Latest News - Page 2130

Will you look at that: XFX has teased their upcoming custom Radeon RX Vega graphics card with one of the most unique placements of PCIe power connectors I think I've ever, ever seen.

You can see from the leaked photo that the PCIe power connectors are in the middle of the card, between the two fans. I don't think I've ever seen a set up like this before, and I'm kinda digging it, XFX. By the looks of the 8+6-pin PCIe power connectors, we should have a custom RX Vega 56 on out hands.

I've got to say, the backplate on XFX's upcoming mystery Radeon RX Vega graphics card looks HOT AS HELL. I love that 'V' logo for Vega, I just need this - heck, two, in my life. Now to see if it runs just as hot as the custom ROG Strix RX Vega 64.

AMD announced its new Radeon Pro SSG during SIGGRAPH 2017 a few months ago, with AMD's fastest-ever workstation graphics card now available without much fanfare when it launched on November 1.

AMD had a price of $7000 on its Radeon Pro SSG, but on launch day it had a huge $2400 discount with some online e-tailers listing it for $4598.99, close to $2400 from its original MSRP of $7000. Our friends at Fudzilla picked the news up by checking online retailers, where they report: "AVA Direct currently lists the card at $4,947 (as a special order), while NextWarehouse currently offers it up at $4,864 with free shipping directly from the manufacturer".

As Squires notes, we're not quite sure whether this discount on Radeon Pro SSG was sanctioned by AMD, but with a $2400 drop in price... surely there's not that much mark up on one of the most premium cards AMD has ever made on LAUNCH DAY.

Microsoft might be pushing the 4K buzzword in its marketing push for Xbox One X, but it's not all about that four kay... 1080p and 1440p are still a thing, and the Xbox One X will definitely have 1440p support but it's "coming soon".

Xbox One X will have system-wide support for 1440p, so you should enjoy your UI at 2560x1440, but now we need game developers to provide options for 1080p, 1440p, and 4K. The more I think about this, the more the consoles are becoming like PCs with multiple resolutions on offer. Xbox One X could eventually support variable framerate on FreeSync monitors, which would really underscore the Xbox One X over the PS4 Pro.

Speaking of the PS4 Pro, Sony has provided support for rendering at 2560x1440 and then upscaling it to 4K. The PS4 Pro supports 1080p and 4K output, meaning that if the PS4 Pro is connected to a 1440p display, it'll output at 1080p and then upscale to 4K.

Activision just posted its third quarter 2017 earnings, revealing lots of interesting tidbits (such as earning $1 billion from microtransactions and in-game purchases). In the reports the publisher noted that Destiny 2 is "well ahead" of the first game insofar as engagement.

Activision just posted its third quarter 2017 earnings, revealing lots of interesting tidbits (such as earning $1 billion from microtransactions and in-game purchases). In the reports the publisher noted that Destiny 2 is "well ahead" of the first game insofar as engagement.

Digital gaming has become more and more important in the console space, and key publishers like Activision are reaping the benefits of a tightly focused engagement-monetization approach used for its online service games. The company reported a record $1 billion from in-game purchases during the third quarter ending September 30, and Destiny 2 enjoyed landmark success on consoles. The company reiterates the NPD Group's data that says Destiny 2 is the best-selling console game year-to-date (as of Sept. 30, Call of Duty WWII is surely set to shatter that record), and that over 50% of sales for the game on consoles were from digital.

Typically, games-makers like Sony and Microsoft sell console hardware at a loss simply because these devices are gateways into the lucrative world of digital services such as microtransactions, subscriptions, DLC, etc. Sony has carefully situated the PlayStation 4 as the nexus of its digital network offerings, and the company affirms these solutions help mitigate the risks of a console cycle.

The games industry has changed. Thanks to free content updates, consumers are now spending more time in (and money into) online-based live service games like Overwatch, Destiny, and PUBG, and publishers--as well as platform holders like Sony and Microsoft--are all too eager to reap the billion dollar benefits of the market.

Sony's Games and Network Services segment, which includes PlayStation hardware and software as well as subscriptions, PS Plus, and a retinue of other subscriptions, is a huge revenue driver for the company (the segment earned 21% of Sony's total fiscal Q2'17 sales and 26% of total quarterly OI). Sony is also selling games directly to consumers on its PlayStation Network platform, and digital sales have grown steadily. As a result, Sony has affirmed the network segment is mitigating a number of key risks for the console cycle.

Today Microsoft introduced a brand new concept called Xbox Quests, a new platform that will keep players "sticky" in the Xbox LIVE platform by tempting them with prizes like 4K TVs, consoles, and more.

