While PlayStation Vita gamers have long felt that Sony has abandoned them, the Japanese console-maker has now confirmed that it'll be halting all first-perty games development on the yesteryear handheld.

The news comes straight from Sony Computer Entertainment Senior Vice President Masayasu Ito, who confirmed the news in a recent interview with Japanese game site 4Gamer: "Currently, first party studios have no titles in development for PS Vita," Ito said, closing the door on hope of new Sony titles on the handheld. "Since third parties are working very hard on PS Vita, SCE's own strategy is to focus on PS4, which is a new platform."

Sony apparently doesn't realize that one of the main reasons the PlayStation Vita never took off in the U.S. is because of the lack of game support. The disparity between games released in Japan and those released in the West is incredibly skewed to the overseas region, with North American gamers missing out on a huge portion of games and content.

With everyone and their uncle trying to get into eSports, we're now seeing industry juggernaut Activision-Blizzard enter the fold. Activision has just announced it has created an entire new division that is completely dedicated to eSports.

This new division is being led by Steve Bornstein (the former CEO of ESPN) and Mike Sepso (the co-founder of Major League Gaming), which gives some serious credit to eSports, on top of what we've seen from other companies and startups like Unikrn. The Director of Research and Consumer Insights at SuperData, Stephanie Llamas, told GamesIndustry.biz "This is major for eSports since they are the first publicly traded, multi-platform publisher to participate at this level".

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter also chimed in, where he said: "I think it's analogous (on a much smaller scale) to Facebook buying Oculus. Whatever people thought about the opportunity before, they have to consider it much more seriously now that there is a commitment from a well-capitalized firm. Activision clearly sees a ton of potential to profit from eSports, whether from tournament fees/commercial sponsorship fees from events, selling tickets to events, televising events (and collecting ad revenue) or sponsoring skill based wagering on events. They clearly see an opportunity, and are apparently willing to make a large bet on the potential of that opportunity to drive future profits".

If you ever want to visit Odessa, Ukraine, you might want to check out their latest monument which was erected in the honor of... well, Darth Vadar. Yes, Darth Vadar from Star Wars.

Alexander Milov has previously designed a huge robot statue, which can be found in Yuzhne, outside of Odessa. Milov's awesome-looking statue isn't just good looking, it's practical - as it includes a router inside of Vader's head, delivering Wi-Fi to those around him. Milov created the status by repurposing the existing Lenin statue which was located just outside of the factory.

The status was already scheduled for demolition that stands in line with new Ukranian laws on de-Communization, which requires all landmarks and geographic names dedicated to Lenin and other Communist figures to be eliminated, or removed. Workers at the Odessa factory didn't want the statue to be demolished, and instead requested for it to be redesigned - and what a redesign, we might add.

It's getting closer to the end of the year, where we're learning more about what the New Year will bring in terms of new GPU technology. AMD has reportedly taped out two of its next-gen GPUs, with "Ellesmere" and "Baffin" both taping out - and both part of the upcoming Radeon 400 series of video cards.

AMD has also reportedly secured itself a major OEM design win, according to a "source with knowledge" close to rumor site WCCFTech. The Ellesmere and Baffin GPUs aren't high-end parts, but they will fill the shoes of the most important part of AMD's graphics portfolio, the performance, and mainstream markets.

These aren't the successors to the Fury range at all, but more the Radeon 300 series that was rebranded earlier this year from the Radeon 200 series. We should expect more news on AMD's new cards in the coming months.

With all of the hoopla surrounding Star Wars, there's another massive movie that is coming soon - Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. The second movie in the new DCEU is coming out in March 2016, with a budget that is just as big as the two superheroes in the movie.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is rumored to have a budget of around $410 million, according to Latino Review, which would make it the most expensive movie in history. Considering the Superman reboot 'Man of Steel' cost $225 million, Warner Bros. must have some confidence that it's all going to pay off.

Securing Ben Affleck wouldn't have been cheap, and neither would a massive movie like this be when you consider all of the practical stunts, CG, and more. Then we have to consider the other superheroes joining Dawn of Justice - Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg - and baddies - Lex Luthor, and the rumored Doomsday - fans of the DC universe should begin to get very, very excited.

Just as we thought Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 couldn't get any worse on last-gen consoles, beleaguered developer Beenox has revealed that it's now targeting 30FPS on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 ports of the game.

