Latest News - Page 1714

China's alarming coronavirus outbreak in the Hubei capital is spreading fast, and is impacting the tech world--including video game console production.

At a recent investor's meeting in Japan, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa confirms that China's coronvirus breakout is somewhat impacting production of Switch hardware. The impact is likely slight, but could grow until the health hazard is quelled.

Nintendo is believed to have moved some of its console production outside of China to avoid the now-cancelled trade tariffs, but we're not sure how much production--if any--was actually relocated.

The Xbox One has been on the market for 73 months now, or roughly six years, but it's already being surpassed by Nintendo's relatively new Switch console-handheld hybrid.

On the heels of today's 52.48 million Switch sales milestone, analysts have chimed in to add more color to these numbers by comparing them to other systems.

According to Niko Partners' Daniel Ahmad, the Switch has now sold-in more units than Microsoft's Xbox One (remember sold-in is shipments to retailers, not full-on sales). There's a few takeaways here. One is the astronomical rate that Nintendo is moving Switch systems; poised in between the lifecycle of the Xbox One and PS4, Nintendo has leveraged the full brunt of its first-party games and a host of third-party re-release and indies to attract gamers to its innovative transforming handheld.

Nearly three years after release and Switch hardware sales show no signs of stopping. The console has now sold over 52 million units worldwide, driven by strong exclusive adoption and two unique hardware choices.

Nintendo is killing it right now. The Switch, which now includes the massively popular new handheld-only Switch Lite, now sits at a mighty 52.48 million lifetime sales to date.

The Mario-maker managed to move an astronomical 10.81 million consoles in the holiday quarter, driven by strong exclusives like Pokemon Sword and Shield. The company moved 17.75 million Switch consoles in Q1-Q3 of Fiscal Year 2019 so far, causing Nintendo to upwardly revise its hardware sales forecasts to over 19 million. This revision doesn't include Switch sales in mainland China--those figures have yet to impact overall global sales.

Even as Xbox console revenues drop, Xbox LIVE users and Game Pass subscribers are at an all-time new high. Microsoft doesn't need to sell consoles to make billions.

Today Microsoft fully illustrated its core strengths and service-based focus. The company's recent Q2'20 financials show a substantially well-rounded business that can weather losses thanks to strong recurring service revenues. In the holiday 2019 quarter, Xbox earned $3.3 billion, down 21% year-over-year, and hardware sales are down 42% as gamers anticipate the Xbox Series X. But tremendous surges in Xbox Game Pass subscribers help offset these dips.

Microsoft's Satya Nadella confirmed Game Pass subscribers are at a record high, and actually doubled from last year's holiday quarter.

Netflix will be taking another leap into making another live-action TV show, this time around they will be adopting the anime show One Piece.

According to the One Piece Netflix Twitter account, Netflix will be bringing the beloved manga series over to the big-boy streaming platform as a live-action show. Originally, the show was announced back in 2017, but as you can expect, these things take some time to get the ball rolling, and now it has finally happened.

The official description for the show is, "A live-action adventure story based on the bestselling manga by Eiichiro Oda." Steven Maeda (Lost, CSI: Miami) and Matt Owens will be taking the reins as the new TV shows showrunners. At the moment, there is no word of who will be cast for the show, but we do know that the first season will consist of ten episodes. There's also no known release date as of yet.

A new solar telescope has done its job better than expected, as it has released the most detailed images ever of the Sun's surface.

National Science Foundation's Inouye Solar Telescope has revealed an incredibly high detailed image of the Sun's surface. Above, you can see what seems to be like a messy yellow jigsaw puzzle. Instead, it's the highest resolution image of the Sun's surface humans have ever captured. The image shows the activity that is currently occurring on the Sun's surface, and it appears to be pattern-like, but it's actually "boiling" plasma in motion.

Each of the cells you can see above is about the size of Texas, and move extremely violently, much like a pot of water that has been brought the boiling point. Each of these cells rises and falls as heat from the inner core of the Sun expands outwards, eventuating into the solar weather that we experience here on Earth. The new Inouye Solar Telescope will be able to give scientists a new understanding of the Sun, as the telescope will be able to map its magnetics and ultimately allow us to predict solar storms better.

Netflix, Hulu, and other big streaming platforms will eventually be looking at famous game franchises to turn them into TV shows.

For the purpose of this article, I will be specifically talking about live-action TV shows like Netflix's The Witcher. Firstly, this idea has already been done, there have been many TV shows created from video game franchises, but none of them have really hit the mark like The Witcher did. Even though The Witcher is based on the book series by Andrzej Sapkowski, a lot of gamers who played the games would have flocked to the show to see Geralt and The Witcher universe in a TV show.

I think this same premise can be used for a lot of popular game franchises whether they are backed by a book series or not, but which ones? For a streaming platform to use to a game franchise as a basis for building a new TV show, the franchise would have to be extremely popular, have a very interesting, unique, and dense world. What springs to my mind first is the following; Bethesda's Fallout/Skyrim, Sony Interactive Entertainment's God of War, Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption, Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear and 2K's BioShock.

