Latest News - Page 2031

IFA 2018 was all about 8K televisions with LG showing off their latest and greatest 88-inch 8K OLED TV at the show, as well as AU Optronics teasing an even better TV: 85-inch 8K 120Hz HDR... which would be mind blowing for gamers from the future.

Samsung didn't want to feel left out with the South Korean giant unveiling their first 8K QLED TV that is coming soon, with the Q900FN and its minimalistic design and great built-in features. It will sport the gorgeously detailed 7680x4320 native resolution but it'll also pack something interesting: AI upscaling. Samsung says that the 8K QLED will feature 4000 nits of peak brightness, HDR10+ and can optimize content on-the-fly.

The new Q900FN will feature a single optical cable that will take care of the power and video inputs, with Samsung throwing in ambient mode that will see the 8K TV blend into your wall. It can be a super-detailed wallpaper that will display photos, the weather, and current news all in 8K. Right now there's no ETA on the 8K QLED, but I'm sure we'll either hear or see more about it at CES 2019 which is creeping up reaaal fast.

After "Erebus" was found on an Unreal Engine 4 database next to other platforms like the PS4 and Xbox One, gamers speculated it could be the codename of Sony's next-gen PlayStation 5. Now an Epic Games dev dispels the rumor.

Erebus isn't Sony's internal codename for its big new PS5 console. It's actually nothing that grand or exciting; Erebus was simply Epic's internal codename for Fortnite on Switch before it was officially announced. Epic's Arjan Brussee, who serves as project lead for Fortnite on Switch and Android, just squashed the speculation in a Twitter post.

"FYI references to 'Erebus' in UE4 code only refer to the codename for the Switch version of Fortnite before we announced it," Mr. Brussee divulged.

Rumor has it Netflix will adapt Blizzard's popular Diablo series into a TV show with Hellboy writer Andrew Cosby penning the script, but nothing's been confirmed just yet.

Diablo is one of my favorite franchises of all time. With its brutal, demon-infested world and grim fantasy themes, it's so darkly enchanting and utterly captivated me during my formative gaming years. So when I hear that Blizzard might be working with Netflix to adapt Diablo into a series I naturally get quite excited. Diablo's cinematics are amazing enough, but imagine if they stretched into an entire show? I'm getting chills already.

Diablo's wide mythical lore makes it a perfect series to adapt. The world of Sanctuary is rife with witches, demons, undead, and prime evils that tear the world asunder with fire and mayhem. The lore itself tells of a battleground where demons and angels fight in an ageless war--the High Heavens against the Burning Hells--for the souls of men and conquest of their realms. Tal Rasha, the Horadrim, the Seven Evils, Bul-Kathos and his Arreat barbarians...there's so, so many things that could be adapted with maximum flavor in a Netflix series.

Shovel Knight's full game and all of its accompanying DLC will soon be sold as a physical game on PS4 and Nintendo Switch, Yacht Club Games confirms.

On the heels of Shovel Knight's new Super Smash Bros. style multiplayer mode, the devs behind the spry spade-wielder have announced a physical version of their darling indie hit. The boxed SKU will retail for $39.99, comes with the base game and every campaign/DLC to date, and is slated to launch on April 9, 2019. No Xbox One flavor has been confirmed.

There's more news to dig into, however: Shovel Knight's huge new King of Cards campaign will also release the same day as Showdown, the multiplayer mode, and the physical version. Since King of Cards is the last story mode for the game Yacht Club is going all out and confirms it's "by far our biggest and most grandest singleplayer campaign yet."

Square Enix has teamed up with Chinese juggernaut Tencent to make new games and bring its titles to the lucrative overseas market, the company today announced.

Most big games publishers have allied with Tencent for a very good reason; if you want to sell your games in China you need a strong backer to do so. Tencent not only has a proven billion-dollar track record but also has a monumentally strong distribution service with its WeGame sales platform. But Square Enix's new partnership extends beyond that focus.

The Final Fantasy maker will make a joint-venture company with Tencent which will co-develop AAA games set in new IPs as well as publishing key Square Enix titles in mainland China.