When Activision announced that Black Ops 3's campaign would be totally cut out on last-gen flavors of the game, we know there was something seriously wrong. What happened? Isn't Treyarch one of the best developers, didn't they make a number of Call of Duty games on last-gen consoles, thus unlocking the potential of PS3 and Xbox 360? The problem was handing the game off to the inexperienced devs at Beenox--a move that is further impacting the game's release.

"I'd say that we tried to hit the 60 frames-per-second target, but it becomes harder when you're working on current gen platforms," Thomas Wilson, creative director at Beenox, told Develop Online in a recent interview. "We're basically looking more at something like 30fps. But still, the experience is very enjoyable, otherwise it's not Call of Duty."

It looks like Ubisoft's latest Rainbow Six shooter will continue the awkward trend that the games industry is moving toward, specifically the FPS genre. Rainbow Six: Siege might have microtransactions despite being a full-priced AAA game--a move we expect to see in F2P shooters.

Rainbow Six Animation Director Scott Mitchell hinted at the the news in a recent interview with Angry Joe, letting slip that Ubisoft's tactical shooter will leverage microtransactions in the form of "Rainbow Credits". "So the in-game currency is called Renowned, but we also have Rainbow Credits that can go towards unlocking things," Mitchell said, then asked an off-screen Ubisoft PR rep if he could talk more about the credits. The rep responded with a curt "no".

Renowned is the game's unlockable progression system, and Mitchell describes it as "essentially an in-game currency that you can use to buy skins, operators and weapons". Angry Joe caught the slip and pounced on it, trying to glean more info, but none was offered. Then he went on to ask if at any point gamers would be able to spend real money to buy Renowned or items, and Mitchell responded with a telling "we'll actually be going into this later with the DLC plan and all that kind of stuff very very soon."

Microsoft's Edge browser has a lot going for it, but it is missing a component many consider key to the modern browser: add-ons (or extensions, plugins -- whatever you want to call them). It's been stated support for them would come in 2015, but that's now officially been delayed to next year.

Today Microsoft released this statement on the matter: "We're committed to providing customers with a personalized web experience, which is why bringing extensions to Microsoft Edge continues to be a high priority. We're actively working to develop a secure extension model to make the safest and most reliable browser for our customers, and look forward to sharing more in a future Windows 10 update in 2016."

Edge, like every other browser, hasn't seen much use compared to the ever-dominant Chrome. This delay, necessary though it may be, further hurts Edge's chance of becoming a significant force in the crowded browser market. On the bright side, Insiders will get to try out add-ons before they go public, though when exactly is not yet known.

AMD has a new Embedded single-chip system-on-chip (SOC) processor family on the scene with its new R-Series. It's aimed at the high-end market, and packs its latest 64-bit CPU core "Excavator", as well as a third-gen GCN GPU architecture. It's also the first of its kind to support dual-channel 64-bit DDR4 (with speeds as high as DDR4-2400; DDR3 is also supported with speeds up to 2133).

On the graphics and video front, the R-Series supports High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC)1 for full 4K decode and DirectX 12; the specifications note up to eight compute units and two rendering blocks and GPU clock speeds up to 800MHz resulting in 819 GFLOPS. The company claims 22 percent better performance over the 2nd Generation AMD Embedded R-Series APU2 and 58 percent better performance over the Intel Broadwell Core i7 in graphics-intensive benches.

As for efficiency, AMD boasts full HSA implementation and hUMA utilization for what they feel results in great CPU, GPU, and memory performance. Additionally, thermal design power is configurable, and power usage is said to be reduced 35 percent compared to the 2nd Generation AMD Embedded R-Series APU.

We've known that BlackBerry's new Android smartphone is a premium handset for quite some time--BB's CEO John Chen reminds us that PRIVacy brings a sense of PRIViledge--but up until now we haven't had any indication on the company's definition of premium when it comes to cost. Now recent reports indicate that the Priv could cost as much as $749 in the U.S.

Up until now the company has left us in the dark concerning the key details of the hybrid-OS Priv smartphone. but a member of the Crackberry Forums has found what looks to be specifications, launch date, and pricing for the BlackBerry phone.

BlackBerry's own website is the apparent source of the info, revealing that the Priv will supposedly launch on November 16, 2015 for a price of $749. Key specs include a curved 5.43" display with 2560 x 1440 resolution and 540 DPI, 3GB RAM, a Snapdragon 808 hexa-core 64-bit processor, an Adreno 418 GPU clocked at 600MHz, and 32GB onboard memory. Camera solutions include an 18MP Auto-Focus rear-facing camera that can record 4k video at 30 fps and 1080p HD at 60 fps, as well as a 2MP front-facing camera that can record 720P.

