Latest News - Page 1209

The rover is a collaboration between Toyota and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

The rover is dubbed the Lunar Cruiser, which pays homage to Toyota's Land Cruiser sport utility vehicle and is planned to launch late in the 2020s. By 2040, JAXA and Toyota have ambitions to help people live on the moon and to go live on Mars eventually.

Israel signed the Artemis Accords on January 26th.

The document to seal the deal was signed by the Israel Space Agency Director General Uri Oron in Tel Aviv. According to NASA's website, the Artemis Accords "describe a shared vision for principles, grounded in the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, to create a safe and transparent environment which facilitates exploration, science, and commercial activities for all of humanity to enjoy."

More than a dozen countries have signed the Artemis Accords, including: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Poland, the Republic of Korea, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States. Notably, China and Russia have opposed the accords, suggesting it violates the United Nations' Moon Treaty.

Rambus has joined its competitors in announcing a next-gen PCIe 6.0 controller for next-generation data centers.

The new Rambus PCIe 6.0 controller will allow super-speeds across data-intensive markets, these include not just data centers but also AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) as well as IoT (Internet of Things), defense, and aerospace.

Sean Fan, chief operating officer at Rambus explains: "The rapid advancement of AI/ML and data-intensive workloads requires that we continue to provide higher data rate solutions with best-in-class latency, power, and area. As the latest addition to our portfolio of industry-leading interface IP, our PCIe 6.0 Controller offers customers an easy to integrate solution that delivers both performance and security for advanced SoCs and FPGAs".

Ubisoft's recent Quartz NFTs are disastrous PR nightmare that've been ridiculed by pundits, consumers, fans, and the press. Instead of reversing course, Ubisoft is doubling down.

Ubisoft believes in NFTs and isn't giving up. The wildly unpopular Quartz NFTs are "just the beginning" of what's to come. Ubisoft has a grand vision in how its NFT platform will work out--despite not actually revealing said plan or discussing details. It's the gamers and consumers who "don't get it," one dev says.

In a recent interview with Finder, Nicolas Pouard, who has worked at Ubisoft's Strategic Innovations R&D lab with blockchain games since 2018, said this about NFTs:

The new Evil Dead game has been delayed for a second time and will now release on Friday the 13th in May.

Evil Dead: The Game has been pushed back again. This time it will launch May 13, 2022 on all systems as a feature-complete product with PVP, PVE, and solo play.

For decades SEGA's name has been above Japan's bustling arcades. Then COVID-19 disrupted the market, forcing SEGA to spin off its arcade business to avoid disastrous losses. Now SEGA's name is being removed entirely.

In 2020, SEGA sold off 85.1% of its arcade business shares to Genda Inc. A new company was born from this transaction: Genda SEGA Entertainment.

Today Genda announced that it has purchased 14.9% of SEGA's remaining shares and the company will be renamed to Genda GiGo Entertainment. SEGA's name will be removed from all arcade centers throughout Japan and be replaced with the new GiGo brand.

Call of Duty Warzone is getting a sequel that will flip the reset switch and start fresh.

Warzone 2 will essentially follow in Destiny 2's footsteps. Reports from Tom Henderson indicate that the Warzone sequel will wipe the slate clean and start fresh, complete with new content, operators, weapons, etc. Warzone 2's map is reportedly being made by Infinity Ward, and will launch alongside the upcoming Modern Warfare 2 reboot sequel in November 2022.

The biggest departure is that Warzone 2 will only connect to a single mainline game, Modern Warfare 2, when it releases in 2022. It's set to be a highly-optimized, streamlined, and next-gen connective tissue between MW2 and the games that come next.

A new study published in the journal Global Change Biology discusses the future of forests.

Researchers from the University of Arizona have combined tree-ring data from the U.S. Forest Service with inventory data on ponderosa pines in Arizona to model the drivers of future tree growth. They predict a 56 to 91 percent decline in individual tree growth, decreasing each tree's individual capacity to remove carbon from the atmosphere.

