Gaming News - Page 1

All the latest gaming news, with everything related to PlayStation releases (PS4 & PS5), Xbox, PC Games, Nintendo Switch & plenty more.

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Sony's next-gen PlayStation 6 should hit 4K 120FPS or 8K 60FPS thanks to PSSR upscaling tech

Anthony Garreffa | Mar 18, 2024 8:37 PM CDT

Sony reportedly awarded AMD with the contract to build a next-generation SoC for its next-generation PlayStation 6 console... which could be capable of 4K 120FPS or 8K 60FPS gaming.

Sony's next-gen PlayStation 6 should hit 4K 120FPS or 8K 60FPS thanks to PSSR upscaling tech

We've had plenty of leaks and rumors about the beefed-up PlayStation 5 Pro console coming later this year, as well as Sony's new PlayStation Spatial Super Resolution (PSSR) technology, which is "currently aiming" for 4K 60FPS and 8K 30FPS gaming, with leaker Tom Henderson reporting "but it's unclear if those internal milestones can be passed".

The upgraded PlayStation 5 Pro playing games at 4K 60FPS and 8K 30FPS will most likely be driven with PSSR upscaling, and that makes sense: 45% more rendering power, with 2-3x the ray tracing performance in PS5 Pro-powered games at 4K 60FPS... and some, not all, at 8K 30FPS would be huge for Sony.

Continue reading: Sony's next-gen PlayStation 6 should hit 4K 120FPS or 8K 60FPS thanks to PSSR upscaling tech (full post)

Poker-based roguelike deckbuilder Balatro is another big hit from out of nowhere for 2024

Darren Allan | Mar 18, 2024 2:36 PM CDT

Balatro emerged a month ago on Steam and is the latest game on Valve's service to swiftly build up an immense amount of traction from out of nowhere, really grabbing the attention of PC gamers.

Poker-based roguelike deckbuilder Balatro is another big hit from out of nowhere for 2024

The big announcement for Balatro (which is also out on consoles: PlayStation, Switch and Xbox) is that the game has just sold a million copies.

It's a compact and streamlined game, a deckbuilder based on poker - although the mention of the traditional card game might well put you off. However, all the critics and reviews say don't worry about the poker influence, you don't need to know, or like, poker to enjoy Balatro.

Continue reading: Poker-based roguelike deckbuilder Balatro is another big hit from out of nowhere for 2024 (full post)

Next-gen PlayStation could hit 60 fps at 8K with PSSR upscaling as PS5 Pro manages 60 fps at 4K

Darren Allan | Mar 18, 2024 12:00 PM CDT

The rumored PlayStation 5 Pro is apparently set to use a fresh take on upscaling from Sony (PSSR) and it could push 4K gaming at 60 frames per second - or indeed 8K at 30 fps.

Next-gen PlayStation could hit 60 fps at 8K with PSSR upscaling as PS5 Pro manages 60 fps at 4K

In case you missed it somehow, there's been some major spillage on the purported specs of the PlayStation 5 Pro recently, which has included info on PSSR. The tech is likened to DLSS or FSR and is an AI-powered upscaling feature, a pepped-up version of TAAU (Temporal Anti-Aliasing Upscale).

PSSR stands for PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, in case you were wondering (let's hope it doesn't cause ghosting artifacts).

Continue reading: Next-gen PlayStation could hit 60 fps at 8K with PSSR upscaling as PS5 Pro manages 60 fps at 4K (full post)

Steam hits new concurrent user milestone after setting big record on March 2

Jak Connor | Mar 18, 2024 10:11 AM CDT

Steam users have been on a steady climb since the platform's inception, with only a few dips in user numbers across the years it has been active, and now the PC-based platform has reached a new milestone.

Steam hits new concurrent user milestone after setting big record on March 2

Prior to 2020, Steam hadn't broken through the 20 million user mark, but presumably, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and everyone being locked in their homes, the platform's numbers began to skyrocket, only taking a few dips here and there. Overall, Steam has been growing exponentially, breaking through the 30 million user mark in October 2022, and now it's on its way to cracking the 40 million mark as the platform has reached a new all-time peak of 36,354,393 concurrent users.

Notably, it was only a couple of weeks ago that Steam recorded a new concurrent user record of 34 million players online at once, and then on March 2, the platform hit another new milestone with 35.3 million concurrent users. Now Steam has pushed through the 36 million mark for the first time, with the average concurrent player count being 25 million over 30 days. Judging by these trends it won't be long at all before Steam hits 40 million.

Continue reading: Steam hits new concurrent user milestone after setting big record on March 2 (full post)

PlayStation 6 backward compatibility may be linked to PS5 Pro hardware

Jak Connor | Mar 18, 2024 9:12 AM CDT

The previously leaked PlayStation 5 Pro hardware specification may just give a clue as to whether Sony will decide to add backward compatibility to its next-generation console.

PlayStation 6 backward compatibility may be linked to PS5 Pro hardware

A well-known leaker that goes by the name Kepler has commented on a recent X thread discussing the recent PS5 Pro hardware leak, specifically the 10% CPU speed increase. Kepler explained that they have a "theory" as to why the CPU speed increase is so little. The leaker speculated that the backward compatibility is more complicated than you might think and that the way Sony handles it is "very complex".

Notably, Kepler writes that backward compatibility requires new hardware to "run at the same or higher clock speed, even if the new HW is faster at lower clock speeds." Kepler goes on to explain that if Sony decides to use Zen 6 dense cores for the PS6, they won't be able to target 4GHz and above for the PS5 Pro as that could "break backward compatibility".

