Latest News - Page 2442

Instagram gets a makeover today, complete with a snazzy new icon and refreshed interface.

The new icon is inspired by the previous icon, while the design is intended to be simpler in an effort to put greater emphasis on photos and videos.

"The Instagram community has evolved over the past five years from a place to share filtered photos to so much more - a global community of interests sharing more than 80 million photos and videos every day," says Instagram. "Our updated look reflects how vibrant and diverse your storytelling has become."

Earlier this week, Amazon listings indicated a disc option was out for Battlefield 1 on PC. Today, EA confirms the news, although notes some regions will still have the option.

"Here in North America, there will be a PC box version that you can buy in stores that will have a code in the box and no disc," a representative said. "If you buy that same PC box version Internationally, some countries will offer a disc inside."

No doubt this is a response to a lack of demand for a disc version; PC gamers have long been more about downloads which have been inherent to the platform for longer than with consoles, and the gap seems to widen more every year.

Last week it was reported WhatsApp might be on its way to Windows. Turns out that's true, as a new Windows download on the official site proves.

Now for the bad news. The app isn't exactly an app, but a wrapper, meaning it simply mirrors the mobile version of WhatsApp -- which is required to use the Windows version -- rather than being a native UWP app as you'd hope. It's possible WhatsApp is working on a UWP version and this is merely to tide users over; it's also possible it's done this way for security reasons.

So while no native app is disappointing, it's better than nothing, no?

Battlefield 1 will have micro-transaction-style purchases, says EA CEO Andrew Wilson.

DICE's new WW1-based shooter Battlefield 1 will allow players to buy "micro-monetization options" consisting of "valuable, small-scale" increments. "In Battlefield 1 you will see both macro-monetization--like maps and large-scale content--as well as micro-monetization opportunities," EA CEO Andrew Wilson said in the company's FY17 earnings call. "These will be smaller increments of gameplay. Over time what you'll see from us is elements of gameplay that allow gamers to engage and expand their experience much the way people do with FIFA Ultimate Team today."

Wilson didn't reveal what exactly these "micro-monetization" options are (probably Battlepacks), but affirms that the company isn't going to embrace a pay-to-win style scheme. "We never want to be in a place where there's a belief that we are providing a pay-to-win mechanic inside one of our games."

Civilization VI has been announced by 2K Games, with a release this October.

2K Games has revealed Sid Meier's Civilization VI, the latest in the landmark grand strategy series. Civ VI's Steam page is now up, revealing the game's October 21, 2016 release date and key details. Check below for more info: "Civilization VI offers new ways to interact with your world, expand your empire across the map, advance your culture, and compete against history's greatest leaders."

"Civilization VI offers new ways to engage with your world: cities now physically expand across the map, active research in technology and culture unlocks new potential, and competing leaders will pursue their own agendas based on their historical traits as you race for one of five ways to achieve victory in the game."

Now that CD Projekt RED finally announced Geralt's final adventure will launch on May 31, a new bit of gameplay has launched to showcase the expansion's huge new content offering.

The new Witcher 3: Blood and Wine gameplay video highlights some of the new monsters Geralt will hunt down in Toussaint, including a terrifying banshee-screeching vampire-harpy, a hulking giant that causes seismic quakes with its stomps, and a near-invincible stone golem.

The footage also shows off the new enchanting and vibrant realm of Toussaint, a new "self-contained" region that has higher fidelity and graphics than the base game. About "90% of the assets featured in Toussaint" are brand new, and the region features over 30 hours of exploration, 90 new quests, and a massive laundry list of improvements and optimizations that weren't in The Witcher 3. As it's Geralt's last adventure, CDPR promises the Blood and Wine DLC will be "better than the main game", with a storyline full of twists and turns and a "charismatic, unique enemy" for players to face.

EA confirms a new unannounced IP for 2017, which lines neatly up with BioWare's new mystery IP project.

BioWare's new IP could launch next year, according to EA's Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen. "We do have a new IP coming next year, we haven't yet announced it, but it's something that you'll see probably coming up soon," Jorgensen said in EA's FY2016 earnings call.

We've known that BioWare has been working on a mysterious new IP for quite some time, even as the devs prep Mass Effect: Andromeda for its early 2017 release.

The new Star Wars action game from Dead Space developer Visceral Games will release in 2018.

In its recent earnings call, EA revealed a roadmap release schedule for upcoming games, including Titanfall 2 and the array of new Star Wars games from studios like Visceral Games, DICE, and Respawn. "We'll most likely have one Star Wars title a year for the next three to four years," said EA's CFO Blake Jorgensen.

