Latest News - Page 1534

Facebook last week announced Quest 2 and opened pre-orders for the new device. The company said it was prepared for high demand, but it seems to have underestimated how much people want a Quest 2.

The new Oculus Quest 2 is a spectacular device, and people really want to get their hands-on one. Facebook is selling the XR2-powered standalone headset for an astoundingly low $299, and that entry price seems to have sparked some attention. Quest 2 is supposed to ship on October 13, but if you don't have your order in yet, you're in for a bit of a wait.

Quest 2 is now backordered but just shy of a month in both the United States and Canada. Canadians can expect new orders of either Quest 2 model to arrive on November 10. Americans can get the 256GB model on November 3, but the 64GB version is backordered to November 9. If you live in the UK, you can get your hands-on a 64GB Quest 2 as early as October 20, but the 256GB version won't arrive until November 3.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone Season 6 is right around the corner, with Activision releasing a new cinematic trailer to tease it. Check it out:

Warzone's exciting Verdansk map will be getting a big change, with an underground network of subway tunnels being inserted into the map which will change Warzone up in a big way. There's also some new operators, with the introduction of Nikolai and Farah.

As for the new operators entering the fray in Season 6, we can expect:

GALAX has just unveiled its new custom GeForce RTX 3090 GAMER graphics card, which seems to have been inspired by LEGO. Check it out:

You can see that GALAX GeForce RTX 3090 GAMER edition graphics card is rocking out with a triple-fan cooler, just like most of the custom GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards. But where GALAX is doing it differently with this model, is being heavily inspired by LEGO -- yeah, LEGO bricks.

As VideoCardz points out, with the color and shroud design it also looks like it is some LEGO bricks infused with a Nintendo Switch console. It actually looks great, and I kinda really dig it.

Facebook appears to have quietly acquired a Singapore-based company called Lemnis Technologies for its proprietary varifocal lens technology. The company's founder is now working for Facebook Reality Labs.

According to a report from yivian.com, a Chinese AR/VR news site, Facebook acquired Lemnis Technologies earlier this year. Neither Facebook nor Lemnis Technologies revealed the transaction, but several pieces line up to give credence to the idea.

For starters, Lemnis Technologies' co-founder and CEO, Pierre-Yves Laffont, is now working for Facebook Reality Labs. Laffont's LinkedIn page reveals that his role as CEO at Lemnis ended in January 2020, and he joined Facebook Singapore in February 2020.

Bethesda won't be Microsoft's last purchase, company CEO Satya Nadella says.

Thanks to Game Pass and mobile expansion via Project xCloud, Xbox is quite important to Microsoft's service empire. With the service infrastructure established, Microsoft is aggressively investing in content to help spark digital revenues. Whether it comes from subscriber growth, full game sales, or monetization, Microsoft wants more. The main motivation behind the recent $7.5 billion Bethesda acquisition was to add more value to Game Pass.

Including ZeniMax and its eight studios, Xbox now has 23 first-party teams working on projects to boost Game Pass' value. The plan is to flood Game Pass with a multitude of varied content for subscribers, consumers, and gamers to enjoy, play, and pay for. Even with these impressive numbers, Microsoft says that it's always looking to swell its ranks and embolden its billion-dollar service ecosystem.

Ailing retailer GameStop saw a sharp 23% rise in share value on the back of new business restructuring reports.

Chewy.com co-founder Ryan Cohen has a plan to turn around GameStop's retail business. Instead of focusing so strongly on retail, Cohen advises GameStop to pivot towards ecommerce and become more like Amazon. Sources relayed the plan to Bloomberg, which sees GameStop selling most of its wares digitally via its online storefront.

Investors apparently agree with Cohen's plan. GameStop shares were up 23% to $10.65, the highest point since early 2019. Under his firm RC Ventures, Cohen currently owns 10% stake in GameStop and management is currently hearing out his plan.

Microsoft has no plans to disrupt ZeniMax's development teams, and promises it won't cut any jobs or interrupt development.

Microsoft says it has one clear goal with its recent $7.5 billion acquisition: To make ZeniMax the best it can be. After all, what's good for ZeniMax is now good for Microsoft. To make this happen, Microsoft says they will keep the established structure intact. The service giant plans to largely leave ZeniMax alone in this regard.

There won't be any reductions in dev teams, closing of studios, or immediate cancellations of in-development projects (at least at the beginning, but projects get cancelled all the time in the industry). Xbox's Phil Spencer says ZeniMax's 2,300-person workforce will be empowered, and that Microsoft plans to work individually with studios like Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, and MachineGames to garner feedback and open up resources.

Like a good mentor, Microsoft will show Bethesda how to grow and mature its live service business model, which represents its natural evolution as a games-maker.

Microsoft's recent $7.5 billion Bethesda buyout is a match made in heaven. Microsoft gets much-needed content for Xbox Game Pass, the subscription that's not just a service, but the center of Xbox as a whole. Bethesda gets resources, flexibility, and most importantly, access to Microsoft's potent service framework.