Xbox Quests is essentially an on-console extension of Microsoft's Bing Rewards program, which grants people points for using the Bing search engine that can then be used to buy gift cards and other goods. This is a very smart move by Microsoft, and is a very low effort high-reward scenario that will see millions of Xbox LIVE and Xbox users completing "objectives" for the chance to win items like a 55-inch 4K Samsung TV. Microsoft is basically offering you virtual lottery tickets in exchange for your engagement and data boosts.

The "quests" for the program's debut range from simply logging into your Mixer app at least five times in the month--meaning you have to not only make an account if you don't already have one but actually log in, boosting Microsoft's internal DAU and MAU data stats. Oh and...you can't complete one of the "objectives" without having Xbox LIVE Gold.

Smash hit PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is coming to the Xbox Preview Program on December 12, but it'll also herald another limited run of cosmetic microtransactions--and a separate roadmap of content updates.

Microsoft announced the news today during its Paris Games Week 2017 showcase, making good on its promise to launch the last-man-standing shooter on the Xbox platform by 2017's end.

"Beginning December 12, Xbox fans will be able to play PUBG while it's still in early access through the Xbox Game Preview program," said Chang Han Kim, CEO of PUBG Corp., the company that was literally made just to handle PUBG.

Chances are you either have minimal RGB lighting, or excessive RGB lighting, personally I'm the latter and feel you can never have too much RGB illumination. Cooler Master must know I'm in the market for a RGB mouse pad and have released their vibrant RGB mouse pad that targets pro-gamers. The MasterAccessory- RGB Hard Gaming Mousepad features a low-friction surface that is optimized for optical and laser mice sensors, rubber pads to maximizes grip and eliminate slippage potential and of course, RGB illumination. The RGB illumination includes nine preset lighting animations that can be changed on-the-fly via a touch sensitive button allows them to cycle through the modes.

The MasterAccessory- RGB Hard Gaming Mousepad is 350mm x 264mm x 2mm (WxHxD) in size and included a 1.6m braided USB cable. Available now from Newegg, you can pick yourself up Cooler Masters latest RGB mouse pad for $29.99

During his time in Australia for PAX AU 2017, PlayerUnknown himself Brendan Greene, sat down with IGN to talk about all things Battlegrounds. Greene said that PUBG has been a runaway success, all without a gigantic advertising budget.

Greene said that before Battlegrounds was released on Steam Early Access, the team thought they would sell "maybe five million copies, first year". Greene added: "We passed that in a few months and now we're at 15+ [million]. It's basically meant that we've had to do a lot of work internally to restructure how we envision PUBG going forward, because our platform team designed our server system for a million players, 'cause that's what we thought was a reasonable upper limit".

He continued: "We're not gonna pass a million [concurrent players], right? That's more than DOTA; no way will we reach that. And now we're at two, and our platform engineering team are playing catch-up. We're building this as a service... we want this for the next 10, 20 years, you know? We wanna increase the map pool, add new weapons, add new vehicles, and really just refine the feature set we have".

Battlegrounds isn't stopping its momentum at all, with 18.6 million copies now sold - days after we reported PUBG reached 17 million sold. The game is still enjoying around 2 million playing it concurrently per day, which is absolutely mammoth.

PUBG has also reached a new concurrent peak user count of a huge 2.38 million, but it has been holding steady at over 2 million per day for a few weeks now. Battlegrounds started October with around 1.6 million concurrent gamers, but has been slowly increasing throughout the month - also enjoying a minimum of over 200,000 gamers at all times playing for that coveted chicken dinner. Yummy.

We should expect vaulting and climbing to come to Battlegrounds soon, with test servers to get some vaulting and climbing matches under the developers' belt. As for PUBG v1.0, it's coming in the second half of December, just after the release of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds on the Xbox One on December 12, with series creator Brendan Greene saying he wants to see cross platform play between PC and Xbox One gamers in PUBG.

Razer has finally unveiled its first smartphone, simply called Razer Phone, which is built for high-performance games and streaming high resolution TV and movie content.

Inside, the new Razer Phone features a remarkable 120Hz UltraMotion display, and powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835 processor. Razer has provided high-end technologies like Dolby ATMOS and THX certified audio, mixing it with 8GB of RAM, 12-megapixel dual cameras, and a 4000mAh battery.

Razer has taken a leaf out of Apple's book, with Razer Phone not including a 3.5mm headphone jack. Instead, Razer Phone has a USB-C to 3.5mm adapter in the box, but this hasn't been confirmed.

