Latest News - Page 195

After rumors that Activision was going to release Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 earlier than the initial November release date, a known Call of Duty insider has confirmed there has been no change to the release date.

The rumors of an early release for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 came from another Call of Duty leaker, "TheGhostofHope," who wrote on X at the end of last month that some evidence had been brought to their attention that suggested Black Ops 7 was going to release a week before the original November 14 release date. That rumor was squashed by Activision when the publisher put out an X post that reiterated Black Ops 7 was releasing on November 14.

To further squash the rumors of an unexpected shift in the Black Ops 7 release date, known Call of Duty insider CharlieIntel shared an X post and wrote, "Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 launches on Friday, November 14. There is no early access. There is no change to the release date, an Activision rep has confirmed to us." So, for those who were holding out for an early release for Black Ops 7, it appears that won't be happening unless Activision surprises everyone with a shadow drop.

There has been another report of a user on Reddit having his SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 9070 XT Nitro+ graphics card and its 16-pin power connector melting.

This is the second Redditor having the 16-pin power connector melt on the same SAPPHIRE RX 9070 XT Nitro+ card, with the same top pins of the connector melting. The bottom row of connectors seems fine, with the entire top stack of pins destroyed.

Redditor u/ProfessionalHost3913 posted that he used the adapter that came with his SAPPHIRE RX 9070 XT Nitro+ card, as the manual that the card ships with recommends the included adapter over other cables. He used the cable, and had the top pins burned as it was flowing power into the GPU. The GPU connector is unaffected, but the Redditor says that when he starts a game or even browses the internet, this monitor will randomly go black.

AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 25.10.2 launched last week for PC gamers with Radeon GPUs, and it sparked quite a bit of backlash because its 'New Game Support' for Battlefield 6 was limited to Radeon RX 7000 (RDNA 3) and Radeon RX 9000 (RDNA 4) Series graphics cards. This means that Radeon RX 5000 (RDNA 1) and Radeon RX 6000 (RDNA 2) owners were effectively left behind in terms of game-specific optimizations.

In a follow-up statement provided to Tom's Hardware, AMD clarified that RDNA 1 and RDNA 2 owners would continue to receive "new features, bug fixes, and game optimizations" as part of a maintenance mode branch for Radeon 'Adrenalin Edition' software, but only "as required by market needs." Another confusing statement, and one that still suggests RDNA 2 gamers were being left behind.

According to Steam's latest Hardware Survey Results, RDNA 2 GPUs like the Radeon RX 6600 from 2021 are AMD's most popular among PC gamers, so the decision to reduce support so soon felt premature. Well, AMD has released a statement to clear up the confusion, confirming that RDNA 1 and RDNA 2 GPUs will receive "game support for new releases."

Intel had some big plans for its Battlemage GPUs, but the company has been struggling to get anything worthwhile into the market, but its cancelled GPU projects did have some promise at least.

In its original Battlemage lineup, Intel was looking more ambitious through some new leaks from @Bionic_Squash on X, where we're being told that the Intel BMG-X3 (G10) and BMG-X4 featured a 3D stacked die with 28 and 40 Xe2 GPU cores, respectively. The leaker teases that the X3 variant featured a 192-bit GDDR6 memory bus, and more excitedly: 512MB of Adamantine cache.

Intel's using 512MB of Adamantine cache would've increased performance just like AMD's Infinity Cache, and would've been 3D-stacked onto the base tile, a complex design that most likely didn't help in its path to cancellation. The leaker said that all Adamantine Cache products were scrapped, which included BMG-X3, BMG-X4, and Arrow Lake Halo (which was rumored a while ago) and would've been Intel's response to AMD's powerful Strix Halo APU.

Embark Studios has a great way to deal with instances of cheating: Ban the offenders and give the victims their items back. Fans have taken notice, and they're justifiably ecstatic about the policy.

