Latest News - Page 1707

Right now Google's Stadia game streaming service is basically a paid beta test, but the free option is coming...soon.

Stadia is still in its wonky pre-release phases, but when the free version rolls out, Google's service will be more accessible than ever. Anyone will be able to fire up Chrome, buy a game, and instantly jump right into the action without having to buy any console or PC gaming hardware. This kind of flexibility is extremely potent and represents a proving point for Google's fledgling gaming business.

So when is Stadia getting its free tier? It could be up to 90 days away. In a recent interview with Protocol, Google's Phil Harrison gave a tentative timeline: "The big strategic difference is that over the next few months you will be able to experience Stadia for free. No money down, without having to put a box in your home, you can just click and play amazing games straight from our data center."

Ubisoft's comments on PS5 and Xbox Series X backward compatibility have been blown wildly out of proportion.

I've seen lots of reports lately that Ubisoft said next-gen consoles like the PS5 will play PS1, PS2, and even PS3 legacy games. This isn't accurate. After listening to Ubisoft Q3'20 earnings call, I'm confident that isn't what Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot actually said, nor is it what he meant to say.

All Mr. Guillemot said was that next-gen will play current-gen games, and that the overlap between generations will catalyze sales across both life cycles. There's no indication he's talking about next-gen systems playing currently-unsupported titles. The basic premise is if current-gen consoles can play it, next-gen systems will too, and both Sony and Microsoft have confirmed backward compatibility. (Xbox Series X will play four generations' worth of Xbox games, for example.)

Ubisoft will kick off the next-gen PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X console cycle with a bang, and plans to release three heavy-hitting sequels in six months' time.

Ubisoft is planning a huge comeback. In its recent Q3'20 earnings call, the publisher announced that it plans to ship 5 major AAA games in Fiscal Year 2021, and three of these will be massive entries in its biggest IPs. We didn't get any official confirmation on the games, but Kotaku's Jason Schreier, who has knowledge of Ubisoft's plans, says the slate includes a new Far Cry, a new Assassin's Creed, and the previously announced Watch Dogs Legion. All of which will be optimized for next-gen consoles, as per Ubisoft's previous words.

"We are very excited about the idea of releasing five new AAA games in 2020-21. Although the competitive environment is looking especially tough, production of these games is progressing well and each of them comes with great features that set them apart," Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said in the call.

Cyberpunk 2077 will be one of the best-looking games of its generation when it launches, but there will be some really awesome RTX abilities and real-time global illumination that will put a twinkle in gamers' eyes. You'll also want to buy a kick ass Dolby Atmos sound system for Cyberpunk 2077, according to CDPR.

In a recent interview between OnMSFT and CD Projekt RED staffer John Mamais, we found out some details on the game, including the real-time global illumination system that Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt RED has worked on. In the interview, Mamais said: "There is some stuff that hasn't been talked about such as the way that it's been lit".

Mamais continued: "Our director keeps talking about the real-time global illumination system which we haven't really seen in its full beauty yet. No one in the public has seen how it's finally going to look. It's going to look more breathtaking than we've seen so far".

Raijintek has just unveiled its Samos AD5700 RBW, which is a new full-cover water block for AMD's Radeon RX 5700 series graphics cards. Check it out:

Raijintek designed the new Samos AD5700 RBW to fit onto AMD's own reference Radeon RX 5700 and Radeon RX 5700 XT graphics cards, packing a nickel-copper thermal plate, and translucent acrylic top cover. The full-cover cold plate will provide water cooling goodness to the most important parts of your Navi-powered graphics card: the GPU itself, GDDR6 modules, and the VRM power delivery MOSFET.

We have a 12mm thick clear acrylic top cover that features built-in G1/4" inlets/outlets, RGB lighting (which looks awesome) and is completely customization through motherboard manufacturer RGB lighting apps through a 4-pin 5V ARGB header. On the back, Raijintek offers up a black-themed aluminum backplate with passive cooling to the VRMs on the back of the card.

