Latest News - Page 1719

Disney hasn't outright cancelled its ambitious and massively anticipated Obi-Wan show, but it has put the project in stasis.

As of right now, Disney's new Obi-Wan show starring Ewan McGregor currently doesn't have a script. The project has been paused until new screenwriters are conscripted, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.

The show's scripts and overall story have been cut, leaving the series currently without any direction. Ewan McGregor is still firmly attached and Disney still plans to launch the show, albeit next year in 2021. Sources say early storylines would bridge the period between the prequels and original trilogy with Obi-Wan transporting baby Luke and Leia Skywalker.

UPDATE: The video has been confirmed fake, and the console is a CGI render, not an actual prototype PS5 system revision.

A new PS5 devkit video purportedly shows a bootup screen complemented by a complete console hardware form-factor revision. But there's a chance it's fake.

The purported PS5 video was specifically uploaded to gather feedback on a QR code error, but was accidentally made public by the uploader. The footage might've revealed the PS5's new secondary devkit revision, hinting that development testing hardware is accelerating past the V-shaped devkits with their stackable chassis and elaborate ventilation.

ASUS has just unveiled what seems to be the best-specced portable gaming monitor on the market, with the introduction of its new ROG STRIX XG17AHPE external LCD.

The new ASUS ROG STRIX XG17AHPE external LCD is a fairly large 17.3-inch external monitor with a 1920 x 1080 (1080p) resolution, but super-surprising and super-fast 240Hz refresh rate. ASUS includes a built-in battery pack so you can have 1080p 240Hz goodness on the go, which is pretty damn awesome.

ASUS is using a 17.3-inch IPS panel with up to 300 nits of brightness, a 1000:1 contrast ratio, and 3ms GtG response time. ASUS includes some of its own gaming-focused features with GamePlus and GameVisual modes, while Shadow Boost brightness up dark areas in games and GameFast input tech also makes an appearance.

I can't believe I'm writing this but WarnerMedia subsidiary company Otter Media has a division that is a "social content company for talent and brands" called Fullscreen.

Twitch streamer 'AnneMunition' had two of her videos demonetized... for using the numbers "36" and "50". Yeah, you read that right. The videos in question are from 2017, with AnneMunition's playthrough of The Witcher 3. Both of these videos didn't have millions of views or anything, but just a few thousand views and bad news for the Twitch streamer as it will leave a bad record on her YouTube account.

She has of course disputed the claims, telling YouTube: "you can't copyright a number, you wombats".

The leaks, rumors and even confirmed news on Samsung's new Galaxy S20 family of smartphones continues with news of the 120Hz display being set at 60Hz by default. We will know all about Samsung's new phones at its Unpacked 2020 event on February 11.

According to Max Weinbach from XDA Developers, Samsung will be shipping the new Galaxy S20 smartphones with their displays set to 60Hz. If you want that liquid smooth 120Hz goodness, you'll have to set it manually. ASUS ships its gaming smartphone in the ROG Phone 2 at 60Hz and that is also 120Hz-capable, while the Google Pixel 4/Pixel 4 XL and OnePlus smartphones ship with 90Hz displays out of the box.

Samsung will be doing this to conserve battery life out of the box, where if they shipped them to consumers at 120Hz then you'll have millions of people wondering why their phones are chewing through battery quicker than normal on a brand new smartphone. I'm hoping Samsung provides some sort of warning on the phone like "This phone is capable of 120Hz, go here to enable it".

Tesla is preparing some of the first updates to its electric vehicles for the year, with a new leak hitting Tesla researcher 'Greentheonly' tweeting out a bunch of changes coming to Tesla EVs.

As you can see we can expect new hardware, an integrated inductive phone charger (Qi wireless) for Tesla Model S and Model X vehicles, 2 new battery types for the Model S/X, new lumbar, new charge port types (USB-C, hopefully), new suspension, and more. Most of this makes sense, and should be news welcomed by Tesla fans and customers.

Tesla's last change to the exterior of the Model S was all the way back in 2016, so we should expect a fresh of the Model S in 2020 with some new internals and 2020 features like Qi wireless charging, new ports, and more.

Epic Games is ramping up into Chapter 2 - Season 2 of Fortnite, and with the new v11.50 update for the game the developer is adding in support for Unreal Engine 4's awesome Chaos Physics System.

If you don't know what the Chaos Physics System is, I've embedded the above video to bring you up to speed. I've been a huge fan of destruction in games since the days of Red Faction and later, some of the Battlefield games (Battlefield: Bad Company 2 had awesome destruction).

Epic Games notes that while it has just launched, they have goals to keep Fortnite feeling like Fortnite even with the introduction of the Chaos Physics System. The developer explained: "Along the way there will be some bumps, so we're starting tests with a small group of players. We'll also closely monitor feedback and make improvements over time".