Just this past Wednesday, Tesla took to their website to announce that they are ahead of schedule in regards to their upcoming Model Y cars.

The company has said that they are running quite far ahead of their original schedule, which was set at a release date of "fall 2020". Instead, shipments for the Model Y SUV will begin rolling out sometime in March 2020. On the website, Tesla explains that the $52,990 all-wheel drive "long-range" variant of the Model Y has had its range capabilities upgraded from 280 miles to 315 miles.

There's also a standard version of the Model Y that is only capable of 230 miles, that version will start at $40,000. According to The Verge, the Model Y is a combination of the Model 3 sedan as it uses 75% of the same parts. It is also said that the Model Y has slightly more headroom and features a similar interior as well as the classic dashboard-mounted touchscreen display from the Model 3.

A cybercriminal hacking group has given everyone a friendly reminder that anything online can be hacked and exploited.

The reminder has come via from hacking group 'OurMine', who hijacked various social media accounts of fifteen different US National Football League (NFL) teams. OurMine posted onto the social media accounts of the teams a similar message; it reads as follows; "Hi, we're OurMine. We are here for 2 things: 1) Announce that we are back 2) Show people everything is hackable".

The post continued and said, "to improve your accounts security contact us: contact@ourmine. org". The teams that were affected by the hijacking were NFL's own Twitter account and various social medias (Instagram/Facebook/Twitter). The following teams; Kansas City Chiefs, Green Bay Packers, Dallas Cowboys, Denver Broncos, Indianapolis Colts, Houston Texans, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Los Angeles Chargers, San Francisco 49ers, Cleveland Browns, and Arizona Cardinals.

Intel teased a prototype foldable PC at CES 2020 earlier this year, and while the 'Horseshoe Bend' prototype looked cool -- it's still a laptop, and not a foldable phone like Samsung and its Galaxy Fold -- or the interesting new Samsung Galaxy Z.

But now our friends at LetsGoDigital, which have been on a roll with these gorgeous renders of products, are back again with Intel's foldable smarpthone patent. This isn't the first time a foldable Intel smartphone has been teased, but this new patent has a wicked wraparound display.

The display here on the new Intel patent and 3D renders from LetsGoDigital is really thin, allowing Intel to make the smartphone much thinner and allow it to fold in the way it does in this patent. The entire phone is a huge display, where there is a big button at the bottom which when pressed, will see the phone unfold.

Netflix and other streaming platforms will eventually adopt some game series' that are almost bigger than life and turn them into TV shows. What game series do you think would be good enough to be made into a TV show?

Cory Barlog, the director behind the God of War series, thinks that his story of Kratos would be a perfect fit. Barlog took to Twitter in a re-tweet of GamesIndustry asking the question I asked above. Barlog said, "God of War. (At least, I think so). Personally, I think Barlog is right on the money with this one, a God of War Netflix-style TV show would be incredible for not only the over-the-top fight scenes but also character development, environments, story-arcs and everything else in between.

Before the internet could take what Barlog said as a hint towards Netflix prospecting the God of War games series into a TV show, Barlog clarified "By the way, this is not a hint or anything. I just believe that games would make great TV shows because you spend so much time with the characters in fantastic worlds. Games, like TV, are like relationships with the characters, where movies are more like a date. Both can be great."

Google has announced via its security blog that throughout 2019 the company paid out a new record to researchers for finding exploits in their products.

If you didn't know, Google rewards people who have found exploits in Google's security system. This reward program is called 'Vulnerability Reward Programs'. Every year Google announces a new report on how much money they have paid out to users, and throughout 2019 Google has set a new record.

In 2018, Google paid out $3.4 million in total to users who were able to assist Google in increasing their security defenses. In 2019, the company had a record-breaking year by doubling what it paid out in 2018, reaching the total payout sum of $6.5 million. If you are interested in checking out Google's full report, head on over to the website here.

EA has pushed out a new update for Need for Speed Heat that not only squashes a bunch of bugs and new functions to the game, but it also adds support for steering wheels.

Need for Speed Heat's new update also lets you drive through gas stations to repair your ride, so if a cop is chasing you and causing too much damage, you can pull into a gas station and get repaired and ready to roll out again. The cops are on you harder at night, so you only get 3 visits to the gas station before they shut down until the next day.

But the big deal here is the steering wheel support, with the following steering wheels now supported in Need for Speed Heat:

Tesla has made big enough waves with its electric Cybertruck that Russian custom smartphone maker Caviar has just unveiled their latest, and possibly most gorgeous creation yet -- the iPhone Cyberphone. I also think this may be the best 'mod or attachment' for the Tesla Cybertruck ever.

Caviar has modified Apple's new iPhone 11 Pro to the design and style of Tesla's new Cybertruck, with a gorgeous and protected titanium body and a bunch of beautiful metal plates -- just like Tesla's Cybertruck. The back cover, sides and the screen are all hidden under metal plates which protect the phone, and it looks great.

