Latest Technology Content

Samsung might have delayed its first foldable smartphone until September, with the re-release of the Galaxy Fold but that doesn't mean the South Korean giant is not forging ahead with more foldable smartphones.

In a bunch of newly-surfaced patents we see a new foldable smartphone with a 'sliding mechanism' shown off by Samsung, which the great folks at LetsGoDigital turning them into color renderings. These renderings give us a bet ter look at what to expect, with that sliding mechanism looking like it could be a real game changer for foldable smartphones.

It seems you will be able to adjust your display height in multiple stages, depending on the task at (or is that in) your hand. You can have it in half like a clam shell, down a little lower if you're listening to music and want to use the rear-speaker (this is a kick ass idea on its own).

The screen can be pulled up higher on the sliding mechanism for video calls, where you want the screen a bit bigger - but if you want it 'all the way' big then you will surely have a gigantic large candybar-style phone. I love the design of this over the current Galaxy Fold... and I hope it's something we start to see more of in 2020.

Google DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman has been placed on leave abruptly from the secretative AI-focused division of Google, with the reason being controversy "over some of the projects he led".

WTF was Suleyman working on for him to be placed on leave, from DeepMind of all places?

Suleyman, until he was ejected from the company, was working on the "applied" division of DeepMind. This division looked for practicval uses for DeepMind's research into health, energy, and other industries. Suleyman was a big public face for DeepMind, with a DeepMind spokeswoman explaining: "Mustafa is taking time out right now after 10 hectic years".

He co-founded DeepMind back in 2010 with CEO Demis Hassabis, and within 4 years they attracted the bank accounts of Google which acquired DeepMind for $500 million. Google acquired DeepMind for its work into AI, and then post-acquisition DeepMind was pushing into health care research which led to the company opening a dedicated division to the health care industry. DeepMind Health was created out of this with a staff of 100.

Valve has just kicked the door down in China, teaming with Perfect World on developing Steam China -- yes, Steam... in China. It's quite self-explanatory. Check out the crazy Steam China Press Demo video below:

Steam China being co-developed with Perfect World gets around some of these Chinese censorship, as the platform has been created from scratch with Chinese consumers in mind. The games on Steam China will be localized, the content servers for downloading games will be based in China, with the entire application complying with all Chinese laws.

Chinese law dictates which games can be sold, hosted, and played in the country -- with Steam China launching with a very limited amount of titles when it launches. Just 40 games are expected, with some of them including Two Point Hospital, Dead Cells, Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIV, and FTL.

AMD has had a super-successful year this year with the launch of its next-gen Zen 2 architecture and it powering the next wave of CPUs from the company in the form of the Ryzen 3000 series and just-released EPYC 'Rome' server CPUs with up to 64C/128T.

Not only that but the company has pushed out the new Navi-based GPU with the Radeon RX 5700 XT and Radeon RX 5700 graphics cards, with all of the new Zen 2-based CPUs and Navi-based GPUs made on the 7nm node. One of the things absent from the new RX 5700 series cards is multi-GPU support, something that Vega could do with CrossFire, but Navi can't.

In a recent chat with the press at the Hot Chips press conference, AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su replied to a question regarding the future of multi-GPU technology. She said: "To be honest, the software is going faster than the hardware, I would say that CrossFire isn't a significant focus".

So there you have it... CrossFire is not a significant focus for AMD, while NVIDIA continues to make at least half of its graphics cards with SLI/NVLink support. I've done some testing on the RTX 2070 SUPER in NVLink, the RTX 2080 SUPER in NVLink, and RTX 2080 Ti in NVLink and there are some games that really eat up all that GPU horsepower.

It was just yesterday that we reported on the V-shaped PlayStation 5 developer kit that was teased through a patent, and now game developer Matthew Stott has confirmed it.

Stott said in a tweet linking to the V-shaped PS5 that "it's a dev kit we have some in the office", referencing the new PlayStation 5. Stott says he has some in the office, meaning if he has a few that bigger developers would have the same if not many more.

Just how many PS5 developer kits are in the wild right now? I wonder if Sony will force him to take his tweet down, but the internet being the internet means it's here forever. It looks like the V-shaped PS5 is indeed real, let's hope that style continues through to the final design, because I think it looks rad.

Unlike every other publisher and big developer out there, CD Projekt RED won't try to force online multiplayer in Cyberpunk 2077. It'll only be included if it fits, and only if it doesn't negatively effect singleplayer.

