Latest News - Page 2120

While we're waiting for Samsung to impress us with their 'redefined' camera set up on their upcoming Galaxy S9, it might be Chinese smartphone giant Huawei that truly blows us away.

New rumors tease that Huawei's upcoming flagship P-series smartphone might rock a triple-lens camera that would be capable of snapping 40-megapixel photos with up to 5x zoom. Notorious mobile leaker

Evan "@evleaks" Blass took to Twitter late last month where he tweeted "Is the next Huawei P-series going to be an imaging powerhouse? A digital artist at one of the company's creative agencies added these "PCE Series" ads to their portfolio -- claiming 40MP, 3 lens rear (5x hybrid zoom) + 24MP selfie, all Leica-co-developed".

Nintendo is getting help from a fellow Japanese game dev for its big new Metroid game.

The rumors were right: Bandai Namco is indeed helping Nintendo develop Metroid Prime 4, sources have confirmed to Eurogamer. Up until now Metroid Prime 4's developer has remained a mystery, and Nintendo has been keeping quite mum on the topic (as usual), only spilling a brief teaser and confirmation last year at E3 2017.

Bandai Namco Studios Singapore will helm the project alongside Nintendo, and Metroid Prime 4 is described as bringing the "action, isolation, and exploration of the Metroid Prime universe to life."

Thanks to its hugely successful engagement strategy and wealth of IP, Activision Blizzard is a juggernaut in the games industry. But how much can the biggest publisher earn in a single calendar year from microtransactions? Try over $4 billion (yes really).

In its Calendar Year 2017 earnings filing, Activision Blizzard today announced that it has made $4.9 billion from microtransactions, "value-added services," subscriptions, DLC and other digital content, up 11% year-over-year. That's already a massive sum of cash, but it gets even more impressive once we take a look at its total revenue. In CY2017 the publisher raked in $7.02 billion in total net revenue, with digital making up nearly 80% of that, or $5.58 billion. Digital sales and revenue have always been important to Activision Blizzard, especially since it owns mobile titan King as well as Blizzard's strong retinue of digitally-focused engagement-driven games, and of course Activision's own titles such as Call of Duty.

Microtransactions also made up about 69% of total net revenues earned during the year, showing this model is still extremely lucrative and shouldn't go anywhere any time soon. These earnings are actually record-breaking for the publisher, and should signal a doubling-down on microtransactions and engagement, despite the controversy and push-back against lootboxes.

Getting lonely? Feel like talking to someone, or something to keep you company? Thermaltake have the perfect companion for you with the world's first AI voice-controlled power supply. Thermaltake have introduced 'AI Voice Control' to their DPS G Mobile APP, this allows users to control functions and access parameters of their power supply via voice control on their mobile app.

The best part of Thermaltake's Al Voice Control is that you won't have to purchase a new PSU, assuming you already own a Toughpower iRGB PLUS Titanium or Platinum power supply that is. Thermaltake have stated that only iOS users presently have this feature, Android users will have to wait just a bit longer for AI Voice Control to be introduced to the DPS G Mobile APP.

Voice Control allows users complete control of their PSU including turning power on and off, RGB settings (mode/color/brightness and speed) and PC off remote control. The app is also able to feedback from their PSU in regards to key parameters including efficiency, fan speed, wattage, voltage, temperature, total usage time/kWh/electricity cost, CPU/VGA's historical temperature, real-time PSU abnormalities and more.

Last year on the /r/NintendoSwitch reddit a voting poll was conducted to gather information about the communities thoughts on what unannounced games should be brought to the Switch. Now, a new poll is being taken and Nintendos sub-reddits are teaming up.

Redditor seeyoshirun has taken to the Super Smash Bros. reddit to post a new thread asking for assistance from fellow Nintendo fans in a new poll regarding unannounced games debuting to the Nintendo Switch.

The post explains that to create a fair and accurate result it has been shared across all of the franchise-specific sub-reddits. These results will not only be interesting for the communities involved but also for Nintendo, as this freely gathered information from inside the community would provide a wealth of knowledge to what the community really wants to see next.

Ubisoft has release a new trailer on Far Cry 5 showcasing some characters that will be guns for hire in Far Cry 5.

The released video shows players the options of who can join the resistance and each of their individual perks and abilities. The video details a selection between Nick Rye, Grace Armstrong, Boomer, Jess Black, Hurk, Adelaide Drubman, and Sharkey Boshaw and Boomer.

Originally, Ubisoft has released six videos each individually detailing the 'gun for hire' characters and even naming a video 'Fang for Hire' to equate for Boomer. The character spotlights will give players a better understanding of who they will choose to join their resistance, as each gun for hire is quite different from each-other when it comes to combat.

I still remember one of my friends back in the 90s when we were playing Quake and slowly shifting over from using the keyboard to control first-person shooters, to using the mouse. My friend using to use a HOTAS joystick for navigation and running, with his mouse to control his aim. Joysticks and mice, just never mixed... until now.

