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Tamagotchi is making a comeback, after 20 years
There will be a large chunk of our readers that remember Tamagotchi, as it was 'a thing' over 20 years now. Japanese toymaker Bandai has re-released the infamous Tamagotchi, the electronic pocket pet - and it includes the original 6 characters from the 90s.
Bandai stayed close to the original design of Tamagotchi, but the new version is half the size of the original - the only difference, other than that, they're identical.
Japanese consumers went crazy for the re-released Tamagotchi, with Twitter users saying: "I got the Tamagotchi! It's smaller than I thought it would be but oh the memories!" and another tweeting: "I came to buy this immediately at Tamagotchi's 20th anniversary". Someone else tweeted: "The eggs were sold out right away! People were getting increasingly impatient..."
Continue reading: Tamagotchi is making a comeback, after 20 years (full post)
eSports team Fnatic raises $7 million in new funding
We hear about financing rounds in other businesses like start ups and new companies, but eSports is quickly turning into the next big thing in sports. Now professional eSports team Fnatic have raised $7 million in funding that will be put to good use across many teams, competing in many games, in multiple countries across the world.
Fnatic is so big that it even opened its first retail location last year, but needs the injection of funds to continue spreading staff and infrastructure throughout the world.
The $7 million in new funding comes from a few interesting companies and people, with Boston Celtics owner Jim Pallotta along with The Raptor Group - the private investment firm owned by AS Roma president, as well as the CEO and founder of Fractal Design, the Swedish case and cooling giant. MIT Media Lab director Joi Ito, and Hersh Interactive Group also added to the funding round.
Continue reading: eSports team Fnatic raises $7 million in new funding (full post)
AMD acquires Nitero for their 60GHz Wi-FI for VR/AR tech
Nitero has been a company getting its name into headlines by teasing that it was working on phase-array beamforming millimeter wave 60GHz chip for VR headsets, with the fabless semiconductor company based in Austin, Texas - perfect for AMD with its base there.
AMD acquired Nitero without many details, but the deal includes Nitero's wireless virtual reality IP, and all of its employees, with Nitero co-founder and CEO, Pat Kelly, joining AMD as their new Corporate Vice President, Wireless IP. AMD's Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President, Mark Papermaster, said in a press release: "Unwieldly headset cables remain a significant barrier to drive widespread adoption of VR. Our newly acquired wireless VR technology is focused on solving this challenge, and is another example of AMD making long-term technology investments to develop high-performance computing and graphics technologies that can create more immersive computing experiences".
The future that AMD buys with the acquisition shows their commitment to the next generation of VR technology, as the high-end 60GHz wireless technology will allow massive amounts of bandwidth to be blasted between the base station and your next-gen wireless VR headset. It will allow high-quality VR at much higher resolutions than we have today, at much higher refresh rates than we have today, in room-scale VR environments without the base station needing to be in line of sight.
Continue reading: AMD acquires Nitero for their 60GHz Wi-FI for VR/AR tech (full post)
Project CARS 2 has support for everything on PC/consoles
It looks like Slightly Mad Studios is putting everything they've got into Project CARS 2, with Creative Director Andy Tudor recently speaking with RedBull about the Project CARS 2 and its support for the PS4 Pro and upcoming Project Scorpio console.
Tudor said: "Yes, absolutely. We're all gadget freaks at our studio, so if there's any wheel, pedal, VR, second-screen apps, triple screen, 21:9 monitors, or consoles, yeah, PSVR, PS4 Pro, and also Microsoft Scorpio, we will always be looking to utilise them in some way. I can confirm that PS4 Pro and Xbox Scorpio will get some sort of improvements, but we can't really talk about the Scorpio stuff at the moment, because not very much is known. You'll have to wait until Microsoft themselves reveal more information on that".
Personally, I'm loving the scope of what SMS has with Project CARS 2 - as they're supporting so many different products and technologies, across multiple platforms. We have VR support for both the PC and PS4, upgraded visuals and rendering resolutions for PS4 Pro and Project Scorpio, 21:9 and triple-monitor setups on the PC, and "any wheel, pedal" you can find.
Continue reading: Project CARS 2 has support for everything on PC/consoles (full post)
G2A: we already do everything Gearbox demanded
G2A has responded to Gearbox's ultimatum by highlighting all the ways its marketplace already strives to meet the demands.
Earlier this week, Gearbox Software got into a tussle with G2A, the key reseller who it had signed an agreement with. Gearbox signed a deal to promote its newly publisher Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition on G2A's marketplace. Soon after learning about the deal, YouTube's Total Biscuit called attention to the deal by spreading the news on Twitter and boycotting all Gearbox games from his coverage. Gearbox reached out to TB and reportedly wrote up an ultimatum for G2A to follow or else the publisher would pull out of the deal.