Most games these days are built around live services, online multiplayer, and engagement. But Cyberpunk 2077 is built from the ground up as a wholly singleplayer experience, and CDPR isn't about to jeopardize that by jamming in a MP component if it doesn't mesh well. Cyberpunk 2077's multiplayer has been in the works for years now, but there's a chance it could get scrapped.

In a recent interview with Eurogamer, CDPR dev Marthe Jonkers said multiplayer will only be included if it's absolutely perfect. "If you add multiplayer functions it has to be right. Immersion is super important for us and we have to make sure everything fits together. The single-player experience, it all fits together. We're not just going to slap some feature in and that'll be it."

Gamescom 2019 - The return of TMNT knock-offs Battletoads caused lots of excitement at E3 2019, especially after the huge years-long silence at Microsoft. But maybe this one should've died off.

Battletoads is coming back this year, but it's not the same hard-as-nails beat-em-up platformer mashup from your NES childhood. It's something different, something that looks like a cheap imitation, a nostalgic cash grab the world might be better off without. It's a 3-player beat-em-up that stars Rash, Pimple and Zitz, sporting a kind of drawn animation that reminds me of Stick It To the Man. Overall the visuals are just too busy and the enemies blend way too easily with the backgrounds.

The new Gamescom 2019 trailer shows brings up some significant worries. The hit detection looks atrocious, and the enemies are just...it's like they've already quit before the game started. The punches and attacks are delayed and combat itself just looks very, very off. It looks like you fight the game itself more than you fight enemies.

Microsoft shuts down rumors of its biggest AAA games coming to competing platforms like the Nintendo Switch or PlayStation 4.

It really shouldn't have to be said. I mean...there's no way mainline Halo or Gears of War games will come to the PS4 or Nintendo Switch. It should be obvious. Yes, the traditional console wars are breaking down as Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft embrace cross-play, but they're not all about to start trading games libraries. There's a reason console exclusives exist, and a reason the Xbox platform is now consoles and PC. But then again, there's also a reason Microsoft's selling games like Ori on the Nintendo Switch.

A Microsoft rep clarifies things to GamesIndustry.biz: "We have no plans to further expand our exclusive first party games to other consoles. We continue to believe deeply in cross play and progression of games with the right flexibility for developers to insure a fair and fun experience."

Unlike Microsoft, Sony doesn't have a forward-thinking plan that blends consoles and Windows 10 PCs together. Now Sony wants to expand onto other platforms like PC, and it could bring its biggest blockbusters to desktop storefronts like the Epic Games Store.

Okay, there's a lot to unpack here. First let's start with the stepping stones. PS4 games are already technically on PC, but not natively. You can only play them through Sony's PlayStation Now streaming service. This could change as Sony shifts towards a more open ecosystem, and the seeds have already been planted. First there was PS4 game streaming to PC, then cross-play between consoles (and likely soon PC) , and now Sony's even making TV shows and possibly films based around its PlayStation IPs. These steps show Sony is experimenting with new ways to engage and sell its games, and PC is a logical pathway to more revenues.

This leads us to the next step: expanding games outside of the PlayStation Store. It's all about exposure and revenue. Sony probably won't bring all its heavy-hitters to PC because that'd undercut PS5 sales, but at the same time, the PS5's selling points speak for themselves. The system is a true next-gen console that'll hit 8K, 120FPS perf in some games, sports ray-tracing, a high-end Zen 2 CPU and Navi GPU, and a super-fast PCIe 4.0 SSD for insane loading times.

Like all major first-party games from Microsoft, Halo: Infinite aka Halo 6 will be monetized with microtransactions. Now that lootboxes are reviled and the REQ Pack system isn't returning, there's really one option: cosmetics.

We've known for a while that Halo: Infinite would have microtransactions. Microsoft's own business model, which puts services and monetization first above all else, pretty much gave it away. Halo has always been a live game built around engagement, repeated play, and unlockables, all prime territory for mTX. Now through job listings, 343 Industries themselves have inadvertently confirmed microtransactions will be in Halo 6.

343 Industries is hiring a Live Design Lead to guide Halo 6's live component. According to the job listing, the Lead will:

• Design and deliver a AAA social experience that fosters community.
• Design and deliver a AAA player investment experience that focuses on our fans and their desire to express their passion for our franchise (including but not limited to microtransactions).