Continue reading: PlayStation 6 backward compatibility may be linked to PS5 Pro hardware (full post)

Apex Legends pro player hack sparks grave warning for millions of gamers

Jak Connor | Mar 18, 2024 2:44 AM CDT

It was only a few hours ago that the Apex Legends North American finals had to be shut down due to hackers infiltrating at least two professional players' PCs mid-game.

Apex Legends pro player hack sparks grave warning for millions of gamers

The hackers gave the two professional players cheats such as aimbot and wallhacks, resulting in the game being postponed and the security of Apex Legends being thrown into question. Notably, this story is still developing at the time of reporting as it is only a few hours old, so details are subject to change. Volunteers at the Anti-Cheat Police Department took to X to warn the public that "There is currently an RCE exploit being abused in Apex Legends. It's unsure whether it comes from the game of the actual anti-cheat (Easy Anti-Cheat)."

The anti-cheat account goes on to recommend gamers not to play any games protected by Easy Anti-Cheat, or any Electronic Arts titles until they have fixed the issue or have publicly commented on the security of their games. The RCE (Remote Code Execution) exploit is currently being used to inject cheats into streamers' machines, but it means the hackers are able to execute codes on the target machine remotely. This could mean anything from installing ransomware and malware to anything else the hackers want.

Continue reading: Apex Legends pro player hack sparks grave warning for millions of gamers (full post)

Apex Legends pro players get hacked during NA finals, EA confirmed 'compromised'

Jak Connor | Mar 18, 2024 2:01 AM CDT

Seemingly, two individuals named "Destroyer2009" and "R4ndom" were responsible for hacking professional Apex Legends players during the North American Finals of Apex Legends.

Apex Legends pro players get hacked during NA finals, EA confirmed 'compromised'

The hack isn't one that you would typically expect as it didn't appear to be harvesting data or coming from within the professional players that were participating in the tournament. Instead, professional players were being given hacks from presumably two outside sources, and these hacks included classic cheats such as aimbot, wallhacks, and more. The hacks were given to specific pro players while they were in-game competing, raising massive concerns for the security of all accounts and the safety of the game.

The hackers targeted specific professional players mid-tournament, such as ImperialHal and Genburten, forcibly giving cheats, resulting in the players having to leave the game. In one instance, a professional player was given cheats and then immediately banned by Apex Legends' cheat-detection system.

Continue reading: Apex Legends pro players get hacked during NA finals, EA confirmed 'compromised' (full post)

Star Wars KOTOR remake is still in development at Saber Interactive, even after recent sale

Kosta Andreadis | Mar 18, 2024 12:31 AM CDT

Like others, we had high hopes for the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake project until it seemingly ran into one development issue after another. Announced back in 2021, with Sony's full backing, the PC and PlayStation 5 exclusive would remake and rebuild one of the greatest BioWare RPGs in a modern engine with modern cinematic visuals.

Star Wars KOTOR remake is still in development at Saber Interactive, even after recent sale

Our original concerns stemmed from the fact that the ambitious project fell under the umbrella of the Embracer Group, with one of its smaller studios - Aspyr - leading development. Aspyr, best known for porting older Star Wars games to platforms like the Nintendo Switch, hadn't tackled a project of this size and scope before.

In 2022, Embracer announced that development had shifted to Sabre Interactive, a studio with a fairly consistent track record. Since then, the industry has been tumultuous, with layoffs and cancellations. Embracer Group recently sold Saber Interactive, "one of its best-earning games divisions," for $247 million.

Continue reading: Star Wars KOTOR remake is still in development at Saber Interactive, even after recent sale (full post)

Helldivers 2 has spread Democracy to over 8 million gamers so far

Anthony Garreffa | Mar 17, 2024 10:08 PM CDT

Helldivers 2 is an incredible success for developer Arrowhead, and now a TD Cowen analyst estimates that 8 million copies of the game have been sold so far, and things aren't slowing down.

Helldivers 2 has spread Democracy to over 8 million gamers so far

Helldivers 2 launched without huge fanfare, but the game has been a runaway success with some in the industry comparing the game to the likes of Guitar Hero with its virality. In a new report from Bloomberg, the outlet reports that TD Cowen analyst Doug Creutz estimates that over 8 million copies of Helldivers 2 have sold so far, and those numbers are growing weekly. Creutz said: "We believe the game has performed well ahead of expectations" in a note on Thursday.

The game is only out on Sony's current-gen PlayStation 5 console and on the PC... leaving Xbox gamers unable to spread Democracy. I can only imagine those numbers going up by a couple of million if Helldivers 2 was unleashed onto the Xbox Series X/S consoles.

Continue reading: Helldivers 2 has spread Democracy to over 8 million gamers so far (full post)

Chris Roberts says Star Citizen 1.0 release 'twinkles on the horizon'

Anthony Garreffa | Mar 17, 2024 9:00 PM CDT

Star Citizen used to be one giant leap from release, but now, according to Roberts Space Industries boss Chris Roberts, we're seemingly one small step from the game hitting version 1.0.

Chris Roberts says Star Citizen 1.0 release 'twinkles on the horizon'

In a new "Letter from the Chairman" on the official Star Citizen website, Roberts said that the commercial launch of Star Citizen "twinkles on the horizon". This is the point the developer wants to reach when the game is polished enough and ready to leave the alpha or early access stages.

Cloud Imperium Games has been spending a lot of time on getting Star Citizen to v1.0, which Rich Tyrer is leading in his new position as Senior Game Director of both Star Citizen and the single-player Squadron 42 release alongside Roberts himself. Tryer was one of the team's key members in getting Squadron 42 to feature-complete status, something CIG announced in late October 2023.

Continue reading: Chris Roberts says Star Citizen 1.0 release 'twinkles on the horizon' (full post)