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Take-Two once again teases a huge roadmap of new IP, sequels, and franchises, strongly hinting GTA 6 is currently in development.

In its recent Fiscal Year Q1'20 earnings call, Rockstar Games parent company Take-Two Interactive teases its massive slate of new games. The pipeline is "bigger than ever," and Take-Two says it'll include sequels from its biggest franchises (ahem...Grand Theft Auto...ahem). But it's not all GTA 6 and Rockstar. There's a myriad of fresh projects in dev across its entire label of studios, including the new 2K project from ex-Call of Duty dev Michael Condrey, new titles from its Social Point mobile house, and innovative games from its new indie label Private Division, which is publishing Obsidian's new The Outer Worlds RPG.

In the call, company CFO Lainie Goldstein outlined strong growth indicators for FY2020 and beyond thanks to this new slate. "Looking ahead, we have the strongest development pipeline in our history, including sequels from our biggest franchises, as well as exciting new IP," she said.

Technically all Halo games are service games with expanded multiplayer (Halo 5 pushed the bar with REQ microtransactions). But Halo 6, aka Halo: Infinite, could push things even further by adding in a live campaign that continually unfolds over time.

Halo: Infinite is sounding more and more like a hybrid campaign that blends RPG progression with FPS action for a long-winded, ever-evolving experience. I recently predicted Infinite would have a GaaS-based campaign that's updated with new missions, chapters, and storylines across years. I posited that Infinite could be a platform instead of a game; it could be the beginning of a literal infinite rollout of Halo content. Everything about the Xbox business (which thrives from engagement and monetization) and how 343i describes the game makes this seem more and more likely.

Now there's even more evidence to support our theory. In a recent interview with GameInformer, Microsoft Studios boss Mat Booty seems to hint that Halo: Infinite will have some sort of expanded live-based gaming that lives outside of multiplayer.

Blizzard's been on a classic kick lately. First we got remasters of the original Warcraft and Starcraft games, and now they're doubling-down with World of Warcraft classic. But we shouldn't hold out hope for Diablo II remastered.

In its recent earnings call, Activision-Blizzard pledged to make more remasters of key franchises. It's a way of re-engaging players and making money with sales, and also baking in microtransaction hooks in older games. Company CEO Robert Kotick pretty much says more classic re-releases are on the way.

"At Activision we have seen great results from remastering some of these beloved games over the last couple of years. They are obviously having a big impact on our bottom line and a real impact there, but I'd say what's really important is that it's reaffirming the enduring nature of these franchises for us. We think there's a lot of IP in there the fans are going to want to experience again. So now what I'd say stay tuned for some future announcements."

Discord will soon roll out a new streaming feature, but it's not going to be huge like Twitch.

Discord's new Go Live feature is basically screen-sharing to a small group of random players, creating a more intimate and close-knit experience with strangers online. It won't deliver huge mass-audience streaming like Twitch or YouTube and is instead limited to just 10 viewers. Go Live can be used by anyone on a server, and numerous people can stream at once in a single voice channel. It's meant to deliver a kind of camaraderie to users across a server and even has huge game-changing potential.

This is basically a continuation to Discord's screen-sharing feature, which shows your friends' screens while in-game and it could revolutionize interactivity. Go Live won't require users to be friends with the viewers, though. Gamers could share tips on how to take on a specific boss with real-time footage, all complimented by live voice chatting to boot. Using Go Live in tandem with a multiplayer game would basically deliver a new level of tutorials to Discord servers.

Activision has big plans for Modern Warfare's post-launch content pipeline.

Like any game released from Activision-Blizzard, the new Modern Warfare reboot will expand greatly long after its initial October release. In fact, Modern Warfare will have the most content of any Call of Duty game--a bold statement made in Activision's latest Q2'20 earnings call. That means roadmaps, live services, new modes, maps, weapons, and a timed cadence of content--all monetized in some way.

"We have a number of surprises in store after that including the largest post-launch content pipeline in franchise history," Activision COO Coddy Johnson said in the call.

Update: AMD has issued a statement, clarifying the situation: "We expect there will continue to be strong supply of Radeon RX 5700 series graphics cards in the market, with multiple designs starting to arrive from our AIB partners. As is standard practice, once the inventory of the AMD reference cards has been sold, AMD will continue to support new partner designs with Radeon RX 5700 series reference design kit".

AMD only launched its Radeon RX 5700 XT and RX 5700 just over a month ago now, and now we have reports from Cowcotland that the new Navi-based cards have been pushed into EOL status, or end-of-life.

The news is a surprise, but it does make sense if you think about it. The reference cards eat up AMD manufacturing time and most likely cost them a decent amount of coin to produce, and in a few days the third-party custom Radeon RX 5700 XT and RX 5700 cards launch.

AMD released its game-changing EPYC Rome CPUs and in the hours afterwards, AMD shares spiked by a huge 16% in between Google and Twitter announcing they're using the new EPYC Rome chips in their servers.

