The last hours of April Fools’ Day are ticking away in the US.

As is tradition many tech companies ran elaborate April Fools’ Day pranks, with plausible or downright ridiculous gags.

Here’s a round-up of the top 10 April Fools’ Day pranks we found on the web.

Nvidia acquires Valve, Half-Life 3 confirmed

Any news involving Half-Life 3 is a surefire way to get clicks. Gamers around the world are eagerly awaiting more news on how Gordon Freeman’s journey will continue, as it’s been over a decade since Half-Life 2 was released. Since then we’ve only had three episodic mini-games, but they are nowhere near as satisfying as a real Half-Life adventure.

Our friends at TweakTown decided to have some laugh on April 1, and published a piece claiming that Valve had been acquired by Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Half-Life 3 had been scheduled for a 2016 release. Very funny.

A Steam Box. With Steam

We’ve heard a lot about Valve’s Steam Machine, which promises to create a console-like experience for PC gamers.

But what about a PC box, powered by steam?

That’s a new product that ThinkGeek was advertising on April 1. Given that some gamers are looking to save on their power bills, bhit might be the perfect solution.

Samsung Galaxy Blade Edge

While Apple (NASDAQ: APPL) has a product strategy of focusing on a few key products, its rival Samsung (KRX: 005930) has a strategy of flooding the market with products. For every iPhone, there’s seemingly three or four Galaxy smartphones.

Samsung announced on April 1 that it was expanding the Galaxy line into the kitchen. Not with an appliance like a toaster or fridge, but rather with a knife.

MS-DOS for mobile

Everyone knows that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) needs all the help it can get when it comes to mobile platforms.

Maybe the mobile revolution Microsoft needs is a new operating system? We all know that consumers aren’t that interested in Windows 8 on mobile. Or, perhaps, what about re-branding an old, stoic operating system for modern mobile platforms?

Presenting MS-DOS Mobile.

While this is a joke, you can actually download the app from Microsoft’s Windows mobile app store. Check it out.

Selfie sticks for pets

Selfie sticks are all the rage these days. They are so popular that some tourist attractions and museums have outrighted banned them.

But what about a selfie stick for pets?

Instead of using a bluetooth powered button, these selfie sticks are activated by a bark or a meow.

The post 2015: Top Five April Fools’ Day Pranks on the Web appeared first on VR World.

Valve has confirmed that it won’t be holding a big press conference at GDC 2015 today, contrary to rampant internet rumors of a Half-Life 3 reveal on 3/3 at 3pm.

The news comes straight from Kotaku, who spoke to Valve marketing director Doug Lombardi to confirm the whole thing is a “big mix up”. Valve apparently has no plans to hold any kind of huge press conference today at GDC.

It turns out the confused 3pm “event” is actually a game physics presentation from Valve programmer Sergiy Migdalskiy that aims at teaching “fundamental elements and practical considerations for using collision detection and physics simulations in games”

How did this happen?

HTC and Valve have teamed up to make the Vive VR headset a reality, leading to speculation that Half-Life 3 could be a perfect launch title.

On the heels of HTC (TPE: 2498) ‘s big announcement in partnering with Valve to make their VR headset “Vive” a reality, gamers started speculating that Half-Life 3 would be a perfect game to release on the new peripheral. It could be a match made in heaven, and it would certainly shake up the games industry.

Then a particular BBC News article came up that seemingly cemented the news. The article had a quote from HTC Chairwoman Cher Wang saying that “We are co-operating with Half-life, and I think… I hope, you know, it will be on it.”

This little bit of interview text had gamers speculating rapidly across forums and social media, fueled to an inferno thanks to this little tidbit in the BBC article:

“Valve is expected to provide more details about the launch at its own presentation at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco on Tuesday.”

In reality, Wang’s words have been misconstrued; she “hopes” that Half-Life will be on the Vive VR headset–but we all know how far rumors have been known to reach. Plus the BBC article in question has been updated with the following text that pretty much nixes hope.

“But the BBC understands that Valve’s own employees were surprised by Ms Wang’s comments as they were not working on a Half-life game for the new helmet at the moment,” an update on the article reads.

The part about a press conference on March 3 at 3pm was mostly fabricated by Reddit posts, which then spread across to Twitter and pretty much had the entire gaming world expecting to see a Half-Life 3 reveal in the afternoon.

Chances are that if Valve’s own marketing director says that it’s a “big mix up”, then it most assuredly is.

This is just another one of those failed Half-Life 3 rumors that drove the internet into a frenzy, and we’ll likely see more rumors spawn until Valve issues some sort of concrete news.

Source: Kotaku

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