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Epic fail: Epic's abysmal customer service scores F from BBB

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jan 10, 2019 3:34 PM CST

Even with all its Fortnite billions, Epic Games has a serious problem with customer service and satisfaction.

Epic fail: Epic's abysmal customer service scores F from BBB

Epic has scored the worst rating from its own local North Carolina-based Better Business Bureau (BBB) thanks to its terrible communication with customers and users. The BBB was grading papers and Epic earned an F because it simply ignored 88% of customer complaints (247 out of the 279 complaints remain unanswered).

This trend has been well-known in the games industry for a while now, and poses a direct threat to its new digital games storefront. If Epic can't handle the titanic Fortnite and address its 250 million strong userbase, how will it ever tackle the leviathan that is a fully-fledged game store peddling titles across the globe?

Continue reading: Epic fail: Epic's abysmal customer service scores F from BBB (full post)

Red Dead Online gets second battle royale mode

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jan 10, 2019 2:41 PM CST

Today Rockstar announced Gun Rush, a new battle royale mode coming to Red Dead Online's multiplayer.

Red Dead Online gets second battle royale mode

The Red Dead Online beta actually shipped with the unique Make it Count battle royale mode, which gave saw players duking it out across the 1899 Western frontier with limited bows and arrows and throwing knives.

Now Rockstar ups the ante with Gun Rush, which is basically the same premise only with guns. Gun Rush is 32-players and has two variants: a last-man-standing free-for-all gametype as well as team-based carnage. Like its predecessor, Gun Rush also features the old shrinking map battle royale staple.

Continue reading: Red Dead Online gets second battle royale mode (full post)

Amazon's game streaming service set for 2020

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jan 10, 2019 1:41 PM CST

Amazon is in early stages of building an online game streaming service, multiple sources familiar with the matter tell The Information.

Amazon's game streaming service set for 2020

Major tech titans like Google, Microsoft, and EA are all working on new streaming services that beam games to phones, PCs, and consoles directly from the cloud. We tried Google's Project Stream service and found its ease-of-use and convenience to be the future of gaming. Now retail leviathan Amazon wants to enter the arena with its own cloud-based streaming framework that will leverage powerful servers to bring high-end gaming to all devices.

The service, which is still in a fledgling state and not expected to roll out until 2020 at the earliest, should enfold Amazon's Twitch ecosystem in unique ways. We expect various Twitch features to be wrapped into the service like game video broadcasting and viewing, as well as the Twitch game store and the friends and communications infrastructure. Amazon Prime members could also get a discount for the service.

Continue reading: Amazon's game streaming service set for 2020 (full post)

Phison rocks PCie 4.0 with PS5016-E16 SSD controller

Chris Ramseyer | Storage | Jan 10, 2019 1:40 PM CST

CES 2019 - Phison lifted the veil on the company's next-generation high-performance NVMe SSD controller at CES. The upcoming PS5016-E16 controller is the first to take advantage of PCI Express 4.0 bandwidth that we hope will come to market around the March timeframe.

The E16 is the logical successor to Phison's PS5012-E12 currently shipping in products like the MyDigitalSSD BPX Pro and Corsair Force MP510. The new controller doubles the interface bandwidth by using four lanes, but with faster 4th generation PCIe technology. The controller also ushers in 4th generation low-density parity check error correction from Phison.

Phison claims 4,000 MB/s sequential reads and 4,100 MB/s sequential write speeds. Phison's CES demo already shows speeds in excess of those advertised. We may see even higher performance with retail products and some minor specification changes. At the time of writing Phison states the E12 supports flash speeds of up to 800 MT/s but next generation memory from Toshiba sports a faster bus interface speed. The faster memory would lead to higher throughput performance and lower latencies.

Continue reading: Phison rocks PCie 4.0 with PS5016-E16 SSD controller (full post)

Next-gen Xbox backward compatibility likely

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jan 10, 2019 11:16 AM CST

Xbox Scarlett should natively play existing Xbox One and even Xbox 360 games when it ships.

Next-gen Xbox backward compatibility likely

Backward compatibility is one of the shining features of the Xbox One family of hardware. Microsoft has banked hard on this achievement to one-up Sony's lack of native PS3 game playback and it'd be foolish to not continue the trend with its new line of consoles. I've already talked about how backward compatibility could work on Scarlett--think of forward compatibility game patches similar to the Xbox One X Enhanced program--but now Microsoft adds even more credence to our predictions.

