Latest News - Page 1771

Lord of the Rings fans patiently await any news about the coming Amazon show, and after some time, we have got another snag, and its a big one.

In an exclusive report from Deadline, Amazon Studios' 1 billion-dollar Lord of the Rings TV show is already moving forward with an early Season 2 renewal. According to Deadline, Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke confirmed this news to them at a company holiday party this past Sunday and said that the studio currently has the second season in the works.

While season 2 has already been renewed, shooting wise, the LOTR series will be having a 4-5 month break after the first couple of episodes are shot. This allows for everyone working on the film a different perspective of the footage, gauge fan response, and make correctional changes with a fresh set of eyes. Since this TV show is high-budget, this seems like the most responsible and sensible approach, considering that filming this level of show is not cheap.

Nintendo is doubling-down on its mobile gaming monetization, this time adding another paid subscription to a free-to-play game.

Animal Crossing Pocket Camp is getting not one, but two monthly paid subscriptions, Nintendo recently announced.

These two plans are part of the new Pocket Camp Club, and come on top of the randomized gacha-style microtransactions the game currently has and give access to extra in-game content. One subscription gives you an assistant to help you around the campsite, and the other lets you store furniture in a shed and gives free fortune cookies.

Stadia apparently won't streaming games in native 4K, instead opting for upscaled 1080p--at least in bigger games like Destiny 2.

A bit ago Google promised that every Stadia launch game would run at 4K 60FPS. But there's a catch: It won't always be native 4K. Some games use supersampling and upscaling tech to achieve the kind of 4K output by the PS4 Pro. One of the service's marquee games, Destiny 2, streams at 1080p resolution that's upscaled to 4K on PC and UHD TVs.

Bungie confirms to The Verge that Destiny 2 is not only upscaled from 1920 x 1080 to 3840 x 2160, the game only hits medium PC settings regardless of where you play it on (Chrome browser, Chromecast Ultra, or your phone).

What if Red Dead Redemption 2 were released in the 90s on the original PlayStation? It'd look a little something like this.

Thanks to LowSpecGamer, we have an idea of what Rockstar's beautiful Wild West masterpiece would look like if it were old enough to drink. The YouTuber managed to dramatically manipulate the game's textures and visual settings well past the low preset by changing up the settings.xml file with Notepad++, basically transporting us back to the early days of 3D gaming.

Weird polygons, fuzzy textures, heavily pixellated environments, and terrible draw distance are just a few things that early PlayStation gamers had to put up with back in the day. Needless to say not a lot of early PlayStation games aged very well.

Thanks to Game Pass, Microsoft no longer has to depend so much on microtransactions. That means not every game they release has to be monetized with cosmetics.

Microsoft is an interesting crossroads. Its Game Pass service, which charges $10 a month, is basically fulfilling the main function of microtransactions with recurring revenues. So many people are subscribing to Game Pass because of its tremendous value that games on the service can simply rely on monthly subs instead of piecemeal nickle-and-dime microtransactions.

This gives developers freedom to make the game they want to make, with or without live service elements or microtransactions. "You don't have to go make a service," Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg said in a recent interview with VG247. "Game Pass gives those creators a lot of flexibility. If you want your game to have a beginning, a middle, and an end, and no DLC, and no other transactions, and just a single-player game, that's also fine."

The Nintendo and PlayStation rivalry is notorious, with both companies competing for the same player-base and refusing to work alongside each other. Putting all that rivalry aside, they are coming together for a friendly game of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

The Japanese magazine Famitsu is hosting a 'corporate' Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on November 22nd. Participants in the tournament are as follows; Sun-Star, Sugiko, and PlayStation. That's right. You are reading this correctly, PlayStation will have some employees joining in on a Nintendo IP tournament.

While the specifics of who the PlayStation employees were left out of the announcement, Nintendo Life do detail that the players attending will from Sony Interactive Entertainment. Imagine if team PlayStation takes home all the glory. Or better yet, imagine if team PlayStation has such a good time playing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate that they convince their superiors to let Nintendo bring Crash Bandicoot to Smash Ultimate. Now wouldn't that be a dream come true?

Bill Gates certainly has some dollars in the bank, and since he stopped working full-time at Microsoft back in 2008, most of those dollars have been going to charity and his philanthropy ventures. Despite that, Gates has reclaimed his seat as the world's richest person.

According to Bloomberg, as of November 16th, Gates has de-thrones Amazon head Jeff Bezos for the world's richest person seat. Gates, who is worth around $110 billion, took the lead ahead of Bezos, who is worth approximately $109 billion. Over the course of the years, Gates has distanced himself from Microsoft while still maintaining a hefty amount of the companies stock. Throughout his distancing, he has been replaced as the world's richest person on numerous occasions by; Warren Buffet, Carlos Slim, and Jeff Bezos.

