Latest News - Page 1207

The world's largest NFT marketplace has said on Twitter that 80% of the NFTs created with its free tool are scams.

OpenSea took to Twitter to announce that it has decided to roll back the recent decision to add a 50 item limit to the free NFT minting tool after the community voiced its disapproval of the restriction. OpenSea stated that "we hear you and we're sorry", and then continued to offer an explanation for why the decision was made in the first place. In follow-up tweets, the NFT marketplace writes that every decision it makes is with its creators in mind, but it has recently observed the free NFT minting tool exponentially being misused.

"Over 80% of the items created with this tool were plagiarized works, fake collections, and spam." OpenSea goes on to write that the company "didn't make this decision lightly" and operated on feedback obtained "from the entire community", but admits it "should have previewed this with you before rolling it out." The NFT marketplace finishes up by writing its currently working on new ways to prevent these scam NFTs created by bad actors are deterred away from the platform.

President Joe Biden has recently announced that cryptocurrencies and NFTs are in his metaphorical iron sights as the president moves to implement regulation for digital assets.

Reports are surfacing about the Biden administration currently preparing an executive action that will task federal regulatory agencies with implementing regulation on digital assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, NFTs and other forms of digital assets as a "matter of national security". Barron's reports that a person familiar with the White House's plan said, "This is designed to look holistically at digital assets and develop a set of policies that give coherency to what the government is trying to do in this space."

Federal agencies such as the State Department, Treasury Department, National Economic Council, Council of Economic Advisers, Security and Exchange Commission, White House National Security Council, and more would be involved in the regulatory effort. Additionally, the report states that the White House won't be issuing recommendations to federal agencies as it will act as a policy coordinator. Regulators will be given three to six months to create proposals for the regulation of digital assets, which the White House will then vet.

A team of researchers have found evidence for a solar storm occurring 10,000 years ago during one of the "quiet" phases of the Sun.

The new study was published in the journal Nature Communications and involves an analysis of ice cores from Greenland and the Antarctic. Researchers explain that the Sun goes through a solar cycle that ranges 11-years, and at the beginning and end of the solar cycle, the Sun is at what is called its "solar minimum". During the middle of the cycle, the Sun is at its "solar maximum". Throughout the solar minimum, the Sun isn't very active, meaning the frequency of energy the Sun emits is reduced compared to the time frame of the solar maximum.

The energy emitted from the Sun can impact Earth and cause geomagnetic or solar storms in Earth's upper atmosphere. These storms can be dangerous for astronauts on missions outside of Earth's protective magnetic field, cause communication problems with satellites, and even disrupt electricity grids across the planet. The energetic particles colliding with Earth's atmosphere produce radioactive isotopes called beryllium-10 and chlorine-36.

NVIDIA's next-gen Hopper GPU architecture is facing a hiccup, with a new legal battle over the "Hopper" trademark with Dish Network LLC.

Dish Network is a US-based satellite and DVR services company and is now claiming that NVIDIA Hopper could be infringing on their Hopper, Hopper Go/Duo/Plus, and other trademarks. NVIDIA's new Hopper GPU architecture was recently teased in flagship GH100 form, a true monster 1000mm2 GPU, and is running into issues before its introduction.

NVIDIA named its new GPU after Grace Hopper, a computer scientist who developed the COBOL programming language. The new Hopper GPU architecture was first rumored as a purely MCM-based design (multi-chip module) but fresh rumors have the GH100 GPU as a monolithic GPU, while GH102 will reportedly be the MCM-based GPU.

In what I think most people would consider expected at this point in order to win against GPU juggernaut NVIDIA and AMD which is kicking ass once again, but Intel is promising millions of Arc GPUs for years to come.

PC Gamer mentioned the "nightmare GPU crisis" that has destroyed the GPU market, and while both companies can do everything they can, they're limited by multiple other factors that are out of their control. TSMC manufacturers everything for AMD and has been filled with orders for years, while facing supply shortages, and then NVIDIA is tapping Samsung which is facing the same (and more) issues.

But once Intel stomps onto the GPU market, it's going to be an issue of supply -- but now Intel GPU boss Raja Koduri has himself said: "I am with you, PC Gamer. This is a huge issue for PC gamers and the industry at large. Intel Graphics is working hard to find a path towards the mission - getting millions of Arc GPUs into the hands of PC gamers every year".

MSI has made some tweaks to its custom Radeon RX 6900 XT and Radeon RX 6800 XT GAMING Z TRIO and GAMING PLUS TRIO graphics cards, which include some boosted GPU clock speeds.