Just days ago millions of excited Star Wars fans crashed multiple movie theater websites with such voluminous bandwidth to secure their movie tickets, racking up record-breaking pre-order ticket sales, with AMC selling out 1,000 different showings across multiple theaters in just 12 hours.

With its ultra-wide screens and immersive 3D interaction, IMAX screenings are seen as the definitive way to see a gala affair like the triumphant return of Star Wars. As a result, IMAX screenings made up a huge portion of Force Awakens ticket sales, generating a staggering $6.5 million and "breaking every IMAX record" in the process.

But not everyone got their tickets. The massive demand has led to IMAX and regular screenings being sold out all over the country, with many many fans left out on the cold. Now the inevitable scalping has surfaced, with re-sellers commanding anywhere from $1,000 for tickets to a ridiculous sum of $10,000--a number that would make Emporer Palpatine grin in delight.

In what has been described on Reddit as "a rough week for starcraft," the last seven days has seen the scene completely rocked by retirements, arrests, scandals and the extremely sad announcement of terminal cancer.

Starting with the arrests, news was posted just a few days ago about an official Police investigation which has now been thrown into public action, seeing PRIME head coach Park 'Gerrard' Wae-Sik and professional gamers Choi 'YoDa' Byeong-Heon and Choi 'BBoongBBoong' Jong-Hyuk arrested alongside nine other unidentified individuals. These arrests are allegedly due to major match-fixing scandals, seeing players lose games on purpose for financial gain - something that was also found out and acted against in the North American Counter-Strike scene, but not on this scale as there were no arrests made or charges placed. For more information on the StarCraft betting scandal, check a comprehensive thread here.

Sitting alongside the unexepcted arrests was the shocking and saddening announcement that YouTuber and eSports personality John 'TotalBiscuit' bain was not only closing his StarCraft II team, Axiom eSports, but has been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

According to its founders, Magic Leap is more than hologram-laden augmented reality tech: it's an idea, a kind of ethos that's founded upon a natural symbiosis between our physical, tangible reality and the ether that projects images to change our lives. In a sense, Magic Leap wants to unify the digital and real-world as one.

"Magic Leap is an idea," reads the official Magic Leap website. "An idea that computing should be shaped and forged to work for us: our life, our physiology, our connected relationships. That exploring human creativity is as great an adventure as exploring space. It's an idea based in the belief that people should not have to choose between technology or safety, technology or privacy, the virtual world or the real-world."

Since the company has raised half a billion dollars in funding, receiving major injections from titans like Google, it's fair to say that people believe in Magic Leap. But how does it work exactly? Even the recent Magic Leap tech demo showcased at the WSJD conference doesn't answer all the questions. Magic Leap is indeed based on the principles on augmented reality, but leverages the term "cinematic-reality technology" rather than AR. We know it has HoloLens-levels of potential, but the details are still somewhat vague.

AMD will be in a much better position this time next year, as we should have a full top-to-bottom next-gen GPU release, powered by its Arctic Islands GPUs. During AMD's latest chat with analysts, the company teased its hand for 2016.

AMD CEO Lisa Su was asked about their GPU business being "down quite a lot year over year" from Joe Moore of Morgan Stanley, to which Su responded with: "Yes, so Joe, I think one quarter is good progress. Now you will have to watch us over a number of quarters regain that graphics momentum. And when I think about it, relative to the Fury launch we did have some supply constraints in the third quarter. They were - they are largely solved in the fourth quarter, so I don't think there will be any supply constraints".

She continued: "I think it's also fair to say that the graphics portfolio is quite broad, and so you will see us updating the entire portfolio over the coming quarters". Su added: "We are also focused on delivering our next-generation GPUs in 2016 designed to improve performance per watt by 2X compared to our current offerings, based on design architectural enhancements, as well as advanced FinFET process technology". The biggest tease, is where Su said: "And in the third quarter, we also taped out multiple products in FinFET technologies across both of our foundry partners that are on track to enter production next year".

Domino's has just unveiled an impressive new pizza delivery car, where it has heavily modified a Chevy Spark into the pizza delivery car to end the war between pizza delivery cars - it has a damn built-in oven!

