Latest News - Page 2437

Destiny's new expansion will be called Rise of Iron, and it'll feature a dedicated raid activity along with expansive content.

A promo pic for Destiny's new Rise of Iron DLC was leaked onto Reddit just hours ago, and sources confirmed to Kotaku that the promotional image is indeed genuine. The outlet reports that Rise of Iron will have its own raid activity that's "loosely based" on the scrapped House of Wolves raid, and the expansion will be bigger than The Dark Below and House of Wolves--but likely not as big as The Taken King.

Rise of Iron shows the Iron Banner's Lord Saladin brandishing a fearsome fiery axe, and the expansion will obviously be based on the game's legendary nine Lords of Iron Titans. We could even see old Ironlords like Timur, Felwinter, Perun and Radegast appear once again in some form.

Battlefield 1 surprised most people, with its throwback to the World War 1 days, but we're only finding out now that the original pitch by DICE for the WW1 theme was 'totally rejected' by EA.

EA's Executive VP Patrick Söderland didn't think the WW1 theme would appeal to players, saying that a game focused on trench war couldn't "be fun to play". During EA's recent Investors Day, Söderland said: "It wasn't the most obvious choice. When the team presented to me the idea of World War 1 I absolutely rejected it. I said 'World War 1 is a trench war, it can't be fun to play".

Söderland added: "The team continued and persisted in the fact that this can be fun, and showed up with a very short demo that convinced me at least that this was the right path. The good news is whenever you take creative risks and it works, you actually can get to substantial success". He continued, finishing off with: "I think that the World War 1 theme is resonating with players out there, I think we have done something that will be right for the franchise and right for EA [but] we have to remember that so far we've only shown one trailer, and yes it's gotten a lot of success, but what's important is now we have to go back and make sure we deliver on the full promise of what Battlefield can be - and that we will do".

Hit Rockstar games like Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto could one day get VR adaptations, but only when VR becomes "consumer's platform of choice".

"I think in general these are all opportunities. I've talked about VR in the past--there's a lot of excitement in the marketplace, and a lot of our people are excited too. We're still in our R&D route because this still isn't a consumer business. We want to be really clear: if this is the consumer's platform of choice, we'll bring our IP's to it aggressively and ambitiously. We just tend not to vote when we don't have to," Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick said during an investor relations call.

Given how expansive Take-Two's labels are--Rockstar Games, 2K Games, 2K Sports, Irrational Games--we could see a huge number of IPs getting remade on VR, including GTA, BioShock, Red Dead Redemption and a huge offering of sports titles. The publisher is all about chasing new opportunities, but isn't ready to gamble on VR just yet--not until it becomes bigger and more gamers own an HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, or PlayStation VR.

The 2016 superhero success story 'Deadpool' has now become the first major new release title to hit the fledgling 4K UltraHD Blu-ray format, and the movie's filmmakers are more than happy to promote the product.

Speaking to Home Media Magazine at a promotional event for the release, Director Tim Miller remarked "The Ultra HD was just fuc*ing amazing at the level of detail. I truly thought it was the best-looking version of the movie by far" before selling the relationship-building aspect "Dudes can watch this with their wives. My wife hates everything I do, and she loved this movie." The film's colorist Tim Stippen also talked up the HDR grading, saying "The amount of detail that you get in the flames, you see so much more. It all of a sudden has more dimension to it. It almost becomes more 3D. Also, Deadpool's costume was the other big thing I noticed because it's got a really fine weave to it and suddenly all the detail in that costume kind of comes out. I think this is the wave of the future because you're seeing more of what the camera captured".

'Deadpool' is now available on 4K UltraHD Blu-ray in the U.S., and hits stores in Australia next week.

Take-Two teases that Rockstar is working on some "exciting future projects" which will be revealed soon, likely teasing Red Dead Redemption 2 and maybe GTA 6.