The new MSI Radeon RX 6900 XT GAMING Z TRIO will be the fastest custom RDNA 2-based graphics card on the market when it drops, with the Navi 21 GPU boosting up to 2425MHz. This is 60MHz higher than the 2365MHz GPU clock on MSI's custom Radeon RX 6900 XT GAMING X TRIO.

MSI's other Radeon RX 6900 XT cards include the GAMING TRIO, GAMING X TRIO, and then the new GAMING TRIO PLUS and GAMING Z TRIO cards. As for GPU clocks, we're looking at 2250MHz for the GAMING TRIO, 2340MHz for the GAMING X TRIO, while the new GAMING TRIO PLUS hits 2365MHz and the new GAMING Z TRIO at the top with 2425MHz.

EVGA has just teased its monster new GeForce RTX 3090 Ti KINGPIN graphics card, with the company's in-house overclocked Vince "KINGPIN" Lucido teasing some photos of the card.

The new custom EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti KINGPIN graphics card features a dual-tone black/silver color scheme and a beautiful OLED panel (that flips up, by the way). EVGA is using a hybrid cooling design, with a huge fan that cools the pure copper heat sink that's joined by a 360mm AIO radiator.

There's a beautiful PCB shot that shows off the updated design that will power the EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti KINGPIN graphics card, with the beautiful gold traces and brand new power management system. EVGA uses a triple BIOS that users will get "Normal", "OC", and "LN2" profiles while PROBEBIT support is also included. This lets users analyze multiple GPU power metrics, all at the same time.

Your day starts out by preparing for a raid on a dangerous facility where you're about to bust the doors down on an illegal marijuana farm, but then the doors get kicked down and all you can hear is the buzzing of a bunch of computers running instead.

That's what happened when the Spanish National Police discovered massive amounts of electricity being used, but the facility was illegally hooked up to the electricity grid. Once authorities were there, they discovered it wasn't a weed farm but a crypto farm instead.

Spanish National Police explained (through machine translation): "Police investigations began on a possible indoor marijuana plantation that could be located in some stables located in Santiponce. After carrying out the first inquiries, the agents realized that the existing indications did not correspond to the cultivation of marijuana, but rather that these facilities could be hosting a cryptocurrency farm of which there are hardly any records in Spain".

Recently, Microsoft announced that it was acquiring video game company Activision Blizzard for a whopping $69 billion, shattering all the previous records. It is the company's biggest-ever buyout and the largest deal ever, not just in the gaming industry but also in tech. Not only does it fill Microsoft's shortcomings in the gaming field, but it also provides Microsoft with a capable helper in its meta-universe projects.

This year, Microsoft is launching Microsoft Mesh, letting customers create immersive digital copies of their offices. Some say the world-building game Minecraft, which Microsoft bought in 2015, gives a peek into the metaverse. Microsoft hopes that valuable communities of gamers will help create the worlds inside the metaverse when it becomes a reality from just a theoretical concept now. At present, we are under the influence of COVID-19, full of hope for the world built out of metaverse. Our daily work-life entertainment can be done in another space, technology into a new stage.

Back to reality, although many technology companies have started metaverse projects, it is still in the initial stage of development, and it will take quite a long time to realize all of them. For example, the current problem of telecommuting, we still need to use the computer to complete the work, it is even more necessary to have a well-configured computer.

BOE unveiled a rather insane gaming panel, with a new 27-inch 1080p 500Hz gaming monitor -- a world-first -- and then we have the mere tease of a huge 110-inch 8K 120Hz TV.

Yeah, 8K 120Hz... so we're looking at 7680 x 4320 @ 120FPS for games which is 4x the resolution of 4K and pumping it away at 120FPS. Wowzers. BOE isn't talking about the details too much, but they are calling the panel their "8K Super IPS-ADS panel technology".

BOE explains: "BOE television displays cover 23.6-inch to 110-inch products, with maximum resolutions of 8K and 10K. They feature ultra HD, super narrow border, and high image quality. Products are extensively used in smart home appliance, entertainment, business, education, finance, and other fields".

If you live somewhere where dinosaurs roam around, you might want to disconnect your SpaceX Starlink satellite internet service... because if a dinosaur roams too close to your house and stomps on your dish, you're not covered under warranty.

SpaceX explains in its Starlink warranty: "The warranty does not cover damage due to: Lightning, electrical surges, fires, floods, hail, windstorms, earthquakes, meteors, solar storms, dinosaurs or other forces of nature". Yes, you read that right -- meteors, solar storms, DINOSAURS, and other "forces of nature". Might as well include General Zod and Thanos, I guess.

Another thing is that Starlink is already laying the groundwork for Elon Musk and SpaceX's adventures to Mars, where Starlink won't be bound by Earth laws on the Martian surface of Mars. You can read more on that below.