Can you believe we're in 2020, where you'll be able to major in weed at Colorado State University-Pueblo? It's true, with Denver Post reporting that the university just received approval for the Denver's first degree program focused on cannabis.

The program is called "Cannabis, Biology and Chemistry" and will see the course similar to double-majoring in biology and chemistry, while focusing on the science required to work in the world of cannabis, according to David Lehmpuhl, dean of CSU-Pueblo's College of Science and Mathematics.

Lehmpuhl said: "It's a rigorous degree geared toward the increasing demand coming about because of the cannabis industry. Hemp and marijuana has really come to the forefront in a lot of economic sectors in the country. We're not pro-cannabis or anti-cannabis. What we're about will be the science and training students to look at that science".

Apple made headlines in the PC gaming world with teases of its new gaming-focused Mac that could cost $5000, but what if that new gaming-focused Mac was powered by an AMD Ryzen CPU and AMD Radeon GPU.

According to code snippets found in macOS Catalina 10.15.4 beta, a bunch of AMD APUs were spotted, teasing that Apple could be using AMD technology inside of a future Mac. These APUs could be perfect for low/mid-range MacBook and MacBook Air laptops, but it could scale as high as Ryzen and Navi-powered gaming Macs, too.

AMD is offering up their Ryzen CPUs much cheaper than Intel does with its range of Core processors, and given the troubles Intel is going through mixed with the mega success AMD is going through right now, Apple making this change would be a serious move for the entire tech industry. It's all rumor mill stuff for now, but I'll keep a close eye on how this progresses over 2020.

MSI has just shown off its new Optix MAGG322CR gaming monitor, with a native 1920 x 1080 resolution, super-fast 180Hz refresh rate, and 1500R curvature.

The new MSI Optix MAGG322CR gaming monitor is aimed at first-person shooter gamers who want a large 31.5-inch panel, but super-fast 180Hz refresh rate. MSI rocks out with an 8-bit VA panel with Frame Rate Control (FRC) technology that has the Optix MAGG322CR offering a more full-color spectrum inside of the 8-bit range.

It wouldn't be a new MSI Optix gaming monitor without the gorgeous Mystic Light RGB goodness, so there's that -- something that is customizable through the MSI Gaming App. On top of that we have HDR support, something I wouldn't entirely recommend, but you can't knock MSI for giving it to you.

Netflix is currently hard at work on a new Resident Evil show, and while we didn't know any details on it... until now. According to a new leak, we have the description ripped directly from Netflix's own Media Center:

The new Resident Evil show on Netflix is described as: "The town of Clearfield, MD has long stood in the shadow of three seemingly unrelated behemoths - the Umbrella Corporation, the decommissioned Greenwood Asylum, and Washington, D.C. Today, twenty-six years after the discovery of the T-Virus, secrets held by the three will start to be revealed at the first signs of outbreak".

We now have two totally new locations in the Resident Evil canon, with the introduction of the Greenwood Asylum and Clearfield, Maryland locations. The Resident Evil franchise has been mega successful since its debut in 1996, which I remember sitting my bedroom with my brother playing the original game on the original PlayStation and scaring the living daylight out of ourselves countless times. Can't wait for the TV show on Netflix!

Samsung will be unveiling and detailing its new Galaxy Z Flip foldable smartphone at its Unpacked 2020 event on February 11, but it looks like the name of the phone could be wrong -- drop the Galaxy, and it could just be the 'Z Flip'.

According to a new trademark submitted by Samsung in Europe, the company could be calling its new foldable phone the Z Flip. Samsung Electronics filed for the trademark with the EUIPO (European Union Intellectual Property Office) on February 7, kinda confirming that its new foldable will be called the Z Flip, and not the Galaxy Z Flip.

Samsung first introduced the Galaxy branding in 2009, but it has gone through many changes over the years -- and one of the biggest ones will be this year with the introduction of the Galaxy S20 range of smartphones. Samsung has gone from the original Galaxy S through to the Galaxy S10 -- but is changing things up to the naming system with the move from S10 to S20 instead of S10 to S11. The shift away from the Galaxy brand with its Z Flip is an interesting move, however.