We already know Rockstar won't release Red Dead Redemption 2 until after April 2017 (FY2018), but the game will almost certainly be revealed at E3 2016--and possibly GTA 6 too. "Looking ahead, we expect to grow Non-GAAP revenues and earnings in fiscal 2018, based on our robust development plan that extends well beyond the current fiscal year. Rockstar Games is of course hard at work on some exciting future projects that will be revealed soon," Take Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said during the company's recent FY16 press release.

Zelnick further hinted at that the publisher has major AAA titles in its pipeline which will bolster FY2018 earnings significantly--what would boost sales higher than GTA 6 and Red Dead Redemption 2? "You mentioned you expect growth on revenue and earnings for FY18, so what gives you the confidence to say that now?" an analyst asked during the call's Q&A session. "It's what we're working on in our development studios," said CEO Strauss Zelnick. "We have very good visibility into our pipeline, and based on what we see, it gives us high confidence for FY18 growth," Take-Two President Karl Slatoff added.

Microsoft's goal is to top 60 percent wind, solar, and hydropower energy usage in its datacenters early in the next decade, company president and chief legal officer Brad Smith reveals.

The company currently sits at 44 percent; it will attempt to achieve 50 percent by the end of 2018, 60 percent in the early 2020s, and go from there.

The news is especially significant because by 2025 datacenters are expected to be some of the biggest users of electrical power worldwide.

Uber is hopping on the self-driving car...train? Anyway, its first vehicle will be driving on the streets on the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the coming weeks, and while it kind of looks like it might shoot missiles at any moment, the company assures it's just collecting mapping data and testing self-driving capabilities.

The Advanced Technologies Center run by Uber is located in Pittsburgh and was chosen for its engineering talent and research facilities, so it's only logical for it to serve as its testing ground. Meanwhile, city mayor William Peduto sounds awfully proud to be apart of it.

"From the first steel mills to the laboratories at Pitt and Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh has a long history of innovation," he says. "Now we're taking another step forward, this time as home to Uber's Advanced Technologies Center, where some of the world's leading innovators are helping to shape the future of transportation. We're excited that Uber has chosen the Steel City as they explore new technologies that can improve people's lives - through increased road safety, less congestion, and more efficient and smarter cities."

Neither Red Dead Redemption 2 or Grand Theft Auto 6 will release during Take-Two's Fiscal Year 2017, so don't expect any major sequels before April 2017. A 2017 release folds neatly in with the game's recent leaks.

Rockstar Games parent company Take-Two Interactive won't sneak in any major releases outside of its already-revealed FY2017 lineup, meaning Red Dead Redemption 2 won't launch until after the next fiscal year ends in April 2017.

"We've announced our entire release schedule for the year, and that's what you should expect our release schedule to be. Any changes would be performance based," Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said during the company's most recent fiscal earnings call.

Soon Windows 10 PC gamers will be able to make and edit Halo 5 Forge maps with the precision offered by mouse and keyboards.

Both Microsoft and 343 Industries have announced that Halo 5's Forge mode is coming to Windows 10 PCs as a free app, allowing gamers to build maps on PC and deploy them to Xbox One. Halo 5: Guardians is still Xbox One exclusive, however.

"Forge on the PC will finally give the mouse/keyboard editing precision the community has always been clamoring for. On top of that, an updated and optimized UI geared towards mouse interactions makes a lot of the inputs in Forge easier/faster than before," said 343i's Tom French.

Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City are being remastered for an all-inclusive package Warner Bros. calls Batman: Return to Arkham. Both games will utilize Unreal Engine 4 as opposed to Unreal Engine 3 they were originally built on and will feature improved models, environments, lighting, effects, and shaders.

The collection is being worked on by Virtuos, the team behind the recently released and well-done Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster as well as Fable Anniversary, so it's in good hands.

Return is exclusive to Xbox One and PlayStation 4, which isn't surprising given the engine upgrade offers no definitive graphical improvement over the PC versions of the game, judging from the trailer. The Arkham Knight fiasco probably doesn't help, either.

Google has yet another messaging client in the works. Called Allo, it effectively replaces traditional SMS texting with a Facebook-like interface and features while still using phone numbers as the contact method. So, you can benefit from read message notifications, typing notifications, emojis, stickers, group chats, and improved picture display among other things.

