Latest News - Page 12

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced launched this week to some of the best numbers Ubisoft has seen in years. However, it looks like Ubisoft still isn't content with its workforce, as 51 people just lost their jobs.

According to Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson, Ubisoft Barcelona has been disbanded, with 51 employees let go days after the studio finished its work on the remake. Many of them had spent years on the project. Sources told Henderson the layoffs felt planned well in advance and were going to happen no matter how the game performed.

Apparently, Ubisoft typically lines up a new project for a team before their current one wraps, sometimes a year ahead of time. The Barcelona team reportedly raised concerns as far back as summer 2025 that no new assignment had come through, and nothing ever did. The studio's launch celebration was also reportedly downgraded to a small in-office gathering instead of a proper event.

AMD has just added 11 new processors to its Ryzen 200 and Ryzen 100 APU lineups, which have further complicated an already confusing product stack. If you're already confused about which chip is which, you're not alone.

The bigger addition lands in the Ryzen 200 series, where AMD has added seven new SKUs: Ryzen 3 205, Ryzen 5 216, Ryzen 5 224, Ryzen 5 225, Ryzen 7 217, Ryzen 7 249, and Ryzen 7 253. These use Zen 4 cores, some paired with Zen 4c in hybrid configurations, alongside RDNA 3 graphics. AMD teased this naming shift back in 2024, rebranding its existing Hawk Point silicon under the Ryzen 200 badge to clear out inventory while it focused marketing on the AI-branded Ryzen AI 300 chips.

The Ryzen 100 series is where things get even more messy. AMD added four new chips here, the Ryzen 9 180, Ryzen 7 165, Ryzen 7 155, and Ryzen 5 125. The existing Ryzen 100 lineup is built on Rembrandt, a 6nm Zen 3+ design with RDNA 2 graphics, first detailed years ago in what eventually became the Ryzen 8040 "Hawk Point" launch.

Open-source Windows alternative ReactOS has finally reached a state where the operating system can play games. Discovered by Phoronix, a ReactOS user uploaded footage on YouTube of Half-Life 2 running on ReactOS at 1440p using a GTX 960 graphics card running on legacy NVIDIA 368.61 graphics drivers.

The game reportedly ran "basically perfectly" with 6x MSAA and 16x anisotropic filtering. Judging by the gameplay footage, the game appears to be running at 60 FPS or better with no apparent frame drops that we could count. Granted, we did not scrub through all 10 hours of the uploaded gameplay footage.

Playing a game that initially came out in 2004 might not sound significant, but it's a big deal for this specific OS. ReactOS is a 30-year-old project that has been written entirely from scratch as an open-source alternative to running Windows apps. Progress has been slow, but recent work has been done to get display driver support more aligned with modern versions of Windows by adding WDDM support to the OS. WDDM support has enabled ReactOS to run older GPU drivers designed for Windows, which is a key factor for getting games to run on the open-source operating system.

NVIDIA, despite being known as the AI juggernaut it is today, will always have its roots in gaming graphics. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of its first partnership with Sega, NVIDIA's CEO Jensen Huang is set to travel to Japan to attend an event with Japanese gamers. He will also (re)launch the RTX Spark. The event is set to take place at GiGO Akihabara, Tokyo on July the 15th.

NVIDIA has a lot to thank Sega for, so it's great to see Jensen giving some thanks back to the company that gave NVIDIA the lifeline it needed to go on to produce the RIVA 128, the GeForce 256, and so on.

In its earliest days, the company was tapped by Sega to build the graphics chip for its then upcoming Dreamcast console. However, at the time, NVIDIA lacked the technical ability to deliver what Sega needed, but without the money Sega was to pay for the contract, NVIDIA couldn't survive. After admitting that NVIDIA couldn't give Sega the chip it needed, Jensen went to Sega's management and asked for the money as an investment in NVIDIA. Somehow, NVIDIA managed to stay in business. And the rest is history.

AMD's unannounced "Ryzen 7 4700LE" has been making the rounds for weeks, but we now have official confirmation of its existence. Yes, indeed, AMD has revived Zen 2, an architecture from 2019, and released a new desktop chip, the Ryzen 7 4700LE.