At CES 2019, Microsoft gaming head Phil Spencer went on stage during AMD's keynote to tease the next-gen Xbox platform. While specifics were light, Spencer and AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su put emphasis on the Xbox One X's native backward compatibility and scaling features, re-iterating how much work went into the feature.

Continue reading: Next-gen Xbox backward compatibility likely (full post)

New Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Spirit Board event, double XP

Jak Connor | Gaming | Jan 10, 2019 5:00 AM CST

The next in-game event for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has been announced by Nintendo. This time round participants will be blessed with bonus experience and SP.

New Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Spirit Board event, double XP

The event is no different length wise from the others that have passed, but instead of being featured around set themed spirits such as the Fire Emblem invasion, players will be gifted with extra bonuses. These bonuses will come in the form of "Double XP and SP" which means players will be gaining double the amount of Spirit experience and Spirit Points when they participate in Spirit Board matches.

Just like the previous weeks, Nintendo will be holding this event for a range of three days. The event will begin on January 10 at 10 PM PT (1 AM ET / 6 AM GMT on January 11) and will be finalized on the 13th/14th of January. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is exclusively available on the Nintendo Switch. In other news about Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Nintendo's flagship game has managed to sell 3 million units in 11 days, check that out here.

Continue reading: New Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Spirit Board event, double XP (full post)

Anthem: Interceptor Javelin thrives on speed, gameplay video

Jak Connor | Gaming | Jan 10, 2019 4:30 AM CST

BioWare has released another Javelin introductory video through IGN First, the video gives us a solid breakdown on what to expect from Anthem's Interceptor Javelin.

Anthem: Interceptor Javelin thrives on speed, gameplay video

The above video is commentated by James Duggan, the host of the IGN show and also the Editorial Producer at IGN.com. Duggan jumps straight into what is great about the Interceptor Javelin, he describes that having a triple jump, triple dash and mid flight double barrel roll will mean players will be constantly jumping in and out of melee range combat. Having the fastest basic melee attack of any Javelin and amplifying abilities to increase damage output, players will be dashing around slicing up vital enemies and then quickly retreating to safety.

If you are a type of player that likes to do everything in style while also packing a heavy load of damage, then the Interceptor is for you. Most of the Interceptors abilities increase damage output, and when combining that with its speed, mobility and flourish, I feel as if the Interceptor will be a Javelin many players are going to pick up. If you want to check out another Javelin from Anthem, visit my breakdown on the Storm Javelin that was released earlier this week. In other news about Anthem, social hubs are planned for the game, read more on that here. Anthem's release is scheduled for February 22nd and will be coming to the Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Continue reading: Anthem: Interceptor Javelin thrives on speed, gameplay video (full post)

Kingdom Hearts III - 10 images of Sora's Keyblades lineup

Jak Connor | Gaming | Jan 10, 2019 4:00 AM CST

Kingdom Hearts fans will be pleased to know that Square Enix have released 10 images showcasing each of the Keyblades that will be available for Sora.

Kingdom Hearts III - 10 images of Sora's Keyblades lineup

The images have been released onto the official Kingdom Hearts Twitter account and showcasing each of the unique keyblades that players will be able to enjoy in Kingdom Hearts III. Out of the 10 images that have been released, we can notice that 9 of the keyblades are brand new, so every blade we see besides the original Kingdom Key Keyblade is brand new.

It seems that each of the keyblades that are shown are from their respective world, players should expect to earn the respective keyblade after completion or throughout the progression of each of these worlds. In the entirety of this post you will find the remaining 9 images and the descriptions for each of the keyblades. Kingdom Hearts III will be releasing at the end of this month, more specifically on January 29th for the Xbox One and PS4.

Continue reading: Kingdom Hearts III - 10 images of Sora's Keyblades lineup (full post)

Candy Crush series collectively made $1.5+ billion in 2018

Jak Connor | Software & Apps | Jan 10, 2019 3:30 AM CST

No doubt one of the most popular apps on both iOS and Android is any of the Candy Crush Saga games, this extreme popularity has generated King a collective yearly revenue of around $1.5+ billion for 2018.

Candy Crush series collectively made $1.5+ billion in 2018

According to Sensor Tower Store Intelligence, Candy Crush saw average player spending increase by about 6.5% in 2018 when compared to the previous year. When combining both the sales from the App Store and the Google Play Store, King managed to rake in a staggering $1.5+ billion in revenue, which equates to about $4.2 million per day.

