Latest News - Page 149

KIOXIA has announced that it has begun sampling new UFS 4.1 (Universal Flash Storage) embedded memory devices powered by the company's 8th-generation BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory technology. With 4-bit-per-cell, quadruple-level cell (QLC) technology, you've got higher bit density for mobile applications that demand higher storage capacity.

KIOXIA notes that advancements in controller technology and error correction have enabled its QLC technology memory to not only offer a more effective high-capacity solution but also deliver competitive performance. According to the company, UFS 4.1 boosts sequential write speeds by 25% and random read speeds by 90% when compared to the previous UFS 4.0 generation.

Compared to UFS 3.1, it offers 2.1 times the sequential read performance and 2.5 times the sequential write performance.

Microsoft has unveiled its latest AI accelerator for inference and token generation, the Maia 200. Built on TSMC's 3nm process with native FP8 and FP4 tensor cores, and an overhauled memory system featuring 216GB of HBM3e at 7 TB/s and 272MB of on-chip SRAM, Microsoft described the Maia 200 as the "most performant, first-party silicon from any hyperscaler."

And with that, Microsoft claims three times the FP4 performance of Amazon's third-generation Trainium accelerator, with faster FP8 performance than Google's seventh-gen TPU. Microsoft adds that the Maia 200 is its most efficient AI inference accelerator to date, boasting 30% better performance-per-dollar than the "latest generation hardware" it currently deploys.

Set to become part of the company's AI infrastructure, Maia 200 will power the latest GPT-5.2 models from OpenAI, Microsoft Foundry, and Microsoft 365 Copilot. The company will also leverage Maia 200 to train next-gen in-house models using synthetic data.

It's increasingly looking like Intel's long-rumored Intel Arc B770 16GB 'Big Battlemage' desktop GPU for PC gaming is set to arrive as a workstation and AI-focused product in Q1 2026 first. According to a new report from Videocardz, Intel plans to launch the Intel Arc Pro B70 and B65 workstation graphics cards in the coming months.

Both of these cards are powered by the BMG-G31 GPU, which was previously rumored to be tied to the Intel Arc B770, and both will reportedly ship with 32GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus for running local AI workloads. The Intel Arc Pro B70 includes the full BMG-G31 GPU chip with 32 Xe2 cores, while the Arc Pro B65 will be a cut-down model.

According to the report, Intel's partners apparently already have the BMG-G31 workstation GPUs for testing, with no sign of a gaming model. The current understanding is that the Intel Arc B770 16GB 'Big Battlemage' GPU for PC gaming is currently on hold due to the current memory crisis affecting consumer PC products.

PC component bundles have been around for a long time, but are often tied to retailers putting together packs of essential parts needed for an upgrade or new build. From motherboards to coolers, CPUs, and memory, bundles make sense when you're looking to pick up two, three, or more parts at a time.

What makes this latest bundle interesting is that it looks like AMD has partnered with Cooler Master and V-Color to offer a CPU kit (sans motherboard) for PC enthusiasts and gamers in China - via @unikoshardware on X. The bundle pairs AMD's brand-new Ryzen 7 9850X gaming CPU, which was announced earlier this year at CES 2026, with Cooler Master's HYPER 612 APEX PRO air cooler and 32 GB of V-Color's Manta XFinity RGB DDR5-6000 memory.

According to reports, the bundle was announced at a recent Cooler Master press event, but there's no word on a potential price. With the current memory crisis affecting retail DDR5 pricing, the hope is that this bundle offers consumers a more affordable way to pick up 32GB of V-Color DDR5 memory with their new CPU.

Banjo: Recompiled for PC is a native port of Banjo-Kazooie, the classic 3D platformer from the Nintendo 64. From developer Rare, it's a game widely considered to be on par with Nintendo's Super Mario 64, and its native PC port supports widescreen and ultrawide resolutions, unlocked frame rates, and mod support.

This is all possible due to the N64: Recompiled project that allows modders to effectively reverse engineer Nintendo 64 games to get them running natively on modern PC hardware - with support for Windows, Linux, and Mac.

