game and have your account currently be inactive, a status you can check on Square Enix’s website if you’re unsure.

It seems Square Enix have really turned around XIV as a game, given that before its relaunch as A Realm Reborn it was not considered a good game at all and was once described as having “greatly damaged” the brand of Final Fantasy by Square Enix’s CEO. To have reached 4 million registrations is very positive news for the company.

If you haven’t ever played the game before, Square Enix do offer a 14-day free trial for you to try out. It does have some limits though, like having a level cap of 20.