Latest News - Page 213

The pricing for Bungie's new extraction shooter Marathon has reportedly leaked, and it happened right before another closed technical playtest for the game.

Marathon's monetization structure has apparently been leaked ahead of schedule. New reports from Destiny datamine collective Deakstiny indicate that Marathon's pricing scheme will apparently follow Helldivers 2, with Sony opting for a $40 baseline price for the game.

Bungie will offer a deluxe edition of Marathon for $60, the report says, and there will be two versions of the season pass: the base $10 version and a $30 deluxe version that comes packed with in-game currency. It's also been revealed that the season pass is 100% cosmetic only. Marathon has pre-order bonuses that will unlock various things in Destiny, including a ship, ghost, and sparrow vehicle, as well as in-game cosmetics for Marathon.

Executives within EA including Glu Mobile CEO Nick Earl believe the $55 billion leveraged buyout is great for creative freedom.

While financial analysts call EA's new $55 billion privatization deal a "head scratcher," some within EA believe the mega-acquisition is great news for the company's commercial and creative autonomy. New remarks from Glu Mobile's CEO highlight a positive outlook for the deal, with company boss Nick Earl saying that EA will no longer be on the hook to deliver consistent growth every quarter (instead, EA will now be on the hook for $20 billion in debt apparently funded via a "risky" loan). EA purchased Glu Mobile in 2021 for $2.1 billion.

In a recent interview with CBS News, Glu Mobile CEO Nick Earl gave some positives of the buyout and says he believes it's a "win" for creatives and gamers. "Being private just takes a lot of pressure off the company," he said.

Microsoft has rearranged the value of Game Pass through a new, very unpopular price hike, eliminating key features in the process.

Microsoft has now confirmed that it has removed the 10% discount for all DLC content from its Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription tier, including the ultra-lucrative billion-dollar Call of Duty Points premium currency. Full video games are still discounted by up to 20%.

In its place, Microsoft is instead making users do a little work to get a discount. The Xbox Rewards scheme has been revamped to give Ultimate subscribers more bang for their buck, but this does require active participation--and an active subscription--in order to maximize your returns. Essentially, Microsoft has game-ified its rewards program, likely due to massive participation from Xbox console users.

Xbox Game Pass isn't increasing in price for everyone, and Microsoft officially confirms that some countries will still retain the original cheaper price for Ultimate.

Last night, Game Pass subscribers across the globe received strange emails: Apparently, their Game Pass subscriptions had been grandfathered at the original rate and wouldn't be affected by the recent controversial Game Pass price hike. As long as the users kept recurring billing on, the emails said, their Game Pass Ultimate subscriptions would stay at the current rate and not increase to the new rate.

Apple's next MacBook Pro packing an M5 chip could be about to arrive according to the most recent chatter on the grapevine.

This comes from renowned Apple leaker Mark Gurman who posted on X (hat tip to TechRadar) observing that the supply of the MacBook Pro 14-inch entry-level M4 models (the vanilla CPU, not Pro or Max) are seeing 'constrained' supply levels at Apple's retail outlets.

Gurman noticed that custom configurations of the base MacBook Pro 14-inch models on Apple's online store are "constrained till the end of October".

Activision is doing what it can to soak up as much of the hype as it possibly can for the release of Battlefield 6, as the publisher has just announced an extension for the Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 multiplayer beta.

Battlefield 6 is scheduled to launch on October 11, and in an effort to draw as many players as it possibly can away from its direct competitor, Activision and Call of Duty Black Ops 7 developer, Treyarch, have announced an extension for the Black Ops 7 open beta. The new date for the end is now October 9, making it just two days away from the release of Battlefield 6.

In addition to the announcement for the extension of the open beta, Treyarch has said there will also be an extension on XP and Weapon XP, specifically 2XP and 2X Weapon XP. The extension on the double XP will enable players to reach higher levels, which will unlock more weapons and attachments for them to hopefully enjoy. The strategy here is that if players unlock more weapons and attachments, they will find something they like and hopefully pre-order Black Ops 7, perhaps even over buying Battlefield 6 - quite smart by Activision/Treyarch.

