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CRINGE: Lady Gaga asks who Ninja is, asks 'what's Fortnight'
We all know who Ninja is -- the most famous game streamer who left Twitch in a huge way for Mixer, and now singer/actress mega-star Lady Gaga is wanting to know who he is. Lady Gaga recently took to Twitter simply asking "@Ninja, who are you".
Tyler "Ninja" Blevins replied from his own Twitter, saying "Ask @Drake" -- referencing the time he set records for Twitch streams playing Fortnite with Drake back in 2018. It gets worse though, as Lady Gaga tweeted the day before "What's fortnight". Really... all that money, all those people around her, all that brain power and influence and she hears about "Fortnight" without Googling what it is?
Now sure, Lady Gaga -- or as she's known by her real name Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, could be genuinely wanting to know about Fortnite. But, do you come onto the internet and then on Twitter where she has just shy of freaking 80 million followers and ask 'What's fortnight' without doing a quick Google search?
Continue reading: CRINGE: Lady Gaga asks who Ninja is, asks 'what's Fortnight' (full post)
Here's a list of all cross-platform games, now that the PS4 joins in
Sony has recently joined the fun world of cross-play between consoles and PC, with the worlds of Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and the PC all merging in some, but not all ways.
One of the largest games to support cross-play is coming very soon with Activision's big release in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, but there are a bunch of games that support cross-play between the Xbox, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and of course... the PC. It's not all fun and games (heh) but there are full cross-platform supporting games that I will list, and partial cross-platform support in games.
The folks over at DigitalTrends made a great list of all games supporting cross-platform, and split them into platforms. It's a big list, and it'll continue to grow. But for now... this is what you can expect -- with a note that some of them aren't out yet, with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare launching on October 25.
Continue reading: Here's a list of all cross-platform games, now that the PS4 joins in (full post)
Intel's first Xe GPU: most likely developer kit, expected in mid-2020
Intel will be launching its new Xe discrete graphics card in 2020 but the question will be when in 2020... with Intel's Core and Visual Computing Group and bad ass cricket fan and ice cream lover Raja Koduri teasing a June 2020 release for Xe just a few days ago on his brand-new Tesla.
But now according to "industry sources" of DigiTimes, Intel will be launching its first Xe GPUs in mid-2020, packing GDDR6 memory and at least one model with just 25W TDP. Intel's new Xe-based graphics cards will reportedly be made on the 10nm process, but don't expect to be playing Control maxed out on it just yet -- it won't be beating NVIDIA's flagship GeForce RTX 2080 Ti... hell, it probably won't beat AMD's Radeon RX 5700 XT.
I've been hearing from my own sources (a couple of them just to be sure) that the first Intel Xe graphics card will be a developer kit of sorts, and not a full-fledged consumer-facing product ready to take on NVIDIA and AMD. Intel doesn't have a stable decade+ of graphics card releases, architectures, and what I think is the most important -- drivers, software, and game developer support.
Continue reading: Intel's first Xe GPU: most likely developer kit, expected in mid-2020 (full post)
Dragon's Dogma 2, Dino Crisis Remake and more possible from Capcom
What if Dino Crisis got the same remake treatment as Resident Evil 2? Capcom hints that it's possible.
Capcom's new 2019 Annual Report outlines the company's future, including its plans for new games, business models, and platforms. The most exciting tidbit is Capcom's promise to resurrect dormant IPs with new releases, likely remastered or even remade in the potent RE Engine. Capcom likes re-releases and remasters (all companies do), and the company talks about bringing back old IPs every fiscal year. Now Dino Crisis fans have a new sliver of hope for a new game: Without a new release for nearly two decades, it doesn't get more dormant than Dino Crisis.
"Our initiatives are to (1) strengthen digital sales, (2) bolster our title lineup through the full-scale execution of our 60-month and 52-week maps and (3) awaken dormant intellectual properties," Capcom said in the report. "We will revive dormant intellectual properties for which we have not recently released new titles by increasing the number of our developers."
Continue reading: Dragon's Dogma 2, Dino Crisis Remake and more possible from Capcom (full post)
Capcom to minimize microtransactions in its new games
Capcom promises not to infuse its games with tons of microtransactions, lootboxes, or gacha-style purchases.
Capcom has been hitting out of the park lately with its big singleplayer games. But even as it pivots towards live gaming with Monster Hunter World, the company won't suddenly turn into EA, Ubisoft, or Activision with aggressive monetization.
Capcom wants you to actually enjoy the games you play and not feel pressured to buy a ton of extra content, making them an outlier in today's industry alongside devs like CD Projekt RED.
