Latest News - Page 2584

It was only last week that AMD effectively spun off its GPU division into Radeon Technology Group, and now the chipmaker is in the headlines again as it has lost another high-profile employee in the form of its Chief Architect of Microprocessor Cores, Jim Keller. Keller is leaving AMD to pursue other opportunities.

Keller is known for his work with AMD in their early days of CPU dominance, as he was a key player in the creation of the original Athlon architecture, the K7. After that, he was the lead architect on the K8 architecture, and played a large role in developing the world's first native x86-64 bit architecture. Keller left AMD for Apple to help make its A4 and A5 processors, joining AMD once again in 2012 to lead the development of the Zen architecture.

An AMD spokesperson talked with HEXUS, where they said: "Jim was responsible for overseeing the teams defining the roadmaps for AMD's CPU cores, systems IP, and server and client SoCs". Obviously some people might be worried about AMD losing a key player of theirs, so the spokesperson added: "Jim helped establish a strong leadership team that is well positioned for success as we enter the completion phase of the "Zen" core and associated system IP and SoCs. Jim's departure is not expected to impact our public product or technology roadmaps, and we remain on track for "Zen" sampling in 2016 with first full year of revenue in 2017".

Now that we know the official name of Project Morpheus, we're finding out about what price point PlayStation VR will launch at. During TGS 2015, Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Andrew House said that PlayStation VR would "be priced as a new gaming platform", reports Bloomberg.

We don't have a concrete price yet, but I would say that a 'gaming platform' is around $400 if you look at the price of the PlayStation 4. When it comes to Sony's future, the Japanese giant has been shifting from TVs, and towards games, image sensors and movies. The company wants to fight harder against Microsoft and the Xbox One, with PlayStation VR being a very big part of that.

House added: "VR rewrites the rule book on how you can create games. You're seeing a large amount of interest and work happening among smaller teams, because it's possible to create something in VR that is very simple but still very magical". Better yet, we're hearing about how many games PlayStation VR will launch with. At TGS, Sony is showing off 10 playable titles for PlayStation VR, which I think is the amount of games, maybe a little more, that we'll see launch with the VR headset.

Reports indicate that Konami has finally thrown in the towel for AAA games development, and is no longer willing to gamble on franchises and game releases outside of the safety umbrella of the Pro Evolution Soccer sports line.

The reports come straight from two French game outlets, which was then verified by Eurogamer that Konami is indeed shutting down all plans for future AAA releases--except for PES games. The news was reinforced by the departure of Julien Merceron, Konami's worldwide technology director, and it looks like Konami will completely focus on mobile games from hereon out.

That effectively means that Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, which is simultaneously lauded as a masterpiece and seen as an unfinished game by the community, will be the last Meta Gear Solid game. Konami prepared for this move when it fired Hideo Kojima and dissolved his development team, a move that ushered significant backlash from its own audience. Gamers also watched in horror as reports of Konami "imprisoning and exploitating" its employees with unfair working conditions surfaced on the web.

The upcoming 'Steve Jobs' has been both praised and pilloried by those who knew the man best, but with the film beginning its worldwide release next month, fans will get to weigh in themselves. Today, distributor Universal Studios has released the final trailer for the film which samples the three major timelines that the film hones in on.

Michael Fassbender portrays Jobs in the film, which is already generating strong Oscar buzz. 'Steve Jobs' hits cinemas in United States on October 23rd, but has been delayed in Australia until January 2016.

On the heels of the revamped Apple TV, Amazon throws its hat into the Android micro-console ring with the $140 Fire TV Gaming Edition that merges 4K video streaming with set-top box gaming.

The Fire TV Gaming Edition only supports 4K video streaming and doesn't do 4K gaming--which isn't a surprise since it runs mobile games. Under the hood it packs 2GB of RAM, a MediaTek quad-core processor at 2GHz speeds for "75% more processing power than previous models" and a Power VR GX6250 GPU for grpahics. 8GB of onboard memory storage is included along with an equipped 32GB Micro SD card in the expandable memory slot. The hybrid gamebox can hit 4K video streaming at 30fps and 60fps in 1080p, but we're not sure if the latter resolution is for gaming or not.

Amazon boasts that the Fire TV Gaming Edition "has more games than Apple TV, Roku, or NVIDIA Shield" and every unit comes with a free copy of the amazing 8-bit platformer Shovel Knight and Capcom's DuckTales remake. The Fire TV microconsole can be connected to the internet via ethernet or MIMO Wi-Fi over 802.11a/b/g/n/ac networks. The set-top box also supports Bluetooth 4.1 and has the standard fare of ports consisting of HDMI out, DC power, ethernet, Micro SD and USB port in a compact 4.5in x 4.5in x 0.7in form factor.