Yes, this means this port is playable on the Steam Deck, with modder Wiseguy adding quality-of-life features like analog camera controls, improved input latency, and the ability to keep your collect-a-thon progress when exiting a level or running out of health. The port also includes three one-click mods for players to install, including a high-resolution texture pack and popular "ROM hacks" Nostalgia 64 and Jiggies of Time.

The real-life Master Chief isn't too keen about AI taking his job and reproducing his voice, and while Xbox has no plans to replace him, that isn't the case everywhere.

AI is everywhere, and practically every company is trying to use it to save money. Sometimes this means laying off thousands of workers, replacing them with automated systems in an attempt to simultaneously save money and boost productivity. In the entertainment industry, AI hasn't taken over just yet, but some (like James Earl Jones, for example) have sold their likeness to be reproduced by AI.

Microsoft is one such company that has invested heavily into AI, dumping billions into the tech, leading to company-wide adoption. Xbox has utilized AI in unique ways, creating a generative AI simulator that can render games without any coding from a game developer. Xbox has also made deals with AI companies like inWorld to make AI-generated stories, quests, and dialogue.

Following rounds of heavy layoffs, Microsoft may be more careful and selective in which games actually get greenlit at Xbox.

It sounds like Xbox's management may now be more deliberate and methodical with its first-party game approvals. A bit ago, Microsoft conducted hefty layoffs across its entire company, with the Xbox segment laying off hundreds of workers across Xbox Game Studios, ZeniMax, and Activision. Microsoft also shut down The Initiative, a studio that had been working on a costly Perfect Dark project since 2018--that game was also cancelled. The layoffs have significantly harmed Xbox's reputation at a time when the public sentiment around the group is already at an all-time low.

Microsoft doesn't want this to happen again--this process has been grueling, costly, and ultimately has led to a lot of wastage--wasted spending on creating a product that will never actually release--in the entertainment division. According to Craig Duncan, who now leads Xbox Game Studios, the ultimate goal is to ensure Microsoft can avoid "having to" cancel projects, lay off hundreds of workers, and shut down entire content studios.

Remedy steps in to clarify that they have not revealed a release window for Control Resonant, helping clear up erroneous reports.

Days ago, news began circulating that Control Resonant was set for a Q2 2026 release (around June), with Remedy themselves reportedly saying this. Taking a closer look at the report, it was obvious from the get-go it wasn't from Remedy. For one, the share rating was a dead giveaway that this was from an analyst firm, and not from Remedy--the firm Inderes, to be exact.

Indeed that's the case, and Remedy's communication director Thomas Puha has stepped in to squash the rumors: "Since some news [sites] are crediting us saying something that we haven't: Remedy has only ever communicated that the release window of CONTROL Resonant is 2026. Anything else is speculation," Puha said on Twitter.

GTA 6 will be a digital-only game at launch, says reputable leaker Graczdari.

New reports indicate that GTA 6 will be a digital product at launch, with physical disc copies withheld until an undetermined period after release. A purported source close to European game retail chains has told website PPE.pl that Take-Two Interactive has no plans to launch a disc version of GTA 6 when the game is expected to launch on November 19, 2026.

Instead, GTA 6 is expected to be a digital game on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, apparently as a means to avoid spoilers. The move could also be predicated on maximizing profits, as producing and shipping millions of discs can be costly, but is usually seen as a worth-it proposal; all of Take-Two's biggest games are on discs.

The Blizzard Showcase goes live on January 29, starting with World of Warcraft and ending with Diablo in February.

Today, Blizzard revealed specifics around its big celebration plans. The publisher will celebrate its 35th anniversary with two big events: the Blizzard Showcase that kicks off in a few days, and Blizzcon 2026 in September. The showcase will focus on four main franchises, delivering updates for each: World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, and Hearthstone.

"We're kicking off 2026 with the Blizzard Showcase, a series of developer-led spotlights featuring big announcements, sneak peeks, and teases across our universes. As we look toward the future, this event celebrates the artists, makers, and visionaries behind our games, and our players who bring them to life, as we celebrate 35 years of community and craft," Blizzard writes.

In a recent interview with GamesRadar, Xbox Game Studios head Craig Duncan gave many details about Playground Games' upcoming reboot of the classic Xbox title, Fable.