Surprisingly though, the original Candy Crush that was released back in 2012 was the main contributing factor towards that $1.5 billion, pulling in $945 million - 63%. Candy Crush Soda Saga followed marginally behind with $443 million, or about 29%. The three year old Candy Crush Jelly Saga came next, equating to about $90 million of the $1.5 billion - or a minuscule 6%. The Candy Crush games aren't slowing down either, in 2018 King released Candy Crush Friends Saga which manged to generate $3 million by 2018's end and was also the second most downloaded game in the franchise with over 30 million installs.

Continue reading: Candy Crush series collectively made $1.5+ billion in 2018 (full post)

Metro Exodus - Artyom Custom Edition announced, only 10 made

Jak Connor | Gaming | Jan 10, 2019 3:00 AM CST

4A Games and the official author of Metro have announced an extremely limited edition Metro Exodus Collectors Edition, its titled the 'Artyom Custom Edition' and there will only be 10 of them made.

Metro Exodus - Artyom Custom Edition announced, only 10 made

A video has been uploaded to the Metro YouTube Channel and features author of Metro Dmitry Glukovsky unpacking a crate filled with all the limited edition goodies that lucky Metro fans can win. This 'Artyom Custom Edition' will not be available to purchase, but instead will be acquirable via "a number of planned promotions in the coming weeks." Glukovsky advises Metro fans to keep an eye on all of the Metro communication channels, e.g social medias/website.

Deep Silver, the developers for Metro Exodus have spoken out about the recently announced edition, here is what they have said; "We are incrediby excited to reveal the Metro Exodus Artyom Edition, an incredibly limited hand-crafted and priceless edition, created with 4A Games and Metro author Dmitry Glukovsky."

Continue reading: Metro Exodus - Artyom Custom Edition announced, only 10 made (full post)

Blizzard add Stan Lee tribute into World of Warcraft

Jak Connor | Gaming | Jan 10, 2019 2:40 AM CST

Blizzard Entertainment have struck comic book fans right in weak spot, as the game developer has honored the tragic death of Stan Lee by implementing Lee as a character in-game.

Blizzard add Stan Lee tribute into World of Warcraft

Within the new 8.1.5 patch notes, WowHead has found a new character model added to the game. The character comes under the name "Stanley" and is a thin old man, he has white hair and a thick white bushy mustache. Confirming that this character model is actually a reference to Stan Lee is not only its raw appearance minus the classic aviators, but the fact that this character only says one word, Stan Lee's iconic catchphrase, "Excelsior!"

For the moment, Stanley has only been found in Stormwind on the PTR in alliance gear, but when going through the patch notes two more Stanley models were found; one in neutral clothing and another in Horde. For those that didn't know, Stan Lee passed away last November and was known for his co-creation of Marvel Comics and the superheroes we now see on the big screen today. He was also known for his ever-lasting cameo roles he played in these superhero movies, unfortunately Lee sadly died at age 95. Fun fact - "Excelsior!" is actually a Latin word and can be translated to "ever upward".

Continue reading: Blizzard add Stan Lee tribute into World of Warcraft (full post)

Lenovo Legion Y27gq: world's first 1440p 240Hz gaming screen

Anthony Garreffa | Displays | Jan 10, 2019 2:20 AM CST

CES 2019 - Lenovo is the first in the world with a gaming monitor rocking a native 2560 x 1440 resolution and huge 240Hz refresh rate with its new Legion Y27gq monitor. The native 1440p resolution and 240Hz refresh rate are joined with G-Sync HDR, too.

Lenovo Legion Y27gq: world's first 1440p 240Hz gaming screen

It was until CES 2019 that we had 240Hz refresh rate monitors tapping out with 1920 x 1080 resolutions, while 165Hz was the max we had for 1440p, until the Lenovo Legion Y27gq. Lenovo explains: "The Lenovo Legion Y27gq is an ultrapowerful monitor that elevates your gaming experience. This monitor is designed to dominate with an impeccable blend of 240Hz refresh rate, 0.5ms response time, and the latest NVIDIA G-Sync HDR technology".

Lenovo is using an AU Optronics panel with the 27-inch display arriving with 0.5ms G2G response times, 90% DCI-P3 coverage, and the aforementioned NVIDIA G-Sync HDR support.

Continue reading: Lenovo Legion Y27gq: world's first 1440p 240Hz gaming screen (full post)

Fantastic Four content update teased for Marvel's Spider-Man

Jak Connor | Gaming | Jan 10, 2019 2:00 AM CST

In celebration of Marvel's Fantastic Four Week, the Marvel Games Twitter account has teased that PS4's Spider-Man will soon feature something "fantastic."