An old-school gamer has recreated one of the most iconic video games of all time with LEGOs.

YouTuber Ian Roosma has built the entire Legend of Zelda NES overworld map using LEGOs. The huge map took 25,000 LEGOs to make and was created as a wall decoration with significant meaning. The map is a whopping 30 x 85 inches and fully mirrors the feature-complete map of the NES classic, with enemies, trees, and of course the iconic dungeons.

Roosma told Kotaku that he used website Bricklink to secure all the myriad of parts (thousands of green and brown pieces) and the map design took roughly 4 months to outline.

Sony's $3.6 billion buyout of Bungie demonstrates just how much the PlayStation ecosystem will evolve.

Like Microsoft with Xbox, Sony also wants to bring PlayStation outside of consoles. Exclusivity helped propel the PS4 and Xbox One era to new heights, but the new frontier of gaming sees live services dominating traditional sales, and these models require access over exclusivity.

Sony has traditionally been slow to adapt to specific ecosystem trends, but this is rapidly changing. It all started with cross-play coming to PS4s in 2018 and offline downloads on PlayStation Now. Then it made the biggest move of all: Bringing first-party games to PC.

Sony plans to buy Bungie for $3.6 billion, but Destiny and future Bungie games will not be PlayStation exclusive.

Soon Bungie will be owned by Sony. Unlike Microsoft's Activision-Blizzard and ZeniMax buyouts, the Sony x Bungie acquisition wasn't about securing exclusives.

This deal is similar to how Tencent operates studios with a hands-off approach; Sony is transitioning from a platform holder to a service holder. Live services thrive on access and exclusivity only restricts engagement.

Sony plans to buy Destiny and Halo creator Bungie for $3.6 billion, however the studio will remain independently run and continue self-publishing its own games.

Sony's acquisition of Bungie won't instantly lock down everything to PlayStation. This is a lot like a Tencent buyout; Instead of coming in and laying down on rules and mandates, Sony will let Bungie operate, create, and distribute its games independently without managerial oversight.

The clarification is especially important since Bungie received a huge $100 million investment from NetEase to fund its "bold new vision." Bungie has also filed trademarks for something called Matter, and is currently working on another Destiny project as well as a new IP.

Sony is buying Bungie, the creators of Destiny and Halo.

Sony is striking back with a megaton purchase of its own. Sony is buying Bungie, the original developers of Halo and the Destiny franchise for $3.6 billion.

Microsoft recently purchased Activision-Blizzard for $68.7 billion and ZeniMax in 2020 for $7.5 billion. In 2018, Bungie re-purchased the Destiny franchise from Activision-Blizzard and received a massive $100 million investment from Chinese juggernaut NetEase to fund its "bold new vision."

First Sony's PlayStation exclusives came to PC, then games released on Xbox. Now Sony will release its first PlayStation Studios game on Nintendo Switch.

Today the MLB announced that MLB The Show 22 will release on April 15, 2022 on PlayStation, Xbox, and for the first time ever, Nintendo Switch. This is a great business move that will leverage the Switch's mighty 92.87 million install base and also marks a historic occasion as the first-ever PlayStation Studios game to release on the Switch (MLB The Show games are developed by Sony's San Diego Studio, a wholly-owned subsidiary).

MBL The Show 22 will have full cross-platform play with PlayStation and Xbox gamers, alongside cross-progression.

After significant push back from fans, voice actor Troy Baker will no longer get into NFTs.

Troy Baker, who has voiced countless characters from Joel Miller in The Last of Us and The Joker in the Batman Arkham games, is abandoning is plans to support voice-based NFTs.

"Thank you all for your feedback and patience. After careful consideration, I've decided to not continue the partnership with VoiceVerseNFT. Intentions aside, I've heard you and apologize for accusing anyone of "hating" just by simply disagreeing with me," Baker said on Twitter.

FF7 Remake part 2 could be announced sometime in 2022 to coincide with the game's big 25th anniversary.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake is an episodic game that could span console generations. It's been nearly two years since the first game was released, so when does FF7R chapter 2 launch? No one knows yet, but we could get an announcement this year.

In a recent anniversary stream, game producer Yoshinori Kitase said: "...As for the Final Fantasy VII Remake news you've been waiting on, I think I'll be able to share more this year, maybe."

The Rock is currently in discussions to star in a new Call of Duty movie.

Sources have told Giant Freakin Robot that The Rock has opened talks to bring Call of Duty to the big screen. Activision's original Call of Duty film was cancelled in 2020, but it might get dusted off for one of the most popular actors in the world.

Johnson told Men's Journal that he will star in a new video game film adaptation and an announcement will be made this year: