Latest News - Page 2149

When I was writing my article about Bitcoin hitting $13,000 yesterday I thought we might see a new peak of $14,000 if it went on a really good run. Well, I was wrong.

The massive $60 million+ in BTC being swiped from NiceHash in its rear view mirror, Bitcoin's price continued its meteroic rise past the $13,000 barrier and right into $16,600 overnight. A rise of 30% in 24 hours is absolutely astonishing, with anyone holding BTC right now smiling from ear-to-ear.

At this rate $20K isn't impossible before the end of the year, and John McAfee might need to eat his own d*ck since BTC could hit $1 million sooner rather than later.

TSMC, the leading chip-maker in the world, plans to invest tens of billions to make a new high-end chip facility, reports Nikkei Asian Review.

Senior sources say TSMC will invest $20 billion to make the world's first and most advanced chip-making facility in Taiwan, with a rollout date planned for early 2020s. The facility will be aimed at producing ultra-efficient chips on the 3nm node in an effort to keep ahead of the constantly-evolving world of technology, whether mobile devices or new machines.

"This past September, we announced our plan for the world's first 3-nanometer fab located in the Tainan science park [in southern Taiwan]. This fab could cost upwards of $20 billion and represents TSMC's commitment to drive technology forward," TSMC executive Mark Liu told Nikkei Asian Review.

PUBG is coming to Dying Light...well sort of.

Today Techland announced that their lauded Dying Light zombie game would get a standalone expansion called Bad Blood, which drops players in a multiplayer battle royale experience set in the post-apocalyptic dead-world of the game. What's interesting about Bad Blood, however, is that it's not trying to blatantly copy PUBG: Techland affirms the expansion will have both PVP and PVE elements, which makes me think zombies will be in the mix too.

Bad Blood will have three different modes including:

Capcom today announced the Devil May Cry HD Collection, which should round out the publisher's FY2018 slate quite nicely.

Earlier in the year Capcom promised to resurrect older IPs in an effort to fortify game sales and buffer its release slate. Now with the recently announced Mega Man 11 (yes really), the ports of Mega Man X on Switch, and the freshly announced Devil May Cry HD Collection, we're seeing the fruits of that promise start to take shape. The HD Collection was originally released for PS3 and Xbox 360 some years ago, and now it's making the rounds again.

The latest Devil May Cry remaster collection will include the first three games (DMC1, DMC2 and the DMC3 special edition) with revamped HD graphics on modern systems including the PS4, Xbox One, and PC, with a release date penned for March 13, 2018. This is right before Capcom's March 31, 2018 cutoff date for the current fiscal year, and this isn't a mistake: it should help the games-maker bolster yearly sales and earnings while kicking off FY2019 with a nice software boost.

Sony's ring of first-party studios are known for releasing diverse games--a move that's increasingly different than the normal range of Call of Duty's, Battlefronts, and PUBG's of the gaming world.

PS4 exclusives are usually quite different than anything else you find on the market. Sony has helped release quite a few exclusives that are all unique, including Bloodborne, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and Hideo Kojima's upcoming game Death Stranding. Exclusives account for a percentage of why gamers buy the console itself, and according to IDC Director for Gaming and VR Lewis Ward, Sony's penchant for deep, immersive storytelling is a unique position for the industry.

"Well, like Nintendo, Sony has a massive worldwide game development team. Sony of course makes movies and music and other forms of entertainment, so understanding story structure and character development is in their DNA. If you notice, they really don't make free-to-play games that are open-ended and therefore have no clear conclusion other than player burnout," Mr. Ward said in a recent interview with GamingBolt.

The PlayStation 4 games console has surpassed 70 million units ahead of the big Christmas season, Sony today confirmed.

In a recent press release Sony announced that the PS4 has sold through 70.6 million units globally since the system launched in 2013, up an impressive 10.2 million units from the original 60.4 million sales from June. This milestone is also accompanied by a huge attach rate, which has grown incrementally since June as well.

Sony says that over 617.8 million PlayStation 4 games have been sold digitally and at retail, which puts the attach rate at a minimum of 8.7%. This means that PS4 owners have about at least 9 games for the console since the system released four years ago. The Japanese games-maker further re-affirms commitment to the PlayStation VR platform with a neat statistic: 150 titles have been released for the virtual reality headset to date.

Apple has shared reports on their App Store support page showing statistics of their of their current devices and the percentages of which devices are using specific operating systems. According to the statistics shown 59% of Apples devices are currently using the new iOS 11, this is an increase of 7 percent from last months calculations of 52%.

This adoption of iOS 11 has been slower than that of iOS 10, according to Apple's official App Store statistics iOS 10 was adopted much quicker after its release with 54% of users downloading the update. This 2% decrease in installation despite Apple's efforts to update iOS 11 with focus of solving bug fixes that are throughout iOS have not caused a increase in installation rates.

Keep in mind though, Apple have just released their new software for iOS 11.2, Apple Pay Cash was suppose to be rolled out to devices over the course of the weekend but instead the update was released early to fix a bug that caused it to crash. Now that bug has been fixed by Apple may see a increase in users updating to the new iOS 11.2 update as more and more people adopt the new Apple Pay Cash system.