Bloomberg says that Gates now 1st position is due to Microsoft earning $10 billion from a Pentagon contract, which ultimately raised their stock price. The contract was for cloud computing services for the Defense Department's Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI). Back in June, the Microsoft stock price was at $136, now the current price for the stock is sitting at a solid $150. Microsoft are also planning on releasing their next-gen Xbox soon, so they could increase stock prices further, which would then give Gates a more sturdy lead.

Reports have come out detailing a new on-demand music streaming service being developed by TikTok's owner, ByteDance.

According to Financial Times sources, ByteDance is currently planning a new streaming service app that incorporates a social media aspect. The Financial Times says that the app will include a library of short video clips that users can search for and then pair up with their desired songs. These video clips and songs can then be forwarded to users' friends.

The report also says that ByteDance is currently in talks with big companies such as Sony, Universal, and Warner for music licensing purposes. While you might think that this new app is some years off from releasing, the reports indicate that it could be launching in places like Brazil, India, and Indonesia as soon as December this year. It's also said that ByteDance's new app plans to undercut the current market price of other music streaming apps like Spotify and Apple Music. Meaning the cost will be under $10, and more like $7, or even $5 a month.

As another year rolls on past we can expect another Game Awards show, this time something extremely big is planned, but what's bigger than the nominees for 2019?

Back in early September, The Game Awards showrunner Geoff Keighley said that for 2019's annual event will be "celebrating the act of creation" by turning the "stage over to a group of visionary teams selected to share their new projects with you". Keighley concluded his teaser by saying that 2019 will be "very special" for viewers and that it will mark The Game Awards 5th anniversary.

Before jumping into what those special announcement could be, The Game Awards wouldn't exist without the amazing titles that are given its awards. Keighley took to Twitter last night to tease that next Tuesday will be the date when we get the list of official nominees for this year. At precisely 12pm ET / 9AM PT the announcements begin. Stay tuned as I will be doing a follow-up article with the full list.

Super Mario Odyssey released back in 2017, and we are still hearing about how the game was developed. New information has surfaced regarding the development of Luigi and his almost full costume change.

According to Super Mario Odyssey Character Art Lead, Sho Murata, in the recently translated 'The Art of Super Mario Odyssey', Luigi was teed up for a full costume change. Murata explains that he and his team were initially thinking of a "drastic costume change for Luigi at first, but we ultimately went with a simple look". This was because they thought his original color scheme would "work well against the background of this game's world".

Murata also dropped some cool new facts about Luigi's design, saying that if players hadn't noticed already, the balloons that Luigi is holding in-game are the "same colors as Super Famicom controller buttons". The art lead also says that the designers wanted to make it apparent that Luigi directly came from the Mushroom Kingdom, so they sported his satchel with "only stickers from the Mushroom Kingdom. One of the stickers is actually out of circulation..."

Iran is currently under protest as thousands of people have taken to the streets to protest the fuel price jump.

Iranian people have taken to the streets to express their concern over the fuel price jump that saw the prices of fuel rise over 50%. In response to the wide-spread disapproval of the fuel price hike, the Iranian government has decided to switch off internet access in the country in an effort to block communication between protesters. The blocking of the internet also makes it extremely hard for journalists to share news regarding the size of the protests.

At the moment, there are only small pockets of internet connection available, and people within these pockets are managing to get the word out about the recent events occurring at ground zero. While that might sound like there is still internet available, it cannot be stressed enough how rare the connection is. The Iranian government hasn't officially acknowledged that it has shut off internet access.

The answer to efficient and cheap space travel might just be simpler than you think; all it requires is a cable and a weight.

Above, we have a video from Kurzgesagt - In a Nutshell, and this time around, the scientific YouTube Channel is exploring the idea of cheap and effective space travel. The idea that is proposed begins with what is called a 'Tether,' which is simply a weight with a cable attached to it. Kurzgesagt suggests that humans build extremely long versions of these tethers and place them at a safe distance around our planet and use them as a 'free' means of propulsion to other planets.

Since the tether would be spinning around our planet, spaceships would be able to attach onto the tether and use its rotational force to be pushed towards a designated planet. The video says that there will be a few problems in doing this; humans would have to create smaller spacecrafts that would be able to match the tethers speed throughout our atmosphere (12,000km per hour). While that might sound extremely difficult, it should be noted that traditional spacecrafts need to reach 45,000km per hour to exit our planet's gravity.

A new means of storing renewable energy is being researched, and strangely enough in incorporates using mountains as big batteries.

The study by Julian Hunt and his colleagues of Austria-based International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) details a new system of energy storage called "Mountain Gravity Energy Storage (MGES)". MGES places cranes on the edges of steep mountains and then moves sand/gravel from a storage site located at the bottom of the mountain to another storage site located at the top.

This process is much like a ski-lift and requires a motor or a generator to transport the storage vessels but instead it generates electricity when the sand is lowered back down from the top site. How is this done? MGES uses gravity to its advantage, converting energy into storeable electricity that is proportional to the sand's mass, gravity and height of the mountain its situation on.

Just last week, Microsoft and Forgotten Empires revealed Age of Empires IV, bringing it back from shadows of what was assumed to be development death.