Fallout 4 has been built from the ground-up as a layered experience with deep customization and RPG elements, but Bethesda has also made some significant strides in the action department with the help of FPS masters at id Software.

"If you were to pick it up and play it, it does feel like a modern shooter," Bethsoft exec Todd Howard said in an onstage interview. "The guns feel great and you can aim down the sights...you can play it in first-person, or third-person and then we also have VATS. Since id Software was part of our company the first thing we did was call them and said 'we're going to do this from scratch, so give us some tips.'"

Usually in multi-faceted RPGs there's more emphasis on level-ups and skill trees rather than the gunplay, but Bethesda wanted the whole package for Fallout 4: deep character customization, a huge webwork of skills and perks, a massive crafting system and smooth, fluid firefights. "We didn't want to [compromise] the game's action because it's a role-playing game. We felt we could do this and layer the game's stat system ontop of that--let's have our cake and eat it too."

Even though the Xbox One is in Microsoft's limelight, the console-maker is keen on keeping last-gen gamers happy with new updates and improvements. The latest of which sees Microsoft quadrupling the Xbox 360's cloud storage up to 2GB of extra memory space.

While 2GB might not sound like a lot, it will definitely come in handy when backward compatibility comes to the Xbox One in November. Users can upload their Xbox 360 saved data to the cloud and retrieve it on the Xbox One, allowing you to pick up right where you left off.

Plus the extra storage is great for things like migrating profiles and save data between consoles. Plus it's always great to have extra space to store data if you ever fill up your HDD and have to move files and games around. 2GB won't hold a full Xbox 360 game or a digital download with Games With Gold, but it will hold up most Xbox LIVE Arcade games, save files and some of your epic Halo: Reach clips.

A newly released mod unlocks every single researchable item for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, including extra hidden characters like Raiden and gear earned from console-exclusive DLC.

The mod goes by the nondescript "DLC and All Item Unlocker" and unlocks the game's full suite of secret items that are normally unlocked through progression. That being said the mod just gives you shortcut access to the templates and doesn't instantly grant you the items themselves--you still have to have the right materials, GMP and leveled R&D prerequisites in order to make and equip the gear.

If you don't have Ground Zeroes this mod will give you access to the content unlocked when transferring a save file, including Snake's golden bionic arm and the retro Snake outfit earned from the PlayStation-exclusive Deja Vu mission. Other goodies include the Raiden suit, Quiet's Naked Gold and Silver outfits, the Cyborg suit and a plethora of visual staples that nod to the franchise's storied history.

Avid Persona fans have been glued to Tokyo Game Show 2015 news in hopes of seeing more Persona 5, and Atlus has delivered with a brand new gameplay trailer. The bad news? The trailer reveals that Persona 5 has been delayed to Summer 2016. Ouch.

Since it was revealed all the way back in 2013, Persona 5 has been one of the most talked-about games in Atlus' label. It's been a while since anyone's heard about the game, and gamers have had to wait since February for a new trailer. Now everyone finally gets a fresh blast of stylish goodness and the excitement is sullied with the crushing disappointment of a delay.

Due to the lapse and disruption of Persona 5 news, fans and community members started to pass along word of an impending delay. The RPG was set to release in 2015 but everyone had their doubts, and Atlus spills the beans in an offhand way--the equivalent of a Dear John letter to millions of fans across the globe.

In a new update post DICE has shed light on some new info on next month's Star Wars: Battlefront beta, revealing that it will be available for everyone across all three platforms.

As far as game modes, the Battlefront open beta will ship with both online and offline split-screen co-op play with bots. So far we know that the online offerings will include 40-player Walker Assault mode on Hoth with skirmishes on the ice floor with AT-AT's and Snowspeeders, as well as dogfights in the skies. The newly unveiled Drop Zone gametype on Sullust will be available online as well.

For offline play, the beta features the Missions gametype centered around teaming up with a friend via couch co-op to tackle bots. The update lists a survival-based deathmatch Mission on the craggy dunes of Tattooine as one of the primary modes in the Missions archtype. DICE mentions the Fighter Squadron gametype but doesn't confirm it will be in the beta.

G.SKILL has just released two new Cherry MX mechanical gaming keyboards in the RIPJAWS brand: the mesmerizing muti-color KM780 RGB and the crimson-red backlit KM780 MX.