AMD shares closed at $33.92 on Thursday, up by a huge 84% this year alone after riding the success of Zen 2 powering the new Ryzen 3000 series CPUs, and the new Navi-powered Radeon RX 5700 series graphics cards.

Patrick Moorhead, Founder, President and Principal Analyst of Moors Insights & Strategy had some comments on AMD's new EPYC Rome CPUs, where he said: "AMD took a big step forward today in the datacenter with its launch of the 2nd Gen EPYC processor and platform. It is a bigger leap forward than I had expected".

Xiaomi has teased that its next-gen phone will use Samsung's exciting new ISOSELL GW1 64MP sensor in an upcoming phone, as well as a beasty new 108-megapixel sensor that will shoot at incredible resolutions.

The huge 108-megapixel sensor will snap images at a crisp AF resolution of 12032 x 9024... yeah, just let that sink in for a while. Before we get to that, the 64-megapixel sensor will take high-quality 16MP photos in low-light conditions, while the larger 108MP sensor will snap surely-gorgeous 27MP photos in low-light.

Xiaomi's next-gen Mi MIX 4 is the smartphone expected to use the 108-megapixel sensor, and should be powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 855 processor and pack a QHD+ display with an in-display fingerprint sensor.

AMD has had a busy year so far, launching its new Radeon VII on 7nm with 16GB of HBM2, and then came the Ryzen 3000 series launch powered by the exciting new Zen 2 architecture also on 7nm.

Just a couple of days ago AMD continued its winning streak with the release of its next-gen EPYC Rome CPUs, with up to 64C/128T of power that demolish Intel's current, and most likely next-gen offerings. The Zen 2 architecture powers the new EPYC processors, and now that it's here it's time for the Zen 3 hype train to begin.

AMD will be doing some exciting things with the Zen 3 architecture, something that will include the shift to 7nm EUV process which paves the way for even denser transistor counts, and could deliver even better power efficiency and higher CPU clock speeds. Better yet, Zen 3 could rock new ISA instruction sets.

FMS 2019 - Silicon Motion went on a rampage at Flash Memory Summit this year, detailing its SM2270, SM2271, and SM8108 SSD controllers -- amongst others, including NVMe 1.4 and PCIe 4.0 designs.

We'll start with the SM2270 which is a high-performance PCIe NVMe SSD controller for the datacenter, packing a 16-channel enterprise NVMe controller with a PCIe 3.0 x8 interface, dual 32-bit DRAM data bus, and triple ARM Cortex R5 dual-core CPUs.

We have 4KB random reads of up to 800K IOPS, while 4KB random writes are up to 200K IOPs. SMI is tapping the latest 3D NAND and QLC NAND flash for the SM2270 which will arrive in capacities of up to 16TB.

ESPN has decided to delay its broadcast of the Apex Legends EXP Invitational tournament, something that has now been confirmed by Polygon, in the wake of the recent mass shootings in the US.

ESPN explained in an email that it sent out to affiliate networks: "Out of respect for the victims and all those impacted by the recent shootings, ABC will no longer air 'EXP Invitational APEX Legends at X Games' on Sunday"

The broadcast of the Apex Legends EXP Invitational tournament will now take place on October 6 at 5PM on ESPN 2, with some re-runs taking place on both October 15 and October 27. The original broadcast wasn't even of the match live, but rather the highlights from the tournament.

This news is dripping with so much rumor mill juice that you're going to need both a bucket, and a tub of salt -- but according to RedGamingTech AMD is working on two new high-end Navi GPUs.

AMD's new Navi 21 and Navi 23 GPUs are reportedly known internally as "NVIDIA killers" with the latter powering a next-gen Radeon RX series graphics card that will dethrone NVIDIA (can't wait to see this go down). The new Navi GPUs are based on the second-gen RDNA architecture, will use the refreshed 7nm+ node, and battle it out against NVIDIA's next-gen GPUs.

NVIDIA's next-gen cards should arrive sometime in 2020 under the GeForce RTX 30 series, and will battle it out with AMD but on better footing this time. Ray tracing is going to be a gigantic deal in 2020 with both next-gen consoles launching with ray tracing support thanks to unreleased AMD hardware powering both consoles.

Activision-Blizzard might be dialing back its new IP endeavors to focus more on established franchises like Call of Duty, Overwatch, Warcraft, Diablo and Hearthstone.

Like any other games-maker, joint publisher Activision-Blizzard is indeed working on new IPs. But these new games and franchises won't come at the cost of existing billion-dollar earners like Call of Duty or Overwatch. The company's recent decision to double-down on existing games is part of its new restructuring plan, which sees tremendous investment into live services and new content to re-engage audiences. The publisher's current breadwinners might eventually pass the torch to the new IPs, but don't expect them to overshadow titans like Activision's huge shooter series.

Read Also: Making new games is only 1/4th of Activision's future plans

No Man's Sky will soon let you tame--and milk--alien creatures for resources. Yes, really.