The new '100 DXP' is being rolled out across 25 cities around the United States in the next 90 days, including Boston, Dallas, New Orleans, San Diego and Seattle. The vehicle has an outward-facing oven in the back, so that your pizza delivery driver can arrive to your house with pizza that has literally just come out of the oven.

Better yet, the modified Chevy Spark can hold 80 pizzas for those late night gaming sessions - you know, when you need 80 pizzas. The car makes sense, and once these bad boys have 3D printers in the back and get injected with some self-driving technology, we could see pizza delivery step into the future.

We already know that the Oculus Rift requires a GeForce GTX 970 or AMD R290 graphics solution to simulate VR, but it looks like GTX 970 owners will be able to run every single bit of software that Oculus will offer in the official Rift storefront.

In a recent Reddit thread, a curious gamer posed a specific question about future-proofing his rig for further generations of Oculus Rifts. Is it better to buy a GTX 970 to support the first generation, or should you pick up a GTX 980Ti so your setup is ready for Oculus Rift gen 2?

According to a verified Oculus VR employee, the GTX 970 will be enough to support the Oculus Rift for quite some time: "A consumer owning a 970 will be able to play everything on our store," said Oculus expert Philanthropi.

Footage of the cancelled Battlefront 3 sequel has surfaced, giving us a look at the true successor of the franchise that we'll never get to play.

The ill-fated Battlefront 3 sequel originally started development in 2012 by the studio Free Radical, and it really looks to be everything we'd ever want in a Battlefront game. A NeoGAF user has tracked down new footage for the canned Battlefront 3, but bear in mind the video is from a 9 month old PC build of the game, and it's an early build at that.

The game looks as if it features much more than DICE's Battlefield-esque FPS action, including immersive galactic dogfights--real Rogue Squadron-level dogfighting with multiple tiers and massive Star Destroyers hulking in the background--as well as authentic third-person combat in the vein of the original series.

Windows 10 Mobile Preview Build 10572 is now live, and as with the last release, it includes many exciting changes and feature additions. Perhaps most exciting of all is the ability to text from your PC -- no need to leave your phone by the desk or go get it to text someone anymore.

The new feature is handled through Cortana which can also show you missed calls. When you see a missed call, you simply click "text reply" and proceed to, well, text reply. If you want to text someone at any time, type or speak "text" and who you want to text (as you would on your phone), and Cortana will handle the rest.

To set it up, sign into Cortana with the same Microsoft account on your phone and PC. Notifications can be disabled on any device at any time through Cortana.

Up until now, Microsoft has reserved its customized NVIDIA GPU configuration to the more expensive Surface Book models, meaning the budget tier was locked out. But now the catalogue has been updated and Microsoft now offers dGPU options to every Surface Book make and model--for a price.

If you plan to opt in for the dual-GPU solution for the Windows 10-powered laptop, Microsoft tacks on an extra $200 to the retail price. $200 might sound like a lot, but the difference is pretty substantial: default Surface Book models come equipped with Intel's integrated Iris Graphics, and the extra cash will unlock a second graphics solution, a custom Maxwell-based NVIDIA GPU that will enable more graphically-intense workloads.

Equipped with the second dGPU in the keyboard base, the budget Surface Book with a Skylake Intel Core i5 CPU, 8GB RAM and a 128GB HDD now rises to $1,699. We've reported that the Surface Book's custom NVIDIA GPU is actually equal to a GeForce 940M with 1GB of GDDR5 VRAM.

Xbox Australia plans to show off live Halo 5 gameplay footage on the world's most gigantic aerial screen in a bid to promote 343i's new shooter.

Microsoft really wants the world to know about Halo 5, and the Redmond-based tech giant is pulling out all the stops in one of the most memorable promotional showcases in gaming. At 7:30PM on the eve of Halo 5's launch, October 26, Xbox's Australia division will broadcast live Halo 5 gameplay onto a massive floating screen 2,000 feet in the air.

The huge floating screen has a projected path down the coastline from Curl Curl to Coogee, where it will fly back and forth a single time. The team boasts that the screen can be seen from over 3 kilometers (9842 feet) away. Plus Xbox affirms that the broadcast won't be sent from the ground: a fan will be picked to play the game remotely via helicopter, hinting that the player will be able to use the giant floating viewscreen. "A lucky fan in Australia will play "Halo 5: Guardians" from a helicopter flying over Sydney, as gameplay is broadcasted via a screen suspended from a second helicopter," reads the official announcement on Major Nelson's website.