But, those metal plates aren't just there for looks -- Caviar has made great use of the metal plates on its new custom iPhone Cyberphone that can fold out and into a holder. It's actually really nifty, and something that I can see the 99 people (as Caviar is only making 99 of these limited edition phones) using this as a great built-in feature.

It seems like Apple is wanting to let the apple fall a little farther from the tree, with its purported new AirTags being teased by Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

Kuo's latest research note suggests a bunch of new Apple products to be announced this year, with one of them being Ultra Wideband-enabled AirTags. Apple's new AirTags would be very much like a Tile tracker tag, with Apple's new AirTags to support Ultra Wideband, something that will enable much more accuracy than Bluetooth LE and Wi-Fi.

In her note, Kuo said: "We forecast that Apple's major new hardware products in 1H20 include the 4.7-inch LCD iPhone, iPad Pro, MacBook Pro/Air, smaller wireless charging mat, UWB tag, and a high-end Bluetooth headphone".

System Shock and its sequel System Shock 2 are some of my favorite games of all time, so when Nightdive Studios announced it was making a remake of System Shock, my heart fluttered. It did it again, after watching this glorious 87-minute gameplay video of System Shock remake... check it out:

Nightdive Studios runs us through virtually everything in this 87-minute gameplay video, from checking out the updated graphics (which look far better than the original 1994 graphics), combat system, inventory system, and more. I personally think it looks great, and is a beautiful remake of Looking Glass Technologies' original System Shock.

Back at GDC 2017, developer Nightdive Studios announced it would be shifting development of the System Shock remake from the Unity Engine to Unreal Engine 4. At the time, System Shock remake director Jason Fader explained: "Unity is not a great engine to use if you want to make an FPS on console". Although, hearing the words "System Shock" and "console" together make me throw up in my mouth a little. Still, I'd rather have a remake instead of not having one at all.

Unity Technologies has just released its new Unity 2019.3 which includes real-time ray tracing goodness, and is now available to download from the Unity Store.

Unity 2019.3 is a 'Tech Stream' release which is aimed at creators who want the latest engine tech from Unity, but there will also be a new 'Long-Term Support' version of Unity with Unity 2019.4 coming in the Spring that will be a more stable build. As for Unity 2019.3, Brett Bibby, Vice President of Engineering at Unity Technologies explains: "With the release of Unity 2019.3, we are continuing our focus of giving all creators the power they need to have a more optimized, stable, and pleasant, creative experience".

Bibby continues: "Unity 2019.3 includes more than 260 improvements and new features focused on giving you the confidence that what you're making right now will look and perform beautifully - whether you're targeting the technologies of today or the platforms of tomorrow".

You would have to be living under a rock right now to not be hearing about the coronavirus outbreak in China that is slowly spreading throughout the world, but it is now affecting Apple.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has said that the on-going coronavirus outbreak in China is affecting Apple's operations in the country, so it has restricted employee travel and even closed an Apple Store in China over the outbreak. Tim Cook explained to CNBC: "We're restricting travel to business critical travel. For employees that are in the Wuhan area, we are providing care kits and supplying them across our employee population in China as well".

The company has "some suppliers" in the Wuhan area according to Cook, who told Apple investors on Tuesday that some of its manufacturing facilities in China will be closed until February 10. The Chinese government has put forward these recommendations, with Cook also adding that some of its channel partners have closed their retail stores which will have a (small) impact on sales. Cook added: "Retail traffic has also been impacted outside of the city over the last few days".

343 Industries plans to overhaul Halo: Reach's lackluster and uninspiring progression system, complete with a nonlinear armor unlock track.

The MCC version of Halo: Reach has a terrible progression system. It's as basic as it gets, a simple seasonal battle pass-style system that gates off the coolest armors behind insane EXP grinds. It's a linear ladder grind that's not creative, unique, or interesting in any way. Compared to the Xbox 360 version, which gives you free access to any armors provided you have the credits to buy them, 343i's armory is kind of embarrassing. That apparently will change, at least in some form.

In a recent blog update, 343 Industries says it's exploring new ways to let people cherry-pick what rewards and armor unlocks they want irregardless of previous unlocks. The team is also adding challenges back into Reach, which are basically little optional bounties that reward you for doing specific things in modes like campaign, firefight, or PVP. It was a way to earn extra credits to buy goods in the original game.

Today Microsoft announced its Q2'20 earnings for the three-month period ended December 31, 2019, showing dips in overall Xbox segment earnings.

Xbox gaming, services, content, and hardware sales generated $3.327 billion in Q2'20, down 21% year-over-year from Q2'19's massive $4.232 billion. This sizable $905 million drop is due to 2018's megaton launch of Red Dead Redemption 2, which generated millions of game sales both at retail and digitally and helped move Xbox console hardware.

Speaking of Xbox consoles, overall hardware sales of the Xbox One family of systems was down 43% YoY in the holiday quarter. Total content and services revenue is also down 11% YoY, or $295 million, due to the absence of a heavy-hitter like RDR2. Subscription growth is healthy though, and services like Xbox LIVE Gold and Xbox Game Pass are doing tremendously well for the company's overall engagement-driven efforts.