President Trump has just unveiled the logo for the Six Branch of the US military, with the new United State Space Force logo unveiled below -- and it seems it has had some serious influence from Star Trek, and that's OK with me.

Trump tweeted out "After consultation with our Great Military Leaders, designers, and others, I am pleased to present the new logo for the United States Space Force, the Sixth Branch of our Magnificent Military!" It has been a promise from Trump since 2018 and now we have the US Space Force created and its new logo finally unveiled.

Here's the new US Space Force logo next to the Starfleet logo from Star Trek.

Samsung has one of the most feature-packed smartphones in the market with its Galaxy Fold, but it looks like the Galaxy Fold successor will be better in every single way. We could see the Galaxy Fold 2 teased at Samsung's upcoming Unpacked 2020 event on February 11.

Max Weinbach from XDA Developers has tweeted that he has heard from his sources that Samsung will be launching a successor to the Galaxy Fold in Q2 2020, and that it will pack an insane 8-inch display, 108-megapixel camera, Ultra Thin glass, an S-Pen, Qualcomm's kick-ass new Snapdragon 865 and with that, 5G connectivity.

Samsung's new Galaxy S20 Ultra smartphone will be using the same 108-megapixel camera, something that will have 100x 'Space Zoom' support. We should expect the same rear-facing snapper in the Galaxy Fold, but the upgrade to the new Snapdragon 865 is going to deliver blistering speed as well as ultra-fast 5G connectivity.

Samsung will be unveiling its new Galaxy S20 family of smartphones at its Unpacked 2020 event on February 11, where we'll be introduced to the new Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20+ and Galaxy S20 Ultra smartphones. But there will be a few surprises, too.

One of those surprises is the not-so-surprising (because of all the leaks) in the Galaxy Z Flip smartphone, but Samsung is reportedly set to unveil a new Galaxy Z smartphone that is shaping up beautifully. Thanks to some new leaked images, we're getting our best look at the super-exciting Galaxy Z smartphone that folds up into a Z shape, and it looks awesome.

But thanks to our good friends at LetsGoDigital, we have some gorgeous renders that make me want Samsung to release the Galaxy Z just like this. It looks like a much more refined foldable smartphone, and it would be a huge step away (but still very close to) the Galaxy Fold which I personally own and absolutely adore.

Activision-Blizzard will now host its games from Google's cloud infrastructure, a move that could have massive implications for future games.

Activision-Blizzard will use Google Cloud as a new delivery mechanism to expand its games. We'll see high-octane online multiplayer games like Overwatch and Call of Duty tighten up with improved latency, but the real possibilities go beyond boosted connectivity. The publisher could use Google Cloud to tremendously boost engagement by directly reaching gamers on a personal level.

For example, Google Cloud's AI will constantly monitor and develop behavior profiles based on how and what you play. That data could be compounded if you link your YouTube account to the game for, say, extra in-game currency. The cloud could even enable native YouTube video/stream embeds right into the games themselves--and give gamers rewards for watching specific content.

Activision-Blizzard's upcoming esports events won't be streamed on Twitch, and are now exclusive to YouTube.

Today Activision-Blizzard signed a huge multi-year deal with Google to make all Overwatch, Hearthstone, and Call of Duty esports events available exclusively on YouTube. This is an obvious slam to streaming competitor Twitch and could represent a massive win for YouTube's advertisement and engagement revenues. Esports is a thriving billion-dollar business that millions of people watch every year, and helps massively boost in-game spending, full game purchases, and overall play time.

The move is all part of Activision-Blizzard's new engagement-first strategy. Choosing YouTube is actually a multi-layered decision that will allow the publisher to do more than they could on Twitch, including using Google's cloud infrastructure to specially target users with advertisements, offers, and more (ie discounts to gamers who haven't played Call of Duty Modern Warfare yet, etc).

There's a rumor going around that Rocksteady is developing a new Superman game, and it'll be exclusive to the Xbox Series X. This isn't happening.

Rocksteady's new project has yet to be announced, but we know one thing: It's not a Superman game. Way back in 2018, studio co-founder and creative director Sefton Hill officially confirmed Rocksteady isn't making a Superman game.

Reports indicate Rocksteady's game will instead be a live-service based Justice League with monetized online play, in which of course Superman could still show up. But the game won't be centered around the Son of Krypton.

UPDATE: As of February 12, Cold Iron Studios is still working on the Alien game.

A new Alien multiplayer online shooter has been in development for years now, but the studio that's making it is about to get sold. Twice.

Back in September 2019, we reported that Cold Iron Studios, the devs behind the new unannounced Alien MMOFPS, could get sold. I predicted this could lead to significant disruptions for the game's development, namely with delays or even an outright cancellation. Now those reports have come true: Disney is selling FoxNEXT, the label that includes Cold Iron Studios.

