A new camera has been designed by researchers using photodetectors, something that is so advanced it can see up to 28 miles away (45km) as long as it is placed high enough off the ground as it will be capturing photos across Earth's curvature).

The new camera technology has been created by researchers out of the University of Science and Technology of China in Shanghai that is capable of snapping a photo some 28 miles away in a smog-filled urban environment. Technology Review reports that their technique "uses single-photon detectors combined with a unique computational imaging algorithm that achieves super-high-resolution images by knitting together the sparsest of data points".

Zheng-Ping Li and his team made the low-cost, compact camera technology that blends the worlds of laser imaging technologies and AI, with Lidar-based imaging technology capable of shooting photos 10 miles away by bouncing a laser on the subject, this new technology takes it to the next level. Whereas previous camera technology was limited to 2D images at up to 10 miles away, the new camera snaps 3D images at a record-breaking 28 miles away.

Microsoft is gearing up towards its next-gen Xbox reveal at E3 2019 in just a few weeks time, with news breaking that its newest first-party game studio 'The Initiative' has landed an ex-Naughty Dog game developer.

Robert Ryan has joined The Initiative coming in EA's in-house Motive Studios working on an unannounced title, and before that from Naughty Dog as the game designer for Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, The Last of Us, Uncharged 4: A Thief's End and the new and yet unreleased The Last of Us: Part II. Ryan joins a team of talented and prolific game directors at The Initiative.

The Initiative is made up of a bunch of developers and staff that Microsoft aims to have the studio build games at the quality of God of War and Uncharted, but exclusive to the Xbox. The team is made up of talent coming in from Sony, Activision, Treyarch, Respawn Entertainment, and Riot Games. Remember that E3 2019 is right around the corner, so we should expect to see a tease of what The Initiative has been working on and hopefully we see it on the next-gen Xbox consoles.

EA and DICE introduced the battle royale mode 'Firestorm' into Battlefield V a little while back now and it hasn't really done much at all, especially against the likes of EA's other battle royale surprise Apex Legends.

But in the land Down Under including New Zealand and other nations in Oceania, have suffered from not just a lack of gamers wanting to play Firestorm, but the low ping range to DICE's own servers sucks pretty bad, too. A new Reddit post from Australian gamer Ciaran Doherty said Firestorm is "essentially impossible to play [Battlefield 5] at any time of day in any mode".

Doherty's comments continue: "For all intents and purposes, there is no such thing as Firestorm in this continent and to EA/DICE, your marketing material should reflect this. Please do not advertise Firestorm here, there are no players, no functional servers and no possibility for anyone buying the game for Firestorm to actually get what they paid for".

Rockstar is reportedly rolling out the red carpet for E3 2019 with a new rumor suggesting the developer will be surprising fans at E3 next month with an announcement or two.

The rumor is coming from Reddit user 'ThirdeyeReddit' who claims they're a Take-Two staffer and that the publisher is working on a "landing page" for an unannounced game that Rockstar will unveil at E3 2019. The anonymous poster said that the announcement will "blindside" gamers who were expecting to see Rockstar working on something else.

If we're going to play around in this scenario, what could Rockstar release that would "blindside" gamers? Well, the most obvious one would be Grand Theft Auto 6 which we've previously reported on other rumors that Sony paid "big money" to have it as a 1-month exclusive to its next-gen PlayStation 5 console. That would blindside gamers as most people aren't expecting it this soon, and more so in 2020-2021.

Amid dismal sales and disastrous profit losses, Starbreeze warns investors that it may have to close down and sell off its core assets to repay debts.

Starbreeze has been in trouble for some time now, but it's not out of the race yet. The company's financial woes have improved slightly in Q1, with profit losses reduced by a sizable 85% since last year ($11 million profit losses compared to $135 million). It's still in the red, but the shade has gotten a bit lighter. But make no mistake: things are still pretty dire for the Payday developer, and Starbreeze CEO Mikael Nermark isn't sure Starbreeze will last through the year.

"Starbreeze and some of its subsidiaries have been in reconstruction since 3 December 2018. The company currently lacks sufficient secured funds to guarantee continued operations for the next 12 months and is expected to have a liquidity shortfall before mid-year 2019 if no additional funds are provided," Nermark said in a recent earnings report. "These conditions indicate that there are significant uncertainties that can lead to significant doubts about the company's ability to continue its business."

With original PC shooters like Doom and Quake, id Software is known far and wide for their FPS mastery. But there's one scrappy up-and-comer who's garnered lots of attention with their Wolfenstein reboots...and the two giants could join forces to make a new Quake game.