Fantastic Four content update teased for Marvel's Spider-Man

During Marvel's 'The Worlds Greatest Week livestream' numerous forms of Fantastic Four content was announced for the selection of Marvel mobile games. These games include, Marvel Contest of Champions, Marvel Future Fight, Marvel Puzzle Quest and more. Most importantly, Marvel teased some brand new content for Spider-Man on the PS4.

Marvel's Ryan Penagos said, "Something 'Fantastic' is coming to Marvel's Spider-Man real soon. I can't tell you anything more right now, but you'll want to keep an eye out for this. It's going to be amazing and fantastic." Insomniac Games reinforced the massive hint towards Fantastic Four content by re-tweeting the post from Marvel Games. With both Marvel and the Spider-Man PS4 developer backing the idea that Fantastic Four content is on its way to Spider-Man, we should see an announcement sometime soon. Perhaps we will get more DLC content since the three-chapter 'The City That Never Sleeps' season pass has finished.

Continue reading: Fantastic Four content update teased for Marvel's Spider-Man (full post)

Playing League of Legends now earns you free cryptocurrency

Jak Connor | Gaming | Jan 10, 2019 1:43 AM CST

League of Legends, the father of all multi-online battle arena's, or better known as MOBA's for short, now have a partnership with Refereum. Refereum and Riot Games now rewards League of Legends players with cryptocurrency for simply playing the game.

Playing League of Legends now earns you free cryptocurrency

In a recent press release from Refereum, beginning today the 65 million+ monthly League of Legends players can now be rewarded for playing League of Legends. These rewards will be from the now integrated blockchain reward system by Refereum. Players that want to earn cryptocurrency while playing League of Legends will be rewarded for completing matches, winning games and participating in in-game achievements.

The initiative that Refereum ideally wants is the fair distribution of rewards for players. The community that was already apart of Refereum has been earning cryptocurrency for streaming, sharing and watching games, most importantly though, this is the first time that "players earn Refereum tokens ($RFR) for actual in-game play on a non-blockchain game." Refereum has done this by integrating "its leading rewards platform with League of Legends via the game's public API."

Continue reading: Playing League of Legends now earns you free cryptocurrency (full post)

NVIDIA CEO: 'performance is lousy' on AMD's new Radeon VII

Anthony Garreffa | Graphics Cards | Jan 10, 2019 1:22 AM CST

CES 2019 - NVIDIA had its own big CES 2019 press conference a few days ago where it made the GeForce RTX 2060 graphcis card official, while it was AMD's turn yesterday with their CES 2019 presser and the unveiling of the new Radeon VII graphics card.

NVIDIA CEO: 'performance is lousy' on AMD's new Radeon VII

Radeon VII will be arriving as the world's first 7nm graphics card for gamers, with a huge 16GB of HBM2 memory with 1TB/sec of memory bandwidth for $699. It launches on February 7, and all within 24 hours we've had NVIDIA's founder and CEO Jensen Huang talk about AMD's return to the enthusiast end of PC graphics cards as "underwhelming".

Gordon Ung from PCWorld spoke to the NVIDIA CEO, where he asked Huang about his thoughts on the just-announced Radeon VII graphics card, with Huang saying "it's underwhelming. The performance is lousy and there's nothing new". He added there's "no ray tracing, no AI. It's 7nm with HBM memory that barely keeps up with a 2080. And if we turn on DLSS we'll crush it. And if we turn on ray tracing we'll crush it".

Continue reading: NVIDIA CEO: 'performance is lousy' on AMD's new Radeon VII (full post)

Tecent acquires 36% of Warhammer: Vermintide 2 developer

Jak Connor | Gaming | Jan 10, 2019 1:00 AM CST

Just yesterday, we heard about the announcement from Fatshark Games regarding the achievement of their title Warhammer: Vermintide 2 reaching 2 million units sold. Today, Fatshark have announced they are $56 million dollars richer, thanks to a hefty investment from Tencent.

Tecent acquires 36% of Warhammer: Vermintide 2 developer

The news comes from the Swedish website DI Digital, and showcases that the investment from Tencent is to booster Fatsharks development capabilities. Fatshark's CEO Martin Wahlund has told GamesIndustry.biz, "We are excited to announce that Tencent has chosen to invest in Fatshark."

Wahlund also made sure that this investment is no way going to sway the studio's vision and that they will continue to remain independent. "Tencent is known for investing in market leading top rated companies. With the investment, Fatshark is in a strong position to continue to grow while staying independent. Our unaltered mission will be to bring high quality games to our fans around the globe." The investment from Tencent comes in at 500m kronor which equates to around $56 million, or a 36% acquisition of Fatshark.

