Latest News - Page 2234

IO Interactive has officially negotiated a buyout with Square Enix and is now fully independent.

Square Enix and IO Interactive have reached an agreement with Square Enix, who recently jettisoned the developer to focus more on core IP. IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak today delivered an official message confirming the studio has gone indie, and retains full rights to the Hitman IP.

"I am proud to announce today that IOI is now officially an independent studio. We have successfully concluded our negotiations with Square Enix and have agreed to a management buyout. Crucially, we will keep all of the rights to the Hitman IP," Hakan announced in a statement.

Atari may be resurrecting the classic home console that ushered in a golden age of gaming.

Atari has recently teased the "Ataribox", which may be a re-release of the classic Atari console for the modern age. The Ataribox is an officially licensed "brand new Atari product years in the making," and if I had to guess, it's an official Atari console pre-loaded with old-school Atari games not unlike Nintendo's NES Classic Edition system.

The teaser reveal makes it pretty clear the Ataribox is a console complete with that old 80s wood paneling. The company has launched the Ataribox.com website to promote the product, but we have no clue when an official reveal will take place.

Samsung is preparing its next-gen Galaxy Note 8 smartphone, after the battery-related issues of its predecessor, but what will it arrive as? According to notorious leaker Evan 'evleaks' Blass, Samsung's codename for the Galaxy Note 8 is 'Samsung Gr3at'. Ugh.

Blass revealed the news over Twitter, with the Note 8 expected to rock a huge 6.3-inch dual edge display, and an improved and larger battery. We could even see Qualcomm's refreshed Snapdragon 836 processor on the 10nm FinFET LPP architecture. Another exclusive that Samsung could have with its Galaxy Note 8 is the fingerprint sensor being placed under the display itself, instead of on the Home button or on the back like the current-gen Galaxy S8.

Microsoft killed it this year at E3 2017, announcing its next-gen Xbox One X console, but they were also teasing they have a bunch of first-party Xbox exclusives in the development oven, that aren't anywhere near ready to begin showing off.

During an interview at E3 2017 with VICE's Waypoint, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said: "When I started this job three years ago, hardware was a real focus for us because I thought we had more work to do there. Xbox One S shipped last year, the X is shipping this year, I love our hardware line. Xbox Live was something I wanted to focus, coming on Android, iOS, Windows PC because I really want people to play games on the place they want to go play".

Spencer continued: "Our first party is a critical part of that equation. Yesterday, I know people want to see what we're investing in new. We are investing in new things, we signed things just recently that I thought, 'Hey, from a PR standpoint it would be really easy for me to put a trailer on screen', but then I know the game is not coming for another two and half or three years, so I didn't want to do that. I understand some people would say, 'Hey, that would give me confidence in the future of Xbox'...".

Sony is pretty happy with the performance and sales of its PlayStation VR, so much so that they don't have any plans to make a next-gen PSVR headset.

Sony boss Shuhei Yoshida said during an interview at E3 2017 with Jagat Play that the PSVR was made, and is perfectly optimized for the PS4 - so there's no plans for a next-gen PSVR 2.0 headset just yet. But during Computex 2017, I met with someone who had some news on PS5 and said that it would have a discrete GPU... so maybe the PS5 will see the release of the PSVR 2.0 headset.

AMD is killing it with their new Zen CPU cores, with Ryzen already a success and Ryzen ThreadRipper going for Intel's throat - but what about the server market? This is where Epyc comes into play, with the upcoming Epyc 7000 series from AMD. VideoCardz picked up the news, with some details on the Epyc 7000 series:

No compromise 1-Socket

There's some huge performance increases over Intel's Xeon E5-2699A v4 processor, which is a 22C/44T @ 3.6GHz CPU, with 55MB of cache, and a price of $4000+. We have 47% more performance over the single socket CPU, but given there are 18 more CPU threads (albeit at 400MHz slower clocks), AMD is going to send some massive shocks throughout the server market with Epyc.

AMD's new Radeon Vega Frontier Edition graphics cards have been spotted on both Scan UK and Sabre PC websites, in both the air-cooled and liquid cooled versions. Both of the cards have identical specifications, including the super-awesome 16GB of HBM2.

Both the Radeon Vega Frontier AIR and Radeon Vega Frontier LIQUID have 16GB of HBM2, 13.1 TFLOPS of FP32 compute performance, and its Vega GPU clocked at 1600MHz. Both of them rock the new Vega 10 GPU, and have 3 x DP and 1 x HDMI for display connectivity.