The Japanese startup, Astroscale, founded in 2013, operates the ELSA-d mission.

ELSA-d, short for "End-of-Life Services by Astroscale demonstration," launched in March 2021 to test technology that could clean up the more than 36,500 pieces of space debris larger than 10cm in diameter that are currently in orbit. The mission comprises two spacecraft, a 386-pound (175 kilograms) "servicer" and a 37-pound (17 kg) CubeSat "client" that docks to the former magnetically. In August 2021, the servicer released and caught the client repeatedly.

The next phase of the ELSA-d mission is to complete an autonomous capture demonstration. On January 25th, 2022, the servicer released the client and began autonomous navigation operations to keep the client within a safe distance but did not successfully recapture the client. According to a tweet by Astroscale on January 26th, "anomalous spacecraft conditions" mean they will not complete the capture attempt until the anomalies are resolved. Both spacecraft are still operational and safely separated, orbiting nearby one another.

The Mars Express satellite captured the images.

The Mars Express is a space mission launched in 2003 and operated by the European Space Agency (ESA). Now, it has observed the Jovis Tholus shield volcano on the Martian surface, spotting numerous craters peppering the volcano's caldera. Jovis Tholus peaks at 2,990 meters and spans about 58 kilometers. Slightly off to the east of Jovis Tholus, given away in the color-coded topography image below, is a less-developed volcano causing the surface to bulge somewhat.

A large impact crater is found to the north of the volcanoes, spanning 30 kilometers in width. The impactor, an asteroid or comet, likely struck water or ice-saturated ground, indicated by the fluidized nature of the ejected material around the crater and the fractured floor within the crater. What appears to be an outflow channel along the fault line to the northwest of the crater provides further evidence that this was a watery region in the past.

The new video was published by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI).

Mounted onboard MBARI's remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), MBARI has captured new 4K ultra-high-definition (UHD) resolution footage of deep-sea life thousands of meters below the ocean's surface. MBARI began evaluating opportunities to upgrade from high-definition to 4K camera systems on its ROVs in 2018 and have since developed the new MxD SeaCam in collaboration with DeepSea Power & Light.

MBARI's ROVs have logged over 5,800 dives, accumulating over 27,600 hours of video from the deep sea. MBARI's last significant upgrade to its video capabilities was its transition to 1080i resolution, or 1920 by 1080 pixels, over 20 years ago. Now, the researchers behind MBARI are excited about the new scientific value that will be elucidated with the upgrade to 4K, 3840 by 2160 pixels, a resolution four times greater than what they could achieve previously.

A new study uncovering the viruses has been published in the journal Nature.

The Serratus Project is an international collaboration that has re-analyzed 20 million gigabytes of publicly available RNA sequencing data, which has led them to uncover almost ten times as many RNA viruses compared to what was previously known. Among those, nine new species of coronaviruses were found.

Using a supercomputer with the power of 22,500 CPUs in collaboration with the Cloud Innovation Center (CIC), data from 5.7 million biological samples over 13 years was analyzed. Within this collection, 132,000 RNA viruses were found, where only 15,000 had been previously identified. Dr. Artem Babaian, who led the research, estimated a traditional supercomputer would have taken over a year and hundreds of thousands of dollars to complete the research. In contrast, Serratus only took 11 days and $24,000.

NetherRealm has a little fun with Mortal Kombat fans' predilection of wild goose chases and suppositions.

A bit ago NetherRealm senior production manager Jonathan Andersen reportedly posted up a Mortal Kombat image on Twitter...and then promptly deleted it. At first glance everything looks normal--it's just some old legacy artwork for Injustice and some Mortal Kombat adverts. Closer inspection (look on the upper right) reveals some interestingly-named desktop icons: KI_Planning, dinosaur, and a reference to MK12.

Even closer inspection reveals a tongue-in-cheek email from Christine Letheby, NetherRealm's production manager, which mentions: "Our fans eagerly scrape the internet for any trace..."which is undoubtedly a nod to Injustice 3 and Mortal Kombat 12 theories floating around.

