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Tencent to bring Honor of Kings mobile juggernaut abroad
Chinese gaming titan Tencent will extend the reach of its top-earning mobile game to Europe and the United States, sources say.
Since its release in 2015, mobile Honor of Kings has risen to the top of Tencent's billion-dollar domestic earnings, establishing the game as a titan among its peers. The wholly-owned and developed game has since become a craze with over 50 million daily active users in January, bringing in an estimated $441 million in April via in-app purchases--thus making Honor of Kings the company's most profitable property.
But this success comes at a cost. Tencent has faced opposition domestically in response to the game's strong pull. China's state newspaper People's Daily called the game "poison" and "harmful to the psychology of minors" due to its addicting nature, and called for stronger regulation of the games industry.
Continue reading: Tencent to bring Honor of Kings mobile juggernaut abroad (full post)
Zenimax sued for $1 million over Fallout 4 ad
Singer songwriter Dion DiMucci is suing Zenimax Media for their use of his song The Wanderer in a Fallout 4 ad.
DiMucci has filed a suit on July 2 against Fallout parent company Zenimax Media Inc. for the unauthorized use of The Wanderer in a live-action advertisement, and is seeking $1,000,000 in damages as well the removal of the video from all widespread video websites.
DiMucci claims that the live action advertisement harms his reputation and persona as a singer songwriter, and is seeking damages from Zenimax. The suit claims that the "repugnant" advertisement features "objectionable repeated homicides in a dark dystopian landscape where violence is glorified as sport," and is in direct violation DiMucci's rights as per his contract.
Continue reading: Zenimax sued for $1 million over Fallout 4 ad (full post)
Xiaomi reports record smartphone shipments
Xiaomi has had some difficulties in the past, but it seems that's now behind them. The company has announced that the Q2 2017 was the most successful quarter for the company's history, so far.
Xiaomi reported that the company sold 23 million phones globally in Q2 this year, which is 70% more than in Q1.
The company recently launched its flagship, the Mi 6, and several other phones. It is also expected that Xiaomi will launch the Mi MIX 2 sometime in the second half of the year.
Continue reading: Xiaomi reports record smartphone shipments (full post)
BioWare hiring tons of devs to make new Dragon Age game
BioWare is making what appears to be a big AAA mainline Dragon Age game alongside its massive new IP, Anthem.
We've known for a while now that BioWare is developing a new Dragon Age game, and now we have more clues that the title will be a huge sequel that furthers the franchise. Dragon Age Creative Director Mike Laidlaw recent confirmed that a "new Dragon Age something" is in the works, echoing brief DA concept art teases from BioWare's Mark Darrah back in January.
Now we have our latest clue that the new Dragon Age game will be a massive RPG project in the vein of Dragon Age: Inqusition. BioWare's core Edmonton team is on a hiring spree to bring in new talent to specifically work on the new Dragon Age project. The developer currently has 14 positions open that are explicitly for the Dragon Age franchise, many of which are higher level jobs like lead cinematic animator and senior character and technical artists.
Continue reading: BioWare hiring tons of devs to make new Dragon Age game (full post)
HTC U11 beats OnePlus 5's camera on DxOMark
Back in May when HTC announced its flagship, the company revealed that the U11 has the highest DxOMark score, outranking Pixel and Galaxy S8. DxOMark score is the ultimate guideline when it comes to smartphone cameras.
The HTC U11 received score 90, which is the highest score on DxOMark so far, and it will take a mighty phone to take it off its throne.
We've had high expectations from the OnePlus 5, especially since the company partnered up with DxO itself for the phone's camera, but the phone didn't manage to beat U11's camera.
Continue reading: HTC U11 beats OnePlus 5's camera on DxOMark (full post)
Vivo's new smartphones have dual front camera setups
Vivo, the company that recently launched the first smartphone with a fingerprint sensor embedded under the display, has released the successor to its X9.
The X9s is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 652 processor and comes with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. It features a 5.5-inch 1080p AMOLED screen and runs Android 7.1.1 Nougat.
The phone comes with a 16MP rear camera and a dual front camera setup, 20MP + 5MP. Other features include a fingerprint sensor and a 3,320 mAh battery. The device is priced at $396.