Arc Raiders is gaming's latest hit, attracting over 328,000 peak players on Steam in the last 24 hours. An anti-cheat policy has fostered some strong goodwill with fans--extraction shooters like Arc are filled with tension-heavy skirmishes because if you die, your gear drops and can be taken by your assailant. But if a cheater kills you in Arc Raiders, it's likely that Embark Studios will find out and give you back all the items that you lost. That's what happened to one player, and many others are chiming in to say they've also had their items returned when killed by in-game cheaters.

"Your items were lost due to unfair play, but we managed to get them back for you! They're now available for you to claim and take with you on your next journey Topside. We're committed to building an environment where gameplay is about skill, teamwork, and fun, not unfair advantages. Thank you for being a part of this mission! Together, we're building Arc Raiders into a fair and fun experience for everyone," reads the in-game message from Embark Studios to affected players.

Elon Musk has teased the unveiling of the highly anticipated, and at this rate, mythical, Tesla Roadster, with the Tesla CEO saying in a recent interview on the Joe Rogan Experience that the company is closing in on an unveiling, and it will be "unforgettable".

Musk sat down with Rogan for a lengthy three-hour interview where a variety of topics were discussed, but at around the 40 minute mark of the episode Rogan asks Musk if Tesla is still making the Roadster. For those who don't know, Tesla announced the next generation Roadster in 2017. It was initially scheduled for production in 2020, but due to multiple delays it was pushed out. The last time we heard about the Roadster was from Musk who said it was planned on entering production in 2025, but now the CEO is saying the company is "getting close to demonstrating the prototype".

It looks like it'll be mighty hard trying to find ASUS's new ROG XG Mobile 2025 external GPU, which dropped 9 months ago now, but is finally hitting the market.

The ASUS ROG XG Mobile 2025 was announced back at CES 2025 at the beginning of the year, with availability penciled in for February, just two months later. ASUS said we could expect pricing of $1199 for the ROG XG Mobile with the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Laptop GPU, or $2199 for the ROG XG Mobile with the flagship GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop GPU.

Fast forward to November 2025, and ASUS isn't selling either of its ROG XG Mobile 2025 external GPUs through its retail platform, while instead we've got EXcaliber PC stocking both the RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5090 Laptop GPU variants of the ROG XG Mobile 2025 in the US.

Samsung has finally inked its important HBM memory deal with NVIDIA, where it will supply its next-gen HBM4 memory with up to 11Gbps HBM4 memory chips to use on NVIDIA's next-gen Rubin AI GPUs in 2026.

After what has felt like forever in trying to get its HBM3 and HBM3E memory certified for use by NVIDIA, Samsung and NVIDIA have gotten closer than ever, working on HBM4 together as well as working on a new AI factory that's powered by 50,000+ of NVIDIA's AI GPUs.

Samsung and NVIDIA are working together on HBM4, with Samsung explaining on its press release that with incredibly high bandwidth and energy efficiency, Samsung's advanced HBM solutions are expected to help accelerate the development of future AI applications, and form a critical foundation for manufacturing infrastructure driven by these technologies.

Samsung and NVIDIA have just announced plans to build a new AI factory, with the new state-of-the-art AI factory combining Samsung's semiconductor technologies with NVIDIA platforms to establish the foundation of next-gen, AI-driven production.

The new AI factory will be powered by over 50,000 NVIDIA GPUs, where Samsung's new semiconductor AI factory to be the centerpiece of the company's digital transformation, integrating accelerated computing directly into full-fledged advanced chip manufacturing. Samsung and NVIDIA will be collaborating in other businesses, including next-gen HBM4, EDA tools, AI-RAN, and more.

Samsung plans to use the AI megafactory to integrate its labyrinthine manufacturing processes into "a single intelligent network, where AI continuously analyzes, predicts, and optimizes production environments in real time". Samsung will also be building digital twins to digitally visualize fab operations, where it will be using the "virtual environments to identify anomalies, perform predictive maintenance, and optimize production before changes are applied in the physical world".