During the interview Duncan said that he hasn't played much of the game, but he has experienced has been "mindblowing," specifically with the combat and Living Population. For those who don't know, the Living Population is what Playground Games refers to as the more than 1,000 unique non-player characters (NPCs) that populate Fable's world, called Albion.

Each of these NPCs is handcrafted with a unique name, appearance, personality, worldviews, hobbies, and daily life routines, which involve work and play. Additionally, each of these NPCs is fully voice-acted. Duncan went on to recognize the "special ideas" in the original Fable trilogy, and said that Playground Games has taken those ideas and modernized them, with the executive once again pointing out the Living Population feature.

A YouTuber and hardware engineer, MrYeester, recently posted a video on the "mryeester" YouTube channel that showcases how you too can turn your PC into a coin-activated gaming rig.

The creator of the coin-activated gaming PC explained in the above video that he is treating the PC as if it were an old arcade gaming machine, and to get a PC to work as an arcade machine, some customization needs to take place, specifically with the front-panel on/off button being replaced by an authentic coin acceptor. This device measures the properties of the coins inserted into it and can differentiate between them by identifying their magnetism, weight, and size.

The idea is that once the coin acceptor detects the correct coin, it will trigger the "on button press" signal, which is sent to the motherboard's Power SW header. The coin acceptor can be set to accept only one type of coin, and to get it set up, the modder uses a PSU breakout or adapter to provide 12V to the coin acceptor and relay. The modder then routes the relay output to the motherboard's front-panel header.

The Old School RuneScape team has unveiled the fourth raid to come to the ancient MMO that is teeming with players, and according to the developers, this raid will be the toughest one it has ever released.

Jagex has explained in a recent blog post that The Fractured Archives are located deep beneath Gielinor within an ancient cave used by the god Guthix to store his most treasured items. Players will be traveling to the Fractured Archive for the raid, where they will encounter "agents of other gods, curious creatures, Guthixian guardians, and more". Players will be tasked with stopping the contents of the archive from falling into the wrong hands.

Jagex wrote in the post that they are taking a Theatre of Blood-styled approach to the Fractured Archive raid, which means players will face off against a selection of demibosses, won't encounter any puzzle rooms, and then engage in a final epic boss battle in the final phase of the raid. Notably, players will also be able to solo the Fractured Archive raid, but Jagex is first focusing on making the raid optimized for 2-8 players. Moreover, the developer warns that soloing the Fractured Archive will be "difficult."

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful space telescope in the world, has pointed its extremely sensitive instruments at a dying star, showcasing how it is being reduced to dust and gas.

NASA has explained in a recent blog post that the Helix Nebula has been known about for 20 years, and throughout that time, it has been imaged by various telescopes, including the famed Hubble Space Telescope. The space agency explains that Webb's NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) has captured the Helix Nebula in unprecedented detail, revealing the complex nature of nebulae and the destruction and reformation of celestial objects.

The space agency explains that the blue in the above image marks the hottest gas, energized by intense ultraviolet light from the white dwarf star at the center. Moving farther from the center, the gas cools and forms yellow regions where hydrogen atoms join to form molecules. The outer edges, with their reddish tones, represent the coolest material, where gas begins to thin, and dust starts to form.

Developers have been on a quest for quite some time to get the first DOOM game to run on as many different types of electronics as possible, and now the grandfather of first-person-shooter games has made its way over to earbuds. Yes, the same earbuds you can use to listen to music. DOOM can now be played with them.

Have you ever wondered if earbuds can run the 1993 classic first-person shooter title DOOM? Yeah, neither have I, but nevertheless, I was impressed when I discovered it is not only possible, but is currently happening. This quirky tech project takes advantage of the PineBuds Pro's open-source software to access its tiny processor, which then executes the DOOM code.

Since earbuds don't have a display, the DOOMBuds streams the game's output over the internet to a web browser where the user can watch and play the game remotely. This essentially means the earbuds have been converted into the PC running DOOM, and the browser has become the display and controller. Since the earbuds have very limited performance headroom in terms of horsepower, the developer had to make some concessions to get DOOM to be able to work.

Apple has fallen significantly behind the competition when it comes to creating an in-house AI model capable of sufficiently upgrading Siri to the level the company advertised in 2024, and following reports of internal struggles with Apple Intelligence-related development teams, Apple finally fell on its sword and signed a deal with its direct competitor, Google, for access to its Gemini AI models.

