Latest News - Page 1410

EA may be gearing up a big new cross-platform live service mode for Battlefield that keeps users playing for extended periods of time.

Battlefield 6 is a big deal for EA. The publisher describes the game as a "re-launch for the franchise," and has more teams working on it than ever before--DICE Stockholm, DICE LA, EA Gothenburg, Criterion (vehicles), and practically the whole Frostbite team are contributing. This kind of collaboration sets Battlefield up to be a kind of entry point to a platform of sorts that makes a big multi-year splash. The premium release will be huge, but that's just the beginning. EA's live service aspirations for the title are even bigger and will carry the experience forward for some time.

In its recent FY2021 earnings call, EA executives Andrew Wilson and Blake Jorgensen make interesting remarks around the new Battlefield. There's talk of new business models (which is part of EA's new three-part strategy) and engagement strategies, which is the kind of language Activision used to describe Call of Duty Warzone, the industry's most transformative cross-game ecosystem to date.

QuakeCon 2021 won't be an in-person event this year, and is instead moving to an all-digital stream showcase.

Bethesda officially confirms QuakeCon 2021 will be an online-only event held from August 19-21, marking the second time in a row the show skips its traditional venue. Not much is known about the all-digital event but it's possible we'll get some new Doom Eternal info (maybe updates on the next-gen version with mouse and keyboard support consoles?) and a bunch of interviews with id Software.

There's rumblings that id will resurrect Quake at some point, but this seems iffy. id is currently assisting a number of Bethesda studios on their respective projects and they're even planning the future of the Doom universe. id says they have "many stories to tell" in the Doom franchise, but official details will probably be light for some time.

Electronic Arts plans to spend big on research and development as it "leans heavily" into its biggest mega-budget franchises.

EA is gearing up for a huge FY2022 with guidance of $7.3 billion net bookings and an all-time high of $6.8 billion in revenues. A slew of live service-powered digital games will spark this growth, including a myriad of annualized EA Sports titles like FIFA, Madde, NHL, and the new PGA Tour, as well as heavy-hitting billion-dollar shooters like Apex Legends and Battlefield.

These new games will also be cross-gen releases that launch on both PS4/Xbox One as well as next-gen PS5 and Series X platforms for maximum exposure, availability, and monetization potential. This acceleration is made possible by higher R&D spending from EA, which reached its highest point in history in FY2021.

Apex Legends has become one of EA's most important moneymakers with over $1 billion in lifetime revenues since February 2019. Now the company doesn't expect the BR to slow down any time soon.

Like most popular digital games, Apex Legends saw a huge revenue surge during COVID-19. Apex's net bookings in FY2021 reached a record high of $600 million on the back of 12 million DAUs. That number is so high that Apex Legends made 13% of EA's total yearly live service earnings ($4.592 billion).

Apex isn't done yet, though. FY2022 will be even bigger. EA expects Apex to rake in $750 million in FY2022 thanks to new seasonal content and the upcoming Apex Legends mobile game, which will be separately monetized with exclusive cosmetics and battle passes.

Electronic Arts won't have any next-gen exclusive games this fiscal year, and all of its FY2022 titles will come to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One as well.

Today EA confirmed that all of its major games in its FY2022 timeline (April 2021 - March 2022) will be cross-gen titles that release on both PS4 and Xbox One as well as next-gen PS5 and Series X. This includes the new Battlefield and all annualized EA Sports releases. EA CEO Andrew Wilson clarifies that while these games will come to PS4 and Xbox One, they will play best on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.

"All of our EA Sports titles for FY22 are designed for next-gen console platforms, including FIFA, Madden NFL, NHL, and EA Sports PGA Tour," Wilson said.

EA outlines its new three-part plan that will help surge its next-year FY2022 earnings to a record-breaking $7.3 billion in net bookings.

Following record $8 billion+ earnings and thunderous ecosystem engagement in Call of Duty Warzone and COD Mobile, Activision's four-part plan is turning heads. Big-name publishers like EA are taking notice and are currently laying out frameworks for their own long-term plans of sustainable digital profitability.

Instead of four pillars, EA's plan has three main parts:

NASA is smashing out "very first" achievements with its Ingenuity helicopter and Perseverance rover that are currently exploring Mars.

It wasn't long ago that the small helicopter Ingenuity successfully took off from the Red Planet's surface, marking the very first flight of a spacecraft on another planet. Since then, Ingenuity has continued to push the boundaries of its distance and time in flight records. On April 30, Ingenuity commenced an 872-foot round trip. Audio and video was captured by Perseverance's SuperCam microphone.

NASA has since released the audio of Ingenuity's first flight, marking the first time the sound of another spacecraft hovering on Mars has been heard. At the start of the above video, you can hear the quiet hum of the helicopter's propellers as it prepares to take off. The video has been released on the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory YouTube Channel and states that "sound adds a new dimension to space exploration". For more information on this story, check out this link here.

A new report has surfaced that has revealed that the infamous Chernobyl nuclear facility has seen a steady increase in neutron emissions, concerned scientists gravely.