Continue reading: Vivo's new smartphones have dual front camera setups (full post)
Steam sells most of its games in North America
Valve Corp's Alden Kroll reveals key metrics of its titanic PC games storefront Steam, and highlights future updates coming to the platform at the Indigo showcase in the Netherlands.
Steam, Valve Corp's colossal digital PC gaming storefront that houses thousands of games from AAA juggernauts to indies, is getting bigger and bigger every year, and Valve is finding new ways to ensure the platform doesn't get too unwieldy in size and scope. According the latest data from Valve, Steam has absolutely massive DAU and MAUs to compliment gigantic sales figures: Steam currently has 33 million active users per day, 67 million monthly active users, and gamers are buying an average of 1.5 million new games per month.
Although North American gamers spend the most on Steam games, the marketplace has a strong grip throughout the world thanks to Valve's widespread localization efforts. Mr. Kroll revealed that Steam currently supports 26 languages across the globe, and accepts payments in 28 different currencies across over 70 types of payment methods. Valve has even peppered online servers throughout the world to spread resources across key regions.
Continue reading: Steam sells most of its games in North America (full post)
Samsung launches another affordable smartphone
A month after the launch of the Galaxy J5 (2017), Samsung has launched a new smartphone, the Galaxy J5 Pro.
The phone is powered by Exynos 7870 processor with octa-core 1.6GHz processor and Mali-T830MP2 GPU. It comes with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage.
The device features a 5.2-inch display and runs Android Nougat (7.0). The Galaxy J5 Pro comes with a 13MP rear and 13MP front camera.
Continue reading: Samsung launches another affordable smartphone (full post)
Forza Motorsport 7 will be a massive 100GB download
Imagine having to download 100GB for a single game just 10 years ago... I just can't. Even though the Xbox One X version of Forza Motorsport 7 was revealed to be 100GB, thanks to all those beautiful 4K textures, the upcoming Windows 10 version of the game will be an "approximate size" of 99GB.
According to a Microsoft rep: "The team is expecting the install size to be 100GB, with the download size being a bit smaller". The exact download size of Forza Motorsport 7 isn't finalized just yet, but the team has "a continued focus on improvements to download experiences". For PC gamers without 4K displays, the massive 100GB download isn't going to go down too well. Microsoft could possibly change things for the 100GB download by splitting the high-res textures into an optional download, bringing the overall download size of Forza Motorsport 7 significantly.
Forza Motorsport 7 launches on October 3.
Continue reading: Forza Motorsport 7 will be a massive 100GB download (full post)
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds: 6 months until completion
UPDATE: PUBG developer Brenden Greene has issued a statement to PC Gamer saying that PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds may not be released by October after all, but the team will do everything they can to ensure the game comes out of early access in Q4 2017.
Check below for the statement:
Original article continued below.
Continue reading: PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds: 6 months until completion (full post)
Tesla announces largest battery storage project on Earth
Tesla has just announced it will be building the largest lithium-ion battery storage project in the world in South Australia, nearly a year after a 50-year storm knocked out the entire electrical grid, leaving 1.7 million residents without power - myself included. This news is close to home, well - it is home, as I'm based in South Australia - where Tesla is building this massive battery storage project.
After the infrastructure failure, the South Australian government (which was already a leader in renewable energy) looked into a sustainable solution so that this wouldn't happen again. The state government askedw for solutions on grid-scale energy storage solutions of at least 100MW capacity, with Tesla today announcing they will be making a 100MW/129MWh Powerpack system that will be teamed with global renewable energy provider Neoen's Hornsdale Wind Farm located near Jamestown, South Australia.
Tesla's Powerpack will be used to charge renewable energy from the Hornsdale Wind Farm, which will then deliver electricity during peak hours ensuring reliable power is delivered to South Australia's electrical infrastructure. SA was already a leader in renewable energy, but Tesla's investment into the state will only highlight that fact.
Continue reading: Tesla announces largest battery storage project on Earth (full post)
Qualcomm unleashes the dragon, wants to ban iPhone sales
Qualcomm is taking its legal battle with Apple to the next level, unleashing its flock of legal dragons and requesting that the US government ban new iPhones from being sold in the United States. Qualcomm is also seeking that a sales ban is placed on iPhones that are in the US right now.