In addition to that, there are some cool Google-specific features such as Ink (handwriting and drawing as seen in MSN Messenger many moons ago), Whisper Shout (increase text size for a given message to 'shout' at people -- great for arguments!), and smart reply (quick reply options that learn from your chat history).

And then there's Google assistant, which lets you do things like check sports scores, book dinner, play games, search Google, use Maps, share YouTube videos, look at photos from your Gallery, and so on, all without leaving Allo. Voice interaction is supported here, too.

Microsoft is reportedly preparing for new hardware to be unveiled during E3 2016 next month, as well as a "new standard controller that ships with the Xbox One", reports Thurrott.

The new standard controller will have a similar physical look to the current design, but it will arrive in a new color. Microsoft currently ships a black controller with the Xbox One, but will reportedly change it up with a mid-cycle refresh to help sagging sales. The big news here is that Microsoft is wanting to continue its work on interactions between the Xbox One and PC thanks to Windows 10, where the company wants to make Windows 10 on the desktop and Xbox One a "killer combination". The company is hoping to really squeeze the ecosystem to create completely unique experiences for games, that happen to be on other platforms.

But the even bigger news is that Microsoft has "something else up its sleeve", but it's a "much bigger deal" than the new controller reports Thurrott. I'm expecting for the company to pounce down hard at E3 2016 and announce a new Xbox with a VR headset, working directly with AMD and this is what AMD also has up its sleeve. The PS4K and PSVR are going to seriously chomp into Microsoft's sales, and the news of Nintendo leveraging a Pascal-based Tegra processor from NVIDIA for their Nintendo NX console is super exciting - but right now, what does Microsoft have to fight it? Nothing... and that's why a huge next-gen reveal at E3 2016 makes perfect sense.

G.Skill have always been at the bleeding edge of RAM frequencies, with the company unveiling its new flagship Trident Z DDR4 memory kits. There are 9 kits in total, ranging between 16GB and 64GB capacities.

The new Trident Z line from G.Skill uses Samsung's ultra high-performance DDR4 8Gb ICs, ensuring some of the highest frequencies we've ever seen. G.Skill's flagship 16GB DDR4-4266MHz Trident Z kit is a blistering fast kit of RAM, requiring 1.35V for its 4266MHz speeds at 19-23-23-42 latencies.

Below this flagship Trident Z kit are the DDR4-3466MHz models with 14-14-14-34 latencies in 16GB (2x8GB) and 32GB (4x8GB or 2x16GB), as well as 64GB kits (4x16GB), with all of the kits requiring 1.35V of power. The lower-end DDR4-3200MHz Trident Z kits have latencies of 13-13-13-33, with 1.35V of power required.

Did you know eSports is just a "promotional tool"... yeah, neither did I. According to Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of Take-Two, eSports isn't a profitable standalone business just yet, as he believes in physical goods continuing to be profitable into the future.

Zelnick isn't convinced about eSports just yet, saying: "eSports we find very interesting. It is, however, still more a promotional tool than anything else. And most people see eSports as an opportunity to increase consumer engagement in their titles, and depending on the title, to increase consumer spending within the title".

It's not like Take-Two hasn't been involved with eSports, as they held an NBA 2K tournament with 92,000 teams competing for a huge $250,000 prize. The final 16 teams will compete in a single-elimination tournament over the weekend, with the finals taking place during the NBA Finals next month. Zelnick talked about the tournament, adding: "It's just the beginning for us. It's very gratifying so far, but we have yet to see it as a stand-alone profitable business. We see it more as an adjunct to consumer engagement in our titles".

Google I/O is taking place right now, with the search giant untiling its plans for VR with the announcement of its Daydream VR platform.

Google's new Daydream VR platform includes smartphones, headsets, controllers and apps - and will run on Android-powered smartphones, with under 20ms of latency says Google's VP of VR, Clay Bavor. Bavor said: "VR should be mobile, approachable". In a statement, Google said: "Together with Android manufacturers, we're working on upcoming phones, and sharing designs with them for a VR viewer and controller that will be really immersive, comfortable and intuitive to use. Your favorite apps and games will be coming to Daydream too, including Google's-like YouTube, Street View, Play Movies, Google Photos and the Play Store. More to come this fall".