According to the call, Visceral Games' new Star Wars action game will launch in 2018. The game will be powered by the Frostbite 3 engine, and feature its own a spin-off story not directly tied to the films. Ex-Uncharted creative director/writer Amy Hennig will serve as creative director for the new game, and will co-write the story with another Uncharted alum, Todd Stashwick.

Late last year, Western Digital announced its huge $19 billion acquisition of Sandisk, with the company receiving its final regulatory approval today. Once it's complete, WD will become even bigger in the storage industry.

WD acquiring Sandisk will allow the company to have a strong position in the continuously growing NAND storage market, in a time where the demand for mechanical HDDs is falling. Sandisk is the third-largest producer of NAND flash in the world, behind industry giants like Toshiba and Samsung.

Sandisk's President and CEO, Sanjay Mehrotra, said: "We are pleased that the final regulatory approval has been received and we can now proceed with the planned combination with Western Digital. We thank our stakeholders for their support of this transaction and look forward to contributing to the success of Western Digital as it transforms into the leading storage solutions company".

With EA preparing both Battlefield 1 and Titanfall 2 for later this year, the publisher has teased a sequel to Star Wars Battlefront, its luke warm first-person shooter from last year. The publisher has announced the sequel for its 2017 fiscal year.

This means we can expect the Star Wars Battlefront sequel sometime in the second half of the year, and with over 14 million copies sold, there's no surprise when it comes to the sequel being in development. EA's Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen said during the call: "We'll most likely have one Star Wars title a year for the next three to four years".

EA will continue its Star Wars games with an untitled Star Wars game in development over at Visceral Games - the developer behind Battlefield Hardline, for 2018. We don't know much about this game, but it could be a third-person game, and with Visceral's experience in Dead Space, that's exciting news.

Electronic Arts is riding the wave of awesome marketing for its Battlefield 1 unveil, with the publisher scheduling Titanfall 2 for later this year in the fall.

In EA's slide presentation for its 2017 fiscal year, Titanfall 2 is listed for a release in Q3 - sometime between October and December of this year. We should expect Respawn Entertainment to ship Titanfall 2 in the same window as DICE with Battlefield 1, making EA have one of its best quarters ever.

During an investor call, EA CEO Andrew Wilson said that the two games won't eat into each other's sales, calling the first-person shooter genre "a giant category in our industry". I agree, I think Titanfall 2 and Battlefield 1 are completely separate games with similar audiences, while some gamers will grab both. Will you be buying Battlefield 1 or Titanfall 2, or both?

The reboot of Need for Speed has been pretty good, with developer Ghost Games confirming a sequel for Need for Speed for 2017. The developer hasn't said much, but it said it will be building on the foundation it built with Need for Speed, in order to make the sequel.

Ghost Games said: "We are now building upon the foundations that have been laid with Need for Speed and delivering our next game in 2017". The developer added: "That's not to say that we're going quiet between now and then... far from it. We'll be working with our community and there will be multiple opportunities to bring many of you into the studio in the coming months to get your feedback on where we're headed".

Will you be picking up the new Need for Speed in 2017? What did you think of the reboot?

NVIDIA has blown away gamers across the world with its reveal of the GeForce GTX 1080 last week, but now we're hearing about partner cards and we're beginning to get super excited. Remember that we're actually giving away an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 'Founder's Edition' video card, and so much more in our global giveaway!

GIGABYTE has taken to its Xtreme Gaming Facebook page, teasing the above image and "Hey GIGABYTE Fans! We've got something coming! ;) Details coming soon". Quite the tease, considering that NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 1080 Founder's Edition is already ridiculously fast. GIGABYTE makes some of the best custom video cards on the market, so we're pretty excited to see what they can do with the GTX 1080 - especially with its newly shrunken 16nm FinFET technology, super-fast GDDR5X and exciting new Pascal architecture from NVIDIA.

Since taking the position of reviewing video cards here at TweakTown, I've yet to get a GIGABYTE model into review. Hopefully this changes with the new generation cards, and we can begin getting in some samples. I was hanging out with Jay of JayzTwoCents on YouTube, and he was telling me how much he loves his GIGABYTE video cards, but I haven't gotten my hands-on any yet. Now is my time! Let's do this, GIGABYTE!