Nexon's latest extraction shooter Arc Raiders is a huge success on Steam, and is gaining momentum on PlayStation 5.

Arc Raiders looks to be gaming's latest multiplayer hit. The PvPvE shooter is making good on its 7-year creation cycle by sparking sales, adoption, and widespread play. Shortly after its debut on October 30, Arc Raiders is currently the #1 top-selling game on Steam, beating out other high-profile games and dethroning Battlefield 6 in the process.

SteamDB figures reveal Arc Raiders had over 264,000 peak players on Steam on launch day, with 250,000 players logging in the next day. At the time of writing, Arc Raiders has over 141,000 players on Steam.

Helldivers 2 game director Mikael Eriksson reiterates plans to release less actual content and focus more on the backend of the game.

Arrowhead wants to fix Helldivers 2, and is putting performance and stability ahead of profits. The recent Into the Unjust expansion introduced a ton of new bugs and fans are taking notice, necessitating a response from Arrowhead. Now the team is back to explain what's actually going to happen--Helldivers 2 will spend "a few months" in this repair state as the devs focus on stability and in-game performance.

In a recent YouTube Q&A video, game director Mikael Eriksson highlights what gamers can expect--no dramatic improvements to FPS or performance in the short to midterm, but less crashes and bugs. On the topic of optimization, Eriksson says that it took a "considerable effort" from the team just to squeeze out an extra 2FPS on all platforms.

Companies in the billion-dollar video games industry carefully kept prices in check, but in recent years publishers finally bumped the price. After all, as Gestalt media, video games are expensive to make...so why weren't price hikes more common throughout the years?

Video game prices only recently went to $70 (and thanks to Nintendo, some games are $80). For decades and multiple console generations from the NES to the PS4, games cost a flat $59.99 and the prices didn't rise with inflation. Why not? Fallout creator Tim Cain believes he has the answer--it all comes down to digital distribution.

In a recent YouTube video, Cain made a simple and compelling explanation: "Digital probably is the reason games have resisted matching inflation. I've said this before, I bought games for $59 in the '90s. That would have been a really expensive game these days. And these were standard games Super Nintendo. But those cost savings weren't passed down to consumers. They could have."

A rapidly growing brand with over 20,000 riders, Kingbull has earned its reputation for crafting high-end fat-tire ebikes using premium components from top industry names. Every model delivers a reliable build, super-sturdy frame, and cutting-edge tech, backed by exceptional after-sales service that keeps riders confident long after the purchase.

On any day, Kingbull's prices are too hard to pass by, but the brand has taken things way up a notch with its Halloween discount deals. Slashing prices by up to $200 (with an additional discount of $250 on the purchase of 2 bikes), the brand's current promotion seems too good to be true, but it is.

Deal Price: $929 $999

Microsoft wants to make Windows 11 updates easier to understand, and has a new naming scheme to help cut through some of the confusion that can be caused by convoluted names.

Windows Central noticed a new support document from Microsoft explaining the change to Windows Update. The idea is to introduce "more intuitive and consistent" naming practices that are more focused on the core aspects of each update, and therefore easier to understand.

For example, the cumulative update provided every month for Windows 11 will be known as a "monthly security update" and optional releases (coming at the end of the month) will be called "monthly preview non-security updates".

Nintendo adds a splash of virtual console nostalgia to its modern Animal Crossing game.

Animal Crossing New Horizons is getting a big new update that adds some surprising features. New Horizon's update 3.0 will add playable retro games that can be booted up right within Animal Crossing. The selection is limited, but the ROMs are apparently complete titles and not demos. The games that were shown are Ice Climbers (NES/FamiCom), Clu Clu Land (NES/FamiCom), and Dr. Mario (Game Boy) but the full lineup hasn't been revealed.

The announcement video confirms multiple consoles are coming: the FamiCom, NES, FamiCom Disk System, Game Boy, and Super Famicom. This is Nintendo, after all, so you'll also need an active Switch Online subscription to even play these games--layered monetization makes sense, as Nintendo is carefully protective over its older games. After doing various activities, players can start purchasing Nintendo-branded items like the consoles in the new Hotel souvenir shop.

