Latest News - Page 1668

All Xbox One games are playable on the Xbox Series X, but developers can roll out enhancement patches to upgrade current-gen games with next-gen performance.

Today Microsoft confirmed two major Xbox Series X backward compatibility features we'd predicted for a while: The next-gen console will natively upscale and play all legacy compatible games better than ever, and devs can add new forward-compatibility patches that update current-gen games to harness the full power of the system's highly-synergized hardware.

Microsoft is careful to say developers have full control on whether or not their games get enhanced on Xbox Series X. Given the console's massive power leap and capability over the Xbox One, devs have incredible potential to breathe new life into their games.

Microsoft's new Xbox Series X console will natively play all backward compatibility games better and optimize them with its boosted GPU and CPU hardware.

Today Microsoft confirmed something I've said from the beginning: Next-gen consoles are both extensions and evolutions of the current generation. The next-gen Xbox SX will play four generations' worth of Xbox games, hearkening all the way back to the OG Xbox era, all of which will play and look better than ever before.

The Xbox Series X will have its own built-in boost mode functionality that automatically and natively upscales the performance of all supported games across the Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbox One eras. This means all games will run better on the Xbox Series X, and older titles in particular will benefit from enhanced frame rates, better load times, reduced screen tearing, and adjusted resolution.

Today Microsoft revealed more Xbox Series X specs, confirming a powerful 12TFLOP RDNA 2-powered GPU on AMD's Big Navi refresh while showing just how big the leap from current- to next-gen actually is.

Contrary to the recent leaked specs, the Xbox Series X will have a 12 TFLOP GPU that's better than any current Navi GPU on the market, reinforcing Microsoft's original "double the Xbox One X's GPU" statements. With its new heavily customized 7nm AMD SoC, the Xbox Series X's GPU is eight times as powerful as an Xbox One, and it's Zen 2 CPU is four times as powerful as the lower-end Jaguar CPU found in the original launch Xbox One.

A new report by the Department of Defence has revealed that the United States has failed to account for $715.8 million dollars worth of weapons and equipment while in Syria.

Members of the Special Operations Joint Task Force-Operations Inherent Resolve (SOJTF-OIR), which is apart of the United States' Combined Joint Task Force in Syria, purportedly "did not maintain comprehensive lists of all equipment purchased and received". These weapons and equipment were supplied to the United States and allies during the years of 2017 and 2018. Not only were weapons and equipment not accounted for, but some of the weapons and equipment that were accounted for suffered rust due to them not being correctly stored.

The report says that this rust happened because of "SOJTF-OIR personnel did not divest or dispose of CTEF-S equipment, which led to overcrowding at the BPC Kuwait warehouse". The Department of Defence report doesn't state if the 'lost' weapons and equipment ended up in the hands of Daesh and Al-Qaeda affiliates, but according to the Military Times some of it did "battlefield losses by partner forces and as a result of Islamic State [Daesh] fighters plundering the armories of U.S.-backed groups in early 2014 as the jihadi group surged across Iraq and Syria".

After five years in development hell, the Borderlands movie finally has a director...and it's a good one.

Renowned horror creator Eli Roth will direct the new Borderlands film for Lionsgate, sources tell Variety. Roth, who is mostly known for his gore-tastic, visceral, and brutal imagery found in films like Hostel, Cabin Fever, and Green Inferno, plans to bring his wicked vision to the video game series' big-screen adaptation.

"I'm so excited to dive into the world of 'Borderlands' and I could not be doing it with a better script, producing team, and studio. I have a long, successful history with Lionsgate - I feel like we have grown up together and that everything in my directing career has led to a project of this scale and ambition. I look forward to bringing my own energy, ideas, and vision to the wild, fun, and endlessly creative world of the game," Roth told Variety.

Activision is hunting down the Reddit user who leaked out Call of Duty Warzone's artwork, and is using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to secure the leaker's personal info from Reddit.

Activision has filed a DMCA subpoena to Reddit in an attempt to unmask Assyrian2410, the Reddit user who revealed key art for the publisher's new Call of Duty Warzone battle royale.

As The Hollywood Reporter notes, sites like Reddit aren't held liable for copyright infringement from leaks as long as they take the content down and adhere to requests made by the copyright holders--in this case, Reddit is pressured to surrender the user's digital identifiable information.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh is asking Sony to "set a good example" and come back to PAX East.

Sony recently announced it would skip PAX East in Boston, Massachusetts because of potential coronavirus risks, cancelling big events like a hands-on gameplay demo of The Last of Us Part II in the process. Boston's Mayor Marty Walsh wants the billion-dollar games-maker to change its mind and come back to the show. Walsh's motivations are an attempt to re-vitalize the annual games showcase that brings lots of tourism to Boston, and to reverse the cultural stigma that the coronavirus has caused.

"As a large, international company, you have an opportunity to set a good example. As a leader in technology, you can show that you are motivated by facts, not fear. As a leader in gaming and culture, you can show that you believe in connection, not isolation," Mayor Walsh said in a letter to Sony's CEO Kenichiro Yoshida obtained by WCVB.