The mysterious Ryzen 7 4700LE has surfaced in a prebuilt gaming desktop on Amazon, sold by system integrator Qehi under the AIGAMEPC brand. The build pairs the CPU with an RTX 3050, 16GB of DDR4-3200 memory, and a 512GB NVMe SSD, all for $799.99, down from an $849.99 list price. It's not a flashy machine, and the other parts are run-of-the-mill, but the CPU inside is the real story.

AMD added the Ryzen 7 4700LE to its product stack on March 25, 2026, without any real announcement. It's based on Renoir, the same silicon behind the old Ryzen 4000G desktop APUs, but strips out the integrated graphics entirely. You get 8 cores, 16 threads, a 3.6GHz base clock, boost up to 4.2GHz, 12MB of combined cache, and a 65W TDP.

The ongoing memory shortage is filtering through to global PC shipments. According to new analysis from the International Data Corporation (IDC), global PC shipments declined by 4.9% year-on-year. It is the first drop after 9 consecutive quarters of growth. The top three vendors, Lenovo, HP and Dell all saw declines. ASUS saw a small uptick, while Apple recorded a particularly impressive 10.1% increase in sales, likely due to the March introduction of its MacBook Neo.

PC shipments for the second quarter of 2026 totaled 68.2 million units. Unsurprisingly, the cause has been attributed to the skyrocketing costs of memory and storage, while ongoing geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainties also contributed.

Apple's performance was a bright spot among the data. It shipped 6.7 million Mac variants, an increase of 10.1% year-on-year. This growth can be attributed to the introduction of the $599 MacBook Neo. Such a price level was previously unthinkable for a MacBook, but the Neo has created a new market among students, and users invested in the iPhone ecosystem. These users suddenly had an affordable MacBook option, whereas most MacBooks were previously priced at levels considered to be out-of-reach.

Apple's iPhone 18 Pro Max is on track to cost significantly more to build than the current iPhone 17 Pro Max, with component costs expected to rise by nearly $300. Counterpoint Research has published a detailed breakdown of the next iPhone's bill of materials, highlighting a sharp increase in key parts, and the cause of the price increase is the demand from AI companies.

NAND and DRAM price hikes are the primary cost drivers. Counterpoint notes that the costs for these memory components alone could nearly equal the total bill of materials of the current model. Both NAND and DRAM industries are currently in a crisis as demand cannot keep up with supply, and current supply is being directed toward the AI industry, driving up the cost of the components.

Another factor contributing to the expected price increase is the new 2nm SoC and advanced packaging. Display and other parts are expected to see cost reductions, but camera costs will rise due to the new variable-aperture Main camera.

Meta is reportedly developing smart glasses that continuously record audio and snap photos, and users might not even see the data.

The company describes this device internally as "super sensing", and according to a recent report from The Verge, the device could capture audio and images every few seconds. Unlike the current Ray-Ban Meta glasses, which use a status LED to signal recording, the new design may eliminate that indicator entirely, according to reports.

The twist? Users wouldn't directly access the raw footage or audio. Instead, the system would rely on metadata and AI to answer questions about the captured content. That means the glasses could act as a real-time, always-on sensor, processing data without storing it and making it available to the wearer. In other words, you'd be wearing a device that monitors everything you do through vision (images) and audio. Additionally, it will be monitoring the people around you, and you won't be able to access the data generated during the monitoring.

AMD is set to unveil its Zen 6 'Venice' EPYC server CPU lineup at its Advancing AI event in San Francisco on July 22 and 23.

According to an interview with The CUBE, AMD Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President, Mark Papermaster, confirmed that 6th Generation Zen CPUs will be introduced at the event. Venice is designed to enhance traditional enterprise x86 workloads, while also forming the backbone of Helios AI racks, paired with AMD MI455X GPUs.

Zen 6 EPYC processors have been in full production for some time. They're built with TSMC's 2nm process. It's believed to be the first high-performance product to enter production. Venice can scale up to 256 cores, with up to 1.6 TB/s of per-socket bandwidth. It brings PCIe 6.0 and 16-channel DDR5 support. It also introduces new AVX and VNNI extensions, making them well-suited to AI workloads.

id Software was reportedly developing concepts for a John Wick-inspired "Gun Fu" game, a new Perfect Dark title, and a Western robot-driven survival shooter, all of which are now likely dead due to recent Xbox layoffs and instructions from Xbox management that big studios, such as id Software and Bethesda, need to concentrate on their mainline titles.