As for the pricing, it looks like AMD will have the Radeon Vega Frontier AIR at $1199 while the Radeon Vega Frontier LIQUID will cost $1799... a little crazy, but these are next-gen cards. So now... the speculation begins on pricing of the Radeon RX Vega for consumers. Anything higher than $699 and it's DOA if it can't beat the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, but if we see a dual GPU version of the card - my expectations of $1199 are blown out of the water if Radeon Vega Frontier AIR is $1199. Interesting. Another interesting note, is that AMD says Radeon Frontier Vega comes with "16GB HBC" and not "16GB HBM2". Hmm.

E3 2017 - Ubisoft is set to pull in big revenue with its new South Park mobile game.

At its E3 2017 showcase Ubisoft announced South Park: Phone Destroyer, a new free-to-play iOS and Android smartphone game set in massively popular South Park universe. And as South Park devotees know, Freemium Isn't Free.

The very first South Park mobile game will be monetized with microtransactions, and herein lies Ubisoft's golden opportunity for a massive tail of recurring revenue.

E3 2017 - With its 6TFLOP GPU, 12GB GDDR5 RAM, and boosted CPU, Microsoft's new $499 Xbox One X is the most powerful console on the market, but developers have total free reign over how to tap the hardware. Microsoft has set no restrictions to developers or publishers despite the constant requests for a 60FPS standard from gamers. Xbox division head Phil Spencer talks about why Microsoft doesn't want to set those kinds of mandates on the Xbox One X.

Microsoft has said from day one that developers have full control over how they want to use the new 4K-ready Xbox One X (aka "Project Scorpio"). I re-iterated the point days ago by reminding everyone the Xbox One X won't play every single game in native 4K at a "rock solid" 60FPS. Every game is different, every engine is different, and every developer is trying to do different things.

Gamers, on the other hand, are frustrated with the lack of confirmed games that run at native 4K with higher frame rates, especially third-party games like Assassin's Creed: Origins and Destiny 2, which both run at upscaled 4K at 30FPS, similar to their PS4 Pro counterparts.

According to a new report, LG plans to move up its launch schedule for to beat the rivals.

LG's this year's flagship, the G6, was launched in March this year at MWC, around the same time when Huawei and Sony launched their flagships. However, LG is now considering moving up the launch date of its next flagship, the G7, to January in an effort to beat its rivals.

LG is reportedly working with Qualcomm on Snapdragon 845 which should power the G7.

E3 2017 - Bungie confirms that Destiny 2 will run at 4K 30FPS and deliver the same exact experience on both PlayStation 4 Pro and Microsoft's new high-end Xbox One X.

Microsoft's new $499 Xbox One X (previously "Project Scorpio") might be a good leap ahead of Sony's PlayStation 4 Pro, with the Xbox One featuring a 6TFLOP GPU, 12GB of GDDR5 RAM at 326GB/sec, and a massively customized Jaguar CPU at 2.73GHz, but that extra horsepower won't be tapped in Destiny 2--at least not at launch.

Bungie has confirmed to WCCFtech that Destiny 2 on consoles will have performance parity on both systems, meaning the game won't run better on Xbox One X despite its beefy hardware boost.

Motorola announced its Moto Z2 Play with new Moto Mods little over a week ago, and it appears that the company is preparing for another big launch.

Motorola's Moto Z was announced last year in June, and according to the reports, the phone should finally get its worthy successor - the Moto Z2.

The Lenovo-owned company started sending out invitations for its June 27th launch, and it is expected that the company will launch the Z2 then.

E3 2017 - Microsoft exec Phil Spencer confirmed that the company isn't making a profit by selling the Xbox One X at $500.

Microsoft isn't making a profit on its new 4K-ready Xbox One X system, and that's okay. Console-makers typically don't make a profit on hardware, but the software and service ecosystem that powers the hardware. This has been true for Xbox for quite some time, especially after its cross-platform union with Windows 10 PCs, effectively turning Xbox into a service rather than a console platform. Microsoft's new $499 Xbox One X console is definitely the world's most powerful console to date with its 6TFLOPs GPU and native 4K gaming support, but the hardware is just the gateway to the real lucrative core of console gaming: software, live/subscription services, microtransactions, and other monetized content that spans a years-long tail.

In a recent interview with Business Insider, Xbox division head Phil Spencer confirmed that Microsoft isn't selling the $499 Xbox One X at a profit. Unless you're Sony, who's banked very hard on hardware sales with its 60 million strong PlayStation 4 userbase, software is typically more important than harwdare.

E3 2017 - Now we know why Sony refused cross-play with Microsoft's wholly-owned Minecraft game: it requires users to sign into an Xbox LIVE account.

Nintendo Switch's Minecraft cross-play hinges on one very important detail: you have to sign into an Xbox LIVE account even when playing on Nintendo's handheld Switch console hybrid. So even if you don't own an Xbox product, you'll have to make an Xbox LIVE account and sign to play online with other platforms.