There are only a few days until the release of Battlefield 6, and EA, along with developer Battlefield Studios, has recognized the outcry from fans for the inclusion of naval warfare by saying they have been heard, and that there is much to look forward to following the launch of the title on October 11.

The confirmation was revealed in the latest Community Update blog post on the Battlefield website, where the developers outlined what they learned from the numerous invite-only playtests and the extremely successful open beta weekend. Furthermore, the Community Update confirmed the changes made to Battlefield 6 following what was learned during the open beta, and that a day-one update will be implemented for the title upon release, incorporating these changes.

However, near the bottom of the post Battlefield Studios discusses what players can expect following the official launch of Battlefield 6, writing, "There is much more to look forward to beyond our Seasons as our team continues reviewing Battlefield Labs data, player feedback, and ideating on completely new ideas for the future, starting with an exciting new Battlefield take on Battle Royale."

It's not unusual for tech companies to poke fun at their direct competitors through slick marketing campaigns, or advertisements, and Apple is no stranger to this, nor is Microsoft. However, Apple is the latest company to throw punches at the Windows maker, and this time it's using the nefarious Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) as a way of propping up Mac over Windows.

Apple has used the CrowdStrike debacle that happened on July 19, 2024, when the security firm released a faulty update to its Falcon Sensor, its malware detection software, and as a result, millions of Windows PCs around the world crashed with BSODs. It's estimated that 8.5 million PCs were knocked offline as a result of the faulty update.

More specifically, the faulty update involved a configuration file that triggered an out-of-bounds memory access. When Windows runs its validation, it detected this out-of-bounds memory, flagging it as a critical failure, and to protect the system from any further harm, Windows automatically terminates any further processes and presents a BSOD to the user informing them of the misvalidation. Notably, CrowdStrike's Falcon software operates within the Kernel of a Windows PC, meaning it has privileged access to the system's components and drivers.

In a recent interview with Gaijin Entertainment, the studio's lead programmer revealed the PS5 Pro is "technically" capable of path tracing, the rendering algorithm that produces the most realistic lighting accuracy.

For those who don't know, there is quite a big difference between normal ray tracing and path tracing, while sounding similar the technologies produce vastly different results, and require different levels of rendering hardware. Ray tracing only traces rays of light for specific effects, such as reflection, refraction, or shadows, while path tracing traces hundreds of thousands of rays per pixel that bounce randomly around a scene. Ultimately, path tracing produces much higher quality lighting in-game, but is costly in terms of GPU horsepower.

Currently, path tracing is exclusive to PC gaming, as the feature can only be used by high-end GPUs that have the rendering power, e.g NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080/5090. The exclusivity of path tracing to PC is purely based on the performance requirement, meaning consoles are technically capable of using the rendering technique, but currently the performance hit would be so severe it wouldn't be worth enabling it.

In fresh rumors dancing on top of the recent "debunked" rumors that "hardware production has ceased" on Xbox consoles, new rumors suggest Microsoft's dedicated Xbox gaming handheld was cancelled because AMD needed a minimum of 10 million units in its contract... and Microsoft knew that was impossible.

Leaker "Kepler_L2" revealed the rumors, with Microsoft's almost professional defense systems -- Windows Central -- coming out and reporting that claims from Kepler "isn't even slightly true". AMD needing 10 million units at a minimum makes sense, in order to take up any important fab space and time at TSMC, but I think we all know it would be an impossible feat for Microsoft to sell 10 million Xbox gaming handhelds.

Kepler reported that AMD needed the commitment to justify their R&D, adding: "AFAIK the handheld was cancelled because AMD wanted a commitment of 10m+ units to justify making a dedicated SoC, but with Steam Deck only selling ~5 million units and ASUS ROG/Lenovo Legion only selling 1-2 million MS didn't want to take the risk".

GIGABYTE's new AORUS RTX 5090 AI BOX is now out in the wild, and has been tested by Notebookcheck with some rather interesting results: it's up to 27% slower than a desktop RTX 5090. Let's dive into it.

Firstly, the new AORUS RTX 5090 AI BOX is a new external GPU solution running over the new Thunderbolt 5 standard, and while in theory the new TB5 standard is one of the fastest, this solution ends up with the same bandwidth as OCulink. Thunderbolt 5 does have some things going for it over OCulink, where it can transmit power (to charge your laptop and other devices over the TB5 port), and it can be daisy-chained and used for external monitors.