Nintendo is infusing paid content into the new Animal Crossing game on Switch, and it could include microtransactions, DLC, or both.

The official Animal Crossing: New Horizons eShop page confirms in-app purchases will be included, but no details have been specified. It's possible Nintendo will add an in-game store with microtransactions to sell various odds and ends, but it's more likely New Horizons will get paid post-launch expansions in the form of macro-monetization.

This isn't a surprise and is something we actually expected to see. Nintendo just recently confirmed it's doubling-down on paid DLC content to expand their games far after release, strongly hinting all of its major first-party games will in turn get expansions. We've seen this model mature of the years starting with Breath of the Wild's post-release season pass content, and more recently with Pokemon Sword and Shield's $30 expansion pass.

Despite competition from the Epic Store, Steam's userbase continues to grow strongly year-over-year.

In its recent Year in Review report, Valve confirmed some impressive numbers for Steam. The storefront-platform has amassed nearly 95 million monthly active users, representing a huge ~5 million spike from 2018's 90 million MAUs.

What's more important than MAUs is actual play time, and Steam delivered in spades here. In 2019, PC gamers also played over 20 billion hours of Steam games. Steam also broke its previous record of simultaneous users at the start of this year with 18.8 million concurrent players online at the same time.

AMD is set to unleash its 'Big Navi' GPU this year, something AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su herself has teased and confirmed, but a new rumor could see it unveiled as soon as March 5 at AMD's upcoming Financial Analyst Day. AMD wants to disrupt 4K gaming with Big Navi like it did to the CPU market with Intel.

This is where you should have an entire container of salt and not just a pinch, because I really don't think that's going to happen -- but, if AMD were to surprise unveil Big Navi, it would make serious waves. Maybe AMD will come out of nowhere and detail Big Navi at a financial event, but given it's a gaming card that would be a very left field move to make. But at this point of the game, AMD needs to do just that.

Big Navi should have performance that will equal, and in some games/resolutions beat NVIDIA's flagship GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. AMD's upcoming Big Navi will utilize the newer 7nm+ node but according to my personal sources they weren't able to squeeze as much from 7nm+ as they thought, and on top of that NVIDIA is close to launching its new Ampere-based GeForce RTX 3080 and GeForce RTX 3070 which Big Navi will not be able to come close to.

Following massive controversy, Blizzard will now fully refund any Warcraft 3: Reforged purchase regardless of how much you played.

Fans are not happy about Warcraft 3: Reforged, and for good reason. The remaster basically replaced the old versions of the game and removed many core features like custom campaigns while also forcing weird UIs, graphics settings, and pared-down social features on gamers. But there's a silver lining: You can get your money back if you're dissatisfied.

"We want to give players the option of a refund if they feel that Warcraft III: Reforged does not provide the experience they wanted. So, we've decided to allow refunds upon request for the time being," Blizzard wrote on its website. You can request a refund here.

Samsung is expected to unveil a slew of new smartphones at its Unpacked 2020 event on February 11, with the new Galaxy S20 family of phones alongside the new foldable Galaxy Z Flip smartphone. A new video has emerged, which should catch your eye below:

We've already heard a bunch of leaks on Samsung's new Galaxy Z Flip, which will sport a clamshell-like foldable design that Motorola has just debuted with its refreshed Razr smartphone. The new video above has the Galaxy Z Flip in a thick protective case, something I probably wouldn't use on my phone but you can see how it will unfold and flip out.

Inside, we should expect a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+ processor, 8GB of RAM, up to 256GB of storage and what should be a gorgeous 6.7-inch 2636 x 1080 resolution AMOLED display. Samsung is rumored to reveal its Galaxy Z Flip smartphone on February 14 for $1400, just in time for Valentine's Day, right?

