Latest News - Page 1554

Apple has produced documents showing Epic Games requested a special side deal to allow direct payments for Fortnite and Unreal Engine games on iOS. The company also wanted the Epic Games Store on iOS too.

Epic Games is taking on Apple in a legal battle that could shake up the industry. It all started when Epic allowed direct purchases in Fortnite on iOS, which denied Apple its 30% cut for all revenues.

This broke the terms of service, and Apple removed Fortnite from the iOS market. Epic knew this would happen and had a legal complaint ready that not only alleges that Apple is a monopoly, but calls for an anti-trust case into the trillion-dollar tech titan.

Square Enix has strong confidence in its new Marvel's Avengers live service game and assures investors that "powerful" in-game content is coming.

Apart from Final Fantasy, Square Enix's new Avengers game might be the company's next biggest series. It's a live service game aimed at recurring revenues via in-game cosmetics, and Marvel confirms that gamers can unlock and pay for 80 years' worth of iconic costumes to dress up in-game characters like Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, Black Widow, and more. Avengers will be a huge opportunity for Marvel and Square Enix vis-a-vis royalties and revenues.

In a recent Q&A session, Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda tells investors that Avengers will have lots of post-release content, which is to be expected for a GaaS title. Matsuda says Avengers will have rather robust content right at launch, and he's no-doubt referring to the PlayStation 4/PlayStation 5 Spider-Man exclusivity...among other updates.

Tesla stock isn't stopping right now, with the electric vehicle giant seeing its stock hit a record high, breaching $2000 on Thursday.

The increase in Tesla stock prices jolted the market capitalization to $370 billion,with Tesla silently driving upwards into its five-for-one stock split that comes on August 21, where it gets distributed to anyone who has Tesla stock.

Once this happens, it could see Tesla be included in the S&P 500 stock index, where if Tesla can secure a place in the S&P 500, funds that track the index are required to buy Tesla shares. We all know what happens from there, Tesla shares continue to skyrocket.

NASA has taken to its 'NASA Goddard' YouTube channel to release a great guide to 'near-light-speed travel', and what you need to consider.

The video NASA has released is quite funny, as it has assumed the viewer has already worked out how humans can travel at near light speed, which is 186,282 miles per second (299,792 kilometers per second). At the moment, humans haven't yet worked out how to effectively transport humans throughout the cosmos at those speeds, but NASA's video gives some pointers to consider once we figure it out.

The animated video touches on some facts that will need to be considered once humans reach this level of travel. NASA reminds us of travel times, the distances between popular destinations, and shielding for the spacecraft. If you are interested in watching the video for yourself, check out the above link. On a personal note, I really like these short animated videos containing a nice bite-size amount of interesting facts. If NASA happens to read this, keep doing these!

We all know that the end of this year is going to be absolutely bananas for all gamers, no matter which platform you're on -- gamers are gamers, and every single one of them would be more hyped right now than any time in history.

We're on the eve of not just a big wave of next-gen GPUs from NVIDIA -- but also for the first time in what feels like forever, AMD is about to fire back and enter the high-end enthusiast GPU market again. On top of that, AMD has put Intel onto its knees after being near-invincible, and has next-gen APUs inside of both Microsoft and Sony's next-gen consoles.

We will see somewhere north of 200 million PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X consoles over the next 5 years, on top of 10s of millions of graphics cards and gaming PCs in that time. So, it should come as no surprise that enthusiast gamer himself, NVIDIA CEO and founder Jensen Huang, is hyped for the end of the year.

Sony has just kick started the TV advertisement marketing for its next generation PlayStation 5 console, which focuses on the 3D audio, adaptive triggers, and haptic feedback on the PS5 and its DualSense controller. Check it out:

The company seems to be concentrating its first wave of PlayStation 5 marketing on its new DualSense controller, which will usher in a "new world of immersion" for gamers. This makes sense for the ad, which -- in its own, very weird way, is (I guess) marketing those things.

Sony's marketing VP, Mary Yee, explained on the official PlayStation website: "Today, I am pleased to share with you our first global spot for PlayStation that showcases some of the immersive gameplay you will experience on the new PS5 console. In our first global digital ad for the PS5 console, you'll see the new console's features come to life through a young woman's eyes and her movements".

Do you remember those leaks from all the way back in January 2020, where we were teased with specs on the purported GeForce RTX 3080 which saw it have up to 20GB of VRAM. Well, it seems those rumors were right -- but there's something strange going on, too.

But now we're receiving some more confirmation from leaker kopite7kimi, who has tweeted that the PG132-SKU20 is the 'RTX 3080 20G from AIC'. So, the custom GeForce RTX 3080 has 20GB of GDDR6X memory... but what about the GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition?