Continue reading: Capcom to minimize microtransactions in its new games (full post)
Switch hits 15 million sales in North America, or 40% of global sales
The Nintendo Switch line has sold 15 million units to date in North America, Nintendo today announced.
Nintendo's console is already a huge global success that routinely makes over $1 billion for Nintendo every quarter. Now with the Switch Lite in the picture, sales are set to rise--in fact they already are. Total Switch and Switch Lite sales have reached 15 million in North America, and hardware purchases are up 20% YoY in Q2, likely thanks to the cheaper $199 Switch Lite.
At 15 million sales in North America, the Switch has now eclipsed the Wii U's total lifetime sales by 1.44 million (the Wii U sold 13.56 million units total). These numbers also show North America comprises 40% of the total 36.87 million Switch units that've been sold to date.
Continue reading: Switch hits 15 million sales in North America, or 40% of global sales (full post)
Modern Warfare lootboxes won't ever happen, Activision promises
Activision has pivoted hard away from lootboxes, confirming Modern Warfare won't have randomized microtransactions.
Activision is turning a new leaf. Today it promised the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare reboot won't ever be monetized with lootboxes or supply drops. Instead, Infinity Ward is rolling out cosmetic skins on an in-game store as well as a new battle pass scheme borrowed from games like Fortnite.
Modern Warfare will have multiple battle passes that span seasonal content updates and playlists. There's two battle passes: A free version available to everyone, and a premium version that rewards you for COD Points as you play and lets you unlock special themed skins. All weapons and attachments can be unlocked for free by playing the game, even if you don't buy the battle pass.
Continue reading: Modern Warfare lootboxes won't ever happen, Activision promises (full post)
New AMD Threadripper benchmark leak shows 3960X naming, welcome X79?
Since the Ryzen 3000 launch, everyone has been extremely excited to see how the 7nm ZEN 2 performance scales on HEDT. Well, it looks like the new chips are starting to break the surface.
In a leak we picked up from the team over at Videocardz, we see that the Ashes of the Singularity database has a new result for a 24-core Threadripper titled 3960X. But, wait a minute. Some of you may be asking, wasn't there already a 3960X CPU? And to answer that question, yes, it was an X79/LGA2011 Sandy Bridge-E variant from several years ago. It does seem weird that AMD would paint themselves into a corner with naming their new HEDT CPU in such a way, but this is a leak/rumor, for now, so we will treat it as such.
Either way, I think this only feeds the fire of excitement to see what the new Threadripper chips will offer. It will also be exciting to see what level of disruption it will add to the current and upcoming Intel X299 based parts. If it is anything like the existing mainstream platform, it will be significant, now onto another interesting leak that came up today.
Continue reading: New AMD Threadripper benchmark leak shows 3960X naming, welcome X79? (full post)
Switch Game Boy? New handheld basically makes it happen
What if the Nintendo Switch played old-school Game Boy games? Then you'd have something like the new Analogue Pocket handheld.
Retro company Analogue recently announced the Analogue Pocket, a new handheld that plays classic carts from Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, Neo Geo Pocket, Game Gear, and even Atari Lynx. The handheld sports a small 3.5-inch LCD panel with a mighty 1600x1440p resolution, expandable memory via MicroSD, a headphone jack, and USB Type-C for quick recharges. It's not an emulation machine and won't play ROMs, but instead focuses on FPGA and allows developers tons of control over the device's architecture.
The Analogue Pocket can be docked for play on an HDTV, making it a transforming handheld-console hybrid like the Nintendo Switch. Wireless controllers like 8Bitdo's awesome lineup can be connected to the dock via Bluetooth or gamers can hook peripherals right into the dock's USB ports.
Continue reading: Switch Game Boy? New handheld basically makes it happen (full post)
Red Dead Redemption 2 PC 4K 60FPS trailer obliterates console visuals
Red Dead Redemption 2 is an absolute technical marvel on PC, completely blowing consoles out of the water (and rightly so).
Rockstar's dramatic Western is probably the best-looking console game to date. So it's only natural for it to be immaculate on PC, but it somehow looks better than my expectations. Today Rockstar dropped a trailer for Red Dead Redemption 2 running at 4K 60FPS, showing what visual masterpieces should look like.
Everything from the reflections, the atmospheric lighting, draw distances, silky-smooth frames, god-rays...you name a graphical or environmental effect and it looks amazing in the footage. Rockstar promises to harness the power and flexibility of PC with tons of platform-specific optimizations like:
Continue reading: Red Dead Redemption 2 PC 4K 60FPS trailer obliterates console visuals (full post)
Fallout 76's NPC Wastelanders update delayed to 2020
Fallout 76's ambitious new Wastelanders update has been delayed to Q1 2020, Bethesda today announced.