Back in 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear facility went into meltdown, causing one of the world's greatest disasters that has ever occurred. The meltdown was caused by a flawed reactor design combined with personal that weren't fully trained, as well as human incompetence. If you are interested in learning more about how and why Chernobyl happened, I highly recommend you watch the series "Chernobyl" on HBO.

Now, a new report in New Scientist details that sub-reactor room 305/2, which is thought to have large amounts of radioactive material, is increasingly producing more neutron emissions. Researchers recorded that room 305/2 has increased its neutron emissions by 40% since early 2016. Researchers are currently evaluating if the surge in the rooms production in neutron emissions will eventually decrease, or if human intervention is required.

Nintendo has been very quiet on the next console it will be releasing, but now a financial report from an OLED display manufacturer and developer has seemingly blown up the company's spot.

A financial report from Universal Display Corporation of the company's performance for last quarter cited the existence of a "Nintendo Switch Pro". Additionally, the president of the company, Steven V. Abramson, said, "And in the video game market, here we have our reports: for the first time, Nintendo has chosen an OLED screen for the new Switch Pro given the benefits of higher contrast and faster response time".

As more devices have adopted OLED displays, the price of the displays has dropped, making them more economically viable for future developers. Abramson states, "OLED adoption continues to expand; it's fueling the multi-year OLED growth cycle we're in." Officially, Nintendo hasn't said anything about a Switch Pro, but reports surfacing online point towards 2021 being the year Nintendo will drop a console with 4K support and "better graphics".

A new report has shown the extent of Facebook's user data collection can lead pharmaceutical firms to be able to target directly to people that have health conditions.

The results come from The Markup's Citizen Browser project, a non-profit organization that is exploring how technology is affecting society. The researchers found from looking at 1,200 Facebook user's ad data that many ads for prescription drugs were targeted to users because they expressed "interests" in other topics such as "bourbon" and "oxygen". It was also discovered that Big Pharma companies used the keyword "awareness" to target ads to users that expressed interest in certain illnesses.

An example of this would be Zejula, which is a GlaxoSmithKline drug that is commonly used to treat ovarian cancer was discovered to be targeted to users who were interested in "cancer awareness". Additionally, The Markup estimated that the potential sales could be very large considering that Facebook's ad system states that nearly 203 million people have shown interest in "cancer awareness".

Pico Interactive this week revealed two new standalone VR headsets for the enterprise market. The company previously announced the Neo 3, a consumer-oriented device that's destined only for China. For the Western markets in both North America and Europe, Pico is focused on working with businesses.

The Pico Neo 3 is a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2-powered standalone headset, which bears a lot of resemblance to the Oculus Quest 2. It features four inside-out tracking cameras, which give the headset spatial awareness. The Neo 3 also includes a pair of optically-tracked motion controllers, which Pico said gives the controllers improved tracking compared to the electromagnetic solution in the Neo 2.

"Business needs are constantly evolving due to the changing landscape all industries are finding themselves in due to the COVID-19 pandemic," said Henry Zhou, CEO of Pico Interactive. "For the Neo 3 line, we implemented the latest technologies to meet the ever-changing demands of the enterprise. For instance, as hybrid and remote work continues, more companies are seeking remote collaboration solutions, like Pico Interactive's VR headsets with tools and applications available through our software partners, to allow employees to increase productivity and sales to boost revenue. From training firefighters to decreasing the impact of social isolation on seniors to measuring brain health, Pico's headsets are now being used in a wide range of industries."

HP is now taking orders of the upcoming Reverb G2 Omnicept Edition. The Omnicept is a VR headset that includes a handful of biometric sensors that give it advanced features best suited for business uses, but it looks like anyone can order it from HP's website.

The Reverb G2 Omnicept comes equipped with a pair of pupil-tracking cameras to enable foveated rendering, which gives the headset image quality and performance benefits when paired with the right graphics card. The eye-tracking sensors also allow developers to infer information about the user's cognitive function during a training experience. The Reverb G2 Omnicept even has a heart rate sensor to track the user's level of excursion or anxiety while performing a training task.

The Omnicept Edition also includes a built-in face tracking sensor, which monitors your facial expressions and tracks your lips and tongue to help animate realistic avatars in collaborative VR experiences. When HP announced the Omnicept, face tracking was a novel idea. HTC recently beat HP to market with an attachment for the Vive Pro, but Omnicept has it built-in and integrated with the other sensors on the headset.

ASUS and GIGABYTE have had their CMP 30HX mining cards revealed, and now it's time for MSI to reveal its CMP 30HX MINER series for GPU cryptocurrency mining.

MSI has 2 different models of CMP 30HX MINER series cards with the MSI CMP 30HX MINER XS and CMP 30HX MINER, with both of the cards having the same TU116-100 GPU and 6GB of GDDR6 memory at 14Gbps on a 192-bit memory bus and even dual fans.

You can see that both of these cards look like other GeForce RTX series graphics cards in MSI's stack, with the MINER XS the mining version of the VENTUS XS while the MINER is identical to the ARMOR series from MSI.