Without much of a fuss Crucial released the MX500 entry-level SATA SSD. We've yet to see an announcement but the drive tipped up on the Crucial website and Amazon to prove its existence. Shipping on Amazon will begin on September 4th but you can get a head start by ordering on Crucial.com where where drives will begin shipping on August 31st.

At the time of writing all three capacities show the same performance ratings. The BX500 will achieve up to 540 MB/s sequential read and 500 MB/s sequential write speeds. Crucial doesn't list random performance on this series. Given the low endurance ratings, we can only assume the BX500 is the first consumer SSD from the company to utilize 4-bit per cell memory.

In the three year warranty coverage, the 120GB BX500 gives users support for 40 terabytes written (TBW). That doubles to 80 TBW for the 240GB model and then levels off with just 120 TBW for the 480GB model. The endurance seems low compared to the mainstream MX500 with 3-bit per cell TLC memory but the entry-level BX500 allows for 21GB per day for 5 years with the 120GB drive.

In a bid to provide as much polish as possible, Battlefield V has been delayed by a full month, EA today announced.

EA's big new Battlefield shooter has been pushed back from its original October 19 date to November 20, 2018, distancing it from major competitors like Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and Rockstar's wild west sequel Red Dead Redemption 2. As a result of the delay and other factors like exchange rates and mobile outlook, EA has adjusted its total FY2019 sales forecast from $5.5 billion to $5.2 billion, which represents a 5.45% drop. Company shares are down more than 9% following the announcement.

DICE's Oskar Gabrielson gives a few reasons for Battlefield V's push back, saying the dev team needs more time to iron out gameplay mechanics and use valuable player feedback to forge the WWII experience.

Dodge Roll Games and Devolver Games, the developer and publisher respectively for Enter the Gungeon, have done a collaboration with Special Reserve Games on a physical release of their title.

According to the Twitter post found on the Special Reserve Games Twitter account, Enter the Gungeon for PS4 will be receiving a physical release titled 'Enter the Gungeon Reserve.' It features: Advanced Gungeons and Draguns, Reversible Jacket Artwork and the option to pick up a 224 page hardcover ammonomicon. All of these features are sequentially numbered.

Also found on the Twitter post was Special Reserve Games clearing up if Nintendo Switch players would be receiving a similar treatment in terms of a physical release. The post reads as follows: "Switch pups! All I can say is very soon after this one comes out we're gonna do one for you! Will it have an Ammonomicon too? What if I told you that Switch boxes were SMOL so we gotta do a smol one?" It was not clear when Nintendo Switch fans should expect a physical release of Enter the Gungeon, but it should be sometime after the initial PS4 release.

Steel Division 2 has had a brand new in-game trailer released, the trailer showcases the titles upcoming setting and reveals numerous historically accurate units.

Eugen Systems, the developers behind the real-time-strategy title Steel Division 2, have released a new trailer in-game trailer showcasing to players the setting of which players will be immersed within, Operation Bagration. Steel Division 2 will be featuring up to 600 historically accurate units across 18 new divisions, players will also be able to enjoy extremely realistic battlefields that will span across a massive 25 different maps.

Features:

The beloved archery combat/party game TowerFall is making its way to the Nintendo Switch, the title will be arriving with several pieces of Switch-exclusive content as well.

According to a recent blog post onto the the website Medium, game developer Matt Thornson has revealed some details about the coming port of TowerFall to the Nintendo Switch. The post says that players will be able to enjoy a new 6-player versus mode, GameCube controller support and multiple new variants that players can customize their matches with.

Coming with the port to the Nintendo Switch is the new character Madeline from Matt Makes Games' new title Celeste. TowerFall will be arriving on the Nintendo Switch on the 27th of September and will be coming in at a price of just $19.99. Pre-orders are currently available and if you desire to pre-purchase this title, the link to the official Nintendo Switch listing can be found here.

Star Vault, developers behind Mortal Online and now Mortal Royale have announced that their 1000 player battle royale experience will soon be receiving a closed alpha. Sign ups are now available.