The studio, best known for its DOOM series, was exploring a variety of original and licensed IP, including an action game called Fury, which was described as being heavily inspired by the John Wick movies, a potential Perfect Dark sequel, and a concept inspired by the movie Westworld.

These ideas were detailed in a new GamesBeat report, but with over half of id's team laid off as part of Microsoft's broader "Xbox reset," which resulted in as many as 3,200 roles being cut, and the four studios being divested, these projects are unlikely to see the light of day, as they will be deemed too financially risky to pursue.

A single GPU card can cost thousands, but one YouTuber built his own for a fraction of the price, using 8,192 RISC-V microcontrollers.

bitluni, real name Matthias Balwierz, constructed a DIY GPU using CH570 RISC-V microcontrollers sourced from AliExpress. The cluster delivers a QVGA resolution of 320x200, with each MCU responsible for a single pixel. Despite the project nearly driving him "mad," bitluni pushed through, refining the PCB design and scaling the build to 8,192 chips.

The project began as an experiment in parallel computing but evolved into much more, and, at some cost, bitluni noted that prior GPU builds had already strained his sanity. This iteration, while visually modest, demonstrates the potential of microcontroller clusters for tasks beyond basic graphics.

NASA just beamed 4K video from the Moon to 25 million screens, but your 4K Netflix stream and YouTube videos still buffer. Or at least for some people, that is the case.

Thanks to AWS and NASA's Orion Artemis II Optical Communications System, the first-ever lunar 4K livestream hit 260Mbps via laser, far outpacing the 15-20Mbps most media services demand. The transmission covered more than 250,000 miles, with data received at Mount Stromlo Observatory in Australia and routed through NASA's White Sands Complex.

This wasn't just a one-off stunt or demonstration. The Laser-based optical communications offer significantly higher bandwidth than traditional radio, allowing NASA to send not just video, but mission-critical data, telemetry, and voice communications in real time.

MindsEye developers are staging a public protest outside their Edinburgh studio this weekend as Build a Rocket Boy, the developer of the flopped title, hosts an all-expenses-paid fan event at the developers' offices in Edinburgh.

Reports indicate the fan event includes flights, hotel stays, and a meet-and-greet with studio staff, a lavish gesture from a studio that has laid off over 400 employees in three rounds of layoffs in under a year, following the disastrous launch of MindsEye, and the strange and tumultuous time following its debut. Union members with the IWGB are set to gather at 10AMto voice their discontent toward the studio, according to DualShockers.

The event has already drawn sharp criticism, with multiple outlets highlighting the perceived disparity between studio spending, worker conditions, and the fact that Build a Rocket Boy has let go more than 400 employees from the studio in cost-cutting measures.

SK hynix and TetraMem have developed a new analog in-memory computing chip that processes AI workloads directly inside memory, dramatically cutting energy use and latency, and if scalable, could be the answer to one of the biggest challenges the AI industry is facing today.

A new partnership between SK Hynix and TetraMem has combined SK Hynix's advanced memory expertise with TetraMem's analog computing, creating a prototype device that uses memristor-based in-memory computing to perform efficient depthwise convolution, a key operation carried out by AI inference models.

By processing data where it's stored, the system bypasses the energy-heavy data transfers between memory and compute units. The companies claim this architecture addresses a major bottleneck in modern AI hardware as models scale to trillions of parameters. The device demonstrates that it is possible to process data where AI model weights are stored, and with this new architecture, it dramatically reduces the need to transfer between memory and processors, reducing overall power consumption, latency, and generated heat within the system.

NATO is building a real-time AI-powered 'kill web' to detect and counter Russian aggression before it escalates, as part of its Eastern Flank Deterrence Initiative.

Papers secured by the German tabloid BILD, and according to reports, NATO is constructing an AI network designed to monitor troop movements and respond swiftly to potential threats. Internal documents, shared by Business Insider, name Russia as the direct target of the "kill web". Ground.News reports the system will be ready to act in real time, offering a proactive defense functionality.