Apple intends to use Gemini to power upcoming Apple Intelligence features, and ultimately give Siri a most-welcomed upgrade in the intelligence department. Initially, Apple was in discussions with Anthropic for access to its models, but following drawn-out conversations and an unfavourable payment structure for Apple, Anthropic was no longer an option.

OpenAI was another possible contender, especially since the two companies have already inked a deal to integrate ChatGPT into Siri, which is triggered only when the user's prompt can't be fulfilled by Apple's own AI model. However, given that OpenAI is currently working on releasing its first physical device, which is being helmed by former Apple designer Jony Ive, and that device is meant to be a way users can communicate with AI, Apple recognized potential conflicts of interest with going with OpenAI.

Ubisoft recently announced the third and final restructuring of its company, and it involved closing several studios, cancelling many of its titles, and laying off what is expected to be at least hundreds of people. However, one more franchise could be added to the list of now-dead Ubisoft IPs.

In a recent episode of the Insider Gaming podcast, Insider Gaming founder and editor Tom Henderson said that Ubisoft has quietly killed off the Watch Dogs franchise, which comes on the heels of the editor saying that he has seen internal chat messages between Ubisoft employees who are slagging off the publisher's owners, the Guillemot brothers.

During the podcast, Henderson said that he has heard the Watch Dogs franchise is "completely dead", and that the performance of Watch Dogs: Legion is the reason behind Ubisoft's decision to shelve the IP.

DRAM memory prices have skyrocketed since the beginning of 2025, with estimates now estimating that prices have increased by nearly 300%. In addition to DRAM, NAND flash prices have already increased, and these hikes can be attributed to AI companies pulling manufacturing supply away from the consumer market.

The thirst for more memory from AI companies isn't expected to be quenched for some time, as billions of dollars have been thrown into the global race to create the most sophisticated AI model possible, and no company participating is expected to just stop building and upgrading the data centers that provide more power to their infrastructure.

Counterpoint Research, a global technology market research firm in the TMT industry, was recently cited by The Wall Street Journal, and explained that AI firms are crowding out other buyers of memory, and the disproportionate supply allocation is due to builders of data centers who are happy paying a premium. MS Hwang, a research director at Counterpoint Research, who has been in the industry for more than 30 years, stated prices are expected to continue increasing, with supply already being allocated to companies for 2026, 2027, and 2028.

Rockstar announced the next-gen update for the first Red Dead Redemption game in November 2025, sparking the conversation as to where the next-gen update is for Red Dead Redemption 2.

For those who don't know, Red Dead Redemption 2 still hasn't received a current-gen console update; the versions of the game running on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles are the versions that were released on the PS4-era of consoles, just made compatible with current-gen hardware. With those versions of RDR2 being brought over and Rockstar now doing an official remaster of the first game for current-gen consoles, fans want to know when the same treatment will be applied to RDR2.

Rumors of the next-gen update, which would introduce a 60FPS mode, and likely improved visual fidelity in the form of additional graphical technologies, have been circulating for quite some time, and now Reece "Kiwi Talkz" Reilly has responded to an X post where a fan of the Red Dead franchise said he was "losing faith" in Rockstar releasing an enhanced edition for RDR2, as he believes that sources cited by leakers about an RDR2 enhanced edition mistakenly got the RDR2 and Red Dead Redemption mixed up.

AMD will keep its current RDNA 3.5 GPU architecture until at least 2029, with its next-gen RDNA 5 GPU cores reserved for high-end premium Halo-tier SoCs of the future like the Zen 6 + RDNA 5 combo Medusa Halo APU.

In a new post by leaker @Kepler_L2 on X, we're hearing that AMD is dividing its APU roadmap into two categories. The first will be products targeting lower end markets or markets that don't need good iGPU performance (i.e., office laptops, and also laptops using high-end dGPUs). These will continue to use RDNA 3.5 until 2029.

The second are "premium" integrated GPU products with RDNA 5, like AMD's next-gen Zen 6-based Medusa Halo APU that is expected to sport 48 CUs of RDNA 5-based GPU with RTX 5070 Ti levels of gaming performance inside of a power-sipping APU.