My friends and I have wanted a new Quake game for a while. Quake 4 was bizarre and awesome all at the same time, but it's been quite a while since gamers got an explosive, singleplayer-driven gothic-medieval gorefest. When Bethesda took over id Software it delivered Quake Champions...a so-so multiplayer fragfest aimed at engagement and live services. But we need something more...and Quake deserves something meaty.

If MachineGames founder Jerk Gustafsson has his way, the Wolfenstein devs will work with id to make a brand new re-imagining of the Quake series. "Quake is the reason I got into gaming. Discovering WorldCraft and Level Design, making maps for Quake, was one of the best experiences of my life - I even still do it today. Developing a Quake game (a re-imagination of Quake 1) is and will always be on my bucket list, but working with Wolfenstein and getting to work closely with my heroes over at id Software is pretty awesome too," Gustafsson said in a recent Reddit AMA.

Square Enix isn't giving up on new IP curation and investment, and plans to bolster big franchises like Final Fantasy with fresh new endeavors.

All too often big publishers shy away from new IPs to focus on big franchises. Activision-Blizzard is pretty much exclusively making sequels in core IPs, but Japanese games-makers are taking a different tact. Today Square Enix revealed its FY2018 financials, and they weren't too good: operating income was down 35%, and total profits dipped by 28%. But the company's earnings slips aren't inspiring Activision-Blizzard's tunnel vision. The publisher promises to put even more emphasis on new series and franchises to help generate more sales.

"We will aggressively invest in new IP on an ongoing basis to enrich our portfolio and enable sustained growth," Square Enix said in its latest earnings brief.

Square Enix's recent performance shows the publisher is ramping up for a big future...but it probably won't happen this year.

Square Enix today announced its earnings for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019, showing dips in operating income and profits while total expenditures rose by 20%. Key metrics show a sizable jump in game sales thanks to Kingdom Hearts III's massive acclaim, prompting total net sales revenues to rise 8.2% YoY to 271 billion yen ($2.44 billion). Earnings slips offset this favorable performance, however.

Other metrics failed to rise during the year. Operating income for the FY2018 period dropped a big 35% YoY to 24.5 billion yen ($220.91 million), and Square Enix notes this dip is caused by larger investment in the year's under-performing games. Total profits sit at 18.4 billion yen ($165.91 million), dropping almost 30% from last year's.

Although Square Enix plans to show off more Final Fantasy VII: Remake at E3 2019, the first chapter of the trilogy may not release in 2019.

Square Enix's latest earnings report gives visibility into the publisher's upcoming pipeline and may hint at release timings for some of its biggest games. There's usually telltale signs that accompany any big game's launch year, including earnings spikes and sales jumps. Those indicators aren't found in Square Enix's forecasts for this year, but next year.

The publisher expects earnings to moderate in the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2020. Square Enix predicts it'll make 270 billion yen ($2.43 billion) in net sales, with its gaming branch raking in 200 billion yen ($1.8 billion) across the year, slightly down from last year. Overall sales are also expected to drop this fiscal year, which doesn't really align with the launch of a huge game like Final Fantasy VII: Remake. It expects to sell 18.27 million copies this year, down 31% year-over-year. Last year Square Enix sold 26.55 million copies of games thanks to Kingdom Hearts III's strong performance, so admittedly there's a high threshold to break this year...but the FF7 Remake shouldn't have a problem doing so.

Backers of the crowdfunding project Outer Wilds have been shocked as the publisher has decided to convert the title into a timed Epic Games Store exclusive.

In a recent update to the official Fig listing for Outer Wilds, it is addressed to backers that the publishing team behind Outer Wilds have "welcomed helpful partnerships with Annapurna Interactive, Xbox, and Epic" to "keep our small studio running long enough to ship the game at the level of quality that it is today". It should be noted that Outer Wilds has been available to back since 2015 and that the title originally advertised to fans that it would be released onto Mac, Linux and Windows via Steam.

Many fans have turned on the title now, with dislike bombing occuring on the above Outer Wilds crowdfunding video and angry backers taking to Reddit to express their disgust. Reddit user Daear took to the /r/outerwilds sub reddit and said: "As of update #72 from the Outer Wilds team, the game will be a timed exclusive for Xbox One and PC via Epic Games store (source). Other platforms will be "coming later", and the team promises their goal is to "bring the game to your preferred platform as quickly as possible".