As Mojang CEO Jonas Märtensson confirms, Minecraft is unified through all platforms via Xbox LIVE and requires sign-ins on all devices for cross-play--even the Nintendo Switch.

E3 2017 - Xbox division head Phil Spencer discusses what Microsoft's new Direct Reality trademark actually means.

Microsoft's recent "Direct Reality" had the VR world buzzing. Was this Microsoft's new buzzword for its cross-platform Mixed Reality initiate that spans consoles and PC? In actuality, Direct Reality is a lot like DirectX, and aims to make all HMDs natively plug-and-play compatible on Windows 10 with specific features that make things easy for HMD OEMs and developers. Xbox boss Phil Spencer confirmed details behind Direct Reality in a recent interview with Giant Bomb at E3 2017.

Giant Bomb's Jeff Gerstmann: "When I look at Direct Reality I think of DirectX helping a lot of different graphics cards talk to a lot of different software. Is Direct Reality going to be an easy way for people to make games for any VR headset without having to worry about things?"

A couple of days ago a South Korean report claimed that Samsung would release refurbished Galaxy Note7 on July 7th, but it seems that we will have to wait a bit longer.

According to the latest report, the Galaxy Note7 FE (Fan Edition) will be available starting July 30th in South Korea.

This means that the Note7 could have its return couple of weeks before the launch of its successor, the Note8, expected to be announced in August.

Globalfoundries has announced that it will have its next-gen 7nm FinFET technology begin hitting the production line in 1H 2018, providing up to 40% more performance to 7nm-based products, and more.

The company said that its new 7nm FinFET design kits are available right now, with "volume production" expected in 2H 2018, an exciting next 12 months ahead of us. The step down to 7nm will provide improvements at the transistor and process levels, with the 7LP tech beating expectations for performance, with over 40% more processing power and twice the area scaling than the current-gen 14nm FinFET node.

Globalfoundries is taking design orders from customers for its 7nm technology, in Saratoga County, N.Y. Senior VP of Globalfoundries, Gregg Bartlett, explains: "Our 7nm FinFET technology development is on track and we are seeing strong customer traction, with multiple product tapeouts planned in the next twelve months. And, while driving to commercialize 7-nm in 2018, we are actively developing next-generation technologies at 5-nm and beyond to ensure our customers have access to a world-class roadmap at the leading edge".

Take-Two has killed off yet another high-profile Grand Theft Auto mod, and the community has responded with an uproar.

Rockstar parent company Take-Two Interactive has sent a cease and desist letter to the developers of OpenIV to stop development at once. Open IV is a massively ambitious Grand Theft Auto IV mod tool that served as an editor and archive manager for PC versions of the game, allowing modders to craft game files and gamers to easily sort their mods. The OpenIV team had been developing the tool for nearly 10 years before Take-Two's random cease and desist.

In the letter issued to OpenIV developers, Take-Two claims the mod tool allows "third parties to defeat security features of its software and modify that software in violation Take-Two's rights." As such, the OpenIV modding tool has been declared as illegal. In response the team has decided to follow Take-Two's order and and stop distributing OpenIV altogether.

If you're in the market for a high-end 21:9 UltraWide display, Dell might just have what you're after with their new UltraSharp 38 Curved Monitor, the U3818DW.

Dell's new U3818DW is the world's first 37.5-inch curved UltraWide monitor, with a native 3440x1440 resolution and because of the 37.5-inch panel it has 25% more viewing space than a 34-inch 21:9 panel. It features 99% of the sRGB range with factory calibration out of the box, as well as a powerful USB Type-C connector that has up to 100W of power ready for your devices.

The new Dell U3818DW will cost $1499, and will be available on Dell's website starting on June 23.

After two years as a Steam Early Access title, ARK: Survival Evolved will be released as a finished game on August 8, says developer Studio Wildcard.

The developer added: "The past two years have been one heck of a journey! Millions of ARK players worldwide have built gigantic bases, captured and trained armies of dinosaurs, crafted armories full of weapons and eaten billion of pounds of berries. With your help, we're now about to reach the completion of core content for ARK: Survival Evolved and release the full game to the world! That was just the beginning; now we'll be entering the next phase of our journey. Players who have been with us throughout this early access program and were excited with the launch of each update, have even more reason to be excited! ARK is going to become even more fun with surprise new content at launch and beyond, as we continue to have a massive amount of additional gameplay, creatures, and story elements in the works".

The world of ARK: Survival Evolved is already huge, but the game's first official mod is now here for Steam gamers - with Ragnarok featuring a massive 144sq kilometer map, designed to be explored in the many ways you can traverse the land. The ocean has its own ecosystem, with distinct variations of the former ARK creatures... as well as a new creature exclusive to Ragnarok.