He was asked if the 20GB would be for "AIB models only" to which he replied with a simple "yes". This is an interesting turn of events -- NVIDIA will have the only 10GB models of the GeForce RTX 3080, while AIB partners will be 20GB models only.

NVIDIA is a few days closer to the reveal of its next-gen GeForce RTX 3000 series graphics cards, with the PG133A board going through RRA certification.

The new PG133A board was noticed by @kopite7kimi as the board design for NVIDIA's next-gen GA102 GPU-based graphics cards. The same board is used on different SKUs of NVIDIA's graphics cards, including the x080 and x060 series graphics cards.

Normally they have small board changes, where power stages and memory configurations are changed. But now the PG133A board was spotted in the Korean National Research Agency, which provides certification -- the last step before the product is released onto the market.

It looks like Ubisoft's Prince of Persia series could make a comeback soon, but we don't know exactly when.

Listings for an unspecified Prince of Persia remake were spotted on Guatemalan retailer Max.com, hinting at an incoming remaster from Ubisoft. The listings have since been taken down after coverage went widespread. The listings were for an unspecified game, but the platforms were PS4 and Switch, so we could see a remaster of the PS3 self-titled Prince of Persia or even Sands of Time.

Ubisoft could be saving this reveal for Gamescom's new Opening Night Live digital ceremony on August 27. Show host Geoff Keighley teases a ton of "exciting reveals" for gamers.

Today Amazon made a megaton announcement: It's teaming up with South Korean titan Smilegate to make a new game.

Amazon's first-party game development projects seem to be floundering. New World has been delayed to 2021, and Crucible, the Overwatch knock-off, is back in beta after an unsuccessful launch. So now Amazon is pivoting and will team up Smilegate, with one of the most successful developers on the planet.

Smilegate's FPS CrossFire is the most popular shooter in the world. It has 670 million registered users and 8 million active users across the world. Smilegate will develop the game, and Amazon Games will publish the project. We don't know exactly what Smilegate is working on, but it could be another shooter. The game is set to release in 2021. It's worth noting that Control and Alan Wake developer Remedy Entertainment is working on a singleplayer campaign for CrossFireX.

The PS5's DualSense controller has programmable adaptive triggers, and developers are doing some creative things with them including locking them completely when your gun jams.

Outside of VR-based peripherals, the DualSense might be the most innovative controller ever made. The controller has special adaptive triggers that interact with the force feedback in a dynamic way, creating multitudes of possibilities for nuanced and instantaneous sensory input.

Examples include how the trigger with vibrate to reflect the tensile strength of a bowstring pull, or different levels of targeted vibration to simulate different terrains. Devs can literally program the triggers to react to gameplay as they see fit.

Sony's next-gen PS5 lineup includes heavy-hitters like Spider-Man Miles Morales, Horizon Forbidden West, Gran Turismo 7, the Demon's Souls remake, and the new Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart game. Sony is extremely confident in this selection of games, and even calls it the "best in PlayStation history."

As of right now, the PS5 won't have a whole lot of games when it releases in holiday 2020. Key launch games include Godfall, a third-party action RPG, and Spider-Man Miles Morales, a smaller spin-off of Insomniac's Spider-Man. Third-party will push sales more than first-party by virtue of more games, and we'll see big hits like Assassin's Creed Valhalla, NBA 2K21, Control Ultimate Edition, and Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War all release on the system.

Instead, the PS5 will mostly rely heavily on the backwards compatibility and play thousands of PS4 games at launch. Most of these games will be optimized with next-gen upgrades or enhancements, too.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War's new key art has been revealed, and could give hints about the game's campaign.

Yesterday Treyarch confirmed Black Ops Cold War with a teaser trailer that outlined key story beats. The game takes place during the Cold War, and the trailer played a historic interview with Soviet defector Yuri Bezmenov the lay out the dire circumstances of the conflict.

The new art confirms multiple time settings, too. The two soldiers--one KGB, and the other American--are covered with Space Race-era propaganda which stretched across 20 years. The previous teaser also shows events from the 50s (Red Square Protest from 1958), 60s (peace protests), 70s (Vietnam conflict) and 80s (fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989). The artwork gives key inference on what to expect about the game, and could indicate a dual-campaign approach similar to Modern Warfare.

Control is coming to next-gen PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles as a separate re-release, and 505 Games promises the game will harness the full might of each console. But current-gen versions will still be boosted too.

Today 505 Games put out a new blog post trying to explain why existing Control owners aren't getting free upgrades on PS5, Xbox Series X. They didn't specify exact details, but did confirm there were multiple roadblocks along the way, possibly with either console's handling of scaled next-gen performance. The logistics of upgrading the PS4 version of Control to a PS5 version may not be very easy. There's probably also contractual obligations to consider, and both of these things can't be talked about yet.