The new AORUS RTX 5090 AI BOX is available right now and costs $2999, matching the price of the AORUS RTX 5090 Master White Edition graphics card (at Newegg) so you're effectively getting a cool Thunderbolt 5 external enclosure for free. On the same day that GIGABYTE launched its new AORUS RTX 5090 AI BOX, Notebookcheck published their review and it has some fantastic performance information and testing to geek out over.

Digital Foundry has posted a deep dive into how DLSS works on the Nintendo Switch 2, and the results are surprising. According to the analysis, which examines several games that utilize DLSS on the console (including Cyberpunk 2077, Street Fighter 6, Hogwarts Legacy, and Star Wars Outlaws), Nintendo Switch 2 game developers have the option of using one of two DLSS versions.

The first version, which upscales a 720p or lower resolution to 1080p, is similar to DLSS on PC, utilizing the CNN model found in DLSS 3, rather than the newer Transformer model introduced in DLSS 4. Even when taking a native 1080p image, this version of DLSS can be used to improve aliasing and other artifacts, with the output matching the DLSS image quality you can find on PC.

Where it gets interesting, and a little strange, is that the Switch 2 also features a custom lightweight DLSS version, which we'll call DLSS Light for upscaling to 1440p and 4K when the console is in docked mode. Although static shots and objects using DLSS Light look 1440p or 4K on the Switch 2, which is impressive when you factor that it's upscaling from 720p or 648p, it's a different story when there are objects in motion.

Over the years, Nintendo has shown no interest in bringing its games to other platforms. The company is also not a fan of the emulation scene and has gone to great lengths to shut down emulator projects, as well as sue those who host or store ROMs or illegal copies of their games. It's even taken action against those who modify or tamper with Nintendo hardware to create, for example, a 'jailbroken' Nintendo Switch.

Nintendo doesn't even like fan edits, community projects, or anything that utilizes their IP. That said, Nintendo of America's (NOA) latest copyright infringement lawsuit feels a little different. The defendant is 'Archbox,' a moderator and main Switch Pirate of the r/SwitchPirates subreddit. According to a new report and filing (via Nintendo Everything), the company is seeking $4.5 million in damages because the defendant ignored a legal cease-and-desist order and then failed to appear in court.

Based on the filing, it appears that Archbox, whose real name is James Williams, was profiting from jailbroken Switch consoles. Apparently, he offered pro-level subscriptions via donation for an online storefront that would allow users to download and install pirated copies of Nintendo Switch games directly to their jailbroken consoles. The tools and steps required to create a jailbroken Switch were also distributed.

Alongside Battlefield 6, another big-budget multiplayer shooter with a AAA cinematic campaign set to release soon is the latest installment in the annual Call of Duty franchise from Activision and Xbox. With a Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 multiplayer beta kicking off (check out our performance deep dive from the Early Access beta here), a Redditor noticed something a little strange with how the game's chat censorship was behaving.

Usually, the chat censors words to keep the flow of in-game chatter and communication free from obscene language. However, Redditor 'RedRoses711' posted a video showcasing how the game censored the phrase 'Arc Raiders', a highly anticipated multiplayer extraction shooter set for release on October 30. Apparently, the game would only censor the title when 'Arc' and 'Raiders' were combined, but not when the individual words were used.

Activision, which supplied a statement to PC Gamer, said that "Arc Raiders" being blocked from chat was the result of a "text filter error" and that it would be fixed soon. Now, this might be the case, but it is strange that the title of another highly anticipated competitive shooter, which is also due out soon, was accidentally getting blocked due to an error.

MaxSun has another announcement today, with new single-slot, liquid-cooled Intel Arc Pro B60 48GB graphics cards, which allow for huge 7-way GPU installations. Check it out:

MaxSun once again teamed with Japanese hardware manufacturer Abee to use its liquid cooling solution on its Intel Arc Pro B60 48GB card, with the normal Turbo Edition featuring a dual-slot cooling solution, the new Arc Pro B60 48G Liquid Edition is a nice-and-tight single-slot GPU solution.