Both models are ultra-durable and designed specifically for performance gaming, featuring five-level contour keys and raised keycaps that are optimized for ASWD movement schemes. Apart from the color schemes the models are identical in form and function. The keys on G.SKILL's new offerings can all be turned into macros on-the-fly, and sport dedicated macro control keys as well as six extra macro buttons fora huge level of flexibility for optimum gaming.

To help minimize mouse cable interference and keep things tidy while gaming, users can thread mouse cords through the onboard foldable holder clasped to the front end of the keyboard. Plus the models act as a hub for devices thanks to a USB 2.0 pass-through and an audio line-in and mic-out jack.

Square Enix's sprawling MMORPG gem Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn might very well find its way alongside the PlayStation VR's launch selection--or at the very least some sort of inclusion on the virtual reality platform.

Attendees at this year's Tokyo Game Show will get the chance to play FF14 within a VR space, breaking barriers that could pave the way for full-on VR MMORPG experiences. The VR demo sees a team of players working together to fight Titan, a primal boss who reigns in the magma-filled pit called The Navel.

This might very well be the first functioning multiplayer MMORPG VR demo ever showcased, and it's a pretty big deal. Thankfuly Square Enix and Sony do it in style and pick one of the best games in the genre today. While the spectacle itself is quite noteworthy, things get really interesting when we think about what the demo could lead to.

At this year's annual Tokyo Game Show event, Sony unveiled a name and a release date for Bloodborne's anticipated expansion: it's called The Old Hunters and it releases November 24.

"The Old Hunters is set in a nightmare world where hunters from the past are trapped forever, explore brand new stages full of dangers, rewards, and deadly beasts to overcome," a new post on the PlayStation Blog affirms. "You'll find multiple new outfits and weapons to add to your arsenal as well as additional magic to wield and add more variety to your combat strategy."

Sony also revealed that Miyazaki's macabre PS4 exclusive has sold more than 2 million copies worldwide, which isn't surprising due to the hardcore fanbase that worships the dark altar of Miyazaki's cruel splendor. Interestingly enough the master himself said that Bloodborne's limited nature was one of the reasons he was excited about returning to Dark Souls 3.

We all know that virtual reality headsets are set to take off, but just how many will be sold before the decade is up? According to hi-tech analyst firm Juniper Research, around 30 million VR headsets will be sold by 2020.

However, in 2016 just 3 million units will be sold, according to the firm. If we look at the HTC Vive coming out later this year, the Oculus Rift next year, and the PlayStation VR headset from Sony, VR headsets are going to be something completely new for consumers. Juniper Research claims that with technological advancements in the form of low latency and smarter graphics, as well as growth from big companies, VR is going to explode.

In Juniper's latest insights research report 'Virtual Reality: Market Dynamics & Future Prospects 2015-2020' the firm says that 2016 is the year it all changes for VR headsets. Report co-author Joe Crabtree said: "The recent attention to and investment into virtual reality is helping to revitalise the industry and with major brand commercial launches imminent, there is huge potential for rapid market expansion".

The GeForce GTX 980M is already quite the mobile GPU, but as usual, NVIDIA isn't just sitting around doing nothing on the mobile GPU front. The company is reportedly preparing a new, very powerful mobile GPU that would pack the full GM204 GPU.

What's the 'full GM204' GPU you ask? Well, it's the identical GPU that is found on the GeForce GTX 980, the desktop video card from NVIDIA that was released last year. This means we can expect the full 2048 CUDA cores, 256-bit memory bus, and 4GB of GDDR5. We did expect a GTX 990M according to the rumors that we last reported on, but it looks like this new GPU is going to be the GM204-based GTX 980, this time inside of a gaming laptop.

The mobile GTX 980 would feature 2048 CUDA cores, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPS - just like its desktop counterpart. If we compare this to the GTX 980M, found inside of gaming laptops like the ASUS ROG G751 that we reviewed here, it has 1536 CUDA cores, 96 TMUs and 64 ROPs. Moving over to clock speeds, the desktop GTX 980 has a GPU clock of 1126MHz and a Boost clock of 1218MHz while the GTX 980M comes in at 1038MHz, while the new GM204-based mobile GTX 980 will reportedly clock in at 1190MHz.

Without a firm release date from Eidos Montreal, we don't yet know when Deus Ex: Mankind Divided will be released exactly, except for sometime in 2016. But something we do know, is that it will ship with support for DX12 on day one.

I had a lengthy chat with AMD's Chief Gaming Scientist, Richard Huddy, earlier today about all things DX12 and Asynchronous Shaders, where AMD talked about having their technology and support in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Since they used Mankind Divided in their own internal materials, I thought I'd ask if we'd see DX12 support at launch. Huddy replied, saying that Deus Ex: Mankind Divided would indeed launch with DX12 support.

