Latest Technology Content

The new Raspberry Pi 4 was announced today, bringing even more potency to the ultra-versatile tiny desktop computer.

The Raspberry Pi has been upgraded with a few new bells and whistles. Major new features include dual video output via two HDMI micro connectors and USB Type-C power connector, allowing for an extra 500mA of current. The flavorful mini-PC comes in three LPDDR4 memory flavors and price points: 1GB for $35, 2GB for $45, and a nice 4GB option for $55.

The new Raspberry Pi 4 sports a beefier 1.5GHz quad-core ARM Cortext CPU for roughly three times the performance, two USB 3.0 ports alongside two USB 2.0 ports, and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity.

The new Avengers game is a huge undertaking for Crystal Dynamics, representing a massive series of Herculean trials that'll last for years to come.

Service games are very difficult to make, but the real headache comes after launch, when developers have flexibly adapt to gamers' whims. This means tons of adjusting, balancing, and new content rollouts at any given time. The new Avengers game is a live service project with emphasis on cinematic-driven singleplayer merged with an always-evolving co-op multiplayer scope. It's a hybrid of gaming's two most lucrative and powerful experiences, which means Crystal Dynamics has to work twice as hard.

In a recent interview with Games Industry.biz, Crystal Dynamics' studio lead Scott Amos says Marvel's Avengers is the biggest game they've ever made, and talks about the massive amount of manpower that's going into the project.

"From our side, it's the biggest thing that we've ever done," Amos said.

The new Final Fantasy VII: Remake won't feature all of the same materia from the 1997 JRPG classic, Square Enix confirms.

In a recent interview with Japanese games magazine Famitsu, game director Tetsuya Nomura confirms new materia will appear in the Final Fantasy VII: Remake. The downside is new materia is trading places with some old materia, meaning some spells and abilities from the old-school version won't be included. Neither Nomura or Square Enix has confirmed which spells will and won't be included in the Remake.

The rationale behind this materia change-up is centered around the game's new intricate action-based combat mechanics. Rather than a full turn-based affair like its predecessor, Final Fantasy VII: Remake is a blend of Final Fantasy XV's frenetic hack-and-slash combat with the original's ATB battle sequencing system. The game uses a new Tactical Mode that slows down time, along with an ATB gauge that fills up as you strike enemies. Strategy and finesse is required and players will consistently have to manage resources and plan their next moves carefully.

Nintendo is stocking up on lots of memory from chip-maker Macronix, the Taipei Times reports, but this doesn't necessarily mean a new revised Switch is on the way.

Taiwanese memory-maker Macronix, one of the leading suppliers of non-volatile memory on the market, just reported a strong surge in purchases from Nintendo, one of its best clients. Macronix noted this was "highly unusual," and that Nintendo's orders "has exceeded our expectations in the past two months. Demand is better than we thought." Speculation sees this move as Nintendo's preparation for a new Switch console revision, possibly a new model that uses the same Tegra chip as NVIDIA's new refreshed Shield set-top box, or even the rumored Switch Mini system. But how Nintendo uses Macronix chips gives context to the buy up.

Macronix chips aren't actually used in the handheld-console hybrid's main components. The Nintendo Switch currently only uses Macronix's CMOS flash memory in its JoyCon controllers and its dock stations, as per iFixit's teardowns. Macronix does indeed make LPDDR RAM chips that could theoretically be used in the Switch, but the device actually uses two of Samsung's K4F6E304HB-MGCH 2 GB LPDDR4 DRAM chips.

Sensor Tower Store Intelligence has reported that Mixi's Monster Strike has surpassed the worldwide gross revenue of $7.2 billion. Making it the highest grossing app of all time.

Sensor Tower has reported that Monster Strike has become the most earning mobile app on both the App Store and the Google Play Store, beating once leader Puzzles & Dragons from GungHo Online Entertainment. Puzzles and Dragons amassed around $7 billion since its release back in 2012, while Monster Strike has already surpassed that figure with $7.2 billion since its release in 2013.

The report also touches on Monster Strikes year-over-year percentage in Q3, the increase was up 6 percent. The apps audience is primarily focused in Japan, and total downloads have reached over 45 million to date.