A new GDC 2020 survey shows devs are interested in making next-gen games, but not very many of them actually are currently working on projects for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. PC remains the platform of choice for most projects.

According to the new GDC 2020 State of the Industry report, roughly 11% of respondents (or 440 developers) are making games for Sony's next-gen PlayStation 5, and only 9% of surveyors are developing for Xbox Series X (or about 360 developers). That means all of these creators currently have PS5 and Xbox SX devkits and are becoming more familiar with the next-gen Navi GPU and Zen 2 CPU-powered hardware setups.

The last bit of data is particularly interesting considering Microsoft won't release any Xbox Series X exclusives for at least two years. This means the next-gen Xbox projects won't release for quite some time--or possibly hints at a forked SKU with dual releases on both Xbox One and Xbox Series X systems.

A new Knights of the Old Republic game is back in development at EA, sources tell Cinelinx.

Back in 2017, there were rumblings of a KOTOR remaster being made at BioWare Austin, the team behind The Old Republic MMO. In actuality the team--along with every other BioWare branch--was working hard on the studio's new IP Anthem. KOTOR had been put on hold, if it had even been in development at all.

Now sources say the KOTOR project has been resurrected. The game will apparently be a sequel with strong spiritual successor elements, borrowing from the original duo's canon and may feature distinct RPG mechanics to boot. EA's shift away from live Star Wars games may have a lot to do with this decision, especially with Jedi: Fallen Order's landmark success as a singleplayer-only action game.

It was only a week ago that we heard about another massive Steam sale being in the pipeline. Now, that sale has arrived, and it has slashed prices on a variety of different games.

Introducing, Steam's Lunar New Year sale that will give Steam users the opportunity to open free gifts for every day of the sale. Steam sales usually run for a couple of weeks, but this time around the Lunar New Year sale will only be running for four days. Each day that a Steam user visits the Steam Store, they will be able to open a free gift that contains some rat coins and a part of a story.

The coins can be used to purchase event-exclusive items such as "profile backgrounds, mini-profile backgrounds, chat room effects, chat stickers, and more." Now, let's move onto what PC gamers have come here for -- cheap games. At the moment, there are some fantastic titles heavily discounted; examples include; Hitman 2, Hunt: Showdown, Dark Souls III, Human Fall Flat, Total War: Three Kingdoms, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition and more. I have provided screenshots of the sales and a link to the store in the entirety of this post.

Rocket League is known for his cross-platform combatability, but now that seems to be coming to a close as the developer has announced its ending support for two platforms.

In a recent blog post on the Rocket League website, Psyonix has announced that it will "no longer viable for us to maintain support for the macOS and Linux (SteamOS) platforms". This March, Psyonix will be rolling out the last patch for the game that will ultimately kill online support for Rocket League with these platforms.

The post says that the game will still be able to be loaded into and offline Local Matches and Splitscreen will still be accessible, but anything to do with online won't. In the entirety of this article I have listed out in dot point form what aspects of Rocket League will still be usable after the update, and what features won't.

During an earnings call with NBCUniversal's parent company Comcast, it was revealed that Super Nintendo World wouldn't open until at least 2023.

Super Nintendo World is arriving at Universal Studios' theme park in Japan closer to the end of this year. While that might sound disappointing for western fans, don't worry, the Mario-themed world is also coming to the United States in Universal's upcoming theme park Epic Universe. The theme park is planned to be built in Orlando, Florida, and doesn't expect to be ready until 2023.

Thomas Williams, NBCUniversal CEO of Universal Parks & Resorts, said back in September that the Nintendo-theme park will come to both Hollywood and Orlando, but he never specified on when that time would be. Fun fact - The Super Nintendo World in Universal Studios in Japan is rumored to cost up to $544 million to build. The world is also set to have a real-life Super Mario Kart ride as well as Yoshi's Adventure ride.

NASA has encountered a slight problem with their Mars rover called Curiosity. The problem isn't a very good one either because Curiosity is refusing to move.

NASA has released a new report that reveals that Curiosity has temporarily stopped moving. So why did this happen? Curiosity is equipped with a series of safety regulations that have been implemented into the rover to ensure its safety when traversing the dangerous landscape of Mars. Curiosity measures the surroundings relative to its body before making a move, and some of these measurements are the current altitude, surrounding rock formation, slope steepness, etc.

Before any movement is made by Curiosity, all of these measurements have to be evaluated and deemed 'safe'. If one of these safety checks are calculated to be 'not safe' then Curiosity won't turn on its motor and remain still, which is exactly what the rover has just done. In the report, NASA says that "Curiosity lost its orientation" because "Some knowledge of its attitude was not quite right, so it couldn't make the essential safety evaluation". Curiosity relayed this information back to NASA, and NASA began forming a plan to inform Curiosity of its surroundings correctly.