As you could imagine, G2A didn't agree, as the company would have to overturn its business strategy within up to 90 days. But G2A now says the main reason it didn't agree was because the marketplace already protects its sellers in specific ways, and the company broke all of those protections down in a recent statement to Eurogamer.
Continue reading: G2A: we already do everything Gearbox demanded (full post)
Project Scorpio: Forza 6 native 4K60FPS Ultra at 88% GPU
We've already reported that Project Scorpio enables native 4K 60FPS in Forza 6 with 66% GPU usage with normal Xbox One "High" graphics preset, and also clarified that the game even hit native 4K 60FPS with settings akin to Ultra PC settings. Now the Forza devs at Turn 10 push it even farther by confirming Forza 6 exceeded its Ultra PC in 4K 60FPS on Scorpio.
As Digital Foundry's Richard Leadbetter reports, "the quality settings from Forza Motorsport 6 Apex on PC can be fully invoked on Scorpio. Turn 10 literally ramped up everything to ultra and it just worked, with the game retaining a 4K60 performance level."
Certainly 4K 60FPS with Ultra PC settings took quite a bit of GPU usage, right? Remember Project Scorpio uses a highly customized GPU based on AMD's Polaris architecture, with 6TFLOPs of power and a 1172MHz clock speed. Oddly enough, Scorpio's GPU wasn't even maxed out hitting that insane perf: Scorpio hit 4K 60FPS Ultra PC settings in Forza 6: Motorsport Apex with 88% GPU usage.
Continue reading: Project Scorpio: Forza 6 native 4K60FPS Ultra at 88% GPU (full post)
'Thor: Ragnarok' unleashes first trailer
With Marvel's first film of the year almost upon us in 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2', the studio has turned their attention to promoting the upcoming third entry in the 'Thor' saga; 'Ragnarok', which has just released its first-look trailer.
Set directly after the events of 'Avengers: Age of Ultron', 'Ragnarok' finds Thor held captive on the planet Sakaar without his signature weapon and forced to fight a gladiatorial duel against Hulk in order to stop the destruction of Asgard. 'Ragnarok' stars Chris Hemsworth reprising his role as Thor for a fifth time, alongside Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Mark Ruffalo as Hulk, and Jeff Goldblum as the villainous Grandmaster.
'Thor: Ragnarok' hits 3D, 2D and IMAX screens worldwide from November 3, 2017.
Continue reading: 'Thor: Ragnarok' unleashes first trailer (full post)
ISS expedition 50 crew members return to Earth
Expedition 50 crew members safely returned to Earth on Monday after 173 days in space.
The Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft, carrying Expedition 50 Commander Shane Kimbrough of NASA, and Flight Engineers Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, has landed in Kazakhstan at approximately 7:20 AM. The three touched down southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan.
"It was a textbook touchdown," said NASA's spokesperson Rob Navias. "The Soyuz was pulled by its main parachute onto its side, but the crew was quickly extracted and are in good shape."
Continue reading: ISS expedition 50 crew members return to Earth (full post)
Blizzard has numerous secret projects in the works
Blizzard is working on a few new projects right now, and another key executive has shifted roles to work on one of these mysterious games.
StarCraft II's lead gameplay designer David Kim has left the series to work on a new undisclosed project at Blizzard. Kim announced his departure from StarCraft on the Blizzard forums. Kim's words indicate he's working on a new project outside of the RTS realm, possibly the new Diablo project. "I've reached a point in my career where I've decided to branch out to a different project, to explore, learn, and grow as a game designer. This other project will be right here at Blizzard, so I hope working on this next game will be as awesome as my experience working on SC2 and with the community."
Right now we know that Blizzard is making a "new unannounced Diablo game"--possibly Diablo 4--and started a hiring spree back in March for a game director, senior concept artist, senior character artist, and a lighting artist. All of those roles have been filled and the listings have since been taken down.
Continue reading: Blizzard has numerous secret projects in the works (full post)
ZTE launches its first Android Wear smartwatch - Quartz
ZTE has launched their first Android Wear 2.0 smartwatch named Quartz.
The ZTE Quartz comes with a circular 1.4-inch AMOLED display along with Gorilla Glass 3. The smartwatch is powered by Snapdragon Wear 2100 and comes with 768MB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage.
The watch features a 500 mAh battery, which is larger than the LG Watch Sport's 430 mAh cell. The company claims that the battery will give you up to 36 hours of battery life per charge.