The creator of Snapdragon claims that Apple is violating on six patents that it holds, all to do with extending a smartphone's battery life. Qualcomm adds that none of the patents are essential to a standard, meaning it doesn't need to license them, as it is with other patents that Qualcomm and Apple are fighting over now. Qualcomm's General Counsel, Don Rosenberg, said in a statement: "Qualcomm's inventions are at the heart of every iPhone and extend well beyond modem technologies or cellular standards. Apple continues to use Qualcomm's technology while refusing to pay for it".
Qualcomm has now heightened the dispute with Apple, but there is a fair bit going on between the companies as it is. It all started with the Federal Trade Commission suing Qualcomm for anti-competitive practices in relation to sales of its smartphone modems, and then Apple jumped on filing a lawsuit which was very similar to the FTC. Apple expanded that lawsuit into two other countries, while Qualcomm slapped its own lawsuits onto the table against not just Apple, but it's suppliers.
Continue reading: Qualcomm unleashes the dragon, wants to ban iPhone sales (full post)
AMD Ryzen ThreadRipper 1950X: 16C/32T @ 3.4GHz perf leak
Today is a new day, and that means new Ryzen ThreadRipper leaks: with some news of AMD's upcoming flagship Ryzen ThreadRipper 1950X processor throwing up its fists in a Geekbench database war with Intel's latest and greatest Core and Xeon CPUs.
This time, we're looking at the Ryzen ThreadRipper 1950X which is AMD's flagship 16C/32T processor with a base clock of 3.4GHz. We should expect boost CPU clocks of 3.6GHz, while XFR will take it to 3.8GHz. There'll be 32MB of L3 cache, and 8MB of L2 cache for a total of 40MB. But we're here for the performance numbers, right? In the single-core test on Geekbench, the Ryzen ThreadRipper 1950X scored 4074, but compared to Intel's new Core i9-7900X with 10C/20T of performance - the 1950X gets thrashed, with the 7900X hitting 5403.
But no one is going to be buying AMD's new Ryzen ThreadRipper CPUs for their single-core performance, so moving onto the Geekbench multi-core score on the Ryzen ThreadRipper 1950X we have 26,768 - which is a much better result, and closer to the 33,945 that the Core i9-7900X scores. AMD will surely have many more optimizations to make to its Ryzen ThreadRipper CPUs and the upcoming X399 chipset, but for now Intel is in the lead by a massive margin. Somewhere that AMD can destroy Intel is on price... something Intel seems to be happy keeping a premium on.
Continue reading: AMD Ryzen ThreadRipper 1950X: 16C/32T @ 3.4GHz perf leak (full post)
Orwl PC is a new PC that self destructs if it's hacked
With all of the stories of companies, personal computers, and everything in between being hacked by the uber-brains in North Korea and Russia (using tools US taxpayers' paid for by the alphabet government agencies that made the tools in the first place) - securing your PC has become a very real thing you should be doing.
This is where Orwl PC steps up to the plate, which has some of the best security you can buy. It's protected even from physical hacking, as the PC has an awesome self destructing feature that will wipe the PC completely clean of your data, if someone physically tries to break into it. It comes with either Windows, Ubuntu, or Qubes OS pre-installed - on top of a bunch of seriously powerful security specs.
We're talking about protection about UEFI and DMA hacks, as well as USB-based exploits, reports BGR. There's even a special key fob that is based on NFC that verifies the user that wants to use the Orwl PC, and if you walk away from your PC with the key fob in your pocket, the Orwl PC will lock its USB ports down from any potential hacking.
Continue reading: Orwl PC is a new PC that self destructs if it's hacked (full post)
Nokia partners with Zeiss for dual-lens smartphone
HMD Global is pretty eager to bring back the old fame to the Nokia phones. They already announced a modern version of the Nokia 3310 and three Nokia smartphones. The company should also announce its flagship, Snapdragon 835 powered smartphone, later this year.
But the company is not stopping there. They have announced that they are partnering up with Zeiss for its smartphones camera. HMD Global shared its excitement saying it's looking "to set new imaging standards within the smartphone industry."
Zeiss posted a tweet saying that they "look forward to an exciting journey into the future of smartphone imaging." Interestingly, the tweet features a short video which indicates that the two companies might be working on a dual camera setup, rumored to debut in Nokia 9, the company's flagship.