Microsoft doesn't just have a service empire--it has the service empire. Few companies on Earth have a better mastery of digital subscriptions, recurring revenues, and services. Xbox has naturally evolved from a console-first business into a service-first business, and now the Xbox brand is starting to mature. The Xbox LIVE online framework, Windows 10 unification, Project xCloud streaming, and on-demand Game Pass access across PC, consoles, and mobiles--all of this is a result of a service-first ecosystem.

Microsoft isn't playing by Sony's rules any more, and plans to conquer gaming by saturating the market with content. Now its 23 dev teams are ramping up projects to populate its console, PC, and service offerings.

Today Microsoft made a big move against its competitors. It bought Bethesda for $7.5 billion, acquiring titanic IPs like Fallout, Doom, and Elder Scrolls as well as studios like Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, Arkane, and more. This follows two years' worth of acquisitions for its Xbox Game Studios banner, which now sits at 23 studios compared to Sony's 15.

The idea here is Microsoft is buying up studios to add value to its cross-platform Game Pass service. The subscription is now so powerful it's defining the Xbox brand and has convinced Microsoft to pay triple for Bethesda than it did for Minecraft back in 2014. At the time of writing, Xbox Game Pass has more than 15 million paid active subscriptions, and grew nearly 5 million subscribers since April 2020.

I'm knee deep in reviewing NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 3080 graphics cards, and now the RTX 3090 to have a day one review, but the world hasn't stopped.

We now have some new rumored specs on the AMD's next-gen Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics card, where Rogame tweets it will be powered by the Navi 21 GPU and have 16GB of GDDR6 memory. The 16GB of GDDR6 memory is coming from Samsung, and will reportedly be on a 256-bit memory bus.

Not only that, but there is also the Navi 22 GPU that should power a slightly slower card that should materialize into the Radeon RX 6800 XT, or possibly the Radeon RX 6700 XT. This card will reportedly have 12GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit memory bus.

IDC, one of the worlds leading data analysis companies, released its latest forecast for the VR headset industry. The firm believes that the market will suffer a 6% depression on VR headset sales in 2020, but sales will rebound hard with an increase of over 45% next year.

IDC's Quarterly Augmented and Virtual Reality Headset Tracker report highlights the AR and VR industries' state. According to IDC, sales of VR headsets are down this year compared to last. Mid-year sales were affected by supply issues brought on by the manufacturing shutdowns earlier this year. Now that we're approaching the tail end of the year, headset sales are likely to increase.

"We're seeing increased interest in VR from both consumer and commercial buyers," said Tom Mainelli, group vice president, Device & Consumer Research at IDC. "However, a confluence of events made for a tough first half of 2020 in terms of headset unit volumes, even as demand increased. We expect a sizeable increase in shipment volume during the second half of this year as production ramps up, and new products launch into the market, and VR should see a return to robust growth in 2021."

We are all now well aware of the major issues retailers across the world, as well as NVIDIA experienced on the launch of its brand new powerhouse GeForce RTX 3080 graphic card.

It crashed retailer websites worldwide, bought sites like Newegg to their knees with more traffic than the morning of Black Friday, and had inventories evaporate in seconds. NVIDIA has now addressed it in a new Q&A on their website.

NVIDIA starts off by saying: "Last week's GeForce RTX 3080 launch was simultaneously the best GPU launch ever and the most frustrating", adding: "The reception to our NVIDIA Ampere architecture GPUs has been off the charts and driven interest to heights we've never previously experienced. A few examples compared to our previous launch - 4 times the unique visitors to our website, 10 times the peak web requests per second, and more than 15 times the out clicks to partner pages".

Last week,Facebook revealed Quest 2, the company's next standalone VR headset. Facebook is betting big on Quest 2, and the company is making an effort to give you a reason to justify the purchase. Not only is Quest 2 an excellent gaming platform, but Infinite Office will also make it a great productivity tool.

Facebook's Infinite Office is not yet available but got a bit of a preview last week at Facebook Connect. VR companies have always touted the productivity benefits of VR, such as group collaboration and the ability to customize your workspace. Productivity tools were on the roadmap for Oculus products, but the global pandemic and the current work-from-home reality that many of us are living accelerated the rollout.

With Infinite Office, you'll be able to use a Quest 2 headset to do your everyday work. The platform offers a multi-window solution that facilitates multitasking. You can have a browser window open next to a document that you're working on, along with a chat window to keep in contact with co-workers.

UltraLeap announced the availability of the Stereo IR 170 hand tracking module for hardware and software developers. The evaluation kit will enable headset makers to design devices with embedded UltraLeap sensor, and for software developers to prepare for that future.

UltraLeap's hand tracking solution is the evolution of the company's Leap Motion hand tracking peripheral. The Stereo IR 170 offers a wider field of view than the Leap Motion sensor (170-degrees x 170 degrees versus 150-degrees x 120-degrees), and it can see your hands at up to 75cm from the sensor.