Continue reading: ZTE launches its first Android Wear smartwatch - Quartz (full post)
Project Scorpio has the power, now it needs games
With its new 4K-ready Project Scorpio console, Microsoft has certainly brought the power. But what about the games? Any new console needs a host of new games that leverage the full extent of that system's power. Can we expect Microsoft to reveal tons of new first-party console exclusives soon? Probably not, and here's why.
As I said before, I think Project Scorpio was made for developers. With an incredible synergy between hardware and software, developers can tap the console's raw power and striking intelligence to make truly next-generation experiences. With Scorpio's 6TFLOP Polaris-derived GPU, its highly customized 2.73GHz Jaguar evolved CPU, 12GB of GDDR5 system RAM, and the highly efficient software toolsets, APIs, and other resources, developers are armed with the tools they need to bring their visions to life--all without having to make significant compromises in the process. Still, though, the Xbox brand just isn't attractive to a good portion of developers--mainly Japanese devs--and Microsoft has a hard time making exclusivity deals.
Don't expect this to change with Project Scorpio.
Continue reading: Project Scorpio has the power, now it needs games (full post)
Arkane: Prey's scope is mind-boggling
Arkane's new Prey game looks quite interesting, and I have a feeling it melds some distinct psychological horror-weirdness with old-school first-person shooter action. That sounds like quite a formula, and Arkane is pretty impressed with what they've built.
In fact, Arkane's Lead System Designer Seth Shain says Prey is quite mind-boggling. "The sheer audacity of what we have dared to build in this game, it's a little bit mind-boggling to me," Shain said in a recent interview with GameTM magazine.
"The fact that we were able to stuff it all into this package called Prey is kind of amazing; it's a testament to the team and the passion of the developers we have here. Everybody shared in this vision and really wanted to see this thing through the end."
Continue reading: Arkane: Prey's scope is mind-boggling (full post)
The Nokia 9 powered by Snapdragon 835 could cost $700
Nokia's Snapdragon 835 powered flagship has been rumored for a while, and it is believed that the device will be named the Nokia 9.
Nokia recently announced the modern version of the Nokia 3310 and three smartphones, but their flagship is yet to come.
Recent rumors have suggested that the Nokia 9 will have a 5.5-inch QHD OLED screen, 6GB of RAM, and 64GB or 128GB of internal storage. The same leak claims that the device will come with 22MP dual-lens Carl Zeiss rear camera and a 12MP front-facing shooter. Other features should include 3,800 mAh battery support for Qualcomm Quick Charge 4, fingerprint sensor, and iris scanner. The phone should also have IP68 certification.
Continue reading: The Nokia 9 powered by Snapdragon 835 could cost $700 (full post)
Nintendo Direct announced for April 12
Nintendo today announced that it'll hold a Nintendo Direct showcase on April 12.
The Nintendo Direct will mainly focus on ARMS and Splatoon 2, but the Japanese console-maker will also discuss Nintendo Switch and Nintendo 3DS plans as well.
I don't think we'll hear about Nintendo Switch's extremely anticipated Virtual Console launch during this Direct, so keep that in mind. Hopefully we'll get some snippets on new Nintendo Switch games like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
Continue reading: Nintendo Direct announced for April 12 (full post)
Minecraft will soon have microtransactions
Well Microsoft, you've finally done it. Not content with shoving gambling-style microtransactions in its biggest games (Halo 5 and Gears of War 4), Microsoft unloads a new money-making strategy onto Minecraft, the indie sensation that will soon have its own virtual currency (because why not?!). Minecraft's new strategy culminates with a new storefront and virtual currency combo that will let users buy skins, textures and other content made by their favorite creators.
Minecraft's new digital storefront allows creators and modders sell their user-created maps, mini-games, and skins for virtual currency called Minecraft Coins. These coins can be purchased with real life cash in denominations of 300 MC for $1.99, 840 MC for $4.99, and 1,720 coins for $9.99. Creators earn the lion's share of the sales at over 50%, and 30% goes back to the storefront.
"The idea is to give Minecraft creators another way to make a living from the game, allowing them to support themselves in the creation of ever-greater projects, while giving Pocket and Windows 10 players access to a growing catalogue of fun stuff - curated and supplied by us, safely and simply," Microsoft says.
Continue reading: Minecraft will soon have microtransactions (full post)
Project Scorpio only takes 1% perf hit with 4K assets
Microsoft has already proven that Project Scorpio can indeed scale 1080p Xbox One games to full native 3840 x 2160 4K resolution, in part thanks to the console's 6 TFLOP Polaris-derived GPU and the multitude of tweaks, customizations, and adjustments throughout the entire system. But 1080p assets are much, much lighter than native 4K assets, and anyone who games in 4K can tell you those art assets get quite huge. Being a machine made specifically to hit native 4K gaming, Scorpio only takes a marginal performance hit switching to 4K assets.