ASUS has just announced its first-ever 16-inch laptop with the introduction of the new ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 gaming laptop, which features a 16-inch 1440p 165Hz display with a 16:10 aspect ratio.

Inside, we have Intel's new 11th Gen Core i9-11900H processor, and the option of NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 3070, GeForce RTX 3060, or GeForce RTX 3050 Ti graphics cards. ASUS keeps the ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 gaming laptop cool through its ROG Intelligent Cooling technology, which will chill the CPU + GPU as much as it can.

You can tweak the ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 with up to 48GB of DDR4-3200 RAM, and up to 2TB of PCIe 4.0 SSD storage which can be boosted by another M.2 SSD inside of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16.

I mean here we are, just enjoying our day or night depending on where you are in the world, and Battlefield leaker Tom Henderson is making you think that EA could surprise us all and have us playing the new Battlefield inside of the next 2 months.

In a new tweet, Henderson shares EA's official Twitter post that announced EA Play Live is coming back on July 22 and to save the date. Henderson tweeted, saying: "We'll likely all be playing Battlefield on this date too"... uh... so EA could just surprise launch Battlefield onto the world like EA did with Apex Legends? Well then...

We might see EA unleash a beta of the new Battlefield, or as I suggested in my news yesterday about the possibility of a surprise trailer drop for Battlefield, where I said: "I could only imagine if EA and DICE had a marketing department that weren't chained to their Big Corporate style BS, could release a Wake Island style demo for the new Battlefield. Now that my friends would set fire to the internet".

Dogecoin has turned a Goldman Sachs executive into a multi-millionaire with its recent journey towards the moon, with Aziz McMahon, a managing director and head of emerging market sales, leaving the company after Dogecoin made him millions.

The banker had been with Goldman Sachs for 14 years, with sources of The Guardian saying that they "believed it was a substantial sum and that he had since left Goldman Sachs". Aziz reportedly made the money on Dogecoin from his personal finances, and not through trading cryptocurrencies for Goldman Sachs.

Fortune talked with a Goldman Sachs spokesperson who confirmed that Aziz had indeed departed the firm, with Fortune adding that Goldman Sachs "declined to offer any additional details on McMahon's departure. The eFinancialCareers piece suggested he might be starting a hedge fund, but it did not provide any information backing that claim".

Sabrent's new RocketQ Destroyer and Battleship SSDs are out and into open waters, if you can find them, where if you use the powers of Highpoint's new FnL AIC NVMe RAID card along with 8 x Sabrent Rocket4 Plus SSDs you will be enjoying up to 7.1GB/sec (7100MB/sec) reads and up to 6.6GB/sec writes (6600MB/sec).

If you want that glorious 64TB of SSD storage you will be knocked down to PCIe 3.0 with the Sabrent RocketQ SSDs but you can get them in the much larger 8TB capacity. Sabrent's RocketQ SSD in 8TB has up to 3.3GB/sec (3300MB/sec) reads and up to 2.9GB/sec (2900MB/sec) writes. Nothing to sneeze at, that's for sure.

The new Sabrent RocketQ Battleship is made possible thanks to Highpoint's now-in-the-wild Fast n' Little (FnL) NVMe AIC RAID card that is capable of taking 8 x NVMe M.2 SSDs. The FnL AIC NVMe RAID card itself is PCIe 4.0 compatible so you can throw in 8 x 4TB PCIe 4.0 SSDs (Sabrent Rocket4 Plus) or 8 x 8TB PCIe 3.0 SSDs (Sabrent RocketQ) for the largest and fastest PCIe 4.0 SSD RAID storage in the world.

Apex Legends has made over $1 billion from monetization in its lifetime with half a quarter to spare.

Apex is supercharging EA's live service business. The F2P battle royale titan has now made over $1 billion from microtransaction earnings faster than EA had originally expected. The game actually hit the milestone with half a quarter to spare, EA says.

"Apex Legends had extraordinary performance in live service revenues in FY22, with 12 million DAUs," EA CFO Blake Jorgensen said.

EA has officially laid the speculation to rest: Battlefield 6 will not be exclusive to next-gen consoles.

In a recent earnings call, EA CEO Andrew Wilson confirms Battlefield 6 will not be exclusive to next-gen consoles and will also release on PS4 and Xbox One.

Wilson clarified that certain content and features are made possible by next-gen console hardware, but the game will still release on current-gen systems. Battlefield 6 will shine brightest on next-gen hardware thanks to massive improvements from the Frostbite engine, but it hasn't been built fully from the ground up exclusively around this hardware. Wilson says next-gen AI and in-game environmental effects will be made possible on next-gen systems.

It's official: DICE won't reveal Battlefield 6 in May, and the full reveal is set for June.

Today EA confirmed that Battlefield 6 won't be revealed with a surprise announcement or trailer drop this month. Speculation said DICE could stealth drop a new reveal today to underline EA's huge FY2021 earnings report. However, EA's CEO Andrew Wilson re-confirms the game won't be shown off until next month in June.

"Our biggest Battlefield team is working in lock-step for the definitive next-gen experience.