Japan will see a self-driving car service by 2020, called 'Easy Ride' the service is powered by Nissan and a technology company DeNa. Nissan plan to have this service up and running in Yokohama by at least 2020, hoping for a completion of everything to pick-up and drop-off via mobile payment to having the option of taking the scenic route to your destination.

Nissan is most likely to have all of these problems worked out by 2020, as the Tokyo Olympics is set to be there I can see no reason why Nissan would pass up on the opportunity to promote their self-driving cars throughout this time. The cars that are set to be introduced to the city of Yokohama are Leaf EV's which have already had testing gone underway in the UK.

Google has now moved its focus to the 'entry-level' smart-phone market by accompanying it's release of Andriod 8.1 with Andriod Oreo, the new OS that Google will be rolling out to those who cannot afford higher-end smart-phones. The operating system is targeted for those that use pre-paid plans, phones such as the Samsung Galaxy J3, Motorola MOTO G and any phone under the $400 mark.

This move by Google is mainly to hit the Indian market as the company has their focus on supplying the 'billions' of people that don't have a smart-phone yet. Google is also releasing new 'GO' apps that are specifically designed to lessen data usage and use 50% less storage than the full-sized siblings.

The apps that are included in this specific 'GO' format include: YouTube Go, Google Maps Go, Gmail Go and Files Go. These GO versions, according to Google have the potential to save 600MB of Internet data per year, that might not sound like a lot to Western society but this feature could save a lot of entry-level smart-phone users from capping their pre-paid plans early.

Epic Games has currently been in the process of suing two Fortnite players for cheating, one of which is a 14 year old boy and another is Charles Vraspir. The mother of the 14 year old boy has responded with a letter being sent to the court claiming that there was no evidence of her son modifying the game and cheating, instead she has accused Epic Games for violating Delaware laws by publicly naming her son.

Epic Games has claimed in response to the mothers letter that the company has no prior knowledge of the defendants age at the time of filing. According to TorrentFreak this is what is stated in court "We did not violate Rule 5.2(a) or Local Civil Rule 17.2 because we did not know when we filed the papers that Defendant is a minor."

Charles Vraspir the other case Epic Games is fighting has had a settlement agreed upon, if Vraspir violates any of the following "creating, writing, developing, advertising, promoting, and/or distributing anything that infringes Epic's works now or hereafter protected by any of Epic's copyrights" a $5000 penalty will have to be paid. This same figure is thought to be likely for the 14 year old boy as Epic Games has not motivation to bankrupt these players, so I think a hefty fine will stop them from ruining the game for others.

Niko Partners, the Chinese analytic firm has had Daniel Ahmad an employee reveal on Twitter that Nintendo games will be running on the NVIDIA Shield.

The games that will be available are Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Bros. Wii, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and Punch-Out!! This partnership between NVIDIA, Nintendo and the Chinese online platform called iQiyi is what is currently pushing Nintendo's games to be featured on NVIDIA's Shields throughout the Chinese market.

Unfortunately this is a China only deal but with the current price of the Nintendo games going for RMB 68, means when the currency is exchanged into USD Nintendo games suddenly only become $10.28. It is unclear how this move to the China will effect the rest of the worlds market, but bringing Nintendo games to the NVIDIA Shield in clear 1080p to reportedly 300 million gamers might just be the first steps into a world wide Nintendo games on the Shield.

Hawaiian state Representative Chris Lee (D) recently lambasted Electronic Arts and Disney for creating an "online Star Wars gambling casino" with Battlefront II, causing yet another peak of the dreaded controversy. Now Rep. Lee is calling on gamers to call legislators to put pressure on the industry.

Microtransactions and lootboxes aren't anything new in the industry. Most online live service games have them in some form whether its cosmetics or blind bag style lootboxes, these optional purchase models allow an engagement-churning cycle that funds a steady stream of new content to keep players engaged over months or years. But without the disclosure of odds, such as in China, publishers have a sort of free reign--it's almost like a new frontier of sorts. But Hawaii State Rep. Chris Lee wants to bring the law to the Wild West of gaming.

In a recent video State Representative Lee is asking gamers and consumers to stand up to lootboxes and "predatory gambling practices" so the games industry has the opportunity to change. Of course this would disrupt a billion-dollar market that keeps major publishers like EA, Take-Two, Ubisoft and Activision raking in earnings quarter after quarter, and depending on the regulation, the industry could be hit with big growing pains as it adapts towards a new model.

The new desert map for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is nearly here, with the developers showing it off in full with some beautiful new screenshots and details on the cities you'll find in Miramar.

Miramar is a completely new map that is very different to the 8km x 8km map we know and love from Battlegrounds in Erangel, with Miramar featuring completely different terrain and a totally new feel. Even the veteran PUBG players will have to adapt, learning new play styles from the fresh new desert map.