Fallout 76 is still trucking along thanks to big new free expansions and updates, but the biggest one to date has been pushed back. Dubbed Wastelanders, the update will add human NPCs to the world and transform it into an actual Fallout game. Wastelanders brings a bunch of new characters that offer quests, fight alongside you, and even break up into factions that you can ally with or clash against.
"We've been working on our biggest update yet. It's called Wastelanders, and it'll fundamentally change the game. This is a long term story we're telling. Year One was about the Vault doors opening and all of you settling the wasteland."
Continue reading: Fallout 76's NPC Wastelanders update delayed to 2020 (full post)
Rocket Lab has successful 9th rocket launch with next-gen satellite
Rocket Labs can now add another successful rocket launch to its already eight launches the company has under its belt.
The rocket launched from the LC-1 launch site in New Zealand and as the 'As The Crow Flies' mission took to the at precisely 9:22 PM ET (6:22 PM PT) well deserved celebrations were underway for the company. Rocket Labs now has nine successful Electron launches in total and eight for commercial customers. This launch in particular carried Astro Digitals next-generation geocommunications satellite called 'Palisade'.
According to Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Peter Beck who spoke to TechCrunch, "Electron is a launch on demand service - we're ready when the launch customer is". From this comment it seems that Beck is attempting to showcase how versatile the launch services are for his company and how well Rocket Labs can adapt to the needs of the consumer wanting to get something up into space.
Continue reading: Rocket Lab has successful 9th rocket launch with next-gen satellite (full post)
PUBG's Season 5 will let players throw items, guns & meds to teammates
Season 5 for PUBG has been detailed by developer PUBG Corp, and from the released details players can expect some new awesome teammate mechanics.
From above trailer we are shown a bunch of new mechanics that PUBG Corp will be introducing into the live game when Season 5 is released. Players will be able to lay down spike traps to pop the tires of vehicles, throw certain requested items to teammates at a press of a button, and throwing some melee weapons at enemies for that little bit of extra awesome glory.
PUBG Corp will also be adding vending machines in Season 5 where players will be dispense painkillers and energy drinks. These vending machines will be available in Miramar and Camp Jackal. If the above trailer isn't enough to get your hyped for the new season head on over to the official PUBG website where you will find the rest of the details there. A link can be found here.
Continue reading: PUBG's Season 5 will let players throw items, guns & meds to teammates (full post)
Uber will get its very own TV series about the companies rise to fame
Naturally when a tech giant emerges to massive success books, movies and/or TV shows follow closely behind. Thats exactly whats going to happen for Uber as a TV show is currently in the works.
Uber will soon take its place next to other tech giants that have had movies made about them but with a new TV show produced by Showtime. At the moment the TV show doesn't have a title but we do know that it will be based on the bestselling book "Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber".
Showtime President of Entertainment, Jana Winograde talked about the show and said, "The story of Uber is rich in plot twists, one-of-a-kind personalities and important implications for corporate America. It is a case study of ingenuity and insanity, and there are no writers better suited than Brian and David to explore this business and the people who drive it, literally and metaphorically."
Continue reading: Uber will get its very own TV series about the companies rise to fame (full post)
Lord of the Rings TV show casts Maxim Baldry for 'significant' role
Amazon's highly-anticipated Lord of the Rings TV show has reportedly snagged another actor to join the cast, welcome Maxim Baldry for what has been called a "significant role" in the series.
According to Collider, Baldry has been picked up for what they call a "significant role" in the series and as per usual details about that role have not been released. Amazon are keeping the writing of the series under extremely tight wraps, and an example of how tightly kept the secrecy is - Amazon Studios head, Jennifer Salke said the writers are "down in Santa Monica. You have to go through such clearance, and they have all their windows taped closed. And there's a security guard that sits outside, and you have to have a fingerprint to get in there, because their whole board is up on a thing of the whole season."
Baldry is known for his roles in Mr. Bean's Holiday, and the HBO series Years and Years. Judging from the report, Baldry will be playing quite a major role in the coming show, what that role might be probably won't be known until Amazon have compiled their full cast. Will Hugo Weaving return to his role of Elrond? Who will play the king of numenor? Who will play Sauron throughout his downfall and how far back in the Second Age of Middle-Earth will we see? All of these questions will puzzle fans until Amazon are good and ready.
Continue reading: Lord of the Rings TV show casts Maxim Baldry for 'significant' role (full post)
Virgin's commercial spaceflight tickets will rise above $250,000 each
So you want to go to space? Well, you will have to save every penny you have got because commercial spaceflight company Virgin Galactic are raising their ticket prices.