UPDATE: Netflix has agreed to buy Warner Bros. in an $82 billion deal.

Three years after the merger, Warner Bros. Discovery is back up for sale, and Netflix is said to be preparing an offer to buy the company's studios business.

Key parts of WB Discovery may soon be sold to the highest bidder, including the company's billion-dollar video games IP. Sources tell Reuters that content streamer Netflix is interested in securing WB Discovery assets, and has hired investment bank Moelis & Co to look over the potential offer.

Capcom's new Resident Evil Generation Pack is the latest Switch 2 release to ship on Game-key Cards, and it may have something to do with the console's slower ROM cartridges.

Capcom is a company that prioritizes bulk volume sales--the publisher wants to eventually sell 100 million games a year. The latest Resident Evil trilogy pack reflects this model by including three mainline titles in one bundle: RE7, RE Village, and the upcoming Resident Evil Requiem. The goal is to get players caught up on the Resident Evil series while collecting a Requiem pre-order, netting an extra $20 for the catalog RE games (which is typically what they can cost on sale anyway). It's a great deal for Switch 2 players that have yet to play the modern Resident Evil games.

There are just two catches with the RE Generation Pack: All three games ship on Game-key cards and not as full games on ROM carts, and the other caveat is that the deal is limited and time-sensitive. Capcom confirms that the bundle will be discontinued when its fiscal year ends on March 31, 2026.

Microsoft officially severed ties with Windows 10 earlier this month, leaving hundreds of millions of PCs around the world to decide whether to upgrade to Windows 11 or pay Microsoft for continued security updates on Windows 10.

For those looking to make the jump over to Windows 11, that might require some hardware upgrades, as Windows 11 has higher hardware requirements than its predecessor operating system. Notably, some users hesitant to make the jump to Windows 11 are wary of the increasing difficulty to get into the operating system without a Microsoft Account and an internet connection, along with the myriad of additional Microsoft software commonly referred to as Windows Bloat.

However, there are tools to get around this when setting up a PC for the first time, and technology channel CyberCPU Tech has demonstrated how users making the leap to Windows 11 can set up the operating system without an internet connection or a Microsoft Account. However, that channel has now been targeted by YouTube, with the video being taken down.

Valve is reportedly closer than ever to the announcement of Half-Life 3, with insider Tyler McVicker saying HLX development could've reached a new stage, and that Half-Life 3 would be announced with a simple tweet.

In his latest video, McVicker deep dives into the latest Source 2 engine inside of the Counter-Strike 2 October 15 update, where he says there are new systems and features that are in it, that aren't being used in any other game that Valve has powered by the Source engine.

The latest update is filled with optimizations and polishing, with Valve introducing an automated process that cleans system resources, changes to the sound simulation and liquid simulation systems, and more. The biggest tease is that McVicker shoots down any rumors that suggest Valve will make the big Half-Life 3 announcement at The Game Awards on December 11, and that the huge Half-Life 3 reveal would happen from Valve, in a single tweet.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has commented on future Xbox consoles, and how the upcoming console will be innovative and a revisit of the "conventional wisdom" of Xbox.

Nadella gave these remarks to TBPN, where the Microsoft CEO mentioned Steam as a direct competitor to Xbox and how Microsoft is the largest publisher following its acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. Following that statement, Nadella said that Microsoft is now striving to become a "fantastic" publisher that puts its titles "everywhere" and in "every platform."

As for the next Xbox console, Nadella said that Microsoft "wanted to do innovative work in the system side on the console and on the PC." Adding, that he thinks it's "funny" how people consider console and PC to be "two different things," and then went to mention that Microsoft originally built the Xbox with the intention of creating a PC that is purpose built for gaming. Nadella finished up by saying, "I kind of want to revisit some of that conventional wisdom."