One thing 505 Games did confirm is that Control will "take full advantage of the power and features provided by these new consoles". The publisher didn't outline just how Control will play on next-gen, but expect hardware-based raytracing, high FPS, and native 4K resolution to name a few.

Intel is accelerating its $20 billion stock buyback strategy because of lower share values, and soon plans to buy up $10 billion worth of stock.

Despite sharp upticks in Q2 revenues ($19 billion, +20%) and net income ($5.1 billion, +22%), Intel's shares have dived nearly 20% in the last month due to the delay of its 7nm process to 2022.

Intel believes its shares are worth more than their recent trade values, so the company is spending $10 billion of its cash reserves to buy up 166 million shares of its stock. The motivation here is to raise stock prices by reducing the amount of shares on the market, thereby reducing dilution of the share value.

The entire world is changing and evolving to new standards, tens of millions more people working from home -- all over the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide. In the middle of it, Samsung and Logitech see opportunity -- and have announced a new strategic partnership.

The companies will be collaborating on bringing the world the most "comprehensive display lineup including digital signages and desktop monitors, with Logitech's wide variety of video conferencing solutions for both meeting rooms and personal desks".

Samsung explains that its displays can turn any space, whether it is in the office or at home, into a productive workspace. Samsung adds: "Samsung monitors are available in a wide range of sizes, resolutions and screen types, from ultra-wide curve to traditional flat screens, to offer users the perfect fit. When paired with Logitech's USB-compatible conference cams such as MeetUp and Rally, and webcams such as Brio, C930e and C925e, any location can be transformed into an integrated workspace, saving users' valuable time while still providing powerful functionality".

Project CARS 3 is nearly here, with the pedal being pushed firmly into the metal on September 28 -- but between now and then we're finding out about the changes inside of the new MADNESS graphics engine, and more.

In a recent interview with Wccftech, Joseph Barron, Marketing & esports Manager at Slightly Mad Studios talked about the technology side of Project CARS 3. You can read the entire interview here, but there are some great tidbits to take away from it.

The team have put some enhancements into the MADNESS engine for Project CARS 3, with Barron explaining: "The first big thing on the engine side is CFR (Clustered Forward Rendered) lightning. This is a different lightning technology compared to what he had in the previous Project CARS titles, and it allows us to have a greater number of active light sources in a specific given area thereby significantly increasing the quantity of lights that our systems can handle without any negative impact on performance".

Eurocom has just unveiled what seems to be the most crazy-specced laptop I've seen so far, packing Intel's latest-and-greatest Core i9-10900K processor and NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER (Non Max-Q) graphics card. Introducing the Eurocom Sky Z7 Mobile Supercomputer.

You can option all the way up to the flagship Core i9-10900K + RTX 2080 SUPER, with up to 128GB of fast DDR4 memory, and an insane 13TB of SSD storage. This can come from 3 x M.2 NVMe drives (4TB each) and then 1TB of M.2 SATA (13TB total).

Better yet, if you need the super-fast CPU and 128GB of RAM, and needed that huge 13TB of super-fast NVMe storage -- they're easily accessible ports for users to quickly upgrade (or even plug-and-play) super-fast NVMe SSDs into Eurocom Sky Z7 Mobile Supercomputer.

Cerebras has just unveiled the world's largest chip, which packs a mind boggling 2.6 trillion transistors and 850,000 cores.

The new Wafer Scale Engine (WSE) was unveiled at Hot Chips 2020, with Cerebras using TSMC's new 7nm process to cram the 850,000 cores onto the 2.6 trillion transistors. The previous-gen WSE had 1.2 trillion transistors, 400,000 cores, 18GB of on-chip memory, 9PB/sec memory banwidth, and 100Pb/s of total fabric bandwidth that consumed a total of 15kW of power.

How does this work? The Wafer Scale Engine magic is because instead of making the chip into a traditional monolithic processor die, Cerebras instead stitches the processor dies together with a communication fabric -- letting the many, many chips act as one unit.

If you were about to pull the trigger on a new upgrade, I would suggest waiting just a little while longer. Not only do we have NVIDIA's next-gen Ampere-based GeForce RTX 3000 series cards, but AMD's new RDNA 2-based Radeon cards, too.

In the middle of that, SSD and RAM prices are plummeting and will continue to do so well into 2021. According to a new report, the prices are tumbling because of an oversupply of both DRAM and NAND-based products.

DRAMeXhange explains: "Despite the traditional peak season for electronics sales and the release of Apple's new iPhones in 3Q20, the quarterly decline in NAND flash ASP [average selling price] will likely reach 10 percent, due to the client end's excess inventory under the impact of the pandemic".