Not only that, but Mankind Divided will also include AMD's own TressFX Hair 3.0 technology alongside DX12. The news to take away from this is that we've just had a confirmation of DX12 support in Mankind Divided out of the box. I had a suspicion that it would launch with DX11 support and would later be patched with DX12 support, but it looks like we can expect DX12 support straight off the bat. Additionally, I pushed Huddy to see if we will see a built-in benchmark for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, as it would be the best example of testing the differences between DX11 and DX12. Huddy confirmed that Mankind Divided will include a built-in benchmark, too.

We're not even comfortable with the 4K TVs that are here, and now we're being teased with 8K TVs throwing an insane 7680x4320 resolution into the mix. Sharp has started teasing its first 8K TV, with an 85-inch 8K TV set to be released next month.

The new 85-inch 8K TV will feature Sharp's IGZO (indium gallium zinc oxide) backplane, as well as a slew of other technologies. The mammoth 8K TV will be aimed at commercial and specialized applications, including content creation, digital signage, museums, professional, military, healthcare, and other industries.

But what about 8K content, you ask? Good question. NHK will begin broadcasting 8K super hi-vision content sometime in 2018, which is when we're to expect consumers to start snapping up 8K TVs. But, outside of that, we have no idea what type of content there will be for 8K TVs, as gaming is going to require an insane amount of horsepower to drive that resolution. But with technologies like NVIDIA's Pascal architecture right around the corner, as well as the shrink down to 16nm and HBM2, we should be good as gold.

Most people probably haven't even heard about MU-MIMO, but it's about to be a huge upgrade to Wi-Fi technology and speeds. We've been living with 802.11 a/b/g/n for a while, and even through the 5GHz upgrade, the overall speeds didn't leap near Gigabit, or 10GbE Ethernet.

The 'MU' in MU-MIMO stands for 'Multi-User', with it being the new Wave 2 specification of 802.11ac Wi-Fi technology. The big difference is that multiple data streams can be taken into consideration, with multiple antennas on the base station and client device blasting out data all at once. If there's four antennas on the base station, and four on your Wi-Fi card, then you can expect four streams of data simultaneously.

Anshel Sag, Staff Technologist and Technical Writer, took MU-MIMO for a spin in his research paper on MU-MIMO and 802.11ad Wi-Fi, with some interesting results. Sag reported: "In our own lab testing at Moor Insights & Strategy using off the shelf equipment at retail stores, MU-MIMO smartphones when paired with a MU-MIMO access point, experienced a 75% TCP (transmission control protocol) download performance uplift going from 260 Mbps bandwidth with three smartphones to 455 Mbps with three MUMIMO enabled smartphones. In fact, overall network bandwidth utilization actually increased as we added devices to the network, rather than decrease, which it did in the case of nonMU Wi-Fi which can partially attribute to the poor Wi-Fi performance in crowded areas".

With the release of Halo 5: Guardians getting closer and closer, we're receiving more details on what will make the game tick. 343 Industries, the developer behind the game, has let out some information on the visual side of the game.

A post on the Xbox Wire blog from Josh Holmes says "framerate is king" for the team. Dinges added that "Gameplay is defined by the way that players experience the game from controller to screen. We want the connection between you and the game to feel seamless and instantaneous. From the beginning, we set ourselves the goal of delivering consistent 60fps gameplay across all modes of play. Delivering on this goal meant re-engineering the gameplay systems at the core of our engine. It required sustained commitment from the entire team as we continually optimized the experience, and the difference it makes to the play experience is immediate and obvious".

He continued: "60fps gameplay is supported by a new progressive resolution system that allows us to dynamically scale the resolution at which we render the game (up to 1080p) based on the needs of the scene. This enables us to deploy resources where they have most impact across a diverse series of experiences throughout the game while delivering the most visually stunning Halo game ever".

At this year's annual Tokyo Game Show, Sony announces a pretty hefty price drop for the PlayStation 4 across the Japanese market.

Starting October 1, the PlayStation 4 will be marked down from ¥39,980 to ¥34,980 in its home country of Japan, which equates to ~$291 or €258. Sony Computer Entertainment Japan and Asia President Atsushi Morita iterate the price cut will "provide an opportunity for users who have not yet been exposed to this device to dive into the world of PlayStation 4."

Considering the console retails for $399 in the U.S. that's a pretty significant cut and if you're in the market for a new console it might be worth shipping it overseas. It's worth mentioning that this price drop is just for the base console and excludes bundles--it ships with the 500GB PS4 and a DualShock 4 controller only.