Back in 2004, more than 600 space tourists purchased tickets to go to space via Virgin's SpaceShipTwo for $200,000 each. In 2013, the company raised the ticket pricing to $250,000 and now according to Virgin Galactic CEO Georgo Whitesides, space tourists should expect another raise in ticket price before commercial launches expect to begin in 2020.
Due to the many delays of the tourist spaceflight, such as in 2014 Virgin's SpaceShipTwo Unity trial ending in a tragedy that killed one pilot and critically injured another. Virgin has had to continuously delay commercial spaceflights so much that purchasing tourists have been asking the company for refunds on their tickets. Whitesides says that "I think it's going to be a few years" before ticket prices reduce to the expected $60,000 each, but before that happens prices will actually increase due to the company believing they accidentally undervalued initial pricing.
Continue reading: Virgin's commercial spaceflight tickets will rise above $250,000 each (full post)
Product variety causes consumers to discount influencer recommendation
A new study has been released showing that an increase in product variety can cause consumers to automatically discount an influencers positive recommendation of a certain product, despite its recommended quality.
This new research has been published in the INFORMS journal Marketing Science, and picks apart how recommendations for product quality affect the consumer. According to research, nearly 50% of consumers rely on digital influencers for product recommendations, and furthermore 40% of those consumers make purchases based on their recommendations.
Liao, a professor in the business school at The Chinese University of Hong Kong said "When many types of a product are available, consumers may expect an expert to find a better fit, and this consideration would then reduce consumer expectations of the product quality. As a result, the consumer valuation may decrease, which could lead to a lower profit."
Continue reading: Product variety causes consumers to discount influencer recommendation (full post)
Netflix tease first full Witcher TV show trailer with new short clip
Netflix has teased the release of the first full trailer for the upcoming Witcher TV series with a short but awesome clip. Are you ready for Geralt?
The above trailer has been slyly released onto the Italian Netflix YouTube channel and while the clip is only 16 seconds long there is definitely some never-before-seen scenes contained within it. Fans will most likely have to pause the video numerous times to catch the scenes, but regardless of the effort to be put in, it worth it for the scenes as they are quite awesome.
At the moment Netflix doesn't have a solid release date on the series, all we know is that its expected to launch sometime in 2019. A recent report has said that Netflix will have a strong presence at the Lucca Comics & Games event, which will have complete panels for the show and also show the first full trailer. This also means that Netflix could drop the full release date for the show in just less than two weeks time, how exciting!
Continue reading: Netflix tease first full Witcher TV show trailer with new short clip (full post)
Mark Zuckerberg will stream an 'unfiltered' free expression speech
A new announcement has come out from Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg regarding his views on freedom of speech. He says he will be addressing the public via a livestream tomorrow.
Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg has taken to his official Facebook page to post a status update that says he has been writing a new speech about his views on voice and free expression. Zuckerberg says that this speech is the "the most comprehensive take I've written about my views, why I believe voice is important, how giving people voice and bringing people together go hand in hand, how we might address the challenges that more voice and the internet introduce, and the major threats to free expression around the world."
Zuckerberg continues in his post to say that this speech will contain much of what he has learned over years by focusing on these subjects. The CEO also says that this speech has taken him a lot of time to form and that its an "unfiltered take" on how he thinks about these extremely serious questions. For those interested in tuning into the livestream, Zuckerberg says that he will be going live on Facebook at 10am PT / 1pm ET.
Continue reading: Mark Zuckerberg will stream an 'unfiltered' free expression speech (full post)
Intel LGA 4677 server socket teased with PCIe 5.0 support
It looks like we can look forward to Intel's new server CPU socket to be LGA 4677 with TE Connectivity, the maker of multiple connectivity solutions (and other gear) for CPU sockets, has unveiled its roadmap for future Intel server processors.
You can see in the image above we have the current-gen LGA 3647, while the new LGA 4189 socket will launch later this year and run through to 2022 in servers -- but at the top you can see the new LGA 4677 socket which will debut with PCIe 5.0 connectivity.
Intel is pushing a big upgrade in the number of pins bet ween the current LGA 3647 socket and even the impending next-gen Xeon CPU socket in LGA 4189... but LGA 4677 takes it up another level, and then adds PCIe 5.0 support on top of that. We should expect memory controller increases in the new LGA 4677 and next-next-gen Intel Xeon CPUs as well as the introduction of the PCIe 5.0 standard.
Continue reading: Intel LGA 4677 server socket teased with PCIe 5.0 support (full post)






