A new report has come out by a French publication website regarding some unrelease Blizzard titles, Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2. The report says that both of the titles have been shown to a select amount of Blizzard employees.

The report was published by Le Monde, and concentrates on the struggle Blizzard Europe has had by laying off 30% of their employees. As the article goes on, more of Blizzard current situation was revealed and according to the following translation the "Teams at Blizzard Entertainment have already been presented with the long-awaited Diablo 4 and know that a new Overwatch game is in development".

The translation continues and says that "neither of these two games will be released before 2020, at the very best, and employees at Versailles have no idea if they will still be around when they eventually release. Activision Blizzard will be making less of a profit, but this will still amount to a lot of profit , says a veteran employee." It seems that the BlizzCon this year will be quite eventful as we could certainly get some teasers for both of these titles.

Ever wondered what it would be like if Super Mario went battle royale? Well, now that curiosity can be fulfilled with DMCA Royale, a Super Mario parody battle royale game.

InfernoPlus, the developer behind DMCA Royale released his parody game sometime last week and it allows players to join a 75-player race where players could eliminate each others progress. DMCA Royale when it was first released was originally called Mario Royale, that was before Nintendo's lawyers got involved. The game then re-released as DMCA Royale and all of Nintendo's assets were replaced with seal team six's original content.

DMCA Royale now features the characters Infringio and his brother Copyright Infringo, instead of Mario. DMCA Royale is quite popular as well, at the time of writing this I was getting full lobbies of players and there was about 1,000 people online battling for first place. If you are interested in some battle royale action in your web browser, check out DMCA Royale here.

Cloud streaming games is going to be a massive part of gaming future and SEGA has said they are more than excited for the arrival of new platforms such as Google Stadia and Project xCloud.

In an interview with GamesIndustry, COO/President, Gary Dale and Executive VP of Publishing, John Clark sat down to discuss why SEGA has an interest in the coming cloud streaming platforms. Clark said "The thought of people on low-end laptops being able to play games like Football Manager and Total War is something we really embrace and support, so we're really interested to see how all the players push forward with significant streaming announcements and services."

Clark continued and said that "bandwidth is a very important thing, just to see how the services function. So we'll look at Google Stadia's rollout with a lot of interest to see how that maps out. And for the future, we're all interested to see how economies of streaming are going to work, the business models, etc." Clark reiterates that streaming and cloud have been around for quite some time, but now it seems that the technology is picking up to the point where the platforms can be more utilized.

Nintendo showcased some more of Luigi's Mansion 3 at this years E3 but didn't give a solid release date and for good reason. Luigi's Mansion 3 is in careful and not rushed development.

We saw some Luigi's Mansion 3 gameplay at the Nintendo Treehouse livestream (located above), where we got to see Luigi turn from Goo Luigi to normal Luigi and some ghost busting action. Luigi's Mansion 3 is being developed by Next Level Games and in an interview with Polygon, Nintendo's product marketing manager, Bill Trinen said that Next Level Games is "putting a lot of care into the game".

The development process seems to be a meticulous, and that Nintendo isn't pressuring Next Level Games to rush the game out. Trinen continued and said "We want to let them put the care into it they want, so we're waiting on them to let us know and we'll solidify the release date." This is simply great to hear, gamers love when development studios decide to take their time with a title rather then release a game that is half-baked and full of issues.

Huawei isn't the only one in trouble when it comes to 5G technology and its various troubles over the last dew months, as the Trump administration is reportedly looking into requiring 5G hardware and products being designed, and made outside of China.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting the story, adding fuel to the fire by writing the move could "reshape global manufacturing and further fan tensions between the countries". A recent executive order from the White House saw restrictions put in place to restrict some networking hardware and services from other countries coming into, and being available in the US.

All of the concerns of cybersecurity in the US led to a huge 150-day review of the entire US telecommunications supply chain, with one part of that seeing US officials asking telco-equipment manufacturers if they can design and produce the hardware and software that is coming into the US, outside of China. Right now, the US is the epicenter of technology, but no major telecommunications equipment is made in the United States. Most of it, is made in China.