CD Projekt Red wants Cyberpunk 2077 to be a huge success

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Mar 15, 2017 2:16 AM CDT

CD Projekt Red has been one of the best AAA gaming studios in the world, and one of the most awarded and respected - especially with The Witcher 3. Now the developer is working on its next title, Cyberpunk 2077, and the anticipation of the game is reaching fever levels.

CD Projekt Red wants Cyberpunk 2077 to be a huge success

During an interview with Polish website Gazeta, CD Projekt Red co-founder Michał Kicińsk said that the team didn't expect The Witcher 3 to be so successful - but added that there's still room to grow and learn, so that the team can catch up with even bigger developers. He said: "I think that none of us expected such an unbelievable success of the game and CD Projekt itself. We're talking about a game, that has pretty much won every single award and accolade that you can in this industry".

Kiciński added: "If we're to expect something more, it would be even better sales of the game. My brother Adam (CD Projekt's CEO) spoke about it at one of the investors conferences. The Witcher 3 was of course a gigantic commercial success, but in terms of sales there's still a lot of room for growth. CD Projekt's ambition is to catch up with the largest developers in the world in that area".

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Project Scorpio has built-in PSU, no huge power supply

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Mar 15, 2017 12:48 AM CDT

The latest rumor on Microsoft's upcoming Xbox console is that it will have a built-in PSU, versus the gigantic power supply that has accompanied previous Xbox consoles.

Project Scorpio has built-in PSU, no huge power supply

Windows Central is reporting the latest rumor, that unlike the Xbox One - Project Scorpio will have a built-in PSU like the Xbox One S refresh console. This is great news, as the power brick on the Xbox One was absolutely ridiculous in size - but the built-in PSU on Xbox One S was welcomed.

Project Scorpio is Microsoft's next-gen Xbox console, which is a 4K-capable game console that will have some tricks up its sleeve - like we've reported previously with a 4K Game DVR recording function. This new feature will use the HEVC codec to encode 4K footage at 60FPS, for both the Game DVR and streaming.

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'The Matrix' is about to reboot... without its creators

Ben Gourlay | Celebrities & Entertainment | Mar 15, 2017 12:31 AM CDT

After laying dormant for nearly 15 years, it seems that Warner Bros are looking to bring back 'The Matrix' trilogy - without the involvement of director-creator duo, the Wachowskis.

'The Matrix' is about to reboot... without its creators

In an explosive rumor from the very reliable Hollywood Reporter, it seems that 'Creed' star Michael B Jordan is being tagged to star in what's said to be very early discussions for a 'Matrix reboot. Warner Bros refused to provide comment to the publication.

A number of years ago, it was reported that the Wachowski's were in talks with the studio for more 'Matrix' projects, but that appears to have stalled, as did a TV spin-off in more recent times.

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Qualcomm using Snapdragon 835 to dominate Helio X30

Anthony Garreffa | CPU, APU & Chipsets | Mar 14, 2017 10:25 PM CDT

Qualcomm is positioning itself in a big way for the mobile world with its new Snapdragon 835 processor, expanding its market share of the 10nm built chip - scooping up market share from MediaTek and its new Helio X30 chip.

Qualcomm using Snapdragon 835 to dominate Helio X30

DigiTimes reports that its sources said: "Despite reports of a low yield rate of the 10nm chips, Qualcomm has continued to land orders for its Snapdragon 835 from the global major smartphone vendors with shipments to grow significantly starting the second quarter".

Qualcomm is continuing to get new orders from customers for its Snapdragon 835, with improved software and firmware being released for the platform, according to the sources. I could place bets on Qualcomm owning the high-end smartphone processor game this year, as the Snapdragon 835 is shaping up into quite the beast, and will power Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ smartphones that will be announced later this month, and released in April.

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NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX 1080 Ti sold out already

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Mar 14, 2017 9:29 PM CDT

It shouldn't be too surprising at this point, but NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition graphics cards are sold out already - with NVIDIA seeing unprecedented demand for its $699 graphics card. This is both great news, and bad news.

NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX 1080 Ti sold out already

First: the great side of it - gamers are starving for a super high-end graphics card, and NVIDIA over delivered with the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti. We have similar performance to the Titan X which costs $1200, but NVIDIA crammed it all into the $699 graphics card that became the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti. Demand is far exceeding the supply of GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards, with most e-tailers and retailers either having no stock, or quickly running out. New stock isn't expected until March 25, which is 10 days away.

The bad side of it: NVIDIA can't make enough GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition cards to keep up with demand, so what does this mean for AIB partners and their custom GTX 1080 Ti cards? This will mean we'll be waiting a little longer for the custom GTX 1080 Ti, possibly waiting until the end of April... which is 6 weeks away. That's a very long time in the gaming world, or in any sense - and the GTX 1080 Ti is so good that people want it now, not later.