Continue reading: Tecent acquires 36% of Warhammer: Vermintide 2 developer (full post)

Fallout 76's upcoming patch is huge, has over 150 fixes

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jan 10, 2019 12:44 AM CST

Fallout 76 might be riddled with issues and backlash from fans of the franchise, but Bethesda has been working its butt off during the holidays getting the game in a better state with its upcoming patch for the game dropping four days early.

Fallout 76's upcoming patch is huge, has over 150 fixes

The new update for Fallout 76 was originally due on January 14 but the developer has announced that it will be going live today, January 10. The new update launches at 9AM ET for the PC, with the Xbox One and PS4 versions of the update arriving "early next week" according to Bethesda.

As for the patch we're told to expect "150 fixes" according to the developer, with Bethesda adding: "address many issues raised by the community as well as continue focus on improving performance and stability". Bethesda said it is launching the Fallout 76 patch for the PC first as it gives the developer time to "make further adjustments as needed before releasing the patch on consoles".

Continue reading: Fallout 76's upcoming patch is huge, has over 150 fixes (full post)

Samsung confirms: foldable phone release in first half 2019

Anthony Garreffa | Mobile Devices | Jan 10, 2019 12:22 AM CST

Samsung was previously rumored to unveil its foldable smartphone currently known as Galaxy F in the rumor circle, early this year with February/March discussed quite a bit. Well, it won't be happening that soon with sources telling Digital Trends it'll happen in the first half of the year.

Samsung confirms: foldable phone release in first half 2019

Samsung's Director of Product Strategy and Marketing, Suzanne de Silva, spoke with Digital Trends during CES where she was asked if we'll see the purported Galaxy X/F in the first quarter of 2019. She didn't say yes to that, but she said: "First half, absolutely". So we have full confirmation that Samsung will indeed be launching its foldable smartphone in the next 5 months, so if they push it all the way through to the end of the first half of the year we're looking at a release near Computex 2019 in early-June.

Continue reading: Samsung confirms: foldable phone release in first half 2019 (full post)

Lexar unleashes game changing 1TB SD card for $500

Anthony Garreffa | Storage | Jan 10, 2019 12:01 AM CST

CES 2019 - We've seen a 1TB SD card teased before by Sandisk a few years ago now, but Lexar has stepped up to the plate and unleashed a new 1TB SD card.

Lexar unleashes game changing 1TB SD card for $500

Lexar's Professional 633x family of SDHC and SDXC UHS-I cards are now available from 16GB through to 1TB, where until now it was 16GB to 512GB. The new 1TB version has claimed read speeds of 95MB/sec while write speeds are 70MB/sec. The card itself is rated at V30/U3 which is good for 30MB/sec of sustained write performance.

Right now the 1TB SD card will cost $499.99 but B&H has it on special for $399 right now, a savings of $100. Remember that two 512GB SD cards will cost less than $150, so you're paying a serious premium for 1TB of storage on a single SD card. For professionals where money isn't a problem I can see this being popular, but someone has to do it first - it's not like Lexar will sell tens of millions of units, and before it does we'll see 2TB and then 4TB SD cards become a reality.

Continue reading: Lexar unleashes game changing 1TB SD card for $500 (full post)

Battlefield V second 'Tides of War' update drops January 17

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jan 9, 2019 11:38 PM CST

EA and DICE will be unleashing a new update for Battlefield V in just over a week right now, with the second chapter of Tides of War dropping teased as 'Lightning Strikes'. The new update will reportedly roll out on January 17.

Battlefield V second 'Tides of War' update drops January 17

The only tease we have now turned up from the in-game calendar and simply reads 'A Few Good Soldiers' but we definitely know Lighting Strikes "Lightning Strikes focuses on vehicle warfare and rapid infantry movement. The chapter brings to life the fear created by the Axis war machine through original content and challenges built around vehicle play".

The developer continues: "Combined Arms: Join forces with up to three friends and take on the co-op experience of Combined Arms. In a series of Combat Strike missions across several maps, you and your squad will fight against AI components in various challenges. During the chapter, two game modes will be added to Battlefield V. A revamped Rush is one of them. Say goodbye to MCOM stations and hello to bombs as you take on this classic, only available during Lightning Strikes. Speaking of classic modes, in Squad Conquest, you'll take on the most iconic way to play Battlefield, but in a more intense way. Only 16 players - two squads per team - will fight for map domination".

Continue reading: Battlefield V second 'Tides of War' update drops January 17 (full post)

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