Battlegrounds' new Miramar map will launch with the upcoming v1.0 update that is expected to roll out in late-December. For now, here's what you can expect from Miramar and its many cities and hotspots:

AMD very silently launched their new Radeon RX 560 (a second variant) which saw some Compute Units cut from the GPU, but the company didn't name it any different to the current RX 560 which has more CUs. Yeah, confusing... I know.

GamersNexus were on the ball as always (hey, Steve!) and then had an official statement from AMD that explained what happened, where the company mentioned that its up to the AIB partners to clarify the actual product specifications during marketing of their new Radeon RX 560.

AMD launched the Radeon RX 560 not that long ago and it featured a full 16 CUs that sport 1024 stream processors, which go hand-in-hand with the 4GB of GDDR5 memory on-board. The new Radeon RX 560 on the other hand has 14 CUs and 896 stream processors, but without knowing which one you just purchased - you might buy the slower one, because of crappy marketing and advertising on the boxes.

Qualcomm Snapdragon Tech Summit 2017 - Qualcomm used the morning of day two of its Snapdragon Technology Summit to announce and detail their next generation Snapdragon 845.

Inside, the new Snapdragon 845 features eight CPU cores and a refreshed Adreno 630 graphics processor that is joined by Qualcomm's impressive Spectra 280 image signal processor (ISP). The new Spectra 280 ISP will allow for "Ultra HD premium" video capture, at up to 4K 60FPS.

Qualcomm spent a considerable chunk of time talking about XR (extended reality) and AI (artificial intelligence) as the new Snapdragon 845 is the most feature-packed chips on the planet - and that's even with Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA in the market.

It doesn't seem to matter that Bitcoin is priced at nearly $13,000 and it has more hype and interest in cryptocurrency than any previous point in human history, but Valve has just stopped accepting Bitcoin in Steam. Yay.

Valve said in a post on Steam: "In the past few months we've seen an increase in the volatility in the value of Bitcoin and a significant increase in the fees to process transactions on the Bitcoin network".

The company continued: "For example, transaction fees that are charged to the customer by the Bitcoin network have skyrocketed this year, topping out at close to $20 a transaction last week (compared to roughly $0.20 when we initially enabled Bitcoin). Unfortunately, Valve has no control over the amount of the fee. These fees result in unreasonably high costs for purchasing games when paying with Bitcoin. The high transaction fees cause even greater problems when the value of Bitcoin itself drops dramatically".

EA refuses to stop stealing headlines, and this time the publisher may take a queue from gamers and not flip the microtransaction switch back on. But...that probably won't be the end of it.

Like its competitors Ubisoft, Activision, Blizzard and Take-Two, EA and microtransactions go hand-in-hand. But it's extremely important that these in-game purchases are scaled in a way so gamers don't feel cornered into a pay-to-win scheme, which is something Battlefront II is accused of. In the wake of an ongoing controversy that sees countless consumers, gamers and customers pushing back against EA's "predatory lootboxes," the publisher says it's learned a lot and might just fold its hand.

"Clearly we're still focused on listening the consumer and their wants, which are evolving constantly. But we're working on improving the progression system. We turned the MTX off as an opportunity to work on the progression system inside the game--we're continuing to update that, and I think there's and update this week and again next week," EA CFO Blake Jorgensen said during the 37th NASDAQ Investors Conference.

Bitcoin is mooning right now with a new peak price of $12,966 at the time of writing and will most likely hit $13,000 before I finish this article.

Bitcoin started 2017 off price at $1000 but this meteoric rise in price is unprecedented, a massive 1300% increase in price in just 12 months. I might as well write this post in real-time as the price of BTC has increased to $12,975 and then just now to $12,993. I'll keep writing until it reaches $13,000.

I guess this way you can see that I'm writing this article in real-time while the price of BTC continues to increase. It has dropped slightly to $12,975 but it will only be a few minutes until it hits $13K. The next question I have is, when will BTC reach $15K? It seems like $20K before the New Year isn't a fantasy.

Update: NiceHash has officially announced they were indeed hacked, with all of the BTC in their wallet gone. There's over $50 million in that slush fund of Bitcoin, with NiceHash working with authorities. Lots of people are mad and rightfully so.

I might be enjoying the beautiful Maui for Qualcomm and their Snapdragon Tech Summit in Hawaii, but I woke to news from my good friend and fellow miner Keith May from WCCFTech messaging me this morning that NiceHash had possibly been hacked.

To celebrate 10 years of Assassin's Creed Ubisoft will give away Black Flag, which could be the second best game in the series (behind AC: Origins of course).

Although Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag came out in 2013 the game still holds up tremendously well today, and deserves a spin. Ubisoft will give away free PC copies of the game starting December 12, but you'll only have a limited window of opportunity to register and receive the game. Of course this promo is available on uPlay, the company's proprietary storefront/game service. Signing up for uPlay is worth it to get this one, though: Black Flag is a fun romp through the Golden Age of Piracy and takes you across the Caribbean as you wreak total havoc, pillage, and sink ships.

Right now Ubisoft is giving away the World of Conflict Complete Edition for free on uPlay, so grab that if you want something to play right now.