The GPUs themselves have connectors for the liquid loop on the right, making sure the complete cooling setup can be installed easily inside of the Abee Designer C700W PC chassis. This chassis is the same one MaxSun is using for its new AI workstation -- which has 4 x Arc Pro B60 48GB Turbo GPUs installed -- but the new single-slot cards are an even better option for a truly insane workstation PC.

Thermal Grizzly has announced its latest lineup of high-performance thermal pads with the new Minus Pad extreme 2 and the Minus Pad High Compression. Starting with the Minus Pad extreme 2, which is the successor to the company's original Minus Pad extreme, Thermal Grizzly notes that it's actually made from a 'new material composition' that maintains the same 'outstanding thermal conductivity' as the first version while being able to be sold at a lower price.

The new Minus Pad extreme 2 features a new composition of differently sized aluminum oxide, aluminum hydroxide, and aluminum powder particles. "The different particle sizes of the materials allow even the smallest gaps in the carrier matrix to be filled with thermally conductive particles," the company explains. "This contributes to lower thermal interface resistance, as the surfaces (top and bottom) of Minus Pad extreme 2 contain more thermally conductive particles than its predecessor."

Thermal Grizzly confirms that the Minus Pad extreme 2 has been designed to optimize the 'price-performance ratio' and is available in various sizes (120 x 20mm and 100 x 100mm) and thicknesses (from 0.5mm up to 3mm). The new material composition is also softer than the previous version, allowing it to better conform to hardware and heatsinks.

The physical retail version of Battlefield 6 for the PlayStation 5 will include the FULL game on the disk, meaning PS5 gamers won't need to download anything additional when they pop the disk in their console.

The news was confirmed on the official Battlefield 6 subreddit, where retail copies of the game are already in the hands of PlayStation 5 gamers, ready to be played without any additional downloads. The multiplayer servers are reportedly live, so PS5 gamers are able to get in early and experience the world of Battlefield 6 without any limitations.

This is a huge change for the gaming industry, as we've seen launch after launch of game after game, where gamers have already paid a tidy sum for their new game of choice, only to discover they need to download either large chunks of the game off the internet, or in some cases, the entire game.

NVIDIA and Intel announced a partnership a couple of weeks ago where the two chipmakers will be developing a custom x86 processor together, but it seems that will cause operational concerns for the supply chain and OEMs, like Acer.

We will see the combination of Intel's x86 architecture with NVIDIA RTX GPU chiplets to create what should be quite a powerful x86 processor in the near future, but not everyone is happy about the deal. The supply chain is concerned that it adds another overhead in the supply chain, as companies will now need to build their ecosystems for three different architectures -- AMD, Intel, and Intel-NVIDIA.

Yet, we didn't see any moaning when Qualcomm entered the race with its Arm-based SoC running Windows... interesting, just thought I'd say that aloud (well, write it out).

TCL has just entered the US gaming monitor market with the introduction of new QD-Mini LED panels and a huge partnership with Call of Duty. Check it out:

The Chinese display manufacturer debuted its new TCL gaming monitors at the Call of Duty: NEXT showcase in Las Vegas, where the public got their first access to COD: Black Ops 7 on TCL's latest gaming monitors. There was even a "Power Hour" where attendees got a chance to win one of TCL's new monitors.

TCL's new family of displays is using its QD-Mini LED panels, which mix quantum dot color layers and Mini-LED backlighting, promising better brightness and contrast than traditional LCDs, but it doesn't include the higher price tag that's associated with OLED. TCL says that this allows for high peak brightness, accurate color, and deeper blacks, which help games look even more detailed and balanced in darker scenes.

Ubisoft has officially unveiled a new DLC for Assassin's Creed Mirage in a recent livestream on the Ubisoft YouTube channel.

The new DLC titled "Valley of Memory" was unveiled as part of Ubisoft's anniversary livestream, and it will take players to 9th-century Baghdad, where they will step into the shoes of Basim Ibn Ishaq, who is looking to learn more about his past and long-lost father. Players will resume Basim's story with brand new content and a new map, and judging by the trailer, it appears the DLC's contents will be quite extensive.

Valley of Memory's new story chapter will take place before the final story beats of the base game, and the DLC will also introduce some new additions to the parkour system, along with the ability to replay base game missions with new rewards and new difficulty modes.