Samsung is ramping up its DRAM production, with the company setting itself up to expand two of its DRAM manufacturing plants in Hwasung and Pyeongtaek, both in South Korea.

Samsung will be re-purposing some of its 2D NAND flash at its Hwasung plant, which will then be used to boost DRAM production, which should start in Q1 2018. The Pyeongtaek-based plant is also being refitted, with DRAM manufacturing clean rooms that will be built on the plant's second floor.

But we all want to know when cheaper DDR4 will be here, which is what Samsung is going to be able to offer once DRAM production is up, but don't expect anything until the second half of 2018. The PC industry isn't the only place where increased DRAM production will alleviate shortages, as smartphones and tablets also use lots of DRAM these days. DRAM stock has been depleted over the last 9 months or so, with RAM prices skyrocketing up by to 100%.

Samsung Electronics today announced its third quarter earnings results, affirming that the supply situation for key NAND products will tighten into Q4 and possibly beyond.

The financials note that Samsung will continue focusing its memory business more towards higher-end performance chips such as VNAND storage and LPDDR4X memory to serve the increasingly demanding needs of the mobile and datacenter markets. As a result of this shift away from traditional 2D NAND, supply will remain constrained for key products such as Nintendo's new Switch handheld-console hybrid, which uses traditional storage memory.

"Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, the company anticipates tight supply and demand conditions to continue for the Memory Business due to strong demand for servers and mobile devices. For the Memory Business, demand for high-density, high-performance NAND will increase, as the need for larger data capacity in servers and mobile devices grows," the report states.

Armed with the might of Microsoft's new $499 Xbox One X console, CD Projekt RED has breathed new visual life into one of the best video games ever made. Here's what the Polish developer had to say about the console, and the incoming enhancements.

With a number of high-profile updates, tweaks, and visual enhancements,The Witcher 3 on the Xbox One X looks to be the definitive way to experience the landmark RPG. Gamers will be able to experience Geralt's adventures in 4K resolution with vibrant HDR imaging, along with other updates that harness the power of the console's 6TFLOP AMD Polaris GPU, the highly customized 2.3GHz 8-core Jaguar CPU, and the 12GB of GDDR5 system memory.

"With the additional power of the Xbox One X, we are able to deliver The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in 4K, while providing numerous visual tweaks such as higher-quality shadows, ambient occlusion & texture filtering, as well as higher resolution textures, and an all-around performance boost," The Witcher 3's development Jakub Kutrzuba lead told Xbox Wire.

Players who redeem lootboxes in the Call of Duty WII "Headquarters" online social space will essentially broadcast the contents of their loot to nearby users, highlighting a very real marketing tactic to incentivize microtransaction purchases.

Activision recently caught flak with its microtransaction patent that essentially pushes new players towards lootboxes and/or paid in-game items. Now we're seeing an extension of this with the latest Call of Duty: WWII iteration, which, according to Redditors who received advanced copies, will allow players to inspect the contents of another user's opened supply drop.

This is an ingenious tactic for incentivizing organic monetization within the game's social space. Opening supply drops calls lots of attention in the social space as it is--players can trigger an animation that has a supply crate dropping from the sky into the Headquarters zone, and interested players can apparently approach and see the contents of the drop. The trick here is that gamers can essentially spectate lootboxes openings, thus simulating one of the more powerful "hooks" that popular streamers and content creators use to advertise the game (or their own illegal sites, as in the case of CS: GO Lotto).

Battlefield 1 launched in 2016 and continues serving as a cash crop for EA. But come next fiscal year it's time for a brand new Battlefield shooter, strongly hinting DICE has been crafting a fresh experience for the last few years.

The new Battlefield game will release during EA's fiscal year 2019 timeline, which runs from April 1, 2018 through March 31, 2019, the publisher today announced in its fiscal Q2'18 financial documents. The company also confirmed that the new Battlefield game will launch in the same fiscal slate as BioWare's big new shared-world shooter Anthem, which is believed to be EA's unique answer to Destiny. Anthem is explicitly referred to as an action game, and EA has previously affirmed the game will have "genre-melding" while strongly hinting microtransactions and other live services will be included.

"The core of our fiscal 2019 is a full slate of sports titles and their associated live services, plus new live services from Star Wars Battlefront II," Electronic Arts CFO Blake Jorgensen said in the report. "We will add the next Battlefield game, and move into the action genre with Anthem. We expect our subscriber base to continue to grow, and for our new mobile titles to benefit from players looking for deeper experiences with higher production values."