One of the biggest problems we all face on Earth is if a large asteroid decides to line up Earth. It's an even bigger problem if that asteroid is so large that it falls into the category of "planet-killing".

So, in the event of one of those asteroids making its way over to Earth, how do we defend ourselves as a planet? MIT researchers have announced a battle plan for dealing with a "planet-killing" asteroid being on a collision course with Earth. According to the new paper, there are three options for missions that could be prepared in reasonably short notice. The first is "type 0", and is when a single, heavy spacecraft is fired at the asteroid using all information gathered from Earth to knock it off course.

The second is "type 1" mission, and that is when a scout craft is launched first to examine the asteroid. With the data gathered from the scout craft, humans back on Earth would be able to launch an impactor craft more accurately. The third option is "type 2" mission, which is when an impactor craft is launched at the same time as the scout craft. The scout craft then examines the asteroid after the initial impact, then relays data back for a second impactor that should finish the asteroid off.

Netflix has revealed some additional cast members that will be seen throughout The Witcher season 2. Filming has also begun!

Netflix has announced that seven new cast members have been added to season 2 of The Witcher and that filming for the season has already begun. One of the cast members that will appear in season 2 is Kristofer Hivju, who starred in Game of Thrones as Tormund Giantsbane. Henry Cavill will return to his role of Geralt of Rivia, along with Anya Chalotra as Yennefer, Freya Allan as Ciri, and Joey Batey as Jaskier.

Other actors who will also be coming to season 2 are: Yasen Atour from Young Wallender as Coen, Agnes Bjorn as Vereena, Paul Bullion from Peaky Blinders as Lambert, Thue Ersted Rasmussen from Fast and Furious 9 as Eskel, Aisha Fabienne Ross from The Danish Girl as Lydia, and Mecia Simson, as Francesca. Netflix estimates that the next season of The Witcher will be launched in 2021.

It was only a few weeks ago that astronomers announced that they received what is called Fast Radio Bursts from deep space. Now, a Harvard scientist and astronomer have said that it could be aliens who are sending the signals.

If you don't know what Fast Radio Bursts (FRB) is, here's a quick summary of what has happened so far. In January 2020, astronomers picked up FRB's from deep space, and while this is originally a rare finding, these signals are usually traced back to a cosmic event such as stars colliding. What puzzled astronomers were that these new FRB's were arriving in a regular pattern.

The pattern was that the FRB goes through a four-day cycle of regular activity almost every hour, then after those four days, it would go dormant for 12 days. The researchers also said that the source of the FRB would sometimes skip it's four-day activity period and only let out a single burst. This discovery broke all explanations towards for what the source of the FRB could be.

Bethesda is removing their games from NVIDIA's new game streaming service GeForce NOW, with some major games getting flushed away. NVIDIA also announced there are over 1 million people now using GeForce NOW.

NVIDIA's new GeForce NOW game streaming service loses the likes of many Fallout games, Skyrim, The Elder Scrolls 5, and more -- the only one staying is going to be Wolfenstein: Youngblood, something I benchmarked with RTX and DLSS features enabled. GeForce NOW will however lose all other Wolfenstein games.

Activision-Blizzard dropped its games from GeForce NOW in a move that NVIDIA called a "misunderstanding", with NVIDIA taking to its blog recently to explain: "As we approach a paid service, some publishers may choose to remove games before the trial period ends. Ultimately, they maintain control over their content and decide whether the game you purchase includes streaming on GeForce NOW. Meanwhile, others will bring games back as they continue to realize GeForce NOW's value (stay tuned for more on that)".

NVIDIA launched its game streaming service GeForce NOW just a couple of weeks ago and the company has already seen over 1 million gamers sign up for it. With games like Cyberpunk 2077, and Google Stadia sucking in comparison (and GeForce NOW being much cheaper), it's no wonder NVIDIA is seeing success.

GeForce NOW supports over 400 games, while another 1000 are available for single-session installations -- all taking place on NVIDIA's servers. You can play your own games through your own accounts on Steam, the Epic Games Store, or Uplay -- while there's a free tier, NVIDIA also offers the premium Founders tier.

NVIDIA's premium Founders tier for GeForce NOW offers up longer play sessions, while both the free and premium tiers have RTX on (ray tracing) but the free version of GeForce NOW only has it for a 90-day introductory period. NVIDIA also announced that they have 1500 more games coming to GeForce NOW in the near future.

Magic: The Gathering Arena has been tremendously successful on PC, and Wizards of the Coast are eager to expand the game's reach to other platforms.

MTG Arena is likely coming to every single platform and addressable market in the games industry. The free-to-play online-based digital CCG, which puts an emphasis on monetizing randomized card packs, is prime territory for dedicated consoles like the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, or the on-the-go handheld Switch hybrid. It's even a contender for Stadia, Google's new cloud streaming service. But Arena's true potential for massive earnings is on the $68.5 billion mobile market.