Introducing the Lexip Gaming Mouse which is like most other gaming mice, except that the company has added mini joysticks at your thumbs. The joysticks can be used for something extremely useful when it comes to gaming; think scrolling through the inventory in-game with a joystick.

Lexip has taken to Kickstarter to fund their new Gaming Mouse, aiming for $30,000 but have seen over $200,000 pledged at the time of writing. The Lexip Gaming Mouse should cost $120 or so when it launches in June.

Battlegrounds has been influencing the world with it being the definitive Battle Royale game, but Epic Games is chomping in on that with tens of millions of gamers playing their smash hit game, Fortnite.

Now we're hearing that developer Focus Home Interactive, which is comprised of some of the talent from the STALKER franchise, with their new game Fear the Wolves being a new post-apocalyptic first-person shooter. Fear the Wolves is based in the creepy setting of Chernobyl against 99 other players.

Fear the Wolves will have a few influences from the STALKER universe like anomalies and mutated beasts that are hunting you down. The new Battle Royale game has a day night cycle, a feature that will really differentiate it from Battlegrounds and Fortnite.

We all know there is a massive graphics card shortage that is being blamed on the rise of cryptocurrency mining, but now we're seeing companies sell 6 packs of graphics cards in a bundle on both Amazon and Newegg.

The 6 x GPU bundles arrive in both Team Green and Team Red combos, with 6 x GTX 1060 Founders Edition cards from EVGA costing $3780, while 6 x MSI Aero ITX OC GTX 1060s (which are great for mining) cost $3465. There's also the higher-end 6 x GTX 1080s for $6300, which is quite insane.

AMD isn't left out of the 6-card bundles, with a 6 x RX 580 4GB pack for $3600, the higher-end MSI Armor RX 580 8GB cards cost $3990 in a 6-pack.

NVIDIA has just posted their Q4 2017 earnings report, where company shares rose 10% in after-hours trading.

NVIDIA reported EPS of $1.78 on revenue of $2.91 billion, beating out analysts' expectations of $1.17 per share on $2.69 billion of revenue. NVIDIA stock has risen by an incredible 83% in the last 12 months, with just their gaming and data center businesses increasing revenue by a huge 24% year-over-year.

The company wasn't clear on how much money it made from the massive boom of cryptocurrency mining, but NVIDIA's CFO said that the demand for its GPUs for crypto mining had "accounted for a higher percentage of revenue than the previous quarter" and that it had "exceeded expectations".

Broadcom is waving a hell of a lot of benjamins in front of Qualcomm's face, with a huge $121 billion offer thrown onto the table last week, and once again Qualcomm has rejected the offer.

Qualcomm said that they "unanimously rejected" the "unsolicited proposal" to buy all of their shares at $82 each, up from the previous offer of $70 per share from Broadcom not too long ago. The company believes that even with the $121 billion offer, Broadcom are undervaluing Qualcomm.

The chipmaker said "your proposal ascribes no value to our accretive NXP acquisition, no value for the expected resolution of our current licensing disputes and no value for the significant opportunity in 5G. Your proposal is inferior relative to our prospects as an independent company and is significantly below both trading and transaction multiples in our sector". Ouch.

We all know NVIDIA is a mammoth company and now their Q4 2017 earnings call has seen NVIDIA throw out some fighting words against AMD.

During their Q4 2017 earnings call, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang said that they are "10x bigger than our GPU competitor" and that they have "a lot more suppliers... supplying us". Ryan Shrout from PC Perspective picked the tweet up, where Shrout added he isn't agreeing with AMD's statement that "memory is holding back GPU ramps".

Now some of you are probably thinking "10x bigger, whatever" but I checked both companies market caps at the time of writing. AMD has a market cap of $10.8 billion while NVIDIA stomps around with a massive market cap of $131 billion, so yes, NVIDIA are truly 10x bigger.

Qualcomm dominated the 4G modem game getting LTE technology inside of virtually every smartphone on the market, and now the company is going to be even more dominant when it comes to mobile technologies next big thing: 5G.

Qualcomm announced that its super-fast Snapdragon X50 5G NR modem family has received support by a bunch of OEMs, with these companies launching 5G-based products next year, with trials beginning later this year.

Qualcomm announced partnerships with the likes of ASUS, Nokia, HTC, LG, Netcomm, Netgear, OPPO, Samsung, Xiaomi, ZTE, and others on the hardware side. As for the 5G ecosystem on the telco side, Qualcomm is teaming with AT&T, China Mobile, T-Mobile, NTT DoCoMo, Orange, SK Telecom, Sprint, Telstra, Verizon, and many more.

In a bid to accelerate game sales with its traditional rewards program, Nintendo is finally making good use of all those gold coins.