Yacht Club Games teases a huge announcement at their upcoming showcase, which will be streamed on G4TV's new Twitch channel.

The third Yacht Club Games Presents stream is coming back on Tuesday, February 1st at 2pm PDT on G4's Twitch channel. The devs are hyping up the show with some pretty explosive language surrounding a groundbreaking announcement. Could this be a clever pun for a new Shovel Knight game, or perhaps even a TV show based on the mega-popular indie franchise?

The stream will have "boatload of new updates, never-before-seen gameplay sneak peeks, DLC, and a groundbreaking announcement," Yacht Club says. This show will be one for the ages: "We have a bunch of cool announcements including an exciting MEGATON ANNOUNCEMENT! You do not want to miss this historic event!"

Death Stranding Director's Cut is coming to Steam and the Epic Games Store on March 30, publisher 505 Games has announced.

The definitive version of Kojima's ultra-weird journey simulator is coming to PC in March for a reduced cost. Death Stranding Director's Cut will cost $39.99 on both Steam and the Epic Games Store (with variable regional pricing). Anyone who currently owns a copy of the base game can pay $9.99 to upgrade to the Director's Cut.

"To upgrade, owners simply need to install the standard edition of the game, then purchase the DIRECTOR'S CUT through the in-game store-front at the discounted rate," a press release says.

Elder Scrolls Online's new expansion is called High Isle, and takes place in a Breton island-kingdom that was specifically created for ESO.

Today Bethesda announced ESO's full-year content roadmap for 2022, including new expansions and DLC. The 2022 theme is Legacy of the Bretons, and the new expansion (also called chapters) is High Isle, which comes jam-packed with new content including gear, zones, dungeons, and even a Gwent-like card game.

Here's a timeline:

Crytek goes on a big hiring spree as it ramps up development on Crysis 4.

Crysis 4 is officially happening. Instead of announcing the game with a splash at E3 or The Game Awards, Crytek instead used Crysis 4's announcement for recruitment. It's so early that Crytek isn't trying to build hype yet--it's trying to build a workforce. Blizzard just did the same thing with the announcement of its new fantasy IP.

Right now Crytek is hiring a ton of developers across multiple disciplines, including senior and director level roles. There's 23 job openings available at its Frankfurt, Germany studio that range from concept artists (who lay out the early visions for games) to design directors and weapon designers.

Free-to-play battle royale Hyper Scape is officially shutting down, Ubisoft Montreal today announced.

Ubisoft hit the ground running in 2020 with battle royale FPS Hyper Scape, an attempt to cash in on the billion-dollar Apex Legends and Warzone craze. Despite a fiery marketing campaign that recruited big-name streamers, the game fizzled out and lost steam over time. Now it's being shut down as Ubisoft Montreal moves to other projects.

Sony's next big PlayStation console exclusive has been finalized.

Horizon Forbidden West has officially gone gold, and is now feature-complete and ready to ship. Guerrilla Games announced the news today with much fanfare, locking in the February 18, 2022 release date for Aloy's new adventure.

The sequel is one of the most ambitious games in the new PS5 generation, and Guerrilla's biggest title to date. Horizon Forbidden West introduces a significant amount of changes to gameplay, including fundamental shake-ups to verticality and exploration with free climbing and an arc glider. There's also a new outfit-based gear system that will buff skills and abilities.

AT&T's latest Q4 earnings report has no mention of video games and gives no updates on the current events at WB Games.

It's been a while since we've heard from WB Games, and parent company AT&T is no help. The company's Q4 brief didn't mention WB Games, video games, or any current game projects currently in the works. Execs mostly discussed the performance of WarnerMedia's HBO Max subscription (which has grown to 73.8 million subscribers). This isn't unusual for AT&T, who rarely mentions video games during its presentation.

The silence is made all the more loud by the looming acquisition. AT&T is about to merge WarnerMedia with Discovery in a $43 billion deal. All WarnerMedia subsidiaries including WB Games and its studios (Netherealm, Monolith, Rocksteady) will jump over to Discovery.