UltraLeap's new sensor is also more compact and draws less power than the Leap Motion unit, making it suitable fordirect integration into VR and AR devices.

Microsoft just bought Bethesda for $7.5 billion, but that doesn't mean all future games will be Xbox exclusives.

All of Bethesda's games are coming to Xbox Game Pass on Xbox consoles and PC, Microsoft confirms, but PlayStation gamers won't be locked out of future releases. Bethesda plans to honor pre-arranged exclusivity deals with titles like Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo on PlayStation 5. Microsoft also confirms that future Bethesda games will be released on other platforms on a title-by-title basis.

When asked about Starfield and other games coming to PlayStation, Xbox's Phil Spencer told Bloomberg: "We'll take other consoles on a case-by-case basis."

Xbox Game Pass subscribers have grown by nearly 50% in just 5 months, showing just how powerful the subscription service is.

Microsoft's Game Pass and Game Pass Ultimate subscriptions are so important they've become the center of Xbox. Consoles are just the delivery mechanism for Game Pass, which has in turn become the premiere delivery avenue for games and content. The value-oriented service now has 15 million subscribers, Microsoft confirmed, up nearly 5 million paid users since April 2020.

This growth is tremendous for the Xbox brand. As we've said before, Microsoft doesn't care all that much about hardware sales. It's doubled-down on services using Windows 10 PC-console cross-connectivity and Xbox LIVE as the bedrock for its business. Game Pass is an evolution of that plan, and it's starting to come to fruition.

Bethesda says it's performed its "largest engine overhaul since Oblivion" to ensure its Creation Engine is in tip-top shape for next-gen hardware.

Today Microsoft bought Bethesda parent company ZeniMax Media for $7.5 billion, and acquired the rights to Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Doom, and everything else ZeniMax owned. It's a big, big deal for Xbox and the future of RPGs. Nestled in Todd Howard's announcement post is mention of new engine optimizations for Bethesda Game Studios' two big new games: Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6.

Howard says both Starfield, its new singleplayer interstellar RPG space epic, and The Elder Scrolls VI will be powered by a new-and-improved version of the Creation Engine. This new engine update is specifically optimized for next-gen console hardware, including the Xbox Series X and Series S duo, Howard says.

Microsoft just bought Bethesda Softworks parent company ZeniMax Media for $7.5 billion, and Xbox now owns the rights to Elder Scrolls, Fallout

Microsoft just spent 3x more than it did for Minecraft in 2014 to buy ZeniMax Media, the parent company of the Bethesda Softworks publishing label and Bethesda Game Studios internal development teams. Xbox now owns the 2,300 team at ZeniMax, including all of Bethesda's first-party worldwide studios. And, most of all, Microsoft now owns Fallout, Elder Scrolls, and Doom, along with new franchises like Starfield.

Armed with Microsoft's billions, Bethesda plans to double-down on development of its biggest new games. Xbox's Phil Spencer confirms Bethesda's biggest games are now coming to Game Pass, but there's no word of console exclusivity. This is the single biggest buyout Xbox has ever done and represents decades' worth of value for the cross-platform brand. With Bethesda and Obsidian, Microsoft now has the RPG dream team on its side.

We finally have some gorgeous nudes of the custom GeForce RTX 3090 PCB, with the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3090 EAGLE OC caught sunbathing in a new YouTube video.

You can see the new GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3080 EAGLE OC graphics card and its unique dual 8-pin PCIe power connector design at the end. GIGABYTE is using flat 8-pin connectors with cable extenders, that are to the right of the board.

On the back of the card in the picture below we can see the huge 24GB of GDDR6X that Micron has provide to NVIDIA for its GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card. You can see all of the chips on the front of the board in the pictures above, while the chips on the back of the RTX 3090 PCB can be viewed below.

Every PC gamer loves options when it comes to hardware, and the more options, the better. Now, ROCCAT has unveiled a new line of PC gaming headsets for gamers to feast their eyes upon.

ROCCAT, Turtle Beach's PC gaming brand, has officially unveiled a new line of PC gaming headsets slated to be launched this fall. The new line of gaming headsets is called the ROCCAT Elo Series, and will introduce three brand new headsets; the Elo X Stereo, the Elo 7.1 USB, and the Elo Air. As you can probably imagine, each of the new headsets fit a specific price point, and proportionate to that price point is its quality.

The Elo X Stereo is the light-weight model of three and features a floating metal headband and plush memory foam cushions. It also comes in at the cost of just $49.99 MSRP. Moving on, we have the Elo 7.1 USB, and as the name states, this model comes with 7.1 surround sound, as well as ROCCAT's AIMO intelligent lighting system. The Elo 7.1 comes in at the cost of $69.99 MSRP. Last in the Elo series line is the Elo 7.1 Air, which comes with Turtle Beach's Superhuman Hearing, a 24-hour battery life, and more. The Elo 7.1 Air is priced at $99.99 MSRP.