No Man's Sky Beyond is the seventh and biggest update in the game's history. It's a huge undertaking that adds full VR support on consoles and PC, a new social online infrastructure for multiplayer action, and a bunch of crafting content. And it also lets you milk aliens that you capture and tame. I mean...No Man's Sky was always weird, but this is pretty bizarre even for the space sim.

In a recent interview with IGN, Hello Games' Sean Murray detailed what Beyond has in store, confirming the game is taking on a more interstellar Stardew Valley- and Minecraft-like approach. Not only can we milk aliens, but we can farm them in makeshift hatcheries at our bases. That goes alongside farming plants and resources, too.

Gaming's biggest publishers will disclose lootbox odds by 2020, the Entertainment Software Association confirms.

Photo: AlexCraita

The war on lootboxes is heating up. Government bodies across the world are scrutinizing the billion-dollar microtransaction market, and some U.S. politicians are calling for a ban. Rather than be regulated by Washington, the industry is starting to regulate itself. Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony will soon require all publishers and developers to disclose lootbox odds for games sold on Xbox LIVE, PlayStation Network, and the eShop.

Six years on from launch, GTA Online continues raking in consistent revenues for Take-Two Interactive, and NBA 2K19 is now the publisher's best-selling sports game.

Take-Two Interactive just reported a strong start to its Fiscal Year 2020 timeline, kicking off Q1'2020 with growth in monetization, net revenues, and sales. GTA Online was a big driver for Q1 thanks to its new Diamond Casino update, which saw record player engagement to date, and the huge continued success of NBA 2K19. Digital was the leading force in Take-Two's Q1 performance, growing a massive 51% YoY to $428 million. Digital made up almost 80% of the company's total net revenues.

In the period from April 1 - June 30, 2019, Take-Two made $541 million in net revenues, up 40% year-over-year. Net bookings, or net sales, sits at $422 million, up a huge 46.5% YoY. Operating income is up an astronomical 809% from last year primarily due to Red Dead Redemption 2's heavy investment spend in 2019.

A new Call of Duty game will still release every year, Activision asserts.

Every year gamers can expect the same things: new FIFA, NBA 2K, Madden, and Call of Duty games to name a few. That won't change any time soon. Despite the high cost of rolling out huge sprawling FPS games every year, Activision shows no signs of slowing Call of Duty's annual release cadence. In fact, they're doubling-down on key franchises like Call of Duty, accelerating development tools, worker headcount, and robust live service roadmaps. Activision knows CoD is a cash crop and is planting lots of seeds.

In its recent Fiscal Year Q2'2019 earnings call, Activision strongly hinted that Call of Duty won't slow down after the new Modern Warfare reboot. We shouldn't see Call of Duty take a year off or skip 2020 (Black Ops 5 is set for 2020, reports say).

Phison has been kicking storage ass this year with its break-out PS5016-E16 SSD controller -- which has been capable of up to 5GB/sec and can arrive with up to 2TB of NAND flash.

Well, at the Flash Memory Summit this week Phison decided to tease its new PS5018-E18 mainstream controller that will have a bunch of tweaks under the hood. Comparing it to the E16 SSD controller, the new E18 SSD controller will really ramp things up with up to 7GB/sec transfer speeds.

The current, and still very much kick ass PS5016-E16 SSD can push up to 5GB/sec -- but was made on the 28nm node and NVMe 1.3 standard. Phison's new PS5018-E18 SSD controller is made on the new 12nm FFC node, bumps up its CPU cores to 3 x Cortex-R5 (compared to 2 x Cortex-R5s on the E16 SSD controller) and arrives on the newer NVMe 1.4 standard.

It seems like today is the day for custom Navi reveals, with the new HIS Radeon RX 5700 XT IceQ X2 teased and now something from GIGABYTE.

Here we have the GIGABYTE Radeon RX 5700 XT GAMING OC, with its triple-fan cooler and 2.5-slot design. It's nothing fancy and I would dare say that the OC this card is going to be mild, so that there's some distance between the GIGABYTE and AORUS (enthusiast/OC) models.

We still have a (plain) backplate, which will take some heat from the rear of the card.

Cross-play is one of Activision's latest power plays for Call of Duty, and the publisher has no plans on stopping.

Every future Call of Duty game following the new Modern Warfare reboot should support cross-play--at least that's the impression I got from Activision's latest Q2'19 earnings call. The company's goal with cross-play is simple: to keep gamers playing as long as possible by breaking down platform barriers. It's great for engagement, it's great for playercount, and it's great for monetization. Activision essentially wants to create a unified cross-platform community where progress, saves, and interactivity aren't locked to a single system.

The idea is to make a new Call of Duty platform where players can track and boost their stats regardless of what platform they start or finish on. Fire up PS4 and play a few matches with PS friends and then switch to PC for enthusiast gaming. Eventually playing on different systems won't fracture or split up overall progression, and everything you do will count towards your overall stats. Activision is putting significant resources into making this new network and plans to use it as a base for Call of Duty's community and future content pipeline.