Mortal Royale has taken everything we know and love about Fortnite and PUBG and thrown it out the window, developers Star Vault have created a game that is absolutely massive in size, allowing for a battle royale experience like no other. Games won't consist 100 players servers, but instead will take that number to new heights by introducing 1000 player matches.

Mortal Royale is a medieval fantasy experience, players will instead be using swords, spears, magic, bows and arrows to defeat other players. Just like every other battle royale experience, players will also be required to scavenge for loot, this will not only include numerous types of weapons but armor as well. If you are interested in joining in on the closed alpha for Mortal Royale, visit the official sign up page here.

Nintendo has released a new video showcasing players, commentators and fans discussing the future of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate at EVO 2019. Will Super Smash Bros. Ultimate sit at the number 1 spot at next years biggest fighting game tournament?

In a video that has been released onto the Nintendo YouTube Channel, pro players, commentators and fans alike have been interviewed about their thoughts towards how Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will shape up to next years EVO 2019. Seasoned pro players that have been in the Smash fighting scene for quite some time now, such as HugS and Lucky, have spoken out about their thoughts towards how well Smash Ultimate will do next year.

From the video we can see Lucky saying: "As much as I love Super Smash Bros. Melee, I think Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is gonna break some records." HugS can also be seen commenting on the upcoming title, saying "I'm almost betting that it will be the biggest game at EVO next year, like I have no doubt about it, its going to be number one." Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will be released on December 7th this year, for more information regarding the title, visit the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate website here.

During the GeForce Gaming Celebration event NVIDIA unveiled their next-gen GeForce RTX 20 series graphics cards, as well as our first look at Battlefield V powered with real-time ray tracing technology courtesy of RTX.

Battlefield V was powered by a new GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and was running with RTX enabled at 1080p 60FPS, but in further testing and examination by DigitalFoundry at 1440p and 4K saw the performance dip lower than 60FPS. At 2560x1440, the game was running at around 40-50FPS while at 4K it dipped below 30FPS. Even the engineers at DICE were impressed that Battlefield V was running at 4K with RTX enabled at all, as they didn't have much time with the new GeForce RTX 20 series cards.

Unless you've been living under a rock, I'm sure you heard about the Cyberpunk 2077 gameplay video that debuted yesterday and has been watched by over 500,000 people and has topped Twitch.

CD Projekt Red's super-ambitious new first-person RPG beat out Fortnite's peak viewers on Twitch, becoming the most-watched stream for a newly-released or upcoming game. The gameplay from Cyberpunk 2077 looks truly glorious with options to watch it in 4K, with Gamersyde making the 48-minute gameplay video available for download in uncompressed quality at 1080p, it comes in at a hefty 16GB.

Cyberpunk 2077 doesn't have a release date right now, but it is rumored to launch with NVIDIA's new RTX technology so we could see real-time ray tracing from the next-gen GeForce RTX 20 series graphics cards when it's released. After watching the entire gameplay video, I noticed so many parts of the game where real-time ray tracing effects would really make the game pop. If there was a game that would highlight RTX... it would be Cyberpunk 2077.

You wouldn't want to have a crappy internet connection, and be a Halo: Master Chief Collection player when you saw that headline. An insane 73GB update for Halo: MCCC on the Xbox, which is mostly filled with 4K HDR assets for the four included Halo games in the collection.

The new patch is somewhat of a celebration that Halo: Master Chief Collection is being added to the Microsoft Game Pass program, with 343 Industries explaining: "This first major update weighs in at a hefty ~73GB and includes a variety of brand new features available to everyone who owns a copy of MCC (or acquires it via Xbox Game Pass)".

73GB might sound like a huge update if it were a single game, but Halo: Master Chief Collection is four games so that's close to 20GB per game in 4K HDR assets being downloaded. The new update for Halo: MCC rocks Intelligent Delivery so developers can pick and choose what part of the 73GB update you need, which comes in handy for someone with an Xbox One S who won't be playing at 4K. If you don't play certain Halo titles included in the MCC, you won't want the 4K HDR assets for them, so you don't need to download them.