Seagate have introduced the first HDD created specifically for artificial intelligence enabled video surveillance, the Seagate SkyHawk AI hard disk drive. Building on Seagate's 10-year track record of optimized surveillance performance, The SkyHawk AI provides unparalleled bandwidth and processing power for data-intensive workloads, with the ability to simultaneously analyze and record footage from multiple HD cameras.

"The use of AI technology in surveillance is steadily increasing - both in the edge and backend installations such as retail fronts and large city traffic management. Seagate has led the surveillance storage market since its early days, a decade ago, by delivering industry leading HDD products that have enabled more than 5X increase in exabytes during this time period," said Sai Varanasi, vice president product line management at Seagate Technology. "We are excited to introduce smart, purpose-built SkyHawk AI solutions that expand the design space for our customers and partners, allowing them to implement next-generation deep learning and video analytics applications."

With forecasted growth from 27.6 million shipments in 2016 for video surveillance hardware, to 126 million in 2021, Seagate are providing the ideal solution for computational workloads that typically accompany AI work streams. SkyHawk AI can provide high throughput and enhanced caching to deliver low latency and excellent random read performance.

The first Major of the Dota 2 season has completed, ESL One Hamburg saw 8 teams from 6 regions battle it out for a share of the $1,000,000 total prize money and the newly introduced Pro Circuit points that are used to determine invites for next year's TI8. ESL One Hamburg saw TI7 grand finalist Team Liquid and Newbee both receive direct invites, with Team Secret, Virtus.Pro, Keen Gaming, Fnatic (HappyFeet had to withdraw due to VISA issues), Evil Geniuses and SG e-sports all representing their regions via winning their associated qualifying tournaments.

The group stage saw strong performances from both Team Secret and Virtus.Pro, both teams took unbeaten series wins into the playoff stage that also saw the end of the tournament for Fnatic, Keen Gaming, SG e-sports and a surprising exit from NA heavyweights EG. All teams failing to qualify for the next stage of the tournament.

The Playoffs saw some impressive Dota, with Team Secret advancing to the grand final after defeating red-hot Team Liquid. Dropping game 1, the TI7 champs looked in control, but Team Secret were able to rally and convincingly defeating the Team Liquid in the final two games of the series. The other spot in the grand final was up for grabs, VP took on Newbee that again saw the series come down to the deciding game 3. In the end, VP were able to book their place against Team Secret in the grand final and a guaranteed $200,000 for 2nd place, or $500,000 for being crowned champions of ESL One Hamburg.

Games titan EA just posted its financial earnings for fiscal Q2'18, which show strong growth in a critical area that ties its games together: live services. In fact, EA executives highlight just how important these services are compared to unit sales.

It should be no surprise that EA, a company that makes billions a year from monetized digital content such as microtransactions, DLC, add-ons, subscriptions, values live services so highly. After all we've seen the publisher's games change considerably over time to align into more digital online-based ecosystems such as FIFA Ultimate Team and Battlefield 1 that keep players coming back months after release--and more importantly, continually spending money in the games they play. With this in mind unit sales have become less and less important to the publisher.

When asked if Battlefront II sales are still forecast to hit 14 million copies, EA CFO Blake Jorgensen said: "We give out unit forecasts at the beginning of the year to help people size things. But we're finding units are becoming less and less meaningful to us because obviously there's a difference between a digital unit and a physical unit--and we've been surprised on the growth of digital units. It's all about the live services at the end of the day as well," Blake Jorgensen, Chief Financial Officer of EA, said in the latest fiscal Q2'18 earnings call.

The highly anticipated update for Dota 2 is here. Dueling Fates patch 7.07 update was first announced at The International 7 and is live! This update is HUGE- two new heroes, numerous gameplay,hero and item reworks, removal and addition of new items, Ancient Apparition remodel and much more.

Dueling Fates update introduces Pangolier and Dark Willow heroes to the Dota 2 universe. Panagolier is a melee-carry that boasts many evasive abilities that are sure to cause havoc, while Dark Willow is a ranged-support that features root and stun abilities to priorities crowd control.

Also included in patch 7.07 is ranked seasons that allows re-calibration of MMR, turbo mode that is aimed at casual players, changes to ability draft, Ancient Apparition remodel, improvements to ping wheel, a massive amount of changes to gameplay and items that includes my personal favorite "Flying Courier upgrade can no longer be purchased. Courier now upgrades automatically at 3 minutes", rework of heroes (Beastmaster, Broodmother, Morphling, Tiny, Viper and Wraith King), removed items (PMS and Iron Talon) and the introduction of 5 new items.