According to YouTube coverage, AI-controlled drones could soon patrol the Baltic region to detect and neutralize threats to underwater pipelines and cables. This mirrors Russia's own push to integrate AI into its military systems, including drone navigation and battlefield decision-making, as detailed in a recent briefing from the U.S. State Department. As for the "kill web," the intention behind the system is to reduce the time between identifying a target and hitting it with a response.

It looks like people grew tired of the new RPG-style Assassin's Creed games, as the new Black Flag Resynced has garnered extraordinary interest since its announcement. The game is not even officially out yet, and Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced already looks to be tracking well ahead of Assassin's Creed Shadows on Steam before launch, according to new estimates from games analytics firm Alinea Analytics.

The data shows Resynced had sold roughly 300,000 copies on Steam two days before its July 9 launch, worth close to $14 million in gross revenue. That's about 5.39x as many Steam copies as Shadows had sold at the same pre-release point last year, per Alinea's tracking.

Mind you, these figures do not represent total sales for Resynced and Shadows, but rather the sales made in the specific pre-sale period. For context, Shadows has gone on to sell 5.7 million copies globally, split roughly 53.6% on PS5, 23.8% on Steam, and the rest on Xbox, with Steam lifetime sales landing around 1.3 million. Black Flag Resynced is off to a strong start, but it will be some time before it catches up to those figures.

Obsidian and Bethesda will join forces to make a new Fallout game as Xbox restructures its business, sources tell Bloomberg's Jason Schreier.

New updates from the big Xbox reset say that Obsidian has been downsized and is now laser-focused on a new Fallout project. Sources close to the matter tell Bloomberg that Obsidian has cancelled multiple projects to make way for the new Fallout game, including a sequel to Avowed. Josh Sawyer, who served as game director of fan-favorite 2010 RPG hit Fallout New Vegas, is leading the new Fallout project.

It's said that Obsidian has reduced its workforce by about 25% as a result of the reorganization.

DDR4 was supposed to be the safe fallback once DDR5 pricing went off the rails. That is no longer true. According to a new DigiTimes report, Taiwanese memory makers are quoting DDR4 8Gb contract prices for Q3 2026 up to 50% higher than Q2, blowing past what the market had already priced in as a worst-case scenario.

This time, the driver is not PC demand but, surprisingly, enterprise SSDs. High-capacity eSSDs need standalone DRAM chips to handle random reads and writes, and as data centers push toward 16TB to 30TB drives for AI workloads, that DRAM requirement has scaled up with them.

Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron have mostly wound down standard DDR4 production to chase DDR5 and HBM margins, though Micron reportedly restarted 1-alpha DDR4 and LPDDR4 output at its Manassas, Virginia fab, aimed mainly at automotive, defense, and medical customers rather than PC builders. With the other suppliers unable to cover the shortfall, the supply gap could reportedly stretch out for as long as two years.

Sony is set to kill physical PlayStation games, and the backlash is already turning into a full-blown culture war.

The PlayStation 6 will officially launch without a disc drive, with Sony setting a firm end date for PlayStation physical media. But gamers aren't taking it lying down. A recent petition against the move has already surpassed 200,000 signatures, and Microsoft has joined the fray with a snarky counter-offensive, offering free CDs to developers via GitHub.

The wave of resistance started with a simple but powerful act of digital defiance. Over 45,000 gamers signed a letter urging Sony to reconsider, arguing that physical media is still king for collectors, gift-givers, and those with spotty internet. The petition exploded in just four days, proving that this isn't just a niche issue, but a generational shift in how people engage with PlayStation games, not to mention a pivotal change in how PlayStation gamers actually own their games.

Samsung has begun mass production of its first PCIe 6.0 SSD called the PM1763, specifically designed for high-performance AI and HPC workloads.

The drive is already feeding NVIDIA's next-gen Vera Rubin AI servers, which require ultra-fast data access to handle the ever-growing demands of AI training and inference, which at this rate seems to be endless. According to Samsung, the PM1763 offers up to 28.4 GB/s sequential read performance, already making it one of the fastest SSDs aimed at data centers.

This speed is critical for the expansive nature of AI infrastructure, particularly where latency can slow learning models and affect real-time inference. Samsung's press release highlights how important it is for storage to continue advancing, and according to the company, the PM1763 will use its 9th-generation V-NAND and new 4-nanometer controller.