Just in case you're unfamiliar with how Microsoft's new Project Scorpio works, here's a quick run down. The system is built to scale up Xbox One games from 900p and 1080p to full native 4K resolution, and then utilize native 4K game textures and art assets to match the game's scaled resolution. Xbox One games will need specific patches and adjustments to hit the full 4K experience--textures and resolution--and games built on DirectX 12 will enjoy significantly better CPU performance. We've already seen a tech demo equal to Forza Motorsport 6: Apex (which runs on DX12) hit native 4K 60FPS at normal Xbox One settings (high preset) with only 66% of the GPU used. Digital Foundry confirms that the game can still hit 4K 60FPS even with settings equal to PC's Ultra settings with about 80-100% of the GPU used.
Switching from 1080p assets to 4K textures and assets is one of the major halves of Project Scorpio's 4K-ready gaming, so it's quite important the switch doesn't take away too many resources to accomplish. In fact, swapping to 4K assets only hits Scorpio's performance by 1% in specifically optimized games. According to Digital Foundry's Richard Leadbetter, this hit is negligible: "Turn 10's software architect Chris Tector told me that swapping between 1080p and Ultra HD assets has around a 1% hit to performance. Basically margin of error then."
Continue reading: Project Scorpio only takes 1% perf hit with 4K assets (full post)
Mega Man to return in new animated TV Show
To co-incide with the 30th anniversary of the Capcom franchise, the developer has struck a new agreement with the Cartoon Network which will see the two companies team up for a new animated series.
In an announcement published by Den of Geek, 'Ben 10' co-creator says that "Mega Man is a character that is even more relevant for today's kids and we are really looking forward to creating something new that still respects the long tradition of the character." The new version of the show, which will premier later this year with a 26 episode series will feature "unflinching wide-eyed optimism and an over-the-top sense of humor... it's full on fun ahead." No doubt all parties are hoping to emulate the success of the original 1990's Mega Man series, which ran for a number of seasons.
Continue reading: Mega Man to return in new animated TV Show (full post)
Super Nintendo returns with transparent exterior
The days of the SNES might be behind us, but Rose Colored Gaming has unveiled something that will have Super Nintendo fans jumping for excitement: a limited run of transparent SNES consoles, refurbished from slightly damaged consoles.
Rose Colored Gaming takes the hardware out of the broken SNES, and then made acrylic enclosures for them. They explained: "These SNES consoles have been treated to a 100% brand new, hand-built exterior, all while retaining complete original function. Each is assembled by hand with the care and attention to detail that you have come to expect from RCG. The housing consists of laser cut and etched acrylic components which have been drilled, bent, bonded, threaded, & assembled using all new anodized aluminum hardware".
RCG continues: "Many internal components have been slathered in various finishes then etched in order to accentuate items which were never meant to be seen. All hand-built, these units will only be available in VERY limited quantities upon release, with each being treated to a unique serial number".
Continue reading: Super Nintendo returns with transparent exterior (full post)
Intel panic ryzing: X299 reportedly launching in June
AMD has well and truly shaken up the consumer CPU market with its new Ryzen processors, and it seems it has had a profound effect on Chipzilla - which has reportedly rescheduled the launch of their next-gen X299 platform, bringing the launch up to June.
Intel was reportedly planning to launch X299 and their new Skylake-X and Kaby Lake-X processors sometime in the first week of August, but now Intel will reportedly launch Skylake X in late-June. This means we should see it fully unveiled during Computex in late-May/early-June, with the new CPUs arriving on the LGA2066 socket (Socket R4) - without integrated graphics.
The difference between Skylake-X and Kaby Lake-X is that Kaby Lake-X will offer 4 cores, while Skylake-X offers up to 10 cores.
Continue reading: Intel panic ryzing: X299 reportedly launching in June (full post)
NVIDIA's new TITAN Xp teardown, reveals GP102-450 GPU
NVIDIA's new TITAN Xp has caused quite the stir, so much so that I wrote an OpEd on it - asking if NVIDIA were pre-emptively striking against AMD's upcoming Radeon RX Vega. People have already received their new TITAN Xp graphics cards, and are taking them apart - so we can see what improvements, if any, that NVIDIA has on TITAN Xp.
The new TITAN Xp rocks the same Pascal-based GP102-450 GPU as the professional Quadro P6000 graphics card.
The upgraded cooling system on the TITAN Xp.
Continue reading: NVIDIA's new TITAN Xp teardown, reveals GP102-450 GPU (full post)






