Remedy has ramped up a new development team to branch out past AAA gaming and diversify revenue streams.

Alan Wake and Max Payne developer Remedy Entertainment today announced Vanguard, a new internal studio that will focus on live service games. Vanguard will be a smaller dev team that will work on "unconventional" online multiplayer games while Remedy's core team works on big-budget AAA titles like Control, its new IP.

While Remedy doesn't explicitly say as much, one of the main reasons any developer or publisher makes live service games is to secure long-term revenue streams to keep the company afloat and fund future endeavors.

Just a month ago Intel released the SSD 660p, the world's first retail SSD with 4-bit per cell QLC technology. The drive looks good on paper and the reviews look great thanks to high random read performance and a fabulous price (660p 1TB at $199.99). QLC is much better than we expected in a typical consumer workload and the promise of lower-cost large-capacity SSDs excites everyone. The next shoe to drop is more QLC and third-party manufacturers releasing competitive products that decrease the cost while pushing the technology into niche products outside of the fabs target customers.

Today we were told not to expect that anytime soon. Intel and manufacturing partner Micron have low yields with QLC. The conditions may never get better with this generation. A source close to the situation stated the current yield for 64-layer QLC is hovering right around 48%. Less than half of the die manufactured are reliable enough to use in an SSD. In contrast, current 64-layer TLC from IMFT has a yield right around 90% as of today. Usually companies work to increase yields over time but the push to finish more profitable 96-layer flash may divert engineering resources away from 64-layer QLC.

At this time, QLC bits are more expensive to manufacture than TLC bits. Intel went ahead and released the SSD 660p to make a technology statement, but that doesn't mean QLC is ready to displace TLC just yet.

In a not-so-surprising development, From Software's big new 16th century Japan action game actually started out as a Tenchu entry.

Back when Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice was teased at The Game Awards 2017 many gamers instantly thought "it's Tenchu!" As it turns out they were right on the money. From Software's new suave-and-brutal "samurai souls" was originally supposed to be a Tenchu game...but it just grew and grew.

"When we originally set out to create something different from Dark Souls and our previous titles, we thought it would be interesting to make a Japanese themed game. So from that we started going in the direction of the shinobi and ninja, and of course Tenchu was an IP with that history; that was the original impetus for this project," From Software community manager Yasuhiro Kitao said in a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz.

CD Projekt RED has announced Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales, a singleplayer RPG based on Gwent card game mechanics with over 30 hours of gameplay.

Thronebreaker isn't another grand RPG that mirrors Geralt's adventures; instead the new adventure will use Gwent's cardplay as a major tool to decide in-game outcomes. Thronebreaker is technically a campaign for Gwent itself and will actually be sold as a premium game, and won't be free-to-play like its forebear. The new RPG is essentially a more rich offline counterpart to Gwent's online live service multiplayer action, and will be more directly lore-based and immersive.

"Thronebreaker has evolved over quite a large scale, with 30+ hours of captivating gameplay and an amazing story with choices and consequences," CD Projekt RED President Adam Kicinski said in a recent earnings stream. "Obviously Gwent plays a major role in Thronebreaker because most of the gameplay actions are a result of playing cards, but the game itself is a RPG and we're going to sell it as a standalone model. You will be able to purchase Thronebreaker without installing Gwent."

Fallout 76 isn't your typical online multiplayer game: co-op isn't forced, and players are free to come and go as they choose.

One of the core tenants of Fallout games has always been freedom. Gamers have always made choices on what quests to tackle, who to save and who to doom, where to go, and ultimately how they shape their destiny. Although Fallout 76 is quite different as an online engagement-driven service game, this focus will continue, and thanks to the game's online framework players will have tons of options as the game evolves over time. But that freedom will always remain intact.

According to Bethesda's Pete Hines, Fallout's freedom will be preserved in the big new online-only entry even when users group up with their friends or randoms across the West Virginia wasteland. Multiplayer team-ups aren't forced and co-op is more languid than rigid in that you can simply drop out and go do your own thing on a whim.