Continue reading: Nokia partners with Zeiss for dual-lens smartphone (full post)
Pokemon GO earns $1.2 billion in one year
Pokemon GO has currently made $1.2 billion in total revenues in a single year's time.
When it released in July 2016, Niantic's augmented reality-powered mobile game Pokemon GO took the world by storm: millions of mobile phone owners flocked the streets searching for digital Pocket Monsters. While the game's playerbase has slowed down a year later, mobile intelligence firm Apptopia reports the game is still quite popular and has earned an estimated $1.2 billion in lifetime global revenues in a year's time with 752 million total downloads.
Although Pokemon GO earned most of its revenue last year--AppAnnie estimates Niantic raked in $950 million and the end of 2016, and SuperData predicts the company flew out the gate with $206 million in earnings a month after its release--the game still has a strong active userbase that's constantly fed with new content. Niantic has strategically released new updates like its most recent anniversary update to drive up MAUs, which sit at 60 million users in June.
Continue reading: Pokemon GO earns $1.2 billion in one year (full post)
Halo 5 likely to hit upscaled 4K 60FPS on Xbox One X
Today 343 Industries made good on its Halo tease by announcing 4K support for Halo 5, and that all existing Xbox 360 Halo games are now backward compatible on the Xbox One.
Halo 5: Guardians is getting an enhancement upgrade on Microsoft's new $499 Xbox One X console, but developer 343 Industries hasn't revealed much information. According to 343i, Halo 5 will support "true 4K" when the console releases in November.
Remember that the Xbox One X will play all existing Xbox One games better with native performance scaling, but any game must have specific patch upgrades in order to leverage the full brunt of the console's highly customized 6TFLOP AMD Polaris-derived graphics processor.
Continue reading: Halo 5 likely to hit upscaled 4K 60FPS on Xbox One X (full post)
Nintendo Switch online app detailed
Nintendo today revealed new information about the Switch's smartphone app, which is required for online lobbies and voice chatting on the console.
Nintendo's new Switch handheld-console hybrid is missing one key thing: voice chatting. Instead of allowing a headset to be plugged into the Switch or the Switch Pro controller, Nintendo has moved voice chatting and friend parties to a dedicated smartphone app. As you'd imagine, online voice chat on the Switch is a mess, and Nintendo has announced key info about the app itself.
The Nintendo Switch Online mobile app will release on July 21 alongside Splatoon 2, and allows users to "send multiplayer invites to their friends via social media, as well as enables use of voice chat in battles." The Switch Online mobile app does a lot more than voice chatting, though: the app is a hub for online-enabled games, which have their own in-app companion modules.
Continue reading: Nintendo Switch online app detailed (full post)
Apple to use OLED screens in all new 2018 iPhones
Apple is planning to use OLED displays in all the new iPhone models launched in the second half of 2018, claim industry sources.
One of the sources states that Apple plans to release three new models next year, all of them with OLED displays.
According to sources in OLED production, panel makers might not be able to meet the demand if Apple goes through with their plans.
Continue reading: Apple to use OLED screens in all new 2018 iPhones (full post)
PS4 games now playable on PC...via PlayStation Now
Select PlayStation 4 games like Killzone Shadow Fall can now be played on Windows PCs via PlayStation Now.
In a bid to counter Microsoft's strongly received and affordable Xbox Game Pass subscription service, Sony aims to bring PS3 and PS4 games onto PC with PlayStation Now. Sony's move to PC was announced back in March, and now Sony has delivered its first batch of PS4 games that are playable on Windows PCs via the PS Now service.
Sadly, Sony's initial PS4-on-PC offering is quite sparse and doesn't have heavy-hitting exclusives like The Last of Us Remastered or Bloodborne--those games are likely to stay on PlayStation. The PS4 games lineup mostly includes third-party games and indies, but Sony did throw in Killzone Shadow Fall and God of War 3 Remastered as well as Resogun. Sony also has a number of PlayStation 3 games available for streaming onto PC, but key exclusives are likewise missing.
Continue reading: PS4 games now playable on PC...via PlayStation Now (full post)






