NVIDIA has just announced it is pulling out of Mobile World Congress over coronavirus fears, with the GPU giant not sending any of its employees to Barcelona, Spain for the event. NVIDIA joins Ericsson and LG that recently pulled out of Mobile World Congress 2020.

NVIDIA explains: "Given public health risks around the coronavirus, ensuring the safety of our colleagues, partners and customers is our highest concern... We've been looking forward to sharing our work in AI, 5G and vRAN with the industry. We regret not attending, but believe this is the right decision".

MWC 2020 falls between February 24-27, so while there's weeks away, NVIDIA is covering its bases by not going. The event organizer, GSMA, added: "It is of great importance to the GSMA to continue to convene the industry at this critical time where connectivity is on the cusp of a new industrial revolution".

Sonic the Hedgehog speeds into theaters next week, so to capitalize on that Puma has unveiled its new range of Sonic clothes and shoes, for the most hardcore Sonic fans.

One of the most expensive products in Puma's new line of Sonic the Hedgehog products are the PUMA x SONIC RS-X3 sneakers, which come in two different colors that both cost $120. There are some cool hoodies up for grabs for $65 each, while there's some Sonic Leadcat Sliders for $30.

It wouldn't be a new range of Sonic products without a ton of stuff for kids, with toddler sneakers themed with Knuckles up for grabs for $55 while kids versions of the same shoes cost $60. There are some kids backpacks for $25, bucket hats for $20, and adult-sized t-shirts for $35. Check out Puma's range of Sonic clothes and shoes from Puma here.

Samsung will reportedly be shipping its new Galaxy S20 range of smartphones with 25W and 45W chargers in the box, according to the latest reports. Samsung shipped the current-gen Galaxy Note 10+ with a 25W charger, and even though it had 45W charging capabilities, Samsung made that an optional extra.

The new Galaxy S20 and Galaxy S20+ smartphones will ship with 25W fast chargers in the box, while the flagship Galaxy S20 Ultra will pack a 45W charger in the box. This is a great move by Samsung, as the fast charging on my personal Galaxy Note 10+ (just the stock 25W charger) is already ridiculously fast, let alone the 45W charger that the new Galaxy S20 Ultra will ship with.

Not only that, but Samsung is reportedly going to provide AKG branded USB Type-C wired headphones in the box of the new Galaxy S20 family of smartphones, too.

Back to the Future is one of my top 10 movies of all time (seriously movie studios: do NOT ever remake or reboot this movie) -- but the insertion of the Tesla Cybertruck is just plain awesome.

Toronto-based visual effects studio Fort York VFX has beautifully inserted the Tesla Cybertruck into Back to the Future, at the point when the DeLorean is first cranked up and goes back in time and flies through Doc and Marty. The entire video is all A-class stuff, looking like it was done by a team of movie professionals.

There were nine Fort York VFX staffers that worked on the project, but it has to be the last few seconds when the number plate is spinning around that was the cherry on top. In the movie Back to the Future the number plate reads 'OUTATIME' but in this Tesla Cybertruck infused version of Back to the Future they troll with 'LOL GAS'.

Tesla has just performed a very sneaky move on a new Tesla Model S electric car owner, where the company remotely disabled the Autopilot function of the vehicle after the new owner purchased the Model S at an auction held by Tesla.

Tesla has said that the new owner "did not pay" for these features, so they are not allowed to use them... unless they pay, of course -- and a hefty $8000, too. The Model S in question was traded into a dealership with Autopilot enabled from its previous owner, sold to the new owner with all of the bells and whistles, but then Tesla remotely disabled the Autopilot feature.

For other hardware-based upgrades like the 4WD and all-wheel drive options, or even the adaptive cruise control, they stay with the vehicle no matter what. But Tesla can remotely disable software-based functions like the self-driving Autopilot feature, where owner 'Alec' is now frustrated. Alex purchased the car with both the Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self Driving Mode features enabled, with Jalopnik reporting that they've reviewed the documents from the car dealership itself.