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AMD Radeon RX 580 delayed by 1 week, launch on April 18

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Mar 14, 2017 8:28 PM CDT

AMD is expected to launch its new Radeon RX 500 series graphics cards next month, led by the Radeon RX 580 - based on the Polaris 10, alongside the RX 570 - also based on Polaris 10.

AMD Radeon RX 580 delayed by 1 week, launch on April 18

The new Radeon RX 580 and RX 570 will rock higher clock speeds than their RX 480 and RX 470 counterparts, but we shouldn't expect anything over the top with the RX 500 apart from some tweaks, this is a rebrand of the RX 400 series. But, the process has matured over the last 12 months, so AMD could squeeze some power efficiency and higher clocks without creating too much heat from the RX 500 series.

AMD's flagship Radeon RX 580 graphics card is expected to have its GPU clocked at 1340MHz under boost, offering up 6.17TFLOPs of compute performance. 8GB of GDDR5 will be used, at 8Gbps on a 256-bit memory bus. AMD is expeccted to launch the RX 580 at just $199, which will really heat up the mainstream graphics card market.

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GTX 1080 Ti hits 2.5GHz on LN2, breaks 3DMark record

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Mar 14, 2017 7:00 PM CDT

NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is the best graphics card on the market - yep, I recommend it over the Titan X which costs $1200 but barely outperforms the GTX 1080 Ti that costs $699 - and now, we have a new 3DMark Time Spy world record.

GTX 1080 Ti hits 2.5GHz on LN2, breaks 3DMark record

Legendary overclocker 'Kingpin' used an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition under LN2, hitting a huge 2.5GHz, with the 11GB of GDDR5X memory clocked from 11Gbps to 12.5Gbps. The memory being overclocked to 12.5Gbps is a big deal, as we're looking at over 500GB/sec of memory bandwidth - all without using the next-gen HBM2 standard that AMD will be using on their upcoming Radeon RX Vega graphics cards.

The overclock in question: with Kingpin using an Intel Core i7-6950X processor overclocked to 5.1GHz, EVGA X99 motherboard and one of EVGA's GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition graphics cards.

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Xiaomi sells 1 million Redmi Note 4 devices in 45 days

Lana Jelic | Mobile Devices, Tablets & Phones | Mar 14, 2017 6:38 PM CDT

Xiaomi has announced that the company sold 1 million Redmi Note 4 devices in 45 days in India, the fastest for any device sold in that country, or one device every four seconds.

Xiaomi sells 1 million Redmi Note 4 devices in 45 days

The company has announced this news on their Facebook profile:

Another milestone achieved by Mi! Redmi Note 4 becomes the fastest device to sell over 1 Million devices in India in just 45 days which equals to 1 device every 4 seconds! Thank you Mi fans for your constant love and support and for making it a huge success.

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'Rogue One' director reveals why third act changed

Ben Gourlay | Celebrities & Entertainment | Mar 14, 2017 6:10 PM CDT

At this stage, fans know that the last act of last year's 'Star Wars' spin-off 'Rogue One' was heavily edited and changed courtesy of re-shoots and post production, but it was never really revealed why.. until now.

'Rogue One' director reveals why third act changed

Speaking to Slash Film, Director Gareth Edwards revealed what didn't quite work with the original concept.

"What used to happen, and you can get a sense of this in the early trailers, the transmission tower for the plans was separate from the main base on Scarif. To transmit the plans, they had to escape and run along the beach and go up the tower. In cutting the film, it just felt too long. We had to find ways to compress the third act, which was quite long as it was. And one real, fast, brutal solution was to put the tower in the base, so they don't have to run across the beach and do all of that stuff to get there. That became a decision that eliminated the shots you see in the trailer of the back of Cassian and Jyn and the AT-ATs. That was some of the reinvention that happened. It was all to do with compression... As cool as many things are, and they really are, you can't outstay your welcome."

Asked if the original ending might someday end up on a more deluxe Blu-ray release than what we're getting next month, Edwards isn't sure. "That's a decision way above me! I don't think there's any plans to do it." As Trump would say, "SAD!".

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Samsung's new Galaxy S8+ spotted in gold variant

Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ are just weeks away, with various leaks teasing its slick style with barely any bezel - and its super powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor - but now, we're looking down the sights of the gold colored variant.

Samsung's new Galaxy S8+ spotted in gold variant

Someone has gotten their hands-on a purported Galaxy S8+ smartphone in gold, rocking a huge 6.2-inch display - while the Galaxy S8 will have a smaller 5.7-inch display, both not being that much larger thanks to the all-display front. There's no physical Home button on the Galaxy S8 and S8+, a reverse decision on the S7 and S7 edge with its physical Home button.

Samsung is expected to unveil the Galaxy S8 later this month, with a full retail and shipping push in the third week of April.

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