Nintendo will soon allow gamers to exchange My Nintendo Gold Points to buy Switch games on the eShop in Japan, North America, and Europe, the company revealed today. Gold Points are earned for Nintendo Switch, 3DS, and some Wii U games purchased physically or on the digital eShop (with some restrictions), so the more games you buy, the more coins you earn to potentially spend on new games. I wouldn't be surprised of Nintendo gave just a little more coins for digital purchases to push gamers towards the eShop--after all, Nintendo doesn't have to pay for cartridges, game boxes, and covers when you buy digitally.

"Starting in early March, you'll be able to spend any Gold Points you've accumulated in My Nintendo when purchasing Nintendo Switch software from Nintendo eShop on your device, or even via this website! You can pay for the remaining balance with Nintendo eShop funds, or any other payment method available in Nintendo eShop," reads an announcement post.

In a bid to win back the For Honor community, Ubisoft has transitioned towards a pure feedback-driven approach to its viking-vs-samurai-vs-knights hack and slash game For Honor.

For Honor's dedicated servers will arrive on PC on February 19, shortly after the release of the game's new Age of Wolves expansion, Ubisoft today announced. Following through on its development roadmap revealed last summer and a successful Open Test in December, the For Honor team has just announced that dedicated servers are coming to the PC version of For Honor on February 19.

Console gamers will also get dedicated servers too, but no exact timeline was announced. Ubisoft notes that these new servers will help PVP by removing NAT requirements and session migration, thus improving matchmaking and stability.

Despite predictions of revenue moderation, GTA V and GTA Online are still breaking records four years into their life cycles.

Along with Grand Theft Auto Online breaking $1 billion in revenue and once again powering high microtransaction earnings, its host game GTA V has now shipped more than 90 million units, publisher Take-Two Interactive recently announced. Rockstar Games' engagement strategy is paying off big time and is not only keeping existing players fed with new content, but attracting new purchases by interested gamers systematically year after year. As planned, GTA V has become the gateway to prolonged revenues via online-based engagement found in GTA Online.

Remember that these are shipments and not direct sales (sell-in is shipped, sell-through is sold to consumers), but it's nonetheless an impressive number.

Rockstar Games has proven themselves masters of engagement with GTA Online's strong, recurring success and profitability.

It seems every quarter Take-Two Interactive has something great to say about GTA V and GTA Online, and this quarter is no different: in its latest Fiscal Q3'18 earnings call, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick says the online mode has once again one-upped its previous records.

"2017 was the best year yet for Grand Theft Auto Online, capped off by an epic December that saw more players in the game than ever before," Mr. Zelnick said during the call. "During the fiscal third quarter Grand Theft Auto Online substantially exceeding our expectations and remained the single largest contributor to recurrent consumer spending."

Rockstar Games parent company Take-Two Interactive keeps cresting new heights thanks to GTA Online and its slate of successful digital-driven games.

In its third quarter earnings filings Take-Two Interactive shows just how important recurrent consumer spending and digital-based earnings are for the company--but that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. In the three-month period from October through December 2017, Take-Two earned $480.8 million in net revenue, up 0.9% year-over-year. That might not sound too big of an increase, but there's more to the story: 32% of that total, or $153.6 million, was made from recurrent consumer spending in games like GTA Online and NBA 2K18.

In fact Take-Two says its recurrent consumer spending for fiscal Q3'18 has grown by 64% year-over-year, meaning it pulled in $93.66 million from microtransactions, virtual currency, add-ons and DLC in last year's third quarter.

Microsoft took to Xbox Wire to announce a gaming accessories package for Sea of Thieves. The package was designed by Xbox and Rare to "align with the look and feel of the Sea of Thieves."

The game accessories package is going to be including a Seagate Special Edition 2TB Game Drive for Xbox, Controller Gear Special Edition Sea of Thieves Xbox Pro Charging Stand and a Xbox One Controller Stand V2.0.

The 2TB game drive will feature USB 3.0 and will allow for gamers to take more than "50 of their favorite games, including Sea of Thieves, and all the digital treasures you uncover on the go." Coming with the game drive is also "one month of Xbox Game Pass and an exclusive jewel-studded in-game weapon, The Midnight Blunderbuss, for your Sea of Thieves character to make sure you are hitting the seas in style."

Dragon Ball FighterZ sold 2 million units in total within the first week of release worldwide, this number didn't include the Asia or Japanese market though as the game was not released, now it is.

In a recent Media Create sales figure, Dragon Ball FighterZ sold 68,731 units just within its first week of release. The Bandai Namco title took second place behind Monster Hunter: World with 346,187 sales.

When comparing the sales of Dragon Ball FighterZ to before Monster Hunter: World was released it can be seen where the consumers have decided to spend there money. Judging from the statistics released, Monster Hunter: World completely overshadowed Dragon Ball FighterZ, beating it by a massive 403.68%.