The reveal was held at the Microsoft event in London, XO19, and during the event, one critical aspect was discussed 'how is Age of Empires IV going to be monetized after its initial launch?' Age of Empires' Creative Director Adam Isgreen tuned in to answer this question, and luckily, microtransactions aren't on the table for the upcoming RTS.

Here's what Isgreen had to say, "The idea of microtransactions in a real-time strategy game isn't a thing. DLC, expansions - all of that is things that we're going to be exploring for Age 4." He continued and said, "While we definitely already have ideas in terms of where we want to go past Age 4, in terms of expansions and stuff, a lot of that is going to be driven by the community and the players, where they want to see the game going".

Activision is going big with Modern Warfare's future content, complete with a huge 200-player battle royale multiplayer mode with full cross-play.

A new Reddit leak confirms Modern Warfare will soon get a massive BR free-for-all with up to 200-players. The info was datamined from the game's source code, and contains references to playlists like solo, duos, and squads, and in-game maps.

The BR mode is designed to be a mix of tactical strategy and randomized chaos. It will have plenty of loot across all rarities scattered across the map including all weapons, attachments, and killstreaks from the base MW multiplayer, and it'll also have perks that boost efficacy in battle. There's even missions for teams to tackle during the 200-player warzone havoc.

A new report says Hangar 13 is working on the most ambitious Mafia game to date, and it picks off right where Mafia III left off.

Rumor has it Mafia IV is happening, and it'll take place during the 1970s when the mob ruled the casino-ridden streets of Las Vegas. The entire game centers around your ascension as a gang boss who eventually takes control over Sin City, building an empire of gambling, mayhem, and drug-fueled organized crime along the way. Apparently Hangar 13's fleet of studios is working on the project, and it'll be bigger than Mafia III but filled with more meaningful quests and activities--gone are the annoying repeatable missions from Mafia III.

All of this doesn't come from a reliable source, though. Jason Schreier, one of the most reliable sources in the industry, says the info sounds fake.

Dead Island 2 is still in development, but it could miss the original 2020 release date we had pegged for the sequel.

After years of development hell and trading hands, Dead Island 2 has found a new home at Homefront: The Revolution's Dambuster Studios. As for a release date, that's a bit more complicated. We've had no development updates on the game, and the only assurances it's still happening is from higher-ups at THQ Nordic and Deep Silver's Koch Media. But now it sounds like Dead Island 2 may not launch until 2021 at the earliest.

In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Koch Media CEO Klemens Kundratitz strongly hints Dead Island 2 may not release in 2020. The CEO says Dead Island 2 won't launch close to Dying Light 2, another competing zombie game that Deep Silver is publishing. "It would be conflict if we were launching on top of each other. But that's not going to be a problem."

AMD is expected to unleash their second-gen Navi GPU at CES 2020 according to the latest reports, with a preview at CES of the second-gen RDNA-based Radeon RX 6700 family -- at least that's what I'll call it for now.

The new second-gen RDNA 2 architecture is expected to use an optimized 7nm+ process node, offer up enthusiast-grade graphics cards (YES!), hardware-level ray tracing support, both GDDR6 and HBM2 options, and even more power efficiency over the first-gen Navi products.

The note about AMD using HBM2 is interesting, which could be useful for the enthusiast-grade RDNA 2 cards that would not just compete with NVIDIA's current flagship GeForce RTX 2080 Ti but also whatever NVIDIA is cooking up for 2020 in their new Ampere-based GeForce RTX 3000 series cards that should see the RTX 3070, RTX 3080, and RTX 3080 Ti released at Computex/E3 2020.

Just a couple of days ago, Golden Joystick Awards were held, and Nintendo representative fighter took home the crown prize.

You might be confused by the fact that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate had won a 2019 award when it was released back in December of 2018. Well, that's because the release of Smash Ultimate fell short of the cut of time for the Golden Joystick Awards of 2018, which is why it was run in 2019 awards.

Even though it might be a year out from its release, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate still managed to scoop a really nice award up. According to Golden Joystick's official Twitter account, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate won the Nintendo Game of the Year award for 2019. This isn't the first time Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has got some decent awards, at the Japan Game Awards it got awarded the 'Grand Award', more on that here.

Back in September, Nintendo finally stepped into the mobile with an extremely strong IP, Mario Kart Tour.

Players started their engines on the 25th of September, and in just one day the app got 20 million downloads. Now some new statistics have been released by Sensor Tower who has revealed that just in September the app was downloaded 86.2 million times. Following the September release, Mario Kart Tour slowed down a bit in October, but still managed to pull in a further 40.3 million unique installs.

In comparison to Mario Kart Tour, Activision's Call of Duty: Mobile pulled in 148 million downloads in October. How much revenue was made off these installs? Mario Kart Tour managed to rake in $32 million in October, while Call of Duty: Mobile pulled ahead with $54 million. Mario Kart Tour currently doesn't have multiplayer support, so these numbers are sure to increase once Nintendo updates the game with that.