Developers have already started work on Daydream VR, with Resolution Games' CEO Tommy Palm saying: "With Daydream's potential reach and accessibility and the current mobile VR headsets on the market, mobile is on track to become the number one VR platform in regards to headsets in the marketplace and potential for mainstream adoption. We are very excited to have been invited to be a part of Google's new VR initiative. We feel we share the same vision for VR and are looking forward to working together to increase VR's spread into mainstream and setting additional standards for the future of VR".

Following news late last year that the CBS network had committed to relaunching 'Star Trek' on TV in 2017, comes today's logo reveal in a very early teaser video.

Produced by Trek luminaries Alex Kurtzman, and Nicholas Meyer, alongside TV legend Bryan Fuller, the new series being produced under the temporary working title 'Star Trek' is set to premier next January, with filming beginning in Toronto in the coming months. No cast announcements have yet been made, but are expected to be announced soon. Meanwhile, the third film in the rebooted 'Star Trek' feature film franchise; 'Beyond' is set to premier in July this year.

With celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the sci-fi franchise ongoing, 2016 is sure shaping up as an exciting one for Trekkers.

NVIDIA's Shield TV device is set to receive its new v3.2 software soon, which will make it the first Android TV-based device to support High Dynamic Range (HDR) video. Android 7.0 will be capable of HDR, but NVIDIA wants to be first.

HDR will open the doors to VUDU and Netflix with HDR content, with HDR using different video feeds at different light levels combined to make the image vibrant with colors at all lighting levels. The catch? You'll need an HDR-capable TV, and there's not many of those, yet. Additionally, the v3.2 update to Shield will include support for 4K 60FPS playback on YouTube.

Not only that, but the new Shield update will allow NVIDIA's GameStream service to access HDR content as well, but with no date provided by NVIDIA, we don't know when to expect the exciting new update for Shield. Boo.

Google will be releasing Android N later this year, but during its ongoing Google I/O event, the company has begun peeling back the layers from Android 7.0 and teasing the world.

Android 7.0 focuses on the way users interact with the OS, with improvements to the already great user experience that'll be made through faster runtime and reduced storage space that gets sucked up by apps. Google is bringing the most optimized experience to Android 7.0, explaining: "We are redesigning how the features and the OS works to make the user experience better".

Google took to its Twitter account, tweeting: "The biggest changes in Android N are around performance, security and productivity". Android 7.0 will include a new Direct Reply feature that will let you long press a notification, and then respond directly from the notification itself. Improved multi-tasking abilities will arrive with Android 7.0, with split-screen support and an iOS-like Picture-in-Picture mode.

The remake of the classic sci-fi comedy 'Ghostbusters' has been received thus far with a mixture of indifference, annoyance and straight out venomous hatred, and the film's questionable marketing campaign has done it no favours whatsoever. The studio has today released another trailer to make amends, but does it fare any better? You be the judge.

Despite a solid cast including Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones, Kate McKinnon and Melissa McCarthy and cameos by original stars Sigourney Weaver, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, the 'Ghostbusters' reboot has so far struggled to gain positive traction, unhelped by Director Paul Feig lashing out at "asshole" critics in a spray that only further alienated the film's target demographic.

Whether you want it to or not, 'Ghostbusters' hits screens worldwide in July.

Netflix has launched its speed test site Fast.com. Like Speedtest.net (which it links to for comparison purposes), it tells you your current download speed with a brief data test. In this case, the data is downloaded from Netflix servers.

Unlike with Speedtest.net, the test is extremely quick, the site pretty much only features the test itself, and it elects to nix upload speed and ping results, saying it's aimed at consumers of data who want a quick, straightforward tool (which makes sense given a lot of people will learn about it through Netflix).

The company says the results should be similar to what you see with Speedtest.net, so it's not about more accurate results, but simplicity and time.