The 2014 'Godzilla' reboot was a pretty reasonable success for Warner Bros, pulling in nearly $530 million worldwide on a $160 million budget, but the studios attempts to get a sequel up have been beset by delays, and now its just got another one.

According to ComingSoon, the studio has today announced a delay for the picture of almost a full year from its original June 2018 release date - and will now hit cinemas in March 2019 worldwide. Director Gareth Edwards is expected to remain on the project after he delivers this December's 'Star Wars' spin-off 'Rogue One'.

The delay is likely down to script development, which has evolved into a classic monsters cinematic universe of films.

Mass Effect: Andromeda is now confirmed to release "early 2017" by BioWare general manager Aaron Flynn, and will be shown off at E3 2016.

BioWare has just dropped a lengthy update post on Mass Effect: Andromeda, divulging new details and promising an E3 2016. Check below for the update, or click here to see leaked Mass Effect: Andromeda gameplay footage.

"With Mass Effect: Andromeda, our team at BioWare is exploring how far they can take this beloved franchise. Yes, we're building the best of what we all love about Mass Effect - amazing stories, characters and fun third-person shooter combat - and bringing them along with us on the expedition to Andromeda. But we're also excited to be introducing new features and ways you can enjoy a Mass Effect game."

Micron reached out to me over email today, ushering me into the knowledge that their exciting new GDDR5X memory has entered mass production. GDDR5X is the new memory powering the next-gen GeForce GTX 1080 video card that NVIDIA unveiled last week.

GDDR5X represents a huge leap in bandwidth, without having to shift over to the new HBM2 standard. GDDR5X provides 10Gbps of bandwidth, and when coupled with the 256-bit memory bus on the GTX 1080, results in 320GB/sec of memory bandwidth. Jen-Hsun Huang, co-founder and CEO of NVIDIA said at the GeForce GTX 1080 launch event: "This memory is so fast. It is so fast ... G5X, the fastest GDDR memory in the world".

We will see many partner cards based on the GTX 1080 at Computex, which kicks off in two weeks time.

Despite recent successes with the 'Disney Infinity' brand, it's been a tough few years for Disney Interactive to carve out a niche in the console business, and now the studio is calling it a day.

In a surprise announcement, Disney Infinity Senior VP and General Manager John Blackburn confirmed that the studio will cancel 'Disney Infinity' after the release of two expansion packs which are currently in production. Further, the company announced their intention to cease self publishing in their earnings call, necessitating a $147 million writedown.

It's understood that the studio will focus on licensing out the studios in future.

Amazon is opening up its Prime Video service to everyone today, allowing content creators to make money a la YouTube with a sub-service it calls Amazon Video Direct.

Said content will be available to Prime's tens of millions of users at no extra charge, to Amazon users as supported by ads, and through the Streaming Partners Program as an add-on; rentals and one-time purchases are also a distribution option for creators.

Earnings rates are competitive with YouTube (the same in some cases) and can be maximized with included performance metric tools.

Tremendous as Battlefield 1 looked in its debut trailer, there was a worry in the back of PC gamer's minds that all the goodness could be ruined by a lack of a server browser. Normally this is assumed for Battlefield games on PC, but DICE's recent Star Wars: Battlefront did not feature one, and well, PC gamers have been blindsided by moves like this enough times to be wary until given a specific reason not to.

Worry no more, as the official Battlefield Twitter account has confirmed a server browser will indeed be included with the game (presumably for consoles as well). Whether or not this means Battlelog support, we can't yet say, however.

If you're new to PC or PC shooters, server browsers allow for a customized gameplay experience and the ability to easily play with specific people and communities, among other major benefits. So you can understand when one Twitter user aptly says in response to the news, "Thank baby Jesus."

While Microsoft has done a great job overall of bringing its recent Xbox One titles to PC under the Universal Windows Platform (UWP), they've seriously hampered those with powerful machines and displays by locking framerate and not supporting FreeSync and G-Sync. The feedback was loud and clear, though, and so they've responded with a Windows 10 update today that changes all of that.

The update will slowly roll out to everyone, but if you aren't seeing it in Windows Update and want it immediately, you can download it here.

Unfortunately, this won't automatically affect all UWP games: developers will have to update their games appropriately. Microsoft says Gears of War: Ultimate Edition and Forza Motorsport 6: Apex to be first in line with patches in the "very near future"; Rise of the Tomb Raider and Quantum Break should follow. Meanwhile, Killer Instinct seems unlikely as fighting games tend to have gameplay and framerate tied to each other, so an unlocked framerate would put gameplay in turbo mode.