Now in a recent Hasbro investor's meeting at ToyFair, Wizards of the Coast not only confirms Arena will release on mobile in 2020, but the game will see a dramatic expansion to other devices and services.

Gamers will get the chance to help shape Baldur's Gate 3's development with an early access build releasing in 2020.

Baldur's Gate 3 is coming to early access later this year, Wizards of the Coast President Chris Cocks confirmed in a recent investors presentation.

"Larian will be showing off the game to the public next weekend at PAX East before entering early access later this year," he said.

Nintendo sends mixed signals to fans who are disappointed with its clandestine and awkward approach to Animal Corssing: New Horizons save backups.

Nintendo just pulled an interesting move that has some far-reaching implications. The company just edited and re-uploaded the recent Animal Crossing: New Horizons showcase with one key bit of info omitted out--the rather draconian save recovery policy.

Before the edit, the Direct outlined the strict stipulations to getting back their precious save data. Users can only recover save data in the event of a lost or damaged console, only a single time, and only if they're Switch Online subscribers, indicating that Nintendo automatically backs up your saved data anyway but blocks off user access. (That's really the only way they could restore your data if you lose a system, whereas they could manually transfer the saves from your old broken system to a new working one in their facilities.)

EA has cancelled yet another Star Wars game, this time an interesting-sounding project that was in development at EA Vancouver.

Making Star Wars games is very, very hard, and no one knows that better than Electronic Arts. The publisher has now cancelled three consecutive Star Wars projects: Visceral Games' Project Ragtag bounty hunter game in 2017, then EA Vancouver's live-driven open-world Project Orca in 2019, and now Project Viking, yet another EA Vancouver title. This marks the second EA Vancouver Star Wars project that EA has cancelled in a row.

Sources tell Kotaku's Jason Schreier that Project Viking was an open-world game derived from the Battlefront series. Viking was meant to fill the large Millennium Falcon-shaped hole in EA's 2020 Star Wars games lineup and launch on the next-gen PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. EA killed the project in early 2019, sources familiar with the game say.

Following the acquisition of Saber Interactive, The Embracer Group (also known as THQ Nordic) now owns a whopping 163 game series and franchises.

While scouting The Embracer Group's recent earnings, I found something quite interesting: Raw numbers that show just how massive the company's gaming presence is. The media titan currently has access to over 150 new IPs, and has a massive global dev pool of 92 teams worldwide across a multitude of wholly-owned studios.

The company's pipeline is just as big as its IP treasure. There's 96 total games in development at Embracer's studios, of which 52 have yet to be announced. A lot of these projects aren't AAA endeavors and are a long ways off. Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors says he wants to release at least two major AAA games by March 2021 (possibly Dead Island 2 and Saints Row V, both of which have been in development for years now).

Temtem, the popular Pokemon-like MMO, is off to a tremendous start with over 500,000 copies sold in its first month.

Crema's monster-catching MMORPG is an early access sensation on Steam, pulling in over half a million users in just one month. The hunger for a Pokemon-esque experience on PC is real, and backed with a mighty $573,000 Kickstarter and Humble Bundle as publisher, Temtem is now a bonafide success on Steam.

Temtem is largely familiar territory to Digimon and Pokemon players, featuring a plethora of catchable creatures with their own abilities, elemental affinities, and other traits. There's a stamina system instead of a PP system, and combat features unique 2v2 battles for tag team action. The biggest departure is that Temtem is online and allows for native team-based co-op at any time. Gamers can connect, play, and interact with other Temtem tamers, and tackle PVP battles to boot.

The global coronavirus infection continues disrupting critical technology supply lines, and this time Valve's proprietary Index VR headset is affected.

With the VR-exclusive Half-Life: Alyx on the way, everyone wants a Valve Index virtual reality headset. But there's just one problem: They're completely sold out, and have been for months. Now Valve says Index supplies will remain scarce due to the coronavirus, which sees China forcibly closing manufacturing facilities and plants in an effort to curb the contagion.

Valve confirmed the news to UploadVR with the following statement: "With Half-Life: Alyx coming March 23rd, we are working hard to meet demand for the Valve Index and want to reassure everyone that Index systems will be available for purchase prior to the game's launch.

Today the District Court of California announced a settlement agreement between Crytek and Cloud Imperium Games, but no specifics were revealed.

After a long 3-year legal battle, Crysis developer Crytek and Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games have finally settled their legal dispute. New court documents filed yesterday confirm the news, and stipulate both parties have up to 30 days to outline the exact details of the agreement. These details probably won't be publicized.

"Pursuant to C.D. Cal. L.R. 40-2, Plaintiff CRYTEK GMBH and Defendants CLOUD IMPERIUM GAMES CORP. and ROBERTS SPACE INDUSTRIES CORP., by and through their counsel of record, hereby notify the Court that they have reached an agreement in principle of terms to settle this action in its entirety and are working to document the terms of their agreement. Following execution of the agreement, the parties will promptly file a joint stipulation of dismissal. The parties respectfully request that the Court allow the parties thirty (30) days to document and execute their agreement and to file the joint stipulation of dismissal."